Few industries went through as much upheaval in the noughties as the music business. 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 seemed more 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 of 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. I know they’re only pop songs, but then I would argue that bullets are only metal, money is only paper and religion is only old stories!
01. ALL SAINTS ‘Pure Shores’ (February 2000)
02. SPILLER FEAT. SOPHIE ELLIS BEXTER ‘Groovejet’ (August 2000)
03. BLUE ‘All Rise’ (May 2001)
04. SUGABABES ‘Freak Like Me’ (April 2002)
05. NO DOUBT ‘Hella Good’ (June 2002)
06. MS. DYNAMITE ‘Dy-Na-Mi-Tee’ (July 2002)
07. RICHARD X VS. LIBERTY X ‘Being Nobody’ (March 2003)
08. CHRISTINA AGUILERA ‘Beautiful’ (March 2003)
09. GIRLS ALOUD ‘No Good Advice’ (March 2003)
10. JUNIOR SENIOR ‘Move Your Feet’ (March 2003)
11. THE CARDIGANS ‘You’re The Storm’ (March 2003)
12. T.A.T.U. ‘How Soon Is Now?’ (July 2003)
13. RACHEL STEVENS ‘Sweet Dreams My LA Ex’ (September 2003)
14. KYLIE MINOGUE ‘Slow’ (November 2003)
15. WILL YOUNG ‘Leave Right Now’ (November 2003)
16. MAROON 5 ‘She Will Be Loved’ (July 2004)
17. GWEN STEFANI ‘What You Waiting For’ (October 2004)
18. IMOGEN HEAP ‘Hide And Seek’ (May 2005)
19. JACK JOHNSON ‘Good People’ (June 2005)
20. LILY ALLEN ‘Smile’ (March 2006)
21. PETER, BJORN & JOHN ‘Young Folks’ (August 2006)
22. TAKE THAT ‘Patience’ (November 2006)
23. MIKA ‘Grace Kelly’ (January 2007)
24. PATRICK WOLF ‘The Magic Position’ (March 2007)
25. KATE NASH ‘Foundations’ (June 2007)
26. GROOVE ARMADA ‘Song 4 Mutya’ (July 2007)
27. FERGIE ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ (July 2007)
28. FEIST 1234 (October 2007)
29. ROISIN MURPHY ‘Overpowered’ (October 2007)
30. ALPHABEAT ‘Fascination’ (May 2008)
31. GABRIELLA CILMI ‘Sweet About Me’ (June 2008)
32. LITTLE JACKIE ‘The World Should Revolve Around Me’ (July 2008)
33. DUFFY ‘Rain On Your Parade’ (November 2008)
34. LEONA LEWIS ‘Run’ (November 2008)
35. JAMIE T. ‘Sticks‘n’Stones’ (June 2009)
36. LA ROUX ‘Bulletproof’ (June 2009)
37. MINI VIVA ‘Left My Heart In Tokyo’ (September 2009)
38. LADY GAGA ‘Bad Romance’ (October 2009)
39. ONEREPUBLIC ‘Secrets’ (October 2009)
40. PIXIE LOTT ‘Cry Me Out’ (November 2009)