Pitchfork’s Best Albums of the 1990s: changes from 1999 to 2003
Pitchfork was my introduction to music on the internet — I remember delving deep into reading Pitchfork in 2003, when I was still in high school and first had access to internet faster than dial-up. I’d download the interesting music I read about from eMusic, an early online music subscription service. Pitchfork was pretty influential in shaping my early music tastes.
Pitchfork released multiple “Best Albums of the 1990s” lists, an original in 1999, and another just four years later in 2003.
The following visualizations show how Pitchfork’s music tastes changed from the publishing of their original list in 1999 to their updated list published in 2003.
(ed. note: Originally when making these visualizations, I thought that these lists were released in 2003 and 2010, respectively. Which somehow seemed much more relevant, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I found this post in a draft folder and decided to let it loose on the internet — I believe I made these in late 2017 using Tableau)
Previously overlooked records 📈
These albums made their way into the rankings, after not even noting a mention on the original list. These records are somewhat of a mix of genres — hip-hop, rap, electronic music.
Records rising 📈
These albums rose in the rankings. Some especially large jumps — Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” rose from #85 to #4, and Nirvana’s In Utero rising from #79 to #13.
Falling out of favor 📉
These were those that Pitchfork judged unworthy to include in their updated rankings. In contrast to the somewhat more eclectic mix of genres of records that were previously overlooked, there are lots of white dude guitar bands on this list. Some bands that had multiple records that fell out of favor. Sunny Day Real Estate, Blur, Fugazi, I’m looking at you.
Records falling 📉
These records fell in favor in Pitchfork’s rankings between 1999 and 2003. The Pixies’ Trompe le Monde and Frank Black’s Teenager of the Year took precipitous falls in the rankings — oh my golly, oh my golly!
If you made it this far — you probably like music, so let me let you in on my favorite music website nowadays — tiny mix tapes!
