... And WTMD's #1 is........

[helen99]

So... WTMD finally got to #1. The way they arrived at the list (they said) was by votes of the listeners. I had no idea that indie listeners liked old music so much. Most of my favorites were completely missing from the countdown. I doubt they even know who Woflsheim is, and where was the *real* greatest album of all time, "Fragile" by NIN? To its credit, the winner is a very, very Britsh piece of work, which lends it 50 points of charm aside from its musical worth, which is prodigious.

The greatest album of all time, according to the listeners of WTMD 98.7, 105.5 is:

The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Comments

[drchuck1968.livejournal.com]

WFUV's listeners put Bob Dylan at the top of the heap:

http://www.wfuv.org/music/best/essentialalbums.html

[helen99.livejournal.com]

What's up with putting all the 60s guys at the top? What's up with the "greatest albums of all time" to begin with. Do you mean to tell me that from the time albums first came out (1915 or something?) until the present time, nobody else was able to top Dylan or the Beatles? I think they were great, don't get me wrong, but um, WHAT ABOUT DR. DEMENTO?????!!!!! er... I'm back now.

[drchuck1968.livejournal.com]

And where was William Shatner's The Transformed Man? Surely, his version of "Mr. Tambourine Man" is the definitive version that has been embedded in our culture!

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Right - what I meant to say was, "the kinds of things that were played on the Dr. Demento Show" -- not Dr. Demento himself - he was a radio show host, not a musician, after all... However, he may have done a bit better than Mr. Shatner did with Mr. Tambourine man had he given it the old college try!

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I don't think that I'd personally put it at #1, but definitely in the top 20, and likely in the top 10. One of the problems with newer albums in such a rating is that I'm assuming that many people take how influential an album has been into account, and older albums have obviously had a chance to influence music for more decades.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Balancing popularity with influence, the Beatles were peraps both the most influential and popular band. It's weighted toward the earlier bands for several reasons. The first is the fact that there are more decades to influence. The second is that there were fewer bands to compete with, and so became possible to capture the imagination of a larger percentage of the audience. Some of the later ones had an influence, but only on a cross section of people and not on everyone. I'm not sure how that would have affected listener votes, though - they tend to vote for what they like, and many of them wouldn't remember half of those bands. I think the programming on WTMD (at other times besides the indie slots in the morning and evening) makes for a very broad spectrum of listeners, and the listeners tend to be better educated musically.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Adding to my last post, by "earlier", I mean 1963 to about 1971.. Before that there were greatly influential artists (Muddy Waters, et. al.,) and very popular ones (e.g., Elvis Presley), but I think the media ability to generate huge influence and popularity actually peaked around the 60s to very early 70s. After that the audience was divided, having a much greater choice.

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

Eh, it's a fair cop. I don't know enough about music to pluck alternative suggestions out of the air. If you gave me a list I probably couldn't rank them because I wouldn't have even ever heard 80% of them. I do like Sergeant Pepper.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

I do too, but ironically not until more recently (when "beatlemania" was going on, I looked on the screaming crowds with disdain as I listened to Robin Williamson (friend of RJ's btw) and the Incredible String Band). But -- the Beatles' music gave me an interesting cross-section of English life, spanning the lonely and desperate (Eleanor Rigby, A Day in the Life, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band), the mundane (Penny Lane, Mr. Kite), the violent (Helter Skelter), and the mythical (Yellow Submarine, Magical Mystery Tour, Within you and Without you) (etc.). They were an interesting mix of retro (by 1967 standards) and futuristic. But more than anything else, and all the trappings of the time aside, they were ... British.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Edit - In this video, Robin is the light-haired one with the beard on the left. Mike Heron (the other half of incredible string band) is the dark-haired one on the right: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOyiDIUhbAE

I got the two confused, hence the edit.