Posted on May 29, 2015

13 Perfect Pop Songs From The '90s And '00s Only True Poptimists Will Remember

As chosen by Hannah Diamond, singer in the London future pop collective PC Music and a performer this month at the Red Bull Music Academy Festival New York.

by Hannah Diamond

BuzzFeed Contributor

For me this was one of the biggest songs of the millennium! It reminds me of school discos and summer holidays in Spain, and it really doesn't matter that the lyrics don't make much sense cos…la la la la la la. — youtube.com

For me this was one of the biggest songs of the millennium! It reminds me of school discos and summer holidays in Spain, and it really doesn't matter that the lyrics don't make much sense cos…la la la la la la.

youtube.com

For me this was one of the biggest songs of the millennium! It reminds me of school discos and summer holidays in Spain, and it really doesn't matter that the lyrics don't make much sense cos…la la la la la la.

This song did pretty well at the time, but considering Kandi worked on the songwriting for TLC's "No Scrubs" and "Bills Bills Bills" for Destiny's Child — which were two of the biggest hits of the late '90's/early 00's — I feel like Kandi's own stuff deserves some more appreciation! — youtube.com

This song did pretty well at the time, but considering Kandi worked on the songwriting for TLC's "No Scrubs" and "Bills Bills Bills" for Destiny's Child — which were two of the biggest hits of the late '90's/early 00's — I feel like Kandi's own stuff deserves some more appreciation!

youtube.com

This song did pretty well at the time, but considering Kandi worked on the songwriting for TLC's "No Scrubs" and "Bills Bills Bills" for Destiny's Child — which were two of the biggest hits of the late '90's/early 00's — I feel like Kandi's own stuff deserves some more appreciation!

The film Bring It On has a soundtrack full of great and underrated pop songs, such as "U.G.L.Y." by Daphne and Celeste, but "As If" was my favorite on the soundtrack, and the fact that Blaque featured in the film made me like it even more. — youtube.com

The film Bring It On has a soundtrack full of great and underrated pop songs, such as "U.G.L.Y." by Daphne and Celeste, but "As If" was my favorite on the soundtrack, and the fact that Blaque featured in the film made me like it even more.

youtube.com

The film Bring It On has a soundtrack full of great and underrated pop songs, such as "U.G.L.Y." by Daphne and Celeste, but "As If" was my favorite on the soundtrack, and the fact that Blaque featured in the film made me like it even more.

"Finally Found" stood out from other girl band songs of the of time by offering a softer and more romantic take on relationships, which were otherwise mostly based on cussing out lame boyfriends for their infidelity and inability to pay phone bills, etc. Although these were things I was able to relate to as I got older, the comforting, heartfelt message of innocent love in "Finally Found" felt more familiar to me at age 6! — youtube.com

"Finally Found" stood out from other girl band songs of the of time by offering a softer and more romantic take on relationships, which were otherwise mostly based on cussing out lame boyfriends for their infidelity and inability to pay phone bills, etc. Although these were things I was able to relate to as I got older, the comforting, heartfelt message of innocent love in "Finally Found" felt more familiar to me at age 6!

youtube.com

"Finally Found" stood out from other girl band songs of the of time by offering a softer and more romantic take on relationships, which were otherwise mostly based on cussing out lame boyfriends for their infidelity and inability to pay phone bills, etc. Although these were things I was able to relate to as I got older, the comforting, heartfelt message of innocent love in "Finally Found" felt more familiar to me at age 6!

I just like Dane Bowers as a concept. — youtube.com

I just like Dane Bowers as a concept.

youtube.com

I just like Dane Bowers as a concept.

I used to not feel either way about this song, until I listened to it on repeat about 80 times in a row during a uni all-nighter. I went slightly crazy as a result, but it kept me going. Through the repetition I came to weirdly love it. — youtube.com

I used to not feel either way about this song, until I listened to it on repeat about 80 times in a row during a uni all-nighter. I went slightly crazy as a result, but it kept me going. Through the repetition I came to weirdly love it.

youtube.com

I used to not feel either way about this song, until I listened to it on repeat about 80 times in a row during a uni all-nighter. I went slightly crazy as a result, but it kept me going. Through the repetition I came to weirdly love it.

I feel like 5ive are a slightly forgotten boy band now in comparison to other U.K. boy bands like Boyzone and Westlife, who have armies of mums going to their reunion shows! But no denying this is a hit and underplayed nowadays! — youtube.com

I feel like 5ive are a slightly forgotten boy band now in comparison to other U.K. boy bands like Boyzone and Westlife, who have armies of mums going to their reunion shows! But no denying this is a hit and underplayed nowadays!

youtube.com

I feel like 5ive are a slightly forgotten boy band now in comparison to other U.K. boy bands like Boyzone and Westlife, who have armies of mums going to their reunion shows! But no denying this is a hit and underplayed nowadays!

This is underrated for lots of reasons, the beige/white video aesthetic for example, but the main reason being that the British public considered Bob the Builder - "Can We Fix It" a more fitting millennial Christmas No. 1 than this heartfelt message of love! My Christmas was ruined :( — youtube.com

This is underrated for lots of reasons, the beige/white video aesthetic for example, but the main reason being that the British public considered Bob the Builder - "Can We Fix It" a more fitting millennial Christmas No. 1 than this heartfelt message of love! My Christmas was ruined :(

youtube.com

This is underrated for lots of reasons, the beige/white video aesthetic for example, but the main reason being that the British public considered Bob the Builder - "Can We Fix It" a more fitting millennial Christmas No. 1 than this heartfelt message of love! My Christmas was ruined :(

I don't think this track was released as a single in the U.K., but it was on their first album and ended up being one of my favorites. It's way more of a sad/heartfelt song, and I used to imagine Justin driving himself crazy thinking about me (lol). The video concept for the song is great too! — youtube.com

I don't think this track was released as a single in the U.K., but it was on their first album and ended up being one of my favorites. It's way more of a sad/heartfelt song, and I used to imagine Justin driving himself crazy thinking about me (lol). The video concept for the song is great too!

youtube.com

I don't think this track was released as a single in the U.K., but it was on their first album and ended up being one of my favorites. It's way more of a sad/heartfelt song, and I used to imagine Justin driving himself crazy thinking about me (lol). The video concept for the song is great too!

This was on a party album I had called It's a Girl Thing alongside Atomic Kitten, Britney, etc. Although Samantha Mumba seems to have been forgotten about now, I remember her being quite a big deal at the time, at least for me... — youtube.com

This was on a party album I had called It's a Girl Thing alongside Atomic Kitten, Britney, etc. Although Samantha Mumba seems to have been forgotten about now, I remember her being quite a big deal at the time, at least for me...

youtube.com

This was on a party album I had called It's a Girl Thing alongside Atomic Kitten, Britney, etc. Although Samantha Mumba seems to have been forgotten about now, I remember her being quite a big deal at the time, at least for me...

Although Mel C was my favorite Spice Girl she was probably the most underrated one. This was despite the fact that her solo singles were way better than the other Spice Girls' solo tracks. Plus this track also features my favorite member of TLC, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes! — youtube.com

Although Mel C was my favorite Spice Girl she was probably the most underrated one. This was despite the fact that her solo singles were way better than the other Spice Girls' solo tracks. Plus this track also features my favorite member of TLC, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes!

youtube.com

Although Mel C was my favorite Spice Girl she was probably the most underrated one. This was despite the fact that her solo singles were way better than the other Spice Girls' solo tracks. Plus this track also features my favorite member of TLC, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes!

Big Brovaz were only about for a minute and were probably only cool if you were 11 years old, which I was when this song came out. They're not likely to pop up on anyone's Y2K mood boards or Tumblr dash, but I think this song was really great. — youtube.com

Big Brovaz were only about for a minute and were probably only cool if you were 11 years old, which I was when this song came out. They're not likely to pop up on anyone's Y2K mood boards or Tumblr dash, but I think this song was really great.

youtube.com

Big Brovaz were only about for a minute and were probably only cool if you were 11 years old, which I was when this song came out. They're not likely to pop up on anyone's Y2K mood boards or Tumblr dash, but I think this song was really great.

This was the first single I ever bought, which is kind of horrible, but looking back it was actually pretty forward-thinking and meta for its time — a hit created from an early internet meme, sung by a pop star hamster! — youtube.com

This was the first single I ever bought, which is kind of horrible, but looking back it was actually pretty forward-thinking and meta for its time — a hit created from an early internet meme, sung by a pop star hamster!

youtube.com

This was the first single I ever bought, which is kind of horrible, but looking back it was actually pretty forward-thinking and meta for its time — a hit created from an early internet meme, sung by a pop star hamster!

Spotify — embed.spotify.com

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