Monday, June 21, 2004
Music Lists - My final words on the subject.
They can be useful. Several records which have become part of my life I wouldn't have heard of were it not for these lists. On the other hand, they do annoy me, as I suppose they are supposed to. The idea of ranking albums or any artform is fairly ludicrous, and an individual's personal choices are always more interesting as there is no claim (implicit or otherwise) made for an objective ordering in terms of quality. The Observer one is even more stupid, as it only concentrates on British music. I don't know what "British Music" is (leaving aside the question of what is "an album" anyway?), music with a British consciousness? Not many records are more American than Exile on Main Street. I don't think it matters what nationality the musicians were, made as it was by the Rolling Stones, the world's greatest minstrel band. Is it music made by people holding British passports? Seems a bit arbitrary. Would an Owen Hargreaves album count? I do hope so, although not as much as I hope he makes one at all. Anyway, everyone knows that Americans do pop music better than the British - along with television, universities, humour, novels, films... I don't really know the answer to these questions I pose, and if I'm honest, I care even less.
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They can be useful. Several records which have become part of my life I wouldn't have heard of were it not for these lists. On the other hand, they do annoy me, as I suppose they are supposed to. The idea of ranking albums or any artform is fairly ludicrous, and an individual's personal choices are always more interesting as there is no claim (implicit or otherwise) made for an objective ordering in terms of quality. The Observer one is even more stupid, as it only concentrates on British music. I don't know what "British Music" is (leaving aside the question of what is "an album" anyway?), music with a British consciousness? Not many records are more American than Exile on Main Street. I don't think it matters what nationality the musicians were, made as it was by the Rolling Stones, the world's greatest minstrel band. Is it music made by people holding British passports? Seems a bit arbitrary. Would an Owen Hargreaves album count? I do hope so, although not as much as I hope he makes one at all. Anyway, everyone knows that Americans do pop music better than the British - along with television, universities, humour, novels, films... I don't really know the answer to these questions I pose, and if I'm honest, I care even less.
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