Top 18 Teen Pop Singles of the 00's (Part 1)

Here, my friends, is the list of this author's 20 favorite teen pop songs of the 00's. Since the TCR does love lists so.

PRELIMINARY NOTES:
1) The definition of what is and is not teen pop is obviously highly judgmental. If I had any real doubt, I left them off the list.
2) This is biased towards more recent music, which I know better. Also biased towards songs that were hits in America.
3) I probably left some stuff out.
4) Limited to one song per artist.

With those notes in mind, here is the list.

18. Mandy Moore - "I Wanna Be With You"
Year: 2000
Comments: Mandy Moore was great at making teen pop ballads, and this is her best one in my opinion. She kind of seems embarrassed of her music career now, but this was a really good song! Mandy's third, self-titled album was her best album, but none of the singles of that were as pretty as this song. Featured song in the movie "Center Stage". Interesting thought: Mandy, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, and Britney Spears all hit on the scene in 1999, seemingly temporary celebrities riding a fad, but they are all still relevant celebrities 7 years later...
YouTube: I Wanna Be With You

17. LMNT - "Juliet"
Year: 2001
Comments: One of the most unexpectly brilliant singles ever. A group of rejects from the original Making the Band -- they weren't good enough for O-Town -- band together and make a terrible album in the wake of the boyband era. But, buried in there is this one, amazing, song. It tore the crap out of Disney Radio and even got some Top 40 radio play, although it came at the very tail end of the boy band phenomenon. I knew and disliked this song at the time; it's only in the past few months I've remembered it's brilliance. See also: SoulDecision - "Faded", which I've always linked with this song for some reason.
YouTube: Juliet

16. Charlotte Church - "Crazy Chick"
Year: 2005
Comments: Like LMNT, I don't think anybody could have seen this coming. Welsh soprano becomes a pop/classical overnight superstar at the age of twelve, leaves the music business for 4 years, then comes back not with another classical album but with a pop album. And a GOOD pop album, with this one EXCELLENT song. None of the other songs on her album appear to be of the same quality as this one, but good work Charlotte. Good work indeed.
YouTube: Crazy Chick

15. Play - "I Must Not Chase the Boys"
Year: 2003
Comments: "Play doesn't seem to be very well liked by teen poppers, as they were from Sweden but marketed to the US and mainly made a career off of shamelessly covering other European hits. Actually I agree with all of that, but this is a really, really good single in my opinion. Easily relatable lyrics for any pre-teen girl or guy (or any girl or guy who was a pre-teen), and really catchy music. Follows the "Everywhere"/"Since U Been Gone" model musically, but still sounds fairly original. A classic." - (copied from my writeup of this song for my under-rated teen pop post)
YouTube: I Must Not Chase the Boys

14. Britney Spears - "Oops!...I Did It Again"
Year: 2000
Comments: Obviously, this is not Ms. Spears' best single, but it's a great song nonetheless. Hell, not everything has to be "...Baby, One More Time" to be great! Also another in a lineage of Britney Spears singles that have memorable, iconic videos. Nevertheless, a cultural milestone. If you leave this off your list, you are fooling yourself.
YouTube: Oops!...I Did It Again <-- Posted for the benefit of the many people who have never seen this video.

13. Avril Lavigne - "My Happy Ending"
Year: 2004
Comments: I spent way too long deciding whether my Avril allotment for this list would to go this song or "Complicated". "Complicated" has the influence factor in its favor, but hell I would just honestly prefer to listen to this song. Needless to say, both would have made the list if I allowed multiple entries per artist. But what a great chorus this song has, and it's got great confessional lyrics too! I was a big Avril Lavigne fan even at the time, which is surprising because I was in a very strong indie/anti-pop phase at the time she hit. She was just too much of a force not to love her though. OK, maybe I just thought she was hot. This song may be under-rated on this list.
YouTube: My Happy Ending

12. JoJo - "Leave (Get Out)"
Year: 2004
Comments: The America's Most Talented Kid competition was one that I derided at the time, but who could have guessed that it would have graduated three relatively well known pop culture figures (JoJo, Cheyenne Kimball, and Diana DeGarmo). Diana DeGarmo had her day later on American Idol and Cheyenne emerged the winner of the competition (plus had the MTV reality factor working for her) but JoJo has had the most success in her musical career of any of them and has produced by far the best songs. Actually there's nothing I can say about JoJo that hasn't already been said by Chart Rigger.
YouTube: Leave (Get Out)

11. Ashlee Simpson - "LaLa"
Year: 2005
Comments: I like Ashlee Simpson, not as much as some of the members of the teenpop community, but I do like her nonetheless. This is to my ears her best single of her career by far. It sounds pretty original to me, and I like the lyrics too. Anyways, yes, Ashlee has for whatever reason been unfairly savaged by the press and critics and appears to be falling between audiences now. This is a shame, as she has released some very good pop music in the 2000's and it's sad to see that people can't appreciate it due to personal biases against the woman herself. This song totally rocks, and it's one of my favorite "high-energy chorus" pop songs of all time.
YouTube: LaLa


I'm going to leave the top 10 for a future post. This will create much tension as people will try to guess which songs have made it to the top 10. Or maybe not.