Sgt Pepper Not Voted Best Album Shock!

Really dreadful poll IMO. The worst of any of this type I have seen. One woman and one black person? All basically white rock acts from the 60's and 70's?

I know that's kind of the dominant forum demographic but still I would have expected more.

 

'Sgt. Pepper not voted best album shock!'

To be honest, I don't get it. I mean, why is it such a shock that it isn't voted best album? This is no wind-up post, to be sure. Yes, I'm very much aware of the historic relevance of Sgt. Pepper, and yes, I gladly grant it's a great album, but do you take / find it so evident that Sgt. Pepper is / has to be the best album of all time? Cause that's what you seem to be implying when you call it a 'shock' that it's not voted as such. But c'mon, there are a lot of brilliant albums, in so many different genres. It's extremely hard - if not madness - to choose one best album of all time. Or am I missing something here? It would be nice if you could post the link to the poll you're referring to. Thx.

 

Not surprising, at all.

Polls can be highly subjective.

First, some polls can fail to achieve intended goals, based solely upon the parameters given to the voters.
How should "Best", "Greatest", "Most Important" be determined by voters?

Most importantly, Voters can employ strange reasons to second guess their "actual" vote. They may use various subconscious, subtle, or overt mental gymnastics to select their choices.

Hmmm, another poll? This is for the best _____ ______ _______ _____ ?
This time, my choices are:
"No, not that overplayed, overrated album"
"Let's give acknowledgement to a lesser appreciated record"
"This artist is really not in polls anymore - I'll vote this time for it"
"I just heard this music - it's really much better than I remembered"
"Why doesn't anyone ever talk about this album?"
"All the voters will choose this one - I'll avoid voting for it, just to "help balance this poll".
"My friends never talk about how great this one is."
"I'll demonstrate that my tastes are not like the mainstream."
"I can be really esoteric."
"I can be very idiosyncratic."

 

Hendrix, Miles, Marvin, Love....but still a terrible poll. The Monkees are in but no Joni Mitchell? Whatever.

 

Polls, schmolls. I hate this ranking stuff.

 

Don't feel bad...
none of my "Top 5" are on the list, either!

 

Absolutely possible because PAC&J is a masterpiece!

 

Nothing from 1979 onwards apart from the Cure. I can just imagine the demograpic who voted.

 

Even more white and 60/70-centric than Rolling Stone Magazine.

Impressive.

 

You must have missed Nevermind, which is 1991, but that's it.

 

VERY entertaining idea. I will certainly vote my top 20 and follow the thread.

Of these top 50, ten of the albums are certainly my candidates to be in, another ten would not, but I find them undisputable greats. 30 I either do not enjoy too much or are outside of my scope. The only 2 that I know well and feel they DO NOT belong are Exile and Layla.

Revolver is my top album of all time too and glaring omissions are Surrealistic pillow, Shazam, Buffalo Springfield again, Strange days and Heaven is in your mind. Is 60s California ill-represented?

 

No Talking Heads - Remain In Light?

 

So, 22 votes gets you the number 1 spot, and 4 votes gets you into the Top 50.
This poll should have had a margin of error of +/- 23

 

You state 2 very different things:
1) Yes, I agree that there is a disproportionate presence of prog rock in the list and that it is the only explanation for Relayer. I disagree strongly with you also mentioning Thick as a brick is there for the same reason. This Tull album is excellent to me and I would not include any prog rock in my top 100. It is pretty much in the vein of prior Tull (probably the last and certainly the last from them that I enjoy).
2) Yes, a bias towards 60s and 70s, only because that is the best period for rock by a long margin.

 

That's the most glaring omission in my view, even in the context of the genres and artists the demographic here is fond of.

I'm not really going to quibble with the order of the Beatles albums, but rather highlight the overall effect of the list just reads mostly
of predictable male classic rock legends. Hardly diverse in musical styles, hardly inclusive of some the best albums in other genres,
even without venturing slightly from guitar rock to folk-rock or hard-bop Jazz, which many members here probably follow.

There is so much great music out there, these lists lose their usefulness the more general they become.
You can actually get more interesting results by narrowing their focus to particular genres or years.
I don't really know what the point of struggling to rank Black Sabbath against Billie Holiday, or which
of one Country rock album should be the token included. Too many to fit, it's a clown car of a project.

 

Which is the universe you consider?

 

Shows something...

 

I couldn't have said it better.
Just look at the first 2.

 

Would be nice to hear why you hate these polls.

 

I demand a recount! Now I can't say "up to 1979" anymore about the forum favorites.I

think the OP slipped that one in just to mess with us.

 

One of me top 40.

 

I must have read too many 'Best Album Ever'-polls in my music magazines... It may be an interesting read, but in the end it's all about who polled in which group in what era. Having said that...this is one of the strangest polls I've seen.

 

Not all that surprising considering it was here. I was actually surprised there was no Monkee's on the list. hahaa

 

Why the poll hate? Because there is NO difference in my mind between Sgt Pepper, Revolver, Pet Sounds, Dark Side Of The Moon, etc, etc, etc. Or, for that matter, Pleased To Meet Me, Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, Radio City, Nilsson Sings Newman, and on and on.

Other than counting how many units are/were sold, there is no other relevent metric aside from whether they are in, or not in, THE LIST. It's great and essential, or not.

Sorry to be thread crapping on the carpet here, but the poll thing is so subjective beyond measure that it has no meaning. To me, anyways.

 

I'll offer my own viewpoint here: Different albums succeed on different levels, sometimes in ways that aren't remotely comparable. Just to pick two examples out of a hat, Pet Sounds and Miles Smiles are both outstanding albums that move me in different ways. Which one is better? Who can say? It all depends on what I want to hear at a given moment. "Ranking" albums like this seems futile, even a little disrespectful. You have to judge things on their own terms.

These kinds of lists get pretty dull and predictable after a while. Sure, most of the albums featured there are great, IMO, but I'm bored of a lot of them by this point. I think there's a certain kind of herd mentality surrounding some of the usual suspects as well.