pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

xxp to whiney

ets reshuffle the canon, sound off about whos underrated & overrated, and toss in a few challopsy inclusions to stir the pot

was just saying we should take "Protect Ya Neck" out of the canon to make more room for Garth Brooks

nothing more, this is just a funny juxtaposition of takes.

another giving credit where it's due observation: love all the hiphop representation. dunno about numbers, but it feels like there's more than ever. can't be too upset about that.

Biggest shift there is a lot more rap & r&b and a lot less indie rock, which I guess is good? idk.
Funniest thing is the change in Oasis placements, Live Forever was #50, now it's out? Don't Look Back in Anger DNP in 2010, now is their sole entry at #167? Don't Look Back In Anger? Really?

Brad it's well established that you swing unpredictably between "the best taste on ILX" and "the worst taste on ILX"

Thinking about the albums list now. The current one is ancient (2003) - itself a remake of an older one (1999) - and has two Brianiac albums on it.

nothing more, this is just a funny juxtaposition of takes

*juxtaposition of faux takes

xxp also you totally have one thousand favorite bands <3

Just another person here to say that Bikini Kill do, in fact, suck— and I like a lot of other riot grrl and punk stuff.

it’s true, i do Love Music

I also am going to be that faggot and say that I do not understand the love for Mariah Carey— I find “Fantasy” about as annoying as a song can get.

But I’m also just someone who has never really understood the love for vapid brainwash music that sells millions of records, and resent the fact that I’m considered a “bad fag” or “anti-populist” when I say so. Sorry!

big mariah fan but crap #1 imo

xp
do you feel like screaming "what's going on?"

I realize I should know better by now, but kind of crazy how so many people still here in the year of 2022 view Pfork as some huge monolithic entity that just drops these lists rather than, y'know, a collection of individual writers with their own takes.

My hyperbole came out— I actuall do love some Mariah, but “Fantasy” at number one? No.

I realize I should know better by now, but kind of crazy how so many people still here in the year of 2022 view Pfork as some huge monolithic entity that just drops these lists rather than, y'know, a collection of individual writers with their own takes.

At least the wrong takes are different wrong takes since the last list, so that's fun.

Actually, here's how the editor-in-chief described the process:

Pitchfork’s staff spent more than seven months poring over thousands of albums and songs in the making of this package, a series of lists and interviews that try to encapsulate some of our favorite music of a formative decade. The process included several rounds of voting between staff and contributors, and hours upon hours of “listening rooms” where the staff debated the merits of one song against another. There were more spreadsheets and impassioned Slack debates than anyone would like to admit, extensive conversations about the “critical pick” vs. the “fan favorite” vs. the “holistically beloved.”

The result is a massive amount of incredible music, represented by hundreds of artists and carefully considered by 112 critics from our staff, contributor pool, and writers and editors who influenced the discourse around music in the ’90s in real time.

And yet no time to fact-check an R.E.M. blurb!

Never ever been a Mariah fan, which has always bothered me because I like at least some songs by almost every other pop diva. She just doesn't connect for me. But also, it seems particularly weird to name as the best song of the '90s a track that relies heavily on a familiar sample from a classic '80s tune.

why

Taking hits from the 80s, but make em sound so crazy, might be the most 90s thing about it.

Fantasy mostly just makes me want to listen to GoL - not quite pulling off the 'learn to hear the sample anew' trick for me personally

idk if switching from lots of indie to lots of pop/r&b/rap is good or bad or whatever, but it does indicate a publication with a less distinct cultural voice which is bad

xposts Yeah with "Fantasy" I think it's that the sample isn't really reimagined or anything, the source material isn't remade (the way it is in Missy's "The Rain" e.g.), it's just appropriated and plopped down into the song.

I agree that ODB is great on the remix tho. He's pretty '90s.

whiney lmao

Whiney as Vicar of Challops this afternoon.

But I’m also just someone who has never really understood the love for vapid brainwash music that sells millions of records, and resent the fact that I’m considered a “bad fag” or “anti-populist” when I say so. Sorry!

― broccoli rabe thomas (the table is the table),

can you identify for this fag what is Vapid Brainwash Music so I can compile a list?

Bikini kill was probably the biggest punk band after Fugazi in the 90’s but y’all keep it up with the sexist angles it’s a good fit

This totally rips https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO2nWMPRayI

Xpost a good fit for the pitchfork thread I meant to say

Never ever been a Mariah fan, which has always bothered me because I like at least some songs by almost every other pop diva. She just doesn't connect for me. But also, it seems particularly weird to name as the best song of the '90s a track that relies heavily on a familiar sample from a classic '80s tune.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, September 27, 2022

I don't get this take at all.

this is like complaining about most hip-hop

I've noticed a few people point out that U2 are missing, but they weren't on the old one either! (If the albums list goes to 250 as well though no Achtung Baby would definitely surprise me).

"Rhymes Like Dimes", that was Alfred. Good work!

Bikini kill was probably the biggest punk band after Fugazi in the 90’s but y’all keep it up with the sexist angles it’s a good fit

women can dislike shitty punk too

there are a whole lot of female-fronted rock acts on this list that are far better than bikini kill & i would have been much happier to see in the top 10

hence Mariah Carey topping the list

this is like complaining about most hip-hop

Well I mean I wouldn't put Puffy's "I'll Be Missing You" on this list either. It doesn't have to do with using a sample, it has to do with doing something with it. Obviously ymmv but "Fantasy" has always felt like it's on the lazier end of the spectrum to me.

(But also nothing else about the song sticks with me, and maybe that's just me. Mariah is not my jam. I literally only think of the sample when I think of the song.)

"fantasy" is a better use of the "genius of love" groove than "genius of love" was

lol hard disagree.

But on to the real outrage, which is that there is no Suede on this list.

Whiney as Vicar of Challops this afternoon.

― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, September 27, 2022 6:52 PM (forty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Anyone old enough to remember the '90s knows that "Lukewarm post-post-grunge major label limpdicks Third Eye Blind suck shit" is not exactly like saying "Ringo was the most talented Beatle" gfoh

I MUST download a translator

Bikini kill was probably the biggest punk band after Fugazi in the 90’s but y’all keep it up with the sexist angles it’s a good fit

"fantasy" is a better use of the "genius of love" groove than "genius of love" was

"Genius Of Love" the song is 40% good and 60% awful ("JAAAAAAMES BROWWWWWN! JAAAAAMES BROWWWWWN!" — yes, good idea, I'll go listen to James Brown instead of you idiots). "Fantasy" (original and remix) is much, much better.

"Rebel Girl" has had an incredibly long tail. Anyone who was THERE, MAN might have opinions, but in the last 20 years it's basically become a standard. It's video games and PRESTIGE TEE VEE shows and shit

I'm not necessarily interested in whether much is or isn't being 'done' with a big liberal sample. Using a big undigested chunk from a great song in a new track can potentially ensure you land somewhere just as good. So for me it comes down to much preferring the mix of lovely whispered verses and goofy (and somehow not incongruent) staccato raps of GoL to what Mariah and ODB do. I do appreciate how Fantasy sort of recontextualises it as G-funk though - a bit like northern soul staple Sliced Tomatoes suddenly becoming surf rock when used in The Rockafeller Skank.

xpost Joan Jett walked onstage to "Rebel Girl" when I saw her a few weeks ago, which is a pretty solid endorsement fwiw.

But on to the real outrage, which is that there is no Suede on this list.

If there's any justice Dog Man Star will be number one tomorrow