100 Best Songs of the Decade 2000 ~ 2009 : Rolling Stone Magazine

URL: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/31248926/100_best_songs_of_the_decade

Rollingstone.com

Back to 100 Best Songs of the Decade

100 Best Songs of the Decade

Posted Dec 09, 2009 9:00 AM

100. "Welcome to Jamrock" BY DAMIAN MARLEY

99. "Feel Good Inc." BY GORILLAZ

98. "Back to Black" BY AMY WINEHOUSE

97. "White Winter Hymnal" BY FLEET FOXES

96. "Poker Face" BY LADY GAGA

Let's (poker) face it — any decade that ends by making a star out of a screwed-up Italian girl like Stefani Germanotta can't be all bad. This hit defined her style of cool — both an art freak and a mainstream prom fave, singing about crushing out on another woman while she's in bed with a man. Will Gaga still be riding the fame monster this time next decade? Any fool who bets against her obviously can't read her poker face.

95. "Family Affair" BY MARY J. BLIGE

94. "Pyramid Song" BY RADIOHEAD

93. "Drop It Like It's Hot" BY SNOOP DOGG

92. "Alcohol" BY BRAD PAISLEY

Paisley was one of the era's great country artists, a Nashville-factory star who also happened to pull duty as a stunning singer, songwriter and guitarist. He sings this song from alcohol's point of view: "Since the day I left Milwaukee, Lynchburg, Bordeaux, France/I've been making a fool out of folks just like you/And helping white people dance." Another round!

91. "My City of Ruins" BY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

90. "Roscoe" BY MIDLAKE

89. "Lua" BY BRIGHT EYES

Conor Oberst tells a sad story about a girl whose crappy life is about to get much, much worse, because she's about to fall in love with Conor Oberst. "Me, I'm not a gamble," he sings. "You can count on me to split." By the end of the song, they're stuck in druggy depression — yet they're still together, and the folkie melody gives you hope it might last until morning.

88. "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" BY JAY-Z

87. "Heartbeats" BY THE KNIFE

86. "Try Again" BY AALIYAH

It's hard to believe there was ever a time when people complained that Timbaland wasn't making enough records. But Tim made a grandiose re-entry here, quoting Rakim: "It's been a long time/I shouldn't have left you." Aaliyah's chiller-than-chill vocals make it still seem painful that this brilliant R&B princess died so young — yet managed to make so much unforgettable music in her time.

85. "Stillness Is the Move" BY THE DIRTY PROJECTORS

84. "Grindin'" BY THE CLIPSE

83. "Standing in the Way of Control" BY THE GOSSIP

82. "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" BY JAY-Z

Anybody who believed the retirement would last more than a couple years has to be among the planet's most gullible people. If you could still drop rhymes like this, brushing off all possible competition, not to mention escorting Beyoncé to the VMAs, would you retire? But that didn't keep anyone from cranking this masterful hip-hop farewell speech.

81. "Get The Party Started" BY PINK

80. "1901" BY PHOENIX

79. "Gone Gone Gone" BY ROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS

78. "Daft Punk is Playing at My House" BY LCD SOUNDSYSTEM

77. "Not Ready to Make Nice" BY DIXIE CHICKS

76. "Hung Up" BY MADONNA

Going back to disco, as she always does and always should, the queen hustled up a chintzy-sounding Abba sample, a drag queen's wet dream of a chorus, and Stuart Price's electrobeats. The result? One of her most captivating hits ever — and thanks to those deceptively hard-hitting lyrics, one of her most personal.

75. "Rebellion (Lies)" BY ARCADE FIRE

This Montreal troupe proved they had the scope and passion for an all-out arena-rock anthem, even though nobody suspected they'd ever get in the back door of an actual arena. With the swooping chorus chant ("Every time you close your eyes") and the pumping keyboards, it was the greatest Simple Minds song that Simple Minds never wrote.

74. "Wolf Like Me" BY TV ON THE RADIO

73. "No One Knows" BY QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE

72. "Use Somebody" BY KINGS OF LEON

71. "D.A.N.C.E." BY JUSTICE

If you were a drunk hipster girl in the summer of 2007, you probably had an Amy Winehouse haircut, and you also probably hit the dance floor the second this song came on, with that awesome ridiculous children¹s choir and filter-disco beats. Dancers never got sick of this French techno duo's massive Michael Jackson tribute.

70. "I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor" BY ARCTIC MONKEYS

69. "L.E.S. Artistes" BY SANTIGOLD

68. "Viva La Vida" BY COLDPLAY

67. "Jesus, Etc." BY WILCO

66. "Music" BY MADONNA

Despite all the new pop starlets out there trying to jump her train, Madonna definitely was not slackening the pace. When she dropped "Music," she was older than Britney and Christina combined, yet she took them to school with vintage electro-boom, Eurodisco flourishes from French producer Mirwais, and her own inimitable sass.

65. "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" BY GREEN DAY

64. "Vertigo" BY U2

63. "A Milli" BY LIL WAYNE

62. "Fallin'" BY ALICIA KEYS

61. "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" BY JET

60. "Irreplaceable" BY BEYONCÉ

That acoustic guitar surge, courtesy of songwriter Ne-Yo, gives Miss B the courage to throw a no-good boyfriend out of the house. Yet another reason to love Beyoncé: at 13 letters, this was the longest one-word song title ever to hit Number One, breaking the 12-letter record set by "Superstition."

59. "Hard to Explain" BY THE STROKES

58. "Fell In Love With a Girl" BY THE WHITE STRIPES

Love, Jack White style: On this 2001 single — a key moment in the garage-rock revival — White's completely smitten, howling about her red curls over a ragged guitar groove that sounds like a rusty Impala barreling through a bad part of Detroit. Jack's warped blues genius is evident; so is Meg's asymmetrical bounce. Together the pair would make more popular songs, but none this exuberant.

57. "New Slang" BY THE SHINS

56. "Idioteque" BY RADIOHEAD

55. "Ms. Jackson" BY OUTKAST

Inspired by Andre 3000's beef with the mother of one-time girlfriend Erykah Badu, OutKast's first Number One hit is the funniest, catchiest thing they ever did. Over a head-snapping beat that quotes Wagner's wedding march, Dre and Big Boi rap hyper-fluidly about cheating girlfriends and custody wars, delivering a chorus that's both P-Funk and totally pop. Scores of white sorority girls had no choice but to sing along.

54. "The Scientist" BY COLDPLAY

53. "House of Jealous Lovers" BY THE RAPTURE

52. "Beautiful" BY CHRISTINA AGUILERA

51. "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" BY D'ANGELO

50. "Single Ladies" BY BEYONCÉ

With a helping hand from The-Dream and Tricky Stewart, Beyoncé issued her definitive statement for ladies stuck in limbo with a dude who can't commit. The swinging beat was irresistible, the video was jiggletastic, and the message was clear: Get it together, fellas.

49. "The Rat" BY THE WALKMEN

An anthem of New York's rock revival that mixed Strokes strumming with U2's operatic fury. Frontman Hamilton Leithauser gives an unlucky caller an earful. "Can't you hear me, I'm bleeding on the wall!" We hear you.

48. "Mr. Brightside" BY THE KILLERS

They crawled out of Vegas armed with glitzy beats and faux Bowie accents. "Mr. Brightside" made them famous, bringing New Wave ecstasy and a story line that sums up the first two seasons of Gossip Girl.

47. "American Idiot" BY GREEN DAY

The song fans had waited years for — a Clash-worthy guitar rant full of righteous political fury, with Billie Joe Armstrong showing how adults misbehave in style.

46. "Kids" BY MGMT

"Control yourself/Take only what you need from it," they sing, sounding like Arcade Fire shrooming with the Flaming Lips, and with sloganeering so vague, the president of France used this as a campaign theme.

45. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" BY KYLIE MINOGUE

The pint-size Aussie disco dolly seduced the U.S. with this mirror-ball classic, chanting that obsessive melody in a sea of "ba-ba-ba" vocals. We've been hearing it at the gym ever since.

44. "Toxic" BY BRITNEY SPEARS

Bollywood strings! Surf guitar! Euro disco! Producers Bloodshy and Avant tossed a bit of everything into this hit, which proved that Britney could turn whacked-out techno pop into delicious bubblegum.

43. "The Seed (2.0)" BY THE ROOTS

On this sleek winner, hip-hop's greatest band got deep in the pocket as Cody ChesnuTT delivered a scorching guitar riff. Somewhere, James Brown is smiling.

42. "Wake Up" BY ARCADE FIRE

"Wake Up" was the first dose of the blessed excess that made Arcade Fire great, mixing art-collective clamor with enough passion to rouse Dick Cheney (OK, almost).

41. "All My Friends" BY LCD SOUNDSYSTEM

A seven-minute blast of electro disco that's also a rock anthem on the scale of David Bowie's "Heroes," mourning the comedown from the decade's killer parties and the friends lost along the way.

40. "Milkshake" BY KELIS

Be advised: There will be milk, and it will get crazy shook. Amid a Neptunes beat and a chanted hook, the R&B dairy queen taught a course in advanced bootyology.

39. "Float On" BY MODEST MOUSE

A snappy, silver-lined indie-pop march that asserts, "Good news is on the way." A summer of '04 hit, its chill-pill positivity nailed the zeitgeist during Bush's re-election: Good news is slow sometimes.

38. "Clint Eastwood" BY GORILLAZ

"The future is coming on," croons Damon Albarn with his cartoon supergroup, riding a reggae groove that evokes Ennio Morricone. Then Del tha Funkee Homosapien drops rhymes like a high-plains drifter.

37. "Losing My Edge" BY LCD SOUNDSYSTEM

This tale of an aging hipster would've murdered on its sleek dance-floor groove alone. But the lyrics — which both skewer and celebrate music geeks — double the pleasure.

36. "Moment of Surrender" BY U2

Bono sings about a junkie riding the subway, disconnected, then failing to recognize his own reflection in an ATM window. The most devastating ballad U2 — or anyone — has delivered since "One."

35. "The Rising" BY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

This strings-laden rock & roll rapture was written about 9/11. But when its metaphor of struggling through darkness was blasted at Obama's victory celebration, it became a national anthem for the 21st century.

34. "Yellow" BY COLDPLAY

Has any band had a better line for their first single than "Look at the stars, see how they shine for you"? The introduction to Chris Martin's unique dreaminess.

33. "One More Time" BY DAFT PUNK

The Auto-Tune revolution began with this dance-floor epiphany. France's finest house DJs built a lovingly detailed tribute to Seventies disco with cyborg voices, wildly EQ'ed horns and an elephantine groove.

32. "Take Me Out" BY FRANZ FERDINAND

Thanks to these slutty Scottish boys, this mod guitar stomp rules any bar where the girls feel like dancing — a fiendishly clever seduction where Alex Kapranos seethes, "I won't be leaving here … with you."

31. "Do You Realize?" BY THE FLAMING LIPS

The song that epitomized the Lips' mission to put adults in touch with their inner children: See Wayne Coyne's good-natured instructions ("Make the good things last") and hypnotizing acoustic-guitar strums.

30. "Ignition (Remix)" BY R. KELLY

The beat is unstoppably sultry, but the vocals made this one of the decade's signature R&B hits, with Kelly spitting syllables in a tongue-twisting, rap-singing style that only he could have invented.

29. "Gold Digger" BY KANYE WEST

Kanye's most instantly pleasurable single ever, thanks to Jamie Foxx's Ray Charles impression and Yeezy's hilarious lyrics about money-grubbing hotties.

28. "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country" BY RANDY NEWMAN

At a time when most political songs were outraged rants, this was a deceptively easy-rolling New Orleans piano jam musing on "the end of an empire" — notably, ours.

27. "Such Great Heights" BY THE POSTAL SERVICE

Fueled by sparkly synth beats, this aching love song represented a new phase for Death Cab's Ben Gibbard — and inspired a wave of gentle-keyboard copyists.

26. "Clocks" BY COLDPLAY

This paramount example of Coldplay's blank-slate gorgeousness turns on a simple melody and a dangling chorus of "You are …"; the rest is left to our imaginations.

25. "Work It" BY MISSY ELLIOTT

The Divine Miss E puts her thing down, flips it and reverses it over one of Timbaland's most futuristic sex jams.

24. "Everything in Its Right Place" BY RADIOHEAD

Kid A's opener announced a record where nothing was in its right place. Thom Yorke's voice was more processed than Spam, but this was oddness at its most hummable.

23. "Umbrella" BY RIHANNA

2007's song of the summer was more power ballad than R&B song, thanks to its rocking live-drums beat. It had the whole world singing along with Rihanna and her umbrella-ella-ella — and made the careers of The-Dream and Tricky Stewart.

22. "1 Thing" BY AMERIE

Amerie sounds breathless on this R&B smash about getting sucked into an ex's orbit. The beat samples the New Orleans funksters the Meters, the biggest airplay they ever got — right before Katrina hit.

21. "B.O.B." BY OUTKAST

One of rap's most frenzied moments: OutKast preachify, guitars howl, and a choir chants, "Power music! Electric revival!"

20. "Cry Me a River" BY JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE

The video, in which Justin stalks a Britney look-alike, made clear the inspiration for this breakup aria. But the real story was the formation of the Timberlake-Timbaland team: a match made in pop heaven.

19. "Jesus Walks" BY KANYE WEST

"If I talk about God, my record won't get played," rapped Kanye over thundering martial drums on this gospel testimonial. He was wrong: "Jesus Walks" climbed the charts and won a Grammy for Best Rap Song. But more important, it introduced a hip-hop star who could single-handedly create more drama than a carful of Crips.

18. "Since U Been Gone" BY KELLY CLARKSON

Is it a stick of bubblegum? Or a stick of dynamite? With this indignant, inspirational megahit — co-produced by Max Martin — the American Idol moved from inspiration to indignation and gave teen pop a feisty new template.

17. "Mississippi" BY BOB DYLAN

A drifter's love song that seems to sum up Dylan's entire career, and a rambling classic that ranks up there with "Tangled Up in Blue." When he growls, "I'm gonna look at you till my eyes go blind," it's both a romantic promise and a hint of doom.

16. "Last Nite" BY THE STROKES

The Lower East Side version of youthful angst: All the Lou Reed vocals and sweaty garage rock you can pack into three minutes, driven by a surging riff and a subway car full of cool confusion.

15. "Hurt" BY JOHNNY CASH

Cash strips a Nine Inch Nails arena anthem to little more than an acoustic guitar and the trembling voice of a dying man staring down his failures. Trent Reznor's verdict: "That song isn't mine anymore."

14. "Get Ur Freak On" BY MISSY ELLIOTT

One of the most deliciously freaky, gleefully experimental hip-hop songs ever: Timbaland delivers an amazing bhangra beat while Missy throws down like some weird-ass cheerleader who knows that the world is listening.

13. "In Da Club" BY 50 CENT

50 introduced himself to the pop world with a kickass Dre beat, stepping through the club to charm the ladies with boasts of his bullet wounds and his bountiful bar tab. "I'm into havin' sex/I ain't into makin' love," he sang. "So come give me a hug!"

12. "Lose Yourself" BY EMINEM

A megahit from the 8 Mile soundtrack, "Lose Yourself" was hip-hop as inspirational as Rocky, with Em rapping about the kind of poverty he grew up in — and showing the superhuman rhyme powers that got him out of it.

11. "Time to Pretend" BY MGMT

Two keyboard dorks air their rock-star fantasies — "I'll move to Paris, shoot some heroin" — and force you to guess if it was an ironic goof, a biting satire or (just maybe) totally sincere. What made it great was the way that piercingly beautiful chorus kept you wondering.

10. "Stan" BY EMINEM

This creepy hit encapsulated the dramatic flair that made Eminem so impossible to ignore in 2000. A deranged fan writes Em a series of unhinged letters, and as the song builds to a bloodcurdling climax, Em is forced to confront his rep as a bad role model. And despite Dido's reassurances, this story won't end well.

9. "Beautiful Day" BY U2

The song that re-established U2 as the world's biggest band looked backward, reviving the skyscraping sound of their Eighties classics. But the lyrics — "See the canyons broken by cloud/See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out" — were more ambivalent than the title suggested, a prayer for transcendence in a wounded world.

8. "Rehab" BY AMY WINEHOUSE

The humor in Winehouse's 2006 salvo is darker now, given subsequent crack binges and other misbehavior. But "Rehab" still sums up the London diva's greatness: Sonically letter-perfect retro soul with producer Mark Ronson's 21st-century beat-muscle and cheekiness. "He's trying to make me go to rehab," she sings, "I won't go, go, go." You go, girl.

7. "Maps" BY YEAH YEAH YEAHS

How often do we get a fiery soul ballad and an art-punk classic in the same song? Karen O testifies to the power of love as if she's miraculously channeling Siouxsie and Sam Cooke at the same time. She wails the word "wait" with a heartsick ache, while Nick Zinner's guitar and Brian Chase's drums ride to her emotional rescue.

6. "Seven Nation Army" BY THE WHITE STRIPES

Jack White uses an effects pedal to make his guitar sound like a bass and howls about a rage so intense, he could take on an army all by himself. Result: the greatest riff of the decade and a massive, career-changing hit that college marching bands now play.

5. "Paper Planes" BY M.I.A.

Rapper Maya Arulpragasam cheerfully threatened to steal your money, over a beat sampled from the Clash's "Straight to Hell," tossing in cash-register rings, gunshots and shout-outs to Third World slums. The year after "Paper Planes" came out, the Pineapple Express trailer blew it up into one of the unlikeliest Top 10 jams ever.

4. "Hey Ya!" BY OUTKAST

After all these years, "Hey Ya!" sounds as weird and fantastic as it did the first time: A genre-humping blur of acoustic guitars, hand claps, dance instructions and André 3000's funktastic charm. Fifty years from now, kids will still be asking what a Polaroid picture is.

3. "Crazy in Love" BY BEYONCÉ

The horns weren't a hook. They were a herald: Pop's new queen had arrived. Beyoncé's debut solo smash, powered by that sampled Chi-Lites brass blast, announced her liberation from Destiny's Child and established her MO: She'd best the competition by doing everything sassier, bigger, crazier.

2. "99 Problems" BY JAY-Z

Jigga's incredible decade-long run reached its hard-rock crescendo in this Black Album smash, flipping an old Ice-T hook with go-go percussion and metal guitars. It was the funkiest thing Rick Rubin had touched since the Eighties. And needless to say, it was a relief for Beyoncé to be upgraded to "nonproblem" status.

1. "Crazy" BY GNARLS BARKLEY

In this frazzled and fragmented decade, when the Top 40 broke down into squabbling niches, the idea of a universal pop hit, a song anybody could love, seemed like a sweet old-fashioned notion. Then these guys showed up. Atlanta rapper Cee-Lo and indie producer Danger Mouse decided it would be a gas to pretend to be the world's greatest pop group, and so they gave the world "Crazy." Everybody loved this song, from your mom to your ex-girlfriend's art professor. It blasted in punk clubs and Burger King bathrooms. Every sucky band on earth tried a lame cover. For the summer of 2006, "Crazy" united us all into one nation under a groove. Gnarls Barkley packed a career's worth of genius ideas into three minutes — and then they basically disappeared. Does that make them crazy? Probably. But was this the most glorious pop thrill of our time? Totally.

The Voters

Each voter was asked to list his or her 25 favorite albums and songs of the past decade, in order of importance. Ballots were tabulated and weighted according to a methodology developed by the accounting firm of Ernst & Young, under the supervision of the editors of Rolling Stone.

PLUS: Go inside the planning of Rolling Stone's decade-end issue with our behind the scenes video and see how our panel of over 100 artists, journalists and insiders voted. Watch Video | See Ballots

?uestlove The Roots

Pelle Almqvist The Hives

Jeff Ament Pearl Jam

Nicholaus Arson The Hives

Devendra Banhart

Kevin Barnes Of Montreal

Rostam Batmanglij Vampire Weekend

Guy Berryman Coldplay

Mark Binelli Contributing editor, Rolling Stone

Mary J. Blige

Nathan Brackett Deputy managing editor, Rolling Stone

Laurent Brancowitz Phoenix

Isaac Brock Modest Mouse

David Browne Contributing editor, Rolling Stone

Jonny Buckland Coldplay

Solomon Burke

Cliff Burnstein Q Prime Management

Patrick Carney The Black Keys

Will Champion Coldplay

Brian Chase Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Robert Christgau Journalist

Jarvis Cocker

Wayne Coyne The Flaming Lips

Cameron Crowe

Will Dana Managing editor, Rolling Stone

Britt Daniel Spoon

Anthony DeCurtis Contributing editor, Rolling Stone

Dion DiMucci

Jon Dolan Journalist

Jenny Eliscu Contributing editor, Rolling Stone

Missy Elliott

Michael Endelman Senior editor, Rolling Stone

Jason Fine Executive editor, Rolling Stone

Bill Flanagan MTV Networks

Caleb Followill Kings of Leon

Jared Followill Kings of Leon

Matthew Followill Kings of Leon

Nathan Followill Kings of Leon

Nicole Frehsée Assistant editor, Rolling Stone

David Fricke Senior writer, Rolling Stone

Caryn Ganz Deputy editor, RollingStone.com

Billy Gibbons ZZ Top

Mikal Gilmore Contributing editor, Rolling Stone

Andy Greene Assistant editor, Rolling Stone

Kirk Hammett Metallica

Will Hermes Senior critic, Rolling Stone

Brian Hiatt Associate editor, Rolling Stone

Christian Hoard Contributing editor, Rolling Stone

Mark Hoppus Blink-182

James Hunter Journalist

Jim James My Morning Jacket

Nick Jonas Jonas Brothers

Craig Kallman Atlantic Records

Lenny Kaye Patti Smith Group

Mark Kemp Journalist

Kid Cudi

Ezra Koenig Vampire Weekend

Lenny Kravitz

Damian Kulash OK Go

Miranda Lambert

Adam Levine Maroon 5

Alan Light Journalist

Lil Wayne

Kurt Loder MTV

Melissa Maerz Journalist

Shirley Manson Garbage

Thomas Mars Phoenix

Chris Martin Coldplay

Mac McCaughan Merge Records

Colin Meloy The Decemberists

M.I.A.

Tom Moon Journalist

Tom Morello

Fabrizio Moretti The Strokes, Little Joy

Kevin O'Donnell Assistant Editor, Rolling Stone

Yoko Ono

Jonathan Ringen Assistant managing editor, Rolling Stone

Chris Robinson The Black Crowes

Jody Rosen Senior critic, Rolling Stone

Rick Rubin

Austin Scaggs Contributing editor, Rolling Stone

Evan Serpick Journalist

Rob Sheffield Contributing editor, Rolling Stone

Mike Shinoda Linkin Park

Neil Strauss Contributing editor, Rolling Stone

Patrick Stump Fall Out Boy

John Sykes Playlist.com

Touré Contributing editor, Rolling Stone

Jeff Tweedy Wilco

Lars Ulrich

Metallica

Andrew VanWyngarden MGMT

Steven Van Zandt The E Street Band

Butch Vig Producer

Wale

Barry Walters Journalist

Gerard Way My Chemical Romance

Jann S. Wenner Founder and editor, Rolling Stone

Pete Wentz Fall Out Boy

David Whitehead Maine Road Management

Will.i.am Black Eyed Peas

Douglas Wolk Journalist

Adam Yauch Beastie Boys

Songs of the Decade

1 | Gnarls Barkley — "Crazy"

2 | Jay-Z — "99 Problems"

3 | Beyoncé — "Crazy in Love"

4 | Outkast — "Hey Ya!"

5 | M.I.A. — "Paper Planes"

6 | The White Stripes — "Seven Nation Army"

7 | Yeah Yeah Yeahs — "Maps"

8 | Amy Winehouse — "Rehab"

9 | U2 — "Beautiful Day"

10 | Eminem — "Stan"

11 | MGMT — "Time to Pretend"

12 | Eminem — "Lose Yourself"

13 | 50 Cent — "In Da Club"

14 | Missy Elliott — "Get Ur Freak On"

15 | Johnny Cash — "Hurt"

16 | The Strokes — "Last Nite"

17 | Bob Dylan — "Mississippi"

18 | Kelly Clarkson — "Since U Been Gone"

19 | Kanye West — "Jesus Walks"

20 | Justin Timberlake — "Cry Me a River"

21 | OutKast — "B.O.B."

22 | Amerie — "1 Thing"

23 | Rihanna — "Umbrella"

24 | Radiohead — "Everything in Its Right Place"

25 | Missy Elliott — "Work It"

26 | Coldplay — "Clocks"

27 | The Postal Service — "Such Great Heights"

28 | Randy Newman — "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country"

29 | Kanye West — "Gold Digger"

30 | R. Kelly — "Ignition (Remix)"

31 | The Flaming Lips — "Do You Realize?"

32 | Franz Ferdinand — "Take Me Out"

33 | Daft Punk — "One More Time"

34 | Coldplay — "Yellow"

35 | Bruce Springsteen — "The Rising"

36 | U2 — "Moment of Surrender"

37 | LCD Soundsystem — "Losing My Edge"

38 | Gorillaz — "Clint Eastwood"

39 | Modest Mouse — "Float On"

40 | Kelis — "Milkshake"

41 | LCD Soundsystem — "All My Friends"

42 | Arcade Fire — "Wake Up"

43 | The Roots — "The Seed (2.0)"

44 | Britney Spears — "Toxic"

45 | Kylie Minogue — "Can't Get You Out of My Head"

46 | MGMT — "Kids"

47 | Green Day — "American Idiot"

48 | The Killers — "Mr. Brightside"

49 | The Walkmen — "The Rat"

50 | Beyoncé — "Single Ladies"

51 | D'Angelo — "Untitled (How Does It Feel)"

52 | Christina Aguilera — "Beautiful"

53 | The Rapture — "House of Jealous Lovers"

54 | Coldplay — "The Scientist"

55 | OutKast — "Ms. Jackson"

56 | Radiohead — "Idioteque"

57 | The Shins — "New Slang"

58 | The White Stripes — "Fell In Love With a Girl"

59 | The Strokes — "Hard to Explain"

60 | Beyoncé — "Irreplaceable"

61 | Jet — "Are You Gonna Be My Girl"

62 | Alicia Keys — "Fallin'"

63 | Lil Wayne — "A Milli"

64 | U2 — "Vertigo"

65 | Green Day — "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"

66 | Madonna — "Music"

67 | Wilco — "Jesus, Etc."

68 | Coldplay — "Viva La Vida"

69 | Santigold — "L.E.S. Artistes"

70 | Arctic Monkeys — "I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor"

71 | Justice — "D.A.N.C.E."

72 | Kings of Leon — "Use Somebody"

73 | Queens of the Stone Age — "No One Knows"

74 | TV on the Radio — "Wolf Like Me"

75 | Arcade Fire — "Rebellion (Lies)"

76 | Madonna — "Hung Up"

77 | Dixie Chicks — "Not Ready to Make Nice"

78 | LCD Soundsystem — "Daft Punk is Playing at My House"

79 | Robert Plant and Alison Krauss — "Gone Gone Gone"

80 | Phoenix — "1901"

81 | Pink — "Get The Party Started"

82 | Jay-Z — "Dirt Off Your Shoulder"

83 | The Gossip — "Standing in the Way of Control"

84 | The Clipse — "Grindin'"

85 | The Dirty Projectors — "Stillness Is the Move"

86 | Aaliyah — "Try Again"

87 | The Knife — "Heartbeats"

88 | Jay-Z — "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)"

89 | Bright Eyes — "Lua"

90 | Midlake — "Roscoe"

91 | Bruce Springsteen — "My City of Ruins"

92 | Brad Paisley — "Alcohol"

93 | Snoop Dogg — "Drop It Like It's Hot"

94 | Radiohead — "Pyramid Song"

95 | Mary J. Blige — "Family Affair"

96 | Lady Gaga — "Poker Face"

97 | Fleet Foxes — "White Winter Hymnal"

98 | Amy Winehouse — "Back to Black"

99 | Gorillaz — "Feel Good Inc."

100 | Damian Marley — "Welcome to Jamrock"