September 15, 2008

Neil Diamond could totally be an Avenger

This has almost nothing to do with comics*, but you all like music, right? Right! So anyway, this week at work we've been celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Billboard Hot 100, also essentially known as the definitive American pop singles chart (when by "definitive" you mean based on radio play and sales--how this corresponds with any given person's definition of quality is clearly all over the map). It's been pretty fun because we've gotten to research and write up mini-histories of many of the iconic songs of the past 50 years, plus Chubby Checker hung out last week ("The Twist" topped the all-time list).

Besides writing up several of the blurbs you can find here, I wrote about how ladies totally commanded the chart's No. 1 spot in the 1990s, despite the perceived reign of angsty boys like Kurt and Eddie. It was a surprising discovery, and obviously a pleasant one except for the part where I've had Wilson Phillips in my head for a week and a half. So, uh, sorry about that. Also sorry about the chuckleheads who choose to post comments on Billboard.com re: their perceptions of the validity of the various lists--no matter how much info is posted about methodology explaining that the lists come from solid quantitative factors for one particular chart, they still can't imagine why "Macarena" would be included while epically awesome masterpieces like "Personal Jesus" get the shaft.

*Here's what it has to do with comics--I wrote the Billboard.com blurb for "I'm A Believer," and the Monkees had a comic book once.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Because Macarena is a far, far, far, far better song.

Evie said...

I'm not speaking my own mind, just quoting the yahoos who comment online--90% are complaints that there is not nearly enough Depeche Mode, Cure, or Bruce Springsteen (yeah, I don't know why it's those three). But anyway, you don't actually think that, you're just saying that to noodle me.