Apple Music this week announced the release of its 100 Best Albums of all time, a celebratory list of the greatest records ever made, crafted by Apple Music’s team of experts alongside a select group of artists, including Maren Morris, Pharrell Williams, J Balvin, Charli XCX, Mark Hoppus, Honey Dijon, and Nia Archives, as well as songwriters, producers, and industry professionals. The list is an editorial statement, fully independent of any streaming numbers on Apple Music — a love letter to the records that have shaped the world music lovers live and listen in.
Apple Music is bringing its 100 Best Albums to life with a countdown celebration beginning today, revealing 10 albums each day for the next 10 days, along with a brand-new 100 Best microsite, new and exclusive content, dedicated Apple Music Radio episodes, and so much more. The countdown will culminate on the final day with the reveal of Apple Music’s top 10 albums of all time during a broadcast radio special.
“100 Best brings together all the things that make Apple Music the ultimate service for music lovers — human curation at its peak, an appreciation for the art of storytelling, and unparalleled knowledge of music and an even deeper love for it,” said Rachel Newman, Apple Music’s senior director of content and editorial, in a statement. “We have been working on this for a very long time, and it’s something we are all incredibly proud of and excited to share with the world.”
“Putting this list together was a true labor of love, both in that it was incredibly difficult to do and in that we are all so passionate about it,” said Zane Lowe, Apple Music’s global creative director and lead anchor for Apple Music 1, in a statement. “We were tasked with selecting the 100 best — that’s practically mission impossible. But as music fans, it was also amazing to really take a minute and sit and think about the music and albums and artists that we love so much in this context. If this list sparks more debate among fans outside of Apple Music and gets people talking passionately about the music they love, then we’ve done what we set out to do.”
The first 10 albums were revealed Monday with seven of the 10 records hailing from the 21st century, two from the 90s, only one from the 70s, and various genres represented, the list spotlights contemporary artists like Tyler, The Creator; Robyn; Lorde; Travis Scott; Solange; Burial; and more who have helped define this century through their music and its influence on others…
100. Body Talk, Robyn
99. Hotel California, Eagles
98. ASTROWORLD, Travis Scott
97. Rage Against the Machine, Rage Against the Machine
96. Pure Heroine, Lorde
95. Confessions, USHER
94. Untrue, Burial
93. A Seat at the Table, Solange
92. Flower Boy, Tyler, The Creator
91. Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1, George Michael
On Tuesday, Apple Music revealed the next 10 albums on its list:
90. Back In Black, AC/DC
89. The Fame Monster, Lady Gaga
88. I Put a Spell on You, Nina Simone
87. Blue Lines, Massive Attack
86. My Life, Mary J. Blige
85. Golden Hour, Kacey Musgraves
84. Doggystyle, Snoop Dogg
83. Horses, Patti Smith
82. Get Rich or Die Tryin’, 50 Cent
81. After the Gold Rush, Neil Young
“There are so many fun facts for our listeners to discover about these albums,” said Scott Plagenhoef, Apple Music’s global head of music programming. “For example, two of the records revealed today were promoted without the image of the artist, but for opposite reasons — Burial’s Untrue because the artist was still operating anonymously at the time, and George Michael’s Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 because the artist was actually retreating from fame.”
Discover, Learn, and Share with Friends
To accompany the list, today Apple Music also revealed a dedicated microsite that will update every day of the countdown, making it easy for listeners to follow along. Available now at 100best.music.apple.com, the new 100 Best microsite spotlights in-depth analysis of each album, archival interviews, and more, and makes it easy for fans to share their favorite albums with friends and on their social channels.
Explore records 100-91 of Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums at 100best.music.apple.com.
Follow Along on Apple Music Radio
Fans will also be treated to a full 100 Best Albums Radio takeover on Apple Music Hits, where round-the-clock specials with Apple Music Radio hosts and daily specials at 9 a.m. PT (noon ET) will be broadcasted, plus exclusive content will drop every day on demand on Apple Music and Apple Podcasts.
The last 10 albums will be revealed on Wednesday, May 22, with a special roundtable discussion broadcasting globally on Apple Music that features guest artists Nile Rodgers and Maggie Rogers reflecting on the list alongside Apple Music’s own Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden. Lowe will also curate a special mashup-style DJ mix featuring songs from all 100 Best Albums.
Apple Music will keep the momentum going after the countdown ends with an additional week of 100 Best Albums Radio takeover on Apple Music Hits.
All 100 Best Albums recipients will be given an award comprised of blasted anodized aluminum, sourced entirely from recycled Apple products, in a unique polished PVD gold. The design on the back of the award takes its cues from a vinyl LP record and is inscribed with the artist’s name, the album title, and the album’s year of release.
Explore Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums at 100best.music.apple.com and check back daily to discover the full list. Get exclusive content by following @AppleMusic on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and X.
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
MacDailyNews Take: Yowza! Yowza! And now folks, a blast from the past:
The album is an artificial construct developed by the music cartels to get more of your money for less effort. The album is – plain and simple – a bundling technique. Take some marketable material, add a greater percentage of filler, call it an “album,” pretend it’s “art,” and charge more than you could charge for just the worthwhile bits. While some small percentage of artists throughout the history of the album construct have taken the concept to an art form and more than few music customers have bought so fully into the marketing construct as to defend it passionately today, that does not change the fact that the “album” is a product bundle designed to collect more money for the good stuff by bundling it with a greater percentage of filler.
Cavemen did not sit around the fire singing “albums,” they sang songs. When the music industry began, they sold single songs. The “album” is a marketing tool. Is it “art” that an “album” is between 30-60 minutes? No, that length is based on nothing more than how much the recording mediums could hold at the time the “album” began to be marketed.
It’s nice that Apple is offering to take into account money spent on singles for those that later wish to purchase the “album” in which they were bundled, but the basic fact remains: iTunes Store’s ‘Complete My Album’ “service” is advertising masquerading as a feature designed to placate the music cartel’s abject horror that their “album” construct is disintegrating before their eyes. Disintegrating back to music’s natural form: the song; as it has been for hundreds of thousands of years before the marketeers began pushing the “album” construct. The music cartel’s know that you already bought the songs you liked and now, with Apple’s help, they want you buy the whole “album,” whether you really like or want the other songs or not – as usual. (Oh, how the music cartel misses the efficacy with which $15 CDs containing one or two good songs bought them mansions, cars, and boats while keeping their noses powdered.) – MacDailyNews, March 29, 2007
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
Man, oh man, did MDN nail it back in 2007 with this take. With a few excellent concept albums as exceptions (Pink Floyd; Moody Blues; classical music suites/symphonies) the MDN take says it correctly. The original medium was 78 RPM fragile discs with one song. Then the little 45 RPM donuts with the big hole in the middle had one song per side in the 1950s. Then around 1961 came the vinyl albums loaded with 40 minutes worth of sound using both sides. Then CDs.
Now we have new agers, Apple wokesters and music dinosaurs picking 100 best albums I suspect some know little about.
Hotel California made the list maybe the repetition on Sirius XM or heard when they were in diapers, yeah, I remember that catchy song.
Bottom Line: This list is about as credible as the album construct MDN correctly called out, a Big Apple MARKETING JOKE to gain attention and make more money. Pfft!….
Please, rap anywhere near this list trashes its credibility completely. This is 100 albums, folks. Think about it.
Agreed! …
Guarantee: vast majority – esp top 20-30 will be either female or artists of color. IOTW, woke pandering/virtue signaling, actual music quality be damned.
Rolling Stone lost any credibility re musical judgment when they altered their entire Top 100 after the George Floyd events. White artists dropped like boulders down the list. Woke destroys everything. Thanks Tim!
Out of the first 20, there are only 4 that I am familiar (listen to) with. And of those 4, two of them should be much higher on the list.
I believe the term was first applied to a literal album containing vinyl singles.
MDN is right, of course, but much of my favourite music has been deep cuts, and the album format has unlocked the creativity of many an artist (while also generating much filler)