Here are my Top 10 favourite years of the decade, the twenty hundreds, in chronological order. I was thinking about arranging them in numerical order, but that’s what all the other lists out there are doing. I want my list, lovingly compiled, to stand out as an encyclopedia of important and exciting events that shaped my conversations, made me switch on the news, or kept me entertained in-between worrying about tsunamis, terrorist attacks and economic Armageddon. But aside from the big events, the one thing I’d say the twenty hundreds will be remembered for is convincing the majority of people to call it the noughties. Fools.
2000
A seminal year for this decade, without which, none of the other years on this list would exist. An amazing year started with Jesus Christ’s 2000th birthday, and then steam ploughed through George W. Bush stealing a presidential election, Requiem for a Dream coming out, and Dr. Harold Shipman being found guilty of murdering hundreds of pensioners to become the most successful serial killer ever. What a great start to a massive decade in which loads of things happened, or perhaps we heard about more of it because of the internet.
2001
Boom! A double-whammy- call this the Year 2000 Part II, it was so great. It shaped future years in terms of indie music, comic books, cinema, terrorism and television. The Strokes and The White Stripes released great breakthrough albums, Is This It and White Blood Cells respectively, Joe Sacco’s Palestine won the American Book Award, and Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums was released. Terrorist attacks hit New York City, thus driving U.S. foreign policy towards an all-out game of cowboys and terrorists for the next eight years. But to cheer us all up, The Office’s ultra-realism came to town and the first series of Pop Idol was screened.
2002
A much less impressive turn of the Gregorian calendar brought us 2002. After two exciting years, were events taking it easy? Jonathan Safran Foer published his amazing debut novel, Everything is Illuminated, Michael Moore hit out with Bowling for Columbine and the Queen Mother finally brought thousands of office sweep stakes to a close by bowing out at 101 years of age. Bush invaded Afghanistan.
2003
This year was one of only five years this decade to be graced with an odd number. Bush invaded Iraq and then declared victory two months later aboard USS Abraham Lincoln. How silly that little stunt looks now. Johnny Cash, Elliott Smith, and Dolly the cloned sheep all died, seemingly out of boredom for this newly depressing decade. The first deer was cloned, and NME started putting Pete Doherty on the cover of their mag every week for the next four years.
2004
The new year kicked off, unusually, on January 1st 2004, and expectations were high. The swarthy Jose Mourinho impressed us as Chelsea’s new manager and George W. Bush fended off a guy who looks like Burt from Sesame Street to win his second presidential term. Kanye’s decision to drop out of college was vindicated with a massive selling album, and Sir Alan Sugar became the most talked-about man on the telly with the launch of The Apprentice.
2005
A great year for music- Beirut’s Gulag Orkesar, LCD Soundsystem’s debut, Jeffrey Lewis’s City and Eastern Songs, and to top it off, Bright Eyes’ I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and Digital Ash… were dropped on the same day. This was counter-balanced by the Crazy Frog’s omnipresence and Islamic terrorism hitting the streets of London. Poverty was not made history by the Live 8 concerts, but turned into an advert for the careers of ageing rock stars. England won the Ashes and I had lots of people to talk about cricket with.
See what else the decade had in store by clicking next page.
