2000s (decade) - Popular Culture - Music

Music

See also: 2000s in music and 2000s in the music industry

By the 2000s, Rap and Hip Hop had reached their commercial peaks, and the genre continued to dominate the music scene of the decade The best-selling artist of the decade was the American rapper Eminem, who sold 32 million albums, followed by The Beatles (who split in 1970 but have stayed extremely popular since). The best-selling female artist of the decade was Britney Spears.

Billboard magazine named Eminem as the artist with the best performance on the Billboard charts and named Beyoncé as the female artist of the decade. In the UK, the biggest selling artist of the decade is Robbie Williams and the biggest selling band of the decade is Westlife. The American performer and recording artist Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009, creating the largest public mourning since the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997. Jackson became the best selling artist of 2009 following post-humous sales of his catalog topping 35 million units worldwide. Oasis was named "most successful act of the last decade" in the Guinness book of world records, between 1995 and 2005. Innovator, inventor, performer and guitar virtuoso Les Paul also died on August 12, 2009 at the age of 94.

The late 2000s displayed a new trend in music, Auto-Tune. Autotune technology has been around since the 1980s, but hasn't been used prominently since the late 1990s with artists such as Cher, which is known as the "Cher effect." In the early 2000s, autotune has been common with artists such as *NSYNC and Eiffel 65. This pitch-correction software became the norm on practically all mainstream music since 2007. The decade also brought in more dance and electronic music toward the end of the decade and even less rock music in the mainstream. Hip hop music also saw a decline in the mainstream during the late 2000s because of electronic music's rising popularity. According to The Guardian, music styles during the 2000s changed very little from how they were at last half of the 1990s. The 2000s had a profound impact on the condition of music distribution. Recent advents in digital technology have fundamentally altered industry and marketing practices as well as players in unusual rapidity. According to Nielsen Soundscan, by 2009 CDs accounted for 79 percent of album sales, with 20 percent coming from digital, representing both a 10 percent drop and gain for both formats in 2 years.