Apple Music has become over the years one of the most used streaming music services in the world, specifically second only to its arch nemesis (actually in several respects) Spotify. There are many reasons for this success, such as an extensive catalog with more than 100 million songs, lossless audio present since 2022, the jewel for classical music lovers that is Apple Music Classical, and more.

With an increasingly important role in the world of music its managers recently decided to implement the project which may seem simple at first glance, but is actually extremely complex. I’m talking, as we told you last week, about making a list of the 100 greatest albums of all time. I say it may seem simple because we could all, if asked, create a similar list, but of course we are not talking about an individual’s list, nor a music critic’s list, but rather an Apple Music list that represents the platform’s musical criteria.

As we told you last week, Apple Music released the list in descending order (from 100 to 1) with daily supplies of ten discs, and therefore Today was chosen to reveal the 10 most important. A long-awaited moment that will no doubt end up satisfying a few and very much angering many others who have surely been waiting for one of their favorites to appear in this top 10. The appearance that, of course, in the vast majority of cases they did not occur.

The full list is available at this link, although for your ease of reference if you haven’t seen it I’ve included it below:

100. Body Talk – Robyn
99. Hotel California – The Eagles
98. ASTROWORLD – Travis Scott
97. Rage Against The Machine – Rage Against The Machine
96. Pure Heroine – Lorde
95. Confession – INTRODUCER
94. False – Funeral
93. A seat at the table – Solange
92. Flower Boy – Tyler, The Creator
91. Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 – George Michael
90. Back in Black – AC/DC
89. The Fame Monster (Deluxe Edition) – Lady Gaga
88. I Put a Spell on You – Nina Simone
87. Blue Lines – Massive Attack
86. My Life – Mary J Blige
85. The Golden Hour – Kacey Musgraves
84. Doggystyle – Snoop Dogg
83. Horses – Patti Smith
82. Get rich or die trying – 50 cents
81. After the Gold Rush – Neil Young
80. The Marshall Mathers LP – Eminem
79. Norman F**** Rockwell! – Royal wave
78. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – Elton John
77. Like A Prayer – Madonna
76. Summer Without You – Bad Bunny
75. Supa Dupa Fly – Missy Elliott
74. Downward Spiral – Nine Inch Nails
73. Aha – Dan of Steel
72. SOS – SZA
71. Trans-Europe Express – Kraftwerk
70. Straight Outta Compton – NWA
69. Master of Puppets (Remastered) – Metallica
68. Is this It – The Strokes
67. Dummy – Portishead
66. The Queen Is Dead – The Smiths
65. 3 Feet High and Rising – De La Soul
64. Baduism – Erykah Badu
63. Are you experienced? – The Jimi Hendrix Experience
62. All Eyez on Me – 2Pac
61. Love Deluxe – Sade
60. The Velvet Underground and Nico (45th Anniversary Edition) – Velvet Underground & Nico
59. AM – Arctic Monkeys
58. (What’s The Story) Morning Glory – Oasis
57. Voodoo – D’Angelo
56. Disintegration (Remastered) – The Cure
55. ANTI – Rihanna
54. Love Supreme – John Coltrane
53. Exile on Main Street (2010 Remaster) – The Rolling Stones
52. Appetite for Destruction – Guns ‘N Roses
51. Sign O’The Times – Prince
50. Hounds of Love (2018 Remaster) – Kate Bush
49. The Joshua Tree – U2
48. Paul’s Boutique – Beastie Boys
47. Take Care (Deluxe Version) – Drake
46. ​​Exodus ((2013 Remaster) – Bob Marley & The Wailers
45. Homogeneous – Björk
44. Inner Vision – Stevie Wonder
43. Stay in the Light – Talking Heads
42. Control – Janet Jackson
41. Aquemini – OutKast
40. I’ve never loved a man like I love you – Aretha Franklin
39. Illmatic – Us
38. Tapestry – Carole King
37. Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) [Expanded Edition] – The Wu Tang Clan
36. BEYONCE – Beyoncé
35. London Calling – The Clash
34. It takes a nation of millions to hold us back – Public Enemy
33. Kid A – Radiohead
32. Ready to Die (The Remaster) – Notorious BIG
31. Jagged Little Pill (Remastered) – Alanis Morissette
30. WHEN WE ALL FALL Asleep, WHERE DO WE GO? – Billie Eilish
29. The Low End Theory – A strain called Quest
28. The Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd
27. Led Zeppelin II – Led Zeppelin
26. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – Kanye West
25. A Kind of Blue – Miles Davis
24. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (2012 Remaster) – David Bowie
23. Discovery – Daft Punk
22. Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen
21. Revolver – The Beatles
20. Pet Sounds – The Beach Boys
19. Chronic – Dr. Dre
18. 1989 (Taylor’s Version) – Taylor Swift
17. What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye
16. Blue – Joni Mitchell
15. 21 – Adela
14. Highway 61 Revisited – Bob Dylan
13. The Blueprint – Jay-Z
12. OK Computer – Radiohead
11. Rumors – Fleetwood Mac
10. Lemonade – Beyoncé
09. Never mind – Nirvana
08. Back to Black – Amy Winehouse
07. good kid, mAAd city (Deluxe Version) – Kendrick Lamar
06. Songs in the Key of Life – Stevie Wonder
05. Blonde – Frank Ocean
04. Purple Rain – Prince & The Revolution
03. Abbey Road – The Beatles
02. Thriller – Michael Jackson
01. Miseducation of Lauryn Hill – Lauryn Hill

A lot of fabric to cut, right? So, as expected, the responses on social networks were not long in coming, just search for Apple Music on Twitter and find, as I mentioned, a few users expressing satisfaction with the presence of some albums compared to the vast majority who point out the many shortcomings and reprehensible aspects of the list.

In my case, for example, it seems to me that the experts who drew up the list For whatever reason, they’ve forgotten virtually all of Central and South America’s musical output. The only exception in this regard is the presence of Bad Bunny, who happened to be among those selected for the list. And no, I’m not criticizing that reggaeton is present on the list, because we’re talking about the basic genre of contemporary music, I’m saying that from more than influential Latin styles to styles as influential as samba, bossa and bossa nova, they don’t even have a witness presence.

Which brings me to something that was predictable but also critiquable, the presence of music production originating from Africa and Asia is simply zero. So we found Apple Music’s list to be extremely Western, and that’s a shame. The list includes e.g. We found two albums by The Beatles, but no work by Ravi Shankarone of the biggest musical influences in George Harrison’s life, who quickly infected the Liverpool foursome.

This under-representation, or in many cases non-existent representation, has its flip side in the over-representation of others. So if we combine pop and rock (due to the blurred line between them), with their multiple derivatives, we get to more than 25%, while if we talk about Rap/Hip-hop, we are around 20%. However, Genres such as jazz, soul, punk or electronica have a much more humble presencewhich, I believe, do not correspond to the importance or influence they had and have today.

Is this the worst list of its kind ever published? No, not even close, I’ve seen much worse, but I think Apple Music would do well to rethink a few aspects of this list. Maybe limit it to people who have done it? And make more in the future, also limited to those responsible for them? “Signed” charts are always something interesting (Yo-Yo Ma’s for Apple Music debut a year later keeps me hooked). Maybe that would be the key, and it’s undoubtedly a format that could work very, very well. But something as categorical as “The 100 Best Albums of History” associated with Apple Music seems counterproductive to me.

What do you think of the list? Does this seem correct or do you think there are too many/missing disks? Which ones would you remove and put back?