From Punk to Present: the pitchfork 500

I recently picked up the picthfork 500, which catalogs the 500 best songs of the past thirty years.  Pitchfork is said to "reflect the way listeners are increasingly processing music- by song rather than by album.  These 500 tracks condense thirty years of essential music into the ultimate playlist, each song advancing the narrative and, by extension, the music itself."

The subtitle of the book is "Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present" and is edited by Scott Plagenhoef and Ryan Schreiber.    The editors contend that the book and songs within serve as a chronicle as to the evolution of music itself during this period.  I find it curious that I seem to have experienced a delay with many of the songs showing up on my radar well after their release date. For instance, Talking Heads Psycho Killer dates from 1977 yet I associate it with the mid 1980's.  The Cure's Boy's Don't Cry was released in 1979, but again I associate this song with the mid to late 1980's.  Some bands altogether didn't come into my awareness until years after their 500 song placeholders like Aphex Twin with Xtal in 1992, Boards of Canada with Happy Cycling in 1998, both of  whom I didn't first hear until about 2005.

Some recent discoveries for me like Bill Calahan (formerly Smog), Silver Jews and Bonnie "Prince" Billy have songs from 1998 and 1999 in the 500, but just entered my musical world in 2009.  It makes me wonder what other great music is out there waiting for me to discover and this is the impetus of CornucopiaMusic - to share life through music.      

I think this delay I experienced is due in large part to the music industry's collusion with corporate radio to create play lists based upon their own list of marketing priorities.  Countering this practice now is of course the internet which makes a much greater spectrum of music and artists available to the listener.  Pandora internet radio is one such tool that lets the listener co-DJ to explore music, and Pandora has been aggressively attacked by the music industry through a series of expensive litigation which has resulted in over 70% of Pandora profits going to the music industry.

the pitchfork 500 is new to me as is the pitchfork site, but you may want to check it out.

http://pitchfork.com/

Happy listening, Conan Malone