(As an aside, what are we going to call this decade? There’s no convenient numbering system like the eighties or nineties. Do we go with the aughts? The Robert Parrishes? The one with the global financial crisis?)

So, to get you ready for our end-of-the-decade feature, I thought it would be helpful to list some of the events that happened this decade in music:

• Out of the fourteen members of the “Big 3” boy bands of the 1990’s, only one, Justin Timberlake, had any success after the dissolution of the group.
  • That number jumps to two if you count Drew Lachey winning Dancing with the Stars.
  • It jumps to three if you count Nick Lachey marrying Jessica Simpson and chronicling their life on the short-lived reality show Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica.
  • And it jumps to four if you count Nick Carter’s even-shorter-lived reality TV series House of Carters, which featured such memorable moments as the time Nick and Aaron fought over such pressing topics as dating Paris Hilton and the no music after 12 o’clock rule (NSFW-language):

• The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, in an effort to rectify past mistakes of not giving Grammys to Led Zeppelin and Steely Dan when they were relevant music groups, showed its age and awarded Grammys for Album of the Year to Steely Dan in 2001 and Robert Plant (and Allison Krauss) in 2009. In arguably the two best years for music in the decade, two aging representatives for the deification of classic rock were given awards instead of Radiohead or Eminem in 2001 or Coldplay, Lil Wayne, or Radiohead (again!) in 2009.

• In a shocker, the general public complained that the music from this decade sucked. This opinion was a direct contrast to the music of the nineties, which people said was…nevermind, people thought music then sucked as well (and in the eighties, seventies, sixties, fifties…). For audiences reading Entertainium in 2020, get ready for the Nick Jonas Grammy Award for Album of the Year! Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

No guitar licks and references to "Cousin Dupree" here

• Speaking of Nick Jonas, the Jonas Brothers go from playing an anti-drug concert at my high school in 2005 to playing at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade the very next year. This is honestly the biggest music story of the decade. They went from basically booed off of a high school auditorium stage to fame, fortune, and a hilarious South Park parody.
  • By the way, I personally think that their music is awful. If I ever change this opinion, feel free to try and to do to me what those guys in Project Mayhem attempted to do when Edward Norton was trying to expose what the true purpose of the project was.
• And as a summation of music in the decade, here is the list of the top 20 best-selling music acts of the decade: http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart_watch/34074/chart-watch-extra-the-top-20-album-sellers-of-the-2000s
  • Interesting facts supporting the “this decade sucked” theory: The Beatles, which had not released any new material in this decade, were the number-two act of the decade. Most of this was due to the release of 1, a compilation of number 1 hits that moved over 11 million units and set a precedent for every musician to come out with a number 1 hits collection (see Elv1s: 30 #1 Hits, Michael Jackson: Number Ones, Rocket Man – Number Ones, Number 1’s Stevie Wonder, and Conway Twitty- Number 1’s).
    • As an aside on the “Number Ones” phenomenon, there are only a few artists (namely The Beatles and Elvis) that the criterion allows a greatest hits collection that encompasses their entire career. Stevie’s collection leaves out some hits from the sixties and eighties and Elton John’s collection doesn’t have “Levon”. Most egregiously, Jackson’s collection includes nothing before Off the Wall except for a re-release of “Ben”, completely ignoring his work with The Jackson 5, the Jacksons, and his solo work for Motown (but, at least it has “Earth Song” and “One More Chance”!)
    

    Not Included: "ABC", "I Want You Back", or, the biggest omission of them all, the song from Free Willy.

***

So, what is Entertainium’s end of the decade feature? Every Sunday, we will have a decade in review primer to get you ready for Tuesday- the day where we reveal the best of the decade in music, movies, television, and video games.

Here’s the schedule:

• Music: Primer 11/22 (today!), Album of the decade 11/24
• Television: Primer 11/29, Program of the decade 12/1
• Video Games: Primer 12/6, Game of the decade 12/8
• Movies: Primer 12/13, Film of the decade 12/15

This feature will bring an exciting conclusion to the decade and we hope that you continue reading our site through the end of this decade and the start of the next!

“The Best of the Decade” feature will be Matt’s primary focus on Entertainium until the end of the year. Follow him on twitter at www.twitter.com/lamagnam