'00s R&B

In the '00s, anybody who could tear themselves away from Lost and 24 for at least three or four minutes at a time had a head-spinning array of awesome R&B tunes awaiting them — tunes they could dance to, dream to, and, most importantly, get down to. Teen titan Rihanna bounced in from Barbados, offering everyone within earshot a shelter from the storms of the heart under her "Umbrella." Alicia Keys was barely out of her teens herself when the bluesy, sultry swoon of her first smash, "Fallin'," introduced the R&B world to its newest GRAMMY® magnet. And blue-eyed-soul sensation Robin Thicke made the ladies melt with a croon so sweet it just had to be fattening, on "Lost Without U."

In Next Steps, R&B superstars serve up soulful sounds of love and lust.

No matter what decade you're dealing with, R&B is first and foremost about matters of the heart, and in the '00s, a fresh crop of soulful superstars took the world on a trip from love to lust and back again. Justin Timberlake put his boy-band past behind him for good with his first #1 blockbuster, joining forces with Timbaland on a mission of motion to bring "SexyBack." Of course, Sisqo knew exactly where sexy was all along, and "Thong Song" let everyone in on the not-so-secret location, while showing the world how to wiggle. And former American Idol sweetheart Fantasia tucked into a more intimate vibe, proudly putting her heart on her sleeve for the red-hot romance of "When I See U."

In Deep Cuts, 21st-century R&B finds a fresher, funkier feel.

The R&B sounds of the new millennium shook, rattled, and roared like nothing ever before. Kelis served up her luscious, lip-smacking "Milkshake" over the bass-buzzing beats of the Neptunes, bringing the temperature of every red-blooded male in America to a fever pitch in the process. On Amerie's big breakthrough, "1 Thing," she and producer Rich Harrison reached back to their D.C. roots to add some go-go bounce to an already fiercely funky Meters sample, and — oh, yeah — some seriously saucy vocals. Even when neo-soul sorcerer Raphael Saadiq summoned the spirit of '70s R&B on "Never Give You Up" — with some help from none other than Stevie Wonder — there was a special sparkle that said, "Nobody's ever done it quite like this."

In the first decade of the 21st century, amid the wizardly exploits of Harry Potter and the Darwinism-gone-wild of Survivor, R&B brought a brand new batch of beats to the table while keeping the core values of soul, spirit, and sensuality front and center. The ladies leaped to the forefront with a vengeance, whether playing it sassy (Beyonce's "Irreplaceable"), sweet (Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together"), or sexy (Cassie's "Me & U"). And the fellas flowed with just as much force in the '00s, from Usher living the high life on "Love In This Club" to Luther Vandross leaving us one last hit with the sentimental soul of "Dance With My Father." The fact is, whichever way you turned during that decade, there was always another killer R&B cut coming around the corner. And you'd better believe the best of them are bundled up right here.