Rolling Stone's Reader Poll: Albums of the Decade

[Masculine Todd]

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/31234753/the_decadeend_readers_poll/2


Top Albums of the Decade
19 Bruce Springsteen
THE RISING

18 Coldplay
VIVA LA VIDA

17 Justin Timberlake
FUTURESEX/LOVESOUNDS

16 Mariah Carey
THE EMANCIPATION OF MIMI

15 U2
NO LINE ON THE HORIZON

14 My Chemical Romance
THREE CHEERS FOR SWEET REVENGE

13 Christina Aguilera
STRIPPED

12 Beyoncé
I AM... SASHA FIERCE

11 Kelly Clarkson
BREAKAWAY

10 Lady Gaga
THE FAME

9 Jay-Z
THE BLUEPRINT

8 Kelly Clarkson
ALL I EVER WANTED

7 Britney Spears
BLACKOUT

6 U2
ALL THAT YOU CAN'T
LEAVE BEHIND

5 Radiohead
IN RAINBOWS

4 Avril Lavigne
LET GO

3 Radiohead
KID A

2 Kanye West
GRADUATION

1 Green Day
AMERICAN IDIOT

This is the definition of populist taste meets taste-makers and label cultural facilitation. I don't think any of these albums would make my own list, for that matter (save for Kid A). Interesting nonetheless.

[Adrian B AWESOME]

Ugh. Rolling Stone is no longer relevant to today's society. Avril Lavigne? Give me a break.

[TheKraken]

My... god that's ridiculous. TWO Kelly Clarkson albums. :lol:

[Dan-C]

Ugh. Rolling Stone is no longer relevant to today's society. Avril Lavigne? Give me a break.

Its a reader's poll. I mean, Lady Gaga's in the top 10. If the fact that she's on the list at all doesn't automatically cancel out the whole thing, I don't know what does.

[SgtPepper]

What the fuck, no White Stripes?

EDIT: And no Wilco!

[THWIP!]

Wow that's a shit list.

[Masculine Todd]

Its a reader's poll. I mean, Lady Gaga's in the top 10. If the fact that she's on the list at all doesn't automatically cancel out the whole thing, I don't know what does.

Admittedly, the list Rolling Stone's staffers put together wasn't particularly great (well, by what I classify as "great").

[Adrian B AWESOME]

Its a reader's poll. I mean, Lady Gaga's in the top 10. If the fact that she's on the list at all doesn't automatically cancel out the whole thing, I don't know what does.

That's why it's no longer relevant. The audience that thinks Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and Kelly Clarkson made of the best albums of the decade aren't the really isn't the audience that Rolling Stone has in mind, or at least wouldn't have in mind even a decade ago.

[RickLM]

What the fuck, no White Stripes?

EDIT: And no Wilco!


Yeah, those are the two bands I thought of.

[Ryan_ZOOM_Turner]

Outside of Radiohead, that is a terrible list.

[Masculine Todd]

In relation to Rolling Stone's actual pics:

No Cannibal Ox. No Nick Cave. No Isis. No Seun Kuti. No Vijay Iyer. No Rudresh Mahanthappa. No Terrence Blanchard. No Allen Toussaint. No Black Mountain. No Teen Idols. No Smog/Bill Callahan. No Seu Jorge. No Battles. No Paik. Nothing Steve Albini touched. No A Silver Mt. Zion. No Faun. No Erykah Badu. Nothing John Zorn worked on. No Mars Volta. No Fugazi. No Avalanches. No Flying Lotus. No Tom Waits. No Sunn O))). No Faust.

So much good stuff passed over for crossover indie and the consensus of every other blogosphere list. It's predictable. These lists are probably the sincere choices of these reviewers, but it boggles my mind that none of them gravitate toward a wider spectrum of music.

[Dr. Blasphemy]

I dig the Green Day and the radiohead shout outs, but next to that- this list is complete and utter SHITE!

[Masculine Todd]

That's why it's no longer relevant. The audience that thinks Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and Kelly Clarkson made of the best albums of the decade aren't the really isn't the audience that Rolling Stone has in mind, or at least wouldn't have in mind even a decade ago.

But they give Lady Gaga and Kelly Clarkson albums good reviews, which is fine, they're strong examples of mainstream dance pop, but outside Timberlake/Timberland/Danja/Rick Rubin collaborations, it's hard for mainstream pop to be as relevant to the art form (not the consumer/capitalist side) of the medium as actual artform-warping subversives, but RS cultivates this response and this reader-base, and you can see in their writing that they're still bound to nostalgia-acts whose praise is predicated on precedence and populist pop stars.

Rolling Stone is so boring.

[Adrian B AWESOME]

Plus, it's not a fucking HUGE (re: oversized) magazine with sex ads in the back anymore.

[Kurt Russell Crowe]

Chinese Democracy was ridiculously better than it had any right to be. I know it gets laughed off by 99% of people before they even listen to any of it, and rightfully so.

Edit- I think this was meant to go in Todd's other Rollin Stone thread.

[Masculine Todd]

Chinese Democracy was ridiculously better than it had any right to be. I know it gets laughed off by 99% of people before they even listen to any of it, and rightfully so.

Edit- I think this was meant to go in Todd's other Rollin Stone thread.

I'll admit, it was kinda fun.

[Dan-C]

In relation to Rolling Stone's actual pics:

No Cannibal Ox. No Nick Cave. No Isis. No Seun Kuti. No Vijay Iyer. No Rudresh Mahanthappa. No Terrence Blanchard. No Allen Toussaint. No Black Mountain. No Teen Idols. No Smog/Bill Callahan. No Seu Jorge. No Battles. No Paik. Nothing Steve Albini touched. No A Silver Mt. Zion. No Faun. No Erykah Badu. Nothing John Zorn worked on. No Mars Volta. No Fugazi. No Avalanches. No Flying Lotus. No Tom Waits. No Sunn O))). No Faust.


Admittedly, I'm not a fan of most, if not all of those bands. Maybe a few songs here or there, but not complete albums.

Still, I'm fairly certain that list is better than the reader's poll.

[Ryudo]

Rolling Stone (and their readers) have awful taste in music.


In relation to Rolling Stone's actual pics:

No Cannibal Ox. No Nick Cave. No Isis. No Seun Kuti. No Vijay Iyer. No Rudresh Mahanthappa. No Terrence Blanchard. No Allen Toussaint. No Black Mountain. No Teen Idols. No Smog/Bill Callahan. No Seu Jorge. No Battles. No Paik. Nothing Steve Albini touched. No A Silver Mt. Zion. No Faun. No Erykah Badu. Nothing John Zorn worked on. No Mars Volta. No Fugazi. No Avalanches. No Flying Lotus. No Tom Waits. No Sunn O))). No Faust.


No Dave Matthews Band. :D

[TheTravis!]

In relation to Rolling Stone's actual pics:

No Cannibal Ox. No Nick Cave. No Isis. No Seun Kuti. No Vijay Iyer. No Rudresh Mahanthappa. No Terrence Blanchard. No Allen Toussaint. No Black Mountain. No Teen Idols. No Smog/Bill Callahan. No Seu Jorge. No Battles. No Paik. Nothing Steve Albini touched. No A Silver Mt. Zion. No Faun. No Erykah Badu. Nothing John Zorn worked on. No Mars Volta. No Fugazi. No Avalanches. No Flying Lotus. No Tom Waits. No Sunn O))). No Faust.

So much good stuff passed over for crossover indie and the consensus of every other blogosphere list. It's predictable. These lists are probably the sincere choices of these reviewers, but it boggles my mind that none of them gravitate toward a wider spectrum of music.

Give me a fucking break, Todd. Rolling Stone is a mainstream music magazine. Complaining because their reader's poll didn't cover your particular subset of obscure artists is basically just bitching that you think you're smarter than the rest of the world.

(And by the way, Fugazi only released ONE album in this decade, and, while great, it wasn't their best album by any stretch.)

[Tim Simmons]

EDIT: And no Wilco!

Considering how hard they jocked Yankee Hotel, I'm surprised as well.

[Tyr]

Outside of Radiohead, that is a terrible list.

Agreed, so does this mean this decade sucked?

[Masculine Todd]

Give me a fucking break, Todd. Rolling Stone is a mainstream music magazine. Complaining because their reader's poll didn't cover your particular subset of obscure artists is basically just bitching that you think you're smarter than the rest of the world.

Travis, you couldn't be more wrong. If you had bothered to read what I posted, I said, in regards to the rolling stone editors' list.

For a magazine that claims to the be authority of the medium (and they have and do in their constant self-aggrandizing specialty issues in which they praise their rich history), they don't talk about a lot of good music or genres.

I know you're trying to be the defender of populist taste, but that's wasted here. No one is claiming it sucks to like mainstream stuff. I do. I just think it's lame that a Best of the Decade list (THE ONE THE ROLLING STONE EDITORS COMPILED WHICH I EXPLICITLY STATED) features nothing but mainstream music. If you're trying to cover the medium, cover the medium. Not a small portion of it.

Not trying to be a dick Travis, but your crusading for the mainstream is wasted in this thread. No one's attacking it.



(And by the way, Fugazi only released ONE album in this decade, and, while great, it wasn't their best album by any stretch.)

The Argument was rad and definitely in my personal top thirty.

[Masculine Todd]

In relation to Rolling Stone's actual pics:

No Cannibal Ox. No Nick Cave. No Isis. No Seun Kuti. No Vijay Iyer. No Rudresh Mahanthappa. No Terrence Blanchard. No Allen Toussaint. No Black Mountain. No Teen Idols. No Smog/Bill Callahan. No Seu Jorge. No Battles. No Paik. Nothing Steve Albini touched. No A Silver Mt. Zion. No Faun. No Erykah Badu. Nothing John Zorn worked on. No Mars Volta. No Fugazi. No Avalanches. No Flying Lotus. No Tom Waits. No Sunn O))). No Faust.

So much good stuff passed over for crossover indie and the consensus of every other blogosphere list. It's predictable. These lists are probably the sincere choices of these reviewers, but it boggles my mind that none of them gravitate toward a wider spectrum of music.

This is why reading the entire post is a good thing, folks.

[Masculine Todd]

Agreed, so does this mean this decade sucked?

No. The decade was boss.

[Masculine Todd]

What the fuck, no White Stripes?

EDIT: And no Wilco!

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was on Rolling Stone editor's collaborative list.

[Josh!]

I have no problem with any of the artists being on this readers poll list. I also had no problem when people with way too much time on the Internet voted John Linnell of They Might Be Giants #9 on People Magazine's "Most Beautiful People of 1998" list.

[SgtPepper]

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was on Rolling Stone editor's collaborative list.

Yeah, I saw that, it's just surprising none of those records were on the readers poll list.

[Masculine Todd]

Yeah, I saw that, it's just surprising none of those records were on the readers poll list.

The reader's poll seems really mainstream-oriented (though Yankee had a relatively large crossover audience), so I wasn't particularly surprised to see its omission.

[EmarAndZeb]

So is there a link to Rolling Stone's actual staff picks, or do I actually have to thumb through a dead-tree version to reaffirm my contempt for Rolling Stone?

[TheTravis!]

Travis, you couldn't be more wrong. If you had bothered to read what I posted, I said, in regards to the rolling stone editors' list.

I stand corrected. Although what you said was "in relation to Rolling Stone's actual pics", which is perhaps not as clear as you thought it was.



For a magazine that claims to the be authority of the medium (and they have and do in their constant self-aggrandizing specialty issues in which they praise their rich history), they don't talk about a lot of good music or genres.

Really?

Rolling Stone's Top 100 Albums of the Decade

1 | Radiohead: Kid A
2 | The Strokes: Is This It
3 | Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
4 | Jay-Z: The Blueprint
5 | The White Stripes: Elephant
6 | Arcade Fire: Funeral
7 | Eminem: The Marshal Mathers LP
8 | Bob Dylan: Modern Times
9 | M.I.A.: Kala
10 | Kanye West: The College Dropout
11 | Bob Dylan: Love and Theft
12 | LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver
13 | U2: All That You Can't Leave Behind
14 | Jay-Z: The Black Album
15 | Bruce Springsteen: The Rising
16 | OutKast: Stankonia
17 | Beck: Sea Change
18 | MGMT: Oracular Spectacular
19 | Amy Winehouse: Back to Black
20 | The White Stripes: White Blood Cells
21 | Coldplay: A Rush of Blood to the Head
22 | Green Day: American Idiot
23 | D'Angelo: Voodoo
24 | Bruce Springsteen: Magic
25 | Radiohead: Amnesiac
26 | Cat Power: The Greatest
27 | The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
28 | Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Fever to Tell
29 | Sigur Rós: Ágaetis Byrjun
30 | Radiohead: In Rainbows
31 | My Morning Jacket: Z
32 | Lil Wayne: Tha Carter III
33 | Daft Punk: Discovery
34 | OutKast: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
35 | PJ Harvey: Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
36 | U2: No Line on the Horizon
37 | 50 Cent: Get Rich or Die Tryin'
38 | Ryan Adams: Heartbreaker
39 | Kings of Leon: Aha Shake Heartbreak
40 | Kanye West: Late Registration
41 | Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
42 | Elliott Smith: Figure 8
43 | The Killers: Hot Fuss
44 | System of a Down: Toxicity
45 | Kanye West: Graduation
46 | Justin Timberlake: FutureSex/LoveSounds
47 | Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes
48 | TV on the Radio: Dear Science
49 | Fiona Apple: Extraordionary Machine
50 | Bright Eyes: I'm Wide Awake It's Morning
51 | Spoon: Kill the Moonlight
52 | M.I.A.: Arular
53 | Kings of Leon: Only By the Night
54 | Norah Jones: Come Away With Me
55 | Robert Plant and Alison Krauss: Raising Sand
56 | Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend
57 | Death Cab for Cutie: Transatlanticism
58 | Danger Mouse: The Grey Album
59 | Interpol: Turn on the Bright Lights
60 | Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
61 | The Shins: Oh, Inverted World
62 | Johnny Cash: American III: Solitary Man
63 | Kanye West: 808s and Heartbreak
64 | Gillian Welch: Time the Revelator
65 | Manu Chao: Próxima Estación Esperanza
66 | Antony & the Johnsons: I Am a Bird Now
67 | Björk: Vespertine
68 | U2: How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
69 | Missy Elliott: Under Construction
70 | Sleater-Kinney: The Woods
71 | Bright Eyes: Lifted or the Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Eart to the round
72 | Franz Ferdinand: Franz Ferdinand
73 | Coldplay: Parachutes
74 | Red Hot Chili Peppers: Stadium Arcadium
75 | Arcade Fire: Neon Bible
76 | Sigur Rós: ()
77 | Yo La Tengo: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
78 | Sufjan Stevens: Illinois
79 | The New Pornographers: Electric Version
80 | Kings of Leon: Youth and Young Manhood
81 | Ryan Adams: Gold
82 | Queens of the Stone Age: Rated R
83 | The Black Keys: Attack & Release
84 | Eminem: The Eminem Show
85 | Coldplay: Viva La Vida
86 | The Postal Service: Give Up
87 | Gnarls Barkley: St. Elsewhere
88 | Brian Wilson: Smile
89 | Radiohead: Hail to the Thief
90 | Amadou & Miriam: Dimanche a Bamako
91 | The Hives: Veni Vidi Vicious
92 | Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
93 | Johnny Cash: Unearthed
94 | The Libertines: Up the Brackett
95 | Alicia Keys: Songs in A Minor
96 | The Streets: Original Pirate Material
97 | Wilco: Sky Blue Sky
98 | TV on the Radio: Return to Cookie Mountain
99 | The Hold Steady: Almost Killed Me
100 | Leonard Cohen: 10 New Songs

There's no good music or genres in that list, in your opinion?



I know you're trying to be the defender of populist taste, but that's wasted here. No one is claiming it sucks to like mainstream stuff. I do. I just think it's lame that a Best of the Decade list (THE ONE THE ROLLING STONE EDITORS COMPILED WHICH I EXPLICITLY STATED) features nothing but mainstream music. If you're trying to cover the medium, cover the medium. Not a small portion of it.

Not trying to be a dick Travis, but your crusading for the mainstream is wasted in this thread. No one's attacking it.

I'm not really trying to be a defender of populist tastes, Todd. I hate Nickelback as much as anyone. But you have admittedly narrow and specific musical tastes, and for you to be arguing that Rolling Stone should be ignoring the albums that they chose in favor of the joys of your obscure picks is disingenous at best and obnoxious at worst.

[TheTravis!]

Oh, and by the way, if this is true:


Not trying to be a dick Travis

Then maybe next time, leave this off:


This is why reading the entire post is a good thing, folks.

[DaGetHighKnight]

Chinese Democracy was ridiculously better than it had any right to be. I know it gets laughed off by 99% of people before they even listen to any of it, and rightfully so.

Edit- I think this was meant to go in Todd's other Rollin Stone thread.

I actually really liked that record. I thought every song was well arranged ,little over produced but lyrically it was personal and I dig that in my music.

[Masculine Todd]

I stand corrected. Although what you said was "in relation to Rolling Stone's actual pics", which is perhaps not as clear as you thought it was.

I suppose. I apologize for any vagueness.


Really?

Rolling Stone's Top 100 Albums of the Decade

1 | Radiohead: Kid A
2 | The Strokes: Is This It
3 | Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
4 | Jay-Z: The Blueprint
5 | The White Stripes: Elephant
6 | Arcade Fire: Funeral
7 | Eminem: The Marshal Mathers LP
8 | Bob Dylan: Modern Times
9 | M.I.A.: Kala
10 | Kanye West: The College Dropout
11 | Bob Dylan: Love and Theft
12 | LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver
13 | U2: All That You Can't Leave Behind
14 | Jay-Z: The Black Album
15 | Bruce Springsteen: The Rising
16 | OutKast: Stankonia
17 | Beck: Sea Change
18 | MGMT: Oracular Spectacular
19 | Amy Winehouse: Back to Black
20 | The White Stripes: White Blood Cells
21 | Coldplay: A Rush of Blood to the Head
22 | Green Day: American Idiot
23 | D'Angelo: Voodoo
24 | Bruce Springsteen: Magic
25 | Radiohead: Amnesiac
26 | Cat Power: The Greatest
27 | The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
28 | Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Fever to Tell
29 | Sigur Rós: Ágaetis Byrjun
30 | Radiohead: In Rainbows
31 | My Morning Jacket: Z
32 | Lil Wayne: Tha Carter III
33 | Daft Punk: Discovery
34 | OutKast: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
35 | PJ Harvey: Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
36 | U2: No Line on the Horizon
37 | 50 Cent: Get Rich or Die Tryin'
38 | Ryan Adams: Heartbreaker
39 | Kings of Leon: Aha Shake Heartbreak
40 | Kanye West: Late Registration
41 | Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
42 | Elliott Smith: Figure 8
43 | The Killers: Hot Fuss
44 | System of a Down: Toxicity
45 | Kanye West: Graduation
46 | Justin Timberlake: FutureSex/LoveSounds
47 | Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes
48 | TV on the Radio: Dear Science
49 | Fiona Apple: Extraordionary Machine
50 | Bright Eyes: I'm Wide Awake It's Morning
51 | Spoon: Kill the Moonlight
52 | M.I.A.: Arular
53 | Kings of Leon: Only By the Night
54 | Norah Jones: Come Away With Me
55 | Robert Plant and Alison Krauss: Raising Sand
56 | Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend
57 | Death Cab for Cutie: Transatlanticism
58 | Danger Mouse: The Grey Album
59 | Interpol: Turn on the Bright Lights
60 | Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
61 | The Shins: Oh, Inverted World
62 | Johnny Cash: American III: Solitary Man
63 | Kanye West: 808s and Heartbreak
64 | Gillian Welch: Time the Revelator
65 | Manu Chao: Próxima Estación Esperanza
66 | Antony & the Johnsons: I Am a Bird Now
67 | Björk: Vespertine
68 | U2: How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
69 | Missy Elliott: Under Construction
70 | Sleater-Kinney: The Woods
71 | Bright Eyes: Lifted or the Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Eart to the round
72 | Franz Ferdinand: Franz Ferdinand
73 | Coldplay: Parachutes
74 | Red Hot Chili Peppers: Stadium Arcadium
75 | Arcade Fire: Neon Bible
76 | Sigur Rós: ()
77 | Yo La Tengo: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
78 | Sufjan Stevens: Illinois
79 | The New Pornographers: Electric Version
80 | Kings of Leon: Youth and Young Manhood
81 | Ryan Adams: Gold
82 | Queens of the Stone Age: Rated R
83 | The Black Keys: Attack & Release
84 | Eminem: The Eminem Show
85 | Coldplay: Viva La Vida
86 | The Postal Service: Give Up
87 | Gnarls Barkley: St. Elsewhere
88 | Brian Wilson: Smile
89 | Radiohead: Hail to the Thief
90 | Amadou & Miriam: Dimanche a Bamako
91 | The Hives: Veni Vidi Vicious
92 | Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
93 | Johnny Cash: Unearthed
94 | The Libertines: Up the Brackett
95 | Alicia Keys: Songs in A Minor
96 | The Streets: Original Pirate Material
97 | Wilco: Sky Blue Sky
98 | TV on the Radio: Return to Cookie Mountain
99 | The Hold Steady: Almost Killed Me
100 | Leonard Cohen: 10 New Songs

There's no good music or genres in that list, in your opinion?

There's some good on there, but a very marginalzed, western sect of music covered. Where's the IDM, Industrial, No Wave, Drone/Doom, Ambient, Neo-Tango, Hardcore, Punk, Samba, Jazz, Raga Bop, etc.? It's hardly non-existent. It's far too narrow for my tastes, especially for a magazine that claims to be the authority on the medium.





I'm not really trying to be a defender of populist tastes, Todd. I hate Nickelback as much as anyone. But you have admittedly narrow and specific musical tastes,

Not at all. I've made a conscious effort in the last two years to expand. I think I'm relatively diverse, all things considering. Regardless, I'm not producing a magazine that says "hey, we're a music magazine." No, you're not. You cover a very compartmentalized segment of the medium. It's a bummer. After their six issues this year alone commenting on how much they've meant to music and how their coverage has been revolutionary and rabble rabble rabble, they only cover a narrow bit of it.



and for you to be arguing that Rolling Stone should be ignoring the albums that they chose in favor of the joys of your obscure picks is disingenous at best and obnoxious at worst.

I'm not advocating they tailor their lists to my likes, simply that they actually cover music, as they claim to do, and not eight genres, especially considering how greater an impact some of those neglected sounds had on the actual craft.

[Masculine Todd]

Oh, and by the way, if this is true:



Then maybe next time, leave this off:


This is how you started in with me:


Give me a fucking break, Todd. Complaining because their reader's poll didn't cover your particular subset of obscure artists is basically just bitching that you think you're smarter than the rest of the world.

Sometimes, your hardass routine is adorable, and other times, it can be needlessly abrasive. This was the later.

[Basketball Jesus]

Ugh. Rolling Stone is no longer relevant to today's society. Avril Lavigne? Give me a break.

Has Rolling Stone ever been anything other than an attempt to sell popular music culture to people? The fact that they used to write about Buffalo Springfield when they were popular and now write about Avril Lavigne when she is doesn't make them a fundamentally different magazine just because we dig on Neil and the boys.

[TheTravis!]

Sometimes, your hardass routine is adorable, and other times, it can be needlessly abrasive. This was the later.

But I'm not trying to NOT be a dick. You said you were.

[TheTravis!]

There's some good on there, but a very marginalzed, western sect of music covered. Where's the IDM, Industrial, No Wave, Drone/Doom, Ambient, Neo-Tango, Hardcore, Punk, Samba, Jazz, Raga Bop, etc.? It's hardly non-existent. It's far too narrow for my tastes, especially for a magazine that claims to be the authority on the medium.

Most of that music is marginalized, Todd. Punk has it's own magazines and musical outlets and doesn't need Rolling Stone. A lot of the rest of what you're talking about gets discussed every month by David Fricke.

There is far too much music released in a given MONTH for any magazine to be the be-all, end-all authoritative guide. Especially when you are also a magazine of political commentary and social reporting.

And you may not be arguing for your tastes over somebody else's tastes, but I don't see you complaining at the lack of polka or classical or children's music coverage.

Maybe the list isn't necessarily just about the music, but about it's influence and taste-making qualities?

[Taxman]

. . .

[PatrickA]

In relation to Rolling Stone's actual pics:

No Cannibal Ox. No Nick Cave. No Isis. No Seun Kuti. No Vijay Iyer. No Rudresh Mahanthappa. No Terrence Blanchard. No Allen Toussaint. No Black Mountain. No Teen Idols. No Smog/Bill Callahan. No Seu Jorge. No Battles. No Paik. Nothing Steve Albini touched. No A Silver Mt. Zion. No Faun. No Erykah Badu. Nothing John Zorn worked on. No Mars Volta. No Fugazi. No Avalanches. No Flying Lotus. No Tom Waits. No Sunn O))). No Faust.

So much good stuff passed over for crossover indie and the consensus of every other blogosphere list. It's predictable. These lists are probably the sincere choices of these reviewers, but it boggles my mind that none of them gravitate toward a wider spectrum of music.

I've only heard of four people/bands on your list, forget about having actually heard them.

Granted, I am not particuarly educated from a music standpoint. However, I have heard of everything on the RS readers list and on the editors picks (except for Spoon).

Which would indicate that those two lists are a lot more relevant to the population as a whole than some of y'all are suggesting.

[Masculine Todd]

But I'm not trying to NOT be a dick. You said you were.

Fair enough. However, I think you're being coy. I don't believe you honestly think suggesting someone actually read a post before ranting is dick-ish.


Most of that music is marginalized, Todd

Music theorists and those who subscribe to formalism would claim Drone sounds nothing like Tango sounds nothing like Hard-Bop Jazz.


Punk has it's own magazines and musical outlets and doesn't need Rolling Stone.

Rock doesn't need Rolling Stone either. That's not the point.


A lot of the rest of what you're talking about gets discussed every month by David Fricke.

No.


There is far too much music released in a given MONTH for any magazine to be the be-all, end-all authoritative guide.

When you omit entire genres, some that are so essential to the actual evolution of the medium that most of what Rolling Stone covers were directly influenced by these other sounds, then you absolutely should cover them, especially in an all-encompassing decade end retrospective and list. Apparently, for the magazine claiming to be the pinnacle of music coverage, the entirety of the decade was comprised of crossover indie, mainstream dance pop and hip hop.


And you may not be arguing for your tastes over somebody else's tastes, but I don't see you complaining at the lack of polka or classical or children's music coverage.

Fuck, put it in. It should be there, don't you think? I'm certainly not the most-diverse music listener by any means, but I do consciously try to sample the fruits of all genres. I am currently perusing classical, and I've not encountered Polka, for instance, but would love to give it a try. If there's notable releases of the genre, why shouldn't it have a place on a decade-ending list?


Maybe the list isn't necessarily just about the music, but about it's influence and taste-making qualities?

Taste-making? Okay. Influence? No.

[Masculine Todd]

Which would indicate that those two lists are a lot more relevant to the population as a whole than some of y'all are suggesting.

What it indicates is that, mainstream often does, co-opts innovation and makes it marketable and palatable and fitting social norms for commercially acceptable music. That's it's function. That's why you've heard of all of those on the list. They're relevant because they make money. They're not relevant to the actual craft of making music.

[Masculine Todd]

. . .

Touche. And now I empathize with claiming a subjective list does have considerable flaws because it didn't include [x].

[Bervda]

Whatever. Avril Lavigne FTW.

[Taxman]

Touche. And now I empathize with claiming a subjective list does have considerable flaws because it didn't include [x].:lol:

It wasn't anything like that. I had just replied to something out of context.

[Blake Sims]

I just read through the actual issue. It's a very strange list. Their movie list wasn't that bad though. Some really good movies made it on.