Upon searching Spotify for a “2000s” mix, I realized what I consider to be 2000s music is very different than other people’s. The Spotify mix was full of Bruno Mars, Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Usher, the usual jams of what I see as the 2010s. Where was the soft punk, the light pop of my favorite childhood movies? But then I realized my issue: I was basing my perception of the music off my childhood nostalgia of watching movies from 2000-2006…almost all of which primarily use 90’s music in their soundtracks. From Mean Girls to 10 Things I Hate About You (admittedly, this is a cusp film, having been made in 1999 and released in 2000) to Freaky Friday to Holes, and so on. Early 2000s movies were still largely influenced by the music and life of the 90s and much of the music I grew up hearing was not, in fact, from 2002, 2004, etc. but early to late 90s music like Letters to Cleo, The Cranberries, blink-182, Eels, Spiderbait, The Cardigans, Air, Semisonic and so on.

My perception of what the “2000s” sounds like is actually a distorted one. I set out to make a new Spotify playlist titled instead “A 2000s Movie” with music not necessarily from the 2000s but that give the “vibe” of what I recall to be 2000s music/movies. Suffice to say, it ended up over 3 hours long and I was up until 3 am making it. Do I regret it? No. Am I exhausted? Yes. Am I jamming out to this playlist right this minute? 100000% yes.

P.S. The only movies I watched this week were more Bollywoods and Midsomer, and I didn’t feel like writing about any of them.