I thought I was going to roll my eyes at the selection, but there's something for everyone here given the year and they allow listeners to dip into genre's they may never actively listen to.
Quite nice to see Miles Davis' "Kinda Blue" and the Dave Brubeck Quartet's "Take Five". Those were the two albums (along with Coltrane's "Blue Train" and Thelonius Monk - [don't remember the record]) that gave me an entry door into jazz back in the mid-90's and ever since jazz has been such a joy in my life. Davis' "So What" still stands up the hairs on the back of my neck even after 25 years each time I play it.
That said I have a fairly wide taste in music ranging from Napalm Death to Philip Glass, from 60's psychadelic to 21st century analogue electronica.
The omission of Hip Hop is rather startling from today's perspective (and even for the time). Having only a single rock album, on the other hand (and no Metal), might look prescient today.
> The omission of Hip Hop is rather startling from today's perspective (and even for the time).
That's a really good point, and well spotted. I'm amazed I hadn't noticed that being a fan of NWA et-al from that era.
[edit]
Upon further thought, I'm also wondering if there may have been objections from certain artists and/or they couldn't get contractual releases for this purpose - up until then I guess the rights were for CD/Tape/Vinyl/SACD etc, digital music may have been viewed with suspicion by some bands - e.g. Metallica. Just a thought.
As the article says, Apple bought 1 physical copy of these CDs for each iPod they pre-loaded to be on somewhat more solid legal footing. Digital rights would have had to be negotiated on a case by case basis, and at least for the Beatles records, Apple had a bad relationship with the copyright holder at the time.
But it's not beyond the possibility that given the new format (yeah I know), there were possibly contracts explicitly for certain mediums (CD/vinyl) and some artists either didn't respond to contractual updates, or just plain said "no way".
How many big caliber trend setting high society "journalists" invited to this shindig would be hiphop/rap connoisseurs you think?
Fuck the police! Comin' straight from the underground
A young nigga got it bad ‘cause I'm brown
might not go down well with NYTimes, publishers of "N.W.A.is deliberately provocative, and the songs on ''Straight Outta Compton'' are vicious, sexist and stupid;"
While those journalists surely would be delighted to hear their profession depicted on the Dylan CD:
You try so hard
But you don’t understand
Just what you’ll say
When you get home
Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
Difficult to find hip-hop devoid of profanity, violence, lewdness, misogyny, or drug use (primarily marijuana, which was actively prosecuted back then).
Quite nice to see Miles Davis' "Kinda Blue" and the Dave Brubeck Quartet's "Take Five". Those were the two albums (along with Coltrane's "Blue Train" and Thelonius Monk - [don't remember the record]) that gave me an entry door into jazz back in the mid-90's and ever since jazz has been such a joy in my life. Davis' "So What" still stands up the hairs on the back of my neck even after 25 years each time I play it.
That said I have a fairly wide taste in music ranging from Napalm Death to Philip Glass, from 60's psychadelic to 21st century analogue electronica.