A couple of months ago, Entertainment Weekly published a special edition where they listed the Top 100 movies, albums, books, and TV shows of the last 25 years. As you may expect, it was pure insanity. How can one possibly take seriously lists that include movies like Titanic (#3) and Toy Story (#5), or TV shows such as Sex and the City (#5) and Survivor (#6).

Even worse is their music list. I actually like Amy Winehouse, but is Back to Black really the 9th best album in the last 25 years? Or appearances by Beyonce (#19), Kelly Clarkson (#29), and Justin Timberlake (#31)? They ignore Nirvana’s groundbreaking studio albums for the posthumous MTV Unplugged appearance?

There’s also no rhyme or reason for them to even compile such lists. It’s not the end of a decade, nor is the beginning year considered the start of a new era. Is it a case of desiring to publish something extravagant for the publicity?

Obviously, I had to come up with my own version of the music list, and I must admit that personally it makes sense. 1983 was a landmark music year for me. Although I had been a huge fan of the original punk craze of the late ‘70s, by the early ‘80s I was back to music that was much more mainstream. Outside of the Clash and a couple of other acts, most of my listening time was spent with the likes of Springsteen, Dylan, Petty, and the Stones.

That all changed in 1983, thanks mainly to Augustana’s radio station. Sure, I had been a DJ there since I started college in 1981, but this was the year that I really discovered the independent music scene. I was a bit late to the party, but sometime during that year I became obsessed with American acts such as The Replacements, Husker Du, and X, along with the now-thriving British indie scene of the Smiths, New Order, and the Cure. It’s also the year I discovered a little jangle-pop band from Georgia that completely changed the face of alternative music by the end of the ‘80s. My life hasn’t been the same since.

Like I said, I just had to come up with my own version of the Entertainment Weekly list, and I’ll be the first to admit that I have my own limitations. There are no hair bands, nu-rock, R&B, or hip-hop (with an exception or two). Grunge is represented only by a couple of the original ground-breakers. Quite often, I’ve ignored the typical critic’s choice for something that’s either widely ignored or was considered a sellout. So what? It’s my list of the music that has been my soundtrack for the last 2 ½ decades.

1. R.E.M. – Murmur (1983)
2. Replacements – Let It Be (1984)
3. Radiohead – OK Computer (1997)
4. Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation (1988)
5. Pixies – Surfer Rosa (1989)
6. Nirvana – Nevermind (1991)
7. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)
8. Cure – Disintegration (1989)
9. U2 – Joshua Tree (1987)
10. Prince – Sign of the Times (1987)
11. White Stripes – White Blood Cells (2002)
12. Replacements – Tim (1985)
13. Son Volt – Trace (1995)
14. Uncle Tupelo – No Depression (1989)
15. Green Day – American Idiot (2004)
16. Pavement – Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994)
17. Elliott Smith – Either/Or (1997)
18. Bob Dylan – Time Out of Mind (1997)
19. Jesus and Mary Chain – Psychocandy (1985)
20. Arcade Fire – Funeral (2004)
21. Jayhawks – Hollywood Town Hall (1992)
22. Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker (2000)
23. Husker Du – Flip Your Wig (1985)
24. Steve Earle – I Feel Alright (1996)
25. Guided By Voices – Bee Thousand (1994)
26. Whiskeytown – Strangers Almanac (1997)
27. Rancid – And Out Comes the Wolves (1995)
28. Beck – Odelay (1996)
29. Paul Westerberg – Folker (2004)
30. Neil Young – Ragged Glory (1990)
31. Liz Phair – Exile in Guyville (1993)
32. Nick Cave – Murder Ballads (1996)
33. Pogues – Rum Sodomy and the Lash (1985)
34. R.E.M. – Life’s Rich Pageant (1986)
35. Camper Van Beethoven – Telephone Free Landslide Victory (1985)
36. Strokes – Is This It (2000)
37. New Order – Brotherhood (1985)
38. Pavement – Slanted and Enchanted (1992)
39. Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002)
40. Decemberists – Picaresque (2005)
41. PJ Harvey – Rid Of Me (1993)
42. Jeff Buckley – Grace (1994)
43. Lou Reed – New York (1989)
44. Dinosaur Jr. – Bug (1988)
45. White Stripes – Elephant (2003)
46. Pogues – If I Should Fall From Grace With God (1988)
47. Wrens – Meadowlands (2003)
48. Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (1998)
49. Paul Westerberg – Mono/Stereo (2002)
50. Radiohead – In Rainbows (2007)
51. Replacements – Pleased to Meet Me (1987)
52. Fugazi – 13 Songs (1990)
53. R.E.M. – Automatic For the People (1992)
54. Green Day – Dookie (1994)
55. Hole – Celebrity Skin (1998)
56. Pixies – Doolittle (1989)
57. Husker Du – New Day Rising (1985)
58. Lemonheads – It’s a Shame About Ray (1991)
59. Postal Service – Give Up (2002)
60. Breeders – Last Splash (1993)
61. Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (1995)
62. Rocket From the Crypt – Circa Now (1992)
63. Minutemen – Double Nickels on the Dime (1984)
64. Church – Heyday (1985)
65. Sleater/Kinney – Call the Doctor (1996)
66. Billy Bragg and Wilco – Mermaid Avenue (1998)
67. Mission of Burma – Horrible Truth About Burma (1985)
68. Tom Waits – Rain Dogs (1985)
69. Built to Spill – Keep It Like a Secret (1999)
70. Steve Earle – El Corazon (1996)
71. Cursive – The Ugly Organ (2003)
72. My Bloody Valentine – Loveless (1991)
73. Flaming Lips – Soft Bulletin (1999)
74. Descendents – Everything Sucks (1996)
75. Bob Dylan – Oh Mercy (1989)
76. Ween – Pure Guava (1992)
77. Big Audio Dynamite – This Is B.A.D. (1985)
78. Superchunk – No Pocky For Kitty (1992)
79. Archers of Loaf – Icky Mettle (1993)
80. Libertines – Up the Bracket (2002)
81. Hoodoo Gurus – Stoneage Romeos (1984)
82. Bjork – Debut (1993)
83. Hold Steady – Separation Sunday (2005)
84. Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998)
85. Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere (2006)
86. Ryan Adams – Gold (2001)
87. Decemberists – Crane Wife (2006)
88. Spoon – Kill the Moonlights (2002)
89. Elastica – Elastica (1995)
90. Sugar – File Under Easy Listening (1994)
91. Tom Waits – Bone Machine (1992)
92. Sebadoh – Bakesale (1994)
93. Social Distortion – Social Distortion (1990)
94. Elliott Smith – XO (1998)
95. Supersuckers – The Sacrilicious Sounds of the Supersuckers (1995)
96. Husker Du – Zen Arcade (1993)
97. Sonic Youth – Dirty (1992)
98. Bad Religion – Stranger Than Fiction (1994)
99. XTC – Skylarking (1986)
100. Cat Power – The Greatest (2005)