My Favourite Album
A couple of nights ago, our public broadcaster, the ABC, screened the long-awaited results of its viewer poll on the top ten favourite albums of all time in Australia.
Guess what they were? Drum roll, please...
Pink Floyd — Dark Side of the Moon
Jeff Buckley — Grace
Radiohead — OK Computer
The Beatles — Abbey Road
The Beatles — Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Nirvana — Nevermind
Led Zeppelin — Four
Red Hot Chili Peppers — Blood Sugar Sex Majik
Meat Loaf — Bat Out of Hell
U2 — Joshua Tree
What do you think?
I was stunned. I will willingly admit that there is some pretty good music there. But a list of great albums with no Bob Dylan? No Bruce Springsteen? How could Pet Sounds not be there? No women at all. No black people. No punk, either. And how the hell can this be an Australian list with no AC/DC? In fact, there is no Australian music there at all!
But, of course, it occurs to me now that it was a poll of favourite albums rather than best albums. In my experience, the music a person loves, truly loves, is very personal. It usually reminds them of some intense time in their lives - a time when they were feeling happy and very alive or a time of heartbreak, something like that.
And now I am thinking about the albums I have most loved and why, but they will have to be the subject of another post.
posted by Emily at 12/05/2006 03:29:00 AM
6 Comments:
WTH is the Midnight Oil?
They and AC/DC are two rock essentials.
I agree with what you said about favorite vs best but what about popular? Dont dollar votes count too?
Were Olivia NJ and the Brothers Gibb not big at home like they were here?
What about the the pop category, what about Rolf Harris' rendition of Tie me Kangaroo Down?
Very intersting,and as good or better than such a list from up over, but like all of them, its missing a lot of stuff.
Music junkies like MGWITW and I are not so tied to what is popular in our adolescence and young adulthood as most folks, so I KNOW i am WIERD in my taste :-).
The first thing that stuck out to me, too, was the absence of Australian musicans.
Most of those are classic favorites just about anywhere, with the possible exceptions perhaps of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Radiohead, and Jeff Buckley... While those are very good, I can't see them being in the top 10 anywhere, honestly.
Couldn't they have thrown an Australian Idol in there for good measure? :-)
Two from the Beatles seems about right (especially those two), but. . . no Stones??
Ah, these lists are always so subjective, anyway, and ten albums to cover 40 years is narrowing the field pretty small. . .
Who's Jeff Buckley? And while I've heard of Bob Dylan, I don't really know what he sings? Does he sing?
This is why I won't be invited to any jam sessions! ;)
I gotta agree with AC/DC. Who voted in this poll? Are you sure it wasn't American Broadcasting Company (ABC)?
Also, INXS and Men at Work didn't make the list, and they were pretty big in their day.
Lies, damned lies, and statistics (in this case polls).
You know, O, even some folks who love Bob Dylan are wondering if he sings. . . ;)
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