Almost there. Guess I’ll go with Weezer as the one I dislike the least.
I voted for Coldplay.
And man, fuck Seether. Why did they have to be the SA export to hit it big? It’s embarrassing.
Another year where the songs on this list don’t have much of an overlap with the stuff I remember my local indie station playing.
The only songs I remember are the Coldplay and Kings of Leon songs, and I wouldn’t vote for either of them.
On the expanded list, I see some of the ‘missing’ songs. There’s Vampire Weekend, but I don’t recognize their one song on the list. Where’s “The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance” in particular? Where’s Michael Franti & Spearhead (“Say Hey” in particular)? Where’s Delta Spirit’s “Trashcan”?
Some of the songs I remember that did make the expanded list: M.I.A.'s “Paper Planes” (by March 2009, when we’d filled out a mountain of paperwork and made three round trips to Russia to adopt the Firebug, my variant was “I’m tired of papers and flying on planes”), MGMT’s “Time to Pretend,” Modest Mouse’s “Dashboard,” and a few others that I liked, and a bunch that I wasn’t crazy about: the 2008 Death Cab songs seemed like leftovers compared to their much better songs that had gotten airplay in 2007, there’s far too much Jack Johnson, etc.
So if in the last thread I defended why we’re still seeing rock songs in these yearly charts and not the alt/indie stuff everyone longs for… well, this year is a good example of why rock disappeared. Seether had a decent CD or two, but that one wasn’t it. Puddle of Mudd, ugh. Post-peak Foo Fighters, post-peak Offspring, post-peak Weezer, post-peak and pre-Aaron-Lewis-country Staind. Coldplay and Kings of Leon as harbingers of our alternative future. All the good rock on the extended list is holdovers from '07 and even '06.
Back against the wall, I guess I take sub-optimal Foo Fighters over sub-optimal Offspring. This is the first year where the rock was bad enough that I almost voted for Coldplay.
Alternative songs from 2008 I liked (not on the list):
Jay Reatard - Always Wanting More
Bob Mould - The Silence Between Us
MGMT - Electric Feel
The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement
The Indelicates - Our Daughters Will Never Be Free
Cajun Dance Party - The Race
No Age - Eraser
Crystal Castles - Vanished
Don’t know most of these songs, but from what I’ve heard the Kings of Leon rock (though Kiros apparently disagrees), so went with them, though I barely know that particular song (“Crawl” is my favorite of theirs – from 2010, I think.)
I actually kind of like what I’ve heard from Kings of Leon! But if you’re listening to radio in 2008, you’re hearing them on “Boston’s Best Alternative”, not “Boston’s Rock Station”. That’s the only distinction I was really trying to make: those two stations get stuck under the same charts, but they were completely different playlists through most of the '00s, at least in the various East Coast cities I lived in through that decade. No value judgment intended between the two (other than the completely intended judgment of how poor the new tracks were for “Boston’s Rock Station” in 2008, despite still dominating said charts).
At the time I didn’t really hear many of the songs listed (either the #1 or the also-rans), as we only got an over-the-air radio Modern Rock station back via WRXP 101.9 in early 2008, and they (IIRC) mostly played 90s and early 2000s Modern/Alt rock.
I’m also beginning to question Playlist Research’s compilation methodology as we approach the current year - Modest Mouse, Muse, and Franz Ferdinand - yes, Modern Rock; Social Distortion - sure, why not; Guns and Roses - “Chinese Democracy” - um, really now? Katy Perry - “I Kissed A Girl” - say what?!? “New Wave” influence indeed - oh, whatever :rolleyes:
For the heck of it, I checked the wiki entry for Billboard top Modern Rock songs of 2014, and I am happy to report that the wiki entry editors follow the Max Headroom “20 minutes into the future” maxim to the fullest and so we know the top Modern Rock song for the last week of December 2014 is the Foo Fighters’ “Something for Nothing” :dubious:
This is the year I stopped listening to K-ROQ in L.A, which plays most of these songs. Now I only remember the Coldplay and Kings of Leon songs, I voted for the former in the 2008 pop songs, and I won’t vote for the latter.
I’ll listen tonight and cast a vote after fairly judging each single.
So I gave all the Billboard Modern Rock #1s a listen (and view via YouTube, where I also learned over and over that “Horses love carrots!” thanks to that #Lets Talk Toys ad :mad:).
Lots of humorous videos it seems (Give Weezer’s “Pork & Beans” YouTube-Meme Collection the nod for best, although the Foo Fighter’s mock '70s Soap Opera “Long Road to Ruin” gives it a run for the money - alas, PoM’s “Pyscho” video falls flat).
As for the music, except for Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” and to an extent Weezer…the songs were all sounding much the same of a sameness. Nothing else really jumps out, so Coldplay gets the nod.
No wonder Playlist Research included “Guns and Roses” in their Modern Rock list, in retrospect - why not, it’s not wildly different from the others.
But sorry - Katy Perry’s “Kissed A Girl” firmly belongs in Pop-Land with Britney and Lady Gaga (unless we’re now including them as Modern Rock :smack:).
Not a good list, having listened to them now. Coldplay beats them all in a long mile. But I voted for it before so I decided to give to Puddle of Mudd, next best thing. Alternative rock really tanked in the late 2000’s.