I’m working on a pilot for a TV series about my first job in NYC: working for an adult website in 1997-98 with a crew of young skateboard punk HTML-ers and a host of colorful characters including a boss who would ideally be played by Bobby Cannavale. I’m making a list of songs from that year that were played a lot in the coder room. I didn’t like some of these songs but they help me get back into the era and the mood:

• “Block Rockin’ Beats” Chemical Brothers
• “6 Underground” Sneaker Pimps
• “Tubthumping” Chumbawamba (many people don’t know this was a very politically-involved band; I use this for the finale of the film)
• “The Beautiful People” Marilyn Manson
• “One Headlight” The Wallflowers
• “Mo Money Mo Problems” The Notorious B.I.G.
• “Lovefool” The Cardigans
• “Karma Police” Radiohead
• “Barbie Girl” Aqua (horrible song but one guy kept playing it and it was the #3 song of 1997)
• “Candle in the Wind ’97” Elton John (not played in the room but the #1 song of 1997)
• “Bittersweet Symphony” The Verve
• “Wannabe” Spice Girls (I have this song playing as piped-in music at the Barnes and Noble I worked at before I got the website job)
• “Brimful of Asha” Cornershop
• and more to be added, especially a lot of death metal