2000s Music: Top Songs, Genres And Trends

Downloads, the iPod and reality-show pop - the decade the record shop closed.

Below: the albums worth owning from the 2000s, the artists who defined it, how people listened at the time, and the biggest song of every year from 2000 to 2009.

Good for building a party playlist, setting a quiz round or working out what someone grew up listening to.

Shop the cards that go with these

Shop prints and posters Look back to 2000 Look back to 2001 Look back to 2002

Song and lyric prints, drawn and printed by us

Music and milestone art prints and funny cards, printed in the UK. Order on a working day and it usually goes out the same day.

99 Problems, Prompting Ain't One A6 Postcard 99 Problems, Prompting Ain't One A6 Postcard £3.00 Cunt Rude A6 Postcard Cunt Rude A6 Postcard £3.00 99 Problems but Excel Ain't One A6 Postcard 99 Problems but Excel Ain't One A6 Postcard £3.00 Dancing On The Ceiling Music Print A6 Postcard Dancing On The Ceiling Music Print A6 Postcard £3.00 Music Sounds Better With You Music Print A6 Postcard Music Sounds Better With You Music Print A6 Postcard £3.00 Kenny Dalglish Liverpool Football Club (LFC) Legend Stats Print Kenny Dalglish Liverpool Football Club (LFC) Legend Stats Print £12.99

Shop prints and posters

Years covered in the 2000s

  • 2000 - The Millennium Dome, the fuel protests and Big Brother arriving from nowhere. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2000
  • 2001 - Foot-and-mouth, 11 September and the first iPod. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2001
  • 2002 - The Golden Jubilee, the death of the Queen Mother and Pop Idol fever. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2002
  • 2003 - Iraq, a record-breaking heatwave and England winning the Rugby World Cup. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2003
  • 2004 - Strictly and The X Factor both started, and the year ended with the tsunami. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2004
  • 2005 - The Olympic bid, the 7 July bombings and the Ashes coming home. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2005
  • 2006 - Arctic Monkeys, the Wii and another World Cup penalty shoot-out. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2006
  • 2007 - The iPhone, the smoking ban, the floods and the run on Northern Rock. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2007
  • 2008 - The banking crash, a brilliant Olympics and Lewis Hamilton on the last corner. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2008
  • 2009 - Recession, MPs' expenses and a Christmas number one campaign that worked. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2009
  • That is every 2000s year we have written up so far: 2000 to 2009.

Albums of the 2000s

  • Amy Winehouse, Back to Black (2006).
  • Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002).
  • Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006) - fastest-selling UK debut album at the time.
  • Dido, No Angel (2000).
  • The Streets, Original Pirate Material (2002).
  • Adele, 19 (2008).
  • Kings of Leon, Only by the Night (2008).

Artists who defined the 2000s

  • Amy Winehouse, Adele and Duffy.
  • Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs and Franz Ferdinand.
  • Pop Idol and The X Factor winners - Will Young, Leona Lewis, Alexandra Burke.
  • Beyonce solo from 2003; Rihanna from 2005.
  • Girls Aloud, Sugababes and McFly.

Genres of the 2000s

  • Indie guitar revival - the Strokes, the Libertines and the landfill indie that followed.
  • UK garage, then grime out of east London.
  • R&B and hip hop dominating the singles chart.
  • Pop-punk and emo for teenagers.
  • Talent-show pop, from Pop Idol to The X Factor.

Music trends of the 2000s

  • Downloads count towards the chart from 2005, then streaming-only sales rise.
  • The iPod and iTunes reshape what a music collection is.
  • MySpace lets bands build audiences without a label.
  • CD sales fall sharply and record shops close.

Biggest songs, year by year

  • 2000 - 'Can We Fix It?' by Bob the Builder was the Christmas number one.
  • 2001 - 'It Wasn't Me' by Shaggy and 'Can't Get You Out of My Head' by Kylie Minogue were the year's biggest singles.
  • 2002 - Will Young's 'Anything Is Possible'/'Evergreen' was the year's best-selling single after he won Pop Idol.
  • 2003 - 'Where Is the Love?' by the Black Eyed Peas was one of the year's biggest singles.
  • 2004 - 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' by Band Aid 20 was the Christmas number one.
  • 2005 - Downloads began counting towards the official singles chart in April.
  • 2006 - Arctic Monkeys' debut album became the fastest-selling debut in British chart history at the time.
  • 2007 - Rihanna's 'Umbrella' spent ten weeks at number one over a very wet summer.
  • 2008 - Alexandra Burke's 'Hallelujah' was the Christmas number one and the year's best-selling single.
  • 2009 - Rage Against the Machine's 'Killing in the Name' beat The X Factor to the Christmas number one after an online campaign.

How people listened

  • The iPod (2001) and iTunes; downloads counted towards the UK chart from 2005.
  • Burned CDs, MiniDiscs briefly, and MySpace pages for unsigned bands.
  • HMV and Woolworths on the high street, with Woolworths closing at the end of 2008.

How to use this

  • Party: take the running order from the 2000s playlist and pull extra tracks from the artists above.
  • Quiz round: read the year and the song, and ask for the other one.
  • Reminiscence session: the songs people sang at eighteen get the most talking.
  • Present: a print of a song from 2000-2009 beats another mug.

Shop prints and posters

Found your words? Now find the card

Shop prints and posters Look back to 2000 Look back to 2001 Look back to 2002

How to write it so it lands

  • Download the tracks rather than streaming them if the party is somewhere with bad signal.
  • One song from the year someone turned eighteen does more than a whole decade playlist.
  • Check for clean versions before a family party - some of these are ruder than people remember.

Where to shop next

Frequently asked questions

What are the best albums of the 2000s?

Amy Winehouse, Back to Black (2006). The full list above gives real records with their release years, not a ranking - pick by what the person actually listened to.

What music genres were popular in the 2000s?

Indie guitar revival - the Strokes, the Libertines and the landfill indie that followed. UK garage, then grime out of east London. R&B and hip hop dominating the singles chart. The genres section above has the full list.

Who were the biggest artists of the 2000s?

Amy Winehouse, Adele and Duffy. The rest are listed above, including the British acts that mattered more here than anywhere else.

What was the biggest song of each year in the 2000s?

The year-by-year list above gives the chart facts for each year of the decade, taken from the same checked data as our year pages.

Do you sell records?

No. We make greeting cards, art prints and pin badges in the UK, including song and lyric prints. For the records themselves, charity shops and independent record shops are the honest answer.

Back to blog