GNR On Blender's "500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born"...

From the New York Times

Want 'Satisfaction'? You Won't Get It From This Best Songs List

By LIA MILLER
Published: September 12, 2005

When Rolling Stone magazine published a special issue in 2004 titled "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time," some detractors noted that the list was heavily weighted toward old favorites. For example, there are 202 songs on it from the 1960's and only 21 songs from the 1990's. The No. 1 song was Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," followed by "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones and "Imagine" by John Lennon.

In a shot across Rolling Stone's bow, Blender magazine, which is owned by Dennis Publishing and has a circulation of 630,000, is coming out with its own list, "The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born," comprising only songs published after 1980. Their No. 1 song is Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," followed by "B.O.B" by OutKast and "Sweet Child o' Mine" by Guns N' Roses.

"In the great tradition of rap records, it's an answer to the list Rolling Stone did in every way," said Craig Marks, editor in chief of Blender, who said that the Rolling Stone list was "a baby boomer notion of how our cultural history should be written," adding "the best music hasn't just been made by dead guys and by white guys in ponytails."

Joe Levy, the deputy managing editor of Rolling Stone, which is owned by Wenner Media and has a circulation of 1.3 million, said that its list was skewed toward older songs because, "the consensus forms around the song that has been around the longest."

"The way pop music works, is that it makes an immediate impact, and often an awesome impact, but that doesn't mean it stays with you," Mr. Levy said. "Somewhere out there is someone whose life was changed by 'Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, I've Got Love in My Tummy,' but I don't know if that would make anyone's list of the Top 500 songs. The way rock 'n' roll works is it's trivial and awesome at the same time."

But Mr. Marks said he thought the line between trivial and awesome was a thin one. "Pop music is about the current, it's not about the historical figures with long gray beards," he said. "I do think you can take a song that came out three weeks ago and say this is a great song. A great pop song is a great pop song."