Grunge

If "Polar Express" wasn't enough to scratch your itch for train-related Christmas movies, consider turning your tracks towards "Christmas in Tahoe." This straight-to-TV movie premiered on Sunday, November 28, 2021 on the Hallmark Channel and stars Pat Monahan of the pop-rock band, Train.

Most of us probably won't ever know what it's like to live the life of a famous rock band, with the stereotypical hard-living, freewheeling lifestyles that sometimes end badly. But we do understand the pain of losing someone we love. That's why it's easy to appreciate why these groups channeled their grief into songs and dedicated albums to the people they lost. Whether from untimely death or severe mental health issues, the musicians we look at here lost someone they once chased dreams alongside.

Among rock genres, the origin of "yacht rock" is by far the strangest. Devised by comedians JD Ryznar, Hunter D. Stair, and Lane Farnham, it's the first and only term for a musical subgenre to come from a mockumentary web series. Running from 2005 to 2010, the term crystallized over 20 years after the dominance of the music it denoted had faded.

Demos and bootleg recordings are nearly synonymous with classic rock 'n' roll, from Bob Dylan to the Grateful Dead, and though the final version of a song is typically chosen by the artist and label for a reason, some demos have a special punch to them that elevates them from their final, polished counterparts. Here, we're going to look at demos that are so good, they outshine the final versions.

There aren't many rock frontmen out there who can sing through four octaves with seeming ease, but Freddie Mercury had a voice that even science showed was incredible. There's a reason why Rolling Stone fans labeled him the second-best frontman ever. Several reasons, actually, but the most notable is that he could power some of the lowest notes of the bass clef and smoothly transition to the piercing highs of the soprano.

It seems hard to believe now, but in the late '70s, Aerosmith seemed destined to be one of rock's also-rans. The "Bad Boys from Boston" staked a reputation as one of America's hottest bands by the middle of the decade, but only a few years later, they were a shadow of themselves. The group's chief songwriters, singer Steven Tyler and lead guitarist Joe Perry, were on the outs ever since Perry quit the band in 1979, and Tyler was contending with his own personal issues.

What is there to do when a song exhorts, "Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake / Shake your booty" but exactly that? It helps if the one proposing said booty-shaking backs up their request with some fine and funky beats. Thankfully, KC and the Sunshine Band did exactly this in 1976 when "(Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty" reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Known as much for her tireless activism as her music, Scottish singer-songwriter Annie Lennox has always charted her own path throughout her life and career. A lover of music as a child, she dropped out of London's Royal Academy of Music – much to her parents' dismay — a decision that led to a fateful encounter with Dave Stewart in 1975.

There's something captivating about duets that look like they shouldn't work on paper, only to yield extraordinary results. When we think of the duets of the '60s that cast a spell or the ones that made the '80s magic, there's a certain natural coherence to them. Ozzy Osbourne and Lita Ford teamed up for "Close My Eyes Forever," for example, but both were veterans of the same '80's metal scene. For that reason, the oddball pairings are all the more fascinating.

The early history of rock 'n' roll is built on the multitude of bands that nobody talks about anymore, but launched unknown talent into super stardom. Where would acts like David Bowie be without the Lower Third, or Elton John without Bluesology (which the film Rocketman almost totally ignored), or the original Band of Joy, which spawned Robert Plant and John Bonham?