NPR's 150 Albums Made by Women

No Paramore, but Grimes made it in at least.

I was hoping we could sneak Ten Love Songs in there somewhere. Overall, it's a surprisingly good list. Very happy to see Erykah Badu and Bjork do well. Cocteau Twins and Grace Jones are nice surprises too.

The biggest shock for me is no Madonna until number 68 and that the debut is her highest. It's my favourite, but I would have put money on Ray Of Light or Like A Prayer being much higher.

awesome artists missing here:

Danielle Dax
The Shangri-Las
The Raincoats
Dawn Richard
Ann Peebles
Ane Brun
Aimee Mann
Angel Haze
Au Revoir Simone
Barbara Morgenstern
Catherine Ribiero
Chelsea Wolfe
Claire Hamill
Dead Can Dance/Lisa Gerrard
El Perro del Mar
Electrelane
Maria Minerva

and where tf is suzanne vega

Interesting to see TBYML placing over ROM, even if it's just lol 5 places.

I voted for Electrelane but didn't expect them at all to place, and if the krautrock spot was going to be repped on this list, it would've been Stereolab.

smh no avril lavigne

i'm also a bit mad missy elliott got bumped all the way down to 81 from no. 5 in the original

I appreciated this paragraph from Ann Powers:

Other current mainstream artists with notoriously passionate fan bases, strangely, didn't see as much gain. Lemonade did come in at 8, but only one other Beyoncé album charted, and there's not even a whisper of Rihanna here. That omission, alongside the absence of most jazz and R&B musicians and any Latinx artist, may say more about who this poll reached, and the demographics of NPR Music readers, than those artists' legacies. (This is how a list becomes a signal to the organization that publishes it, to consider its own blind spots.) Legends whose careers peaked before 1960 also mostly dropped off the list or ranked low. I'm curious about what happened to Nina Simone. Her I Put a Spell on You, No. 3 on the original list, drops to 80 here. It makes me wonder: Has her re-emergence as a major historical figure been mostly symbolic? Is her music as resonant as her biography — and if not, should those of us with the power of playlists be doing more to get it out there?

I count about 30/150 albums being from women of color, many of whom were R&B musicians. Seems reasonably inclusive?

Also she probably doesn't need to say Latinx if she's specifically talking about Latina women. Agree about their absence, although Mariah Carey is part Venezuelan.

I can't believe I didn't include A Raw Youth by Le Butcherettes on my list though.

why does nobody ever vote for the best Laura Nyro album

Eli?

Continuing the series, The 200 Greatest Songs by 21st Century Women.

Liking J Shep’s contributions of non-American acts in my quick look at this so far.

"women+" is a non-starter for me. rules for this one were bizarre too

"Standing in the Way of Control" is way too low on the list.

tons of good songs

Khia too low :P

Sick to death of lists tbh.

I like playlists

200-101 probably more interesting than 100-1, as usual

personal faves not on the list: cat power, neko case, cupcakke, eleanor friedberger, fiona apple, jessie ware, weather station, weyes blood, selena gomez, melanie de biasio, alvvays

oh yeah and joan shelley but I realize she may be niche

cat power, neko case, fiona apple

all debuted before 2000 so they'd never appear on this list

the best part about that rule is that it would probably add like twenty names total and the actual cost would be like "I can't believe we have to have mention Missy Elliott instead of two Jenny Lewis/CARLY FUCKIN RAE JEPPERS songs" or "which of these completely forgettable Brooklyn/Philly/Boston indie rock bands won't make the cut"

Or just making the list 250 songs!

Yes. 70 plus contributors and it looks like none of them are listening to afropop -- sorry Yemi Alade but you did not make the list. The NPR "whirled music" person did get Noura Mint Seymali on this list of mostly Americans and Brits.

The NPR "whirled music" person did get Noura Mint Seymali on this list of mostly Americans and Brits.

Tanya Tagaq, too.

Completely erasing Missy Elliott, Aaliyah, Destiny’s Child, Erykah Badu, Mary J Blige and Sade from the canon in favor of a murderer's row of white privilege Pitchfork bands and a Tune-Yards song called "Powa" and then branding it all with THEY SLAY and "REWIND. REMIX. REPRESENT." and "Turning the Tables" is some real neoliberalism on parade

Completely erasing Missy Elliott, Aaliyah, Destiny’s Child, Erykah Badu, Mary J Blige and Sade

If this is the case (haven't paged through all 845 pages of the article, but if this is true, gtfo with this list NPR.

parts of this series remind me of this bit from the rap against rockism:

You can argue that the shape-shifting feminist hip-pop of Ms. Aguilera is every bit as radical as the punk rock of the 1970's (and it is), but then you haven't challenged any of the old rockist questions (starting with: Who's more radical?), you've just scribbled in some new answers.

now, to be fair, there are some very interesting revelations here. but especially as you climb up to the top, say, 77 or so, you don't have a whole lot of stripped-era aguilera-type cuts so much as what you'd get if you just polled your very standard cross-section of rockcrits w/ very standard rockcrit taste, extended the resultant list as far as you'd need to get (x) women artists, then cut all the male artists out. is it all that necessary to remind everyone that "since u been gone" "dancing on my own" "crazy in love" "umbrella" "paper planes" "maps" and all the other women-led songs that have become tokens in the standard male-rockcrit canon are good songs? not so sure myself!

i appreciate the very lucid and incisive criticisms of the first-release cutoff rule, especially those highlighting how that criterion inadvertently ends up reproducing the wider industry's cruel ageist tendencies that disproportionately harm women.

some of the exceptions to the rules were bizarre too. like, apparently the works of eve and kelis can be neatly bifurcated into pre- and post-y2k eras? idek

I'm having a hard time thinking of Ms. Aguilera as being every bit as radical as Poly Styrene or Liliput or Exene Cervenka. Please, no firing squad--I'm sure it's a fine list.

Kelis did have a little dead zone in America because the best song of her career flopped and her second album never came out

I love the shot of the pom(?) around 51 seconds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-dAOVM1C8M

Ann Powers who curated this says the artists had to have their impact in the 21st century. Arguably, Missy Elliott’s post 2000 work had more of an impact than her pre 2000 efforts.

She said debut in 21st or impact

Same with Aaliyah and, as @maura points out, Kylie

Completely erasing Missy Elliott, Aaliyah, Destiny’s Child, Erykah Badu, Mary J Blige and Sade from the canon in favor of a murderer's row of white privilege Pitchfork bands and a Tune-Yards song called "Powa" and then branding it all with THEY SLAY and "REWIND. REMIX. REPRESENT." and "Turning the Tables" is some real neoliberalism on parade

no wonder the US is a divided country when this is a liberal/progressive take on this list

Ann Powers who curated this says the artists had to have their impact in the 21st century. Arguably, Missy Elliott’s post 2000 work had more of an impact than her pre 2000 efforts.

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, August 1, 2018 9:21 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

aint no 'arguably'

no wonder the US is a divided country when this is a liberal/progressive take on this list

― niels, Thursday, August 2, 2018 1:11 AM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the list unquestionably, IMO, and drastically underrates R&B

like i haven't checked but just as an example did any keyshia cole songs make it

most of these seem at least informed by rnb imo:

19. Beyoncé, "Formation" (2016)
15. Nicki Minaj, "Super Bass" (2010)
12. Solange, "Cranes In The Sky" (2016)
11. Janelle Monáe (ft. Big Boi), "Tightrope" (2010)
8. Alicia Keys, "Fallin'" (2001)
7. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, "100 Days, 100 Nights" (2007)
6. Lorde, "Royals" (2013)
4. Amy Winehouse, "Back To Black" (2006)
3. Beyoncé, "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)" (2008)
1. M.I.A., "Paper Planes" (2007)

anyway, surely some genres/artists are represented as always, just find it... I dunno what word to use... remarkable maybe, that a liberal/progressive reaction to National Radio's attempt at challenging a male dominated canon would be calling it neo liberalist bullshit

I'm not going to spend time hatereading reddit comments about the list, but I'm sure a lot of people find the very concept of a list with no men offensive

underrepresented*

you show those reddit men you just imagined, niels

you don't think they exist?

What type of brain disease would I need where I get mad at hypothetical Reddit posts that I invent in my head

haha that's a bit rich but I gather you think I'm insane for imagining how a list like this would be received in certain forums?

...yes?

for what it's worth this is the reddit thread

https://www.reddit.com/r/LetsTalkMusic/comments/6pvq4m/lets_talk_nprs_150_greatest_albums_made_by_women/

most of these seem at least informed by rnb imo:

19. Beyoncé, "Formation" (2016)
15. Nicki Minaj, "Super Bass" (2010)
12. Solange, "Cranes In The Sky" (2016)
11. Janelle Monáe (ft. Big Boi), "Tightrope" (2010)
8. Alicia Keys, "Fallin'" (2001)
7. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, "100 Days, 100 Nights" (2007)
6. Lorde, "Royals" (2013)
4. Amy Winehouse, "Back To Black" (2006)
3. Beyoncé, "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)" (2008)
1. M.I.A., "Paper Planes" (2007)

Lmfaoooooooooooooooo

(from last year's list; this year's list doesn't seem to have as much commentary but https://www.reddit.com/r/indieheads/comments/93253b/npr_list_the_200_greatest_songs_by_21st_century/)

From /r/popheads

https://www.reddit.com/r/popheads/comments/934a2i/npr_the_200_greatest_songs_by_21st_century_women/