#Rnb

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Celebrities 2004–2009 peak

Ciara

The First Lady of Crunk&B. Ciara arrived in 2004 with "Goodies" and a run of singles that owned school dances for half a decade — icy vocals over crunk beats, and choreography so sharp the music-video channels basically belonged to her.

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Music 2003–2004

"Milkshake" by Kelis

"My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard." The hook that launched a thousand ringtones and playground chants, Kelis's 2003 smash — produced by The Neptunes — became one of the decade's most quoted lines before anyone even agreed on what it meant.

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Celebrities 1997–2005 peak

Missy Elliott

A shape-shifting visionary who moved between producer, rapper, and video icon — the futurist behind "The Rain," "Get Ur Freak On," and "Work It," whose jaw-dropping videos defined how hip-hop looked in the early 2000s. Simultaneously avant-garde and wildly successful.

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Celebrities 2005–2009 peak

The Pussycat Dolls

"Don't Cha" wish your girlfriend was hot like them — the question every radio in 2005 asked roughly once an hour. The Pussycat Dolls arrived fully formed in matching choreography and smoky eyeliner, a burlesque act reverse-engineered into a chart juggernaut, with Nicole Scherzinger doing most of the singing and all six doing the strut.

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Music 1996–1997

Mark Morrison — "Return of the Mack"

The definitive told-you-so strut: a breakup revenge anthem gliding on a Tom Tom Club groove, delivered with total conviction. It topped the UK charts in 1996, hit number two in America a year later — and it has never really left.

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Music 2004–2005

Usher — Confessions

Usher's 2004 album that opened with 1.1 million copies sold its first week and owned every school dance for the next year. "Yeah!" with Lil Jon and Ludacris became the crunk-and-B blueprint, and Confessions proved Usher was untouchable at the peak of 2000s R&B.