With the overwhelming accessibility of music today, deciding what to listen to is a constant (first world) problem. But you could always follow the model of Melbourne music lover, Brett Schewitz, the man who’s just completed the herculean task of listening to every single record on Rolling Stone’s infamous 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time list.

Beginning on the 16th October last year, it ultimately took Schewitz – a music photographer and international music label manager by trade – 239 days to complete the exhaustive task of getting his ears all the way to the #1 slot (The Beatles’ immortal Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band). He even kept followers updated on his epic album journey via his Twitter and Instagram accounts, even beginning an album-by-album account of the challenge with mini-reviews of each record (starting from the #300 position).

Considering the fickle state of listening habits at the moment (exhibit A), it’s a damn impressive feat of endurance and commitment. We chatted to Brett Schewitz all about his endeavour, about what he learned, what he hated, and what he thought was underrated.

First things first, where did the idea to listen to Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums Of All-Time come from?

“It was a combination of a couple of things. Firstly, I had become bored with all the music I own. I think we become stuck in a comfort zone listening to what we know; artist-wise and genre-wise. I wanted something new.

Secondly, as a kid, I never really had the classic essential records to rifle through as my family never really collected music. I was left to discover most things on my own. I discovered Michael Jackson through my sisters’ collections, but earlier things like The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd etc. were self-discoveries. In high school I’d buy records by artists I thought I should know, but ultimately missed out on many albums I should have listened to. For example, I’ve always known The Rolling Stones’ and Bob Dylan’s hits very well thanks to Greatest Hits compilations, but had never really listened to many albums in full. I knew one or two songs by Carole King and knew Tapestry was THE album thanks to my years working in CD retail, but had never actually listened to that album.

Music wasn’t as easily accessible as it is nowadays thanks to the internet. A lot of discoveries were made on a Saturday night standing at the listening counter in CD stores.  Basically, I had the theoretical knowledge about many records, but not the practical knowledge. I decided to work my way through the list to educate myself on records I had missed and to rediscover and learn more about albums I love.”

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Why Rolling Stone’s choices and not any of the other ‘Best of’ lists that are floating around? What in particular drew you to it?

“Good question. I could have gone through any list and probably would have covered a lot of the same ground. Sure there would have been some variations, and with any ‘best of’ list, it’s all subjective.

I’ve always liked Rolling Stone. Don’t know why. Maybe because they cover a lot of music that I enjoy. I think there’s a certain romanticism as they were founded around the time when music really started entering a ‘golden age’. I like how Jann Wenner co-founded it as a 21-year old kid. I once founded a music magazine when I was 20. He was a role model, I guess. I occasionally browse their lists as they pop up. I suppose they were just front of mind when I decided to do this.”

From a practical standpoint, where and how did you listen? Did you dedicate time to listen or have it in the background?

“I pretty much listened everywhere you could think of. It started off slow-ish, but in time the challenge consumed me and I would listen to an album first thing in the morning literally as I woke up, last thing before I went to bed, driving to work, driving home from work, on the train, on the tram, on aeroplanes, in airports, while running. If I could have worked out a practical way to listen in the shower, I would have.

For most of the records, I’d use Spotify. I’d download about 5 albums at a time to my mobile… Obviously everywhere else, I’d listen in headphones. Some of the records or artists (I’m looking at you The Beatles and AC/DC) aren’t available on Spotify. In [those cases], I luckily had their music on CD already or borrowed from a friend.

Otherwise, I’d listen on YouTube or put a call out on Facebook for the CDs. Sometimes, records weren’t available on Spotify but I managed to cobble them together by taking the songs from compilations or different releases. This was the case a lot of the time for some of the older Blues artists. I tried as much as possible to concentrate while listening but sometimes I was a bit distracted, I guess. If I felt I really missed the record, I’d go back and re-listen while less distracted. I never listened at work as I found I was too distracted to really take the albums in.”

Roughly how much of the list were you already familiar with/heard? Conversely, how much had you never listened to before?

“I’d say about 55-60% of the albums on the list were either incredibly familiar to me or had songs that I was very familiar with. There was a fair bit I had never listened to before. Of those albums I had never listened to before, I reckon I was familiar with about 20-25% of the artists. Either by name or by songs which weren’t on those albums. The rest were pretty much new discoveries for me. ”

Which albums in the Top 500 really surprised you – either in a positive or negative way?

“After 500 albums, I guess if I can remember certain ones off the top of my head, they must have had a real impact, either positively or negatively. I was surprised at how many Eminem songs I know, considering I don’t enjoy his music. [Ditto] Carole King – how amazing she is. I never realised how many songs for other artists she had written.

I was surprised at Bob Marley. Once again, know all the hits backwards, but never really considered myself a massive fan. The albums that I listened to were amazing and I was surprised at how diverse the records were, considering I’ve always thought all reggae sounds the same. I was surprised that Thriller, my personal favourite, only made it in at #20. I, for sure, thought it would be a top 5 record. I was surprised that both Kid A and The Bends appeared higher than Radiohead’s seminal masterpiece, OK Computer.
“In time the challenge consumed me and I would listen to an album first thing in the morning literally as I woke up, last thing before I went to bed…”

I was disappointed at the amount of ‘Greatest Hits’, ‘Anthologies’ and Box Sets that made it into the list. For the most part, I don’t think that they should qualify, especially in the case of artists like Madonna who had many albums in the list anyway.

There were some repeated songs due to that and I don’t think that’s right. To contradict myself, though, in some cases it was perfect having compilations on the list. For artists such as ‘Chuck Berry’ and ABBA whose singles were more influential than the individual albums, it was great to have them included. Even Elvis’s Sun Sessions, [which] yielded some of the most important music in rock ‘n roll and should have absolutely been included.

Which records were the hardest to get through?

“Some of the anthologies and box sets. With some of them I’d be listening to between 50 and 100 songs. After listening to so many songs by the same artist in a row, you begin to lose interest and you pretty much start wishing it would all end sooner rather than later. In these cases, I found myself focussing more on the songs I knew than the actual collection of work. I like the way albums are pieced together as a body of work. Sometimes, compilations seem a bit haphazard. Kinda sewn together from different periods of an artist’s career and you fail to get them as there’s no real context. Those were the hardest.”

How did the experience change as you were going through it? Particularly, what has the response from others been like to you taking on this journey?

“When I first started, it was a bit low key. I posted on Facebook and Twitter that I’d be doing this but there was no real response. I never posted a review of each album at the start because I wasn’t sure anyone would actually care.

After the first 100, I posted the list from 500-401 with a reminder of what I had been doing. There was actually a lot of interest on that. I got a lot of questions asking my opinion, my favourites, my worsts, and my new discoveries. It kinda encouraged me to work through the next 100 quicker so that I could once again post the list on Facebook and have a bit of a discussion.

After 400-301, there was once again a lot of excitement on the post and after that I decided to post some thoughts on each record after listening to it. I would post the album cover plus my thoughts on Instagram and publish to Facebook and Twitter. This changed the experience because it forced me to process the album and think about it more after listening.

Instead of just churning through the records, I began to learn about each album and pay more attention so that I had something to write afterwards. After I started posting about the challenge daily, people started to engage with me more. I’d find myself being asked about the challenge or certain records in person by people at work, social gatherings etc. In a lot of the cases, I never even thought those particular people paid any attention to me on social media.”

Even though the music is freely available on Spotify, for me, there’s still nothing that surpasses the thrill of buying a new album – Long live the physical format!

Do you think the list is accurate? Any glaring omissions (aside from those released after the publication of list) that should be added or overrated records that probably don’t deserve inclusion?

“It’s probably not accurate, per se. As I said, it’s subjective. Granted a lot of people voted on it, but there would always be omissions and albums that, in my opinion, shouldn’t have been there.

I was surprised that Lenny Kravitz’s Mama Said wasn’t there. I love that album. Yes’s 90125 or Close To The Edge was missing (Rolling Stone’s ‘Record Guide’ gives it 5 stars). There was probably more inclusions by The Byrds or Grateful Dead than necessary. Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band’s Trout Mask Replica is totally overrated. I just did not connect with they one and I expected to. Steely Dan’s Gaucho should have been in there. Rolling Stone originally gave that album 4.5 stars. I think Kanye West is overrated. Three albums on the list? Really?

Have you gone and bought any of the records you listened to?

“Yes, I made my first purchase this past weekend: Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde and Highway 61 Revisited, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On and The Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main Street. My plan is to buy a few albums each month that I really enjoyed and that are missing from my collection.

Even though the music is freely available on Spotify, for me, there’s still nothing that surpasses the thrill of buying a new album, unwrapping the plastic and putting it in the CD player. It’s a rush. It’s still one of the most magical experiences I’ll ever know. Long live the physical format!

What’s the biggest lesson you learned from listening to all 500 albums?

“Forget preconceptions. There are so many records I listened to that I thought I’d hate, that I ended up loving. Similarly, there were a few records I believed I’d love which just made no impact on me.

I also learnt that there were a lot of albums I had never actually listened to in full and reminded me that, while I spend every single day listening to music, there’s still so much to discover. I studied musicology and I wish they’d taught us a tenth of the things I learnt while doing this list. This list taught me to actually listen to an album properly. Not just listen, but LISTEN.”

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What were your listening habits like before this venture? And do you think they’ve changed because of the Rolling Stone experiment?

I’ve always been an albums man. I’m not one to pick cherry pick from iTunes. If I like a song, I’ll buy the record. Due to nothing else but laziness and lack of inspiration, I found myself, for the most part, listening to my iPod on shuffle. The list reminded me how much I love listening to albums and have since gone back to consuming music in that way.

When I was younger and had less distractions, I’d put music on and sit there and listen to it without doing anything else. Later on, music became something that would happen in the background while other things were going on. I’d like to think I’m back to listening to albums with more purpose and concentration now.

Now that you’ve completed the herculean task, would you recommend others to try their hand at doing it?

It’s a huge commitment and a big effort. I think a lot of the albums on this list are essential listening. Most of the artists are too. If you’re a casual music listener, I’d say no. They wouldn’t get through it. For hardcore fans of music, yes, you should know majority of the records on this list. If you fancy yourself a music buff, you should be familiar with these albums.

“I studied musicology and I wish they’d taught us a tenth of the things I learnt while doing this list.”

My guitar teacher in high school once told me that hairdressers don’t get to choose what kind of hair they work on. They have to work on brunettes, red-heads, blondes, those with curly hair, those with straight hair etc. Similarly, if you want to work with music, or have a real interest in it, you need to listen to it all, whether you enjoy it or not. Keep an open mind. Listen to the albums in context based on when it was recorded and how many artists following its release it influenced.

A mate of mine in South Africa has stepped up to the challenge. He’s recently finished his first 100. It’s interesting to watch his experience with it as in some cases, his opinion differed to mine. He never got George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, whereas it’s one of my all-time favourite records. It was an amazing experience. I’m certain other music fanatics would love it too.

What’s next? Any plans to tackle another Best Of list in future?

“Many people have told me that they can’t wait for my next list as they enjoyed my comments on this one so much. I have actually been bowled over by how many people have told me that they’re going to miss reading the reviews everyday, that some of them read every single one and learnt so much about each record, and how many people have told me that because of me, they went out and bought some of the albums.

It’s amazing that I was able to share my passion with so many people. I’ve decided that I’m going to attempt the 100 Greatest Australian albums next. There’s many that I’ve never listened to, let alone heard in my life. I look forward to that challenge, but not before I catch up on all the albums released this year that I’ve missed out on. Maybe a Top 10 of 2014 at the end of the year? You can be sure of this, I’ll never stop listening and I’ll never stop learning.”

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