What will Top Albums lists look like, say, 25 or 50 years from now?

I think the top-album lists will be really cool holograms, maybe with interactive concert footage or interviews, so it'll kind of be a planetarium laser show, except with arguments between music geeks
And Jive Bunny will finally be recognized for his tremendous impact on contemporary music.

I think it depends on what kind of agenda those critics will be promoting. it's not so much a matter of aesthetics as it is politics (in a really broad sense of the word).

Maybe lists will be out-of-fashion in 25 to 50 years.

Okay, forget lists per se, then--what albums will be the most highly regarded by critics 25 or 50 years from now?

Because we'll have been invaded by aliens by then:
http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre400/e404/e40492o9k0d.jpg

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/mark_clay/arbie.jpg
Determined by robots, obviously

I think The Velvet Underground's debut will be number one 25 years from now.

Sgt Pepper will fall, surely, as the original fans all die off and we no longer feel guilt about not being impressed by it.

Agreed. The cover will make some list though.

"highly evolved" will be #1

It will all be Chinese.

Perhaps Pere Ubu's debut will eventually make these lists too. Was it even in the latest top 500? I don't think it was.

I wonder what George Starostin would think of this question.

I think hip-hop and electronic music will be too hard to ignore, as they will have a) demonstrated their cultural pervasiveness (as if they haven't already, sheesh) and b) built an extensive history. Hopefully, this will entail an evaluation of hip-hop for its sonic aesthetics as much as for its passion and lyrics. (I always get the feeling that Public Enemy gets on lists so much now because they fit nicely into the boomer idea of music-as-rebellion.)

I think clearly OK Computer is the kind of fangeek touchstone that could end up at the top of alot of lists in 25 years or so, in fact it's already showed up near or at the top of some dodgier lists, so i guess it's only a matter of time.

Personally, I kind of hope this doesn't happen, b/c the old-guard consensus #1 is always going to be dragged through the mud since it's thought to be the germ of that generation's groupthink (ie. Sgt Peppers proving that Boomers really were all smugly self-obsessed and almost laughably insular, which of course isn't 100% true, but there's your stigma).

i should say i don't want this same fate to befall OKC not because I'm afraid of what it will say about us so much as I'm afraid of what "we" will say about it

The purpose and content of listmaking in music will have been redefined by Freaky Trigger's Top 100 Records Of All Time, following its publication next month.

About the same as now, only with a considerably larger amount of senior citizens among the voters. :-)

With "same as now", I mean, frankly, that those "old" albums that have now survived for 30 years may easily survive 30 more years. Out of more recent favourites, some will last while others won't. And then, there will of course be a lot of albums from the next 30 years too.

futuristic

well, if file-based music formats become the standard by then (and anybody can take their $25 player to a kiosk and buy whatever they want), then maybe there won't even be albums at that point...

it'll be top ten singles, even in the "rock" category. (i believe bill and ted's future metal band will somehow be ranked most excellent.)
m.

I doubt file-based music formats will ever become the standard. Albums will always survive because they will have more appeal to true music lovers.

Like Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20?

After the impending nuclear holocaust, the music of rednexx will be discovered and deemed the greatest of the twentieth century.

"I doubt file-based music formats will ever become the standard. Albums will always survive because they will have more appeal to true music lovers."

no offense, but that's spoken like a true geezer man... 25 to 50 years is a long time. in the last 25 years we've seen things go from mostly vinyl only to various forms of cassette and cd, etc... sure, albums may continue to exist, but if internet-based distribution becomes "the way", that means whole albums have to actually be good as opposed to one or two hit singles and 8-10 tracks of barely passable filler from the hit machines.

wasn't the 45 king twenty-five years ago? long formats being the format of the True TM sounds like religious banter to me...

perhaps in the future, bands will release two or three tracks every other month or even week. steady revenue. steady buzz. (or is that a quick formula to overexposure?) of course, no body has to eat thai every night... once a month sure is nice though. i think there'd be more chance to experiment and actually work out songs instead of piecing together that ache from last night's binge of 7-layer burritos and whiskey and harp shooters. you know, the songs that have more inspiration from heartburn than heartbreak?

either way, it'll be fun,
m.

My gut feeling is that PE "It Takes a Nation of Millions ..." will be a top-10 record, eventually, because of the effect hip-hop has had on the working 30-and-under critics.

I also think that Pet Sounds will be #1 for a long time to come starting in about five years. That record's momentum has been incredible in recent years. The Beach Boys seem to have more of an influence on kids born past 1987 than the Beatles do now ... perhaps it;s related to the prosperity and the explosion of pop music as those kids were coming of age.

"In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" will surely be all over those lists in 25 years time. Especially if Mangum never puts out another record.

Surely

This entire Beach Boys Vs. Beatles thing I just don't understand. I mean, I love both, and I see them basically as the same kind of music.

Anyway, international politics will also affect future lists. The Americanization of European culture increased for the entire 1990s, but now sees a stagnation, as a result of the increasing European hatred against all things American, caused mainly by the Iraqi war. If this continues (which is partly up to the American voters, mind you) we may see American albums dominating less in future lists. Particularly the ones voted together mainly by Europeans.

Countries who already have had great reason to hate the U.S. often continue to consume its pop culture.

I think changing U.S. demographics should be considered to, as in a larger Latino population here. No, I'm not thinking that will result in a significant increase in the popularity of salsa, but it will have some sort of noticeable effect on U.S. pop music in the long run, I think. Of course, I'm not ready to say what.

I think It Takes a Nation of Millions is a good candidate for the top ten, since it has the sort of representative status that Sgt. Pepper does, whether or not most people want to listen to it a lot currently (or will then).

rockist, once again
"Latino" means "salsa"? Um,
most new Latin growth
demographically
is Mexican/Chicano, and
cumbia's growing
you can hear it now
all over California,
Texas, country, ska...

also, have you heard Franky Perez? His album this year is fascinating: he's Cuban, grew up eventually in Las Vegas, does Tex-Mex/country/Latin/rock/pop and does it well, but his politics are flag-wavin' Miami-Cuban-American the way. you might dig him -- I do, even though I am pretty sure I'd never want to talk about politics with him....

Haikunym, did you read what I wrote?

No, I'm not thinking that will result in a significant increase in the popularity of salsa

I didn't think it was necessary to elaborate and say: "I'm not just saying this because I'm into salsa and I have this theory that it would make salsa more popular. Actually, I realize that the fastest growing part of the U.S. Latino population isn't particularly into salsa. But what I am thinking is that one way or another it will have an influence, probably bringing in more exposure for Latin rhythms of some sort (though not necessarily my favorite ones)."

Now that may be a lot to expect you to read into what I wrote, but nothing I said suggested that Latino=salsa! I was saying it more as a way of swatting away the assumption that I was just having some sort of fantasy that this would lead to salsa's becoming very popular.

My syntax was bad, because now I can see how the "it" looks like it refers back to "salsa," when I meant "it" to refer back to the demographic changes, so maybe that was the problem.

I'll be more careful of what I say next time, sheesh.

rockist I kinda knew what you were talking about but I didn't understand what you were SAYING. that's not yr fault, it's mine, because (as I've learned both here and IRL tonight) I am Stupid.

and yeah, as you know, I have an entirely unearned chip on my shoulder about the whole Cuba/D.R./Puerto Rico vs. Mexico/Colombia/S.A. dichotomy. I'll shut up about it already.

and yeah, as you also know, these things will slip up on us bit by bit until we don't even notice that they've been sitting in our laps for decades.

I don't really understand that. They are musically very different. If you like one tradition, and I like the other, and you don't hear much of interest in what I like and vice versa, then we are sort of on equal ground.

You'd better extract Cali from Colombia though, since it's still pretty heavily into salsa, from what I know. (I'm reading a book about it.)

Do I get any credit for wanting a Violeta Parra CD?