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Apple Music Reveals Top 10 Albums of All Time
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Yes, it's just a list of albums. I'm a boomer and I never heard of Blonde, but now I have something new to listen to, and how can you complain about that?
When it comes to music, top album/band lists are often crafted by downloads, sales, concert tickets, etc, all of which are objective measures.
Other "top" lists when it comes to critics can and do have objective qualities when it comes to skill and technical abilities.
One doesn't get ranked in blind auditions by subjective measures folks, objectivity exists in the realm of music.
And mine would have Echo and the Bunnymen’s Heaven Up Here. Same deal. Most people would be all “Who? No.”
Beatles Prince and of course MJ i can understand, but others...is this about quality or quantity?
Elvis or Frank Sinatra have more quality than 50% of the list and lets not talk of missing rock band Queen
Elvis or Frank Sinatra have more quality than 50% of the list and lets not talk of missing rock band Queen
Not commenting on the songs chosen, like many others, I don’t see the point of the list.
Is it supposed to be recognition? I doubt any of the artists feel honored by this.
Personally, I’d much rather see Apple promoting people with quirky tastes in music.
Music is one of the few things in life you can enjoy with no downsides.
Enjoy whatever music you like. Ignore what the cool people like. 🤓
Is it supposed to be recognition? I doubt any of the artists feel honored by this.
Personally, I’d much rather see Apple promoting people with quirky tastes in music.
Music is one of the few things in life you can enjoy with no downsides.
Enjoy whatever music you like. Ignore what the cool people like. 🤓
Of course they cannot add History MJ album because the truths about governments and press are in there...but come on
Beyoncé is a fantastic performer and singer who has pushed the genre boundaries and has redefined genres (ball room and house) with renaissance (and it’s my least favorite Beyoncé album) and took back genres (country) with cowboy Carter that originally started with black culture.
There is nothing mediocre about Beyoncé
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I consider myself as a music lover, but when I look at the first position all I can do is scratch my head and ask why. This must be a joke, right?
That isn’t correct. Unless the list is specifically about number of streams, amount or revenue or number of attendees. The metrics you cite have NOTHING to do with the quality of the music. Evaluating musical quality in order to rank albums is a SUBJECTIVE exercise. Apple’s list isn’t “most streamed albums of all time” it’s the “BEST albums of all time.” Massive difference.
Media criticism is also subjective. Tastes shift over time. There’s nothing objective about critical consensus. Even that is an exercise in subjectivity.
Now you’ve shifted the goalpost to skill. An individual’s skill with their instrument is a completely different metric that has nothing to do with building a best album list. Are we to presume that the musicianship on album 100 is significantly worse than the musicianship on album 1? Clearly not since technical proficiency isn’t the quality under consideration in this list.
Van Halen I is considered by many to be amongst the top five or ten debut albums in all of pop music. It’s a remarkably accomplished collection of songs.
The problem with some musical acts is that they have a lot of good songs, but not great albums, and this was a list of albums. Johnny Cash and Queen come to mind as acts that have a lot of good songs, but they're singles or spread across many albums. Take A Night at the Opera for instance. Just two singles from the album charted. If greatest hits albums were included, then those folks like Elvis, Johnny Cash, and Queen would have been a lock.
I never claimed the metrics you cite as indicative of quality, don't put words in my mouth.
I didn't say anything about media, i said critics, and when i say critics, I am referring to those with the ability to actually criticize music in terms of technical ability, therefore objective measures of quality. I never said anything about consensus either.
I am not shifting any goalpost here, i suggest you read what i posted more carefully.
Right. The initial appeal of AppleMusic was unique and considered HUMAN curation. That aspect of the service has been increasingly downplayed in favor of logarithmic processing. The idea now is that because you don’t own it the content is completely disposable.
It’s hard to take such a list seriously when it practically ignores country music. No Johnny Cash? No Hank Williams? No Loretta Lynn?
And what about Robert Johnson?
And what about Robert Johnson?
Sgt. Pepper’s not even in their Top 100 is the biggest joke ever…
Yeah, you did.
Criticism is SUBJECTIVE. And yes, you did.
I read what you wrote very carefully. You shifted the goalposts. This list is not about raw technical ability. It’s about “best,” a completely subjective term.
For the same work/composer, different classical groups can produce different results. This Apple list could have been more varied to show people there is life beyond the daily humdrum of the usual suspects.
Indeed a good number of greatest albums originally had mixed reviews initially. Take Abbey Road for instance.
"Abbey Road initially received mixed reviews from music critics, who criticised the production's artificial sounds and viewed its music as inauthentic. William Mann of The Times said that the album will 'be called gimmicky by people who want a record to sound exactly like a live performance', although he considered it to be 'teeming with musical invention' and added: 'Nice as 'Come Together' and Harrison's 'Something' are – they are minor pleasures in the context of the whole disc ... Side Two is marvellous ...' Ed Ward of Rolling Stone called the album "complicated instead of complex" and felt that the Moog synthesiser 'disembodies and artificializes' the band's sound, adding that they 'create a sound that could not possibly exist outside the studio'. While he found the medley on side two to be their 'most impressive music' since Rubber Soul, Nik Cohn of The New York Times said that, 'individually', the album's songs are 'nothing special'. Albert Goldman of Life magazine wrote that Abbey Road 'is not one of the Beatles' great albums' and, despite some 'lovely' phrases and 'stirring' segues, side two's suite 'seems symbolic of the Beatles' latest phase, which might be described as the round-the-clock production of disposable music effects'. John Gabree of the magazine High Fidelity wrote, of the album, 'what's to say? If you like the Beatles, you'll like the record. If you have your doubts, this will do nothing to allay them. Of course, as someone just said, they do have 'something.''"
There’s nothing stopping Apple from doing a classical top 100. Or a global top 100. Or any number of other top 100s. This list appears on their pop music platform so it isn’t too surprising that orchestral music and film scores aren’t represented.
Funny how I don't know almost half...
And these are the 10 best!
Who knew Beyonce was superior to Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Madonna, Joni Mitchell and whatnot.
And these are the 10 best!
Who knew Beyonce was superior to Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Madonna, Joni Mitchell and whatnot.
That wouldn't be this list then. That would be something like the "100 best pieces of classical music" or "100 best sleeper albums" or "100 best albums you're never heard of". A list of the "100 best albums" should have mostly "the usual suspects".
A "classical top 100" or "global top 100" would be boring. Apple needs to make just one top 100 and include everything.