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The arena-rock anthem that felt both deeply sincere and faintly ridiculous, and proved Creed were simultaneously the most mocked and most inescapable band in America. Scott Stapp's arms-wide-open delivery of lyrics about lucid dreaming somehow dominated rock radio for over a year.
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The opening growl — 'Never made it as a wise man' — that became the sound of 2001, and the song that proved Nickelback were simultaneously the internet's favorite punching bag and the actual soundtrack to the decade. Mathematically the most-played song of the 2000s on US radio, and everyone hated it, and everyone still knows every word.
At fifteen, Brad Arnold of 3 Doors Down wrote "Kryptonite" during math class — and ended up with one of the inescapable rock songs of the decade. From a Mississippi radio station's runaway request line to an eight-times-platinum single, this was the sound of the year 2000 on every rock station in America. You probably knew every word before you fully understood them.
The Los Angeles radio-rock band behind "Hanging by a Moment" — a famous Billboard chart anomaly. Frontman Jason Wade's five-minute songwriting session produced a single that never hit weekly No. 1 yet finished as Billboard's No. 1 song of 2001. Earnest, huge-chorused, everywhere.
Stillwater, Oklahoma's hook machine. Tyson Ritter and Nick Wheeler wrote the songs wedged in every 2000s head — 'Swing, Swing,' 'Dirty Little Secret,' 'Move Along,' 'It Ends Tonight' — and then closed the decade with the most cheerful-sounding kiss-off ever recorded, 'Gives You Hell.'