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Davey
06-20-2005, 06:25 AM
What else could you pick? I can't think of an album that has become more iconic in the last couple decades. The odd thing is that many critics didn't even pick it as the best of the year in 1997, but now it's almost universally praised. Even many who initially downplayed the significance and/or social impact of an album that manages to capture both the underground and mainstream music worlds have seemingly come around and gradually moved it up their lists. Not my favorite or most played album of the last 20, but hard to ignore what it has become. I remember plopping down almost 30 US dollars at the time to buy the beautiful EMI gatefold UK vinyl after hearing Karma Police on the radio. I had actually skipped getting The Bends after being somewhat disappointed with Pablo Honey, but this one really knocked me out and I did go out and pick up the Bends later (actually I think I traded something for it with a friend).

Anyway, you probably already heard the news on CNN or some other site that Spin selected it as the best of the last 20 years for their 20 year anniversary issue (and they were one that didn't even pick it as best of the year in 1997 :)).

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Spin magazine named Radiohead's "OK Computer" the top album of the past 20 years, praising a futuristic sound that manages to feel alive "even when its words are spoken by a robot."

The British band's 1997 album edged out Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" and Nirvana's "Nevermind" on a list in Spin's 20th anniversary issue, currently on newsstands.

"Between Thom Yorke's orange-alert worldview and the band's meld of epic guitar rock and electronic glitch, ('OK Computer') not only forecast a decade of music but uncannily predicted our global culture of communal distress," reads the editorial note on what separated the release from the other 99 ranked albums.

Released between Radiohead's straight-ahead rock disc "The Bends" and the more experimental, electronic "Kid A," "OK Computer" was the album that propelled Radiohead to worldwide, stadium-sized popularity. Though it never went higher than No. 21 on Billboard charts, it won critical raves and a Grammy for alternative music performance.

Years earlier, Spin ranked Nirvana's "Nevermind" the greatest album of the nineties. In the time since, however, editor-in-chief Sia Michel and others simply found they were reaching for "OK Computer" more than the slightly less relevant "Nevermind."

Also in the top 10, in order, are Pavement's "Slanted and Enchanted," The Smiths' "The Queen is Dead," Pixies' "Surfer Rosa," De La Soul's "3 Feet High and Rising," Prince's "Sign 'o' the Times," PJ Harvey's "Rid of Me" and N.W.A.'s "Straight Outta Compton."

nobody
06-20-2005, 07:27 AM
Public Enemy should have been number one. Or, at least something hip hop. I always seem to be speaking up for hip hop, which is funny since it probably only comprises maybe 20-25% or so of my listenig, if that much. Thing is, in the last 20 years, the development of hip hop has been the number one musical evolution in popular music that has simply changed the musical landscape like nothing since the birth of rock 'n' roll. If you're gonna pick a top album from this era, even though the earliy hip hp albums were a bit earlier, you may wanna lean in that direction if you don't wanna look foolish once the history books are written in the future.

Either way, looks like some good records made the top part of the list. Funny how yearly lists have so many obscure bands on them, but when things shake out and the decade long lists pop up, most of the big winners seem to be stuff that has had some level of public acceptance.

MomurdA
06-20-2005, 07:39 AM
OK Computer was better than any hiip hop album ive ever heard, and i have heard many. I would agree with you about the significance of the rise of hip-hop, but there is another form of music which has taken off in every other country except the US: electronic music. No im not talking techno/rave bs. Im talking stuff like OK Computer, Air, hell even Kraftwerk. Bottom line: Synthesizers and looped sounds rock!

Stone
06-20-2005, 07:48 AM
What else could you pick?


These would all be ahead of OK Computer for me (amongst a few others):


Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back"
Nirvana's "Nevermind"
Pavement's "Slanted and Enchanted"
The Smiths' "The Queen is Dead"
Pixies' "Surfer Rosa"
De La Soul's "3 Feet High and Rising"
Prince's "Sign 'o' the Times"

Davey
06-20-2005, 07:57 AM
Public Enemy should have been number one. Or, at least something hip hop. I always seem to be speaking up for hip hop, which is funny since it probably only comprises maybe 20-25% or so of my listenig, if that much. Thing is, in the last 20 years, the development of hip hop has been the number one musical evolution in popular music that has simply changed the musical landscape like nothing since the birth of rock 'n' roll. If you're gonna pick a top album from this era, even though the earliy hip hp albums were a bit earlier, you may wanna lean in that direction if you don't wanna look foolish once the history books are written in the future.
Funny, over the weekend I saw the Billboard list for last week and it made me think of some of the conversations we've had in the past about the dominance of hip hop on the charts. At least that was your position, and some weeks it is hard to argue that rock sales were really very significant in the total picture. But last week it was just the opposite, without any real hip hop in the top ten (well, I guess Black Eyed Peas are kinda hip hop) and a few big rock records ;)

1 - 1
Coldplay, X&Y
Capitol | 74786 | (18.98)
1
2 - 1
The Black Eyed Peas, Monkey Business
A&M | 004341* | Interscope | (13.98/8.98)
2
3 - 1
The White Stripes, Get Behind Me Satan
Third Man | 27256 | V2 | (18.98)
3
4 - 1
Shakira, Fijacion Oral Vol. 1
Epic | 93700 | Sony Music | (18.98)
4
5 1 9 Mariah Carey, The Emancipation Of Mimi 2
Island | 003943* | IDJMG | (13.98)
1
6 2 4 System Of A Down, Mezmerize
American/Columbia | 90648 | Sony Music | (18.98)
1
7 4 4 Toby Keith, Honkytonk University
DreamWorks (Nashville) | 004300 | UMGN | (13.98)
2
8 5 29 Gwen Stefani, Love. Angel. Music. Baby. 2
Interscope | 003469* | (13.98)
5
9 9 28 Kelly Clarkson, Breakaway 2
RCA | 64491 | RMG | (18.98)
3
10 3 3 Audioslave, Out Of Exile
Epic | 004603 | Interscope | (13.98)
1

-Jar-
06-20-2005, 07:59 AM
I didn't hear OK COMPUTER until 1999. The only thing I had ever heard by them was "Creep." Lots of people said THE BENDS was great, but I didn't think it could be that good. Tons of people said OK COMPUTER was great, but I still didn't think the band that did "Creep" could be that good.. I even saw the "Karma Police" video, but hearing the sound out of a tv didn't impress me. When I finally got around to picking up OK COMPUTER I was pretty amazed. Went back and got the THE BENDS and was kicking myself for not investigating them sooner. They certainly encompass many of the aspects of 90's alternative music and older classic rock that I enjoy. They do what good bands do, they put things together in ways that others had not thought of. Plus, they also managed to bring it to the masses without watering it down.

-jar

newtrix1
06-20-2005, 08:07 AM
Pretty subjective thing, but that album is a fairly safe pick. Like they said, innovative as well as accessible. My question is; did how many bands did Radiohead influence? What bands/artists drew from RH's sound? An important critera imo when making a claim like "best album of the last 2 decades".
I'd probably have a tough time selling this one 'round these parts, but what about Joshua Tree? :eek:

Troy
06-20-2005, 08:48 AM
Best, my hairy a$$. Spin Magazine? Who cares . . . except Spin's editors and anyone duped into believing Spin is the only authority on the matter.

"OK Computer's" a better than pretty good (but not grrrreat IMO) record, but you're gonna get arguments for just about ANYTHING, because it's all just a matter of personal opinion.

My best is not his best, is not her best, is not their best. Leave Spin on the shelf and make up your OWN mind.

-Jar-
06-20-2005, 08:55 AM
Spin hasn't mattered for several years, maybe even a decade. Alternative Press became the new Spin, and even they don't have much to say anymore either. I picked up Magnet, which I used to dig getting on occasion.. but didn't find much worth reading either.. same glowing reviews about the same bands that people in other magazines are raving about. How much to we really need to know about Sleater-Kinney?

-jar

Duds
06-20-2005, 09:39 AM
Tool - Undertow, Aenima, Lateralus



What else could you pick? I can't think of an album that has become more iconic in the last couple decades. The odd thing is that many critics didn't even pick it as the best of the year in 1997, but now it's almost universally praised. Even many who initially downplayed the significance and/or social impact of an album that manages to capture both the underground and mainstream music worlds have seemingly come around and gradually moved it up their lists. Not my favorite or most played album of the last 20, but hard to ignore what it has become. I remember plopping down almost 30 US dollars at the time to buy the beautiful EMI gatefold UK vinyl after hearing Karma Police on the radio. I had actually skipped getting The Bends after being somewhat disappointed with Pablo Honey, but this one really knocked me out and I did go out and pick up the Bends later (actually I think I traded something for it with a friend).

Anyway, you probably already heard the news on CNN or some other site that Spin selected it as the best of the last 20 years for their 20 year anniversary issue (and they were one that didn't even pick it as best of the year in 1997 :)).

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Spin magazine named Radiohead's "OK Computer" the top album of the past 20 years, praising a futuristic sound that manages to feel alive "even when its words are spoken by a robot."

The British band's 1997 album edged out Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" and Nirvana's "Nevermind" on a list in Spin's 20th anniversary issue, currently on newsstands.

"Between Thom Yorke's orange-alert worldview and the band's meld of epic guitar rock and electronic glitch, ('OK Computer') not only forecast a decade of music but uncannily predicted our global culture of communal distress," reads the editorial note on what separated the release from the other 99 ranked albums.

Released between Radiohead's straight-ahead rock disc "The Bends" and the more experimental, electronic "Kid A," "OK Computer" was the album that propelled Radiohead to worldwide, stadium-sized popularity. Though it never went higher than No. 21 on Billboard charts, it won critical raves and a Grammy for alternative music performance.

Years earlier, Spin ranked Nirvana's "Nevermind" the greatest album of the nineties. In the time since, however, editor-in-chief Sia Michel and others simply found they were reaching for "OK Computer" more than the slightly less relevant "Nevermind."

Also in the top 10, in order, are Pavement's "Slanted and Enchanted," The Smiths' "The Queen is Dead," Pixies' "Surfer Rosa," De La Soul's "3 Feet High and Rising," Prince's "Sign 'o' the Times," PJ Harvey's "Rid of Me" and N.W.A.'s "Straight Outta Compton."

jasn
06-20-2005, 09:43 AM
That list reads like something out of a Best Buy sale or something...

tentoze
06-20-2005, 09:52 AM
10 posts in this thread and I still haven't seen anything mentioned that:

1) I have ever listened to
2) I currently own
3) I would like to own
4) I plan on ever owning

I love lists.

Davey
06-20-2005, 09:57 AM
Leave Spin on the shelf and make up your OWN mind.
Well, I think we all do pretty much make up our own minds around here. Like I said, it's not my favorite or most played album, but still kind of fun to hear what others think and I thought it was kind of neat to hear something like OK Computer being talked about on CNN last night, even if it was linked to a meaningless magazine like Spin :)

Davey
06-20-2005, 10:02 AM
10 posts in this thread and I still haven't seen anything mentioned that:

1) I have ever listened to
2) I currently own
3) I would like to own
4) I plan on ever owning

I love lists.
:)

Hey, speaking of the Old Canes, I was listening to that one before work today and boy do I like that album. Think you mentioned listening to it recently too over at that other place, maybe? Gotta get it back in regular rotation.

jasn
06-20-2005, 10:42 AM
C'mon now...Doesn't that list p*ss you off for being so stale? "Ahhhh...they don't make music the way they used to back in the 90's..."

tentoze
06-20-2005, 10:43 AM
:)

Hey, speaking of the Old Canes, I was listening to that one before work today and boy do I like that album. Think you mentioned listening to it recently too over at that other place, maybe? Gotta get it back in regular rotation.
Yeah, I hadn't trotted that one out in a few months. I've been rotating through a ton of stuff in the last coupla weeks breaking in new speaks.

Davey
06-20-2005, 11:04 AM
C'mon now...Doesn't that list p*ss you off for being so stale?
Huh? It's just another list. Like Troy says, who really cares? I've only seen the top ten spots that they list in that AP story and most of them are critics favorites, although it was nice to see PJ finish that high. I was mainly just asking opinions about OK Computer. A collection of rock critics will always list the same old stuff, but that's why I tossed it out here. What do YOU think should be up there? I'd probably go for the PJ Harvey <i>Dry</i> debut album which I've played to death, or the Yo La Tengo <i>Electr-o-pura</i> album that I still listen to over and over, or </i>The La's</i> one and only brilliant self-titled release that became my morning soundtrack for longer than I can remember, or a handful of others, but that's just my silly picks :)

Dave_G
06-20-2005, 11:17 AM
Radiohead irritates me more that Spocks Beard does, and man oh man, Spocks Beard really irritates me.

But that's just me.

I know zillions of people love Radiohead, and I am glad for that since Radiohead is kinda prog...

Dave

jasn
06-20-2005, 11:22 AM
OK, maybe me acting p*ssed off is a little strong (get...a...life jasn). I own most of those titles and also agree with your additions Davey (especially The la's). I'm not so much in disagreement as I am struck by how safe Spin seemed to play it.

I've also learned to keep my own top [era] lists in my head. It never reads quite right after I've committed them to writing.

DariusNYC
06-20-2005, 01:25 PM
No specific comment on OK Computer -- as many of you know, I'm a fan -- but I note that albums themselves have become less important over the last few years (especially over the last 5 of these last 20). Singles are back, baby, which is a great development in my book. The most influential music these days, and much of the most innovative, tends to be denominated in individual songs, and much of it is pop and hip hop. The albums on which these songs are located are often uneven or contain filler -- quite a throwback to yesteryear in a way, no? As is the fact that producers are back in a big way, and often the most influential and unique tracks are producer-driven with the named performer being secondary (and sometimes, of course, lacking significant vocal talent!). Finally, it's a bit retro that much of this crazy, weird sounding stuff is actually quite popular. So, I enjoy Top 20 lists and stuff like that if they contain well-written blurbs rhapsodizing about the music, because they're fun to read. I also like that 15-year-old would-be music geeks are encouraged to buy Public Enemy and the Smiths and whoever by the magazine. But the concept of Best 20 albums of the last 20 years seems a bit dusty and nostalgic to me. And, as others have mentioned, the state of the rock magaizine ain't what it used to be.

MomurdA
06-20-2005, 02:42 PM
Perhaps the single has come back becuase there are very few bands that can even come up with an entire album these days. Or perhaps cuz the labels just want one mainstream song that will sell 'albums'. Bottom line: Albums rock, singles suck.
Peace

Troy
06-20-2005, 03:10 PM
Daruis us right whether we like it or not.

Why the single has seen such a resurgence:

1. Short attention spans of the current generation of listeners. They are mentally incapable of listening to an entire album. They have far too much talking on the cellphone to do to listen to a whole CD.

2. The proliferation of "iTunes" type companies that base their sales on singles rather than albums.

2b. The whole mp3/online road that music took via napster also favored the single, just for bandwidth reasons alone. A chicken/egg argument could be made here, but I see it that iTunes' design and the nature of mp3 favors the single, so singles look hot and that makes singles hot by default.

I suspect that it will swing back the other way as artists and listeners realize that basing everything on the single format is extremely limiting when looking for a piece that gives total immersion, a place to go for more than 3:15.

AFAIC, the music scene today is just like the early 60s before the Beatles. Lots of parallels to the early 70s too. Vapid singers and prefab studio "bands" pukeing up innocuous pop dreck is what's moving the big numbers. It feeds on itself.

It WILL change again. Doesn't it just FEEL like there is a new thing in music that's gonna break huge in the next year or 3? A sea-change, like The Beatles or Punk; something to shake the whole thing to it's foundations.

nobody
06-20-2005, 06:24 PM
I guess I just look it it like, if you were picking the greatest album from the 50s & 60s, it should proabbly be a rock and roll record. Sure, Sinatra put out great albums in the period, but the biggest musical shakeups were in rock, so I'd have to lean that way.

I guess if I though tthere was any way you could possibly pick out an objectively "best" album from such a long period of time with so much good music coming out, I would be less likely to disagree. But, since I think that notion's a bit silly, I guess I look for external signifigance to the pick.

I agree the electronic music rise is a huge musical development that has affected music across the board too, from rock to hip hop and beyond, really. I may be naive in saying it, but it seems to me that its the biggest European contribution to pop music, while hip hop is the what the US brought to the party. Sure, there are plenty of electronic bands in the US and plenty of Hip Hop ion Europe, but it seems like the biggest audiences and most firm roots make the case. But, if I weant to give a nod to electronic music, I'm gonna go a lot further than going to Radiohead to do so.

Davey...sorry I ignored the sales chart stuff. I just really don't look at 'em enough to be sure one way or another. It seems to me, I tend to see more hip hop and such with big nubers more often than rock, but I'm pretty out of the pop culture loo most of the time these days, so I could be way off base. Then again, maybe the answer is as simple as we live in a world where multiple strains of music are pumping at once and we just need to stop with all the linear thinking remember that we don't have to pick one or the other as of current signifigance.

Davey
06-20-2005, 07:18 PM
Davey...maybe the answer is as simple as we live in a world where multiple strains of music are pumping at once and we just need to stop with all the linear thinking remember that we don't have to pick one or the other as of current signifigance.
Yeah, not sure what that's the answer to, but it makes sense to me :)

Heehee, I sometimes check out the Billboard chart because they put it in the music section of my newspaper on Friday on the reviews page. Usually I don't know who most of the artists are, but this week I was really surprised because I knew them all. Don't have any of the records, but still made me think of the past converstaion we had. Music has become pretty much the same as the movies in the modern era where a small handful of corporations control all the pop culture icons. They put all the ad budget and their stockholders good grace in just a couple big, bland releases each month and that's it. This month by coincidence those couple releases are mostly rock. Next month probably urban pop or hip hop. I'm way past caring except as a subject of internet music board conversation.

Dusty Chalk
06-20-2005, 08:08 PM
...maybe the answer is as simple as we live in a world where multiple strains of music are pumping at once and we just need to stop with all the linear thinking remember that we don't have to pick one or the other as of current signifigance.I concur! Many years ago, I wrote an "open letter to the record companies". In it, I rallied against the concept of "pop" music. My stance was, that the population had gotten too large, and too diverse for any one kind of music to appeal universally.

I think the same thing can be said about formats.

Oh, and in answer to the original question, I think not.

What would I pick instead? I don't know, maybe one of these:

Matt Elliott, The Mess We Made or perhaps Drinking Songs
Sigur Rós, ()
Stabbing Westward, Darkest Days
Notwist, Neon Golden
In The Nursery, Hindle Wakes

...maybe not...I'd have to think about it...

newtrix1
06-21-2005, 02:19 AM
1. Short attention spans of the current generation of listeners. They are mentally incapable of listening to an entire album. They have far too much talking on the cellphone to do to listen to a whole CD.


...went back to about 45 minutes +/-, rather than 60+ minutes (to fill a cd??), it would help. I personally find too much filler on albums produced since the cd became the standard format.

-Jar-
06-21-2005, 06:13 AM
Doesn't it just FEEL like there is a new thing in music that's gonna break huge in the next year or 3? A sea-change, like The Beatles or Punk; something to shake the whole thing to it's foundations.

I hope so.

I have no idea what it will be. We probably won't until it happens. I think I really am getting old. The last 10 years or so have been one "NEO" trend after another. Neo-punk, Neo-ska, Neo-swing, Neo-garage, Neo-new wave, Neo-post punk.. It's just one big recycle bin. Soon it will be time for Neo-grunge.


That's fine, esp for those who weren't there the first time (or the 2nd time as the case may be)..

I'm just having a hard time trying to figure out what's left that hasn't been covered. Whatever the next big thing is, is here somewhere, bubbling beneath the surface. It's always happened that way.

-jar

Ex Lion Tamer
06-21-2005, 06:57 AM
Full list:

1. Radiohead - OK Computer
2. Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back
3. Nirvana - Nevermind
4. Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted
5. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
6. The Pixies - Surfer Rosa
7. De La Soul - 3 Ft. High And Rising
8. Prince - Sign 'O' The Times
9. PJ Harvey - Rid Of Me
10. N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton
11. U2 - Achtung Baby
12. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
13. Husker Du - New Day Rising
14. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
15. Liz Phair - Exile In Guyville
16. Beck - Odelay
17. Nas - Illmatic
18. Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction
19. Hole - Live Through This
20. Wu Tang Clan - Enter The Wu Tang (36 Chambers)
21. Public Enemy - Fear Of A Black Planet
22. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
23. Outkast - Stankonia
24. Sleater Kinney - Dig Me Out
25. Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
26. Bjork - Post
27. The Cure - The Head On The Door
28. Oasis - Definitely Maybe
29. Fugazi - 13 Songs
30. The Notorious B.I.G. - Ready To Die
31. Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me
32. The Replacements - Tim
33. Ice Cube - AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted
34. Elliott Smith - Either/Or
35. Dr. Dre - The Chronic
36. Pixies - Doolittle
37. Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
38. A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
39. Lucinda Williams - s/t
40. Run D.M.C. - Raising Hell
41. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
42. Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking
43. B.D.P. - Criminal Minded
44. Green Day - Dookie
45. Kanye West - College Dropout
46. The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace
47. Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full
48. Radiohead - Kid A
49. Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation Of...
50. New Order - Low Life
51. Nirvana - In Utero
52. Beastie Boys - Licensed To Ill
53. Rage Against The Machine - The Battle Of Los Angeles
54. The Breeders - Last Splash
55. The Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole
56. PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
57. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
58. Metallica - Master Of Puppets
59. Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West
60. De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead
61. Weezer - Pinkerton
62. Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly
63. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
64. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP
65. Basement Jaxx - Remedy
66. Outkast - Aquemini
67. Slayer - Reign In Blood
68. Tricky - Maxinquaye
69. DJ Shadow - Entroducing...
70. Jay-Z - The Blueprint
71. The Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy
72. Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
73. Pulp - Different Class
74. Portishead - Dummy
75. Le Tigre - s/t
76. Belle & Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister
77. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
78. The Stone Roses - s/t
79. Moby - Everything Is Wrong
80. D'Angelo - Voodoo
81. Beck - Mellow Gold
82. Jeff Buckley - Grace
83. At The Drive-In - Relationship Of Command
84. Soundgarden - Superunknown
85. REM - Automatic For The People
86. Meat Puppets - Up On The Sun
87. Blur - Parklife
88. Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup
89. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell
90. Sonic Youth - Sister
91. XTC - Skylarking
92. Big Black - Atomizer
93. Pearl Jam - Ten
94. Slint - Spiderland
95. Elastica - s/t
96. The Pogues - Rum Sodomy & The Lash
97. Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
98. Cornershop - When I Was Born For The 7th Time
99. Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen
100. The Strokes - Is This It

daigoro
06-21-2005, 07:17 AM
I'll wager that '75-'85 would take the lion's share of a 30 year list.

Now, if you further isolated it to also include just '90-'95 there would be precious little left for the other 15 years of dreck.

MindGoneHaywire
06-21-2005, 10:42 PM
Noticed elsewhere: not that I care all that much, and not that I'm a fan of the rec, but it does seem a bit strange to me that U2's Joshua Tree doesn't make the cut here. But I have no idea what SPIN is like these days & probably haven't since I stopped buying it back in, uh, 1987? I bought EVERY issue of that mag for two years but then it disappeared for awhile, came back not quite the same, and by the time it did I didn't care anymore. But 20 years ago, for a brief period, they were a great music magazine.

That was a long time ago.

3-LockBox
06-22-2005, 10:05 AM
Public Enemy should have been number one. Or, at least something hip hop. I always seem to be speaking up for hip hop, which is funny since it probably only comprises maybe 20-25% or so of my listenig, if that much. Thing is, in the last 20 years, the development of hip hop has been the number one musical evolution in popular music that has simply changed the musical landscape like nothing since the birth of rock 'n' roll. If you're gonna pick a top album from this era, even though the earliy hip hp albums were a bit earlier, you may wanna lean in that direction if you don't wanna look foolish once the history books are written in the future.

Either way, looks like some good records made the top part of the list. Funny how yearly lists have so many obscure bands on them, but when things shake out and the decade long lists pop up, most of the big winners seem to be stuff that has had some level of public acceptance.

Hip Hop has stuck around dispite a huge amount of backlash in the '80s and '90s...even more important than its musical evolution is its influence on pop culture (much to my chagrin by the way). So you're right, I'm surprised they didn't rank a hip hop or rap album number one, since they're a bunch of hip mongers.

At any rate, I don't think SPIN magazine (or any other rag for that matter) has ever influenced my listening habits. I think they just want to be relevant and hip...like us here at RR!

Slosh
06-22-2005, 01:35 PM
I don't get people who don't get OK Computer. For me it's a tie with Emergency & I for best album of the last two decades. Even though I'm sick of both I can't stay that way for long :)

Wow, I have 28 of those listed albums but only a handful would make my top 100.

MomurdA
06-22-2005, 01:50 PM
Who did Emergency & I???

Slosh
06-22-2005, 02:54 PM
Who did Emergency & I???
The Dismemberment Plan (1999) ;)