Recently in Best of the Decade Category

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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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, John Mayer and Jack Johnson, dropped their debut full-lengths, Room for Squares and Brushfire Fairytales, respectively. There existed antecedents for sure (Dave Matthews, Tori Amos, Jewel). But it’s Mayer and Johnson who most succinctly sum up what makes an adult-alternative artist different from his or her singer-songwriter ancestors.

As you scan our 25 best rock albums of the '00s, you'll quickly notice that a lot of these artists could be claimed by other genres: Susan Tedeschi by blues, Drive-By Truckers by alt-country, Wilco by indie. And that's the thing about rock in this young century: it's less a definable genre and more of a fractured aesthetic scattered across numerous genres. But make no mistake -- had Back to the River or Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or Southern Rock Opera come out in the 1970s, they would've been considered nothing but rock.

Because of rock's current state of affairs, readers are going to stumble across new flavors. Fans of Jack Johnson are going to read about High on Fire's Matt Pike, while followers of Nickelback will get to learn about something called Creepjoint. So yeah, keep an open mind and instead of bemoaning what rock has become in the 21st century, embrace it. There are a lot of killer jams to be found here. Be sure to listen to high quality audio of all the artist mentioned here anytime and anywhere you want with your free trial Rhapsody membership. Click here to join!

 

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.

In retrospect, it was a good 10 years for country music, where if nothing else, the viability of the format and the star power of its singers have never been stronger. We've tried our best to assemble the highlights, whether artistic or commercial. If we've overlooked your favorite, let us know in the comments box.