Brief 39 - Interim Pop

 This is a playlist of the stuff I thought I was trying to avoid.

It's the pop charts, 1998 to 2006. These were my CD-buying years - voraciously chasing the heritage of rockular music, as well as buying everything vaguely indie that half-interested me - 1000+ CD albums I bought in those years, hardly any featured here.

This is the pop stuff, the stuff I was mainly turning up my nose at. Yet, of course, I still heard it. I still watched 'Top of the Pops' and 'The Chart Show' then 'CDUK', listened to Radio 1 sometimes, watched 'Popstars' and 'The X Factor' etc.

These are, mostly, the songs which I liked begrudgingly, or thought at the time I didn't like but it turns out I did.

It was still pretty much acceptable to be snobby about pop music in 1998 - I genuinely did think that what I was in to was "better". That changed over the course of this playlist - pop started to win critical acclaim, to be enjoyed and judged on its own merits.

I've finished at 2006, not just because that's when I started downloading music, so everything opened up choicewise, but because, by then, most of barriers were down. I didn't like something like 'Biology' begrudgingly, I loved it and knew it was good. I've chosen 'Patience' by Take That as the last song, just because I hated Take That in their first incarnation, and yet when they came back a decade later, with a solidly pleasing middle-aged pop ballad, I lapped it up.

So, this is that stuff. Of course, I wasn't a complete closed book at the time - some of it, like 'Doo Wop (That Thing)' and 'Get Your Freak On' was recognisably great, even to me.

And, of course, I wasn't entirely wrong. A lot of the stuff of that era was bobbins. Still, here are my favourites, my pleasant memories, of the interim pop.

[usually only one track per artist, though sometimes have allowed an artist twice in different guises].

INTERIM POP - PLAYLIST 98-06

1. Doo Wop (That Thing) - Lauryn Hill
2. Family Affair - Mary J Blige
3. Complicated - Avril Lavigne
4. All The Things She Said - Tatu
5. Move Your Feet - Junior Senior
6. 1 Thing - Amerie
7. Biology - Girls Aloud
8. Irreplaceable - Beyonce
9. We Are Your Friends - Justice vs Simian
10. Toxic - Britney Spears
11. Shackles - Mary Mary
12. Getting' Jiggy With It - Will Smith
13. Chewing Gum - Annie
14. Show Me Love - Robyn
15. I Try - Macy Gray
16. My Love is Your Love - Whitney Houston
17. Milkshake - Kelis
18. It Feels So Good - Sonique
19. Try Again - Aaliyah
20. Genie in a Bottle - Christina Aguilera
21. See it in a Boy's Eyes - Jamelia
22. Leave Right Now - Will Young
23. I'm Like a Bird - Nelly Furtado
24. Get Ur Freak On - Missy Elliott
25. Who's That Girl - Eve
26. Fallin'  - Alicia Keys
27. Lose Yourself - Eminem
28. Cry Me a River - Justin Timberlake
29. If There's Any Justice - Lemar
30. Some Girls - Rachel Stevens
31. Obviously - McFly
32. Shiver - Natalie Imbruglia
33. Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani
34. No Worries - Simon Webbe
35. Hung Up - Madonna
36. Pure Shores - All Saints
37. Independent Women Pt 1 - Destiny's Child
38. 911 - Wyclef Jean
39. What Took You So Long - Emma Bunton
40. Honey to the Bee - Billie
41. Keep on Movin' - 5ive
42. Most Girls - Pink
43. In Demand - Texas
44. Ms Jackson - OutKast
45. Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) - Spiller ft Sophie Ellis Bextor
46. It Wasn't Me - Shaggy ft RikRok
47. Chase the Sun - Planet Funk
48. Lovin' Each Day - Ronan Keating
49. Flyby - Blue
50. Can't Get You Out of My Head - Kylie Minogue
51. If You're Not the One - Daniel Bedingfield
52. It's OK - Atomic Kitten
53. Dy-Na-Mi-Tee - Ms Dynamite
54. Dilemma - Nelly ft Kelly Rowland
55. Breathe - Blu Cantrell ft Sean Paul
56. Come As You Are - Beverley Knight
57. Pon de Replay - Rihanna
58. Push the Button - Sugababes
59. End of the Line - The Honeyz
60. Patience - Take That