The sounds of 2002

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( Part 2 )

An assortment of R&B sounds dominated 2002 that it has become almost laughable watching the efforts of nearly every music artist in the world to sound; look, move and be black. Not that they should be blamed, soul music has grown, evolved and become the music of this generation –black, white, Asian, Latin or whatever. It has also remained, sweet, sexy and involving with the most infectious of beats. You can have it honeyed and smooth like Usher’s and Ashanti’s, fervid and angry like Eminen’s and Christina Aguilera’s or youthful and unaffected like Vanessa Carlton and Michelle Branch. But whatever it is, jazz, hip hop, dance or just plain pop, it was certainly the year of R&B.

Eminem’s two new albums, The Eminem Show and the 8 Mile soundtrack sold an average of a million copies each a week last year. Nelly, Pink and Ashanti were the foreign artists who dominated 2002. They all do R&B. But rock music, which in its early days was also classified as R&B, refuses to be put down. While not as ubiquitous as soul, it also made very good showing with excellent albums from Creed, Linkin Park, The Calling, the Foo Fighters, Oasis, the Goo Goo Dolls, Coldplay, Nickelback, P.O.D., and others. And not to forget, the chart veterans like Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Santana, Phil Collins and even the late George Harrison and Nirvana of the late Kurt Cobain were up there to hold up the banner of rock music.

Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll, reached number one in the charts again with 30 #1 Hits, an all-number-one selling collection released to commemorate the 25th year of his death. Like Elvis, several big acts chose not to release new albums but came up instead with retrospectives. These are collector’s editions of their best works covering at least a decade like the Cranberries’ or more like Stevie Wonder’s. As a result 2002 turned out to be a time for looking back. While it is not good to dwell on the past, you do have to admit that they really did great stuff back then. So make sure you grab copies of these albums by Chicago, the Rolling Stones and Elton John.

It was not a good year for the boy bands in the US of A with not much heard from ‘N Sync or 98 Degrees.The Backstreet Boys even sued their record label for failure to release their new album. These groups did better in Europe and Asia where Westlife and Blue continue to hold sway.

It was also a year short in singing idols. Latin Enrique Iglesias, plus the solo efforts of Boyzone Ronan Keating, Darren Hayes of Savage Garden, N’Sync Justin Timberlake and Backstreet Boy Nick Carter are the only ones that come to mind. It was a very good year though for the talented solo female acts, who came in all sorts of ages, colors, sizes and nationalities each with her own kind of music.

Americans Britney and Christina, Canadian Avril, Columbian Shakira, Irish Enya, Spanish Las Ketchup and others. Britney Spears, barely past her teens, is considered one of the richest and most influential women in the world. Judging from the showing of her album Stripped, it will not be long before Christina gets there too. Jennifer Lopez, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Faith Hill, Shania Twain, Mary J. Blige, Missy Misdemeanor Elliott, Kylie Minogue all came up with great new albums and the showing of the sweet young things, Avril Lavigne, Vanessa Carlton, Michelle Branch, Norah Jones and Ashanti can only be described as remarkable.

According to Billboard Magazine, the top tunes of 2002 in the US of A were How You Remind Me by Canadian rock band Nickelback; Foolish from the debut album by Ashanti; Hot in Here by Nelly; Dilemma also by Nelly with Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child; Wherever You Will Go by The Calling: A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton; In the End by Linkin Park; What’s Luv? by Fat Joe featuring Ashanti; U Got It Bad by Usher; and Blurry by Puddle of Mudd.

The top-selling albums were The Eminem Show by Eminem; Weathered by Creed; Nellyville by Nelly; M!ssundaztood by Pink; [Hybrid Theory] by Linkin Park, O Brother, Where Art Thou? the soundtrack album of bluegrass music from the movie of the same title, which was also one of the biggest hits of 2001; Silver Side Up by Nickelback, Britney by Britney Spears; Now 8, a collection of current big sellers; and Word of Mouf by Ludacris.