Best Single of 2002?

But there's heaps of runners-up

less boring answer = marshall's been snookered or ching ching

Cosmos - Take Me With You
Tok Tok vs Soffy O - Day Of Mine
Galleon - So I Begin
Golden Boy ft Miss Kittin - Rippin Kittin
Junior Senior - Move Your Feet
Las Ketchup - Asereje (The Ketchup Song)

I've got no idea who Justin Timberlake is, must be an American thing?

No-one is allowed to diss "Hot In Herre" until they've raunchy-danced to it. If you haven't been the meat in a sandwich when Nelly says "I think my butt gettin' big!" then you lose your critics pass.

Christina Aguilera - Dirrty
Holly Valance - Kiss Kiss
Bowling for Soup - Girl all the bad guys want
Christina Milian - When you look at me
Avril Lavigne - Complicated
Scooter - (the second single they released)
Britney - Boys
Ludacris - Saturday (ohh)
Shakira - Whenever, Where ever

No, you're quite right, but even still, the whole thing eventually becomes...what is the word? *thinks* Not drab or dreary, but (California fast food alert) less In-n-Out Burger and more McDonalds. Consistency need not be conservative.

Also you've got to go to a club and dance to this stuff. It is not merely car-radio music.

Hey now, I never said it was! Besides which, since when do I have a car? ;-)

We've had the 'you need to hear [x song] in [y environment]' as a thread discussion before, I think. I don't doubt the experience can be more intense, but 95% of the time one is not hearing this music in a club, but around and about, unless one lives and works in a club. ;-)

('Hot In Herre' is the best song to dance to evah = it is single of
the year)

I was talking with a grad student here at UCI in sociology who teaches hip-hop classes (does a very good job at them too) and always puts a lot of stuff on Reserves. Her family's Jamaican and both dancehall and hip-hop are her specific loves; she knows her music and politics cold. I mentioned about how both "Hot in Herre" and "Without Me" were in the NZ top ten when I visited and she said, in good humor, how depressing it was that you couldn't escape from Eminem and Nelly even halfway around the world! Next time I'll talk to her I'll see what she likes to club to, could be an interesting comparison.

but my fave new song in the world right now though is Mr Fidgit and Donae'o - "My Philosophy" ... "bounce b-b-b bounce wid it (wid it)".

early:
the eminem one, the happy one.
the first ashanti one.
jimmy eat world - 'the middle'
i can't really remember back that far.

middle:
'feel it boy'
the one with p diddy and pharrell and there's a scene where busta rhymes fights that women in an alley.
'hot in herre'
'nothin''
the one with the video where ja calls ashanti on the phone and he goes, 'it's murda' and she goes, 'fa showw' and then it shoes ja and two other guys riding around in a car and he says, something something 'the most talented record label... murder inc.'
'underneath it all'
'sk8er boi'

late:
'like i love you'
'dilemma'
clipse - 'when the last time'
'gangsta lovin''
there's this really great thing they play on the radio, the guy goes, like, 'in the club' and lists a bunch of other places. it's canadian, i guess.

And do you really think the "consistency = conservatism" equation applies here? What strikes me about the Neptunes this year is how restless they've been, not really breaking any boundaries precisely because they've been all over the place (line up "Like I Love You", "Work It Out", "Grindin", "Nothin" and "Hot In Herre" and you've got five very distinct takes on the Neptunes formula).

Tom, I'm glad to see we don't have to come to blows.

01) Nelly - Hot In Herre
02) Shakedown - At Night
03) Kylie Minogue - Love At First Sight
04) The Henchmen - Ring The Alarm
05) Sugababes - Freak Like Me
06) Sticky - Dollar Sign
07) Missy Elliot - Work It
08) DJ Shadow - You Can't Go Home
09) Blue - If You Come Back
10) Shakira - Objection (Tango)
11) Busta Rhymes - Pass The Coivoursier Part II
12) Dubtribe Sound System - Do It Now
13) Tweet - Oops (Oh My)
14) The Streets - Weak Become Heroes
15) Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Murder On The Dancefloor
16) Madonna - Die Another Day
17) Holly Valance - Down Boy
18) Sasha Funke - When Will I Be Famous
19) Clipse - Grindin'
20) Res - Golden Boys
21) Miss Kittin & Golden Boy - Rippin Kittin
22) Noreaga - Nothin'
23) Closer Musik - You Don't Know Me
24) Amerie - Why Don't We Fall In Love
25) Missy Elliot - 4 My People (Basement Jaxx Remix)
26) LCD Soundsystem - Losing My Edge
27) Saint Etienne - Action (Mr Joshua Edit)
28) Pay As U Go - Champagne Dance
29) Michael Mayer - Love Is Stronger Than Pride
30) No Doubt ft. Lady Saw - Underneath It All
31) Truth Hurts - Addictive
32) Ludacris - Saturday (Ooh! Ooh!)
33) More Fire Crew - Oi!
34) Daniel Bedingfield - James Dean (I Wanna Know)
35) Baggsmen - Close To Me
36) Sticky & The Surgery - More Weed!
37) Britney Spears - Boys (Remix)
38) Yoko Mono - Higher Than Phunk
39) Toya - No Matta What (Party All Night)
40) Justin Timberlake - Like I Love You
41) Sugababes - Round Round
42) Erick Sermon ft. Redman - React
43) The Space Cowboy - I Would Die 4 U
44) Eminem - Without Me
45) Cassius - The Sound Of Violence
46) P Diddy - I Need A Girl
47) Angie Stone - Wish I Didn't Miss You
48) Cee-Lo - Closet Freak
49) Abs - What You Got
50) Beyonce Knowles - Work It Out

Ah, no wonder it was all over the place when I was in New Zealand -- synchronicity. ;-)

line up "Like I Love You", "Work It Out", "Grindin", "Nothin" and "Hot In Herre" and you've got five very distinct takes on the Neptunes formula

*scratches chin* I'm trying to figure out why it is I don't completely agree, but like me trying to explain why I'm just not into Buffy, it's easier for me to convey the core impression than to explain it in detail (which may make me a bad critic, but such is life etc.). Here, a question that isn't rhetorical or meant to be leading -- how do you feel that each of the different vocalists/MCs make the individual differences in the songs? Looking back at some of the earlier Neptunes stuff, I remember my earliest impressions were that I loved it most when the MC proceeded to stomp all over the arrangement rather than to work with it. Then again, I also have a perverse fondness for the NERD album as originally recorded and released, and as a complete collection, so who can say.

pharrell just totally has the knack of saying the RIGHT (slightly empty) little things. it's as close to "cool" as i'll ever come to using it anyway. you always look good dancing to a neptunes track. you just know it.

But that might be it! I might want the contrasts rather than the tailor-made fits. I say 'might' because I'm still not sure what it is that leaves me nonplussed, mind you. Hmm...*ponders duly*

*sigh* I don't know...this has been the most disenchanted I've ever been with a musical golden age I'm supposed to be smack in the middle of. Like Tim said, I shouldn't be expecting mindblowing sonic revolution every step of the way, but I'm sure not satisfied with what I'm getting now, not in the slightest.

I know, and I wish I didn't.

the Golden Age died with that blonde guy from Nirvana, didn't it?

Frightening thought if it did.

What's wrong with the Irish then? I've been hearing it in every second pub I walked into this summer, Holland, Germany, France, Spain...

"also feckless and crude without any particularly funny redeeming value"

Metromix says:

"If you believe Hollywood, America's teenagers are obsessed with sex, status, rock 'n' roll and toilets, in about that order."

Reel.com:

"She repays him with some gratuitous wet-bikini footage and by riding a mechanical bull."

This is the best film of last year.

Oh no, Dan, you most certainly are not!

Ditto - too bad we don't get these singles on radio/TV here instead of the endless Ashanti/Nelly/Missy/R Kelly drivel.

for some reason the first thought i had when reading this was "but then she'd be even more popular". Urban outfitters' muzzles outsell Hot Topic girl's neckties! etc. etc.

truth hurts needs to be coming up more often too.

Which reminds me, I almost forgot one of my favourite singles of 2002: Bootsy Collins & Kelli Ali Play With Bootsy. If only more R&B singers/rappers hired French house/"plastic disco" producers...

Yes, it's great! This will mix great with that new Robbie Rivera & Billy Paul Sex tune.

Also Thomas Vs Filterheadz, and Narcotic Thrust.

n.o.r.e - nothin'
trina ft ludacris - b r right
madonna - die another day
the space cowboy - i would die 4 u
res - golden boys
golden boy ft miss kittin - rippin kittin
avril lavigne - sk8er boi
eminem - without me, lose yourself (i love the "lose" verses)
scarface - my block
m mayer - falling hands

things i'm pretty sure'll make it when they finish downloading:

blackstreet ft mystikal - wizzy wow
missy 'n ms. jade - funky fresh

things that came out this year that i'm too close to to place in a list like this:

aaliyah - more than a woman

things that are interesting to think about and listen to occasionally but it doesn't feel right putting them in this list of favourites:

clipse - grindin'

things that i wasn't crazy about at first, then they grew on me, now i'm kinda ambivalent but they're still good, sometimes great:

nelly - hot in herre
ludacris - saturday

things that i just remembered as i was typing this and are quite good too:

underworld - 2 months off

things i haven't heard yet but i'm expecting good things from:

henchmen (it's a zed bias alias, right?) - ring the alarm
killer mike ft outkast - akshon
all my streets mp3s were lost so i'm not prepared to make a decision till purchasing/re-downloading

wasn't a single cos it's too sad and slow, but i still want to mention it:

tweet - drunk

miscellaneous:

sascha funke - when will i be famous?
kylie - come into my world (fischerspooner remix)
truth hurts - addictive
ms jade - ching ching ching

phew

So epochal that I had never heard it, even in the background or by accident, until I downloaded it because people were telling me how epochal it was?

Seriously - has Hot In Herre been one of those ubiquitous songs? Because I have honestly never heard it before. It took me a while to hear Round Round as well, but at least then it provoked the "aah, that's what it is" reaction.

a) in a club playing R&B/hip hop?

b) in a car playing a radio tuned to a popular radio station?

c) round the block?

d) in the vicinity of a sonic transmitter of popular culture?

I quite like it, by the way.

Hi! This thread's old. I rank the top tens.

Seeing "Sixteen years pass . . ." or "(sixteen years ago)" on these old threads always gives me a little shiver.

huh this was a great year for music

i don't like either of the pink songs you rate alfred and i'd move several songs from "meh" to "solid sound entertainments" but otherwise great list

also "blurry" should be moved to the hague

Many obvious records from this time period, and still more that have become popular after the fact - going to go with Coffee Shop Mike's 5am for the friendly vibes innit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3KRb_HpmzU

Might have to change that to Freaky Chakra, thought this was a 90s record but it seems to be 2002. pied piper sounds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TJCWUIMta4