Rolling Stone has announced its top 50 albums of 2008, and it looks like they, by and large, forgot the electronica – electronic music and dance music are largely left out, despite being some of the most popular music worldwide.
Here’s the list:
Rolling Stone’s Top 50 Albums Of 2008:
50 No Age – Nouns
49 Hot Chip – Made In The Dark
48 Raphael Saadiq – The Way I See It
47 Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping
46 The Academy Is… – Fast Times at Barrington High
45 Be Your Own Pet – Get Awkward
44 The Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely
43 Nas – Untitled
42 David Byrne and Brian Eno – Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
41 AC/DC – Black Ice
40 Jonas Brothers – A Little Bit Longer
39 Taylor Swift – Fearless
38 Ra Ra Riot – The Rhumb Line
37 Nine Inch Nails – The Slip
36 The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
35 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
34 Stephen Malkmus – Real Emotional Trash
33 Ne-Yo – Year Of The Gentleman
32 Jamey Johnson – The Lonesome Song
31 MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
30 Duffy – Rockferry
29 Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
28 The Knux – Remind Me in Three Days…
27 Brian Wilson – That Lucky Old Sun
26 Mudcrutch – Mudcrutch
25 The Magnetic Fields – Distortion
24 Girl Talk – Feed The Animals
23 Conor Oberst – Conor Oberst
22 Jackson Browne – Time the Conquerer
21 Kaiser Chiefs – Off With Their Heads
20 Kings of Leon – Only By The Night
19 Erykah Badu – New Amerykah, Part 1 (4th World War)
18 Lucinda Williams – Little Honey
17 B.B. King – One Kind Favor
16 Randy Newman – Harps and Angels
15 The Black Keys – Attack & Release
14 Ryan Adams And The Cardinals – Cardinology
13 Blitzen Trapper – Furr
12 Guns N’ Roses – Chinese Democracy
11 Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
10 Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
09 Metallica – Death Magnetic
08 Beck – Modern Guilt
07 Coldplay – Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
06 Santogold – Santogold
05 John Mellencamp – Life, Death, Love and Freedom
04 My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges
03 Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III
02 Bob Dylan – Tell Tale Signs:The Bootleg Series Vol. 8
01 TV on the Radio – Dear Science
Let me know what you think of their list – and what you think is missing!
This is the only best album list you’ll ever need.
http://vice.typepad.com/vice_magazine/2008/11/london—the-be.html
It’s no wonder that this list is ridiculous, it was done by the backwards-thinking old farts at Rolling Stone. RS ceased being relevant back in the ’80s. Spin has absolutely crushed them, AP is much better too. Seriously?
Look at some of the MILF-rock throwbacks on this list, it’s like these
people had no access to internet, radio, or television over the last year.
Perhaps the RS staff have finally moved their offices to their proper location; under a rock.
There’s some band’s I’m happy to see on here, but not Hot Chip, god they suck.
Ppls post some other links like stretta, though I have to view his link at home; the work firewall here catagorized his link “Tasteless & Offensive (N942)” by SurfControl. 🙂
well, looks like Brian Eno David Byrne’s new release made it (#42).
But, largely, yeah. And it means that electronica is still the real alternative music genre. Yay!
BlueBrat – getting branded as Tasteless & Offensive is good enough for me. I’ll have to check it out!
What? No “The Way of All Flesh” by Gojira?!!?! No “Fortress” by Protest The Hero?!??!
Oh. Wait. Sorry, wrong blog.
But I have another question: Does anyone REALLY care what Rolling Stone says about music anymore? They have great articles about lots of things that aren’t music, but I couldn’t care less for their music coverage. I mean, they’re basically Harper’s (not a bad thing) with some pop star on the cover.
I’d also argue that electronic music technology is now omnipresent — Pro Tools and samplers are used on many popular country music albums! “Electronica” has really transcended being a “style” and is everywhere now.
And to be fair, it’s still very difficult to find great album-length electronic music. Lots of singles and DJ mixes, yes, but not long-players that are more than a compilation of dubplates. E.g., Pendulum’s In Silico is a shockingly rare example of a well-crafted, energetic DnB album.
Pendulum ? DnB ? IMHO “In Silico” is a shockingly rare example of a bad band gone to absolutely shit.
i’m dubious of any top 50 that includes a lil wayne album…
Cardinology should’ve rated higher
It’s a shame for Rolling Stone to be so blind/restricted musically. It in some way matches the Grammy’s etc which are disgraceful when it comes to electronic knowledge. And Itotally agree. While I listen to all sorts of music I have a passion for some electronica and think 2008 was an exceptional year for dance music.
There’s an article on the RA website, an electronic e-zine, on their writers top 20 artist albums in 2008. It’d give that a read.
Top 20 albums of 2008.
Personally:
Hercules & Love Affair ** unmissable!!!
The Mole – As High as the Sky ** amazing.
Osborne – Osborne ** superb.
Shed – Shedding the past ** pure techno bliss.
Kind of scary that so many of you have so much to say about yet another meaningless "Top 50" list , let alone about the magazine that spawned it. Face it, all "list" magazine articles and TV programs are pointless space fillers and time wasters. Aren't they? Aren't they?
I really liked your blog! I submitted it to digg. The jonas brothers are awesome