The term “canon” was first used in literature to describe books that critics and academics recommended for use in instruction. A canon is necessary, scholars believed, because future generations can never consume all works from the past. Of the tens of thousands of novels written in the nineteenth century, we only still read about two hundred. The canon thus promises guidance toward the highest-quality and most influential works. Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” and Pitchfork Media’s Pitchfork 500 perform this role for pop music.
