Best of Alt. Rock--Post #5

Hello everyone!  It has been about a week since the last alt rock post, so I thought today would be an ideal day to do one.  As I write these, I hope they indicate that there is great music that is so often overlooked by our media because we ignore who top bands in sub genres might be to find the top rock songs of all time.  I though that label was way too broad for music lovers who know that there is more to rock than just the label "rock."  Rock actually contains numerous sub genres that I believe go underappreciated, such as "Alternative," "Punk," "Classic," "Metal," and others.  This segment is part  of our assessment of the "Alternative" category, without the typical superficiality of "Top Whatever" lists.  We have a total of about five bands left to look at, and then we will be moving on to our next category: Punk. Thanks for reading, let us know what you think, and please offer any suggestions for our next sub genre, "Punk" in the comments or to our email, pragmusmedia@gmail.com.

Pearl Jam 

Let's talk about Pearl Jam.  Yeah, there is a great chance you already know about these guys, because they as a band are pretty much super famous and really stellar at what they do.  The general tone of Pearl Jam music is just, "Yes, I am so ready to have a jam session," and I think they are a fantastic band to listen to at any chill time, really.  According to Pearl Jam's bio from Rolling Stone, they, along with Nirvana, helped popularize that alt./grunge Seattle sound we love so much.  Thanks, Pear Jam!  They really produced a ton of great stuff, which is precisely why I chose them: they are a fantastic band that is not a one-hit wonder!  My favorite albums from Pearl Jam include "Vitalogy," "Vs.," and "Ten."  I just happen to loooooove he album cover art on these pieces too, so I will post those covers here.  Oh!  Rearview Mirror was a pretty good album too--check it out sometime!

CD Cover for the album, "Vs."

And what is interesting is that, much like Nirvana, Pearl Jam produced music that meant something; they read newspaper articles and sought to make their music much more than mere entertainment.  I think this is the mark of a great band.  An example of what I am talking about if PJ's song "Jeremy," which, at the same time as being very popular and catchy, represented the hardships of a real young man who the artists read about in the newspaper.  It is a sad song, but we love it because it means so much more than just rhythm and rhyme--it represents a true human experience.  If you look at Nirvana'a "Polly," you will find that the song has similar origins in the songwriter's (Kurt Cobain's) reading of an article from the paper about a young woman who was kidnapped.  Both bands rock hard and add an additional element of awesome with their awareness of current events of their time and of adversities in modern American society.

R.E.M. 

These guys are are a band that is somewhat lesser-known than Pearl Jam, but they are also deserving of a spot in the Pragmus Alt. Music Hall of Fame because they created sooo many great songs that are still favorites of many today.  According to R.E.M.'s MTV artist biography, the band "marked the point when post-punk turned into alternative rock."  I think this is recognizable in their sound as well because they have a hint of punk and atlernative-ness that makes their music a great fit for a changing era.  With that, this band is also a personal favorite of my mom and this really cool shuttle driver I had the opportunity to talk to a while ago.  Go figure!  Great band with a cool following, and I think they should be recognized more as a whole because, often when I mention this band, people have no idea who they are!  Such a pity too, because a lot of their music is well-known, so I think people could benefit from listening to more of their work.  I put one of their music videos below so you can check them out if you have not already.  The song in the video is one of my favorite R.E.M. songs, and I think you'll enjoy it, especially if you appreciate alt. rock!  It's really not a bad music video either.  :)

Oasis...

"Definitely Maybe," one of their best albums.

Okay, guys, this band is one of my all-time favorite groups, so get ready for some heavy fan-bias! ;)  Yeah, they have sooo many great hits, they have a really great attitude to their music and as a band (love it!), and their music is wonderful to listen to on my occasion.  Gah! I am fan-spazzing so much that I cannot really concentrate on this section! Gosh, if you have not heard of them, please do so now. ;) Listen to all the songs you can because they still have older hits that are played on some pop stations today! Some of their biggest hits include "Champaigne Supernova," "Wonderwall," and sooo many others! 

Another of their greatest works, called
"(What's the Story) Morning Glory?

Also, they are from Manchester, England, so they are not only one of the crown jewels of a sweet sub genre (Alt. Rock), but they are also one of the many stellar bands to have come out of the U.K.  And, as such, it makes sense that they played music that was influenced by such bands as the Beatles (Rolling Stone).  Below, is their music video for "Wonderwall," which is an amazing song that you most likely have heard before, as this is one of the songs I referred to that still gets played on modern pop and rock stations today!

Oh!  And fun fact about Oasis: they use the work "shine" a lot in their music!  Give  a listen to some of their albums, and you will see this almost immediately. ;)

Thanks for reading, Pragmus fans!  Check us out on Twitter (@PragmusMedia) and on Patreon, and don't forget to subscribe to the blog!  Keep rockin' our socks, Pragmus peeps!

Corey Cherrington
(Pragmus Sigma)
Blog and Social Media Administrator

Top Rock Songs of all Time??

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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