More rock this year, and I actually remember the vast majority of them (this formula annoys me because it accounts for 90% of the use of the word “vast” and it’s a cliché so I usually go with “great majority”, but I don’t care this morning.)

Nickelback - “How You Remind Me”: like Linkin Park (see below) this is a generational test: to everyone five years younger than me Nickelback were/are an execrable band, but they were just slightly after my time so this is the only song of theirs I’m familiar with that I know of – Creed were my Nickelback. I actually really like this song and it was a breath of fresh air after all the post-grunge post-Vedder late ’90s alternative with its comparatively buzzsaw guitar tone and a bit of energy after a decade of heroin. I think you can trace the moment their reputation really shrank was when that guy made the mashup showing that all their songs are the same. To refresh your memory (oops, I remember one or two other of their songs and they suck):

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Nelly songs – he was really big in 2002. I remember his album was called Country Grammar and he wore a Band-Aid on his cheek.

The Calling - “Wherever You Will Go”: If a great wave shall fall and fall upon us all” – learn how to use “shall”, Leo. It’s not just a pretentious “will” (why would you want to sound pretentious anyway? The title uses “will” correctly, though in a poetic register). If I hadn’t looked up this song I’d have said I’d never heard of it, and if I had been born 20 years later I probably still never would have heard it: we all remember these songs the way a Gen-Xer would remember these minor ’80s hits that were similarly inescapable at the time, like when you read that Journey or REO Speedwagon had like 20 top-ten hits or whatever and you’ve only ever heard of three or four of them.

Linkin Park - “In the End”: These guys are the Pokémon in that (1) they were absolutely massive, and (2) I was one or two years too old for it to be part of my childhood when it came out and missed a formative part of the later millennial experience. I had started listening to my own CDs and exploring music on my own firmly by 2002 so these songs were all background noise, but to the class of 2006 or whatever this music was so deep and relatable, man. I know this song is considered a classic these days, easily the best-aged (in critical and public reputation) of any of these songs. Maybe “Complicated” has held up about the same. The best thing about them were the reader comments on Prindle’s page.

Jimmy Eat World - “The Middle”: at the time, in the early 2000s with Blink 182 and Sum 41 and the like I was allergic to anything that smelt like pop-punk. I was wrong. This song is great and has held up the best of this whole list. Clear your preconceptions and give it a fresh listen.

Sheryl Crow - “Soak Up the Sun”: I like this song. How old is she now? I remember she was MILFy at the time.

Was Pink known as P!nk then or was that a later stylization? Decent enough song. I think she went adult-contemporary.