Here we go again ... well, I thought these would be less good than the 80s but better than the 90s, but I'm not sure they are, in toto, better than the 90s (to be clear, here I am doing the decade from 2000 to 2009).
There are some fantastic ones at the top, but not that much variety. Most of the best ones are finely honed pop/r'n'b. There aren't that many really weird great songs. America and/or the American sound is pretty dominant. Even though there was a lot of successful "landfill indie" (a lot of of which was pretty good) in this decade, not that much of it made it to the top spot, so there are just not that many songs that in any way resemble rock music.
And there is a lot of purest shite at the bottom - reality TV dross and horrible songs by creepy men. Also, there are a lot more songs here, compared to the 80s and 90s (where i only really needed to seek out about 10 songs each time), that I didn't really know - I could have just about sung the chorus, but not much more.
Anyway, like I say, there are still some fabulous pop songs at the top, and plenty of good ones up to around the midway point.
Ignition by R Kelly is a bit of a problem - it's a great, not especially creepy, song I used to like, but anyway, I'll just absent-mindedly leave it out, because i can't be bothered about my position on the art vs the artist on that one.
At the bottom, we have ...
273. Busted - Who's David? - I'm David, you infantile shitheads! No, in all seriousness, though I took against Busted pretty instantly, I'd not realised how rank and misogynistic this song was. Like, the ultimate frightening woman-hating teenage boy song. Really awful ....
272. The X Factor Finalists 2009 - You Are Not Alone. A fateful meeting of all the worst things in the history of everything.
271. 3 of a Kind - Baby Cakes. Heady days when we first got Freeview and watched pop video channels, and there were lots of good pop songs/videos in 2004/2005, and then along came this, and it was on all the time, and it was so bad, so I kind of blame this song for driving me in into the embrace of Sky Sports News.
270. Kid Rock - All
Summer Long
269. Limp Bizkit - Rollin'. So bad, so much of the worst music ever made by anyone ever. Not getting overserious, but I feel a lot of this music lays bare and foreshadows everything that's gone this century.
268. The Notorious
B.I.G. featuring Diddy, Nelly, Jagged
Edge and Avery Storm - Nasty
Girl
267. Akon - Lonely. This is bad. Akon was bad.
266. Akon featuring Eminem - Smack That. This is probably worse.
265. Bob the Builder - Mambo
No. 5
264. Madonna - American Pie. Madonna had a run of really really bad singles at the start of this century. Thankfully that run ended, as we will come to later.
263. Busted - You Said No. More Busted incel dross.
262. Bob the Builder - Can We Fix It?
261. David Guetta featuring Akon - Sexy Chick. Akon's Greatest Number 1!
260. Ja Rule featuring R. Kelly and Ashanti - Wonderful
259. The X Factor Finalists 2008 - Hero
258. Gareth Gates featuring The Kumars - Spirit in the Sky
257. Atomic Kitten - The
Tide Is High (Get the Feeling)
256. Gareth Gates - Unchained
Melody
255. Geri Halliwell - It's Raining Men. That joke wasn't funny anymore.
254. Mariah Carey featuring Westlife - Against All Odds
253. Leon Jackson - When You
Believe
252. McFly - Don't Stop Me
Now / Please, Please
251. Five and Queen - We
Will Rock You
250. Westlife - Uptown Girl. There are a lot a lot of Westlife Number 1s in the 2000s, and inevitably some of them must be less awful than others. But this is solidly awful.
249. Mario Winans featuring Enya and P. Diddy - I Don't Wanna Know. This is not even that bad, then along comes Diddy ...
248. Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band - The Official BBC Children in Need Medley
247. Crazy Frog - Axel
F
246. Westlife - I
Have a Dream / Seasons in the Sun
245. Steps - Stomp. Steps were never not shite. I don't accept any retrospective fondness towards Steps.
244. Will Young and Gareth Gates - The Long and Winding Road / Suspicious Minds. As we will get to, Will Young was capable of greatness, and there's nothing too wrong with this, but neither are singing songs they're really suited to.
243. DJ Ötzi - Hey Baby. I played this a lot at quizzes. People liked it. I hate people.
242. Westlife - Unbreakable
241. Peter Andre featuring Bubbler Ranx - Mysterious Girl
240. Spice Girls - Holler / Let Love Lead the Way. This was the Spice Girls' late-career attempt to do serious, grown-up r'n'b and it was not good.
239. Michelle - All
This Time
238. Will Young - Anything Is Possible / Evergreen
237. Atomic Kitten - Eternal
Flame
236. The Black Eyed Peas - Meet Me Halfway. I won't, thanks.
235. Busted - Thunderbirds /
3AM. Not eternal.
234. Chico - It's Chico Time. That is, indeed, in every possible way, the time it was.
233. Elvis Presley - One Night / I Got Stung
232. Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman - Somethin' Stupid
231. A1 - Take on Me
230. Elvis Presley - It's Now or Never
229. Steve Brookstein - Against All Odds. Now this is funny. And in some ways I ought to put this higher. The fact that the first series of the show that defined British pop music and TV for a decade was won by a nondescript middle-age pub singer, who clearly no one on the show really liked, and who turned out to be a crank, and it wasn't some kind of joke or stunt, it wasn't like Boaty McBoatface, he was just the guy the British public voted for in huge numbers.
228. Blue featuring Elton John - Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word
227. The Pussycat Dolls featuring Busta Rhymes - Don't Cha. This is quite a good, but pernicious, song.
226. Sandi Thom - I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair). This might have been laudable and heartwarming, but it was a real set-your-teeth-on-edge bad song.
225. Shaggy featuring Rayvon - Angel. Shaggy had three great, funny, memorable Number 1s, but this was not one of them.
224. A1 - Same Old
Brand New You
223. Madonna - Music. As I say, I found Madonna's run of singles from 2000 to 2003 to be absolutely wretched.
222. Shayne Ward - That's
My Goal
221. Atomic Kitten - Whole Again. I truly did not understand how or why this song was massively successful. There were a couple of quite fun Atomic Kitten singles, but this I did not get.
220. Enrique Iglesias - Hero
219. Melanie C - I
Turn to You
218. DJ Sammy and Yanou featuring Do - Heaven
217. Vanessa Jenkins and Bryn
West featuring Tom Jones and Robin Gibb - (Barry) Islands in the Stream
216. Robbie Williams - Radio
215. Hear'Say - The Way to Your Love. Their second (of two) Number 1s, a pleasant enough song.
214. Westlife - Queen
of My Heart
213. S Club 7 Have You Ever. I guess Hear'Say were built on the S Club, Steps model which seemed very successful at the turn of the century, but I'm not sure there's been a successful pop band like that since.
212. McFly - Star Girl
211. Westlife - The
Rose
210. Madison Avenue - Don't
Call Me Baby
209. Fedde Le Grand - Put
Your Hands Up For Detroit
208. Jennifer Lopez - Love
Don't Cost a Thing. The curious case of Jennifer Lopez the second-rate pop star.
207. S Club 7 - Never
Had a Dream Come True
206. Robbie Williams - Rock DJ. The Barry White sample is great. This is probably actually a great pop song, but it was just peak Williamsy Williams.
205. Billie Piper - Day
& Night
204. Take That - Greatest Day. Although, chronologically, they did have a couple more good singles in them, I kind of feel this was the end of the feelgood Take That revival. Running from Back for Good, through Never Forget, Patience, Shine and Rule the World, they really seemed like they'd nailed doing actual top-class MOR, whereas this song was so forced, such an obvious failed attempt at something anthemic. But it's just got no tune, and it's so bland.
203. Taio Cruz - Break
Your Heart
202. Sam & Mark - With a Little Help from My Friends. Aah they were pretty fun, Sam and Mark. No Ant and Dec, but no Dick and Dom.
201. Tinchy Stryder featuring Amelle Berrabah - Never Leave You
200. Roger Sanchez Another
Chance
199. Eric Prydz - Call
on Me
198. David Sneddon - Stop Living the Lie. Fame Academy was a weird show, weirdly executed ...
197. LMC vs. U2 - Take
Me to the Clouds Above
196. Westlife - Mandy. Maybe this should be higher. Mandy is the ultimate acceptably cheesy song, and actually Westlife can't really harm it.
195. Timbaland featuring Nelly
Furtado and Justin Timberlake - Give
It to Me
194. Blue - Too Close
193. The Pussycat Dolls - Stickwitu
192. Eminem - Just
Lose It. Eminem just lost it.
191. Frankee - F.U.R.B. (Fuck You Right Back). It was just quite poorly carried out.
190. Timbaland featuring Keri Hilson - The Way I Are
189. Mint Royale - Singin'
in the Rain
188. U2 - Vertigo. To me, a bit like J-Lo, latterday U2 always felt like they were chasing someone's else's sound. Having said that, I think Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of, which reached Number 2, is their loveliest song, and if that was in the list, it would be Top 10.
187. DJ Casper - Cha
Cha Slide
186. Melanie C featuring Lisa Left Eye Lopes - Never Be the Same Again
185. Ozzy and Kelly Osbourne - Changes. Baffling but not listenable.
184. Dizzee Rascal featuring Calvin
Harris and Chrome - Dance
wiv Me
183. Britney Spears - Born to
Make You Happy
182. Chipmunk - Oopsy
Daisy
181. Basshunter featuring DJ Mental Theo's Bazzheadz - Now You're Gone. Originally known as Tunahunter.
180. McFly - Baby's Coming
Back / Transylvania.
179. Cheryl Cole - Fight
for This Love
178. 2Pac featuring Elton John - Ghetto Gospel
177. Ronan Keating - If
Tomorrow Never Comes
176. Lily Allen - Smile. Ok, i feel like we're out of hell now. The songs now are not all horrendous.
175. Christina Aguilera, Lil'
Kim, Mýa and Pink - Lady
Marmalade
174. Sean Kingston - Beautiful
Girls
173. Justin Timberlake - SexyBack
172. McFly - 5 Colours in
Her Hair
171. Holly Valance - Kiss Kiss. Actually a pretty great single, but Holly Valance has become more awful than could have been imagined, so hard to feel anything positive here.
170. Alexandra Burke - Hallelujah. Carried the Buckley version all the way to Number 2...
169. Oxide & Neutrino - Bound
4 da Reload (Casualty)
168. Westlife - My
Love
167. Destiny's Child - Survivor. This was only a few months after Independent Women, and is a pretty similar song, but somehow pressed all the wrong buttons for me.
166. Elvis vs. JXL - A
Little Less Conversation
165. Blazin' Squad - Crossroads
164. Busted - Crashed the
Wedding
163. Usher - Burn
162. Fatman Scoop featuring the Crooklyn Clan - Be Faithful. Very shouty.
161. Tomcraft - Loneliness
160. Katie Melua and Eva Cassidy - What a Wonderful World. The new wave of boredom.
159. Eminem - Like
Toy Soldiers
158. Brian McFadden - Real
to Me
157. Sugababes vs. Girls Aloud - Walk This Way. I mean, fine, you have to do this kind of stuff, it's more fun than most charity records ...
156. Meck featuring Leo Sayer - Thunder in My Heart Again. You have your one Number 1 single and you deeply regret that you have taken the stage name Meck.
155. Dizzee Rascal featuring Chrome - Holiday
154. Pixie Lott - Boys and Girls. Looking for ...
153. Daniel Bedingfield - Gotta
Get Thru This. But what if we can't ...
152. Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock. Well, Jailhouse Rock is a good song.
151. Chicane featuring Bryan Adams - Don't Give Up
150. Band Aid 20 - Do They Know It's Christmas? This is as early 2000s as the original is 80s. The Dizzee Rascal rap ... amazing ...
149. Westlife - Fool
Again
148. Calvin Harris - I'm
Not Alone
147. Rui da Silva featuring Cassandra - Touch Me. Unbelievable ...
146. James Blunt - You're
Beautiful
145. Girls Aloud - I'll Stand by You. Nice song, great band, not great.
144. Britney Spears - Everytime
143. Blue - If You Come Back. Blue were, I think, the most coherent of the boy bands - their records often sounded good while being silly in a memorable way, which is all you can ask for in the genre. But they didn't have a great Number 1. But if you take the first letters of their names, it makes LADS, which is really something
142. Afroman - Because
I Got High
141. Leona Lewis - A
Moment Like This
140. The Black Eyed Peas - Where Is the Love?
139. Christina Aguilera featuring Redman - Dirrty
138. U2 - Beautiful
Day
137. Katy Perry - I
Kissed a Girl
136. Tinchy Stryder featuring N-Dubz - Number 1. More a Number 2 really, Haha
135. Flo Rida featuring Kesha - Right Round
134. JLS - Everybody in
Love
133. U2 - Sometimes
You Can't Make It on Your Own
132. Kylie Minogue - Slow
131. Gareth Gates - Anyone
of Us (Stupid Mistake)
130. Liberty X - Just
a Little
129. Arctic Monkeys - When the Sun Goes Down. This was their second of only two Number 1s, and not all that good. Presumably, after this band, the band faded away to nothing.
128. Eminem - Without
Me. Like Oasis, Eminem kept on having Number 1 singles long after he stopped being at all good.
127. Christina Aguilera - Beautiful
126. Lady Gaga featuring Colby O'Donis - Just Dance
125. JLS - Beat Again
124. Sugababes - About
You Now
123. Beyoncé and Shakira - Beautiful Liar
122. Westlife - You Raise Me Up. Well, you know, it's the tune to Danny Boy. It can't be all bad.
121. Will Young - Light
My Fire
120. The Black Eyed Peas - Boom
Boom Pow
119. Westlife - World
of Our Own
118. Orson - No Tomorrow. The Toto of their day.
117. Craig David - Fill
Me In
116. McFly - I'll Be OK
115. Nelly featuring Tim McGraw - Over and Over
114. Five - Let's Dance. Not that one, but quite good, actually.
113. Jennifer Lopez - Get Right. Lopez's fairly successful attempt to get some of the Rich Harrison Crazy in Love/1 Thing magic. But nowhere near as good, because she's not good at this.
112. Elton John - Are You Ready for Love. He's good at this, so he could still have a Number 1 with a minor song 20 years after it was released.
111. LeAnn Rimes - Can't
Fight the Moonlight
110. Room 5 featuring Oliver Cheatham - Make Luv
109. Natasha Bedingfield - These
Words
108. The Proclaimers featuring Brian
Potter and Andy Pipkin - I'm
Gonna Be (500 Miles)
107. Las Ketchup - The
Ketchup Song
106. Robbie Williams - Eternity / The Road to Mandalay. Acceptably unbad.
105. Ne-Yo - Closer.
104. Duffy - Mercy
103. Beyoncé featuring Jay-Z - Déjà Vu
102. Gnarls Barkley -Crazy. Mixed feelings about Crazy, which was definitely one of the strongest, most memorable songs of the era. I guess I just got properly sick of it. Itself, and all the slowed down covers. And also, Cee-Lo Green turned out to be not great ...
101. The Shapeshifters - Lola's
Theme
100. Modjo - Lady (Hear Me
Tonight)
99. Sugababes - Freak
Like Me
98. Evanescence - Bring Me
to Life
97. Black Legend - You See
the Trouble with Me
96. Eminem - The
Real Slim Shady
95. La Roux - Bulletproof
94. The Ting Tings - That's
Not My Name. "you wannae dance ta thae ..."?
93. Aaliyah - More Than a
Woman. Honestly, have never quite understood aaaaaalll the fuss about Aaliyah, sorry, sorry ...
92. Daniel Bedingfield - Never
Gonna Leave Your Side. Whereas, big Danny B, there was never enough fuss ...
91. Ciara featuring Petey Pablo - Goodies.
90. Shakira featuring Wyclef Jean - Hips Don't Lie.
89. Beyoncé - If I
Were a Boy
88. Ne-Yo - So Sick
87. Jay-Z featuring Rihanna and Kanye West - Run This Town. The Rihanna bit's great and the Jay-Z bit's great, and then along comes shithead, and it's not just in hindsight, his bit is just rank. Was never not a prick.
86. Geri Halliwell - Bag It
Up. The joke was still funny.
85. Sugababes - Hole
in the Head
84. Darius - Colourblind. The people's Darius.
83.The Corrs - Breathless
82. DJ Pied Piper and the Masters of Ceremonies - Do You Really Like It?
81. Britney Spears - Oops!...
I Did It Again
80. Fragma - Toca's Miracle
79. Gabrielle - Rise. The second Knockin' on Heaven's Door-based Number 1 in 5 years, weirdly.
78. Pixie Lott - Mama
Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh)
77. Lily Allen - The Fear. I was by no means a Lily Allen fan, but i think this song had a real melancholy to it.
76. Leona Lewis - Run
75. Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire. Really silly, but still quite good
74. Oasis - The Importance
of Being Idle.
73. Tony Christie featuring Peter Kay - (Is This the Way to) Amarillo
72. McFly - All About You /
You've Got a Friend
71. Michael Andrews featuring Gary Jules - Mad World
70.Pink - Just like a
Pill
69. Oasis - The Hindu Times. The weird truth is that the four Oasis Number 1s of the 2000s are actually better, on average, than the four Oasis Number 1s of the 1990s. Their Number 1s later on were solid content, whereas two of their 90s Number 1s were the absolute worst. This is not brilliant, but as good as they were going to be at that point.
68. George Harrison - My Sweet Lord
67. Hear'Say - Pure
and Simple
66. Craig David - 7
Days
65.Madonna - Sorry
64. Madonna featuring Justin Timberlake - 4 Minutes
63. Rihanna - Take
a Bow. Two Madonna songs, and then confusingly, not a Madonna song.
62. S Club 7 - Don't
Stop Movin'
61. The Black Eyed Peas - I
Gotta Feeling
60. Alexandra Burke featuring Flo Rida - Bad Boys
59. Kanye West - Stronger. Fair enough, this one.
58. My Chemical Romance - Welcome
to the Black Parade
57. Eamon - Fuck It (I Don't Want You Back). You know, one ought to hate this, but it was pretty well executed.
56. Take That - Shine. Little Mark Owen and his hopeless voice, but a nice song
55. Usher featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris - Yeah!
54. Scissor Sisters - I Don't
Feel Like Dancin'
53. Sugababes - Round
Round
52. Mika - Grace Kelly
51. So Solid Crew - 21 Seconds. Ashley Walters is a great actor. Well, anyway, this song had its moment.
50. Nizlopi - JCB Song. Rather like the Eamon song, one ought to hate this, and it certainly incurred its share of mockery at the time, but, you know, good on them. It's sweet. It is. And i hope they were made for life.
49. Nelly - My Place /
Flap Your Wings
48. Kylie Minogue - Spinning
Around
47. Kelly Clarkson - My Life
Would Suck Without You
46. Coldplay - Viva la Vida. I think, in being perpetually disappointed for many years by Coldplay, I misunderstood Coldplay. They're a singles pop band, not an albums rock band. and if you pick out 10 to 12 singles from their career, they're a really good singles band. So fair enough.
45.Cascada - Evacuate
the Dancefloor
44. Razorlight - America. Chronologically, this played a trick on me, as I could have sworn it was part of the phase when Razorlight were still considered good (by me and others), but it was after In the Morning and Somewhere Else, which were successful but very flabby singles. Razorlight fell faster and harder than most, and have never been able to regenerate any interest, despite the fact they had two genuinely massive albums. Some people did hate this song, but I thought it was fine.
43. Gorillaz - Dare. Not the best Gorillaz song, but nice that they had a Number 1, in the same month as ...
42. Oasis - Lyla ... this extremely derivative Oasis song which was pretty good.
41. McFly - Obviously
40. Daniel Bedingfield - If
You're Not the One
39. Nelly Furtado - Maneater
38. The Streets - Dry
Your Eyes
37. Oasis - Go Let It Out. The space between Oasis releasing the single Go Let it Out and the album Standing on the Shoulder of Giants was the space where Oasis might still have turned out to be a band with something about them. This song was not a masterpiece, but it sounded like a band that listened to new things and wanted to change ... the album was, apart from this and instrumental opener Fucking in the Bushes, dreadful, though.
36. Ronan Keating - Life Is
a Rollercoaster. Gregg Alexander.
35. Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland - Dilemma
34. Manic Street Preachers - The Masses Against the Classes. Although it was fun that the Manics gamed the system to have one of the first Number 1s of the decade, this was not a very good song, and actually is particularly bittersweet because it marks the end of their strongest commercial era. They really lost the knack for quite a few years after this.
33. Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby. Funny, I notice, that I'm really grouping the decent indie-rock songs around this point. I can't bring myself to put them right at the top, but I'm still enough of an indie kid to loyally put them Top 50ish. Anyway, the Kaiser Chiefs, who could really entertain. They have actually done eight albums, all of which have gone Top 10. Ricky Wilson was always pretty committed to trying to be famous, I think.
32. Estelle featuring Kanye West - American Boy. I would say, pretty much, the only genuinely charming song with Kanye West on it.
31. Stereophonics - Dakota. See above point. Most of the Stereophonics songs after their first album were not at all good to listen to, but this, I think, was and still is a very good song.
30. Blu Cantrell featuring Sean Paul - Breathe
29. David Guetta featuring Kelly Rowland - When Love Takes Over. Kelly's actually involved with several really good Number 1s. Especially as it was shown in later footage that she was the X Factor judge purely responsible for forming Little Mix.
28. Lady Gaga - Poker Face
27. All Saints - Black Coffee. Here's a funny thing - we had Black Coffee as a clue on OC a few years' back and loads, i mean, loads of people on twitter commented "that's Pure Shores, you've got the wrong song". But it was the right song. So, you could say the songs sound alike, but it's not just that. It's like people have forgotten Black Coffee exists - that they had two really great Number 1s in quick succession ...
26. Dizzee Rascal featuring Armand Van Helden - Bonkers. A banger.
25. Girls Aloud - Sound
of the Underground
24. Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor. If you were to study the charts in the traditional way, you'd say the Arctic Monkeys' debut single was their biggest hit, they had one more Number 1 and then no more massive hits. But that is very much not the case. 'Dancefloor' is only their 9th most streamed song on Spotify. They are INCREDIBLY successful, wildly. Maybe the biggest rock band in the world. They've six songs with over a billion spotify streams, none from their debut album. Their most successful song is based on a John Cooper Clarke poem. Following on from that, in general, as you can see, there are not that many indie and rock, or landfill indie, Number 1s in the 2000s. None for The Strokes, or Franz Ferdinand, or The Libertines, The White Stripes, or whoever else ... but, interestingly, a lot of this music has stood the test of time - commercially, I mean - pretty well. The Kooks, Keane, The Killers, even a band like The Wombats ... they do really good numbers ...
23. t.A.T.u. - All the
Things She Said
22. Sonique - It
Feels So Good
21. Lady Gaga - Bad
Romance
20. Pink - So What
19. Madonna - Hung Up. For a variety of reasons - bad acting, her run of dodgy singles, the influence of intellectualized misogyny etc - I'd spent the mid-90s to the mid-2000s thinking Madonna was basically not good. Hung Up was a great single, though, and so I stopped being an idiot.
18. Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You Out of My Head. Perhaps Can't Get You Out of My Head was a little overhyped - didn't Paul Morley write a book about it or something? - and I can't say I would ever actually choose to put it on to get whatever kicks I get from the popular song, but, you know, it's a nice little number.
17. Spiller ft Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Groovejet (If
This Ain't Love). The first song played on an ipod, fact fans.
16. Emma Bunton - What Took You So Long?. Actually my favourite Spice Girls-related song by some distance. Just a nice song.
15. Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name. Not only is this, obviously, a banger, but it really did signal the start of the end of the X-Factor era ... I mean, the early start, of course ... there was still One Direction and Little Mix to come.
14. Eminem - Stan. At this point, it's important to remember, Eminem was really considered capable of being very very good.
13. All Saints - Pure
Shores. Not Black Coffee.
12. Shaggy featuring RikRok - It Wasn't Me
11. Britney Spears - Toxic
10. Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
9. Sugababes - Push the Button.
8. Take That - Patience. Very knitwear.
7. Beyoncé featuring Jay-Z - Crazy in Love
6. Will Young - Leave Right Now. I've thought fairly hard about the order of the Top 10, for what it's worth. Nevertheless, putting Leave Right Now above Crazy in Love is a bold call. But i'm sticking with it.
5. Eminem - Lose
Yourself
4. Girls Aloud - The Promise
3. Destiny's Child - Independent Women Part I. I bought cassette singles of this and Stan on the same day - I think from Woolworths in St Andrews - and for me, that was a significant thing to do.
2. Rihanna featuring Jay-Z - Umbrella.
1. Robyn with Kleerup - With Every Heartbeat. Umbrella was a more obvious choice, but I just love the "and-it-hurts-with-every-heartbeat" bit so much. I first encountered this when I joined a gym in South London, and I saw the video up on the wall without ever listening to the song, Robyn marching with serious sad intent towards the camera. I can't even remember when I first paid attention to the song itself, but, as much as there is a lot of very bad pop music this century, Robyn has led the way in there also being a lot of very good pop music, so yay.
I will do the 1970s next, which will be fun, but I am already casting my eyes at the 2010s with dread ... there are some great songs, but a lot I do really hate (here comes Drake ...) and more than ever I hardly know, so I'm not entirely sure if I'll get to it any time soon ...
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