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JJ's Bizarre Blog #62 - Blast into the Twenty-First Century
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JJ's Bizarre Blog #62 - Blast into the Twenty-First Century
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Wazzap, dudes! Welcome to the latest Bizarre entry! It took a moment, but I've powered up the time machine again, so let me take you back to the past once more! For this time, I've decided to travel back to one of the most recent decades we've finished and the decade I grew up in. A turbulent time that has gained the benefit of nostalgia now that enough years have gone by. The Wild West days of the internet, the revolution of popular music, the rise of video games into the mainstream, the age of optimistic futurism and a total shift in the culture and norms of the world. Welcome to the dawn of a new millennium, welcome to the 2000s!
Being the start of such a radically new era, the 2000s could be considered the first step into the modern age. Over the course of the decade, technology started to become ubiquitous, Walkmans and CD players replaced by MP3 players (also by Walkman), cameras appearing in every pocket, phones transformed from monochrome bricks for calls and texts to Swiss army knives that could do it all, the internet went from being a weird novelty to a commodity for everyone and all of these things would have vast and lasting ramifications that wouldn't be immediately obvious. The overall tone and approach of everything shifted in almost a deliberate departure from that of the tail end of the 20th century. It's like we all knew that a new era was upon us and it was time for a changing of the guard, for evolution, for revolution! So let's see how this all went down!
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This might be a hot take for some, but to me the 2000s are the last true Golden Age for pop music. It's like everything was firing on all cylinders and we got the best of old and new alike. You had some of the established veterans like Madonna and Michael Jackson having some of the final high points of their illustrious careers, new stars like Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake and Beyonce taking on the mantle and rising to become the biggest superstars of the time, a passing of the torch that couldn't have gone smoother. Electronic beats and digital production had started to become the norm, but classic songwriting brilliance was still strong, so everything sounded modern and polished, but still as catchy and infectious as anything the past decades had to offer. Students of the golden classics, embracing the new opportunities of the future. A transitional period that ended up creating the perfect balance!
Many one-hit wonders, boy band alumni and various other artists all contributed to the rich tapestry across the charts, with the early adoptions of autotune being the only sort of point of contention. The popularity of electro club songs, R&B, soul and more also offered free experimentation, making everything sound varied and unique, also helping many artists beyond traditional pop gain mainstream appeal. This full reinvention helped the 2000s create its own identity and sound, immediately recognizable to anybody that was there for it!
While boy bands and girl bands were mostly a fad of the 90s, there were many group projects that kicked it in the 2000s too! The Black Eyed Peas were the prime example, becoming one of the decade's most iconic acts, their free spirited mix of pop, dance, rap, R&B and more being a perfect representation of the sound of the era! The infectious rap work of Outkast or the classic girlpop of The Pussycat Dolls being among the many others that expanded to the fun factor of the charts.
This is also the era where, more than like thanks to the internet, international artists managed to go beyond the borders of their homelands and become global phenomenons! Suddenly, hits from Romania, Russia, Jamaica, India, many nations across the Latino and Arab worlds, etc. became worldwide sensations and household names! So now, the charts weren't just diverse in sound, but language and heritage too! You really didn't know what to expect on the radio those days. Well, except loads of fun!
Thanks to the Golden Age of hip-hop in the 90s, the genre had truly grown out of the streets it was raised on and became a worldwide favourite. So naturally, the 2000s began the massive domination of hip-hop across popular music and the biggest rappers of this time like Eminem, 50 Cent, Lil Jon and many more remain some of the most widely recognized names in the genre to this day. While many of them had done away with much of hip-hop's rebellious and political themes in favour of fun lyrics about partying and making it big, the results speak for themselves. For us today, it's completely natural for a massive chunk of the charts to be taken up by hip-hop, but this really started here and the hits of the decade remain universally beloved! Even the crazier, more memeable ones.
Similar was the situation with electronic music. Once a domain of obscure nightclubs and underground rave parties, many electro subgenres started to come out of the shadows and gained immense popularity worldwide at the turn of the millennium. It was the birth of EDM as we know it today and artists like Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, David Guetta and more became superstars that stood shoulder to shoulder with the biggest names in pop music (later collaborating with them too). The birth of massive festivals like Tomorrowland, Coachella and more helped provide the massive worldwide stage for these new stars to shine as bright as they can. Just like in hip-hop, this is the decade where electronic music first started to dominate en masse and made it the norm for EDM and its siblings to have a few spots on the chart kept warm for them at all times.
It even paved the way for some more meme-worthy songs that gained traction thanks to the wonders of the internet, the charm of early YouTube and by being purchases as ringtones (yeah, remember buying ringtones?). Say what you will, but a few notes in and 99% of people even today will still recognize them immediately. That should count for something. A Swedish man imitating a two stroke engine lead to a blue annoying thing flying around to the Beverly Hills Cop theme and becoming a worldwide phenomenon. Life can be quite wild sometimes.
Thankfully though, as the more party-oriented and mainstream-palatable electronic genres became insanely popular, it opened the eyes (or ears rather) of countless people to the greater realm and inspired them to delve into the more obscure and wacky genres out there. Thus, big beat, drum 'n' bass, futurepop, industrial and what else have you started to gain traction and the internet allowed niche but dedicated communities to form around them, eventually helping many of these artists become stars in their own right!
Now, let's get heavy and dive into rock and metal! During the 2000s many "dinosaurs" of the genres were still around and surprised fans with more epic albums that were in no way inferior to their classics. This proved to many that despite many of these bands already having 30 or more years in their careers, they still had it, they were still hungry and still had more to say. They kept going for the love of the music and it meant that even more generations (like me) could grow up with the good stuff!
Moving on to something more modern, pop punk had already blown up in the 90s and would go on to become a cornerstone of 2000s culture. Skateboarding was huge, fashion choices were becoming more outrageous, teenagers were even more unruly and new tech allowed for new subcultures. And the upbeat, sometimes rebellious but mostly fun loving tracks of pop punk were there the whole way, propelling names in the genre like Avril Lavigne, Green Day and many more to become icons of the era and the idols of youngsters all over the world.
This would directly lead into another darling genre that defined the sound of the 00s, alternative rock or it's derivative, somewhat affectionately called "butt rock". Loosely defined and vague, this was used as an umbrella term for the new style of rock music that dominated the charts, with its polished production, overdriven power chords, simple song structures and catchy hooks. Lyrics were also more melodramatic and often edgy compared to the hardline approach of classic rock. Say what you will about it, but the fun factor is undeniable and the lyrics are unforgettable, cringy as they sometimes may be. These iconic tracks have become so inseparable from the vibe of the decade, that hearing them just for a bit will instantly transport you back to the era of Limewire, Napster and Geocities!
There was also the alternative metal derivative thereof, although the line between the two can be quite blurry. Guess it depends on the amount of distortion and if the singer growls occasionally. Also, alternative to what exactly? I'm not sure, I've always found the descriptor quite vague and misleading, but be that as it may, the point stands that the bands under this banner are all truly iconic and have become cornerstones of the sound of the decade. They had some kind of special sauce that modern artists just can't seem to replicate without sounding like bland copies of the old. Even the old bands themselves sometimes struggle with this. They really don't make 'em like they used to.
These all serves as the disgruntled parents to one of the most well known and somewhat infamous 2000s trends - emo! A pop punk derived sound with dark and melancholic alt rock/pop-punk lyrics, mixed with a style inspired by classic goth rock, emo would become a force to be reckoned with during the whole decade, being almost perfectly contained within it. It was simultaneously underground and counter-cultural while also being insanely popular. The emos remained a misunderstood bunch thanks to their trademark haircuts and their black and moody yet colourful fashion, so they often turned to classic websites of the time like MySpace to present themselves and form their own tightly knit communities of like-minded outcasts. Emo was a brief but bright moment in rock music and while the subculture isn't really around anymore, it's legacy can still be felt in much of music and pop culture today. It's not a phase, mom, I swear!
And thus, we arrive at arguably the most iconic genre of the 2000s - nu metal! I've talked about this many times and I'll never get tired of it, because I love it so much! With its punchy riffs, no nonsense attitude and chaotic blend of almost every genre imaginable, nu metal had already exploded onto the scene in the 30s and by the turn of the millennium, it was ubiquitous and had ushered in a whole new era of music. Seemingly every cultural trend of the decade culminated here. A mix of hip-hop, electronic, reggae as well as various international sounds that were gaining popularity. The wild fashion of JNCO jeans, flames, skulls, neon colours, chains, piercings, gelled up spiky hair, makeup and more. Skateboarding and extreme sports. Tight association with video games. The favourite tunes of the early edgy days of the internet and the budding communities that formed there. Immense popularity only made stronger through file sharing just like tape trading did in the 80s. It was all here.
Nu metal is and always will be the distilled essence of the crazy culture of the 2000s and the soundtrack of all of us that grew up during that era! It was inseparable from youth culture and to this day, it's hard to accurately capture just how influential it was back then and the lasting impact it has had across metal and other facets of popular music! Granted, this was also the decade where non-nu bands tried to hop on the trend and experiment with the genre. Your mileage definitely varies there. Despite the nu regime coming to a close by the end of the decade, even back then there were some younger bands coming in to take the torch and keep the spirit alive to this day!
But nu metal wasn't alone, for by the middle of the decade, another challenger was arising to become the next big thing in the coming years and become the most dominant trend in all of metal - metalcore! Refining a mix of metal riffage and instrumentation with hardcore punk style aggression and energy, combining it with vocals that switch between screams and melodic singing and even throwing in some electronic elements, metalcore quickly gained traction. Forgoing the dark and brooding oldschool metal lyricism in favour of some angsty and melodramatic lyrics similar to alternative and nu metal, these tunes resonated strongly with the youth and you can find many of them screaming these poems to themselves in their rooms. Jokes aside, just like nu metal, metalcore really captured the mood of the new generation really well and thus it became a massive movement taking over the metal sphere for many years to come and let me tell you, if you like moshing, this is where you need to go. No karate in the pit!
Going back to some oldschool stuff, many genres that first took form in previous decades experienced somewhat of a Renaissance during the 00s. Thrash metal for example saw many of its biggest bands overcome the midlife crises they were in during the 90s and allowed them to come back swinging with some absolutely iconic records. The titanic Slayer for example managed to rediscover their roots and with the ruthless God Hates Us All released on a certain date, they would begin the string of stellar albums that would serve as the final peak of their legendary career!
Death metal wasn't resting in peace either. Many iconic bands of the formative time were only going stronger, with Cannibal Corpse in particular having a very successful run during this time (not that they've ever had a bad album). Likewise, newer bands were popping up to keep expanding and evolving the genre into all sorts of dimensions. The trend was also that most bands cleaned up their production quality, which allowed their sound to be that much more approachable and understandable while retaining all of the aggression and brutality that made them great in the first place!
Similar was the case with black metal. Most artists finally replaced their dinky old tape recorders with actual studio equipment and allowed the tremolo blast beat darkness to finally be experienced in full fidelity. Granted, it was a balancing act as polishing black metal too much makes it lose some charm and the DIY culture around the genre remains strong to this day. So don't polish it, Polish it! Literally, Poland was rising up to take the torch from Norway and Sweden and would quickly develop as the new biggest breeding ground for exciting new black metal!
And this is just the tip of the iceberg as other genres were thriving all the same! Melodic death metal was a force to be reckoned with, invigorated by the metalcore kids to show them how it's really done and being a prime fuel source for many new bands and genres to come! Industrial metal in many varieties was bigger than ever, propped up by the booming popularity of both industrial music and nu metal and bleeding into various other subgenres! Shock rock courtesy of icons like Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson were growing ever more powerful, a perfect soundtrack for the edgier contingent of disenfranchised youth (and lovers of horror movies). There's more and more to discover, but I'll let you board the time machine yourselves and explore onward!
Lastly, one thing that I've been hinting at all throughout - video games! You know I never miss a chance to talk about this and it's especially warranted here. With the growth of PCs, spread of the internet and release of iconic consoles like the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox, it was during the 2000s that video games were no longer just the secret hobby of basement dwelling computer geeks. They became mainstream success stories and worldwide news. The growth of online multiplayer and popularity of forums helped the earliest large communities of gamers to form, which itself lead to the birth of esports as we know them. The advancement of handheld consoles also meant that you could carry actual serious games with you anywhere you went and freely share with friends. It was the true birth of gaming culture and naturally, the most iconic games came with the most iconic soundtracks, which reflected the diverse sonic palette and eccentric tastes of the time.
So there you have it, an in-depth look at the full spectrum of crazy awesomeness of the 2000s! And for me personally, combining this with the 90s blog is the soundtrack of my childhood more or less complete. While it's cool that we have all this modern tech and boundless internet today, it's sometimes cool to reminisce about how things used to be. The time before smartphones, social media and Spotify itself. Instead, the era of internet forums, flip phones, MP3 players, Frutiger Aero, flash games and more. And all of these songs that were the soundtrack to all of life back in the day. Unlike some other decades, it's hard to really capture in a few words the sound of the era, but the tracks all had this distinct vibe to them that immediately tells you the era they're from. I can't really put my finger on it, but I feel it. I hope you do too. Regardless, it was a time of lots of new sounds, bold new exploration, eccentric style and unique self expression. I hope I managed to capture the spirit of the decade for you well and that you enjoyed this trip down memory lane. Let's just not think about how long ago it really was and just be happy that all of this wonderful stuff from that era is still around for us to appreciate today. Take care and see you all next time!