Pop music struggled for direction in this period, spinning its wheels with sounds from the recent past. Highlights include Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP, Linkin Park’s “In the End,” and Evanescence’s “Bring Me To Life.” Particularly sweet was Missy’s Elliot’s “Work It,” with its sly feminist punch. The low point was the creative exhaustion of rap, resulting in the same tired machine-driven grooves with machismo pimp ‘n’ ho lyrics again and again and again…