I'm going to call the last ten years the "Nothing Decade". That sounds better than "the zeros" or "the naughts". In my opinion, since 2000, there have been no interesting developments in the arts. Up until now, every decade has an amazing musical genre: disco and punk in the seventies, electronic music in the eighties, grunge in the nineties. What will the Nothing Decade be remembered for? Rap metal? Creed? Music hasn't sucked this bad since Journey topped the charts.
Sure, there have been some great albums. I liked electroclash, and intelligent dance music, and even twee chamber pop and freak folk. But none of those could be considered a "movement". They are barely novel. Some have speculated that the internet now makes it impossible for one trend to capture the entire country's attention. I'm not sure I believe that: there are plenty of things we can all agree on. Please - next generation - show me something interesting!
But here are the best CDs and DVDs that I loved this Nothing Decade:
Best Music
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1. Damian Rice "O"
2. Amanda Palmer "Who Killed Amanda Palmer?"
3. The Postal Service "Give Up" and Death Cab For Cutie (all other CDs)
4. Daft Punk "Alive 2007" (2 CD version)
5. The Shins "Chutes Too Narrow"
6. Nellie McKay "Get Away From Me" and Regina Spektor "Begin to Hope"
7. The Decemberists "Her Majesty The Decemberists" and/or "Picaresque" (and all other CDs)
8. The New Pornographers "Twin Cinema" (and all other CDs)
9. The Langely Schools Music Project "Innocence & Despair"
10. Tenacious D (all songs)
Best Movies
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1. Memento
2. The Prestige
3. Once
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
5. Children of Men
6. American Astronaut
7. Oldboy
8. Coraline
9. High Fidelity
10. Synecdoche, New York
