2007年 Mar 8日 Thursday, 21:53

According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is officially the greatest rock album of all time.

What? WHAT? This baffles me. Sure, it's a good album, and it proves that The Beatles can cover a variety of styles and that Ringo can't do much without the help of his friends. The style explored here would be psychedelic rock, obviously. If you want to find everyone's favorite mop-topped British quartet experimenting with say, hard rock, turn to Helter Skelter off of the sometimes excellent, sometimes not-exactly-fun-to-listen to (Revolution 9, anyone?) White Album.

But I digress. The point of this little rant? I don't think Sgt. Pepper's is the greatest Beatles album of all time, let alone the greatest album in the history of rock and roll. First of all, in my humble opinion, Abbey Road is much better than Sgt. Pepper's. And hey, for that matter, I disagree with a lot of the list.

Dark Side of the Moon at number two? This album, though great, is nowhere near as impressive as Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Number three of The "Definitive 200" really confuses me. How in God's name did Thriller beat out the somewhat cliche choice of (but still worthy) number four - Led Zeppelin IV? Was it just so they could put IV at number four? Do the people who run the Rock and Roll hall of fame really have that terrible of a sense of humor?

I could go on and on about this list. The inclusion of country artists like Shania Twain and The Dixie Chicks as well as rappers like Eminem just does not make sense to me. Isn't this supposed to be the rock and roll definitive 200, not the all-music-genres definitive 200? Not to mention the gross oversights of such bands as the Ramones and The Who.

And for that matter, with the quality music that is continually released, lists like this run the risk of becoming dated quickly. Sure, artists like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin are timeless, but lists like these are not. If one desires to make a Definitive 200 (or a Definitive 56, for that matter), the best way to go about it is to add a disclaimer. The Definitive 200 -INSERT GENRE HERE- Albums of -INSERT TIME PERIOD HERE-.

End rant.