Any fan of music journalism, well hell any sort of journalism in the past five years has seen a massive amount of top 10, 20, or 31 lists all over the Internets. They help cull information into one meaty morsel for you to swallow without, you know, have to type shit. Pretty cool, huh?

As a music writer, I get to do plenty of lists, mostly aiming to at least educate and not bore, and to always enlighten and possibly agitate. I'm no fool. Making a music list, especially one involving a broad topic, is maddening. You will always forget something major, and you will end up even accidentally leaving off something that you love yourself, even after days of research.

Most of the time, these are frivolous undertaking which only the most involved music fan could ever understand the mania underneath. It takes a special sickness to try to narrow down 10 measly rock bands as the ten best of all time. Or the best rap lyricists. Or the best backing bands. It seems to me that the magic isn't in the list, it's in the response to the list, because it's a window into everyone's embarrassing soul.