By José Gandue @spinning zone

Yes, just a few hours ago. The digital platform Apple Music published the list of, according to the criteria of its advisors and experts, the one hundred best albums in history. And of course, all hell broke loose on social media. But for the clueless folks who stumble across this, distracted by minor issues like the war in Ukraine, the Gaza disaster, the global water shortage, Milei and his growing madness, Trump's possible return, or Uribe's unhealthy call for the military to disobey Petro, Here are the albums (in order) selected by the Apple company:

#1. Lauryn Hill — The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
#2. Michael Jackson Thriller
#3. The Beatles Abbey Road
#4. Prince & The Revolution Purple Rain
#5. Frank Ocean Blonde
#6. Stevie Wonder Songs in the Key of Life
#7. Kendrick Lamar good kid, mAAd city
#8. Amy Winehouse Back to Black
#9. Nirvana Nevermind
#10. Beyoncé — Lemonade
#11. Fleetwood Mac Rumors
#12. Radiohead — OK Computer
#13. Jay-Z The Blueprint
#14. Bob Dylan Highway 61 Revisited
#15. Adele 21
#16. Joni Mitchell Blue
#17. Marvin Gaye What's Going On
#18. Taylor Swift — 1989 (Taylor's Version)
#19. Dr. Dre The Chronic
#20. The Beach Boys Pet Sounds
#21. The Beatles Revolver
#22. Bruce Springsteen Born to Run
#23. Daft Punk Discovery
#24. David Bowie The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
#25. Miles Davis Kind of Blue
#26. Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
#27. Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin II
#28. Pink Floyd — The Dark Side of the Moon
#29. A Tribe Called Quest The Low End Theory
#30. Billie Eilish WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?
#31. Alanis Morissette Jagged Little Pill
#32. The Notorious B.I.G. Ready to Die
#33. Radiohead — Kid A
#34. Public Enemy It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
#35. The Clash London Calling
#36. Beyoncé — BEYONCÉ
#37. Wu-Tang Clan — Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
#38. Carole King — Tapestry
#39. Nas — Illmatic
#40. Aretha Franklin I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
#41. OutKast — Achaemini
#42. Janet Jackson Control
#43. Talking Heads — Remain in Light
#44. Stevie Wonder Innervisions
#45. Björk Homogenic
#46. Bob Marley & The Wailers — Exodus
#47. Drake Take Care
#48. Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique
#49. U2— The Joshua Tree
#50. Kate Bush Hounds of Love
#51. Prince — Sign O' the Times
#52. Guns N' Roses — Appetite for Destruction
#53. The Rolling Stones Exile on Main St.
#54. John Coltrane A Love Supreme
#55. Rihanna ANTI
#56. The Cure Disintegration
#57. D'Angelo — Voodoo
#58. Oasis — (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
#59. Arctic Monkeys — AM
#60. The Velvet Underground & Nico — The Velvet Underground and Nico
#61. Sade — Love Deluxe
#62. 2Pac — All Eyez on Me
#63. The Jimi Hendrix Experience Are you experienced?
#64. Erykah Badu Baduizm
#65. De La Soul — 3 Feet High and Rising
#66. The Smiths The Queen Is Dead
#67. Portishead — Dummy
#68. The Strokes Is This It
#69. Metallica Master of Puppets
#70. NWA Straight Outta Compton
#71. Kraftwerk Trans-Europe Express
#72. SZA — SOS
#73. Steely Dan Aha
#74. Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral
#75. Missy Elliott Supa Dupa Fly
#76. Bad Bunny A Summer Without You
#77. Madonna Like a Prayer
#78. Elton John Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
#79. Lana Del Rey — Norman F*****g Rockwell!
#80. Eminem The Marshall Mathers LP
#81. Neil Young After the Gold Rush
#82. 50 Cent — Get Rich or Die Tryin'’
#83. Patti Smith Horses
#84. Snoop Dogg Doggystyle
#85. Kacey Musgraves — Golden Hour
#86. Mary J. Blige My Life
#87. Massive Attack Blue Lines
#88. Nina Simone I Put a Spell on You
#89. Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster
#90. AC/DC Back in Black
#91. George Michael Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1
#92. Tyler, The Creator — Flower Boy
#93. Solange A Seat at the Table
#94. Burial — Untrue
#95. Usher — Confessions
#96. Lorde — Pure Heroine
#97. Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine
#98. Travis Scott ASTROWORLD
#99. Eagles — Hotel California
#100. Robyn — Body Talk

Okay. Based on all these names, Let's do an exercise in questions, ironic comments, complaints that will never be addressed, and conclusions that will be of little use to any of you. Let's just accept it with a smile and start by saying that this is a compendium full of undeniable gems of contemporary music, headlined by a beautiful album made by Lauryn Hill, one of the most beautiful and talented women in the industry, who (in my opinion, nothing more) reinvented hip hop, "feminized" it and added more soul, a fact that later opened the doors to subsequent stars, including the very Beyoncé. Is it the best album ever? Bah, that doesn't matter. Let's move on:

Question #1: Do any of you, dear audience of Zonagirante.com, listen to music on Apple Music? There must be very few of them. Statistics say that the figure varies between 61% and 91%, depending on the Latin American country, among all users of digital platforms on the continent. It surpasses Deezer and Amazon, but is far behind YouTube and Spotify. Globally, it represents 151% of the business, and Its clientele is concentrated in the United States, some European countries, and Japan. That explains the following statement: This list was made with the English-speaking world in mind. Let's be more precise. A very high percentage of this list is made up of North American, Canadian, and British albums, and there is only one Jamaican artist (Bob Marley), an Icelandic (Bjork), an Irish band (U2), a woman from Barbados (Rihanna), a German group (Kraftwerk), a New Zealander (Lorde) and some Australians (AC/DC).

In 76th place is the only album of Latin American origin, A Summer Without You, of Bad Bunny. And here comes my only direct insult from the article (including the second question on the questionnaire):Who were the irresponsible and ignorant people who claim that this is the best album made on this side of the world? Is this the only album made in Spanish that's worth including here? Oh really? Again, seriously? Bad Bunny? This selection is seriously discredited. It's a miracle they didn't include J Balvin, Wisin & Yandel, Maluma and other similar artists. If they wanted to do an exercise in integration with the Hispanic community in the United States, Apple should have turned to dozens of more interesting names (Cafe Tacvba, Soda Stereo, Aterciopelados, Fito Páez, Julieta Venegas…even, if you wish, Resident and the very same Rosalía, (Why not?)), before naming someone who writes lyrics like this:

I'm ready for you, but you're taking yourself away from me.‘
Damn, that girl is so cool
He put his heart in the fridge
She says she's staying home alone this summer.

But, like we said from the beginning: This is a pointless fight. Fun, exciting, but pointless. Furthermore, making a list of 100, 200, 500, or 1,000 albums, hoping to please everyone, is idiotic. One detail: [The following appears to be a separate, unrelated section:] [The following appears to be a separate, unrelated section:] [The following appears to be a separate, unrelated section:] Elvis, a Queen, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Simon & Garfunkel, nothing from the fifties in terms of rock, nothing of The Dave Brubeck Band or other luminaries of jazz (Dizzy Gillespie, Charly Parker, Thelonious Monk), and many more. So why is Apple doing this, just as Rolling Stone magazine and other mainstream media outlets have done many times before? A desire to stir up controversy, to advertise through argument, It lingers in the minds of many who, like this clueless writer penning this note, fall into the trap and speak about it. They rely on forgetfulness, contempt, and sarcasm to encourage us all to weigh in.

Finally, almost echoing the beginning of the article: Are the albums included in this list worth listening to? Of course. While writing this essay, I listened to the entire thing. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill And I was happy. That's what music is for. Here's the whole album:

Postscript:

If you ask me if some of my favorite albums are on this list, I can tell you that if I check my personal top 10, as of today, I only see one title here: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, of David Bowie. The rest, in my opinion, presented in a disordered manner, They are as follows:

• Going blank again – Ride
• Holy Colors – Cerati/Melero
• Second Coming – The Stone Roses
• Fish - Blond
• Trippin' Tropicana – Superlithium
• Godfodder – Ned's Atomic Dustbin
• Between 10th and 11th – The Charlatans
• Technique – New Order
• Screamadelica – Primal Scream

And yours?