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I happened on VH1's "100 Greatest Rock Songs" and I'm finding it fascinating. Compiled in 2000. I'd love to see the same list — greatest rock songs of the 20th century — compiled today.
http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/2000/vh1rocksongs.htm
http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/2000/vh1rocksongs.htm
In light of the widespread reaction to Little Richard's death yesterday — that he embodied and invented rock'n'roll as we know it — would his top song be higher than Good Golly Miss Molly at 74?
The list skews white because of VH1's demographic, but even accounting for that, is there any chance today that Aretha would be the only black artist in the top 10? Or that no black *group* would be higher than the Temptations at 36?
The racial dynamics of this list are wild.
The racial dynamics of this list are wild.
I don't know what VH1's methodology was, but given what I know about recency bias, it seems weird that the newest song on that 2000 list's top 10 was Hotel California, from 1976. I'm thinking that song doesn't sniff a "greatest rock songs of the 20th century" top 10 today.
More extreme anti-recency bias in VH1's 100 Greatest Rock Songs compiled in 2000. You'll never guess the ranking of the highest-ranking song released after 1976.
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Smells Like Teen Spirit. No. 41.
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Spoiler protection
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Smells Like Teen Spirit. No. 41.
That's right! According to whatever method VH1 was using, the top 40 rock songs released in the 22-year stretch 1955-76 were ALL better than ANY song released in the 24-year stretch 1977-2000.
I'm taking a week's vacation to think about this list.
I'm taking a week's vacation to think about this list.
