This week, Billboard is publishing a series of lists and articles celebrating the music of 20 years ago. Our 2005 Week continues here with our edit staff’s picks for the 100 best songs from an absolutely huge-feeling and huge-sounding year in popular music.
Thanks to the 2003-2004 blockbuster successes of artists like Usher, OutKast, 50 Cent, Kanye West and Beyoncé, by 2005, it was unquestioned that hip-hop and R&B had now firmly replaced the teen pop and Minivan Rock of the early decade as the core sound of ’00s pop music. After ruling the Hot 100 for every week of 2004, Black artists again dominated in 2005, with even the lone white artist to top the chart for multiple weeks — a newly solo Gwen Stefani — doing so by following the Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears playbook, of enlisting The Neptunes to help freshen up her sonics.
While Stefani found mega-success with an updated sound and image, another diamond-certified ’90s star re-conquered the mainstream by going old-school: Mariah Carey’s The Emancipation of Mimi album leaned into the classic big melodies and big vocals that first brought her to global success, resulting in one of the biggest hits of her storied career. But 2005 was also just as much about the reigning champs of hip-hop — Kanye and 50 — eschewing the sophomore slump with second albums as dominant as their debuts, and about a new young class of crossover stars — led by Chris Brown, Ciara and Rihanna — barely entering their primes.
But while hip-hop and R&B obviously ruled the roost, big things were happening in rock as well: Alternative Nation survivors Weezer, Foo Fighters and Green Day all scaled up their sound and their hits and proved bigger than ever, while My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy and The Killers proved that the ’00s was still producing rock acts with arena ambitions of their own. And country ruled on American Idol for the first time, producing one of the century’s biggest stars with its season four winner — though the year’s most unavoidable hits by an Idol alum still belonged to its inaugural champ.
As Billboard‘s 2005 Week kicks into high gear, find our 100 favorite singles from a huge year in popular music — including songs that reached or topped the Hot 100 for the first time in 2005, but not ones that waited until future years to make or top the chart. No one else can feel 2005 for you; only you can let it in.
