Adult Alternative canon fodder

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Here is an odd list of "100 Best Albums," as voted by the listeners of a Pittsburgh area radio staion. It's a strange mix of hipster snobbery (Double Nickles, Aeroplane Over the Sea, no Beatles), cappucino sipping (Kind of Blue, Graceland) and rootsy wordsmith worship (Springsteen and Dylan monopolize much of the list), peppered with grunge-era hangover.

Where?

Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Monday, 11 September 2006 14:13 (nineteen years ago)

Here's the URL, it got eaten when i submitted...

http://www.wyep.org/music_programs/100albums.asp

The whole thing so placidly Gen X comfort-foodish, it makes me want to listen to ADULT. for the rest of the day, just to remind myself that my contemporaries haven't all turned into biscottis.

bendy (bendy), Monday, 11 September 2006 14:14 (nineteen years ago)

misplaced anchor closing tag i think

a.b. (alanbanana), Monday, 11 September 2006 14:16 (nineteen years ago)

Who fuck Rusted Root?

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 11 September 2006 14:18 (nineteen years ago)

Rusted Root is a Pittsburgh area jam rock band.

bendy (bendy), Monday, 11 September 2006 14:19 (nineteen years ago)

Counting Bastard Crows.

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 11 September 2006 14:22 (nineteen years ago)

otm bendy
I had no idea dad's liked Fountain's Of Wayne

earinfections (Nick Twisp), Monday, 11 September 2006 14:26 (nineteen years ago)

It's Bob Harris' playlist is what it is.

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 11 September 2006 14:26 (nineteen years ago)

Hah! I wish!

mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 11 September 2006 14:31 (nineteen years ago)

no grinder switch no credibility

scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 11 September 2006 14:41 (nineteen years ago)

where the hell is fireballet's night on bald mountain???

scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 11 September 2006 14:44 (nineteen years ago)

what the hell is fireballet's night on bald mountain????

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 11 September 2006 14:47 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.progarchives.com/Progressive_rock_discography_CD.asp?cd_id=2764

scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 11 September 2006 14:51 (nineteen years ago)

does kind of blue have to show up on EVERY list? is it the law?

best album to fart underwater to: kind of blue

best album to make out with your mother to: kind of blue

scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 11 September 2006 14:54 (nineteen years ago)

top ten U.S. presidents: no 1 - Kind of Blue

Number one Miles Davis album to listen to after you get done listening to Kind of Blue: Kind of Blue

scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 11 September 2006 15:03 (nineteen years ago)

does kind of blue have to show up on EVERY list? is it the law?

Well, unlike Love Supreme, I think non-jazzbos actually listen to it, instead of merely owning it. It's got that going for it.

bendy (bendy), Monday, 11 September 2006 15:05 (nineteen years ago)

Mercury Music Prize: Arctic Monkeys

mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 11 September 2006 15:06 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, but they kinda of blew too.

NickB (NickB), Monday, 11 September 2006 15:16 (nineteen years ago)

Oops, fuck that guy who welded my fingers together.

NickB (NickB), Monday, 11 September 2006 15:17 (nineteen years ago)

Don't think I've seen such a USAcentic list in my life. Except for 3/5 of Fleetwood Mac and 1/4 of CSNY (tho Nash is now a US citizen) its 100% pure American Beef.

Ben Dot (1977), Monday, 11 September 2006 15:49 (nineteen years ago)

uh...Here they are, the 100 greatest American albums as voted by the listeners of WYEP.

ZR (teenagequiet), Monday, 11 September 2006 15:51 (nineteen years ago)

Ah, that's why there's no Beatles...

bendy (bendy), Monday, 11 September 2006 16:07 (nineteen years ago)

BE AMERICAN BUY AMERICAN

Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 11 September 2006 16:14 (nineteen years ago)

This list is so lame, man. Where the hell is Diplo? Paris Hilton? Those rockist bastards.

kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Monday, 11 September 2006 16:17 (nineteen years ago)


uh...Here they are, the 100 greatest American albums as voted by the listeners of WYEP.

Ah. Read the thread title , but not the article title.

Ben Dot (1977), Monday, 11 September 2006 16:40 (nineteen years ago)

at least the REM albums are vaguely in the right order (apart from Document being too low).

Si.C@rter (SiC@rter), Monday, 11 September 2006 16:43 (nineteen years ago)

How would one best approach (or escape) a person whose favorite album is Graceland?

ramon fernandez (ramon fernandez), Monday, 11 September 2006 16:50 (nineteen years ago)

There's a dad I know whose best bud drove over on a motorcycle to give him the Fountains of Wayne album after hearing them on NPR.

Eppy (Eppy), Monday, 11 September 2006 16:54 (nineteen years ago)

There's a dad I know whose best bud drove over him on a motorcycle to give him the Fountains of Wayne album after hearing them on NPR.

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 11 September 2006 16:56 (nineteen years ago)

x-post:

I've run across a lot of people whose taste in music I like who love Graceland, so it wouldn't be an issue. (If I remember correctly, it has some strong advocates here.)

Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 11 September 2006 16:57 (nineteen years ago)

I've run over a lot of people with a motorcycle whose taste in music I like who love Graceland.

Just kidding! Graceland is wonderful! I'm not sure I'd ever put it on my top albums lists, but in point of fact it's certainly among those elite albums that I can always go back to, at any point in my life, and find great joy in....

Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Monday, 11 September 2006 16:59 (nineteen years ago)

OMG radio station listeners have no taste! pffffffffffffft. i own at least 60 of these. i bet you do, too. shut up.

john, a resident of chicago. (john s), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:08 (nineteen years ago)

Now everybody count as say how many you actually own.

Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:10 (nineteen years ago)

*checks* 20.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:12 (nineteen years ago)

Only 23 for me so I am free to say that this list is nogood shit piss crap.

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:13 (nineteen years ago)

I own 19, maybe a few more if you count illicit copies. Some of the ones I own I only own on hand-me-down vinyl which I never listen to (since I don't have a turntable).

Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:15 (nineteen years ago)

i own 20 of them. not many!

x-x-post!

scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:15 (nineteen years ago)

weird, we are all in da same ballpark.

scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:16 (nineteen years ago)

I own or have owned, in one form or another, 52 of them. :D

gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:16 (nineteen years ago)

I'd be willing to put about 20 on a Top 100.

gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:18 (nineteen years ago)

You definitely can't play in the hive any more then.

Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:20 (nineteen years ago)

22, plus a couple more I probably never bought.

Si.C@rter (SiC@rter), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:20 (nineteen years ago)

I have owned 26 of them...which makes me half the American Rock fan that gabbneb is...

hank (hank s), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:21 (nineteen years ago)

17. I wouldn't mind owning about 40% of the list, but there's a large part of it that totally baffles me:

Buckingham-Nicks: thought this was a cutout bin special, even in this aga of Fleetwood Mac revisionism.

John Prine: I know he's not John Hiatt. But I couldn't tell you the differnce.

Guns n Roses: seems to me that if you've become this dull in your listening habits, you'd disown your youthful fandom.

The biggest omition here is Gillian Welch, who'd fit right in, and tops most of the singer/songwriter stuff on here.

bendy (bendy), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:22 (nineteen years ago)

I don't really like Graceland incidentally, I just like defending it (if you call that defending it).

Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:22 (nineteen years ago)

in the top 20, i own 14 -- most up for a buck or less at garage sales. for the most part, i have no complaints about any of them. they do their thing well. geez. just all the springsteen, dylan and r.e.m. -- that's 17 right there.

then again, i grew up in pittsburgh...

john, a resident of chicago. (john s), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:24 (nineteen years ago)

i only own(owned) 10
ts: cause for shame vs. badge of honor

timmy tannin (pompous), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:30 (nineteen years ago)

"Buckingham-Nicks: thought this was a cutout bin special, even in this aga of Fleetwood Mac revisionism."

no way! it's a great album! revisionism or no revisionism. i like it as much as any bucknicksmac albums.

scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:31 (nineteen years ago)

I had no idea dad's liked Fountain's Of Wayne

i had no idea NON-dads liked fountains of wayne

fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:37 (nineteen years ago)

Skipping 49 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.
Hmm, the playlist is interesting - it doesn't really fit into any standard radio formats I'm used to.

Sundar (sundar), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 00:15 (nineteen years ago)

This list is actually more adventurous than I might have expected.

I mean, Jane's, Pixies, Sonic Youth, and Bitches Brew (I agree with gabbneb on its relative value in MD's fusion catalogue) on the same list as Hotel California (which I also like, mind), Tapestry, and Born to Run. Not even like Eat a Peach is a really accessible record.

Sundar (sundar), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 00:17 (nineteen years ago)

of the 100, i own SEVENTY.

ruddy raleigh and the rickets (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 00:23 (nineteen years ago)

but i own a lot of albums.

ruddy raleigh and the rickets (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 00:24 (nineteen years ago)

dammit jbr i thought i had this in the bag

Marmot (marmotwolof), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 00:25 (nineteen years ago)

i grew up on classic rock, r.e.m., and dylan (among lots of other things).

ruddy raleigh and the rickets (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 00:28 (nineteen years ago)

I got every existing REM CD (and uh, Nevermind the Bollocks) as my Columbia House introductory order when I was 12. Now I don't own any of them! For what it's worth I'd like to replace all 20 of the CDs I used to own on that list and get a couple more besides...

Marmot (marmotwolof), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 00:33 (nineteen years ago)

hahaha, the bmg club was how i caught up with the r.e.m. i still didn't own. (this would be post-automatic and pre-monster.)

ruddy raleigh and the rickets (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 00:35 (nineteen years ago)

"(this would be post-automatic and pre-monster.)"

SAME HERE

Marmot (marmotwolof), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 00:36 (nineteen years ago)

68. good lord!

john cougar thornton melloncamp (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 00:36 (nineteen years ago)

that's "i owned it at one point" too, though. i dont think i currently own any of the replacements catalog for instance.

john cougar thornton melloncamp (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 00:38 (nineteen years ago)

yeah I need to re-buy all Replacements at some point.

Marmot (marmotwolof), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 00:39 (nineteen years ago)

54, give or take one or two that I may or may not have covered on box sets.

I thought the obvious ringer (besides Rusted Root) was the Flatt & Scruggs record -- I'm unaware of any F&S connection with Pgh, and nothing else on the list is related to trad C&W/bluegrass.

Jeff Wright (JeffW1858), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 00:44 (nineteen years ago)

i wonder if downloaded/burned copies should count. there was a while there about five or six years ago when i was just hoovering up every classic rock lp i never heard as a kid.

i guess a cd-r of cosmo's factory might be the .99 lp of the 21st-century.

john cougar thornton melloncamp (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 00:46 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, I was assuming dl's and burns count. Why wouldn't they? I still listen to them. I wasn't counting things I used to own though (which would include Born to Run).

Sundar (sundar), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 00:54 (nineteen years ago)

I didn't see Wire's 154 on the list.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 00:57 (nineteen years ago)

"(this would be post-automatic and pre-monster.)"
SAME HERE

SAME HERE!

Erroneous Botch (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 01:10 (nineteen years ago)

NO MR. BUNGLE, NO CREDIBILITY

Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 03:52 (nineteen years ago)

My dad owns, or has owned, 91 of these albums, beating you all at being a white male former heavy drug user.

max (maxreax), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 04:19 (nineteen years ago)

8, mostly REM albums. Also, I don't think people like Fountains of Wayne so much as they like "Stacy's Mom". those are two super-different things

Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 04:34 (nineteen years ago)

I like a few songs off the first Fountains of Wayne, "Radiation Vibe" and all that. Never heard the others.

Marmot (marmotwolof), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 04:47 (nineteen years ago)

NO TOO MUCH JOY, NO CREDIBILITY

Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 11:11 (nineteen years ago)

"When all the critics voted, the #1 was Ulysses. When regular folk voted it was *gasp* The Fountainhead.

-- Mr. Que (pelagi...), September 11th, 2006."

And didn't the "regular folk" choose "Battlefield Earth" as number 2?
Those on-line book polls are always freeped by Rand maniacs & Scientologists.

ramon fernandez (ramon fernandez), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 14:51 (nineteen years ago)

#3, brother. Good call:

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html

Mr. Que (Mr.Que), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 14:54 (nineteen years ago)

At one time or another I've owned 72 on the list.
I can't see how anyone here can have not owned or at least heard less than 30 of those albums.

ramon fernandez (ramon fernandez), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 14:59 (nineteen years ago)

32, the REM and Talking Heads content really pushes up the total.

zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 17:04 (nineteen years ago)

NO TRIP SHAKESPEARE, NO CREDIBILITY

Too Far? (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 17:11 (nineteen years ago)

And didn't the "regular folk" choose "Battlefield Earth" as number 2?
Those on-line book polls are always freeped by Rand maniacs & Scientologists.

Hahaha like when J.R. "Bob" Dobbs won Time's fraud of the century poll by a huge margin over Geraldo Rivera?

Marmot (marmotwolof), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 18:32 (nineteen years ago)

No wonder there are no Beatles albums in a list of best American albums ever.

I also see no problem with asking people to vote for the best American albums, the same way I also see nothing wrong about the "100 best British albums" surveys that Q have occasionally done.

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 20:30 (nineteen years ago)

NO TRIP SHAKESPEARE, NO CREDIBILITY
OTM

Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 06:46 (nineteen years ago)

i shouldn't even do this, but while we're throwing lambs to wolves...

paste magazine's 100 best living songwriters. (there might already be a thread for this, i don't know, but it certainly doesn't deserve its own. ilm needs like a "rolling dumb lists thread" or something.)

gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 07:21 (nineteen years ago)

No Neil Finn? That list is a joke!

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 11:18 (nineteen years ago)

I mean, Neil Finn is the second greatest living songwriter, and even greater than the greatest one, McCartney, if only recent material is taken into consideration.

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 11:19 (nineteen years ago)

Neil who?

Tad Sneery (Dada), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 11:22 (nineteen years ago)

He means Craig.

p@reene (Pareene), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 12:12 (nineteen years ago)

This is the worst thread I've seen on ILM in awhile...I get on here to get away from this stuff, man!

Bunyip (Bunyip), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 23:30 (nineteen years ago)

Good lord, I think I own about 40 of'em.

Nathalie (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 23:37 (nineteen years ago)

four years pass...

Please help me with my adult alternative canon. I mean it is sold to me as "serious" and "mature". For me that ruins the music. Furthermore it has no rhythmic appeal at all. Being an "adult" is about mastering difficult situations - not, like, what "serious" music you listen to.

I mean I just don't like this music. Is it a character flaw? I like dance music. How can I be more open-minded?

Also is Bruce Springsteen adult alternative or not. Because sometimes I like him and sometimes I don't.

Daddy I Want a Pony (u s steel), Thursday, 23 June 2011 10:42 (fourteen years ago)

This is a made-up genre that you shouldn't worry about whether or not someone falls into. Also, do you really not like *any* music that isn't dance music? I used to have a more tortured relationship with my tastes a long time ago, too; I would say, "I like X kind of music" and then I'd fret about whether or not something qualified as X and whether it was "okay" for me to like it. Eventually you just learn to relax... You'll be carrying your Bruce LPs to the record store counter with the same nonchalance as your dance 12"s before you know it.

Clarke B., Thursday, 23 June 2011 13:22 (fourteen years ago)

Adults are people who have gotten over their dancing phase. Been there, done that. Now for more serious and sophisticated stuff.

Hongroe (Geir Hongro), Thursday, 23 June 2011 13:25 (fourteen years ago)

^^^ One of the wrongest Geir opinions ever. Tell this to the adults age 70+ I see out dancing to honky-tonk country, vintage rock and polka every weekend. Dancing keeps them young, and I hope to be half as hip when I'm their age, not sitting at home putting my old Genesis records on the Victrola.

Duke Manfist: Action Hero (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 23 June 2011 13:50 (fourteen years ago)

The best way to enjoy music is either through headphones while walking/travelling or by sitting in your home in front of the stereo paying attention to nothing else than the music. Pop music works best when enjoyed the same way classical music has always been supposed to. All music does.

Hongroe (Geir Hongro), Thursday, 23 June 2011 13:53 (fourteen years ago)

It's true, I can't stand anything you can't dance to. It's a prejudice. I thought "adult alternative" was, like, singer songwriters, like literate stuff that doesn't get airplay on pop radio. As opposed to plain old alternapop like some of the bands mentioned above (Neil Finn or whatever). Am I wrong?

Anyway, Bruce Springsteen is sort of like mainstream rock to me, which I tolerate pretty well.

There are lots of people named Dennis in this world (u s steel), Thursday, 23 June 2011 14:03 (fourteen years ago)

Yeah, basically XRT-ish stuff.

Don Rickles on the Dime (jaymc), Thursday, 23 June 2011 14:05 (fourteen years ago)

The best way to enjoy music is either through headphones while walking/travelling or by sitting in your home in front of the stereo paying attention to nothing else than the music. Pop music works best when enjoyed the same way classical music has always been supposed to

Bach was all about the hiking-with-ipod crowd iirc

sambal dalek (a passing spacecadet), Thursday, 23 June 2011 14:07 (fourteen years ago)

Yeah, Bruce is about as "alternative" as TGI Friday's, although the prizing of Nebraska over his other work strikes me as somewhat "adult alternative" (i.e. it's a low-fi stripped-down affair with "haunting" lyrics rather than something unhinged and unabashedly polished like Born in the USA or whatever)... I'd wager too that people have danced to many of these records at one point or another in time, so saying you "can't dance to" these seems odd.

Clarke B., Thursday, 23 June 2011 14:09 (fourteen years ago)

Here is a quick set of criteria to gauge whether or not a record is sufficiently adult. If you can answer YES to three of the five, you're in good shape.

Does the record call attention to the plight of the coal miner?
Is the record a harrowing chronicle of the artist's divorce?
Was it produced by T-Bone Burnett?
Does the cover art feature prominent quotes from Susan Sontag or Bill Hicks?
Does the record contain any Everly Brothers covers?

kornrulez6969, Thursday, 23 June 2011 14:16 (fourteen years ago)

What a hilarious satire of bad marketing. Covering the Everly Brothers is something even smelly bar bands can do.

There are lots of people named Dennis in this world (u s steel), Thursday, 23 June 2011 14:22 (fourteen years ago)

the extended mixes of the born in the usa singles are sickeries, especially the arthur baker mix of "cover me". if you can't dance to this you're wrong in the head

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2opvdAVrrM

corpse pose (missingNO), Thursday, 23 June 2011 14:27 (fourteen years ago)

Here is a quick set of criteria to gauge whether or not a record is sufficiently adult. If you can answer YES to three of the five, you're in good shape.

Does the record call attention to the plight of the coal miner?
Is the record a harrowing chronicle of the artist's divorce?
Was it produced by T-Bone Burnett?

i think you're confusing "adult" with "country"

some dude, Thursday, 23 June 2011 14:31 (fourteen years ago)


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