I've decided to rank the biggest hits in America throughout the 00's, however doing so presented me a challenge given how there's no end of decade chart that extends beyond the top 100 like there is for the 80's and 90's. I've decided to rank these songs based on how long they lasted in the Billboard top ten to compensate for this. Again, I'll be recycling what I've said about each entry from an earlier post on this site until I have the inspiration necessary to come up with something new to say for each entry.
This came from an album that was released two years prior from Crazy town, it's the black sheep of the album given how it was more of a rap rock track similar to what RHCP were doing (it even has a riff from one of their songs) as opposed to the rest of the album which was in the nu metal category. It was a surprise hit for the band likely due to the novelty of it being a love ballad from such a rough looking band.
This is our final new entry on this list as well as the final new entry for my blog until I come up with new ideas for it in the future, it's the debut single from the Fray which was too much of a sleeper hit to qualify for my 2006 list and indeed only made the cut for this list due to lingering in the top twenty for the digital charts for quite some time due to the success of their top entry on this list.
Technically this was the big hit off of I am Sasha Fierce here in Australia as "Single ladies" and "If I were a boy" were bundled together which allowed them to both be bigger on our charts, I can see how this was the standout track down under given how it's a song about Beyonce finding the inner beauty of the person she's singing to which admittedly is a nice change of pace from her other material.
We looked at their previous collaboration on the 2004 list, so now let's look at the second collaboration between Baby Bash and Frankie J only with their roles reversed on this track as Baby Bash is now playing second fiddle to the RNB singer for his one and only hit internationally. I mean it when I say that their roles were reversed as this is essentially the same song as "Suga suga" when it comes to the subject matter.
If you ever wondered why the lyrics on this breakthrough single from Shakira were strange, that's because it's an English version of a song that was popular in the Spanish speaking parts of the world that was given a one for one translation of the lyrics. This didn't prevent this song from being a massive hit for the Columbian star worldwide as it introduced her to a wider audience.
Well, this is a song that's sparked a bunch of controversy since its initial release, mainly because it details Rihanna in what appears to be a perfect relationship with someone and yet she still feels the need to cheat on him and yet realises that her admitting this to him would be devastating to him which leaves her conflicted in what she needs to do. I guess this dilemma connected with audiences back in the day to make it a hit.
This was the fourth hit to come from Mariah Carey's comeback album, although like the other entries from the album, it was far more successful in her native America as the rest of the world was likely still sceptical at the time that she had recovered from her erratic behaviour from earlier in the decade which she clearly had by this point in her career. It could also be that love ballads weren't doing so well in the mainstream at the time internationally.
This was the theme to the first Spider man film from the Sam Raimi trilogy back in the day (before the Marvel universe existed) it played during the end credits of the film as do most of these songs that seem out of place with the films they were commissioned for. Although people often attribute this as a Nickelback track, it's actually a Chad Kroeger track that features the lead singer from a band known as Saliva.
This wound up being the biggest hit from the Backstreet boys from their second album in NZ, I'm guessing because it had far less competition this year than the first two singles from the album did the previous year as well as it likely having stronger airplay given that I do remember this being overplayed back in the day here in Australia. It's little surprise that these guys won the boy band wars over there like they did internationally.
This was the second single to come from Nelly Furtado's debut album, it was a big hit everywhere in the world except her native Canada where it wasn't even released as a single. I'm guessing because they weren't interested in her paying homage to her Portuguese heritage like the rest of the world was, in fact this was her big hit off her debut album in NZ and on Billboard because of this appeal.
This had a bit of a delay to its release here in Australia, although once it came out it was a modest success for Rihanna and Ne-yo who sing with each other about how they don't like the fact they have feelings for each other. It would be largely overshadowed by "Please don't stop the music" due to how long it took for this to take off here in Australia.
Uncle Kracker got his start as the turntablist for Kid Rock who was (at the time) a rap rock artist making songs such as "Bawitdaba" and "Daddy cool" from the Osmosis Jones soundtrack, so to see him with the first of only two hits he had as an adult contemporary artist is a bit of a surprise to say the least. I remember this receiving tons of airplay back in the day, so perhaps it was pulled from shelves to promote his album which sadly didn't work.
This would've been the last hit that Mariah Carey had anywhere in the world were it not for her 2013 effort "#beautiful" which became big that year due to having a # in its title, I guess it's safe to say that the 90's diva had to resort to meme culture to keep her relevancy going given how this song references YouTube among other things that made it a success in NZ but not here in Australia.
I did say when I featured this on the NZ side of my site that it was strange how this failed to feature on this side of my site, this is because of Bow wow's earlier entry on this list which suggested that we Aussies were more receptive towards making him a household name as an adult than the kiwis were. Indeed, we were initially on board with this prospect but changed our minds the older he got.
I guess this was the song that confirmed that Chris Brown wasn't going to be a flash in the pan as it managed to become a worldwide hit for the RNB singer, it wasn't exactly the biggest hit anywhere in the world, however it did promise him a ton of success that he would of course achieve later in the decade.
It looked like that Madonna was here to stay for the third decade in a row as this third single from her album Music was a massive success for the queen of pop worldwide, although her popularity would quickly fade away when she released her next album later in the decade where she attempted to tackle politics to dismal results. The decade would turn out to be a rocky one for her, although at least she had some success throughout.
There was a theme on Gwen Stefani's album where she was playing with pop cliches of wanting to be rich and famous only to then denounce those desires as she already had everything she wanted in her life at the time, it was very clever for its time and perhaps the real reason why it was a massive success back in the day. This second single from the album is the finest example of that as well as it being her reunion with Eve from earlier in the decade.
This was the final hit to come from Toni Braxton anywhere in the world, likely due to it being a song where she chastised the wife of one of her exes about how he wasn't good enough for her. Needless to say, this left a bad taste in people's mouths given how she was previously known for sweet ballads such as "Breathe again" and "Unbreak my heart," although it is a bop provided you ignore the lyrics.
While she wasn't as inescapable as her main Disney rival Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera did have the advantage of having the better voice of the two which is perhaps why she was able to score three Billboard chart toppers from her debut album. This was the second of the three which no doubt inspired a movie named What women want which came out less than a year after its initial release.
This was where it all began for Alecea Moore, even during her RNB phase she was all about female empowerment as her debut single was about her calling out her partners bad behaviour and how she wasn't going to tolerate it. Naturally it was a massive worldwide hit for her as female empowerment anthems were commonly accepted in the mainstream by this point in time.
Ne-Yo was on a roll this year as he released the second single to his biggest album Gentleman of the year, a song that shares its name with a Kelly Clarkson track much like "Because of you" from the previous year which suggests he was a bit uncreative with what he named his songs throughout his career. This obviously wasn't a deal breaker throughout the world given how popular he was.
I was shocked when I found out this was a flop here in Australia given how much radio airplay it received back in the day, needless to say this made it a massive success in NZ given how the kiwis did incorporate airplay onto their main charts by this point in time. Still, the fact this was featured in every teen drama at the time surely must have played a part in how it's endeared over the years.
While this was a modest success for everyone involved upon its initial release here in Australia, it manages to stick around for quite some time on the lower half of our charts due to the success of Timbaland’s earlier entries on this keeping his name alive in our music scene.
This was the biggest hit from JT's solo debut album Justified, mainly because it's well known that it was written for the king of pop in mind who passed this up for reasons I can't seem to ascertain. Justin scooped it up and strangely didn't have it be the lead single for whatever reason as it was clear from the get-go that this would be the song to launch his career away from N sync following his breakup with Britney Spears.
This is the last big hit that RHCP had here in Australia, although internationally that honour would go to "Snow" from the same album as this served as the lead single for which either way should tell you that this was the last album that they would be superstars with before their popularity evaporated going into the 2010's. This song would've done alright with its physical sales; however, its success largely came from digital sales.
You may be forgiven into thinking that this is a song explicitly about 9/11 given how the music video depicts a relationship which ends where a guy ends up fighting in Iraq, however it was actually about Billie Joe Armstrong has to cope with the death of his father every year which happened in September when he was a child. I guess he didn't want to make the ballad too personal when he released it as a single, hence the video.
This is a song that only barely missed the cut from appearing on the Australian side of my site, likely because we Aussies passed up the songs from Alicia Key's debut album in favour of buying the album itself this year. Fortunately, the kiwis have never allowed a successful album to affect the success of its singles, hence why this female empowerment ballad managed to be a massive success for her over there.
This was the first song that Akon had a hit with outside of his native America, I'm guessing due to the countless jokes that have been made that involve him duetting with Alvin and the Chipmunks as that's what it sounds like to most people whenever they listen to this ballad. The chorus is a sped-up version of "Mr. lonely" from Bobby Vinton released forty years prior to when this became a huge international chart topper.
This is another song on this site that I'm going to have a hard time being nice to, mainly because it repeats the word suicidal a disturbing number of times (fifteen to be exact) despite it not being a song about that subject matter and instead about how in love Sean Kingston is with the girl he's singing to. I guess there's also the Ben E King sample from JR Rottem, however that's not really why people dislike this song.
This second single from the Eminem show has always given me mixed signals as on the one hand he wants to make amends with his mother but on the other he does so in a way that suggests that he can never forgive her for the way she treated him while he was growing up. I guess these complicated feelings he had for her connected with audiences around the world as it was an easy hit for the rapper.
This was the first sign of Gwen Stefani wanting to branch out in a pop direction, or at least that's what people who dislike this song will tell you as the song which made No doubt a household name was "Just a girl" which was only slightly less pop friendly than this lead single to their third album. It features a guest verse from Jamaican rapper Bounty Killer who adds his flavour of reggae to the mix.
While Eminem had success the previous year with "My name is," it was this song that made him an overnight sensation due to it essentially being him calling out all of the double standards not just in the music industry but in pop culture in general whilst having a catchy beat and a hilarious video to go along with what he has to say. It was a massive hit for him whilst also reassuring people that his vulgar content wasn't meant to be taken too seriously.
Well, I've pretty much hyped up this third single from P!nk's second album throughout the Australian side of this site, so let's finally look at how this song did massively well worldwide and why it was a huge radio staple here back in the day despite lacking a physical release. This is P!nk taking the "your love is my drug" metaphor and flipping it to be about how the love she had for this person is making her sick as if she was taking drugs.
We have another entry to feature from Sean Kingston's debut album on this site, this being the third hit in a row he managed to score over in NZ from said album thanks to how popular he was over there with said album. He would score one more hit with his earlier entry on this list before he went to work on his second album which yielded more success for him as the decade was coming to an end over there.
There was this popular phenomenon that was happening in America known as ringtone rap, basically it's hip hop tracks whose sole purpose was to have a beat and/or chorus be so repetitive that it would make for the perfect choice for a ringtone as an alternative to the likes of Crazy frog and those other CGI creations you could find on YouTube at the time. This was one of those tracks which became a success this way.
This was one of those huge sleeper hits over in NZ which by all accounts should be even higher on this list but isn't due to the way I've structured these lists. It makes sense that this was a huge success over there given how Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias had both taken over their mainstream in a way they failed to do so here in Australia, although this guy wasn't on their level of success even in his native America.
I remember this song being way popular than its placement on this list would otherwise suggest, meaning that it's possible this second single from Nickelback's All the right reasons would've been even bigger had the digital charts been launched during the height of its popularity here in Australia. This was pushed back as one of the later singles in America from the band, likely due to it sounding different from the rest of their catalogue.
Following the staggering success he had with Matchbox 20, Rob Thomas decided to embark on a solo career which began with the lead single to his solo album that was a massive worldwide success for him. Unlike most lead singers of popular bands in this vein, there's a distinct difference between his solo material and his work with Matchbox 20 which means that there was a vision he had that differed from his band.
There were no signs of the Black-Eyed Peas slowing down exiting the 00's as this was their third huge hit in a row in most parts of the world, it's also considered to be one of their best songs as it's mostly a tender duet between Fergie and the other members as opposed to her being snarky towards them on their other tracks where she was the focal point of the group.
It does strike me as bizarre that rock music died out in the 2010's here in Australia considering how prevalent the genre was even as the 00's was coming to an end, here we have the final big hit that the Fray achieved throughout the world which proved to be more popular here than it was even in their native America. Heck this got to number one here, proving that we Aussies certainly loved what they had to offer.
Now I know I should hate this song for sampling "Tainted love" from Soft Cell, however that song is so good with its instrumentation that I don't mind that it was used so egregiously by JR Rottem even if it did lead to a career of sampling other oldies for (then) modern songs to diminishing returns. I think this works mostly for Rihanna who has a lot of presence on here to make the sample work in her favour.
This is a song that on its own is inoffensive enough (heck it can even be inspirational) however was ruined by many people due to that infamous performance on SNL where this track played instead of "Autobiography" which was the song Ashlee was meant to perform when that moment happened. For what it's worth, she wasn't entirely lip syncing that night and only had a backing track to enhance her performance that of course backfired.
The only American idol contestant to see success with their victory single outside of America apart from Jordin Sparks was Fantasia from four years prior, although I get the feeling this victory single was a success here in Australia mainly due to the buzz she received with her collaboration with Chris Brown from earlier on the list which would explain why that song was heavily delayed in order for this to become a hit.
This was originally an album track on N sync's third and final album Celebrity, as such there wasn't chance of the original becoming a hit for the boy band which wasn't good because the album had failed to produce a hit for them due to it being the end of the boy band wars in America. They decided to get Nelly to contribute a guest verse for the remix which allowed it to become a massive hit for them.
This is one of those songs that's meant to be an anthem for the frat boys of the world, as such it was a massive hit for Cobra starship as it seemed inevitable that this type of song would make it big in the club boom that was exploding this year.
This was the final hit that JoJo managed to achieve in her career, this was due to legal troubles with her label who refused to allow her to release new music due to her second album underperforming and also refusing to let her out of their contract for whatever reason (she was only thirteen when she signed to her label, which it turns out is illegal as she was a minor.) At least she's finally been able to release new music since.
This is the closest that Stevie Nick's "Edge of seventeen" managed to become a hit here in Australia, Stevie of course gave her blessing to Destiny's child and even appears in the music video to prove that the trio didn't steal the track from her without her consent. Here we have them inventing a new term for sexy, which of course has since been legitimised as a word in the Oxford dictionary.
It looked like Pitbull was here to stay going into the new decade as this second single from his club boom phase was also a massive worldwide hit for him, there's honestly not much I can say about this track except that aside from this, "I know you want me" and his theme from Men in black III "Back in the time," all of his hits have had the assistance of someone else in the music industry.
Well, I did promise myself and my readers I'll be nice to each and every entry I talk about on this site, so I will say that this did get a chuckle out of me when it first came out even if that was because I was twelve years old at the time. No doubt this was the reason why this lead single to Encore and the album itself was a success for Eminem as many people felt it was a giant drop off in quality back in the day.
Britney was certainly on a roll when she released the title track to her album Circus, an album that remains the last one to have any success despite her scoring a couple of hits in the 2010's with the likes of "Hold it against me" and "Till the world ends." Much like "Piece of me," this is also a song addressing her media frenzy which she refers to as a circus, however it's handled much better on this track.
This was the last hit single that Will Smith had anywhere in the world, although by this stage he was more well known as an actor than a rapper given how he only released two albums in the new millennium. I know I'm far from the first person to make this observation, but I feel this was meant to be the theme to his film Hitch which has him playing a love doctor for Kevin James in a rare rom com he stars in.
Bow wow was certainly on a roll in NZ and his native America now that he was a full-grown adult, here he is as the lead artist with this hit single he had likely due to the assistance of Chris Brown who was also on a roll during this point in his career throughout the world. Bow wow would have two more hits after this, both of which are still to come on this list.
This was the debut single for Nelly, one of the most popular rappers of the 00's as we've already seen on this list alone. I guess this is proof that he was capable of harder hip hop topics rather than the pop rap that he would become synonymous with as the decade went along, meaning that it was always going to be hard for this to find a mainstream audience no matter how much street cred it had.
Although he's had plenty of representation on this site, this is the only solo entry from Jay Z to feature on here as we Aussies checked out what all the hype was about with this lead single to his first album of the 21st century. This would lead to his success with his future wife Beyonce as well as Linkin Park, his BFF turned mortal enemy Kanye West and friend Rihanna.
This was the one and only hit from Pretty Ricky, one of the many RNB groups from America to find success with only one song with this being one of the lucky few to find success outside of the Billboard charts back in the day. I guess this was deemed too sexually provocative for us Aussies to make a success this year, either that or this was one of the earliest songs to become a success thanks to digital downloads in NZ.
This was the only hit single from American rapper Jibbs to become a hit for him, even then it was only a hit in his native America as well as over in NZ likely due to international audiences not vibing with the song built on a children's nursery rhyme. Given how it's ultimately about him having long pieces of jewellery (chains to be exact) it made it impossible for anyone to take seriously at the time.
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