Apple Music put together a list of the “100 Best Albums,” and it did not follow its old advice to “Think Different.”
The list, which was released in chunks culminating with the announcement of the top 10 Wednesday, would not look out of place in Rolling Stone, Time, Pitchfork, The Guardian, Entertainment Weekly, New Music Express, The Source, Spin or any of the myriad other publications that have taken a stab at this idea over the years.
“Nevermind”? No. 9. “What’s Going On”? No. 17. “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back”? No. 34.
For connoisseurs of the list-making genre, it’s more fun to parse it carefully to see the tough calls Apple inevitably faced as it made the list “with the help of artists and experts.”
Did the list-makers give extra weight to double albums? (Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life” is at No. 6, The Clash’s “London Calling” at No. 35, Prince’s “Sign o’ the Times” at No. 51 and The Rolling Stones’ “Exile on Main Street” at No. 53.) Which Beatles album ranks highest? (They put “Abbey Road” at No. 3 and “Revolver” at No. 21 and skipped “Sgt. Pepper’s” entirely.) How diverse is the list? (About a third of the artists are women and about 40% are Black.)
Apple’s choices are as mysterious as its decision to keep changing the design of the power cords on the MacBook.
Then there’s the bigger picture, which is where Apple’s choices are as mysterious as its decision to keep changing the design of the power cords on the MacBook.
First, what exactly is the list measuring?
Most outlets that try their hand at a list like this limit it in some way, like the Best Rock Albums, the Best Hip-Hop Albums or the Best Albums of the 2010s, but Apple chose to just call this the “100 Best Albums,” saying it was “the definitive list of the greatest albums ever made.” Are they supposed to be the best thematically? The best collections, song by song? The most important historically? Apple doesn’t say.
And what kinds of albums are we talking about?
While hip-hop and rock are pretty well represented, the list gives only token nods to other genres, with one reggae album (Bob Marley’s “Exodus” at No. 46), one country album (Kacey Musgraves’ “Golden Hour” at No. 85), one folk album (Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” at No. 16), two punk albums (“London Calling” at No. 35 and Patti Smith’s “Horses” at No. 83) and three jazz albums (Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” at No. 25, John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” at No. 54 and Nina Simone’s “I Put a Spell on You” at No. 88). There’s no blues, no gospel, no world music and no live albums.
By comparison, R&B did pretty well, with nearly a dozen entries, but fans were still not happy about the absence of Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, among others. Legendary producer Jermaine Dupri criticized the list on Tuesday, writing on the social media site X that it was “sad” and “not worthy” and “the disrespect to R&B is CRAZY!!!!!” (To be fair, his tweet came out before the final 10, which put “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” at No. 1.)








