Good. (From their point of view.) That’s exactly how you’re supposed to feel, given a list that aspires less toward any semblance of an informed or authoritative voice than a seeming sense of randomness that can only be explained away as rage bait. “Nailed it!” is not the desired response, as if there would be a soul in the world who’d say that in response to a list that pits millions of works from dozens of disparate genres across a 70-year period against one another and pretends they can all be evaluated on the same scale. “Nailed it!” would just represent a failure of virality. (And Apple is not in the business of failure, no matter what you remember about the Newton or Cube.) To quote the Internet at large, in the hours since the final top 10 was released: I demand satisfaction, sir!… on behalf of the Who, Sly and the Family Stone, Frank Sinatra, Van Morrison, Tom Petty, Dua Lipa, Paul Simon (with and without Garfunkel), Johnny Cash, Fiona Apple, Ray Charles, Shakira, Queen, Willie Nelson, Al Green, ABBA, Elvis Presley, Elvis Costello, Janelle Monae, Billie Holiday, Liz Phair, Alicia Keys, R.E.M., Juanes, Randy Newman, Curtis Mayfield, Childish Gambino, Ella Fitzgerald, Leonard Cohen and effin’ Kylie… Now, when your MIAs can fuel anger like that (times 10,000 other artists who’ll be cited on Reddit boards or chat rooms by day’s end), that’s a measure of success.

So, bravo; if only we could somehow apply all the anger generated today to the nation’s power grid, it might actually be a worthwhile exercise.

Yes, Apple’s 100 Best Albums List Is Ridiculous and Exists Almost Expressly to Make You Mad

Related News