Noughtie: The 100 Most Important Songs of the Decade (Part 9)

Overall Favourite Artists | Best of 2000 | Overall Least Favourite Artists | Best of 2001

Where Are They Now? | Best of 2002 | Best New Artists | Best of 2003 | My Guilty Pleasures
Best of 2004 | My Favourite Riffs | Best of 2005 | Underrated Artists | Best of 2006
 My Favourite Albums | Best of 2007 | Best Videos | Best of 2008 | Most Important Artists
Best of 2009 | 100 Favourite Songs of the Decade | 100 Most Important Songs of the Decade

To view part 1, click here.
To view part 2, click here.
To view part 3, click here.
To view part 4, click here.
To view part 5, click here.
To view part 6, click here.
To view part 7, click here.
To view part 8, click here. 

20 songs to go. Here are what I consider are the 20 most important songs of the decade, from #20 to #11. Enjoy.

#20. "When You Were Young" - The Killers
Released: 18/09/06
Album: Sam's Town
Accolades: Nominated for Best Rock Song at the Grammys, #4 in Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2006, #37 in XFM's 100 Greatest Songs of All Time, Nominated for Best Track at the Shockwaves NME Awards
Appearances: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (video game), SingStar Amped (video game), Rock Band (video game)
Chart Positions: UK - #2, US - #14 (#1 in Modern Rock Tracks Chart), Best Elsewhere - Australia and New Zealand - #10

After the amazing success of "Hot Fuss", The Killers surely knew that the next album had to have an impact for them to maintain their major success in the UK, and further stamp their feet in their homeland of the US. "When You Were Young", the lead single off the second album, did exactly that. Sure it's not as catchy and dancy as "Somebody Told Me", and it's not as indie rock as "Mr. Brightside", but there was something nice and fresh about "When You Were Young". The band mention a huge Bruce Springsteen inspiration going into the studio for "Sam's Town" and you can definitely feel it in this track. It was remarkably successful, it's still their highest charting song here in the UK, despite there being just one more song by the band that I think tops it. You'll see that song further into the Top 20.

#19. "The Scientist" - Coldplay
Released: 4/11/02
Album: A Rush of Blood to the Head
Chart Positions: UK - #10, US - #18 (in Modern Rock Tracks Chart), Best Elsewhere - Poland - #1

No accolades, no appearances. In fact at the time, it wasn't that huge in sales either. Yet I don't think that many songs by Coldplay have had the long term impact this song has. "The Scientist" has longevity that emphasises what this list is about. This list is about many things, it's about chart successs and sales, it's about accolades. It's about how often the song appears in other media. But most importantly, these are the songs that I'm predicting will still be played in 10, 20, 30 years time from now. And I'm telling you, this song will be played for many years to come. "The Scientist" isn't an energetic song, it isn't a foot tapper. But the melody, the piano, the memorable chorus, the video, everything about it is iconic. This is arguably THE Coldplay song of the decade. I say arguably, as I think there is one more song by the band that has more importance. You'll see that song soon.

#18. "Take Me Out" - Franz Ferdinand
Released: 12/1/04
Album: Franz Ferdinand
Accolades: #1 in Village Voice Pazz and Jop's Best of 2004, #1 Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2004, #100 in Triple J's Hottest 100 of All Time, #41 in Q Magazine's 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks, #34 in Q Magazine's Best Songs by British Bands, #6 in Q Magazine's 100 Greatest Indie Anthems, #16 in NME's 50 Greatest Indie Anthems Ever, #7 in MTV2's Greatest Indie Anthems Ever, #44 in Pitchfork Media's Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s, #327 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
Appearances: Sony PSP (handheld consone advertisement), NHL 2005 (video game), Madden NFL 2005 (video game), Sports Tonight (sports TV show), Guitar Hero (video game), Guitar Hero Smash Hits (video game), SingStar Party (video game), SingStar Pop (video game), Just Dance 2 (video game), Dance Dance Revolution Universe 2 (video game), Rock Band (video game), Hancock (movie trailer), PBS Kids GO! (childrens education advertisment), Meet the Fockers (movie trailer)
Chart Positions: UK - #3, US - #6 (#3 in Modern Rock Tracks Chart), Best Elsewhere - Canada - #7

Finally! A song with LOADS of accolades and appearances! I haven't had a song with this many entries in both sections for a while, I was starting to lose faith! Seriously though, it's hard to deny how much of an impact this song made. An arguement can be made that this song started the Art Rock revival (Radiohead aside of course), with bands like Art Brut, Bloc Party and Athlete rising afterwards. And the song was so damn catchy as well. Franz Ferdinand won't beat this track in terms of impact, although on a personal level I prefer other tracks. The best thing about "Take Me Out" was that it pretty much at the time came out of nowhere. It got a small amount of airplay before it gor released, and then all of a sudden it just got more and more popular as the week went on. It ended up getting to #3, but I reckon it would have gone straight to #1 if they promoted it earlier. Regardless, this song is a classic now I'd say.

#17. "Viva la Vida" - Coldplay
Released: 25/5/08
Album: Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
Accolades: Winner of the Song of the Year at the Grammys, Nominated for Record of the Year at the Grammys, #9 in Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of 2008, #2 in Rolling Stone's Readers Best Songs of 2008, #5 in Blender's Top 144 Songs of 2008, #8 in Village Voice Pazz and Jop's Best of 2008
Appearances: iPod (portable media advertisment), iTunes (digital media advertisment), Medium (TV series), 90210 (TV series), Moving in America (radio show), A Favorita (TV series), The Simpsons (TV series),
Chart Positions: UK - #1, US - #1 (#3 in Modern Rock Tracks Chart), Best Elsewhere - Czech Republic and Slovakia - #1

This song got to #1 in America. It's the first British song that got to #1 in America since 1996, when the Spice Girls got there with "Wannabe". That on its own is a remarkable achievement, and Coldplay should be damn proud of that.
I touched on this on my Most Important Artists of the Decade listing, where I said Coldplay got closer and closer to the #1 spot in the UK and the US, but they kept failing. When this song came out, I don't know why, but it just felt right. Man, I don't really like this band but I can see why this song was so successful. It just sounds so pure, it's the buildup of all the Coldplay songs built into one track. The classical music, Chris Martin's vocals, the chanting, the song manages to be beautiful and catchy at the same time, and it's hard for a song to do that. So all in all, I'm happy we got another band to break America officially, regardless if I like them or not.

#16. "Seven Nation Army" - The White Stripes
Released: 7/3/03
Album: Elephant
Accolades: Winner of the Best Rock Song at the Grammys, #6 in Rolling Stone's 50 Best Songs of the Decade, #8 in Q Magazine's 100 Best Guitar Tracks, #5 in NME's 50 Greatest Tracks of the Decade, #75 in VH1's Greatest Hard Rock Songs, #21 in Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time, #20 in Triple J's Hottest 100 of All Time, #30 in Pitchfork Media's Top 500 Songs of the 2000s, #2 in Observer Music Monthly's 75 Songs of the Decade, #2 in Channel V Australia's Top 1000 Songs of the 2000s, #1 in Consequence of Sound's Top Rock Tracks of the 2000s, #1 in WFNX Radio's Top Rock Tracks of the 2000s, #286 in Rolling Stone's Top 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, #1 in Rhapsody's Top 100 Tracks of the Decade
Appearances: Democracy Now! (news program)
Listings: Best Riffs, Best Videos, Top 100 Songs of the Decade
Chart Positions: UK - #7, US - #76 (#1 in Alternative Songs Chart), Best Elsewhere - Germany - #4

Wow. So far in this listing no song has got THAT many accolades. Even though I've only put one appearance down, it's important to note that this song was a HUGE anthem in the FIFA World Cup in 2006. Loads of different fans from many different countries world wide sung the tune to this in the crouds, it was amazing. It's also important to note that on a personal note, this song has featured in FOUR of my categories now, which are my favourite riffs, my favourite music videos, my personal top 100, and now, the unbiased top 100. No other song has done that on this website. In fact, just in case you wanted to know, this song is the last song that is featured both on the biased and unbiased listings.
So why is this song so well received? It's just a simple guitar riff that is played over and over again. The truth is that I have no idea really, it's just so fricking catchy, the lyrics are quite smart, that guitar riff is just beautiful despite it being so simple, and while I try not to use music videos as reason for each entry, the music video is just as simple a concept as the guitar riff, but equally as effective. It's just quite simply, a piece of genius this song. I honestly don't think The White Stripes will top this effort popularity wise. It's just perfect.

#15. "All Summer Long" - Kid Rock
Released: 5/4/08
Album: Rock 'n' Roll Jesus
Appearances: WWE Backlash 2008 (wrestling pay-per-view)
Chart Positions: UK - #1, US - #23 (#4 in Hot Country Songs Chart), Best Elsewhere - Australia, Austria, Europe, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland - #1

Getting to #1 in 6 different countries is impressive on any scale and Kid Rock did just that with this huge summer hit. If you listened to music much in the summer of 2008 then you simply couldn't get rid of this song, if you like it or not. With it's riff that was borrowed from "Sweet Home Alabama", and its general warm lyrics about having a good time in the summer (Kid Rock manages not to be so crude in this track) it was just universally popular with a lot of people. It wasn't musically his finest piece, hell I don't think he even put much effort into the track but that's probably the key, Kid Rock just got everything right with this song, he didn't need to overload it. It's just a nice summer song.

#14. "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" - The Darkness
Released: 17/3/03
Album: Permission to Land
Accolades: #47 in Q Magazine's 101 Greatest Guitar Tracks, #493 in Blenders Magazine's 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born, #276 in Pitchfork's 500 Top Tracks of the 2000s, #94 in VH1's Best Hard Rock Songs
Appearances: Karaoke Revolution Volume 2 (video game), Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades (video game), The Bill (TV series), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (movie), SingStar (video game)
Chart Positions: UK - #2, US - #35 (in Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart), Best Elsewhere - Ireland - #5

Regardless of how badly The Darkness fell from their hill back halfway through the decade, this song was a huge hit. It was the pinnacle of success, it was the song that if you would choose if you had to describe the band with a single track. The ridiculous falsetto, the awfully cheesy video, the leotards, the Queen-esque guitar solos, the lyrics about cheesy love, everything. It's what The Darkness was. And it was only denied the #1 spot by the huge RnB hit "Where is the Love?" by the Black Eyed Peas. The Darkness really set the bar with this track, unfortunately for them it was a bar they were never able to reach again (unless an amazing comeback proves me otherwise). Either way, the song is still definitely well thought of by many people.

#13. "All the Small Things" - Blink-182
Released: 18/1/00
Album: Enema of the State
Appearances: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series), Charlie's Angels (movie), Clockstoppers (movie), Rock Band (video game), Guitar Hero 5 (video game), Guitar Hero: On Tour (video game), Rock Revolution (video game)
Listings: Best Videos
Chart Positions: UK - #2, US - #6 (#1 in Alternative Songs Chart), Best Elsewhere - Austria - #4
 
Well this song is a classic. It really is. The reason why it's not higher is because I need to spread 10 years evenly. This song is just oozing of pop punk. It'll forever be known for its video, where the band take the piss out of boybands to fantastic comical effect. But the song itself, in its simplicity, is just a charming teenage boy's track. And there's nothing wrong with that. When I think about how I made this listing, I thought about predicting what songs will be played from the decade in 10, 20, 30 years time. And this song fits into that category. No dispute. This song is a classic, it will never go away. And kudos to Blink-182 for that.

#12. "Somebody Told Me" - The Killers
Released: 15/3/04
Album: Hot Fuss
Accolades: #9 in XFM's Top 100 Songs of the Decade, #4 in Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2004, #60 in Absolute Radio's 100 Best Songs of the Decade, #41 in NME's 100 Greatest Tracks of the Decade, Nominated for Best Rock Track at the Grammys, Nominated for Best Alternative/Rock Dance Track at the International Dance Music Awards
Appearances: Rocky Balboa (movie), Rock Revolution (video game), DJ Hero (video game)
Chart Positions: UK - #3, US - #51 (#3 in Hot Modern Rracks Chart), Best Elsewhere - Poland - #1

Another song that you pretty much call a classic now. The Killers started their very successful career with this indie belter. "Somebody Told Me" got very high for a debut rock song, and it still pretty much remains the song to beat for the band in terms of impact. They've had hit after hit after hit, yet they've not shook this song away as being THE song to represent The Killers. "Human", "When You Were Young" and "Mr Brightside", all great tracks, but in my eyes are inferior in importance in comparison to this song. Look at those accolades, this song is rated highly by the NME, Triple J, Absolute Radio and XFM, four highly reputable music critics.

#11. "Valerie" - The Zutons / Mark Ronson
Released: 19/6/06 / 15/10/07
Album: Tired of Hanging Around / Version
Accolades: Nominated for Best British Single at the BRIT Awards
Appearances: 2006 FIFA World Cup (football coverage), 27 Dreses (movie)
Chart Positions: UK - #9, Best Elsewhere - Ireland - #32 / UK - #2, Best Elsewhere - Holland - #1


Yeah this song only got to #1 in one country, but what you may not have known is that this song got to #1 in Holland, then they released an acoustic version, and they both versions the iTunes #1 and #2 spots. That was the Mark Ronson version by the way.
But before that, The Zutons released the original version. Now the original was a surprise hit, it was the second single off the album and it more than matched the first single ("Why Don't You Give Me Your Love". It's by far their biggest hit.

But... let's be honest, it's the Mark Ronson version that made this song just marginally miss a place in my Top 10. It was just huge. He really made the song his own. Amy Winehouse's vocals were perfect for the song, and the chirpy music was just splendid. I bet The Zutons love AND hate Mark Ronson for completely picking their song to pieces and remodelling it in his image. But it was an incredible cover version, and the amazing this is that it was only released ay ear later. It wasn't an old track rehashed, it was a recent song that got reworked, and the quality between the two is ridiculously obvious. Mark Ronson solidified his reputation immensely after this song.

Top 10 time tomorrow. We're almost there. It may have took a long time for us to get here, but I've enjoyed it and I hope you have. What song will be in the Top 10? Make your predictions in the comment section below. Have a good night.

To view part 10, click here.
To view the winner, click here.
To view my methods and explanations, click here. 
To view a full archived stats index of the songs listed, click here.

Noughtie: Where are They Now?

Overall Favourite Artists | Best of 2000 | Overall Least Favourite Artists | Best of 2001

Where Are They Now? | Best of 2002 | Best New Artists | Best of 2003 | My Guilty Pleasures
Best of 2004 | My Favourite Riffs | Best of 2005 | Underrated Artists | Best of 2006
 My Favourite Albums | Best of 2007 | Best Videos | Best of 2008 | Most Important Artists
Best of 2009 | 100 Favourite Songs of the Decade | 100 Most Important Songs of the Decade

Hey there, Part 5 is here, if you haven't counted there's 22 parts to the Noughtie series, with the last two being very long. Don't you just get all nostalgic, when you reminisce about artists of yesteryear, that just disappear, then you remember them again? I hope that some of these artists you remember, some more than others just because they were more popular. Below are 10 bands that have disbanded since the previous decade. They all had different amounts of success and decided to pack it in for different reasons. Let's go through them now.

10. The Darkness

This is definitely one band I'm happy that have gone, although there have been rumours they may get back together. This band is probably the most popular on the list, for frustrating reasons. I hated The Darkness, yet so many people loved them, they loved their stage antics, their apparent charm, their Queen-thieving guitar riffs and their catchy songs. However their gimmick ran short, their second album was a major flop. Since then they have disbanded, and ex-lead singer Justin Hawkins has attempted and failed to stay in the mainstream music eye, with his attempts at Eurovision and newer band Hot Leg both ending with little success. Personally, I hope they don't get back together but I'm sure a lot of people disagree.

9. The Distillers

It's arguable that The Distillers were a band as lead singer and main guitarist Brody Dalle pretty much wrote every song and there were consistent line-up changes. The Distillers were a punk and hard rock combination, that had some decent success with such hits as "Drain the Blood" and "City of Angels". Brody's harsh vocals were the distinctive element in the music. As time went on from the sounds of things Brody Dalle just got fed up and disbanded her own band. She then formed a relationship with Josh Homme, lead singer of The Queens of the Stone Age, and had a child. Not long afterwards she formed a new band called Spinnerette, a band with a completely different sound and direction (I prefer Spinnerette to The Distillers by the way).

8. The Ordinary Boys

Indie band The Ordinary Boys fronted by Samuel Preston rose to fame in the mid noughties with their hit "Boys Will Be Boys". They didn't really follow that up with anything and Preston resorted to appearing on Celebrity Big Brother to keep interest in the band. It worked, as they re-released the song afterwards and it got to #3. They had a few other singles that got relatively high up in the charts, before disbanding in 2008. No reason has been given for the disbanding, but you can imagine it's something along the lines of the band getting fed up of Preston's consistent obsession with the media life. He's apparently releasing a solo album sooner rather than later.

7. Zwan

When Billy Corgan disbanded The Smashing Pumpkins, he wanted to go in a new direction with a new band. He decided to take artists from a load of different bands and make a band that played softer, less dark music. Zwan released their first and only album in 2003 with very little success. They finished their tour and immediately disbanded. Zwan unfortunately were more popular after their disbanding than before, only because of the constant bickering between band members after the split. Billy Corgan hasn't held any punches, calling the ex-members "dirty", and accused certain members of doing sex acts with each other in public, and with the producers girlfriend. Where are they now? Well Billy Corgan has reformed The Smashing Pumpkins. The other members have split into different projects too.

6. American Head Charge

American Head Charge was part of a huge melodic metal surge from the late nineties, including other bands like System of a Down, Slipknot, Mudvayne, Rammstein, Kittie and Static-X. Their biggest hit is arguably "Just So You Know", a decent song from 2002. They released a lot of material and toured with a lot of successful bands. In 2005 the guitarist died of what seemed like an accidental prescription drug overdose. After that, they released one more CD/DVD combo of live an unreleased material before officially disbanding in 2009. The reasons were that the lead singer didn't have the heart to continue his music career. It's not confirmed that this is because of the death of the guitarist mind. Very little information is around about the other band members and what they're doing now.

5. Wolfman

Remember Wolfman? No? Remember the song "For Lovers"? Possibly? The main chorus was "this is for lovers... running away..." Remember now? If so, I bet that brought you back a bit. The song was released in 2005, by Wolfman and it featured Pete Doherty of The Libertines and Babyshambles fame (as well as many drug-related crimes). The song got to #7 in the UK charts and was very well received by critics. It even won an award for the songwriting. But who is Wolfman? I can't find anything about him anywhere. He doesn't even have a Wikipedia page. The song "For Lovers" does, but there's nothign about him on there at all. When I do a Google search, I find nothing, as there are many music related search results to do with the term Wolfman, either songs with the word in, a soundtrack for a film, and this song in music video and lyrics form. But nothing on the man. Or is he a man? He might actually be a Wolfman for all I know. Where is he now? Haven't a fucking clue.

4. Ikara Colt

Ikara Colt were a little indie/art rock band that released two albums in the early Noughties. Their two most popular songs were off their second album "Wanna Be That Way" and "Modern Feeling" (two songs I really like). They had some minor success with these hits and had a cult following. They disbanded in 2005 however, very abruptly. They have said that the reason they split is because they want to end their music career young so they aren't remembered as a band that went too far and got old. Fair enough, but it's a shame as they had some talent.

3. Death From Above 1979

Death From Above 1979 are a two-piece band that released some EPs, one album and a remix album in the early Noughties. They were a unique act, with no lead guitar, they depended on the noise of their base and synths. And what a noise it was. The noise made from this band was huge, it was a really loud sound, hard to describe really. Their only major hit was "Romantic Rights", and all I'll say about this song is that it's one of my favourites of the Noughties. But there were problems, and they disbanded officially in 2006. These problems seemed very serious, as the man behind the bass and synth, Jessie, claims that they only finished their final tour for financial reasons for the good team behind the band.

Note: A very frustrating note too, a few weeks ago they announced they are reuniting. I compiled this list before the news came out. Apparently they are doing a festival gig in April. I don't know if it's a one off appearance of if they're officially reuniting to make more music. I hope the latter, although for the purpose of this listing it annoyed me!

2. Jerk

Jerk are an Australian band that my ex-girlfriend got me into. They're not too dissimilar to Marilyn Manson, but that being said I still like them. They only released the one album in 2003 that did okay in Australia. God knows how my ex knew about them because they never broke the UK and barely touched America. They had a song (Sucked In) on the video games NHS 2004 and Need For Speed: Underground, so fans of those soundtracks might have heard of them. Other than that they didn't get that far out of Australia. They disbanded in 2004, but some of the artists reformed into another band named Ink, that have barely surfaced.

1. The Union Underground

This band is the reason I'm writing this listing. I loved this band. A lot of metal fans loved this band. I got their only album not long after its release. It's still one of my favourite albums. Their two most popular songs are probably "Turn Me On Mr. Deadman", which is still played in clubs sometimes today, and "Across the Nation", which was the main theme for WWF/WWE Raw in the early Noughties. After releasing their only album they released a live album and disbanded.  There's no news about why they split at all. The band has now split in different directions, the most successful being the bass player John now playing with Disturbed, one of the most successful metal bands of the decade. It's just a shame because I really loved this band, and wish/wished that they would bring out more material. But it's not the way of the world unfortunately!

So there we go, 10 bands (or 9, thank and fuck you Death From Above 1979!) who have disbanded in different ways, for different reasons. All bands that were a part of the last decade. Will any of them reunite? Are there any other bands that you'd like to mention that you wish got back together, that disbanded in the last 10 years? Comment below if you want. Have a good night.

Noughtie: Overall Least Favourite Artists

Overall Favourite Artists | Best of 2000 | Overall Least Favourite Artists | Best of 2001

Where Are They Now? | Best of 2002 | Best New Artists | Best of 2003 | My Guilty Pleasures
Best of 2004 | My Favourite Riffs | Best of 2005 | Underrated Artists | Best of 2006
 My Favourite Albums | Best of 2007 | Best Videos | Best of 2008 | Most Important Artists
Best of 2009 | 100 Favourite Songs of the Decade | 100 Most Important Songs of the Decade

Part 3 of my Noughtie series brings our second listing to the front of the queue. For the most part, I've been a very positive guy on this site (The GameFAQs rant probably the only negative thing I've done) but I'm going to rant a bit today. I'm counting down the 10 artists that really get under my skin that have come out in the last decade. I'm not going to delay this any further, let's name and shame my least favourite artists of the decade.

10. Fall Out Boy

I'm doing a list of "Guilty Pleasures" as part of the Noughtie series later on, and there is a song by this artist that features. That's the only highlight though. I really can't stand this band, my apologies to a good friend who loves them. The reasoning is very similar for a lot of the bands on the list, it's the newish emo genre that got ridiculously popular in the middle of the decade. FOB don't impress me much at all, most particularly Pete Wenz who seems to care more about himself than the band. The one thing that really grinds my gears about this band? Their stupid song titles. Like, "Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued", "I've Got a Dark Alley and a Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth (Summer Song)", "I Slept with Someone in Fall Out Boy and All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me", "Get Busy Living Or Get Busy Dying (Do Your Part To Save The Scene And Stop Going To Shows)" and "I'm Like a Lawyer with the Way I'm Always Trying to Get You Off (Me & You)". I mean, what's the point? It's pathetic.

9. Avril Lavigne

I don't know what gets on my nerves about her more, the fact that she was an annoying punk wannabe or that she was a mainstream seeking punk wannabe after her first two albums. She's a pretty lady though, I wouldn't say no if I were single and she was interested, but her music still sucks. Once again there is one guilty pleasure of hers that I like, that you will find out about in that listing. Her worst moment for me? Probably her cover version of Chop Suey! Not heard it? Here you go, click here. Don't thank me.

8. My Chemical Romance

It's difficult, the past three artists on this list all have a place in my listing for my Guilty Pleasures. So if I like one song by these artists, is it hypocritical that they are in this list? Possibly. Anyway, I hate My Chemical Romance, they are just one of those bands that make me cringe when they're on. Gerard Way of course, pisses me off. Not only because I want to bang his wife, but because he doesn't deserve to (I kid, they look very happy together so I'm happy for them really).  My Chemical Romance is just a really frustrating emo band, I just don't get what's the big deal about them. How did they get to #1 in the UK? I can't really put into words why I hate them, I just do.

7. The Ting Tings

Finally, a band that isn't considered emo! This band have disappeared recently (thank god). Crap, I might have woke them up. Let's hope not. My least favourite two-piece band are just to personal taste really, you can make a case that their songs are catchy, I just find them annoying. Each to their own, I can't really say more than that.

6. Kate Nash

Another one of these pop rock breeds that are becoming a bit of a regular thing recently. The main thing I don't like is her vocals, not so much the style but her voice. There are many people to "talk" in their songs, Nick Cave is the best of them all, but Kate Nash's annoying Cockney accent that does it. It's just frustrating, and arguably talentless.

5. The Used

The Uses are dificult because I hadn't heard of them for ages, but then all of a sudden they were everywhere and everyone who liked the type of bands were like "ooh my god the Used are amazing!". They're very similar to My Chemical Romance in style, apart from they talk about self harm a lot more, which is one of my least favourite musical topics to listen to. Self harm lyrics are fine if you're trying to avoid kids doing it, but the amount of bands that do talk about it kinda has the opposite effect, and almost encourage it (not on purpose of course).

4. The Darkness

Man, I hated this band so much when they were around. Thank fuck they're not around anymore, although there is persistent rumours around that they might reunite. I hated this band with a passion when they got popular, it of course was Justin Hawkins' over-dramatic vocals, the very repetitive guitar riffs. More than anything though was the ego, Justin had too big an ego, too big that I predicted the lack of interest in their second album and their commercial flop, back in 2004. I'm happy about that, they were a one album band because their gimmick flopped immensely. Let's hope those rumours are wrong and that they stay away from the charts.

3. Panic! At the Disco

This one is a more personal dislike than a "this band sucks" dislike. My fiancée, bless her heart, got their debut album not long after its release and couldn't stop playing it. I'm not kidding, she really couldn't  stop playing it. She probably played it none stop for about 9 months I'd say. Vivi took over 9 months to be born. I liked the latter experience more. Since then however the band seem to have fallen under the radar and I probably won't hate them as much as I did back then. Still that debut album... thankfully I'm not doing a "least favourite albums listing", that's all I've got to say.

2. 30 Seconds to Mars

I like Jared Leto as an actor, he's good as a supporting actor. However I can't stand this band. The thing that gets on my nerves about him in this band? He's 39 years old, yet his music appeals to 13 year old kids who wear skinny jeans all the time. He knows this too. Why? At least the majority of emo bands or bands that appeal to emo kids are usually in their mid-twenties or younger. They sing about the problems they faced as teenagers, and these problems are the same as the problems teenagers face today. Yet this is a guy who's teenage life left him a good 20 years ago. I just don't get it. Trying to take a positive out of a negative here, I do however recommend you watch this video, for their song "A Beautiful Lie". I don't like the song at all, but this is a phenomenal video, and the cause that the video and single is for is a great one. Check it out.

1. Paramore

Here we are at #1, based on the theme of the listing it can't be much of a surprise. Paramore just piss me off because their music is just awful, Hayley Williams pisses me off just because she doesn't actually do anything interesting at all. But she has red hair! And? I can't say anything complimentary about her as a person or a singer whatsoever. The band is splitting apparently because she's getting a lot of attention but for what? Some people just aren't worth their weight in salt. I actually can't think of a single positive thing to say about this band so that's more than a good enough reason for it to be my #1.

Well that's my pessimistic listing over. I've got to be honest I didn't really enjoy writing this. I'd rather write about artists I do like and respect. But this gives you a taste about what I don't like in music I suppose. I like being positive and saying good things. Also, if you like any of these bands, that's cool, each to their own I suppose. I'll be back on Tuesday with something that interests me much more, quite possibly my favourite year of the decade, the best of the year 2001. Thanks for reading.

The Mercy Side: Gimmick and Shock Value in Music

I want to talk about something different today. I want to talk about shock value in music, and gimmicks. The most prominent term used in this field music wise is shock rock. Shock Rock is a bit of an ambiguity, some people use it as a genre label. It’s not. It’s using controversial elements, or visuals, in rock music. It’s not just used in rock music, it has, on a much rarer occasion, been used in pop music. There isn’t a coined term for it being used in pop music however.

Now I’m sure you’re wondering where I’m going with this. Well, I’m not going to tell you outright. I want you to just read on, if what I’ve been saying still interests you. I want to just talk about the history of this odd, well, label. I say label because as I said, it’s not a genre. It’s just a group of odds and sods thrown in from different genres.

Cue 1956. No, not Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel”. But another singer also made a song. His name was Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. His song, “I Put a Spell on You”. It’s now considered one of the most important rock and roll songs in our history. Unfortunately for poor Jay, Nina Simone took the song and throttled it into the charts and made it her own. Many artists have also covered it, but no one more emphatically than good ol’ Nina.

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was a complete badass. He did things no one had ever done before. He wore flashy outfits, leopard skin suits, leather, hats, he came out of coffins onstage, and he brought skulls and other voodoo related stuff on stage with him. He was a true pioneer of what is now considered “shock rock”. He was also a very good baby maker; some estimations say he has been responsible of around 55 children being born. Naughty bastard.

But how many of you know of him? I’ve known of him for a while, however I didn’t know a great deal. I knew, vaguely, he was responsible for such a cracker of a tune. I didn’t know anything else really, until recently. I want to get more from this artist, because, he just isn’t that popular. He deserves more recognition, he’s no where near as popular as someone else who is just as influential, namely Elvis Presley. Screamin’ Jay set the tone for so many artists, in his musical style, in his onstage persona. He was one fucked up dude, and unfortunately died around 10 years ago, and was a major drug user, but so are so many artists today, and in yesteryear. I’m not saying I condone that behaviour by the way.

 

So after “I Put a Spell on You”, he declined in popularity, in what wasn’t an extreme popularity in the first place. It’s not that his songs weren’t good, but that his act wasn’t getting any more attention. People were just more interested in Elvis Presley, and the boom of rock ‘n’ roll rather than some weird dude wearing weird stuff with smoke coming out of his pet skull. But some people did take note, and were influenced by this estranged man.

Cue 1964. A very young 16 year old man named Vincent Damon Furnier started a band. He couldn’t play any instruments. Neither could they. But they dressed themselves up as The Beatles and won a competition, regardless of their talentless and mimed display. This inspired Master Furnier to start a proper band. The called themselves The Spiders and played with a huge spiders web in the background. They changed their name to The Nazz afterwards, but there was already a band called Nazz. Four years after debuting as The Spiders, in 1968, they decided that they needed to work on their gimmick a bit more, come up with a better name and be more outrageous. They decided to name the band Alice Cooper, which would also be the name of the lead singer.

They toured with another band, a girlband, named GTO’s who dressed them up in makeup. They had the image, but they didn’t have the controversy. In September 1969, a chicken appeared on stage out of nowhere. Poor Alice , thinking chickens had wings and therefore could fly, threw it above the crowd. It plummeted into the first few rows and the crowd decided to tear the chicken to shreds. This made national press, across front pages. This publicity, and the moving to Detroit where people liked the sound of their music more, got them more popular.

In the early seventies their music got more popular, and their stage antics stood out more, around this time a lot of the bands were post rock ‘n’ roll/pre glam rock hippy bands, so, along with Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper was a unique gig. In ’72, out came School’s Out, which hit the UK charts at #1 and the album of the same name did fantastically well too. Alice Cooper was finally towards the top of the world, they released a few albums in succession which were commercial successes.

 

On stage in these years, the gimmick and shock rock shows were really starting to be full of fuel. Electric chairs, snakes, axes, toy babies with blood, and execution, dentists are all common themes that have been associated during this time. But the real cracker, was the decapitation of Alice Cooper, live on stage. Nothing had ever been done like that before, and none more successful since.

The tours and problems within the band took its toll in ’74 and they decided to take a hiatus. Alice Cooper performed as a solo act from this time onwards, but he has never really found any consistent success since then. He had a good re-emergence in ’89 with his hit “Poison”, but he has largely been seen has a cult act from the seventies, rather than a music legend, which is a shame, because, like Screamin’ Jay, Alice hasn’t received the consistent reception as a musician and a “shock rocker” as he should have been.

Cue 1971, a few years before Alice Cooper’s band was put on hiatus. A band was formed named Wicked Lester, who weren’t very popular. They released one album that was shelved, and two of it’s members decided it was a good idea to maybe start afresh with a new approach. They got a new drummer and a new guitarist, and decided to take a hard rock approach to their music. They decided to gimmick their band after comics, and gave all the band members names. They started wearing makeup and outfits, inspired by the surge of Alice Cooper. The makeup they used would be in relation to each character they pretended to be. Two years after Wicked Lester was originally formed, they changed their name to Kiss.

The stunts Kiss would do on stage was firebreathing, vomiting blood, playing a guitar on fire, emitted sparks on the drum kits, and many pyrotechnics. Kiss weren’t getting anywhere fast with their albums, but their live shows were eye catching and memorable. It was only until they released a double live album, two years after, in ’75,  that they got a lot of attention.

After the double album release they had a fantastic period between ’75 and ’78 where they released many platinum albums. Unfortunately in ’78, they went overboard, released four “solo” albums on the same day, and released an awful film where they were superheroes. Since then, they haven’t really been the same. They had a decent hit with the follow up album in ’79, but their album sales declined. Kiss’ live shows started off and still is the biggest attraction, as well as their image. Kiss’ cult following in it’s three year peak was unstoppable. But never were Kiss consistent, and never did they get another boom.

Cue 1989. Some young journalist in Florida had a respectable break when he started to interview bands of decent standing, the biggest being Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. This bloke ended up meeting another bloke started writing poems and lyrics, and decided, hey, let’s make a band!

So they did. Using Kiss’ approach to band making, they decided to have names for each member as well, only this time instead of names based on comic book characters, they mixed together good and evil, by having murderers names attached to famous females.

We had Olivia Newton Bundy, named after Olivia Newton John and Ted Bundy, the singer and serial killer, respectively. We also had Daisy Berkowitz, named after Daisy Duke, the character from Dukes of Hazard, and David Berkowitz, another serial killer. We had Madonna Wayne Gacy, named after pop singer Madonna, and again, serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Finally, two years later, we had Sara Lee Lucas, named after the food company Sara Lee, and Henry Lee Lucas, another serial killer.

The above formed The Spooky Kids, but that journalist we were talking about in the start? Well, he was the lead singer, he also had a name, one you’re more familiar with. He decided to call himself after Marilyn Monroe, and Charles Manson. Yes, he is Marilyn Manson.

Marilyn Manson went right off the bat and played gigs in their local area and got a quick cult following for their controversial shows. They had naked women on crosses on stage, a kid in a cage, animal parts, they wore women’s clothing, to go with their female names. They didn’t have money so instead of pyros they just set things on fire. Then in ’93, the man that Manson interviewed four years ago, Trent Reznor, picked up this band and gave them a record deal. Reznor helped their sound as a band, because without him, Manson was just a live gig, similar to Kiss, just on a smaller scale. He helped them release three albums between ’94 and ’98, with each getting more and more popular. Around this time Manson started experimenting with outfits, using more gothic style make up, also donning corsets rather than long white dresses. This change in image and improvement in music ability came to a major climax in ’96, when the release of metal anthem “The Beautiful People” got them worldwide fame.

The album that this metal anthem was released on, “Antichrist Superstar”, was full of anti-God related lyrics. Bands had used anti-religion in the past, but none anywhere near as successfully and controversially as Manson. Many church goers and churches would petition for their cities to ban Manson from gigging. The more anti-Manson Christianity became, the more anti-God Manson became, and the more publicity he got, the more popular he was.

After the release of his fourth album in 2000, Manson really dropped in popularity. His shows became stale; his music was becoming less popular. Falling out with Trent Reznor didn’t help, as he was the pioneer behind the music of the band. Manson had followed a similar road that his idols Kiss and Alice Cooper found, a boom period, then it blowing up in his face.

Which brings me to the main point in this article – Lady Gaga. What, you don’t understand why I’m mentioning her? Well look at the small profiles I mentioned above. Lady Gaga is in the same category, just singing a different genre. She is shock value, she’s not shock rock, she’s not a rock musician, but she is shock value. From Screamin’ Jay, to Alice Cooper, to Kiss, to Marilyn Manson, she is paving the way, using shock value and imagery to captivate millions of fans. She doesn’t mention any of these artists as her main inspiration, not one. But she is definitely inspired by ALL of these artists.

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. He wore flashy outfits; he was one of the establishers of the flashy outfit stage persona. Alice Cooper, the pioneer of major stage stunts. Lady Gaga recently pretended to be shot on stage in a white dress, which slowly turned blood red where the “shot wound” was. Kiss was the epitome of pyrotechnics and flashy stage props. Marilyn Manson used controversy to get where he is today, Manson wore corsets and cut his chest open on stage, Lady Gaga decides she wants to wear raw meat. Also like Manson, she chose her name based on a famous song, Manson did the same just with people.

Lady Gaga mentions David Bowie, Queen, Michael Jackson and Madonna as her main inspirations. Fine. But unlike those four, these people have had boom periods, and then failed. These four, were consistent, were global icons, and will be remembered in history. The four I talk about in good detail  are merely going to become footnotes in comparison.

Now I want to set the record straight. I don’t like Lady Gaga’s music. It’s not my thing. But I do respect her. I think she has something that not many artists have today. She’s actually a very intelligent woman. She’s wrote lyrics for many artists in her genre, before people knew who the heck she was. Then she thought, “fuck it, I’m good enough to do this myself”. She can sing, she can play instruments, she is talented. What separates her from everyone, and I do mean everyone, in her genre is that she is using shock value in her music. She is creating shock pop, basically. No one since Madonna has been able to do it, and you know something, she could surpass Madonna, if she uses her talents well enough.

And that’s a big if. The likelihood is that she will actually follow the same route as the others, she is having a boom period, but then she will depend on shock value, and lose popularity. There’s shock value, then there’s consistency. You can only shock someone by doing something once, you do it over and over again people aren’t going to be shocked. The artists above did just that. They tried the same trick two or three times, they all had different amounts of success doing it, and then declined into mediocrity.

Gaga is playing her trick on a much larger scale also. The artists I mentioned weren’t playing to a pop audience, but to a rock audience. Especially since the seventies, the divide between a rock and pop audience is more than apparent. More people like pop music, it’s a simple divide as that. If she fucks up, she will fall down from grace much harder than everyone else. Madonna, and in some ways, Kylie Minogue, are the only artists that have really had good consistency, in some ways you may include Britney Spears in that list, maybe. So yes she could be the next Madonna.

The could be the next Madonna, or, she could be the next Darkness. Yes I said it, The Darkness. Remember those? They had a similar vein of form, yes they were a rock band, but they were playing pop tunes with rock instruments. They had a brilliant time touring and selling their first album, with their Kiss and Queen inspired sets. They were shot up to the stars, and thought they would do the same with their second album. Remember that? Not many people do, actually. What was the third single of that album? I don’t know, let me check Wikipedia… hang on… there it is! It was Girlfriend! What a track!

To conclude, I wanted to get this off my chest because it’s an intriguing situation. If you use a gimmick, or shock value in music, there’s only so much you can do with it. This is after all, music. Imagery, stunts, pyrotechnics, imagination, can only get you so far, if you’re not talented or diverse enough in the music business, you can get put down quickly. Madonna has shown she is diverse enough, she used controversy, she used sex, and she is now using her “MILF” status. But she is diverse enough as a musician, and talented enough to span a career across four decades. David Bowie changed his persona many times, but he also backed it up with the music, he is one of the most important musicians in history. But Manson, Hawkins and Cooper haven’t been anywhere near as successful because they weren’t diverse enough and depended on their shock rock personas.

Lady Gaga is releasing her second album next year. Will she be able to use her talents, as well as her shock value, to continue on? Will she follow The Darkness, or Madonna? We shall find out, won’t we!

 

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