NPR: The Decade's 50 Most Important Recordings
It seemed like an impossible task, but that didn't stop us from trying. With the first decade of the new millennium coming to a close, we decided to compile a list of the 50 most important recordings of the past 10 years - a list that covers a wide range of styles and genres, with indelible songs and albums that challenge, inspire and captivate.
These are the game-changers: records that signaled some sort of shift in the way music is made or sounds, or ones that were especially influential or historically significant. Favorite records don't necessarily qualify. A lot of people, including nearly everyone at NPR Music, love Fleet Foxes' debut album, but was it one of the decade's most important?
The 50 recordings that appear here are listed alphabetically. We've included artists and bands from a number of musical worlds, from dubstep and hip-hop to Top 40 pop, classical, jazz, world, beardy folk, metal and hard rock. There's some country, too, but admittedly no grindcore or goa trance.
A lot of people, including All Songs Considered listeners, helped put this list together. As we culled through the nominees, tears were shed and arguments were had. But one thing we all agreed on: This was one of the best decades yet for music. We can't wait to hear what comes next.
On the Transmigration of Souls
Artist: John Adams
Album: On the Transmigration of Souls
This vigorous musical response to Sept. 11, 2001, was commissioned to mark the first anniversary of the attacks. John Adams mimics the chaos and tragedy of that day by layering seemingly incongruous sounds: recitations by loved ones of the victims' names and cell-phone calls, taped and live choral singing, a thorough shaking in the orchestra and, out of the din, a lonely solo trumpet. -- Tom Huizenga
Merriweather Post Pavillion
Artist: Animal Collective
Song: My Girls
In a decade marked by musical experimentation and deconstruction, Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion seems to reveal where the band has been heading all along. While each previous effort eschewed acoustic instruments in favor of piercing synthesizer loops, samples and computerized beats, MPP remains true to Animal Collective's identity. And yet the band's sonic landscapes and pulsing dance grooves challenge listeners to alter their perceptions of what makes a song. Songs like "Summertime Clothes" and "Brothersport" sound like a culmination of the band's history, and seem to provide a glimpse into the next decade's most forward-looking music. -- Mike Katzif
Funeral
Artist: Arcade Fire
Song: Wake Up
An album that never wore out its welcome, 2004's Funeral has everything a classic record needs: great lyrics ("My family tree's losing all its leaves"), beautiful and contagious melodies, and songs that start in one place and take listeners somewhere else. Along the way, there's sadness and hope -- and, of course, it rocks. Funeral isn't just important; it's also one of the decade's very best. -- Bob Boilen
These Are the Vistas
Artist: The Bad Plus
Song: Smells Like Teen Spirit
The fact that most everybody in the stratified jazz world was talking about this record in 2003 is evidence enough of its importance. But the real coup lies in the fact that it got people outside jazz to listen. That'll happen when you play covers of Nirvana, Aphex Twin and Blondie as an acoustic piano trio. But there's far more than novelty appeal at work here: The Bad Plus' Ethan Iverson, Reid Anderson and Dave King reverently used the tunes as frameworks for distinct, original improvisation, aided by knottily textured originals, nutso percussion and bass that would challenge a car's Alpine subwoofer. Love it or hate it, it was impossible to ignore -- and the musical ideas had staying power, too. -- Patrick Jarenwattananon
Dangerously in Love
Artist: Beyoncé
Song: Crazy in Love
Once upon a time in 2003, three young women from the successful pop group Destiny's Child were exploring their separate musical paths. Michele Williams released a successful gospel album, Kelly Rowland was at the top of the charts with "Dilemma" (a duet with Nelly) and Beyonce Knowles... well, everyone knows what happens next in this story: an explosive Chi-Lites horn sample and a commandingly coquettish vocal spouting, "Uh oh uh oh uh oh." The introduction to "Crazy in Love," the lead single from Dangerously in Love, provides one of the greatest 30-second bites of music this decade, and announces a standout artist. Whereas Destiny's Child's songs were about poised and sensible women, this was Beyonce's opportunity to explore emotional messiness. Dangerously in Love doesn't go too far; Beyonce is simultaneously transgressive and traditional in her sound and lyrics. But it was a hell of a start, and she didn't stop there. -- Amy Schriefer
For Emma, Forever Ago
Artist: Bon Iver
Song: Skinny Love
Bon Iver's Justin Vernon isn't the first heartsick singer-songwriter to chuck it all, disappear into the woods and pour his pain into songs. But Vernon poured his pain into incredible songs -- they're mysterious, evocative, beautiful and surprisingly catchy -- and demonstrated that humble and idiosyncratic bedroom recordings can more than hold their own against the slickest rock ringers. Both influential and great, 2008's For Emma, Forever Ago doesn't seem to age, either, so it's likely to endure long after the next decade ends. -- Stephen Thompson
Cover for I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
Artist: Bright Eyes
Song: We Are Nowhere and It's Now
One of two very different recordings Bright Eyes released in early 2005, I'm Wide Awake It's Morning was a poetic and personal record that helped put Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst on the map as one of the best lyricists making music in the 21st century. Amid great storytelling and social commentary are a lot of heartfelt performances, including guest appearances by Emmylou Harris, Maria Taylor and My Morning Jacket's Jim James. It's everything you could want from a folk-rock record, and a refreshing breakthrough for an important artist. -- Bob Boilen
Untrue
Artist: Burial
Song: Archangel
Dubstep has been arguably the most forward-thinking musical movement of the last decade, mixing the clicking beats of 2-step with U.K. grime. But there's something universal about Burial's 2007 album Untrue; it taps into our sorrowful psyche, burrowing into unknown moods that feel unconventionally comfortable. -- Lars Gotrich
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Album: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Song: Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood
In 2005, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah showed just how far and wide a band could be heard without much airplay or promotional support. The group sold more than 125,000 copies of its self-released, self-titled debut -- not only because its music struck a chord, but also because those who loved it were able to spread the word in ways that seemed unimaginable a few years earlier. It's one of the Internet's biggest individual success stories in music, but Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is important for more than just its viral appeal; it's also a damn good record. -- Bob Boilen
Breakaway [Bonus CD]
Artist: Kelly Clarkson
Song: Since U Been Gone
Say what you will about American Idol; its impact on the pop-music landscape is unmistakable. Even as the music business shrinks, the show has spawned tens of millions in album sales and directly launched massively successful careers in country (Carrie Underwood), R&B (Jennifer Hudson) and rock (Chris Daughtry). All of which might have been thwarted early on had the show's first winner, Kelly Clarkson, not become a massive pop star -- her success, remember, was hardly a foregone conclusion at the time. Clarkson didn't just sell a lot of records; she also sold a lot of good records, and 2004's Breakaway shows her at her spiky, poppy best. She managed to overcome the stigma of American Idol and even the laughable movie spin-off From Justin to Kelly, and wrote a workable playbook for seemingly disposable pop stars who want to stick around longer than anyone expects. -- Stephen Thompson
A Rush of Blood to the Head
Artist: Coldplay
Song: God Put a Smile Upon Your Face
Before it became fashionable to bash Coldplay as a stand-in for all that is stately and milquetoast in pop music, the band made a couple of enormously successful, culturally ubiquitous and extremely well-received records. From 2002, A Rush of Blood to the Head was shaping up to be an undisputed classic at the time -- it's as artistically ambitious as it is catchy, which is saying a lot -- yet it's lost much of its critical cachet since then. Still, it's impossible to ignore its reverberations in the successful likes of Keane, Snow Patrol and other likeminded bands that ruled the charts in the '00s, and presumably beyond. For an album so widely heralded in 2002, it feels funny to say that A Rush of Blood to the Head is underrated; today, it's underrated. -- Stephen Thompson
Grey Album
Artist: Danger Mouse
Song: 99 Problems
The Grey Album, from 2004, isn't the first record to fuse two unlikely recordings into a seamless mashup. But Danger Mouse's inventive underground mixture of Jay-Z's The Black Album and The Beatles' White Album was a watershed moment in many ways: It forced a litigious record industry to fight copyright wars on yet another front; it kicked off Danger Mouse's incredibly influential career as a producer, conspirator and all-around raconteur; and it still serves as a tidy symbol of the way hip-hop is bleeding into rock 'n' roll in unexpected and exciting ways. -- Stephen Thompson
Transatlanticism
Artist: Death Cab for Cutie
Album: Transatlanticism
It's possible to quantify popular music's influence by charting the number of times a song has been played over bittersweet montage sequences on TV dramas -- which, for the '00s, means The O.C., Six Feet Under, One Tree Hill, et al. If any song in the '00s was played in that context more than Jimmy Eat World's "Hear You Me" (a.k.a. "May Angels Lead You In"), it had to be Death Cab for Cutie's "Transatlanticism," in which six words -- "I need you so much closer" -- perfectly capture a sense of romantic longing in the face of distance. The album of the same name does, too, in an unbroken string of sweet, infectious, artful, graceful songs. Transatlanticism made stars of the brainy and unassuming band that spawned it, and its subsequent records haven't disappointed, either. -- Stephen Thompson
The Crane Wife
Artist: The Decemberists
Song: The Island/Come and See/The Landlord's Daughter/You'll Not Feel the Drowning
The Crane Wife could have easily failed. In 2006, at the heart of an era driven by great singles and downloads, it was meant to be heard as a full-length album with a complex story to tell. In a time when independent bands were doing better than ever, The Decemberists had just signed to a major label, so there could have been backlash from fans. And, in a world of short songs and short attention spans, the group mined the fields of English folk and progressive rock (sometimes in the same song) to create 12-minute folk-prog operas. It was a bold move that challenged fans -- and succeeded, because the songs were intriguing, the story was fascinating, and each listen had something new to say. It was the perfect argument for making albums and not just songs. -- Bob Boilen
Marshall Mathers LP
Artist: Eminem
Song: The Real Slim Shady
Drop the needle anywhere on 2000's The Marshall Mathers LP, and you'll likely to land someplace powerfully intense and imaginative. Though Eminem's multiple personalities -- each with its own persecution complex! -- can become tiresome conceits, every couplet comes with deliriously inspired wordplay, delivered in choppy, perpetually destabilized cadences that also manage to sound musically provocative. -- Tom Moon
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Artist: The Flaming Lips
Song: Do You Realize??
In the follow-up to the lushly arranged critical favorite The Soft Bulletin, The Flaming Lips went even grander in scale in 2002, composing the post-apocalyptic concept album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Amidst soaring guitars, synth-driven soundscapes and thunderous drums, singer Wayne Coyne contemplates cosmic existentialism, loneliness and despair in uncertain times. Yoshimi revels in joyful exuberance and unmistakable positivity: "Do You Realize??" functions as the band's unofficial theme song -- and Oklahoma's official state rock song -- telling us that "life goes fast" and encouraging everyone to stop and appreciate all the little things. -- Mike Katzif
La Pasión Segun San Marcos (Saint Mark's Passion)
Artist: Osvaldo Golijov
Song: Por Que
This 2001 breakthrough recording put Osvaldo Golijov on the map; today, he's widely recognized as one of the world's most important contemporary composers. The Passion According to St. Mark is crossover music at its most freewheeling and meaningful. An Argentine Jew, Golijov here writes music about the Christian story of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. The music is by turns a classical Passion (following in the footsteps of Bach) and cross-cultural fiesta; it incorporates traditional Western choral singing with Afro-Cuban beats, tango and Brazilian capoeira. This piece turns the traditional Passion on its head and gives it a spin or two. -- Tom Huizenga
American Idiot
Artist: Green Day
Album: American Idiot
Who would have predicted that the band behind an album called Dookie would return a decade later with a provocative examination of an America bloated by greed, junk food and prescription medications? American Idiot was released in 2004, and its title alone said a lot about the band's view of America's status in the world. On the surface, at least, it's a concept record that tells the story of "Jesus of Suburbia," an American everyman oblivious to his self-destructive life. Regardless of its intentions, American Idiot remains one of the decade's fiercest and most ambitious rock records. -- Robin Hilton
Our Endless Numbered Days
Artist: Iron & Wine
Song: Passing Afternoon
Iron & Wine's Sam Beam is an artist, a painter, a filmmaker and a musician whose early work helped signal a move toward intimate home recordings in the new century. Though 2004's Our Endless Numbered Days wasn't a home recording, it carries the same spirit of songs that go from his heart to listeners' ears. A lot of guys with beards made music in the early 21st century, and it's fair to say that a common thread connects the way their music manages to sound both rustic and sensitive. But there's darkness to this music, too, as Beam conflates love and death in the devastating "Naked As We Came." -- Bob Boilen
The Blueprint
Artist: Jay-Z
Song: Izzo (H.O.V.A.)
The Blueprint is arguably Jay-Z's best work, musically and lyrically. But the odds were stacked against him at the time: He was awaiting two criminal trials at the time of its official release... on Sept. 11, 2001. The album looked back to a more soulful, sample-based sound in an era dominated by a synth-intensive production style. The Blueprint changed the landscape in that sense, but it also made household names out of its producers: Just Blaze, as well as a kid from Chicago by the name of Kanye West. -- Robert Carter, aka DJ Cuzzin B
Come Away with Me
Artist: Norah Jones
Song: Don't Know Why
The fact that Norah Jones is Ravi Shankar's daughter only added to the fascination spawned by this record, which at times reflects the country-music side of Ray Charles, the sensuousness of Billie Holiday and the cool soul of Nina Simone; plus, Jones was only 22 when it came out in 2002. Any time a record does crazily well, there's bound to be a backlash -- and this one sold roughly 20 million copies, which qualifies as doing crazily well -- but Jones can't be faulted for her ubiquity. Besides, Come Away With Me is a joy. -- Bob Boilen
Fijate Bien
Artist: Juanes
Album: Fijate Bien
Juanes' social activism and sold-out tours make him one of the most influential artists of the decade. The Colombian vocalist and songwriter kicked off the '00s with the tremendous 2000 album Fijate Bien, then won the Best New Artist Latin Grammy and spent the rest of the decade living up to the honor. Ever since, he's sold millions while making intelligent, thought-provoking music. --Felix Contreras
Sound of Silver
Artist: LCD Soundsystem
Song: North American Scum
Back at the start of the decade, James Murphy looked like an indie-dance version of Pharrell Wiliams: the more visible, more vocal half of a production duo (Murphy's DFA, Williams' Neptunes) making a splash by revamping genre tropes with retro sounds. DFA made disco sound like punk by emphasizing its raw body-moving qualities; when Murphy's on-the-mic alias LCD Soundsystem released the "Losing My Edge" single in 2002, it set the bar for skewering obsessive, me-first crate-diggers made obsolete by the onset of the Internet age. "Losing My Edge" may have seemed like a brilliant one-off joke, but underneath the clever lines and canned beats, it suggested that Murphy was a songwriter with a distinct voice. The second LCD Soundsystem album, 2007's Sound of Silver, proved it beyond any doubt. The album is full of astonishing touches: A wobbly piano loop drives "All My Friends" while keeping it charmingly off-balance; a humming, raindrop-delicate beat underlies the aching regret of "Someone Great"; "North American Scum" serves up a biting analysis of Euro-American party relations. Invention on top of sadness on top of joy on top of soul -- Sound of Silver proved Murphy could do it all. -- Jacob Ganz
Tha Carter III [Deluxe Edition]
Artist: Lil Wayne
Song: A Milli
Tha Carter III, Lil' Wayne's sixth album, represents the culmination of the rapper's promise, ingenuity and bull-headed weirdness. When Jay-Z named Lil' Wayne his successor as "Best Rapper in the World," the gesture was largely engineered to sell records, but "A Milli" actually signaled the takeover of rap by a talent who plainly doesn't care about selling things so much as he cares about making the music he feels the need to make. And, of course, Tha Carter III still went platinum in its first week. -- Frannie Kelley
The Listening
Artist: Little Brother
Album: The Listening
In the years since its 2003 release, Little Brother's The Listening has achieved cult status among underground hip-hop enthusiasts and mainstream fanatics alike. Eschewing misogyny and materialism in favor of a more playful celebration of life and hip-hop, The Listening marks the North Carolina crew as a worthy heir to the hip-hop greats in the Native Tongues collective: A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, et al. -- Robert Carter, aka DJ Cuzzin B
Kala
Artist: M.I.A.
Song: Paper Planes
M.I.A's Kala changed the landscape. No album was so far-reaching, yet still immediate enough that you could feel its claws. The songs on Kala are catchy, political, clever and poetic; they have grit and glide. Kala pulled the rug out from under the sonic couch-surfers and added a sting, an insistent and urgent buzz. It made other records sound as if they'd been sleepwalking. Kala made listeners move, think and believe, and reached a huge global audience in the process. -- Carrie Brownstein
Silk Road Journeys: When Strangers Meet
Artist: Yo-Yo Ma & the Silk Road Ensemble
Song: Blue Little Flower
Yo-Yo Ma and his "venture culturalism" may be ubiquitous, but this beautiful recording opened many ears -- from young people to older classical snobs -- to the various musical styles from the Far East. It helps that, for Silk Road Journeys: When Strangers Meet, Ma assembled a crew of largely authentic musicians and not classical-crossover artists playing tourist. -- Tom Huizenga
Leviathan
Artist: Mastodon
Song: Blood and Thunder
Mastodon's rise as metal's great sword-bearer can, in a sense, be likened to Metallica's meteoric ascent in 1991: Both bands dramatically poured on the production values and polished the rough edges of past albums. But that's where the comparisons end. Pardon the pun, but 2004's Leviathan has oceanic depth, riding a progressive path that epitomized a phenomenal decade for metal. -- Lars Gotrich
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Artist: Harry McClintock
Song: Big Rock Candy Mountain
The soundtrack to Joel and Ethan Coen's 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou? was an unlikely hit. To begin with, the movie -- a Depression-era retelling of Homer's Odyssey -- wasn't terribly popular with audiences or critics. And its soundtrack lacked any of the kind of hit songs you might actually hear on the radio. Instead, the Coen brothers and producer T-Bone Burnett used vintage recordings and new interpretations of classic folk, old-time, gospel and country songs. To nearly everyone's surprise, listeners fell in love with the soundtrack's warmth and bittersweet simplicity. The O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack sold millions of copies and won multiple Grammys. It also sparked a major renaissance for Americana music -- as labels cashed in by reissuing countless classic recordings and compilations. -- Robin Hilton
Black Stars
Artist: Jason Moran
Song: Skitter In
Jazz has spent the last 50 years dealing with both the promise and difficulties posed by free improvisation. On his third album, a 26-year-old Jason Moran embraced jazz's potential for dazzling brilliance by couching it in an inclusive, even schizoid take on jazz history. He embraces post-bop as readily as he reconfigures the music of Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and early stride piano masters. The second step was to get multi-instrumentalist Sam Rivers, a pioneer in making the avant-garde approachable, to guest-star at age 77. As it turns out, the final result is full of density and percussive pianism, but also warm moments of strained beauty, all supported by powerful technique from all involved. -- Patrick Jarenwattananon
Stankonia
Artist: OutKast
Song: Ms. Jackson
Once and future kings, OutKast's Big Boi and Andre 3000 have been recording together for 16 years, all the while producing some of the world's most thoughtful and engaging rap music. Stankonia is a monumental achievement in both confessional pop-music lyricism and production -- mostly courtesy of Big Boi, Andre 3000 and Mr. D.J., with assists from Organized Noize. Which, in turn, is why Stankonia is on this list and not "Hey Ya" (from Speakerboxxx/The Love Below). Though Andre 3000's smash reached many more people than heard "So Fresh So Clean" or even "Ms. Jackson," it's OutKast as a duo which continues to inspire and influence acts as disparate as Radiohead and Kanye West. -- Frannie Kelley
5th Gear
Artist: Brad Paisley
Song: Ticks
Country music generally gets cleaved into two camps: the slick, Nashville-based pop-country that gets played on the radio, and the roughed-up roots music that gets cited as its "authentic" alternative. But just as a lot of alternative country can be boring or affected, a lot of Nashville country can be witty, empathetic, catchy and performed with great subtlety and skill. Brad Paisley isn't immune to the genre's pitfalls or tropes, but he's also sold millions of records while telling relatable, nuanced stories of American life. His best album, 5th Gear, finds him mixing remarkable guitar work with good-natured storytelling. "I'd like to walk you through a field of wildflowers," he sings at one point, adding, "And I'd like to check you for ticks." Few singers in any genre are so mindful of the pitfalls of mixing love and Lyme disease. -- Stephen Thompson
Person Pitch
Artist: Panda Bear
Song: Bros
In the same way that hip-hop introduced the sample as a means to a beat or a hook, Panda Bear's 2007 classic Person Pitch makes listeners rethink the sample's possibilities as a truly expansive songwriting tool. Given time and responsible music-makers, this could well be the future of music. -- Lars Gotrich
Raising Sand
Artist: Robert Plant/Alison Krauss
Song: Please Read the Letter
The pairing of a bona fide rock god with a Grammy-hoarding bluegrass darling raised eyebrows, not sand. But Robert Plant's love of deep blues and Krauss' roots-music credibility are well-matched on this 2007 collection of moody Americana. Producer T-Bone Burnett is the catalyst, choosing the material and the players. His snaky sonic stamp gives Raising Sand its vibe, while Plant's subdued classic-rock caterwaul fits perfectly under and over Krauss' honey-sweet vocals. -- Meredith Ochs
Give Up
Artist: The Postal Service
Song: The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
By the end of the decade, intricate electro-pop and interstate collaborations were nothing new. But both were still a relative novelty in 2003, when Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard and Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello produced Give Up. They called themselves The Postal Service, as a nod to the way their album was produced: Tamborello wrote and recorded instrumental tracks, then sent the tapes to Gibbard, through the mail, to add vocal parts. The album and its multi-state production method spawned countless imitators, and left eager fans anxiously awaiting a Postal Service follow-up. Seven years later, everyone's still waiting, but in the meantime, Give Up remains the most inspired, influential and memorable album of its kind. -- Robin Hilton
In Rainbows [Special Edition]
Artist: Radiohead
Song: Nude
Already, the buzz about the "tip jar" digital-payment method that drove the advance publicity for In Rainbows seems like an afterthought. That's as it should be, because there's so much richness embedded inside Radiohead's seventh album, from the fearful bent of the lyrics to the correspondingly terrifying density of the music. Released digitally in 2007 and on CD in 2008, In Rainbows will probably get dissected for as long as people care about rock, and it rewards the effort. It's one of those tightly packed gems that inspires fresh awe every time one of its tracks -- the futuristic "Faust Arp," the plaintive "Nude," the dizzy atmospherics of "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" -- is placed under the microscope. -- Tom Moon
Kid A
Artist: Radiohead
Song: Everything in Its Right Place
With 2000's Kid A, Radiohead sloughed off the popular music of the 1990s (including its own great records) with a electronic virtual reality that makes Phil Spector's wall of sound feel like a shoji-screen room divider. Chock full of the paranoid hypercritical, and famously leaked online, Kid A belongs to the Internet in every way. The album may reflect the twisted binary and hexidecimal coil that we're shuffling on, but above all, it's compellingly original music. Many of today's modern jazz musicians, a persnickety monastic order, have embraced Radiohead's cleverly arranged chord progressions and hypnotic orchestral warp as emblematic of the best popular music to repurpose into improvisation. -- Josh Jackson
Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 [DualDisc]
Artist: Shakira
Song: Tortura
Shakira's 2001 English-language album Laundry Service was a global success and made her an international star. For her follow-up, the Colombian pop artist released 2005's Fajicion Oral, Vol. 1, a Spanish-language tour-de-force of traditional cumbia, reggaeton beats and lyrics in which Shakira got psychoanalytical. The release signaled boldly that chasing American success wasn't Shakira's top priority, but she got it anyway. With the highest chart debut ever for a Spanish-language album in the U.S., the album spawned the fantastic single "La Tortura," which in turn spawned one of the first Spanish-language videos to receive heavy rotation on MTV and VH1 in the U.S. Oral Fixation, Vol. 2, the album's English-language companion, was released five months later and featured the ubiquitous "Hips Don't Lie," which would go on to become the decade's top-selling single worldwide. -- Amy Schriefer
Garden State Soundtrack
Artist: The Shins
Album: Garden State Soundtrack
Song: New Slang
Few albums did more to blur the lines between so-called "indie" music and the mainstream than 2004's Garden State soundtrack, on which the past (Nick Drake, Simon & Garfunkel) co-existed beautifully with the present and future (songs by Coldplay, The Shins, Cary Brothers, Iron & Wine and others). In the process, filmmaker Zach Braff offered parents a gateway into the music of their kids -- and vice versa. -- Felix Contreras
( )
Artist: Sigur Rós
Song: [Untitled Track 1]
Great records often come from unexpected places and sources: 2002's () is the unforgettable work of Sigur Ros, an Icelandic band playing slow instrumental music when it's not singing in a made-up language, performing songs and an album with no pronounceable titles. Cinematic and beautiful, every song captures a spirit of hope and sorrow, inexorably intertwined. -- Bob Boilen
In the Zone
Artist: Britney Spears
Song: Toxic
Mixing dance, house, crunk, Diwali beats and Neptunes-style hip-hop with a heap of campy sexuality and controversy, 2003's In the Zone is a primer on the sound of pop in the '00s. The lineup of producers is a who's-who of hit-makers: Bloodshy & Avant, R. Kelly, P. Diddy, Tricky, Moby, Frou Frou's Guy Sisgworth and The Matrix. Still trying to break free of her teen-pop past, Spears served as the ideal vehicle for a futuristic sound. The album features some of her best singles, including the critically embraced dance hit "Toxic" and the wrenching confessional ballad "Everytime." While the decade's history of celebrity obsession, paparazzi voyeurism and conflicted constructions of female sexuality and motherhood are written on Spears' body, the decade's history of impeccably crafted pop is written on her body of work. -- Amy Schriefer
Illinoise
Artist: Sufjan Stevens
Song: Chicago
In 2005's chilling Illinois, singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens acts as a journalist, studying the stories of a single state and turning them into songs. When he wasn't paying tribute to Illinois' landmarks, Stevens looked at its historical figures, including 8'11" Robert Wadlow, serial killer John Wayne Gacy, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, President Abraham Lincoln, Helen Keller and many more. Illinois was the second in what was thought to be a series of records covering all 50 states in song; Michigan came first. Sadly, the only downside of Illinois is that turned out to be the last entry in a very short series; after a 2006 sequel with additional Illinois-themed songs (The Avalanche), Stevens moved on to other muses. -- Bob Boilen
Is This It
Artist: The Strokes
Song: Last Nite
It didn't feel like it at the time, but The Strokes faced long odds when the band's debut came out in the fall of 2001. One of many anointed "saviors of rock," the band had an air of manufactured pop before hipsters learned to appreciate Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. It sold audiences impeccably curated retro cool at the last moment before technology turned everyone with a Napster account into librarians with unlimited access. Good riddance, right? Now, put the record on again. Is This It's melodies bounce lazily over a tightly woven aesthetic that hints at a co-opting of indie and classic-rock giants. But the band was too cool, the music too effortless, to acknowledge any debt; The Strokes' members were looking forward to the next 15 minutes. In 20 years, when children ask their parents what music they listened to when they were young, many will reach for this record first. -- Jacob Ganz
Once: Music from the Motion Picture
Artist: The Swell Season
Song: Falling Slowly
Glen Hansard's band The Frames made a bunch of tremendous records in the '00s, most notably 2001's For the Birds and 2005's Burn the Maps. But few people had any idea who he was until the tiny 2007 indie film Once -- and its lovely, unforgettable soundtrack -- made him a platinum-selling, Oscar-winning star. He and his co-star in the film, young Czech singer Marketa Irglova, became one of the decade's unlikeliest power couples; though their off-screen romance has since ended, they continue to perform and record as The Swell Season. Hansard's story, in particular, is one of boundless resilience and tenacity: Even in a shrinking industry, modest 20-year careers can still explode like supernovas overnight. --Stephen Thompson
In the Heart of the Moon
Artist: Ali Farka Touré/Toumani Diabate
Song: Naweye Toro
Two brilliant musicians from Mali came together without rehearsal to record one of the decade's most stunningly gorgeous records. Ali Farka Toure, the legendary guitarist, was 66 at the time of this 2005 recording; he would die only six months later. He'd known Toumani Diabate since the latter was an infant. (Toure was inspired to play music by Toumani's father Sidiki Diabate, the master kora player.) This recording blends two wildly different Malian traditions -- a mixing of cultures, which doesn't always happen there. The result is a classic. -- Bob Boilen
Return to Cookie Mountain
Artist: TV on the Radio
Song: I Was A Lover
TV on the Radio's 2006 major-label debut begins with one of the band's most challenging and musically ambitious songs: "I Was A Lover" helps disprove the notion that moving to a bigger record company means having to play it safe. Awash in an explosion of Dave Sitek's feedback-drenched guitars, hip-hop beats and Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone's soulful vocals, the collage that is Return to Cookie Mountain seems to inhabit dozens of genres at once. The group's influences are somehow evenly distributed as it addresses post-Sept. 11 social issues and personal pain. The whole thing is held together by hypnotically danceable grooves that allow the songs to sound original and fun. -- Mike Katzif
College Dropout
Artist: Kanye West
Song: Jesus Walks
The College Dropout made Kanye West one of the decade's biggest hip-hop artists. On the production side, he took the energy applied to Jay-Z's The Blueprint and shifted it to his own 2004 project. Lyrically, he went against the grain and took a more autobiographical approach, touching on his own insecurities, religion and his near-fatal car crash. West recorded his first single, "Through the Wire," with his mouth still wired shut from the accident -- a personally revealing approach uncommon in mainstream hip-hop. -- Robert Carter, aka DJ Cuzzin B
White Blood Cells
Artist: The White Stripes
Song: Fell in Love with a Girl
Jack White has long fused Detroit garage-rock with Zeppelin-worshipping bombast -- he's even explored country and bluegrass with Loretta Lynn and Ricky Skaggs -- but 2002's White Blood Cells is his main band's finest hour: a flawless slice of fuzzed-out, frenetic, trichromatic hip-shaking. The Lego-driven video for "Fell in Love With a Girl" is a classic in and of itself. -- Meredith Ochs
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Artist: Wilco
Song: I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
Sometimes a band gets lucky and captures exactly what it intended on a record. And sometimes, as happened here with Wilco, the process of recording triggers profound creative change, dislodging old patterns and opening up new ways of thinking. Wilco starts with terrifically trenchant, earnest songs about the redemptive powers of love and music (and love of music), and then builds wildly idiosyncratic layered accompaniments to suit them. Since the release of 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco's guitar-based instrumental backdrops have become bolder and at times thrillingly ambitious, even as its songs have grown both more straightforward and more cryptic. This album contains the seeds for all that stuff, and then some. -- Tom Moon
Back to Black
Artist: Amy Winehouse
Song: Rehab
For all the endless, paparazzi-baiting spectacle of drugs, alcohol and divorce, it's easy to forget how talented Amy Winehouse is. A skinny, tattooed, rat-haired kid from London who takes vocal cues from Sarah Vaughan or even Billie Holiday, Winehouse was just 23 when Back to Black was released in 2007. Her lesser-known debut, Frank, had showcased Winehouse's jazz-inflected singing and skill at balancing bitterness with wry humor. But it was Mark Ronson -- the London-born, New York-based DJ and record producer -- whose influence helped land the best-selling Back to Black on this list. And, of course, it helped that the funk/soul revivalists in The Dap-Kings were there to make her songs pop. -- Meredith Ochs
NPR