MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2015
WEEK 49: SECRET PLEASURES OF NOUGHTIES POP
Few industries went through as much upheaval in the noughties as the music biz. Music is art and art is always evolving but rarely had there been such tortuous change in such a short space of time. It wasn’t just what folks were listening to that was new but how they listened to it and how it affected them. Incredibly, with illegal downloading we were all able to jump aboard the time machine to become teenagers again.
Some of us went back even further, our easy access to every moment and every influence in music history turning us into toddlers with far too many presents. Not that there was any alternative. With record shops closing down at an alarming rate, the only other option was to ignore all the free goodies on offer and go the supermarket CD route. I know plenty who did just that but to me, sending the latest overhyped piece of shite through the checkout with the cornflakes and pizza always seemed like an act of treason.
Apart from those luddites, most everyone else got seriously stuck in and self-imposed genre constraints became a thing of the past, my teenage daughter for one thinking nothing of blasting out a dubstep tune, then an oddball Swedish pop song, then a gently strummed, heartfelt, acoustic hit. Unencumbered by peer pressure cool, she never saw any contradiction in liking all those differing elements and emotions.
For the first time since the early eighties the pace of pop really picked up and it edged away from Secret Pleasure territory, aged scribes and intellectuals trampling over each other to expound its considerable virtues. Suddenly pop was interesting and almost cool, proving, as if any proof were needed, that the pop song is still one of the greatest inventions of the modern world. Of course, I know they are only pop songs, but then I would argue that bullets are only metal, money is only paper and religion is only old stories.
01 SPILLER ‘Groovejet’ (A Side August 2000)
02 NO DOUBT ‘Hey Baby’ (A Side October 2001)
03 JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE ‘Like I Love You’ (A Side October 2002)
04 CHRISTINA AGUILERA ‘Beautiful’ (A Side March 2003)
05 MIS-TEEQ ‘Scandalous’ (A Side March 2003)
06 RCHARD X VS LIBERTY X ‘Being Nobody’ (A Side March 2003)
07 GIRLS ALOUD ‘No Good Advice’ (A Side May 2003)
08 RACHEL STEVENS ‘Sweet Dreams My LA Ex’ (A Side September 2003)
09 KYLIE MINOGUE ‘Slow’ (A Side November 2003)
10 BRITNEY SPEARS ‘Toxic’ (A Side January 2004)
11 BEYONCE ‘Naughty Girl’ (A Side March 2004)
12 SUGABABES ‘Push The Button’ (A Side September 2005)
13 RIHANNA ‘SOS’ (A Side February 2006)
14 LILY ALLEN ‘Smile’ (A Side March 2006)
15 ROBYN ‘With Every Heartbeat’ (A Side January 2007)
16 GROOVE ARMADA ‘Song 4 Mutya’ (A Side July 2007)
17 ALPHABEAT ‘Fascination’ (A Side May 2008)
18 GRACE JONES ‘William’s Blood’ (A Side December 2008)
19 LADY GAGA ‘Poker Face’ (a Side September 2008)
20 MINI VIVA ‘Left My Heart In Tokyo’ (A Side September 2009)
21 LEONA LEWIS ‘Happy’ (A Side September 2009)