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100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll

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100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll
GenreDocumentary
StarringKevin Bacon
Narrated byMelinda Mullins
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes5
Production
Running time42 min.
Original release
NetworkVH1
ReleaseMarch 28, 1998 (1998-03-28)

The 100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll was a television special that aired on VH1 in 1998, where the network compiled a list of what it considered the 100 greatest rock artists. The show included artists from a variety of genres within rock, such as classic rock, punk, alternative, and heavy metal. The artists were selected based on their impact on the genre, influence on other musicians, and commercial success. Hosted by Kevin Bacon.

The television special ran on five days between March 31 and April 4, 1998, for an hour each.[1][2] Every special covered 20 artists from the list.[1] The special used footage from videos, concerts, and interviews.[3] Jeff Gaspin, who had recently become VH1's vice president of programming, proposed that they feature a countdown program in which musicians determined the list rather than commentators.[4]

Commentators

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List

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Below is the top ten from the list.[5][3]

  1. The Beatles
  2. The Rolling Stones
  3. Jimi Hendrix
  4. Led Zeppelin
  5. Bob Dylan
  6. James Brown
  7. David Bowie
  8. Elvis Presley
  9. The Who
  10. The Police

Reception

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The Boston Globe television critic Steve Morse criticized the special, writing, "the list could have been better, and so could the show, which succumbs to numbing repetition and is undone by Bacon's goofy rah-rah attitude and by an insipid female voice-over".[6] Tony Gieske of The Hollywood Reporter penned a mixed review of the special. Calling it a high-speed panorama, he said, "The songs, the artists and the commentary are perforce familiar if not banal, so it's all in the editing, which is fortunately first-rate in the Jet Ski style for which MTV is famous."[7] The Record's Bob Ivry found it to be a "mild surprise" that few women ranked highly in the list. He noted that the top two women were Aretha Franklin at 21 and Joni Mitchell at 32.[8]

References

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  1. ^ a b Farber, Jim (1998-03-29). "Fab 4 Top 100 List". New York Daily News. Factiva nydn000020010918du3t006hj.
  2. ^ Hay, Carla (1998-03-21). "VH1 polls artists on rock's greats". Billboard. Vol. 110, no. 12. pp. 10, 110. ProQuest 227110870. Retrieved 2025-01-06 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ^ a b Piccoli, Sean (1998-04-03). "Business as Usual: Irrepressible Punk Rage". Sun Sentinel. Archived from the original on 2025-01-06. Retrieved 2025-01-06.
  4. ^ Hesse, Monica (2007-09-29). "On Cable, Shows That Count Down To the Lowest Common Denominator". The Washington Post. ProQuest 2827611958. Archived from the original on 2025-01-06. Retrieved 2025-01-06.
  5. ^ "Rock On The Net: VH1: 100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll". www.rockonthenet.com. Retrieved 2024-10-06.
  6. ^ Morse, Steve (1998-03-31). "VH1's Top 100 Choices Don't Rock". The Boston Globe. Factiva bstngb0020010915du3v00cpl. Archived from the original on 2025-01-06. Retrieved 2025-01-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ Gieske, Tony (1998-03-21). "VH1 Presents the 100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll". The Hollywood Reporter. Vol. 351, no. 47. pp. 20, 133. ProQuest 2393629738.
  8. ^ Ivry, Bob (1998-04-25). "Poll Takes the Pulse of Rock's Greatest Acts". The Record. Archived from the original on 2025-01-06. Retrieved 2025-01-06.
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