Rolling Stone's Best Foo Songs a Sin for Fans

While reading a Rolling Stone list article online of the 10 best Foo Fighters songs, I was excited to read the article — until a blatant mistake ruined the entire article for me.

The introduction paragraph to the article was explaining the unexpectedness of Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl to become one of the most vital and reverent rock stars of the next two decades following the suicide of Kurt Cobain. Though a good point, Rolling Stone said this later in the paragraph:

"But in the months following Cobain's death Dave Grohl recorded a demo tape under the name Foo Fighters; later he recruited Germs guitarist Pat Smear and the rhythm section from Sunny Deal Real Estate and began touring clubs."

The error rooted within the article is that there is no such band called "Sunny Deal Real Estate." The correct name of the band is Sunny Day Real Estate, which is a Seattle-based band formed in 1992 and whose album "Diary" is the seventh best selling album released by Sub Pop.

As a fan of Sunny Day Real Estate, I was extremely disappointed in Rolling Stone's careless mistake. They also did not give mention as to who the members of Sunny Day Real Estate's rhythm section were — Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith.

The list of songs they chose were decent, though I disagree on the order in which they were presented. Each song contained a brief description of what made them so memorable and popular. Rolling Stone did an average job in these short song synopses; however they made another mistake on No. 9 of the list.

No. 9, which was the song "Learn to Fly," contained an error about the music video for the song. The humorous video that took the band to a new level of stardom features Tenacious D disguised as airplane janitors; however, Rolling Stone misidentified Grohl and Mendel as the janitors.

It is an easy mistake to make though, seeing as Grohl plays six different characters in the video:

• a flamboyant flight attendant
• the careless pilot
• an overweight woman who can't quite seem to fit in her seat
• himself
• a young girl with ponytails starstruck over Grohl
• the FBI agent that catches Tenacious D

The error has since been corrected in the article; however, the band Sunny Deal Real Estate still exists out there in the music world for some reason. Readers have commented on the mistake under the article as well. One reader by the name of Stephanie wrote, "*Sunny DAY Real Estate." She clearly shares the same level of disappointment as I do.

Was this the result of poor knowledge and research or just a careless typo? Whatever the reason, the unknown writer of this list article should have proofread his work. How many different people at Rolling Stone did this go past before it was published online? The writer of this article should make his own version of "Learn to Fly" and call it "Learn to Write."

Why You Should Appreciate Baauer's "Harlem Shake"

A member of a military drill team is dancing as everybody else is standing stiff at attention. "Con los terroristas," a female sings over an electronic beat. A deep voice then commands everybody to "do the Harlem shake" and chaos ensues as the entire drill team begins to flail their arms. One member is on skis while another falls out of a window.

This is the effect of Baauer's "Harlem Shake," a meme that is the latest YouTube craze and spreading to colleges across the U.S. The man behind the song, 23-year-old Brooklyn producer Harry Rodrigues, has just reached No.1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.

The 35-second audio clip of Baauer's single has everybody making their own rendition of the signature dance first started by YouTuber Filthy Frank. There's even an Exorcist version that shows doctors frantically running up a flight of stairs to find a possessed Regan doing the Harlem Shake. 

Though the viral video trend began a few weeks ago, the song was released eight months ago in May 2012. The single was released through Jefree's, a division of electronic artist Diplo's Mad Decent Label for free. Baauer experienced little to no airplay; however, this week the single was downloaded 262,000 times compared to the 1,000 downloads it sold during the first week.

Baauer's No. 1 presence on the Billboard charts has caused the methodology for calculating the chart: you guessed it, YouTube plays. Previously, the chart was determined by radio play, on-demand audio streaming, online radio streaming and the Nielsen SoundScan download sales reports.

YouTube has secured its spot as a major player in the music industry thanks to Baauer's huge hit as well as the "Gangnam Style" craze that holds YouTube's record for most plays with an astronomical 1.3 billion views.

Spin magazine's coverage of the phenomenon is well reported, using numbers and statistics to show just how big this craze has actually become. Philip Sherburne's anecdote he uses to describe Rodrigues' luck is not only original but also colorful. "It's like he scored big on a scratch-and-win card and pocketed all but a single dollar, which he invested in a Megabucks ticket — and then won that, too."

If the "Harlem Shake" has taught us anything, it's that it only takes one guy with a tight pink jumpsuit to turn a man's dream into a reality.