'00s Pop

It's a good thing all that Y2K business of bottled water and crashing computers turned out to be nothing but conspiracy theories and crackpot paranoia. Why? Because we would have never found out how Coldplay reset everyone's clocks, how timeless and life-affirming U2 still are, how a simple Casio melody could set the charts ablaze and make OutKast bigger than they already were, or how Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" became the ultimate consolation song. The nostalgia trip for yesterday and a few years ago continues in our Next Steps.

With Staind standing tall as one of nü-metal's few holdouts at the start of the '00s, the charts were conquered by several shades of pop music, including the slide guitar-grazed balladry of Faith Hill ("Breathe"), the feisty-girl pop of Nelly Furtado ("I'm Like a Bird"), the lovesick R&B of John Legend ("Ordinary People") and Alicia Keys ("Fallin'"), and the sunny, satirical, totally tongue-in-cheek pop-punk of Wheatus ("Teenage Dirtbag"). Nothing but oft-requested singles round out our Deep Cuts.

Good luck trying to get work done while blasting this final round of pop, rock, and R&B favorites. There's really no denying the crossover appeal of Kelly Clarkson ("Since U Been Gone), or the liberating charms of Lily Allen's sugar-sweet kiss-off to a cheatin' boyfriend ('Smile"), or the groundbreaking, brilliantly orchestrated indie soundscapes of Arcade Fire ("Wake Up"). And we haven't even got to the head-spinning chord-cascades of Foo Fighters, or the finger-clickin' retro-soul of Amy Winehouse . . .

We made it — the world didn't end, and clouds of confetti and party balloons christened the new millennium. Which is probably a good thing given the endless procession of eclectic pop that has infiltrated the charts in the interim, including the Michael Jackson-miming moves of Justin Timberlake; the Biggest Band in the World attempts of Coldplay; the still surprising and elusive songwriting of Madonna, U2, and OutKast; and the ain't-going-nowhere careers of the Dixie Chicks, John Mayer, Alicia Keys, and enough artists to stock a non-stop hits station for the rest of the decade.