I’m Confused With Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Songs of All-time

Rolling Stone magazine has released its 2024 500 Greatest Songs of All-time. I'm confused.

In baseball and football, the Greatest of All-time or GOAT remains the same until someone comes along to dethrone the champion.

In baseball, Babe Ruth has been the greatest for all-time for decades. In the NFL, the greatest of all-time is often broken down into positions. As for quarterbacks, Joe Montana was widely considered the GOAT until Tom Brady had his amazing run, and now he's number two. Whether or not it's accurate, it totally makes sense. But when it comes to Rolling Stone's Top 500 of All-Time, there's an inconsistency that annoys me.

Let's simply focus on Rolling Stone's Top 10 and we'll start in 2004.

Here's the Top 10:

10.  What'd I Say - Ray Charles
9.   Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
8.   Hey Jude - The Beatles
7.   Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry
6.   Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys
5.   Respect - Aretha Franklin
4.   What's Goin' On - Marvin Gaye
3.   Imagine - John Lennon
2.   I Can't Get No Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
1.   Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan

To be honest, I love every song in Rolling Stone's Top 10. I'm not sure how they narrowed it all down, because there are thousands of songs and plenty that I would consider worthy of the Top 10. But, there can only be 10 in a top 10.

Check out the new Greatest Songs of All-time from 2024.

10. Outkast: "Hey Ya!"
9. Fleetwood Mac: "Dreams"
8. Missy Elliott: "Get Ur Freak On"
7. The Beatles: "Strawberry Fields Forever"
6. Marvin Gaye: "What’s Going On"
5. Nirvana: "Smells Like Teen Sprit"
4. Bob Dylan: "Like a Rolling Stone"
3. Sam Cooke: "A Change Is Gonna Come"
2. Public Enemy: "Fight the Power"
1. Aretha Franklin: "Respect"

My confusion is pretty obvious. Outkast, Dreams, Get Ur Freak On, and Fight the Power are all newer songs, but they were all hits before the list above in 2004 came out. So, the judges at Rolling Stone just learned about these songs? And all of a sudden Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone falls to number 4, because Aretha has now been realized the best song of all-time?

To be honest, the annual Rolling Stone list should be called - This Year's Employee's rate their greatest songs of all-time. It should not be THE greatest songs of all-time...that's a lie.

Don't get me wrong, I love all of the songs included in the list. I just feel like there's no professional critique to determine which songs are truly the best. Keep in mind, most popular doesn't mean the best song.