Round two changes it up. We’re mixing regions, and getting as many guest bloggers as we can muster. Additionally, we reduced the video count from five to three…but it’s ALL live. Seth and I are of the opinion that if you’re going to be great, you have to be able to reproduce your material live.
Our first guest blogger is Hilary Thomas, who took on the task of telling us why Journey are amazing.
The first time Journey appeared in this tournament, up against the differently formidable Pearl Jam, they were described as “karaoke superstars” and “an epic part of the evening.” While these statements are undeniably true (my personal karaoke setlist contains seven Journey songs, and always begins with “Separate Ways”), that is far from the whole story. There are plenty of reasons why Journey deserves a place in the top ranks of the best American bands. I know this is going to be a hard sell to some of you, but the truth is undeniable.
Journey has released fourteen studio albums over the past thirty-nine years. Of those, eight have gone platinum. Six of those have achieved multiple platinum status. 1981’s Escape went platinum nine times in the US. Worldwide, they have sold over seventy-five million records. “Don’t Stop Believin’” was the top-selling digital download single until January of this year. They are one of the highest selling bands in history. But I don’t have to tell you the numbers. You know they sell because you’ve heard them, over and over again, whether you’re a classic rock fan or not.
See, when we talk about “range of influence” of a band, we’re usually discussing the impact they’ve had on music; on bands which were inspired by their sound or who took that sound and ran with it, building something new. With Journey, we have to take a broader view. It isn’t only bands that have been touched, but the whole of Western pop culture.
Hear me out.
If someone walks into a room and sings “Just a small-town girl…” you know you’re gonna finish the line, even if it’s only in your head. Even if you’ve never intentionally listened to classic rock. Even if you don’t know the name of the band, or even the name of the song. And that’s not the only song you know. I can earworm you by saying “anyway you want it…” or “someday, love will find you…” When the lights go down in the city, the wheel in the sky keeps on turning, and so now I come to you with open arms, and oh my gosh! How do you know so many Journey songs?!
Pop culture, my friends. If you’re a sports fan, any sport, you know Journey. If you watch television, not just musical competition programs like American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, but everything from The Simpsons to The Sopranos to Supernatural, you know Journey. Hell, Journey’s the reason the Glee kids got their feet in the door (which is a plus or minus in the band’s favor, depending how you feel about Glee). Movies? They’re all over them, from 1980’s Caddyshack through 2013’s The Heat, and all the decades in between.
And I could tell you about the incredible guitar skills of Neal Schon, the masterful keyboards and composition of Jonathan Cain, the soaring rock tenor of Steve Perry, and the talented musicians who have rounded out the band over the years. I could even get into how their songs have been covered by hundreds of major talents across all genres of music, including Boyz II Men, Dream Theater, Gretchen Wilson, Anthrax… the list goes on. But Journey doesn’t deserve their place in the finals of this tournament only because they’ve made solid songs, good songs, songs that embody the ideal of pop rock and get in our heads like few other bands can. They also deserve their place because those songs have literally scored our lives.
Call me romantic if you like (I did put “Open Arms” in the playlist, after all), but you can’t tell me I’m wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-OKRVHPj5A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5pUOVC50Y8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LatorN4P9aA
To talk to us about Metallica, please welcome Tim Leininger.
Metallica
The band was Metallica. They were four teenagers with nothing striking about them. They had a drummer who was mediocre at best, a lead guitarist who rarely veered away from pentatonic based solos, a rhythm guitarist/vocalist who sounded more like nails on a chalkboard, and a bass player who seemed to think he was playing lead guitar half the time.
How within four years without a radio single, were they opening for Ozzy and the audiences were there to see them and not Ozzy? How did they become the biggest rock band around? How did they release the biggest selling album in the SoundScan era?
They played hard, heavy and fast, and if they were told they couldn’t do it, they did it just to prove them wrong.
Master of Puppets, their 3rd album is considered by most critics as the greatest metal album of all time and with good reason. It betrayed metal conventions, not only did it have complex riffs, it had multiple breaks with a more progressive sound and dealt more with the devil within than the fantasy demons a lot of other bands were writing about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h68pXdVWd7E
They were accused of selling out as early as Ride the Lightning when they released a “ballad” with Fade to Black. But who can blame them for writing what they wanted to write? It’s what they’ve always done. Aside from Load and Reload (which was originally going to be released as a double LP), they’ve never released the same album twice. They’ve always tried to change their sound every chance they could with varying success. They could have just played thrash over and over again and they would be no more successful than Slayer (nothing against Slayer, who are awesome).
They received a backlash for the Black Album, but sold more albums than ever. They strayed too far from their thrash roots, people said.
Who cares? Is it bad music? No! It’s their music and it still rocked! If anything, it’s a testament to their songwriting. Would Led Zepplin be the same if they kept making albums like Led Zepplin I through IV? We would have never gotten Physical Graffiti or In Through the Out Door. What if the Beatles just kept playing their skiffle influenced rock? We would have never had Sgt. Pepper or the White Album.
Metallica changed their sound and evolved, creating the biggest selling metal album of all time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwXXp4kSlho
But, even The Beatles had Magical Mystery Tour to be embarrassed about. Metallica had the less than stellar St. Anger and the Some Kind of Monster documentary.
But they’ve forged through it with Death Magnetic, their best effort since the Black Album. When they had their 30th Anniversary, Rob Halford, Ozzy Osbourne, Lou Reed and a slew of other artists came out to do one or two numbers with them for four nights. When you get that kind of respect from that kind of royalty, what else do you have to say?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sHAs9DMKns
American Bands-Who are the best? 
Another divisive dilemma requiring deft decision making.
Metallica: We owe them. They helped bring melody back to hard rock, even before the grunge period. They helped kill the douchiest of douche cultures in rock- hair metal, a subculture of drug addled homophobes living off the corpse of the pansexuality of glam. They expanded the subversive scope of metal, away from the red meat and manger of Neugent.
Plus, they were amazing to enter to a wrestling match. Trust me.. if you are going into physical combat, you can do no worse.
And, well, there is always the ongoing question of whether Journey is holding their new lead singer against his will. I really see an amazing action musical being made on this story.
But… Journey. They helped keep mainstream rock alive, and full of feeling while prog and disco almost killed it off. While they were overplayed during the time they ruled the world.. which they did, they also embraced video, synthezizers, and could (soft) rock as hard as anyone. And you hear their influence throughout rock after them, in male and female artists.
Hell, they blocked Styx from getting any bigger. For that alone, HUZZAH!
Metallica is important, and really showed the benefits of grunge to metal and hard rock beter than anyone expect maybe Queens of The Stone Age. But Journey with heart and soul and a full range of musical tastes and styles did more.
Journey… wins.