The Future of Music! (acc. Rolling Stone)

Perhaps the title is misleading with the word "future." Listed below is every artist Rolling Stone has given an initial perfect score (5 stars) in the last 10 years (2005-2014). The number aside their name shows how many 5-star albums they've released in that timespan. So these are artists they are calling the best of our time. In this generation, music progression included, these are apparently (ahem) the modern greats. Feel free to laugh.

Leon Russell (.5)

Leon Russell

Elton John (.5)

Elton John w/ U2's Bono

U2 (2)

U2

Kanye West (2)

Kanye West w/ U2's Bono + The Edge (+ uninvited Lenny Kravitz)

Bob Dylan (2.5)

Bob Dylan w/ U2's Bono

Bruce Springsteen (3)

Bruce Springsteen w/ U2's Bono + The Edge

So these people are the artists of the future! That's the point of being a music magazine, right? With this, one might think praising a musician is based on:

• Being a male over 50 years old
• ^particularly if you made your best music 25-50 years ago
• How close of a friend you are to Bono
• If your name is Kanye West

Despite these high rankings, Rolling Stone has (respectively) been known to change their minds from year-to-year. All music critics do this. Below are the albums that were given 5 stars.

2005 Kanye West Late Registration**
2006 Bob Dylan Modern Times**
2007 Bruce Springsteen Magic
2009 U2 No Line on the Horizon*
2009 Bruce Springsteen Working on a Dream
2010 Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy**
2010 Elton John & Leon Russell The Union
2012 Bruce Springsteen Wrecking Ball*
2012 Bob Dylan Tempest
2014 U2  Songs of Innocence*
2014 Bob Dylan The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete^

* Album of the Year
** Addition to their 2011-revised "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list
^ I count this album as a .5 on my list because Bob Dylan's "Bootleg Series" releases are often set aside as reissues, which don't count as initial releases. Vol. 11 is the only "Bootleg Series" album to get 5 stars and it was considered a reissue (*cough cough* because it IS). However, The Bootleg Series Vol. 8-- Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006 was actually counted as a non-reissue (dude, it's a rarities album) in 2008 and was even their #2 album of that year. So Dyaln gets half a point for this release.

I admit, Rolling Stone did a lot for me in my mid-teenage years. I was introduced to tons of great classic artists some new music. But if you want to know what the future of music will look like, this is what you'll get from Rolling Stone:
Everything great has already been done before. Why respect new artists when you can just stick with new stuff from the old guys? Apparently there's no hope for future music.
Unless your name is Kanye West.