I don't have a problem with Rolling Stone wanting to update their top 500 albums list. I don't mind if they thought it needed to diversify and be less rock-centric. I don't even mind that they wanted some more 21st century representation, except here is where we start to have problems. 86 albums from the 21st century made the list. I don't think that there has been that much good music in the last 20 years to be considered some of the greatest albums of all time. This isn't a nu-metal best of list after all. I do have a problem with the fact that I did not see one metal or classic rock artist listed as a voter, yet they included millennial pop stars such as Taylor Swift, H.E.R., and Billie Eilish. Billie was still in diapers when the first list was published in 2003. 154 albums made their way onto the list for the first time. That is a red flag, and an astonishing fact. The only album to maintain its place in the top 10 was Pet Sounds at number 2. What's Going On by Marvin Gaye moved from #6 to #1. It's a great album, but really only has one single that everyone would know. Besides the top 2, the other 8 top 10 spots were filled by albums that weren't even close in the original list.
What's more of a problem is that the first Billy Joel album (The Stranger) is listed at #169, dropping from #70! The first Who album (Who's Next) is at #77, dropping from #28. The first Led Zeppelin album (IV) is at #58. There is no Bat Out of Hell to be found in the top 500! These are abominations. Pink Floyd's The Wall somehow goes from the top 50 to #129. Similarly U2's Joshua tree falls like a rock from #27 to 135. Inexplicably, the first Black Sabbath album (Paranoid) is at #139. Surely this is a top 100 album of all time. It is the granddaddy of heavy metal with monstrous singles War Pigs, Paranoid, and Iron Man not to mention cult classics Rat Salad and Fairies Wear Boots, among others.
I know that no music list is perfect, and that taste is subjective, but I'm still not done shitting on this list. Less egregious, but still surprising to me is the placement of Appetite for Destruction at #62, Jagged Little Pill at # 69, Back in Black at #84, Master of Puppets at #97, Weezer at #294, Aerosmith's Rocks at #366, and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Pronounced" at #381. These are cited by me and many critics as some of the best rock albums of all time. The positions on the Rolling Stone top 500 are criminally undervaluing their excellence and influence. Meanwhile, Bob Dylan and The Clash get pushed out of the top 10. Dylan previously held two of the top 10 spots. Sgt. Peppers somehow drops from #1 to #24. Rubber Soul from #5 to #35. The White album from #10 to #29. Yet, inexcusably Kanye West appears at 17. Are you kidding me with this list!? They lose all credibility with these numbers.
You want to give R&B some more dues? Explain how Boys II Men II is at a paltry #495 when it sold over 12 million copies (Diamond status), had four hit singles plus an amazing cover of Yesterday by the Beatles, and won a Grammy for Album of the Year in 1995. This list is a joke.
