"Lucky" by Britney Spears (2000)

Catching up on the year 2000

The year 2000 was a year lost due to my lack of concern or awareness for a few things: Comic books, movies, and music. Thanks to the Internet (particularly Wikipedia and YouTube), money, and my almost photographic memory, I am slowly catching up on the year that I wasted.

Comic books I have. I have bought some Marvel titles of the 2000s from people who sold them at rock bottom prices. Movies, I have watched loads after my mother bought our family's very first VCD player.

Music, I have cassettes and MP3 files. These possessions make me feel better about my lack of both high school and college romance and experience hanging out with young people.

Late love for Britney Spears, pop princess

So let's talk about songs. One of the songs that defined my summer of 2002 was the song "Lucky" by Britney Spears off her record-breaking second album Oops!... I Did It Again, released in 2000.

"Lucky" single cover

One song leads to another, if you ask me. Listening to the album's title track (and thinking it to be a James Bond song) and a trip to my grandmother's place (before she passed away) lead me to "Lucky" in the time when pop music still reigned my consciousness.

In my life, 2002 was a Britney Spears year. I even recalled watching one of her concerts on the day before school started. I later bought two bootlegged cassettes and a CD, all blaring Britney Spears. "I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman" from her third album Britney (2002) was the hit that time but in my mind, it was "Lucky", "Stronger" and the title track of the second album, which is my most favorite Britney Spears album. In my mind, things was the year 2000, a year lost.

Screen capture from the music video

From Britney Spears, I then caught up on Westlife, Backstreet Boys, and NSYNC. I later bought their respective 2000 albums (Coast to Coast, Black and Blue, and No Strings Attached), either original or bootlegged. I got my hand on a few music magazines from that year too. I would also gather clippings of 2000's music scene and years later, expand my knowledge with the help of the Internet. I took myself back to 2000.

In my book, 2000 was one of the best years in music. Too bad I wasted it. I was late for the experience. But better late than never.