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The Best Rock Song Ever?
A subjective dilemma with a scientific solution

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This adage can apply to most anything in the aesthetic realm and music is no exception. Every audiophile views this question through their own specific filter and thus arriving at some sort of consensus on one song that best reflects a genre as wide and varied as rock and roll generally becomes an act in futility. Rock, like any other form of music, evokes strong emotions within the listener and we establish connections with certain songs or groups that may or may not be regarded as being "of quality" by most rock critics. In order to truly and objectively determine this elusive "best song" ever, we would need to agree on some parameters of what a good rock song should contain. Once we've established these characteristics, we can then test these against songs that commonly come up in "best ever" conversations and develop a short list of tunes that could arguably contend for this coveted title.

First and foremost, I think we can all agree that a good rock song needs to maintain a certain quality of musicianship. This does not necessarily mean that the music needs to be technically flawless, otherwise we would be debating the merits of Beethoven or some other Classical composer. However, the music does need to at least be appropriate for the song and generally add value to it rather than detract from it. A good example of this would be punk music. The Clash, for instance, would probably not be considered a musically talented band if one were to evaluate their play from a strictly objective standpoint of chords and meters, but within their particular genre, they have a signature sound. When we hear The Clash, we are hearing what punk music is supposed to sound like. On the other hand, I think this rule would disqualify certain bands such as Nirvana or even The Beatles from consideration in the best song ever debate.

Secondly, a good rock and roll song must have lyrics that are about something...anything. There are many people that might regard "Louie, Louie" by The Kingsman and as an excellent rock song, but very few would consider it to be their favorite. It's because that although the song, much like others such as "Wooly Bully" or "In a Gadda Da Vida" aren't really about anything. This goes back to a song needing to extract some sort of emotion from its listener. There are a whole string of singer / songwriters going back to Carole King,

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