When I think of this decade in music, I see it as two definitive periods: 00-05 and 06-09. The former was when bands and musicians were first taking advantage of the power of the internet and enabling them to reach audiences and gain popularity they wouldn't have been able to at any other point in musical history. This period is also when home recording became possible for nearly everyone, thus ushering in a whole slew of artists (some questionably so) that would otherwise would never have popped into music. The latter period is when musicians, record labels, and consumers have had to adjust to the dramatic changes the former brought upon music.

Personally, I've found the latter period to be far inferior in terms of the quality of music that has come out. If I had to make a list of my top 50 albums from the decade, it would be very 00-05 heavy.

I think the first half of the '00s was EPICALLY good, but the second half has been muddled with pop music.

People are going to look back on the whole " emo " thing and laugh, just like we ridicule 80's hair metal.

I feel like this decade, on the whole, has destroyed the concept of the cohesive album. I know there are notable exceptions, I just feel like, across the board, the return to the album as a collection of singles has been most prevalent.

This Decade has been the best decade ever for music lovers. When has so much variety of music been available to us instantaneously. I can listen to a classic rock song my Dad loved in high school, followed by a hip hop track that was cool in 1999, then listen to a band none of my friends have ever or will ever hear about.

I love music, and this decade has made it so much easier to be a musicphile.

Oh I get it, cause of like the scene.

Hahaha so so true.

"We've certainly scene a flood of artists and musicians take over our lives due to Al Gore's great invention mixed with programs such as Garageband and Reason giving everyone a chance to make their voice and instrument heard."

Was that intentional?

i think the 2000's are basically a transition period. we're by no means reaching our limits as musicians, but i think we're finally realizing what we're capable of. we can take in a multitude of influences for one album or even one song, and really give a sense of accomplishment to it.

my proof for this is the resurgence of vinyl. as listeners and fan-bases, we're discovering a desire for music to be tangible and substantial. why would you spend $20 on a piece of crap album that's suddenly takes up space on your shelves?

so we as a culture are just adapting to this overwhelming amount of music the internet has allowed us to have, and eventually we'll be able to see more patterns amidst the hundreds of fads. i'm definitely not happy with the majority of this music, and with the exception of a few amazing albums most of it will be forgettable. but we'll be known here for what we've learned, and hopefully music will take a turn towards higher quality writing now that we've mastered production.

see, i dissagree. look at the 80s. That WHOLE DECADE was people listening to certain things to be trendy. New Wave has reared its head again in the 2000's as scene kids, indie hipsters, and neon-wearing 12 year olds. Music and the trends as ideas/patterns are cyclical. It will happen again, too. just give it 15 years...

taylor swift begins her ascent to world domination

in all honesty, I think it was a subconscious bout of animosity...or horrible copy editing, but I'm going with the former...so i'm keeping it that way

Kanye West already declared himself the voice of this generation, and when has Kanye steered us wrong?

Honestly, I feel like she's the closest thing we'll have for awhile to the universal artist.

It set the stage, but somewhere along the way it got corrupted and twisted and the music scene it birthed is virtually unrecognizable from what inspired it in the first place.

Mineral/Sunny Day Real Estate would inspire Jimmy Eat World (I'm not sure if they were actually influenced by the aforementioned...) which would eventually inspire All Time Low, Cartel, etc which would eventually inspire every other boy band with guitars.

Saetia, Refused, etc would inspire bands like Glassjaw, The Used, Finch, Poison The Well which in turn would inspire all the metalcore out there now...

and somewhere along the line somebody with too many mirror shots on MySpace, and dead hair from all the straightening, discovered a Microkorg and Antares Autotune.

I don't know... these are bad examples... I wish it was easier to explain how I feel and what I think happened but it's all gotten so complicated... but I do agree that all of this music (although it's the case for most all music eh?) can be traced back to a lot of what was going on in the late 80's, early 90's.