2003: The Good Old Days? - June

One of the questions I start each month with is what is the most prolific genre? In the mid-00s it's often been indie, sometimes it's been rap/R&B and as we go further back it can be dance music too. This month however is the turn of rock and metal. I'm using this definition to cover the heavier side of guitar music and am therefore including punk as part of it.

The 2 punk records provide the bulk of those points. We have "All You Ever Do" by Violent Delight, a record I enjoyed on P-Rock TV back in the day. I also think "Girls Not Grey" by AFI is OK. Also getting half marks are Dave Gahan with his solo debut "Dirty Sticky Floors" and Red Hot Chili Peppers with "Universally Speaking".

It was the era when commercial drum & bass was quite good and the 2 drum & bass records "Twist Em Out" by Dillinja & Skibadee and "Feelin' U" by Shy FX & T Power both get full marks. Another decent dance record was "How Did You Know" by Kurtis Mantronik and although really cheesy I do like "Fly On The Wings Of Love" by XTM & DJ Chucky presents Annia. No points for the rest of the dance records which are of the cheesy vocal variety.

The only American rap record comes from Busta Rhymes with "I Know What You Want" which is a record I like. From the UK we have the Top 40 debut from Dizzee Rascal with "I Luv U" which was just about the worst record doing the rounds on Channel U at the time.

Most of the R&B is decent this month. We have "Hell Yeah" by Ginuwine which sounded better than I remembered, "Girlfriend" by B2k which was the first record of theirs I liked and "Rock Wit U (Awww Baby)" by Ashanti which again is decent. No points for Jamelia or Jennifer Lopez with their pop records disguised as R&B.

We turn to dancehall to find the best record this month which goes to Wayne Wonder with "No Letting Go". It was good enough for me to buy the album which I played a lot at the time.

What remains is the worst record which goes to Jennifer Ellison with "Baby I Don't Care". She was a Brookside actress but nobody was watching Brookside anymore and it got cancelled the same month. It's a cover of the Transvision Vamp record which is shit itself.

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 23%

Here's a look at the chart:

The story of 2003 so far is that it's marginally worse than 2004.