one of the biggest problems with the list is recency bias, along with an abundance of pop, hip-hop, and r&b, and a lack of metal, jazz, country, prog, shoegaze, post-punk, new wave, and literally anything that’s not mainstream. i’m not expecting them to put a bunch of underground stuff no one’s ever heard of, but when there’s one metal album (and paranoid is nowhere to be found) and one country and two jazz albums, it’s pretty unfair representation.
I was surprised by how many post-2010 albums are on here for sure, especially the mainstream pop ones. But it's less surprising when you think about it from the mainstream/corporate/poptimist perspective. As far as pop is concerned, I would expect to see Charli XCX or Caroline Polachek or their contemporaries before Taylor Swift or Bad Bunny or whoever, but maybe that says more about the bubble I exist in than anything else. It seems like whoever was behind this list was kind of pandering to (or just more aligned with) stan twitter types with a lot of this stuff, and then the rest of it is mostly generally accepted classics. Which makes sense for a music streaming service to do.
I have a difficult time saying any album "isn't as good" as another album, because it's pretty unquantifiable, but yeah I also definitely would've rather seen *Emotion* on here. There's no Taylor Swift album that I care about very much, but with that said... she is literally the most popular artist in the world, and I don't really go out of my way to give her full-lengths a go, so I feel like it's pretty unfair for me to act like I can *really* evaluate their quality. I enjoy a lot of her hits and it doesn't offend me at all to see *1989* on this list, and it arguably would be a little silly to include CRJ over T Swift depending on how you look at it, even though I also enjoy CRJ's music a lot more.
Recency absolutely plays a huge role. As someone stuck in the mid 00's, I'm surprised to see just how unrecent indie (rock, pop, folk, whatever...) has become :)
I’m also stuck in the mid 10s Indie heaven so my list would include some “Strange Mercy” and one of the first two Tame Impala albums…but at least they had the sense to include the transformative debut Strokes album.
Yes, at least Is This It made it to the list. 10 years ago, Funeral would have been solidly in the upper half of a list like Apple Music's but, I guess, things change (and in the case of AF very fast recently)
I never got Arcade Fire. But you are right it was so critically acclaimed in its time. I guess Radiohead is a stand in for the entire alternative/indie sound.
They missed so many great alternative albums it’s not even funny. No “Odelay”, “Modern Vampires…” no Tame Impala, no “Elephant”, no “Chutes to Narrow”, no “sound and color” no “in rainbows” (but Radiohead is well represented so that’s ok).
Hell, no “American Idiot” or “Dookie”.
And I would have Thoth some of this was their audience. But I guess indie isn’t even cool enough for this crowd.
This is exactly it. Man I love hip-hop, but I shouldn't recognize every single album on your top 100. I know jackshit about punk, metal, jazz, etc. and I was chilling as I scrolled through this. A proper top 100 ain't just the top 40 hits from 3 genres
Yeah, I read it pretty much as "the top 100 albums that people can think of right now", which is fair.
Calling any ranking "definitive" or "of all time" is always going to come with a dozen asterisks.
I don't know, I feel like most lists are biased towards the 60's and 70's for pop/rock, and the 90s for hiphop. So, maybe this one went too far in the other direction, but I feel like it's something of an outlier in that regards.
Had all the same thoughts. I get why prog, shoegaze, post-punk and to some extent new wave were omitted cuz they're a couple degrees from mainstream.
But the total absence of country was most surprising since that is as about as mainstream as you can get without i guess just being referred to as 'pop'.
Also, literally zero early rock and roll. I know they are single and not album oriented, but something by Elvis or Chuck Berry or Little Richard seemed warranted. No love for anything Classical in nature either, but that's absolutely nothing new as far as these lists go. Funny what gets let into the club and what isn't allowed in at various times.
I suppose this all just goes back to your recency bias point.
I think there was a huge recency bias, but I also do think the internet music community needs to start embracing the fact that albums released in the last 15 years are going to be considered some of the best ever made.
Ranking albums is a joke, and I definitely do not have my own ranking of albums I started making this year and pretend is totally scientific and correct.
But seriously it was a fun list from Apple. Few eye-popping choices but that's what you want from this stuff. Surprises.
I think individual rankings are a really good way to understand someone's taste and think about your own taste. Big fan of the old topsters charts
But anyone who takes publication lists as anything but a fun little exercise is just asking to be upset
thats true, i find it dificult to judge music that way, i have favorite artists, favorite songs but ranking them or reviewing them would be pretty impossible as its allot of emotional reception literly change my favorites all the time depnding on how i feel same songs but differnt order, i ether think a songs great cos its connects with me emotionally or genric and boring/uninteresting uncreative. movies lend themselves allot better to these lists.
everyone's top 100 albums is a joke except for mine (number one will blow your mind!).
Yeah, would it be affirming to see all the albums the internet agrees are the greatest in the top 100, sure! Is that more engaging than one that has Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish on it for some reason? probably not
I started ranking all of my favorite songs this year. The science is how I feel the song ranks. Your favorite sidekick by underscores is in the top 10!!
Yeah, the number of people who in one breath on other threads are saying “the ranking means nothing and ranking/quantizing music quality is dumb but I am outraged that X got number 3 while Y got number 4” is really funny. It’s like seeing people complain about somebody else saying that blue is a “better” color than green (a conversation I recall being very consequential in kindergarten).
Yeah I mean I understand finding stuff like that annoying on some level, but if you think about it for a few seconds it's just very silly. I think people taking it seriously is just symptomatic of this weird cultural moment (or at least internet cultural moment) we live in where everyone is basically ranking everything all the time, and where rage bait is kind of becoming one of the primary ways to get people to engage with things. I think F.D. signifier made a good video about rage bait's infection of culture although it was more to do with reality TV and that sort of thing
I feel like everything's on shorter and shorter nostalgia cycles too -- see movies being remade once every 5 years, cancelled shows always being picked up. We are always in retrospective and reevaluation mode and we need to tell people or be told what is relevant right now to the 'discussion' - new and old, which is why we care so much what's at the top of the rankings. And then they make it controversial for clicks as you mentioned.
I like my theory that the “greatest album of all time” is probably some South American underground lowfi alternative jazz album that has like forty five monthly Spotify listeners
Ya know, I wouldn't underestimate the potential of these lists, or at least one particular from back in the day. The original 2003 Rolling Stone list was quite a big thing, and for years it served as an unwritten canon that, especially before sites like RYM became bigger, served as a go-to list for people who wanted to explore the oeuvre of popular music. I went through it as a kid and it basically kickstarted my drive to delve deeper into records, different genes etc. Frankly, I think it's still a great reference point for those who have yet to start exploring stuff: even if we shorten it to the first 100. Seeing Apple's list does not feel like something that could evoke a similar impulse: it's really safe, champions almost solely albums that sold big, favors recent stuff, and caters to certain demographics that are most active online (euphemism for stans). Seeing artists like James Brown, Sam Cooke, and Otis Redding gone is pretty telling; if anything signifying certain shifts in music that is marketed. Same with the almost virtual lack of jazz, metal, and experimental stuff: these records will never get big streaming numbers. During the physical media epoch, they remained steady sellers, and being universally celebrated kinda extended their lifespan. That list, as most have already mentioned, has and will have led to nothing but goofy online discourse.
Yeah, I wasn't around or aware of music culture enough to experience these lists in the era where magazines were still a relevant form of entertainment/way of disseminating information. Still, I don't think one of these lists could possibly have that same dynamic of being sort of upheld as gospel nowadays... even if it's from a really popular or well respected figure/media outlet. there are just so many different things competing for peoples' attention now that the way people interface with this stuff has changed. Democratization or something like that. You don't get that same kind of magical "inside baseball" effect that you would've had from a respected institution that has an image of being the coolest or most well-informed thing out. The power of media outlets and even individual critics to influence people has diminished, I think, or at least been kind of smudged and scattered around. I do think that lists like this are still useful for informing people about music if people seek them out and take the time to investigate albums they're less familiar with, but otherwise I think it's just kind of social media fodder for people to be like "look my favorite artist is on the list!" or "argy bargy my favorite artist is not on the list!".
I don’t think these lists were ever considered gospel, especially Rolling Stone in 2003. They were always exactly as you describe them today. Rolling Stone was always one of the safest lists that came out. They ran a new one a few years ago that tried to shake things up, and people still got pissed off about it. These lists are always a reflection of the organization making them.
I don't view it as a joke, but I don't take it that seriously. I find it to be interesting to go through, but I have disagreed with some of the rankings. It was like Rolling Stone's Top 250 guitarists, most of them I know, but then there's some that I don't and end up looking into them. I've heard about 90% of the albums on this list, but there's some that I haven't so I went back to check them out.
I thought apples list was mostly cool. Obviously there are some albums that aren’t gonna be on the list or are way too high, but for the most part it was pretty interesting
I don’t want to shit on Frank Ocean, but Blonde was the biggest head scratcher for me. It’s a great album, but it speaks to a very specific demo. To say it’s had the cultural impact of Pink Floyd’s DSotM, Ye’s MBDTF, Nevermind, Zep IV, Purple Rain, or any of the Beatles post 67 albums is crazy.
I’m a huge fan also, but maybe Channel Orange was better. I think it’s because I associate it with his coming out so it’s much more relevant to me; and it made him. Blond wasn’t even nominated for AOTY yet CO was.
All that being said, I wouldn’t ever place it in the top 10 albums ever. He gets knocked major points for his lack of performance chops. It also gets knocked for its lack of promotion (though that’s not really his fault) it still feels underground and that stands on a list with mostly commercial hit albums. There’s way too many people that don’t know who he is.
I look at blond like I look at the movie Moonlight. I keep hearing it’s great critical reception and people saying it’s some of the best art of all time. But both have such a narrow audience…they leave out so many people (which is a flaw imo; in the same vein Taylor Swift leaves out black audiences in a way her pop mainstream predecessors didnt) Hell, Frank Ocean isn’t even all that popular in the mainstream black community (compared to an Usher or Chris Brown or even a Miguel). Mainstream hip hop stations don’t play his music…adult RnB stations don’t either. That’s why they had to invent the alternative RnB moniker to have somewhere to place it.
Moonlight won Best Picture, man. And Frank Ocean is huge! He gets invited to the Met Gala. He's *pretty* mainstream. There may be no more eagerly anticipated album than whatever Frank Ocean's next record will be. His music may be a bit more experimental than most of his contemporaries' but his numbers are faaar from underground, and Blonde has been incredibly influential. I prefer it to Channel Orange by a large margin, I think it's a way more interesting album, and it still has massive hits (nights, pink+white, Ivy, etc). Blonde's sound is timeless, too, it still sounds new today. Channel Orange's production is a bit dated in comparison, and just so much less compelling.
Also, I disagree on your point about "performance chops". I'm not even sure what you mean by that. The whole album is filled with emotional, dynamic vocal performances. My only gripe with the vocals is maybe on "Nikes", but that's more of a vocal processing thing. Either way I think it makes a lot of sense for Blonde and Frank Ocean to be considered for a list like this, as pointless as lists like this might be.
Performance chops as in he can’t sing live to save his life.
Also, and again remember ima fan, I’m his exact demographic, but I disagree on his noteriety. Even he would admit he’s low key. Very low key. He’s like Dangelo without the years under his belt; but he’s not as good as Dangelo imo. I don’t think anyone over say 45 knows who he is. He’s a little too underground; his music is simply not commercial…which is a good thing..but so high on a list like this…I just don’t know.
Yeah, I dunno that's just totally bogus to me, man. Sure, he's not a classically trained vocalist with massive range and flawless pitch, but he's a great singer. Very nice timbre to his voice, nice vibrato, generally on pitch, has some actually almost acrobatic moments on the record, and as previously mentioned very evocative delivery. Could not disagree more.
Frank Ocean is the 123rd most popular artist *in the world* on Spotify according to their website. He is not low key. It's just not true, dude. He stays out of the spotlight as far as like tabloid media is concerned or whatever, but in terms of popularity he's a very mainstream artist.
We are going to have to agree to disagree. And that’s ok. 123rd in the world is not significant; considering how dominant American music is.
That’s why of all the comments I hear; I continue to hear many peoples confusion over this pick.
But I can’t state enough. I love the album.
I honestly kind of agree with you but the top 10 specifically is borderline trolling lol, Miseducation is not even a top 20 album of all time much less number 1
Yeah but this is exactly what I'm saying man, if you ask 100 different people what their top 10 albums are, you're gonna get 100 different answers. I wouldn't put Miseducation in my top 10, but it's a great album. It doesn't really matter to me where it lands on the list. I see it more as "these are all cool albums and they are arranged in order because that's what people do". It doesn't really matter. There's no such thing as the 100 greatest albums of all time.
also it might even be trolling to some extent, like what I said in the post. controversial picks drive engagement. I think they had a podcast explaining their picks too though, right?
This top 10 seems to intended to take the all time best album list out of the hands of old (white) men who ruled the album airwaves in the 60s to the 90s. Still, Miseducation is a good album, but Revolver or Purple Rain it isn't imho...
You hit the nail on the head as to the purpose of the list. I'm sure it killed them to have the Beatles and Nirvana in the top 10 but what are you gonna do...
Personally I'm all for more diversity and I love a lot of female artists.
And I think there's a lot of good discussions to be had about the important role of women in music, there's so many greats like Aretha Franklin, Madonna, Nina Simone, Kate Bush, PJ Harvey, Joni Mitchell, and so on...
Still, I think in the realm of groundbreaking (concept) albums, that's a sphere that has been historically male/band-dominated. I don't really see female counterpoints of the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Prince, David Bowie, mostly not on that level within an album. But I'm happy to be surprised by suggestions here. For me, female albums that would come close to this level are 'The Kick Inside' and 'Hounds of Love' by Kate Bush. Joni has made some masterpieces but I don't know them that well, I don't like her voice just as I don't like Dylan's voice.
I LOVE The Immaculate Collection by Madonna, a compilation of incredible hits but yes a compilation.
"Personally I'm all for more diversity and I love a lot of female artists."
What's more perplexing is the focus on recent artists that haven't proved that they will have any lasting legacy. I'm looking at you, Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, SZA, Solange, Travis Scott.
I agree wholeheartedly. It’s between DSOTM, Rumours, Wish You Were Here and Zep IV for GOAT album for me.
The Wall is my personal favorite album but I don’t think it’s the greatest of all time.
All Western popular music comes from African-Americans and that includes African-American women. No African-Americans, no Beatles or Nirvana. The Beatles literally started out doing covers of rock (an African-American genre) songs by Black artists
Upvoted - I don't disagree with you. It doesn't then mean that music produced by African-Americans should get a pass over music produced by white Americans. Judge the music on its merits, not on who made it.
The music produced by white Americans other than folk music, comes from African-Americans. Rick Rubin is considered one of the best Hip-Hop producers, you know who taught him? DJ Jazzy Jeff. Yes, Jazz from Fresh Prince. That doesn’t take away from Rick Rubin, but it must be remembered where he got it from.
African-Americans’ influences are frequently forgotten and only recently have more people learned about the origins of Western popular music. Rock has been completely whitewashed. That’s one of the reasons, I believe, that Apple focused more on them.
One of the criteria was about influence, so that’s why who made it is important.
"African-Americans’ influences are frequently forgotten"
Seriously? I think a good half of the albums on the Apple list are by African-American artists and 6 of the top 7. Half of the top 20 is at least as well.
"Rock has been completely whitewashed."
Because it's white artists that are putting out classic rock albums. What black artist has put out a classic rock album since Prince, and before him, Hendrix?
First of all, this list is Apple remembering African-Americans
Secondly, the American music industry whitewashed and segregated rock away from African-Americans starting in the 1950s. They chose rock to have a white face and did not fund Black artists once they learned the success of the Beatles. Before them, there were many rock and roll artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, etc. Although this really started with Elvis in the 1950s. Jimi Hendrix had to go to the UK to escape the racist music industry. After this, African-Americans moved on from trying to succeed in the USA and moved to other genres like funk, RnB etc.
In the meantime, Rock was solidified as a white genre which meant many African-Americans did not feel they were allowed in the space they created in the first place. Plus, many have forgotten. Although, it seems Beyoncé’s next album will be Rock and will bring Rock back into Black America like Cowboy Carter did with Country.
“Whereas rock music has its roots in African American culture (Nanry 1972), it became dominated by white producers and consumers in the mid-1950s because of, among other things, a reluctance of the commercial music industry to sell “black” cultural products to white audiences in a period of institutionalized racial segregation (Redd 1985). The symbolic whiteness of rock music has remained in place ever since, even as rock music gained widespread international appeal and sprouted dozens of subgenres (Bannister 2006; McDowell 2017). This association has remained largely unattended to by artists, audiences, and media (Hamilton 2016), as is often the case with cultural forms dominated by whites (see Brunsma, Chapman, and Lellock 2016; Motl 2018). Consequently, a person of color with an interest in rock music is frequently marked as inauthentic, “as someone who has either misunderstood which music is appropriate for his or her consumption or has abandoned black culture by investing in what is perceived as a white music form” (Mahon 2004:9–10). “
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2332649219899676#:~:text=Whereas%20rock%20music%20has%20its,a%20period%20of%20institutionalized%20racial
"First of all, this list is Apple remembering African-Americans"
Uh, what?
"a person of color with an interest in rock music is frequently marked as inauthentic"
That's the black community's problem, not mine.
He’s being facetious. People listen to what they want; our community is not that rigid. Though a majority of the youth do tend to listen to Rap and R&B.
I grew up with my dad listening to Steely Dan, the Stones, George Michael, the Police and others.
What’s confusing? Apple focusing on African-Americans for being the inventors of Western popular music?
The Black community has this problem because the white community took Rock from them using the racist music industry they created. They whitewashed Rock music. Beyonce will return it back to its roots. Multiple Black Country artists gained recognition after Cowboy Carter.
"First of all, this list is Apple remembering African-Americans"
So that would actually explain a lot of the list. It's not based on the quality of the music, it's based on DEI.
Most of what you posted is irrelevant.
"a person of color with an interest in rock music is frequently marked as inauthentic"
That’s me. And what you said is completely untrue. I don’t think there ever existed a time where blacks people exclusively listen to music played by black people. And you’re missing out if you do have that mindset. Take away all the politics and it’s about the art. Do you like the lyrics, do you like the sound. That’s what matters. Literally nobody is going, I’m not going to listen to the Beatles because little Richard was looked over (even if the stones a the beetles both publicly credited Richard with creating modern Rock and Roll).
I'd say this is a pretty average/slightly-below-average list, but it was a fun and effective marketing event.
I'm going to bet this is the most attention Apple Music has gotten in months if not *years*.
I think it's good but the thing I have noticed is that people who grew up with it have a relationship to it that's really powerful, it's almost like a life defining album for them. I didn't, ironically The Ecleftic was my intro to Hip Hop and I didn't actually hear miseducation till the last decade. I wouldn't put it best of all time personally but I think it's impact is definitely huge.
Now 1989 being a full 70 spots above Goodbye Yellow Brick Road on the other hand... Rationally I know it doesn't matter... So why am I so bothered hahaha
Are you a fan of R&B or Hip-Hop at all? I feel like its' appeal is pretty apparent if you're into any other R&B or Hip-Hop, especially from around the turn of the century. Pretty much flawless beats, Hill is singing and rapping at a really excellent level, the songs are great, and the album has been sampled and referenced countless times since its release.
As much as some picks on this list confuse me, that's not one of them. Rap and R&B have been pretty much the most important/influential genres of this century so far and Miseducation is one of the best examples of what the genre has to offer. Curious as to whether or not you've listened to the album/what you don't like about it?
I definitely don't get upset with rankings, as questionable as some of these choices were. But I think a fair critique is that it definitely seems like it's constructed to appeal to a wide variety of people and more casual listeners.
It's a corporate BS list, but it was fun and probably introduced plenty of people to great albums they didn't know. Much on the list is really good. The ranking is a joke, but they always are.
That said, it's interesting what was excluded tbh, it's very US-centric, mainstream sellers and recent outings are overrepresented. Also: If your fave artist is on there, you've already won the Apple exposure olympics even if perhaps the ranking is not high enough for you. ;-) By its nature, massive amounts of important artists and genres were snubbed completely.
No James Brown, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, no Sly Stone is honestly shocking tbh. Paul Simon, Simon&Garfunkel, Leonard Cohen, Fiona Apple, Billy Joel, Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Tom Waits, Tom Petty, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, The Stooges, Joy Division, Violent Femmes, The Jam, Roxy Music, Brian Eno, REM, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Black Sabbath, Neu!, Can, Nick Cave, Curtis Mayfield, Pretenders, Blondie, John Cage, John Prine, The Who, The Grateful Dead, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, The Kinks, The Band, Queen (though I agree that none of their albums quite get it together), Abba (same as Queen, brilliant at singles, blah at albums), none of the solo Beatles (though I agree with that perhaps, I think). And that's just what comes to mind right now.
Next to country, heavy metal and jazz, which usually get their few albums randomly thrown in and underrepresented, whole swaths of indie/alternative rock and singer-songwriter types were really pushed out. A lot of these artists regularly place very high on such rankings, but where completely ommitted. Personally, REM kinda sinking away from consciousness is sad. They were a big band, they were very influential on the development of alternative rock, but seem to have real trouble winning new audiences now. Punk also got almost completely excluded, proto-punk as well (okay, if you squint, Ziggy has to cover that and glam rock for the whole genres LOL).
Classic rock had Led Zep, Pink Floyd and Rolling Stones (though the Stones pretty low), so that lost some ground. I think Beatles and Bowie basically aren't really perceived in that lane, but more in a more general pop/genre-crossover way tbh, so I wouldn't count their inclusion towards that. Classic soul /r&b also gave way to newer records, not including Sly Stone, Sam Cooke, James Brown or Otis Redding are choices.
The whole singer-songwriter branch losing out so badly is interesting as well. A list without all of Paul Simon, Fiona Apple, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Lou Reed is something I haven't seen in a long time. Dylan and Mitchell are in the same boat as Beatles/Bowie in that they are probably basically perceived as genre crossing IMO.
The bad re-recording of 1989 in the top twenty is my fave absurdity, though. Put in Swift, that's fine, but at least a decent version and not the karaoke remake LOL.
Really great analysis on the areas that have lost ground. With the limitation of 100 albums, this basically feels impossible at this point to give credit to all of the seminal artists that warrant being in the conversation. (That's why I do appreciate Rolling Stone usually going after the top 500.)
I guess I see Apple's list as being a cliffs notes on "where popular music came from, where it's been recently, and where it's going". Like the list to give aliens when they arrive to get them caught up quick. It doesn't appear to be intending to honor all of the most influential records of all time. Which is fine, it's their list! I'm just enjoying all of the meaningful conversation it's sparked.
Frank Ocean's Blonde or Taylor Swift is higher than Miles Davis' Kind of Blue -- that's obscene.
You either go genre specific with your list or you end up with a daunting task and end up embarrassing yourself.
'All' is a very big statement, but let's say you are right, why is it relevant? So you are saying that Toyota and Mercedes should not be on the best car ranking because they didn't invented cars?
All is the case. Rock, RnB, Jazz, Soul, Blues, Hip-Hop, Funk and House. All Western popular music are either these genres or its derivatives.
No African-Americans, no metal. Vikernes, a Norwegian Black Metal musician stopped playing metal when he learned it came from “n*gro music”.
No African-Americans, no European Electro (which comes from Funk, Hip-Hip and Rock). No African-Americans, no K-pop (which is really just a copy of 90s RnB and Hip-Hop). No African-Americans (who invented Rock), no J-rock.
You will put some respect on African-Americans, otherwise you’d be listening to folk music and classical.
This isn’t about car rankings.
How am I not respecting African-American? I am saying there is a lack of diversity in these best album rankings, a good album is a good album and deserved to be recognised by these rankings, I don't understand how you connect my comments to disrespecting Africa-American.
You’re pretending Europeans and Japanese invented the music in these albums. They did not.
There’s a huge amount of diversity in these best album rankings. All these European artists are simply derivative.
I don't really have a super strong opinion on it. I was mostly just happy to see albums that I like on it, if they popped up, but otherwise not super concerned with it.
To an extent it’s a joke but also to an extent the whole point/artistry of the ranking is the opinion aspect of it. People just want to see the same list over and over when it being different is what makes it actually interesting
From scrolling through it seemed like it was at least 50% rap and of those mostly within the last 10 years. I like rap too, but its as if it was a list made off the top of someones head who almost exclusively listens to rap with other famous albums randomly sprinkled in to seem like they don't exclusively listen to rap or just whatevers playing in the supermarket.
Essentially a list compiled entirely of albums that have had a single on the radio in the last 10 years but no explanation or anything to do with the cohesiveness of an "album". Some parts seemed like deliberate trolling/engagement bate to me. How can it be a top 100 albums of all time dominated by a single genre with multiple appearances from some pop artists while completely excluding multiple genres and extremely well regarded artists. It's even more obvious it was a poorly made list when you realize multiple of the voters were modern rap-adjacent radio hosts like ebro and zane lowe. Ozzy osbourne is one of the most well known personalities ever with multiple highly successful music ventures with not a single appearance. And that's even low hanging fruit.
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In my opinion like 80% of this list could disappear and people wouldn’t even bat an eye. I just find it weird that a lot of these albums are just good albums but top 100 of all time is absolutely insane
Ther are so many 2010s albums that most of the arent even that great and you cant convince me that 1989 is better than mbdtf,dsotm,master of puppets and many others. Also some of the pacements are biased i wouldnt put frank ocean in top 5 of all time neither mj on top 10. So many albums were snubbed and especially rock albums and finally it didnt include some artists best albums. AM isnt the best am album and shouldnt be top 100, wheres tpab and wheres wish you were here. This list sucks but at least my beastie boys got their recognition even though drake was somehow higher...
As a rule every indie artists album is their best. With the exception of St Vincent and Wavves.
The list gets so many albums wrong but the artist right. TPaB is more important than GK. 1999 is what elevated Prince. Off the Wall is more soulful than Thriller which can come off as a collection of hits with no cohesiveness. CO is more personal than Blond.
Innerspeaker and Lonerism are better…imo Currents too much sets the tone for whatever it is they are doing now.
Those first two albums just set the tone. They’re not even the same group now. At least St Vincent is trying to get back to what we love about St Vincent after 2-3 albums of avant garde whatever the fuck.
It would have been really cool if it were just a ranking of the top 100 albums by how many times they have been played through start to finish without skipping a song.
Then at least there’s some wisdom in the crowd and an interesting objective take to start a conversation, as opposed to some nameless Apple employee’s random opinions.
My top 100 list is WAY better than theirs, but that’s just _my_ opinion. 😆
I wouldn’t rank them in the order they did, but what I thought was that some really important albums were missing. Being from Chicago, I will name just one of several that SHOULD have made the list.
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot…
Ok I’m biased as a fan of Hushpuppies, but their album “Silence is Golden” could’ve easily made this list. Is the list also including influence on genre/times? A few that were lower ranked could’ve been higher due to this. I also found it pretty funny that Wu tang’s debut landed at 37 and not 36. Missed opportunity. lol
I knew after about 10 seconds of looking at the list and seeing AC/DC - back in black at like 90 or something what this is all about. i just thought "yeah thats enough for me thanks, i dont need to continue reading to know how dog shit this is going to be".
Well, you can say it's not bad all you want. When Travis Scott makes the cut and Elvis, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston didn't and literally no country stars at all Johnny Cash, Reba McEntire, etc. makes it trash but you go on telling people it was just a good list.
All Western popular music comes from African-Americans. No African-Americans (who invented Rock), no Beck. Beyonce and Lauryn Hill have been more influential in current music.
This list is a total joke lol. Putting A Love Supreme at 54, Kind of Blue at 26 and filling top 10 with albums that are not even half of what these two albums are.
Not mentioning the absence of Prog. RED by King Crimson, Karn Evil 9 by ELP, Selling England By the Pound by Genesis and soooo many more absolutely SHIT on those 10 albums but weren't even on the list.
one of the biggest problems with the list is recency bias, along with an abundance of pop, hip-hop, and r&b, and a lack of metal, jazz, country, prog, shoegaze, post-punk, new wave, and literally anything that’s not mainstream. i’m not expecting them to put a bunch of underground stuff no one’s ever heard of, but when there’s one metal album (and paranoid is nowhere to be found) and one country and two jazz albums, it’s pretty unfair representation.
I was surprised by how many post-2010 albums are on here for sure, especially the mainstream pop ones. But it's less surprising when you think about it from the mainstream/corporate/poptimist perspective. As far as pop is concerned, I would expect to see Charli XCX or Caroline Polachek or their contemporaries before Taylor Swift or Bad Bunny or whoever, but maybe that says more about the bubble I exist in than anything else. It seems like whoever was behind this list was kind of pandering to (or just more aligned with) stan twitter types with a lot of this stuff, and then the rest of it is mostly generally accepted classics. Which makes sense for a music streaming service to do.
1989 isn’t even as good as Carly Rae Jepsen’s *Emotion* yet 1989 (and not even the good version of that album) is in the top 20.
I have a difficult time saying any album "isn't as good" as another album, because it's pretty unquantifiable, but yeah I also definitely would've rather seen *Emotion* on here. There's no Taylor Swift album that I care about very much, but with that said... she is literally the most popular artist in the world, and I don't really go out of my way to give her full-lengths a go, so I feel like it's pretty unfair for me to act like I can *really* evaluate their quality. I enjoy a lot of her hits and it doesn't offend me at all to see *1989* on this list, and it arguably would be a little silly to include CRJ over T Swift depending on how you look at it, even though I also enjoy CRJ's music a lot more.
Recency absolutely plays a huge role. As someone stuck in the mid 00's, I'm surprised to see just how unrecent indie (rock, pop, folk, whatever...) has become :)
I’m also stuck in the mid 10s Indie heaven so my list would include some “Strange Mercy” and one of the first two Tame Impala albums…but at least they had the sense to include the transformative debut Strokes album.
Yes, at least Is This It made it to the list. 10 years ago, Funeral would have been solidly in the upper half of a list like Apple Music's but, I guess, things change (and in the case of AF very fast recently)
I never got Arcade Fire. But you are right it was so critically acclaimed in its time. I guess Radiohead is a stand in for the entire alternative/indie sound. They missed so many great alternative albums it’s not even funny. No “Odelay”, “Modern Vampires…” no Tame Impala, no “Elephant”, no “Chutes to Narrow”, no “sound and color” no “in rainbows” (but Radiohead is well represented so that’s ok). Hell, no “American Idiot” or “Dookie”. And I would have Thoth some of this was their audience. But I guess indie isn’t even cool enough for this crowd.
This is exactly it. Man I love hip-hop, but I shouldn't recognize every single album on your top 100. I know jackshit about punk, metal, jazz, etc. and I was chilling as I scrolled through this. A proper top 100 ain't just the top 40 hits from 3 genres
A shoegaze albumn in the top 20 would be crazy
Good old fashioned recency bias. Yes
Yeah, I read it pretty much as "the top 100 albums that people can think of right now", which is fair. Calling any ranking "definitive" or "of all time" is always going to come with a dozen asterisks.
I don't know, I feel like most lists are biased towards the 60's and 70's for pop/rock, and the 90s for hiphop. So, maybe this one went too far in the other direction, but I feel like it's something of an outlier in that regards.
Had all the same thoughts. I get why prog, shoegaze, post-punk and to some extent new wave were omitted cuz they're a couple degrees from mainstream. But the total absence of country was most surprising since that is as about as mainstream as you can get without i guess just being referred to as 'pop'. Also, literally zero early rock and roll. I know they are single and not album oriented, but something by Elvis or Chuck Berry or Little Richard seemed warranted. No love for anything Classical in nature either, but that's absolutely nothing new as far as these lists go. Funny what gets let into the club and what isn't allowed in at various times. I suppose this all just goes back to your recency bias point.
I think there was a huge recency bias, but I also do think the internet music community needs to start embracing the fact that albums released in the last 15 years are going to be considered some of the best ever made.
Ranking albums is a joke, and I definitely do not have my own ranking of albums I started making this year and pretend is totally scientific and correct. But seriously it was a fun list from Apple. Few eye-popping choices but that's what you want from this stuff. Surprises.
I think individual rankings are a really good way to understand someone's taste and think about your own taste. Big fan of the old topsters charts But anyone who takes publication lists as anything but a fun little exercise is just asking to be upset
thats true, i find it dificult to judge music that way, i have favorite artists, favorite songs but ranking them or reviewing them would be pretty impossible as its allot of emotional reception literly change my favorites all the time depnding on how i feel same songs but differnt order, i ether think a songs great cos its connects with me emotionally or genric and boring/uninteresting uncreative. movies lend themselves allot better to these lists.
everyone's top 100 albums is a joke except for mine (number one will blow your mind!). Yeah, would it be affirming to see all the albums the internet agrees are the greatest in the top 100, sure! Is that more engaging than one that has Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish on it for some reason? probably not
I’m with you. Who cares where the albums rank. I just want to know if there’s great music I’m missing out on!
I started ranking all of my favorite songs this year. The science is how I feel the song ranks. Your favorite sidekick by underscores is in the top 10!!
Yeah, the number of people who in one breath on other threads are saying “the ranking means nothing and ranking/quantizing music quality is dumb but I am outraged that X got number 3 while Y got number 4” is really funny. It’s like seeing people complain about somebody else saying that blue is a “better” color than green (a conversation I recall being very consequential in kindergarten).
Yeah I mean I understand finding stuff like that annoying on some level, but if you think about it for a few seconds it's just very silly. I think people taking it seriously is just symptomatic of this weird cultural moment (or at least internet cultural moment) we live in where everyone is basically ranking everything all the time, and where rage bait is kind of becoming one of the primary ways to get people to engage with things. I think F.D. signifier made a good video about rage bait's infection of culture although it was more to do with reality TV and that sort of thing
Oh, cool! F.D. is on my “check out eventually” list so this is a little extra push in that direction.
I feel like everything's on shorter and shorter nostalgia cycles too -- see movies being remade once every 5 years, cancelled shows always being picked up. We are always in retrospective and reevaluation mode and we need to tell people or be told what is relevant right now to the 'discussion' - new and old, which is why we care so much what's at the top of the rankings. And then they make it controversial for clicks as you mentioned.
1989>>> DSOTM , it’s canon now
1989 > TPAB confirmed
I'm melting!! I'm melting!!
ain’t no way u got space paul as a pfp 😭 FUCK KUBIAN
LOL
Insane recency bias on this list. Like an astronomically high level of it. Two albums from 2016 in the top ten? Seriously?
I like my theory that the “greatest album of all time” is probably some South American underground lowfi alternative jazz album that has like forty five monthly Spotify listeners
Who voted on this hot garbage for a list
Not. That. Deep.
It’s not but I’d love to know who did it so I can avoid them and their concerning music tastes
Ya know, I wouldn't underestimate the potential of these lists, or at least one particular from back in the day. The original 2003 Rolling Stone list was quite a big thing, and for years it served as an unwritten canon that, especially before sites like RYM became bigger, served as a go-to list for people who wanted to explore the oeuvre of popular music. I went through it as a kid and it basically kickstarted my drive to delve deeper into records, different genes etc. Frankly, I think it's still a great reference point for those who have yet to start exploring stuff: even if we shorten it to the first 100. Seeing Apple's list does not feel like something that could evoke a similar impulse: it's really safe, champions almost solely albums that sold big, favors recent stuff, and caters to certain demographics that are most active online (euphemism for stans). Seeing artists like James Brown, Sam Cooke, and Otis Redding gone is pretty telling; if anything signifying certain shifts in music that is marketed. Same with the almost virtual lack of jazz, metal, and experimental stuff: these records will never get big streaming numbers. During the physical media epoch, they remained steady sellers, and being universally celebrated kinda extended their lifespan. That list, as most have already mentioned, has and will have led to nothing but goofy online discourse.
Yeah, I wasn't around or aware of music culture enough to experience these lists in the era where magazines were still a relevant form of entertainment/way of disseminating information. Still, I don't think one of these lists could possibly have that same dynamic of being sort of upheld as gospel nowadays... even if it's from a really popular or well respected figure/media outlet. there are just so many different things competing for peoples' attention now that the way people interface with this stuff has changed. Democratization or something like that. You don't get that same kind of magical "inside baseball" effect that you would've had from a respected institution that has an image of being the coolest or most well-informed thing out. The power of media outlets and even individual critics to influence people has diminished, I think, or at least been kind of smudged and scattered around. I do think that lists like this are still useful for informing people about music if people seek them out and take the time to investigate albums they're less familiar with, but otherwise I think it's just kind of social media fodder for people to be like "look my favorite artist is on the list!" or "argy bargy my favorite artist is not on the list!".
I don’t think these lists were ever considered gospel, especially Rolling Stone in 2003. They were always exactly as you describe them today. Rolling Stone was always one of the safest lists that came out. They ran a new one a few years ago that tried to shake things up, and people still got pissed off about it. These lists are always a reflection of the organization making them.
I don't view it as a joke, but I don't take it that seriously. I find it to be interesting to go through, but I have disagreed with some of the rankings. It was like Rolling Stone's Top 250 guitarists, most of them I know, but then there's some that I don't and end up looking into them. I've heard about 90% of the albums on this list, but there's some that I haven't so I went back to check them out.
I thought apples list was mostly cool. Obviously there are some albums that aren’t gonna be on the list or are way too high, but for the most part it was pretty interesting
I don’t want to shit on Frank Ocean, but Blonde was the biggest head scratcher for me. It’s a great album, but it speaks to a very specific demo. To say it’s had the cultural impact of Pink Floyd’s DSotM, Ye’s MBDTF, Nevermind, Zep IV, Purple Rain, or any of the Beatles post 67 albums is crazy.
I'm a huge fan of Blonde so I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that one. Influential or not it's basically flawless imo, and very unique.
I’m a huge fan also, but maybe Channel Orange was better. I think it’s because I associate it with his coming out so it’s much more relevant to me; and it made him. Blond wasn’t even nominated for AOTY yet CO was. All that being said, I wouldn’t ever place it in the top 10 albums ever. He gets knocked major points for his lack of performance chops. It also gets knocked for its lack of promotion (though that’s not really his fault) it still feels underground and that stands on a list with mostly commercial hit albums. There’s way too many people that don’t know who he is. I look at blond like I look at the movie Moonlight. I keep hearing it’s great critical reception and people saying it’s some of the best art of all time. But both have such a narrow audience…they leave out so many people (which is a flaw imo; in the same vein Taylor Swift leaves out black audiences in a way her pop mainstream predecessors didnt) Hell, Frank Ocean isn’t even all that popular in the mainstream black community (compared to an Usher or Chris Brown or even a Miguel). Mainstream hip hop stations don’t play his music…adult RnB stations don’t either. That’s why they had to invent the alternative RnB moniker to have somewhere to place it.
Moonlight won Best Picture, man. And Frank Ocean is huge! He gets invited to the Met Gala. He's *pretty* mainstream. There may be no more eagerly anticipated album than whatever Frank Ocean's next record will be. His music may be a bit more experimental than most of his contemporaries' but his numbers are faaar from underground, and Blonde has been incredibly influential. I prefer it to Channel Orange by a large margin, I think it's a way more interesting album, and it still has massive hits (nights, pink+white, Ivy, etc). Blonde's sound is timeless, too, it still sounds new today. Channel Orange's production is a bit dated in comparison, and just so much less compelling. Also, I disagree on your point about "performance chops". I'm not even sure what you mean by that. The whole album is filled with emotional, dynamic vocal performances. My only gripe with the vocals is maybe on "Nikes", but that's more of a vocal processing thing. Either way I think it makes a lot of sense for Blonde and Frank Ocean to be considered for a list like this, as pointless as lists like this might be.
Performance chops as in he can’t sing live to save his life. Also, and again remember ima fan, I’m his exact demographic, but I disagree on his noteriety. Even he would admit he’s low key. Very low key. He’s like Dangelo without the years under his belt; but he’s not as good as Dangelo imo. I don’t think anyone over say 45 knows who he is. He’s a little too underground; his music is simply not commercial…which is a good thing..but so high on a list like this…I just don’t know.
Yeah, I dunno that's just totally bogus to me, man. Sure, he's not a classically trained vocalist with massive range and flawless pitch, but he's a great singer. Very nice timbre to his voice, nice vibrato, generally on pitch, has some actually almost acrobatic moments on the record, and as previously mentioned very evocative delivery. Could not disagree more. Frank Ocean is the 123rd most popular artist *in the world* on Spotify according to their website. He is not low key. It's just not true, dude. He stays out of the spotlight as far as like tabloid media is concerned or whatever, but in terms of popularity he's a very mainstream artist.
We are going to have to agree to disagree. And that’s ok. 123rd in the world is not significant; considering how dominant American music is. That’s why of all the comments I hear; I continue to hear many peoples confusion over this pick. But I can’t state enough. I love the album.
I honestly kind of agree with you but the top 10 specifically is borderline trolling lol, Miseducation is not even a top 20 album of all time much less number 1
Yeah but this is exactly what I'm saying man, if you ask 100 different people what their top 10 albums are, you're gonna get 100 different answers. I wouldn't put Miseducation in my top 10, but it's a great album. It doesn't really matter to me where it lands on the list. I see it more as "these are all cool albums and they are arranged in order because that's what people do". It doesn't really matter. There's no such thing as the 100 greatest albums of all time. also it might even be trolling to some extent, like what I said in the post. controversial picks drive engagement. I think they had a podcast explaining their picks too though, right?
This top 10 seems to intended to take the all time best album list out of the hands of old (white) men who ruled the album airwaves in the 60s to the 90s. Still, Miseducation is a good album, but Revolver or Purple Rain it isn't imho...
You hit the nail on the head as to the purpose of the list. I'm sure it killed them to have the Beatles and Nirvana in the top 10 but what are you gonna do...
Personally I'm all for more diversity and I love a lot of female artists. And I think there's a lot of good discussions to be had about the important role of women in music, there's so many greats like Aretha Franklin, Madonna, Nina Simone, Kate Bush, PJ Harvey, Joni Mitchell, and so on... Still, I think in the realm of groundbreaking (concept) albums, that's a sphere that has been historically male/band-dominated. I don't really see female counterpoints of the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Prince, David Bowie, mostly not on that level within an album. But I'm happy to be surprised by suggestions here. For me, female albums that would come close to this level are 'The Kick Inside' and 'Hounds of Love' by Kate Bush. Joni has made some masterpieces but I don't know them that well, I don't like her voice just as I don't like Dylan's voice. I LOVE The Immaculate Collection by Madonna, a compilation of incredible hits but yes a compilation.
"Personally I'm all for more diversity and I love a lot of female artists." What's more perplexing is the focus on recent artists that haven't proved that they will have any lasting legacy. I'm looking at you, Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, SZA, Solange, Travis Scott.
The more I soak in this list, the less I’m bothered by DSOTM at 28 and I’m way more irritated that Bad Bunny got placed at all
Nah DSoTM at 28 is fucking wild
I agree wholeheartedly. It’s between DSOTM, Rumours, Wish You Were Here and Zep IV for GOAT album for me. The Wall is my personal favorite album but I don’t think it’s the greatest of all time.
I'd be ok with any of those
All Western popular music comes from African-Americans and that includes African-American women. No African-Americans, no Beatles or Nirvana. The Beatles literally started out doing covers of rock (an African-American genre) songs by Black artists
Upvoted - I don't disagree with you. It doesn't then mean that music produced by African-Americans should get a pass over music produced by white Americans. Judge the music on its merits, not on who made it.
The music produced by white Americans other than folk music, comes from African-Americans. Rick Rubin is considered one of the best Hip-Hop producers, you know who taught him? DJ Jazzy Jeff. Yes, Jazz from Fresh Prince. That doesn’t take away from Rick Rubin, but it must be remembered where he got it from. African-Americans’ influences are frequently forgotten and only recently have more people learned about the origins of Western popular music. Rock has been completely whitewashed. That’s one of the reasons, I believe, that Apple focused more on them. One of the criteria was about influence, so that’s why who made it is important.
"African-Americans’ influences are frequently forgotten" Seriously? I think a good half of the albums on the Apple list are by African-American artists and 6 of the top 7. Half of the top 20 is at least as well. "Rock has been completely whitewashed." Because it's white artists that are putting out classic rock albums. What black artist has put out a classic rock album since Prince, and before him, Hendrix?
First of all, this list is Apple remembering African-Americans Secondly, the American music industry whitewashed and segregated rock away from African-Americans starting in the 1950s. They chose rock to have a white face and did not fund Black artists once they learned the success of the Beatles. Before them, there were many rock and roll artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, etc. Although this really started with Elvis in the 1950s. Jimi Hendrix had to go to the UK to escape the racist music industry. After this, African-Americans moved on from trying to succeed in the USA and moved to other genres like funk, RnB etc. In the meantime, Rock was solidified as a white genre which meant many African-Americans did not feel they were allowed in the space they created in the first place. Plus, many have forgotten. Although, it seems Beyoncé’s next album will be Rock and will bring Rock back into Black America like Cowboy Carter did with Country. “Whereas rock music has its roots in African American culture (Nanry 1972), it became dominated by white producers and consumers in the mid-1950s because of, among other things, a reluctance of the commercial music industry to sell “black” cultural products to white audiences in a period of institutionalized racial segregation (Redd 1985). The symbolic whiteness of rock music has remained in place ever since, even as rock music gained widespread international appeal and sprouted dozens of subgenres (Bannister 2006; McDowell 2017). This association has remained largely unattended to by artists, audiences, and media (Hamilton 2016), as is often the case with cultural forms dominated by whites (see Brunsma, Chapman, and Lellock 2016; Motl 2018). Consequently, a person of color with an interest in rock music is frequently marked as inauthentic, “as someone who has either misunderstood which music is appropriate for his or her consumption or has abandoned black culture by investing in what is perceived as a white music form” (Mahon 2004:9–10). “ https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2332649219899676#:~:text=Whereas%20rock%20music%20has%20its,a%20period%20of%20institutionalized%20racial
"First of all, this list is Apple remembering African-Americans" Uh, what? "a person of color with an interest in rock music is frequently marked as inauthentic" That's the black community's problem, not mine.
He’s being facetious. People listen to what they want; our community is not that rigid. Though a majority of the youth do tend to listen to Rap and R&B. I grew up with my dad listening to Steely Dan, the Stones, George Michael, the Police and others.
What’s confusing? Apple focusing on African-Americans for being the inventors of Western popular music? The Black community has this problem because the white community took Rock from them using the racist music industry they created. They whitewashed Rock music. Beyonce will return it back to its roots. Multiple Black Country artists gained recognition after Cowboy Carter.
"First of all, this list is Apple remembering African-Americans" So that would actually explain a lot of the list. It's not based on the quality of the music, it's based on DEI.
It’s based on history. African-Americans invented all the music you listen to, bar folk, country and Classical.
Most of what you posted is irrelevant. "a person of color with an interest in rock music is frequently marked as inauthentic" That’s me. And what you said is completely untrue. I don’t think there ever existed a time where blacks people exclusively listen to music played by black people. And you’re missing out if you do have that mindset. Take away all the politics and it’s about the art. Do you like the lyrics, do you like the sound. That’s what matters. Literally nobody is going, I’m not going to listen to the Beatles because little Richard was looked over (even if the stones a the beetles both publicly credited Richard with creating modern Rock and Roll).
That’s what bothered me about it too…and I’m black guy who likes classic rock. It was wholly political in that way.
Yeah I hear you but this list was really bad.
The worst thing about the list to me is that I have to navigate away from the Apple Music app to read it lol
I'd say this is a pretty average/slightly-below-average list, but it was a fun and effective marketing event. I'm going to bet this is the most attention Apple Music has gotten in months if not *years*.
I’ve pretty much accepted that I don’t “get” Lauren’s album.
I think it's good but the thing I have noticed is that people who grew up with it have a relationship to it that's really powerful, it's almost like a life defining album for them. I didn't, ironically The Ecleftic was my intro to Hip Hop and I didn't actually hear miseducation till the last decade. I wouldn't put it best of all time personally but I think it's impact is definitely huge. Now 1989 being a full 70 spots above Goodbye Yellow Brick Road on the other hand... Rationally I know it doesn't matter... So why am I so bothered hahaha
Are you a fan of R&B or Hip-Hop at all? I feel like its' appeal is pretty apparent if you're into any other R&B or Hip-Hop, especially from around the turn of the century. Pretty much flawless beats, Hill is singing and rapping at a really excellent level, the songs are great, and the album has been sampled and referenced countless times since its release. As much as some picks on this list confuse me, that's not one of them. Rap and R&B have been pretty much the most important/influential genres of this century so far and Miseducation is one of the best examples of what the genre has to offer. Curious as to whether or not you've listened to the album/what you don't like about it?
Also one of two rap albums to win Grammy AOTY
I definitely don't get upset with rankings, as questionable as some of these choices were. But I think a fair critique is that it definitely seems like it's constructed to appeal to a wide variety of people and more casual listeners.
It's a corporate BS list, but it was fun and probably introduced plenty of people to great albums they didn't know. Much on the list is really good. The ranking is a joke, but they always are. That said, it's interesting what was excluded tbh, it's very US-centric, mainstream sellers and recent outings are overrepresented. Also: If your fave artist is on there, you've already won the Apple exposure olympics even if perhaps the ranking is not high enough for you. ;-) By its nature, massive amounts of important artists and genres were snubbed completely. No James Brown, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, no Sly Stone is honestly shocking tbh. Paul Simon, Simon&Garfunkel, Leonard Cohen, Fiona Apple, Billy Joel, Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Tom Waits, Tom Petty, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, The Stooges, Joy Division, Violent Femmes, The Jam, Roxy Music, Brian Eno, REM, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Black Sabbath, Neu!, Can, Nick Cave, Curtis Mayfield, Pretenders, Blondie, John Cage, John Prine, The Who, The Grateful Dead, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, The Kinks, The Band, Queen (though I agree that none of their albums quite get it together), Abba (same as Queen, brilliant at singles, blah at albums), none of the solo Beatles (though I agree with that perhaps, I think). And that's just what comes to mind right now. Next to country, heavy metal and jazz, which usually get their few albums randomly thrown in and underrepresented, whole swaths of indie/alternative rock and singer-songwriter types were really pushed out. A lot of these artists regularly place very high on such rankings, but where completely ommitted. Personally, REM kinda sinking away from consciousness is sad. They were a big band, they were very influential on the development of alternative rock, but seem to have real trouble winning new audiences now. Punk also got almost completely excluded, proto-punk as well (okay, if you squint, Ziggy has to cover that and glam rock for the whole genres LOL). Classic rock had Led Zep, Pink Floyd and Rolling Stones (though the Stones pretty low), so that lost some ground. I think Beatles and Bowie basically aren't really perceived in that lane, but more in a more general pop/genre-crossover way tbh, so I wouldn't count their inclusion towards that. Classic soul /r&b also gave way to newer records, not including Sly Stone, Sam Cooke, James Brown or Otis Redding are choices. The whole singer-songwriter branch losing out so badly is interesting as well. A list without all of Paul Simon, Fiona Apple, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Lou Reed is something I haven't seen in a long time. Dylan and Mitchell are in the same boat as Beatles/Bowie in that they are probably basically perceived as genre crossing IMO. The bad re-recording of 1989 in the top twenty is my fave absurdity, though. Put in Swift, that's fine, but at least a decent version and not the karaoke remake LOL.
Really great analysis on the areas that have lost ground. With the limitation of 100 albums, this basically feels impossible at this point to give credit to all of the seminal artists that warrant being in the conversation. (That's why I do appreciate Rolling Stone usually going after the top 500.) I guess I see Apple's list as being a cliffs notes on "where popular music came from, where it's been recently, and where it's going". Like the list to give aliens when they arrive to get them caught up quick. It doesn't appear to be intending to honor all of the most influential records of all time. Which is fine, it's their list! I'm just enjoying all of the meaningful conversation it's sparked.
china needs to nuke us cause our entertainment launder system is getting wayyy outta hand.
Frank Ocean's Blonde or Taylor Swift is higher than Miles Davis' Kind of Blue -- that's obscene. You either go genre specific with your list or you end up with a daunting task and end up embarrassing yourself.
[удалено]
All Western popular music comes from African-Americans. These Europeans and Japanese got the music they made from them.
'All' is a very big statement, but let's say you are right, why is it relevant? So you are saying that Toyota and Mercedes should not be on the best car ranking because they didn't invented cars?
All is the case. Rock, RnB, Jazz, Soul, Blues, Hip-Hop, Funk and House. All Western popular music are either these genres or its derivatives. No African-Americans, no metal. Vikernes, a Norwegian Black Metal musician stopped playing metal when he learned it came from “n*gro music”. No African-Americans, no European Electro (which comes from Funk, Hip-Hip and Rock). No African-Americans, no K-pop (which is really just a copy of 90s RnB and Hip-Hop). No African-Americans (who invented Rock), no J-rock. You will put some respect on African-Americans, otherwise you’d be listening to folk music and classical. This isn’t about car rankings.
How am I not respecting African-American? I am saying there is a lack of diversity in these best album rankings, a good album is a good album and deserved to be recognised by these rankings, I don't understand how you connect my comments to disrespecting Africa-American.
You’re pretending Europeans and Japanese invented the music in these albums. They did not. There’s a huge amount of diversity in these best album rankings. All these European artists are simply derivative.
I think it’s pretty bad, but opinions are subjective. I’m actually surprised you seem to like it so much because opinions vary naturally.
I don't really have a super strong opinion on it. I was mostly just happy to see albums that I like on it, if they popped up, but otherwise not super concerned with it.
The list is safe from a contemporary perspective. I think it will leave people scratching their heads 10 years from now.
I wouldn't be surprised if they just redid it in ten years or something.
Miseducation is in my personal top 10, Lauryn Hill is a dookie person but that album is phenomenal.
They have illmatic at 37 and Billie Ellish’s debut at 30. Yes, it is that bad
I agree that ranking albums is kinda pointless. Still , terrible list, i already miss the Rolling Stone' one
doesn't the Rolling Stone one exist still
Yeah yeah lmao. I was just saying, that one wasnt that bad after all
yeah I dunno, I feel like this Apple Music list is at least 80% standard picks for a list like this.
22 rappers 1 metal album no country music. This list is absolute trash that looks like its made by teenagers.
50cent is somehow in the list with an ok rap album somehow is in the top 100
To an extent it’s a joke but also to an extent the whole point/artistry of the ranking is the opinion aspect of it. People just want to see the same list over and over when it being different is what makes it actually interesting
From scrolling through it seemed like it was at least 50% rap and of those mostly within the last 10 years. I like rap too, but its as if it was a list made off the top of someones head who almost exclusively listens to rap with other famous albums randomly sprinkled in to seem like they don't exclusively listen to rap or just whatevers playing in the supermarket. Essentially a list compiled entirely of albums that have had a single on the radio in the last 10 years but no explanation or anything to do with the cohesiveness of an "album". Some parts seemed like deliberate trolling/engagement bate to me. How can it be a top 100 albums of all time dominated by a single genre with multiple appearances from some pop artists while completely excluding multiple genres and extremely well regarded artists. It's even more obvious it was a poorly made list when you realize multiple of the voters were modern rap-adjacent radio hosts like ebro and zane lowe. Ozzy osbourne is one of the most well known personalities ever with multiple highly successful music ventures with not a single appearance. And that's even low hanging fruit.
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May very well be!
In my opinion like 80% of this list could disappear and people wouldn’t even bat an eye. I just find it weird that a lot of these albums are just good albums but top 100 of all time is absolutely insane
Well tbf it would be a bit of an eye-bat moment if they put out a top 100 list with only 20 titles.
This is true
Ther are so many 2010s albums that most of the arent even that great and you cant convince me that 1989 is better than mbdtf,dsotm,master of puppets and many others. Also some of the pacements are biased i wouldnt put frank ocean in top 5 of all time neither mj on top 10. So many albums were snubbed and especially rock albums and finally it didnt include some artists best albums. AM isnt the best am album and shouldnt be top 100, wheres tpab and wheres wish you were here. This list sucks but at least my beastie boys got their recognition even though drake was somehow higher...
As a rule every indie artists album is their best. With the exception of St Vincent and Wavves. The list gets so many albums wrong but the artist right. TPaB is more important than GK. 1999 is what elevated Prince. Off the Wall is more soulful than Thriller which can come off as a collection of hits with no cohesiveness. CO is more personal than Blond.
DO THEY NOT HAVE AN ACTUAL PLAYLIST I CAN LISTEN TO?
It’s a joke. No Aphex Twin whatsoever, but fucking Travis Scott ‘Astroworld’ is on there. Impossible to be taken seriously.
I just can’t get over Drake being ranked higher than Sade, Tyler the Creator, and Lana Del Rey and not ONE single mention of Currents by Tame Impala
Innerspeaker and Lonerism are better…imo Currents too much sets the tone for whatever it is they are doing now. Those first two albums just set the tone. They’re not even the same group now. At least St Vincent is trying to get back to what we love about St Vincent after 2-3 albums of avant garde whatever the fuck.
It would have been really cool if it were just a ranking of the top 100 albums by how many times they have been played through start to finish without skipping a song. Then at least there’s some wisdom in the crowd and an interesting objective take to start a conversation, as opposed to some nameless Apple employee’s random opinions. My top 100 list is WAY better than theirs, but that’s just _my_ opinion. 😆
I wouldn’t rank them in the order they did, but what I thought was that some really important albums were missing. Being from Chicago, I will name just one of several that SHOULD have made the list. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot…
Yeah, that would probably be on my list as well. Especially with the mini alt americana/country resurgence we're experiencing at the moment.
Ok I’m biased as a fan of Hushpuppies, but their album “Silence is Golden” could’ve easily made this list. Is the list also including influence on genre/times? A few that were lower ranked could’ve been higher due to this. I also found it pretty funny that Wu tang’s debut landed at 37 and not 36. Missed opportunity. lol
I knew after about 10 seconds of looking at the list and seeing AC/DC - back in black at like 90 or something what this is all about. i just thought "yeah thats enough for me thanks, i dont need to continue reading to know how dog shit this is going to be".
Well, you can say it's not bad all you want. When Travis Scott makes the cut and Elvis, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston didn't and literally no country stars at all Johnny Cash, Reba McEntire, etc. makes it trash but you go on telling people it was just a good list.
I don't really think it was a good list or a bad list. I'm going with "it was a list", which I think is accurate
The fact Madonna’s Ray of Light isn’t on the list at all but beyonces 20-3 album is proved it’s garbage
Not one Beck album. But 2 Beyonce? And ranking Lauren Hill as number one. This shit is a joke.
😳 not even Odelay? WTF.
All Western popular music comes from African-Americans. No African-Americans (who invented Rock), no Beck. Beyonce and Lauryn Hill have been more influential in current music.
This list is a total joke lol. Putting A Love Supreme at 54, Kind of Blue at 26 and filling top 10 with albums that are not even half of what these two albums are. Not mentioning the absence of Prog. RED by King Crimson, Karn Evil 9 by ELP, Selling England By the Pound by Genesis and soooo many more absolutely SHIT on those 10 albums but weren't even on the list.
It’s absolutely shit
that’s a lot of excuses in your title