500 best songs ever? Right.
Rolling Stone lists the 500 best songs ever for the second time. The songs are “chosen by a five-star jury of singers, musicians, producers, industry figures, critics and, of course, songwriters.” Add to that: “Old.”
Try sorting the lists by year. This is the 9th (of 10 pages) of songs sorted by year. 1981 was a brilliant year in music. The list has one song. “Super freak” by Rick James. That’s the best song of 1981. Huh?
On page 10 you’ll find the best songs of the last 10 years. In the last 5 years of rock and pop music history, only three songs were found worthy to be on the top 500:
- Eminem “Stan”
- Eminem “Lose yourself”
- Outkast “Hey Ya!”
Three songs. Great songs, OK. But three? Old. Old. Old. Only 21 songs from 1990 up to 2005. That’s 4.2 percent of the music in a period that covers 26.3 percent of the years (15 years from 1990 to 2005, in the period from 1948 to 2005).
There are seven Beach boys songs, 25 Beatles songs, six Chuck Berry songs but only four David Bowie songs. None from the excellent Let’s dance. And where’s “Life on mars?” and “Starman”???
There are four The Drifters songs, and 12 Dylans songs. There’s just one Eurythmics song, but four Everly Brothers. Come on!
Old.
There are five Buddy Holly songs, but only two by Michael Jackson. Ok, he doesn’t behave like most people, but surely has made more than two songs worthy of the top 500. And none by George Michael who has made cool songs for ages. There are only two R.E.M. songs, but five by Little Richard.
There is one song from the 80s in the top 50, and the “freshest” ones in top 50 are Nirvana’s “Smells slike teen spirit” from 1991, and U2′s “One” from the same year. There are no songs from the 90s or this century in the next 50 songs, and ditto in the next 50.
Old.
Eminem (and Dido’s) “Stan” is best song of this century, at place no. 290.
Nothing wrong with most of the songs on the list. The top 50 are mostly excellent songs. It’s just that it sounds like a museum of rock.
Related: And why isn’t this song in?
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