The House of R&B
1. Jay-Z, "Ignorant Shit" (from American Gangster, Def Jam)
2. Alicia Keys, "No One" (from As I Am, J)
3. Mary J. Blige, "Fade Away" (from Growing Pains, Geffen)
4. The-Dream ft. Rihanna, "Livin' a Lie" (from Lovehate, Def Jam)
5. Ne-Yo, "Because of You" (from Because of You, Def Jam)
6. Omarion and Kat DeLuna, "Cut Off Time" (from Feel the Noise OST, Sony BMG)
7. Pitbull ft. Young Boss and Trina, "Go Girl" (from The Boatlift, TVT)
8. Rhea, "Don't Let Go" (MP3)
9. The-Dream, "Ditch That . . . " (from Lovehate, Def Jam)
10. Janet Jackson, "Feedback" (single, Def Jam)
11. Timbaland ft. Kerri Hilson, "The Way I Are (Mostly Just Kerri Edit)" (original from Shock Value, Interscope)
12. Britney Spears and T.I., "Gimme More/Bring 'Em Out" (MP3)
13. JustinA, "Let's Experiment" (MP3)
14. will.i.am, "Get Your Money (Give Me 'Body' Extension)" (original from Songs About Girls, Interscope)
15. Rihanna, "Don't Stop the Music" (from Good Girl Gone Bad, Def Jam)
16. Kanye West, "Stronger (Harder, Better, Faster Remix)" (original from Graduation, Roc-a-Fella/Def Jam)
17. Britney Spears, "Heaven on Earth" (from Blackout, Zomba)

2007's going out much the way it went all year—with a thump, thump, thump, thump. You needn't look further than the name of my blog to find that the 4/4 beat—that pummeling disco/house stomp that believes every measure should be equal—is close to my heart. And now it's close to my ears as well. After house and techno proved to be commercial liabilities in the early '90s, mainstream R&B eased away from that beat. (Though it's notable that three of the most perfect R&B tracks of the '90s—Zhane's "Hey Mr. DJ," Next's "Too Close," and Groove Theory's "Tell Me"—all employ the 4/4.) Beats that were lurching and fractured became the de facto rule of uptempos that weren't explicitly in big (pink?) letters DANCE MUSIC, to the point where the biggest club banger of 2004, Terror Squad's "Lean Back," was about not dancing.

The too-cool-for-schoolness started to give way thanks to the electro-fied nature of Ciara's work. But last year Timbaland really changed the game. It wasn't until the producer, once of time-bending skitter and Matrix-style between-beat hang time, threw down the simplest beat of his career that dance music fully reentered pop's bloodstream. Indeed, "SexyBack" seems so matter-of-fact in its 4/4 that it barely registers as house music (even though it is). Justin Timberlake brought sexy back (if you want to call that sexy), but what Timbaland brought back was far more important.

Tim's service wasn't just resurrecting the 4/4, which given the rule of retro (let 20 years go by and, presto: freshness is renewed) was due for a comeback anyway. It's that nonchalant attitude, the way that the 4/4 could worm its way into a patently R&B song without changing its DNA. You could get down to Alicia Keys' "No One" or Mary J. Blige's "Fade Away," but would you really want to? Even Ne-Yo's flawless "Because of You," whose BPM tops out at 110, seems more crafted to tug your heartstrings than your Achilles tendon. The mix picks up as it enters the realm of unquestionable dance music, though note the overall lack of high-hats and pronounced polyrhythms, even on something like Rihanna's "Don't Stop the Music," a song so housey, it might as well come with its own gay-pride float. I find that the more unadorned the percussion is, the more hypnotic that 4/4 becomes. Who needs trance when you can actually enter one?

I'm not sure that there's a good social explanation for the 4/4's resurgence. Here's where I'm supposed to make lofty claims like, "In a time of war, we gravitate to music that's violent and the 4/4 is pummeling, punishing and blahblahblah," or, "The monotony of lies spun by our conservative administration is reflected in the incessant pounding of our pop music." Maybe it's just Timbaland's destiny to be copied no matter how simple he is. But I think it's more like the 4/4 is this glorious easy-in to emotional response—it's simultaneously too brilliant and too easy a trick to stay dead for too long. We're hitting a point where dance-music culture is taking over—see the candy-rave attire of the kids, hear how people like The-Dream and Mary J. Blige are making their tracks all blend together for albums that aspire to sound like a DJ set. And the momentum is just picking up. I'm thrilled that the today's youth gets to experience an incarnation of a sound so formative to me that without it, I'd be a different person today. Every generation deserves to.

Rich Juzwiak blogs for VH-1.com and at Four Four. You can download this mix here. He lives in Brooklyn.