4. Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7dt1li5SyY Whilst this would have been a landmark song just based on the tune alone, I bet you look good on the dance floor was one the earliest examples of the buzz created by file sharing. The illicit (but with the bands blessing) burning of songs from hard drives to CDs was word of mouth made digital. And the idea caught fire overnight. The internet revolution meant that bands didnt have to set a foot outside of their rehearsal room to get people talking about them. For the first time in the history of pop a front cover on a music magazine meant relatively little. The internet was a far quicker method of discovering new music, so weekly music magazines effectively died out. The story of the right band at the right time has been told in all of the other decade articles and Arctic Monkeys were the ones in the right place in the 00s. Ridiculously young, here they came on like The Buzzcocks with a dash of The Smiths and the song was a glorious telling of the rush of lust. It also provided the UK charts with something unheard of, a debut number one single by a relatively unknown guitar band. The point is this, there are millions of songs available on the internet, but the ones that hit the tipping point do so by digital word of mouth. I bet you look good on the dance floor was so catchy, thrilling and confident that it seduced its listeners with supreme ease. And any song that contains the line Your name isn't Rio, but I don't care for sand has to be a winner.
What makes music fantastic? Star quality, amazing music, breathtaking lyrics and the ability to bring something new to the table, even if that means a new take on the classics. That's what I love to listen to and write about.
As well as writing for What Culture, I occasionally write a blog http://tedney.blogspot.co.uk and sometimes use Twitter, but sparingly @TedneyNash