Rocktober is Here!

After eleven ho-hum months, we have reached the pinnacle of months of the year:  the one, the only Rocktober!

For the prior six years, I did my Rocktober Decade Countdown.  But we've only been through less than half of the roaring '20s.  So now what?  Well, fair readers, I have a lot of Rocktober themes in the hopper.  And yes, I have a hopper full of tennis balls with Rocktober themes written on them.

This year's theme is going to be first tracks off of debut albums.  I realize that, in the streaming era, albums maybe aren't as big of a deal as they used to be, but there is still something magical about listening to an album for the first time, especially when it's a band or artist that's new to you.  That first track is often your gateway to liking (or disliking) that band or artists.  And there have been a lot of great first tracks off of debut albums.  And there have been a lot of great bands and artists whose first track off their debut was maybe not so memorable -- and you won't hear those this Rocktober!

A couple ground rules:

1.  I'm not counting EPs or singles that might have been release before a band or artist released its first full-length album.

2.  I'm excluding bands or artists who only released one full-length album.  Sorry, New Radicals fans.

3.  If a band changed names or had some shift in members and re-formed, then I'm treating those as separate bands (for example, Ides of March into Survivor -- though rest assured, neither band will be featured).

4.  To the extent there were bands who had different releases in different countries, like many British bands in the '60s, I'm going to go with the album that was released first.

As I do every October, I'm gonna give you a daily dose of rock, at least on the weekdays.  There will be no repeated artists during the course of the month.  I'm going to try my best not to repeat songs that I have featured in prior Rocktobers or artists, but I make no promises.  As always, the week leading up to Halloween will feature songs with dark, evil, or macabre themes.  And my Friday choices will, of course, be from hair bands.  Retro Video of the Week will be suspended during Rocktober, but Hair Band Friday will continue because Hair Band Friday can never be stopped.  

As always, remember that this is Rocktober, so these will all be bands, artists, and songs that rock, even though they may not always be from genres or artists that you would consider "rocking" or "rockers."  There will be popular songs, songs that you may never had heard before, and maybe even some bands and artists you've never heard of.  Rest assured, though, everything will rock.