Idolator

How you think the list is skewed mostly comes down to how you look at it. In terms of peak chart position, the more recent past actually holds its own very well, especially when you account for EW's habit of taking the most popular releases from older acts, but going for the slightly hipper, I-knew-them-before-they-were-big releases of newer ones (Funeral instead of Neon Bible, Moon + Antarctica instead of Good News..., et cetera.) It's also plenty easy to forget now that Surfer Rosa, Let It Be, and Loveless never charted at all (Caveat: All info from Allmusic.)

Of course, topping the charts doesn't take much these days; in terms of total units, the newer stuff gets its ass kicked. But that almost becomes an unfair comparison, for a variety of reasons. What it really comes down to is that the critically-respected commercial smash that's been the basis for the rockist canon is rapidly becoming a thing of the past; EW grabbed pretty much every one from the last five years they semi-reasonably could. There's nothing new you can put on a list like this, so they're either going to die out, or be put into cryo-freeze (i.e., rehash those same 25 records released between '65 and '72 until the end of fucking time.) Unless Neon Bible turns out to be their equivalent of War on the way to the Arcade Fire's very own Joshua Tree, or Plans is Death Cab's Document headed towards an Automatic for the People for the '10s, the list people got problems.

Dangerously In Love? Seriously? B'Day I could kind of understand (but not really), but really...

Glad that "Hearbreaker" and "Wrecking Ball" were included and yes, "Breakaway" (classic it ain't, though- more of what it represents is important), but the rest of it is MEH-city, all of the usual suspects. I'm beginning to think that "Let it Be" is everyone's go-to Indie-album-not-from-REM automatically and it deserves better than that.

I guess nirvana-nevermind never existed in EW timeline.

Yes, because everybody who's heard Nevermind just loves it!

I don't know about the turning away from the mainstream thing. I mean, I guess I kinda see it, if you are talking about the lack of Fall Out Boy and Nickleback. But I've looked at the 00s list and I'm not exactly seeing anything underground there. Maybe not typical top 40, but I'm going to wager that every one of those albums, except maybe PJ Harvey and LCD Soundsystem, was available at Target at one point in time and that's pretty damn mainstream to me. At the very least, these are all pretty high profile "indie" acts, the kind that you wouldn't exactly have to be in the know to find out about.

But yeah, this is a really random ass list. I really hope we're seeing the end of charticles, because I think this one proves they are truly running out of ways to do these things.

(And what is up with the lack of Nevermind? Was Unplugged the stop these folks jumped on the bus or what?)

I'm with Captain Wrong on the mainstream/not-mainstream thing -- it's not like the Mats or New Order or hell even Tom Waits count as mainstream music, whereas JT and Xtina...

@Captain Wrong: @mishaps: well, i did say that the rock leanings of the staff leaned pretty heavily toward the 'college rock' end of things on the entire list -- for example, there are two metal-ish albums (including the freaking BLACK ALBUM, god), and that's, uh, it. but there is much more engagement with mainstream-leaning music *overall* in the '80s and '90s lists than in the '00s. (even 'back to basics' could be seen as something of a non-mainstream choice, since it was a sales disappointment but was seen as a "smart" statement.)

i'd guess that unplugged is the listmakers' attempt to recommend a 'different' nirvana album. what i want to know is, where the heck is michael jackson? 'thriller' came out too early, but the tracklist on 'bad' is at least as good as that of, say, the awful self-titled sheryl crow record:

1. "Bad" 4:07

2. "The Way You Make Me Feel" 4:59


3. "Speed Demon" 4:01


4. "Liberian Girl" 3:53


5. "Just Good Friends"4:08


6. "Another Part Of Me" 3:54


7. "Man In The Mirror" 5:19


8. "I Just Can't Stop Loving You"


9. "Dirty Diana" 4:52


10. "Smooth Criminal" 4:19


11. "Leave Me Alone" 4:40

@Captain Wrong: Also, a *lot* of the stuff on the '00s lists is still "underground" in a relative sense. (Sure, the LCD album et al are available in Target, but a lot of those records are on/distributed by majors; I bought albums on SST and Sub Pop in my local chain stores when I was younger, too.) The problem is that as music has fragmented, so much of the conversation about music in the popular media has become confused between "artists I like and who I talk about with my friends on the Internet, which is like the world, right?" and something wider. Sure, it's tough because of the massive amount of music out there, but the huge gulf between those two worlds is something that I think is often lost by music writers and editors, because the media they're reading are talking about these bands so surely they're "popular." It's a perfect storm of a profession making itself obsolete that's encouraged by the current culture, where people can niche themselves into a comfort zone. And it's ironic to me that when people are even more resistant to getting recommendations from any sort of "elite," the motivation for outreach across the aisle, as it were, is lower than ever.

I'm looking forward to the "100 Albums released in the last 25 years" list. Not top or best or even a specific genre. Just a list of albums. I really think that's what it's going to come to eventually.

@Maura Johnston: Possibly illustrative anecdote: As I told Matos in e-mail, one thing that stuck out to me about Time's (admittedly kinda dopey) 50 Best Web Sites list was that the namechecked music-related sites weren't indie-related at all. (They were Concrete Loop, Nah Right, and Bossip -- classified under gossip, but all three have been solid for R&B/hip-hop news and leaked music/videos as well.) That's the first time in a long time that I've seen *any* music-related items on a mainstream media list that didn't autotmatically default to Whatever "Indie"-Leaning Pick Was Popular At The Time. Because let's face it, "indie" (or indie-yuppie, or NPR music, or whatever) is the music of the "creative professionals" who have a lot of the jobs with descriptions that include "making up lists for people to argue about on the Internet."

@Maura Johnston: See, now you're getting me into an entirely different place. The whole issue of what is mainstream because things are so fragmented. I can see what you are saying with regards to the 80s and 90s list, but I don't know, it just seems like everything is a little different now. It just feels to me like this college stuff we're talking about is a lot close to the mainstream than it was back in the 80s. Sure, I remember being stuck with chain stores as well but I also remember the little getto in the store where all the music I was interested in lived (usually under "imports", even though SST and AmRep were about as domestic as it got.) Now it seems like it's a hell of a lot easier to find anyway. I really never thought I'd see Matador and Merge in Target, but there they are (well, some releases anyway.) I get what you're saying about the "artists I like and who I talk about with my friends on the Internet, which is like the world, right?" syndrome. (Nice way of putting it, btw.) I guess I'm just not seeing the something wider as wide as it once was. Then again, I may be more trapped in the echo chamber than I realize. :)

PS- I agree with you 100% on Bad, especially in place of Sheryl Crow.

This list lacks Phil Collins.

Therefore, I support it 100%.

Any list like this without 'Superunknown' doesn't even exist to me. It's like it was never even written.

The inclusion of "Trap Muzik" warms my heart, even if most of this list is a steaming pile.

I think Diablo Cody could have come up with a less asinine list than this one.

So I was still a kid in the 90s (and not born for most of the 80s) so I can't speak to those decades*--but 00s definitely lacks in mainstream. Outside of FOB and Nickelback (who might have good sales but debatable quality)--what about stuff like MCR? Or maybe the first Franz album? And wtf, no Speakerboxx/Love Below? Or is that album too obvious for EW?

(And I was shocked by the lack of Nevermind, too. If they wanted to act like they were too cool for Nevermind, isn't Bleach the way to go?

Poor 1990. That year go no love.

The Blueprint and College Dropout are great, but not Top 10 worthy. Looking at the yearly breakdown, I was half-expecting Tribe or Outkast to be the highest hip-hop albums on the list. Enter the 36 Chambers or The Chronic would've been better choices. But '93-'94 is my golden era. Go fig.

i'm disappointed they didn't include some of the albums they called the best of the year at the time--namely, joan osborne's relish (really!) and everything but the girl's walking wounded. because i subscribed to ew when i was 14 and got an awful lot of my music recommendations from them.

moby's "play"?

jesus

Ah, 2000, the year with Stankonia, The Marshall Mathers LP, and the Grammy going to Steely Dan.

No D'Angelo? Bob Marley' inclusion on this list is a little dubious seeing as he died in 1981...

Hole? Are you kidding me? I don't care if it's at fucking 99, it shouldn't be there at all.

As one of those people whose musical development kind of stagnated in the 90s, I'm curious about what happened to some of really influential 90s bands - Toad the Wet Sprocket, or the Gin Blossoms, or even the Goo Goo Dolls - who are arguably one of the primary influences on the late 90s "alternative" movement.

@Maura Johnston: That Sheryl Crow record is wonderful!

This isn't that awful of a list, guys, considering the source.

Hahahahaha.That shite is funny. So, where is the real list? Seriously.

Life's Rich Pageant is the sole REM entry. Not Automatic for the People or Murmur, Life's Rich Pageant, an album that the band freely admits was slapped together out of old rejected songs, covers, and about an EP's worth of original material.