the greatest CD ever made

I was just thinking the other day how weird it was that I -- in common, I think, with most people -- would unhesitatingly nominate "the greatest CD ever made" (for me, The Stone Roses) but wouldn't think of claiming to know of, say, "the greatest novel ever written" or "the greatest picture ever painted". This is despite the fact that I'm probably not familiar with any significantly greater proportion of the world's music repertoire than of the world's literary or artistic repertoire (and all of those familiarities are of course microscopic percentages). What is it about music that means it has fans rather than simply followers?

Or is this just inverted snobbery? Do Old Etonians in cravats, snacking on swan canapes at private views at Kensington art galleries, actually go round saying to each other, "OMG, The Raft Of The Medusa is like so totally the greatest picture ever painted, and anyone who prefers Canaletto is an unlettered fop scarce better than a Harrovian"?

Peter