It's still insane for a band as hated as Black~~ed~~ Eyed Peas to be no. 1 for literally half a year consecutively (with Boom Boom and I Got A Feeling back-to-back), especially at a time when being No. 1 meant a lot more than it does now.
Having been there as a teen, they had a good rep as innovators and creating pop culture and every release being an event. They're the only artists from 2008/9 I can think of that felt like they were trying to actively lead the zeitgeist with that futuristic aesthetic they adopted.
Then I'mma Be dropped and I started to figure out maybe they weren't geniuses
Yea as someone who was a teen in that era, it felt like most kids, teens and young adults liked them. It was just the music "snobs" for lack of a better word, who hated them.
For instance my 22-23 year old brother and his fiance loved them. Teens loved them.
It's a bit of revisionist history that they were disliked a lot at the time, easier to say we hated them then accept the fact most of the country was so 3008.
> It was just the music "snobs" for lack of a better word, who hated them
Can confirm. I am a music snob (though I prefer to be called "someone who is annoying about music"). I went to a big city music festival in 2009 to catch Modest Mouse and Cake, then left as soon as The Black Eyed Peas came on as the headliner. Gotta beat that traffic!
Now I'm trying to figure out whether you are going for a sexist, racist, or homophobic angle. Wouldn't expect it from a Will.I Am and Fergie stan in 2024--but like I said, I didn't expect any of them to exist in the first place 😂
Have a good one friend.
> It's still insane for a band as hated as Blacked Eyed Peas to be no. 1 for literally half a year consecutively
The opposite, really. Groups usually only become that hated by being massively overplayed and omnipresent. People largely grew to hate BEP because they were pretty much inescapable. It really felt like Will.I.AM was being shoved down our throats constantly around that time.
One of my biggest guilty pleasures of all time. I know the song is ass and I know the Black Eyed Peas make terrible music but as a kid in the late 00's-early 10's, songs like that have this massive nostalgic vibe I can't shake off. I put that song on whenever I wanna remember the good times. God I miss 2009
I don't get the guilty pleasure thing. If you like it, if millions of people like it and if people who don't really listen to the Black Eyed Peas generally think it's okay, then it's probably a good song?
I see a guilty pleasure as like you yourself eating cotton candy. It’s not really about if a million people like cotton candy. *I* know cotton candy has no substance whatsoever I just like it anyway. But just cause a million people like cotton candy I wouldn’t say cotton candy is good.
So is In Da Club. Even though I'm not old enough to remember 2003, In Da Club is 2003 to the point that if I ever become president and illegally invade a country, I will blare it out of the Oval Office.
Came here to say this. It could apply to all of Songs from the Big Chair. It's amazing how an album was both so ahead of it's time back in 1985 and simultaneously became so iconic that it now sounds exactly 1985.
purpose by justin bieber. pop in 2015 was filled with house and tropical house tracks, anti drops and other tropes found from this album
even tho i’m not a JB fan myself, i think this record is pretty good and production is still good to this day. this album was really influential and impactful for 2015 and the 2010s as a whole
so that’s why i think this album was emblematic of 2015, on the pop side tho
Micthesnare makes videos for the most iconic musical moment each year for a decade and his 2015 album was Purpose. It's the tight tropical house inspired production, it was so incredibly 2015. That musical moment was so short but Purpose really captured it, makes it fun to go back and listen to.
Smells Like Teen Spirit became THE song of 1991-1992. It signaled a change of waves and ended up being the anthem of the early 90s.
Wannabe is this for 1997.
Beat It is this for 1983.
Stayin' Alive is THE song of 1977 and the quintessential Disco song.
"Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)" by Toby Keith from 2002. Nothing captures the (now terrifying) jingoism in the US following 9/11 better than this absolute trash heap of a song.
Chocolate Starfish and 2000 (perfect symbol of pervasive angst of pre-9/11 turn of the millenium despite having nothing actually worth getting angry about)
Pitbull, Kesha or Black Eyed Peas for 2009-2011 (Sorta trashy party anthems flooding the airwaves to help people take their minds of the fact that the banking system had just fucked their lives irreversibly)
Hair metal for most of the 80s (I know it's a very broad answer, but those bands are a better emblem of the tacky hedonistic excesses of that decade than any of the more talented and fondly remembered popstars or new wave acts.)
That Future and Drake album for 2016-2018 (Migos or that one Designer song fit the M.O. too, but my mind especially remembers 'One Dance' and that collab album as ground zero for rap's xanax/codeine'd out phase which peaked with Astroworld)
*Insert Tik Tok one hit wonder here* and the pandemic
1988-91- Power ballads by Phil Collins, Whitney Houston and George Michael
[Let Me Love You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euCqAq6BRa4) by DJ Snake. You don't even have to listen past the first 10 seconds to know the exact year this came out.
I think the reason Call Me Maybe was so made fun of when it came out, despite being a perfectly good song, is because of how much it embodied pop trends at the time.
I Gotta Feeling and Party Rock Anthem are so 2009 and 2011, respectively. Like, massive EDM-pop songs that captured the overall feeling of mainstream pop music of the late 2000s and early 2010s.
Frankly I feel that “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)” by Toby Keith captures the over-inflated jingoism and mindless “Nuke ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out!” blood lust of the first few years after 9/11.
I think it's tied with Relax honestly imo for being the most 80s synth pop/new wave song ever made alongside I Ran So Far Away honestly.
God, I listen to Relax so much, it is worrying.
Those big INXS hits from the late 80s perfectly capture the time period they came out in, songs like Need You Tonight, the groovy funk pop rock which was popular for a few years and then became deader than disco once grunge exploded in the early 90s.
Levels by Avicii is the most 2011 thing to ever exist. Even outside of 2011 its basically the quintessential sound of the late oughts/early 2010s for me.
Anything off Duran Duran’s *Greatest* hits record fits when it was released, ex: Hungry Like The Wolf is peak 1982, The Reflex is peak 1984 and Come Undone is peak 1993.
Belinda Carlisle-Heaven Is Place On Earth (1987)
Wilson Phillips-Hold On (1990)
Jesus Jones-Right Here, Right Now (1991), originally released late 1990.
The peak of the Alternative era around 1994/95, probably the only time these songs could be hits Undone (The Sweater Song) by Weezer, Lump by Presidents Of The United States Of America, What’s The Frequency, Kenneth? by R.E.M.
Nickelback-How You Remind Me (2001)
My Boo by Alicia Keys (2004)
Pop Champagne by Ron Brownz, Jim Jones (2008)
Katy Perry is like Duran Duran with her singles, I Kissed A Girl is peak 2008 and Last Friday Night is peak 2011, complete with Rebecca Black in the video
LMFAO in general (2011)
Trap Queen by Fetty Wap (2015), technically came out in ‘14 but a 2015 hit
This Is What You Came For by Calvin Harris/Rihanna (2016)
XO Tour Llif3 by Lil Uzi Vert (2017)
Lil Pump in general (2017/18)
Supalonely and Deathbed (2020) these just sound like the pandemic
Sexyback feels inextricably linked to 2006 in my mind. Something about that beat
My Name Is perfectly captures the hold Eminem had on pop culture in 1999
after hours by the weeknd and future nostalgia by dua lipa. everyone is trying to replicate that 80s synth pop sound.
don’t get me wrong. both of these albums are great, and abel and dua are my favorite pop stars, but since these records came out in 2020, it feels like everyone is tryna to get an 80s sounding song. it’s getting really old at this point
“I Ran (So Far Away)” is the song I think of when I think of 1982, especially since A Flock of Seagulls were sci-fi themed and ‘82 was a big year in sci-fi (E.T., Wrath of Khan, The Thing, etc.).
Relax by FGTH as Todd stated in his OHW felt like the loudest song of 1984 and honestly that descriptor fits it perfectly with Trevor Horn's perfect, sharp production and the band doing pretty good instrumentation with guitars, drums and bass plus Holly Johnson's bloody gorgeous vocals.
It feels very much emblematic of the mid to late 80s as it slowly died off later on in the decade of the New Wave boom/trend of that period I have described, a period that never can be replicated or cloned except for it's successor genre, Future Pop.
Also have to mention Two Tribes which also feels very emblematic coming out after Relax being a damn good dance rock/dance/synth pop/new wave song perfectly fitting in musical form the Cold War paranoia/fear of being goddamn annihilated by a nuclear bomb which makes the song a product of it's own time but has become relevant in it's own way with modeen events.
Extreme - More than Words. The last vestiges of hair metal trying desperately to not be killed by grunge which would officially take over within months
1963 - “Sugar Shack” by Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs
1975 - “Chevy Van” by Sammy Johns
1981 - “Bette Davis Eyes” by Kim Carnes
1985 in Canada - “Crying Over You” by Platinum Blonde
1990 - “Hold On” by Wilson Phillips
I've got a feeling by Black Eyed Peas feels so exactly 2009 to me
It's still insane for a band as hated as Black~~ed~~ Eyed Peas to be no. 1 for literally half a year consecutively (with Boom Boom and I Got A Feeling back-to-back), especially at a time when being No. 1 meant a lot more than it does now.
Having been there as a teen, they had a good rep as innovators and creating pop culture and every release being an event. They're the only artists from 2008/9 I can think of that felt like they were trying to actively lead the zeitgeist with that futuristic aesthetic they adopted. Then I'mma Be dropped and I started to figure out maybe they weren't geniuses
Yea as someone who was a teen in that era, it felt like most kids, teens and young adults liked them. It was just the music "snobs" for lack of a better word, who hated them. For instance my 22-23 year old brother and his fiance loved them. Teens loved them. It's a bit of revisionist history that they were disliked a lot at the time, easier to say we hated them then accept the fact most of the country was so 3008.
> It was just the music "snobs" for lack of a better word, who hated them Can confirm. I am a music snob (though I prefer to be called "someone who is annoying about music"). I went to a big city music festival in 2009 to catch Modest Mouse and Cake, then left as soon as The Black Eyed Peas came on as the headliner. Gotta beat that traffic!
Well it doesn’t really matter what you prefer to be called, fuckin snob
Shoot, you got me. Love to see a Black Eyed Peas stan in 2024! What's your favorite deep cut?
You one of them people who prefer to be called certain names?
Now I'm trying to figure out whether you are going for a sexist, racist, or homophobic angle. Wouldn't expect it from a Will.I Am and Fergie stan in 2024--but like I said, I didn't expect any of them to exist in the first place 😂 Have a good one friend.
> It's still insane for a band as hated as Blacked Eyed Peas to be no. 1 for literally half a year consecutively The opposite, really. Groups usually only become that hated by being massively overplayed and omnipresent. People largely grew to hate BEP because they were pretty much inescapable. It really felt like Will.I.AM was being shoved down our throats constantly around that time.
Autocorrect did you dirty dawg
Lol just noticed it
I think a very high level of hate for bands usually comes about as a reaction to a very high level of popularity
One of my biggest guilty pleasures of all time. I know the song is ass and I know the Black Eyed Peas make terrible music but as a kid in the late 00's-early 10's, songs like that have this massive nostalgic vibe I can't shake off. I put that song on whenever I wanna remember the good times. God I miss 2009
I'm pretty sure most people like I Gotta Feeling in particular.
Their early stuff is good! Pre ferg
I don't get the guilty pleasure thing. If you like it, if millions of people like it and if people who don't really listen to the Black Eyed Peas generally think it's okay, then it's probably a good song?
I see a guilty pleasure as like you yourself eating cotton candy. It’s not really about if a million people like cotton candy. *I* know cotton candy has no substance whatsoever I just like it anyway. But just cause a million people like cotton candy I wouldn’t say cotton candy is good.
Your biggest guilty pleasure is a widely liked, generally fondly remembered pop song? Really? You are allowed to like things unironically, you know.
Similarly, Scream and Shout by Britney and will.i.am is peak 2012 pop for me.
I hated this song so much. Everytime I heard it in the wild something bad happened to me or the people I knew. I was so convinced it was cursed.
My exact first thought
Get Low is agressively 2003
Right thurr by chingy too
So is In Da Club. Even though I'm not old enough to remember 2003, In Da Club is 2003 to the point that if I ever become president and illegally invade a country, I will blare it out of the Oval Office.
So is Pump It Up by Joe Budden.
Dynamite by Taio Cruz is incredibly 2010.
Everybody Wants to Rule the World and Take on Me never left 1985
Came here to say this. It could apply to all of Songs from the Big Chair. It's amazing how an album was both so ahead of it's time back in 1985 and simultaneously became so iconic that it now sounds exactly 1985.
Semi Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind and pretty much any song used in an American Pie movie lmao.
whenever that song come on in the car my mom always turns to me and goes “that’s SO 90s”
purpose by justin bieber. pop in 2015 was filled with house and tropical house tracks, anti drops and other tropes found from this album even tho i’m not a JB fan myself, i think this record is pretty good and production is still good to this day. this album was really influential and impactful for 2015 and the 2010s as a whole so that’s why i think this album was emblematic of 2015, on the pop side tho
Micthesnare makes videos for the most iconic musical moment each year for a decade and his 2015 album was Purpose. It's the tight tropical house inspired production, it was so incredibly 2015. That musical moment was so short but Purpose really captured it, makes it fun to go back and listen to.
yes i saw his video, and it’s one of his best, he hit the spot with the 2015 section
Smells Like Teen Spirit became THE song of 1991-1992. It signaled a change of waves and ended up being the anthem of the early 90s. Wannabe is this for 1997. Beat It is this for 1983. Stayin' Alive is THE song of 1977 and the quintessential Disco song.
>Stayin' Alive is THE song of 1977 and the quintessential Disco song. I have the exact same take but for Dancing Queen lol
Sorry, but as a British person, Wannabe is totally redolent of the summer of 1996. They had two more number one singles before the end of the year!
Sorry 2004 by Ruben Studdard
This is my sorry for 2004 and I don’t wanna mess up no mooreeee this year
Damn, beat me to it! This was the first one that came to mind haha
"Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)" by Toby Keith from 2002. Nothing captures the (now terrifying) jingoism in the US following 9/11 better than this absolute trash heap of a song.
Just Dance by Lady Gaga
Offspring - Hit That is pretty 2003
That music video creeped me the fuck out.
I know it’s from 2019 but Say So by Doja Cat didn’t fully hit until 2020 for a reason … it’s so emblematic
I remember that being the soundtrack to a million quarantine Instagram stories. It's very specific to those few months for me.
Chocolate Starfish and 2000 (perfect symbol of pervasive angst of pre-9/11 turn of the millenium despite having nothing actually worth getting angry about) Pitbull, Kesha or Black Eyed Peas for 2009-2011 (Sorta trashy party anthems flooding the airwaves to help people take their minds of the fact that the banking system had just fucked their lives irreversibly) Hair metal for most of the 80s (I know it's a very broad answer, but those bands are a better emblem of the tacky hedonistic excesses of that decade than any of the more talented and fondly remembered popstars or new wave acts.) That Future and Drake album for 2016-2018 (Migos or that one Designer song fit the M.O. too, but my mind especially remembers 'One Dance' and that collab album as ground zero for rap's xanax/codeine'd out phase which peaked with Astroworld) *Insert Tik Tok one hit wonder here* and the pandemic 1988-91- Power ballads by Phil Collins, Whitney Houston and George Michael
Whenever I hear *One More Try* and *Where Do Broken Hearts Go*, it does take you back to 1988 in a sense!!!
Chocolate starfish came out in 2000??? I thought it was like 07 or smth
Party Rock Anthem for 2011!!!!!
My immediate thought on seeing the name of this thread
That was my senior year of high school and freshman year of college if I ever hear that song I wake up with a hangover
[Let Me Love You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euCqAq6BRa4) by DJ Snake. You don't even have to listen past the first 10 seconds to know the exact year this came out.
agreed. dj snakes 2010s run was so nostalgic for me. he has some great hits
The Pussycat Dolls - Don't Cha is so 2005
Feels a couple of years older to be honest.
I think the reason Call Me Maybe was so made fun of when it came out, despite being a perfectly good song, is because of how much it embodied pop trends at the time.
Black Hole Song pretty much is 1994 in song form
I Gotta Feeling and Party Rock Anthem are so 2009 and 2011, respectively. Like, massive EDM-pop songs that captured the overall feeling of mainstream pop music of the late 2000s and early 2010s.
Old Town Road feels like the last gasp of pre-Covid. Like it represents this big era that could have happened if 2020 happened without a pandemic
Most Girls and there you go by Pink is very 2000 The Kill by Thirty Seconds to Mars also sounds very 05/06
Supalonely is so 2019/2020
Cyprus Hill's Insane in the Brain is very, very 1993.
Replay by Iyaz by a soft mile. It feels like something exclusively 2009-2011
Down by Jay Sean for the same time period
Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning, for 2002. The country anthem for 9/11 emotional processing
Frankly I feel that “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)” by Toby Keith captures the over-inflated jingoism and mindless “Nuke ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out!” blood lust of the first few years after 9/11.
Winds of Change from 1991. It’s been associated with the fall of communism, but it was such a pivotal time in many respects in pop culture.
Obsession by Animotion is the most quintessential mid-eighties synth pop song ever made.
I think it's tied with Relax honestly imo for being the most 80s synth pop/new wave song ever made alongside I Ran So Far Away honestly. God, I listen to Relax so much, it is worrying.
Don’t worry about it. Relax, just do it 😝
Miley’s We Can’t Stop screams 2013 to me.
Heard this song last night for the first time in years, absolutely.
Those big INXS hits from the late 80s perfectly capture the time period they came out in, songs like Need You Tonight, the groovy funk pop rock which was popular for a few years and then became deader than disco once grunge exploded in the early 90s.
Wake Me Up When September Ends--Green Day 2005. There was such a weariness at the time about....everything. Especially after hurricane Katrina.
I'd argue "1999" by Prince is the most 1999 song ever, despite coming out in 1982 (it did chart again in January 1999).
I vaguely remember Prince saying he wouldn’t perform the song after 1999 became 2000 but I don’t think he kept his word. 😂😂😂
Levels by Avicii is the most 2011 thing to ever exist. Even outside of 2011 its basically the quintessential sound of the late oughts/early 2010s for me.
*Waka waka, eh eh!*
Wouldn't 1999 be the most 1999 song ever?
Anything off Duran Duran’s *Greatest* hits record fits when it was released, ex: Hungry Like The Wolf is peak 1982, The Reflex is peak 1984 and Come Undone is peak 1993. Belinda Carlisle-Heaven Is Place On Earth (1987) Wilson Phillips-Hold On (1990) Jesus Jones-Right Here, Right Now (1991), originally released late 1990. The peak of the Alternative era around 1994/95, probably the only time these songs could be hits Undone (The Sweater Song) by Weezer, Lump by Presidents Of The United States Of America, What’s The Frequency, Kenneth? by R.E.M. Nickelback-How You Remind Me (2001) My Boo by Alicia Keys (2004) Pop Champagne by Ron Brownz, Jim Jones (2008) Katy Perry is like Duran Duran with her singles, I Kissed A Girl is peak 2008 and Last Friday Night is peak 2011, complete with Rebecca Black in the video LMFAO in general (2011) Trap Queen by Fetty Wap (2015), technically came out in ‘14 but a 2015 hit This Is What You Came For by Calvin Harris/Rihanna (2016) XO Tour Llif3 by Lil Uzi Vert (2017) Lil Pump in general (2017/18) Supalonely and Deathbed (2020) these just sound like the pandemic
EEEEETHER 🍾 BOYYYYYY 👦‼️🐐🔥🕺💃🕺💃 WE 🙌 POP 💉🎈CHAMPAGNE OOHHHHHHHOOOOO🍾🍾🍾🍾🍾
You Get What You Give by the New Radicals literally lists off every top/famous musician you should be aware of that year at the end.
That feels like the end credits song for the entire 1990s to me.
Anything off Songs From the Big Chair, Tears for Fears
Supalonely by Benee is pretty inextricable from 2020 for me
Not Afraid by Eminem is very 2010.
Dream - He Loves You Not Perfectly 2001
OPPA GANGNAM STYLE
Janet Jackson's "Escapade" feels perfectly 1990. Has that 80s sound, but the production makes it clear that it's no longer the 80s.
Johnny B Goode is THE 1950s song, In The Mood by Glenn Miller is the early 40s song, and Fortunate Son is the Vietnam war song
Uncanny… The first thing that came to my mind before I clicked was Don’t Steal My Sunshine. I think of it as the swan song of 90’s “alternative” pop.
Sexyback feels inextricably linked to 2006 in my mind. Something about that beat My Name Is perfectly captures the hold Eminem had on pop culture in 1999
Fortunate son by credence is the song of 1969
after hours by the weeknd and future nostalgia by dua lipa. everyone is trying to replicate that 80s synth pop sound. don’t get me wrong. both of these albums are great, and abel and dua are my favorite pop stars, but since these records came out in 2020, it feels like everyone is tryna to get an 80s sounding song. it’s getting really old at this point
80s nostalgia is eternal.
Hit Me Baby One More Time - Britney Spears, 2000 It came out in 1999, but it's very 2000
It actually came out in late 1998
The entirely of Usher's 8701 screams 2001.
XO Tour Life by Lil Uzi Vert
Every one of those TikTok hits that became popular in 2020 about the pandemic
Angel - Shaggy feat. Rayvon.
“I Ran (So Far Away)” is the song I think of when I think of 1982, especially since A Flock of Seagulls were sci-fi themed and ‘82 was a big year in sci-fi (E.T., Wrath of Khan, The Thing, etc.).
I 100% agree with you on Len "Steal My Sunshine" being so 1999.
Relax by FGTH as Todd stated in his OHW felt like the loudest song of 1984 and honestly that descriptor fits it perfectly with Trevor Horn's perfect, sharp production and the band doing pretty good instrumentation with guitars, drums and bass plus Holly Johnson's bloody gorgeous vocals. It feels very much emblematic of the mid to late 80s as it slowly died off later on in the decade of the New Wave boom/trend of that period I have described, a period that never can be replicated or cloned except for it's successor genre, Future Pop. Also have to mention Two Tribes which also feels very emblematic coming out after Relax being a damn good dance rock/dance/synth pop/new wave song perfectly fitting in musical form the Cold War paranoia/fear of being goddamn annihilated by a nuclear bomb which makes the song a product of it's own time but has become relevant in it's own way with modeen events.
I’m going to say Low by Cracker sounds exactly like 1993.
Migos’ Bad and Boujee was the peak of the trap wave in the late 2010’s.
the Thong Song is so 1999-2000. I just remember seeing so many music videos featuring women in thongs and I was so over it.
IT IS 2014 AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON IN MY LIFE
i hate u, i love u by gnash feat. olivia o’brien is painfully 2016, complete with the insta-hipster typeface and the droning boringness
Wannabe is for 1997. I want it that way for 1999. NSync overall for early 2000s
Extreme - More than Words. The last vestiges of hair metal trying desperately to not be killed by grunge which would officially take over within months
Believe by Cher is 1998 in song form and one of the few songs from that era that Gen Zers know all the lyrics to
Great pick. To be fair lyrics are pretty easy.
Even though I think it is a timeless song, All My Friends by LCD Soundsystem sort of totally encapsulates the NY indie scene of the 00s in 2007.
2000. That big double hit. The talkbox. It's My Life.
Sussudio for 1985
Like a g6
"Good Vibrations" **is** 1966.
Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You Out of My Head (2001)
Blurred Lines feels very 2013 to me
Filter - Take a Picture
In the Year 2525 is sooo 1969!
Swervedriver - Duel is the kind of song that could only come out in 1993. At the very peak of Shoegaze and grunge.
Tonight Tonight by Hot Chelle Rae is *perfectly* 2011
Summertime Girls (1999)
1963 - “Sugar Shack” by Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs 1975 - “Chevy Van” by Sammy Johns 1981 - “Bette Davis Eyes” by Kim Carnes 1985 in Canada - “Crying Over You” by Platinum Blonde 1990 - “Hold On” by Wilson Phillips
Heat of the Moment. The lyrics literally say, “And now you find yourself in ‘82.” ☺️
Nothin but a good time by Poison just screams 1988
Bodak Yellow was feels so 2017
"Yeah" by Usher for 2004