Where will we be in 20 Years?

As anyone who cares about radio stations aimed at a demographic way younger than them should know, Triple J are doing another one of their special Hottest 100 polls. This time around it’s to find the hottest 100 songs of the last 20 years – a period they claim to have chosen because it’s the 20th anniversary of the first hottest 100, but have clearly actually selected to prevent Love will Tear us Apart or Smells like Teen Spirit from taking out the number one place. Again.

In a spirit of generosity not seen since Adam and Will were on air, they’ve allowed us punters not just 10, but 20 votes each! So, over the last few weeks I’ve spent many hours combing through my music collection and the lists of the previous 20 Hottest 100s to come up with some kind of list summing up the best music the world has produced over the last two decades.

Naturally I failed. So I just sat down today and threw together a collection of songs that seemed more or less acceptable, and which adequately covered the period in question. All are – of course – songs I love, but they aren’t “the best” 20 songs of the last 20 years, because such a list is clearly impossible. They’re just a representative sample.

So, here goes…

1994 – Bug Powder Dust – Bomb the Base
1995 – Girl from Mars – Ash
1995 – Santa Monica – Everclear
1996 – Frank Sinatra – Cake
1997 – The Cure – Wrong Number
1999 – Deeper Water – Deadstar
2000 – All the Small Things – Blink 182
2001 – Zak and Sara – Ben Folds
2002 – That Great Love Sound – The Raveonettes
2003 – Lighthouse – The Waifs
2003 – The Dresden Dolls – Girl Anachronism
2003 – The Mountain Goats – Palmcorder Yajna
2004 – Mr Brightside – The Killers
2006 – Knights of Cydonia – Muse
2007 – Det Snurrar I Min Skalle – Familjen
2007 – Gimme Sympathy – Metric
2008 – Kids – MGMT
2008 – Magic – Ladyhawke
2008 – Now – Mates of State (Only video with the full song I could find!)
2011 – Palaces of Montezuma – Grinderman (Couldn’t find a non-live version, so here’s one from Jools Holland)

I don’t know how many, if any, will get into the countdown, but we’ll see.

By the way, I linked to an alternate mix of Kids because I like it more than the official version. Deal with it! 😀