The Chrono-Canon
ISSUE #222
It’s been a full year since I embarked on my journey to name the 100 Best Songs Ever, to carve my personal history in golden vinyl and try to glean some novel insights from my reflection in the glow. Because the Canon was released in batches of ten, I never got to feature the final list of The Earwyrms Canon in a proper post. I wanted to give the project that, at the very least.
But I’m also revisiting the Canon today to clear up some unfinished business. When I initially thought about releasing The Hundred, I was going to post the songs in chronological order—one of my favorite orders—but this type of detailed archivist work, while right up may alley, proved to be too cumbersome for me in the moment, too time-consuming for what already took a fair chunk of mental processing power.
Now, a year out from The Canon’s debut, I wanted to live up to my initial concept. This is the Earwyrms Chrono-Canon. The Historical Hundred. The 100 Best Songs Ever, in order of their debut, in an attempt to map a sort of historical sense to the form as it has existed in the past century or so.
Take a listen, travel through time. Be sure to stop at 1978, the year featured most in the Canon with seven songs. Don’t miss 1990 or 2007 either, the runners up to the title at five songs each. Note the emergent genres, the instrumental shifts. Most of all, I want you to enjoy—and I hope it inspires you to make a list of your own.
If you do, you must share it with me. That is the Earwyrms Law.
This is the Earwyrms Chrono-Canon. The Historical Hundred. The 100 Best Songs Ever, in order of their debut, in an attempt to map a sort of historical sense to the form as it has existed in the past century or so.