poptimists | Jumping to the End

Interesting Tumblr convo about the song that best defines the 00's, which I guess we're stuck calling the "naughties."

dickmalone has a few good points in response to choices of "Hey Ya" and "Crazy" about importance on pop writ large, re: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as some sorta Song of the 90's (first half, he contends, and I agree, since obvs. we have to make room for "La Vida Loca" or the Macarena somewhere...):

"Nirvana changed the pop landscape. The 00s was a boom decade for pop, or at least the first half was, so it’s going to be something in the pop genre, most likely, though we can throw in a few rockish things for fun."

So sub-question #1: Should the decade be split in half, with maybe a "Oops! ...I Did It Again" through "Since U Been Gone" decade split?

Sub-question #2: Is it a song's importance on the landscape that makes it the Song of the Decade? Sure, you can say that these kinds of questions are either pointless or necessarily a retrospective thing, but I would counter that with....whatever. Let's talk about it anyway!

My 2 cents (pence?): A Song of This Decade should be very zeitgeisty. It should ideally encompass a few major factors:

- THE INTERNET!!!!
- The Rise and Fall of the Music Industry
- Related: The (Further?) Balancing of Indie/Mainstream
- Strippers

My nomination as dark horse candidate is OK Go's "Here It Goes Again," probably the closest thing to an Internet sensation that was "inside" the music industry in some fashion (e.g., "Chocolate Rain" by Tay Zonday is more important to the internet than it is to music). Music video that only seems impressive as a Youtube meme, band that no one's ever heard of and will never hear of again as they toil forever in indie semi-obscurity ("Garden State"-ing). Etc.

Beyonce - “Crazy in Love”
N*Sync - “Bye Bye Bye”
Destiny’s Child - “Survivor”
U2 - “Beautiful Day”
Nelly - “Hot in Herre”
Coldplay - “Clocks”
Black Eyed Peas - “My Humps”
Britney Spears - “Toxic”
Plain White Ts - “Hey There Delilah”
The Killers - “Mr. Brightside”
The Pussycat Dolls “Don’t Cha”
Kelly Clarkson - “Since U Been Gone”
Cascada - “Everytime We Touch”
Rihanna - “Umbrella”
Justin Timberlake - “Cry Me a River”
Hinder - “Lips of an Angel”
Avril Lavigne - “Girlfriend”
Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em - “Crank That (Souja Boy)”
Kanye West - “Stronger”
Sara Barielles - “Love Song”
Alicia Keys - “Fallin”
Katy Perry - “I Kissed a Girl”