Mixtape: Best FIFA Trax

Hey there, welcome to my newest Mixtape. This one is paying homage to the music of the FIFA football games, something that has been a constant source of decent sound for some time. Now, if you know me personally or have been following my work on this site, you'll know that I love my metal. My interest in indie is nothing on metal, and don't get me started on dance music, electronic, RnB or ambience. These other genres for the most part don't interest me. But they are always evident in the FIFA games and quite often the songs that are chosen year upon year are great. So what I'm hoping you'll see in today's list is a different side to my musical tastes.

Not familiar with my Mixtapes? Here are the rules. 

A Mixtape is a playlist of a certain genre, band or era. The list is generally 80 minutes long, the same length of a blank CD, with further recommendations if some of the songs aren't to your taste. Remember kids, downloading is wrong! 

Okay, before I start, I'd like to say two things. Firstly, FIFA didn't really have long and productive soundtracks on their games until FIFA 2004 came out, and while certain games before it had one or two popular tracks, nothing was really substantial until then. Secondly, I haven't played every FIFA game. I've played most of them, so one or two games are missing from the list. But I cover most of the games, and I think you can appreciate the amount of games that are actually covered here. Enjoy!

1. It's Only Us - Robbie Williams (FIFA 2000)
2. 19-2000 (Soulchild Mix) - Gorillaz (FIFA 2002)
3. Feels Just Like I Should - Jamiroquai (FIFA 06)
4. Splitting the Atom - Massive Attack (FIFA 11)
5. Stop the Rock - Apollo 440 (FIFA 2000)
6. We Used to Be Friends - The Dandy Warhols (FIFA 2004)
7. Black and Gold - Sam Sparro (FIFA 09)
8. Ace of Hz - Ladytron (FIFA 11)
9. Get on the Floor - DJ Bitman (FIFA 07)
10. Daft Punk Is Playing At My House - LCD Soundsystem (FIFA 06)
11. Switchblade Smiles - Kasabian (FIFA 12)
12. Tubthumping - Chumbawamba (FIFA: Road to World Cup 98)
13. Fit But You Know It - The Streets (FIFA 2005)
14. Red Morning Light - Kings of Leon (FIFA 2004)
15. Don't Give Up - The Noisettes (FIFA 08)
16. Machu Picchu - The Strokes (FIFA 12)
17. Tell Her Tonight - Franz Ferdinand (FIFA 2005)
18. Drumming Song - Florence and the Machine (2010 FIFA World Cup)
19. Song 2 - Blur (FIFA: Road to World Cup 98)
20. Drama Queen - Switches (FIFA 08)
21. Tell Me a Lie - The Fratellis (FIFA 09)
22. Supermassive Black Hole - Muse (FIFA 07)

Here are five alternative songs!

1. Myxomatosis - Radiohead (FIFA 2004)
2. Take Your Mama - Scissor Sisters (FIFA 2005)
3. Helicopter - Bloc Party (FIFA 06)
4. Wele Wele - Angelique Kidjo (FIFA 07)
5. Sly - The Cat Empire (FIFA 08)

And that's my playlist. If you like the genres mentioned above and haven't heard some of these songs give them a listen, the videos all link to Youtube where possible. I'm starting to run dry on ideas at the moment for future Mixtapes, so if you have any other ideas comment below, with some suggestions and I might cover them. That's it from me today, have a good night.

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Noughtie: Important Songs? Important Artists? Really Johnny Mercyside?

Overall Favourite Artists | Best of 2000 | Overall Least Favourite Artists | Best of 2001

Where Are They Now? | Best of 2002 | Best New Artists | Best of 2003 | My Guilty Pleasures
Best of 2004 | My Favourite Riffs | Best of 2005 | Underrated Artists | Best of 2006
 My Favourite Albums | Best of 2007 | Best Videos | Best of 2008 | Most Important Artists
Best of 2009 | 100 Favourite Songs of the Decade | 100 Most Important Songs of the Decade

To view part 1, click here.
To view part 2, click here. 
To view part 3, click here. 
To view part 4, click here. 
To view part 5, click here. 
To view part 6, click here. 
To view part 7, click here. 
To view part 8, click here.
To view part 9, click here.
To view part 10, click here.
To view the winner, click here. 

Hey everyone, I've finally posted the entire of the Noughtie series. The whole thing is nearly six months long, some would argue it's been too long, and in a way I definitely agree, but regardless, it's been a heck of a ride and I've enjoyed it. But some people still weren't sure where I was coming from with some of my suggestions. Some found them baffling. I want to draw a line behind both the Most Important Artists list and most importantly, the Most Important Songs list. At the end of this article is a list of 50 songs that in the end didn't make the 100. I'm revealing them as alternatives, but also to show you other songs that you could argue are also important. But let's hit some of this criticism head on.

The most frequent criticism I've had for my listing is for the word 'important'. It was difficult what word to choose to describe what I was trying to pinpoint in my listings, both important artists and songs. For the artists list, I was looking for the artists that have had an incredible amount of success throughout the decade, in the singles department and the albums department. Sales did have a say as well. It was primarily success in this country, but America also plays its part and worldwide success. In the end Nickelback was my choice for #1, a band I personally really REALLY dislike but you'd be an idiot if you were ignorant to their success and popularity. I pissed off a lot of people with that decision, mainly because I found out there's a lot of people who dislike Nickelback as much as I do. They haven't gone away, they haven't dipped in popularity, they had huge hits in the US and the UK, they have sold a ridiculous amount of albums.

Consistently throughout the decade, Nickelback made hit after hit after hit. Their albums were always well received. Their songs were always on the radio, or on music television. As far as I'm concerned, frustratingly, they are the most prominent band of the decade.

My intention was to balance all the criterias that define what is a good or successful artist, this include success, hits, memorable songs, albums, critics and fans, all of it. That's what makes it important. And that's what I felt I achieved.

I want to talk about some artists that didn't make the important artist listing. Someone mentioned it being quite a disgrace that I never put The Strokes down in the important artist listing. I can see why they would think The Strokes deserve a mention, I mean they definitely have the critics love them. But how popular are they commercially? Also throughout the decade? I can't say they performed much in the second half of the decade. Chart success is important, if you like it or not. And it played a part in my listing. Another band that follows a similar vein is The Streets, although they did get a #1 hit (which featured in my 100 Important Songs). Same applies to The Libertines, and Arcade Fire. Arcade Fire, and another band that do this is Fleet Foxes, they sell albums, but they don't do well with singles. This is a broad search in terms of consistency in the decade, album sales, single sales, critical and commercial success, and their songs standing out as being memorable in the decade. Arcade Fire and Fleet Foxes are what I call album bands, they produce critically praised albums, they have a cult fan base. They don't have mainstream popularity, unfortunately Nickleback do.

There's a band that I've not drawn much attention to in this entire series that I need to address. That band is Radiohead. Now Radiohead is a difficult one for me, because while you can argue that Radiohead are an 'album band' not too dissimilar to Arcade Fire, they do sell music well. They're a band who have broke through the critic favourites yet uncommercially successful barrier, and have done so for some time. They are also a band that released material throughout the decade. But... how many of the songs released in this decade really stand out? I mean personally, one of my favourite songs by them is "2+2=5", but when did you last hear it? I can't say any Radiohead single released in this decade gets much airplay anymore, if any. "Just" gets played much more, so does "Paranoid Android" "Street Spirit" and "Just". The songs from this decade just don't stand out much, in terms of prominence unfortunately.

Some people say that Radiohead deserve immediate entry because they were the first major band to release their album for free on the internet, and this was a major event in music history, so therefore that makes the band important. It's a good point no doubt, but the Important Artists listing wasn't about a history lesson, it was about consistency throughout the decade, a mixture of consistent success in the album and singles chart as well as the impact they had. And... on the grand scale of things, Radiohead as a band didn't make much of an impact. Their decision to release their 'In Rainbows' album for free is most certainly an important moment, and it was extremely innovative, but that doesn't take away that Radiohead didn't really stand out much in this decade.

Another criticism I've had in both listings was Green Day's part. Some felt that I made Green Day seem like their success was more significant in this decade than in the last. It's a valid opinion. "Dookie" was a huge hit in the early nineties, it's no doubt. The singles off that album are still played today. But I just feel "American Idiot" had a bigger impact in all faces of music, and also, as much as it sucks, pop culture. The 'emo' fad is horrible and can't be ignored. I'm sorry I have to say it, but Green Day played their part in that. Their 'modern punk' was just that on Dookie, 'modern punk'. But this new 'emo' genre that was surfacing around this time, was all new. And that's why I think ten, twenty years down the line, "American Idiot", the song and the album, will be forever seen as the band's biggest work. I didn't say finest, I said biggest. It'll go down as their important album.

Now was I wrong to use the word 'important'? The more I think about it, the more I might be wrong to have used it. What I define before you might not be important, some say it should be just successful. But if I were to make a listing of the most successful songs and bands, then I can just pull out a load of facts and stats to do with commercial success. So that's why I refrained from using that word, and I still think it's the wrong word. I sometimes think using 'impactful' might be a better word. These bands and artists are what I believe will create a legacy for this decade that has passed. Bands like Arcade Fire won't be remembered in ten, twenty, thirty years time, neither will Sigur Ros. Unless they have a freak surprise hit, in which they will then get the fame they arguably deserve, they will fade away. One of my favourite bands from the eighties is Bauhaus. You barely hear their music now. Yet they are arguably responsible for goth rock and metal of today. But you hear of The Smiths, The Cure and Metallica don't you? I hope this makes sense a little. Is 'impactful' the right word?

Moving on to the Important Songs listing, the idea behind the 100 songs is that it is an unbiased list of songs that were popular, successful, well received and have longevity going into this decade. It's not a list of my favourite songs and there are many songs in this list that I don't like. This listing is about many things, which tally up to the important 100 songs of the decade, in my opinion. The listing is about its impact on the decade, the awards it may or may not have won, its chart success predominantly in Britain but also in America, and other countries too. But most importantly, this is a list about what songs will be played from the last decade, in the decades of the future.

It sucks to say it, some people hate the fact that popularity of a song comes into this listing, but sales are important, it’s a form of measuring stick of success. It’s not the be or end of, but if your song was successful, chances are it will be remembered for years to come.

I set a single cap of three singles per artist, so that a lot of artists would get a chance for a song on the list. I also tried to cover all ten years of the decade, instead of concentrating on the early part of the decade. Take for example, "All the Small Things" by Blink-182, is pretty much a rock classic now. You'll hear this song played many years down the line as one of the biggest and best songs from this decade. I'd put money on it. But that song is currently eleven years old. Yet higher up in the listing was "You've Got the Love" by Florence and the Machine. Am I saying that as of right now, "All the Small Things" is a less important song than "You've Got the Love"? Not necessarily. But I needed to cover all ten years, and in an unbiased fashion. The former song as I said is eleven years old, the latter is only two. There's nine years of airplay between the tracks. So keep that in mind if you look at the listing again. Tomorrow I'm going to run down a load of stats, you'll see that there's a fair bit of balance between the ten years of music, I mean some years have more songs than others, but one thing is for certain is that all ten years have been considered to some degree.

Another thing to think about. Think of what songs are always played from the eighties. Those new wave tracks? Those post punk tracks? Those electronica songs? And what of the nineties? Brit-pop? Boybands? Girlbands? Dance music? This is what this listing is about. What songs people will associate with this decade, for good or for bad, is what this listing is about. I'm predicting what songs will be played for many years from now. What songs will be played on the radio when people reminisce about the decade gone past? What songs will be available on a CD, or a more advanced music playing device, as the "Best of the Naughties"? That's what this listing is about.

Trying to put them into an order that respected all ten years of the decade AND on vibes that I feel from critics and music fans, from rock and metal (with alternative rap and dance) was a difficult task. I hope you all respect that if you look through the list again.

I'd also like to mention about the appearances and accolades of each song. I chose the order of the listing before I checked out the appearances and accolades, so I think it's only fair to explain that they didn't affect my charting, they were there to emphasise why each song is important, in different ways. It was also to bulk out each entry.

Some songs people felt should have been higher. One was "Last Nite" by The Stokes, or just Strokes songs in general. In fairness I think The Strokes deserve more praise than I gave them in the singles listing, especially "Last Nite". If I were to redo the list some time, it's something I'm open to doing in the future, I think I'd put some more emphasis on this band and that song.

Another song was "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley. Someone said that this song should be very high, if not #1, based on the fact that it was downloads alone that got the song to #1 in the UK charts, a first for this country. While that was a very important landmark in the decade historically, I feel there are other songs that will be played more, remembered more, and thought of more in the decades to come. But I do, once again, feel it should merit a higher place on the listing.

An artist that didn't get one song in the Top 100 was Eminem. Now there's a few reasons for that. The first was that I felt that all the big hits from Eminem's career were released in years where I felt there were big rock and metal songs also released. I prioritised rock, indie and metal over rap and dance, as these are popular genres with alternative fans. Eminem had many big hits in his career, and tomorrow when I release the "50 runner ups", you'll see what songs marginally mised out of the Top 100. You might find this to be a lame excuse, but at the time it made sense. Once again looking back on it, Eminem deserves at least one placement in this decade listing.

To emphasise, the only thing I'm trying to refrain from is dance, pop and RnB, unless it has an alternative audience (eg Eminem, The Prodigy). I'm predominantly sticking to indie, rock, punk, and metal and any subgenre around these genres.

One song that got under people's skins was "All Summer Long" by Kid Rock, which got to #15 in my list. I don't like "All Summer Long". It's a shit song. "All Summer Long" got to #1 in 6 different countries. How many other songs on this listing to to #1 in 6 different countries? Not many.

Sorry this post is in note form but there are was a lot of criticism for a lot of different things to do with these aspects of my work. And while I don't mind criticism (as long as it's constructive) I want to try and get people to understand where I'm coming from. I don't want to just concentrate on the critisicm, I've had a lot of praise for my efforts on this project and also some of the decisions I've made on route. It's not all bad, in fact it's mainly been good, the site is still quite new and this project has brought a lot of attention to my work so I'm happy about that. I just want to you all to understand this project, if you understand and still disagree then that's fine by me. The least I can do is explain where I'm coming from.

So there you go. I hope you understand the logic behind some of the decisions I made. There are songs on this list that you don't like. There are songs on this list I despise. But they were successful, they are thought of well by other people. Don't be ignorant to other people's feelings. Respect that some people like Nickelback, or other artists that are debated to be crap.


To finalise, here are the 50 'rejects' that didn't make the Top 100. Keep in mind these songs also work with the three song cap (for instance, Coldplay had three songs in the Top 100 so I didn't have any more songs by them in the listing). They're in order of what year they were released.

• Girl All the Bad Guys Want - Bowling for Soup
• The Real Slim Shady - Eminem
• One Step Closer - Linkin Park
• Original Prankster - The Offspring
• One More Time - Daft Punk
• Purple Hills - D12
• Beautiful Day - U2
• With Arms Wide Open - Creed
• It's My Life - Bon Jovi
• Hate to Say I Told You So - The Hives
• Weapon of Choice - Fatboy Slim
• Buck Rodgers - Feeder
• Burn Baby Burn - Ash
• Toxicity - System of a Down
• Somewhere Only We Know - Keane
• No One Knows - The Queens of the Stone Age
• Sk8er Boi - Avril Lavigne
• Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous - Good Charlotte
• Too Bad - Nickleback
• The Hindu Times - Oasis
• Without Me - Eminem
• Can't Stop - Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Faint - Linkin Park
• Jerk it Out - Ceasars
• Stacy's Mom - Fountains of Wayne
• mOBSCENE - Marilyn Manson
• Underdog - Kasabian
• Do You Want To - Franz Ferdinand
• Vertigo - U2
• I'm Not Jesus - Apocalyptica
• The Importance of Being Idle - Oasis
• Spitfire - The Prodigy
• Lyla - Oasis
• Woman - Wolfmother
• Roses - OutKast
• Here it Goes Again - OK Go
• Dani California - Red Hot Chili Peppers
• White and Nerdy - Weird Al Yankovic
• Hard Rock Hallelujah - Lordi
• Goodbye Mr A - The Hoosiers
• Zero - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• Baby Fratelli - The Fratellis
• A Beautiful Lie - 30 Seconds to Mars
• Saturday Superhouse - Biffy Clyro
• Granite - Pendulum
• Since U Been Gone - A Day to Remember
• No You Girls - Franz Ferdinand
• Ignorance - Paramore
• We Made You - Eminem
• Rusted From the Rain - Billy Talent

Overall this has been a great experience. I really enjoyed this project. So much in fact, I'm going to start going backwards through the years, starting with 1999. But it won't be done in the same style as this Noughtie series. You'll see it when it happens. Stay tuned.
Tomorrow I'll be back with the final FINAL piece to do with this project, and that's a load of statistics and fact to do with the Noughtie 100. I hope to see you then.

To view a full archived stats index of the songs listed, click here.

Noughtie: The 100 Most Important Songs of the Decade (Part 2)

Overall Favourite Artists | Best of 2000 | Overall Least Favourite Artists | Best of 2001

Where Are They Now? | Best of 2002 | Best New Artists | Best of 2003 | My Guilty Pleasures
Best of 2004 | My Favourite Riffs | Best of 2005 | Underrated Artists | Best of 2006
 My Favourite Albums | Best of 2007 | Best Videos | Best of 2008 | Most Important Artists
Best of 2009 | 100 Favourite Songs of the Decade | 100 Most Important Songs of the Decade

We continue our countdown of the most important music singles of the Naughties from #90 to #81!

To view part 1, click here.

#90. "Feel Good Inc." - Gorillaz
Released: 5/4/05
Album: Demon Days
Accolades: #308 in Pitchfork's Best Songs of the 2000s, Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals at the Grammy Awards, Best Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards (nominated)
Appearances: Torchwood (TV Series), Guitar Hero 5 (video game), Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 3 (video game), Dance Dance Revolution X2 (arcade game), iPod (portable media player advertisement), House MD (TV Series), DJ Hero (video game), SingStar Pop (video game), SingStar Vol. 1 (video game), Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker (movie)
Chart Positions: UK - #2, US - #14 (#1 in Hot Modern Rock Tracks), Best elsewhere - Spain - #1

This was a huge hit. At the time there was high expectation for Gorillaz after the success of their self titled debut album and this follow up single, and more importantly, the follow up album "Demon Days" solidified Damon Albarn's side project as his new priority band, throwing more earth on the Blur grave (although recently Blur are back, but are most definitely not Damon's priority band). "Feel Good Inc." was well received across the board, it sent waves in America and in Spain, and it featured in many video games and in other media. And most importantly, it did a brilliant job in the Grammy Awards. It's a no brainer why this song deserves its place in this list.

#89. "Warriors Dance" - The Prodigy
Released: 11/5/09
Album: Invaders Must Die
Appearances: Colin McRae: Dirt 2 (video game)
Chart Positions: UK - #9, US - #7 (in the Hot Dance Singles), Best elsewhere - Ireland - #44

Man 2009 really sucked. It really fucking sucked. Even as someone who is doing unbiased freelance journalism, this was a shit year. Anyway, mind my language! The Prodigy were a dim light in the end of a very deep dark tunnel in 2009, and "Warriors Dance", was their highlight track, despite it being the second (or arguably third) single off their album. It sounds like a proper nineties Prodigy track, it's really old school in its sound. It also has a very memorable music video with humanoid cigarette packets ending up setting other similar packets on fire. A very odd anti-Smoking video. It's a good song anyway.

#88. "Filthy/Gorgeous" - Scissor Sisters
Released: 3/1/05
Album: Scissor Sisters
Appearances: Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (video game), Kath & Kim (TV Series), It's a Boy Girl Thing (movie), Torchwood (TV Series)
Chart Positions: UK - #5, US - #1 (Dance Club Play Charts), Best elsewhere - Ireland - #13

I hope you're not surprised by this entry. Yes Scissor Sisters in recent years have become a more all round pop group but their debut album is a good dance/pop/alternative effort that got decent airplay on MTV2, and had a great sound. Filthy/Gorgeous is arguably their highlight track, it's just filthy, gorgeous, disgusting, nasty, oh sorry I'm supposed to be reviewing this track! Well it is though. The songs lyrics and my feelings towards it, and many others, are comparible. It's a dirty track but it just sounds fantastic, it's very popular in clubs and for a very good reason. I wish Scissor Sisters would make more songs like this, but they're maturing as a group so I doubt it will happen.

#87. "Uprising" - Muse
Released: 3/8/09
Album: The Resistance
Accolades: Best Single in the Music Producers Guild Awards
Appearances: Knight and Day (movie trailer), V (TV Series advertisement), Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock (video game), Sydney Roosters (rugby team entrance music), Calgary Flames (ice hockey entrance music)
Chart Positions: UK - #9, US - #37 (#1 in Alternative Songs Chart), Best elsewhere - Poland - #1

You can argue that this is the song that final knocked the American wall down for Muse. They tried and tried and tried to get the attention of the Yanks yet they kept turning their back on the band. They kept getting closer and closer and they finally won them over with this. Is it the guitar riff? Is it the scary teddy bears? Or is it just the persistence? Who knows, but "Uprising" was a very popular song in America, and was #1 in the Alternative Charts for 17 weeks. That's a really long fucking time. That alone warrants them an entry in this list. But the bonus kudos go for the fact that they got to #1 in Poland. That's awesome.

#86. "Last Nite" - The Strokes
Released: 27/11/01
Album: Is This It
Accolades: #66 in Q Magazine's 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks, #1 in NME's Great Tracks of the Decade, #9 in NME's Greatest Indie Anthems Ever, #16 in Rolling Stone's Best Songs of the Decade, #478 in Rolling Stone's Top 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
Appearances: Get Him to the Greek (movie advertisement)
Chart Positions: UK - #14, US - #108 (#5 in Alternative Songs Chart), Best Elsewhere - Australia - #47

I'm sure all the fans of The Strokes are groaning that this song deserves a better place in this list. That's not because it deserves to be higher, but that all Strokes fans groan. Seriously though, maybe they're right. You can't argue, there's fewer songs in the decade that were as well recieved by critics. But I'm trying to balance critics, fans, sales, accolades, appearances, and most importantly, how memorable and important the songs are going into the next decade. And in honesty, this song is an odd anthem. It's not the catchiest of songs, Julian Casablances sounds like he'd rather be at home sulking in the corner. It doesn't really stand out. Then again, these are all qualities in your typical indie track and it's got a huge following. What do you think, does it deserve to be higher? Convince me!

#85. "Empire" - Kasabian
Released: 24/7/06
Album: Empire
Appearances: ITV's FIFA World Cup (sports coverage), Top Gear (TV Series),
Chart Positions: UK - #9, Best elsewhere - Ireland - #32

"Empire" was the song that further solidified Kasabian as an exciting modern indie band in the UK. They had other songs, probably more popular songs, but this really got a lot of airplay, it had a nice riff, it had a good video, it had everything working in its favour to further emphasise them as one of the decade's best bands. I'm quite surprised it didn't get any more accolades as it's played quite often, even today.

#84. "Famous Last Words" - My Chemical Romance
Released: 22/1/07
Album: The Black Parade
Appearances: Guitar Hero II (video game), HBO (cable television network advertisement),
Chart Positions: UK - #8, US - #88 (#4 in Modern Rock Chart), Best Elsewhere - New Zealand - #6

I'm quite surprised that this song hasn't won any major accolades as it was very prominent on its release. Following the surprise #1 hit "The Black Parade", "Famous Last Words" followed My Chemical Romance's success as one of the hottest new metal bands. It got in the Top 10 in the UK, even though once again, it's not the type of song you'd expect to hit the charts hard in a pop and RnB fueled world. Kudos to them. Famous Last Words has a very flashy video with a lot of fire, fire that actually gave the drummer 3 degree burns upon the finishing of the video. But the song itself, is one of their biggest, one that got them the success they now currently have.

#83. "Gives You Hell" - The All-American Rejects
Released: 30/9/08
Album: When the World Comes Down
Appearances: Rock Band (video game), Guitar Hero 5 (video game), Band Hero (video game), Tap Tap Revenge 2 (iPhone game), Missouri Mavericks (hockey team)
Listings: Guilty Pleasures
Chart Positions: UK - #18, US - #4 (#1 in Mainstream Top 40), Best Elsewhere - Australia and Belgium - #3

I hope all aren't surprised by this entry. It was a surprise as this isn't a band that really did mainstream very well. They had a lot of emo fans but no chart success. Then "Gives You Hell" changed that. I even liked it, if I'm honest. It was a catchy little song and man, the Americans loved it. It was everywhere over there, and it did very well here too. I don't think the All-American Rejects will top this, but if they do, their new album that is due out this year, the first single should be the one to attempt it with.

#82. "B.Y.O.B." - System of a Down
Released: 2/8/05
Album: Mezmerize
Accolades: Best Hard Rock Performance at the Grammy Awards, #76 in Total Guitar's Best Riffs Ever, #63 in Digital Dream Doors's 100 Best Metal Riffs, #134 in Y2KROQ's Top 200 Songs of the Century
Listings: Top 100 Favourite Songs of the Decade
Chart Positions: UK - #26, US - #27 (#4 in Mainstream Rock Tracks), Best Elsewhere - Australia - #42

Moving away from the emo sub genres, here's some metal (or shall I pronounce that metol?)! This was easily one of the biggest metal anthems of the decade. It's always satisfying when a metal track does some damage in the mainstream charts. Metal artists must get a good buzz when that happens. "B.Y.O.B." might not have had the same impact "Chop Suey!" did, but it's a song strongly attached with the decade, and considering it won a Grammy, it seems SOAD got a lot of respect from the critics and most certainly, the peers. This song solidified the band's spot as one of the best heavy metal bands of the decade.

#81. "Time is Running Out" - Muse
Released: 8/9/03
Album: Absolution
Appearances: FLYING-DOG (movie soundtrack), Entourage (TV series), Torchwood Declassified (TV series), Running Scared (movie trailer), Turner Classic Movies (movie TV channel), 2008 Olympics on NBC (sports coverage montage), Hollyoaks (TV series)
Chart Positions: UK - #8, US - #9 (in Alternative Songs), Best Elsewhere - Italy - #14

While "Uprising" was the song that finally broke the American mainstream audience, this song is a much more well received track in the alternative audiences, and probably, hardcore Muse fans too. This was the song that got Muse to break the Top 10 in the UK milestone, something that "Plug in Baby" just about failed to do. The video was well received as well, and it's just a genuinely great rock track. I'm not surprised to see it make so many appearances in the media, in fact I'm surprised it's not won any accolades. But regardless, it's definitely one of Muse's most famous songs.

To view part 3, click here. 
To view part 4, click here. 
To view part 5, click here. 
To view part 6, click here. 
To view part 7, click here. 
To view part 8, click here.
To view part 9, click here.
To view part 10, click here.
To view the winner, click here.
To view my methods and explanations, click here. 
To view a full archived stats index of the songs listed, click here.