It’s not even 2010 yet and people are starting to sign off on the 00’s with Best Of lists and rankings. NPR’s “Song of the Day” segment “will survey the past decade, one year (and one song) at a time, with an emphasis on America’s most popular music. These picks don’t exactly qualify as musical discoveries, but they do have something to say about the 10 years we’re about to leave behind.” This list isn’t for the Pitchfork obscurity-obsessed crowd nor VH1’s “I Love the [insert decade here]” talking heads. NPR kicks off their look back at our closing decade with N’SYNC and their song “Bye Bye Bye.”

For as much as “Bye Bye Bye” feels like the end of an era in hindsight — boy bands would soon fade, the group broke up in 2002 after one more album, and No Strings Attached’s record-setting sales of 2.4 million copies in its first week seems downright surreal today — ‘N Sync’s primary players haven’t gone anywhere. Justin Timberlake would go on to release the frequently fantastic solo albums Justified and FutureSex/LoveSounds, both of which sold millions, while Lance Bass, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick have all experienced varying degrees of TV ubiquity.

Although back then I think we all thought JC Chasez had the inside track on who would emerge to have the most successful solo career.

Inspired by “the slew of impossibly named NPR hosts” such as “Renee Montagne, Steve Inskeep, Corey Flintoff, Korva Coleman, Kai Ryssdal, Dina Temple-Raston,” which has even fueled a spirited discussion on Ask Metafilter, a couple tumblrites have devised a system for creating your very own unique NPR host name.

Here’s how it works: You take your middle initial and insert it somewhere into your first name. Then you add on the smallest foreign town you’ve ever visited.

Jump on this bandwagon before it starts appearing on your Facebook news feed from every single one of your so-called friends.

This is Matthews Angarsk-Ilsan signing off.

[Via]

This could possibly be the best two hours of your month. Everyone who listens to This American Life as compulsively as I do already knows about it, but I would be remiss in my duties as a faithful listener if I didn’t take 100 words to either remind you about or announce the upcoming live TAL show, which you can watch at a movie theatre near you (listings here) on April 23rd. This is an actual episode performed and recorded live onstage with “some of our favorite contributors. Dan Savage, Starlee Kine, and Mike Birbiglia will tell stories. David Rakoff and Dave Hill will conduct a ‘special investigation.’ Plus a new cartoon by Chris Ware, additional visuals by Arthur Jones, and a very special appearance by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer!”

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