Pop

Pop’s legacy grew significantly in this time period. While the ’90s had some great pop hits, the 2000’s took it to another level. Female artists started to take control of the industry. The difference between ’90s and 2000’s pop is that 2000’s pop created its own sound, which still defines pop to this day. The ’90s had more of a R&B sound that lacked variety, while the 2000’s created its own sub genres because of pop. Many notable artists came out of this pop era, especially female ones. Women like Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, P!nk, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Ke$ha, and Shakira dominated the charts.

Beyoncé

In the 2000s, Beyoncé broke off from the hit girl group Destiny’s Child and moved onto her own solo career. Beyoncé was truly an iconic woman in this era that cannot go unnoticed. Right from 2003, she released her first debut album Dangerously in Love, which included the hit song, “Crazy in Love”. This album boosted her solo career into stardom and left her with a more successful career than her sisters in her previous group. In 2008, Beyoncé released her most iconic album to date (sorry, it’s the truth), I Am.. Sasha Fierce. This album had 5 hit singles, some being “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it)”, “Halo”, “If I Were a Boy”, and “Sweet Dreams”. I Am.. Sasha Fierce swept away 7 Grammy nominations and left an enormous impact on pop culture. In particular, her music video for “Single Ladies” was simplistic but yet created an iconic dance craze. The 2000’s was truly the decade of Bey.

More Female Artists

One of the most iconic albums of this era was Lady Gaga’s album The Fame Monster. The Fame Monster was a reissue of her album The Fame (2008) but with more songs added to it. This album managed to rise to #5 on the charts and spend 74 weeks there. This album featured many popular singles, including “Just Dance” and “Bad Romance“. However, this album isn’t the only thing that made Gaga an iconic woman of the 2000’s.  Her stage presence and creative outfits are also what made her so well known. Gaga has still dominated the pop scene and most recently appeared in the movie, A Star is Born along with Bradley Cooper.

Rihanna was and still is an iconic woman and influencer in the industry today. An

iconic album that she released in this time period was Good Girl Gone Bad. This album peaked at #3 on the charts and stayed on the Billboard Top Albums for 98 weeks. With hit singles like “Umbrella” and “Disturbia”, Rihanna changed music forever. She was young and more relatable to teens at the time, she focused more on sexualism than personal connection and it appealed to many. To this day Rihanna is still a force in the industry and the release of her Fenty Line that focuses on including all women’s skin and body types.

Notable Songs

Some other notable songs of the decade are: “We Belong Together” by Mariah Carey, “Big Girls Don’t Cry” by Fergie, “Boom Boom Pow” by The Black Eyed Peas, and “Bleeding Love” by Leona Lewis. Among these hits, there were many others and these songs would change the realm of pop music forever.