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

I also already started to compile my all-time favourite albums, including a few "historical landmark" albums (but from my point of view, what affected me, what opened up my mind for new genres, etc., even if I don't listen to them at all anymore). It is a lot of fun going through old and new stuff again, and thinking carefully what all that music did to me.

Here's a few of my ideas how to handle that whole thing...

  • The personal list should be 50 in my opinion. #1 should get 50 points, #2 49 points and so on until #50, which would get 1 point. For some people "only" 50 entries might be easier to handle. And for people with huge collections they need to put more thought into it when breaking it down to only 50 of their favourites. At least for me, when having 50 instead of 100 I would think more carefully which ones to pick, and how to order them.
  • Everything is allowed, studio albums, live albums, compilations, soundtracks, even EPs. If a best-of compilation is one of the things that effected you the most, then why not add it on that list. If there are so many people oppositing that, then those compilations won't be in the Top-300 anyway. And no limitation on how many entries per artist. If you are the world's greatest AC/DC fan, and 98% of your total listening is AC/DC, why not being allowed to add their whole discography to such a list. And in general, too many rules/regulations might scare people from participating.
  • I would do a closed ballot. But, of course I would allow people to publish their list upfront or discuss that, if they want. Maybe create a second thread for that things, so that people, who don't wanna be effected by other people's choices have a way to avoid that.
  • Google Sheets might be a good way to go. Create a standardized form where people edit their list and submit. I think that would minimize the administrative effort quite a bit.

In general the overall goal should be to try to motivate as many people as possible to participate. The more people we have, the more significant and meaningful the final list gets.
 
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papaharzi said:
I also already started to compile my all-time favourite albums, including a few "historical landmark" albums (but from my point of view, what affected me, what opened up my mind for new genres, etc., even if I don't listen to them at all anymore). It is a lot of fun going through old and new stuff again, and thinking carefully what all that music did to me.
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The "personal landmark" albums are the ones I'm having the hardest time with as I try to compile my list. The most extreme example for me is Nine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine.

When I was a teenage metalhead I despised all music that relied on electronics... all I cared for were guitars, bass, and drums until I heard this album and realized it was possible for music to "rock" even without the standard meat-and-potatoes instrumentation. That album blew my mind and is at least indirectly responsible for my later appreciation of indie and pop music. The only problem is that I don't think I can ever listen to PHM again, because the lyrics are too cringeworthy and (what is worse) remind me of being a dumbass 17-year-old.

So the album occupies this awkward place where it was immensely significant in my music journey, yet I'd be totally OK with not listening to it ever again. I haven't quite decided how to account for that in my list. I've been leaning toward making it a "top 50 desert island albums," i.e. if I had to pick only 50 albums to listen to for the rest of my life, which ones would they be... but that system has its pitfalls, too.
 
bettim84 said:
... That album blew my mind and is at least indirectly responsible for my later appreciation of indie and pop music. The only problem is that I don't think I can ever listen to PHM again, because the lyrics are too cringeworthy and (what is worse) remind me of being a dumbass 17-year-old.

So the album occupies this awkward place where it was immensely significant in my music journey, yet I'd be totally OK with not listening to it ever again. I haven't quite decided how to account for that in my list. I've been leaning toward making it a "top 50 desert island albums," i.e. if I had to pick only 50 albums to listen to for the rest of my life, which ones would they be... but that system has its pitfalls, too.
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Totally agree. I will probably have a couple of records on my list that were important to 80s punker me that I still have in my collection but I have not listened to in 20+ years.
 
I’m trying to put stuff together now and I’m already really struggling. I think I just need to accept the fact that my list will not be incredibly cultured and diverse across all genres of music around the globe. I can like hip-hop and country as a genre without having many that stand out as a top 50 favorite album.
 
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Tys1 said:
I’m trying to put stuff together now and I’m already really struggling. I think just need to accept the fact that my list will not be incredibly cultured and diverse across all genres of music around the globe. I can like hip-hop and country as a genre without having many that stand out as a top 50 favorite album.
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Yeah, that's basically where I'm at too.
 
Thackeraye said:
Already having fun with this. I'm possibly a little guilty of listening to the same old stuff, and it's been good revisiting old favourites. So much to listen to, so little time...
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Same! Some stuff I hadn't listened to in years and years and I'm realizing is better than I remembered.

Tys1 said:
I’m trying to put stuff together now and I’m already really struggling. I think just need to accept the fact that my list will not be incredibly cultured and diverse across all genres of music around the globe. I can like hip-hop and country as a genre without having many that stand out as a top 50 favorite album.
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I mean...who cares? You like what you like, there's no shame in that.
 
Tys1 said:
I’m trying to put stuff together now and I’m already really struggling. I think I just need to accept the fact that my list will not be incredibly cultured and diverse across all genres of music around the globe. I can like hip-hop and country as a genre without having many that stand out as a top 50 favorite album.
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Agreed that you shouldn't feel bad about having a narrow list as far as genre/representation. I'm experiencing the same thing and that's part of what's leading me toward the "desert island" approach (which presumably will force me to pick at least one or two albums from genres that I greatly enjoy, but never evolved into core favorites). That approach may force me to answer things like, "what's my favorite funk album of all time?" I'm curious to know how others are structuring/overthinking their lists.
 
My initial long-list was 193 albums, and I've triaged that list into three ratings (A, B, C). Unfortunately, the 100 album cutoff is smack in the middle of my B rated albums, so I'm going to have to take those records and subdivide them until I'm under the limit.
 
bettim84 said:
Agreed that you shouldn't feel bad about having a narrow list as far as genre/representation. I'm experiencing the same thing and that's part of what's leading me toward the "desert island" approach (which presumably will force me to pick at least one or two albums from genres that I greatly enjoy, but never evolved into core favorites). That approach may force me to answer things like, "what's my favorite funk album of all time?" I'm curious to know how others are structuring/overthinking their lists.
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Totally agree. My list will be music that either opened me up to new genres or that I just love listening to today. My top 50 today would be very different if I did it 10 years ago or do it again 10 years from now.

I plan to physically to go through my collection with an iPad and start a quick list. I am also using this as an excuse to cull some stuff (so stay tuned in the Int. PIF thread)
 
kvetcha said:
So...uh...do we have to rank everything? I have a top ten but outside of that I think it's more or less an unsorted bucket.
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I guess we haven't agreed or voted on the scoring system. The simplest, as many have proposed, is to have #1 worth 50 (or 100) points, #2 worth 49 (or 99) points, and so on. The downside of this system is that you'd have to rank each album on the list, but I'm not sure a "bucket" or "tier" system would be any better (e.g. if we're doing a top 50 with tiers of 10, then by my calculations every album in the 11-20 range would gets 35.5 points each... not an ideal number). So I think for the sake of simplicity it probably makes sense to rank each album, and live with the fact that every list will be slightly imperfect.
 
bettim84 said:
I guess we haven't agreed or voted on the scoring system. The simplest, as many have proposed, is to have #1 worth 50 (or 100) points, #2 worth 49 (or 99) points, and so on. The downside of this system is that you'd have to rank each album on the list, but I'm not sure a "bucket" or "tier" system would be any better (e.g. if we're doing a top 50 with tiers of 10, then by my calculations every album in the 11-20 range would gets 35.5 points each... not an ideal number). So I think for the sake of simplicity it probably makes sense to rank each album, and live with the fact that every list will be slightly imperfect.
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blergh
 
Yeah I started work on the list and it's definitely pretty homogenous and reflective of ,y life age 12-30 but it will be true to who I am. I like a lot of jazz and hip-hop but don't feel as emotionally connected to it as I do some other genres. I was surprised that a greatest hit album had made an initial cut. I like the reveal of the albums after the master list, it's like when I read a year-end list on a publication and then they publish the writer's individual lists. I love seeing the ones whose tastes most closely corresponds to mine and seeing if there are any albums on the list I've never heard of.
 
a top 50 works the best for me personally

i still would have to narrow down a lot of albums but i wouldn't have the issue of drawing blanks
 
wondering if the weighting shouldnt favour higher ranking albums? eg 1 pt for #50, 2pts for #49 etc is ok but once you hit the top 10, it's, say, 100 pts for #1, 80 pts for #2 etc

no comps. comps is a cheatin' hot mess.

live albums surely fine. The Rust Never Sleeps Rule
 
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