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October 11, 2008

Future Book Review: Pitchfork 500

There are two decisive camps with regards to the worth of ranking and filing art. Some, such as this writer, find great value in categorizing and creating a hierarchy of taste. Others believe that aesthetic appreciation is entirely a matter of opinion; that quantifying art is a useless exercise because saying what is "good" and therefore "better" is simply a matter of personal preference and cannot be definitively discussed. Yet, whether simply providing a service or asserting definitive claims, list making presupposes senses of authority and narcissism for its writers by playing off (the largely fabricated) identities of need and the short attentions spans of the readers.

Most media outlets attempt to circumvent the criticism by attaching the word "favorite" to their list, a self-emasculating trick of agitprop that actually means nothing: the effect, and more importantly the claims of authority, remain. List making is inherently a practice in claiming one's own superior taste, as well as asserting the superiority of the subjects of the list.

But some other facts can't be denied: lists are easy to produce and make for interesting (and fun) reading. Which is probably why everybody does it. (Even us.)

Pitchforkmedia has never been one to shy away from elitist claims or esoteric tastes, a characteristic that they thankfully do not abandon when making lists. Pitchfork annually creates influential lists about the top songs and albums of each year, and have in the past compiled iconic rankings of the best albums of the 1970's, '80's, '90's and '00's. (And a massive list of '60's songs.) The last of these was posted in the fall of 2006, leaving many Pitchfork fans wondering when the next easy-to-digest checklist of music snobbery would come. Enter The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present, the titular website's first foray into print media. If the website is to believed (And why not, right?), the book will chronicle the, "the 500 best songs of the past three decades. Focusing on indie rock (Arcade Fire, the Shins), hip-hop (Public Enemy, Jay-Z), electronic (Daft Punk, Boards of Canada), pop (Madonna, Justin Timberlake), metal (Metallica, Boris), and experimental underground music (Suicide, Boredoms)."

Genre specifications to abstract? The book and list will focus on all types of music recorded and released between the year 1977 and 2006, from punk to present, if you will. (Perhaps the Pitchforkers are unaware of a similar list complied by PopMatters.)

The physical, print, hold-in-your-own hands book is scheduled to hit the shelves on November 11, 2008. (And the review of said book will hit this website shortly thereafter.) Pitchforkmedia recommends that you purchase their tome from Insound, but pre-ordering from Amazon saves you five bucks.

Posted by Randall Monty at October 11, 2008 02:08 PM

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Posted by: Randall Monty at October 11, 2008 10:30 PM

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