What Does It Take For A CD To Become A themusicaddict's Greatest CD of All-Time?

Hello,

In case anyone is wondering what it takes for a CD to be one of my Greatest CDs of All-Time, here are some basic criteria. But these sort of things can change over time.

1) First of all nearly every song on the CD has to be amazing, no more than one or two filler tracks. Many CDs have 3 great songs and then a bunch of filler, by definition not a classic CD. For instance, Oasis' "Wonderwall" is one of the best songs ever, however "(What's The Story) Morning Glory?" is an incredibly weak CD.

2) To be a classic a CD doesn't have to be extremely popular or have a lot of sales. On the other hand a CD that sells a lot of copies can be very good and not just some teeny boppers crush. I'll probably never write a Greatest CD blog for a Justin Bieber CD. My last two Greatest CDs of All-Time show the contrasts that this approach can take. I wrote about AC/DC's "Back In Black" which has sold over 50 million copies by some estimates. However Supafuzz's "All About The Rock" is also an all-time classic CD. I have no idea how much in sales that CD has as they don't even have a Wikipedia page.

3) Typically greatest hits CDs won't ever be considered classics. Many of them don't feel coherent. They feel like exactly what they are: a bunch of songs picked to put on one CD to make everybody a buck. The only greatest hits CD that I can think of that qualifies as classic is Bob Marley's "Legend".

4a) Some CDs would be classic, but they add too much filler to it. The too many tracks worst example is The Motels' CD "No Vacancy: The Best of". As a greatest hits CD, it wouldn't be considered a classic anyway, but all the filler they add on would make it a non-classic anyway. The Motels have 4 or 5 great songs, but this greatest hits collection has 19 songs. Way too many of these songs are added for no reason that I can discern, many of the extra songs are terrible. If you do buy a Motels greatest hits collection, buy the one they have with Missing Persons: "Back To Back Hits by Missing Persons and The Motels". That CD gives you all the songs from both bands that you need.

4b) CDs such as Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and They Might Be Giants" can have 15 or 16 songs + and still be classic CDs.

5) Some CDs I just have to think of and know immediately it's a greatest CD of all-time. CDs like Led Zeppelin's "4", Def Leppard's "Pyromania" and Prince's "Purple Rain" are without a doubt classics. I probably would have made a blog for "Purple Rain" already, but Prince remains the only artist I know of that don't allow their songs on Youtube.

6) Some CDs I have to listen to again to see if it still is a classic CD. For instance, now I'm listening to Tina Turner's "Private Dancer", yep it's definitely a classic. Most classic CDs hold up forever, but there are some CDs that don't maintain classic status after several years.

7) Also since this is my own opinion all my personal preferences and prejudices come into play. Some CDs may be classic to only me and that's fine. Some CDs were released at just the right time in my life. and that CD fit perfectly into my life at the time. Those CD's will always be classic to me, CDs such as Milli Vanilli's "Girl You Know It's True". "Girl" reminds me of a very innocent time in my life and of the red headed beauty I had a huge crush on. And you as the reader certainly may disagree and I would like to hear your thoughts.

8) While I openly acknowledge my prejudices, I also love to discover new music. Thanks to Spotify I can listen to any CD that I think might be good. Before Spotify if I heard enough good things about a CD I could usually find a cheap copy, buy it and listen to it. That's how I fell in love with Lauryn Hill's "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill". That's definitely one of the greatest CDs of all-time!

themusicaddict