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Apple Music Counting Down 100 Best Albums of All Time
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I am guessing this list will be greatly influenced by most popular than anything else. Will they include genres like instrumental new age, movie scores, 60s and 70s AOR (album oriented rock) that got mostly FM play? Lots of great albums in those genres. Bridge of Sighs by Robin Trower, Aja by Steely Dan, Live at Filmore East by the Allman Brothers, etc.
What defines an „album“? For me, it just a delivery method of one or several pieces of music, preferably put together with some thought in mind. So yes, I would call a CD containing Beethovens Ballet music to Prometheus followed by his Eroica symphony an „album“. As I would call a recording of any opera like Beethovens Fidelio. Those were works that were „produced“ for mass consumption, although there wasn`t any technology for recording it yet.
They were recorded with the most advanced technology they had at the time: pen and paper.
All I know is Thriller better be top 5 and All Eyez On Me in the top 10.
I'm not too confident any of my top 10 favourite albums (as I felt back in 2021) will end up high on the list, I'm not even certain they'll feature on the list at all...
No particular order:
Green Day – Dookie (1994)
The Clash – London Calling (1979)
Iron Maiden – The Number of the Beast (1982)
Nirvana – Nevermind (1991)
Pink Floyd – The Final Cut (1983)
Guns N’ Roses – Appetite For Destruction (1987)
Bob Marley and the Wailers – Legend (1984)
The Rolling Stones – Tattoo You (1981)
Bad Religion – The Process of Belief (2002)
The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses (1989)
I think I might have to revisit that list one of these days...
No particular order:
Green Day – Dookie (1994)
The Clash – London Calling (1979)
Iron Maiden – The Number of the Beast (1982)
Nirvana – Nevermind (1991)
Pink Floyd – The Final Cut (1983)
Guns N’ Roses – Appetite For Destruction (1987)
Bob Marley and the Wailers – Legend (1984)
The Rolling Stones – Tattoo You (1981)
Bad Religion – The Process of Belief (2002)
The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses (1989)
I think I might have to revisit that list one of these days...
Pop is going to be that "gray" area because (as we know) that label can be applied to albums that can be classified in other genres. But for country, you can easily seem them adding
Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose (2004) & Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (1997), even though there are rock & folk influences.
I can’t WAIT to see where MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY, Tame Impala and other Kanye albums rank.
Personally, for me, it was the convenience of not having to rip songs from my CDs into a digital format and then upload them to itunes (or music, or dropbox) so that I could play them on any device.
I do still occasionally purchase CDs of music I really love and don't think I'll grow tired of. I converted all of my old CDs to digital files, and most of the CDs are in a crate in my closet. I haven't used/played an actual CD in a few years now - since maybe 2017 or so.
Also - there are a few services which offer high-resolution audio for purchase and have newer releases. So I'll occasionally purchase 'albums' there instead of a hard copy on CD. And the audio will be higher-than-CD quality as well. Qobuz is the service I use for that.
The thing is that unlike video, which seems to always be in danger of rights-ownership changes and then the revocation of your license, music remains available. Maybe I'm just unaware, but I can't think of any disappearing audio files like we have seen with purchased video/film. ?
Yeah, I came here to say that this is guaranteed to be a list that exactly no one will like.
Just looking at what is on the list so far, this is all 'popular' or pop music or pop-adjacent, in various sub-genres (country-pop, rap-pop, rock-pop, dance-pop...).
I love the Eagles, they're the music of my childhood, but although they're considered 'rock', I would call them popular-rock.
I will be curious to see who all of the 100 picks are, and I fully expect to greatly dislike at least one quarter or more. In these first 10, I find 5 to be of questionable quality and taste—and that is a fully subjective opinion, of course!
As to what defines an album, we do have a common conception of what one is: a narrative of songs meant to build upon one another and reflect an artist's journey/experience/creativity during a specific period. That's how I have always seen albums. And they are a modern creation, probably based in the mechanics of what was possible when mass-producing a recording — 8-10 songs on average. When we're lucky, a lot more than that.
Hotel California Number 99?
Who is ranking these albums?
Hotel California is routinely in the top 20-40 albums of all time.
Who is ranking these albums?
Hotel California is routinely in the top 20-40 albums of all time.
The Eagles are pop rock? That’s simply a tortured statement meant to maintain your other statement that the list is all pop, which isn’t true. The Eagles aren’t pop. RATM also isn’t pop.
Are those lists usually focused on and dominated by classic rock? If so, it would make sense for Hotel California to fall in the top 20-40.
I get where your coming from and I do find streaming more convenient, especially with having kids and being able to play anything they request. but for me it’s the mental block of having spent thousands on my cds which are ripped to iTunes and then walking away in favour of Apple Music when I predominantly just listen to older music Anyways.
Good point about the rights issues. The only time I’ve noticed it on music is with soundtracks and certain artists are greyed out, usually it’s in movies prior to 2018 I find.
I will concede that RATM isn't pop. I really do think of The Eagles as pop rock, with folk-rock influences. Maybe pop-adjacent Rock?
Wikipedia lists them as rock, country rock, soft rock, folk rock, and country music. Not a “pop” anything in sight. Don Henley as a solo artist veered into pop a bit.
Yes, I have noticed that in some older music on streaming - certain songs greyed out, definitely a rights issue. In some cases there are other artists involved (besides the album artist) or it might be that they changed music labels and the older songs were only allowed on the physical CD or only in certain markets UK vs US or vice versa. I do find that really annoying when I encounter it. But...there is simply so much other music by most of the artists I like, that I just move on to another album or edition.
If time or money weren't factors, I would prefer to purchase everything as actual high-resolution audio files with no rights-limitations, so that they could not be revoked at some point in the future when two giant multinational conglomerates are fighting it out over pennies and ego (executives' egos). The space considerations of physical music cds or other media (will there be some improvement someday...?) is a real one for me. It's why I prefer ebooks as well vs paper books. Though, I also will buy hardbacks of books that I really love.
Off subject —
That's something that really bothers me with books. When an ebook is available in the UK but in the US there's nothing, even if there is a print edition.
You honestly don't think 'soft rock' or 'country rock' are pop?
Perhaps my view is slanted, as I grew up around a lot of country music, which is the pop music of the south for many people in southern states.
Pop implies a certain kind of sound. Being popular doesn’t make it pop as a genre. Led Zeppelin II and Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick were both Billboard number one albums. Are they pop? No.
For those of you (likely the vast majority) who’ve never heard of one of the greatest bands of our time … here’s an introduction.
Your soul will kiss you for listening.
Porcupine Tree - Normal (Live)
Your soul will kiss you for listening.
Porcupine Tree - Normal (Live)
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Revealing my age here with some of these, but these are five of my favorite artists who I would pick as some of the 'all time best' if I were on the curatorial team:
Joy Division (Unknown Pleasures),
Doves (Lost Souls or The Last Broadcast),
Cocteau Twins (it's impossible for me to pick an absolute favorite),
Gorillaz (Demon Days)
Rosalía (El Mal Querer)
It's just intellectually bankrupt and surely against any kind of music education to suggest relative nobodies like this have any place in a '100 best albums ever' list.
I love most genres of music and will listen to anything even weird challenging stuff like glitchcore. It's all interesting enough.
But even if we assume a 100 best albums list comprises 'only those released in the anglosphere, only those which have received a top 40 album chart position and only those which have received a physical release on vinyl, cassette cd, or as a minimum 5+ song streaming release, I'd never expect to see an Usher or Solange album there.
There's certainly a space for a hip hop and rnb. A top 100 might include N.W.A. Maybe.
I just wish they'd be honest. Say it's the 100 best albums of the past 10 years. Or focus on one genre. Solange's 'A Seat at the table' came out in 2016.
George michael's 'Listen without prejudice vol 1' came out in 1990, but really, this deserves a place?
Apple's music curation team is really missing someone (I suppose the world is) who can expose listeners to the absolute trove of albums going back to the 1950s, across the whole world. There's so much material that people haven't heard that is amazing. And apple has almost all of it. And yet we have dross produced in the past 10 or 20 years appearing on best album lists.
I'd hope the full list at least includes Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, Bjork, The Who, Jean Michel Jarre....
But imagine Apple promoting Jean Michael Jarre's Oxygene??
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