Best Song: Snoop Dogg ft Charlie Wilson & Justin Timberlake - Signs
One of my interests outside of music is tennis. I first drove to Wimbledon in 2001 and in my car I listened to Snoop Dogg's "Tha Last Meal" album which I'd recently purchased. The following year I drove to Wimbledon again and my fond memories of listening to Snoop Dogg on the way made me decide to do the same again. It then became a tradition for me to listen to that album whenever I drove to Wimbledon. I therefore found it quite amusing for Snoop Dogg to then release this, a record that contains the lyrics "Venus and Serena in the Wimbledon arena". I've been fond of this record ever since.
Worst Song: Amerie - 1 Thing
This faced some stiff competition from Will Smith and John Legend who are both artists with music I cannot tolerate. I felt this was just that little bit more irritating though. It just sounds like it's trying to get started but can't. The singing just seems so melodramatic too. It just really bugs me.
Top 40 Review
If I had to pick a year that music died then 2005 would probably be it. I remember there being lots of dreary indie bands and a real lack of new music taking my interest. I also remember someone saying that aside from Crazy Frog, cheesy pop was dead.
Looking at this Top 40, they had a point. There was also "Ring Ding Ding" by Pondlife which was basically the same thing, but there were no boy bands, girl groups or X Factor winners. Every record could be classed as a genre other than pop, even Crazy Frog could be classed as eurodance.
My memory of lots of dreary indie bands though isn't as accurate. I count 5 indie records and consider "Hard To Beat" by Hard Fi to be ok. The rest are crap though.
It was Rap and R&B that were more dominant in terms of quantity with several records incorporating both genres including the Snoop Dogg record. The others which get the thumbs up from me are "N Dey Say" by Nelly, "Lonely" by Akon and "Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani.
We have an unlikely collaboration at the top of the charts between 2Pac and Elton John. It's the only number one from 2Pac to date, 9 years after his death. It works though.
One of the surprises is that Erasure were still having Top 40 hits in 2005. The record "Here I Go Impossible Again" isn't as good as their older stuff admittedly but it's still good.
That's all the records that get full marks mentioned. None of the dance music is any good and some of it is just as cheesy as cheesy pop. It was before EDM became a thing though and it is better than that.
I thought 2005 would struggle to make double figures and I was right.
Score: 8.5
Table
2005 is near the bottom, but slightly better than 2002:
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