| LONDON: The music industry has come of age this week with Q magazine releasing their Top 100 Top 100 lists of all time. The list, which took 3 years to compile rated every Top 100 list ever printed to find the definitive best and most influential Top 100 list of ALL TIME.
Q editor Richard Millen told reporters that although the list will match fairly closely with public expectations, there were a number of surprises included in the list. "We have not only tried to include the best or the most popular Top 100 lists in our chart but also the lists that we feel were most influential in influencing the development of Top 100 lists over the past 40 years." "The 1992 Melody Maker Top 100 albums of 1992 is a good case in point. The list is technically not brilliant, including such albums as Groovie Train by the Farm and one of those crappy ones from Ned's Atomic Dustbin. Even so, the list was groundbreaking as it was the first to include the pivotal Nivarna album Nevermind in the top 10. As a result we rated it at number 18 in our list." The list was assembled by the editors and writers at Q magazine along with a number of leading musicians and industry professionals. Some of the more famous contributors included Malcolm Mclaren, Noel Gallagher, Sporty Spice, Bob Geldof, Suggs and Gary Glitter. Not all contributors were happy with the outcome however. Senior Q writer Gary Dance threatened to resign his post as senior reviewer at Q, after the Top 100 list of obscure 1986 fanzine Shazam failed to make it into the Top 20. "The list was extremely influential on the development of Top 100 lists both in Britain and the United States." Dance told reporters. "This list was not only the first to rightly recognise that Pet Sounds should be in the Top 10, but also that Kraftwerk's Autobahn should be recognised as the groundbreaking album that it is. It also leaned heavily towards punk orientated records of the late 70's and resigned every Pink Floyd album, including Barrett era Floyd to the scrap heap. To have this heavily influential list consigned to number 32 is a travesty." Other critics point to the predominance of lists created in the last ten years as an indication of the transitory nature of the list and indeed of lists in general. With this in mind only 8 of the top 50 Top 100 lists were published earlier than 1970 an era pivotal in the development of rock history. Q editor Richard Millen acknowledged that there would always be disagreements, but contained that the real purpose of the list was to promote discussion of Top 100 lists in general. "I truly believe that this list will expose Top 100 lists to a broader cross section of the population. And who knows perhaps one day this list will influence others to pick up their pens and pads and make a Top 100 Top 100 list of their own." The Top 15 of the Q Magazine Top 100 Top 100 lists of All Time are published below. 1. Top 100 albums of this Century (Q Magazine, November 1999) 2. Top 100 songs of all time (Melody Maker, November 1998) 3. Top 100 Beatles songs of all Time (Q Magazine, May 2001) 4. Top 100 albums made under the influence of chemicals of All Time (Mojo, August 1997) 5. Top 100 albums of the 90's (NME, May 1999) 6. Top 100 Overdoses in Rock History (Melody Maker, June 1994) 7. Top 100 albums of this Century and All Time (Q Magazine, May 1986) 8. Top 100 US albums featuring a female voice of All Time (Rolling Stone, January 1976). 9. Village Voice Critics List (Village Voice, March 1982). 10. Top 100 albums featuring the word "Rock" in title of All Time (Q, May 1993) 11. Top 100 Greatest Hits albums of All Time (Q, October 1996) 12. Top 100 singles not featuring backing vocals by a member of the Rolling Stones or Beatles of All Time (Sounds, March 1982) 13. Top 100 albums not produced by a recording artist famous in his or her own right of All Time (Sounds, November 1982) 14. Top 100 albums of the 70's and 80's produced with a budget of $2m or less of All Time (Rip it Up, June 1989). 15. Top 100 albums made by either James Brown, Stevie Wonder BB King or Johny Cash (Mojo, June 1998).  |
| Q magazine release Top 100 Top 100 lists of All Time |
Monday, 01 October 2001 12:00
