Discover Hidden Gems: Y2K

The Y2K is an era of history that many college students today just narrowly missed out on. While many of us don't have personal memories of the early 2000s, the cultural memory of Y2K seeped into our early childhood through forms of classic movies like Mean Girls and The Matrix. In recent years, Y2K culture revived in the form of fashion, as vibrant and neon colors, low-rise jeans, and shiny metallic fabrics all made another round in the streets of Los Angeles and New York.

In terms of music, Y2K is perhaps best known for teenage dance-pop tunes of *NSYNC and Brittney Spears, who laid the groundwork for pop for the next two decades with the rise of boy bands and child stars that grow successful adult pop careers. Beyond mainstream music, garage rock received the largest revival in the early 2000s, with The Strokes and The White Stripes breaking into the scene. In the indie arena, Pitchfork established itself as a taste-making force, putting melancholic indie rockers like Broken Social Scene and Arcade Fire on the map. Hip hop reaches boiling mainstream popularity during the bling era as 50 cent and Lil Wayne songs filled the club and as Eminem introduced rap to the white audience. Also, Nu-Metal happened, but we don't need to talk about that.

For this newsletter, music team focuses on music of this era that are somewhat forgotten and discusses how they captured the spirit of the time in different ways. For each song, we also measures how well they capture the unique aesthetic of Y2K based on a 0 to 5 💿 emoji scale. We hope you enjoy the newsletter!

FULL PLAYLIST

3030 - Deltron 3030

Deltron 3030, hip-hop supergroup composed of Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, Dan The Automator, and Kid Koala, crafts a dystopian science fiction narrative on their self-titled album released in 2000. This specific track, which is the first song excluding the intro on the album, introduces the two main characters of the album, Deltron Zero, and The Automator. However, a lot of the references from the song come from years before Y2K, with references to Neuromancer, Metropolis, and Ghost in the Shell, and the general vibe the song gives definitely feels more like a dystopia you’d expect from 90’s or earlier science fiction, giving it only 2 CD’s out of 5. -   F.B.

Notes -

• Not FCC safe
• Genre: Experimental Hip Hop

Rating: 8.5

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Tell Me (Sampling From “Two of Hearts”) - Wonder Girls

Wonder Girls’ hit single “Tell Me” off of their debut album The Wonder Years is a y2k pop masterpiece. A lot of K-pop tends to borrow from trends overseas from a few years ago, but refines them to the point of perfection, and “Tell Me” is no different. The bubbly pop production, full of fun pew sound effects and catchy synths are perfectly complemented by the addicting chorus, leading to a complete y2k sound packaged in a 3:37 soundbite, landing it at 5 CD’s out of 5. - F.B.

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: K-pop

Rating: 8

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Hammoud Nasser - احلم

You will be hard pressed to find anything on Homoud Nasser searching in English. Switch to Arabic and you will get a better sense of the man. His seeming popularity in Arabic language music seems hard to believe to the average listener, however this comes as a consequence of most of his music being 1. in Arabic and 2. The clear bulk of his work being released before streaming came to prominence. This track is special in the way that it very much retains Nasser’s Kuwaiti roots in terms of songwriting and structure, however channeling the style of  popular 2000s Western pop in parallel. The instrumentals scream 2000s while the rap breakdown in English that extends towards the end of the song is an unexpected yet welcomed surprise a la Angel by Shaggy. Is it an almost-breakbeat? Is it rap fusion? Is it pop music? To be honest, I have no clue! All I know is that the music team enjoyed this very much.   - D. D.

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Kuwaiti Pop

Rating: 8

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Les Os - The Unicorns

Formed in the year 2000, The Unicorn reflected the pitchfork-era of mellow and chic indie music, influenced by renewed interests in DIY garage rock and wide-eyed incorporation of electronica. Right off the bat, “Les Os” hits you with a campy and charming synth melody reminiscent of Scott Pilgrim and cartoon tunes. Over the cute instrumentals, the vocalist sings about the mistakes and dramas of teen love in a nostalgically cheery Twee style.   - J.L.

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Pop

Rating: 7

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Sodium Chloride - Panchiko

While recorded in the year 2000, D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L went unappreciated until its rediscovery in a charity shop in 2016. When the band returned to bandcamp 2 decades later in 2020, they uploaded D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L alongside their 2021 EP Kicking Cars, which included the track “Sodium Chloride”. Sonically, the remastered Sodium Chloride sounds extremely clean and modern, but the fun squiggly synths are characteristic for the era. “Sodium Chloride” sounds like if Radiohead made a sunshine pop song.   - J.L.

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Indie Rock

Rating: 7

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Come Clean - Hilary Duff

Being the theme song to the infamous Y2K reality TV show, Come Clean by Hillary Duff will transport you back to the year 2003, chunky highlights re-done and flip phone in hand (and you just paid for more minutes). Along with her music career, Duff also had a popular TV show, Lizzie McGuire, that raised her to fame on Disney Channel. This sound, while largely inspired by the post-child star sonic experience with its catchy hooks and overproduced upbeat instrumentals that hold up the narratives of young heartbreak and navigating your younger years create what is more commercially associated with this “Y2K sound”.    -Flo

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Pop Rock

Rating:6.5

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22 Grand Job - The Rakes

Despite charting during the band’s heyday, UK garage rock band The Rake's popularity did not survive till the streaming era. In a way, one could argue that The Rakes’ sound was less timeless than their peers like The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys, but it also means that “22 Grand Job” captured better than others the particular sounds of the early 2000s and all its dated awkward charms. “22 Grand Job” stands out with its fun guitar arpeggios, sitting somewhere between  middle-class delinquent british teen and Spencer from iCarly.   -J.L.

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Garage rock revival

Rating:6.5

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Sunn - Swirlies

Indie rock band Swirlies had been labeled as “Chimp Rock”, a term applied to a group of Boston bands that have an “unschooled primitive” approach to music paired with lo-fi recording. Swirlies is sonically aligned with the 90s with its rough edges, playing around with turning pedal effects on and off to create several cool contrasting parts.   -J.L.

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Shoegaze, chimp rock

Rating:6.5

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Breathless - The Corrs

Irish family band The Corrs integrates the fast moving sound of pop rock with the more traditional elements of the music their culture exemplifies to create a unique blend of Irish Y2K Pop. Take that, Brit-pop! - Flo

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: pop

Rating: 5

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A Night On Earth - The Tossers

The Tossers are a Celtic Punk band, originating in Chicago, but with a strongly Irish sound. While their authenticity may be in doubt, they show a strong appreciation for Irish music. Predating more iconic Celtic Punk bands like the Dropkick Murphys, they never achieved a similar level of fame. They released Long Dim Road in 2000, putting it squarely in the Y2K timeframe. Though Celtic Punk is perhaps not the first genre that comes to mind when recalling the aughts, for me it brings back memories of driving to school with my father in our early 00’s Subaru Forester, pulling CDs from a big red folio.

“A Night on Earth” is particularly on-point for the Y2K theme, with its opening lyrics (“Well, tonight is the last night on Earth my friends”) evoking the wildly overblown fears of imminent apocalypse. Half dirge and half drinking song, it laments the passing of a century. Nevertheless, Long Dim Road is mostly indistinguishable from the Celtic Punk of the 90s, and perhaps it is this failure to evolve that earned this track a relatively low rating from Music Team.    -S.P

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Mad Riot

Rating: 4.5