rolling stone's '250 greatest songs of the 21st century so far'

I woke up this morning to see that Rolling Stone had put out their list of 'The 250 Greatest Songs of the 21st Century So Far' and it got me thinking.

I haven't properly gone and dissected the list, however I have been listening to it from my desk at work and I knew from the very start that I was going to struggle to have a definitive opinion about the list for a number of reasons:

a lot of my music listening is rooted in the 90s - and whilst I (obviously) have been alive for the entirety of the 21st century thus far, a lot of my comfort listens do go back to the 90s.

i am only one person and am simply not across every single big moment that has happened in music over the last 25 years.

given my general music tastes, I do consider myself quite out of touch, especially now, with what is popular. I don't gravitate towards mainstream pop as much as a lot of people do and I don't often succumb to what is popular on tiktok (despite having an addiction to scrolling on that app).

My main takeaway is this: The death of the monoculture has made it really difficult to determine a 'definitive sound' to encapsulate the two decades. I think about this often, too.

Towards the end of the 2000s and ESPECIALLY into the 2010s, the rise in the use of the internet has given the consumer the 'main character' energy to consumerism, meaning there is no one scene, movement or sound that dominates, so the things we would've seen as 'movements' prior to the turn of the century (think grunge, britpop, electronica) is deeply rooted in people's lived experiences.

Yes there has been exemptions to this (r&b & indie rock in the 2000s, dubstep and the stomp-clap ass boom in the early 2010s) and I am having moments of clarity as I can remember the cultural impact of some songs, but largely, the monoculture is dead because everyone has access to everything all the time now, which definitely changes how media is being processed. Nostalgia has also taken the front seat to a lot of consumption too, often pushing aside things that could've blown up if given the chance.

The rise of the internet and people's access to everything has also meant that things move on and change at a pace that hasn't really been seen prior to now, so it does make it difficult to be on top of every cultural change, cause it seems like there's at least one every couple of weeks. We're also not being spoonfed the songs of the moment because people just do not rely on the radio anymore to listen to music.

It'll be interesting to see how the list is received as people will be coming at it with only their own experiences as evidence. I know personally, there are many things I've missed in this list because I haven't engaged with every single thing that happens in pop culture because I straight up do not have the time. It seems like they'ver encapsulated a lot of cultural movements but again, how am I meant to know? I'm more likely to recognise more songs from like a 90s list or even earlier, despite the fact I was born in 1997 and not cultural conscious at all for that decade.

Anyway, I've always had an interest in cultural shifts and trends over time and I'll be intrigued to see how this list is received and if it will even be possible to define the 2020s music landscape once we near the decade.

Here's the link if you want to have a rummage through:

The 250 Greatest Songs of the 21st Century So Far

The 250 greatest songs of the 21st century so far -- from all over the musical map and every corner of the globe