The 00s: Music that Mattered to xTian

Coming up with a top 10 list was actually really hard. So I did not do that, instead I did this. I thought about some key musical acts that I felt represented the decade thematically (either in terms of their success over the decade or a music trend that they somehow started or ended) and jotted down thoughts around key songs that propelled them into the zeitgeist

Arrogant? Yes
Well Conceived? No
Well Executed? eh

...do your worst!

More...
Crazy In Love: Beyonce (with Jay-Z) - No one could avoid this song (thankfully I was out of the country for most of its dominance). Jay Z decided Beyonce was the hot one in Destiny's Child and a nation agreed to avoid mocking her unattractive legs even when she refused to hide them. If Beyonce were Michael Jordan this would be her 63 pt game in the playoffs against Bird and the Celtics.

Such Great Heights: Postal Service - Ben Gibbard takes a break from wallowing in self pity to wallow in some self pity with keyboards. Manic Depressives, sexually abused emo-punks, tech heads and Nintendo aficionados unite under one banner(!) and pave the way for the Howard Dean campaign and Radiohead's return to Ok, Computer levels of greatness. Finally, it re-energized everyone's love for synthesizers, a subversive touch that quietly snaked it way back into our collective consciousness and exploded like Aphrodite out of the water with the emergence of MGMT and other like minded acts.

New Slang: The Shins - Nerds and frat boys come together to discuss the isolation brought on by teenage binge drinking...and totally miss the point of this song. The band goes on an aggressive multi-album initiative to alienate all their mainstream fans and re-embrace their core fans - repressed lesbians, child abuse victims and kids who got stuffed in lockers in high school...

Last Night: The Strokes - A couple of rich kids with a lot of hair decide that goofing on lo-fi punk recordings from the mid 70s would be better than getting real jobs. Most of Europe (and xTian) gets sucked in. The growing trend of old things suddenly being really hip and the irony intrinsic to hipsterism are brought to the forefront of our cultural consciousness in a way that only Dov Charney could have ever imagined. Of course in Dov's dreams there are more half naked teens...

Banquet: Bloc Party/Evil: Interpol - Once the Strokes exhaust the 70s lo-fi vibe everyone from London to Brooklyn agrees to release re-interpretations of every Depeche Mode albums from 1980-1986. This all came to a crashing halt with the Bravery and everyone just wished these guys would all get on a bus and fall off the back of a steam ship.

Seven Nation Army: The White Stripes - A guy and girl decide to flummox America by creating confusion around whether they are married or siblings - distracting everyone from the real question - what are these white kids doing in Detroit? xTian sits in the Berkeley Greek Theater and wonders how two people can produce such amazing music...I also think they took the drum and bass movement to its logical conclusion. I spent most of the late 90s hearing people ruin everything with some really "great" drum and bass. They actually did it well, and all these other jokers got embarrassed and became bankers or something. You know, so they could go ruin something else. Go f*ck yourselves drum & bass/banker douches...

Where Is The Love: Black Eyed Peas - BEP, a somewhat underground break dancing crew with occasional rap albums in late 90s, unleash their master plan for world domination - Step 1 - kidnap a recovering meth addict with lovely lady lumps Step 2. Force her to sing hooks on the most banal childish songs conceivable Step 3. Become the biggest "band" in the world even though no one plays an instrument and only two people seem to "sing". Step 4. Actively support their puppet in his bid to become leader of the free world. Step 5. Rule the world with an iron (though lyrically banal) fist...You think you're sooo smart will.i.am but I see your game. Go bend a spoon, you Matrix watching motherf*cker.

Hey Ya: Outkast/The Seed 2.0: The Roots featuring Cody Chestnutt - Before they became Jimmy Fallon's band The Legendary Roots Crew toured the country 3-4 times a year bringing the most amazing hip hop party/jam session to every town they visited - proselytizing the notion that there was actually music to hip hop and making it more palatable to a broader audience. Their efforts made the Jay Z Unplugged album possible/marvelous and pushed HOV to a new level of cross over appeal. It also laid the ground work for the neo soul movement and could be considered the proud uncle of what became backpack hip-hop movement. This where Outkast came and took the backpack pack hip hop movement out of the very specific Buppie element and broadened it by introducing a level of showmanship that had heretofore not been seen. Now, white kids can love a Talib Kweli record without having to assume the self loathing that is implicit in half of Eminem's songs...This has since been taken to its logical conclusion by Kanye West...

Brighter Discontent: The Submarines - You all know Submarine songs. You do. They license their music to every product you have ever imagined and are perfectly happy to promote their songs through any TV show that will have them. You've heard them on Grey's Anatomy, Gossip Girl, Nip/Tuck and potentially my forthcoming web series about two young boys trying to get girls to come to their poorly advertised rainbow party. Everyone uses TV shows and commercials to market their product, but The Submarines are the most pervasive. Apropos of nothing I will mention that the female lead, Blake Hazzard, is actually F. Scott Fitzgerald's granddaughter. She is also totally lovely. ET #1 and I went to their concert last year and watched her finish her set and get behind the booth and start hocking CDs and t-shirts the most upbeat disposition. All reasons to love her.

Since You Been Gone: Kelly Clarkson - Kelly Clarkson is totally different than most other pop singers. Despite being the first product off the American Idol assembly line she feels completely genuine. This is true for several reasons - her construction (on American Idol) was completely transparent most of America can draw a line from what we started to her SYBG roscker girl act and no attempt to tart her up has been even remotely successful. She is exactly who she is - a little fat, overly perky, decidedly unsexy, and unwilling to be a cypher (as proved by her song writing which at times has proven to be career limiting; proof point - most of us were completely unaware of her third album). I am shocked she is still famous. It's all kind of amazing...and her continued commercial viability is the standard that future basket job victims like Adam Lambert have to live up too...

Almost Crimes: Broken Social Scene - The idea of a rock super group is fairly old so rather than pursue that, Toronto's BSS evolved as a rather meticulously conceived and hastily implemented jumble of rock noise - a concept perfected later by Montreal's Arcade Fire. Disappointingly, this rumble of musical enclaves failed to exacerbate Anglo/Franco tensions to a fever pitch we are all demanding. In my head, I envision a snowy bar in middle 2006 and one scarf wearing Quebecer getting into a heated exchange/debate with some Toronto hipster that yielded no punches and several "ehs". 10 minutes in, the entire conflict would dissolve - they would then agree to disagree, toast with Molsens and agree that each band is popular thanks to their hard work and earnest presentation. Dull story, just like every other story that takes place in Canada. Still their influence is plain. The biggest benefactor from BSS was contributor Leslie Feist. She found great success in the later part of the decade and managed to include her old friends whenever she could.

Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa: Vampire Weekend - I think there is something to the idea of incorporating world music elements (like soukous) into modern rock. Beirut did this with less success (and much less aplomb) earlier in the decade...I am excited for where this trend will end up

I will think about TV sometime next week and post those comments as well...