Music in the 2000s

Popular Female Pop Music Stars include: Rihanna, Gwen Stefani, Fergie, Nelly Furtado, Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Avril Lavigne, Britney Spears, Alicia Keys, Ashlee Simpson, and Christina Aguilera. Popular Male Pop Music Stars include: Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Sean Kingston, Kanye West, Eminem, Chris Brown, T-Pain, Daughtry, John Mayer, and Usher. (Many popular male artists were part of bands and not solo acts. That's why they're not listed.) In the world as a whole music genres like Hip-Hop, R&B and Rock are the most popular in this decade.

United States and Canada

• Hip-Hop becomes the most popular musical genre with American youth, replacing rock and roll. Artists such as Kanye West, Outkast, Ice Cube, Lil Jon, 50 Cent, Nelly, and Eminem were the dominant hip-hop artists that defined the hip-hop genre in this decade thus far. Distinct regional differences also developed outside the hip-hop/rap strongholds of the 90s, New York City and Los Angeles; while the southern scenes, particularly Atlanta, emerged "crunk" hip-hop, the upper midwest, especially Chicago and Detroit became nationally recognized scenes for more socially conscious hip hop/rap artists, such as Kanye West, Eminem, Lupe Fiasco, and Common. Eminem is the best-selling artist so far this decade, and has sold over 80 million albums worldwide.[1]
• R&B continues to be popular. Artist such as Usher, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey and Alicia Keys are all popular mainstream R&B artist in the 2000s. The style is sometimes fueled by combination with Rap or hip-hop beats. Pop R&B, along with Hip Hop, dominates mainstream music in the earlier part of the mid '00s. Neo-soul is also popular during the early part of the decade.225
• Rock has remained popular, despite the increasing popularity of Hip-Hop.
  • The popularity of nu metal music carried over from the late 1990s. Limp Bizkit continues to produce hits early in the decade, but faded from the scene after about 2003, while KoЯn only increased in popularity, and continues to produce hits from its latest album, See You on the Other Side (2005). Papa Roach and Linkin Park were introduced to the nu metal scene near the beginning of the decade, with both becoming instant hits with their debut albums (Infest and Hybrid Theory respectively), both in 2000. The nu metal genre continues to be a popular form of rock music into the late 00's.
  • Pop-punk music, although popular in the 1990s, evolved in the 2000s and exploded into mainstream success. This started mainly with blink-182's breakthrough album Enema of the State (1999). This was followed by a glut of pop-punk bands overwhelming the airwaves, with such pop-punk bands as Sum 41, Good Charlotte, Simple Plan, and Yellowcard all achieving breakthrough success from 2001-2003. Green Day, highly popular during the 90s, released American Idiot in 2004, featuring a more modern pop-punk sound and drawing a huge new fanbase, but was also criticized for "selling out" by many previous fans. Emo music, which has proven difficult to define, sprouted from this pop-punk popularity, with such bands as AFI, Dashboard Confessional, Hawthorne Heights, Taking Back Sunday, and The Used breaking out in 2003 and 2004. This has since been followed by Fall Out Boy (From Under the Cork Tree) and Panic! at the Disco (A Fever You Can't Sweat Out) enjoying widespread success in 2005 and 2006. Although emo is accepted as a popular breakthrough genre with the youth, widespread disagreement has ensued on which bands should be considered emo and which pop-punk, with fans of bands often rejecting the emo label. My Chemical Romance, with their 2004 breakthrough album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, has further blurred these lines.
  • In the metal world, a new form of metal that fused elements of melodic death metal, thrash metal and hardcore punk called metalcore achieved popularity. Bands such as Avenged Sevenfold, Atreyu, Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, Trivium, and many others achieved success with the Ozzfest crowd.
  • In the alternative rock/indie rock world, a post-punk revival led by acts such as Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes and The White Stripes took place.
  • Throughout the decade, the post-grunge sound remained popular on adult alternative, modern rock, and pop radio stations alike. The Foo Fighters was one of the few post-grunge bands that carried over their success from the 1990s and only increased in popularity with their 2005 album In Your Honor. Nickelback achieved mainstream success from their hit #1 single "How You Remind Me" from their album Silver Side Up (2001). All of their albums since have achieved multi-platinum success, with several songs from All the Right Reasons (2005) achieving widespread airplay. Staind also achieved success in 2001 with their breakout single "It's Been Awhile" from the album Break the Cycle (2001), and remain popular to this day. Seether, with Disclaimer (2002), and Shinedown, with Us and Them (2005), have been among the more recent entries into the mainstream post-grunge world. Hinder is the most recent entry with its breakthrough hit "Lips of an Angel" from their debut album Extreme Behavior (2005).
  • Many popular rock artists of the 90s remained popular, and some even gained more popularity throughout the decade, such as Green Day, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Foo Fighters, Tool, and Weezer.* Pop. Some styles of the 1990s remain strong and even trendy, except for a few such as the girl and boy bands/teen pop of the late '90s that declined in popularity during the early part of the '00s. Most of this can be attributed to the criticism of the genre's "fakeness" and "shallowness" and the growing up of its fanbase. Several artists of the era (i.e. Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Simpson) still maintain a strong presence on the charts and in the media. The teen pop genre morphed into a more adult-alternative or pop-rock oriented sound early on in the decade. In 2002, this new "teen pop rock" movement began. Michelle Branch was arguably the first artist to take this new direction in pop music, with her contemporaries such as Avril Lavigne and Vanessa Carlton not far behind. Soon, every female vocalist had to have a band backing their vocals up instead of processed computer beats. American Idol winners become a big part of the American pop sound, but only one winner became a staple. Kelly Clarkson experienced huge success and tons of hit radio singles with her pop-rock sound. The younger sibling of Jessica Simpson, Ashlee Simpson, experienced a breakthrough success with her teen pop-rock sound as well. Circa mid to late 2000s genres are merging more and more and it's the songs that combine hip-hop/pop/r&b/dance (for example Promiscuous (song), SexyBack, SOS (Rihanna song), My Love, London Bridge (Fergie song), Show Stopper, Crazy (Gnarls Barkley song), Buttons (song)) that are topping the charts. Older songs tht reflect this style of music is Thong Song and Bump Bump Bump.
• Pop country slips in mainstream popularity in the early 2000s, due partly to the public retirement of Garth Brooks. However, the upper part of the Billboard album charts generally has many country albums, including some that go more than double platinum, indicating that the genre has a strong niche in the music industry. The genre grows during the mid 2000s from artists such as Carrie Underwood, who became the first American Idol winner to go into country instead of Pop or R&B. Artists that were popular during the decade were mostly artists who were already successful in the 90s, but the artists include: Dixie Chicks, Toby Keith,Taylor Swift, Gretchen Wilson, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and Kenny Chesney among others.
• Adult Contemporary music, by artists such as Norah Jones, Vanessa Carlton, Natasha Bedingfield, Nick Lachey, Rob Thomas, James Blunt, and Daniel Powter continues to be popular.
• Dance music (house, techno, trance, drum 'n' bass) becomes mainstream in America. A number of little-known House and Trance songs appear in the popular video game Dance Dance Revolution as Dance artists such as Madonna and Kylie Minogue continue to become popular throughout the decade. Many dance remixes of past euro-dance or ballad hits from the past appear between 2004-2006 such as the 2004 hit Call On Me by Eric Prydz, Fading Like A Flower by Dancing Deejays or Everywhere from Bonnie Bailey. These past hits have been enhanced with modern beats to be able to fit in mainstream and also to be played in parties and night clubs.
• Darkwave is popularized by The Crüxshadows with the release of their 2006 hit single Sophia, causing both their new and old listeners to seek out the works of similar artists such as Ego Likeness, Collide, and The Dreamside.
• Ska becomes widely listened to in punk and alternative circles.
• Ethnic music, especially in near tropical locations is mainstream for most of the early to mid '00s, especially in the rise of Reggaeton and Reggae artist Sean Paul in the mid-2000s. In 2005-2006 Diplo brings Baile Funk to mainstream dance culture from Brazil. The rise of Matisyahu, a Hasidic Jewish reggae artist who rose to semi-stardom beginning in 2004, created a marked interest in reggae among average American music-lovers.
• Sales of CDs in 2005 in the U.S. decline drastically from the teen-pop era of the late 1990s-early 2000s. Some people who grew up listening to 1970s, 1980s, or even 1990s music claim the music industry is going for a younger audience in the 2000s that it has in decades past which might be leading to this drop in record sales. However, music industry executives claim the drop in CD sales is due to mp3 players (such as the iPod), and increasing popularity and access to music online such as the use of Napster.
• The musical style of the 1970s and 1980s begins to influence pop music in the middle of the decade, as seen in Rihanna's hit S.O.S. (a sampling of Soft Cell's "Tainted Love), as well as in Jessica Simpson's album A Public Affair, which is a mix of 1970s-influenced music (A Public Affair (song)) and 1980s music (Simpson's cover of You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)). Madonna released a non-stop dance album in mid-2000s, Confessions on a Dance Floor, with songs reminiscent of ABBA, Saturday Night Fever, and even some of her earliest work in the 1980s, (especially her punk-rock debut album, Madonna).
• Children's music rises significantly in sales [2], with acts such as The Wiggles becoming successful.5

Europe

• Rise in Electronica of 1990s style, such as trance and drum & bass, however their popularity declines mid-way through the decade.
• Electro, as well as music that combines it with House becomes mainstream in the dance music scene in the middle of the decade, replacing the mainstream of more jazzy and Latin influenced sounds from the beginning of the decade.
• Post-Britpop bands such as Coldplay, Keane and Snow Patrol top the album charts during the decade.
• Boybands do not exactly die out, but they evolve into teen pop-rock/pop punk acts, with artists such as Busted and McFly.
• Animated musicians become popular, with the likes of Crazy Frog, Gorillaz, and Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil.
• Return of indie rock with bands such as Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs and Arctic Monkeys.
• In Germany, music sung in German becomes more mainstream as bands such as Wir sind Helden, Es ist Juli, Rosenstolz and Silbermond become popular.
• Girl groups Sugababes and Girls Aloud span successful careers throughout most of the decade.
• British female soul artists such as Amy Winehouse, Corinne Bailey Rae, Adele and Duffy become popular in the late 2000s. Other popular British female artists of the late 2000s included Lily Allen, Kate Nash and KT Tunstall.
• New rave, a genre which combines indie rock and rave, is created, with artists such as Klaxons, New Young Pony Club, Shitdisco and Hadouken!.
• New urban dance genres, grime (including Wiley and Dizzee Rascal) and bassline (including T2 and H Two O) enter popularity

Australia and New Zealand

• Many new rock and alternative groups/bands form during the early years of this decade, consisting of 2 or 3 - 7 to 10 members. Instruments are almost always a guitar, drums, bass and sometimes keyboards, reviving youth interest in these instruments. Groups/bands such as The Vines and Jet become very popular amongst others around 2002 - 2003, paving the way for a mass of new groups midway through the decade such as, Evermore, Wolfmother and many others. This is speculated to result in a major breakthrough of the genre in Australia later in the decade similar to the grunge scene in the United States in the early 90s.
• Rock (popular artists include Tim and Neil Finn, Evermore, Wolfmother, The Feelers, Elimenop) and Hip Hop (popular artists include Scribe, PNC, Deceptikonz, Savage) remain the most popular music genre amongst youth in Australia and New Zealand, particularly Hip Hop, Rap and R&B, although later in the decade these genres lose favour to rock and alternative.
• Pop and Rock remain the most widely played genre's on mainstream radio stations. Most popular being the likes of the Australian Idol contestants, Delta Goodrem and The Veronicas
• Podcasting becomes popular in the later years of this decade with many radio stations podcasting several sections of their shows.
• Bands such as The Living End become increasingly popular amongst a new generation of youth, spurring interest in a sort of punk style revival.
• A popular American television show, The O.C., popularises many alternative Australian and New Zealand alternative rock bands by playing their music during the show. These bands include, Youth Group and Evermore.

Latin America/Caribbean

• Rise of reggaeton hip hop, and Bachata music

Far East

• J-pop and K-pop becomes increasingly influenced by hip hop music and R&B.
• The Chinese metal scene is disrupted by the SARS scare in 2003.