Songs of the Decade

In recent month my iTunes listening tendencies have turned towards radio show podcasts. (And starting this week, thanks to S-JY and colleagues, it will include This American Life.) One result of my non-fiction audio bender is that I have all but abandoned my music library. I dusted it off this afternoon for a sunny no-Bears-game Sunday afternoon walk along the lake. Among the songs that the iPod gods sent my way were two that, the first time I heard them, made me stop what I was doing and say “Whoa.”

while driving in the Valley
I first heard Hey Ya back in 03  on Garth Trinidad’s Chocolate City on KCRW while driving through Chatsworth.  Josh Andrews recently noted that “it’s hard to believe it was just a mere 2 years ago we were collectively shaking it like a Polaroid picture at every wedding, bar mitzvah, and prom we could get our hands on.”

(Via Potbelly’s, Josh also pointed to Mat Weddle’s acoustic cover.)

Daddy Yankee’s Gasolina is the other smash of the 2000s. It kicked off the reggaeton craze and shows up at almost as many weddings and bar mitzvahs as Hey Ya. I wonder if I look like the guy in the red hat when I’m singing along.