==================================== { 672nd Place } [90's][ 167th Place] Song: "Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely" Band: Backstreet Boys Album: Millennium ---{ 1999 }--- Genre: Pop Score:[7.3][6.1][6.2][9.3][7.2][6.3][9.1] = [51.5] = [7.357] Video:
Write-Up: What a year 1999 was for many genres including plain Pop. As much as I don't like the genre as a whole, there are sadly many examples I have to appreciate. Boy bands had somewhat re-surged and the Backstreet Boys were enjoying plenty of success at this point in their careers with Millennium possibly becoming their greatest selling album. I never owned a copy and that's the truth but that didn't stop me from getting overexposed to the band. It seemed like most of the girls I even had an interest in, owned and were listening to this album. There are a few other songs of theirs that could have ended up in this ranking but I must have subconsciously left any more of them out. This is unfortunately all you get from me if you are a Backstreet fan. ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
Write-Up: Gotta drop another one from my wife's favorite artist atm. It's not really my thing but I can appreciate that Ed Sheeran is a good lyricist. The message is sappy to me but significant to people of all sorts. I always think of that Marvin Gaye song "Let's Get It On" and consider this somewhat of a sequel to that. Rhythmically it is a perfect sequel to the song of course since they pretty much use the same beat progression. Sheeran puts a little bit of his own spin on it of course but it seems to work quite well. This was the 3rd of 5 total Ed Sheeran songs to drop and my wife tells me I better have one in the Top 100 or our relationship will be in jeopardy lol. She's joking of course but I may have to disappoint her all the same. ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
Write-Up: I always remembered this as a child in my dreams as if I'd heard it a million times while asleep in my playpen or something. It may very well have been something that my mother would have listened to while I was a toddler. I can't believe these guys have cranked out so many albums though. Definitely a group of folks who liked to make music and probably still do tbh. I may have quoted it in the last Chicago ranking but I think they have over 30 albums or so. I can't recall exactly atm. I think I may have acquired this album on tape back in the day. Anyway, not much to say here really. Just popping on to push out some rankings before hitting the hay. Hopefully I get at least 5 posted tonight! :p ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
Write-Up: I guess this song was originally written to be a "teeny bopper" song as Stacy Lattisaw who was 11 years old at the time was supposed to sing it. I don't know who the heck she is but I'd probably be saying the same thing about Anita Ward if she hadn't gotten the opportunity to sing this song instead. It ended up being the only thing she became famous for as the song topped the charts. Anita received a nomination for Best Female Vocalist at the 1980 Grammy Awards. Collette who was an Australian singer tried to make success with covering the song in 1989 but it failed to get any attention anywhere but in Australia and New Zealand. ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
Write-Up: At the forefront of what can really be considered modern Dance Pop we had Christina Aguilera breaking the mold with this tune that rocketed to success in 1999/2000. It's kind of interesting to look at the video now though as back then she was considered to have major sex appeal but she did it without showing tons of skin and wearing bizarre or risque clothing like you see as kind of mandatory in today's Dance Pop videos. I kind of miss the decency although I am definitely not complaining about the videos Britney Spears has made for our entertainment over the years lol. :P Anyway, I dig the beat and the tune is slightly catchy and it always takes me straight back to high school when I hear it. ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
Write-Up: If it's one thing Justin Timberlake is good at it's making decent beats. I'm not all that big into his vocal style but it certainly has made his bank account larger (I'm assuming). Of course he's right into some impressive dance choreography that he can probably thank *N-Sync for. I wonder how the rest of the group felt about Justin's breakout success when he went solo. I gotta be honest when the boy band hit the scene and Justin was sporting his bleach blonde micro-fro, I never expected him to become the most valuable member. For some reason when I think of Timberlake now the most prominent thing I think of is an old episode of Punk'd where Ashton Kutcher brings in a faux team of repossession professionals that start emptying his house. They actually had Justin convinced that he was going bankrupt so I thought it was kinda funny. ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
Write-Up: Oooh, what an interesting outcome for the 666th placement in the ranking. This is the 7th Nu Metal song to make an appearance and it is the 3rd Papa Roach song to drop. The song is from the best Papa Roach album imo and I'll say that a few more times I think. I really love the main guitar riff but the vocals become an acquired listening interest as they really don't mesh 100% with the tempo of the song imo. Papa Roach has never really been stellar with the vocals but they do carry a rather unique sound despite that fact. Sadly, I only included 1 more Papa Roach song in the ranking but at least it won't come up for a little bit. ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
Write-Up: Yay with this ranking we'll finally be at the Top 100 songs from the 2010's. Unfortunately though... it's another nomination down for you azuarc. I think that leaves you with 2 remaining nominations if I'm not mistaken. You were definitely cheesed out of some placements because of the unfamiliarity category so keep an eye out for that list I'll be dropping after the ranking to see how this does. I gotta say though that even with the small amount of listening experience I have for this song it isn't something that I'd really ever rank high there anyway since it isn't something that I'd listen to extensively. I do love certain aspects about Symphonic Metal but the vocals here bring the excitement down for me a little bit. I really kinda prefer Symphonic Metal the most in Instrumental form. You should check out Battle Against a True Hero by FalKKonE on youtube if you want to see what I consider a perfect Symphonic Metal instrumental. ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
Write-Up: Oy... there is definitely a certain amount of cringe factor that comes with this song for me when I see the video. All three of the dudes in the video look too manly and creepy for the vocals that I'm hearing lol. It was certainly weird in the 70's when a lot of groups didn't think about the fact that their performances would eventually make it worldwide with the future of the internet. I don't really get what an abandoned building has to do with the song but the trio here dances around it like it means something to the song so if anyone knows more about that I'm curious. Anyway, the beat brought the group more success than they could handle almost overnight. The song was released exclusively for the Saturday Night Fever Original Soundtrack and both the movie and the band saw a certain amount of shared success because of the union. The song made it onto Rolling Stone's Top 500 songs of all time list. ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
Write-Up: Here is a collaboration that is kinda disappointing to me. I like a lot of Eminem's stuff and have a certain affinity for Rihanna so I kinda expected this song to be much more... I dunno... more than I expected I guess. I do like the vocals and lyrics ok but the chorus at the decibels of Rihanna don't quite pair with the tonality of Marshal's rapping imo. This song does however bump 2013 over the 5 point mark which is kinda significant at this point since there are still 4 years out of the current decade still below 5 points with only 100 songs remaining from the category. Em and Rihanna do team up again in "Love the way you Lie" and I often confuse or mix the 2 songs together for some reason. ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
==================================== { 662nd Place } [80's][ 155th Place] Song: "Born In Te U.S.A." Band: Bruce Springsteen Album: Born In The U.S.A. ---{ 1984 }--- Genre: Rock Score:[8.2][8.2][4.2][6.3][7.3][8.2][9.2] = [51.6] = [7.371] Video:
Write-Up: I know a few Springsteen fans that always laude over the Boss and this song but to be perfectly honest... I kinda hate the song. I suppose it's a mix of overexposure and a disliking for the raspy vocals but I don't like how pretentious it seems on the surface. My first impression tells me that the song is about pride to be an american but for anyone who knows what the song is actually about, it's definitely not about pride. The song was written about the negative response our troops received after coming home from Vietnam which makes the statement "I was born in the U.S.A." more of a plea for acceptance despite what our government enlisted them to do. The song is probably one of the top 3 songs Bruce built his fame on even though it comes from his 7th studio album. ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
==================================== { 661st Place } [80's][ 154th Place] Song: "No Easy Way Out" Band: Robert Tepper Album: Rocky IV ---{ 1985 }--- Genre: Rock Score:[8.3][8.3][6.2][9.2][7.3][6.1][6.2] = [51.6] = [7.371] Video:
Write-Up: Not my favorite theme made famous by the Rocky series but it's a pretty good anthem from the 80's anyway. I'm kinda not too surprised that we are still over 50 songs from the Top 100 80's tunes since I'm literally a child of the 80's (born in 1980) and the decade shaped my interests to the core since it was all I really knew growing up when my brain was the most impressionable. Other than the 70's tunes I heard occasionally coming out of my older brother's room that I didn't always like, I basically only heard 80's all the time since it was the only thing my mother ever really played on the home stereo system we had. What's funny is this song actually served the purpose of pumping up the ambition since the stereo usually only got used during chore time daily. I guess it was my mother's motivational tool of sorts because I don't recall her ever listening to much music any other time. ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
==================================== { 660th Place } [80's][ 153rd Place] Song: "Broken Wings" Band: Mr. Mister Album: Welcome To The Real World ---{ 1985 }--- Genre: Pop Rock Score:[9.2][8.2][4.2][8.3][4.2][7.2][10.3] = [51.6] = [7.371] Video:
Write-Up: I guess we are on an 80's kick atm as another drops from the decade here. I remember this song pretty well from my childhood though as I played in my room with my GI Joes and Ninja Turtles that had just come out not too long before then. It was really one of the best of the best songs back in the day and got frequent airtime on a variety of radio stations from Easy Listening, Soft Rock, Contemporary and of course Pop Rock themed stations. I don't know much else from the band and I have always considered this tune a one-hit-wonder so that probably interfered with my interest in checking out any of their other work tbh. If you spent the first 10 years of your life in the 80's the term "One-hit wonder" is almost a genre to you (or at least imo that's how it feels lol). ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
Write-Up: Gdamnit I hate this song for reasons! Well... just one reason actually. As you can see below I feel like there is a better version. The only version in my eyes! See, I heard Word Crimes first and actually enjoyed it immensely until one day I decided to rank 1,300 songs and I came across some douche named Robin Thicke who ruined my appreciation for the song. Actually I wasn't phased and Weird Al's version is still the only one that exists in my reality lol. I know the words by heart and love the writing. It really is genius imo. So basically screw this version of the song and just listen to Word Crimes.
Best Version IMO: Weird Al Yankovic - Mandatory Fun - 2014
Write-Up: This song gives me an immense amount of anxiety for some reason. Not sure if there is a reason for that but in 1994 I was entering middle school and going through some things with my mother. We weren't getting along too well and to make a long story short, several months later I would emancipate myself from her legal responsibilities as a parent and sought legal guardianship elsewhere on my own. So... I guess that there might be the reason I get anxious. Who knows. They did overplay this on the radio around that time and a lot of my other childhood memories involving my mother seem to trigger when it comes to music so it makes sense I suppose. ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
I think that leaves you with 2 remaining nominations if I'm not mistaken. You were definitely cheesed out of some placements because of the unfamiliarity category so keep an eye out for that list I'll be dropping after the ranking to see how this does.
I was just trying to look for some songs I really liked that weren't going to be on your auto-includes. As long as you enjoyed the tracks, I did my job. ---
VGMC13 champion: Ar Nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
I think that leaves you with 2 remaining nominations if I'm not mistaken. You were definitely cheesed out of some placements because of the unfamiliarity category so keep an eye out for that list I'll be dropping after the ranking to see how this does.
I was just trying to look for some songs I really liked that weren't going to be on your auto-includes. As long as you enjoyed the tracks, I did my job.
I have quite enjoyed the nominations thus far. It's kinda fun to analyze new material and stack it against my preferences. I am pretty surprised that there are nominations remaining and very curious just how high up the list someone can make it. There are still plenty of great tunes left. ---
"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
Write-Up: Sometimes I find this song a bit difficult to listen to. The additional twang in the guitar strings can be rough on the melody receptors if you know what I mean. This song screams early 90's though for sure and has an obvious amateur-ish vibe to it imo. I know Beck had a couple of other hits but he wasn't an artist I really paid much attention to when he became famous. I remember hearing this a lot while riding the bus home after school for some reason. Our bus driver was one of the cool ones and actually played our local Top 40 hit station every day both to and from school. It's interesting to recall how surrounded I was by music growing up in almost every situation I was in.lol ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
==================================== { 656th Place } [70's][ 73rd Place] Song: "Wish You Were Here" Band: Pink Floyd Album: Wish You Were Here ---{ 1975 }--- Genre: Classic Rock Score:[8.2][8.2][7.1][8.3][8.3][5.3][6.3] = [51.7] = [7.385] Video:
Write-Up: Sorry Johnbobb, you're gonna be upset with this one. This is without a doubt a masterpiece to many of the band's fans and you can't really not feel the chill vibes the way the melody meanders across the guitar here. In the right mood a good listen is an emotional trip through melancholic bliss. However... the song sort of aged based on the number of times I've heard it over the years and now I struggle with the pacing a little bit. It's definitely one of my favorites from Pink Floyd if I'm being honest but unfortunately it didn't rank high enough to make the top half of the ranking. Don't worry though, it won't be the final Pink Floyd song in this ranking; there is still one more to go. ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
==================================== { 655th Place } [70's][ 72nd Place] Song: "Close To You" Band: The Carpenters Album: Close To You ---{ 1970 }--- Genre: Soft Rock Score:[8.3][9.2][6.3][6.3][3.3][8.1][10.2] = [51.7] = [7.385] Video:
Write-Up: If there are any major Simpsons fans reading, this is gonna pop to you right away. It has of course become known as Marge & Homer's theme/wedding song on the show. It symbolizes the love they have for each other no matter how many times they struggle and can be heard in several episodes. It was a hit on the charts and instantly made The Carpenters as famous as they would ever be. I dig it because as I've said a bunch of times, I'm a big Piano fan. I don't really have much else to say about the band unfortunately. I don't think I have ever owned a Carpenters album but I think my mother did have a record when I was younger. ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
Write-Up: Not really a big fan here of this tune but it was prominent in my life because of a friend of mine that was obsessed with the song. I can recall so many times we partied and he had this blasting out of the stereo. It's catchy in a dance setting but not comforting to listen to really anywhere else imo. I get the appeal but it isn't lasting for my interest. I did actually own a 50 Cent cd once though. I got it in a stack of BMG discs once upon a time. I don't think I ever opened it though and eventually gave it away to a co-worker. ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
==================================== { 653rd Place } [80's][ 152nd Place] Song: "Careless Whisper" Band: George Michael Album: Make It Big ---{ 1984 }--- Genre: Pop Jazz Score:[9.3][8.3][6.2][7.3][2.3][8.2][10.2] = [51.8] = [7.4] Video:
Write-Up: This is somewhat of an iconic tune imo. Many folks can immediately recognize the saxophone bit and the best thing I like about it is this weird dude with a mullet known as "sexy sax man" on youtube that has walked into a variety of mall food courts and restaurants shirtless playing the main riff of this song over and over and over lol. It's certainly not my favorite song to come out of 1984 but it is one of the most familiar imo. Here is one of the videos in case you are interested:
==================================== { 652nd Place } [70's][ 71st Place] Song: "No Sugar Tonight" Band: The Guess Who Album: American Woman ---{ 1970 }--- Genre: Hard Rock Score:[9.3][8.3][6.3][7.2][6.2][4.3][10.2] = [51.8] = [7.4] Video:
Write-Up: I remember when I was younger and I didn't know there was a difference between The Who and The Guess Who. Did anyone else ever think this? Anyway, Im not sure how this song made it higher than some of the other 70's tunes I've dropped so far since I'm really not that much of a fan. I'm a little confused on the beat and hook scores I gave here since it clearly isn't that fantastic. I must have been in a particular place mentally when I originally scored this because I was awfully generous in hindsight... or perhaps maybe I actually ranked Lenny Kravitz's "American Woman" accidentally (which didn't appear in the ranking btw). I "Guess" I'll never know now. ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
==================================== { 651st Place } [70's][ 70th Place] Song: "The Battle Of Evermore" Band: Led Zeppelin Album: Led Zeppelin IV ---{ 1971 }--- Genre: Folk Score:[8.3][9.3][6.3][9.3][8.2][5.3][5.3] = [52] = [7.428] Video:
Write-Up: With this ranking we will officially be half way through the reveal. 650 songs down and 650 to go. I'm expecting the 2nd half to at least go faster than the first and I kinda gotta wrap this up before midnight on December 31st anyway for reasons. This is an epic tune though and it really should be higher but there are a few reasons why it isn't. Even though I like folk music I tend to not prefer anything that is too Celtic sounding or redundant in tone. It didn't do too well on the charts but Billboard wasn't that old by the early 70's (1958 for the Top 100) so there could have been some data-lapse imo. The album sold pretty well though and has become on of Zeppelin's more popular collections of song. I actually think most of the songs I included in this ranking were right from the same album. ====================================
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
The worst thing that could possibly happen for this ranking has come to pass.
I will be unable to complete the ranking. I have unfortunately lost my flash drive. In 10+ years, I have never misplaced my flash drive but only 3 days ago it happened. I had a backup, or so I thought, that I attempted to make a couple of months ago but when I put the drive in my laptop it asked if I wanted to install the driver like it was the first time it had ever been used. That's when heavy depression set in.
Folks, I cried real man tears. I had over 10 years worth of project stuff plus family photos, music and some movies on that drive. The other thing it had was all of the lists, documents and the spreadsheet containing the rest of this ranking.
I could take a year or so and possibly put together a list of the remaining 650 songs but it wouldn't likely be the same so instead I must unfortunately concede and chalk this up as a project failure. It is a heavy disappointment on my conscience to give up since that really isn't my MO but I think this is still one of the larger Board 8 rankings as it is so I can live with the attempt.
I still have plans for the NES Chiptune ranking that'll be a few thousand tunes so I'm hoping to still snatch that record.
There was a tiny bit if luck and I was a little bit relieved when I found an old backup that I had made in April of 2015. It feels weird to be set back by almost 5 years but at least I have something and I got most of the family photos back. I'm lucky that this is the only topic that will be affected since I have posted updates in the BB7 topic that I can copy.
I do apologize for the disappointment if there were many of you following and I hope this doesn't keep you from visiting any of my other topics in the future. Thank you for following.
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter
