Apple Music 100 Best Albums

 Wikipedia Entry

I've put the Wikipedia entry for the list right at the top in case you want to look at the list.  I've been thinking about this list since it came out and what I wanted to say about it and I think I finally have landed in a spot.  

I think the list should be titled, Apple Music 100 Important Albums for Americans aged 15 to 35 In the Year 2024.  Something like that.  I think by renaming it, you get a pretty good idea of what I think of the list and where the problems are with the list.  

It's interesting to me that they have used the term Best.  Best can imply so many things.  I have albums that I love, albums that I may think are the best album by a particular artist and so if I were making a list of best albums it would be on that list.  But here is what they wrote on their website, "Welcome to 100 Best Albums—our definitive list of the greatest albums ever made."  

OK so really they should have used Greatest not Best. Greatest has a completely different connotation.  If it's the greatest album, then it needs two things.  It needs to first be a great album that people love to listen to.  It also needs to be something that defined the genre or had a major influence on the genre.  

I love the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, the album that they ranked number 1.  On a best of list it wouldn't be my number 1 but it is a great album that I never tire of listening to.  I'm sure I'm underselling it here, but I'm not sure how influential the album was.  I'm sure it has been more than I'm thinking, but certainly not to the degree of many other albums.  

OK so let's think about the idea of greatest, and the idea that we want an album that is a good listen and also an album that was hugely influential.  It doesn't have to be an album that was popular.  I think we can move past that, but that could play a part.  

OK if I'm going to do a greatest album ever list, first thing I'm going to do is break it down by genre.  Rock, Country, Rap, Jazz, R&B, Blues, etc.  Then I'm going to begin by looking at the albums that are considered to be the cornerstones of those genres.  

So for Rock you have to go to the Beatles.  They have influenced essentially every genre of Rock that followed.  For country it gets a bit tricky because I'm not sure Hank Williams, for instance, ever made an "album" that would fit this list, but you could certainly focus on people like Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson.  People who helped to define modern country.  For Rap you have to go back and look at some of the early acts who really impacted the acceptance of rap into mainstream, like Run DMC.  

That is where I would begin my process and build out a web of albums and genres so that you could see how things grew and evolved over time and what albums played what critical roles for what genres and changes in music.  For instance if we want to put Nirvana on the list, we need to connect Nirvana back to the Beatles through albums in a way that we can understand who their influences were to bring us to that point in time.  The albums that influenced Nirvana may have been surpassed by Nirvana in their own influence or in how good their album was, but you first need to understand that connection.  

I believe if you make a top 100 greatest albums list and you end up where the Apple Music list ended up, what you are essentially saying is that almost all modern music has far surpassed those who influenced them.  That points to a tremendous recency bias.  

This is a bit of an aside, but I feel that it is important here.  I have loosely followed the discussion and the acceptance of Caitlin Clark in the WNBA.  Her entry into the WNBA was mirrored by Angel Reese from LSU.  Clark is the hero for white fans while Reese is the villain for white fans.  This reminds me of something.  I believe I recall something very similar to this back at the end of the 70's.  It brought many more eyes to the NBA and had almost the exact same storyline.  Problem is I haven't heard anyone make this connection.  It's like our history has been completely forgotten.  Maybe people have made the connection, but I haven't seen it.  

I feel that Apple has approached this list in much the same way that the current media is approaching the Caitlin Clark story.  They only see it for what it is now.  They don't understand that this is a repeat story in much the same way that Bird and Magic were.  The same undertones, the same frustrations from players in the League.  The same hate and anger from white fans.  

When the people who put together this list for Apple looked at an album they really liked, like Robyn at number 100 on the list.  They don't seem to understand that Robyn came about because of Abba and New Order.  They don't understand that Taylor Swift found her voice because of artists like The Dixie Chicks.  

I see a real problem in this.  Especially when entire genres are not represented at all.  That to me points to the people making this list not even representing the full music community.  

Let's look briefly at country music.  In 1975 Willie Nelson had an idea for an album.  It was to be a concept album.  His label didn't want to make it, many people thought it was a mistake.  Yet it became a huge hit album.  In this case the popularity of the album became an important piece of the puzzle.  People thought country fans just wanted a bunch of singles and would never have interest in something more.  With the success of Redheaded Stranger though, there were country artists who started thinking maybe there could be more to their craft than just trying to write the next hit song.  Should it be on this list, I don't know, but I can't imagine anyone sitting in that room discussing this list even mentioned the album.  

All in all I found the list to be very disappointing.  Even though it contains a lot of albums I really like, I just feel like they left out too many important artists and too many important albums.  

What do you think?