The RS 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

ProjectX2

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I thought it would be interesting to see who had which and who had the most.

1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles
2. Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
3. Revolver, The Beatles
4. Highway 61 Revisited, Bob Dylan
5. Rubber Soul, The Beatles
7. Exile on Main Street, The Rolling Stones
8. London Calling, The Clash
10. The Beatles ("The White Album"), The Beatles
13. Velvet Underground and Nico, The Velvet Underground
14. Abbey Road, The Beatles
16. Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan
17. Nevermind, Nirvana
22. Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon
28. Who's Next, The Who
35. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, David Bowie
39. Please Please Me, The Beatles
41. Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, The Sex Pistols
42. The Doors, The Doors
43. The Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd
59. Meet the Beatles, The Beatles
76. Imagine, John Lennon
86. Let It Be, The Beatles
87. The Wall, Pink Floyd
107. Hunky Dory, David Bowie
110. The Bends, Radiohead
162. OK Computer, Radiohead
185. The Stooges, The Stooges
194. Transformer, Lou Reed
200. The Downward Spiral, Nine Inch Nails
209. Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd
216. The Queen Is Dead, The Smiths
226. Doolittle, Pixies
249. Low, David Bowie
277. Aladdin Sane, David Bowie
295. Meat Is Murder, The Smiths
305. Odelay, Beck
311. Unplugged in New York, Nirvana
315. Surfer Rosa, Pixies
323. Station to Station, David Bowie
332. Help!, The Beatles
367. Is This It, The Strokes
376. (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, Oasis
388. A Hard Day's Night, The Beatles
390. Elephant, The White Stripes
412. Mezzanine, Massive Attack
420. With the Beatles, The Beatles
428. Kid A, Radiohead
437. All Things Must Pass, George Harrison
439. In Utero, Nirvana
440. Sea Change, Beck
473. A Rush of Blood to the Head, Coldplay
481. The Smiths, The Smiths

I've only got 52 of the so-called 500 greatest albums of all time. How many do you have?
 
I don't have the time at the moment to go through the list and figure a number out, but I haven't seen the list in a long time and looking at it now gives me such a headache. Such a ****ty list. Anything included that can't somehow be construed as 'classic rock' seems like a clumsy attempt at satisfying a broad audience. So many important artists unrepresented: no Talking Heads, no Brian Eno, one Bowie album, no Kraftwerk (the primary inventors of a sprawling genre that's lasted and grown in popularity for almost 40 years), no Pixies, Sonic Youth, or Pavement while Nirvana make it to #17, and hip-hop is represented by a grand total of one album??

No wonder no one reads Rolling Stone anymore.
 
I don't have the time at the moment to go through the list and figure a number out, but I haven't seen the list in a long time and looking at it now gives me such a headache. Such a ****ty list. Anything included that can't somehow be construed as 'classic rock' seems like a clumsy attempt at satisfying a broad audience. So many important artists unrepresented: no Talking Heads, no Brian Eno, one Bowie album, no Kraftwerk (the primary inventors of a sprawling genre that's lasted and grown in popularity for almost 40 years), no Pixies, Sonic Youth, or Pavement while Nirvana make it to #17, and hip-hop is represented by a grand total of one album??

No wonder no one reads Rolling Stone anymore.

I think you might need to read the next 4 pages. A bunch of those people are listed.
 
1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles
3. Revolver, The Beatles
5. Rubber Soul, The Beatles
10. The Beatles ("The White Album"), The Beatles
14. Abbey Road, The Beatles
17. Nevermind, Nirvana
59. Meet the Beatles, The Beatles
61. Appetite for Destruction, Guns n' Roses
86. Let It Be, The Beatles
110. The Bends, Radiohead
137. The Chronic, Dr. Dre
162. OK Computer, Radiohead
167. Master of Puppets, Metallica
200. The Downward Spiral, Nine Inch Nails
252. Metallica, Metallica
273. The Slim Shady LP, Eminem
302. The Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem
311. Unplugged in New York, Nirvana
317. The Eminem Show, Eminem
332. Help!, The Beatles
388. A Hard Day's Night, The Beatles
420. With the Beatles, The Beatles
426. The Battle of Los Angeles, Rage Against the Machine
428. Kid A, Radiohead
439. In Utero, Nirvana
487. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, The Smashing Pumpkins


26 of them.
 
17. Nevermind, Nirvana
41. Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, The Sex Pistols
73. Back in Black, AC/DC
130. Paranoid, Black Sabbath
159. Alive, Kiss
167. Master of Puppets, Metallica
176. Rocks, Aerosmith
193. Dookie, Green Day
199. Highway to Hell, AC/DC
228. Toys in the Attic, Aerosmith
241. Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath
252. Metallica, Metallica
298. Master of Reality, Black Sabbath
343. Bat Out of Hell, Meat Loaf
368. Rage Against the Machine, Rage Against the Machine
460. Love It to Death, Alice Cooper

So I have 16 of them.
 
I think you might need to read the next 4 pages. A bunch of those people are listed.
The point I was making is that there's tons of stuff that should've broken the top 100. I mean ranking The Eagles and ****ing AC/DC over "Remain in Light" is absolutely laughable.
 
The point I was making is that there's tons of stuff that should've broken the top 100. I mean ranking The Eagles and ****ing AC/DC over "Remain in Light" is absolutely laughable.

It would depend on the criteria for the list. Because Eagles and AC/DC and their albums have been much, much, much more successful in terms of profit than Brian Eno could ever dream.

That's not a dig at Brian Eno at all - I really like Brian Eno. But his contributions to mainstream popular culture wouldn't crack the top 500 list, I don't think.

Unfortunately it's very difficult to rank integrity.

Or maybe it isn't and Rolling Stone just doesn't care.

As for what I have in that list...pretty much everything in it. Even the ****ty stuff.
 
The point I was making is that there's tons of stuff that should've broken the top 100. I mean ranking The Eagles and ****ing AC/DC over "Remain in Light" is absolutely laughable.

As people have said, the point of the list is really more like the 500 Greatest Popular/Iconic kind of albums. I loathe AC/DC but they're one of the most beloved, deeply followed bands of all time. I can't really fault them for listing them that high.
 
Yeah, but they should've called it "Rolling Stone's 500 Most Popular/Iconic Albums of All Time" then.

And besides, one of the surprisingly sensible picks they made was putting "The Velvet Underground & Nico" at #13, an album whose highest chart position upon its release was #171, was basically ignored by the music press, and despite being "iconic" to music fans and critics today, probably wouldn't even be recognized by the average person. Which kind of negates that theory.

I mean, I understand that it's hard to do a list like this and obviously influence, popularity, and impact can have just as much if not more importance in ranking an album than any measure of "quality" but Rolling Stone seems to be convinced that music stopped evolving right around the time of punk and the only albums after that point worth recognizing are those that made enough money that they're impossible to ignore.
 
The fact is that everyone has different taste in music. That's why I don't like these kinds of lists.
 

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