Random Music Talk CXXIV: Axver's All Out of Ideas

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It’s 15 years old? [emoji22] I feel so old and I can be taken back big time with that song. It evokes so many memories of my childhood.
 
I put Bombs over Baghdad on a playlist the other day and wished spotify didn’t tell me when albums were released sometimes because that made me feel old.
 
Congrats!

In a couple of years interferencers will start to announce that they have grandchildren and are moving down to Florida.
 
The 47 ranking was ridiculously low. And War or Boy don't show up? Nah, fam. But I had a feeling their stock would have dropped in the last year or two. Apparently the JT tour didn't help.

Also pretty dumb that only R.E.M.'s first two albums made it.
 
Yeah, Pageant and Document not making it seems wrong. I'd personally put both of those over Reckoning. I like Reckoning a lot, though.

Hard to argue with THE PURP! at number 1. It is a huge album.
 
Also, did Double Fantasy not make it? I haven't even heard the Yoko album that they chose for the list but it can't be better than Double Fantasy. I love all of Lennon's tracks on that album.
 
So according to pitchfork, Brian Eno and Janet Jackson released more quality albums than U2 and Michael Jackson in the 1980s.

Oh, right. It’s a list of someone’s glorified opinion.
 
I mean, I'm not that mad. I think it's fair. 47 is reasonable, all things considered.

Boy I'm not convinced had the outsized impact that many of us think it had. War has got one exceptionally good half and one sloppy half. The Unforgettable Fire is the record that I thought could perhaps make it on there, but it too has its issues.
 
War I feel is the most iconic '80s U2 album outside of JT. That was the one that probably should have made it. In my mind it's probably the most "'80s" U2 album. The sound and imagery (and Bono's hair) of it. It feels like it fits in that decade more than any of the other stuff. Boy does too now that I think about it, though.
 
War was in Rolling Stone's Top 100 of the 80s way back when. Placed in the Top 20 if memory serves. JT was #3 behind London Calling and Purple Rain.

I'm assuming Pitchfork now considers the Clash album 1979? Cuz only Sandinista made it.

And no, Cobbler, 47 is not fucking reasonable. Considering how unique that album was for its time period, the producers behind it, the thematic content, the sales, the continued popularity.

LOL at Janet Jackson's Control being in the Top 10. GTFO with that shit. Like A Prayer runs circles around that album.

Even the headline: "Kate Bush, N.W.A., Brian Eno, Madonna, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Sade, Sonic Youth, Janet Jackson, and the other icons who defined a decade"

Sorry, but Sade and Janet did not define the decade as much as MJ and U2. When people discuss most important artists of the 1980s, no fucking way is U2 not in that conversation. Kate Bush is great, but a little too niche to be on the marquee.
 
Yeah they were pretty huge, all the 90s success came from them setting themselves up as the biggest band in the world in the 80s. And you're obviously better placed than I am to comment on the 80s, being the old fuck that you are.

I'm just saying let's not be too subjective. And Rolling Stone is the magazine that has given the last few U2 albums glowing reviews, despite the fact that none of them are all that good.

INXS' Kick at 114 and Appetite for Destruction at 86 I would argue are bigger travesties perhaps. Both those bands were gigantic in the late 80s from what I've learned.

Sade is a strange pick, given Love Deluxe is probably her most famous record..? I don't know about that.

But Kate Bush deserves to be mentioned there I think. Of all the artists listed in that 200 I can't think of too many who are still inspiring people to get dressed up at costume parties today.
 
Both of Michael Jackson's '80s albums made the list.



It was a criticism of how many Janet Jackson albums made the list, and how many of them were ranked ahead of Bad.

It’s a clear bias - there’s a handful of artists you can pick from this list where you know the author’s tastes.

Which is fine, because quality of music is largely an opinion. Pitchfork just likes to try to make it fact.
 
I hope y'all have read the introductory paragraphs:

Now, with hindsight, we’re attempting to look at the ’80s with new eyes—reassessing old favorites, rediscovering undersung gems. And that means, in part, looking at Pitchfork’s own history frankly: Longtime readers may remember that, in 2002, we made a list of The Top 100 Albums of the 1980s. That list was shorter, sure, but it also represented a limited editorial stance we have worked hard to move past; its lack of diversity, both in album selections and contributing critics, does not represent the voice Pitchfork has become. For this new list, we gathered votes from more than 50 full-time staffers and regularly contributing writers to open up our discussion. Our list still reflects the realities of the ’80s—many great artists worked more successfully in singles than in full albums, for example—but we hope it represents the best of what this innovative decade has to offer, as well as how people consume music now. Tune in.

As a demographic, this forum leans white and male. So while the changes in the list may seem biased or ill advised, I think that's the whole point. They are trying to make the list better reflect people's tastes.

I certainly think a bunch of albums should be higher or present in the list, but I think we need to recognize that we have a somewhat myopic view of these things.
 
And my answer to that is “so?” Pitchfork attempting to be gender and race inclusive doesn’t suddenly make Janet Jackson’s albums better. And without a key metric, one album being “better” than the other isn’t a thing. They didn’t claim it to be more impactful, more popular, or even more insert_qualifiable_information.

I’m not a fan of Prince and I don’t give a rats ass about Madonna, but I don’t complain about their presence on this list and where they were placed because I think they were incredibly popular and incredibly impactful.

Janet Jackson has otherwise been treated like shit in many instances in her life, but I sure as shit don’t think her music was that great. Definitely did not define the 80s, though I can’t say that for sure since I wasn’t there.

Anyways, a group of people who get paid to have an opinion.
 
And my answer to that is “so?” Pitchfork attempting to be gender and race inclusive doesn’t suddenly make Janet Jackson’s albums better.

Maybe different people have different views about what makes good music, and expanding the diversity of the group of people making these judgements will lead to results that prima facie look strange?
 
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