Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Songs

I assume that Missy Elliot is holding Jan Wenner’s family hostage. And that a song by Daddy Yankee is better than Thunder Road.

The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

 

I saw this the other day, started to post it, but then realized the list was so absurd it was a waste or time.
Music is - always has been and always will be - subjective, but this list is nuts.

 

Absurd, but the only reason I appreciate it is it makes for a really good Spotify list to just hit shuffle on and be set for a few hours. Same goes for Pitchfork’s lists by the decade. Useless to read, but a really good Spotify playlist. Very few skips.

 

This is how I use them as well.

 

Some of the songs they have listed near the top aren't even the best songs by those artists.

 

In your opinion. idk. Lists like this are always stupidly subjective, whether we're talking TV, movies, music, video games or some other form of art. Even deciding on the criteria for the list - are we judging a band / artist at their commercial or critical peak? does it matter if they influenced the greater culture or not? - is something that I doubt there would be wide agreement on.

I usually like the Rolling Stone list because it's essentially "here is the mainstream music critic Top 500." Since I tend to like music covered my Pitchfork, I also hit up their lists from time to time. There's always a couple of songs I managed to miss for whatever reason, or, didn't appreciate because of my age. "Maggie May" had a resonance with me in my 30s, whereas I didn't really give a shit about it in my 20s.

 

Lots of great songs... and some that aren't. The order is straight up nonsense.

 

I don't have time to check the entire list. What number is Afternoon Delight?

 

I'd love to hear a death metal cover of Afternoon Delight. That would be fun.