Over the past decade, the definitions of "alternative" and "indie" have become increasingly subjective. An independent artist can quickly attract a mainstream following thanks to instant blog/social-networking stardom, and a major-label luminary can venture into decidedly "indie" sounds (which in itself really has no concrete meaning). Alternative and indie can refer to artists who delve into rock, pop, electronic, world, jazz, classical -- sometimes all at once. It's a genre that refuses to be a genre. Its essence is to reject classification and celebrate eccentricity, abstractness and autonomy.
So this is by no means a definitive list; it's simply an acknowledgment of artists that have managed to continually stand out, whether they're Brits, Canadians, Brooklynites or a solo dude holed up in a Midwestern cabin. Though many of the artists represented here belong to some sort of revival -- post-punk, synth-pop, classic rock, garage-rock, shoegazer, folk -- each has imprinted their genre with a distinctly modern touch that will forever be recognized as quintessential '00s, a decade when innovation was steered not by looking to the future but by honoring the past.
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(In addition to great premieres from your favorite artists, cool
radio stations and exciting exclusives, Rhapsody also offers in-depth
reviews, analysis and fun features written by our team of nationally renowned
music writers. Be sure to drop us a note in the comment field to let us
know if you agree or disagree, and 
Oh, 
Lest there be any doubt about it, Lady Gaga wants us to know that her song "Poker Face" is about fantasizing about women when she's hooking up with men. (It's a double entendre, capiche?) Sure, you could write that off as merely an attempt to stir up a little controversy -- although, if it's a ploy, it pales in comparison with her teasing suggestion that she may or may not have hermaphroditic features. But Gaga has backed up her sexuality in interviews, insisting that "people are born the way they are," and she's vocal in her support for gay and lesbian communities. Whatever you may think of her music, it's a refreshingly different approach from Katy Perry, who flirts with Sapphos on "I Kissed a Girl" -- mostly for the benefit of her ego and her boyfriend -- and then gets regressive on "Ur So Gay," her ode to an insufficiently butch boyfriend. ("I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf" -- classy!)
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Ever since the early days of MTV, 
Probably the most important thing that happened to electronic music in the '00s was its acceptance as a more or less everyday part of popular music, period. Sure, subgenres like house and techno persevered, and onetime blips blossomed into full-blown global subcultures -- witness U.K. garage's resurrection as dubstep, a transformer of a genre currently plowing a juggernaut across just about everything in its path. But electronic music's once-marginal techniques found themselves diffused into every capillary of the pop bloodstream, from 
The live album is always a mixed blessing. Concerts are as much about the experience as they are the music. It’s seeing and sweating and drinking and dancing. It’s as visual as it is aural, and there simply isn’t a way a recording can replicate that. As often as not, pop groups just don’t have the chops to pull off a musically successful show anyway. Modern production is too convoluted and bands are oftentimes so focused on creating a sad facsimile of the studio recording that they forget to do anything interesting. The fan cell-phone videos probably come as close to anything as far as replicating the experience. Jittery, and clouded by muffled bass and random audience intrusions, the videos contain a bit of the raw electricity and drunken subjectivism of the live experience.
Often with Rhapsody, people want to listen to their favorite songs (or discover new ones) but don’t want to hear to the same old albums they have lined up or shuffle the same old songs around.
Pop music has been knee-deep in the second coming of the soft-rock singer-songwriter for most of this young century. Of course, we no longer call them singer-songwriters; we call them adult-alternative artists. It all started back in 2001 when the double-helix of the new genre, 
In his eight years recording, 
Country music went on a wild ride the past decade, a ride that took us to the honky-tonk, the Appalachian Mountains, where the blacktop ends, and to Small Town, U.S.A. The watered-down flavor of contemporary country music has been an issue for some time now, and for better or worse, a handful of young country artists have taken the genre more into the mainstream than ever.
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