In my Screen Hub role, I was sent the press releases about the ABC’s televised vote on the top one hundred albums. Here is the list for your wry perusal, followed by the ABC’s own analysis of the vote. The word deranged did not enter my head.

1 Pink Floyd Dark Side Of The Moon
2 Jeff Buckley Grace
3 Radiohead Ok Computer
4 The Beatles Abbey Road
5 The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
6 Nirvana Nevermind
7 Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin 4
8 Red Hot Chili Peppers Blood Sugar Sex Magik
9 Meat Loaf Bat Out Of Hell
10 U2 The Joshua Tree

11 Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here
12 The Beatles The Beatles – White Album
13 The Beatles Revolver
14 Pink Floyd The Wall
15 Radiohead The Bends
16 Neil Diamond Hot August Night
17 Neil Young Harvest
18 Carole King Tapestry
19 Pearl Jam Ten
20 Fleetwood Mac Rumours
21 Tool Aenima
22 Bob Dylan Blood On The Tracks
23 Midnight Oil 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
24 Silverchair Diorama
25 AC/DC Back In Black
26 The Clash London Calling
27 The Whitlams Eternal Nightcap
28 Queen A night at the Opera
29 The Pixies Doolittle
30 Missy Higgins The Sound Of White
31 Paul Simon Graceland
32 Anthony Callea Anthony Callea
33 U2 Achtung Baby
34 David Bowie Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from Mars
35 Radiohead Kid A
36 The Beatles Rubber Soul
37 The Stone Roses Stone Roses
38 Wolfmother Wolfmother
39 Oasis What’s The Story Morning Glory
40 Tool Lateralus
41 Coldplay A Rush of Blood to the Head
42 Bob Dylan Highway 61
43 Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks
44 Van Morrison Astral Weeks
45 The Living End The Living End
46 The Strokes Is this It?
47 Silverchair Neon Ballroom
48 The Eagles Hotel California
49 The Smiths The Queen Is Dead
50 You Am I Hourly Daily
51 The Cure Disintegration
52 Bob Dylan Blonde On Blonde
53 Lou Reed Transformer
54 Bruce Springsteen Born To Run
55 Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication
56 Metallica Master of Puppets
57 Cat Stevens Tea for the Tillerman
58 R.E.M Automatic For The People
59 Muse Absolution
60 Joni Mitchell Blue
61 Prince Purple Rain
62 ABBA Arrival
63 Elton John Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
64 Dire Straits Brothers In Arms
65 Miles Davis Kind of Blue
66 Cold Chisel East
67 The Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
68 The Who Who’s Next
69 Yes Close To The Edge
70 Deep Purple Machine Head
71 Rage Against The Machine Rage Against The Machine
72 Green Day American Idiot
73 Guns N Roses Appetite For Destruction
74 INXS Kick
75 David Bowie Hunky Dory
76 The Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream
77 Def Leppard Hysteria
78 Foo Fighters The Colour and The Shape
79 U2 Rattle and Hum
80 Delta Goodrem Innocent Eyes
81 John Farnham Whispering Jack
82 You Am I Hi Fi Way
83 Darren Hayes The Tension & The Spark
84 Crowded House Woodface
85 Live Throwing Copper
86 Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral
87 Massive Attack Blue Lines
88 Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin 2
89 Mike Oldfield Tubular Bells
90 Radio Birdman Radios Appear
91 Ben Folds Five Whatever and Ever Amen
92 Crowded House Crowded House
93 Powderfinger Vulture Street
94 The Killers Hot Fuss
95 The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers
96 Silverchair Frogstomp
97 Queens Of The Stone Age Songs For The Deaf
98 Portishead Dummy
99 Soundgarden Superunknown
100 The Velvet Underground & Nico The Velvet Underground & Nico

Recovered from that? Here is the analysis,

During September/October 2006, ABC TV asked Australians to vote for their favourite album. Their choice could be any LP album or CD, released in any language or genre – blues, hip hop, rock, or pop, classical, country or jazz. It could be a concept album, a compilation album or a greatest hits album: It just had to be their favourite. Radio talkback turned into debate around the nation, and people registered
their vote via phone, online or SMS.

The following pages provide a comprehensive overview and analysis of voting patterns, provided by Paul Clarke, producer of ABC TV’s Long Way to the Top and Love is in the Air.

The album is showing no signs of dying at the hands of the iPOD. It’s alive and kicking, according to Australia’s response to My Favourite Album.

The Top 100 tells us that baby boomers are no longer the only style-setters in music. This list is a tussle for control between baby-boomers and a younger group we could call generation j – the Australian school of rock educated by radio station triple j (whom demographers would call generations X and Y).

They’re just as passionate about their music as Beatles and Floyd fans, and they’ve voted hard for their favourites in My Favourite Album.
As you can see, artists of the baby-boomer generation have a firm hold on the number 1, 4, 5, 7 and 9 spots on the charts, while Generation J artists have numbers 2, 3, 6 and 8. Number 10 sits somewhere in-between.

It’s an interesting generational shift as the audience that invented the album hands the reins to a younger generation.

THE TOP 100
Many of the Honour Roll of Rock and Roll are there – Bob Dylan has three albums in the Top 100, David Bowie has two. But so too do Tool and The Smashing Pumpkins.

Punk bands like the Clash, The Sex Pistols and even our own Radio Birdman are just as well-represented as M.O.R. maestro Elton John, and way better than Rod Stewart, who apparently is no longer a favourite artist at all!

The list is full of bands such as Rage Against The Machine, Queens Of The Stone Age, Nine Inch Nails and The Strokes.

The iPOD has not devalued the importance of the album – if anything, we’re more into albums than we ever were. Even though we no longer have those terrific giant gatefold sleeves that so adorned our bedrooms, the idea of the album is still important to each generation, according to our voters.

ROCK CLASSICS
For those who believe the baby-boomer battleground is The Beatles V The Stones, our tribe has spoken: Mick and Keef appear for the first and only time at number 95 with Sticky Fingers. Many were tipping Exile on Main Street would be there in the Top Ten, but ‘Wild Horses’ couldn’t even drag it into the Top 100!!!

The Beatles meanwhile have four albums in the Top 15, and five in the Top 100.
Abbey Road – number 4
Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – number 5
White Album – number 12
Revolver – number 13

Pink Floyd have polled far better than any band except the Beatles in quantity, with three albums – Dark Side Of The Moon (number 1), Wish You Were Here (number
11), and The Wall (number 14), all in the Top 15.
Bob Dylan has his three critically acclaimed masterpieces in the Top 100 – Blood On
The Tracks (number 22), Highway 61 (number 42), and Blonde on Blonde
(number 52). All the ones that were electric!

The Boss, Bruce Springsteen, has one album – Born To Run – at number 54. And Lou Reed – rock’s all time great pioneer, has just one offering in the Top 100 – Transformer at no.53. Queen’s Night At The Opera is at 28.

And while there’s no sign of the granddaddy of punk, Iggy Pop, in the list, his grandkids are everywhere in the Top 100!

The album often judged to be Australia’s own rock and roll masterpiece, Skyhooks Livin’ In The Seventies, isn’t even in the Top 100 (it came in at number 103).

Everyone’s favourite grumpy old man Neil Young is back at no.17 with Harvest. Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours is back at 20. And after a totally innovative and brilliant rock and roll career, David Bowie only pulls
up at no.34 with Ziggy Stardust. How is it that Australian Idol’s Anthony Callea’s in better shape at no. 32 with his self-titled album?

Heavy rock gets a guernsey as Deep Purple’s Machine Head appears at number 70, while Yes appear just in front of them with Close To The Edge at number 69.

The Eagles Hotel California cruises in at no. 48

The Who shuffle in at no.68 with Who’s Next.

And Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, often a big winner in these types of polls in the past, is just hanging in there at no.44.

And where in the star-spangled banner is Jimi Hendrix? As Marvin Gaye might have asked: “What’s Goin’ On”

IT WAS ALL WHITE ON THE NIGHT!
The surprising omission from our list is soul and dance music generally and black artists in particular. This is one honky list! Sure there’s Prince at no.61 with Purple Rain and Miles Davis, with Kind Of Blue at no. 65. But there’s no Marvin Gaye, no Aretha Franklin, no Otis Redding, no Martha and The Vandellas, no Ronettes, no Tina Turner, no Michael Jackson, no Bob Marley, no Stevie Wonder, no Yothu Yindi, no Supremes, and no Jimi Hendrix.

WOMEN
And while we’re on the subject of Jimi Hendrix, where are the foxy ladies???

An important – and sad – thing to note is that rock was, and apparently ever is, male – there is not one female artist, or even a band member, in the Top 10. And in the Top 100 only 4 spots are claimed by female artists. They are:
Carole King with Tapestry at no. 18
Missy Higgins with The Sound Of White at no.30
Joni Mitchell with Blue at no. 60
Delta Goodrem with Innocent Eyes at no.80

The bands in the Top 100 featuring women players are:
Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours at no.20
The Pixies Doolittle at no.29
Abba’s Arrival at no.62
The Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Chollie and The Infinite Sadness at no.67, and
Siamese Dream at no.76
Massive Attack’s Blue Lines at no.87
Portishead’s Dummy at no.98
No Madonna, no Helen Reddy, no Suzi Q, no ONJ, no Kylie, no Chrissie Amphlett, no Marcia or Renee. To quote Renee herself: “It’s a man’s world”

ALTERNATIVE BECOMES THE RULE
Dinosaur rock has been rebadged and rebranded in the nineties and noughties, with The Pixies, Metallica, Tool, Nine Inch Nails, and Wolfmother.

The punk generation has given rise to a new guitar style, punk in attitude, but often more melodic or intense than The Sex pistols, in fact making the Pistols sound like a pop band.

The most influential band of this new breed is The Pixies (Doolittle, no. 29) whose songs featured the soft quiet verses and thrashingly hard choruses that so inspired the sound of Nirvana.
But many other bands with similar influences have strong places in the list – Tool at number 21 with Aenema, and again at no 40 with Laterlus, Wolfmother at no 38 with their self-titled album, and Nine Inch Nails at no.86 with The Downward Spiral.

Alternative slacker pop music is also there in the shape of Ben Folds with Whatever and Ever Amen at no 91, Green Day with American Idiot, at no.72, and The Killers with Hot Fuss, at no.94.

AUSTRALIAN MUSIC
There are no Australian groups in the top 10 – tragic. Our first chart position is Midnight Oil’s 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 album at no. 23 – a slight improvement on My Favourite Film last year, where The Castle was the highest-polled Aussie product at no.25.

The key thing about the Australian music selections? Most of the music is recent. Most albums appearing in the list were made in the noughties, followed closely by the 80’s and 90’s. That bodes well for our music.

And about one in 5 albums in the top 100 is Australian – a tradition that has been kept alive by Aussie music fans since the 60’s chart days. It’s a percentage which is much higher than other countries outside of the US and UK.

And what of our great homegrown rock dogs? Barnesie and Farnesie both make an appearance – Barnesie in Cold Chisel with East at no.66, and John Farnham with Whispering Jack at no.81.

The Australian Top Ten is:
Midnight Oil – 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,11, at number 23
silverchair – Diorama, at number 24
AC/DC – Back In Black, at number 25
The Whitlams – Eternal Nightcap, at number 27
Missy Higgins – The Sound of White, at number 30
Anthony Callea – Anthony Callea, at number 32
Wolfmother – Wolfmother, at number 38
The Living End – The Living End, at number 45
silverchair – Neon Ballroom, at number 47
You Am I – Hourly Daily, at number 50
silverchair, You Am I and Crowded House also excelled by having more than one album in the top 100.

WHAT DOES THE TOP 10 SAY ABOUT US
It says that the classics – like Dark Side Of The Moon and Abbey Road – still resonate. That they stay with people for a lifetime, and they can still speak to new audiences.
It says that we are only now able to pick today’s classics – a lot of the great musicians and fans alike are unanimous that Grace and OK Computer are the albums of our times.

We’ve got some work to do – brilliant record though it is, Tapestry, by Carole King, is the one we still regard as our favourite female album, at number 18. We need more female icons. There is consolation in the fact that Missy Higgins’ The Sound Of White, her contemporary response to Tapestry, was only 12 places behind.

All the albums in the top 10 are like movies – they take you on a trip, with your heroes, through a creative wonderland, a place in time when they were singing the world around them. They are describing their experiences, and many which we can relate to. Whether that be the tough brotherhood of LA from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the joyful creativity of Abbey Road, the thrill of alienation on Nevermind, the fear of alienation on OK Computer, the beautifully-expressed innocent hope of The Joshua Tree, or perhaps the most cinematic of all, the teenage tale of love and loss on Bat Out Of Hell. And with each of them, the production is superb, all able to mould the songs to take the listener on an amazing trip. Meat Loaf survives into a new millennium!

The album that was viewed by many as the first modern album – Sergeant Pepper – is still there. And it stands as a touchstone for the other albums as to how much the concept of the album has changed to reflect changing times. Ultimately, tastes change about what our favourite album is – and this year, we have caught a wave of change. While this may disappoint some, and alarm others, if it provokes debate and opens ears to what’s around today, then My Favourite Album has performed a worthwhile public service.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 4th, 2006 at 9:55 pm and is filed under entertainments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.