"We Built This City (on Rock and Roll)"--So bad that it's good, or just bad?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

On the one hand, the dated 80s video production and the whole dancing Lincoln thing suggests a level of horrific awesomeness that is simply epic.

On the other hand, the suggestion that this song could have any relationship with "White Rabbit" or "Somebody to Love" is chilling. (Much like the notion that there's any relationship whatsoever between "Magic Man" and "Barracuda" on one hand and "All I Want To Do is Make Love To You" on the other)

What is your position?

[lovemydog]

1. My opinion only - just bad.

Like horrendously bad. The really awful kind of bad. The moment I hear it I change the station.

[Art_from_Ark]

14. I agree

It's cringe-worthy bad.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. bad as in nauseatingly bad!

but don't look to me for music evaluation - my tastes are extremely eclectic and pretty much aside from anything remotely mainstream!

[frogmarch]

3. Grace Slick said she hated it.

She said in an interview years ago that it was a stupid song because no city was ever built on rock and roll. And she actually did say she hated it.

I was taken aback because I liked it. Maybe I wouldn't now, but I liked it back in the olden days.

[Dont call me Shirley]

4. Worse than the loudest concert I ever went too

[GOLGO 13]

5. It stinks

It stinks even worse down here.

[In_The_Wind]

6. So bad that it's just bad (as in not good).

[Skittles]

7. it's irritating, but hardly anywhere near the worst

Count on Me was always my favorite Starship song

[Blue_In_AK]

8. Just bad. Period.

[LeftInTX]

9. Grace Slick sold out to the 80s

The 80s were just plain old bad.
Video Killed the Radio Star.

I remember watching MTV and kept scratching my head and wondered what happened to rock? And why in 1981 were the 70s suddenly "classic rock"?

I would find out later what happened: When MTV was created Great Britain had a thriving music video business, and the US didn't. So MTV played nothing but British videos.

This crop of British artists who would dominate MTV were really into synthesizers...Arghh

It brought the Synth-pop revolution to the US and to Grace Slick.

[GeorgeGist]

10. Awful

[Phentex]

11. Well I like this:

"horrific awesomeness that is simply epic" !!!

[Tobin S.]

12. I really liked it when I was 13 and it first hit the airwaves. It didn't have to make sense to me.

My taste in music has since evolved.

[jmowreader]

13. Not as bad as some of the shit that came out during the 1980s

Very little of the music that came out in the 1980s was any good, but compared to Mr. Mister's "Kyrie Eleison," KISS's "I Was Made for Loving You" or REO Speedwagon's "One Lonely Night," "We Built This City" was a true masterpiece.

Here's a better one: was any record released during the Reagan Administration good?

[Tobin S.]

17. "Was any record released during the Reagan Administration good?"

There was a lot of good metal made during the 80s, but it never really saw any air time on the radio. That music was very much anti-Reagan and it was quite popular despite the lack of commercial backing.

[jmowreader]

18. Which explains why most of my music purchases then were metal

[Tommy_Carcetti]

19. There was some good music during the 80s, even good pop music, but.....

.....the ratio of shitty music to good music was probably much higher during the 80s than during any other time period.

[madinmaryland]

15. Goddammit!! We built this earworm on a city...

[The2ndWheel]

16. I can listen to it

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, I can be pretty easy to please.