People who like to make lists have little patience, so it’s not surprising that even though our century is less than two decades old, I was able to find a bunch of “Best Music of the 21st Century” lists online. Most of the lists focus on popular genres such as pop, rock, hip hop, R&B and alternative, so there is little or no jazz, classical or even country in this meta-list. For fun, I have also appended my personal five-star albums of the century so far (to match the meta-list, I’ve excluded classical and jazz). Here are the albums on two or more of the original source lists I collected.
NOTE: Most of these lists were made long before 2017 – one of them is from 2009 and a few are from 2012 and 2013 – so there is a definite bias towards the first decade of the century.
On 10 “Best Music of the 21st Century” Lists
Elephant (2003) – The White Stripes
On 7 Lists
Stankonia (2000) – OutKast
6 Lists
Kid A (2000) – Radiohead
Is This It (2001) – The Strokes
Discovery (2001) – Daft Punk
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010) – Kanye West
5 Lists
Funeral (2004) – Arcade Fire
Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (2006) – Arctic Monkeys
Sound of Silver (2007) – LCD Soundsystem
In Rainbows (2007) – Radiohead
Fleet Foxes (2008) – Fleet Foxes
4 Lists
American Idiot (2004) – Green Day
Back to Black (2006) – Amy Winehouse
Let England Shake (2011) – PJ Harvey
Channel Orange (2012) – Frank Ocean
3 Lists
The Blueprint (2001) – Jay-Z
Vespertine (2001) – Björk
Up the Bracket (2002) – The Libertines
Songs for the Deaf (2002) – Queens of the Stone Age
Original Pirate Material (2002) – The Streets
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002) – Wilco
Fever to Tell (2003) – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Savane (2006) – Ali Farka Touré
xx (2009) – The xx
Lost In The Dream (2014) – The War On Drugs
2 Lists
Relationship of Command (2000) – At The Drive In
The Marshall Mathers LP (2000) – Eminem
Rated R (2000) – Queens of the Stone Age
Weezer [The Green Album] (2001) – Weezer
Lateralus (2001) – Tool
Radio Tisdas Sessions (2001) – Tinariwen
Time (the Revelator) (2001) – Gillian Welch
American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002) – Johnny Cash
( ) (2002) – Sigur Rós
The Black Album (2003) – Jay-Z
Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge (2004) – My Chemical Romance
A Grand Don’t Come for Free (2004) – The Streets
Aha Shake Heartbreak (2004) – Kings of Leon
College Dropout (2004) – Kanye West
I Am A Bird Now (2005) – Antony and the Johnsons
Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike (2005) – Gogol Bordello
Sam’s Town (2006) – The Killers
Donuts (2006) – J Dilla
Untrue (2007) – Burial
Raising Sand (2007) – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
For Emma, Forever Ago (2007) – Bon Iver
Sky Blue Sky (2007) – Wilco
Dear Science (2008) – TV on the Radio
808s and Heartache (2008) – Kanye West
The ’59 Sound (2008) – The Gaslight Anthem
The Hazards of Love (2009) – The Decemberists
Good Kid, m.A.A.d City (2012) – Kendrick Lamar
AM (2013) – Arctic Monkeys
Black Messiah (2014) – D’Angelo
To Pimp A Butterfly (2015) – Kendrick Lamar
And, for those who care, here are the albums from 2000 to present that I rated five out of five stars, in chronological order (excluding classical and jazz):
I Am Shelby Lynne (2000) – Shelby Lynne
Fado em Mim (2000) – Mariza
Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea (2000) – PJ Harvey
All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000) – U2
Sweet Tea (2001) – Buddy Guy
The Id (2001) – Macy Gray
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002) – Wilco
Sea Change (2002) – Beck
One Beat (2002) – Sleater-Kinney
Fever to Tell (2003) – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Electric Version (2003) – The New Pornographers
Funeral (2004) – Arcade Fire
Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out (2005) – Petra Haden
Illinois (2005) – Sufjan Stevens
Z (2005) – My Morning Jacket
Boys and Girls in America (2006) – The Hold Steady
Let’s Get Out of This Country (2006) – Camera Obscura
Neon Bible (2007) – Arcade Fire
Challengers (2007) – The New Pornographers
Once: Music From the Motion Picture (2007) – Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
White Chalk (2007) – PJ Harvey
Hold On Now, Youngster… (2008) – Los Campesinos!
Bird-Brains (2009) – Tune-Yards
The Suburbs (2010) – Arcade Fire
Majesty Shredding (2010) – Superchunk
Cannibal Courtship (2011) – Dengue Fever
Bad As Me (2011) – Tom Waits
Yuck (2011) – Yuck
The King Is Dead (2011) – The Decemberists
Let England Shake (2011) – PJ Harvey
Visions (2012) – Grimes
Pedestrian Verse (2013) – Frightened Rabbit
Sleepwalker (2013) – Angel Olsen
Alvvays (2014) – Alvvays
Brill Bruisers (2014) – The New Pornographers
My Woman (2016) – Angel Olsen
Antisocialites (2017) – Alvvays
Hi seriously no 5stars for War on Drugs Lost in the Dream??!??
Barton Hollow-The Civil Wars
Broken Bells-Broken Bells
Infinite Arms- Band of Horses
I Learned the Hard Way–Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings
Shout It Out–Hanson
I and Love and You–the Avett Brothers
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix- Phoenix
A Piece of What You Need-Teddy Thompson
Med Sud…Endalaust–Sigur Ros
Mudcrutch–Mudcrutch
Release the Stars–Rufus Wainwright
Twelve Stops and Home–The Feeling
Never Hear the End of It–Sloan
Man-Made–Teenage Fanclub
Bring It Back–The Mates of State
Twin Cinema–The New Pornographers
Alternative to Love–Brendan Benson
Hopes & Fears–Keane
Together We’re Heavy–The Polyphonic Spree
Keep Your Wig On–Fastball
Inside Llewyn Davis (Soundtrack)–Various Artists
Welcome Interstate Managers–Fountains of Wayne
Rainy Day Music–The Jayhawks
Ohio–Over the Rhine
morning Phase–Beck
Don’t Give Up On me–Solomon Burke
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots–Flaming Lips
Sea Change–Beck
Lost in Space–Aimee Mann
Saving Silverman–Ben Folds
Rockin’ the Suburbs–Ben Folds
Upland Stories–Robbie Fulks
Good Times!–The Monkees
Take me to the Alley–Gregory Porter
Smile–The Jayhawks
Farmhouse–Phish
Allow Me–Jules Shear
Discovery of the World Inside the Moone–Apples in Stereo
Wasp, Star (Apple, Venus), Vol. 2–XTC
Transit–A.J. Croce
The Harsh Light of Day–Fastball
Transcendental Blues–Steve Earle
Two Against Nature–Steely Dan
Leaving Eden–The Carolina Chocolate Drops
Dye it Blonde–The Smith Westerns
The Wrecking Ball–Bruce Springsteen
The Thompson Fields–Maria Schneider
Someday–Susanna Hoffs
If I had to narrow it down to a top 10;
The Harsh Light of Day–Fastball
Farmhouse–Phish
Allow Me–Jules Shear
Saving Silverman–Ben Folds
Sea Change–Beck
Don’t Give Up On Me–Solomon Burke
Welcome Interstate Managers–Fountains of Wayne
Man-Made–Teenage Fanclub
Med Sud…Endalaust–Sigur Ros
Release the Stars–Rufus Wainwright
its so hard to narrow it to 10.
Thanks for the list! If you don’t want to be bound by the tyranny of top ten lists, you can do what I do: rate all your recordings from 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 and then make a list of your top 5s or 10s. Much easier than having to pick only 10!