How Does The New Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums Of All Time Stack Up?

This might look like a much different list than it did just a few months ago, but art is an ever-evolving thing that most likely will never have any cut and dry answers throughout its tenure. There’s probably tons of people taken aback at how something like Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville made it to the top of the new pecking order, but if you only define pop music by the work of the Beatles and Stones, you’re going to end up with a lot of music that sounds the same. It’s always healthy to pay tribute to the giants of days gone by, but we should never put them up on a pedestal as the end-all be-all of music.There’s probably a better way to title an article like this other than “The Greatest of All Time,” but the idea of having “Top 500 Most Culturally Significant Albums” would probably not have garnered as much interest as the more hot-take sounding substitute.

So is this list a hit or miss at the end of the day? Well, it’s actually both. For as much as the title might still have pretentious undercurrents, this latest version of the list feels like a step in the right direction for having a vast array of great music. In an era where artists don’t necessarily have to be tied down to one genre, it seems only fitting that the people who rate the albums aren’t tied to a single genre either.

There may have been a more divided music scene back in 2012, but over time, tastes have changed and have integrated as many fresh faces to the backlog of classics. It might have seemed impossible back in the day, but the new sound of music is leaning towards the eclectic, where a listener can see the genius of Nirvana’s Nevermind just as well as they can for Good Kid Maad City by Kendrick Lamar.

Though I can’t even say I wholeheartedly agree with the list myself, I can do the editors one better and say that I can see where they were coming from. This whole new list may have sparked many a flame war amongst diehard music fans, but the fact that one of the biggest heavy hitters in music journalism were actually able to come through with a fresh eclectic mix of new classics might have enough power to re-energize anyone’s love for music. Whether you agree with it or think it is absolutely blasphemous, the thought of one of the more pretentious publications in the world actually willing to backtrack on their previous effort is actually something to respect. No one will ever be able to pin down the greatest albums of all time, but given music’s communal vibe in recent years, it makes sense that we hold up all stripes of music rather than coaxing on the sounds of the past.