With 2010 right around the corner, The Daily Arts Department reflected on noteworthy — and likely enduring — movies, music and television shows. We wrestled with these choices; there was plenty of great material from the 2000s to choose from and not nearly every spectacular work is represented here. These picks are a collaborative effort to be taken as personal preferences from a student group of arts and entertainment enthusiasts rather than the ultimate comprehensive list. We encourage you to respond to these picks and offer up your own — make a comment online at tuftsdaily.com/arts and keep the discussion going. For a look at the favorites we had to let go, check out our extended "Best of the Decade" commentary at blogs.tuftsdaily.com/thescene.
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1. Girl Talk, "Night Ripper" (2006): Engineer by day, dance party superhero by night: Gregg Gillis has single-handedly changed the face of music, and "Night Ripper" is his best work yet. Gillis' digital mash-ups expertly combine seemingly incongruous artists' songs to produce tracks that, though borrowed, feel brand new. (And if nothing else, no one had as much fun in the 2000s as Girl Talk.)
2. The Strokes, "Is This It?" (2001): The Strokes' debut album came at the beginning of the new millennium and asked the question that was on everybody's mind: "Is this it?" The answer would come crashing down a scant few months later, but while 9/11 set the tone for the rest of the decade politically, "Is This It?" set it sonically — with strung out vocals, fuzzy guitar and infectious melodies.
3. Arcade Fire, "Funeral" (2004): An indie-rock band doesn't usually compose a debut album full of majestic anthems, but Arcade Fire's epic release features swelling string sections, dramatic lyrical references to the apocalypse and calls to revolutionary action. Recorded during a year when four members of the band lost family members, "Funeral" at once conveys melancholy and hope, joy and despair.
4. The Killers, "Hot Fuss" (2004): With this debut album, The Killers burst onto the music scene with a unique and odd blend of pop, rock and synth tunes. The Killers will forever hold a place in music history as the band that refused to let the best part of the '80s die for a generation that grew up on boy bands and blonde bubblegum girls.
5. Danger Mouse, "The Grey Album" (2004): By bringing together the most popular rap album of the time, Jay-Z's "The Black Album" (2003), with one of the most popular albums of all time, The Beatles' "White Album" (1968), Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton) was able to appeal to pretty much everybody. The combination of J-Hova's ("God MC") genius lyrics and The Beatles' groundbreaking tunes is most definitely greater than the sum of its parts.
6. The Hold Steady, "Boys and Girls in America" (2006): Bar-rock has not died, and The Hold Steady, a rollicking group of Midwest-to-Brooklyn transplants, proved it. A driving backdrop of crunchy, classic rock guitar riffs, sparkling piano builds, punchy bass and hard-hitting drumming provide a refreshing, retro-reviving alternative to many of today's synth-y indie rock bands.
7. MGMT, "Oracular Spectacular" (2008): MGMT's debut blends neo-psychedelia, electronica, funk, rock and tribal chanting to an extent that defies description. A diverse, eclectic and catchy collection of songs and influences, "Oracular Spectacular" is bound to have appeal for fans of a wide variety of genres for years to come.
8. The White Stripes, "Elephant" (2003): With this album's simplicity and obvious technical prowess, Jack White made it cool to return to your roots — or at least those of someone you admire. White's affinity for basic blues licks and Meg's no nonsense, no solo drumming set the stage for most recent alternative rock and effectively place The White Stripes' sound at the forefront of this decade.
9. Various Artists, "Garden State OST" (2004): Most of us can't go back to Zach Braff's movie without laughing at the line about The Shins, but by the time the first chords of "Let Go" (2002) by Frou Frou kick in during the Newark Airport scene there isn't a dry eye in the room. From Coldplay to Iron and Wine, this wasn't just the soundtrack to a movie, it was quite possibly the soundtrack to a generation.
10. Bon Iver, "For Emma, Forever Ago" (2007): Moody guitar loops and front man Justin Vernon's ethereal vocals combine to create an otherworldliness that transcends time and place. Somehow, "For Emma, Forever Ago" manages to break your heart in a way that leaves you heading back for more.
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1. "Mean Girls" (2004): "Mean Girls" breaks from the pitfalls of other formulaic rom-coms by showing a more true-to-life, though still outrageous, depiction of how nasty high school cliques can be. This film showcases Lindsay Lohan at her peak and we'd argue that this film is "The Breakfast Club" (1985) of our generation, aware of its absurdity and all the more successful for it. Let's face it: "Mean Girls" is, like, totally fetch. Recommended: Articles that may interest you
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but I must agree on radiohead where's the Kid A.
Some highlights of my complaints (or lowlights, I suppose)
-Two mashup albums but no regular hip hop albums? Stankonia? Late Registration? Be? Hello, is anyone in there?!
-No Radiohead! I've heard people argue that In Rainbows is the greatest album of all time and they didn't sound dumb saying it. You, however, sound rather silly leaving out the band that is without a doubt the most critically acclaimed group of the 2000s.
-The movies list is an even bigger travesty than the music one. Mean Girls as number one- wow, you're so out-of-the-box. If you're going to choose a comedy that our generation has embraced, why no Judd Apatow? And where the hell are all the real great films of the 2000s on the list? There Will Be Blood? Gladiator? Y Tu Mama Tambien? Traffic? Into The Wild? The Departed? Before the Devil Knows Your Dead? Memento? Devil Wear Prada? The Wackness? All these movies are superior to Moulin Rouge, Mean Girls, and Inglourious Basterds (c'mon boys, I liked it too, but top-10-of-2000-level it was not.)
-Wall-E was far superior to Finding Nemo. Even the voters of IMDb agree with me.
-TV wasn't terrible considering you were limited by series that began after 2000, but my big question was: what kind of a college newspaper are you if you don't choose Weeds. For God's sake, stoners make up a large part of your demographic. Acknowledge this culture which is a large part of ours and any college. We're here, we're high, get used to it.Better luck for the next decade's list. At least it can't be much worse than this one was.
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