Best 2000s Albums Ranked
In American culture, various styles of the late 20th century remained popular, such as in rock, pop, metal, hip hop, R&B, EDM, country and indie. As the technology of computers and internet sharing developed, a variety of those genres started to fuse in order to see new styles emerging. Terms like “contemporary”, “nu”, “revival”, “alternative”, and “post” are added to various genres titles in order to differentiate them from past styles, nu-disco and post-punk revival as notable examples. The popularity of teen pop carried over from the 1990s with acts such as *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera dominating the charts in the earlier years of the decade. Previously established Pop Music artists such as Michael Jackson and Madonna made a comeback in the early 2000s with successful releases such as Invincible and Music. Contemporary R&B was one of the most popular genres of the decade (especially in the early and mid-2000s), with artists like Usher, Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, and Rihanna. In 2004, the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 had 15 of its top 25 singles as contemporary R&B. Here are the best 2000s albums ranked.
Don’t miss out on the music of 2000’s below! Click to find out why 2000’s is one of the greatest decade of rock ever!
12. Invincible – Michael Jackson
“This album is beautiful. Michael sang the songs with such depth and emotion. His reality of life in his songs is amazing. Speechless is on this album and that song alone makes me speechless. awesome album and I just can’t get enough of it.”
11. Confessions On a Dance Floor – Madonna
“Madonna’s greatest album in the 2000’s. Dance/Electronica sound was really impressive. The lead single “Hung Up” broke all the records during that time and was #1 in 45 countries. My personal favorite song here is “Sorry” – beautiful, deep and very emotional”
10. Is This It – The Strokes
“After Britpop devolved into bedwetter indie and the US was churning out goofy pop-punk, the debut album by the New York quintet showed rock how to be cool again: all droll, drawling observations and guitar lines that steamed into a dive bar to show up the clientele. Oh, and your boss trying to be trendy by wearing a T-shirt under his blazer at the office on Fridays? Blame these guys”
9. Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not – Arctic Monkeys
“This album defines a whole generation and genre of music. Each song on this album is fantastic. It’s all about the disheveled and messed up life of being a working class teenager and simply just trying to figure out your life. There’s songs about dealing with fake and annoying people (still take you home, fake tales of San francisco, etc.), songs about young love (you probably couldn’t see…, mardy bum, etc.), and sings about how rubbish your own town is ( a certain romance, when the sun goes down, etc.). One of the finest collection of songs of all time.”
8. The Emancipation of Mimi – Mariah Carey
“Mariah Carey’s The Emancipation of Mimi wasn’t only the best album of 2005, it was also one of the bests, if not the best, of the 2000’s decade. It set and broke several records, and was the best-selling album of 2005 with over 10 million copies sold worldwide. It produced six singles which all experienced success on different charts globally. It produced two chart-toppers, We Belong Together and Don’t Forget About Us. We Belong Together topped the chart for 14 weeks, the longest stay at number one in the past decade, and the second longest stay at number one ever, only behind Mariah’s very own One Sweet Day, a collaborative effort with Boyz II Men, which topped the song for an undisputed record of 16 weeks.”
7. Back to Black – Amy Winehouse
“That title sounds horribly prescient in the wake of the substance misuse that would kill her, but Winehouse was incandescently alive – funny, pissed off, in love – on her finest album. Producer Mark Ronson’s luxuriant backings, which cherrypicked from the previous century of popular music (doo-wop, soul, hip-hop), are saved from mere classiness by that voice: impetuous, inimitable, always reaching for the wrong interval that turns out to be totally right.”
6. Funeral – Arcade Fire
“The deaths of relatives of band members Regine Chassaigne, Richard Reed Parry, and Win and Will Butler underpinned the (mostly) Canadian band’s debut. The songs here are full of the horrible electricity of grief, Win Butler sometimes hollering at the pain, sometimes burned out by it. But the massed choruses suggest relief can be found in family, be it blood or otherwise, marking the arrival of one of the period’s few great arena bands”
5. The Marshall Mathers LP – Eminem
“Eminem’s third album has dated horribly with its homophobia and gleeful suggestion of violence against women, but in other parts of the album the incisiveness with which he unspools his misanthropic take on life remains transgressively vital.”
4. In Rainbows – Radiohead
“In one of modern music’s more lamentable historical twists, In Rainbows’ legacy will likely be its ground-breaking online marketing strategy and not its glorious music. Remember double-clicking that little zip file you “bought” for $0.04 and downloaded to your computer desktop? Remember how inspiring it was to hear a band with nothing left to prove make music this ambitious: Phil Selway’s tasty, constantly morphing polyrhythmic percussion assault on “15 Step”; the only bass line to ever put a lump in your throat, courtesy of “All I Need,” with Thom Yorke’s sleepy melody adding the pitch-perfect counterpoint; “Videotape,” with its steady march of chiming, heartbreaking piano chords.”
3. American Idiot – Green Day
“What Sgt. Pepper was to 1960s and The Wall was to the 1970s is what American Idiot is to the 2000s. A wonderly crafted set of songs of similar themes within Rock Opera story. Its one of the few true works of art in music during the aughties. Green Day had taken a major risk when taking this album and it worked so well!”
2. Kid A – Radiohead
“Radiohead took a major risk with this album, completely changing styles that Pablo Honey, The Bends, and OK Computer had and diving into a pool of experimental music. The random mash of instruments, sounds, and vocals became a result that was one of the greatest albums of the 2000’s if not of all time.”
1. Awake – Josh Groban
“This is the most diverse and creative album Josh has produced so far. It’s good to see how far he’s come since he first began. His music is captivating. This album is unique in it’s differing musical styles.”