50 Best Albums of All Time According to Rolling Stone's BRAND NEW, 100% Revamped Top 500

So named because there were literally dozens of Suedes popping up all over England at the time (the Bristol Suede were my personal favorite).

I've sat with this for a day. I honestly think picking apart individual choices and rankings is not seeing the forest for the trees.

The 2003 and 2012 lists were deeply sexist and deeply racist, but WERE attempts at canon building and path-lighting. The 2020 list corrects a lot of those mistakes, but is more like an open-tent free-for-all.

RS has sacrificed some amount of "editorial intent" to basically show "the zeitgeist." It's one you could already see in Pitchfork, the NPR list and RYM. Whether you think that's good or bad is up to you, but it's certainly DIFFERENT than how these things were

I think we can all agree that was good and smart and a long time coming to say "maybe we don't need EIGHT Springsteen albums and four Smiths albums on here and all this Mott the Fucking Hoople if it means we can include more rap and R&B and women. But actively deleting entire catalogs from the canon for modern poptimism really does nothing but create a mirror to the internet.

Like taking off the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music – an absolute indisputable bedrock exercise for American music! – to make room for Shania Twain and Jason Isbell does no one any favors. You're no longer teaching a canon and a history, you're repeating Twitter opinions. It's like replacing the Sight and Sound list with imdb.

It's poptimism, for sure. And people like what they like. But poptimism means actively deleting Professor Longhair, Jackie Wilson, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Little Walter, John Lee Hooker, the Drifters and Albert King from your canon to make room for Kid Cudi and Tame Impala.

In a sense it’s the most accurate version they’ve ever published, but you lose a lot with that transition

I don't think dropping older stuff in favor of newer stuff is necessarily "poptimism," it's just an acknowledgement that if you repeat this exercise every 8-9 years and the list doesn't change, why bother?

if you repeat this exercise every 8-9 years and the list doesn't change, why bother?

Well, I mean, since you asked ...

I don't love the list, but I do think it's cool that they're including stuff from as recently as 2019. I also don't think anyone needs to be told by a RS list to listen to the Harry Smith anthology.

i also don't think anyone needs to be told by a RS to listen to Harry Styles

harry styles > harry smith, it's science

"Like taking off the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music – an absolute indisputable bedrock exercise for American music! – to make room for Shania Twain and Jason Isbell does no one any favors. You're no longer teaching a canon and a history, you're repeating Twitter opinions."

Is this how poptimism would operate in a list like this?

i also don't think anyone needs to be told by a RS to listen to Harry Styles

But now you're just "picking apart individual choices," which Whiney said is missing the forest for the trees (notice he didn't cite Rihanna or Kendrick in his examples).

not saying it's poptimism, saying that it sucks

btw, im pretty sure the first place i'd ever heard about the harry smith anthology is from the 2003 rs 500 list.

No one wants to delete catalogs. But please I'm begging you don't replace Pink Floyd with Radiohead albums just place it all at 400 max!

Smash the PMRC (lol)

https://pitchfork.com/news/rolling-stone-billboard-vibe-more-to-operate-under-new-joint-venture-pmrc/

also don't think anyone needs to be told by a RS list to listen to the Harry Smith anthology.

― Scam Likely (morrisp), Wednesday, September 23, 2020 3:30 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I kind of feel like I do need that lol...? Who else is telling me about it in 2020

the marvel cinematic universe-like cultural hegemony of pre war blues and folk gets pretty tiresome tbh

if people on twitter could shut the fuck up about dock boggs for five minutes that would be great

if i have to see another distracted boyfriend meme about ignoring uncle dave macon in favor of blind lemon jefferson, i swear i'm deleting the app

95% of my interactions with Twitter occur via ILX and I still mostly hate it.

if i have to see another distracted boyfriend meme about ignoring uncle dave macon in favor of blind lemon jefferson, i swear i'm deleting the app

― i got a homogenic björk wine farmer permabanned (voodoo chili), Wednesday, September 23, 2020 4:52 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lmao could you make this please?

we could go to 78 collector forums and post memes

Anywhere this full list can be read without scrolling that wretched website?

― piscesx, Tuesday, September 22, 2020 4:32 PM (yesterday)

you can see the whole list here:

http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/rs200.html#500Albums_2020

lol looks like every attempt at discussing the revised RS list on Steve Hoffman got threadlocked.

https://i.imgflip.com/4g1wel.jpg

bless u

Meme Jumper Blues

damn, i typo'd poor Buell Kazee

I kind of feel like I do need that lol...? Who else is telling me about it in 2020

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Wednesday, September 23, 2020 5:46 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, I mean, this was the hands-down best thing about the RS 500 lists. They were boring, but sometimes being authoritative means being boring! We already have Pitchfork and RYM and CoS to tell you Madvillain is good

I mean, I look at this list and to ME, a nerd, it looks like they are sacrificing authority for crowd-sourcing.

I'm sure most normal human beings will look at it and just think the new authority is that, yes, Taylor Swift's Red is now better than Music From Big Pink

For me a revised list like this is reminiscent of one of those oft-referenced Star Trek:TOS spoken series in which the first two terms are from our past and the last one is from our future/their past.

xp - OK, but the alternative is just shuffling around the same group of albums for eternity, with nothing new past 1991, or whatever.

m sure most normal human beings will look at it and just think the new authority is that, yes, Taylor Swift's Red is now better than Music From Big Pink

― Thoia Thoing, Maryland (Whiney G. Weingarten),

Since you put it that way, yeah, Red >>> MFBP. The first has got more songs I care about.

Your post a couple hours ago about the politics otm, especially since it looks like the magazine reprinted blurbs written by credited writers who had no idea this was happening and weren't paid for it.

Es

xp - OK, but the alternative is just shuffling around the same group of albums for eternity, with nothing new past 1991, or whatever.

― Scam Likely (morrisp), Wednesday, September 23, 2020 5:36 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is crazy reductive, there are plenty of middle points between arbitrarily inserting critically acclaimed albums from recent years and barring recent albums altogether.

honestly, i don't mind weighting towards older albums in these exercises. let albums marinate a bit before slotting them in between albums that people have lived with for years or decades.

it's just so tiresome....how many better or worse is Enter the Wu Tang than Red Headed Stranger? Looka-Ka Py Py is now one better than Loveless, it's official. what is the fucking point of comparing albums like that?

morris, come on there are toooooons of worthy deletions that were made and I don’t think saying “you know maybe four Smiths album is overkill in an era where people are more likely to rep Kate Bush” is on the same playing field of thought as “Let’s take off the Rosetta Stone of American Folk and Storytelling tradition to make more room for Kid Cudi”

xxp Well, I obviously don't think they should be "arbitrarily inserted." And the actual ranking is always gonna generate controversy, that's inevitable. But in terms of inclusion... a case can certainly be made for adding newer albums, and dropping older ones that are maybe not so relevant anymore.

Whiney, I do see your point, don't get me wrong.

Yes, no shit, I’m not In here talking about Moby Grape, dude

(sorry - Moby Grape?)

I guess I'm just reluctant to clown on the individual newer choices that may not be my bag - because a few of the others are, and I can imagine a list like this making even more adventurous choices which would leave me going, "Yeah, cool!"... and not missing the Drifters at all.

Oh, I see, Moby Grape - yes, again, I hear you about Harry Smith, and I guess will cry "uncle" and concede it should be on any Top 500 list.

especially since it looks like the magazine reprinted blurbs written by credited writers who had no idea this was happening and weren't paid for it.

the blurbs are pro forma and awful. which adds to the glaring problem that, whatever anyone might think about this album or that album or this genre or that genre, there's no point of view at work here.

Did RS ever include four Smiths albums in an all-time list? I didn't know they were so beloved at RS.

which is to say, yes agree with this: It's like replacing the Sight and Sound list with imdb.

(xp to myself)

whiney otm

There were four Smiths albums on this list (2003?)

Ah, thanks.

Btw - that list had the Anthology of American Folk Music two notches above The Immaculate Collection, but three notches below The Marshall Mathers LP.

I guess this is why I have a hard time feeling that something deeply valuable has been lost, in terms of an authoritative guide to the canon... the lists have always been silly.

otm