2002: The Good Old Days? - December

We can loosely define 2005 as being the year of indie, 2004 as the year of rap and R&B and 2003 as the year of dance. What about 2002?

Well based on the new entries in December it very much looks like the year of pop. It was full of boy bands, girl groups, pop stars, pop idols and those who were once in boy bands. The only one of these records to get any points is "Feel" by Robbie Williams. He's someone I consider to have been overhyped at the time and under appreciated now. At the time many said he'd show his music credentials after being in a boy band, these days many say his music's crap hence charity shops are full of his CDs. I do think some of his tunes are decent and this is one of them.

Many of these pop records are worthy of being the worst record, but then they serve a purpose. Therefore the one I've picked is one for the pop kids who see themselves as a bit alternative but they're not. I'm talking about "Sk8er Boi" by Avril Lavigne, pop with guitars basically. Furthermore there was no avoiding it when on a night out at the time.

What about the decent music then? Well rap gets 100% helped by there being only 2 rap records. There's the best one which is "Thug Lovin" by Ja Rule and Bobby Brown. Then there's "Lose Yourself" by Eminem.

R&B wise we have the "Girl Talk" which is the final Top 40 hit from TLC which came shortly after the death of Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes but she does feature on the record and it's decent. We also have "Girlfriend" by Alicia Keys, I already had the album and thought this was the best track. Not so good is "Put Him Out" by Ms Dynamite who was proving she only has one decent record to her name.

Dance music wise we only have points for Scooter with "Posse (I Need You On The Floor)". The rest are cheesy vocal trance/eurodance which generally isn't to my liking.

Elsewhere we have older acts such as Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen all with records that show they were all past their best. To give Bon Jovi credit, the video for "Misunderstood" is entertaining but points are based on the music not the video.

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: 16%

Here's a look at the chart:

Not a great start, but then we know the quality of music declines towards Christmas so there's still time.