npr:

The results are in for the first-ever NPR Turning the Tables readers’ poll, and they send a strong message to anyone fancying themselves a cultural justice warrior in 2018. It is this: check your intervention. The original list of 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women, assembled by a committee of nearly 50 NPR-affiliated women, sought to correct a historic bias against putting women’s stories, and their artistry, at the center of popular music history. Your votes and comments, which deeply modify and sometimes openly challenge that list, challenged us to recognize that no matter how justified the correction may be, in popular music — happily — no center ever holds.

Instead, music’s center shimmies and bops. Playing the game of lists and charts, we might serve music better with an animated version of the classic Venn diagram, in which circles overlap, obscure each other, and stay in motion. The queens of one era are the forgotten ancestors of another. Time can also amplify importance: Artists who found their places within loyal subcultures may eventually emerge as central figures in a generation’s story, their legacies tended by fans until they grow sturdier and more vibrant. That’s the one ruling principle in popular music — fans matter. You make history.

Turning The Tables: The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women (As Chosen By You)