I have heard of a grand total of zero songs on Billboard's current Hot 100

The streaming services have also diversified music to the point where "Top 40" is really just another genre that overlaps one or two others. I mostly listen to alternative, and if I looked at the top 40 for it I'd probably know at least most of the acts if not most the songs. I'm sure other people are the same way with country, rap or hip hop. You can listen to a lot of music these days and not bleed over into the Top 40 genre just because it's so easy to find the others.

 

I'm not giving an impassioned defense of today's music - I know and like a couple poppy songs. The Who are my all time favorite band. Nothing else even close.

But, this is just me, I just cannot listen to Satisfaction, or Won't Get Fooled Again, or Hotel California again. I can't do it. Won't do it. I have heard them all too many times. In my adult years, after college, I listened to a couple decades of Classic Rock. And long work commutes. I finally reached a saturation point.

There are plenty of bands who probably fill your criteria making music today. Check out Florence and the Machine. Silversun Pickups. There are others. They don't make the Hot 100.

 

I know. As I've said, I do seek out new music. Just discovered a band named Goldray. Granted, their guitarist was the guitarist in Reef, who I listened to in college 20 years ago, but it's still new music.

My uncle and I had this conversation recently. He said all his friends still listen to Boston and the Eagles and so forth and so on and he just can't do it.

That said, if we don't pass it along, stuff like "Satisfaction" and so on dies with us, and that's a little daunting to think about, too.

 

I only listen to AM/FM in the car. Wouldn't spend a penny for satellite radio, and certainly wouldn't go through all the rigamarole to stream anything from a device..

 

Outing: SpeedTchr is this guy:

 

Martika. Actually liked this song, a hell of a lot more than Toy Soldiers.

Didn't realize she was a former kids' TV star as a kid.

 

I love it when a plan comes together.

That was awesome.

 

I couldn't name a single NKOTB or MV song, though I know almost all of the rest of the list. Still, I can guarantee that neither is a bigger joke than We Didn't Start the Fire.

 

Billy Joel himself says in the new RS it was meant to be a novelty song.

 

There is a treasure trove of Midnight Special performances on YouTube. What's great about them is, unlike many other music shows, these versions were really played live — not mimed — and often differed from the record.

A perfect example is this rocking, extended version of "Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac:

 

Joel takes a lot of crap for WDSTF, but you know what? It holds up pretty well, and doesn't contain anything flat out false (even if his sequencing is messed up a couple times).

And it doesn't take any editorial stances on anything.

That's actually pretty unusual in today's environment of all fake news bullshit, all the time.

 

That is awesome. New lyrics.

The young Stevie Nicks was hypnotically pretty.