Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

In the original list, most of the selections were albums by white male rock musicians, with the top position held by the Beatles' Sgt.

Some compilation albums were removed, and Robert Johnson's The Complete Recordings was substituted for both of his King of the Delta Blues Singers volumes, making room for a total of eight new entries on the list.

[full citation needed][nb 1] On May 31, 2012, Rolling Stone published a revised list, drawing on the original and a later survey of albums up until the early 2000s.

It drew upon a new survey conducted with "more than 300 artists, producers, critics, and music-industry figures", including:[12] Each voter was asked to submit a ranked list of 50 favorite albums.

[15][16] Writing in USA Today, Edna Gundersen described the list as predictable and "weighted toward testosterone-fueled vintage rock".

"[18] Responding to the 2020 revision, Consequence of Sound's Alex Young wrote that the lesser representation of white male rock musicians was "the biggest takeaway".

[2] According to CNN's Leah Asmelash, "The change represents a massive shift for the magazine, moving to recognize more contemporary albums and a wider range of tastes.

"[19] Conversely, Jonathan McNamara of The Japan Times criticized the list for underrepresenting Asian and non-Anglophone artists, stating that "It seems a shame then that Rolling Stone's musical brain trust of writers and industry contributors [...] didn't take the opportunity to hold up albums from the world's non-English-speaking artists and bands.

Cover of the oversize companion book to the 2020 list.
The Beatles (pictured in 1964) had nine albums on the most recent list
Marvin Gaye (1973)
Comparison between the original 2003 "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" ranking made by the magazine Rolling Stone, and the updated 2020 ranking. This graph highlights the gender of the artists, gender of the voters from both rankings, and the decades in which these great albums were released.