2000s Pop

Side A

Side B

The received wisdom is that 2000s pop was disposable, ringtone fodder between the "serious" eras. We think it was the opposite: a genre absorbing R&B and hip-hop in real time, going global before "global" was a marketing plan, and producing some of the most durable hooks of the century. So we picked one song per artist, refused to pad it with filler, and sequenced the whole thing the way you'd actually build a great mixtape: by feel.

Side A: Dancefloor.

We open where the decade lived: the club. Kylie, Madonna, Britney, Gaga, Kesha: pure electro-pop adrenaline, front-loaded with the hooks that need no introduction, riding a four-on-the-floor pulse all the way through. This is the sugar rush. It's supposed to be a little relentless.

Side B: Hip-Hop Flavor.

This is 2000s pop caught in the act of becoming something new. J.Lo, Beyoncé, Gwen, Rihanna, Fergie: every track carrying a rap feature or a hip-hop producer's fingerprints. It's the sound of the mainstream's center of gravity shifting, and it closes on Amy Winehouse trading bars with Ghostface Killah, which tells you everything about where pop was headed.

Side C: Pop-Rock / Attitude.

Guitars and eyeliner. Kelly Clarkson kicking the door in, Avril's suburban snarl, t.A.T.u.'s scandal, The Killers' arena melancholy. The loud, defiant, slightly bratty side — pop that wanted to be taken seriously and mostly earned it.

Side D: Left of Center.

The weird heart of the record. OutKast, Gorillaz, Gnarls Barkley, a Danish party duo, a Finnish breakbeat freak-out, and Lily Allen's cheerful kiss-off. Proof that the decade's pop imagination ran a lot stranger and funkier than the charts remember. This is the deep-cut listener's reward.

Side E: Party / Pop Radio.

The last big surge before the lights come up. Boy bands, Ricky Martin, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Katy Perry, Miley: mainstream pop radio at full brightness, building to the Black Eyed Peas' last-call anthem. Uncomplicated, unembarrassed joy.

Side F: The Comedown.

Every good night ends somewhere quieter. Piano ballads and afterglow — Vanessa Carlton, Christina, Coldplay, and the millennium's great weepies — winding down to Dido's "White Flag" as the final exhale. Flip it back to Side A when you're ready to do it all again.

41 artists. One song each, no skips (... you can't fast-forward vinyl anyway). Enjoy the burn.