Apple Music He certainly has an idea. The giant of streaming musical announced her top 10 albums of all time, in which Lauryn Hill’s iconic album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill of 1998 ranks first. Hill’s debut album surpassed other classic albums by Beyoncé, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Kendrick Lamar, Amy Winehouse, Frank Ocean and Nirvana.
“This is my award, but it is a rich and deep narrative, and it involves so many people, and so much sacrifice, and so much time, and so much collective love,” Hill said after receiving the news.
Inaugural Apple Music Top 100 Albums Chart
The top 10 albums cap off Apple Music’s inaugural Top 100 Albums list, which began with a 10-day countdown last week. There are only five artists with two mentions on the full list, including The Beatles, Wonder, Prince, Radiohead and Beyonc.
The process began several months ago, when Apple Music’s team of editors and music experts, including Zane Lowe (global creative director and lead host of Apple Music 1) and Ebro Darden (global editorial head of hip hop and R&B), generated a list of candidates from the last 65 years.
This list is not a popularity contest, Darden said. We challenge everyone not to vote based on their favorites. You are invited to the panel because you have musical knowledge beyond what you hear when you are on the elliptical machine.
Members of Apple Music’s internal team submitted their personal album charts through the company’s voting microsite. Votes were weighted according to an album’s placement: the higher the rankingmore votes were assigned.
Apple Music used the same voting methodology for a select group of external voters that included artists, songwriters, producers, and some media outlets.
And finally the list of the 10 best albums on Apple Music arrived with comments from Lowe and Darden.
1. Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)
Darden: We really took from what she did on this album. The writing of the songs, what she shared, what was happening in her life that effectively translated into her music. The fact that she had just become a mother. All R&B vibes. Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway along with Nothing Even Matters, by DAngelo. The social commentary in Doo Wop (That Thing). It’s hip-hop. It’s R&B. It has a dancehall element to it. She is a powerful woman who is independent and says, ‘hey, I have something to say.’ And by the way, the son she sings about on the album is Bob Marley’s grandson…she checks a lot of boxes.
2. Michael Jackson, Thriller (1982)
Lowe: It’s the best-selling album in history. I think everyone I’ve talked to about this list automatically assumes it’s going to be number one. That’s because we’ve spent decade after decade basically seeing it as number one. It came out during a period when music was the world’s main entertainment. People were looking forward to this Michael Jackson album, even more than to go see a movie. Thriller It’s an incredible album. It has everything, but I didn’t mind that Lauryn came in at number one and Thriller to number two.
3. The Beatles, Abbey Road (1969)
Darden: Abbey Road has taken on a life of its own in the social media space with TikTok. Maybe that’s why I landed so high. When you go song by song in Abbey Road, I think musically it represents a happy moment for the Beatles. It’s more like the raw Beatles than the pop Beatles.
4. Prince and the Revolution, Purple Rain (1984)
Darden: I love that he’s an African-American artist making soulful rock and pop records. I loved the movie. They are phenomenal memories. It’s not my favorite Prince album. I like it more Sign O The Times. Dance, music, sex, romance. I’m a big Prince fan, so I’m happy this one got the votes. I think that Purple Rain He is still alive (in an emblematic way).
5. Frank Ocean, Blond (2016)
Lowe: I just love this album. I feel like Frank is like Prince. He’s like Michael. It’s like Lauryn. He’s like Marvin (Gaye). It’s like Radiohead. He is the great outlier that found its way into our hearts on a large scale. They don’t make music to appeal to a large audience, and yet somehow the music they make reaches us. Blond It didn’t reach the sales goals of some of the bigger albums on this list… but every time I play it, it excites me differently.
6. Stevie Wonder, Songs in the Key of Life (1976)
Lowe: It starts with a message and ends with a time to process everything that’s happened in between. In the end it gives you a moment to take everything you’ve heard and absorb it. Channel something important.
7. Kendrick Lamar, good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012)
Darden: I’m happy it made it this high. It was his debut album. He wrote an audio film about his neighborhood and basically being a reluctant kid who’s surrounded by all this toxicity, madness, and more chaos. He’s trying to make his way through this. Create opportunities for yourself and your surviving friends.
8. Amy Winehouse, Back to Black (2006)
Lowe: It talks about heartbreak, rejection, unrequited love, and the pain you go through when you have feelings for someone who doesn’t have the same feelings. You don’t know what to do with that emotion. It’s very human. If we all live long enough, we are going to go through some real heartbreak in our lives. This album took that experience and made us sing, dance and move. It is one of the most tasteful albums about anguish ever recorded. It is an incredible act of magic.
9. Nirvana, Nevermind (1991)
Lowe: This was a combination of real skill, beautiful instinct, total courage and vulnerability. He showed the ability to present what (Kurt Cobain) was feeling and dress it in a way that made people want to dance, jump, sing and scream. But if you really listen to it, what tens of millions of people did was deeper than that. And we understood it. This album was the beginning of being able to sit down and have a conversation about anxiety and depression with my mother, my brother and my friends. If he could write about it, why can’t I talk about it?
10. Beyonc, Lemonade (2016)
Darden: This was the first time we got to see Beyonc’s personal life. Her sister had just hit her husband in an elevator and everyone was watching…I like it Lemonade, but it’s not my favorite Beyonc album. Renaissance It’s one of my favorite Beyonc albums. But if you lived at that time Lemonadeit was something big.
FUENTE: AP
