Tuesday, January 13, 2009

B.I.A.T.C.H.-Blogging In Anger for Things Chris Hates (VH1's 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs)

Welcome to B.I.A.T.C.H. (pronounced Bee-yotch).

It is a segment of my blog where I complain about things in the music industry that I don't particularly like. I spent most of last year when I started this blog posting about music that I liked. I didn't do enough complaining so my New Year's Resolution was to complain more.

My first order of business is VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs of All Time.

I get sucked into these countdown shows more than I'd like to admit, but this one was clearly the one that I was waiting for. After all, hard rock is and has been my favorite genre for years.

But after looking at the list, I'm not so sure I can accept it.

First, a good chunk of the songs on this list are '80s hair metal. It's understandable when you have the show hosted by Poison's Bret Michaels.

I feel that '80s hair metal is over-represented. I tend to associate hard rock more with the grunge era of the early 90s and the nu-metal movement of the mid to late 90s.

I could understand Motley Crue and Def Leppard, but I'm iffy on some of the lower entries.

I just can't see Warrant, Ratt or Winger on this list.

Another gripe I have is with the newest songs chosen. I don't think Andrew W.K. belongs on that list. Good song...doesn't belong on the greatest songs. I feel that Buckcherry, The Darkness, and Velvet Revolver don't belong on the list either. You can't put them on this hard rock list without putting Linkin Park above them. Evanescence stays due to my personal bias. It's MY list now.

However, my biggest issue with this list is the horrible treatment of Alice in Chains.

"Would?" is the only Alice song on this list at #88. That song deserves to be higher. It didn't even outplace Winger.

They also completely omitted one of the greatest songs of the 1990s

Alice in Chains was the first band of the grunge era to ever go platinum and they barely touch the list? Fail.

There's no Nine Inch Nails, no Tool, no Disturbed, no Rage Against the Machine, and no Linkin Park.

My next gripe is a minor one...but I believe that Enter Sandman is THE song that defines hard rock on this list and deserves the #1 spot on the list. It's the song that made hard rock so accessible and on a personal note is the album that got me into listening to harder rock in the first place.

On top of that, they only got acknowledged on this list once. There's no "One", no "Fade to Black", no "Master of Puppets".

VH1 blames the fans because it was supposedly fan-voted, but I don't buy that at all. I think that their definition of hard rock isn't as hard as it should be and I'm sure that there are plenty of fellow fans that can agree with me on that.

1 comment:

WadeH said...

I too was surprised by some of the selections -- song's I'd never in a million years consider to be 'hard rock'.