this was meant to be for fun- can we please not measure the diversity/wokeness of peoples' lists (especially if we've decided not to exclude abusers, etc)
Also worth noting that it's not our fault that the industry itself was male dominated for patriarchal/sexist reasons for much of its history. I listen to and love as much female-fronted music as anyone here, I'll guarantee. That doesn't mean the top TWO PERCENT I skim off what I listen to will be properly diverse.
Additional albums on multiple lists that I need to hear: Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight 65daysofstatic - We Were Exploding Anyway Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Airplane Over the Sea mewithoutyou - Brother, Sister Charli XCX - Pop 2 Frank Turner - Love, Ire and Song Gorillaz- Demon Days
my preliminary list had 157 albums on it and any of those 157 albums could have appeared on this final list. the classics are outweighed by more recent albums just because that's the mood i'm in right now. overall i think it's a pretty decent representation of my taste, though 1. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell 2. Charli XCX - Pop 2 3. Frank Ocean - Blonde 4. The National - Trouble Will Find Me 5. Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion 6. Elliott Smith - Either/Or 7. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly 8. FKA twigs - Magdalene 9. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City 10. Skepta - Konnichiwa 11. Enemies - Valuables 12. Hop Along - Painted Shut 13. Jay Som - Anak Ko 14. Bon Iver - 22, A Million 15. Burial - Untrue 16. Jme - Integrity> 17. Alex G - DSU 18. Earl Sweatshirt - Doris 19. Kate Bush - Hounds of Love 20. Jawbreaker - Dear You 21. Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album 22. Beyoncé - Lemonade 23. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven 24. Danny Brown - XXX 25. Sophie - Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides 26. Jenny Hval - Blood Bitch 27. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless 28. Jamie xx - In Colour 29. Björk - Debut 30. Have a Nice Life - Sea of Worry 31. Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary 32. Nas - Illmatic 33. The xx - xx 34. Camp Cope - Camp Cope 35. Kano - Made in the Manor 36. Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues 37. Kesha - Rainbow 38. The Weakerthans - Reconstruction Site 39. Ceremony - Rohnert Park 40. Vince Staples - Summertime '06 41. 100 Gecs - 1000 Gecs 42. Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica 43. PJ Harvey - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea 44. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures 45. Grimes - Miss Anthropocene 46. Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak 47. Fugazi - 13 Songs 48. Hiroshi Yoshimura - Music for Nine Post Cards 49. Radiohead - Kid A 50. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - I See a Darkness
Listened to the Arthur Russel album, it’s pretty interesting ! Sounds like a meeting point between James Blake and Nick Drake (or maybe I’m just thinking of those two because their names rhyme...). There weren’t any major track standouts for me, and it maybe was a little bit too long, but there are some great sounds here and it feels like it was far ahead of its time, considering it’s from the mid 80s. Enjoyed it a lot.
POV: me making the final cuts to my list and having to remove some of my favorite albums ever because they aren't ultimately definitive to me as a person or the development of my music taste
From Jorbjorb’s list , I listened to It’s a Mighty World by Odetta. I’ve known of Odetta by reputation and influence for a while, but I think this is the first time I’ve actually heard her music, or at the very least, the first time I’ve listened to an album of hers. It’s really fantastic blues / folk music, she has a wonderfully crisp and powerful voice, and I can see why she was such an influence on lots of the 60s folk singers. Really really lovely, and I feel like I’ve been missing out not hearing her before this. Certainly gonna return to this and explore some of her other albums soon.
who here said they don't listen to women lol? having more of an emotional attachment to certain albums than others is indeed taste, yes. cool to presume people don't listen to entire groups of people because of ... their 50 favorite albums.
Of all these lists, this album was literally my #1 priority to catch up to. Great minds. I've seen clips of her in documentaries about the folk scene and Peter Paul and Mary and her voice is massive.
I love them but I picked them up at The Winter of Mixed Drinks and haven't gone backwards. That's actually my issue with a LOT of these. Like I picked up Frank Turner around England Keep My Bones, etc.
Realizing now that my list will probably prompt a lot of people to question why I'm on this site in the first place hahahaha. Not in a "you have shit taste" way but in a "how did you find this place, are you lost???" way.
SpyKi: 31/50 Henry: 22/50 Koryoeo: 30/50 OttyPa: 27/50 VanMasta: 40/50 Aliens Exist: 30/50 Damn. Not doing as well as I'd hope.
Probably obvious, but the most musically formative years for most people (and thus, the years that tend to yield the largest percentage of albums that end up on personal lists like these) are high school and college. So it stands to reason that a list limited to 50 favorites might not necessarily be representative of what a person listens to now. 50 is a minuscule sample of a person's tastes; I'd rather people be honest about the albums that mean/have meant the most to them than worry about the optics. And frankly, I think it's kind of shitty to police or deride anyone's favorite albums lists. You don't know why those albums are there. I'm sure there are cases in this thread where people feel that the albums they are listing saved their lives. While pointing out lack of diversity on lists comes from a good place, I think it can also take a lot of the fun and joy out of an exercise like this, which should be an opportunity for people to share the music they love candidly and un-self-consciously. If we approach this list from a shared love for music (no matter how different the specific albums that we choose prove to be), then this project can and will lead to a lot of discovery and musical growth. I've seen it happen when we've done things like this before. If we approach it in a cynical or judgmental way, that will stifle conversation, discourage people from sharing their lists, and lead to an all-around less positive outcome.