‘Music For The Dancers’ N°116 – Vintage 2000s Music Videos

1 . Justin Timberlake – SexyBack (w/ Timbaland)

“SexyBack” operates like a seismic shift in Justin Timberlake’s catalog, a bold pivot from R&B crooner to electro-funk provocateur.

Anchored in the *FutureSex/LoveSounds* ethos, the track’s distorted vocals and skeletal electronic chords borrow enough from Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel” and James Brown’s visceral intensity to feel evocative yet distinctly Timberlake.

Co-written and produced by Timberlake, Timbaland, and Nate “Danja” Hills, the song bears the fingerprints of Thomas Crown Studios in Virginia Beach, where it was recorded and later mixed by Jimmy Douglass via Pro Tools—a detail that explains the track’s hyper-engineered sheen and sharp rhythmic precision.

Those heavy beats, locked at 117 BPM, frame its swagger, while the distorted vocals feel like Bowie covering Byrne covering Brown—an almost Frankensteinian layering of influences, purposeful but erring on the edge of chaos.

The song’s seven-week reign atop the *Billboard* Hot 100, along with several other chart victories globally, underscores its cultural resonance in 2006, a moment ripe for reinvention.

The Michael Haussman-directed music video, set against the vibrant backdrop of Barcelona, introduces Timbaland’s celebrated “acting debut,” a subtle charm that matches the song’s smirking brashness.

Yet, for all its accolades—three-times platinum certifications and a Grammy for Best Dance Recording in 2007—its reliance on distorted gloss can sometimes feel more style than substance.

“SexyBack” doesn’t “just” challenge Timberlake’s NSYNC roots; it bulldozes them, signaling his hunger for subversion, a hunger that sidesteps melody for a visceral rhythm assault.

This isn’t an experiment in indulgence but in identity, a gamble that pays off just enough to justify its inflated posturing.

Featured on the 2006 album “FutureSex/LoveSounds“.

Lyrics >> Review >> More by the same : Official Site

2 . Ashanti – Happy

“Happy” by Ashanti is one of those early 2000s R&B tracks that feels like the epitome of its time—polished, catchy, yet undeniably tied to its specific moment.

It’s the second single from Ashanti’s self-titled debut album, released in June 2002, and produced by a Murder Inc. heavy-hitter team: Irv Gotti, 7 Aurelius, and Chink Santana. That production trio, known for weaving velvety beats with street-tinged gloss, crafts a sound here that’s as much about atmosphere as it is about structure. The song’s midtempo bounce rests comfortably on a beat that feels nostalgic now, but was forward-leaning in its era.

The track peaked at number 8 on the US *Billboard* Hot 100 and went up to number 6 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, making it clear that Ashanti’s knack for crafting radio-friendly choruses wasn’t a fluke. Internationally, the song enjoyed moderate success, landing in the top ten in the Netherlands and flirting with the top forty elsewhere in markets like Switzerland and Australia. However, these outside-the-US chart positions perhaps reflect its reliance on a sound deeply rooted in U.S.-based R&B trends that didn’t always translate globally with the same intensity.

Ja Rule’s presence in certain versions adds a bit of dynamic contrast, though his absence in the official single might make the track feel slightly more one-note. The uncomplicated lyrics and repetitive hooks, while undeniably infectious, could also be seen as the track leaning on formula rather than reinvention. That being said, Ashanti’s delivery—warm, effortless, and sincere—lends the track a sense of charm that keeps it from descending into sheer banality.

Live performances, including her opening stint on the North American leg of Mariah Carey’s *Charmbracelet World Tour*, likely amplified the song’s visibility, even if it didn’t stretch its artistic reach. As part of her promotional arsenal, it served more as a crowd-pleaser than a daring artistic statement.

In the grander scheme, “Happy” feels like a safe sophomore single from an album that was clearly structured to solidify Ashanti’s place in mainstream R&B. The immense commercial success of *Ashanti*, debuting at number one on the *Billboard* 200 and earning triple platinum certification, underscores the polished and market-savvy approach that defined her career’s early phase. If this track is a snapshot, it’s of an artist navigating her meteoric rise, somewhat predictably, but undeniably effectively.

Featured on the 2002 album “Ashanti”.

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3 . Craig David – 6 of 1 Thing

“6 of 1 Thing” sits at a curious intersection of Craig David’s evolution as an artist and his commitment to rhythmic precision.

Recorded in Havana, Cuba, the song leans heavily into the musical influences of its birthplace, but its ambitions feel tethered to the mainstream pop-R&B template prevalent in the mid-2000s.

The production, helmed by Martin Terefe and Fraser T. Smith, weaves the Cuban atmosphere into a track that could just as easily find its home on a conveyor belt of radio-friendly singles—polished, but not particularly groundbreaking.

Fraser T. Smith’s résumé, with names like Beyoncé and Kano, suggests a sharp ear for layering, and this song benefits from those polished textures, though it occasionally feels more like a technical exercise than an inspired performance.

The chart performance—peaking at a modest number 39 on the UK Singles Chart—underscores its struggle to command attention amid the crowded sonic landscape of 2007.

David, best known for the sultry immediacy of “7 Days” and “Fill Me In,” seems faintly disconnected here, delivering a track with undeniable craft but limited staying power.

The Havana recording context offers a nod to cultural openness, even as the song’s structure adheres to patterns more aligned with David’s earlier, safer successes.

If anything, “6 of 1 Thing” feels like a footnote in Craig David’s otherwise abundant toolbox of sleek pop-R&B hits—a song that checks production boxes but stops short of moving the needle in his discography.

Featured on the 2007 album “Trust Me “.

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4 . Tom Novy – Your Body

“Your Body,” the 2004 release by German DJ and producer Tom Novy, exemplifies a moment in electronic and house music where sleek production met understated vocal charm.

Featuring Michael Marshall’s vocals, the track aims for a balance between contagious rhythm and soulful resonance. Marshall’s presence provides an essential warmth, though it occasionally teeters on the edge of blending too seamlessly into the polished beats, leaving one wondering whether the song’s standout identity lies in its melody or its production finesse.

The song arrived as a single on May 17, 2004, packaged with four versions, including the “Original” and “Club Mix,” running a combined length of 28:27 minutes. This generous array of mixes mirrors the club culture where DJs need flexibility for peak-hour energy or after-hours intimacy. The fact that “Your Body” found heavy rotation in global clubs underscores its functional design for a dancefloor, even as it stops short of innovation. The absence of detailed chart positions within the available information implies its impact was more experiential than statistical.

Tom Novy, born Thomas Reichold, already boasted a long career by this point, and this track cements his affiliation with electronic grooves geared more for movement than introspection. While “Your Body” is undeniably listenable, its ambition feels contained, as if it hesitates to push its defining elements—the vocals, the hooks, the rhythm—just a step further to carve out something truly distinctive. A fitting artifact of its time, it neither overstays its welcome nor demands repeated revisitation.

Featured on the 2006 album “Superstar”.

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5 . StoneBridge – Take Me Away (w/ Therese)

“Take Me Away,” released on January 17, 2005, and nestled within StoneBridge’s album “Can’t Get Enough,” feels like a brisk walk through early 2000s dance music sensibilities. Its straightforward structure and clean production showcase StoneBridge’s grasp of crowd-ready electronica, while Therese Grankvist’s vocal lines, etched in bright, ascending phrases, lend a human pulse to the track.

The song succeeds in part due to its knack for inhabiting various charts across the globe. The numbers are undeniably solid: number eight in Finland, nine in the UK Singles Chart, and a respectable twelve on the Billboard Hot Dance Airplay chart in the US. For a genre leaning heavily on repetition, “Take Me Away” manages to be just kinetic enough to avoid monotony.

Still, there’s a sense of commercial calculation lurking behind the track’s shimmer. The multiple remixes—ranging from the StoneBridge 12-inch mix to the D-Bop mix—underscore this adaptability, though one wonders whether all these permutations enhance the original or merely dilute its edges. Nothing cloys so much as it teeters on the safe side, straddling a mainstream sensibility that avoids risk-taking.

Therese’s vocals are strong, yet interchangeable, emphasizing the song’s functional, almost modular quality: versatile but perhaps lacking an abiding personality. As a whole, “Take Me Away” is less a declaration and more a suggestion, perfectly content to bask in electronic predictability while hinting at something greater it never fully explores.

Featured on the 2004 album “Can’t Get Enough”.

Lyrics >> Review >> More by the same : Wikipedia

6 . Basshunter – Now You’re Gone

“Now You’re Gone” is a curious cultural artifact, repackaging Basshunter’s “Boten Anna” with English lyrics and a vocal swap courtesy of Sebastian Westwood.

While “Boten Anna” spun its story around a mistaken IRC bot, the English version shifts into the oversaturated realm of club-ready heartbreak, trading quirk for formula.

The origins of this track are perhaps more intriguing than the song itself—what began as DJ Mental Theo’s bootleg creation for rave-driven Magaluf sets turned into a global smash, bridging gaps between niche internet culture and mass-market EDM populism.

Released on December 31, 2007, its arrival at the top of the UK Singles Chart in January 2008 felt less like a coronation and more like the moment where the UK surrendered to Europop’s thumping repetition, holding the No. 1 spot for five weeks before Duffy’s “Mercy” reclaimed the charts for blue-eyed soul.

The production here is clean, though hardly adventurous—standard four-on-the-floor percussion underpins a synth line as bright and predictable as a glow stick at an Ibiza foam party.

The lyrics are perfunctory at best, slotting heartbreak clichés into a mawkish narrative that’s disconnected enough from Basshunter’s original intent to feel chronically generic.

The music video, set against Oslo’s frosty yet club-lit backdrop, ups the melodrama, featuring Iranian model Aylar Lie as half of a couple whose breakup is acted out with soap opera earnestness.

That narrative resolution, hinted at on-screen but absent in the lyrics, oozes an inconsistency that mirrors the track’s broader identity confusion.

Success-wise, “Now You’re Gone” is undeniable—a platinum-certified anthem in both the UK and New Zealand, and a commercial juggernaut in Ireland where it became 2008’s fourth-best-seller.

It even made headlines for unintended purposes, such as a charity stunt where students listened to the song on loop for 20 straight hours, likely mastering monotony in the process and raising £2,000 in the bargain.

Basshunter’s trajectory from Halmstad bedroom producer to UK chart-topper feels encapsulated in this track’s bombast and blandness, despite flashes of novelty within its backstory.

For all its accolades, “Now You’re Gone” plays less as an epochal dance anthem and more as a serviceable placeholder on club playlists, caught between invention and inoffensiveness.

Featured on the 2008 album “Now You’re Gone”.

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7 . Out Of Office – Break of Dawn

“Break of Dawn,” released in February 2008, places itself squarely within the late 2000s house music zeitgeist, encapsulating the flavors of house, electro, and speed garage without overstaying its welcome.

Produced by Michael Woods and pressed onto a 12″ vinyl by Suitcase At The Door, the track wears its era proudly, trading in the polished, synthetic textures that dominated electronic playlists at the time. Its appearance in the Top 15 chart for November 2007 links it to a wider constellation of dance-floor staples—one of those tracks that likely peppered small club sets as much as high-profile playlists.

If Woods makes no attempt to reinvent the wheel, it’s because the wheel spins just fine. The production is careful but not particularly daring, with the genre’s usual motifs filtered through a crisp, professional sheen. For listeners drawn to tracks like “Insatiable,” another release under the same Out Of Office moniker, this one slots in comfortably like an expected—but welcome—text from an old friend.

Still, “Break of Dawn” does little to demand closer inspection. It moves, but it doesn’t necessarily compel. Think functional rather than groundbreaking, the kind of song you’d hear during a transitional DJ set rather than at peak-hour hysteria. For better or worse, it’s exactly what its context promises it to be: a piece that reflects its time without challenging its conventions.

House music purists may find its adherence to form refreshing, while others might regret a lack of edgier textures or surprising detours. Either way, it’s hard to knock its competence, even if it doesn’t quite justify a standing ovation.

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8 . Slam – Positive Education

“Positive Education,” released on August 23, 1993, is an eight-minute-plus sermon in techno minimalism from Stuart McMillan and Orde Meikle, the Glasgow duo known collectively as Slam.

Issued under their own Soma Records, the track locks into a 127 BPM groove in the melancholic depths of E-flat minor, marrying precision-engineered rhythms with an uncanny sense of restraint.

Its title might suggest uplift, but don’t expect an epiphany; the mood is more mechanical than spiritual, a tutorial in repetition rather than revelation.

The absence of chart accolades does little to diminish the track’s résumé, as it has found a home in playlists like “Nostalgic DUBS” and “Pete Tong DJ Academy – Throwback Essentials.” That this song resonates nearly three decades later speaks to its utility as a DJ weapon, if not its emotional depth.

Notably absent are collaborations or notable awards, which feels fitting for a track so solitary in its sonic ambition.

In the broader context of Slam’s career, “Positive Education” operates less as a statement piece and more as a foundation stone within their techno edifice—functional in the extreme, but hardly ornamental.

McMillan and Meikle have been growers, not showmen; their imprint on the UK techno scene is undeniable, but this track exemplifies their tendency toward pragmatic efficiency over flamboyant innovation.

If “Positive Education” teaches anything, it’s that endurance often trumps flash.

Lyrics >> More by the same : Official Site

9 . Motorcycle – As The Rush Comes

“As the Rush Comes,” released on January 5, 2004, is Motorcycle’s lone claim to fame, yet its impact on the trance arena is hard to overlook.

On paper, the song had all the ingredients for chart success: Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden, a production duo riding a wave of early-2000s electronic innovation, and the ethereal voice of Jes Brieden, managing to glide above the pulsing synths with minimal effort. Together, they stitched a narrative that bridges late-night club escapism and dawn-lit introspection—an alchemy that earned the track 19 uninterrupted weeks atop the US Billboard Hot Dance Airplay chart and a Grammy nomination in 2005.

The track’s lyrics flirt with intimacy—introspective yet distant—a narrative device that keeps things interesting without venturing into anything too emotionally taxing. It helps that Jes’ smoky vocal delivery anchors the mood, enhancing the song’s melodic depth without demanding attention.

Its production, credited to Gabriel & Dresden, is both its strength and limitation. While the sleek layering of beats, synths, and basslines is undeniably engaging, the arrangement feels overly polite, as if too calculated to truly disarm. The flow of the song is undeniably smooth, but in hindsight, it edges closer to a template than a masterpiece, making it a staple in DJ sets without ever being the real showstopper.

Notably, “As the Rush Comes” captured the zeitgeist, earning Tune of the Year honors via Armin van Buuren’s radio show “A State of Trance” and enticing remix treatments from notable names like Above & Beyond and van Buuren himself. These adaptations arguably added more dimension to the original, teasing out nuances as diverse sonic identities swirled around the universal appeal of the track.

In the UK, the song peaked at number 11, and its resonance extended across Europe, finding top 20 placements in Finland, Flanders, and the Netherlands. Its Silver certification by the British Phonographic Industry, marking over 200,000 units sold, underscores its commercial viability without overstaying its welcome in popular memory.

For something written and recorded in a single day, “As the Rush Comes” is a remarkable time capsule of mid-2000s trance music. If the collaboration between Motorcycle members defined a fleeting era of electronic music collaboration, the song, at its best, illustrates how a day’s work can extend an anthem’s lifespan into decades.

Lyrics >> Review >> More by the same : Wikipedia

10 . Ferry Corsten – Rock Your Body Rock

“Rock Your Body Rock” makes no effort to disguise itself—it’s brash, minimalist, and unapologetically one-dimensional. That’s not an insult; it’s a fair appraisal of Ferry Corsten’s 2003 foray into electro-laced trance, as featured on his debut studio album “Right of Way.”

The track locks itself into a single B-flat chord, leaning on Corsten’s heavily processed vocals to set the tone. These vocals, droning with an almost mechanical detachment, tether the song to its peculiar hypnotic groove. Texturally, it’s the instrumental passages that carry most of the weight, layering rhythms and synths that surge toward a euphoric ‘chorus.’ Yet, the verses—appearing a grand total of twice—feel like placeholders, an afterthought in a structure that thrives on repetition as much as it risks monotony.

Commercially, the gamble paid off. It peaked at number 11 on the UK Official Singles Chart, clinging to the Top 40 for six weeks—an impressive feat for a track this stripped-down. More to the point, it claimed the number 1 spot on the UK Official Dance Singles Chart for two weeks, proof of its resonance in clubs. Inclusion in the “FIFA 2005” soundtrack only amplified its reach, embedding Corsten in the ears of gamers everywhere.

The music video’s appearance on *Top of the Pops* was critical to its identity, functioning as a kind of auditory middleman for listeners who knew the sound but not the title. Still, it’s hard to ignore the pervasive sense of self-containment. It’s as if the track avoids inviting listeners in, standing firmly as an immovable object on the dancefloor instead.

Ferry Corsten’s past ventures—whether as System F with “Out of the Blue” or alongside Tiësto as Gouryella—showcase how richly textured and melodically expansive he can be. In comparison, “Rock Your Body Rock” feels like a calculated contraction. Effective? Certainly. Memorable? Possibly, though more for its rhythm than any narrative or melodic evolution.

Featured on the 2003 album “Right of Way “.

Lyrics >> More by the same : Official Site

11 . Eric Prydz – Proper Education

Eric Prydz’s “Proper Education” reimagines Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Part II” with a meticulous attention to electronic texture that catapulted it into early EDM prominence. Released in 2006 under Ministry of Sound, Data Records, and Ultra Records, it takes the haunting chants of resistance from the original and places them in a pulsating house framework.

The track’s commercial success is undeniable, peaking at No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart and reigning atop Billboard’s Hot Dance Chart. Spending 11 weeks in the UK Top 40 and an impressive 29 weeks leading the Official Dance Singles Chart, its grip on audiences was unmistakable. Yet, what sets it apart is its ability to tether global dancefloor energy to Pink Floyd’s sardonic cry against institutional rigidity—a bold move with just enough reverence not to alienate purists.

The accompanying music video, viewed over 3 million times, folds in a message about climate change. It’s an alignment with Pink Floyd’s knack for social commentary but feels a little strained, using dense club beats to package an ecological wake-up call. Grammatically correct, maybe, but conceptually muddied.

Prydz himself, a Swedish producer shaping electronic music for over two decades, has a knack for creating anthems like “Call on Me” and “Pjanoo.” In “Proper Education,” his sharp production offers pristine layering, but the track sometimes flirts too closely with over-polish. He later expands his vision into realms like virtual reality concerts—ambitious, certainly, but divorced from the grit that once made floor-filling tracks click.

“Proper Education” straddles art and accessibility, capturing a zeitgeist moment of electronic innovation while not quite standing up to deeper scrutiny. Maybe borrowing gravitas is easier than building it outright. A-

Lyrics >> Review >> More by the same : Official Site

12 . Dirt Devils – The Drill

“The Drill” by Dirt Devils is both a curiosity and a snapshot of Jono Grant and Paavo Siljamäki’s embryonic phase before evolving into the towering institution of Above & Beyond. Released in 2002, the track wields the blunt force of hard trance while toying with the subtler textures that hinted at the duo’s eventual ascendancy within the genre.

As one of the many aliases adopted by Grant and Siljamäki during their formative years—others include Free State and Tranquility Base—Dirt Devils appears to act as a playground for experimentation. “The Drill” itself feels almost impatient, eager to demonstrate its allegiance to the pulse-racing ethos of early-2000s trance without fully embracing the melodic finesse that would later define its creators’ more prominent works.

Its production is raw, relentless, and unapologetically mechanical, reminiscent of a gear grinding itself into repetition. This aesthetic might be seen as both a strength and a weakness. While it mirrors the industrial rigor suggested by its title, it can feel trapped in its own loop, lacking the kind of narrative arc or thematic depth found in later compositions like Above & Beyond’s debut album “Tri-State.”

Interestingly, by the time they released “The Drill,” Grant and Siljamäki had already founded Anjunabeats, a label that would eventually house some of the most celebrated electronic tracks of the era. This context sheds light on the trial-and-error approach visible in their catalog under less famous monikers.

While “The Drill” doesn’t carry the critical acclaim or mainstream visibility of tracks from albums like “Group Therapy” or “We Are All We Need,” it remains a fascinating artifact—an echo from a nascent stage where the duo’s ambitions slightly outran their polish. It doesn’t soar, but it never aims to. It digs, fittingly, its focus less on grandeur and more on gritted determination, its creators still hunting for the formula they’d later perfect.

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