{"id":4535,"date":"2010-03-09T01:53:24","date_gmt":"2010-03-09T06:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=4535"},"modified":"2010-03-09T01:53:24","modified_gmt":"2010-03-09T06:53:24","slug":"top-100-reasons-to-never-be-a-journalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/top-100-reasons-to-never-be-a-journalist\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 100 Reasons to never be a journalist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"idonthaveenoughfaithtobeanatheist\"<\/a>I don\u2019t know what happened to me. I can\u2019t seem to get back in the blogging rhythm. Maybe I need another book to go through \u2013 something to keep me on track. Usually I just go by what I\u2019ve been thinking lately. I did pick up a major good deal on an audio book lately. Our church (Calvary Chapel, Austin) liquidated its bookstore inventory. Any and all books were $2 each. I picked up I Don\u2019t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist<\/em> by Norman Geisler. It comes in two CDs and has over 15 hours of audio neatly compressed into mp3 files. I\u2019ve been listening to and from work for a week (half-hour each way from home to the HM Ranch) and I\u2019m only halfway through one disc (on folder 40 out of 80). Read by a woman, it\u2019s entertaining and informative. I was initially worried that it would be oh-so predictable.<\/p>\n

I figured I\u2019d get on that \u201capologetics\u201d kick and just get fired up about arguing with someone to prove my point was right. I was also worried that it might be dry and too \u201cacademic\u201d to hold my attention. Au contraire, Mon fri! It\u2019s good! It\u2019s funny. And it\u2019s entertaining. I liked the chapter on the anthropic principle that uses the thrilling Apollo 13 near-death experience as an analogy to underscore the incredible and perfect mix we have here on this planet for survival. I found myself rooting for the flight crew and the engineers at Mission Control to figure out a way for the spaceship to return safely to earth. That\u2019s good stuff.<\/p>\n

Lately I\u2019ve been thinking about this huge task that I\u2019ve taken on. We\u2019ve endeavored to compile a list of the Top 100 Christian Rock Albums of All Time<\/strong> for HM Magazine. If that wasn\u2019t maddening enough, we\u2019re doing the same thing for Christian Metal for the Heaven\u2019s Metal Fanzine publication we do on the side.<\/p>\n

I was talking to the fine doctor (Jonathan Swank) that serves as the Managing Editor for Heaven\u2019s Metal Fanzine<\/em> and he shared with me the results so far of the tabulation we\u2019ve done as a 10-member editorial team for that publication. It was fun to go over the five factors (at least in my book) that come into play here. All of these factors are important on their own, but collectively should show us what albums rule through time:<\/p>\n

Greatness<\/strong>\/quality of songs, music<\/p>\n

Classic-ness<\/strong> (do you still listen to it and dig it years later?)<\/p>\n

Historical impact<\/strong><\/p>\n

Love <\/strong>(did you fall in love with this album? Is it one of your personal favorites?)<\/p>\n

Popularity<\/strong>\/album sales<\/p>\n

Ideally, the #1 album will score at the top in all five categories. Conversely, if an album fails miserably in any one of these categories, how could it truly be #1? And, speaking of #1 \u2026 oh \u2026 my \u2026 gosh!!! Can you fathom the weight of that position? Credibility of the publication or not, for an album to hold such a title is kinda cool. Being responsible for this is kinda nerve-racking. But it\u2019s a good challenge. As long as there are no death threats, I\u2019m good.<\/p>\n

So, I was working on our roof, spreading some weed killer and mowing our lawn this weekend. While doing so I had my iPod set to a \u201cTrip Hits\u201d playlist that I put together, where I selected a song or a few from each artist from A to Z. I barely get out of the D\u2019s on a 12-hour trip to Florida with this list, as there are so many songs on it. I had the mp3 player shuffle the songs around, though, so I was able to get a good cross-section. As I was listening to a song by The Eagles, I realized how important it was to get some perspective for this list. One needs to know where the standards are. I think a band like The Eagles is a good one to listen to, because they\u2019re not the best. They\u2019re not Led Zeppelin or the Beatles, but they are a classic rock radio staple. Their songs have stood the test of time for many. They serve as a decent benchmark of \u201caverage\u201d for classic songs. They\u2019re good. Possibly great, but not so great that no one would even aspire to surpass them… I mean, how many artists try to top the Beatles? To just be mentioned in the same breath as that band is a huge honor and compliment. But The Eagles? Yeah, I can see an artist trying to better that veteran group. I can see them pulling it off, too.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s also important to stay in touch with current music. One such station here in Austin, TX is 101.X \u2013 just one of the many \u201cX\u201d stations that popped up in the mid-\u201890s when grunge turned metal upside-down and showed it the popular music door.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s interesting about that particular time in the history of rock and roll is that heavy metal, for some unknown reason (insert conspiracy theory here), heavy metal became tired and un-inspiring. Think back to 1998. What was happening with metal that is exciting? I mean, Metallica was probably touring. Dream Theater was being Dream Theater, but bands like Winger and Scorpions and Whitesnake were becoming a parody of themselves. Not many metal bands were kicking butt and taking names. You know what I mean? At the time, a lot of interesting music was being made of the acidic nature. Black metal was taking death metal to a new extreme. Double bass drumming and growling vocals and screams were taking tough guy music to a non-commercial level and into the underground.<\/p>\n

Some of the best music of the day was being made by hardcore bands. They were fusing the power of blow your head off heavy metal with the passionate delivery and mayhem of hardcore punk. Bands like Biohazard and Prong were blowing audiences away. And the grunge heavyweights were channeling the heaviness of Black Sabbath with the slower pace of a blues tune and creating something fresh. It was like a perfect storm. Metal purists can point to legitimate music being made, but on the popular music level of the general public, \u201chair metal\u201d died a fiery and quick death. We changed the name of our magazine. <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Which Emery album(s) do you choose? The Question? I’m Only A Man? These are tough choices!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[992,1278,1392,1995,3293],"class_list":["post-4535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-emery","tag-grunge","tag-hm-magazine","tag-metal","tag-top-100","cat-17-id"],"yoast_head":"\nTop 100 Reasons to never be a journalist - The Original Heaven's Metal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/top-100-reasons-to-never-be-a-journalist\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Doug Van Pelt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/top-100-reasons-to-never-be-a-journalist\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/top-100-reasons-to-never-be-a-journalist\/\",\"name\":\"Top 100 Reasons to never be a journalist - The Original Heaven's Metal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-03-09T06:53:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/#\/schema\/person\/b155afeb7086c8182b3bb3b435e68c4b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/top-100-reasons-to-never-be-a-journalist\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/top-100-reasons-to-never-be-a-journalist\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/top-100-reasons-to-never-be-a-journalist\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Top 100 Reasons to never be a journalist\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/\",\"name\":\"The Original Heaven's Metal\",\"description\":\"Former Editor-in-Chief. 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