antiMUSIC - Top 5 Music Stories of 2001

antiGUY gives his top 5 list of music stuff. Could be songs, people, a stupid trend... nothing is sacred to antiGUY

This Months Top 5
It’s that time of year again, a time to reflect back over the past twelve months and say “what the hell happened?”.With that in mind, I thought we would take a small departure from our normal “Top 5 List” and look at the news stories that attracted the most attention here at antiMUSIC in 2001.

To pull off this list, I went back and looked at the stories that attracted the most readers, so here they are the Top 5 News Stories of 2001. (article links will open in a new browser window)

5. One of the biggest ongoing stories this year as in years past is the rumored return of David Lee Roth to Van Halen, it seemed every time we turned around there was a new confirmation of the reunion from a “reliable source”. Of course, as of yet the reunion has failed to materialize and Van Halen have remained tight lipped over what the future holds... stay tuned in 2002, there are sure to be more rumors of this topic leading up to the eventual official reunion announcement in 2005. Here are the story links... (Jan - April - July - Nov) (over 25,000 views collectively)

4. Wes Borland created quite a stir when he announced his departure from Limp Bizkit. Within days the name-calling began with Wes calling his former bandmates “sell-outs”, which at first led to praise from readers but once they figured out Borland quit only when it appeared that the Limp Bizkit popularity ship was sinking their support diminished. (Borland quits -
Borland, Durst speak out on split. - Borland quit because of “sellout”) (over 31,000 views)

3. A.J. McLean of the Backstreet Boys goes to rehab. This story caused a heated fan speak debate with the “You’re just jealous” BSB defenders losing decisively to rock fans… ah fun stuff - Then in September BSB sparked another debate when Kevin Richardson issued a statement apologizing for making an anti-American comment in the wake of the Sept 11th terrorist attacks. (39,000 views)

2. Joey Ramone’s death. When Joey Ramone lost his battle with cancer in April fans from around the world logged on to pay tribute the punk legend. (42,000 views)

and the number one News story of 2001 was

Metallica members bash each other in Playboy. Anytime that Metallica makes news it sparks a roaring debate with readers and this story ended up being the most read news article of 2001 on antiMUSIC (viewed a little over 50,000 time since it was published in March!). Tempers always flare when Metallica does anything and this article was no exception with supporters and detractors declaring war on each other in the fan speak section.

Your turn, what do you think?

Fan Speak:

Posted by Rob Halford is Gay is gay:
Yoiu are a complete fag. Without Halford, there would BE NO METAL. you're a f*cking pussy and a complete faggot.

Posted by SLAYTANIC-SLAUGHTER:
i agree.slayer is better then metallica and are the kings of thrash

Posted by butchered baby:
i THINK KERRY KING KIX ASS AND THAT METALLICA IS GAY AND SOLD OUT..... KERRY WRITES WAY BETTER RIFFS THEN KIRK DOES...AND HIS LEADS ARE BETTER TOO

Posted by cereal_killer:
kurt cobain rules

Posted by (no name):
Oh jeeze....you think Metallica bashing each other is THAT much of a big deal?! I didn't even know about that!! OK, you did mention Joey Ramone's death, which were huge news. Then again, what about George Harrison of the former Beatles?? I never even saw anyone mention Aaliyah here!!! (If you tell me to go to hell for saying that, guess again; you'll be going to hell instead while I get a front-row ticket waiting for me in heaven) (Once again, don't even bother flaming me)

Posted by Rob Halford is Gay:
I don't understand how Halford or Judas Priest are ever affiliated with metal, they are so gay, Rob Halford is always like "Oh, I'm so metal, Look at me, I'm the metal godfather!" He is such a f*cking Pussy and his music sucks

Posted by My nots:
Rob Halford kicks Ozzy's ass anyday.

Posted by POPULAR!!!:
I THINK THAT BRITTNEY SPEARS REALLY DID HAVE BREAST IMPLANTS.....NOT FOR THE GUYS.....BUT FOR THE CHICKS! lol!

Posted by POPULAR!!!:
I THINK THAT BRITTNEY SPEARS IS A LESBIAN

Posted by asslick:
penis stuff

Posted by Wankstainfunk:
I think that my butt hurts. It does. Real bad. It's big and has padding, but it hurt because I ACCIDENTLY stuck a knife up it.

Posted by Dreamy Rover:
Sure he is, Ozzy is undoubtedly the grandfather of metal. His personal life may not be so inspiring but he's done some really smashing work, which can be liked by anyone. Sure, even he's done mediocre work once in a while, but his latest album is awesome. It's the kind of album that grows on you. Just like OZZMOSIS. The first time I heard it, I thought it was just about okay. As I listened more & more, it just grew on me. Songs like PERRY MASON, MY LITTLE MAN are testimony to that. He blends so many styles together, so his work can appeal to anyone not just Heavy Metal regular fans.

Posted by Pinkus777:
Ozzy is the grandfather of metal enough said and done.

Posted by satan:
bert...ect..thats not a Haikus but a sh!takus there is not a band out there that at least one person thinks it sucks...just get over it...it's starting to get really lame

Posted by Scott Stapps Ego:
ur just jealous

Posted by bert,ernie & yo mama:
Gods of Metal? Maybe pop metal! "ROSES ARE RED, SH!T SMELLS LIKE POOH, METALLICA SUCKS.... AND SO DO YOU" Deal with it.

Posted by the goddess trog:
Somebody asked me for a poem so I will institute one of my patented Haikus. Metallica,I- saw Playboy and cried the tears- as Newsted sold out. Metallica is, was and always will be the Gods of Metal and the best band in the biz. Deal with it.

Posted by the goddess trog:
Somebody asked me for a poem so I will institute one of my patented Haikus. Metallica,I saw Playboy and cried the tears as Newsted sold out. Metallica is, was and always will be the Gods of Metal and the best band in the biz. Deal with it.

Posted by Cookie Monster:
yes yes yes

Posted by SubXavier:
Your definition of "taste" is decidedly absent, Real.

Posted by Real Music Fan:
Nirvana sucks and Metallica has been embarrasing since 1986. Get some taste kiddies.

Posted by bert and ernie:
we like to boof each other. tee hee! we love you cookie monster, can we be your groupies?

Posted by Paranoia:
Buckcherry is cool.

Posted by ny mike:
what do you guys think of buckcherry? just wondering.

Posted by Wes Borland :
I think I'm cool. I wear neat contacts in my eyes.My band started to get un-popular, so I quit.But I put all the blame on Durst. Maybe I could join RATM. and sing about indians and towel heads.

Posted by Music:
Kurt Cobain was the best Artist of the nineties, there is no disputing that. Name one band that has revolutionised music in the last 20 years that only had a life span of about 5 years.Nirvana live on!

Posted by Paranoia:
I don't exactly sponsor this "All topics lead to Nirvana or Metallica thing," but I will post about them anyway. "Load" and "Reload" had the potential to be a lot better, but they weren't that great...I liked the music itself just fine, but the lyrics meant absolutely nothing. Seriously, just listen to the words, they're not so inane as they are just meaningless. I see on the same level as Dreamy Rover. Slayer is an awesome band that's been classified as "death metal," but one of the only ones that has a halfway decent guitarist...the crap that's been coming out in the past few years have only based their songs on heavily- distorted-volume-10 power chords which actually, unbenonced apparently to them, sounds like total sh*t when you look at it from a musician's level.

Posted by Dreamy Rover:
I just witnessed another egghead who writes off the whole genre because of a band/artist he encountered he just didn't understand or like. I don't like Death Metal, but I admire some of the work done by Slayer. And if you think Death Metal is just singing (or screaming) about Satan and anti-God all the time, I guess u've just taken a superficial look at this particular sub-genre of Heavy Metal. Death Metal is the exact opposite of Christian Metal.It's more of anti-establishment, just the way Reggae has been and Rock music started out as...as anti-establishment, rebellious music. Now this all may seem very confusing to a person who doesn't listen to Heavy Metal all the time or who's just on the outside lookin in the inside. There are particularly very interesting Metal bands doing work that will interest ANYONE no matter what his musical preferences. As for guitarists who form a band just after learning 10 chords, there are a whole lot of 'em in many bands doing many kinds of music. Posers in any genre can never go long. Try to play SLAYER's guitarist Kerry King's riffs and storming leads on SEASONS OF THE ABYSS and u'll know what I mean. I know there are a lot of Grunge lovers here and it's no bad thing. I myself like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, but technically speaking Nirvana wasn't much. U gotta know that as a Heavy Meta/Classic Rock listener I pay much attention to the sound, the approach, the technique used in any song as well as the overall impact of a song. Simplicity and repititive stature doesn't keep me interested for long. I love technical wizardry in a song that's not 'trendy', is catchy & melodious, yet it doesn't compromise on music. Technically advanced music is what I like to listen. Complexity, experimentation and sheer rugged power are the hallmark of Heavy Metal. Probably the only other kind of music that requires as much musical skill is classical music.

Posted by rocky racoon:
I agree, good on Metalica for trying something a bit different. Im not sure how all topics end up being about Metalica and Nirvana

Posted by KiFi62:
I thought Load & ReLaod were really great, alot of good bands changed their style at some point.

Posted by burt & ernie:
how bout' "S is for stupid" & "L is for loser" or "C is for colon-camper" I think Nirvana already recorded these songs with Lemmy from Motorhead and captain crunch. And I think Uncle Ben and Oprah also.Again nothing says "I can't play my guitar very good, so lets pretend" like death metal.

Posted by Cookie Monster:
What about my new death metal band? I am the all time greatest death/black metal singer in the world! All death metal singers copy me!!! My new band will dominate headlines! Look for our first single, "C is for Cookie, H is for Hell!" That good enough for you? Thats good enough for meeeee!!!

Posted by hellbelly:
jesus christ, butch is king of antimusic

Posted by SubXavier:
Dreamy Rover, you obviously haven't been around long enough to know Trog. The only person I've seen that actually understands her is Butch. Calm yourself, grasshopper... if you're going to argue, do it in her language.

Posted by People=Sh*t:
The death of Ramone and Harrison might be more important, but that's not what antiGuy based the top 5 on. If you actually read the list, you see that he put down the number of hits each story got and that's what it is based on. So calm down, take a chill pill, and don't worry about it. And as soon as Cliff Burton comes back from the dead, Metallica will reign supreme again.

Posted by Paranoia:
How did this discussion become one about Nirvana again?

Posted by KM:
What about the deaths of John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas and recently George Harrison. C'mon, these guys deserve to be up there with Joey Ramone...

Posted by Dreamy Rover:
Hey Trog or whatever else you are, I really wouldn't expect u to understand any form of poetry. Your knowledge of the English language is pretty evident from your posts on this site. I don't think u ever could grow up to appreciate metal songs like REVELATIONS & SIGN OF THE CROSS by Iron Maiden or SANATARIUM, FADE TO BLACK & BLEEDING ME. As for a Metallica member,namely James Hetfield going to rehab, no big deal, he's gonna come clean. He's not dumb like Kurt Cobain to shoot himself. Many rock stars have made unpopular foray in the world of drugs & alchohol and many have come back, much better than ever before. Take Ozzy for instance, the guy was a wreck for 15 years. And now's he again kickin ass of all those grunge rip-offs who like to sing off-key like Kurt Cobain. And I don't think he could even play blinding pull-off licks, staccato rhythms and chromatic solo flurries. Peace be with u & all Nirvana worshippers but all Nirvana was about 5 albums of loser songs. So sob on Kurt Cobain's discs while Ozzy, Iommi, Iced Earth and others to follow bring back Metal back from it's hibernation.

Posted by Forrest Gabitsch:
Joey Ramone's death was much more shocking, and his life much more important, than those Metallica idiots slamming each other in Playboy. Would anyone really care about Metallica if they didn't have VH1 cameras up their asses on a regular basis? Also, Kevin Richardson was absolutely right to say what he said. He may be a Backstreet Boy, but at least he's thinking. FACT: Fewer and fewer corporations control the media every year. They say what goes. And we don't know a damn thing.

Posted by THE GODDESS TROG:
Peace be up mahomes. Metallica be flowin it up. They got good bass, but Playboy's is better. The insightful lyrics give me heartburn. Ouch. Those are good lyrics. Too bad their lead drummer, A.J. Maclean cancelled out of the tour for "rehab". He sold out. Metallica up.

Posted by Dreamy Rover:
I think the news piece of Metallica makin fools of themselves in PLAYBOY shouldn't have been the number one News story, except for the fact it got antiMUSIC the highest number of responses. Now I didn't go through all those thousands of comments and rant speaks, but one thing was very obvious. Metallica has lost a lot of fans since their LOAD & RELOAD albums. Metallica have turned semi-classical as well as leaning towards Country & Blues lately. Partly the reason of that should be their interaction with Michael Kamen since the days of the BLACK ALBUM. Initially, I thought it was nice that Metallica did some ballad-type songs like NOTHING ELSE MATTERS that my parents liked too. My family is very passionate about music, though each one of us listens to a different kind of music. There were some good Metallica songs that everyone around me liked and kind of understood what I was into. But the truth was, it wasn't the kind of music I was into. Metallica, to me, is what FADE TO BLACK, CREEPING DEATH, ONE, HARVESTER OF SORROW, SANATARIUM, ORION, FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS are. Metallica changed a lot with LOAD. It was a confusing & upsetting album for me. Sure, there is a gem in the form of BLEEDING ME & THE OUTLAW TORN but overall it was chaotic. I personally don't care what they do outside the studio, how long they keep their hair or what they wear. As long as I get songs like FADE TO BLACK & MASTER OF PUPPETS. Many people are pissed off with the new direction this band's taken but I still have hopes they bring out another slab of raging metal. The gap they've left in the life of metalheads has been so far undealt with. MEGADETH is great but not half as great as the METALLICA of old. NIRVANA never interests me much. Too repititive & stale in technique. Ever since MASTER OF PUPPETS, nothing's quite shook my life sonically. Yeah, it's bad that Jason Newsted left the band, but then he was no one to fill up the shoes of Cliff Burton. James Hetfield is hated by many but he's been the driving force behind the band. I don't care what he does, what he eats or how he behaves with anyone else. I don't care if he's gay. To me, he's the man who's penned down the most powerful songs I've ever heard & talent doesn't go out like that. METALLICA still kicks ass over the nu-metal/rapcore/grunge-rip off acts of today. Let's all hope they make us proud again. I don't think they changed their sound to 'sell out'. It's pretty evident that they wanted to experiment but didn't do too good a job of it. Maybe we just should send them to KING DIAMOND's school to revive the music that was the kind of metal which wouldn't have allowed Grunge to happen.

Posted by Nikki:
What about Jason Newstead getting kicked out of Metallica or James Hetfield going into rehab. Ozzy coming out with a new solo album.

Posted by People=Sh*t:
Thanks aG, I would appreciate that. Wow, 4-5 thousand a day.

Posted by aG:
Anti-Hero and Ridah, I didn't choose these folks, they were the actual most popular stories of the past year. As for Megadeth, we've been trying to nail down an interview with Dave for some time but his people have been pretty evasive about it.. maybe it's the name antiMUSIC that scares them? Wouldn't be the first time. P=S I think that Slipknot interview was the most popular, I'll have to check it out but I'm pretty sure it was, it was one of the first links that came up when you typed in slipknot on google, so it was pulling in around 4 to 5 thousand people a day.

Posted by Anti-Hero:
All the other choices were good .. but the number one choice shouldn't have even made the list. Metallica is a great band but .. really who gives a f*ck if they diss on each other in Playboy?

Posted by People=Sh*t:
Actually, I think he crawled back into his ma's womb and got stuck. I think he should be back out in about 8 months or so.hehe Anybody else have an idea on what happened to Ryan?

Posted by Paranoia:
You know, I always wondered what happened to Ryan. Do ya think he's out with his Pa, winterizing the family farm? Or perhaps his trailor got struck by lightning? Hehe.

Posted by RidahNY:
Why is Metallica on there? Metallica sucks now and that little thing they pulled in Playboy was nothing but a publicity stunt. They've been playing together for 20 years - I've been playing with my new band for a month and we bash each other when we're sitting in the same room together. Quit giving these lame pathetic pieces of sh*t credit and give the credit where it's due - to MEGADETH.

Posted by People=Sh*t:
Hey antiguy, how about doing a top 5 list of interviews. The Slipknot interview with Jim would have to be #1. With our Ryan hate fest on there. Man, those days were fun.

Posted by Sven:
What bout the whole Nikki Sixx confessions?

Posted by resolnaisa:
you could always tell kevin was the smartest of the bsb fags

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