Hype Yourself: Rolling Stone's 200 Greatest Country Songs of All Time
David contributed to this revised and more expansive roll call of this RS countdown
When Rolling Stone launched its “Rolling Stone Country” coverage back in 2014, it celebrated the debut by ranking 100 songs as the genre’s greatest. (Here’s a recounting of the original 100) For the section’s 10th anniversary, they’ve doubled their countdown. I wrote nine entries and helped a little on what might be cut or added, but I am not at all responsible for the list as a whole, let alone the order individual songs have been placed. It’s not the list I would have come up with on my own. But I am pleased to see how often its picks intersect with my and Bill Friskics-Warren’s Heartaches by the Number: Country Music’s 500 Greatest Singles. And, again, while the Top 50 isn’t mine—my initial reaction is that’s a pretty good Top 50! The whole list is an improvement on the magazine’s first pass. More subgenres taken into account, more eras covered, more artists of color—bigger tent, fewer fences.
(Note: Like everyone else it seems these days, by “songs” RS actually means specific “singles” or “tracks” or “recordings.” My understanding is that “greatest” is meant to take in not only a sense of what’s “best” or what is a “favorite,” all completely subjective anyway, but also what’s been musically and/or culturally “influential” and “significant,” and “emblematic,” and not only what has stood the test of time, but what is being predicted to continue to do so. My take on such critics lists generally is that they are telling stories, starting and making arguments, not offering correct answers—and to take them as if intended as some kind of last word instead of as the start of a theoretically helpful and, you know, fun conversation is to willfully misread them, you old party pooper you.)
You can check out “Rolling Stone's 200 Greatest Country Songs of All Time” here. Ranking quibbles aside, I think it’s often worth your time for the writing alone. Contributors include NFR friends: Marissa Moss, Joseph Hudak, Jon Freeman, Jeff Gage, Brittany McKenna, Michaelangelo Matos, Jonathan Bernstein, David Menconi, and Charles Aaron, among many others.
Happy debating this Memorial Day weekend!
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