Todd In The Shadows: Worst of 2004

It's amazing both how memorable and how forgettable each song on this list was.

10. This was one of those first "Oh yeah..." songs, where I remember Jessica Simpson being a big deal back in the day. Like, seriously, EVERYONE knew about about "Chicken Of The Sea" thing. Now, maybe it's just how the pop machine works these days, but is she still doing music? I was on a shoot yesterday, and this was a subject that came up: as big as noone is, artists really don't have albums you can get excited about, it's just a constant stream of singles. Is she even doing that?

9. Nickelback. I've mentioned it on a previous podcast, but I'll gladly take "How You Remind Me" and "Someday" butt-rock Nickelback over "Photograph" acoustic red-state-rock (for Canadians) Nickelback, and "S.E.X." date-rapist Nickelback.

8. Hey guys, remember Sean Paul? More and more, I'm starting to take a better look and what goes on behind the scenes of the music industry, and when I start to see familiar names of producers and songwriters, things become a little more clear. For example, Metallica's "musical un-integrity" era from the Black album through St. Anger was because the producer for all of those albums also worked on a lot of Glam Rock like Motley Crue and Bon Jovi. Scott Storch's involvement in nearly every pop song from '03 to '06 brings a lot of that era into focus. With, as Mr. Intheshadows puts it, world music riff with a hip hop beat. He also did Paris Hilton's album. Wow.

7. The band that made "Crawling In The Dark" was responsible for this shit.LET THAT SINK IN.

6. Good news about text is that I don't have to care how Chingy is pronounced. "Right Thurr" I remember, but this one I forgot all about.

5. Another song I don't remember, but this song is quintessentially the psuedo-RnB comeback that came up a lot in 2004. The interstital song

4. Kelis' "Milkshake" was never really a song to me. It was more like "background noise". Like me and my friends in high school would be at a dance, or in any public place, and this song would just happen in the background. If my life were a movie, this song would not be on the soundtrack to my high school years (that of course belongs to R. Kelly's "Ignition (Remix)" and Green Day's "American Idiot"), but rather in the Official Score To The Movie Based On Rhythm Bastard's Life (the kind of thing that only hardcore movie geeks buy) under the title "There Are More Than 2 Young People In A Public Establishment and Having A Good Time"

This video though was the first time I ever actually saw what Kelis looks like. Not bad.

3. Don't remember. Don't want, moving on.

2. Holy crap this guy is so whiny. I remember the hook "All those kisses didn't mean jack it/Don't want you back", but listening to this again, it sounds like Eamon is crying through out the whole thing.

1. OH GOD. Now, count me in the camp that likes "Funny" Eminem. This is back when that meant "Real Slim Shady" and "Without Me". Listening to this song again is a rehash of "We Made You": No flow, no bite and too juvenile to be taken seriously. It's appropriate that the hook of the sounds like a car horn; it's urging you to go ahead and keep moving, because there's nothing here for you. Seriously, Eminem implies, get the fuck out of here.