Top Rock Songs of all Time??

*Please subscribe to the blog for updates and to support Pragmus Media!*

Kurt Cobain was so cool!

A while ago, I was in a weird mood at the grocery store when I stumbled upon an attractive magazine cover that said something along the lines of "Top 115 Rock Songs of all Time."  Naturally, as a rock aficionado (especially alternative rock!), I was like, "Woa, man!  This is cool!"  And I was super stoked to see that some of my favorite songs like "Loser" by Beck, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Come as you Are" by Nirvana, "Black Hole Sun" by the Stone Temple Pilots and "Hotel California" by the Eagles made it on there.  At the same time though, I felt like the list was wayyy too spread out over a wide variety of what I see to be sub genres of rock (i.e. Alternative, Metal, Classic, Punk... Gah!  So many!) and it really failed to provide an effective list of the tightest rock songs within each sub genre because its broad nature caused the list to overlook so many songs that merit "Top Whatever" recognition.

With that, I really think that choosing "Top Songs" is ineffective because it ignores the body of work created by talented artists/musicians to focus on one song of typically 3 minutes that was popularized for one reason or another.  My main point here is that I don't really want to talk about the one hit wonders (no offense--love those too!), but artists who have created more than one wonderful song. The reason for this is that, on the list I read, "American Pie" was chosen as the #1 rock song of all time, which I whole-heartedly disagree with.  That's not to say "American Pie" isn't a great song, because it is, but that it does not in my opinion deserve the #1 post of top rock songs of all time.  The artist wasn't particularly notable for other works, the song wasn't necessarily a generation-changer, and I think it is a tad superficial that a one-hit wonder took the top prize.  And I think that really takes critical value away from a list; that is, why should we make our "Top" evaluations so superficial and surface-level?  It's incredible how much significance this approach  makes the art lose!  Catchy tunes over meaningful works by consistently good artists?  No more, media.  No more.

Who doesn't love (or al least appreciate) the Beatles?

So, what am I going to do about it?  Because I think making a list of top bands/musicians within these sub genres is what needs to be done, I'm going to be starting a project to do just that in the following weeks and I'll be separating my evaluations onto the following categories:

Classic Rock

Punk Rock

Alternative/Grunge

Metal

Heavy Metal

Beck from his "Loser" Music Video

This list is subject to change based on my findings, so be ready for some sweet discoveries!

And what I'll try to do is introduce the band meriting awesomeness, talk briefly about their bodies of work and mention how they might have influenced other bands or society as a whole. One more thing you should know is that, in order to avoid superficiality, I won't be numbering the bands I choose from 1-10. Instead, I'll be picking the "Top Dudes (Girls included)" of each sub genre and noting their importance to the sub genre and to modern rock music altogether.  I wouldn't be so strict with guidelines for top ten normally, but I feel very strongly about the necessity for a list like this because I think there's so much more to rock and roll than meets the eye!

Keep your eyes open for more posts on the "top rock" stuff!  Keep rockin' our socks, Pragmus fans!

--Corey Cherrington