The list of lists to end all lists.

August 14, 2011 8:35 PM

I'm building my musical bucket list of essential recordings to experience. Where can I find the best list of essential recordings / albums for your favorite genre?

There are so many "top 10/50/100" recordings of any genre. Who do you trust as the authoritative list makers?

posted by jlowen to Media & Arts (13 answers total)

I trust MetaFilter. Here's a previous question you might be interested in.
posted by phunniemee at 8:39 PM on August 14, 2011

Here's a pretty solid primer on electroacoustic free improvisation:
http://www.spiralcage.com/blog/?p=575

And another, by a label boss in that area:
http://erstwhilerecords.blogspot.com/2008/05/primer.html
posted by Joseph Gurl at 9:01 PM on August 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Jazz Record Mart's killers rack: jazz, blues, world music, gospel

30 albums recommended by the slipcue.com guide to Brazilian music
posted by hydrophonic at 9:13 PM on August 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'll probably get crucified for suggesting this, but I like perusing the genre pages at All Music Guide. It'll list essential albums and artists both at the macro (pop & rock) level and then also at the drilled-down sub-genre level (New Wave of British Heavy Metal).
posted by carsonb at 9:26 PM on August 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

The All Music Guide is very comprehensive and definitely worth a go. Sometimes the best way is to think of things you really like and then look for similar artists on, well, similarartist.com or something like that.
posted by joannemullen at 9:58 PM on August 14, 2011

It's across genres sort of (well, rock, pop, hip-hop, and jazz) but Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of all Time would be my authoritative guide.
posted by knile at 12:33 AM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

For jazz, this is a superb and eclectic list (warning: some items may be hard to find).
posted by languagehat at 5:25 AM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Just checked allmusic.com for Irish Traditional music and I have to say, it's pretty lame. That's a hard one to do, and everyone screws it up.
posted by sully75 at 5:29 AM on August 15, 2011

Came to say what knile's said: Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums is pretty darn good.
posted by colin_l at 6:09 AM on August 15, 2011

Is there anyway to see Rolling Stone's list without panning through each picture/choice?
posted by snap_dragon at 7:12 AM on August 15, 2011

-sh*t...I just figured it out. No coffee this morning - my bad.
posted by snap_dragon at 7:13 AM on August 15, 2011

For dance music, the discography from Generation Ecstasy is fairly excellent, at least up till the late 90s.
posted by empath at 8:36 AM on August 15, 2011

@snap_dragon - there's a single page breakdown here
posted by colin_l at 7:49 PM on August 15, 2011