A lot of this playlist comprises of a combination of songs that were found in the Billboard Year End Top 100 charts for the early aughts (the years 2000 to 2004) along with some non charters that were popular or had some rotation in San Francisco Bay Area F.M. radio. 

The whole point of this playlist is to take you back in time - a simpler time as you, not the times themselves, were a simpler person. 

Don't believe me? Well, consider the fact that if you listen to the subsequent playlist, RWTHS2K4 + log(10^21): The Aftermath, a personal playlist that sort of reflects back to some familiar sounds from earlier aughts (2000 - 2004) but suddenly deviates to some older or present sounds that almost seems to avoid altogether the influences of the early aughts. 

A pedantic, over analytical take on the tracks themselves isn't necessary for what this website is about: a musical celebration of a score since successfully blowing high school in high, middling or low notes.

So enough reading: get some headphones, earbuds, whatever, and press play on this playlist.

A personal playlist as my gift to you all of my graduating class.
The only thing I can promise you is a that it'll be the most strange playlist that unlike the more brighter, sunnier, playlist of the early aughts that was our time at Wally™.

You might notice that I've had on repeat a particular Spanish pop star of the 1960s and 70s, Mari Trini, and the reason is quite simple: being that I was a member of the Cortez's Criminalz homeroom and that Mrs. Cortez taught Spanish, I figured, I may give some nods to that fact by incorporating one of my favorite Spanish language singers. By extension I was sort of lending it to some Italian pop stars of the 1960s as well (so fuggeddabouditt 🤏)

So buckle up, it's going to be a bit of a journey into a mind that still mumbles the "Toys-Я-Us" jingle.
I hope that you enjoy it, and maybe find some interesting surprises for your own musical journey in life.
I just one question to ask you think about as you listen to this playlist:
Do you like the things that life is showing you? 💀

The class of 2004 was primarily a Hip-Hop and R&B crowd.
Even when you had people who gravitated to any kind of pop music,
if you asked them what genre they could all agree,
Hip-Hop and R&B would be the answer.
Sure, there were rock fans, such as Asian Superstar Sensation Pat L.
(No I have not forgotten about you are, the Class of '04's best known rock fanatic). 

So for who was rock and roll for among the class of 2004?
The best way I can put it is that while hip-hop was the pragmatic realists' musical genre,
rock and roll was the romantic escapists' musical genre.

So with that said:
BUTR - 102.3 F.M.
Where we play nothing but rock all day, everyday.
The Butt 🚬

There was Hip-Hop that some of our graduating class would catch on Wild 94.9 
like how some of their older counterparts would catch
light rock and adult contemporary on KOIT 96.5.
But people forget sometimes that there are other artists that don't have the 
blessings and muscle of Roc-a-Fella and Dime Dash & Co.
Some people are still underground, some are still street.

Welcome motherfuckers to Wallenberg after dark:
Ain't no handholding in this bitch.
No Pharell hipster funk magic. Nah.
Get your CD, MiniDisc, or portable cassette player.
It's going down.

Electronic music was one of the genres that, like rock and roll, was seldom heard by most of 2004.
But it was this genre that really made nights exciting after school.
Whether you were just hanging out by yourself, you were at a part-time job,
or you were just hanging around the house playing some online game (Quake III Arena anyone?)
Trance, chillout, house, indietronica or even Eurodance, it almost didn't matter,
you listened to it all and you wanted get the thrills and kicks from what was the 
best sounds that you can get that were cutting edge (and still are) that would 
later pop up in some limited fashion in pop music later.

Electronic music of the time was like runway fashion: the couture of the runway would be the
expensive prototypes for future fashion seasons in, less than glorious, form at your
local Target or Ross - or, God forbid, Old Navy store.
Some tools of the trade to help