
The total albums listed for each year is the number of albums in the database for the given year. The total rank score is devised by Best Ever Albums, which awards points to an album based on how many times it appears on “Best of” lists in magazines, e.g., Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Albums of All Time on entertainment websites, e.g., Pitchfork's Top 100 albums of the 2010s print media, including books and academic research official forum rankings and more. To help dissect each of these arguments and more, Stacker compiled comprehensive chart data on every year in music ranging from 1940-2019, using Best Ever Albums data as of July 30, and ranked the years according to their total rank score. Of course, millennials-born between 1981-1996 and addicted to Spotify, YouTube, and Beats By Dre headphones-will probably tell you that Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, and Drake are the greatest performers to ever grace a stage. Generation Xers-generally considered those born after the 1946-1964 baby boomers-are likely to wax poetic about Seattle grunge or even New Jack Swing, while the Greatest Generation-with members born from 1901-1927-usually have fond memories of Duke Ellington and Bing Crosby.

Arguing about the best music eras is an age-old American tradition.
