This is a plea to the editors of pop-culture magazines touted as the "be all, end all" of musical and cinematic criticism: please, no more lists.
While I am well aware of my colleague's choice last week to make known his favorite albums of the year, this publication is no Rolling Stone. And believe me, I mean that in a good way.
In its latest edition, Rolling Stone released a list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time." The title of the list itself implies the arrogance printed within its pages. I hear it being read by Charlton Heston, "...of Alll Tiiime," as he points to the horizon and stares off in the distance.
While the method of the list's formation is an admirable effort, having taken top 50 lists from 273 various artists (including Flea and Missy Elliot), editors and critics, the list is just a rehashed statement of what albums were and are popular among middle-aged Americans.
In the top 10, there are four albums from one band. (I won't say their name, but it starts with a "B" and ends in "eatles.") It is simply obscene to state that 40 percent of the 10 best albums ever came from the same two songwriters. Just because most of these voters were too weak-willed to leave an obvious choice off their list, it doesn't make the album great.
In my mind that would be like saying that just because a man is elected to a position in government he must be the best man for the job. And with the choice major party voters were left in the 2000 presidential election, it's fair to say that's not always the case.
Any list formed to assemble the best or greatest of any form of art is bound to be strewn with flaws and misstatements. It's about time that society decided to stop viewing music as a popularity contest, and simply appreciate it the same way other art is appreciated. Allow TRL to exist - since nothing on that show is art - but leave the decision of whether Led Zeppelin's "IV" is better than Pearl Jam's "Ten" to the individual.
The same goes for film. Film is as legitimate an art form as poetry or sculpture. When taken seriously in its creation, it can serve to inspire in much the same way. So why are film and music somehow bunched together with the dreadful genre of television?
The answer is, in part, thanks to the list.
VH1 and MTV have developed a genre of television series of comparable atrocity to the reality television boom. Seemingly each week, a new list is developed of the best bands, best voices, best guitarists, best leather pants and so on.
Televised awards shows, like the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards, may be to blame, since they serve the same purpose as lists. As a side, the act of cropping and editing a film for the sake of televising it is equivalent to tearing pages out of a Robert Frost poem so it could fit between the photo of the 750-pound baby from Pluto and the penis-enlargement ads in the National Enquirer.
Nothing could be worse for the respectability of the art created by our generation than to arbitrarily make a decision on whose is the best. Art is made for the sake of creation, for the sake inspiration and enlightenment. It is not made to best some opponent. It is made in the spirit of collaboration, not competition.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
