'00s Rock

While the previous decade was peppered with restless trends and the rise of alt-rock, the '00s got the new millennium off to a riff-ripping start with everything from the roaring call-and-response choruses and swift turntable stabs of Linkin Park ("In the End") to the haunting heights and dizzying prog detours of Muse ("Uprising"). And if you needed a break from all that mind-melting rock, Coldplay were always lurking around the corner with arena-ready anthems like "Clocks."

As for our Next Steps, they're a perfect speaker-plowing reminder that bands like the Strokes and Killers got their start not too long ago.

Whether you rolled out of bed with a need for speed or preferred a pop approach to the world of seared solos and sucker-punch rhythms, the '00s had something for everyone on the modern-rock front. For one thing, the Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, and the Killers made cool kids uncross their arms and have fun again, whether that meant dressing up their songs with shimmering synths ("Mr. Brightside") and guillotine-like guitars ("Take Me Out"), or keeping things as simple but satisfying as the Lower East Side licks of "Last Resort."

And then there's our Deep Cuts, which let Radiohead, Pearl Jam, and other proven headliners loose in the same amp-worshiping room as newer acts, like Paramore and Wolfmother.

As comforting as it was seeing familiar names like Pearl Jam (the frantic melodies and feel-good grooves of "The Fixer") and Radiohead (the post-apocalyptic shake, rattle, and roll of "Bodysnatchers") tearing up the '00s, the decade was also bursting at the seams with breakout bands. We're talking everything from the hip-hop-schooled pop-punk of Sum 41 ("Fat Lip") to the raw, spirit-lifting rap-metal of P.O.D. ("Youth of the Nation"). Not to mention the bloodletting balladry of Dashboard Confessional, an emo icon who just might get you to spontaneously sing along to "Screaming Infidelities."

One quick listen to our '00s Rock Essentials set is all it takes to understand just how daunting the decade was for anyone who enjoys annoying the neighbors and reducing their living-room walls to rubble. With guitar-guided groups like Disturbed and Linkin Park leading the way, nü-metal found its footing among everything from a chord-chopping Michael Jackson cover (Alien Ant Farm's roughed-up version of "Smooth Criminal") to the sensitive, lighter-lifting side of Incubus ("Drive") and Staind ("It's Been Awhile"). And if you want to hear things get really unpredictable, there's always the title track of Green Day's Broadway-bound punk-rock opera ("American Idiot"), Blink-182 at their absolute best ("All the Small Things"), and a chest-caving reminder of why the White Stripes will be missed ("Seven Nation Army").