I love the music of 2002. Maybe because it was the first year that I really started paying attention to the music around me. Whatever the reason, I found it unbearably hard to make today's mix of 13 songs. That means, in order to get every song I actually wanted on this list, over the next few days, we'll have some mixes inspired by the songs I left off.
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2002 was the year we met Avril Lavigne, a common face on my mixes. It was incredibly hard to choose between this one and "Sk8er Boi," because, while I acknowledge that the latter is sillier, it holds a special place in my heart. But I ultimately went her first hit, the one that made us all (well, 14-year-old me) fall in love with her.
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I guess I never realized how important Michelle Branch was to my early teenage years until now.
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Although I was more familiar with Pink's "Don't Let Me Get Me," I found myself enjoying this one a bit more. I think that's because it sounds similar to "Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing.
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No Doubt was all over the chart this year! But none of them can beat "Underneath It All." No Doubt was a pretty good band, it seems.
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Summer isn't here yet but that doesn't mean we can't look forward to the essential summer song of 2002.
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Haha, I had to include this one. It's just so wrong and right at the same time.
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....Here is the only Creed song we'll ever need.
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In 2002, I would probably say that I wasn't a fan of Eminem. Yet I was just inexplicably drawn to this song. It made me a fan.
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Yeah, 4 chords! Give us another jam!
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Starting high school with a song about running through the halls of your high school was a perfect correlation.
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These next three songs were probably the whole reason I turned out the way I am today. When you're 14 years old, these pop rock ladies really speak to your sense of hopeless romance.
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Thanks to that magnificent piano and string section, this song is elevated to a grand status. And while White Chicks was a critically-panned film, I once caught a brief scene on television that featured Terry Crews singing along to this song and I knew it was one of the best scenes ever recorded on film in history.
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It was all leading up to this moment. When I started my freshman year of high school, Kelly Clarkson had just become our first American Idol. And this song spoke to me. It gave me the impetus to have the best four years of high school possible so that, come senior year, I could experience this very moment.
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