This does not qualify as an album. It is just a collection of 12 songs that were all previously released as singles.

I know, just a compilation like Presley's "Sunrise".

Paranoid is a top 20 album.

Oh, yeah? Which albums in the top twenty do you think it's greater than?

That's insane. You can't have an album that most rock fans have never heard in the top 20.

You metal and hard rock people overrate that stuff tremendously. It's only a small part of the overall rock scene.

are you serious? Paranoid is immensely popular, well acclaimed and influential. I'm not sure about top 20 but don't try to say that most rock fans have never heard Paranoid because that's delusional.

Look, most rock fans have never heard the album. That's not at all delusional. It did not even crack the top 20 on the USA album charts. I've certainly never heard it, and most rock fans I hang out with have never even heard the title track. Guys who are 70 years old and listen to 1950s music are rock fans too.

There are hundreds of millions of rock fans in the world. The album sold about 5 million copies at the most worldwide. It's not like we're talking about "Rumors" or "Revolver" or "Thriller" or "Bat Out Of Hell" here. We're talking about an album done in a style that only appeals to a small percentage of the total rock crowd.

The vast majority of rock and roll listeners do not like heavy metal. It's hugely popular with a small percentage of the overall rock crowd.

In 1989, Kerrang! magazine listed the album at No. 39 among the "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time".

In 2003, the album was ranked number 130 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Rolling Stone has it about right. It's a significant album, but not quite deserving of the top 100 of all time.

It hit #12 (sorry, Bruce, it did crack the top 20), spent 70 weeks on the chart, and is four times platinum. Now, those are darn good numbers, but it's not overwhelming. It's not one of the biggest-selling albums of all time.



It's probably not as acclaimed as most if not all of the albums in front of it. It IS very influential...but so are most of the albums in front of it. And close behind it, for that matter. #36 seems pretty reasonable under the circumstances.

As Clash said, what albums above it do you think shouldn't be? I think it might be easier to argue that something else should be moved above it.



No, it's not. Then again, given how diverse rock fandom is today, I don't know how many albums most rock fans HAVE heard in their entirety. Some of the big Beatles albums, Thriller, probably Dark Side and a few others.

But, yeah, most rock fans aren't into heavy metal, and if you're not into heavy metal, you've probably never listened to that album. I know I haven't.

My mistake, I was looking at the previous album in the chart book. Still, an album did not even crack the top ten is not very likely to have been heard by "most" rock fans.





I've never heard "Dark Side" either, although I'm sure a lot more people have heard that album than have heard "Paranoid." The fact that it was on the charts for ten times as long as "Paranoid" was could be an indicator.

But it's one of top 5 most innovative, creative, and diverse albums, isn't it?


Don't hesitate.

So, which albums in the top twenty is it greater than?

Paranoid is the greatest metal album ever made, and was the first real example that metal could crack the mainstream and reach a wider fanbase (almost the direct opposite of their debut album, which was certainly not mainstream, nor did it initially reach a wide fanbase... ).
I'm not sure if I agree on top 20, but regardless the album is a landmark for hard rock and metal. The title track is an anthem and continues to get heavy airplay to this day. Ditto for War Pigs.
And then of course you have Iron Man. These riffs had indescribably huge influence on budding guitarists from seemingly every generation of metal.
Hell, even Faith No More did a cover of War Pigs...

"Most people haven't heard this album"?
According to who?

Once again, Bruce's own life experiences are not universal or applicable to every situation we discuss.

Paranoid is a freaking masterpiece.

That's certainly true, though. Of course, it's true of every album ever made. Even Thriller. So it's not the best point to make.

I thought the same thing. There's probably no album that has been heard in its entirety by the majority of people that listen to rock music. There's probably not even an album that comes close.

Objectively speaking, no. Subjectively speaking from my personal point of view, also no.