And this week we arrive at the end of 2003. On the day this chart originally aired, U.S. forces tracked Saddam Hussein to a "spider hole" near Tikrit and captured him. I'm sure some people thought that would mark the beginning of the end of the Iraq War. It didn't quite. Meanwhile, American pop radio was broadcasting the following musical selections:
40 - "Me, Myself and I," Beyonc
39 - "The First Cut is the Deepest," Sheryl Crow
38 - "My Love is Like…Wo," Mya
37 - "P.I.M.P.," 50 Cent
36 - "God is a DJ," Pink
35 - "So Yesterday," Hillary Duff
34 - "Numb," Linkin Park
33 - "F**k It (I Don’t Want You Back)," Eamon
32 - "Powerless (Say What You Want)," Nelly Furtado
31 - "Deliverance," Bubba Sparxxx
Ladies rule the first section, with a whopping 60% of the population. Beyoncé Knowles is here with her third solo Top Ten, a midtempo ballad about getting out of a bad relationship and resolving to be one's "own best friend." One of her less spectacular hits, but no less effective. The woman is a star. Sheryl Crow had her biggest solo pop hit of this century with this passionate cover of a song previously recorded by Cat Stevens and Rod Stewart, among others. She asked people to try and love it again, and they did. Mya had her last pop hit to date with this list of characteristics she posesses that can stop men in their tracks, including her kiss, her sex, and her ass. It's okay, but I think I'd like it better if co-writer and co-producer Missy Elliott had recorded it herself. Pink is here with the second single from her worst-selling album to date, Try This. It's a decent-enough dance-rock ode that encourages people to go out and embrace life. Or as she puts it, "If God is a DJ, then God wants you to shake your ass." Is that in Psalms? Creating a template that future Disney stars Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez would follow, Hillary Duff left behind her popular Lizzie McGuire character and hooked up with the production team that launched Avril Lavigne for her first major hit. It's a harmless little pop song about getting over a breakup. Duff tries to show attitude and defiance, but it just wasn't in her. She since made some movies and had a few more hits, but for the moment she seems to have put those careers on the back burner. She married a hockey player, had a baby, and now writes young adult novels. Good for her. And Nelly Furtado combined breakbeats and banjo on the first single from her second album, a cool little song about how popular culture takes authentic things and molds them into product that's more palatable to the masses. On a completely unrelated note, after this album didn't sell nearly as well as her debut, she hooked up with Timbaland and became a hip-hop/dance diva.
There are two rappers in this section. Curtis Jackson, a kid from Queens who borrowed his nickname from a Brooklyn bank robber, got his third Top Ten hit with a song about having a stable of prostitutes. I like the steel drum on it, and 50's lazy, slurry delivery has its charm, but otherwise, this is pretty forgettable. And Warren Mathis, a white guy from rural Georgia, made somewhat of a name for himself in hip-hop with songs like his entry here, a Timbaland production about seeking redemption for past mistakes. A very good lyric, well-delivered.
What's left of this batch are a band and a male singer. California rockers Linkin Park had one of the hits that made them ubiquitous in the first half of this decade with this mix of guitars, dissonant piano chords, and whiny angst. I was never into these guys, though I do admit this song sounds better when mashed up with Jay-Z's "Encore." And Staten Island's Eamon Doyle had his only hit of consequence with this bitter R&B ballad that possibly contains more censored expletives than any non-rap song in Top 40 history. It inspired an answer song, "F.U.R.B." by previously unknown female singer Frankee. Then the whole thing faded into obscurity. And justifiably so.
30 - "Falls on Me," Fuel
29 - "White Flag," Dido
28 - "Milkshake," Kelis
27 - "Addicted," Enrique Iglesias
26 - "With You," Jessica Simpson
25 - "Take Me Away," Fefe Dobson
24 - "The Way You Move," OutKast
23 - "So Far Away," Staind
22 - "Breathe," Michelle Branch
21 - "Me Against the Music," Britney Spears featuring Madonna
We've got four songs here by groups or duos. Mope rockers fuel had a typically mopey hit with this mopey ballad on which singer Brett Scallions mopes. I might be mopey too if my last name was a member of the onion family. OutKast are here, sort of, with this slinky ode to the joy of watching a woman dance. But the fact is that it comes from the former portion of the duo's double CD Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, which is for all intents and purposes is a Big Boi solo album. We'd hear from Andre 3000 later in the show. Staind had one of their last pop hits to date with this thudding ballad about missing someone. But I think Fuel would beat them in a mope-off. And in a summit of two generations of dance divas, Britney Spears and Madonna teamed up on this song about vigorous dancing. There was a lot of anticipation leading up to this song's release, especially following the pair's infamous kiss on the MTV awards, and while it's a decent enough club track, it didn't quite take the world by storm as some might have anticipated.
Just one lonely male singer in the whole bottom half of the chart. Enrique Iglesias is here with a ballad on which he tells his lover "You're the drug that keeps me from dying." Hey baby, you're, like, my heart medication. Sexy.
We finish with five more solo women. England's Dido Armstrong had her second-biggest American hit with this languid pop song about how she will not give up on her love for the man of her dreams. Pleasant background music. Harlem's Kelis Rogers had her biggest hit with this odd Neptunes creation that isn't about a cold dairy treat, but rather a special manoeuvre that she performs that "brings all the boys to the yard." You can specualte on the exact nature of this move for yourselves, but whatever it is, it helps Kelis earn this week's Uneasy Rider. Jessica Simpson, at the height of her Newlyweds popularity, has a hit here with this light pop tune about how good and comfortable her man (presumably Nick) makes her feel. Well-executed fluff. Canadian pop-rocker Fefe Dobson had her biggest hit to date about wanting to run away with a special someone. Any sonic similarities between this and an Avril Lavigne song are purely what the record label was going for. And Michelle Branch had her last major pop hit to this point with a song about needing some space of her own for a while. She always sounds good on the radio, and that's no mean feat.
In Part Two: an indie darling makes her big commercial move, the one song I like by a band I otherwise despise (no, not that band, though they're around too), and a genuine pop masterpiece.
No comments:
Post a Comment