Jimmy Eat World

Jimmy Eat World was everywhere in 2002; it seemed as if the whole country was permanently stuck in "The Middle" with JEW. That song, a driving three-minute thrill ride that hung around the pop charts like someone's annoying little brother, relaunched a career that was about as lively as nap time at an old-folk's home in Sun City, Arizona. Of course, it didn't hurt that the song's video featured more scantily clad underwear models than a Calvin Klein convention at the Playboy mansion, but who's complaining? Certainly not the million or so kids who picked up Bleed American and found that "The Middle" was only the beginning -- JEW's earnest sugar pop is even sweeter in the center.