The Death Knell for Albums?

I recently read a Q&A with the actor Vinnie Jones where he was asked about favorite albums and he basically said he didn’t buy albums. He liked buying individual songs and that’s what’s on his iPod. Yeah, I believe my iTunes library is in some ways the equivalent to my old 45 collection. When K and I were driving home from the KoL show last week at The Pageant (sigh), I put on a playlist that had a mix of singles I bought from iTunes. One of the songs was O.P.P., for which she responded, “Are you kidding me?” Anyway, Naughty by Nature had the good taste to sample The Jackson 5, but I digress.

When I was sitting in the Nashville airport yesterday morning, CNN reported that some artists like Led Zeppelin and AC/DC were holding out putting their music in iTunes because then people wouldn’t buy the whole album and CDs would die a faster death. I guess to counteract the decline, lists have been emerging of great albums. The Definitive 200 is a list that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame released and the website states that these are the 200 “ranked albums that every music lover should own”. There are records on this list that I would NEVER want to listen to from start to finish. However, Time came up with a good list that I have been working my way through. In fact, my nephew D and I listened to Sticky Fingers on our way back from the KoL show in Chicago. It holds up mighty well. Any comments on these lists? --J