Twisted Sister’s Stay Hungry is being reissued, the latest example of getting every piece of pop music every made back out there before the recorded-music industry goes tits-up, and the press release about the new version touts the fact that “We’re Not Gonna Take It” was a member of the Filthy Fifteen. That was a list of songs put together in 1985 by the Parents’ Music Resource Council, the group of moms who were pretty much the driving force behind the now-ubiquitous “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics” stickers on albums deemed too hot for young ears; they put together a playlist of songs that in their mind glorified sex, drugs, and violence in such a way that one had to conclude that The Pop Music Was Killing Our Kids. Given that “We’re Not Gonna Take It” seems positively benign right now, I decided to remind myself of the list’s other contents. The artists whose songs were cited fall into two categories for the most part: Heavy metal bands and people who worked with Prince, including the man himself. All 15–complete with some filthy-in-85, safe-for-work now clips–after the jump! More »
What were the 80 most important musical recordings, artists, trends, events, and performances of 2008? What were the eight things this year that broke our hearts—or, at least, our ears? We’re happy to announce 80 ’08 (and Heartbreak), Idolator’s year-end overview. The list is below the jump.
Back when Continuum first announced its 33 1/3 series of short books about classic rock albums, I imagined a veritable explosion of styles and critical approaches that might emerge. Well, not exactly: though the series has included some fiction and some formal experiments, many of the books follow the same basic paths of close-reading, autobiography, or an ungainly combination thereof. But 2008’s crop includes what may be the two best titles the series will ever release—one is fiction, while the other combines close reading, autobiography, and a bit of formal experiment.
When Ozzy Osbourne declared himself “the prince of fucking darkness” on a 2002 episode of The Osbournes, he may as well have simultaneously relinquished the title. The MTV hit quickly dissolved 30 years’ worth of mystique and danger as it revealed him to be in reality a doddering old family man. But when Ozzy rose to fame in the ’70s, every other rock star had an interest in the occult (or at least Hobbits), and heavy metal was still genuinely thought of as the province of Satanists, not nerdy gearheads. But who could be pop music’s reigning prince of darkness in the era of rock star transparency, when every famous musician has a whiny MySpace blog? Since it’s Halloween, we decided to think of a few options:
As part of Idolator’s continuing effort to geekily analyze every music chart known to man, we present a new edition of Project X, in which Michaelangelo Matos breaks down top-ten lists from every genre imaginable. In this special Oct. 10 edition of his column–it is 10/10, after all–he breaks down some of the worst lyrics to reach the airwaves of British radio.
Ozzy claims he was shocked by Tony Blair griping about his inability to play “Iron Man” during a prime minsterial audience a few years back while “there’s a war going on.” As someone who also thinks about Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne when he’s supposed to be working, I understand. More »
Ozzy claims he was shocked by Tony Blair griping about his inability to play “Iron Man” during a prime minsterial audience a few years back while “there’s a war going on.” As someone who also thinks about Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne when he’s supposed to be working, I understand. More »
