and don't let my misspelling of your first name dissuade you.

Stephen- Finally! I've been checking in every day for at least two weeks in anticipation of your latest "We're #1" entry. Keep 'em coming in 2012, man!

I along with most of my friends fell in and out of love with 'The Doors' during my Sophmore year of High School. It was that pre-Nirvana period of the early 90s when popular radio was so aesthetically bankrupt that anyone who cared about music, and wasn't quite cool enough for the Pixies-listening college radio…

Actually, you wouldn't be familiar with this comment's immediate influences. They're mostly German.

I believe White Zombie also owes its career success to Beavis and Butthead.

it was a long forgotten late-90s phenomenon known as "The Dawsons Creek effect"

bad senior prom flashback. the horror… the horror…

That makes me think of another one— "Dear God" by XTC. How the hell did that ever hit the Top 40?

the popularity of moody/faggy synthpop was one of the few redeemable thing about pop music in the 80s. Remember, that was also the decade when Depeche Mode, the Cure, Information Society and Love & Rockets topped the charts.

How about that Mumford & Sons song that inexplicably charted last year? The band kind of sounds like a spit-shined version of the Pogues, but seeing them on the VH1 Top 40 countdown couched between the latest mass-apathy offerings from Sara Bareilles and Bruno Mars was jarryingly surreal.

My top choice would be Swedish singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche. He's perhaps best known for penning the soundtrack for "Dan in Real Life", but he has consistently put out great albums  since the early-2000s. I'll even go on record as saying that "You Know So Well"; a standout track from his first album, is the closest…

It was an idea that likely had some type of quirky merit on paper, but everything that came out of it was a flat-out embarrasment to everyone involved. For one thing, the character looked like a guy who churches hire to lead worship services when they're trying to appeal to "youth" culture. Second, that faux-'Behind…

I find it interesting that artists like Brooks (along with Tim McGraw and Brad Paisley), who clearly appeal to the red state corner of the cultural divide, are some of the biggest champions of liberal causes within the musical community. Brooks, in fact, was out in front on gay rights before the issue became…

"Pour Some Sugar on Me" is as vital to the summer of '88 as 7-UP Gold, Captain EO, the Louis Brooks-esque hottie in the "Father Figure" video, "no new taxes!", ripped acid wash cut-offs, "warrior needs food badly", Gotcha! t-shirts, Jose Canseco's roid-fueled run for 40/40, AquaNet, the image of Michael Dukakis…