Back in 2004, Rolling Stone published their list of the ‘500 Greatest Songs’. The list was compiled approximately a year after the world’s most famous music magazine published their list of ‘The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time’.
They later published an update in 2010 to add songs released during the 2000s, with additions such as ‘Crazy in Love’ by Beyoncé and ‘Umbrella’ by Rihanna. That list is now considered the definitive ‘500 Greatest Songs’ list.
Of course, any list of “greatest” songs is bound to have its critics and detractors. After all, music is supposed to be subjective and there’s an endless list of criteria that could be used to determine what constitutes “great”.
Rolling Stone‘s list was famously topped by Bob Dylan with ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ (go figure), with a top five rounded out by The Rolling Stones (‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’), John Lennon (‘Imagine’), Marvin Gaye (‘What’s Going On’), and Aretha Franklin (‘Respect’).
But suppose for a moment we were to introduce a different concept of “great” into Rolling Stone‘s list. If instead of Rolling Stone‘s seemingly arbitrary criteria, we defined great by what people actually listened to the most, what would would the list look like then?
Luckily, Spotify have answered that question for us. As Rolling Stone reports, the streaming giant, with the help of Spotify Insights, tallied up play counts for every track in RS‘s countdown to see what songs were favoured by audiences today.
For starters, Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s ‘Crazy In Love’ has toppled Bob Dylan, whose classic tune is now sitting all the way down at 27. Bey and Jay topped both of Spotify’s two playlists, which were both compiled from Spotify Insights data.
The first is a ranking of play counts by all of Spotify’s user base, with the top five rounded out by Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’, R. Kelly’s ‘Ignition (Remix)’, Van Morrison’s ‘Brown Eyed Girl’, and Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’.
The second list features results determined solely by streams by millennial users (aged 18-34). The list is surprisingly similar, with only some minor changes as Jackson and Kelly swap places and The Notorious B.I.G.’s ‘Juicy’ knocks down Van Morrison to fifth place.
Do the playlists shed any light on just what is a great song? Not really. But perhaps Jay-Z, who wrote an intro to the updated list in 2010, could explain it for us.
“A great song has all the key elements — melody; emotion; a strong statement that becomes part of the lexicon; and great production,” the rapper wrote. “Think of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ by Queen.”
“That song had everything — different melodies, opera, R&B, rock — and it explored all of those different genres in an authentic way, where it felt natural.” Well put, Hov.
