Nirvana spawned the worst imitators. When did hygiene become unimportant? Swap in How Soon is Now and you might retain credibility.
Nirvana's music is worse than toilet bowl echo.

does it make me a bad or ignorant person if i haven't heard a few of those songs?

plus, and i like bob geldoff, but "do they know it's christmas'? what the hell?

I don't remember any of them solving world hunger.

Feeling punchy-

I bought this Q special - the bit on This Charming Man was disappointing but worse, poorly researched.

It says that they first recorded it for a Peel session, which is true, but foolishly misquoted it as being the first Peel session in May 1983 when in fact it was their second Peel session in September (see Songs That Saved Your Life). A minor quibble, but very important in the band's chronology. Sloppy of Q to get this wrong if the song is meant to be THAT important.

I can't believe that Smiths ranked #76 according to the "Q" magazine. I mean they could of at least put in the top 20. I'm so fucking sick of the "Q" any way. And how in the hell did Rappers Delight change any one's life? The Smiths deserve more credit for their artistry.

4,8 and 10 are wank.

If these are the songs that change the life we live in we have problems. (well, not real problems or there would be more Smiths/Morrissey on the list!)
It reassures me in our hopelessness for any possible redemption as a society that can save itself thru culture. Which by the way, looking at the culture and idea's displayed in the list it looks like our thoughts and idea's that change us are still being directed by those in the music industry who only motivation really was money.

I gotta disagree with you all. Without the Sex pistols, we wouldn't have punk.

Without Sugarhill Gang, we wouldn't have rap (which is if you haven't noticed, quite popular)

Without Nirvana (who I adore) you wouldn't have the current crop of 3rd-gen Pearl Jam pseudo-angst crap.

Without 'Walk This Way', you wouldn't have the nu-metal of Limp Bizkit and Korn (not that would be necessarily bad)

'Blue Monday' is the representative of the new wave scene. Which is alright, though I imagine 'Love will tear..' might be a better choice.

The Band-Aid song gave us the idea of benefit concerts. After it, we got Live-Aid, USA for Africa, Sun City, Hear N'Aid, Hands Across America and quite a few others.

I think it's a fine list of 'songs that changed the world'. It's not the ten best songs, now. people are always going to disagree with lists like this; but I think this is a decent one.

they usually reflect what's seen as worthwhile by current generation of youngsters. The only bits of history that are allowed in are:

1. direct influences on the current generation of stars
2. a couple of political songs that have vague enough lyrics to maintain some 'deepness' to the youngsters
3. cliche'd songs that have spend enough time off the radio that they're now seen as rehabilitated

where's the tunes from charlie christian or wes montgomery? nowhere, because no one mentions them in MTV interviews. That charlie christian was the first guitar soloist in a popular band, or that wes montgomery was the first guitarist to top the charts seems to have missed everyone.

popular != important

Why wasn't 50 cent's "In da club" on that list. That's straight booty yo!

...especially the British ones. I'm a huge Radiohead fan, but is "O.K. Computer" really The Greatest Album Of All Time?

That said, this list seems to have gotten it right. Love them or hate them, you can't deny that these songs have had a huge impact on the musical and social landscape. If you're willing to stop moping about no new Moz music long enough to do some research, you might learn something.

"Strange Fruit" practically invented the modern protest song. If you haven't heard it yet, find a Billie Holliday complilation and discover where "Meat Is Murder" and "Suffer Little Children" came from. And "That's Alright" is the song that convinced Sam Phillips (owner of Sun Records) that a certain Elvis Presley was worth spending time on; the result being rock' n' roll as most people know it. Without this song, Moz would likely be a celibate bookstore clerk who never left Manchester.

Think about it...

In case anyone's interested, this was a special edition of Q, seperate from the regular mag - they sometimes do this with specials devoted to The Beatles/Dylan etc. It doesn't necessarily contain the best and most important music and each song was chosen for a reason - the smiths was "indie rock is born', milli vanilli was "it blew the whistle on manufactured pop".

1. Elvis Presley - That's All Right
2. The Beatles - I Wanna Hold Your Hand
3. Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen
4. Sugerhill Gang - Rappers Delight
5. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Sprit
6. Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit
7. Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone
8. Run DMC - Walk This Way
9. New Order - Blue Monday
10. Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas
11. The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
12. Bill Haley - Rock Around The Clock
13. The Beatles - Helter Skelter
14. Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5 - The Message
15. The Kinks - You Really Got Me
16. Kraftwerk - Autobahn
17. The Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive
18. The Tornados - Telstar
19. David Bowie - Starman
20. Aretha Franklin - Think
21. Plastic Ono Band - Gibe Peace A Chance
22. Afrika Bambaataa - Planet Rock
23. Spice Girls - Wannabe
24. Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Relax
25. Nwa - Fuck Tha Police
26. The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows
27. Lonnie Donegan - Rock Island Line
28. The Who - My Gereration
29. The Rolling Stones - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
30. Madonna - Like A Virgin
31. John Lennon - Imagine
32. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
33. The Crystals - He's A Rebel
34. Otis Redding - (Sittin' On) The Dock Of They Bay
35. Barrett Strong - Money (That's What I Want)
36. Donna Summer - I Feel Love
37. Eminem - My Name Is
38. Deep Purple - Smoke On The Water
39. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
40. 2 Live Crew - Me So Horny
41. Chuck Berry - Maybellene
42. Bob Marley - No Woman No Cry
43. The Crickets - That'll Be The Day
44. The Jam - Going Underground
45. Mc5 - Kick Out The Jams
46. Muddy Waters - I Can't Be Satisfied
47. Led Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven
48. Strings Of Life - Rhythin Is Life
49. M|A|R|R|S - Pump Up The Volume
50. Elton John - Candle In The Wind
51. The Byrds - Mr Tamborine Man
52. Public Enemy - Rebel Without A Pause
53. Blondie - Heart Of Glass
54. The Temptations - Cloud Nine
55. Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit
56. Primal Scream - Loaded
57. Les Paul - Lover
58. Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze
59. Michael Jackson - Thriller
60. Body Count - Cop Killer
61. The Rolling Stones - Sympathy For The Devil
62. The Velvet Underground - Heroin
63. Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive
64. Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats - Rocket 88
65. James Brown - Say It Loud: I'm Black And I'm Proud
66. Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine
67. Soul II Soul - Back To Life (However Do You Want Me)
68. Prince - Sign 'O' The Times
69. Milli Vanilli - Girl You Know It's True
70. The Special AKA - Nelson Mandella
71. Pink Floyd - Interstellar Overdrive
72. Ray Charles - What'Di Say
73. Woodie Guthrie - This Land Is Your Land
74. Tubeway Army - Are Friends Electric?
75. Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin - Jet'aim..Moinon Plus
76. The Smiths - This Charming Man
77. Claude Francois - Commed'habitude
78. Oasis - Live Forever
79. Slade - Merry Christmas Everybody
80. Culture Club - Do You Really Want To Hurt Me
81. Metallica - Enter Sandman
82. The Doors - The End
83. The Incredible Bongo Band - Apache
84. Laurie Anderson - O Superman
85. Stardust - Music Sounds Better With

Read the rest of this comment...

The difference between what this list is looking for and what fans see in The Smiths is that The Smiths change lives on a personal level whereas these songs changed the course of popular music.

'Moz Iz God.'