Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

I actually really like what Rolling Stone did with this list (except for the infuriating inclusion of greatest hits albums). It's impossible to please everyone and seems like there was a real push for genre and era diversity as opposed to the typical Classics and Nostalgia favoritism.

The things I hate the most about Music fandom are the folks who won't give things a chance outside of their own favorite genre(s) or the many many who feel no good music has been made since the 70s (Honestly if Led Zeppelin came out today, those folks would write them off and still say "no real rock music is made today blah blah blah).

Music is subjective of course, but so many don't even give stuff a chance.

Hopefully this helps some people check out some albums they would have written off normally. I don't there is many true Music fans that would say that Harry Styles 'Fine Line' is better than all but a handful of Jazz albums EVER, but this will cause some people to check out a really strong album from a former boy band singer that they may never have even given a chance otherwise (just an example).
 
Lotta grumps in this thread! Of course it can't be a definitive list, but like others said, it's meant to get people talking about and trying out new music. With a bigger and far more diverse group of voters, you're going to get a much better and much more diverse list! When the first version came out in '03 or whenever I basically dismissed it out of hand because I didn't like classic rock, and as much as I like it now, and as much as I love Dylan now, there's no way he's got two of the top 10 albums of all time (the Beatles had fucking four!?), and not a single woman does! You're not going to get people talking about music by being an old-boys' club who doesn't like anything that came out after like 1975. If it gets people talking and trying new music, and eventually getting some people to love some new albums they didn't love before, then it's a successful list.
 
You know what was a bit surprising though @brownsugah - Maxwell’s BLACKsummers’night making this list and not Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite...I was like, that’s not right! Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite is one sexy, luxurious, rich, classy, risqué, intoxicating album! It’s a much better album than BLACKsummers’night in my opinion.

I was very happy to see Aaliyah’s One In A Million on the list two but was also scratching my head at the fact it made the list over Aaliyah’s self-titled! Aaliyah is easily a better album and is effortlessly cool, diverse in sound and Aaliyah is just much more mature on that album! One In A Million is great but shouldn’t have made the list and Aaliyah should’ve made the list instead!

No hard feelings on the list of course! Just what I thought after seeing the list! 🙂

Also.....BLACKsummers’night is on the list but Jill Scott’s Who Is Jill Scott? doesn’t make the list. This just further makes me think BLACKsummers’night being on this list is random AF!
 
Still can't get over these greatest hits albums. I'm rolling through the list again and every one of them pisses me off.
And most of them are for artists I LOVE.
"132. Hank Williams '40 Greatest Hits'"? That is an incredible comp, literally one of the only ones in my collection, but it is not a real album.
 
NathanRicaud said:
You know what was a bit surprising though @brownsugah - Maxwell’s BLACKsummers’night making this list and not Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite...I was like, that’s not right! Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite is one sexy, luxurious, rich, classy, risqué, intoxicating album! It’s a much better album than BLACKsummers’night in my opinion.

I was very happy to see Aaliyah’s One In A Million on the list two but was also scratching my head at the fact it made the list over Aaliyah’s self-titled! Aaliyah is easily a better album and is effortlessly cool, diverse in sound and Aaliyah is just much more mature on that album! One In A Million is great but shouldn’t have made the list and Aaliyah should’ve made the list instead!

No hard feelings on the list of course! Just what I thought after seeing the list! 🙂

Also.....BLACKsummers’night is on the list but Jill Scott’s Who Is Jill Scott? doesn’t make the list. This just further makes me think BLACKsummers’night being on this list is random AF!
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Yeah I was about to mention that. I guess it’s cool that they thought about Maxwell, but BLACK isn’t even his best album. I would have went with Urban Hang Suite for sure or Embrya (which is my personal favorite album of his) over BLACK. I feel you, it seems like they put it on the list just to say that they included Maxwell.

I thought they could have included Aaliyah’s self titled album too. I actually think it’s better than OIAM from an artistic standpoint. But OIAM is definitely deserving. It’s one of my favorite albums of the 90s and has been in rotation quite a bit as of late too.

Who Is Jill Scott? deserved to be there too. One of the best Neo Soul albums ever created. Hopefully they will include it next time. I think it’s better than a lot of the albums that made the list tbh.

Also, I was intrigued at them including Mariah’s Emancipation and Boyz II Men’s II. I thought that was cool, even though they could have included Butterfly and Daydream as well for Mariah.
 
wynn72 said:
Still can't get over these greatest hits albums. I'm rolling through the list again and every one of them pisses me off.
And most of them are for artists I LOVE.
"132. Hank Williams '40 Greatest Hits'"? That is an incredible comp, literally one of the only ones in my collection, but it is not a real album.
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Kind of hard to do with him. Only 2 albums released in his lifetime but he had 30 singles released before his death.
 
wynn72 said:
Still can't get over these greatest hits albums. I'm rolling through the list again and every one of them pisses me off.
And most of them are for artists I LOVE.
"132. Hank Williams '40 Greatest Hits'"? That is an incredible comp, literally one of the only ones in my collection, but it is not a real album.
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What I will say is that pre early 1960s (maybe late 1950s) the concept of the modern album didn’t exist as such. Artists released singles and every so often they would be compiled. If we’re going to be that hardline we’re excluding those artists from consideration full stop. After that period in time I agree with you completely.
 
HiFi Guy said:
Kind of hard to do with him. Only 2 albums released in his lifetime but he had 30 singles released before his death.
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Joe Mac said:
What I will say is that pre early 1960s (maybe late 1950s) the concept of the modern album didn’t exist as such. Artists released singles and every so often they would be compiled. If we’re going to be that hardline we’re excluding those artists from consideration full stop. After that period in time I agree with you completely.
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I mean, I get it. Especially with Country Music, singles were favored over albums heavily. But like you said when albums started coming out, most played catchup and released albums putting together singles (which I see differently as greatest hits since they are mostly based off an era instead of just piecing together the top songs).

I would say 'Johnny Cash with his Hot and Blue Guitar' counts as a Cash album and not a comp of Sun Singles.

In Hank's case, 'Luke The Drifter' (In no way a comp),'I Saw the light', 'Moanin the Blues', or 'Memorial Album' would have been better inclusions.

And honestly, because of the reasons you stated, if comps from this era were the only ones included, then it would be understandable.
But when you have artists like Al Green with comps on there, they clearly weren't doing it because of the lack of real albums.
 
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I always find these lists interesting. It's an impossible endeavor really, it's just too sprawling a topic to make anything worth too much on. I do appreciate the effort and think that musical diversity was a priority on this front which is good. Some very broad observations that are probably more critical than I mean them to be.

* It seems like some genres got bumped pretty hard. Like, I am not a jazz or rap/hip-hop aficionado by any means, but if you're doing best albums and are willing to include comps (more on that), I find it hard to believe that among your Top 50-100 includes that much more rap than jazz. This isn't an indictment on rap, it just feels like some genres are pretty severely underrepresented as a backlash. I really don't like most country music, but to not have representation (I think) until the tail end of the Top 100 for the size/influence of that genre is just insane to me. It may be representative of current interest in the genre but I don't think a list like this can be purely that and be fair.

* The inclusion of comps for artists who used the album as a form of release is silly. I'm actually okay with pre-Beatles artists getting comp'ed in and even compilations independent of specific people that are just great sets of music. The inclusion of GHs for Abba and Madonna seems unnecessary.

* On first blush, it feels like proven legends got bumps on their 4th or 5th best albums, and "possibly" legends or hot prospects got a lot of love, but artists who made strong albums who time hasn't loved (artist specifically) really got dismissed. Seeing Usher's Confessions near the bottom of this list, given the sheer amount of R&B/Hip-Hop/etc. on it, felt way off to me given the outsized influence it had. Similarly, I think Justin Timberlake got skunked (unless I missed it) but Harry Styles is included (and I like that HS album).

*Gender Diversity is a bit of a red flag to me. I have no idea if this is cherry picking, but in 51-100, only 20% of the albums are by women. 3 of the Top 10 only if you include Fleetwood Mac and 4 of the Top 20, 8 of the Top 50. I know the industry on the whole was and probably is favored towards men in many ways, but if 18% of your Top 100 is women (or so), I think there's another diversity issue going on here. Just scanning the trend does seem to continue.

Edit: A good amount of this is probably methodology based to be fair. The voters were asked to make a Top 50 that was weighted and had musicians, industry folks, journalists, and RS Staff in the pool. Just browsing the names, a lot of this makes more sense now to be honest if my browsing is right in terms of genre interest and gender.
 
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Woob_woob said:
Also just an FYI, now I'm thinking of maybe making a N+G Top 500 Albums of All Time thread in the style of the Year End Megalist or AOTY threads I've done before. It seems like a lot, but also could be fun. Idk.
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I did a thing, come play.

The N&G Top 500 Albums of All Time!!!

Rolling Stone did it, but im sure we can do it better. RULES Voting will be done in private, only votes Dmed to me will count Votes will be in the form of list of 50 Greatest Albums lists (50 points for #1, 49 for #2....1 point for #50) There are no restrictions on what is considered an album...
www.needlesandgrooves.com www.needlesandgrooves.com
 
Quadrophenia and King Crimson (any album, let alone In the Court of the Crimson King) aren't in the top 500 but Harry Styles is.
Sgt. Pepper, known as the greatest and most important album of all time that changed albums and pop music, is #24. Lemonade is way too high (look at some of the R&B, Hip Hop, and Soul albums rated below it!) Not even the best Knowles album from 2016 arguably.

List is invalid.Who the heck did they get to vote on this garbage? Some good updates, sure, but what the eff with the war on rock. Rolling Stone hates prog and hard rock too, as has been well documented. Dark Side of the Moon isn't even top 50.
 
mdmost said:
Sgt Peppers went from #1 in 2003 to #24 in 2020.

Fun fact about the last RS500 list. I remember it vividly because well, you had to buy it to get the list back then, but also it came with a Sony SACD compilation to showcase Sony artists that were on SACD like Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Pink Floyd, Norah Jones, and Elton John.View attachment 67279View attachment 67281
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heh, i still have this, too.

and like i said in a comment yesterday, 'dark side of the moon' not being in the top 50 is absurd.
 
keylime_5 said:
Quadrophenia and King Crimson (any album, let alone In the Court of the Crimson King) aren't in the top 500 but Harry Styles is.

Sgt. Pepper, known as the greatest and most important album of all time that changed albums and pop music, is #24. Lemonade is way too high (look at some of the R&B, Hip Hop, and Soul albums rated below it!) Not even the best Knowles album from 2016 arguably.

List is invalid.Who the heck did they get to vote on this garbage? Some good updates, sure, but what the eff with the war on rock. Rolling Stone hates prog and hard rock too, as has been well documented. Dark Side of the Moon isn't even top 50.
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At least they added Rush - Moving Pictures. It’s insane that their previous lists didn’t include it.

I’m not as peeved about Sgt Peppers moving down (even though it’s personally my GOAT), as it was predictable given that there has been substantial backlash against that album over the past 10-20 years and RS probably wanted this demotion to demonstrate their attempt to get with the times.

Marvin Gaye at #1 is a bit of an odd pick IMO, they could have gone with an album that sounds less dated (musically, not subject wise). I’m curious to know how long the contributors have been working on this project, and whether the chaos of 2020 has impacted their choices.

I don’t love Lemonade but it’s a culturally significant album. Frankly I would not have batted an eye if it was listed even higher.
 
gaporter said:
on a side note: how many of you feel like you can definitively say you have a favorite album of all time? and if you do, what is it
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I have five:

The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
The Clash - London Calling
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks

Probably in that order.
 
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