86. Black Eyed Peas – Pump It (2006)

The Black Eyed Peas were the decade's most successful band when it comes to hits (except for Coldplay, who made pretty but formulaic records), and displayed an impressive talent to sample and quote from every possible source, and manufacture something that works. Only it didn't really work for me – many of their records had no real substance for my taste. Nevertheless, every once in a while they hit very close to the mark, like with this record. The sample is of course from Dick Dale's classic 'Misirlou', and it is one of the most energetic and electrifying guitar licks ever made. It is very dangerous to mess with such records, because the inevitable comparisons will usually bury you, but the Peas ride the waves created by Dale, the king of surf guitar, and manage to make a record that almost equals it in ecstasy.

To my ears, this is the last record that is still part of the fun pop of the decade's early years. It came out in the beginning of 2006, the year when the mood changed, and since then, no one has created such vibrations, which make you increase the volume to the max. Like the surfers that inspired this massive guitar riff, I live in anticipation for the next wave.

Black Eyed Peas - Pump It
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9. The Black Eyed Peas feat. Justin Timberlake - Where is the Love? (2003)

"Where is the love?" lamented Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway back in 1972, when the sixties dream faded, and the US awoke into a bleak reality. The Black Eyed Peas resurrect the question, and put it to the whole world to answer. But while the original record is steeped in despair, the atmosphere here is a lot warmer. The sense of healing evades this record as well.

For starters, you only had to look at the band to realize that something essential has changed. Its members numbered an African-Mexican-American, an African-Filipino-American, a Mexican-Shoshone-American, and a white female rapper/singer who also has Mexican and Native-American blood. It was the fulfillment of the dream put forth by Sly & the Family Stone, and the greatest thing was that nobody even raised an eyebrow. Without anyone noticing, the sixties won. When I saw the Black Eyed Peas back in 2003, I started to believe that I would live to see the day when blacks and women contend seriously for the role of President of the United States.

This unprecedented group, inconceivable just a decade earlier, employed the musical options opened up in the beginning of the decade, and merged every possible musical style to create a pop concoction that stomped the charts. Too often their pop was too cheesy, but it also contained many moments of fun. This remains their best record of the decade. Granted, the production is quite standard and the rap is a bunch of cliches, but on the emotional level, what can I say, it works.