Category: Polls

Americans Prefer Watching Movies at Home
LOS ANGELES – The parking’s easy and there are no lines at the concession stand: Most Americans would now rather watch films at home than in theaters, according to an AP-AOL poll. At the same time, almost half think movies are getting worse.
Hollywood is in the midst of its longest box-office slump in 20 years, and 2005 is shaping up as the worst year for movie attendance in nearly a decade if theater business continues at the same lackluster rate.
In the poll released Thursday, 73 percent of adults said they preferred watching movies at home on DVD, videotape or pay-per-view. With more than two-thirds also saying movie stars are poor role models √≥ Russell Crowe’s phone-throwing being the latest example √≥ it may take more than a blockbuster or two to reverse Hollywood’s slide.
Just 22 percent said they would rather see films in a theater, according to the poll conducted by Ipsos for The Associated Press and AOL News. One-fourth said they had not been to a movie theater in the past year.
“I just prefer to stay home and watch movies,” said Mark Gil, 34, a mortgage broker in Central Square, N.Y. “It’s cheaper. You can go rent a movie for three bucks. By the time you’re done at the movie theater with sodas and stuff, it’s 20 bucks.”
Films are getting worse, said 47 percent in the AP-AOL poll. A third said they were getting better.
“I don’t like movies as much as I used to,” said Tracy Drane, 38, a computer-technology worker who lives outside Dallas. “I’m a fan of old musicals and old AMC channel stuff. I could watch movies without thinking I’m going to see people in bed together and a lot of cussing. It has gotten much worse.”
Many of this year’s big films √≥ “Kingdom of Heaven,” “The Honeymooners,” “XXX: State of the Union,” Crowe’s “Cinderella Man” √≥ have fizzled.
Those in the poll were most likely to be fond of comedies, followed by dramas and action-adventure movies.
Some in Hollywood think the slump ó 16 straight weekends of declining revenue compared to last year ó is a momentary blip due to so-so movies. They maintain the box office will rebound when better films arrive.
Others view the slide as a sign that theaters are losing ground to home-entertainment options, particularly DVDs available just months after films debut in cinemas.
But the poll found that people who use DVDs, watch pay-per-view movies on cable, download movies from the Internet and play computer games actually go to movies in theaters more than people at the same income levels who don’t use those technologies. That suggests the technology may be complementing rather than competing with theatergoing. Eight in 10 in the poll said they use DVD players at home.
Through last weekend, Hollywood’s domestic revenues totaled $3.85 billion, down 6.4 percent from 2004. Factoring in higher ticket prices, the number of people who have gone to theaters is down 9 percent, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.
If that pace holds through year’s end, admissions for 2005 would total 1.345 billion, the lowest since 1996.
The wild card from 2004 was
Mel Gibson’s unexpected blockbuster, “The Passion of the Christ.” That film drew a huge Christian audience, many of them not regular movie-goers. Taking “The Passion” out of the mix, 2005 revenues would be up 2.9 percent over 2004, and ticket sales would be virtually unchanged.
While 2005 has produced its share of hits √≥ among them the final “Star Wars” flick, the romance “Hitch” and the animated tales “Madagascar” and “Robots” √≥ audiences have found Hollywood’s recent offerings generally humdrum.
“I think this slump is product-driven,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations. “That to me is a much less chilling problem than some sort of cultural shift in people’s moviegoing habits. A cultural shift takes longer than 16 weekends of down box office.”
Box office revenues have been down every weekend since late February. “Batman Begins,” which opened Wednesday, could snap the streak this weekend. But if business is off again, Hollywood would match a 1985 downturn of 17 weekends, the longest recorded slump since analysts began keeping detailed box-office figures.
The 1985 slide came with similar dire predictions that movies on videocassette would devastate the theater business, Dergarabedian said. Box-office grosses were stagnant into the late 1980s, then rebounded strongly.
In the 1950s, some analysts foresaw the demise of movie theaters as people stayed home to watch television. While business plummeted from 4 billion or more admissions a year in Hollywood’s glory days, movies remained a prime entertainment choice.
“Going to the movies is a social event, like going to a football game, like going to the ballet, like going to a play,” said George Lucas, whose “Star Wars: Episode III √≥ Revenge of the Sith” is this year’s biggest hit. “Something you do to be social with other people. I don’t think that’s ever going to go away.”
From the early 1990s through 2002, box-office grosses climbed steadily as studios perfected their blockbuster marketing machines and cinema chains built new theaters with improved seating, sound systems and other amenities.
But ticket sales reached a modern peak of 1.63 billion in 2002 and have fallen since, down to 1.51 billion in 2004.
“There’s certainly more competition now for entertainment dollars than there ever was before. No question there’s more choices,” said Bruce Snyder, head of distribution for 20th Century Fox, which released “Revenge of the Sith.” “That may splinter the audience a little bit.”
A handful of big hits could salvage Hollywood’s year. Still to come this summer are Steven Spielberg and
Tom Cruise’s “War of the Worlds,” Tim Burton and
Johnny Depp’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and the superhero adventure “Fantastic Four.”
Even if theater business continues to erode, DVD profits could more than compensate Hollywood, a movie’s theatrical run becoming something of an extended trailer for the home-video release.
DVD sales and rentals totaled $21.2 billion in 2004, more than double the domestic revenues at movie theaters, according to the Digital Entertainment Group, a trade outfit.
“Star Wars” creator Lucas figures that with digital piracy of movies a growing threat, studios eventually will release films in theaters, on DVD and online at the same time. Homebodies could watch on their big-screen systems, while fans craving a mammoth screen and a communal experience could hit the theaters.
“You’ll rent it for two dollars or buy it for 10 or see it on a giant screen in a social environment and have a good time,” Lucas said. “I think there will be room for all of it altogether.”
The AP-AOL News poll of 1,000 adults was taken June 13-15 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Nielsen: Men Spend More on Video Games Than Music
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Men spend more money on video games than they do on music, research group Nielsen Entertainment said on Thursday, lending credence to a growing belief that video games are displacing other forms of media for the attention of young men.
And video gaming in general is starting to attract an older audience, with nearly a quarter of all gamers over age 40, the agency also said.
The interactive unit of Nielsen Entertainment conducted a random survey of 1,500 people in January and February for its report. Nielsen Entertainment, a unit of VNU NV of the Netherlands, is best known for its benchmark SoundScan music sales service. Its corporate sibling Nielsen Media Research is the standard for TV ratings.
For males, Nielsen said, games now rank only behind DVDs as a purchase category, ahead of CDs, digital MP3 files and other ways of buying music. Nielsen also found that African-Americans and Hispanics spend more money on games each month than Caucasians.
Advertisers are quickly embracing video games as a better way to get to young men than the more traditional medium of television. Many games now have ads inside them, such as billboards in race games, and Nielsen is working on a method to measure audience response to the in-game ads.
Nielsen found 40 percent of U.S. households have some kind of system dedicated to game play, whether a gaming PC, a console or a handheld device. Among gamers, 23 percent own all three types of systems.
Among people who own at least one of the major consoles –Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 2, Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox and Nintendo Co. Ltd.’s GameCube — 8 percent said they owned all three.
Nielsen also examined the amount of time spent playing alone versus socially and found that 79 percent of men and 79 percent of women over the age of 45 spend most of their time playing alone. Teen-age women tended to play more socially, Nielsen said, while women 25-54 are roughly split between playing alone and with others.
Overall, the firm said, active gamers tend to spend just over 5 hours a week playing alone and 3 hours a week playing with people or online.
The U.S. video game industry has $10 billion in annual revenue, roughly the same as U.S. box office sales.

Jackman Favorite for Bond Role
Australian actor Hugh Jackman has emerged as favorite to become the next James Bond, with bookmakers tipping him to take over from departing 007 Pierce Brosnan. Leading British bookmakers Ladbrokes and William Hill are offering odds of 2/1 on the Swordfish star slipping into the superspy’s famous tuxedo for his next big screen outing – ahead of Closer star Clive Owen and third favorite Ewan McGregor. A Ladbrokes spokesperson says, “Hugh Jackman certainly appears to be the punters choice but we’ve seen more twists than the average Bond movie. At one point or another, Colin Farrell, Colin Salmon, Dougray Scott, Eric Bana and Ewan McGregor have been subject to serious support for the role.” A decision on who will replace Brosnan has been delayed while a power struggle wages between Bond movie makers the Broccoli family and MGM over who should be offered the role. The spokesperson adds, “Who takes on the role could well depend on who comes out top in the power struggle behind the scenes. If the Broccoli family win we could well see an unknown actor, while if the money men have their way we could see a top star in the role. Last year, a source told us that the producers had a list of ten actors that they were looking at.”

‘Titanic’ Line Tops Cheesy Movie Survey
NEW YORK – Although “Titanic” soared at the box office in 1997, according to a recent survey, its most memorable line ó “I’m the king of the world!” ó sunk.
British baker Warburtons posed the question “What are your top three cheesiest moments in film?” to 2,000 U.K. moviegoers in celebration of the launch of their new cheese-flavored crumpets.
The line uttered by Leonardo DiCaprio was followed by Patrick Swayze’s “Nobody puts baby in the corner” from 1987’s “Dirty Dancing” and Andie McDowell’s “Is it still raining? I hadn’t noticed,” from the end of 1994’s “Four Weddings and a Funeral.”
Warburtons reports that surveyed women opted for romantic comedy moments from films such as “Notting Hill” and “Jerry Maguire” while men preferred silly scenes from action flicks like “Top Gun” and “Braveheart.” Despite the gender divide, 33 percent of the overall vote unanimously agreed on the “Titanic” yell as the cheesiest moment.
The list of big cheese moments:
1. “Titanic”: Leonardo DiCaprio’s “I’m the king of the world!”
2. “Dirty Dancing”: Patrick Swayze’s “Nobody puts Baby in the corner.”
3. “Four Weddings And A Funeral”: Andie McDowell’s “Is it still raining? I hadn’t noticed.”
3. “Ghost”: Demi Moore’s “Ditto,” to Patrick Swayze’s “I love you.”
5. “Top Gun”: Val Kilmer to Tom Cruise: “You can be my wingman anytime”
6. “Notting Hill”: Julia Roberts’ “I’m just a girl … standing in front of a boy … asking him to love her.”
7. “Independence Day”: Bill Pullman’s “Today we celebrate our Independence Day!”
8. “Braveheart”: Mel Gibson’s “They may take our lives, but they will not take our freedom!”
9. “Jerry Maguire”: Renee Zellweger to Tom Cruise: “You had me at hello.”
10. “The Postman”: A blind woman says to Kevin Costner: “You’re a godsend, a savior.” He replies: “No, I’m a postman.”

HOLIDAY TUNES:
“The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On an Open Fire,” written by Robert Wells and singer Mel Torme, topping the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’ annual list of the Top 25 most-performed Holiday songs.

Tommy Douglas ‘father of universal health care’ voted Greatest Canadian
TORONTO (CP) – T.C. (Tommy) Douglas, former Saskatchewan premier, former leader of the federal New Democratic Party and touted as the father of the country’s universal health-care system, has been voted The Greatest Canadian.
The late politician emerged victorious in the public contest initiated by CBC Television this fall and which climaxed in an hour-long prime-time special Monday night. “I feel that Tommy Douglas is getting the recognition he deserves,” declared a jubilant George Stroumboulopoulos, the TV host designated as Douglas’s official advocate. “When we started this campaign in the summer, folks had never even heard of Tommy Douglas.”
Douglas’s victory came at the end of a show in which the other advocates were asked to throw their support, political leadership convention style, to another candidate when theirs was voted off. But it was a moral support only, not affecting the public tally.
Despite an impassioned two-hour debate among designated celebrity advocates for the top 10 contenders, which CBC aired Sunday night, the post-weekend standings remained virtually unchanged.
In second place was one-legged runner Terry Fox, with former prime minister Pierre Trudeau placing third.
The remaining finalists, in order of ranking, were Nobel Prize winner Sir Frederick Banting (co-inventor of insulin), environmentalist and science broadcaster David Suzuki, former PM and Nobel Peace Prize winner Lester Pearson, CBC hockey broadcaster Don Cherry, the country’s founding prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald and, bringing up the rear, telephone pioneer Alexander Graham Bell and hockey great Wayne Gretzky.
A total of 1.2 million votes were cast by the Canadian public via telephone, e-mail or text messaging. Since Saturday, more than 342,000 ballots were turned in before the Sunday midnight voting deadline, according to a CBC spokesperson. The only change triggered by Sunday night’s impassioned TV debate was that both Pearson and Trudeau enjoyed 37 per cent increases in their tallies, the official said.
Executive producer Mark Starowicz said he had high hopes for the enterprise but that it turned out even better than he expected. He insisted there really was a national groundswell of support for the project, that it wasn’t just CBC-induced hype.
“We had 4,000 schools plugged into this entire thing,” Starowicz said. “Practically every school’s got projects, demonstrations. You’ve got the city of London, Ont., mobilizing, Toronto naming Tommy Douglas Day. People got carried away. It’s great.”
Douglas was born in Scotland in 1904 and moved to Canada with his family in 1919. An ordained minister, his first church was in Weyburn, Sask., where he witnessed the suffering caused by the Depression and decided that political action was needed.
He was a member of Parliament from 1935 until 1944, when he became premier of Saskatchewan as leader of the CCF, forerunner to the NDP. He announced the medical insurance plan in 1959.
Liz Jeffrey, director of the McLuhan Global Research Network at the University of Toronto, felt the Greatest Canadian exercise itself was more significant than the outcome. She was also particularly fascinated by the orators’ negative attacks in the final debate.
“All those silver-tongued presenters were far better at the attack ad than they were at presenting the merits of their own candidate.”
Speaking prior to learning the outcome of the voting, Jeffrey said if Douglas won it was because of the symbolism of his chief accomplishment in health care.
“He gets the visionary side of this, of coming up with the idea, at least at a political level,” said Jeffrey. “You can’t blame Tommy Douglas for the health-care crisis.”
She said that was expressed when, during the Sunday debate, Stroumboulopoulos, whipped out his red-white plastic health card and waved it about.
To delirious cheers, Stroumboulopoulos dramatically argued that if Douglas, who died in 1986, were removed from the national equation “you remove the caring, sharing legacy of everything that we value.†.†.you remove this, and this is our most treasured, treasured national characteristic!”
Not surprisingly, Jeffrey said she and her colleagues at U of T’s McLuhan program were rooting for Marshall McLuhan himself but were shocked when the internationally renowned media guru failed to make even the earlier top 50 CBC list.
The series debuted Oct. 18 and aired twice weekly from then on with prime-time specials advocating each of the 10 finalists.
The Final Showdown, the debate special also hosted by Wendy Mesley and Shaun Majumder, was taped Saturday for Sunday night telecast, on a specially built set with a live studio audience. It featured highlights of the various campaigns as well as celebrity guests who helped back up the candidates’ official advocates.
Starowicz dismissed the inclusion of at least two CBC employees on the final 10 list, Cherry and Suzuki.
“It’s a big country. Half of it’s been on the CBC payroll, it seems, anyway,” he replied with a laugh. “Trudeau worked for it once.”
As he watched the boisterous studio audience that gathered for the final weekend debate, the veteran CBC producer was impressed with the energy that was demonstrated.
“I love seeing what you normally don’t think is a typical CBC audience. I mean this was Canada from ordinary suburbs, ordinary places, sports mixed with politics.”
He said that as far as he was concerned, it didn’t matter in the slightest who won, that what was important was that Canadians got engaged on the issue of what values they wished to treasure in their country.
“Unity, diversity, compassion, caring for each other. I mean this is not an American list. There’s nothing Darwinian in this room. I was a very generous list.”
The final standings in CBC-TV’s The Greatest Canadian contest:
1. T.C. Douglas.
2. Terry Fox.
3. Pierre Trudeau.
4. Sir Frederick Banting.
5. David Suzuki.
6. Lester Pearson.
7. Don Cherry.
8. Sir John A. Macdonald.
9. Alexander Graham Bell.
10. Wayne Gretzky.

English Canada’s greatest Canadians different from Quebec list
QUEBEC (CP) – While English-speaking Canada argues over the greatest Canadian, a survey suggests Quebecers believe their greatest ever citizen is Rene Levesque, the legendary premier who shaped the sovereignty movement for so many years.
Levesque’s top billing differs greatly from his No. 69 ranking in a list of greatest Canadians as compiled by people across the country – a position that puts him far below singer Shania Twain and actor William Shatner.
CBC-TV will reveal its greatest Canadian on Monday following a Sunday afternoon Newsworld marathon featuring the top 10 finalists and a debate Sunday evening on the main network.
While the CBC’s Greatest Canadian contest was promoted in English and French ads and a bilingual website, early plans to broadcast it in both languages were abandoned.
Former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau is the only Quebecer who cracked the top 10 in the Greatest Canadian list, with others like NHL great Maurice (Rocket) Richard and singer Celine Dion coming in further down.
A Leger Marketing survey conducted Nov. 19-22 for TVA suggests Levesque, who helped co-found the Parti Quebecois in 1968 and was premier from 1976-85, is the most admired Quebecer ever.
The top five in Leger’s poll of 4,253 Quebecers was rounded out by veteran TV personality Janette Bertrand, paralympic athlete Chantal Petitclerc, Dion and Rev. Emmett Johns, who has been helping street kinds in Quebec for years.
Trudeau was in eighth position, while Richard was No.10 in the survey, which was released Thursday.
Levesque rose to power in the 1960s, giving a democratic expression to an emerging Quebec separatist movement just as it threatened to bring armed insurrection to Canada.
But Levesque’s appeal reaches far beyond the sovereignty movement in French-speaking Quebec, where his name pops first to mind among sovereigntists and federalists on the streets, in cafes or in the halls of government.
“It was more about restoring pride to our people, about giving us the confidence to take our proper place in the world,” Eric Tanguay, a 31-year-old former sovereignty supporter, said as he did some Christmas shopping recently in a Quebec City mall.
“Now ask me who was the worst Quebecer and Canadian, and I’ll tell you: Pierre Elliott Trudeau,” Tanguay said. “He had nothing but disdain for Quebecers. He had no respect for us.”
A native of Montreal who frequently clashed with Levesque over their competing visions of Quebec and Canada, Trudeau is as controversial in Quebec as he is in Western Canada, with a legion of admirers and critics.
It’s impossible to think of Trudeau without Levesque, according to Benoit Bouchard, a former Conservative cabinet minister and political enemy of both men.
“Since the beginning of Confederation, these are probably the two Quebecers who have made the greatest mark on Quebec and the country as well,” said Bouchard, who is retired in Saguenay, Que.
“It’s difficult to find people who have that many dimensions to them.”
Many other men and women who spring to Quebecers’ minds after Levesque did not make the Canadian top 100.
Playwright Michel Tremblay’s groundbreaking Les Belles Soeurs was translated into 20 languages and is performed with the classics at acting schools across Canada. He’s not on the list.
Joseph-Armand Bombardier invented the snowmobile, still the only means of winter transportation in vast tracts of northern Canada. He also created the Canadian transportation empire that still carries his name. He did not make the top 100.
Oscar-winning director Denys Arcand is arguably Canada’s most important filmmaker and he still lives and works in Canada, unlike a dozen other Canadian entertainers who made the top 100.
Even with Quebecers who made the preliminary list of 100, it’s easy to find controversy.
If Wayne Gretzky is top-10 material, why do Richard and Mario Lemieux, a player arguably as talented as the Great One, rank 23rd and 38th respectively?
In Quebec, Richard’s suspension from the 1955 Stanley Cup final was seen as a slap by the English-speaking masters of the NHL against a francophone hero.
“Richard was a great man, and a great man right to the end,” said retiree Nicole Gosselin.
“He played for not much salary, he played with great heart and through tremendous adversity. What better hero is there than him?”
Added Bouchard: “Lemieux was probably the best hockey player in terms of talent, in terms of genius, artistry, magic. Gretzky had what I would call national charisma. Gretzky remains a national image.”
Bouchard said language and cultural barriers prevent many great Quebecers from becoming great Canadians.
“It’s incredible,” he said. “That’s where we see that values, environment, culture, everything, is different.
“You have to be a Quebecer running a government in Ottawa to see just how deep the divisions go.”
While four women reached the top-10 Leger Marketing list, no women are on the top-10 Greatest Canadian list.
Dion, one of the best-selling singers of all time, has her supporters in her home province.
“If I had to pick one person, it would be her,” said Andree Boucher, a physical fitness consultant in Quebec City. “I would give anything to spend one day in her skin.”
Back on the political front, some people say former premier Jean Lesage, widely considered as the architect of the Quiet Revolution, should have been recognized.
Lesage took control of schools away from the Roman Catholic Church and made the first serious demands that Ottawa give more power to Quebec. He modernized Quebec through investment and education.
Gerald Larose, leader of the Conseil de la souverainete, said it’s difficult to find political leaders who would be considered great in Quebec and Canada.
“Unlike Trudeau, Brian Mulroney tried to reconcile Quebecers with Canadians when he was prime minister and he was hated for it,” said Larose.
The former labour leader said ex-premier Jacques Parizeau would get his vote for his part in the Quiet Revolution, just above Lesage and Levesque.
Most Quebecers who made the top 100 CBC list are known for international accomplishments.
Retired general Romeo Dallaire, admired for his stand against the Rwandan genocide, does not spring to mind as a great historical figure among many Quebecers.
Writer Mordecai Richler is resented by many francophones for his biting commentary.

‘Baywatch’ Voted Worst U.S. TV Import
LONDON – “Baywatch,” the sun-bleached saga of Californian life guards, was voted the worst-ever U.S. television import in a British survey released Thursday.
“Baywatch,” which starred Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff, ran from 1989 to 2001 and was once ranked the world’s most popular program, with viewers in 140 countries.
Broadcast magazine’s poll of about 20 program buyers from British terrestrial, cable and satellite channels acknowledged the appeal of a “series about a muscular lifeguard and his crew of pneumatic young helpers with raging hormones,” but condemned “Baywatch” for scripts “of mind-numbing predictability: beachgoer is saved from drowning.”
Second place in the poll went to “The Anna Nicole Show,” the reality program featuring Playboy Playmate turned model Anna Nicole Smith.
Southern-fried 1970s hit “The Dukes of Hazzard” ranked third, followed by futuristic James Belushi vehicle “Wild Palms” and anthropomorphic action series “Manimal.”
The same survey ranked the 25 best U.S. imports, with “The Simpsons,” “Dallas,” “MASH,” “24” and “The Larry Sanders Show” leading the pack.
“Broadcast'”s 10 Worst U.S. Imports:
1. “Baywatch”
2. “The Anna Nicole Show”
3. “The Dukes of Hazzard”
4. “Wild Palms”
5. “Manimal”
6. “The Jerry Springer Show”
7. “Knots Landing”
8. “Falcon Crest”
9. “The Bold and the Beautiful”
10. “Extreme Makeover”

Poll Says Winslet Would Be Great ‘Bridget’
LONDON – If Renee Zellweger has grown tired of playing Bridget Jones, British fans would like to see an English star in the role.
Kate Winslet, 29, was the most popular choice to replace Zellweger if she turned down a part in a third installment, according to a fan vote published Thursday.
“Fight Club” actress Helena Bonham Carter was among other British actresses getting votes.
Zellweger, 35, played the role of the chubby, chain-smoking, chardonnay-swilling British TV journalist in the 2001 film “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and its sequel, “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,” which had its red-carpet premiere in London this week.
“Titanic” star Winslet took 41 percent of the vote in a survey by Sky Movies, a pay TV channel. Reese Witherspoon, 28, was the second most popular choice in the vote by 3,476 viewers, followed by “Friends” star Jennifer Anniston.
Producers haven’t said whether they plan a third film.
The “Bridget Jones” movies are based on two novels by Helen Fielding.
Asked at this week’s premiere if she would take on the role a third time, Zellweger said: “You tell me if Helen Fielding writes another book. People have responded to Bridget with a lot of affection.”

Eric B. & Rakim Top Greatest Rap Album List
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Picking the greatest ever hip-hop album is a tall order and Entertainment Weekly admits its list marking 25 years since the birth of mainstream rap is subjective, with Eric B & Rakim at No. 1.
“Eric B. & Rakim’s ‘Paid in Full’ made hip-hop a true art form, doing for rap what Bob Dylan did for rock in the mid-’60s,” the magazine said of the 1987 album which it praised for its technical intricacy and poetic metaphors.
Some of today’s big names such as Outkast and Jay-Z may be disappointed not to make it into the top 10, although the former makes it to 11 with “Aquemini” and Jay-Z’s “The Blueprint” is listed at 15. Eminem is at 17 for “The Marshall Mathers LP.”
“It’s not a record sales list,” said Neil Drumming, one of the writers at Entertainment Weekly who picked the top 25.
“Most of the people you find on the list or not on the list, rappers in general, are going to reference Eric B. & Rakim as a seminal rap group,” he said.
In second place the magazine picked the 1989 album “3 Feet High and Rising” by De La Soul, followed by “Ready to Die” by Notorious B.I.G. from 1994. Public Enemy and Run-D.M.C. make up the rest of the top five.
“It’s an endless source of debate even after it’s published,” Drumming said.
The publication of the list on Friday marks the 25th anniversary of hip-hop as a mainstream phenomenon, which the magazine dates from 1979 when the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” landed on the R&B charts, making it hip-hop’s first hit single.
“A lot of people didn’t believe it would last, what people are acknowledging now is that it’s not a fad,” Drumming said.