Over at the National Review site, an argument has broken out over what the best song of the 21st century is so far. The thing is, showing how out of touch I have become, I haven’t heard any of the candidates the contenders have put forward!
They are these:
Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes
Ball and Biscuit by the White Stripes
Reckoner by Radiohead
Finer Feelings by Spoon
Wake Up by Arcade Fire
Here are the different arguments from
Dan McLaughlin,
Judson Berger, and
Jeffrey Blehar.
These are pretty good tunes, I admit, but they are all of the rock genre. Surely any discussion of the best song of the first quarter of a century should at least consider the other genres, including country music, alt-country, gospel, pop, rhythm & blues, hip-hop, folk, showtunes, soundtracks, opera, etc., etc,, as well as all of the sub-genres thereof.
So I thought the Cranach community might have some opinions about this. What do you consider to be the best song of the century so far?
The fact is, there is no longer a mass market for music, as in the old days of Top-Forty radio; rather, the music market has become hyper-specialized with listeners fixated on ever-narrower niches. So not being familiar with particular songs is not necessarily a case of old-fogeydom, as is the case with me, but a simple matter of not being exposed to them.
So if you can, post a YouTube link of your top song to expand the horizon of the rest of us.
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