RS Top 500

I love seeing the writing credits for these songs. Had no idea "Flava In Ya Ear" incorporated a Carpenters sample. (At least, I assume it does, given the Paul Williams/Roger Nichols credit.)

As is usually the case with critics "all-time" polls, you can see the stratification by different levels of popularity in the more recent material vs the older material. More recent songs predominantly come from the "semi-popular" strata where most critical darlings reside, whereas older songs have more of a barbell distribution of very popular stuff and very obscure stuff. Over time people's antipathy to the most recent very popular songs (whether due the taint of association with their current fanbase or simply overexposure) will fade and the cream of the mega-popular songs will receive their critical due. Likewise over time, some obscure tracks from today that prove influential or ahead of their time will become more widely known and appreciated. But as of right now, the fanbase of these songs is too small and splintered to place them in a poll of this type.

How dare you not poll this: 50 Best Songs of All Time According to Rolling Stone's BRAND NEW, 100% Revamped Top 500

Sadly, they seem to have removed that wonderful sentence from the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” blurb (I’ve seen ppl clowning on it, with screenshots, so Twitter has proof it existed).

It's in the 2004 blurb also. Many of these blurbs seem to be edits of the older ones.

Wait, what is that exactly?

what the fuck pic.twitter.com/mge9t057y2

— bring on the dancing horses (@inthefade) September 15, 2021

The only song I was surprised to see on the list (of the songs I'm familiar with) was "Radiation Vibe."

With respect to Adam S. (R.I.P.), it's a catchy chorus in search of a song; and I didn't think it had the cultural cache to end up as a consensus pick on a list like this. I thought it was just sort of a random mid-'90s CMJ sampler track that sounded cool for a spin or two at the time.

Wasn't "Radiation Vibe" by the other FoW guy?

Looks like they're both credited

According to the list here: Whatever happened to Fountains of Wayne? (c/d?), "Radiation Vibe" was a Chris song, although they shared credits ala Lennon/McCartney.

I remember seeing that and feeling embarrassed because I'd just posted the RV video on FB as a tribute to Schlesinger.

The chorus of radiation vibe is better than 95% of the songs that exist in the world though.

Re: the new blood on the list, the bad songs make me scoff at list-making in a familiar way ("what kind of lunkheads would consider '7 Nation Army' even the best White Stripes song?"), but the good songs on the list really make me question the whole concept of a canon.

I mean, I do love "Dancing On My Own". It's amazing. But if pressed to list the best songs ever, I'd never list that one. But then I thought, why not? what actually makes "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" a better song? Is it just because more boomers have already sentimentalized it? Surely if that was on a best-of list in 1974, that would have been a joke. So in a way, their effort to keep the list fresh really just drives home the pointlessness of the whole exercise.

Also: Runaway is the best Kanye song to people who don't really like Kanye (like myself)

there's a former RS staffer who supervised at least one list for the mag that I know of, in 2016, who is participating on two of the threads re: this revised 500 songs list, so perhaps he can comment on the following if he feels like it… I wrote I think four or five entries for the 2004 list, and I can more or less ID the ones that have made it to this version… and yet I don't see why RS bothers with presenting the bylines of everyone whose contributions have survived… at least in my experience, the entries I was assigned were published with very little resemblance to what I filed, and so while I probly was one of the shittiest writers to be involved at that time and possibly deserved to have my shit rewritten, I doubt very much that I was unique in that regard… over the years I did some front of book shit that was also similarly rewritten, to the point where I was like "my name really shouldn't be credited for this," but these were still clips that would have been useful… but I don't see what the point is in crediting writers, whether for 2004 or for 2021, when every single entry is pounded into the dull house style (except for Rob Sheffield, who is allowed his tics)…

"what kind of lunkheads would consider '7 Nation Army' even the best White Stripes song?"

Good lyric.

Are the individual ballots available somewhere?

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, September 16, 2021 9:50 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

A few voters have posted theirs:

my ballot :) pic.twitter.com/SmmQzUK0pi

— brittany spanos (@ohheybrittany) September 15, 2021

the top of my Rolling Stone ballot. a few of these made the big list, including "Adore" & "Nightswimming," which are so spiritually linked for me https://t.co/SFynW5kvS0 pic.twitter.com/gl7KcrmNY1

— rob sheffield (@robsheff) September 15, 2021

I was determined more women, POC and queer folks were included in the new @RollingStone list. So here's my ballot #RS500Songs I think it worked? https://t.co/oNh0cd5YaB pic.twitter.com/Tq0JTZ8eeV

— Jerry Portwood (@jerryportwood) September 16, 2021

I voted in the Rolling Stone 500 Songs poll. Here’s my ballot. You probably haven’t heard No. 6 but you can listen to it at this link, it rules: https://t.co/UxCDeBhCrV pic.twitter.com/9dcIqrKk8P

— Jody Rosen (@jodyrosen) September 16, 2021

i forgot to vote

I think there’s a disconnect between Voters were asked to submit ranked ballots listing their 50 favorite songs of all time and The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

Those aren’t the same thing (“favorite” is actually more interesting)

My ballot.

@Alfred - I was disappointed there wasn't a single country song in the top 50 but looking at your ballot I'm thinking there's simply less consensus in the genre. I would have liked to see "Walking After Midnight" or "Poncho & Lefty." Or yeah, "Kerosene" or "Springsteen."

and if younger contributors even included country on theirs

pancho & lefty snuck in at #497 or thereabouts

Cool list Alfred. You choose the correct greatest Kanye song.

Also the correct Bowie song.

i find it frustrating that 'ahistorical preference for contemporary favs' is conflated with 'diversity'

like that robyn song ... come on. its basically a house song but the only chicago house song is marshall jefferson on the whole list?

I agree that I'd trade Robyn so long as I could slot "Can You Feel It" right there in slot #20.

Whoa hold on. Maybe keep the Robyn song and instead demand the inclusion of more people with a house/techno background in the voting team.

We also got Daft Punk in the list! Oh wait it’s fucking “get lucky”.

LOL, the last version of the list including "One More Time" as the DP song was one of the unequivocal arguments in that version's superiority.

refuse to believe that enough people voted for "royals" for it to rank that high, gotta be fudged

"So What" coming in at 492 is pretty funny.

― jmm, Wednesday, September 15, 2021 11:29 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

thought this was about the p!nk song, which would've been a better choice than royals

chris & i were arguing recently bc i was trying to explain in our micro-generational break how big a deal snoop dogg was to me

but its not about insisting that snoop dogg should be high on the list -- everyone sees criticism of the list as being essentially 'stan wars' which is not my point. its abt recognizing that snoop dogg is represenatative of a lineage and tradition that's marginalized by the historical state of the list, so as a writer i become intrigued by say slick rick since he influenced my favorite rapper and would like to see that aspect of the tradition of popular music represented, so slick rick being on the list (even tho I didnt personally experience it) becomes importan to me. and my perspective is of course not the only one, nor should it be (nb i did not contribute to this list this is rhetorical example); thus among many reasons why a diverse range of voices should be on the list, highlighting not just the underrated present but lost histories, lineages, the connections between past and future

now if you have people who came up on sarah machlachlan or nas or anita baker or throbbing gristle or lee scratch perry or whoever ... this entire lineage, tradition, way of talking is erased so that we can make sure ppl's personal stan favs from the last few years are on the list? a genuinely diverse voting bloc shouldn't just underline that kids today thought MIA and Azealia Banks were cool, it should underline and highlight whole traditions and communities that were devalued by the historic hegemony reproduced by lists like this

this is why the gasolina inclusion was a moment where i was like, hell yea, regardless of my personal feelings on the song it feels like a recognition of signficant cultural tradition that needs to be represented

otm, and uh, as one of the few Hispanic people on ILX, "Gasolina"'s inclusion is fucking great.

agreed about gasolina, stone cold classic.

i didn’t see if there was any other reggaeton on there, but would be cool if don omar’s bandoleros” made it

Speaking for myself and my ballot, I quite consciously chose 50 of my favorite songs that it would be cool for RS to endorse. I wish we'd been able to peek at each other's ballots because, I dunno, maybe seeing Noel or Sylvester or Anita Baker on each other's ballots might've inspired people to stan for the marginal shit of which individual tastes are made and is hell on lists like this which strive for being markers of a historical moment but end up looking like tombstones.

i probably wouldn't have minded "dancing on my own" if it had showed up at like, 200+ because it's a good song, established 10s critical favourite, etc., but it's just absurd at 30, no way is it the best or most important synth-pop/house-pop song of all time

It’s at *20

oh yeah it's "royals" that was at 30, pretty depressing if that's supposed to be the best big chart hit of the 2010s

I think we discussed this before elsewhere, but I really think that the best way to make a better list would be to split it into idk 10 specialized top 50 lists instead of a gral top 500. That way you can have say journalists and artists from a more specialized background - like, let’s say hip hop - vote on solely what they consider the greatest “50 hip hop songs all time”.

According to this list it’s

1. Public Enemy - fight the power
2. Missy Elliot - get yr freak on
3. Kanye West - Runaway

I’ll take a wild guess and say that if you ask hip hop artists or writers focused on hip hop for their top 50 hip hop songs of all time… these wouldn’t be at the top.

This ain’t the Complex era anymore where the strategy is to post a list every day

i have difficulty believing some of the songs on the list truly received any votes

I don’t mean to post a list a day. I still think of it as a huge, single “the greatest 500 songs of all time” list. It’s only divided into 10 or idk 5 huge lists with a more specialized voting panel that would give everyone a much more agreeable list… particularly when it comes to songs from genres outside of a rock scope. I know it’s Rolling Stone and you can’t really remove that rock scope, but why even pretend like it’s something more ambitious when most results outside of a rock angle are very disagreeable.

I mean… fucking “get lucky” being the only Daft Punk song in here makes me think that most people voting for it don’t really listen to Daft Punk… or house… or even any disco or funk… I think I prefer not having them represented at all and make space for idk “Le Freak” which didn’t make the cut.

The ’60s girl groups picks are generally the normie “songs everyone knows,” but guess that’s what you get with a list like this (not sure why they needed to mention that Cher sang backup in multiple blurbs, but ok).

Like let’s say you have 8 groups of people voting for specific genres and subgenres:

Top 100 classic rock / indie rock / alternative rock
Top 50 metal / punk
Top 50 hip hop/rap/reggaeton/trap
Top 50 soul / rnb / reggae / dub
Top 50 disco / funk
Top 50 folk / country / jazz / blues
Top 50 house / techno / electronica
Top 50 pop / indie pop / indietronica / edm

Then after you have those 8 lists you do a massive 500 list by score… if the highest voted song from the hip hop list has idk 80 points and that makes it overall the top 12 song then so be it.

Those are not the 8 categories I’d say should be the definite ones, of course they should be paired and arranged more carefully. It’s just a general idea.

That is, if they truly want a more concise list with a wider representation of genres and expertise behind it. I don’t think you get the full picture if you ask a white indie rocker from the 80’s what he thinks are the best hip hop songs of all time or a techno producer what he thinks are the best punk rock singles of all time. Those make for interesting individual lists but for a very unrepresentative global list.

Yeah but wouldn't theoretically a techno producer's ballot have a lot of techno on it, and a white indie '80s rocker's ballot have a lot of white indie '80s rock?

Hell you can even give 50% of the list a rock-adjacent restriction and the remaining 250 in whichever subsets of genres and subgenres you want and 100% guaranteed you end up with a more focused and agreeable general list.

can't believe Rolling Stone's 500 Best Songs of All Time list lacks statistical rigour

Yeah but wouldn't theoretically a techno producer's ballot have a lot of techno on it, and a white indie '80s rocker's ballot have a lot of white indie '80s rock?

― i carry the torch for disco inauthenticity (Eric H.)

In theory yes but the voting was not restricted in any way and if you look at some of the individual ballots upthread you’ll see that the assignment encourages voters to choose their favorite songs of all time rather than what they think should be the most representative ones in any given genre.

I think a little more focus would help. If you have someone voting for idk 4 hip hop songs, but struggles to think of his/hers/their list of 50 best hip hop songs of all time… is that the voice of someone who really loves hip hop and that should be voting for hip hop at all? Not pointing any fingers, maybe several voters are indeed heavy hip hop fans, just saying that having more focus on their core tastes or expertise would make a more interesting or agreeable list.

For me the electronica or electronic adjacent picks on the list are terrible and pretty much inexistent. Even “electronic” artists with a connection to rock that most RS readers would agree deserve a spot like say; Aphex Twin, Brian Eno, Chemical Brothers, Bjork, Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky are completely missing.

Yeah you can’t please them all but… “get lucky”!? For real? That’s the one? Lol