Music of the 2000s

open/close all folders

Alternative Rap: Although Gangsta and Crunk were huge in the start of the decade, people surprisingly drifted towards more emotionally open and less hardcore forms of hip hop as the decade wore on. Pretty soon artists and groups like OutKast, Kanye West, Kid Cudi, Gorillaz, and Lupe Fiasco managed to achieve popularity when they would've just been cult artists in any other decade.
Crunk: This and southern rap exploded in this decade and became the most well-known form rap.
Chillwave: A Genre Mashup of 1980s-inspired synth pop and lo-fi, psychedelic, and shoegaze. Often deliberately made to sound like old, warped cassette tapes. Lyrical themes include drugs, the beach, and, well, just chilling. Emerged at the end of the decade and received acclaim among music critics (one blog deemed 2009 the "Summer of Chillwave"), then quickly died out around 2011.
Deathcore: A popular style of extreme metal that took Myspace by storm in the later half of the decade thanks to bands like Job for a Cowboy, Bring Me the Horizon, and Suicide Silence.
Emo Music: Probably the most popular form of alternative rock for the decade. Emo bands that crossed over usually had elements of either Power Pop (e.g. Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, Paramore, Jimmy Eat World) or Goth Rock and Metal (e.g. AFI, My Chemical Romance, Thursday, The Used), and usually wore eyeliner.
Gangsta Rap: While it slowly faded and was replaced by Crunk and Alternative Rap, it still had some huge stars in the form of 50 Cent and DMX
Garage Rock: Experienced a big revival and was the biggest form of indie rock for the decade due to The Strokes and The White Stripes hitting it big. It was more polished than the 60's version but it kept the same old school rock and roll feel and look.
Metalcore: The most popular form of metal for the decade, built around screamed vocals and breakdowns. Also surprisingly extreme for a mainstream metal genre in comparison to Hair Metal and Nu Metal.
Nu Metal: Popular for the first half of the decade before Emo and metalcore supplanted it in terms of popularity. Some of its biggest acts came out in this decade such as Linkin Park and Evanescence.
Pop Punk: Pure Pop punk without any emo influence also took a turn for the huge after blink-182's self titled and (especially) Green Day's American Idiot took the genre into a more polished but also more ambitious direction. Bands like Good Charlotte, The All-American Rejects and Yellowcard had popularity with this variation of the sound.
Post-Grunge: The mainstream rock of the decade, unlike Emo and Garage rock which was aimed at subcultures and alternative scenes, Post grunge appealed to your Average Joes of Middle America. Divided into two camps: One was the glossy and polished, stadium-oriented Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll version personified by bands like Nickelback and Hinder, the other was darker and more Nu Metal influenced mainly led by bands like Three Days Grace and Flyleaf.
R&B would continue it's dominance from The '90s, spurred by the debuts of Alicia Keys and Chris Brown, Beyoncé's solo debut, and Usher and Mariah Carey releasing smash sucesss albums, Confessions and The Emanicipation Of Mimi respectively.

- Icon for Hire: Active 2007-present. Released first EPs in 2007

Music of the 2000s

Music of the 2000s

Edit Locked

Previous

Index

Next