100 Best Songs of the 2000s
- ️Rolling Stone
- ️Fri Jun 17 2011
The music of the Aughts was all over the map in the very best way, with file sharing and randomly produced personal playlists encouraging eclecticism and experimentation in both artists and listeners. Rolling Stone‘s list of the decade’s 100 best songs – which was originally unveiled in 2009 and was compiled by a group of over 100 artists, critics and industry insiders – includes garage rock revivalists, dance-happy indie, sassy starlets, slick modern R&B, boundary-shattering pop hybrids and a few familiar icons from previous eras. The most exciting thing about this selection of tunes is that, despite all the different styles and voices in the mix, it all sounds totally natural together. In fact, you might already have a playlist that looks just like it.
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Damian Marley, ‘Welcome to Jamrock’
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Gorillaz, ‘Feel Good Inc.’
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Amy Winehouse, ‘Back to Black’
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Fleet Foxes, ‘White Winter Hymnal’
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Lady Gaga, ‘Poker Face’
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Mary J. Blige, ‘Family Affair’
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Radiohead, ‘Pyramid Song’
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Snoop Dogg, ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’
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Brad Paisley, ‘Alcohol’
Paisley was one of the era's great country artists, a Nashville-factory star who also happened to pull duty as a stunning singer, songwriter and guitarist. He sings this song from alcohol's point of view: "Since the day I left Milwaukee, Lynchburg, Bordeaux, France/I've been making a fool out of folks just like you/And helping white people dance." Another round!
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Bruce Springsteen, ‘My City of Ruins’
Image Credit: Roberts/Redferns -
Midlake, ‘Roscoe’
The dream of the Seventies was alive in Denton, Texas, home to the quintet behind this meticulously layered evocation of the foreboding, psychedelic soft rock of their youth and the craftsmen of a century earlier.
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Bright Eyes, ‘Lua’
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Jay-Z, ‘Izzo (H.O.V.A.)’
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The Knife, ‘Heartbeats’
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Aaliyah, ‘Try Again’
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The Dirty Projectors, ‘Stillness Is the Move’
A bunch of arty white indie kids get their R&B on. Sounds like Destiny's Child taking MDMA with Björk at a Williamsburg loft party.
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The Clipse, ‘Grindin”
Image Credit: Wargo/WireImage Over a Neptunes beat as loud and emphatic as a slamming steel door, brothers Gene and Terrence Thornton (aka Malice and Pusha T) introduce the world to the hardboiled outlook, and witty wordplay, of crack rap: "I'm the…neighborhood pusha/Call me subwoofer/'Cause I pump base like that, Jack."
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The Gossip, ‘Standing in the Way of Control’
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Jay-Z, ‘Dirt Off Your Shoulder’
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P!nk, ‘Get The Party Started’
Image Credit: Grayson/WireImage -
Phoenix, ‘1901’
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Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, ‘Gone Gone Gone’
Image Credit: Mazur/WireImage -
LCD Soundsystem, ‘Daft Punk is Playing at My House
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Dixie Chicks, ‘Not Ready to Make Nice’
In which Natalie Maines and company, erstwhile Nashville darlings, lash out at the country music establishment that spurned them for having the temerity to criticize George W. Bush. Revenge is a dish best served cold – with stirring three-part harmonies and rocking Rick Rubin production.
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Madonna, ‘Hung Up’
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Arcade Fire, ‘Rebellion (Lies)’
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TV On the Radio, ‘Wolf Like Me’
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Queens of the Stone Age, ‘No One Knows’
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Kings of Leon, ‘Use Somebody’
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Justice, ‘D.A.N.C.E.’
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Arctic Monkeys, ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor’
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Santigold, ‘L.E.S. Artistes’
A Philly-born, Brooklyn-based b-girl with a taste for dub reggae, new wave, punk and scuzzed-up dance beats, Santi White is a scientifically perfect hipster. Which is one reason this ice-cold diss of the hipsterati– "Leave me out, you name-dropper"– hit so hard. The killer guitar hook didn't hurt, either.
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Coldplay, ‘Viva La Vida’
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Wilco, ‘Jesus, Etc.’
Image Credit: Mosenfelder/Getty -
Madonna, ‘Music’
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Green Day, ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’
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U2, ‘Vertigo’
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Lil Wayne, ‘A Milli’
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Alicia Keys, ‘Fallin”
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Jet, ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’
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Beyoncé, ‘Irreplaceable’
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The Strokes, ‘Hard to Explain’
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The White Stripes, ‘Fell In Love With a Girl’
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The Shins, ‘New Slang’
The song Natalie Portman told Zach Braff would change his life (see Garden State) is a sweet ballad of what might've been, but wasn't. "I'm looking in on the good life I might be doomed never to find" nails a generational mindset like a baby T-shirt slogan.
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Radiohead, ‘Idioteque’
Image Credit: Bergen/Redferns -
OutKast, ‘Ms. Jackson’
Inspired by Andre 3000's beef with the mother of one-time girlfriend Erykah Badu, OutKast's first Number One hit is the funniest, catchiest thing they ever did. Over a head-snapping beat that quotes Wagner's wedding march, Dre and Big Boi rap hyper-fluidly about cheating girlfriends and custody wars, delivering a chorus that's both P-Funk and totally pop. Scores of white sorority girls had no choice but to sing along.
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Coldplay, ‘The Scientist’
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The Rapture, ‘House of Jealous Lovers’
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Christina Aguilera, ‘Beautiful’
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D’Angelo, ‘Untitled (How Does It Feel)’
