Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

Could there have been a finer track to mosh to this decade? Well there probably was but no track could united so many is so much anarchy. Taken from the album of the same name System Of A Down were slowly going about proving that they were the new kings of the quiet-loud-quiet-loud template. This was the perfect live track it had it all, huge sing along, big melodies, huge hooks and one finally pummelling beatdown. Hear It Here

With perhaps with the exception of the Darkness no band has risen so high and fallen so far, so fast as Razorlight. America would be their commercial high watermark, Andy Burrows penned a track that was beyond anthemic, it may have been painfully simple but it was perfectly crafted for Johnny Borrell's voice and it remains their biggest hit and the point of no return for their collective career. Hear It Here

Blink-181 will never be regarded as guitar Gods, and rightly so, but in the year 2000 they created one of the most uplifting, addictive and memorable riffs of the decade for Man Overboard. The track also marked the high watermark for the vocal interplay between Tom and Mark, Mark supplied the witty punch lines "You're Out Of Line, And Really Sober" and Tom brought the grating hook that burrowed it's way into your cranium. Hear It Here

So in 2000 Nelly looked liked raps great hope but under the facade of his Country Gramma lied the signs that we were actually dealing with pops next sensation rather than raps saviour. E.I. was a typically low brow affair but it was remarkably catchy and who could forget a hook this brain dead "Undalay, Undalay, Momma E.I., Uh Oh". It all seems rather silly today but I can assure in the year 2000 this was actually cool. Hear It Here

Dr. Dre marked his long awaited comeback with this old school West Coast anthem, Dre was determined to show that old school could still be relevant with a top notch producer. The mamoth Still Dre would mark a surprise career renaissance, as Dre astutely points out he signed Eminem and rode that pony to the top of the charts, but this was proof that Dre could still do it all on his lonesome. Hear It Here

Franz Ferdinand's second album will always be a mystery, while it couldn't hope to match the quality of the first, it was still a remarkable follow up, and it really should have brought them more success. Walk Away was the albums greatest ballad, it just oozed cynical non-plussed cool and wit poured out from every orifice. A wonderful piece of music and a surprisingly rousing live anthem. Hear It Here

While Hardcore music had kept chugging along away from the mainstream, by 2007 it felt like the right time for a band to come along and kick the holy hell out of the pop punk that was dominating Kerrang & Scuzz. The Gallows were the crossover superstars the scene needed and they promptly became present day legends and it's not hard to see why on the back of monstrous singles like In The Belly Of A Shark, where apparently it's "So Fucking Cold and So Fucking Dark" just incase you were curious. Hear It Here

I've already made abundantly clear that I have a strong bias towards the pop music of the 1960s and when The Last Of The Shadow Puppets emerge in 2008 I was always destined to fall in love with their Scott Walker inspired sound. Standing Next To Me was the undoubted highlight, a sweet little tragically pitch pop song that's transformed into a grand sweeping epic by a rumbling acoustic guitar and one of the finest string arrangements of the 21st Century. Hear It Here

After the Strokes 2001 breakthrough retrospective rock was in and unfortunately we were soon to discover that few bands had the talent to pull of what the Strokes achieved. Jet were more of a pastiche than a full fledged band, original thought was absent from their work, yet they did manage to lay down this one truly earth shattering single. Hear It Here

The third album is always a trick one for an act with global ambitions, presuming the made it safely past the pitfall of the second album it's time for them to spread their wings, show their creative potential and yet still manage to conquer the globe with stadium sized single. While X & Y was cringe inducingly syrupy at times it was none the less a success, pushing Coldplay towards a more electronic and broader Brian Eno-esque sound, and of course it still managed to churn out stadium fillers like Speed Of Sound. All in all, a job well done. Hear It Here