Author | Lightnews

Daniel Brody

@danielwbrody.bsky.social

740 followers 98 following 4.6K posts

Counting down the 1000 greatest rock and roll songs of all time and making other lists of my favorite tunes and albums. Rock and roll is my favorite genre but I truly like a little bit of everything, from classical and cumbia to honky-tonk and highlife.

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Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 22h

What if you fused NY hardcore punk with hip-hop and made sure the rapping was some of the worst ever, and added some saxophones? Sure, why not, beat nu-metal to the punch why don’t ya?

Dog Eat Dog No Fronts

YouTube video by Dog Eat Dog

youtu.be

Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 1d

Trump’s unpopularity is going to save Sherrill in NJ

Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 1d

Too many Dems who should know better do not grasp the stakes

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Reposted by Daniel Brody

Musicology Duck @musicologyduck.bsky.social · 1d

my favorite student praise when i was teaching a history of rock course was "your class helped me understand my dad better"

Zack Furness @punkademic.bsky.social · 1d

This is how it felt teaching zoomers about punk in my pop music class today

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Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 1d

Baseball head following the money

Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 1d

Big Bay of Pigs Energy

Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 2d

Besides the fact that the GOP will just go "Dems want socialist dentistry" and make the Medicare coverage of dentistry politically fraught, at which point Matty will move the goalposts again.

Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 2d

JPod gets madder when his food delivery is late

Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 2d

Republicans also just lie about what Dems are doing, make it seem like most of these policies are beyond the pale, have many channels for getting their message out, and define what much of what Dems do on these issues negatively already. It doesn't just end with issues Matty says are woke.

Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 2d

What's the plan for when the GOP demagogues all six currently popular policies after Dems adopt them? I don't think silver bullet policy preferences (assuming these are even those, which I doubt) solve the basic issue of Dems struggling to get the word out about them.

Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 2d

At the stage in my Zappa obsession where I am becoming an Ike Willis stan. Boy did that guy soften some rough edges.

Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 2d

TACO

Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 3d

This is the top 20 from the year-end Billboard Hot 100 list for 1974. I doubt anyone on any side of the poptimism debates would say music from 1974 sucked. Does this list effectively spotlight 1974's greatness? It probably sucked repeatedly hearing the bad songs when you didn't want to.

Top songs of 1974 as determined by Billboard, as dire as any other year with a few bangers sprinkled in that got lucky.

Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 3d

I am probably a bigger fan of some of the tunes on that top Billboard Hot 100 songs of 1989 list than the original poster but 1. I am not sure any year would come out looking great judged by the same criteria 2. Any list of the best songs by music critics from the same year would probably be better.

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Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 3d

"Pop music is just as capable as rock music of reaching transcendence" and "Popularity itself is a meaningful reflection of quality that deserves respect" are 2 separate arguments that get conflated by proponents and critics of each all the time, and mostly result in people arguing past each other.

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Reposted by Daniel Brody

Captain Easychord @capneasychord.bsky.social · 4d

Multiple things can be true:
1) There were a bunch of good albums and songs that came out in 1989
2) The most enduring music isn't always what tops the charts
3) The top 20 from Billboard's 1989 year end chart is particularly dire

Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 4d

People need to stop retconning literally the worst era in American popular music history into something it wasn't, just because there were also some amazing records that like 250 people happened to be hunting down and listening to

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Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 3d

Schumer is giving off Biden absence vibes

Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 4d

726/1000 Bill Withers, “Lovely Day” - One of those songs where the singer’s performance is so guileless that their simple joy is infectious, even if your inborn cynicism would otherwise wretch at such earnest contentment. The lingering high notes at the end are cathartic. #brodystoprock1000

Bill Withers - Lovely Day (Official Audio)

YouTube video by BillWithersVEVO

youtu.be

Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 4d

Good piece - this is really all I ask for in the Trump era, that even if we disagree on this or that issue we can agree on the stakes and how small they make many of those disagreements right now.

Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 4d

Wait until RFK Jr. finds out that oil is a pollutant

Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 4d

Didn't realize Jim Hopper and Lily Allen were a couple until her Blood on the Tracks came out a few days ago. My brain is not really computing it? Even before you get to the TMI subject matter around the divorce. I'm flummoxed.

Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 5d

The left needs someone with deep pockets to help find and promote a Brent Bozell of their own with teeth, til that happens, good luck with messaging that sinks like a rock in the face of endless conservative propaganda optimized to go viral

Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 5d

You Can't Do That Onstage Anymore Volume 6 is Frank Zappa's entry into "the all-time worst skits on an album" competition and no rapper comes particularly close. Just endless amounts of Zappa rhapsodizing on his bawdy fantasies and bad takes on gender relations, nary a funny punchline in sight.

Reposted by Daniel Brody

Damon K @dadadrummer.bsky.social · 5d

Peak Indie, in @ericdharvey.com’s essay about @chrisdeville.bsky.social’s book, is 2010. Spotify entered the US market in July 2011. Streaming killed the music blog star - the blogs themselves - and ultimately nearly all music writer jobs in journalism. We are reduced to writing books and substacks

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Daniel Brody @danielwbrody.bsky.social · 5d

Over and over again, it comes down to who controls the information distribution channels and what they do with them. Dems don’t have a good answer about it that plays to their strengths, so they are in denial about it and retreat to their kitchen table and punch the left comfort zone.