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Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is a recurring opinion survey and music ranking of the finest albums in history, compiled by the American magazine Rolling Stone. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and industry figures. The first list was published in a special issue of the magazine in 2003 and a related book in 2005.

Background
(pictured in 1964) had nine albums on the most recent list. The first version of the list, published as a magazine in November 2003, was based on the votes of 273 rock musicians, critics, and industry figures, each of whom submitted a ranked list of 50 albums. The accounting firm Ernst & Young devised a point system to weigh votes for 1,600 submitted titles. The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (1966) was ranked second in recognition of its influence on Sgt. Pepper. The list also included compilations and "greatest hits" collections. An amended list was released as a book in 2005, with an introduction by guitarist Steven Van Zandt. Some compilation albums were removed, and Robert Johnson's The Complete Recordings was substituted for both of his King of the Delta Blues Singers volumes, making room for a total of eight new entries on the list. On May 31, 2012, Rolling Stone published a revised list, drawing on the original and a later survey of albums up until the early 2000s. It was made available in "bookazine" format on newsstands in the US from April 27 to July 25. The new list contained 38 albums not present in the previous one, 16 of them released after 2003. The top listings remained unchanged. (pictured in 1973) had the top album in the 2020 listing. On September 22, 2020, another revision of the list was published. It drew upon a new survey conducted with "more than 300 artists, producers, critics, and music-industry figures", including: • Craig Kallman • Daft Punk • Beyoncé • Taylor Swift • Billie Eilish • H.E.R. • Tierra Whack • Lindsey Jordan • Adam Clayton • The Edge • Raekwon • Gene Simmons • Stevie Nicks • Radiohead Each voter was asked to submit a ranked list of 50 favorite albums. This time, the list included more musicians who were female and people of color, with many such artists represented at higher rankings than on the previous lists. Eighty-six of the entries were 21st-century releases; 154 new entries were not on either of the two previous editions, and rap albums figured three times as much. Marvin Gaye's ''What's Going On'' (1971) was featured at the number one spot. A revision to the 2020 list was created in 2023, replacing some older albums with newer releases from the 2020s. ==Reception==
Reception
The original Rolling Stone 500 was criticized for being male-dominated, outmoded and almost entirely Anglo-American in focus. Writing in USA Today, Edna Gundersen described the list as predictable and "weighted toward testosterone-fueled vintage rock". Jonny Sharp, a contributor to NMEs own 500 greatest albums list, described the 2012 Rolling Stone list as a "soulless, canon-centric [list] of the same tired old titles", adding: "looking at their 500, when the only album in their top 10 less than 40 years old is London Calling, I think I prefer the NMEs less critically-correct approach." Responding to the 2020 revision, Consequence of Sounds Alex Young wrote that the lesser representation of white male rock musicians was "the biggest takeaway". Conversely, Jonathan McNamara of The Japan Times criticized the list for underrepresenting Asian and non-Anglophone artists, stating that "It seems a shame then that Rolling Stone musical brain trust of writers and industry contributors [...] didn't take the opportunity to hold up albums from the world's non-English-speaking artists and bands." ==Statistics==
Statistics
Number of albums from each decade Artists with the most albums The following table lists the artists who had at least three albums included on at least one edition of the list (71 artists in total).