Sampling Error
Just watched the end of Channel 4's 'The Hundred Greatest Albums'. What is your guess for the all time No. 1 album ? Well, whatever your guess, it's wrong. According to whoever voted, it is 'Ok Computer' by Radiohead. Surely, surely this must be some kind of sampling error. WTF are Radiohead ??? They aren't even in the iTMS! Ok, I've heard of the band, seems familiar. And I'm sure they're pretty good, have a ton of fans and all. But the No. 1 album of all time ?? You cannot be serious! (sorry, John.. ;-). Are they short of cash and somehow got to the heads at Ch. 4 ? Did they come in at number 7 and someone couldn't read some other blokes handwriting ? Suure, they're better than U2 with Joshua Tree (nr. 2), a hotter sell than anything Madonna ever did (well, ok, maybe..), and so much more influential than 'Dark Side of the Moon', of course ! What was I thinking ?!
The really weird thing is, that up until that moment, it sort of made sense. Sgt. Peppers was 7th (or so), Nirvana with Nevermind number three. Well, I can see that. That's a seriously cool album. Smells Like Teen Spirit, Lithium, Come As You Are... Madonna was somewhere up there, number 5 or 6. She's made great music, no question. Fine, put her in the top ten, I guess most people can agree to that. Oasis had a to ten album (so this is a british channel - sue them :). At least they weren't interviewing Liam Gallagher.. Guns n' Roses were up there somehow (on the merit that we can all sing the chorus to 'Paradise City'... geez..!) number nine, I think. All big guys (or girls). Automatic for the People landed just outside the top ten. Michael Stipe was cool and sweet as ever. He loves 'Man on the Moon', great song. He said he was hanging out with Curt Cobain a lot and Curt always used to put a lot of 'yeah's' in his songs. So Michael Stipe wanted to sing a song with more 'yeah's' in it than any song Curt had written. He managed.. ! 56, it said :)
I can get most of this. But what fluke of statistics put 'Ok computer' ahead of all these fantastic, great, heartwarming, soulsearching, earthshattering collections of songs ?? I hope I'm not as stumped by the result of the next big poll, on May 5th...
The really weird thing is, that up until that moment, it sort of made sense. Sgt. Peppers was 7th (or so), Nirvana with Nevermind number three. Well, I can see that. That's a seriously cool album. Smells Like Teen Spirit, Lithium, Come As You Are... Madonna was somewhere up there, number 5 or 6. She's made great music, no question. Fine, put her in the top ten, I guess most people can agree to that. Oasis had a to ten album (so this is a british channel - sue them :). At least they weren't interviewing Liam Gallagher.. Guns n' Roses were up there somehow (on the merit that we can all sing the chorus to 'Paradise City'... geez..!) number nine, I think. All big guys (or girls). Automatic for the People landed just outside the top ten. Michael Stipe was cool and sweet as ever. He loves 'Man on the Moon', great song. He said he was hanging out with Curt Cobain a lot and Curt always used to put a lot of 'yeah's' in his songs. So Michael Stipe wanted to sing a song with more 'yeah's' in it than any song Curt had written. He managed.. ! 56, it said :)
I can get most of this. But what fluke of statistics put 'Ok computer' ahead of all these fantastic, great, heartwarming, soulsearching, earthshattering collections of songs ?? I hope I'm not as stumped by the result of the next big poll, on May 5th...
posted by sven at
12:37 am
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