The Wily Filipino

Ten Years Old This Year.

My friend Karen reminds me that I haven't updated my blog in almost a month. Well, I've been busy. I haven't even come up with my usual year-end lists (and this year, the music list is rather predictable). Stay tuned for those though; the post on my favorite movies is shaping up pretty nicely.

But since this is the first post of 2008, I thought I'd remind you readers of the inexorable passage of time: everything below is ten years old this year.

A list of some of the pop singles of 1998 tells me that very few of these have aged particularly well (not that they were ever very good in the first place):

- Shania Twain's "You're Still The One"
- LeAnn Rimes' "How Do I Live"
- Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn" (okay, I actually really like this song)
- Madonna's "Ray Of Light" (this one too, plus it has the second-greatest Madonna video ever, next only to "Lucky Star")
- Stardust's "Music Sounds Better With You"
- Marcy Playground's "Sex And Candy"
- Aerosmith's "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing"
- Alanis Morissette's "Thank U"

and of course, the theme song from the biggest movie of 1998, and possibly even the decade, Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On." The horror.

Meanwhile, some very good artists released some very middling albums: Whitechocolatespaceegg, Hello Nasty, Is This Desire?, Mutations, Angels With Dirty Faces. I bought them all that year and I don't think I've listened to them since then.

But for every single by Savage Garden, Matchbox 20, Third Eye Blind, Jennifer Paige, and Creed -- god, just typing these names makes my skin crawl -- there were at least a few bright spots: Lauryn Hill's debut album, Jay-Z's "Hard Knock Life", Black Star, Buena Vista Social Club, The Boy With the Arab Strap, New Radicals' "You Get What You Give", and Music Has The Right To Children.

But yeah, think about it: it's been ten years.

Posted by the wily filipino at January 29, 2008 01:10 PM