This is how I would personally rank the 2000s years in order of best to worse. In all honesty, i'm generally not a fan of 2000s music, however I do have a preference as to which years I prefer over others.

1. 2001
2. 2000
3. 2003
4. 2007
5. 2004
6. 2008
7. 2005
8. 2002
9. 2009
10. 2006

The release of System of a Down's Toxicity, as well as "Hanging By a Moment", "Smooth Criminal" and "The Middle", is enough for me to personally consider 2001 to be my favourite year for music in the 2000s. :)

Whoa, whoa, Smooth Criminal was released in 2001???? The MJ song???? Are you sure you're not thinking of Smooth by Santana?

Whoa, whoa, Smooth Criminal was released in 2001???? The MJ song???? Are you sure you're not thinking of Smooth by Santana?


No, I was thinking of the Alien Ant Farm cover of the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDl9ZMfj6aE

1. 2000 - The Y2K teen pop movement was still in its zenith, and was better than ever. Vibrant, melodious, upbeat, cheerful, excellently produced pop songs were abound, and pop rock fared mostly well, too.

2. 2002 - The United States was unusually drawn towards trance/club music this year, being one of only two years Kylie Minogue saw serious chart success here (the other was 1988), not to mention surprise hits by acts like DJ Sammy, Dirty Vegas, Paulina Rubio, and Enrique Iglesias (particularly "Escape"). On top of that, there was some excellent music by pop rock and adult contemporary acts like Avril Lavigne, John Mayer, Norah Jones, Indie Arie, and Michelle Branch. The Neptunes were at their finest this year, bringing lots of catchy rhythms to urban and pop. Things weren't perfect at the start of this year, but summer, autumn, and winter 2002 were fantastic.

3. 2001 - A great year for music for a lot of the same reasons as 2000, though the last third is brought down a little by pop rap starting to erode bubblegum pop's success and over saturating the market.

4. 2004 - This was the year crunk music was actually danceable and instead of the joke it was soon to become. This was the last full year pop rock was still consistently great, before it started to get more mundane later on. Rap was still everywhere, but the genre was starting to expand a little creatively, so for the most part it was pretty fresh. Only the UK got gems like "Some Girls," "Left Outside Alone," and "She Wants to Move," but there was no shortage of 2000s classics in the United States either, among them "If I Ain't Got You," "This Love," "Let's Get It Started," and "Breaking the Habit."

5. 2005 - A great deal of the decade's best music came out of this year, but unfortunately, so did a lot of its worst. For every "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor," "Galvanize," "B.Y.O.B.," "I Said Never Again (But Here We Are)," and "Biology," there was a "Slow Down," "My Humps," "Laffy Taffy," "Grillz," and "Grind with Me." Rachel Stevens' Come and Get It is one of my favorite pop albums of all time, and even Kate Bush delivered a solid comeback with Aerial, but the declining quality of American pop rock and sudden spike in juvenile crap in pop, hip hop, and r&b make this year extremely uneven.

6. 2009 - This gets a decided advantage over other late 2000s years because snap music had declined (though a few songs still sucked hard, like "Break Up"), and the electropop movement finally breathed new life into a then-worn out industry. In retrospect, however, it mostly lacks the sheer classics and masterpieces that the early 2000s churned out.

7. 2003 - A fairly nondescript year for music, with not a whole lot of terrible material, but also not as many standouts as the years within its vicinity.

8. 2006 - Britain had a pretty good year for music, which is why this isn't even lower, but no year this decade was more polluted by bratty, unmusical garbage in the United States than 2006, and the rock music, for the most part, wasn't strong enough to redeem it.

9. 2007 - This was when 2000s music started to get really apathetic, though a scattered selection of awesome songs redeem it...somewhat. The UK listened to a lot of pop-rock music this year that, aside from certain acts like Take That and MIKA, was just not interesting to me in the least.

10. 2008 - Incredibly tasteless compositions, stagnant production, continued childishness, rap still being caught in a rut, and a severe lack of true standouts both in singles and albums make this one of my least favorite years for music ever.

2009
2003
2001
2007
2002
2000
2008
2004
2005
2006

6. 2009 - This gets a decided advantage over other late 2000s years because snap music had declined (though a few songs still sucked hard, like "Break Up"), and the electropop movement finally breathed new life into a then-worn out industry. In retrospect, however, it mostly lacks the sheer classics and masterpieces that the early 2000s churned out.


I would say 2009 had some of the most memorable classics of the entire decade.  Anything by Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Ke$ha, the Black Eyed Peas, or Beyonce dominated that year.  For the first time in a while, music was fresh and different.  There really hadn't been a year like it since the early 2000s.

For me, I rank them like this:

1. 2004
2. 2003
3. 2007
4. 2005
5. 2006
6. 2009
7. 2002
8. 2001
9. 2008
10. 2000

I would say 2009 had some of the most memorable classics of the entire decade.  Anything by Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Ke$ha, the Black Eyed Peas, or Beyonce dominated that year.  For the first time in a while, music was fresh and different.  There really hadn't been a year like it since the early 2000s.


It was undoubtedly a breath of fresh air at the time, but I just think that for the most part, my favorite songs from the early and mid 2000s are stronger. I still love "Alejandro" from The Fame Monster, but even "Poker Face," I Gotta Feeling," "Tik Tok" and "Empire State of Mind" pale in comparison to "Absolutely Everybody," "Never Had a Dream Come True," "Fallin'," "Rock DJ," "Some Girls," "Superman (It's Not Easy)," and...well, quite frankly a great deal of popular music from earlier in the decade, before the rotten stench of snap music and sleep-inducing junk like "No Air," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Who Knew," "With You," and "Bubbly" made just about any subsequent step up seem like a godsend.

For me, I rank them like this:

1. 2004
2. 2003
3. 2007
4. 2005
5. 2006
6. 2009
7. 2002
8. 2001
9. 2008
10. 2000


Why are the early 2000s so low here? Is it more due to the nu-metal or the mainstream pop?

Why are the early 2000s so low here? Is it more due to the nu-metal or the mainstream pop?

Well, I'll start off by saying that I don't hate any 2000s year when it comes to music (but I had to rank 'em).

I think that nu-metal is decent but the early '00s didn't connect with me because of my age....I was a mid to late '00s kid and for the most part I prefer the music from that time over the early 2000s.

Well, I'll start off by saying that I don't hate any 2000s year when it comes to music (but I had to rank 'em).

I think that nu-metal is decent but the early '00s didn't connect with me because of my age....I was a mid to late 00s kid and for the most part I prefer the music from that time over the early 2000s.


Oh, okay. I'm kind of unique in that I've pretty much always mostly preferred music from before my teenage years over those that were popular in middle school and high school for me, but I suppose I do feel about the 90s the way you do about the 2000s...the early 90s are easily my least favorite sub-era of that stretch of years, despite plenty of good music still being released then as well.

Oh, okay. I'm kind of unique in that I've pretty much always mostly preferred music from before my teenage years over those that were popular in middle school and high school for me, but I suppose I do feel about the 90s the way you do about the 2000s...the early 90s are easily my least favorite sub-era of that stretch of years, despite plenty of good music still being released then as well.

LOL...I gotcha.

I know that I'm in the minority when it comes to liking early '90s music (and fashion) :(.

I know that I'm in the minority when it comes to liking early '90s music (and fashion) :(.


If there's any correlation, I like the Grunge/alternative rock music released in the Early 90s. :P

If there's any correlation, I like the Grunge/alternative rock music released in the Early 90s. :P

That's something, lol :P.

I will rank by eras....

1: 2001-2003

2: 2000 (Y2K)

3: 2004-2006

4: 2007-2009