i guess i just have a different way of looking at lists like this. if i were asked to rank the best 100 of the last 25 years, i wouldn't simply just put the 100 songs i enjoy the most. criteria aside from my personal tastes would be included and i think so many people complain about these things with only their tastes in mind. "i hate teen pop, how could a teen pop song make this list. laughable" is how i read a lot of the complaints. it ignores the criteria like popularity (which certainly should be used, it says a lot of people like it, whether you agree with them or not) or what it changed or how long it will last. which brings me to my next point, what do you consider standing the test of time? i say it is that people years from now will turn on a radio station (of the proper format of course) and enjoy listening to that song. i mean look at oldies radio. they play a ton of songs that people still love to listen to. i'm sure there were a ton more, and these are the ones that made it. i can't imagine i won't hear baby one more time or i want it that way on a future 90's station. that's what i consider standing the test of time. and as regards "baby one more time" and "i want it that way", i do think they stand apart from the typical teen pop song in important ways (while i don't think mmmm bop does and have no idea how it made the list) and thus is why they made it and no other "new kids on the block, spice girls, debbie gibson" songs made it (and why no other britney, backstreet songs made it). i just think saying the two biggest singles off two of the top 30 selling albums, songs that launced a career and strengthened another one, and songs that are fine pop songs in their own right, to think they don't belong simply b/c one doesn't enjoy them is silly. as for new kids, i've heard exactly one song by them ever, and i only got about half way thru before i had to stop listening. i have an extremely high tolerance for what most people think of as cheesy pop songs, and even i was disgusted. but then again, had that song been an immensely huge hit, stood apart from other songs, and was something i still heard with high frequency on 80's radio, i probably wouldn't have a problem with it being on this countdown. of course it fit none of those criteria except possibly a little bit of the first.
Lose Yourself isn't near Eminem's stuff on The Slim Shady LP and Marshall Mathers LP. . .It is simply his best song that isn't "controversial".
