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Rolling Stones Magazine 500 Greatest Albums of all time revamped in 2020
It looks like the Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of all time list has been revamped after over 2 decades since the original 500 Greatest Albums of all time list was published in 2003. What do you think of the changes?
I think it is a sham. Prince Purple Rain displaces Beatles Sargent Peppers, or a Bob Dylan or Rolling Stones album from the top 10, come on? This is just change for the sake of change. Just because more garbage litters the field, doesn’t mean you have to replace what’s there already and good with the garbage. Glad to see Pet Sounds is still in there.
Here are the top 10 from the original 2003 list and the revamped list posted in 2020:
2003 list:
1. Beatles – Sgt Peppers’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
3. Beatles – Revolver
4. Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited
5. Beatles – Rubber Soul
6. Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On
7. Rolling Stones – Exile On Main Street
8. The Clash – London Calling
9. Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde
10. Beatles – The White AlbumNew 2020 list:
1. Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On
2. Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
3. Joni Mitchell – Blue
4. Stevie Wonder – Songs in the key of life
5. Beatles – Abbey Road
6. Nirvana – Nevermind
7. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours
8. Prince – Purple Rain
9. Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks
10. Lauryn Hill – The Miseduction of Lauryn HillArticle from USA today about the change:
Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list has been revamped.The pop culture magazine’s original list was published in 2003 and despite the fact that almost two decades have passed, the list remains wildly popular and polarizing, with nearly 63 million readers last year alone, according to Rolling Stone.
But times have changed, the music industry has evolved and some of today’s emerging musicians were just children in 2003. (Grammy winner Billie Eilish was only 2.) So it was time for a complete overhaul.
“The goal wasn’t to update the list but blow it up and re-create it from scratch, reflecting both the canon of pop music and the ever-shifting currents of taste,” Rolling Stone editor Jason Fine wrote Tuesday.
Rolling Stone tallied more than 300 ballots from music industry professionals and musicians, including votes from Beyoncé (on the list at No. 32 with “Lemonade” and No. 81 with “Beyoncé”) and Taylor Swift, (No. 99 with “Red and No. 393 with “1989”).
The end result is a mix of classics (The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Ready to Die” at No. 22, Aretha Franklin’s “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You” at No. 13 and The Rolling Stones’ “Exile on Main Street” at No. 14.) and music from the 21st century (Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly” at No. 19, Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” at No. 33 and Eilish’s “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” at No. 397).
The new list of 500 Greatest Albums includes 154 new entries and 86 albums from the 21st century. It also reflects more inclusion and diverse genres, with “three times as many rap albums represented on the new list as on the original.”
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5 Replies
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Jung, my first reaction is satisfaction that the list is still dominated by products of the 60’s and 70’s, when albums as a whole were exalted over individual songs. But it is troubling that the top ten went from four Beatles albums to just one, and not one that I that I’ve ever heard anyone call their best. It’s certainly surprising to see such volatility: there are only two survivors from the old top ten.
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300 ballots to vote for 500 albums?
They need a larger sample size.It’s always going to be period and age biased.
Jung how about a URL for the list please.
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Hi Thomas, here is the list from a more concise source. Rolling Stones Magazine site is hard to navigate with all the ads. It is indeed period and age biased, but I think per the article below, some of the bias is driven by the editors too. To me I think the original list from 2003, while not perfect, was more objective based on the artistic, musical, and influential merits of the albums compared to what they did in 2020.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/RollingStone500GreatestAlbumsOfAllTime2020
David, I agree at least the majority of the albums are from the 60s and 70 when I think the best music was created. But some of the albums in the top 10 that displaced the Beatles albums make no sense at all to me. They look like they were thrown in there for reasons other than musical merit. I think the Wikipedia article highlights some good points.
From Wikipedia:
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” is a recurring opinion survey and music ranking of the finest albums in history, compiled by the American magazine Rolling Stone. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and industry figures. The first list was published in a special issue of the magazine in 2003 and a related book in 2005.[1]Critics have accused the lists of lending disproportionate weight to artists of particular races and genders. In the original list, most of the selections were albums by white male rock musicians, with the top position held by the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). In 2012, Rolling Stone published a revised edition, drawing on the original and a later survey of albums released up until the early 2000s.[2]
Another updated edition of the list was published in 2020, with 154 new entries not in either of the two previous editions. It was based on a new survey and does not factor in the surveys that were conducted for the previous lists. This time, the list featured more black and female artists, topped by Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On (1971).[2] It received similar criticisms as the prior lists.[3]
The original Rolling Stone 500 was criticized for being male-dominated, outmoded and almost entirely Anglo-American in focus.[10][11] Writing in USA Today newspaper, Edna Gundersen described the list as predictable and “weighted toward testosterone-fueled vintage rock”.[full citation needed] Following the publicity surrounding the list, rock critic Jim DeRogatis, a former Rolling Stone editor, published Kill Your Idols: A New Generation of Rock Writers Reconsiders the Classics in 2004. The book featured a number of critics arguing against the high evaluation of various “great” albums, many of which had been included in the list.[12]
Jonny Sharp, a contributor to NME’s own 500 greatest albums list, described the 2012 Rolling Stone list as a “soulless, canon-centric [list] of the same tired old titles,” noting: “looking at their 500, when the only album in their top 10 less than 40 years old is London Calling, I think I prefer the NME’s less critically-correct approach.”[13]
Responding to the 2020 revision, Consequence of Sound’s Alex Young wrote that the lesser representation of white male rock musicians was “the biggest takeaway”.[2] According to CNN’s Leah Asmelash, “The change represents a massive shift for the magazine, moving to recognize more contemporary albums and a wider range of tastes.”[14]
InsideHook’s Bonnie Stiernberg questioned whether the editors had made adjustments to the numbered rankings instead of presenting the true results, citing her own experience of helping to compile such lists.[3] She reported that the list “sparked plenty of debate, angering rockist Boomers and causing cynics to question whether certain albums made the cut because they’re really that great or because they happen to be made by someone who isn’t a white man”.[3]
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Jung,
thanks very much for the URL.Who can rank albums across genres?
Maybe it’s silly to try.
What does greatest mean?
But just within the genre i think i know well …Rumours, What’s Going On ahead of Sgt Peppers?
Revolver, Abbey Rd ahead of Sgt Pepper’s ?
Who’s Next ahead of Tommy?
Harvest ahead of After The Goldrush?
Seriously?On the other hand i am very happy to see Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder & Miles Davis get some credit.
I have just watched the movie Miles Ahead. This is going to be Don Cheadle’s signature piece.
Now that i have drifted into movies …
has Mrs. Roe seen Chaplin – Robert Downey’s signature piece,
or Zodiac, where Downey plays a news reporter who is a very troubled soul ?Cheers
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Thomas, in another video review of the new 2020 list, it points out that the Rock and Roll pioneers like Elvis, Chuck Berry and Little Richard’s albums were ejected in favour of newer RAP albums. Never mind legends from the Beach Boys, Beatles to AC/DC and a host of other greats took influence from Elvis, Li’l Richard and Chuck. The list should have been retitled “Greatest Albums of All Time For The Musically Impaired of the 21st Century”.
MJ I think has seen every previously released movie that was ever made! LOL. It’s hard to find one she hasn’t seen yet. My favourite Robert Downey Jr movie is by far the two Sherlock Holmes movies he did. I thought his character portrayal and work was great in them. The other Downey titles you mentioned sound interesting, will check them out.
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