"Best Of"

Can we get rid of "best of" lists?

I know that some people are professional critics, & I know that some knowledge in the specific genre is helpful in appreciation, but surely we all agree that no one's opinion is better than anyone else's.  At most, one's opinion may be more informed than another (which doesn't always affect whether or not someone likes something, you know).  Critics are fine, it seems to me, to perhaps give perspective if one can't be found, but for them to say something is the "best" is ridiculous.

Already best of lists are coming out, & what never surprises me is that most of them make concessions to artists/groups who are commercial & made a lot of money.  Anyone who imagines that commercial success equals artistic brilliance isn't all that bright.  On the Rate Your Music chart (which is more or less democratic; obviously, not everyone votes on it, which is good - most people don't care enough about music to have an opinion about it) of the all-time best albums, the third one made zero money when it was released.  That was 1967.  The best-selling album in 1967?  More Of The Monkees, which only made it to 241 for 1967 in Rate Your Music's polls.  & which, I think virtually everyone will agree, was nowhere near as important to music (since it was popular because it was copying a popular band that had moved on from that sound) as The Velvet Underground & Nico, which would change music forever.

There's too much music out there, & most of the critics who make these lists feel a need to be more representative, so they'll toss the best-selling pop in with the best-selling hip hop & the most obvious indie thing.  Oh, & electronica!  & what's the newest thing?  "Indie r&b"?  All right, there's bound to be something a record company sent the critic for free he or she can add to the "best of" list!

& I don't mind the lists - I like to see what people claim to enjoy - but can we just stop being so ridiculously self-important & give up the word "best"?  No one at this point in time can say what the best was, & awards shows aren't the proper place for that determination either, since they represent probably less than 5% of any of the music that comes out in a given year.

Be honest & say this was the stuff you liked most from whatever music you listened to this year.  There's no way that's the "best."  In ten, fifteen, twenty years, most of what you thought was "the best" will have been forgotten or relegated to More Of The Monkees status in history.

For the sake of fuck!