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well how about that
So a little while ago I was opining about lists and voting and all that shite and talked about the whole 1000 greatest rock songs countdowns on classic rock stations and how everyone knows what's going to be at the top, and it's really the lower numbers that are interesting.
Then tonight I sat down and watched one of those silly things you do over a holiday weekend, where VH1 polled a bunch of musicians and put together a top 100 artists of all time thing. And what was remarkable about the list was that the top 20 was actually very different than it would have been had the list been made, say, 25 years ago. Which, of course, is as it should be, but I guess I'm so used to the whole Rolling Stone-led worship of boomer culture that I was vaguely surprised.
This, though. This is a list voted on by people my age and younger, and reflects how completely R&B and rap have been absorbed into pop alongside rock because those artists were invited to vote, too, and it shows.
I mean, look at all those black folks. Look at all those folks who didn't even start making music until the very late 70s or early 80s, after the period of classic rock is generally over. Hopefully in 20 years there will be more ladies—the next lady after Madonna is at #24, Mo (and Nico) of Velvet Underground. I keep staring at this list like I can't believe it's real.
Then tonight I sat down and watched one of those silly things you do over a holiday weekend, where VH1 polled a bunch of musicians and put together a top 100 artists of all time thing. And what was remarkable about the list was that the top 20 was actually very different than it would have been had the list been made, say, 25 years ago. Which, of course, is as it should be, but I guess I'm so used to the whole Rolling Stone-led worship of boomer culture that I was vaguely surprised.
This, though. This is a list voted on by people my age and younger, and reflects how completely R&B and rap have been absorbed into pop alongside rock because those artists were invited to vote, too, and it shows.
- The Beatles
- Michael Jackson
- Led Zeppelin
- The Rolling Stones
- Bob Dylan
- Jimi Hendrix
- Prince
- Elvis Presley
- James Brown
- Stevie Wonder
- Bob Marley
- David Bowie
- The Who
- Nirvana
- Beach Boys
- Madonna
- Queen
- Pink Floyd
- U2
- Marvin Gaye
I mean, look at all those black folks. Look at all those folks who didn't even start making music until the very late 70s or early 80s, after the period of classic rock is generally over. Hopefully in 20 years there will be more ladies—the next lady after Madonna is at #24, Mo (and Nico) of Velvet Underground. I keep staring at this list like I can't believe it's real.
no subject
I think in 20 years there'll definitely be more women and probably less of a bias towards rock as a genre. I wonder how artists like Eminem and Kanye West and Nicki Minaj will be represented.
no subject
I think it comes down in large part to influence. As more of the artists that VH1 or someone else would ask are influenced by these sorts of artists, then more of them will make the list. So now that there are so many artists that were influenced by 80s music, the 80s musicians are further up the list. Personally, if we've decided that what we got out of the 80s was Prince, U2, Madonna and MJ, I'm okay with that.
In other words I completely agree with you. More women, less of a rock bias, and we already see that in this list as it is with all these soul guys in the top where they wouldn't have been on a rock list. But they all influenced rap and modern R&B, so they're on the list. It's amazing: it really is all about MJ suing MTV to put him on the damn channel, MTV embracing that and later putting on MTV Raps. Huge, huge, huge.
And yet with all that, everyone's like, "and the Beatles."