The Greatest Music
Greatest Music Lists
Explore curated lists of the greatest albums and songs from trusted sources
Top Album Lists
View All Album Lists500 Greatest Albums of All Time: 2023 edition
Source: Rolling Stone
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.
Guardian Writers' Favourite Albums Ever
Source: The Guardian
51 critics from The Guardian list their favorite albums of all time
VH1’s Top 100 Albums
Source: VH1
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.
The 100 Best Albums of All Time
Source: OOR
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
Source: MOJO
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
Source: Hot Press
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
Source: Blender
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
Source: NME
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
Source: The Times
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
Source: The Guardian
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
Source: Pitchfork
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)
Source: Book
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)
Source: RIAA and NEA
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
Source: Pitchfork
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
Source: Rolling Stone
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
Source: Sounds
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
Source: Sean Egan
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
Source: Berlin Media
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 100 Best Albums of the 1970s
Source: Pitchfork
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).
The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s
Source: Rolling Stone
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 200 Best Albums of the 2000s
Source: Pitchfork
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.
100 Best Albums
Source: Apple Music
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
Source: Pitchfork
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 150 Best Albums of the 1990s
Source: PItchfork
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.
The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s
Source: Pitchfork
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 1000 Best Albums of All Time
Source: FNAC
Fnac’s Les 1000 CD des disquaires de la Fnac (Dec 2008) is a collective, staff-driven canon: Fnac’s record-store specialists (“disquaires”) pooled their picks in a large internal vote to build a near “ideal” 1,000-album library, spanning major genres and highlighting certain titles as indispensables.
The 100 Most Important Records Ever Made
Source: The Wire
In June 1992 (Issue 100), The Wire marked its 100th issue with “The Top 100”: an unranked, chronological sweep of what it called the most significant records of the 20th century. It’s a very “Wire” canon—spanning early blues/jazz and modern composition through rock, hip-hop, electronic music, and global/field recordings—less a mainstream greatest-hits list than a map of boundary-pushing audio history.
20 Most Important Albums of All Time
Source: Wave Magazine
Wave Magazine (USA) – 20 Most Important Albums of All Time (2004) is a small, staff-curated canon list from the San Jose/Silicon Valley entertainment magazine The Wave. The selections are presented unranked, focusing on albums framed as historically “important” (impact, influence, and genre-defining legacy) rather than personal favorites, and it leans heavily toward rock’s core lineage while still nodding to major left-turns like punk, metal, and hip-hop.
TIME's All Time 100 Albums
Source: TIME
TIME’s All-TIME 100 Albums (2006) is an unranked, editorial canon compiled by critics Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light, presented chronologically by decade rather than as a leaderboard. Spanning the mid-1950s through the early 2000s, it mixes landmark studio releases with a handful of influential compilations and box sets, aiming to capture records that shaped popular music’s sound, culture, and industry. The selection ranges widely—rock, soul, hip-hop, pop, jazz, punk, and beyond—balancing consensus classics with boundary-pushers to sketch a historical map of albums that mattered most, not just commercially, but artistically and culturally.
The Top 10 Albums of the 1980s
Source: LA Times
In a Los Angeles Times critics’ poll published December 24, 1989, the paper’s regular pop-music reviewers voted on the best albums of the 1980s using a 10-to-1 points system (10 points for a first-place vote, 9 for second, etc.). The Clash’s London Calling was a runaway #1, and the voting was notably wide-ranging—84 different albums received at least one vote—though the final Top 10 skewed toward the earlier half of the decade.
Entertainment Weekly's 100 All-Time Greatest Albums
Source: Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly’s 100 All-Time Greatest Albums (2013) is an editorial canon—not a public ballot—assembled through internal debate among EW writers and editors to capture “game-changing” records of the album era. Presented as a ranked top-100 with The Beatles’ Revolver at No. 1, the list leans toward the pop/rock/hip-hop core EW covers, while acknowledging shifting cultural lenses (e.g., Daft Punk’s Discovery rising due to EDM’s influence). EW framed the result as a 50-year snapshot rather than a definitive consensus of all genres or eras.
Top 100 Albums of the 2000s
Source: Adresseavisen
Adresseavisen (Norway) published this “best of the 2000s” feature on December 4, 2009 (later updated November 2, 2010) as a staff-picked countdown of the 100 best albums of the decade, described as “the 100 records we managed to argue our way to.” The list was compiled by eight members of Adressa’s music desk: Terje Eidsvåg, Vegard Enlid, Ole Jacob Hoel, Kai Kristiansen, Audun Hoem Hagen, Leif Gjerstad, Magne Gisvold, and Ali Reza Soufi Pour.
The 100 Best Albums of All Time
Source: Epoca
Epoca (Italy) – The 100 Best Albums of All Time (1988) is a ranked “all-time” albums list published in 1988 by Epoca, a major Italian weekly news and culture magazine from Arnoldo Mondadori Editore (often compared to Life). The list is presented in order of preference as a single ranked Top 100. Publicly available transcriptions preserve the rankings, but do not include voter credits or methodology, so the number and names of contributors are not currently documented.
Uncut’s 200 Greatest Albums of All Time
Source: Uncut
Uncut’s 200 Greatest Albums of All Time ran as the February 2016 cover story (issue “Take 225”), positioning a classicist, UK-leaning canon topped by Pet Sounds, Revolver, Astral Weeks, and The Velvet Underground & Nico. It’s presented as an Uncut editorial survey rather than a public poll, and the package cross-references how many of these albums had ranked in earlier Uncut/NME lists, framing the feature as a conversation with rock history as much as a fresh plebiscite.
Colin Larkin’s All Time Top 1000 Albums
Source: Colin Larkin
A book series created by Encyclopedia of Popular Music editor Colin Larkin (1st ed. 1994; later pocket/2nd ed. 1998; 3rd ed. 2000), presenting a ranked “top 1000” derived from a large, ongoing public poll—ballots gathered in record shops, universities, schools, and at the MIDEM trade show—rather than a critics’ ballot. The project grew across editions, with annotations for each album and shifting results as more votes came in.
The 100 Albums of the 80s
Source: Rockstar
This is a ranked, end-of-decade canon that leans heavily toward the decade’s post-punk / new wave / art-pop / indie core, while still giving major space to era-defining funk/pop and hip-hop.
100 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
Source: Kerrang
Published in Kerrang! (Issue #682, Jan 1998), “100 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die” is a hard-rock/metal-leaning essentials list that blends ‘70s giants (Sabbath, Zeppelin, AC/DC), punk cornerstones (Sex Pistols), and ‘90s era-defining records (Nirvana, Sepultura, Metallica). It reads like a late-90s Kerrang! time capsule: aggressive, riff-forward, and tuned to the tastes of the magazine’s core rock/metal audience.
Top Song Lists
View All Song ListsThe 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
Source: Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone’s 2021 revamp of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time was rebuilt from the ground up via a large industry ballot, inviting more than 250 artists, writers, producers, and other music insiders to each submit ranked top-50 lists. The new canon deliberately widens the lens beyond classic rock to foreground hip-hop, R&B, Latin pop, indie, and global scenes, resulting in a fresher, more inclusive snapshot of pop history. The final ranking reflects those ballots—thousands of individual song votes—tabulated by Rolling Stone’s editors.
100 Greatest Songs of All Time
Source: Mojo
MOJO’s 2000 feature “The 100 Greatest Songs of All Time” is a ranked canon assembled from ballots by an invited panel of renowned songwriters—among them Paul McCartney, Carole King, Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller, Cynthia Weil & Barry Mann, Jimmy Webb, Brian Wilson, Johnny Marr, Rod Temperton, Jeff Tweedy, and Paul Weller—augmented by MOJO’s writers and editors. The package emphasizes songs-as-standards (not just hit singles), often identifying a “definitive version,” and spans Tin Pan Alley, soul, rock, folk, and pop. The published list in MOJO #81 (Aug 2000) reflects the combined votes of roughly 44 named contributors and includes short essays/context on each selection.
17 Critics and Their Top 50 Songs
Source: Mucchio Selvaggio
In 2002 Italian Rock Magazine "Il Mucchio Selvaggio" (The Wild Bunch) asked each critic of the magazine's staff to make a list of the top 50 songs of all time. Published on Mucchio Selvaggio n. 498 (2nd September 2002)
The 700 Best Songs of All Time
Source: Musikexpress
Musikexpress (Germany) compiled “The 700 Best Songs of All Time” for its 700th anniversary issue (on sale March 13, 2014). The ranking was assembled from an expert jury of 214 contributors—including Musikexpress editors and writers, critics from other media outlets, music-industry professionals, and a large number of musicians. The results were published as a major print special with commentary for each song; Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” was ranked #1. Alongside the jury list, Musikexpress also ran an online reader poll that produced a separate Top 100 readers’ favorites.
The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
Source: NME
A fully ranked canon of 500 tracks published by NME in 2014, presented online in five parts and in print; NME describes it as “compiled by staff and writers,” with no voter roll or headcount disclosed. For weighting, we record an estimated 30 contributors as a cautious midpoint of a 20–40 range, based on the phrasing (multi-person editorial process), the project’s scale (500 songs with accompanying copy), typical NME staff size circa 2013–2014 (few dozen across print/digital), and precedent from adjacent NME lists that drew on many journalists.
All-TIME 100 Songs
Source: TIME
Published on Oct. 24, 2011, TIME’s All-TIME 100 Songs is an editorial, unranked survey of 100 standout English-language recordings released since 1923, selected by the magazine’s critics and presented by decade. Each pick is accompanied by a short essay written by a TIME writer or critic (with bylines such as Gilbert Cruz, Douglas Wolk, Josh Sanburn, Richard Corliss, and some pieces credited to “TIME Staff”), but TIME does not publish a consolidated list or count of contributors. The package spans standards, rock, pop, hip-hop, country, R&B, and more, emphasizing songs’ enduring “beauty, power and inventiveness.”
1000 Songs Everyone Must Hear
Source: The Guardian
In March 2009, the Guardian/Observer published “1000 Songs Everyone Must Hear,” an unranked, themed survey of popular music—from early standards to modern pop—curated by the papers’ music critics rather than by public vote. Rolled out over a week in seven categories (love, heartbreak, people & places, sex, politics & protest, life & death, party songs), each pick includes title/artist/year and a short signed blurb; the series later invited readers to nominate omissions for each theme. Although branded as “1000,” the currently available official dataset now totals 988 entries. Based on the variety of critic initials signing the blurbs across all seven themes—and the fact that multiple different initials appear within the same theme—we estimate about 12 critics contributed to the curation (a conservative, evidence-based count rather than a published headcount).
100 (+21) Favorite Singles of the Last 50 Years
Source: Popdose
The intro explicitly says the list combines votes from Popdose staff plus four friends (Peter Lubin, Amy Davis, Carl Abernathy, Mike Heyliger). Popdose doesn’t state the exact number of staff voters in the post, but looking at other Popdose “staff list” projects from the same period shows roughly a dozen-ish recurring staff contributors.
The Pitchfork 500
Source: Pitchfork
The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present (Fireside/Simon & Schuster, 2008) is Pitchfork’s alternate history of popular music, selecting 500 songs from 1977–2006 across indie rock, hip-hop, electronic, pop, metal, and experimental scenes. Organized chronologically into nine mini-eras with scene-setting intros and sidebars, it aims to chart how key tracks shifted the culture outside the usual classic-rock canon. Edited by Ryan Schreiber and Scott Plagenhoef and written by a bench of Pitchfork critics (reported as 42), it’s a staff-curated, narrative guide rather than a ranked, vote-tallied poll.
Pitchfork: The 200 Best Songs of the 2010s
Source: Pitchfork
Published October 7, 2019, Pitchfork’s The 200 Best Songs of the 2010s is a ranked, editorial staff list—framed by an editor’s note about the internal curation process—aiming to capture a genre-blurring decade from mainstream pop and hip-hop to indie, electronic, and global scenes. It ran alongside companion features (a separate readers’ poll; playlists on Spotify/Apple Music), underscoring that this canon reflects Pitchfork’s in-house perspective, not a public ballot.
365 Songs of the Century
Source: RIAA and NEA
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.
1001 Best Songs Ever
Source: Q (Magazine)
Published in late 2003 as a one-off special, Q’s 1001 Best Songs Ever is a cheeky, sweep-all-eras ranked survey of pop and rock that doubles as a buy-this-now jukebox: U2’s “One” tops a list that runs from 1950s standards to millennial hits, each entry tagged with punchy “best for…” recommendations and punctuated by celebrity/artist mini-lists. Compiled by Q’s editorial team (with guest contributions) rather than a readers’ poll, the 146–148-page “bookazine” aimed to be an instant library you could beg, borrow, or download right then and there.
The 100 Greatest Singles of All Time
Source: Spin
SPIN’s “100 Greatest Singles of All Time” was published in the magazine’s April 1989 (Vol. 5 No. 1) 4th Anniversary Special, an issue themed around “The Greatest Records of All Time.” The list is best understood as a staff-selected canon (often described as voted by SPIN’s editorial staff) and is notable for its eclectic, contemporary-leaning choices—most famously placing Rob Base & D.J. E-Z Rock’s “It Takes Two” at #1.
The 100 Best Singles of All Time
Source: Berlin Media
Berlin Media (Germany) – The 100 Best Singles of All Time (1998) is a ranked Top 100 songs/singles poll compiled from votes by Berlin-based music journalists and associated with radioeins’s “Millennium Music Mix” project. The surviving references describe it as a straightforward countdown with no accompanying commentary, and they don’t preserve (or at least don’t make accessible) a full voter roster or the exact vote-count/methodology.
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame – Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll
Source: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
“Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll” is an unranked, influence-based exhibit list from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, originally 500 songs and later expanded to roughly 660, spanning recordings from the 1920s into the 2000s; it was compiled by chief curator Jim Henke with input from the Hall’s curatorial staff and numerous outside critics and music experts, but aside from Henke the Hall has not published contributor names, so a reasonable estimate of participants is about 20–40 people in total.
100 Best Songs of the 2000s
Source: Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone’s “100 Best Songs of the 2000s” is the magazine’s take on the defining tracks of 2000–2009, assembled from a panel of 100+ artists, critics, and industry insiders. First unveiled in 2009 and later published online in June 2011, the list aims to capture the decade’s “anything-goes” musical landscape—shaped by file-sharing and playlist culture—and the way pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, indie, and dance all collided into a single shared mainstream.
100 Best Songs of the '80s
Source: Spectrum Culture
Spectrum Culture’s “100 Best Songs of the ’80s” is a staff-produced, ranked countdown published in 2017 and released in installments (from #100–91 through #10–1). The list spans pop, rock, new wave, R&B, and more, with each song accompanied by a brief critical note tying it to the decade’s sound, style, and lasting influence.
100 Best Songs of the '90s
Source: Spectrum Culture
Spectrum Culture’s “100 Best Songs of the ’90s” is a staff-curated countdown of the decade’s essential tracks, published in 10 installments across summer 2017 (June 15–August 24). The series spans a wide range of ’90s sounds—pop, rock, hip-hop, and more—with brief critical notes for each selection. The feature is credited collectively to Spectrum Culture’s staff rather than a single author.
1,000 Essential Songs from the 1970s
Source: Steve Crawford
Steve Crawford’s 1,000 Essential Songs from the 1970s (2015) is a single-author tour through the decade’s popular music, framing the ’70s as far more than a “classic rock” snapshot. Crawford’s picks span superstars and Top 40 staples alongside the forces that reshaped the era—funk and disco’s dominance, plus the disruptive rise of punk, electronic, and new wave—with recurring touchstones like Philly Soul, the singer-songwriter movement, and the U.K. punk scene. The book mixes song-by-song commentary with historical context, humor, and critical analysis.
The 200 Best Songs of the 1980s
Source: Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone’s “The 200 Best Songs of the 1980s” is a ranked, one-song-per-artist celebration of the decade’s pop, rock, R&B, hip-hop, new wave, and dance explosions—built to capture both the era’s huge cultural hits and the deeper cult favorites that shaped how modern music sounds. The list is presented as an editorial package written by Rob Sheffield, and it uses the “one song per artist” rule to keep the focus on variety across the decade rather than letting a handful of megastars dominate the rankings.