The Greatest Music
500 Greatest Albums of All Time: 2023 edition
Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2023 update) is the latest edition of the magazine’s most-read and debated feature, originally published in 2003 and revised in 2012 and 2020. The core list was created in 2020 from ballots submitted by more than 300 artists, producers, writers, and music-industry figures—including Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Raekwon, Stevie Nicks, and members of U2—each ranking their top 50 albums. The 2023 version makes light adjustments to account for new classics released since then by artists like Beyoncé, Bad Bunny, and Taylor Swift, while retaining the broader scope of the 2020 reboot, which introduced 163 new entries and emphasized the evolving and expanding canon of music history.
VH1’s Top 100 Albums
VH1’s Top 100 Albums (aired January 2001 as a five-part TV special) is a ranked, all-time list built from a large expert poll that VH1 says included journalists, music executives, and artists; the final canon skews classic-rock-centric and famously crowns The Beatles’ Revolver at No. 1, with the Beatles placing five albums in the top 11.
Guardian Writers' Favourite Albums Ever
51 critics from The Guardian list their favorite albums of all time
The 100 Best Albums of All Time
In summer 2007, Dutch music magazine OOR surveyed 100 Dutch pop “tastemakers”—critics and music figures from print, radio, TV, and web media (plus major festival directors)—asking each to submit a personal top 10 albums of all time. OOR aggregated these ballots into a points-based Top 100, and published the results (with analysis and the full set of individual lists) in OOR issue #7 (2007) as a 20-year follow-up to its 1987 all-time poll.
MOJO’s 100 Greatest Albums of All Time
MOJO’s 100 Greatest Albums of All Time (1995) is an early modern “canon” list from the UK monthly, presented as a ranked Top-100 headed by The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, followed by Astral Weeks and Revolver. Unlike reader polls, this edition was compiled from critic ballots and framed squarely within MOJO’s classic-rock sensibility, setting the tone for many late-1990s “all-time” lists.
The 100 Best Albums of All Time
Hot Press is a long-running Irish music and current affairs magazine (founded in 1977, based in Dublin). In its 1989 annual Hot Press Yearbook—an industry-focused “Who’s Who” directory—it published “The Top 100 Albums of All Time,” a canon-style ranking topped by U2’s The Joshua Tree and Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks. Available references describe the list as being voted on by a panel of 95 Irish music business and media figures.
500 CDs You Must Own Before You Die
who voted: John Aizlewood (editor), Matt Ashare, Michael Azerrad, Greg Beato, Johnny Black, Ben Brandt, J.D. Considine, John DeFore, Tom Doyle, Richard Gehr, Joe Gross, Gerald Hammill, John Harris, David Hiltbrand, Erik Himmelsbach, Hua Hsu, Howard Johnson, Daniel Krauss, Stuart Maconie, Craig Marks, Andy Pemberton, Tony Power, David Quantick, Richard Skanse, RJ Smith, David Smyth, Phil Sutcliffe, Rob Tannenbaum and Jonah Weiner
NME’s The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
NME’s The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2013) is a special issue compiled from ballots cast by current and former NME journalists, each submitting a weighted top-50; the final list—topped by The Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead—reflects the magazine’s editorial vantage point more than a broad industry poll.
The 100 Best Albums of All Time
In late 1993, The Times’ “Vulture” music feature ran a four-part countdown of the 100 best albums of the previous ~30 years, compiled from a points ballot of a 10-person panel spanning journalists, broadcasters, and radio programmers. Panelists scored a prepared shortlist of 200 albums (0–10) and could add up to 20 personal choices, with a rule limiting any artist to two albums maximum to prevent domination by canonical acts.
1000 Albums to Hear Before you Die
The Guardian – 1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die (2007) is a large, cross-genre listening guide compiled by the Guardian’s music writers. It’s not a ranked “best of all time” list: entries are presented alphabetically by artist and each album gets a short capsule explaining why it’s worth hearing. The team set a few rules—one album per main artist, often choosing a less-obvious pick over the canonical choice, and allowing Various Artists compilations to represent scenes built on singles. The project also invited readers to suggest omissions, later publishing a “we forgot…” follow-up selection.
Pitchfork: The 100 Best Rap Albums of All Time
Pitchfork’s “The 100 Best Rap Albums of All Time” (September 30, 2025) is a staff-curated canon that spotlights rap as a craft while minimizing repeat entries per artist to broaden coverage across scenes and eras. Introduced by editor Paul A. Thompson, the package features album essays by Pitchfork writers and crowns Mobb Deep’s The Infamous (1995) at #1. Pitchfork does not publish a voter count or a full panel list for this feature; credits are limited to the framing essay and individual blurbs.
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2005)
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a long-running reference book series (first published 2005; revised in 2010, 2013, 2016, 2018, and 2021) edited by Robert Dimery. It’s an editorial anthology, not a ranked poll: each entry is a short critic-written essay, sequenced roughly chronologically from the 1950s onward, with compilations/most film soundtracks excluded. Later editions swap in newer releases (e.g., the 2021 edition closes with Jazmine Sullivan’s Heaux Tales), so the title “1001” is a rolling canon rather than a fixed list across editions.
365 Songs of the Century (The Albums)
The Songs list "365 Songs of the Century" (https://thegreatestmusic.org/songs/lists/842) listed a handful of albums instead of songs. This list includes those albums. Published in 2001, Songs of the Century is the RIAA/NEA project aimed at celebrating and teaching the history of recorded music in America. Roughly 200 ballots helped shape the results, producing a Top 365 that spans pop, rock, jazz, country, folk, and more, emphasizing cultural impact and lasting influence.
The 50 Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time
Pitchfork’s ranked feature “The 50 Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time” (October 24, 2016) is an editorial, staff-curated survey of the genre’s defining records—from the post-Psychocandy bloom through ’90s peaks and later revivals—framed by a historical foreword from Pete Kember (Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3). It’s not a public poll; rather, the list compiles 50 albums with individual blurbs, tracing shoegaze’s guitar-texture ethos across the UK core and global outliers (U.S., Japan, Europe). Pitchfork credits 16 contributors on the page, which is a solid proxy for the number of staff who “voted/curated” the selections.
Rolling Stone: The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far
In January 2025, Rolling Stone published “The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far,” a staff-curated canon spanning 2000–2024 that aims to capture the breadth of modern music—pop, hip-hop, indie, country, metal, electronic, Afrobeats, reggaetón and more. The list crowns Beyoncé’s Lemonade at No. 1, followed by Radiohead’s Kid A, Frank Ocean’s Blonde, OutKast’s Stankonia, and Taylor Swift’s Folklore, with an editorial note about favoring wider stylistic representation (often limiting repeat appearances per artist) to reflect the era’s scope.
The 100 Best Albums of All Time
Sounds, the influential UK weekly music paper (1970–1991), published an All-Time Top 100 Albums chart around 1985, reportedly distributed as a poster/insert—a format the paper was famous for. The list reads like an editorial canon of ‘modern’ rock and post-punk: readers later complained in the letters page about the paper’s critics putting The Clash at #1 and even ranking very recent releases like The Jesus and Mary Chain among the all-time picks.
100 Albums That Changed Music
100 Albums That Changed Music (2006) is an editor-curated, essay-driven selection of albums chosen for historical impact and musical innovation, not simply “best albums.” Across rock, pop, soul, jazz, and more, each entry argues how and why the record shifted what came after—from canonical 60s/70s breakthroughs (e.g., Dylan/Beatles-era landmarks) to later genre-defining releases like Thriller, Nevermind, and Straight Outta Compton. Selection method: general editor + team of six contributors (so roughly a half-dozen voices rather than a mass vote).
The 100 Best Albums of All Time
Berlin Media’s “100 Best Albums of All Time” (1998) is a Berlin-based critics poll: the albums (and a separate singles Top 100) were chosen by votes from Berlin music journalists and broadcast on radioeins as the “Millennium Music Mix” on December 25–26, 1998. The surviving references indicate a ranked countdown format with no accompanying commentary, but the full voter roster and exact voting method are not publicly documented in accessible sources.
The 200 Best Albums of the 2000s
Pitchfork’s staff-assembled 200 Best Albums of the 2000s (Oct. 2, 2009) surveys the decade’s most influential LPs across indie, hip-hop, pop, electronic, and more, presented as a weeklong countdown with capsule essays by multiple Pitchfork writers for each entry. To maintain breadth, the editors limited any single artist to three albums. Published as the capstone to Pitchfork’s P2K “Decade in Music” retrospective, the project lists writer bylines on each album blurb but does not disclose a consolidated panel size or voter roll.
The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s
Rolling Stone’s ‘The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s’ (Dec. 3, 2019) is a ranked, staff-curated look back at the decade’s most influential records across pop, hip-hop, indie, country, and beyond. Compiled by Rolling Stone editors and writers (with individual blurbs credited to staff contributors), the package does not use a public ballot or disclose a voter count. The list crowns Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy at No. 1, followed by Beyoncé’s Lemonade and Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly.”
The 100 Best Albums of the 1970s
Pitchfork’s “The 100 Best Albums of the 1970s” (published June 23, 2004) is a staff-curated countdown framed around the 1970s as the era when the album became a “unified statement,” spanning glam, prog, punk, dub/reggae, soul, art-rock, and more. The writeups are individually signed by different Pitchfork writers (you’ll see multiple bylines across the entries), and the list ultimately crowns David Bowie’s Low at #1 (with The Clash’s London Calling at #2). Conservative “voters” estimate: Pitchfork doesn’t publish a voter count for this feature, but because the capsules are credited to a range of staffers, a cautious estimate is ~15–20 people involved (roughly “dozens” would be too high for the visible byline footprint; “one person” doesn’t fit what’s credited).
100 Best Albums
Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums (2024) is an editorially curated, all-time canon built by Apple Music’s team alongside a select group of artists and industry figures (e.g., Pharrell Williams, J Balvin, Maren Morris, Charli XCX). It’s positioned as a “love letter” to the records that shaped how we listen—explicitly independent of streaming metrics—and was unveiled via a 10-day countdown, culminating with Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill at No. 1.
Pitchfork’s The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s
Pitchfork’s The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s (Sept. 10, 2018) is a staff-curated, ranked retrospective that revisits the decade’s canon—from Prince and Michael Jackson to N.W.A., Kate Bush, Sade, Sonic Youth, and beyond—aiming to broaden genres and perspectives beyond the site’s 2002 “Top 100” list. It’s not a poll; Pitchfork didn’t release a voter count or ballots. Instead, Pitchfork Staff assembled the ranking and wrote album blurbs (with bylines), presenting an updated, more diverse view of ’80s pop, hip-hop, post-punk, indie, metal, jazz, ambient, and global styles.
The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s
Pitchfork’s The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s (Aug. 22, 2017) is a staff-built ranking designed to capture the decade’s full musical upheaval—rock’s reinvention, the sophistication of Motown and soul, jazz’s rapid evolution, and the era’s expanding global and experimental frontiers (including early electronic and Tropicália). The list was compiled from votes by more than 50 Pitchfork staffers and contributors, and it favors albums that didn’t just define the ’60s, but rewired what popular music could be. At the top: The Velvet Underground & Nico, Pet Sounds, and A Love Supreme.
The 150 Best Albums of the 1990s
Published September 28, 2022, Pitchfork’s The 150 Best Albums of the 1990s is a ranked, editorial canon that revisits the decade through a wide lens—hip-hop and neo-soul alongside indie, electronic, pop, and alt-rock—positioning its picks as the ‘90s records that most changed how the era sounded and felt. It arrived as part of a larger 1990s package (with a companion 250 Best Songs list) and reads as Pitchfork’s in-house perspective rather than a public ballot.