Your backstage pass to a mixed-up musical year
Pop Music took on a new sincerity in 2002. Just when it seemed like the tyranny of boy bands, bubblegum teen queens and Scowls-R-Us rap-rockers would never end, something more authentic started to simmer on the charts.
A new crop of young, scruffy bands--Strokes, white stripes, hives and vines, linked so often in the media they started to sound like a four-headed beast--made old-fashioned, guitar-drums-and-no-DJ rock feel new again. Meanwhile, some true legends fought hard for the spotlight, from Bruce Springsteen's heroic reunion with the E Street Band on The Rising to the Rolling Stones' traveling juggernaut--hell, even Elvis had a number one hit. Perhaps most notable, women who write songs and play instruments were allowed back on the radio--from mall-punk princess Avril Lavigne to the year's most surprising new star, sultry, jazz-inflected Norah Jones.
Of course, those garage bands didn't take over the Top 40. With the biggest-selling album of 2002 and a smash movie, Eminem was the brightest star in the pop firmament. Meantime, Nelly and Jay-Z sold more albums in one week than the Strokes, and White Stripes, et al. sold in total--and the same holds true for Shania Twain, Tim Mcgraw and the Dixie Chicks. As the year neared an end, it was unclear who would survive the great diva shoot-out between Whitney, Mariah, Christina and J-Lo--while Britney stayed on the sidelines, pondering her next career move.
The best work of 2002 captured the sense that tastes and styles were up for grabs. Two hip-hop collectives--N.E.R.D. (also known as the unstoppable production team the Neptunes) and Philly rap band the Roots--released CDs that mashed up hip-hop and rock in unpredictable ways, embracing and sometimes spoofing both genres to create something beyond category. Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot traded the band's Americana heritage for a more abstract sonic yearning, while Beck threw off his mantle of alt-rock hero with Sea Change, an austere meditation on lost love.
In 2003 some of pop's leading dynasties--U2, Dr. Dre, Madonna--will get back in the game, and two of the all-time biggest sellers, the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac, have scheduled reunion albums. All eyes in search of the Next Big Thing are focused on New York City, where acts from New Wave-style performance artists Fischer-Spooner to Queens mix-tape hero 50 cent are kicking up dust. But most of the interesting newcomers arrive from more distant corners: Los Angeles' blue-eyed soul phenom (and Sprite shill) Thicke, gifted Canadian singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards, tune-ful Seattle punks Vendetta Red and Detroit rocker Brendan Benson. The soundtrack to the South African documentary Amandla! (released on Dave Matthews' label) might even turn into this year's Buena Vista Social Club.
Whenever the music industry is on the ropes--and with a 10 percent slump in annual sales, now is one of those times--there's an opportunity for innovation to slip through. So whether you still pay for CDs, rip 'em or burn 'em, or just nod your head to whatever the hell is booming in the car next to you, heed the words of Marshall Mathers: "Lose yourself in the music, the moment.''
