pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

I know whining about specific artists on a best of list is unproductive etc but the Jessie Ware shutout is a bit shocking

the scope represented here feels so narrow and unexciting and predictable.

Grimes embodies this for me. Completely uninteresting music elevated to canonical for some reason

while it is dumbshit as hell that Alfred and Brad weren't polled, I have a hard time seeing any significant broad oversights here. obviously this list isn't going to include much pop-country, metal or jazz but hopefully after 20+ years or whatever people have made their peace with that.

They shutout several artists that were hyped on their eoy lists like Janelle Monae, Sufjan Stevens, Julia Holter, Carseat Headrest, War on Drugs, Pusha T, Earl Sweatshirt, Run the Jewels, Death Grips...

expect to see them on albums list

i guess they could have limited it to one song (or two) per artist? idk, it's just funny to me how predictable and knee-jerk these takes are, if I didn't look at the list itself I would've thought the top 5 was like Radiohead, Deerhunter, Japandroids, Arcade Fire, and Bon Iver.

the deerhunter song on that list is like the best thing on it lol

they had to make room for 7 drake tracks somehow

a former staff member did remark on Twitter that seeing "Chinatown" and a Charli XCX track from this year showed how far the site has evolved.

Latin/Spanish: 3
Dancehall: 2 (3 if I’d include “Good Times” because of Popcaan, but I won’t)
Afropop: 1
K-pop: 0

3% of the 2010s, checks out.

197. Icona Pop: “I Love It” [ft. Charli XCX] (2012)

so there were 196 songs better than this released in the last 10 years? ok lol

this list is simultaneously too poptimist and not poptimist enough

yep

A lot of the song choices feel very "Let's look at what we voted for in past lists/tagged with 'Best New Track' for ideas of what to vote for", but with placements that are a bit more reflective of current opinions.

"imagine it was us" was in my top 10 for what it's worth (very little, but)

179. Rich Kidz: “My Life” [ft. Waka Flocka Flame] (2012)

one of the great goon thread classics

they had to make room for 7 drake tracks somehow

― flopsy bird (voodoo chili)

he was the best singles artist of the decade...

poptimism can fuck off.

157. Waka Flocka Flame: “Hard in da Paint” (2010)

so u tryna tell me there were 156 better songs released this decade?? 😂 😂

poptimism can fuck off.

― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Monday, October 7, 2019 1:09 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it’s good actually

as someone said the gen of writers who wrote this list grew up reading pitchfork and it shows

sorry but ‘alright’ is a terrible number 1

they had to make room for 7 drake tracks somehow

― flopsy bird (voodoo chili)

he was the best singles artist of the decade...

― flappy bird, Monday, October 7, 2019 12:08 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

he was definitely the most popular

81. Cass McCombs: “County Line” (2011)

this should be top 5. consequences of Alfred getting disenfranchised

re: 'alright' @ #1 — seems like it was a collective / representative pick. saw it coming. list is boring as fuck.

whoever said "fuck canonization" last week was absolutely right.

LOL @ including CRJ but not “call me maybe.” pop cultural amnesia!

xp crut- ya that’s a perfect distillation of the middlebrow poptimist sensibility that occupies 2/3 of this list

re: 'alright' @ #1 — seems like it was a collective / representative pick. saw it coming. list is boring as fuck.

feels like it was chosen to write a corny blurb about

Barring @ the earnest political millenialism in some of the write ups

33. LCD Soundsystem: “Dance Yrself Clean” (2010)

🤮

*Barfing

i mean, it's certainly kl's most well-known tune. it does feel very disingenuous at the #1 spot.

does it? i mean people were literally chanting the chorus at BLM rallies. it's not my favorite kendrick song by a long shot, but it definitely had an impact. and like people have said, they're canonizing, they're not picking favorites. i personally think that's a crappy way to make a list, but it totally makes sense as number one with the framework they're working with.

"Alright" peaked at #81 on the Hot 100 and #20 on the rap chart. "Humble" actually went to #1 and is by far his biggest chart hit.

81. Cass McCombs: “County Line” (2011)

this should be top 5. consequences of Alfred getting disenfranchised

― flopson, Monday, October 7, 2019 1:20 PM

lol besos

You know, it's tough to narrow an entire decade's worth of music into a list of 200 songs, so it feels silly to complain about some artists or songs getting shut out.

but there is absolutely ZERO excuses for not including Grimes' realiti demo

did anyone read this? i might need to have my eyes surgically re-rolled back into proper position after reading, but it does explain a lot.

https://pitchfork.com/news/a-note-from-pitchfork-editor-in-chief-puja-patel-about-our-2010s-project/

What does it explain?

"Runaway with Me" is a better CRJ song.

"Call Me Maybe" just sounds like a Marianas Trench leftover.

it explains why the list looks like it was focus-grouped to oblivion--cause it was!

xp

I mean, I guess I don't expect anything different from Pitchfork. (I also don't see it as an inherent problem.)

poptimism can fuck off.

― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Monday, October 7, 2019 5:09 PM (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

When poptimism bubbles up actually cool pop songs it's great, but it has come to just mean "liking pop" which like, take that shit to TigerBeat you fucks. There is not a single Stephen Malkmus song up in this bitch.

Malkmus?

the albums list is gonna be wild isn't it

if by wild you mean similar to this, sure

not a SINGLE Stephen Malkmus song in this bitch???

RIP ryan pitchfork he tried so hard to rank malkmus

This was a real Malk-miss

I don't really listen to Stephen Malkmus. Just using him as a stand-in for indie in general.

sure thing, man