10 Perfect Rock Singles Of The 2000s
Put on your dancing shoes...
With the coming of the 21st Century, music culture shifted. Napster saw fans pitted against their favourite artists, as illegal internet sharing became rampant. Apple launched the iPod and iTunes, and soon you could carry around an entire record collection in your pocket.
All manor of new artists and genres began to emerge. Eminem and 50 Cent were bringing hip hop to the charts. Limp Bizkit was rolling; Lil Jon encouraged everyone to get low; and Nickelback showed their ability to release insanely catchy singles, while universally uniting the world against them.
Grunge and pop punk had championed the rise of alternative rock in the '90s, paving the way for all manor of indie and garage acts to break during the 2000s. The Britpop energy morphed into something else entirely. As the indie thing kicked off in the UK, baggy pants made way for skinny jeans; the mod hair cut were replaced with trilbies, as every other festival goer attempted to emulate Pete Doherty.
It was an eclectic time for music and there was a little something for everyone...
10. The Hives: Hate To Say I Told You So (2000)
When garage rock made a resurgence in the early 2000s, people often pointed to American acts like the Strokes and the White Stripes for spearheading the movement. But an unexpected source of pure rock 'n' roll high jinks, came from one of the least expected places, Scandinavian.
When the dapper punks of Sweden dropped their second album, it was proceeded with a single that encapsulated the new direction rock was going in. Garage, punk and indie all fused into one raucous hybrid of gritty guitars and erratic vocals. This was a track with drive. From the moment the guitars kicked in you felt the frantic excitement of the group's energy. Which was only compounded, when frontman Howlin' Pelle Almqvist started on the mic.
For a bunch of Scandinavians they knew how to play rock 'n' roll as good as any Brit or American group that had come before. Aesthetically, punk had been given a make over. Black suits, white ties and Beatles haircuts were the new look, but the sound retained all the unapologetic, arrogance of the original '70s movement. This was captivating stuff.