Dear Gossips,
“Let's have a toast for the douche bags”
Pitchfork was first last month, releasing their list of the Best Songs and Albums of the 2010s to much debate - as it should be. Now it’s Billboard’s turn with their staff pick list of the 100 Greatest Albums of the 2010s. Needless to say, Pitchfork and Billboard are two different personalities so, not surprisingly, Billboard’s list is a lot more radio-friendly, more superstar-friendly. But it seems like they do more or less agree on Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: Billboard ranked it as their #1 album of the decade after Pitchfork put it at #2 only after Frank Ocean’s Blonde.
Billboard’s #2 album is Lemonade by the Queen. Pitchfork had Lemonade at #41 because they put Beyoncé up higher at #3, giving more significance as a game-changer to the album that was delivered via surprise midnight drop in 2013. You could say, then, that there’s consensus between the two here too. Kanye, Beyoncé, Frank Ocean, and Kendrick Lamar seem to be the four artists in common between Pitchfork and Billboard in the upper levels of consideration.
Interestingly enough though, while Billboard gave its top album of the 2010s spot to Kanye West, it also earlier this week named Taylor Swift as their first ever Woman of the Decade. What do you call the poor distant cousin of a flex? A straddle. Taylor’s album Red came in at #4 on Billboard’s list behind Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange.
All of this as the Grammy nominations are set to be announced this morning. More on that later.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
