Monday We celebrated (?) the fact that 1995 is now 20 years ago by turning our attention to its #1 song: Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise.” It’s a…
Author: Micah Tillman
Micah has a Ph.D. in philosophy and a B.A. in computer science. He plays and makes video games, thinks philosophically about pop music, and loves fractals.
Top 40 Philosophy: Live, “Lightning Crashes”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
At the end of February, 1995, Live’s “Lightning Crashes” kicked Green Day’s “When I Come Around” out of the #1 spot on Billboard’s Alternative Songs…
We (Kind of) Have a Legal Right to Freedom of Speech Freedom of speech is guaranteed in the US by the 1st Ammendment to our…
Top 40 Philosophy: Green Day, “When I Come Around”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
Green Day’s “When I Come Around” went #1 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart, the first week of January, 1995. It stayed there for seven…
Top 40 Philosophy: Coolio (ft. L.V.), “Gangsta’s Paradise”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
It is a truth universally acknowledged that you should always talk about music from twenty years ago. Since it is now 2015, that means we…
Year-End Top 10s: Top 40 Philosophy (nos. 5-1)
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
One last hurrah! Yesterdy we covered the first half of the Top 10 “Top 40 Philosophy” posts from 2014. Today, to begin 2015, we have…
Year-End Top 10s: Top 40 Philosophy (nos. 10-6)
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
Over the past two days, we brought you the top 10 non-musical posts from 2014. Now it’s time for the Top 10 “Top 40 Philosophy”…
Year-End Top 10s: Philosophical Musings (nos. 5-1)
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Society, and Theology
Today we have 2014’s top 5 “Pure Philosophy” posts, as determined by the absolutely objective criteria of how strongly I feel about them. (And by…
It’s time to count down the top 10 posts from this past year! We, however, are going to do two different top 10s. First, we’ll…
Top 40 Philosophy: Jars of Clay, “Little Drummer Boy”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
Merry Christmas! Thanks for choosing to spend it with Top 40 Philosophy. Read every entry. Stay here the whole day. The fourth classic Christmas Special…
Top 40 Philosophy: Dr. Seuss & Sixpence, “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
The third classic Christmas Special on TIME’s list of the “10 Greatest” is “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” This means, of course, that we have…
Top 40 Philosophy: Charlie Brown vs. The Muppets, “Christmas Time Is Here” vs. “It Feels Like Christmas”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
The second classic Christmas Special on TIME’s list of the “10 Greatest” specials is “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” So, for today, let’s talk about Vince…
Top 40 Philosophy: Burl Ives, “Holly Jolly Christmas”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
It’s Christmas week, which makes me want to do more Christmas songs. So, let’s philosophize about some songs from the great “Christmas Specials” that have…
Top 40 Philosophy: Three Days Grace, “I Am Machine”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
One more day of Rawk. Song #5 on Billboard’s “Mainstream Rock Songs” chart — when I started this post (the new charts are released on…
Top 40 Philosophy: Seether, “Same **** Life”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
Today we have a song by the grunge revivalists from South Africa who call themselves “Seether.” Song #4 on Billboard’s “Mainstream Rock Songs” chart is…
Top 40 Philosophy: Royal Blood, “Figure It Out”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
On Monday, we had a song about creation. On Tuesday, a song about heaven. Today, a song about royal blood. Evidently, it’s still Christmas here…
Top 40 Philosophy: Five Finger Death Punch, “Wrong Side of Heaven”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
Song #2 on Billboard’s “Mainstream Rock Songs” chart this week is “Wrong Side of Heaven,” by Five Finger Death Punch. I’ve never found 5FDP’s music…
Top 40 Philosophy: The Foo Fighters, “Something from Nothing”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
Now that we’re sufficiently nostalgic from doing a week on the Beatles, and sufficiently jolly from doing a week of Christmas songs, let’s do a…
Top 40 Philosophy: Nat King Cole, “The Christmas Song”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
According to the Billboard Holiday Albums chart (as I was writing this), we should do a song from Pentatonix’s first Christmas album. But we already…