30 June 2016

top 100 of the '00s | 74. jennifer lopez - "play"

Though barely on my radar when it came out, I ended the decade with a deep, deep respect for this track.

It wasn't until about 2010 -- well into the era of digital pop -- that I realized just how ahead of its time this song was. When it was released, no one was doing this exact type of electropop. Top 40 radio was dominated by shitty boy bands, hip hop, and the butt rock that was forming from the sludge leftover from '90s alt rock.

J-Lo had already cracked the Top 10 with a relatively straightforward electropop track in "Waiting For Tonight," but that track was indubitably produced with '90s eurohouse sensibilities. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

"Play" -- from her sophomore album -- was looking forward. It was a harbinger of what electropop would become 7 or 8 years later. Laying ears on it in 2016, you'll have a hard time believing this track came out way back in January 2001.

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