2000s
Showing 428 songs from the 2000s
Lose Yourself
Written between takes on a film set, delivered like a man with exactly one shot at everything.
Seven Nation Army
A guitar pitched down to fake a bass, and the seven-note riff every stadium on earth now sings.
Crazy in Love
Rich Harrison looped a Chi-Lites horn fanfare; Jay-Z turned up at three in the morning and improvised his verse.
Stan
The 45 King looped Dido under four letters, and Eminem's fan character ended up in the Oxford dictionary.
Ms. Jackson
Andre 3000 apologizing to Erykah Badu's mother, who liked it enough to buy a Ms. Jackson license plate.
Bad Romance
Written on a tour bus in Norway and premiered at Alexander McQueen's last show, all nonsense syllables and appetite.
Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)
Beyonce found Bob Fosse's Mexican Breakfast on YouTube; three Grammys and a decade of wedding receptions followed.
Hurt
Rubin handed Cash a Nine Inch Nails song, and Reznor watched the video and said it was no longer his.
Get Ur Freak On
Timbaland set a tumbi melody over tabla and left Elliott acres of empty space to fill.
One More Time
Romanthony's vocal pushed through auto-tune over a slowed Eddie Johns disco sample, filtered until the chorus explodes.
Toxic
Minogue passed on it; Bloodshy and Avant hung a Bollywood string sample over surf guitar for Spears's only Grammy.
B.O.B.
Bombs Over Baghdad at 155 beats per minute, drum and bass colliding with a gospel choir and a guitar solo.
99 Problems
Rick Rubin's first rap production in years, a Billy Squier drum break, and a second verse about a traffic stop.
Work It
Timbaland's beat under a hook Elliott had reversed, a Run-DMC sample, and ten weeks parked at number two.
In Da Club
Dre's beat was offered to D12 and Rakim before 50 Cent wrote to it and held number one nine weeks.
Jesus Walks
A marching ARC Choir sample, Rhymefest's co-write, and a label convinced nobody would play a rap record about God.
Back to Black
Ronson cut it at Daptone with the Dap-Kings, sixties girl-group machinery rebuilt around a voice in ruins.
Rehab
Cut live to tape at Daptone in Brooklyn with the Dap-Kings, and it took Record and Song of the Year.
Paper Planes
Gunshots and a cash register over a Clash loop, with Brixton kids singing a hook about immigrant stereotypes.
Gasolina
A dembow riddim from Luny Tunes, an uncredited hook from Glory, and a place in the National Recording Registry.
Last Nite
Built on the bones of Tom Petty's American Girl, which Petty confirmed without complaint, and recorded in Gordon Raphael's basement.
Stronger
West cleared the Daft Punk sample through their manager, had Timbaland reprogram the kick drums, and hit number one.
Gold Digger
Foxx sang the Ray Charles hook fresh from his Oscar for playing him, and it held number one ten weeks.
Crazy (Gnarls Barkley)
Cee-Lo cut the vocal in one take over a 1968 spaghetti western sample. Nine weeks at UK number one.
Feel Good Inc.
Maseo's cackle, Danger Mouse at the desk, and a song Albarn dreamed up driving past California windmills toward Coachella.
International Player's Anthem (I Choose You)
A Willie Hutch loop left alone at the top, and Andre 3000's verse reportedly returned with the drums stripped off.
Mr. Brightside
Flowers wrote it after a bad night at a Vegas bar; Britain has kept it charting past 500 weeks.
Drop It Like It's Hot
The Neptunes built it from tongue clicks and almost nothing else, and it gave Snoop his first number one.
Everything In Its Right Place
Radiohead opened Kid A with no guitars at all, just a Prophet-5 and Yorke's voice diced in Pro Tools.
Harder Better Faster Stronger
Edwin Birdsong's Cola Bottle Baby, found in a record bin, vocoded into a mantra Kanye West later borrowed wholesale.
Since U Been Gone
Pink passed on it and Duff couldn't hit the notes, so Clarkson asked for heavier guitars and won a Grammy.
Poker Face
RedOne produced it at Record Plant, Gaga's mum-mum-mum-mah hook nodding to Boney M, and 2009's best-selling single worldwide.
Ether
Ron Browz's beat, handed over before he knew its target, and a release date set on Jay-Z's birthday.
Can't Get You Out of My Head
Dennis and Davis wrote it in three and a half hours, and Minogue committed after twenty seconds of the demo.
Take Me Out
Two songs welded together, the tempo dropping a minute in, and a sniper film lending Kapranos his double-edged title.
Heartless
Auto-Tune, a TR-808, No I.D. co-producing, and Kid Cudi writing the hook: rap learned to sing from this.
Wake Up
A wordless chorus half of indie rock then copied, and Bowie sang it onstage with the band in 2005.
Clint Eastwood
Albarn built it on a melodica and an Omnichord's first preset; Del cut his verses in half an hour.
In The End
Shinoda's piano figure under Bennington's chorus took nu metal to number two, and the RIAA finally certified it diamond.
Yellow
Ken Nelson pointed at the stars outside Rockfield, and Martin sang the melody in his worst Neil Young impression.
Love Story
Swift wrote it in twenty minutes on her bedroom floor, gave Romeo and Juliet a happy ending, banjo included.
Float On
Brock wrote it in the final days of tracking, fed up with darkness, and built indie rock's warmest chorus.
All Falls Down
Denied the Lauryn Hill sample, West had Syleena Johnson sing the part, and got his first solo top ten.
The Real Slim Shady
Iovine wanted another "My Name Is," so Eminem wrote this hours before the album was due. It hit number four.
Maps
Zinner's looped riff, twenty minutes of writing from Karen O, and a video where the tears are real.
Izzo (H.O.V.A.)
A Jackson 5 chop, an arena chant, and Jay-Z's first solo top ten, courtesy of a young Kanye West.
Ignition (Remix)
A remix that swallowed its own original: number two in America five weeks, four at Britain's top.
Empire State of Mind
Two songwriters homesick in London started it; Keys and a Moments piano loop made Jay-Z's first lead-artist number one.
Jesus, Etc.
Reprise rejected the album, Wilco streamed it free, and a sister Warner label put out these swooning strings instead.
Clocks
A piano riff Martin nearly saved for the next album, rescued by their manager, then Record of the Year.
We Belong Together
Fourteen weeks at number one, two soul interpolations underneath, and Carey singing softly rather than belting.
Viva La Vida
Eno producing, Davide Rossi's looping strings, a deposed king narrating, and Coldplay's first number one in Britain and America.
Cry Me A River
Storch's clavinet, Timbaland's beat, and a breakup Timberlake spent years declining to explain; the Grammy arrived anyway.
Fallin'
Two chords, one piano, and Keys writing and producing her own debut single straight to Song of the Year.
The Way You Move
Eight weeks stuck at number two behind Hey Ya!, then Big Boi's live Atlanta horns finally took the top.
SexyBack
Timberlake sang it in a distorted low register borrowed from Prince, and it held number one for seven weeks.
Day 'n' Nite
Cut in Dot da Genius's home studio in East New York, using a Geto Boys favorite as its blueprint.
Dirt Off Your Shoulder
Timbaland's beat is all snap and space, and in 2008 a presidential candidate borrowed the shoulder-brush on a Raleigh stage.
Skinny Love
Vernon cut it alone in his father's Wisconsin hunting cabin over a winter, and the falsetto still sounds snowbound.
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
O'Rourke mixed this one song as an audition, won the whole album, and Wilco made it the opening track.
Can't Tell Me Nothing
DJ Toomp built the beat and bassline, West layered the strings, and Zach Galifianakis lip-synced it on a tractor.
My Girls
An arpeggio out of Chicago house, a sample from the Cassini Saturn probe, Lennox wanting only a home.
Beautiful Day
Eno programmed the drum machine, Lanois played the Telecaster, and the Edge won the argument for his old delay-drenched sound.
Irreplaceable
Ne-Yo pitched it as country, written with Shania Twain in mind; Beyoncé turned it into ten weeks at number one.
Do You Realize?
Coyne wrote it during Drozd's recovery, a plain statement about mortality that Oklahoma voted its official state rock song.
You Belong With Me
Banjo, fiddle and mandolin under a scene Swift wrote after overhearing a touring musician's phone call with his girlfriend.
New Slang
Sub Pop pressed it as a one-off single in 2001; three years later Garden State made it a generational password.
Reptilia
Nigel Godrich's sessions got scrapped, Gordon Raphael came back, and the descending twin-guitar riff turned everything into a sprint.
One Mic
Chucky Thompson looped Phil Collins, and Nas rises from a murmur to a roar and back, verse after verse.
If I Ain't Got You
Aaliyah's death in 2001 clarified what mattered, and Keys answered with piano, gospel restraint and a Grammy-winning vocal.
Love Lockdown
Taiko drums against an 808 heartbeat, Auto-Tune everywhere, and a version West scrapped and recut after the fan backlash.
Kids
Goldwasser wrote the music at nineteen in a dorm room, an exercise in stereotypical pop that outgrew itself.
The Scientist
One out-of-tune Liverpool piano, an attempt at a Harrison song abandoned, and the chord run Martin kept instead.
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service)
Tamborello sent instrumental DATs to Gibbard, who added vocals and shipped them back; his first happy love song.
Chicago
Sleigh bells, trumpets and a choir stacked into one crescendo, and Stevens cut five different versions of it.
When You Were Young
Twenty minutes for melody and title, by Flowers' account, and Flood and Moulder gave it Born to Run scale.
Family Affair (Mary J. Blige)
Dre's instrumental sat titled Fragile for months before it was renamed Family Affair and took six weeks at number one.
Time to Pretend
The praying mantis in their house inspired the music, by the band's account; the words satirize rock-star excess.
Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Armstrong wrote the lyrics alone in an East Village apartment, and that loneliness won Record of the Year.
Electric Feel
A 6/4 groove where pop usually sits in 4/4, and Fridmann's production turns silvery synths into a slow strut.
Heartbeats (The Knife)
Pitchfork's fifteenth-best song of the 2000s, the Dreijer siblings' synth pulse, later stripped to one acoustic guitar by Jose Gonzalez.
Hot in Herre
The Neptunes flipped Chuck Brown's "Bustin' Loose," and Nelly rode it to number one and the first male solo rap Grammy.
You Know I'm No Good
Ronson cut it at Daptone in Brooklyn with the Dap-Kings, Winehouse writing about infidelity and offering no apology.
All These Things That I've Done
Gospel choir the Sweet Inspirations, a bassline Flowers traced to Bowie, and a refrain built for arenas.
Welcome to Jamrock
An Ini Kamoze sample under it, Stephen Marley at the desk, and verses answering the postcard version of Jamaica.
What You Know
DJ Toomp turned a Roberta Flack interpolation into a synth fanfare, and T.I. won a Grammy for the performance.
With Every Heartbeat
No chorus, just strings and a rising ache; Kleerup's living-room track became Robyn's first British number one.
Porcelain
Moby nearly left it off Play; a reversed string sample from the Exodus score, cut in his Little Italy apartment.
Flume
Three months alone in his father's Wisconsin hunting cabin, and falsetto stacked until one voice becomes a choir.
Numb
Twelve weeks atop the modern rock chart, and Bennington turning somebody else's expectations into a chorus millions shouted back.
Don't Stop the Music
StarGate looped Michael Jackson's chant from Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', and Rihanna took it to number one in ten countries.
White Winter Hymnal
A round about snow that the band never once played together, its voices stacked from first takes in production.