Top 500 songs of all time: Rolling Stone

[peter12]

Originally posted by looooob+Nov 19 2004, 11:46 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (looooob @ Nov 19 2004, 11:46 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-peter12@Nov 17 2004, 06:34 PM
What the hell is "Smells like Teen Spirit" doing up there?

why not?

I don't claim to know how to measure a top 10 song...but when you consider where popular music was in mid-late 1991....that song roared onto mainstream radio and saved my ears(by bringing alot of other great music to the fore) for the next 5 years

we can debate here (as we have many times) whether Nirvana was truly the 'first' band to break 'grunge' wide open , or whether they are more listenable than Pearl Jam or Alice in Chains or Soundgarden, or even whether Teen Spirit is Nirvana's best song

but Teen Spirit is the 'poster' song for the return of guitar based rock in the early 90s....and that's usually what these lists are about [/b][/quote]
That's definitely a fair remark.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally posted by peter12@Nov 17 2004, 07:34 PM
What the hell is "Smells like Teen Spirit" doing up there?

Are you nuts?

Sadly that's the only song on that list I like, the rest aren't in the Top 20. Where is Hurricane by Dylan? Paint it Black? Hotel California? Or any Eagles song. I gotta find the rest of this list.

[AFireInside]

Originally posted by BlackArcher101+Nov 19 2004, 08:32 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (BlackArcher101 @ Nov 19 2004, 08:32 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-peter12@Nov 17 2004, 07:34 PM
What the hell is "Smells like Teen Spirit" doing up there?

Are you nuts? [/b][/quote]
Actually, I'd have to agree with peter12 on this one.

[Looger]

don't forget - this is rolling stone.

meaning it's the music that people listen to because they think they're supposed to.

cultural influence, etc.

[TheCommodoreAfro]

Here are the 500 songs.

Now discuss. Any list like this (voting, etc.) is going to be "trend busting" based. Hence the older songs or songs that mark definite musical trends/breaks.

Top 500

Personally, I would like to see a list of the top 500 by individual contributors (Lester Bangs in particular but he's not alive anymore) instead of a watered down list of complied votes. Most of us choose music based on musical style, so it would be good to have something to match it to.

That said, this list leaves a lot to be desired. I mean, Boston is 500! Give me the editorials and the folks who can trace a pattern through music history. This seems to try and paint a history in some way, without actually referencing many huge moments in music that didn't happen on a grand scale....ergh! wtf is Don Henley's Boys of Summer doing on this thing anyway.... :boh:

The list is actually also very American centric for obvious reasons - which would also explain this lack of music history threading. I would like to see Q magazine (RS's superior UK cousin) do a similar thing, just for a contrast.

[FlamesAddiction]

Surpised not to see any songs by:
Kate Bush
the Carpenters
Captain Beefheart
Leonard Cohen
Grateful Dead

I guess for some of them, it's hard to think of a single song.

Pleasantly suprised to see:
Jeff Buckley
Pavement:
Pixies

Would have liked to have seen:
Ministry
the Residents

[Five-hole]

There was a Carpenters song on there.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally posted by Five-hole@Nov 22 2004, 04:55 PM
There was a Carpenters song on there.

Ah, so you're right.

I organized them by artist and if you go from page 2 to page 3, it goes from Brooks Benton to Chuck Berry, and without even thinking that it was organized by last names, I though it went from "Br" to "Ch" leaving out any that started with "ca"

[looooob]

Originally posted by TheCommodoreAfro@Nov 22 2004, 09:04 AM
Here are the 500 songs.

Now discuss. Any list like this (voting, etc.) is going to be "trend busting" based. Hence the older songs or songs that mark definite musical trends/breaks.

Top 500

Personally, I would like to see a list of the top 500 by individual contributors (Lester Bangs in particular but he's not alive anymore) instead of a watered down list of complied votes. Most of us choose music based on musical style, so it would be good to have something to match it to.

That said, this list leaves a lot to be desired. I mean, Boston is 500! Give me the editorials and the folks who can trace a pattern through music history. This seems to try and paint a history in some way, without actually referencing many huge moments in music that didn't happen on a grand scale....ergh! wtf is Don Henley's Boys of Summer doing on this thing anyway.... :boh:

The list is actually also very American centric for obvious reasons - which would also explain this lack of music history threading. I would like to see Q magazine (RS's superior UK cousin) do a similar thing, just for a contrast.

good post. I'd agree that Q is superior than Rolling Stone...however whenever Q (and similar British mags) publish their 'best of' lists there are an equal number of undeserving or mediocre British albums/bands/tracks on their lists as there are US ones in Rolling Stone (IMO)

[octothorp]

Wow, suprised to see that my favorite song of all time (That's Entertainment, by The Jam) made the list at number 306.

[looooob]

ARTIST Total
The Beatles 23
The Rolling Stones 14
Bob Dylan 12
Elvis Presley 11
Jimi Hendrix 7
The Beach Boys 7
Chuck Berry 6
James Brown 6
Led Zeppelin 6

Interesting. I began listening to popular music in approximately 1980...most of the artists in this 'top 9' were either dead/disbanded or irrelevant (in terms of new productivity)by then

Now I"m as much a 'things were much better when I was a kid' person as the next guy, but I do think sometimes more current artists (and this applies to sports and other fields as well) get the short end of the stick

[FlamesAddiction]

It makes sense when you think about it. Those in the 60's were pioneering a whole genre of music. There were so many directions to go and so many tangents to explore. It stands to reason that many from that era would be influential. It's just like how most classical musicians deemed the most influential come from the same era. Of course, musical eras back then lasted a lot longer. Music was not a accessible to the average person.

Another song I feel deserves to be on there is Epic by Faith No More. Given some of the other songs on the list of 500, that song should be considered fairly influential. It helped bridge the gap between "hair" rock and "alternative" rock. In way, it helped make the mainstream more ready for bands like Nirvana. Even today, you can hear Faith No More's influence in many of the funk/metal bands out today.

[looooob]

Originally posted by FlamesAddiction@Nov 22 2004, 01:30 PM
It makes sense when you think about it. Those in the 60's were pioneering a whole genre of music. There were so many directions to go and so many tangents to explore. It stands to reason that many from that era would be influential. It's just like how most classical musicians deemed the most influential come from the same era. Of course, musical eras back then lasted a lot longer. Music was not a accessible to the average person.

Another song I feel deserves to be on there is Epic by Faith No More. Given some of the other songs on the list of 500, that song should be considered fairly influential. It helped bridge the gap between "hair" rock and "alternative" rock. In way, it helped make the mainstream more ready for bands like Nirvana. Even today, you can hear Faith No More's influence in many of the funk/metal bands out today.

well the older artists may be more influential, but that doesn't necessarily mean their songs are 'better'

of course ranking songs is silly anyways (but fun!), but there is no reason why a newer artist could expand on the work of people before them and write alot of good songs, even better than their 'influences'