The Greatest Albums of All Time...

[Dunder Klumpen]

Just took a look at the list. Specifically jazz, no Wes?

 

[Colin5619]

No Gary Neuman in synth. Are friends electric

 

[marsound]

A jazz list without Charlie Parker?

And a forward thinking list would include Allan Holdsworth (probably Metal Fatigue) in jazz - certainly the most influential guitarist since Wes Montgomery, and arguably the modern Charlie Parker...

Since there doesn't seem to be a rule about listing an artist twice, the Beatles should have taken at least two spots based on the criteria...

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

It's top X lists once again. I like some of the selections. Glenn Gould Goldberg variations, Louis Armstrong Hot 5 and 7, Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson. Missing from jazz is anything from the 1930s and '40s, no Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Sidney Bechet, and even bigger, no Charlie Parker. The blues selections are good except that there's only one selection from before WWII. Big Bill Broonzy, Memphis Minnie, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and quite a few more. The folk list contains 2 albums I would consider folk, the Woody Guthrie and Joan Baez. There are some good records on the best of the list but it's almost all singer/songwriter music with folk influences. Oh well, like I said, it's top X lists.

 

[SorenTyson]

Fun idea to ask AI and thanks goes to the op! Gives me inspiration to check out the ones that I am not familiar with yet

 

[Jgm4661]

Hey you should add an " Indie Rock" or New Wave section.

I wont name specific CDs but there are outstanding selections from these famous bands many in the RnR HOF. You should also find a place for the Velvet Underground's " Velvet Underground and Nico" and Big Star " #1 Record/ Radio City" somewhere on your lists, 2 of the most influential albums of all time.

Clash
Jam
REM
Ramones
Talking Heads
Elvis Costello
The Smiths
Big Star
Velvet Underground
Replacements
Joy Division
New Order
Oasis
Teenage Fan Club
Cure
Pogues
Pixies
Stone Roses
Jesus and Mary Chain
The Police
Stooges
Pretenders
etc

 

[Artsfols]

I looked at the lists in the OP and thought, fairly good. And then I thought, wow, this person listens to a wide range of genre's, even more than I have in 60 years of listening to everything and sundry. And then I saw, "AI". So, I am not diss-ing this, because they are interesting lists.
But what is missing here is the personality of the listener. I like to visualize the taste profile of the person making the list. I'll just put this out there. Top rated music will appeal to a broad audience. Whereas the top rated music of any avid listener, will seldom appeal to a broad audience, and further, any two avid listeners you compare out of the pool of all avid listeners will disagree on some of their favourite choices, even within a genre. Those differences are what make talking about music enjoyable, as long as we don't get emotionally attached to our choices. I've found a lot of new music that I disliked initially simply by trying to understand how it appealed to someone who did like it.

 

[Artsfols]

Hey you should add an " Indie Rock" or New Wave section.

I wont name specific CDs but there are outstanding selections from these famous bands many in the RnR HOF. You should also find a place for the Velvet Underground's " Velvet Underground and Nico" and Big Star " #1 Record/ Radio City" somewhere on your lists, 2 of the most influential albums of all time.

Clash
Jam
REM
Ramones
Talking Heads
Elvis Costello
The Smiths
Big Star
Velvet Underground
Replacements
Joy Division
New Order
Oasis
Teenage Fan Club
Cure
Pogues
Pixies
Stone Roses
Jesus and Mary Chain
The Police
Stooges
Pretenders
etc

Bram Tchaikovsky, Golden Earring, Herman Brood ... all worth a listen.

 

[Artsfols]

Not a single album in the 'Folk' section is actually folk music ...

And the whole list is strictly anglophone. What about the rest of the world?

If I take the most inelastic definition of "Folk" there is, then I would ask, not even Woody Guthrie?

 

[Artsfols]

I’d rank Pink Floyd

1. Meddle
2. Animals
3. Then - Dark Side

Any top Rock album list is incomplete without:

- Jethro Tull - Aqualung
- Black Sabbath - Paranoid

You are speaking my language with Meddle at #1, although I would also put "Ummagumma" ahead of "Dark Side". But maybe not all of it. (It's a double album).
I like the Gilmour "Remember that Night" set because it a) hits all the Floyd high points, b) never a fan of Waters, and c) the guitar work of Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music is a great addition. Some nice surprises too with Bowie singing "Comfortably Numb". So, it's everything I like in Pink Floyd in one magnificent set.
And Aqualung, yes, Black Sabbath, no. But on Black Sabbath, I know many would disagree.

 

[popej]

Looks like jazz has alreday died in previous century.

 

[Langestijn]

I'm missing Black Sabbath (alrdy said by others) and for me personally Alice in chains ranks way over Nirvana

 

[Artsfols]

o3:

Why each #1 sets the bar for its genre

Genre	#1 pick	Why it tops the list
Rock	The Beatles – Abbey Road (1969)	Combines the band’s most advanced studio craft (“Here Comes the Sun,” the side-two medley) with forward-looking production techniques (eight-track tape, Moog synth) while closing the Beatles’ arc on a near-perfect note. It appears in the top handful of virtually every all-time poll, including Apple Music’s recent top-100.
Pop	Michael Jackson – Thriller (1982)	The best-selling album ever (70 M+ copies) and the first to fuse pop, R&B, rock and video spectacle into a single global template; its seven top-10 singles reshaped radio formats worldwide.
Progressive Rock	Yes – Close to the Edge (1972)	A seamless 38-minute suite of symphonic ambition, virtuosic playing and Roger Dean-designed world-building; it sits at No. 1 on ProgArchives’ all-time user poll and is the reference text for symphonic prog.
Jazz	Miles Davis – Kind of Blue (1959)	The modal blueprint: still the best-selling jazz album, archived by the U.S. Library of Congress and cited by generations of players across genres for its improvisational clarity and atmosphere.
Classical (recording)	Glenn Gould – Bach: Goldberg Variations (1955)	A debut that upended Baroque performance practice with analytical precision and studio savvy, became Columbia’s best-selling classical LP, and entered the U.S. National Recording Registry—proof that a single reading can reset modern Bach interpretation.
Electronic	Kraftwerk – Trans-Europe Express (1977)	Melded synth-pop minimalism with motorik groove, directly inspiring hip-hop (“Planet Rock”), techno (Detroit’s Belleville Three) and synth-pop; its concept of pan-European futurism still frames electronic music’s aesthetic.
R&B / Soul	Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On (1971)	A socially conscious concept album whose blend of gospel orchestration and funk grooves redefined R&B’s lyrical scope; in Rolling Stone’s 2020 poll it was the overwhelming No. 1 of all genres.
Folk	Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963)	Introduced literate, self-penned protest songs (“Blowin’ in the Wind”) to the mainstream, moving folk from traditionals to singer-songwriter art and influencing everything from ’60s protest to modern indie folk.
Blues	B.B. King – Live at the Regal (1965)	A fiery Chicago performance that became the electric-blues touchstone for Clapton, Hendrix and Page; its taut set list and audience interplay define the modern blues-guitar template.
Reggae	Bob Marley & the Wailers – Exodus (1977)	Written in exile after an assassination attempt, it merges roots, rockers and spiritual themes into anthems (“One Love,” “Jamming”) that globalised reggae and landed on Time magazine’s list of the century’s 100 best albums.

Each of these albums is not just exemplary within its field; it permanently changed the conversation—technically, culturally, or both—setting a high-water mark that later classics still measure themselves against.

If one is looking for cultural landmarks, I don't object to "Kind of Blue", "Freewheelin' Bob Dylan", or "Thriller". Strong agree on "Close to the Edge".

Strong disagree on "Abbey Road" even though I love the record. To me, the 2 or 3 minute cutting room out-takes set on side 2, prevents that album from being a "landmark". If it had to be the Beatles, it is still "Sgt. Pepper's" for me. When it's predecessor "Penny Lane/ Strawberry Fields" single hit the airwaves, I still remember the general derision the songs met. Until people began to listen more closely. And then "Sgt. Pepper's" raised the bar, and everyone had to catch up. Within a year or two underground FM radio emerged and everything changed. One could also make this argument for the preceding record "Pet Sounds". Toss-up, but Abbey Road? No.

In classical, it's difficult, because there are 500 years of non-recorded performance history, and many key turning points. The most recent being the debut of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring". Is there a record that changed everything in classical versus live performance? I don't think so.

 

[Artsfols]

"A Feather on the Breath of God" (music of Hildegarde von Bingen) is performed by The Gothic Voices featuring Emma Kirkby, Just in case anyone was wondering who was performing on that disc.

Somehow the AI got mixed up on that one, and thought von Bingen was the performer. And maybe she was, back in 1100 AD. In early music, I would pick something by the Tallis Scholars, likely Allegri's Misere.

 

[Artsfols]

Cream, Jeff Beck, Janis Joplin & Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane, CCR, JJ Cale, Van Morrison, Doors, Uriah Heep, Mötorhead, B52's, Pogues, London Grammar, Arvo Pärt, Sibelius?

I am reading this great 60s list, and all of a sudden we jump 50 years to "London Grammar". Good choice, though. A couple of fantastic albums there. I find Wolf Alice is somewhat similar. Curious about you listing Sibelius, because he's not where many people would begin with classical music.

 

[Artsfols]

Not being snarky, but is this list meant to be a definitive list of all best stuff or ONLY what the OP has happened to hear?

It is what the AI dug out of infinite amounts of text it found on the web, and stole from sources like all the issues of the New York Times, Rolling Stone and Downbeat that were ever printed.

 

[Ken1951]

Patti Smith - "Horses"
I listened to it at least a half-dozen times all the way through the night I bought it.

 

[manisandher]

Yeah, I wouldn't take the list too seriously. I agree with much, but certainly not all, of it.

It's pretty good if you're looking to introduce teenagers, like mine, to some genres they've never heard before. (Though mine know way more about the technicalities of music than I do.)

Mani.

 

[Robin L]

Somehow the AI got mixed up on that one, and thought von Bingen was the performer. And maybe she was, back in 1100 AD. In early music, I would pick something by the Tallis Scholars, likely Allegri's Misere.

Probably not. Her music, most likely, was performed by the young nuns at the monastery where she was the abbess. This recording was made using younger female voices throughout:

 

[Timcognito]

Looks like jazz has alreday died in previous century.

Not here https://www.kcsm.org/playlist Jazz 24/7/365 largest known jazz library in the world, no commercials except fund raisers twice a year for ~1wk ea