Activities: Hanging Out In The Man Cave

"This is what makes a great rock & roll guitar sound: an irresistible riff; a solo or jam that takes you higher every time you hear it; the final power chord that pins you to the wall and makes you hit 'play' again and again." -Rolling Stone

Get yourself the eye of the tiger by psyching up with this set of rousing late-'70s and '80s cocky rock hits.

Hair metal (or glam metal) was born on LA's Sunset Strip in the 1980s. Synonymous with heavy riffs, anthemic choruses, blown-out hair, and spandex, hair metal is some of the best party music ever made.

Some songs just sound like summertime. Hold up your lighter and groove to these essential warm-weather classic rock jams.

Rick Ross is one of today's hottest -- and most prolific -- MCs. Listen to every great track the Teflon Don has guested on, as well as some of his own hits. "Huh!"

Fire up the grill and crack a Bud Heavy - this collection of southern rock classics will make you feel like one of the good ole' boys, no matter where you're cooking-out.

One of the greatest hip hop groups of all time, the Wu-Tang Clan has proved timeless and astonishingly prolific. This mix takes you straight to the slums of Shaolin, covering the work of Wu-Tang's core members, outsiders, and everything in between.

Listen to the most popular rap songs in America as determined by the Billboard charts.

A collection of rock's hardest-hitting classics, from metal to glam to grunge.

Following in the steps of George Jones and Merle Haggard, neotraditional (and "new traditional") country artists of the '80s and '90s tried to take the genre back to its roots -- and get plenty of radio play while they were at it.

Celebrate the release of Jack White's new album Blunderbuss (http://bit.ly/Io5JGE) with this playlist, featuring the best of the White Stripes, his side projects, artists on his Third Man Records label, and other collaborations.

They don't make rock songs like they used to! These songs feature the best axe-men of all-time playing their best riffs, licks, and solos.

Lynyrd Skynyrd is the definitive American Southern Rock band. Listen to essential songs by Lynyrd Skynyrd as well as their greatest influences and contemporaries.

Stevie Ray Vaughan was one of the most talented and influential blues guitar players of all time. This playlist features songs by his greatest influences, his closest contemporaries, his indebted followers, and Stevie Ray himself.

The Soundtrack To The Cadillac That Was Passed Down Through The Generations. If These Spokes Could Speak...

The most essential classic rock hits from the late '60s through the early '70s. Long hair, epic guitar solos, and singers who graduated from frontman school with honors.

Essential songs born out of 1950s Chicago blues. Influenced by the rural, Delta Blues, Chicago's bluesman introduced amplification and electric instruments into the genre which led to the birth of rock 'n roll.

One of the most important and popular developments in rock history, the alternative sounds of grunge and Britpop ruled the airwaves in the 1990s. Get out your flannel shirt and listen to these essential '90s alt-rock songs.

A new brand of country music emerged in the '70s that sought to bring raw honky tonk emotion and authenticity back to the genre, which had become increasingly pop-oriented. These are the outlaw country songs that mattered.

Listen to the greatest hip hop songs of all time, as chosen by VH1 viewers.

Got yourself a '69 Pontiac Trans Am with a 350 H.O. under the hood, a two-tone custom spray job and racing slicks out back? Blast these scuzzy, '70s leaning rock anthems from your radio and taste the envy in the parking lot air.

Journey's powerful, timeless rock ballads have made them one of the most commercially successful rock bands of all time. This playlist includes songs by Journey (and its members' side projects) and their closest contemporaries.

From Sabbath to Isis, a mix of heavy bands with influences and appreciation beyond the insular metal scene.

The mid-1990s brought about the end of the grunge heyday, but many of its key players have continued performing in various incarnations. This selection of songs presents many of them, along with a number of their notable followers.

Rock & roll icons' greatest in-concert moments captured for posterity, from '60s psychedelic warriors (Grateful Dead) and '70s art-rockers (Roxy Music) to punk pioneers (The Clash) and new wave trailblazers (Talking Heads).

Hip hop's most infamous disses, from the early days on the streets of The Bronx to today. From the ferocious to the hilarious, this is the sound of lyrical warfare.

Whether bigging up the five boroughs or paying tribute to the blocks they grew up on, pioneering rappers, neighborhood heroes and modern-day superstars love to pen odes to NYC. Here's a non-stop blast of Big Apple hip-hop pride.

The mighty Metallica has never been shy about acknowledging its influences and favorite contemporaries. This playlist explores the band's metal, punk and hard rock roots, as well as some of their favored contemporaries.

The worlds of rap and sports have always collided. Here's a round-up of the best rap songs about sports, the tracks with the best references to sports stars, and even a few cases of athletes (Shaq!) stepping up to the mic themselves.

When rappers decide to get political, they don't pull punches. Hitting back against police harassment, calling for political payback, and speaking unflinchingly about society and media as a whole, these rappers take aim with an almighty righteous attack.

Who loves the reefer? Throughout the history of hip-hop, rappers have extolled the virtues of weed. Dig.

Meet the '50s rockers who combined hillbilly music and rock & roll, and see how their music has influenced subsequent generations of rockers. And not just the ones who put pomade in their hair, either.

During the 1980s and '90s, D.C. was the place to be for hardcore. Enjoy the finest bands from that time and place, as well as their latter-day incarnations that branched out in different sonic directions.

Before grunge entered mainstream consciousness in the early 1990s, it was a vibrant, restless rock scene rooted in the Pacific Northwest. Get on your flannels, ripped jeans and Docs and head back.

The British blues boom, from its purist mid-'60s beginnings to the early '70s, when a new breed of bands brought a harder edge to England's take on U.S. blues and R&B.

Classic bangers from and inspired by the late '80s/early '90s golden age of gangsta rap. Both coasts represent.

Of course, only Freddie Mercury and the lads truly sounded like Queen, but these artists invoke the spirit of Queen by being as bombastic, exciting and over-the-top as possible.

These true believers carried the prog torch into the post-punk era, from '80s trailblazers to 21st-century new seekers who have drawn on decades of progressive inspiration.

Celebrate the modern blues scene and keep the blues alive with this mix of strict traditionalists and artists who are willing to bring a more modern touch to (arguably) America's greatest musical export.

The American punk underground spawned some of the most creative, fiery and fiercely independent bands of the 1980s. Listen to the groups that paved the way for grunge, emo and pop-punk's commercial ascent in the 1990s.

Celebrating those glorious moments when a group of rappers team-up to spit on the same track, here are rap's ultimate posse cuts, from the Golden Age to today.