Pop Culture. Crude Humor. Bottom Feeding Attempts at Intellectualism.
I was lucky enough to have had a cool dad. A really cool dad. The kind of dad who would help you smuggle contraband rock albums into the house and help you hide them from Mom. The kind of dad who knew you couldn't afford action figures, so he'd make awesome, handmade paper dolls of your favorite cartoon characters. The kind of dad who made ...
It's a tale old as time: Perfect pop princes reap the benefit of hit songs that, upon closer examination, would make you think twice about accepting a drink from them. By contrast, when metal bands like Steel Panther, GWAR, or The Mentors write blatantly and hilariously perverse songs, some listeners who aren't in on the joke wind up clutching their proverbial pearls. It's a vicious double ...
President Barack Obama should consider himself fortunate that VH1 did not tabulate the votes on November 6th, 2012. If so, there would have undoubtedly been some ballot box manipulation and abject partiality as displayed by the network's glaring denial of the people's choice where it concerned the "America's Hard 100" countdown. Over 34% of fans who voted on VH1's website cast their ballot for goth metal ...
I've long maintained that as a culture, we are a people who listen only to the chorus and not the verse -- the real meat and potatoes of a song beyond the catchy refrain. That's all well and good when you're driving down the freeway singing "Now you're just somebody that I used to know" or "Yeah. / Uh-huh. You know what it is / ...
Despite '80s fashion making a comeback in the 2010s, for every stunning floral blazer or peplum skirt that has reappeared, there are some fashion trends best left in moth balls. Music videos of the 1980s serve as a fine guide as to what not to wear when attempting to choose a modern ensemble with an '80s flair. Surprisingly, some of the best (or worst) examples ...
In a recent installment, I ran down a list of unintentionally hilarious moments in hair metal history. At the time, I wrongly assumed that accidental humor was the sole proprietorship of rock videos made between 1985 and 1995. Now, it's 2012 and seminal pop metal band Van Halen not only resurrected David Lee Roth as their lead singer, but they've also brought back unintentional humor in ...
Welcome back for Part 2 of a four-part series on (as the title suggests) "Objects I Have Been Hit In the Head With." This next object made contact with my head a year and a half after the previous one (a vintage 1970s stacked heel boot). And believe you me, this next object was a good deal heavier and a lot scarier than being clobbered ...
Once upon a time, I used to be a music journalist. While I never lost my puppy-like enthusiasm for writing in general, my fervor for writing about music fizzled. Oddly enough, this was the thing that brought me to the dance. Picture it: Late December back in '63... Scratch that. It was late December 2006, four years since I had graduated from Temple University with Honors and a ...
I make no bones about the fact that I love the hair bands of the '80s. Yes, I know it's cheesy and "uncool" to claim allegiance to the memory of a time when dudes used more Aqua Net in a five-year span than I will use in a lifetime. Although I still find myself rokken to Dokken with greater frequency than most, sometimes, you can’t just ...
September 2nd, 2011 marked the last day that Philadelphia's 94.1 WYSP was "The Rock Station." Recently, an article in the Philadelphia Business Journal announced that Philly's AM band sports talk radio station, 610 WIP, would be taking over the 94.1 FM frequency. The takeover would be an effort to compete with Philly's other dual-band sports radio station, 97.5 FM The Fanatic (which is virtually a ...
