I broke a rule to begin 2005, I put in the awesome, buzzworthy, relevant Boondocks theme just to give the record a nice little opening. As for the rest of the mix, while it is a little hip hop heavy, it's a great set of songs, stuff that really holds up a year later. Listening to it, I really changed my mind about last year and the strength of the lineup. "Welcome to Jamrock," "Still Tippin," "Chicago," and "Banquet" were big hits in their own ways, all major successes that still sound massive. "Chicago," of course, was not actually released as a single (see also "Smells Like Content" and "Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left"), but by 2005 blogs had made actual single releases irrelevant, and now you don't need to have a release or even radio play to have a big individual stand-out.

After jumping forty-five years in one week, does anything remain from 1960? Ray Charles, of course, but past that there seems to be very little you can point to. The slow evolution back in time showed such clear patterns, and yet here we are, looking at pop, the much maligned form of music that never changes, never grows, and always sounds the same, and we can't even recognize it. I find that pretty cool, even in the stretched out context.

So, all things must end, and though this project will go on (all of these lists are constantly being reconsidered, many have already been changed, and I will be making a new one each year) this blog will be in suspended animation for at least the next couple weeks as I am moving and I don't have enough time to come up with anything to do with it right away. I want to thank everyone who has been here from (around) the beginning, and all those who came towards the end. I hope you got even half as much pleasure listening to these mixes as I got making them. Feel free to come back, post on whatever mixes you have ideas for, complain about songs I included or omitted, and tell me what you've grown to love. Nothing would make me happier than that last one, because this project is really about discovering new (old) music and learning to understand and appreciate music history. I don't know how well I succeeded, but it was certainly fun to try.

Here's the mix, enjoy.

1. The Boondocks Theme Song - Asheru - 0:32
2. Banquet - Bloc Party - 3:19
3. Welcome To Jamrock - Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley - 3:33
4. Still Tippin' Feat. Slim Thug & Paul Wall - Mike Jones - 4:32
5. Dreams - The Game - 4:46
6. My Friend Dario - Vitalic - 3:37
7. Testify - Common - 2:36
8. One Thing - Amerie - 3:41
9. Ch Ching - Lady Sovereign - 4:45
10. Daft Punk Is Playing At My House - LCD Soundsystem - 5:16
11. Do You Want To - Franz Ferdinand - 3:38
12. Stay Fly (Ft. Young Buck and Eightball) - Three 6 Mafia - 3:56
13. Feel Good Inc - Gorillaz - 3:41
14. Gold Digger (Feat. Jamie Foxx) - Kanye West - 3:28
15. A Nervous Tic Motion Of The Head To The Left - Andrew Bird - 4:59
16. Hate It Or Love It Remix (Feat. G-Unit) - 50 Cent - 4:23
17. Breathe Me - Sia - 4:35
18. Extraordinary Machine - Fiona Apple - 3:44
19. Smells Like Content - The Books - 3:41
20. Chicago - Sufjan Stevens - 6:04

1960

NOTE: Next week, I'll be publishing my 2005 mix.

Well, we've come to the end of the road. A few people have asked why I picked 1960 as the year to go back to. I though about 1964, and 1950 seemed like a nice round number (which I might still get to if I ever have the time), but 1960 seemed right for a few reasons. First of all, anything earlier would have been very difficult, as it is the nature of references and the internet to be much more current, and considering the fact that I am young, anything before 1960 would have been a lot more work, work that I just didn't have time to do.

But as I look at 1960, I can't imagine a better year to end on. Just the first ten songs here alone are so legendary, so archetypal, so set in the memories of pop fans everywhere, that it's easy to see where this was the beginning of something big. There was pop before 1960, there was a booming music industry, powerful radio stations, even some TV performances, but this was when the local became the national, and the collective consciousness really took hold. That's what is exciting about pop, and it's what I found exciting about these mixes, looking over the great songs of each year, charting national taste and artistic growth. America, in all its flawed glory, has produced fantastic music over the past half decade. I hope everyone enjoys the mix, and come back next week to make a forty-five year jump to last year and the last mix I've finished.

Download here.

1. Money (That's What I Want) - Barrett Strong - 2:37
2. The Twist - Chubby Checker - 2:36
3. Save The Last Dance For Me - The Drifters - 2:30
4. Cathy's Clown - Everly Brothers - 2:25
5. Only The Lonely - Roy Orbison - 2:27
6. Georgia On My Mind - Ray Charles - 3:39
7. A Fool in Love - Ike and Tina Turner - 2:53
8. All I Could Do Was Cry - Etta James - 2:57
9. Shop Around [national version] - The Miracles - 2:48
10. Chain Gang - Sam Cooke - 2:33
11. Walking to New Orleans - Fats Domino - 2:11
12. Stay (Just a Little Bit Longer) - Maurice Williams - 1:36
13. You're Sixteen - Johnny Burnette - 1:54
14. You Talk Too Much - Joe Jones - 2:39
15. Walk Don't Run - Ventures - 2:07
16. Shakin' All Over - Johnny Kidd And The Pirates - 2:21
17. Back Door Man - Howlin' Wolf - 2:51
18. Alley Oop - Hollywood Argyles - 2:42
19. Harbour lights - The Platters - 3:09
20. Apache - The Shadows - 2:52
21. Will You Love Me Tomorrow - The Shirelles - 2:44
22. Its Now Or Never - Elvis Presley - 3:12
23. Everybody's Somebody's Fool - Connie Francis - 2:40
24. Baby (You've Got What It Takes) - Brook Benton & Dinah Washington - 2:47
25. Airegin - Wes Montgomery - 4:29
26. Rank Strangers to Me - Stanley Bros. - 3:06
27. In My Little Corner Of The World - Anita Bryant - 2:40
28. Theme From A Summer Place - Percy Faith - 2:31
29. Beyond The Sea - Bobby Darin - 2:53