Maybe they can edit the cigarette into a Juul.

Been a bit of a strange spring for me – listening to way less music than i normally do, for a variety of reasons (water damage in home, two kids, end of school year, legend of zelda, computer hard drive nearly full), so I am not as up on things as I normally am. There’s quite a few up toward the top that I will probably love, summer break is calling me.

My favs:

Young Fathers

Parannoul

Fireworks

Jessie Ware

Westerman

Lankum

M83

Wednesday

Skrillex

Algiers

Every year, as I become older and more washed, this list becomes more like homework than something I’m actively up on, but goddamn right Rat Saw God is the best album of the year. I’m not dead yet, folks!

I’ve never lived in NYC, but have visited quite a few times. I’ve always enjoyed the energy and vibe of the city, and likewise, I enjoy the energy and vibe of “Empire State Of Mind”. It’s a good song to end the decade with.

The 2000s was a decade that was more of a musical mystery to me than any previous decade in my life, especially at the #1 level. The 1960s, post-British Invasion mainly, is when I first began to become aware of music on the radio, as a small child. I’m familiar with virtually every #1 from the 70s and 80s – I love so much of this music so much that it hurts sometimes. The 90s is where I started losing the bubble, at least a little bit, though with plenty of exceptions.

For the decade that Tom just completed, the 2000s, I was probably only very familiar with half of the #1s. (This column was great in helping me to come up to speed on the rest!) I do think the main thing that happened was an “aging out” process. The 2000s was the decade I was moving through my 40s, and new music just wasn’t being imprinted on my brain, or life, the same way it had when I was younger. Don’t know if that’s just me, or whether lots of other people experience this around the same time of life.

Interestingly, I kinda think that I’ll have a second wind as we enter the 2010s, or so I’m hoping at least. Time will tell, but I’m going into the 2010s feeling positive!

Okay, everybody’s criticizing the kids here, but I work with college students and I honestly can’t imagine “dozens and dozens” of them complaining about these photos.

Far more likely, in my opinion, is UMN being a standard super-reactionary university and either taking them down in response to one (1) complaint by a dweeb everybody hates, or even better, because they imagined the photos might get complaints.

And we’ve reached the end of the 2000s! – Here are a couple of TNOCS commentariat stats:

Three songs had 700 or more TNOCS comments during the virtual decade. “Everything You Want”, of all songs, leads the way with 738, followed by “Hey Ya” with 706, and Madonna’s “Music” with exactly 700. (As a point of reference, “One Week” is the most-commented song ever in TNOCS, with an incredible 1082.)

The least-commented song of the decade is “3”, which has 273 as of this morning. The fact that Tom’s recent “3” column was released on Memorial Day probably did it no favors, from this perspective at least!

Hey, y’all. I’ve been a longtime reader (1988’s remarkable “Love Bites” column introduced me to the Number Ones and got me instantly addicted–I spent weeks going back and reading as many of the earlier columns as I could manage, all of the virtual 80s and an ample but scattershot sampling of the previous virtual decades). I’ve just begun dipping my toes into commentary waters these past few months, and this is the single greatest comments section I’ve ever seen on the Internet, remarkably troll-free for the most part, with engaging back-and-forth exchanges and even the development of real virtual friendships (something of an oxymoron, I know, but you feel me).

For the start of the 2010s virtual decade, I’m looking up the Number Ones beforehand, listening to them, watching the videos, and making mental guesses as to what Tom’s take and rating will be. (Fear not, ye purists who like to be surprised thrice weekly: I will not offer any kind of spoilers.) For “Tik Tok,” I was anticipating a 7, so I wasn’t far off. I had a feeling Tom would dig (to some extent) Kesha’s loud, self-consciously sleazy early persona, and the first paragraphs certainly confirm this, though he likes the actual track a bit more than I’d expected. For me, it’s a 7. I agree with Tom that, unlike something like Jason Derulo’s “Whatcha Say,” a song so pointlessly Auto-Tuned to death that it’s nearly unbearable, the old Auto-Tune actually does Kesha a service here. The song sounds as gleefully wasted/hungover as she does, which is a lot of fun, though it also reminds me why I stopped drinking alcohol nearly 14 years ago: I don’t miss the hangovers at all, and something about all this shameless, irresponsible hedonism leaves me feeling a little queasy, though that feeling probably also owes something to what I know now of Kesha’s awful experiences with Dr. Luke.

In short, good trashy fun and nothing more. Not a bad way to usher in the 2010s, which will have much more trashy fun to offer us in terms of Hot 100 Number Ones.

Hey guys. Long time reader (since around virtual 1990), first time commenter here. I figured this is as good a time as any to start because we are now officially entering the 2010s. I’m two as we enter 2010 (I was born during Soldia Boy’s run at number one), and as such this is the first decade where I will remember hearing these songs at the time.

So do I remember this one? Kinda-sorta-not really. The melody sounds familiar in a way that makes me think I heard it as a small child, but the song didn’t really stick with me. It wouldn’t have made sense anyway — I don’t think four-year-old me knew what it meant to brush one’s teeth with a bottle of Jack.

The song itself is fine. It can get annoying at times, but the verses aren’t so long that they start to get really grating. They don’t distract from the hook, which is the song’s main asset. It’s just great, too—the half-nonsense lyrics, the of-their-time synth swirls, the oh-oh-oh-ohs. Some great pop gibberish there. Kesha would do better, but she’d do worse, too.

Overall? It’s a 6. Maybe a 7 or an 8 if I’ve had a few sodas or juices or whatever it is us youngsters drink.

Credit where it’s due, that’s a certified zinger

flips middle finger no offense