Future Mythologies

I don't hate lists. They can be fun. But they've gotten completely out of control. I guess it's that much easier to read a list than an article, and it's that much easier to write one. There's really no excuse for Rolling Stone's 500 Albums list, though. Especially when it doesn't contain one of my two favorite albums. It fails at both content and deliverance. And who really cares about the 487th best album of all time, whatever it is?

To stick up for lists, though. A lot of times I've gone through phases where music doesn't interest me. When this happens, I find a list of albums and listen to them all in order. In the past I've used Mojo lists and such, though I've outgrown Mojo for the most part. Generally when I do this I will find several albums which totally thrill me, generally ones I didn't think would.

One reason is that I like organized systems, but the main thing is that you hear music differently when you select it and when you don't. When you select a piece of music to hear, you are assuming things about the piece of music. You put it on because you want to feel a certain way, and you believe that this music will help you feel that way. When the music is chosen for you, though, you have no assumptions, and the music is free to hit you however it wants to. I read articles all the time about people not liking music until they find themselves listening to it for some strange reason one day and realizing it's fucking great. Public Image Limited's Metal Box is the one I'm thinking about, but it happens with others. So lists can be great. But seriously, cut the list crap.