And then there were four… or were there? The great American band contest hits a roadblock

We cannot be trusted.

At the very beginning of this “You Vote for the Greatest American Band of All-Time” contest, I knew people were going to be pissed if their favorite bands didn’t advance.  64 acts entered, only one could survive.  That was the whole point of this contest: to determine the greatest American band ever.

It didn’t quite work out that way. (See last round results here)

An old friend and reader sent me a text the other day.  That’s right.  SportsChump is accessible not only via this website but by Bat Signal and cell phone as well.

This friend in particular, who although an old soul, would definitely fall into my younger demographic.

He was concerned with the validity of the contest.

After seeing Aerosmith take a commanding lead over Bruce Springsteen in the most recent round, the reader made a remark about my website’s demographic, which in retrospect made little sense considering both Aerosmith and Bruce Springsteen are from the same genre and started putting out albums right around the same time.

I responded by saying that I felt the contest had been run rather fairly.  A few upsets aside, I felt the better bands had risen to the top.  I didn’t consider it an overwhelming surprise that Aerosmith was giving Bruce the business.  They are by no means a horrible band.  However, the margin with which they were beating Bruce was a touch disturbing.  I also found it odd that Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band was suddenly, and rather handily, beating Prince who had so far been coasting through this tournament.

I intended this contest to be fair.  It was designed for all of us to vote and rightfully determine the greatest American band of all time.  The bands that reached the elite eight were all worthy of earning that title.  I maintained throughout that I would allow people to vote as often as they wanted, for their enthusiasm would help determine which was the final band standing.

What I did not foresee was one person, and they know who they are, voting for Aerosmith eighty times over, which is actually quite funny considering the band wrote one of the most intolerable love ballads of the 1990s.  That song, “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing,” was made famous from the movie Armageddon, which is apropos considering I feel a sense of impending doom every time I hear the song.

Aerosmith may (or may not) be a better band that Bruce and the E Streeters.  As we discussed from day one, musical preference is purely subjective.

Maybe we were flying too close to the sun.  Maybe we weren’t meant to find out which is the greatest American band of all-time.

So, I am now torn about what to do.  Should I continue the contest and allow the voting in this round to stand or should I repost this round of eight and allow readers to vote only once from here on out?

Here’s where you come in.  Answer the following question to determine how we proceed.  The choice is yours.

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