emusic’s best of the decade
So I have to be honest: assembling our Best of the Decade list was incredibly intimidating.
Best of each year? No problem. The scope is smaller, we all have a fair idea of which records should be included, and the squabbles about placement are more fun, more relaxed.
But Best of the Decade? Man oh man. I was surprised at how tough it was, and how many times the list was re-jiggered until it felt something close to right. And even then!
I’m happy to announce that we’ve begun rolling out our list in the US today (UK, EU and CA begins 11/23) — you can get a look at 100 – 81 here. Looking at it now, I really do feel like the list reflects our singular, obstinate taste. Where else will you see a list where Olof Arnalds appears between Ciara and Usher?
But our coverage extends past a simple list. We’ve asked all of our columnists to contribute a page to our eMusic Yearbook. Each writer was assigned a different year in the decade, and each one wrote about the music they felt defined that year. We begin with Hua Hsu’s take on the year 2000 here.
And that’s not all! We’ve also compiled 8 themed lists to make sure that no albums fall through the cracks — lists that focus specifically on breakthroughs in hard rock and metal, classical, hip-hop and a few other surprise spins of our choosing. We’ve also got the Decade’s Best Audiobooks, posting one week from today.
As always, we come to you for feedback — as the list rolls out, let us know: what are your favorites? What albums do you think we were crazy to include? And what albums were we crazier to leave out?
When I saw your list roll out today, I was happy that it wasn’t limited to 10 or 25. 100 best is so great…accurately reflecting on a decade of music and allowing the rest of us to nerd out over the span of an entire week. Thank you kindly.
Really looking forward to getting feedback as more and more of the list is unveiled!
Wow. I can’t believe we’re nearing the end of the decade. I’m curious to see how the lists look. I do love that Stars albums, and I remember enjoying at least a few of the Usher and Kings of Leon songs.
Looking forward to this, but as with the last batch of hub based content I tried to access from here, it seems to be region restricted (getting the ‘ooops’ page).
Any chance of letting us customers in the rest of the world play?
Hey xtrev -
The rest of world lists will be rolling out starting on 11/23, but let me see what can be done about making these viewable worldwide…
What is it about this list that I’m not understanding? Is this supposed to be eMusic’s Best 100 Albums Of The Decade … That Hardly Anyone Has Ever Heard Of??? What is the criteria for getting on this list? If it is a list of only the albums that have been available for purchase and download from eMusic, then I must say that the pickings have been rather slim over the past 10 years. I can’t think of a list of the top 100 albums for any of the past FOUR decades that wouldn’t have included several entries from The Boss, The Stones, The Eagles and other Supergroups that had their origins in the 60’s or 70’s and have continued to supply first rate entertainment to the masses ever since. Or is this a list of the top 100 albums by new artists in the past decade? If that is the criteria, where is Evanesence and System Of A Down? I just can’t understand some of the obvious emissions and questionable inclusions to this list. Anyone want to help me out with an explanation?
Correction. That should have been obvious OMISSIONS instead of emissions. Most of the top 100 EMISSIONS have erupted from between my ears or other orifices of my body. Sorry for the typo!