The biggest 2000s songs never really went away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Brightside, Crazy in Love, In the End, Hey Ya! and Umbrella are still everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The more interesting nostalgia comes from one level below those enormous classics: songs that were once constantly on radio and music television but have somehow slipped out of everyday rotation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then somebody plays one and your brain immediately goes: I completely forgot this existed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are 30 of those songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That organ riff can transport you straight back to the era of colourful MP3-player adverts, indie discos and impossibly skinny jeans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a while, Bad Day seemed unavoidable. Today it feels like a perfect time capsule of mid-2000s piano pop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not exactly forgotten if you spend time around football or sports crowds, but it is easy to forget how enormous the song felt as an indie hit in its own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A huge UK hit that now rarely appears alongside the decade\u2019s most obvious nostalgia staples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Warm, melodic British pop-rock that immediately sounds like the middle of the 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The explosive percussion still sounds fantastic. Amerie\u2019s biggest hit deserves far more inclusion in 2000s throwback playlists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Impossible to hear without wanting to move. It is joyful, strange and completely tied to the colourful pop culture of the decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A very specific burst of late-2000s British indie-pop that once seemed to be playing everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the decade\u2019s strangest UK number-one stories and a track capable of unlocking surprisingly detailed memories for anyone who heard it at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A brilliant piece of early-2000s pop that deserves to sit beside the decade\u2019s much more regularly remembered hits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If early-2000s UK dance music has a particular emotional colour, this track captures it perfectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A dance-pop classic that was massive around the turn of the millennium but is not always given the nostalgia treatment it deserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a brief moment this was unavoidable. Hearing it now feels like finding a forgotten holiday photograph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Camp, euphoric disco-pop that should probably be played at far more parties than it currently is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A perfect snapshot of electro-house crossing into mainstream pop in the middle of the decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Glossy vocal house that instantly recalls a very particular period of UK club and radio culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The shout-along chorus made it an indie-night essential, yet it is easy to overlook beside Arctic Monkeys, The Killers and Kaiser Chiefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson\u2019s version became so dominant that it is sometimes easy to forget The Zutons\u2019 original was already an excellent hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Few tracks sound more like British commercial radio in the late 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This one has enjoyed a major revival, but for years it lived in the strange space between enormous cultural recognition and being absent from many mainstream playlists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sharp guitars, clipped vocals and instant late-2000s indie-dance energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Basement Jaxx produced plenty of better-remembered club classics, but Romeo remains one of their most infectious pop moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An unexpected reinterpretation that became part of British pop culture all over again through television and dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of those dance tracks whose opening sound can suddenly unlock an entire night out from 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dreamy, understated dance-pop that sounds like summer radio from another lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has never completely disappeared, but its smooth French-house groove deserves a permanent place in any 2000s nostalgia playlist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another track that can instantly summon memories of early-2000s dance compilations and music channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A giant emotional dance chorus that still hits exactly as hard as it did in the late 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Acoustic pop was everywhere during the decade, and Dream Catch Me remains one of its warmest UK hits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A track many people know instantly without necessarily remembering the title or artist until somebody points it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Enough time has passed for the decade to have a distinct identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2000s began with CDs, music television and portable CD players and ended with iPhones, YouTube and streaming beginning to reshape listening habits. In between came iPods, MP3 blogs, ringtone charts, burned CDs and an enormous amount of genre crossover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That creates unusually strong musical memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A song is not just a song. It can remind you of your first MP3 player, a school disco, a television advert, a nightclub, a football game or sitting in somebody\u2019s car trying to connect an iPod through an FM transmitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most powerful throwbacks are often the songs you have not heard in years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You cannot really \u201crediscover\u201d Mr. Brightside because it never disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But hearing a song such as No Tomorrow or Love on My Mind after 15 years can feel like opening a door to a version of your life you had temporarily forgotten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is what makes digging through old music so addictive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The biggest 2000s songs never really went away. Mr. Brightside, Crazy in Love, In the End, Hey Ya! and Umbrella are still everywhere. The more interesting nostalgia comes from one level below those enormous classics: songs that were once constantly on radio and music television but have somehow slipped out of everyday rotation. Then somebody plays one and your brain immediately goes: I completely forgot this existed. Here are 30 of those songs. 1. The Caesars \u2013 Jerk It Out That organ riff can transport you straight back to the era of colourful MP3-player adverts, indie discos and impossibly skinny…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3350,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2017,43,844,2023],"coauthors":[2],"class_list":["post-3349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-classics","tag-music","tag-nostalgia","tag-reminders"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n