Best Songs of the Last 25 Years, My Ass
The nefarious and glib Aaron, apparent conscript of The Big Jake, has alerted me to the already notorious VH1 List of 100 Greatest Songs From the Past 25 Years (He also commented on the 100 Greatest Songs of Country, but as I noted yesterday, my opinion is moot in that area.)

Clearly, this list has been compiled by those who are attempting to please fans from every genre that exists today, and when you try to please everyone, what you end up doing is failing miserably. I cannot think of any list that should have Bruce Springsteen and the Sugar Hill Gang in it, much less Hanson. Of course, I'm sure there are those out there who consider it a great affront that, somehow, VH1 managed to pick Nirvana as having the greatest song of the last 25 years as number one. Now, I'm a fan of Nirvana, and I think that sound was indeed the groundbreaking song of the 90's (I remember where I was the first time I heard it, and it was electric), but I don't necessarily think it was the 'greatest song'.

Of course, that begs the question: How is a 'greatest song' chosen? Well, unfortunately, VH1's criteria defines nebulous:

From "Smells Like Teen Spirit" to "My Heart Will Go On," every song on the list has helped define the past 25 years. Not only are we going to show you the best of the past 25 years but we’re going to tell you why and who says.

[Read: Any pop star who was handy we asked who they liked.] That is utterly useless. There are far too many things to critique on this list. Why the hell is "Sweet Child O' Mine" from Guns 'n Roses on in the top five but "Paradise City" didn't even make the list? Where the hell are the "alternative" bands, such as The Cure, Depeche Mode, The Smiths (e.g., "Just Like Heaven," "Personal Jesus", "How Soon is Now?" to name a few songs that absolutely deserve to be on this list)?

The bottom line is there are far too many things wrong with the this list to even start (kind of like listing the ways a car is not an airplane). Time to work out my aggression on some hapless intern.

Update: VH1 has removed the entire list. However, it can be found elsewhere.