What is rock 'n roll?

What is rock and roll? To most it is an ever-evolving style of blues popularized by the likes of Elvis Presley and the Beatles. To VH1 it is whatever the hell it wants it to be.\nVH1, in its persistent quest to destroy all that we know about the last century of music, began showing "The 100 Greatest Albums of Rock 'N Roll" last Monday. Subsequently there was rioting in the streets.\nThe most blatant crime in this list lies right in the top 10. Nirvana came in with an atrocious No. 2 for their pinnacled grunge album Nevermind. Granted, Nirvana made a tremendous impact on 1990's music culture, but has their music had the lasting impact of bands like the Rolling Stones? How about Jimi Hendrix, who inspired generations of musicians with his phenomenal guitar work but ended up getting shafted down to No. 5 for Are You Experienced?. VH1 also fails to recognize the other bands that, without whom, the grunge era never would have gotten out of Seattle. Pearl Jam is the only other grunge act coming in at No. 79 with Ten. But where are Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots and above all, where the hell are the Smashing Pumpkins?\nVH1 is obviously partial to the Beatles, and not much can be said to counter that. The Beatles brought rock and roll into the mainstream, making ground-breaking albums in the process. Revolver tops the list at No. 1, and the band has four albums in the top 10 alone. Here, VH1 might only be guilty of going a tad overboard. Not every Beatles album shook the rock 'n roll genre.\nSome bands got some obviously unfair treatment. The Who managed to get Who's Next in at No. 13, but Quadrophenia came in a disappointing No. 86 while Tommy mustered up a sad No. 90. Ouch. Even worse is the poor standings Pink Floyd registers. Britain's masters of synth and sound got slammed with only one album, Dark Side of the Moon at No. 51. Where's The Wall or Wish You Were Here? Pink Floyd continues to influence bands, especially modern Brit-pop, but VH1 could apparently care less.\nLogically, rock is rock, R&B is R&B, rap is rap. But according to VH1 they are all rock. VH1's list includes the likes of Aretha Franklin (No. 30), Michael Jackson (No. 23, No. 36), Public Enemy (No. 20), and the kicker of them all, N.W.A. (No. 62). VH1's "experts" should have researched their genre a bit more before coming up with this atrocity of a list.\nAnd if they were going to put rap in the list, why not hard rock and heavy metal, which are much more closely related to rock than rap or R&B? Led Zeppelin, who happened to be VH1's pick for greatest hard rock band of all time, came in at only 43 and 44 for Led Zeppelin and Led Zeppelin II respectively. Guns 'n Roses and AC/DC made the list, but many others failed to even touch it. Metallica, Black Sabbath and Aerosmith are all sorely missed.\nTo give VH1 credit, it avoided making horrendous errors by leaving off most modern bands. Rock 'n roll has fallen into an era of despair, and VH1 recognizes this by avoiding most albums from the past five years. In fact the only modern albums that made the list were Radiohead's cyber-rock-anthem OK Computer at No. 94 and Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. But since when is Lauryn Hill rock?\nVH1 unfairly blurred the line between rock and pop and proved once in for all that it is in no way an authority on music, but merely a commercial infrastructure determined to destroy music forever.