Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 2001

My fascination towards 2000s music is basically an understatement of the decade. I'd say that 2000s is one of the best decade for music even when some of the albums and songs are asinine garbage. The thing that interest me with this decade overall is how varied the music really is. One of my criticism of the 80s is that it can be a bit samey sounding by the end of the decade, but also the productions of the songs can be slapdashed and very busy. Meanwhile in the 2000s you can hear the creativity and innovation as technology in music production improved overtime. From the success of MP3 to the creation of online music stores and even music streaming and the advent of MySpace and FL Studios, you have it all really to make a perfect chaos. 2001 on the other hand...yeah it's not that memorable.

When people think about 2001 they always point to the tragedy that was 9/11 while ignoring what happened to the rest of the year. While I'm not going to describe everything that happened before or after the twin towers collapsed culturally, politically, and the zeitgeist. I can tell you about popular music during that time and here's one thing to remember from the chart. While a lot of great music came out of this year and a lot of them are still beloved till this day, those aren't the one that charted. When I take a look at the Billboard Year End of 2001 it became clear to me that "oh yeah they don't count piracy numbers on here". Yeah while the young millennials are busy not catching a virus or getting different files from downloading the latest Blink-182 album, the pop music chart is filled with soppy ballad, TRL gunk, and post grunge backwash. It was a reflection of a music buying demographics but not the reflection of music overall because the worth of music have basically been made obsolete after Napster. 

Because of this divide, the popular music landscape is very skewed. On one hand, young people are listening to songs that speaks to their ill and their angst like nu-metal, pop punk, and even metal. Meanwhile the singles chart are filled with one of those "Now That's What I Called Music" playlist plus a lot more country, RnB ballads, and pretty safe rap songs. It was detrimental to the quality of the chart as a whole because the Hot 100 was a mess and not a lot of standout from that chart. That's why to make this list you have to debut on the Hot 100 and also being the Top 100 Most Streamed Songs of 2001 as I writing this. That way I can choose more options since looking at that Year-end...yeesh. 

I'm not ready yet to talk about the worst list yet because I don't want to consume xanax right now, so let's talk about the best list first. Honestly speaking, what I love about the 2000s as a whole is that the best stuff are the things of legend and slowly becoming a modern classic. It's definitely a very tough for me to cut songs from this list because the competition is fierce. I swear if I omitted one of these songs from the list proper I will get stern words probably. Well let's boot up your computer and search the newest P.O.D. album on Napster while eating Chinese takeaway as I count down.

TOP 10 BEST HIT SONGS OF 2001

10. One thing I've come to realized with a lot of hits in the 2000s is that so much of the songs are about cheating. Whether it's about a guy cheating on a girl or a song about cheating or a song that's definitely not about cheating but has the vibe of cheating. Overall the gender dynamic here is the one I could describe as "Reality TV drama". Of all the cheating and infedelity songs that became hits, None can describe the sheer absurdity than a song from a guy who made Mr. Bombastic.

10. It Wasn't Me - Shaggy ft. RikRok

You know what I missed these days on the chart? The feeling of the underdogs doing everything they can to get to the top spot. The story of how this song went viral and got to #1 has been documented by Vice and by Tom Breihan on his column so I'll just keep it short. After he had a modest success with Mr. Bombastic, he underperformed on his next album and almost falls into obscurity. But, when both Shaggy and RikRok heard one Eddie Murphy joke about it wasn't him that cheated, they then created this song. This song was an album track at first but the pirated version was played in Hawaii and it became big and here we are.

My favorite part of this song is really the content. Sure we can talk about the strings are great and that backbone of horn melody is a good one. But the meat of the song is the content and why people like this song to began with. The premise is really simple, a guy got caught cheating and now asking his friend for help. But I love the framing of this song trying to paint this guy Shaggy is playing to be a very bad influence and honestly it's more topical nowadays. The fact that we live in the world of manosphere where this guy archetype is more common now than in 2001. And honestly what RikRok said is true "you may think that you're a player but you're completely lost" and that's exactly how it is. 

9. Another thing that happened in this year is the prevalent of TRL pop. The modern concept of teen pop was defined by this era. From the marketing, to the sound, and even the choreography. All of which are sounding perfect as they can with the limitations they got themselves into. But, this era also defined by what comes after the fact. How can you rebrand yourself from a teenage pop star to someone who wanna move forward with your growth as you reach adulthood? Well hiring the duo that made Rump Shaker was the starter.

9. I'm A Slave 4 U - Britney Spears

By this point into her career, Britney has solidified herself as a pop icon. Her debut album really cemented what pop music was and will be in the coming decades. The imagery, the music, and the lyrics all really called for pop perfection with tight groove and melodies. But by the time of 2001 came around, Britney has been in under a lot of scrutiny by bullshit gossip magazines and the media at large just nitpicking every moves she made. And I believe that's why she made this song as a response to what the media has been said about her. She's basically said that she's a slave to what the media has said thus far about her and said "yeah what of it?" And that to me showed her strenght and resilience as a public figure at large. 

This subject matter has always been dicey for a pop star especially with her sophomore album, but thankfully she's bringing in the producer that would shaped the 2000s as we know it...yes we'll get to the other guy later but we're talking about The Neptunes here. Their productions style has always got this distinct style of blocky percussion and laid-back synth and melodies that's perfect fit for dance ready RnB and this is a choice one. What they did with this song is just immaculate with that small snippets of breathy synth to the liquid guitar and the signature tightness of Neptunes productions. This is the stepping stone for super producers to become household name and we'll see more of them on this list. For now though, the legacy of this song is undeniable plus that VMA performance. One of the most iconic pop songs of the 2000s.

8. When I looked at what made it into this top 10, I'm surprised at how many songs here hit #1 on the Hot 100. Dare I say it that most of the #1 hits in this year is better than most of the songs on the Year-end. This one is probably the most lowkey of them all but when this was played in the Superbowl to celebrate Dr Dre and West Coast as a whole, it made sense that I'm putting this song on the list.

8. Family Affair - Mary J. Blige

It's kinda crazy that sheer production alone would be enough for a song to be on my best list. Usually when a song made it onto my best list it gotta have a balance between the production and the lyrics. If the lyrics is good but the productions is ass (like In Too Deep by Sum 41) then I won't put it on my best list and vice versa (Butterfly by Crazy Town). But in this case, the production really overpowered the lyrics so much that yes it wind up on my list. 

This is the kiss off anthem to end all kiss off anthem. Mary J. Blige wrote this song after a breakup and it's not pissy or anything like that. If anything it's celebratory and fun which not a lot of songs are that. What made this song soar like it does is of course Dr. Dre. This is easily top 5 songs he has ever produced and it was originally for Rakim believe it or not (my god imagine this beat with out of form Rakim my god). That string is everything with this track and it fits Mary more sultry voice really well. It's just a well made RnB dance jam that stood the test of time and really what more you really need?

7. Well it seems like we talked a lot about the American chart aren't we here? Three songs that would become big hits on MTV and Hot 100 we have talked about at length. How about we going outside of that for a sec...what I mean is outer space.

7. Something About Us - Daft Punk

There are couple of albums that I would give a 10/10 where those albums have nothing but bangers all the way through, one of them is Discovery by Daft Punk. Daft Punk released Discovery in 2001 and if it wasn't for One More Time released the year prior it would've been high up on this list. But Something About Us is a great substitute for this one. There's actually two Daft Punk songs eligible for this list and one of which is Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. While I do love the way that the song is very jaggedy and a perfect refresher of sound in the album, ultimately the Kanye one is better and honestly it took that song to the new height.

This song however is like the perfect middle ground between the funk of what would be their last album predicted that sounds and the house sound they have been known for. It's about the connection in the robotic voice that really sticks to me with the funky bass, the well mixed drums, and that keyboard riff in the post chorus. It's a good way to calm yourself down after a long day of work. Honestly the fact that a late single could get this high just showed how stacked that album was. By the way if you are curious my favorite deep cut is between Digital Love and Crescendolls.

6. Sometimes you need to take big risk. I think every artists have thought about something like this when they are thinking big but most of the times they don't have the balls to do it. Sometimes there were no financial incentive to take those risks. Other times you don't wanna alienate your existing fanbase that might not giving the experiment a chance. But sometimes you just do it and the results might be genre defining. For example what happened when a singer from a popular britpop band and an illustrator and animator worked together to create a fictional band and lore then decades later you see vtubers exist that has the essences of those experiment? Well Damon Albarn knows.

6. Clint Eastwood - Gorillaz

What this year also excels at is the amount of debuts that would shaped the popular music as we know it and we are talking about one of the big ones. Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett disaffected with the state of pop music at that time, especially the TRL stuff decided to make a virtual band to make critique of the artificality of the boy bands at that time. Now I know it's hilarious nowadays to make a virtual band to mocked boy bands but remember this is an era before poptimism. So really at the time making pop music were seen as a lesser form of songwriting. Ironically this project really showed how creative as a pop songwriter Damon Albarn can be. 

Damon Albarn has said that Gorillaz is a way for him to explored genres that he wants to do but can't when he's in Blur. Genres like hip-hop, dance, dub, and latin music. And you really can see that with the lead singles of Gorillaz's self titled album "Clint Eastwood" From the beginning of the song with the drums, the keyboard, the bass, and the fact that most of these instruments came from a preset of a keyboard Damon used is just marvelous. The fact that he sampled that and touched it up to sounds new and fresh (at the time) is genius. You can take how Gorillaz made their songs and applied it to the bedroom pop or Billie's production becauuse it has the same DNA. Though what made this song so iconic is the rap verses from Del The Funky Homosapien who just owned this song and shot it to new heights. 

But to me the ironic part of the success of Gorillaz is that the concept of virtual band or virtual artists have been on the rise lately in pop music. Without Gorillaz, there won't be the concept of vocaloid where you have a software that makes music by putting up lyrics and use voices based on the characters they made. Without Gorillaz, there won't be virtual YouTubers that's also acted like an musical idol on stage and off stage. And without Gorillaz, We wouldn't have the constant discourse about how AI ruining music...that last part might be our problem in the near future now that I realized...anyways #5!

5. So Rolling Stones just released their list of the best 250 songs of this century so far. All I can say for that list is that it's definitely reflective of what's going on in music for a quarter of my lifetime (I was born in the year 2000). Also if you get worked up with that list you are very unserious person. Anyways what caught everyone off guard with that list is which song was put as the best song of the century...so far. And well it is at my best list but only at #5 so...

5. Get Ur Freak On - Missy Elliot

I mean I do get why Rolling Stones said that this song is the best one of all time basically because this song even till this day still holds up. I watched the Hip Hop Revolution on Netflix and they talked about the super producers of the 2000s and yeah it's true that this decade has been dubbed the decade of producers. This song might be from Missy Elliot, but it's also from Timbaland. Timbaland as much as he fallen off in the recent memory of bad decisions and AI slop, was trying to be ahead of its time especially in the productions. The prevalent of Indian style melody, the bloopy synth, the percussion that also sounds very Indian inspired, and that bouncy bass. This is what would be the pop sounds of the next few years especially the copycats that would soon appeared from his protege Scott Storch.

Now is it the best song of the decade so far thing warranted? Well the fact that this is just in the top 5 shows you that it's not. But, I do agree that this song felt like something that would've been seen decades later and being mindblown everytime you hear it. This song in unlike anything that this year has to offer and it really came down to incredible productions and Missy Elliot herself. In the pantheon of female rappers this century, Missy Elliot really embodies talent while also having fun with it. Even watching her Coachella performance you know that she has the showmanship that would make every rappers envious. That's really all there is to it and while I don't agree with Rolling Stones on the placement of this song, we can agree that this song slaps.

4. This was a tossup between this song and Fallin' by Alicia Keys. While I love Fallin' a lot, I do think that the lyrics can be better and that's ultimately knocked it off the list entirely. The other song however, while this might be her last #1 hit, it's a good note to leave on. Here's Janet Jackson with her magnum opus All For You.

4. All For You - Janet Jackson

People tend to forgot this, but in the 2000s people started to become nostalgic over the 70s especially disco. Being seen as a parody in the previous decades after Disco Demolition nights, with the rise of gay acceptance after the AIDS epidemic, and poptimism, Disco or even 70s Funk had a revival that we still see till this day. We will cover the other big neo-disco song on this list but we have to talked about Janet Jackson's last #1 hit, All For You.

You will never lose a bet when Janet is working with Terry Lewis & Jimmy Jam. They both know each others strength as a collaborators. Lewis & Jam bringing in the productions that suited to Janet's more breathy performance and vice versa. This song is actually sampled a song made by a disco group that has Luther Vandross as their lead vocal and honestly you can't tell it's a samples. With how sleek the song sounded it really seems like a disco song with the sensibility of modern productions. The sleek guitar, the synthetic percussion, the bass, and the harmonies is just executed perfectly. That piano in the low end held this song together so well. 

And also don't forget Janet Jackson herself. She brings the effortless smoothness that she still has that her brother didn't. It's like she's happy to be singing especially about hooking up on the dancefloor. This doesn't feel like a song that run almost six minutes. That's what made this song so good and aged better than most neo disco songs came out this decade. It's a shame what happened after her Superbowl performance practically ended her hit career. But what a way to send off three decades of hitmaking to be honest. 

3. You know what I'm getting tired of this decade? Breakup songs made by people who are very immature. Even though Olivia Rodrigo had perfected the formula, her copycat might as well throw in the "Paula Abdul wannabes" level of embarrassment. All of Olivia wannabes are making the shallowest most basic breakup songs ever written. And don't get me started with them pulling nursery rhymes out of their ass. All I'm saying is that breakup songs these days aren't really trying to be mature and sure there's nothing wrong with that, but we need breakup songs that conveyed such emotions as Ms, Jackson.

3. Ms. Jackson - OutKast

OutKast has really been in the periphery of popular music ever since Player's Ball released. Both Andre 3000 and Big Boi had great receptions when it comes to the albums, but never the singles. Before Ms. Jackson, their biggest hit on the Hot 100 was Elevators (Me & You). But Stakonia was really their main breakthrough into the popular mainstream culture. This song is what got them that #1 hit and honestly the American public chose the best singles of their entire career.

This top 3 are the songs that I'll put in my top songs of all time lists because these three songs managed to be rising above the rest of their competition to become the best version of themselves. In this case this song is about having family issues after a child was born out of wedlocke. There are two sides of how to handle this with your mother in law about this situation. The song starts out with the samples and that backwards sounding beat as Andre 3000 sounds very remorseful on the hook. On the second verse he's trying to be more understanding about her mother in law's concern about the child to which he pledged to be with them as always.

Meanwhile Big Boi verses are let's say more confrontational than Andre. He feels like he's being slighted because of how he was treated by the mother after the children's birth. Even the last verse here he said that both of them ignored her mom's advice and just banging again. Even though to the unsuspected public this seems too far. In a relationship there always going to be fighting and that's a normal part of the relationship and both of them knew that. They still respect the mother and even though they can be angry, at the end of the day they're still in love with their daughter so yeah. This was needed in the endless seas of cheating songs on this year end and I'm glad this became a #1 hit. But still not even in the top 2. Let's see the other songs that beat this one.

2. So far I have mentioned most of the trends that was big in the early 2000s. But, you might noticed a certain loud genre that was missing on this list up until now. Yes it's time to talk about nu-metal scenes folks. It's surprising lacking on this year end with the only Nu-Metal band that got a #1 hit this year is goddamn Crazy Town with Butterfly. On the Spotify one it's pretty much P.O.D. and Drowning Pools. And I decided to not put Linkin Park here because c'mon that's for 2002. But there's one big exception that debuted this year and we have to go Armenian with this one

2. Chop Suey! - System Of A Down

2000s were actually not the time where people are being carefree and everything has been taken care of, it was probably one of the most turbulent time for a lot of people even compared to 2010s and we had the first Trump administration. With all that turmoil, people look for ways for their anger to be justified so that's how Nu-Metal was came about. It tapped the anger younger generation at the time had that didn't pertained to any social issues. Though there's still debate about which band is Nu-Metal and which one isn't. And System Of A Down is in that forefront.

When Chop Suey hit the mainstream, people honestly don't know how to react to them. Sure the fact that Rick Ruben was the co-producer of the song suggest that they're probably rap rock and adjacent to Nu-Metal. But with heavy subject matter of suicide and about mortality, it read as more intellegent looking than any other Nu-Metal acts at the time where even the most introspection we got was "It's Been Awhile" by Staind and that song sucks. Also because of the help of Rick Ruben, the production here is clearer and more fuller than most Nu-Metal tracks here. The chugging riff from Daron, the supreme drumming by John Doimayan, and the bonkers voice range of Serj and Daron helping this song soared. It's a classic for a reason. But it's still not my #1. But before I go over my number one, here are some of the honorable mentions that missed the cut but still deserved some love.

Sweetness - Jimmy Eat World

You know a lot of these songs on the best list I have listened to a lot prior to making the ranking. This one snuck up on me just because of sheer force that's the guitar riff, the melody, and Jim Adkins' soaring performance. Solid rock tune all around.

Fallin' - Alicia Keys

Consider this my honorary #11 on this list and it's definitely a painful cut. But ultimately her stuff from 2004 perfected what works in Songs In A Minor (insert Kendrick Lamar reference here) so it's here instead.

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - Daft Punk

Ultimately this song can be a bit repetitive on the worst day. So that's why it's not on the list. But that industrial sound still sounds good every time. Oh and also the Kanye version is still better than this one. Oh speaking of Kanye

Izzo (H.O.V.A.) - Jay-Z

Kanye debuted as a producer by sampling I Want You Back with his signatured soulful productions that carried him to make College Dropout. Jay-Z also good in this one but I still can't believe that The Blueprint was released during 9/11. 

Lady Marmalade - Christina Aguilera, Mya, Lil Kim, & P!nk

A fun girl night out in a song form and definitely surpassing the movie it came from. Lil Kim verse alone is more well written than the movie probably. Also ranking every performance here Lil Kim, Mya, Christina Aguilera, and P!nk.

Bodies - Drowning Pool

This song is more meme than a real song at this point. But that guitar with how it was delivered. No wonder Offset and JID decided to sampled this song and elevated both songs. 

Because I Got High - Afroman

As one Todd In the Shadow said about this song "maybe he's high on life?" 

And now the big one.

#1. In the middle of 1999, Gregg Alexander disbanded New Radicals while he was at the top. He had scored his big hit with You Get What You Give which is still one of the best songs of all time. The sudden success and the controversy surrounding the song he was famous for really spooked him, so much so that his live TV appearance he always wore his bucket hat covering his face. After that he went into songwriting, primarily for British acts and you can tell if a song was written by him. I mean this is the one that he wrote that became my #1 song of 2001.

#1. Murder On The Dancefloor - Sophie Ellis-Bextor

The hazy synth, the warm guitar, and that strings greeted you to a wonderful experience of nu-disco classic. You can see that Gregg Alexander wrote this lyrics with how blunt and even daring the lyrics are with the titular track name being the expression that we need to tear this roof off and be the best version of each other. That guitar solo with the gang vocals is just a bonus to an otherwise flawless song. 

This song was very big in Europe, but in America it never charted at all at the time. Maybe even they still hesitant for the full force comeback of disco on the chart. This is of course not the end of the story. Last year this song was featured in Saltburn and that finally the push it needed to cross over and what a story it was.

But it could've been even more of a fascinating story because this song was a toss up for Gregg Alexander. He had to choose either this song or You Get What You Give for the lead singles of the album and in the end he chose the latter. I wonder what could have been if he chose to put this song on the album and gave You Get What You Give for Sophie Ellis-Bextor. She would've still killed it because her performance here is the perfect amount of sleek coolness and the anxiety that came from dancing with your partner. Honestly at this point I'm just rambling because c'mon it's Murder On The Dancefloor what do you want me to say here? 

And that's my best of 2001 list. Honestly I would love to talk more about 2001 but we need to take out the trash fire this year has to offer so stay tune for that.