There's nothing like those opening 20 seconds of a killer stadium anthem or shivering-inducing power ballad. It's those 20 seconds that set the tone for the next 3-6 minute to come. When you're flipping between radio stations and at that perfect moment your hand immediately stops cold when you hear one of the following songs.
We're talking here about the last generation of songs before the surreptitious domination of pop punk and the bleating hooks of the Timbaland type, in which pushing dials around a mixing board has become a synonym for genius.
While there are literally hundreds of songs historically to choose from, we've chosen to zero in on the top 15 from the past two decades. Anyone born after 1975, prepare your hankies, or, more appropriately, perhaps, your devil horn salutes.
15. 'Killing in the Name of' - Rage Against the Machine
Like Nine Inch Nails' "Closer," this faux-rebellious ditty from the early '90s gave musical voice to that generation's version of nihilism. While their parent's fought for civil liberty in the '60s, their older brothers and sisters a deep recession from '89 to' 92, this generation had nothing concrete to reject other than simple authority itself. Ostensibly it's about the indistinguishably of government and racism, but the intro to this signature song builds to an intense crescendo of useless anger like no other in the modern era.
14. 'Blow at High Dough' - The Tragically Hip
Like the urgent ringing of a dinner bell this anthem from the Hip's early days is pure genius. No one really knows what the song is actually about, but that doesn't matter does it? Because, we can "get behind anything" the Hips puts out. Is it a memoriam to some long-dead Canuck, or a vigorous musing on drug use? Doesn't matter; it's the feeling you get when you catch that opening drum and bass on the car radio, especially on a Friday afternoon on the Canada Day long weekend heading up the 400 to the cottage with friends. What's more Canadian that that?
13. 'Outshined' - Soundgarden
While I'm not really sure what Chris Cornell meant when he layered "I've got a feeling, slow down" over that crunching, methodical opening riff, it still conjures nostalgia for the days when we all really did look good in duct-taped Birkenstocks and grey wool socks, lumber jackets and grubby tees.
12 'Longview' ('When I Come Around') - Green Day
Go back...way back to 1994, before Green Day went all mainstream with their quasi-political, faux-social conscience to make sales, there was this ode to slacker sentiment. The opening drum riff sparks one into wanting to reach into their little plastic baggy, flip on some Floyd and pull out a big fat ...
11. 'Been Caught Stealing' - Jane's Addiction
This is Jane's Addiction's biggest hit, which actually went to number one on the US Charts. The opening intro of the dog's barking over top of the funkified guitar is, simply put, a brilliant irony. Here we have an up-tempo riff on what's seemingly a dark topic. In reality, legend says, it's actually a metaphorical innuendo for sexual pleasure without consideration of the other. While this cannot be verified as true, when one reads the lyrics it kind of makes sense.
10. 'Today' - The Smashing Pumpkins
"Today" already had a chord progression and a melody, but Pumpkins front-man Corgan felt there needed to be an opening riff to the song. As he said: "One day, out of the blue, I heard the opening lick note for note in my head, when I added the opening riff, it completely changed the character of the song." Sometimes brilliance is not intentional.
9. 'Thunderstruck' - ACDC
Like a thousand raving lunatics screaming at the top of the lungs demanding release from an asylum, this AC/DC modern classic is Angus Young at his very best. Imagine a gymnasium full of delinquent teens boys blaring out this intoxicating riff anxiously waiting for the vocal arrival of Brian Johnson's most coherent lyrical offering ever. Imagine the fear on the faces of the poor thunderstruck chaperone teachers.
8. 'Under the Bridge' - The Red Hot Chili Peppers
To date, this is still the Chilli Peppers' most successful song. The melancholic intro, which also conjures Hendrix, cannot but trigger thoughtful introspection. So perfectly does it set the tone for the ensuing lament (in Anthony Keidis' case, about drug addiction) it is impossible to not start thinking about one's own issues and dreams.
7. 'Seven Nation Army' - White Stripes
It sounds like a bass guitar intro in this Iron Butterfly-ish, 3m 42s masterpiece, but it's not; at the time the White Stripes had never even used one in their music. Legend says that the pounding, earthy sound was actually created by running a semi-acoustic through a whammy pedal set down an octave. Whatever it was, it sure is mesmerizing.
