Who Ruled 2000s Music?

The 2000s gave us an absurd collection of women who helped define popular music. Beyoncé. Alicia Keys. Britney Spears. Mariah Carey. Pink. Rihanna. Christina Aguilera. Avril Lavigne. And that’s before getting to artists like Mary J. Blige, Amy Winehouse, Gwen Stefani and a young Taylor Swift.

So naturally, we decided to figure out who belonged among the queens of 2000s music.

It went exactly as planned. Meaning it didn’t go remotely as planned.

Who Were the Queens of 2000s Music?

Using the Billboard Hot 100 as our starting point, Beyoncé landed at the top of the conversation, followed by names including Alicia Keys, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Pink, Kelly Clarkson and Rihanna.

Some names immediately felt obvious. Others sent us backward through our musical memories trying to remember exactly when certain artists arrived.

Rihanna already had “Umbrella” before the decade ended. Taylor Swift entered the picture late. And somehow Mariah Carey was still hanging around after we thought we’d already dealt with her in another decade.

Then the wheels came off.

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A Music Conversation Goes Sideways

The conversation moved from music around the world to Soul Train and American Bandstand. That became house parties. House parties became terrible beer stories.

Eventually we arrived at old car stereos, ska music and cheese.

Yes. Cheese.

At one point, we had an actual anti-cheddar movement developing in the live comments before discussing a child’s collection of Babybel wax and whether those creations could be sold on Etsy to finance additional Babybel purchases.

We eventually moved to pasta because, sure, why wouldn’t we?

More Than a Music Podcast

That’s really what What’s In Your Earbuds? has become.

Music gets us through the door. Then memories, food, culture, ridiculous opinions and the people watching live take the conversation somewhere none of us planned.

It’s three friends hanging out and inviting everybody else into the room.

This episode may have started with the queens of 2000s music, but somewhere between Beyoncé and Babybel, it became something else.

And that’s probably why we keep showing up every Monday.

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