Three of the 100 are in this picture! The Rolling Stones, in 1964, from left to right: Bill Wyman, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Brian Jones. The problem with lists like this is they are invariably bullshit. So our prime objective was to make sure we didn’t do a bullshit list. I’m not saying we did a scientific one […]
The concert industry exploded in the 1970s, and the live album, a stopgap project once reserved for only the biggest artists, became a compulsory ritual and a pivotal moment for many artists. Live albums captured legendarily loud bands like The Who and The Ramones in their natural element. Once obscure regional acts like Bob Seger, […]
It was a banner year for producers. The Neptunes — a major commercial force since Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Got Your Money” — helmed more great songs than we could fit on this list. (Shout out to NSYNC’s “Girlfriend,” an all-time classic boy band single.) Timbaland, Kanye West and Dr. Dre were similarly on fire. It […]
The world may be getting more and more digital (NFTs — more like no fucking thanks), but record stores are beloved Luddite-havens where music culture thrives. Mainstream stores pivoted out of the brick and mortar locales over the years, or closed altogether like Sam Goody, but not independent shops. Their dedicated owners understood their importance […]
Best Album lists tend to earn all the internet hype — it always feels like a somewhat serious, academic endeavor, adding to the pantheon of OK Computers and To Pimp a Butterflys. But Best Songs lists are weirder, messier, even more challenging on a nuts and bolts level. (When was this song released? When was […]
Despite what some “best of” blurb intros may tell you, there is no exact science to list-making. And constructing one so methodically just might ruin the joy altogether — for both us, the curators, and you, the readers. Even though debate is a natural reaction, anger is not. These stories are supposed to be fun! […]
Making out is timeless — kisses rev up the romantic mood and stir the spirit, if not the loins. Make-out songs contain multitudes too, like the one playing when you sync with that special someone, or the tune that nano-second sucks you right back to high school when you held your teenage crush in a […]
On Monday morning, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, better known as the iconic French dance duo Daft Punk, released a cryptic eight-minute video on their YouTube channel titled “Epilogue.” The short film depicted one member of the masked band detonating the other, followed by “1993-2021” text indicating that the group’s run has come to […]
Not all love songs are romantic. Not all love songs are even happy. It all depends on your definition of the term. For every “My Girl” or “Your Song,” there’s at least one track with a nuanced take on the darker, more complicated sides of love — the drama of a long-term relationship, the fear […]
It’s become a cliché, even for post-Baby Boomers, to look back wistfully on the early ’70s as some kind of untouchable golden age for popular music. But when you survey all the era’s best albums in list form, it’s hard not to trust that instinct. I mean…holy shit. In 1971, the psychedelic era hadn’t completely […]