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Acclaimed Music was created by Henrik Franzon, Stockholm, Sweden. My interest in critics' lists started in 1994, when the Swedish magazine Pop listed the 100 best albums in the world. I began ranking albums based on lists from all magazines I owned. Soon thereafter I discovered Julian's rock lists with lists from a huge number of sources. My "eye-balling method" became overwhelming and in the late 1990s I wrote a computer program to determine "ultimate" lists of albums and songs. I also began working on this website, which was released in September 2001. Here are my personal top 100 albums of all time. The list says as much as anything about my own taste in music. Which lists are included in the aggregated Acclaimed Music lists? Lists of albums or songs by people around the world who work with music. Mainly critics' lists, but sometimes lists made by artists, radio station staff, etc. I use some delimitations though. For example, end of year lists from single critics are not included as it would take way too much time to add them all, and genre-specific lists are only included if they are from magazines with special focus on the genre. No readers' or listeners' lists are included. How are the lists compiled? Instead of adding points every time an album appear in a critics' list, which would be a huge disadvantage for new albums that had no chance to appear in older all-time lists, I match all albums against each other in pairs. In the "match-ups", the critics' lists are weighted depending on several factors, such as 1. Similarity with the overall Acclaimed Music list (a critics' list with mostly unacclaimed albums gets a lower weight). 2. When the list was published (more years between album/song release and the date of the critics' list yields a higher weight). 3. The overall number of critics' lists included at Acclaimed Music from different regions of the world. A critics' list from a region with a relatively small number of critics' lists at Acclaimed Music (relative to both the region's population and the number of artists included in the Acclaimed Music lists) gets a higher weight. All match-ups are summarized into a score for each album. This score is then adjusted due to which opponents the album has been matched against. As it usually takes a while for albums to reach "classic" status and appear in critics' all time lists, new albums (which mostly have been matched against other new albums in the end of year lists) tend to get low "opponent values". Why are compilation albums not included? "Greatest hits" and "best of" albums are usually not included in critics' lists. I decided very early to exclude them, as they would be placed lower than they probably deserve. A special section for compilations could be made, but for that I would need to go back and check the thousands of lists I have included in the past, and that is not my priority. Is Acclaimed Music the final word on the best albums and songs in rock history? There is no such final word. I don't even think it's possible to objectively define the "greatest" artists, albums or songs. Music is subjective, and we all have our own favorites. But there are always new favorites to discover, and Acclaimed Music helps you find them. |