Not to Be Dramatic, But the Early 2000s Had The Best Music of all Time.
graphic courtesy of freepik.com
It’s 2006. You’re driving in the backseat of your mom’s Honda Pilot staring out the window. “Bad Day” by Daniel Powter plays softly on the radio. You stare out the window, gazing at the passing cars and trees as a single tear slips down your cheek when you finally arrive at your elementary school. The day has not yet begun, but somehow you can feel the pain and emotion of “you kick up the leaves, and the magic is lost.” You know this song was written for you, and you truly cannot wait to film a music video to it with your friends on Video Star.
Music in the early 2000s is undoubtedly the best music ever created, and that is a FACT. The music that was released from 2000-2010 has an aura of sentimentalism surrounding it that no other music can match. Laying in your bed listening to “Bleeding Love” is a much more emotionally intense experience than standing at a pregame listening to “Freaky Friday.” The era of R&B/Storytelling/Emo sound that was the early 2000s perfectly depicted the spirit of a youngster growing up when every little thing seemed like the end of the world.
We grew up on lyrics like “Shush girl shut your lips, do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips.” We’re no scientist, but that has to be part of the reason that we’re all so fucked up now. The early 2000s allowed us to express ourselves by creating music our parents didn’t want us to listen to. We just wanted to go to our middle school dances to grind and rage!
Songwriters experimented with where exactly the line was, and how close they could get to it without crossing over. Guess what? They crossed it, and now we have *insert any Lil Kim or 50 Cent lyrics here*.
If you are for one second suggesting that the music videos for “Tonight I’m Fuckin You” by Enrique Iglesias, or “Leavin’” by Jesse Mccartney were not the sources of our losses of innocence, think again. While all of our parents were busy getting divorced, we took to Youtube to ease the pain, and we found “Complicated” by Avril Lavigne. We discovered “Big Girls Don’t Cry” by Fergie. We stumbled upon “Since U Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson. Instead of going to therapy like most of us probably should have, we sourced our depression in the sounds of “Where is the Love” by the Black Eyed Peas, and “Too Little Too Late” by JoJo. When our fourth grade boyfriends cheated on us with the girl who was the fastest runner in the class, we cried to “Apologize” by OneRepublic, and “Single Ladies” by Beyonce.
Being in college now, hearing these songs from childhood let us relive the past and re-experience every emotion we felt when we were 12. We can reflect on how innocent we once were, and how precious that feeling truly is.
We can remember exactly how these songs used to make us feel. We feel something deeper when listening to music that used to make us cry. Music that is popular and mainstream now seems like it was written solely to be played at a tailgate or frat party. Those songs simply can’t compare to the raw emotion of “So Sick” by Neyo. That shit told a story, and now most of us have lived through that story. The early 2000s gave it to us, and we must cherish that until the end of time.
https://open.spotify.com/user/kaylaafrost/playlist/7yUlpF1WiBbJFoKcMhFn0P?si=-bPx5ITISlazzSQ83dsVng