Forgotten Pop Bands of The Early 2000s That We Still Secretly Love
Let's be honest: you would still rock out to "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" if you heard it today. And "Steal My Sunshine" is still your summer jam and you know it! Pop bands of the early 2000s like had an energy that can't be touched, and catchy hooks that can't be beaten. That's why the names soulDecision, S Club 7, and Steps will NEVER leave us.
Who cares that these bands willingly sang ridiculously cheesy lyrics like: "New Kids on the Block had a bunch of hits, Chinese food makes me sick." In 2000s pop, as long as lines rhymed, everything else was simply void. These bands helped our middle and high school selves come into our own. While some like B2K and LFO were more well known, there were one-hit wonders like Nine Days and Evan and Jaron who did the same amount of damage to our pubescent souls. Prepare yourselves for a throwback unlike any other with these amazingly corny, slow-motion singing, synchronized dancing pop groups that made the 2000s the age of pop music glory.
Scene 23
Before American Idol, there was Popstars. Before Josh Henderson was the hunky Dallas star he is today, he had frosted tips in the six-membered pop group. What do you get when you fuse the two together? Scene 23. They taught our teenage selves valuable love lessons like: not everything has to be a "love thing" and some relationships aren't worth dealing with all the "he said, she said," you know? Oh, the memories.
soulDecision
Ain't nobody gonna interrupt soulDecision's game on our teenage selves. Seriously, have you actually listened to their lyrics? The fact that we were jamming out to "Faded" with the lyrics "Wondering why you and I haven't hit it" in middle and high school is kind of disturbing. Although we will say this: if lead singer Trevor Guthrie made those moves on us now, we can't say we wouldn't be into it.
B2K
The thought of listening to a bunch of teenagers singing about girls shaking their booties is kind of weird until you hear P. Diddy is involved. "Bump, Bump, Bump" was released just a year after Omarion was at legal driving age. Just let that sink in.
Youngstown
Disney's Steps and Youngstown in Concert was only the social event of the season back in the day. Screw it, it was the event of 2000. Youngstown killed it with making their way onto TV show and movie soundtracks like those of The Famous Jett Jackson, Inspector Gadget and Princess Diaries. Holy throwback. They sang their way from the small and big screens straight into our hearts. The lead singer even had his eyebrow pierced. What a 2000-era badass.
A*Teens
The A*Teens brought ABBA back with the remake of “Dancing Queen” and “Mamma Mia.” But they had their own, original songs too! Duh. How else would we have heard the catchy “Upside Down” above?
BBMak
Before there was One Direction, there was BBMak. This British trio, Mark Barry, Christian Burns and Stephen McNally (see what they did there?) made girls all over the world swoon for what felt like a hot five minutes. They even appeared on Disney’s Even Stevens in 2001, so you know they were big time. Is it weird we still think they’re hot?
Nine Days
We may remember Nine Days’ “Absolutely (Story of a Girl)” as a one-hit wonder of the ‘00s -but we’ll have you know they have another song “If I Am” on Vevo, guys. And they’ve had seven, we repeat, seven released studio albums. They must’ve been too preoccupied with the girl who cried a river and drowned the whole world to promote them.
Next
Thanks to their hit "Too Close," Next wasn't the first group that addressed the fact that dancing like your naked is almost like sexing. And they definitely weren't the last. They were, however, one of the first groups that had us singing ridiculously dirty lyrics at a young age (besides soulDecision, course).
Evan and Jaron
You would think hot, identical, talented twin brothers would make a bigger splash in the entertainment biz than their one-hit wonder "Crazy For This Girl" in 2000. We wouldn't hate it if this dazzling duo made their way back into our lives almost 15 years later. C'mon, do you see those eyes? They could keep the matching leather coats and we wouldn't even be mad.
Steps
You may remember Steps from their line dance hit "5, 6 ,7 ,8," but this group has conquered much more of the music world than we may have thought. They've toured with Britney Spears, won a BRIT award and has sold over 20 million albums worldwide. Whaaaaat??
Blessed Union of Souls
Blessed Union of Souls took a slight departure from the autotuned boy band takeover of the '00s with a little bit of rock infused in their sound. We're still guilty of rocking out to "Hey Leonardo (She Likes Me for Me)," (not because of their collection of DVDs), that said, they're definitely no Hootie & the Blowfish. Props to them for trying, though.
LFO
If Chinese food makes you sick and you love girls who wear Abercrombie and Fitch, you're in good company thanks to LFO's "Summer Girls." This trio took their rhyming skills to more hits like "Girl on TV" and "Every Other Time," making us think about the serious debates in life. Sometimes it's black, sometimes it's white, sometimes she's wrong, sometimes I'm right. This is true, LFO. This is true.
S Club 7
S Club 7 may have had more hits than all of the bands on this list combined. If you call yourself a child of the '90s and don't remember this group, well, shame on you. We all know there ain't no party like an S Club party.
Len
This Canadian band may have been M.I.A. since their one-hit wonder "Steal My Sunshine," but they gave us one of the greatest summer jams of all time that lasted longer than l-a-t-e-r that week.
[Photo Credit: Epic/Polydor/Interscope/Stockholm/MCA/Island/Columbia]