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When the year 2000 arrived and the world didn’t end, a lot of people breathed a sigh of relief that their Y2K fears were all in their heads. Thankfully the fears shifted to bizarre fashion trends including: Midriff-baring crop tops, hip-cleavage-revealing jeans, metallic hardware, body glitter, and flip flops. On the technology front, Apple introduced the new amazing portable little iPod, Facebook and other social media platforms launched, smartphones were invented, and reality television was popularized. TV shows such as The Amazing Race, Survivor, Big Brother, The Biggest Loser, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Lost, The Sopranos, The Wire, The Office, House, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The West Wing, and Family Guy were just a few of the popular shows people were watching during the decade. In music, both hip hop and Southern hip hop were two of the top genres many young people were listening to, dominated by top artists such as Jay-Z, Kanye West, OutKast, Eminem, Nelly, Nas, T.I., Ludacris, 50 Cent, Lil Wayne, Missy Elliot, Young Jeezy, The Eastside Boyz, and The Black Eyed Peas. The technology of “Auto-Tune”, violating the rules of singing, crept its way into rap songs by the latter half of the decade as well. This was just the latest trick in the long history of sonic manipulation in rap/hip hop with human beatboxing, record scratching, and vocoding. Teen pop artists such as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore, Hilary Duff, Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan, and Hannah Montana, were popular during the early to middle part of the decade, while teen heartthrob boy bands (with the exception of the Backstreet Boys) faded into oblivion. Meanwhile, emo and pop punk bands were taking off, led by Green Day, Blink 182, Dashboard Confessional, Fall Out Boy, Jimmy Eat World, Sunny Day Real Estate, My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Panic! at the Disco, Taking Back Sunday, Good Charlotte, and New Found Glory. The 2000s were also known for post-grunge, post-Britpop, indie rock, nu metal, metalcore, and post-hardcore.

With the incredible amount of new sub-genres and discombobulating music choices, I gravitated towards the post-punk revivalist bands during this decade, as I shared a keen admiration for the original artists from the 1970s and 80s that inspired them. I discovered a multitude of bands such as The White Stripes, Interpol, The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arctic Monkeys, The Rapture, Electric Six, Kaiser Chiefs, Radio 4, The Von Bondies, The Killers, British Sea Power, Editors, The Bravery, The Shins, The Legends, The Darkness, The Stills, The Hives, The Vines, The Libertines, The Cribs, TV on the Radio, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Kings of Leon, The National, LCD Soundsystem, Modest Mouse, Stellastarr, Metric, Hot Hot Heat, The Dandy Warhols, and Vampire Weekend. After the 9/11 attacks, many of the artists I just mentioned were part of a new wave of bands in NYC that temporarily changed the landscape of rock ‘n roll. The new wave/post punk revival was short-lived however as by the latter half of the decade American indie rock bands like Death Cab for Cutie, MGMT, Spoon, Animal Collective, the Black Keys, the Decemberists, My Morning Jacket, and Wilco, dominated the Billboard rock charts and led the charge. According to NME writer James McMahon, indie rock died a quick death with the release of one single album in 2004 by a band from Canada called Arcade Fire. Appropriately titled Funeral, it was the nail in the coffin for a period that stretched back to the days of the Buzzcocks when artists remained autonomous and didn’t pursue or achieve commercial success due to low-budget labels accompanied with a DIY attitude. Suddenly, half a dozen impoverished musicians based out of Montreal had their songs playing in Starbucks, Urban Outfitters, and Whole Foods. Whether or not its true that Arcade Fire inadvertently “killed” indie rock, there’s no denying that their song “Wake Up” was revolutionary, blasting over the PA system as the opener for every concert on U2’s 2005 Vertigo Tour. Aside from Radiohead’s Kid A and Interpol’s Turn on the Bright Lights, Arcade Fire’s Funeral was one of the greatest masterpieces of the 2000s. By decade’s end, the proliferation of indie rock bands was referred to as “indie landfill” by Andrew Harrison of The Word magazine.

In the 2000s, I had amassed quite a bit of rock and roll knowledge thanks to internet web sites such as Allmusic.com, Pitchfork.com, and Discogs.com. Furthermore, with the advent of digital technology and digital downloads, I discovered a lot of new music via MP3s from sites like Napster, Rhapsody, and the iTunes music store. Soon afterwards, Pandora emerged, along with Bandcamp and Soundcloud. Finally everything changed in 2008, with the emergence of Spotify, enabling internet users on higher speed connections to access lossy streaming audio with improved audio playback in real time. It was truly a game changer. At the time (and still to this day), I chose downloads over streaming audio mainly because of my appreciation for listening to whole albums in their entirety (I never owned a Spotify premium subscription). During the 2000s I was listening to a lot of 90s shoegaze and space rock and enjoyed playing guitar in friends’ basements. Apart from growing my hair long and developing hairy beards once in a while, I was drinking a lot of beer (and other alcoholic beverages). I was attending concerts that I hadn’t been able to achieve in my teenage years (either due to a lack of having friends to go with or not having the confidence to go by myself). These live shows I attended ranged from local indie bands here in Pittsburgh to internationally-known artists such as U2, Radiohead, Bob Dylan, Morrissey, Sonic Youth, and Wilco. I’ll still never forget a bunch of shows: The Fall at the Brewhouse in 2004, Spectrum at Garfield Artworks in 2007, and David Byrne at Carnegie Music Hall in 2008. Back in 2001, I had a rare opportunity to attend the My VH1 Music Awards in Los Angeles after getting nominated for a website award for my U2 fansite that I designed. I sat next to Moby (and got a chance to talk to him in person), and witnessed Mick Jagger perform, as well as Bon Jovi, Nelly Furtado, Jewel, No Doubt, Creed, Mary J. Blige, Sting, and Lenny Kravitz. It was probably the single most exhilarating evening of music in my life.

Aside from indie and post-punk revival bands, I was also listening to a lot of trance and Eurodance during the early 2000s, even though I never once attended a drug-fueled rave anywhere on Earth. I was enamored by the music of DJ Tiësto, Armin Van Buuren, Paul van Dyk, Paul Oakenfold, John Digweed, Sasha, BT, Delerium, Alice Deejay, Fragma, Ian Van Dahl, Blank & Jones, Ferry Corsten, Gouryella, Veracocha, Yahel, Transa, Rank 1, Chicane, ATB, Trilithon, Lost Witness, DJ Apollo, Drax & Scott Mac, Sunbeam, DJ Tatana, Lange, Noemi, Motorcycle, Signum, Riva, Pulser, Airbase, Minimalistix, Lasgo, Driftwood, Darren Tate, Angelic, Chakra, and Andain. I spent countless nights searching for the most blissful trance songs online even though people told me “trance was dead”. It wasn’t just house, Hi-NRG, new beat, techno, dance-pop, or bubblegum dance music I was traversing, but all forms of trance music: Acid trance, Balearic trance, dream trance, Euro-trance, hard trance, nitzhonot, psychedelic trance, dark psytrance, Full-On, progressive psytrance, psybient, Suomisaundi, Zenonesque, Goa trance, progressive trance, tech trance, uplifting trance, and vocal trance. I dug my way down the rabbit hole so far, I couldn’t find my way out. Other genres I explored during the 2000s were folk, bluegrass and alternative country music. I was listening to a lot of Uncle Tupelo, Jay Farrar, Son Volt, Whiskeytown, Ryan Adams, The Jayhawks, Wilco, Golden Smog, Richmond Fontaine, Sparklehorse, Band of Horses, My Morning Jacket, Calexico, Cowboy Junkies, Lambchop, Old 97’s, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Del McCoury Band, Bright Eyes/Conor Oberst, and Drive-By Truckers. The steel pedal soothed my soul and I couldn’t get enough of the sound. One band in particular took the banjo, turned it on its head upside down, and channeled the living soul of Bruce Springsteen: Marah. I attended one of their exhilarating live performances at Club Cafe in Pittsburgh back in the mid-2000s and was literally blown away. I’ll never forget the moment Marah’s guitarist Serge Bielanko jumped up onto the bar and rocked out on a guitar solo. Memories like that will never leave me.

Assembling an all-inclusive, “definitive” list of the top 50 most influential albums from the 2000s (or any decade) is no easy task, so rather than compiling a list that includes artists and bands of all kinds and genres, I’ve focused only on the albums and artists that I love. I could only hope that some of you discovering these albums for the very first time will not only enjoy listening to them, but find the music to be life-changing as well. I’ve organized the albums chronologically by year (in no particular order). Though some years contain more albums than others, it is only because the albums I picked happened to be released in that specific year. I also set a 3 album maximum limit for one single artist (so I could include albums from artists that weren’t as popular). Below this, I’ve included “5 Honorable Mentions” as well as a separate list of “Notables” that didn’t make the cut. The 2000s were a major decade for me in terms of my discoveries of many genres of pop/rock and electronica music, and thanks to the internet I was able to freely listen to music more conveniently than ever before. You can hear this same music via Spotify playlists that I’ve provided below. Next week I will focus on the 2010s, a decade so fresh in my mind, I am still digesting what I’ve listened to. If you missed last week’s albums of the 1990s, you can check them out here (and the 1980s albums here, and the 1970s albums here).

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2000

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Johnny Cash American III: Solitary Man
Radiohead Kid A
PJ Harvey Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Marah Kids in Philly
Richard Ashcroft Alone with Everybody
Steve Earle Transcendental Blues
The Clientele Suburban Light

2001

Ryan Adams Gold
New Order Get Ready
The Strokes Is This It
The White Stripes White Blood Cells

2002

Beck Sea Change
Coldplay A Rush of Blood to the Head
Bruce Springsteen The Rising
Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Broken Social Scene You Forgot It in People
Sigur Rós ( )
Johnny Cash American IV: The Man Comes Around
Red Hot Chili Peppers By the Way
Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights
Doves The Last Broadcast
The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

2003

Bonnie “Prince” Billy Master and Everyone
My Morning Jacket It Still Moves
Jesse Malin The Fine Art of Self Destruction
The Legends Up Against the Legends
British Sea Power The Decline of British Sea Power
The Twilight Singers Blackberry Belle

2004

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus
Dungen Ta det lugnt
Arcade Fire Funeral

2005

Sufjan Stevens Illinois
Depeche Mode Playing the Angel
The Clientele Strange Geometry
Sigur Rós Takk…
Ladytron Witching Hour

2006

Peter Bjorn and John Writer’s Block
Sonic Youth Rather Ripped
TV on the Radio Return to Cookie Mountain

2007

Blonde Redhead 23
Radiohead In Rainbows
LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver
The Raveonettes Lust Lust Lust

2008

Coldplay Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
Cut Copy In Ghost Colours
TV on the Radio Dear Science
British Sea Power Do You Like Rock Music?
M83 Saturdays=Youth

2009

Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

5 Honorable Mentions

Bob Dylan Love and Theft 2001
The Jayhawks Rainy Day Music 2003
Kasabian Kasabian 2004
The High Violets To Where You Are 2006
Ian Brown My Way 2006

Notables

(Or Albums That Didn’t Make the List)

A Northern Chorus – Spirit Flags (2003)

a-ha – Foot of the Mountain (2009)

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009)

Antony and the Johnsons – I Am a Bird Now (2005)

Arcade Fire – Neon Bible (2007)

Asobi Seksu – Citrus (2006)

The Avalanches – Since I Left You (2000)

Bad Lieutenant – Never Cry Another Tear (2009)

Belle and Sebastian – Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003)

Bloc Party – Silent Alarm (2005)

Bob Dylan – Modern Times (2006)

Bonnie Prince Billy – Greatest Palace Music (2004)

British Sea Power – Open Season (2005)

Calexico – Feast of Wire (2003)

Daft Punk – Discovery (2001)

Dan Wilcox – As I Am (2006)

Delays – Faded Seaside Glamour (2004)

The Durutti Column – Keep Breathing (2006)

Erasure – Light at the End of the World (2007)

Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes (2008)

Grandaddy – The Sophtware Slump (2000)

Jay Farrar – Sebastopol (2001)

Jesse Malin – On Your Sleeve (2008)

Joseph Arthur – Nuclear Daydream (2006)

Kate Bush – Aerial (2005)

LCD Soundsystem – LCD Soundsystem (2005)

The Legends – Facts and Figures (2006)

Leonard Cohen – Ten New Songs (2001)

Marah – 20,000 Streets Under the Sky (2004)

McAlmont & Butler – Bring It Back (2002)

MGMT – Oracular Spectacular (2008)

Midlake – The Trials of Van Occupanther (2006)

Midnight Oil – Capricornia (2002)

Moby – Last Night (2008)

Mojave 3 – Puzzles Like You (2006)

Muse – Black Holes and Revelations (2006)

My Morning Jacket – At Dawn (2001)

The National – Boxer (2007)

Neko Case – Blacklisted (2002)

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – No More Shall We Part (2001)

Nine Inch Nails – Year Zero (2007)

Panda Bear – Person Pitch (2007)

Pearl Jam – Riot Act (2002)

Radio 4 – Gotham (2002)

Radiohead – Amnesiac (2001)

Radiohead – Hail to the Thief (2003)

The Rapture – Echoes (2003)

The Raveonettes – The Chain Gang of Love (2003)

The Republic Tigers – Keep Color (2008)

Ryan Adams – Cold Roses (2005)

The Shins – Oh, Inverted World (2001)

Sigur Rós – Ágætis Byrjun (2000)

The Sleepy Jackson – Lovers (2003)

Son Volt – The Search (2007)

Starsailor – Love Is Here (2001)

The Stills – Logic Will Break Your Heart (2004)

Sun Kil Moon – Ghosts of the Great Highway (2003)

TV on the Radio – Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes (2004)

U2 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000)

Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend (2008)

Vitesse – You Win Again Gravity (2002)

The White Stripes – Elephant (2003)

The xx – The xx (2009)

Yo La Tengo – And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out (2000)