What’s Wrong With The Rolling Stones’ 500 Best Songs of All Time Update
For the first time in 17 years, Rolling Stones Magazine has updated their “500 Best Songs of All Time” list, and for music lovers, it was an exciting prospect. Rolling Stone is the hub of everything music and music journalism, right? Their opinions on music should be unmatched and the list should be thorough and indisputable.
When we saw Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” placed at 490, we knew something was terribly, terribly wrong with this list. We adore Lil Nas, but we felt as if there were more deserving songs out there.
Our next thought was, “how the hell did they come up with this list?” The answer was easy to find, at the top of the page in bold red letters. As it turns out, they placed the decisions in the hands of a group of selected people in the industry: artists, producers, journalists, etc. From there, Rolling Stone said that, “voters were asked to submit ranked ballots listing their 50 favorite songs of all time. Votes were tabulated, with the highest-ranked song on each list receiving 300 points, the second highest 290 points, and so on down to 44 points for number 50. More than 4,000 songs received at least one vote.”
We at The Edge understand how difficult it is to come up with a list like the 500 Best Songs of All Time because of how subjective music can be, since everyone has different tastes. However, as Cinda Birch, an Elon sophomore, pointed out, “Music is subjective, but it’s also art and you can judge art.” She told us that she wished the list had been carefully curated by music experts, after looking through the list in shock.
Others, after being asked to look over the list and give their impressions, were unhappy with the choices made as well. Because of how the list was created, no thought to the different aspects that go into making a song great were considered. Sharon Boothe is an Elon parent from Oxnard, California, not far from L.A., so she grew up smack in the middle of the greatest era of music (50s-90s) right where everything was happening. She said of the list, “X is missing, but the Clash is included twice. I love the Clash, but X was a landmark L.A. band in the 80s and in many ways made more important contributions to punk than the Clash, who were just more of a commercial success.” She also thought that the list had too many of artists’ most popular songs and not their lesser known, “b side” songs that are just as good if not better.
“There’s only two Tom Petty songs on this list, and that’s just wrong,” Boothe said. His two most popular songs have spots on the list, and while they deserve those spots, they’re arguably not even his best songs.
We at The Edge came up with a few different aspects that go into making a song great: if it has some cultural impact, provokes an emotional response, songwriting quality, and pushes musical/social boundaries. Music composition, vocals, etc are also very important and can’t be gauged by a bunch of people’s lists of their favorite songs. To be fair to Rolling Stone, with how many songs there are, combing through all of them trying to rank them would probably be next to impossible. But we at The Edge still feel as if more consideration could have been put into both the song choices and the order of the rankings.
The Edge’s 50 Songs Should’ve Been on the List
(in no specific order)
Created by the author and other Elon students.
Neil Young, “The Needle And The Damage Done”
Neil Young, “Old Man”
Johnny Cash, “Man in Black”
Billy Joel, “Vienna”
Billy Joel, “Piano Man”
Chris Isaak, “Wicked Games”
Chris Isaak, “Blue Hotel”
SZA, “The Weekend”
Carrie Underwood, “Before He Cheats”
Pearl Jam, “Even Flow”
Bob Dylan, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”
Jimmy Buffet, “Margaritaville”
Foo Fighters, “The Pretender”
Rush, “Tom Sawyer”
ACDC, “Back in Black”
ACDC, “Highway to Hell”
Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Californiacation”
Def Leppard, “Rock of Ages”
Joni Mitchell, “Blue”
Joni Mitchell, “The Circle Game”
Ram Jam, “Black Betty”
Elliott Smith, “This Misery”
Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth”
Buffalo Springfield, “Expecting to Fly”
Ted Nugent, “Stranglehold”
Cream, “White Room”
Eric Clapton, “Tears in Heaven”
Tom Petty, “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”
Tom Petty, “Wildflowers”
Van Halen, “Hot For Teacher”
Led Zeppelin, “Black Dog”
Led Zeppelin, “Going to California”
Old Crow Medicine Show, “Wagon Wheel”
X, “Los Angeles”
Elton John, “Madness Across the Water”
Elton John, “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters”
The Cranberries, “Linger”
4 Non Blondes, “What’s Up?”
Paula Cole, “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?”
Jackson Browne, “The Pretender”
James Taylor, “Sweet Baby James”
Van Morrison, “Tupelo Honey”
Mac Miller, “Good News”
The Verve, “Bittersweet Symphony”
Coldplay, “Don’t Panic”
The Shins, “New Slang”
Santana, “Sideways”
Pretenders, “Night in My Veins”
The Bangles, “Something That You Said”
Jem, “Flying High”