Betcha that headline raised some eyebrows. No, I'm not crazy. I can make a good case for the Girlfriend Remix being the most influential song over the last decade...and I'm going to prove it.
Let me take you back to a simpler time, a time when most of us were still awkward high schoolers, well let's face it, most of us still are. The year was 2002. NSync had just released "Pop," the album that had no shot at living up to the record breaking success of "No Strings Attached." The teeny bopper girls still ate it all up, but the album didn't have the same feel as No Strings Attached. Quite simply, America's tastes were changing. The Backstreet Boys were completely removed from the scene and were nowhere to be found. Christina Aguilera was a full-fledged whore, and Britney Spears's act was starting to get old. Bubblegum pop was dying, quickly.
While "Pop" didn't quite have the same success as "No Strings Attached" it did churn out some #1 hits. One such hit was the Girlfriend Remix, featuring Nelly. It was played often at high school dances, proms, and clubs, and received a good deal of play on the radio. Pop song, lots of play, featuring rapper with a band-aid on his face, whatever, to be forgotten about forever. Now let's revisit the 6-12 months following the Girlfriend Remix. NSync broke up, and everyone thought they would never he heard from again, especially that douche bag with the ramen noodle haircut. Not so fast. 18 months after NSync broke up, Justin Timberlake released a solo album...and the first single featured Clipse, and was produced by Pharrell, and was reviewed in Vibe and XXL. What the fuck?
Starting to see the connection here? Without Nelly bringing that little bit of street cred to the ultra boy band, JT has no shot of ever doing a record with Pharrell and Clipse. Once Pharrell produced for him and he was featured with Clipse, there was no looking back. He's since done tracks with 50 Cent, Snoop, and TI, been produced by Timerland and Pharrell, hosted the MTV Movie Awards and SNL, has fucked every hot celebrity in Hollywood (including Jessica Biel), and is unquestionably the biggest male celeb in pop music, and one of the biggest celebs period. And let's not forget about "Dick in a Box."
How did all this happen? You guessed it, Girlfriend Remix was the catalyst. Without that song, there's no telling where JT would be right now. My guess, probably hanging out in Memphis with the Memphis Cheaters, I mean Tigers, basketball team. Instead, he's one of the most influential people in pop culture, while his band members are coming out of the closet and appearing on Dancing with the Stars. I could make a sequel to the post about how the song was one of the top 3 influential moments in hip-hop as well. But I'll let you all argue that one out. Peace.
- Kaps
Song of the Day - NSync - Girlfriend (Remix) featuring Nelly
5 comments:
is this what you think about all day at work?
Is there a rapper other than Nelly who could survive collaborations with a nerdy white kid (at the time) and an older country dude let alone pull off top hits with both of them?
Simple answer -- no.
Scotty - this is all us accountants do when we're at work. It helps pass the time when we're doing otherwise mind-numbing work.
Casey - Kanye could pull it off.
True, at least until he started liking fish dicks anyway.
I can't believe you didn't tell me you were writing a post on this. I would like to add a few other thoughts to this post. What you probably aren't aware of is that The Clipse and the Backstreet Boys released a song BEFORE Nelly jumped on the remix. Who produced both those songs? The Neptunes. The foundation was already set, it was okay to jump on a pop song. So if you really want to get technical, JT should thank the Neptunes before they even worked together.
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