This is often considered to be the magnum opus for Eminem, likely because it continues his shock rap that his earlier catalogue was known for whilst addressing the fact that none of it was meant to be taken seriously and that he wasn’t actually bigoted towards women or the queer community like he was accused of being. It was a massive success and briefly reassured the public that he was harmless to the youth of society, although that changed with his next album.
This was the biggest album of the decade to not conform to the mainstream given how it was a jazz pop number from Norah Jones, the daughter of popular jazz artist Ravi Shanker who is considered to be one of India’s best musicians of all time. She made a massive splash with this debut of hers that led to her next album also being a massive success, however her popularity quickly dwindled after that.
Shakira had been active for a decade in her native Columbia at this point, however it was when she learned English and decided to appeal to an English-speaking market that she finally achieved mainstream success worldwide with this album. It was one of the last Latin albums to make it big as the Latin craze was quickly dying out as the decade went on, however it spawned multiple huge hits to ensure its success.
This had a bit of a slow start to its success here in Australia given how it was lacking that obvious radio hit that “Yellow” proved to be from their previous album, of course that radio hit came when “Clocks” was overplayed to death upon its initial release which helped the album become the band’s second-best seller worldwide. This is the album fans consider to be their best work given how the songs linger to this day.
Although her debut album was a modest success here in Australia at the start of the decade (mainly through how inescapable its singles were) it was her second album where fans really started taking notice of her evolution as a pop diva as she would begin writing her own songs to go with the theme of her being “stripped” of the pop machine that had gone into her previous work with Disney.
This was the debut album from Avril Lavigne, an album that remains her most successful to this day thanks to how inescapable the singles were on the radio worldwide. While it wasn’t the first album from a female musician to become a success due to having more personal lyrics and a rock sound to it this decade, it was the album that shifted the trends away from the likes of teen pop and girl groups worldwide.
There were no signs of RHCP slowing down in the mainstream this decade, not even the fact that they also seemed to be victims of digital piracy during the first half of the decade was able to deter fans away from legally purchasing their albums given how this was a massive success for them upon its initial release. Of course, their next album would see them spawn a massive hit which is how I know fans didn’t buy their singles legally (for the most part.)
This is the best charting album to come from Silverchair, it wasn’t necessarily their biggest album as the album charts were admittedly very shaky during the 00’s, however it did stick around for quite a while to earn its high spot on this list. This was the band’s final album before they went on a hiatus so that lead singer Daniel Johns could pursue his side project as the Dissosiactives with Australian DJ Paul Mac.
It looked like this third album from Matchbox 20 was going to underperform for them worldwide due to the failure of its lead single, fortunately the second single proved to be a massive hit for them which allowed the album to rebound on the charts and become a massive hit for the band. They would go on hiatus once they were finished promoting it in order to allow Rob Thomas to embark on a solo career.
It looked like this would only be a modest success for the Dixie Chicks (nowadays known simply as the Chicks) given how it quickly fell off the charts the previous year upon its initial release here in Australia. It received a massive boost in popularity when word got out that the trio had been cancelled by their fellow Americans for making disparaging comments towards the (then) American president George Bush Jr, likely to give them our support for calling out the corrupt politician.
This was a bit more of a sleeper hit here in Australia which is why it’s slightly lower on here than it should be, however make no mistake, this album from Robbie Williams was inescapable thanks to it rebounding on the charts whenever one of the singles was released even if said singles were more successful on the radio than with sales. It continued his popularity well into the decade for good reason.
This was the first of many albums where Rod Stewart fancied himself a throwback artist to the music of the first half of the twentieth century, it’s kind of like Jimmy Barnes’ Soul deep series except Rod is covering jazz numbers rather than Motown and RNB tracks. This was by far the most successful of the series even though it needed some incentive from us Aussies to make it big initially.
Following his departure from N Sync (as well as their eventual demise) Justin Timberlake decided to embark on a solo career which began with this album that needed a bit of incentive from audiences around the world to become a hit given how it was released the previous year initially to deafening silence. It was once the second single caught on that it began rising up the charts for the former boy band member.
8 mile is a film that was well received by critics and audiences alike as it was an autobiographical account at how Eminem came to be who he was as a person as well as his rise to stardom, basically it was a film that was the Purple rain of the 00’s which led to many copycats throughout the decade (most notably from his protegee 50 cent.) The soundtrack was released during the album cycle of his earlier entry on this list.
Given that Nelly already saw massive success (if not a bit delayed here in Australia) with his debut album, it only makes sense that his second album would be even more successful especially in his native America where it spawned not one but two Billboard chart toppers for him. It led to many copycats in the hip hop game (most notably Chingy) which led to his eventual backlash.
This seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy as this will be the last time I feature a studio album from John Farnham on this site, in fact aside from a concert with Tom Jones and a greatest hits album, he didn’t have much more success in his career after this which admittedly is impressive given how long he’s been active in the music industry.
One of the biggest albums of the decade to make it big thanks to heavy endorsement on Triple J, this was the debut album from the Australian alternative band George who made a huge splash in our mainstream thanks to the dulcet vocals of lead singer Katie Noonan which have been ranked up with the likes of Kate Ceberano and Wendy Matthews as among the finest voices to come from Australia.
While they were plenty successful throughout the 90’s, the Foo Fighters were inescapable throughout the 00’s starting with this album which was (at the time) their most successful thanks to rock music being at the forefront of the music scene along with RNB and hip hop this decade. They would have more success as the decade went on and even survive well into the 2010’s when the genre became out of vogue.
This is another album that was released the previous year to deafening silence for the artist in question only to then gain a bunch of steam this year due to a popular single making it big, in this case we have the second album from Good Charlotte who scored a massive breakthrough here in Australia with the album’s second single which allowed it to become a massive hit throughout the year for the punk band.
Given the sudden rise in popularity that Elvis Presley was having between his songs being played in Ocean’s eleven and Disney’s Lilo and Stich, it only seems fitting that we have this greatest hits package which collects thirty of his biggest hits throughout his entire career and ends off with the remix that put his name back on the map.
This was the second solo album to come from Ronan Keating, it was a massive success like his first album, although not nearly as much due to it not having a deluxe edition spawning a surprise hit for him. It would be his final successful album as a pop star as he would reinvent himself as a crooner later in the decade which vastly limited his fanbase without necessarily earning a new fanbase from the likes of Michael Bublé.
The panel was a talk show that was quite popular during the late 90’s and early 00’s, mainly for its musical segment where a popular artist of the moment (usually a guest) would perform on the show (basically it was like the Ellen DeGeneres show only with multiple guests and less behind the scenes drama.) This third instalment from the soundtrack series proved to be quite a success back in the day.
This is the final successful album that Celine Dion had in her career, mainly because it came out right before her infamous performance in Vegas with Anastacia where the two women butchered “You shook me all night long” by AC/DC which earned them both the rath of their rapid fanbase. That would explain why despite the album being a success, it failed to spawn her a hit single.
This took quite a while to take off here in Australia, likely because John Mayer never had that huge crossover with any of his singles despite how much airplay they received back in the day. In fact, I’m willing to bet it was because of the radio’s refusal to stop playing these songs back in the day that audiences finally checked out what all the fuss was about and grew to love his music.
While this wasn’t as inescapable as his big comeback album from the start of the decade, Santana was nonetheless able to retain their popularity this far into the new millennium thanks to repeating the formula that worked for them with their previous album. I guess the line-up of guest vocalists weren’t as impressive this time around as before which would explain why this album didn’t do as well.
This took its sweet time in finding success here in Australia, in fact it only became a hit for Jack Johnson due to it spawning a massive hit over in NZ with “Flake” that I’m sure encouraged us Aussies to check out the album to see what all the fuss was about over there. This naturally led to the success of his next album which would lead him to becoming one of the biggest names in music worldwide.
This was the second edition of U2’s greatest hits anthology which they delayed by five years in order for it to collect their work from the start of the decade in addition to their outlook from the 90’s. It was a massive hit for the band as was their previous output, although not to the same level suggesting fans prefer their 80’s output.
It looked like these guys would be a one album wonder with their debut from 1997 given how their second album was a massive disappointment for them as the 90’s came to an end, however they managed to bounce back with their third album largely thanks to its lead single receiving heavy airplay back in the day, although it wasn’t a huge hit here likely due to it being the victim of digital piracy.
One of the most critically acclaimed bands of the decade was Queen’s of the stone age, a band that’s best described as stoner rock as much like Bob Marley, their music is best appreciated by those who like to chill out with the same type of substance as the reggae legend liked to enjoy during his lifetime. The band received a boost in popularity with this album due to the presence of Dave Grohl during its production.
This was the final album that Shania Twain released for fifteen years, I’m guessing because though this was a hit for her, it failed to reach the dizzying heights of Come on over likely due to country pop not doing as well throughout the new millennium as it did in the twentieth century. Still, it was a massive success as anything that follows up one of the most successful albums of all time would be.
This is the second album to come from Taxiride, it’s also their final album to find any success in their career as their third album was such a failure later in the decade that they would eventually call it quits. This is a shame because this gained some minor traction over in NZ, particularly with the lead single which became their one and only hit over there years after the boy band wars came to an end.
One of the more popular TV soaps of the decade from Australia was the Secret life of us, granted it never reached the dizzying heights of success that Neighbours of Home and away did, however it had quite a lengthy run on TV partially due to the success of its soundtracks which the first soundtrack of course being the most successful of the lot.
This is the only other album from Moby that found success here in Australia, I’m guessing because he felt the need to allow all of the songs on here to be placed in every ad imaginable much like his previous album from the start of the decade. This led to him receiving backlash in the music community for essentially buying his way to success which is perhaps why his subsequent follow ups have failed since.
Even though this wasn’t a huge success for Darren Hayes anywhere in the world, the fact that this was following up one of the biggest albums of the turn of the century meant that it was guaranteed some success this year even if fans felt that this was a disappointment compared to his work as Savage Garden. At least it kept his head above water long enough for his fans to accept his sexual identity which he revealed at the time.
This is the final album that Alanis Morissette had any success with throughout her career, this is mainly due to Avril Lavigne’s earlier entry on this list stealing the thunder that the older Canadian singer/songwriter had coming from the 90’s which sadly left her in the dust after this year.
This is the debut album from Sophie Ellis Bextor, an album that was a flop upon its initial release due to the lead single failing to connect with audiences here in Australia. It was given a second chance when the deluxe edition was released following the success of her second single which spawned a second hit for her worldwide as a result, although all of this led to her being a one album wonder.
This was released on the fortieth anniversary of the band first getting together, this explains A: the title of the album given how random it would otherwise be and B: why it was released to begin with given how the band hadn’t released anything worthwhile in over a decade by this point. These two selling points explain why it was a success worldwide, that and the decade quickly becoming known for its nostalgia bug.
It appears that Lee Kernaghan was one of those artists who saw more success with each album he released similar to that of the Foo fighters and Keith Urban here in Australia, indeed his popularity would increase when Keith finally saw his mainstream breakthrough later in the decade.
Machine gun fellatio (MGF for short) must have been one of the more provocative bands to make it big in Australia this decade, this was their second album which saw a massive push from Triple J thanks to their campy stage antics as well as their overall imagery (just look at this album cover and that should give you an idea of where I’m getting at.) Unfortunately, this only worked for this one album for them.
This will be the only album from Ashanti that appears on this site of mine, it was her debut album which means that the lead single going to number one in her native America meant that it was her debut single (at least as a lead artist) to achieve this feat. I guess her consistently working with Ja Rule put off her fans from her future endeavours who felt she was little more than a chorus lady on his albums.
The film I am Sam was panned by critics upon its initial release, mainly for simplifying issues involving mental health which ironically is what better movies that handle this topic such as Rain man and Forest Gump get criticised for nowadays (perhaps those critics are thinking of this film when criticising those films.) Also, for some reason, the soundtrack is built around covers of the Beatles catalogue, which I suppose explains why it was a commercial success.
This was a bit more successful than their previous album, I guess because this was their attempt at becoming the likes of Rage against the machine or other heavier rock bands with a political edge to their lyricism. Indeed, this saw the band take a stance against politics which was a common troupe that the decade would become known for, although they weren’t the biggest success stories in this regard.
This was a surprise hit for Livie given how she hadn’t found any success since the Main event concert from 1998, here she cashes in on the duets trend that had taken off at the start of the new millennium which allowed her to have a hit album for the first time since her 1981 magnum opus Physical.
Following the demise of both Rage against the machine and Soundgarden, members of both bands decided to combine forces and form a new band called Audioslave who found instant success with their first album due to their respective fanbases following them towards their new venture. It would be their biggest success together even though they released several other albums throughout the decade.
This will be the final album I feature from J-Lo on this site, mainly because none of her other albums managed to become a success for her over the years in Australia. Heck this album was only a success due to it having a lead single that rubbed people the wrong way upon its initial release which resulted in them checking it out to see if it would be as pretentious throughout its runtime which it turns out it wasn’t.
Here’s the other artist to benefit from Sony’s Essential series this year, it turns out to be someone that Neil Diamond collaborated with as Barbra Streisand had a massive hit with the pop crooner with “You don’t bring me flowers” from 1978 (which came from her own greatest hits package funnily enough.)
We have another Australia band to gain exposure thanks to heavy promotion on Triple J this year, this time it’s the garage band the Vines who released their debut album to critical and commercial success making this an excellent time for alternative music, that is if all of it wasn’t getting pirated from its “fans” which explains why A: these albums don’t appear higher on these lists and B: why they often failed to produce hit singles.
