Eric Alterman mentions this list on his Altercation blog. My question is what kind of criteria might they have come up with that would place Carole King’s very good Tapestry album above Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited (for that matter, that could place anything above that album aside from maybe Revolver, Rubber Soul or Bringin’ It All Back Home).
And this doesn’t take into account the inexplicable placement of Born to Run at number 14 or the exclusion of any hip hop (Eminem comes in at 28? What about Public Enemy or Run DMC?) from the Top 20 or the ranking of Shania Twain as the “most influencial and popular” country album on the list (what would Johnny, June, Merle, Willie, Waylon, Loretta, Tammy, etc. have to say?).
I guess the key to understanding it is that it “was developed by NARM, the National Association of Recording Merchandisers” — i.e., the people who view music in terms of units and not art.
Alterman offers this comment, with which I won’t argue (though I do abhor violence):
The less said about it, the better. (In a just country, these people would be taken out and shot …)
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Hank Kalet 