The 2000s are my decade, in a lot of ways. I spent my 20s -- my defining decade -- during this decade. I fell in love. My family situation, uh, changed....When the decade began, I was 18. I am 28 now. Despite being raised Jewish, I didn't become a man in March 1994 (my Bar Mitzvah); one becomes an adult in his or her 20s. Living on one's own for the first time. It was the first time I'd had a roommate; later I had two and had to play mediator between them. I got my first job, got my first promotion and changed jobs for the first time. Maybe I say this because I'm in it now, but this was my defining decade. No, my favorite album of all time didn't come out in this decade; that record was released before I was born. But, the years 2000-2009 define me and will have the most lasting of all memories for me. This is the music that soundtracked those memories.I tend to believe that's precisely why popular music is meaningful, because of the way it gets muddled up in the most intense parts of our lives. And as such, I'm really enjoying this jaunt through Ross's musical head, and I think the rest of you will too: it's great to have another perspective on the musical and emotional topography of the last decade. The first installment is up here. Check it out.
Top 100
My friend Ross is working on a project on his blog where he ranks the Top 100 albums of the past decade. Normally, I don't like ratings systems like this very much: I think music is way too subjective for there to be an objective determination of whether the best of mainstream pop is actually better than the best of metal. But Ross is frank about his subjectivity up front, and about the role music played in the critical decade of his life: