“The “Songs That Changed The Radio In 2009” show a softening of the pop music epicenter, looking at “Fifteen Songs That Changed The Radio In The 2000s” makes the pattern even clearer A decade that began under the sway of Rap/Rock gently strums its way to the finish line.
Some of the mellowing of the radio was a reflection of where the medium’s strength lay at decade’s end. Adults were clearly in control, not because of an owner’s “25-to-54-itis,” but because they listened in greater proportion than younger listeners, and they had more quarter-hours to contribute in a PPM world. The teens who remained were those with more mainstream tastes, although those who found music somewhere other than the radio seemed to have pretty mellow tastes themselves at decade’s end.
As with the songs-of-the-year column, sins of omission are inevitable. Here, in chronological order, are 15 songs that had an impact on their radio formats.
“I Wanna Talk About Me” – Toby Keith
(2001)
Consider the most-played record of the decade at Country: Tim McGraw’s 1999-holdover “Something Like That.” It was the elusive uptempo love song that Country programmers always favor—somehow providing tempo with no texture or edge. Country was still the place to escape all the Hip-Hop music on Top 40, but not as many listeners seemed inclined to do so. So there was still a certain amount of political capital at stake when Toby Keith, only a few singles past his career breakthrough of “How Do You Like Me Now,” decided to take more from Hip-Hop than just a song title. And it came from the same pen that brought us “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” so the Country credentials were hard to dispute.
“Family Affair” – Mary J. Blige
(2001)
Nelly’s “Ride Wit Me,” at radio about five months earlier, was perhaps the beginning of this decade’s “mom jams”—its accessibility in no way diminished by the implied presence of the “MF”-word in the lyrics. But there was no question of Hot AC radio playing that one at the time. “Family Affair,” on the other hand, had such undeniable all-ages female appeal that it ended up testing in to Hot AC libraries later on—often popping up in an hour otherwise dominated by Lifehouse and John Mayer. The song that paved the way for “Where Is The Love” and “Yeah” at Adult Top 40.
Heaven” – DJ Sammy & Yanou f/Do
(2002)
From an era where every dance record had to fight for its place at Top 40, and R&B was just starting to surprise itself with an uptempo Neptunes production here or there. And if you don’t think of it in the same breath as Pitbull or Ke$ha, it only proves how dance continued its journey to the mainstream from here.
“Lose Yourself” – Eminem
(2002)
You could also make a case for “Cleaning Out My Closet,” perhaps the most vituperative, least mom-friendly record to ever make it to Top 40, and certainly the record that dented the walls of the format for a while. In either event, Eminem was, at this moment, clearly his generation’s equivalent of the ‘70s Rolling Stones.
“Seven Nation Army” – White Stripes
(2003)
After five years of letting Rap/Rock drive, Modern Rock becomes a little more Alternative again, and the rockers don’t mind because there’s an AC/DC riff. White Stripes, Modest Mouse and the Killers weren’t enough to change the entire Alternative panel—half would still rather play Puddle Of Mudd and Breaking Benjamin. But it does define the common ground where bands like Muse will also live at decade’s end.
“Hey Ya” – Outkast
(2003)
What they’d really like to do is defect. A respected Hip-Hop act makes the record they really want to make. It’s this generation’s “Beat It” or “Little Red Corvette,” but it’s not in any way rap. R&B radio, which had at least tried to find a place for Prince or Lionel Richie’s not-always-so-soulful efforts a decade earlier, resists (at least for a while). And from that moment on, many of Hip-Hop and R&B’s successful artists and producers are making their best records for Top 40 and not worrying so much about whether Urban accommodates them (see Rihanna’s “Don’t Stop The Music,” Chris Brown’s “Forever,” and Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable”).
“Yeah” – Usher
(2004)
Not, as noted above, a first of its series, either as mom-friendly rhythm or as crunk’s crossover moment. (Or, for that matter, the moment when R&B again became dance music.) But still the biggest hit of the decade. Also, perhaps, the turning point in terms of what could be made mom friendly. After this, the music would get less edgy overall, but for now, 35-year-old women were just fine with making your something-or-other go clap and Ludacris putting women out of the car if they weren’t cuttin’.
“Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)”
Big & Rich
(2004)
Finished what “I Wanna Talk About Me” had started. Proved, along with Gretchen Wilson’s “Redneck Woman,” also from the same pen, that Country would indeed find something to replace the Dixie Chicks when it came to younger listeners. And marked the moment that Country became a format for people who grew up with Hip-Hop, and not those trying to escape it. And while Country stations wouldn’t power it at the time, it went on to become one of the best testing records of the next five years, perhaps because people hadn’t heard it enough on the radio (not unlike, say, “Ghetto Supastar” at Top 40).
“Since U Been Gone” – Kelly Clarkson
(2005)
Like Chumbawamba and Hanson in the previous decade, Avril Lavigne came to Top 40 only after making at least a passing attempt to position herself as a Rock artist, because the whole industry knew that no pure pop artist could sell albums. By Clarkson’s first album, “American Idol” had already helped circumvent that process. “Since U Been Gone” wasn’t just a reliable power-pop template that perseveres five years later, but the first time in years that Top 40, rather than taking its cues from the Rhythmic side, had the record that other formats were forced to acknowledge.
“Hollaback Girl” – Gwen Stefani
(2005)
Can this generation’s “Mickey” be a record of lasting cosmic significance? Hey, even critically beloved bands are plundering the MTV ‘80s today. Somehow both a genre-bending moment and a triumph for pure pop
. It was also the record that convinced Nelly Furtado and Avril Lavigne to change courses as well, and make things truly less complicated.
“Holiday” – Green Day
(2005)
Within months of the Iraq war starting, there was evidence (beginning with Black Eyed Peas’ “Where Is The Love” and followed by Incubus’ “Megalomaniac”) that being anti-war wasn’t as dangerous to your career in other formats as it was in Country. But you can’t dismiss what this record did lyrically or texturally at Hot AC, where it was somehow (and not incorrectly) received merely as the latest in-character song from a band that 30-year-old listeners had grown up with.
“Bad Day” – Daniel Powter
(2006)
In the mid-‘00s, with Top 40 only starting to evolve away from Hip-Hop, there wasn’t much new for Mainstream AC to play, except whatever made its way over from Country eventually, or the occasional left-field record that could be warmed up somewhere else (Mercy Me’s “I Can Only Imagine”). Four years later, you’ll still find “Bad Day” at or near the top of an AC music test that is otherwise dominated by older songs. Also proof that not just contestants could benefit from “American Idol.”
“SexyBack” – Justin Timberlake
(2006)
The parallels between Lady Gaga and early ‘00s “electroclash” pioneer/performance artist Peaches have been mulled over extensively on the Web, but the co-opting of electroclash started at least as far back as Missy Elliott’s “Work It.” Still, it had lost none of its power to provoke by the summer of ‘06, and it’s important to remember now that what we now recognize as the ultimate mom jam of the decade was, at least for a few minutes at the outset, received as a celebrity self-indulgence.
“Chasing Cars” – Snow Patrol
(2006)
The Fray’s “Over My Head (Cable Car)” and “How To Save A Life” might have brought their teen-friendly act to Top 40 radio without the help of TV music supervisors. Snow Patrol, on the other hand, would likely still be living at Triple-A and Alternative, without the full support of the latter. TV and movies never entirely became a way of circumventing radio. (For all the people who bought the “Garden State” soundtrack, anybody who didn’t would be hard-pressed to recognize “New Slang” today.) But it did help songs reach adults more quickly.
“Bubbly” – Colbie Caillat
(2007)
There’s a long history of acoustic singer-songwriter ballads that stop the radio in its tracks from “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” to “Fast Car” to “I Will Remember You.” But they’re supposed to be the adult balance records that the kids tolerate, not the ones that they force radio to play. The most dramatic sign of changing young-end tastes to that time, and the set-up for Owl City. And if it seems like a low-key note to go out on, well, there you have it.”