The 333 Best Pop Songs of the 2000s: #238

#238: "I'm Outta Love" (2000) - Anastacia

The year 2000: disco is dead. Remember all those records burned and broken? Though many in pop music like to laugh at it, and some actually call it a myth, there was a time when disco ruled the charts—and many hated that fact (and many still do). Not that there weren’t legitimate complaints about disco—there were, and there still are—but the legitimate complaints didn’t stand up to the fact that other than (at first) the Bee Gees (who were British), disco acts were predominantly black, their records were catchy and easily danceable (though melody always gave way to rhythm), and most white rock and roll acts of that era couldn’t/wouldn’t make dance records, and—other than whatever lifeless excrement the pre-Walsh Eagles shat out—one couldn’t find a record devoid of disco on the sales chart in the late mid ‘70s (though airplay was a different matter entirely). More so than the rock & rollers, the traditional rhythm & blues acts were really losing out on the music moola. Either they converted their sound to a disco beat (see Philly International’s stable of artists), or their sales plummeted. So what to do? Let’s ask Fernando Valenzuela to rest his pitching arm, rent out Dodger Stadium, through those Peaches & Herb and Sylvers’ records on the fire (while secretly stashing the Donna Summer singles), and watch as the wax wanes.

Fast forward twenty years, and disco nostalgia comes back—but not with a bullet this time. It’s looked upon as camp. Not just the music, but the clothing, the hairdos, the fabrics—if not the entire lifestyle—are fondly remembered (primarily by those not old enough to have been born in that era, much less remember it) as a fun trifle, piffle to mock and enjoy at the same time. That type of misremembering happens every decade (often resulting in popular bubblegum like Grease or That ‘70s Show), and to some extent (the mocking), it’s a least partially justified. What most of those nostalgia fans miss, though, in disco, is that some of those records weren’t just catchy and easily danceable thanks to the sustained, insistent, (often) monotonous beat—some were truly exciting records, full of soulful singing and great instrumentation.

This essence is what Anastacia seems to understand. The wah-wah guitars give us the funk (and a bit of wit), the organ gives the record soulful ambiance as well as a bit of bounce, and Anastacia—and her nasality gives her voice personality—knows how to ride and roll a rock-disco groove as sure as anyone since Donna Summer. Burn this record at your own risk.