Commentary, Pt. 3: Pitchfork Top 500 of the 2000s

After spending an inordinate amount of time trying to determine which year had the best music, we settled on some ill-conceived algorithm that used the average ranking of the top 5 songs from each year. Completely arbitrary. Well, maybe it would be a good idea to at least tell you what a couple of those songs were. Below is the order of "Good Music Years" with the top 2 songs from each year (and their overall rank in parentheses). There are some pretty great tracks, and we offer comments for each, whether you wanted them or not:

2003
Beyonce - "Crazy In Love" (4) [No way is this the best Beyonce song. Period.]
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Maps" (6) [A little surprised that such a relatively bland song climbed all the way to #6. Yeah, it's a good song, but #6? Come on.]
2000
Outkast - "B.O.B." (1) [Great track, but the only way you could make a case that this is better than "Hey Ya" is that Big Boi was on it.]
Daft Punk - "One More Time" (5) [Such a fun, happy song. Really pushed them into the mainstream]
2007
LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends" (2) [Um... wow. I love James Murphy as much as the next guy, but #2? Wow.]
M.I.A. - "Paper Planes" (3) [Not sure you can argue this one. Ubiquitous doesn't even begin to describe how pervasive this song became.]
2002
LCD Soundsystem - "Losing My Edge" (13) [Snarkiest, funniest song on the entire list.]
The Knife - "Heartbeats" (15) [Always thought both the band and the song were overrated. This does nothing to quell that feeling.]
2004
Arcade Fire - "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" (10) [One of the great opening tracks off any album this decade.]
Annie - "Heartbeat" (17) [Clearly, heartbeats were a popular topic for songs.]
2005
Gnarls Barkley - "Crazy" (11) [Unbelievable how intolerable this song is. Almost completely unlistenable. Thanks, radio!]
Kelly Clarkson - "Since U Been Gone" (21) [This should be in the Top 10. End of discussion. Is there a more anthemic song from any year??]
2001
Missy Elliott - "Get Ur Freak On" (7) [A little surprised by how high this one went, but can't argue with it. Incredibly cool song that still sounds original.]
Daft Punk - "Digital Love" (23) [Not as commercially successful as "One More Time," but just as good.]
2006
Justin Timberlake - "My Love" (26) [When is his next album coming out? Why do we have to wait 3-4 years??]
Hot Chip - "I Was a Boy From School" (29) [Completely shocked by this. Great song, never would have guessed it was the second-best song of 2006.]
2008
Hercules & Love Affair - "Blind" (18) [Ridiculous.]
Fleet Foxes - "White Winter Hymnal (66) [Just about as ridiculous.]
2009
Animal Collective - "My Girls" (9) [Obvious.]
Dirty Projectors - "Stillness Is The Move" (115) [Just about as obvious.]

So there you go. The best two songs from each year, according to your friends at Pitchfork. A lot has been made of their infatuation with certain groups/genres (i.e. LCD Soundsystem, Daft Punk, Animal Collective, IDM [intelligent dance music]) and how they're disproportionately represented at the top. To which I would respond, "Who cares?" It's what they like! And it's fun to argue why certain songs do/don't belong at the top.

Our final analysis of the Top 500 will look at the artists and labels with the most songs on the list and hypothesize why they may be on there...