January172010

Zeitgeist (ii)

Another game that some chums and I had been playing in the run up to the new year was to create lists of our favourite songs of those same decades with a view to using them as playlists for a themed party that, needless to say, has never been organised.

I also used the exercise to compile a list of my favourite ten songs of the noughties for reference.

They are (in no particular order):

Amerie – One Thing
Coki & Benga – Night
Tomahawk – Until Dawn
Joanna Newsom – Book of Right On
Band of Horses – Noones Gonna Love You
N.E.R.D - You Know What
Daniel Bedingfield – Gotta Get Thru’ This
Destinys Child – Lose My Breath
Isolee – Beau Mot Plage
Kelis - Trick Me

The ‘serious’ music press have all recently published their ‘Top 100’ lists for the decade causing the expected riot of criticism and dismay on their webforums. (One particular comment that I found rather amusing from the Rolling Stone forum was complaining bitterly that Pearl Jam weren’t represented in the Top 100).

I’ve attached reference to the Top 10’s of a couple, namely Rolling Stone Magazine and the NME. As expected they have a noticeable US/UK bias (particularly noticeable outside the top twenty) but I felt made interesting reading.

Especially, I felt, in the addition of MIA’s “Paper Planes”. I think it’s very important to note that a tune such of this could achieve mainstream success, having an undoubted ‘underground’ pedigree through it’s producers - I’m just not sure that it’s actually any good.


Rolling stone - http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/31248926/100_best_songs_of_the_decade/23

  1. Gnarls Barkley — “Crazy”
  2. Jay-Z — “99 Problems”
  3. Beyoncé — “Crazy in Love”
  4. Outkast — “Hey Ya!”
  5. M.I.A. — “Paper Planes”
  6. The White Stripes — “Seven Nation Army”
  7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs — “Maps”
  8. Amy Winehouse — “Rehab”
  9. U2 — “Beautiful Day”
  10. Eminem — “Stan”


New Musical Express - http://www.nme.com/list/100-tracks-of-the-decade/158050/page/10

  1. Beyonce – ‘Crazy In Love’
  2. MGMT – ‘Time To Pretend’
  3. The Strokes – ‘Hard To Explain’
  4. MIA – ‘Paper Planes’
  5. OutKast – ‘Hey Ya!’
  6. The Rapture – ‘House Of Jealous Lovers’
  7. Klaxons – ‘Golden Skans’
  8. Blur – ‘Out Of Time’
  9. Arcade Fire – ‘Rebellion (Lies)’
  10. Arctic Monkeys – ‘A Certain Romance’


Expanding to the published Top 20’s shows a great deal more correlation to the lists (MGMT falls just outside Rolling Stones Top 10 for instance).

I think that they’re both interesting, as lists compiled by a ‘rock’ and ‘indie’ orientated magasine respectively, for the inclusion of such a high percentage of R&B/Urban music.

R&B seemingly remains, in the position it assumed in the 1990’s, at the very forefront of popular music. Modern ‘Pop’ itself, having been dumbed down so such a an extent that it’s appeal is now severely limited, does not appear to be that popular.

P.S. Here is the DomPosts rehash of the NME article:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/3102957/Is-this-the-decades-best-song

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