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Earlier this week, an article popped up in my newsfeed that caught my attention.
Titled “The 100 Greatest Rock Songs of the Century… So Far”, it ran down the best tracks of the 2000s and 2010s as chosen by the staff of Louder Sound. It’s quite a list, and if you’ve got a couple of hours to spend listening to some great tunes, I’d recommend having a read of it in full.
For the time being, though, here is the top 20:
20. Muse - Supermassive Black Hole
19. Red Hot Chili Peppers - By The Way
18. Rival Sons - Keep On Swinging
17. The Struts - Kiss This
16. Motorhead - Life's A Bitch
15. Green Day - American Idiot
14. Slash featuring Andrew Stockdale - By The Sword
13. The Wildhearts - Diagnosis
12. Clutch - Electric Worry
11. ZZ Top - I Gotsa Get Paid
10. Queens Of The Stone Age - No One Knows
9. Iron Maiden - Blood Brothers
8. Audioslave - Cochise
7. Velvet Revolver - Slither
6. Rush - Caravan
5. The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
4. Foo Fighters - Best Of You
3. Alter Bridge - Blackbird
2. AC/DC - Rock N Roll Train
1. The Darkness - I Believe In A Thing Called Love
After a while of reading and re-reading this list, I gave up trying to weigh up the merits and demerits of the selections and whether or not they truly were the “greatest.” Ultimately, it’s impossible to qualify that, given the subjectivity of these things. Besides, I loved so many of the songs on the list in equal measure, I found it way too difficult to rank them.
But, it did get me to wondering; what are the tracks that have really impacted me in the past twenty years? Which songs have ear wormed their way through my brain and made me truly grateful for the existence of guitar-based music.
In no particular order, I’ve decided to share a couple of my favourites that didn’t make it onto Louder Sound’s list:
Jared James Nichols – Nails in the Coffin
So those are just a couple of mine (that probably betray my love for classic sounding hard rock, but there ya go!).
But I want to know what yours are. Which songs have spoken to you over the past two decades? Doesn’t have to be rock. Doesn’t even have to be guitar based. It can be unsigned local bands you dig, or major stadium fillers.
Whatever’s been speaking to you, we want to know about it! So as always, share your stories in the comments section.
Oh, and hey, if you want to use this thread to promote your own music, we won’t hold that against ya either!
So, what do Keith Richards, Charlie Starr, Robert Johnson, Joni Mitchell, Rich Robinson and Lowell George all have in common? They all play differently, work in different genres, and are even generations apart... The common element is that they’ve tuned their guitars to Open G. This is one of the more common open tunings there are and provides a great starting point for those who want to experiment with something beyond standard tuning. It’s also fun for those who want to try and play slide guitar.
The Motown Sound. Everybody knows what it is. Even if you don’t know what it is, you’ve certainly heard it. You’ve heard it with Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, The Four Tops, Little Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Martha and the Vandellas, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, and The Jackson 5, among many, many others.
