[Mondogarage]

#95 - Creed - Human Clay
#96 - The Clash - London Calling

WTF?!?!?!?!?

There is absolutely nothing "essential" or "definitive" about the majority of albums on this list. Set aside whether or not you think an album is "good" or not.

Anyone who actually thinks any album by Avril Lavigne (#162), Toni Braxton (#145), Celine Dion (#97)or the Titanic soundtrack (#103), among others, should be on any list of 200 most definitive albums of any kind, is on some gottdamn crack.

The Clash merely defined punk music for a generation. There are a lot of artists I personally do not like, but whom I can totally understand being on this list, for the ways their music defined and influenced other music of its time, such as Linkin Park, Tool, Bon Jovi, maybe even Janet Jackson.

But no Pixies? The band that defined indie rock for generations of bands to come, every bit as much as Nirvana is credited for grunge (rightly or wrongly).

What is "definitive" is not merely what sells a few copies. What's definitive is what rock and roll is made of, what it means to the future, and all that other junk. What's stunning here is not what a list of 200 *best* albums will be comprised of, because no two people will come close to agreeing on that. But rather, how disposable and forgettable, in the historical context of popular music, how many of the albums on this list are.

Lists suck.

Lists put out by an institution with very little credibility suck even more.