Information

Artrockstore

Started in 2018 with the aim of creating an online Gallery exhibiting the greatest music albums ever recorded, and offering as many of these titles as possible in the Store. This endeavour is a labour of love which, just like the pursuit of collecting records, will never be completed.

The Store

Offers music related merchandise specialising in the best new vinyl records sourced worldwide. We offer new release titles and reissues from all available labels and distributors. The highest quality analogue masters and vinyl pressings are selected where possible.

The Gallery

Displays a curated collection of Artists and Albums dating from the Early Music period, through the beginnings of Popular music in the mid 20th Century, and on to the present day. There are currently over 7,000 artists, 25,000 albums, and 3,000 featured artist profiles in the collection. New discoveries are being added every day.

Genres

Music genres span the broad spectrum of Rock & Pop music, plus iconic works from earlier periods. Of course, individual Artists and Albums may cut across many genres. The music genre classifications we use are:

Ambient, Art-rock, Blues, Classical, Comedy, Country, Dub, Electronic Dance Music (EDM), Electronic, Exotica, Experimental, Folk, Funk, Fusion, Goth, Hip-hop, Indie, Industrial, Jazz, Kosmische, Latin, New-wave, Metal, Modern Classical, Poetry, Pop/Rock, Post-punk, Post-Rock, Prog, Psych, Punk, Reggae, Rockabilly, Soul, Soundtrack, and World.

We don't attempt to categorise works into sub-genres, for example within Metal and Hip-hop there are a multitude of sub-genres. For simplicity we use broad-based classifications to minimise the number of genres.

Inclusion

The collection is not simply a list of the most popular or highest selling Artists and Albums. The method for selecting titles is based on three criteria: iconic status, critical reviews, and album ratings.

Iconic Status

Is the Album regarded as a forerunner of a particular style of music which has proven to be influential upon other Artists in establishing a trend, style or movement in music?

Critical Reviews

Is the Album considered by fellow Artists, Music Academics, Music Critics and Music Fans to be artistically distinctive?

Album Ratings

Has the Album received high ratings across a range of respected music publications? We set a rating benchmark of 3.5 stars and above out of 5.0 as the basis for inclusion.

References

Sources for critical reviews and ratings include (but are not limited to) the following: Allmusic, RYM, The Quietus, Rolling Stone, Record Collector, Discogs, NME, Pitchfork, The Guardian, NY Review, The Times, ABC, AOTY, and TheNeedleDrop.

Origin

Most "Greatest Albums" lists lean toward works from the USA and UK. Artrockstore strives to include works based on merit regardless of an Artist's origin. Currently the collection has Artists and Albums from 75 countries, including the regions of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Oceania.

Gender

Artrockstore strives to include works based on merit regardless of an Artist's gender. It's fair to say that women have historically been underrated with respect to their contribution to music. Artrockstore makes efforts to highlight the work of female Artists while maintaining consistent criteria for inclusion.

Independent

Artrockstore is record company, label, advertiser, and media platform independent. We include releases from all major labels, indie's and self-published works. Bootlegs are not sold. Wherever possible the album artwork displayed is the first-issue vinyl release from the country and label of origin.

Enjoy the music...

Ross