The Countdown's On

For as long as I can remember, I've been a sucker for a countdown.  As far back as 2nd grade, I can recall being by the radio so that I can hear Casey Kasem countdown the American Top 40 every Sunday afternoon.  I always knew that it was the way to hear my favorite songs and also, to find out which one was the "most important" for that week.  Anytime a countdown was on, I was glued to the radio to find out who was number one.

Fast forward to my first summer living alone out of college.  I was brand new to Orlando, in my own apartment with cable, no money and nowhere to go.  I happened to be flipping through my channels and came across VH1's countdown of the 100 Greatest Women of Rock 'n Roll.  I decided to check it out for a few minutes but, found I couldn't bring myself to change the channel.  I had to know who was next.  It was important to know who these unnamed music "experts" deemed as the most influential women in the history of music.  Monday would start off with nos. 100-81.  And each night, the next 20 would premiere.  But, they would also marathon each episode of 20 that had already aired.  So by Friday, they had five straight hours of countdown heaven!

Each time they would have a new countdown, I was there in front of my TV watching it.  It didn't matter if it was the 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders, 100 Most Shocking Moments in Rock or 100 Greatest Videos I was there watching them because I was hooked into wanting to know what came next on the list.

In some cases, they didn't have 100 so they cut the number down such as 25 Greatest Power Ballads or 40 Greatest Celebrity Divorces.  These were interesting to watch too but, they didn't hook me in quite the way that the 100 countdowns did.  There was something official about the 100 that made them "must see".

This whole nostalgia trip was brought on by the updated version of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.  Now, I actually remember watching the first airing of this several years back and was interested to see if anything had really changed.  Sure, it had its share of "huh?!?" moments but, I still had to see what was said and where everyone landed on the list.  I can't help it.  It's the geek in me who needs to know this useless information.

Now, I dare you to try and watch one of these shows and see if you can tear yourself away.  The countdown will commence in 5, 4, 3...

Until next time...