You have the power to erase ONE band from history - who ya pickin'

[HEyHEY]

For me... Bye Bye Aerosmith

[Jack_Dawson]

1. The Doors

Never caught on w/ me.

[HEyHEY]

4. I was never a doors fan either

Except maybe two tunes.

And I hated all the girls in highschool with the Jim Morrison Fixation.

[Webster Green]

7. No Doors?......OMG!

Guess you had to be there!

[absyntheNsugar]

10. YOU FIEND!!!!!

Jim was da man!

[HEyHEY]

32. The movie almost famous summed it up

"A drunken buffoon pretending to be a poet"

I remember once I was in a bar talking about writers with this genius Ukrainian girl I know. She was going on about the "unbearable likeness of being" and "I served the king of england"...all that stuff. (Predicatble University literature yes...still good books, yes)

Anyway she mentioned poetry as this girl sat down with us. The girl said poetry "Oh my god have you ever read that Jim Morrison book"
Then she talked about the poem he wrote about his cock.

My friend and I look at each other while trying to be polite to the girl and exchanged a knowing glance of annoyance.

Yes, I'm a snob. But it was kind of the same feeling as when a bug is flying around you.

[Kellanved]

41. Wham

I can't stand "Last X-Mas" any more. And every year the same torture.

Edit: whoops; was meant as a reply to the original post; sorry.

[7th_Sephiroth]

45. Backstreet boys

Lance bass must die

[hellhathnofury]

98. I echo.

[grannylib]

154. Sorry to be picky, but the BSBs are not a 'band'

manufactured singing ensemble maybe, but certainly not a band...

[blondeatlast]

115. God, YES. WTF? Jimbo was nothing more than a pretentious

poseur.

[Mass_Liberal]

137. wow

that sickens me. Don't worry my son, you will see the light. Listen to The Doors Greatest Hits, and you will see the light

[blondeatlast]

144. I have and I missed it. Maybe it's cause I'm a daughter?

:shrug:

[NightTrain]

2. Billy fucking Joel

Due to his longevity, that man has had THE most negative influence on my beloved rock 'n' roll than any other performer in the music's history. No one has done more than Billy Joel to convince at least two generations of music fans that pretending to rock out is the same as actually rocking out. God, how I wish he'd never picked up a microphone!

[JVS]

Billy Joel is terrible.

His career is a daily reminder of the evil of fascism, without which he would be the owner of a Berlin department store instead of one of the most awful musicians of all time.

[absyntheNsugar]

13. AHHHHH -MENNNNN!!!!

No talent whatsover in that Hack.

I'd also do away with that loser who sang "Billy Don't Be a Hero"

[JVS]

14. Lots of people sang that song

[absyntheNsugar]

20. can I erase ALL of them?

n/t

[JVS]

21. I don't see why not

[HEyHEY]

34. I see why not

I said ONE band damnit!

[JVS]

36. Sorry, but here in the lounge we think outside the box.

[midnight armadillo]

3. It's a tie

Rod Stewart or Billy Joel. Yes, I'd prefer to listen to Danger Danger over both... If I ever hear that Billy Joel Scenes from an Italian Restaurant song again I'll barf.

[Webster Green]

5. Hootie and the blowfish......

I don't get it.

[CanuckAmok]

23. They don't need your help to get erased from history n/t

[mouse7]

26. WRONG! They endorsed John Edwards!

Coming soon to a TV set near you during South Carolina Primary coverage!

[CanuckAmok]

30. Holy Doodle....

...who would want to be endorsed by someone named "Hootie"?

[JVS]

40. His name is Darius. There is no Hootie. And he is annoyed when people...

call him hootie.

[Webster Green]

47. Hey Darius!.......Hootie, Hootie, Hootie, Hootie, Hootie, Hootie,

Hootie, Hootie, Hootie!

[JVS]

49. I'm not annoyed. If you want to piss off hootie, more power to you.

In fact, I'd do the same if I ever met him

[blondeatlast]

116. Then it's a damn stupid name for a band. What'd they think people

would call him?

Dimwits!

[JVS]

124. I agree 1000000000%

Besides I still bear a grudge. Hootie killed our 22 year old Sony TV. It just fizzled one day when my brother was watching MTV and "Let her cry" came on

[proud patriot]

54. I like Hootie and the Blowfish

x(

[mvd]

99. So do I

You're not alone. Though I'm more partial to Cracked Rear View than their later stuff. Shows how much taste can differ - many of these names here are among my favorites..

[djeseru]

6. Night Ranger

Aaagghhhh!

[JVS]

8. Good call on Aerosmith

I hate them.

[HEyHEY]

12. We lost Buddy, the big bopper and Richie Valens all at once

Yet, these guys who did more heroin than any group of people alive...and I mean that I bet they did.... are still here. No justice.

[VelmaD]

27. The only spontaneously funny thing...

my evil ex ever said was "People like that (referring to Aerosmith and Bon Jovi) fly on helicopters safely every day and Stevie Ray Vaughn had to have a fucking crash".

[CanuckAmok]

38. It's true...The same God that allows that..

...keeps McCartney and Jagger alive, while Lennon, Harrison, and Jones are gone.

Edit: god, schmod

[blondeatlast]

119. Hah! So damnably true.

[blondeatlast]

117. Damn straight. George is gone, but Paul thrives.

[WoodrowFan]

160. you are evil

you are an evil, evil person.

[lucidmadman]

9. The 1910 FRUIT GUM COMPANY and ....

...their contemporary incarnation FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE.

[tkmorris]

15. Fountains of Wayne??

That name fills me with unease, for reasons that aren't quite clear......

[mouse7]

19. Me, too. I had to research the name

It's the name of a cement fountain company in Wayne, NJ

[GURUving]

11. KC and the Sunshine Band

I even knew a dimwit who named her dog KC. uuugggghhhh. She was beautiful though, so I forgave her!

[joeybee12]

78. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE that music! It's in the mix at the gym, and it's so damn catchy.

No, they didn't have much talent, but that doesn't matter!!!!!!

[Capn Sunshine]

16. RUSH-

just awful, derivative, bombastic, pretentious, Ayn Randian and that lead singer........

[HEyHEY]

18. yeah I hate them too

The guitarist got arrested last week for getting in to a fight at a hotel

[midnight armadillo]

22. Hey!

Ok, Rush's first few albums were Led Zep-wannabe's, but exactly whom are they derivative of these days? They've got quite a distinctive sound, not the least bit due to Geddy's vocals. Some people get 'em, some don't.

I do agree on the whole Ayn Rand thing tho.

[Syrinx]

29. Neil Peart gave up the Ayn Rand thing 25 years ago

It was a phase...

[ldoolin]

114. Back when I was 13 I thought Rush was deep and innovative...

First few albums: Led Zeppelin wannabes
Next few albums: Yes and Hawkwind wannabes
1980s: Police wannabes, especially on the Signals album

With the exception of their one good album, Moving Pictures, nothing they did was original for a second.

I don't know what they're derivative of these days because I haven't paid attention to anything that band has done since Roll the Bones, which is where they lost me completely.

Although I do have to say that if it wasn't for the Ayn Rand fixation, I'd think a lot more highly of Rush. An Ayn Rand fixation is a sure sign of immaturity.

[sendero]

62. definitely...

...Rush. Be gone bogus ones!

[mouse7]

17. The Cars

That band caused the quickest "scan button" reflex in me. No talent. Vocals like fingernails on chalkboards.

[ProfessorGAC]

153. Wow! How Does One Hate The Cars?

Even if one doesn't care for the songs and the style, i can't understand how anyone would find them "hatable". Ignorable, sure. But, what's to hate?
The Professor

[dolo amber]

24. I can't decide

between the Grateful Dead and the Eagles...both of which illicit teeth-clenching, instant putting-fingers-into-ears reactions whenever I'm unfortunate enough to cross paths with their drivel. x(

[HEyHEY]

33. Lebowski "I've had a really bad day and I hate the fucking eagles"

"Get the fuck outta my cab!"

one of the best bits ever

[JVS]

37. "you don't like the eagles, get your own fucking cab!"

[UCLA02]

52. HA. Friends and I had a Lebowski night last night.

Watched the flick at a friend's house, then to Lucky Strike in Hollywood for a few frames.

Check my "I got flipped off by Kelly Osbourne..." thread for the highlight of the night.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=631166

[Whitacre D_WI]

59. Eagles.

I really don't like the Dead, but you know what? They're pretty innocuous. Quiet little jingly-jangly songs that aren't that obtrusive, fans that are too stoned to make a big nuisance of themselves. Yes, it's irritating when people make them out to be some pantheon, but they're really merely annoying and tedious, not ear-splittingly, make me want to stab myself in the head bad.

That designation belongs to the Eagles -- the band that was so singularly bad that even Joe Walsh couldn't elevate them past the status of shit (and before you dis Joe Walsh, I beg you listen to the first two James Gang albums).



And yes, I agree with the Billy Joel hatefest from before. The man is the George Bush* of music.

[mr blur]

65. I second that emotion!

[mlawson]

86. Yep. Eliminate that whole genre in doing so.

But also get rid of whichever band that started that "Southern Rock" shit of the early 70s. I'm Southern, but I sure as hell never liked that crap.

[Rabrrrrrr]

25. Bye bye Beach Boys!!

And good riddance to ye.

Ah, that feels better.

There are many top 40 and boy bands and hiphop and rap and easy listening and so-called "soul" bands that deserve to go more than the Beach Boys, but they're al so pathetic to begin with, I'll leave 'em alone and go for the big one.

[JVS]

44. Yeah Beach Boys blow!

[moof]

28. were Nixion, Bush 1,2,or 3 ever in any band ?

n/t

[cosmicdot]

57. Band of Thieves

:bounce:

[populistmom]

31. You my kind of dude

:thumbsup:
I hate Aerosmith and I detest Rush (the band too ;) )!

[RandomKoolzip]

35. Prince.

Sorry, I hate that little weasel. Ruined drum sounds for a LONG time. Duped people into thinking he was playing "Rock" when it was bad synth pop with funk touches. Promoted "sex only" lyrics and image, which millions of awful R and B dweebs picked up an ran with (R. Kelly, Jodeci, etc. etc.)

I've never been able to stomach his music or his "persona" and still despise how he ended up tailoring the sound of 80's rock and pop to his feeble demands. I think his influence on Music has been nothing but negative, and don't give a shit how many instuments he can play...Prince is my own personal musical Anti-christ. I'm glad he's faded into obscurity nowadays so I won't have to hear his horrid product.

[mouse7]

39. Actually, he's was doing a jazz tour earlier in the year

Quite a few of the city's harshest critics called it among the best concerts they had ever seen.

[Whitacre D_WI]

56. Er... um... you know how you don't like it when folks dis GBV?

Well, I'm not going to do that -- I like GBV a lot, Bob Pollard's a great guy to have a beer with (or rather, I drank a couple while he was drinking about 10), good music....


But Prince kicks Robert Pollard's ass any day of the week. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant composer that man is. I won't disagree with you on the drum sounds, but Prince is the Bowie of the '80s (while Bowie was doing crap like "China Girl").


On second thought, maybe you don't like Bowie, either. Blasphemer!

[RandomKoolzip]

90. Weeeeellllll......

I'm not here to hurt anybody's feelings. I'm here to hurt EVERYBODY'S feelings!

No, seriously, that's cool, as a fellow sad freak, I can understand your opinion, but.....

I just can't hack that Prince cat.

And Bowie...welll, I like a lot of Bowie's music, but, oddly, I don't like artists who sound obviously influenced by Bowie, or ACT influenced by Bowie (Love and Rockets, anti-rock developments, all the Goths who emulated his voice and persona, Spandau Ballet, etc.) Seems to me too many people fixated on the "persona" (Just like with Prince) and not enough investigated the music. (By the way, Pollard is a big Bowie fan and has shown a constructive way to integrate elements of Bowie's sound without becoming derivative or annoying.)

Bowie's influence was as destructive as Prince's: the musician as "actor," the "media manipulator." Posing, changing his various personas, etc. All the crap pop music from the eighties refers to Bowie's playing of the media like a violin at the expense of the music itself. Fortunatley, Bowie WAS a musician with some great ideas and keen sense of how to utilize genres, so the product was musical once stripped of its extra-musical trappings...unlike Prince, Madonna, et al, who borrowed the trick of "changing personas," without really producing anything very musical. Am I making any sense? No? Okay, then I've made my point.

Anyways, everybody's entitled to my...uh, I mean, THEIR opinion....

[Rabrrrrrr]

102. No, you're right on

except I disagree somewhat on Bowie, since I think he's genius through and through, even in the times when his music wasn't all that hot, he was at least really striving to do something unique and interesting. Like any artist, there are times that things just don't work, but the good artists - like Bowie - get through those times and learn from them. In my own art, both painting and music, I realize that every now and again I have a piece of junk that, much as I hate doing junk, absolutely has to come out of me before I can get to the next gem; so I paint or compose it, look at it and say "Wow - what junk", and move on; but without that junk, I couldn't have moved in a new direction.

But I'm really resonating with your "derivative" stuff. I think that's what annoys me so much about so many bands - and even painters and composers - is the people who emulate others. I've realized, loooking at those I really like in the last few years, and heading to museums to see the great painters, that the truly great are the pioneers. Picasso isn't awesome just because of what he painted, but partly because he was the first one to SEE in that new way. I walk around the museum, and I can almost, at 10% accuracy, look at a painting and say either "That's a picasso" or "that's a picasso wannabe". Or listen to music and say "That's Bowie" or "Thats a Bowie wannabe". Or "that's a monet" or "a monet wannabe".

It's the wannabe's that offend the hell out of me.

Be original you asswipes!!

And especially in Top 40, you have the couble whammy, of not just idiots sitting in their garage saying, "Hey - that Nirvana sound is big money now, let's sound like them" you have the additional problem of some assmunch in a suit in the 40th floor at Sony saying, "Hey - we've determined the locus of the 18 parameters of music that sell - go out and find some kids who look like this, sound like this, give them these new names and yada yada yada, and create 38 bands taht exactly fit these parameters, because 13 year old suburban white girls will buy it, and get these guys to fit the 16 year old urban chic african-american angry male demographic, and these guys to fit the buying patterns of displaced 14 year old white suburban males with acne problems and rich parents..."

That also offends the hell out of me.

I remember in Zappa's book, The Real Frank Zappa, him talking about this nostalgically, and saying, "At least back in the 60s, no one knew what was happening, so the record companies would just record and release everything they could find; then after a few years, they hired the hippy freaks to tell them what was hot and wasn't, and thusw as born corporate rock when the hippy freaks, now wearing three-piece suits, stopped the creativity".


RKZ, I've loved our dialogues. too bad you aren't in NYC.

[RandomKoolzip]

104. Are you in NYC? Wow, I never knew that.

Have you been to Other Music recently? One of the best record stores in NYC. Last time I went, they had EVERY CD reissue of the ESP label from the sixties (speaking of 60's freaks doing their "thing," like Zappa said), from Patty Waters to Albert Ayler to the Seventh Sons. Now THAT's how you stock a recors store, Tower!

I remember reading a big interview/piece on Bowie in Musician magazine (*sigh...*) in the mid 90's, promoting DB's newest album "Earthling." Bowie went into minute detail about every "unusual" aspect of the recording, and gave a lot of credit to Eno's input; long story short, it sounded like he was taking a real odd approach to this album and trying some pretty avant stuff. Then I heard the record and was kinda put off by how off the wall the interview made it out to be and how monochromatic the rec actualy was. It seemed to me that the only person who really knew how much he was striving to create something unique and innovative was Bowie himself. And also, I noticed that the creativity in approaching the recording process overshadowed the songwriting, which was thin gruel in this case.

How different this was from the seventies Bowie! (Maybe it was the side effects of the cocaine, after all) Bowie had it all back then: the look, the media play, the songs, the studio acumen, the great sidemen, the whole package. There was a mysique about him that rec's like "Let's Dance" dissipated...The clones rip off this Bowie period for good reason. (Incidentally, my fave DB album is "Lodger.")

You know, the visual art allusion is apt here: artists tend to emulate previous artists whose impact was most useful as a unique statement. Warhol's work was unprecedented when he first hit his stride. He was running a scam, though, trying to see how much he could get away with - not that he didn't have talent, but he purposefully chose to make an art that would self-conciously generate headlines and make comments on the uses and history of art. You can only debunk a magician's claims once, though. Now that we know how you hide the card up your sleeve, the trick of manipulating the media with your ever-changing personas is not that impressive anymore. Warhol built an image around stripping the facade away from art....and generated a whole breed of scam artists in the same vein, each new one trying ever so hard to be "controversial," just like the master. But it's the same damn magic trick, and none of them posess the base of talent Warhol had - they want the headlines without the responsiblity of actually having talent. Thus, unintentionally his influence has been negative.

Warhol is like Bowie: he had great talent, but as a side dish, used the media and his image for his own ends. He was a self-concious Rock artist, one of the first. However, I believe that the influence of this idea (Rock artist as Press artist) has been noxious as it has been copied and carried out in the ensuing years. Because it gave rise to scammers like Madonna (remember when she made headlines for changing her hair color? Oh, how shocking you are...*yawn*), who neglected to steal the talent, then to Britney, etc., all of whom concentrated on their "image," their "persona," without giving two shits about assembling a band, or the recording process, or musicianship AT ALL (unlike Bowie)It's a pop move, not a Rock move, in other words.

I pray for a day when the rock audience can purge itself from the pop infiltration and get back to creating some fucking music, like how it was before everything got derailed and confused (people actually think Britney and Prince are "rock" these days.)

[Rabrrrrrr]

109. I knew "rock" was in its death throes the day that "alternative"

became it's own corporate product and had it's own section at Tower.

I laughed when I saw that - and laughed even more when people kept buying "Alternative" music that was labeled alternative by the CEO of Sony and Geffen and etc. HAHAHAHAHA!

I love what you have to say - the current day pop star is all about image, nothing about music. It's about "We need a boy band - we need one cuddly kid, one kid we'll give a goatee and he'll be the 'tough' kid, another one that's just really handsome, and let's get one other one that might appeal to the more dorky girls; they'll all be white....what? I don't care if they can sing or not - this is about product! All we need is four kids who look the role and who will do what we say...what do you mean, will they write their own music? Hell no - we have a computer all set up with the parameters of the sound that will sell, don't be an idiot. We're not gonna take a risk with letting someone write their own music. You're fired!"

[sendero]

64. Hear, hear....

... When I hear people call Prince a "genius", I'm sure that "genius" no longer means much or they wouldn't know "genius" if it bit them on their left glute.

Decent stuff, but a long, long, long, long way from genius, and frankly not that interesting lyrically either. Any number of bands wrote more interesting songs about sex even. :)

[proud patriot]

42. guns and roses

:puke:

[JVS]

43. NO WAY!

They rocked!

[Jack_Dawson]

46. GnR Rulez!

r u crazy?

[proud patriot]

53. Ummmm...did you ever see them live ?

They suck BIG TIME ...GNR were strickly a studio
band :puke:

I liked them before I saw them live in 1990 ,
they opened for Iron Maiden ,,,GnR was booed
off the stage , and shit was flying onto the stage .

The fact that their crap is still been played on the radio
makes me puke .

To each is own though .

[Rabrrrrrr]

51. I thought GnR, but their inlfuence doesn't seem as high as Beach Boys

Otherwise I make GnR disappear, too. But BB had more influence - mostly all negative - on others, so I picked them.

But I'd love to see that arrogant noodler idiot Slash go blink out of existence. I'd love to see the look on his face when he realizes he's being disappeared for lack of talent, integrity, and substance, that idiotic-hat-wearing one-stance-having myopic guitar-hero wannabe. Hey, Slash, there's more to playing guitar than having your legs spread apart and holding the guitar like a giant phallus! Idiot!!!

[proud patriot]

55. the Beach Boys it's a California thing Rabrrrrr

It's a summertime California thing .

My mom was a big Beach Boys fan .
So I was raised on the stuff .
While I don't own any Beach Boys disks
I think they added to my moms teen years
shoot I was probably concieved to a Beach
Boys tune .. :D

[Rabrrrrrr]

66. Then if we need the Beach Boys to have proud patriot be conceived,

then we'll keep the beach boys, and I'll eliminate Guns N Roses. Not sure if I could accept the existence of any DUers conceived through GnR's music.

[Rabrrrrrr]

67. Or maybe I'll skip GnR and zap that blathercrap, Billy "I Suck" Joel

That might make me feel better.

[JVS]

70. We can all unite in our hatred of Joel

[Rabrrrrrr]

71. Maybe that's the dem platform that will bring us fully together!

:evilgrin:

[Clark Can WIN]

48. Poison

Ricky Rocket? Ugh. Hand me the bazooka:nuke:

[JVS]

50. Christian Rap/pop star Carman.

[Bonobo]

58. REO Speedwagon

I hated that whining voice.

[WoodrowFan]

161. NO!

If you get rid of REO then you get rid of a LOT of my college sex life. We can't have that!

[Arbustosux]

60. Flock of Seagulls

it was the hair that frightened me

[ProdigalJunkMail]

69. ya beat me to it!

shucks...

TheProdigal

[Kat45]

61. Nirvana

IMHO, they ruined the music scene! I LOVED the hard rock that was around in the late eighties: loved the music, the scene, the whole thing. (Sure, some bands sucked, but that's true in every genre. A lot of bands ROCKED.) Nirvana shows up, and they're suddenely hailed as the greatest thing since sliced bread. The album sells, then all the labels dump the hard rock bands that have been making them money and sign mostly shitty "alternative" bands to try to find the next Nirvana. All of this is helped by the rock journalists who always hated and looked down their noses at hard rock/metal, preferring the pseudo-intellectual alternative music. Rock was never the same again. The alternative bands just got shittier and more derivative; the fun left the music, and eventually so did the rock. Currently, rap is a large part of the music scene, but even in the non-rap world, there is very little music that I would consider rock. It just doesn't rock any more.

(Putting on my flame-retardant suit.)

[KG]

106. amen to that

the 'grunge' movement took all the fun out of rock music.

[jus_the_facts]

118. YOU SAID IT....THEY SUUUUCK.....I totally agree with you........

....the DRUM sound that'd become so incredible in rock'n'roll in the late 80's.....all that added rhythm was completely done away with because of their NO TALENT asses..I CURSE THEIR NAMES!!! :puke:

[NashVegas]

130. I Agree - For the EXACT Opposite Reason

IMNSHO, they ruined the music scene. I LOVED the alternative music that was around in the late 80s/early 90s: loved the music, the scene, the whole thing (sure, some bands were irrelevant, but that's true in every genre. A lot of bands were truly ANTI-ROCK.) Nirvana shows up, and they're suddenly hailed as the greatest thing since sliced bread. The album sells, then all the labels dump the alternative bands that were finally making them money and gaining visibility after percolating under the radar for years, and sign shitty metal and grunge bands and try to sell them as the next Nirvana. All this is helped by baby boomer and rocker-boy Program Directors who always hated and looked down their noses at alternative, preferring the crotch-grabbing RAWK music, but knew how to jump on someone else's wave when they saw one. Alternative was never the same again. The newly-christened, faux alternative bands just got shittier and more derivative; the fun left the music, and eventually so did the alternative. Currently, rap is a large part of the music scene, but even in the rap world, there is way too much music that I consider rock.


Sidenote: alternative music sprang up in the 80s as an alternative to rock.

[RandomKoolzip]

136. No, it wasn't as an alternative TO rock, it was

an exploration of different alternatives to the standard approaches to instrumention and arrangement of Rock.

The definition of "Rock" I'm using is that put forth by Joe Carducci:

"The music is rock when it is guitar, bass, and drums at the center and they are playd by musicians who know the language of the instruments enough to be expressive with them while playing aggressively together."

Rock and the Pop Narcotic,, p.54

"Rock's special musical value is that it is a folk form which exhibits a small band instrumental language as in jazz, rather than a mere accompinment to a vocalist as in pop."

ibid, p.41

"...it's not giving any musics their due if it's decided that everything that is good or cool must somehow be rock music."

-ibid, p. 42

Certain approaches to arrangement which sprang up in the early eighties as a reactionary stream to the power and popularity of Rock music (industrial, synth pop, techno,etc.) were pop infiltrations of the Rock aesthetic, they were not itself Rock. "Alternative" Rock was an extension of Rock music as it is derived by the approaches Muddy Waters, The garage groups, The Sex Pistols, etc. and countless others took to the small band format. It was not an Alternative to Rock, but a means by which musicians could explore avenues previously untraveled by both Rock artists who had come before, and the contemporary "Rock" (usually pop) marketplace scammers who were then clogging the charts and the arenas (Madonna, etc.) Hip Hop, dance, and all other non-small band forms are not rock. The hair bands of the late 80's WERE rock, even though they sucked.

There were indeed artists during this era who conciously sought to subvert the physical approach which had been the definition of Rock, i.e. Throbbing Gristle, Depeche Mode, etc. But they themselves were drawing their energy from the mere reactionary dimunition of the form. They were not of Rock, but against it. However, these artists were not the central thrust of the "alternative" rock movement - Black Flag and the other SST bands, The Replacements, the metal bands of this era, among others, were. These bands were seeking a non-commercial path to their art via an alternative approach to arrangement and timbre.

Nirvana were the succedents of this outgrowth, however their copyists and the corporate stooges which followed were not- they were Tin PAn Alley producer- and label-controlled marketplace scammers who used the rock approach for their own ends. They were chasing a trend. Nirvana themselves were just a good rock band.

[NashVegas]

148. No No No

First, understand, "alternative rock" was not coined until around 1992 or later.

Alternative was a huge unbrella that covered everything that was not Whitesnake and Lynyrd Skynyrd; punk, hardcore, synth, Brit-pop, Brit-soul, dance, acid-house, dub, roots-rock (yeah, a contradiction), cow-punk, power-pop, experimental, psychedelic, industrial, ska, po-mo (or "cutting edge" if you will), "urban" folk, grunge, nerd-pop, and on and on. But mainly, at the time "alternative" came into use, it was with the understanding that it was based just as much of what came out of the ashes of new wave as it did punk.

Another key, from your definition of rock, about its being played "aggressively." With the exception of the hardcore stuff, until the very end of the 80s, the huge majority of stuff coming under the alternative umbrella was decidedly unagressive.

Make note that the agressive, rock-based stuff was far outnumbered in fan base - and output - than the non-agressive stuff. When KITS signed on in San Francisco in 1986, it was Human League, Cure, Smiths, Echo, Love & Rockets & Furs all the way. They instantly beat the shit out of all the area rock stations in the ratings.

Except for maybe a dozen stations in the US, commercial radio wouldn't play anything remotely alternative, except for a few rare crossover hits. That left recorded music percolating in the dance clubs.

In the mid-late 80s, Replacements were the only one of the more (lesser known, ie, not U2 & R.E.M.) guitar-leaning bands that had widespread appeal among alternative fans, at least on the east coast.

When Living Colour burst out in 1988, alternative fans were accepting of that, thanks to the social conscience and funk of it.

It was only when Jane's Addiction put out Nothing's Shocking that those who'd rebelled against the machismo (and this was by far the largest contigency of alternative fans) of rock reconsidered that maybe the hard stuff wasn't all that bad, especially when it was subversive the way Jane's was.

After the one-two punch of the 1991 Lollapalooza tour and Nevermind, alternative proved it had some financial worth, the record labels and the radio industry capitalized on it. While Pearl Jam was tolerable, it became apparent that more and more of the metal-leaning bands were being repackaged as alternative and the next thing you know, some record guy is telling you about this great new alternative band, Stone Fucking Temple Pilots. What had been but one spoke of the alternative umbrella suddenly became the umbrella.

From All Music Guide:

Alternative pop/rock is essentially a catch-all term for post-punk bands from the mid-'80s to the mid-'90s. There is a multitude of musical styles within alternative rock, from the sweet melodies of jangle-pop to the disturbing metallic grind of industrial, yet are all tied together by a similar aesthetic -- they all existed and operated oustide of the mainstream.

In some ways, there are two waves of alternative bands, with Nirvana's unprecedented crossover success in 1991 acting as a dividing point. Throughout the '80s, the majority of alternative bands were on independent labels; those that eventually signed to major labels, such as Hüsker Dü and the Replacements, didn't break through to the mainstream and thereby were able to keep their hip credentials alive. If anything, Alternative Rock of the '80s was even more diverse and fractured than the mainstream; among the styles classified as alternative was roots rock, alternative dance, jangle-pop, post-hardcore punk, funk-metal, punk-pop, and experimental rock.

All of these genres made into the mainstream, in some form or another, after Nirvana's success in 1991, but their edges were sanded down since many of the new alternative bands were signed by majors. Consequently, '90s altenative rock often sounds more sanitized and homogenous than its counterpart, especially since the heavier material proved to have greater commercial appeal than the quieter or quirkier elements of alternative rock. Most of these idiosyncratic bands didn't sign to majors (those that did quickly disappeared), deciding to stick to independent labels, where they had more artistic freedom. These bands were grouped together under the term indie rock. Although the term had been around since the '80s, in the '90s it connotated bands that were dedicated to their own independent status, either for musical or hipness reasons.

Notice how the writer uses the term, "alternative rock." All Music has no plain "alternative" style choice, even though that was the term that everyone I knew in the scene at the time was using. Even in his definition of it being "existed and operated oustide of the mainstream," he misses the point. R.E.M. & U2 were HUGE. The Cure was huge, although not as much. Same for INXS. There was also a number of alternative tunes that were cross-over hits on Top 40 radio ("Ooh, rock me Amadeus" comes to mind) due to their pop-ish nature. There's also the thing that a lot of the great British stuff caming out had its base not in blues but in Anglo-folk (Kate Bush, Waterboys, XTC for examples).

[carols]

63. Steely Dan, but Rush is a close second

It would be hard to choose if I could only pick one.
Carol

[IronLionZion]

68. Just one? Good Charlotte

or any of the stupid pop bands now that pretend to be rock, punk, or hard core. I can't stand crap like that!

[Norbert]

72. "I'll Be There" to say bye-bye to the Jackson 5

.

[DS1]

73. Menudo, cut the boy-band plague off at the bud

.

[curse10]

74. Pink Fuckin' Floyd

Man, I hate that band.

[DS1]

76. nahh, really?

/joke

Your hatred to PFF is well documented, must be the cold :hi:

[curse10]

146. LoL

Am I that transparent??

:-)

[Rabrrrrrr]

77. Wow, and this thread had gone so long without anyone blaspheming

blasphemer! :evilgrin: :hi:

[curse10]

147. Heretic!

:-)

[ronzo]

75. I'd use my power to erase Vanilla Ice.

Buh-bye. Cool topic.

[JVS]

79. Hasn't time really taken care of that for you already?

I'll give you that he sucks. Several years ago a local club had him for a concert and a lot of people I knew went there just to heckle him, but it is not as though you need to wrry each day about being exposed to his shittiness.

[HEyHEY]

80. Yeah but the memory is bad enough

:-)

[JVS]

81. That is why god invented cheap booze

[HEyHEY]

83. SO we cpuld get drunk and dance to "Ice ICe baby"?

[JVS]

125. So we could wipe the memory of bad musicians from our heads!

[HuckleB]

82. Journey!

I was going to go with The Eagles, but it's definitely Journey. Ack!

[Cheswick2.0]

84. Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods

Billy Don't Be A Hero
( Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods )

The marchin' band came down along Main Street
The soldier blues fell in behind
I looked across and there I saw Billy
Waiting to go and join the line
And with her head upon his shoulder
His young and lovely fiancee
From where I stood I saw she was cryin'
And through her tears I heard her say

Billy, don't be a hero, don't be a fool with your life
Billy, don't be a hero, come back and make me your wife
And as he started to go she said, Billy, keep your head low
Billy, don't be a hero, come back to me

The soldier blues were trapped on a hillside
The battle raging all around
The sergeant cried, We've got to hang on, boys!
We've got to hold this piece of ground
I need a volunteer to ride up
And bring us back some extra men
And Billy's hand was up in a moment
Forgettin' all the words she said

She said
Billy, don't be a hero, don't be a fool with your life
Billy, don't be a hero, come back and make me your wife
And as he started to go she said, Billy, keep your head low
Billy, don't be a hero, come back to me

I heard his fiancee got a letter
That told how Billy died that day
The letter said that he was a hero
She should be proud he died that way
I heard she threw that letter away ...

More Lyrics

[jpgray]

85. The Beatles

No, hear me out... so much of music from the past thirty-five years would suddenly sound new and original. We'd all be: "Hey man, where did they come up with that melodic, catchy sound? Big Star, you're *my* favorite bunch of Texans, hands down."

In fact, Big Star would be a good pick. Sort of an obscure Tom Petty that all the alternative guys claim is genius, but just kind of sounds like... an obscure Tom Petty. Entertaining, yeah, but genius?

[Sophree]

87. Fleetwood Mac

:puke:

But without Aerosmith, there'd be no Sweet Emotion. The opening scene of "Dazed and Confused" would not be the same without it.

[-..__...]

88. Grateful Dead

I always thought their music was incredibly lame and uninspired...that, and the fans with their God like reverence were particularly nauseating (tie-dyed shirts, hacky-sacks, Frisbee dogs, and unwashed hair).

[Webster Green]

89. Ha!......"The Dreadful Grate"

An old roadie expression.

[smirkymonkey]

100. Or how about..

"I'll be Grateful when they're Dead" - Don't shoot the messenger, I didn't make it up, just relaying it. :)

I really can't stand the GD, though.

[solinvictus]

94. Phish, Dave Matthews

and all the fellow travelers as well.

[solinvictus]

91. Loverboy

[blondeatlast]

121. Satire band--they don't count. What, they weren't satire?

Can we just pull that effing headband a little tighter and about 4 inches down?

[UnAmericanJoe]

92. Ladies and Gentlemen,

I give you the musical sphincter-lock known as Triumph.

http://members.fortunecity.com/andreberk1/triumph/triumph.html

[MGKrebs]

93. Hmmm. Toto, Duran Duran, or Foreigner.

I'll have to go with Duran Duran. They were horrible at every bit of making music.

[trogdor]

157. Foreigner is just plain unlistenable.

Absolute crap. I think somebody once called it "ersatz pop."

[BigDaddyLove]

95. Vanilla Ice......

and quickly.

[bubblesby2002]

96. GnR

Heard their creepy horrible version of Knock Knock Knockin on Heaven's Door. Makes me want to spit. I hate them.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

139. They Blow...Have always blown...and Will always blow...

Any more skanky, and they'd be tied to a tree in deliverance country squeeling like a pig.
Duckie

[mvd]

97. Limp Bizkit

They helped to start the lousy nu-metal genre, and somehow the band has lasted. They're even worse than Creed.

I surely disagree with some of the choices here - namely Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, The Doors, The Cars, Nirvana, Good Charlotte, Dave Matthews, Aerosmith, Billy Joel, Fountains of Wayne, and as my #1 band, I could never erase The Beatles - yes, they set a high standard, but music today is different but still good. You have some really nice pure pop-rock songs on the radio.

[corporatewhore]

101. Can i erase MTV from history?

[Rabrrrrrr]

103. Or at least, MTV after it abandoned its M.

golly, what an abomination.

Though I'd have to say that, in the long run, even when MTV started and had a lot more M than inane chatter and titty shows, it did a lot of damage to the world of rock, and the creators of MTV should be punished eternally in some hell in which only Pink Floyd, King Crimson, and Chuck Berry play (and I say that because I love all three bands, and am making the assumption that the creators of MTV would find it to be hellish because they'd be forced to listen to intersting music played and composed with integrity and musicianship).

[RandomKoolzip]

107. I wish you really DID have that power.

MTV's influence on rock has been completely negative.

[buddhamama]

105. i'd feel terrible afterwards

but bye bye GWAR

[DS1]

113. oh come on, few know of them, fewer have actually heard them, harmless

New Kids on the Block, however ... :puke:

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

108. KISS

hands down, the worst!!

[jus_the_facts]

122. They concidered themselves...The Beatles on STEROIDS...

....heavily influenced by 'em...and they were second ONLY to the Beatles with GOLD records in the 70's in fact! :evilgrin:

[leftist_rebel1569]

110. hmmm....I'd have to pick Billy Joel

I don't think any particular musician has annoyed me more over the span of my lifetime more than Billy Joel has. My best friend's dad listens to him religiously, and he's always listening to him when i'm over (which is quite often). But, it's really hard to pick between them and Kiss...I wish that talentless RW ass-kiss Gene Simmons would shut up, keep his retarded tongue in his mouth, and go home. No one cares anymore...

[HEyHEY]

123. Even "Uptown girl"

:-)

[JVS]

126. That is one of Joel's greatest crimes!

[Rabrrrrrr]

127. When I become president - BAM! Billy "I Suck" Joel goes on trial

and it will be public, and it will begin my first presidential initiative - bringing back some sense of aesthetics to American culture.

Billy "I Suck" Joel, Thomas Kinkade, that Precious Moments guy, Kenny G, Beyonce, Queen Latifa, Yanni, Raffi, John Tesh, E! channel, N'Stink, etc., they're all going up the river.

[ldoolin]

135. Is Joel a right winger?

Just curious. He has a song that goes like this:

"There's a place in the world for an angry young man/
With his fist in the air and his head in the sand/
And he's never been able to learn from mistakes/
And he can't understand why his heart always aches/
And he sits in the room with a lock on the door/
And his maps and his medals laid out on the floor/
And he'll go to the grave as an angry old man"

Although I do have to admit there are a couple of Billy Joel songs that I do like: "Allentown", and "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out On Broadway)". Mostly though he's pretentious and crassly commercial - the same goes for the likes of Chicago and Elton John too.

[Rabrrrrrr]

141. Don't know if he's right winger, but wouldn't be surprised

Seems a rather selfish, self-obsessed little wanker.

If he's not right wing, he's probably politically apathetic/not concerned.

But then again, he did do those songs about the coal miners and steal workers, so maybe he's got a bit of leftist in him afetr all. Or else he just wanted the publicitly and an easily controllable emotional response from his audience.

all I know is I think he sucks. :-)

[Rhiannon12866]

149. Billy Joel?

"I don't need you to worry for me cause I'm alright
I don't want you to tell me it's time to come home
I don't care what you say anymore, this is my life
Go ahead with your own life and leave me alone."

Who can't identify with that?:shrug:

[ldoolin]

111. The Scorpions

Runners up:

Whitesnake
Ted Nugent
Journey
New Kids on the Block
Backstreet Boys
*NSYNC
Vanilla Ice
Van Halen
Sammy Hagar
Damn Yankees
George Thorogood and the Destroyers
Boyz II Men

[beawr]

112. The Bee Gees and the Doobie Brothers

White Whine Music

[Rhiannon12866]

151. You need to listen to The Bee Gees pre-disco

They were pretty good back then.:-)

[Demonaut]

120. DAVE MATTHEWS BAND

lyrics are lame and songs all sound the same.

[Twillig]

128. Styx, can I get an amen?

Now there's a band I want(ed) to send to the cornfield.

[Redneck Socialist]

131. Amen!

Worst. Band. Ever. (Except for maybe Journey, pretty close.)

[DevGrrrl]

129. def leopard

[LynneSin]

132. I couldn't pick just one

But Boy Bands and Sex-Crazed Virgin Singers would top my list

[blondeatlast]

143. But who are the virgin ones?

[guitar man]

133. Culture Club

Do you really want to hurt me?


Yes,we do!

[PROGRESSIVE1]

134. KISS......and you know why?

Their lead "singer" is a Reich Wing Chicken Hawk!

:puke:

[blondeatlast]

142. Yeah, but Terry Gross smacked him down! I remember it well . . .

[Cush]

138. Limp Bizkit

[YellowRubberDuckie]

140. Metallica....

I hate Metallica. They suck. Not to mention they are greedy, balding, bastards. I used to like them, then that whole thing with Napster made them look as if they cared more for the money than the fans, and I couldn't bring myself to look at them. They need to go bye-bye.
Duckie

[name not needed]

145. now they suck

they were good up until the early 90s. then they became poster boys for mtv and completely sold out.

[Andy_Stephenson]

150. Without a doubt

Journey.

:puke:

Sorry Journey fans.

[TOhioLiberal]

152. I have 2....

The Spice Girls, and the Backstreet Boys

[grannylib]

155. Aerosmith?? Awww, no.....for me,, Dexy's Midnite Runners would be right

up there; hair=metal like Poison and Cinderella and all that crap would rank too.

[bif]

156. Adios, Grateful Dead!

Gosh, did they ever suck!

[LincolnMcGrath]

158. Head bands!

Sweaty smelly gross

[WoodrowFan]

159. you are insane, the correct answer is KISS

sad really, but you are quite insane. The correct answer is KISS>

[SmileyBoy]

162. HANSON HANSON HANSON HANSON HANSON HANSON HANSON HANSON

You can take your gay-ass "MMMBop" and SHOVE IT!!!!

:grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr:

[Rhiannon12866]

163. If I could just erase any country band, that my Freeper brother likes,

off the charts, I would be truly grateful.:shrug: