More than 50 million songs have been lost on Myspace during a “server migration project”, meaning all those classic tunes you used to wack up as your profile song have been lost.
Chances are if you are 14+ during the years of 2004 and 2009, you’ll have had a Myspace page. Depending on what kind of person you were, you’d utilise all the primal forms of social media communication like blogs (so mad rite naoo :@ :@ u kno hu u r!), the politics of your top eight (include Myspace Tom in there if you were dead funneh) and the single most important part, your hip, cool profile tune.
Every time someone clicked onto your profile, your trendy new tune would play out, certifying yourself as pretty much the coolest kid on the planet. Or summat.
This archive of youth culture, which Myspace just lobbed in the bin by accident, mustn’t be forgotten. We’re sure there are many more, but we’ve pulled together six vital Sheffield tunes from that era, spanning the Arctic Monkeys demo of ‘Dancefloor’ to the edgy kids who chose Slow Club’s ‘Me and You’ for their profile pick. Let us know in the comments if we’ve missed yours!
ARCTIC MONKEYS – BET YOU LOOK GOOD ON THE DANCEFLOOR (DEMO) 2004
The original Myspace band, the Monkeys fans showed the early signs of how powerful social media could be. Whilst the band themselves didn’t contribute to the page (other than giving out the Beneath the Boardwalk demo CD for free at their gigs), they were one of the first bands to properly benefit from Myspace.
TODDLA T – BOOM DJ FROM THE STEEL CITY FT MATT HELDERS – 2009
The first track from Todda T’s debut album Skanky Skanky is typical of the mid 2000s scene in Sheff. It featured Matt Helders on drums, and the album’s cover had a spoof of the now-famous Arctic Monkeys cover featuring Chris McClure.
REVEREND AND THE MAKERS – HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD – 2007
A timeless classic from Reverend and the Makers, frontman John McClure reportedly turned down a big money recording contract following this release. The reason? They told him to sound more like the Monkeys. Not sure they got the lyrical content of the tune, did they?
SLOW CLUB – ME AND YOU – 2007
One of the first releases from Sheff duo Slow Club, ‘Me and You’ showed their heartwarming side which eventually endeared Rebecca Taylor and Charles Watson to many around Sheffield and beyond.
MILBURN – WHAT WILL YOU DO WHEN THE MONEY GOES – 2007
Milburn are often touted as the original indie band of the 2000s, inspiring the majority of the bands in the UK indie bracket.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–EIS8_jM_M
LITTLE MAN TATE – SEXY IN LATIN – 2007
Just the two albums came from Little Man Tate’s stint from 2005 to 2008. Sexy In Latin became the band’s highest scoring single and currently has 1.5 million views on the old YouTube.
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