TRL End of Summer Countdown 2001

I always get Willa Ford and Nikka Costa mixed up.

Of these, I only recognize:

29. Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal
25. Weezer - Hash Pipe
16. City High - What Would You Do?
11. Willa Ford ft. Royce Da 5'9" - I Wanna Be Bad
10. Destiny's Child - Bootylicious
8. Limp Bizkit - My Way
4. Blink-182 - The Rock Show

which isn't a promising group. Not even sure where to start with the rest.

i'm not a big fan of this era personally. i guess i'm voting for "let me blow ya mind"

I instinctively knew Sum 41 would be high on this list, but I didn't realize they would have the highest non-boyband* placement!!

*: Debatable, lol

This list reminds me of one of Robert Pollard's aphorisms: "Three years ago I thought Alien Ant Farm was the worst it could get. Now I look back nostalgically on Alien Ant Farm”.
Which of these acts was least viable in the post 9/11 cultural environment?

i like these (enjoy listening to them and still do regularly)
28. Eve ft. Gwen Stefani - Let Me Blow Ya Mind
16. City High - What Would You Do?
11. Willa Ford ft. Royce Da 5'9" - I Wanna Be Bad
10. Destiny's Child - Bootylicious

i "like" these (have positive associations from when i was a carefree kid in a simpler world and would sing along if it played at a bar)
17. Sugar Ray - When It's Over
13. P. Diddy, Black Rob & Mark Curry - Bad Boy For Life
7. O-Town - All Or Nothing
3. Sum 41 - Fat Lip

the willa ford song is glorious trash, just a dumb mish-mash of all the prevailing trends in pop music (robot britney vocals, plinky timbaland guitars) and a hilariously phoned-in verse from a rapper who was probably their 25th choice for a feature (love royce, but he's not exactly a radio darling)

i guess i was still watching trl at this point bc i vividly remember all of the culturally-forgotten singles here

well except for bbmak, "back here" is the best song ever but i can't recall "ghost of you and me" at all

outside of that and the godawful eve 6 song, a solid top twenty imo

Wow I had completely forgotten about Dream - "This Is Me" but it's kind of fun!

Okay LFO definitely wins most 2001 lyrics for "Sometimes we swim around / Like two dolphins in the ocean of our hearts / But then I think about the time when we broke up before the prom and you told everyone that I was gay"

J-Lo f Ja Rule ALL DAY

WHAT'S MY MOTHERFUCKIN' NAME

i'm not a big fan of this era personally. i guess i'm voting for "let me blow ya mind"

― aegis philbin (crüt), Friday, September 3, 2021 6:42 AM

^ ^ ^
this.

also random memory: i recall reading in some music mag around the time about that eve / gwen stefani song and some clearly stoned copyist wrote the title as "let me blow ya. mind?" and it amazingly made it past edit.

that's all.

"when it's over" and "every other time" are both good, almost nauseatingly sleek offerings from acts who were very clearly on their way out. speaking of being on the way out, almost all the boy bands on this list were flagging significantly in the outside-of-trl mainstream, including the ones that were glued to the top spots on this countdown. the fact that that horrid 98 degrees song was considered good enough to release as a single really said it all for them. (nsync managed to recover to some extent by leaning harder on the r&b sound w/ "gone" and the "girlfriend" remix, but even they knew it was time to call it quits.) like brad i don't remember "ghost of you and me" at all

20. Dream - This Is Me

luv this song so much and was mad at the time that it was nowhere near as big as "he loves u not" (which is also great). i think it will be my vote. the remix was stupid but i guess not that bad

19. Limp Bizkit - Boiler

this one's pretty good, definitely prefer it to "my way". video is pretty dark/gruesome and memorable

16. City High - What Would You Do?

lmfaooo i have a very specific memory of my dad driving me and my brother either to or from school while this song was on, and it prompted him (my dad) to pause and reflect and give us a "it's true kiddos, some people really have it hard in life and you should count your blessings" spiel. anyway semi-classic song

i'm amazed in retrospect that "in my pocket" was so big on this show. kind of a bizarre song. "crush" was kinda great tho. jessica simpson was completely useless by this point

lol not too long ago i was talking w/ cow*rkers abt how it's kinda sad but "i'm real" is like easily one of jlo's best songs despite the fact that she sings the n-word on it

somehow i forgot that sum 41 thought they were rapping too

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Pretty bad list considering the strength of '01 overall. I'm gonna guess "I'm Real" or DC wins this. Nostalgia has not swayed my opinion of "I'm Real." I still don't get it. "Bootylicious" is fine but I liked it a lot more when it was fresh. "What Would You Do" probably still sounds good.

The true nostalgia jams for me are definitely "When It's Over" and "Every Other Time." I didn't care for either, but they're both pretty funny and enjoyable in hindsight. Between the two I'll vote LFO out of respect for the dead.

One of the biggest bummers about this list is that I'm pretty sure almost all of these artists had stronger singles at some other point that year.

Also RIP Black Rob

Like Whoa....didn't e ven know he had died

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

lol As soon as I hit send I saw "Let Me Blow Your Mind" and realized my error.