Twenty Twenty: A Pop Culture Podcast Message Heard

Award Season is a highlight of the pop culture calendar. From MTV’s Video Music Awards in September through to the Academy Awards in March, we are treated to nearly six months of red carpet looks, tearful acceptance speeches and, if we’re lucky, a healthy dose of celeb drama. What better way to end the first season of Twenty Twenty than by looking at who won big in the year 2000, and dishing out some awards of our own. Let the show begin...


This is our last episode of the series, and we want to hear your feedback! Fill in this survey by Tuesday 15th December to be in with a chance of winning a copy of Sylvia Patterson’s, ‘I’m not with the band’: https://forms.gle/s5XBbYu3YSadRhCV8


And keep in touch! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for updates on Twenty Twenty

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we’re hosting a special roundtable on everyone’s favourite mother-daughter duo, The Gilmore Girls. We’re joined by critic Zarina Muhammad, who is one half of art collective The White Pube, and Anna Leszkiewicz, Culture Editor at the New Statesman.


 


Together we discuss Gilmore Girls’ timeless appeal and its second life as a streaming sensation. We’ll also look back at how the show was received at the time as well as the grittier themes of class and privilege tucked beneath its cozy exterior.


 


References 


Gilmore Girls Review, Zarina Muhammad - The White Pube


SRSLY Gilmore Girls Quiz


SRSLY Gilmore Girls Special


 


Clips:


Where You Lead I Will Follow (Gilmore Girls Theme), Carole King


Opening Scene, S1EP1


Gilmore Girls Music - La La Song's

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pure Shores by All Saints. Independent Women by Destiny’s Child. Can’t Fight the Moonlight by LeAnn Rimes. These chart-topping tracks are some of the year 2000’s most memorable pop hits — but none of them would exist if it weren’t for movies. Designed as marketing tie-ins for the original soundtracks to The Beach, Charlie’s Angels and Coyote Ugly, the legacies of these songs have outlasted the movies they were attached to. In this episode, we explore the increasingly entwined relationship between Hollywood, pop music and the hype machine and how it’s changed over the last 20 years.


We talk to legendary music supervisor and record executive Kathy Nelson (Miami Vice, Pulp Fiction, Dangerous Minds, High Fidelity, and SO MANY MORE) who tells us the story behind Can’t Fight the Moonlight. 


Got a favourite culture moment from 2000 you want us to talk about? Suggest an episode idea here. 


You can also follow us on Twitter and Instagram


References and Clips


Kathy Nelson, IMDB


The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon, Elizabeth Gilbert 


Coolio, Gangsta’s Paradise


Coyote Ugly (2000)


Can’t Fight The Moonlight, LeAnn Rimes

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twenty years after it first launched, The Sims is still going strong. Much more than a nostalgic relic of the noughties, the game has a thriving community of fans. In this episode, Tara, a longtime player of the game, explains it’s enduring appeal to Simran — a self-identified Sims noob.


We get into the tensions of escapism and introspection within the game and talk about the challenges of reflecting the ‘real world’ in a simulation. We’ll also ask: is The Sims “a beguiling capitalist fantasy” or can a more meaningful commentary on consumerism be found amongst the hypnotic tones of the ‘buy mode’ music? 


Got a favourite culture moment from 2000 you want us to talk about? Suggest an episode idea here. 


You can also follow us on Twitter and Instagram


Clips used in this episode: 


The Sims 1- House Fire


Sims 1: Craziest Party Ever…


The Sims 1: The Tragic Clown


The Sims 1 - All Places to "Play with" (Woohoo)


Lily Allen - Smile (Simlish)


The Sims Soundtrack: Build Mode 1


References: 


The Nod, Autumn 


Playing The Sims Is Better Meditation than Meditation, GQ


I Think About My Painting Goblin in The Sims a Lot, The Cut


My land of make believe: life after The Sims, The Guardian ,Liv Siddal


Will Wright - New Yorker profile


The Sims at 20: two decades of life, love and reorganising the kitchen, The Guardian 


Playing "The Sims"as though you were Kurt Cobain, Miguel Sicart


Inside the online communities making beautiful black Sims, Dazed


The Untold Story of 'The Sims,' Your First Favorite Jazz Record, VICE 


 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Southampton teenager Craig David arrived into the mainstream with the help of production duo Artful Dodger in 1999, many considered him a poster boy for UK Garage. In his own work, he melded that 2-step sound with crooning R&B and even Spanish guitar to great effect. Born To Do It became the fastest-selling debut album ever by a British male solo act, a record the album holds to this day. So why was it that the following year he was snubbed at the BRIT Awards? Why, in 2002, was he already singing about fame’s inevitable ‘Rise & Fall’? And why was he the target of so many jokes? We consider the mythology and legacy of Craig David, and ask what happens when subculture goes mainstream.


Got a favourite culture moment from 2000 you want us to talk about? Suggest an episode idea here. 


You can also follow us on Twitter and Instagram


 


Clips and References


 


0:36 - Fill Me In, Craig David  


0:43 - 7 Days, Craig David


1:01 - “Soulful Craig David looks set to sweep Brit awards”, The Guardian


1:07 - No BRITS for CD, Craigs performance at the 2001 BRITS


3:34 - Re-wind, Artful Dodger


5:32 - “Mature Ravers Only: The Story of UK Garage Fashion”, Red Bull 


6:19 - “How Ayia Napa transformed from a fishing village to the heart of garage music”, New European


9:11 - Pitchfork, Review of Born To Do It


11:56 - Rolling Stone Review


13:18 - What’s Your Flava?, Craig David


14:08 - Sexy Willy Wonka


14:19 - Rise & Fall, Sting and Craig David


17:38 - Melody Maker cover


18:22 - Simon Reynolds, Bring The Noise 


19:20 - Bo Selecta - The Craig David Story


23:00 - Liberty X, Being Nobody


25:08 - Fearne and Craig David


27:25 - People Just Do Nothing Trailer


28:36 - Craig David on BBC 1 Xtra


29:10 - When The Baseline Drops, Craig David x Big Nastie


31:20 - Got It Good, Kaytranada ft Craig David


 


Special thanks to Max Palmer for providing original music for this episode! You can listen to more of his music here: www.soundcloud.com/sundensound

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The new millennium brought with it a fresh wave of optimism and excitement for the future. Zadie Smith's best selling debut novel White Teeth embodied this mood and symbolised a changing of the guard. Smith was lauded with critical acclaim and lavished with media attention — an overnight literary sensation at just 24 years old. With special guest Sharmaine Lovegrove, publisher at Dialogue Books, we explore the impact of the novel and the legacy of its author.


Content Warning: Mention of suicide  


Got a favourite culture moment from 2000 you want us to talk about? Suggest an episode idea here. 


You can also follow us on Twitter and Instagram


Follow Sharmaine on Twitter here.


Find out more about the Black Writers Guild here. 


 


Select books Sharmaine mentions in the episode: 


The Lonely Londoners, Sam Selvon


Second Class Citizen, Buchi Emecheta


The Buddha of Suburbia, Hanif Kureishi


The Black Album, Hanif Kureishi


Blonde Roots, Bernardine Evaristo


Girl, Woman, Other,  Bernardine Evaristo


Queenie, Candice Carty Williams


Bridget Jones Diary, Helen Fielding


 


Select work by Zadie Smith referenced: 


Fences: A Brexit Diary, NY Books


Stormzy at Glastonbury


Intimations


Sharmaines question to Zadie in the Guardian


 


Clips Used: 


Tony Blair wins landslide general election win for Labour (1997) - Newsnight archives


America's Internet Trading Boom (1990) -  


Journeyman Pictures


Tony Blair on immigration (2004) -  London Business School

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices