The mid-2000s were a peak era for Millennial culture. Especially musically. We had the rise of the emo scene, which encompassed the pop-punk and hardcore genres; hip-hop was at an all-time mainstream popularity high; and indie rock was exploding.
But… this was still pre-streaming. Sure, we’d had iTunes for a while (and Zunes), but if you didn’t have an iPod, you were burning mix-CDs like it was your job. My particular brand of CD-R was a line from Maxell that had designs on them. (I swear to god one of the discs looked like Godsmack’s tribal sun symbol.)
I had stacks of these guys at the ready, with bands and artists from DangerDoom to Avenged Sevenfold. But there were a handful of songs that made it onto multiple mixes, and these are some of them…
“Dance, Dance” – Fall Out Boy
As an early-2000s scene kid, Fall Out Boy’s rise to the mainstream was really wild to see firsthand. This was a band that had been opening for Taking Back Sunday just years prior, and now here they were ramping up to stadium tours.
In 2005, the band dropped their sophomore album, From Under the Cork Tree. With it, the world was given “Dance, Dance”. From the moment that drum beat and bassline start, it’s relentlessly, infectiously catchy.
Are there better songs on the album? Yes, absolutely. But I’m very confident saying this was the most fun, and that’s the energy I was trying to bring to every function in ’05.
“Feel Good Inc.” by Gorillaz
From one fun 2005 jam to another… You basically couldn’t go anywhere that entire year without hearing “Feel Good Inc.” by Gorillaz. Least of all my car. I was jamming that Deamon Dayz album on the regular, and this track in particular was all over my mix CDs.
The Gorillaz continue to be a formidable force in pop music, but ’05 was their heyday, and “Feel Good Inc.” was a neo-funk/post-triphop masterpiece.
“I Will Follow You into the Dark” – Death Cab for Cutie
Ah, yes, the obligatory badge of a “sensitive millennial man.” This was how to let people know you were “deep” and liked “good” music.
With all due respect to Ben Gibbard and Co., Death Cab’s “I Will Follow You Into The Dark” is essentially a spiritual successor to Oasis’ “Wonderwall.” Both are beautiful and meaningful songs that were tragically co-opted by melodramatic dudes who want to feign sensitivity.
(Yes, I am talking about myself.)
“Gold Digger” – Kanye West
I’ll say it… “Gold Digger” was the biggest song of 2005. It should have been Song of the Year at the 48th Grammy Awards, but that honor inexplicably went to U2’s “Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own”. (To be fair, “Gold Digger” did nab the Grammy for Best Rap Solo performance that year.)
Kanye’s trajectory might not be one you’d recommend someone emulate, but back in ’05, he had a chokehold on culture (and my CD player) with the song.
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