Copyright Yardbarker
Mariah Carey was the only artist in the ‘90s to have a No. 1 single every year of the decade. Not an easy feat back in the day, before streaming, and artists were able to release more than a dozen variants of their albums. So with that, Mariah dropped a compilation of her hits up until the fall of 1998. That’s because the following year she’d add a few more #1 songs to her resume, and even more after that. Snoop Dogg’s Dogġystyle was definitely one of the first “parental advisory” records that millennials got their hands on, whether it was from an older sibling or borrowed from a friend at work. It was some of the best West Coast hip hop music had to offer, it was naughty, and the album art itself was insane. All that said, millennials will forever know that it ain’t fun if the homies can’t have none. Limp Bizkit is fully aware that they belonged to a certain time in history. At their shows, they remark about 1999, the year Significant Other was blasting in the bedrooms of almost every kid in America. Was it the best music? No. Was it probably the most fun? Many would say yes. Backstreet Boys’ Millennium was the first album to sell over a million copies in a week. The record would be broken a handful of times, but those artists can never claim to be the first. Anyways, Millennium is such a millennial staple, when Backstreet Boys announced they’d be playing it in full at the Sphere in Las Vegas, making them the first pop act to headline the innovative venue, dates sold out left and right, leaving a whole generation of fans to flock to Sin City. Usher solidified himself with millennials back in 1997 with My Way, and, over time, became increasingly synonymous with the musical makeup of that generation with each release, including 2004’s Confessions. Packed with R&B goodness and songs that highlight just why millennials are the last “in the club” generation, like “Yeah!” and “Caught Up,” Confessions is forever a standard. While his debut was definitely a hit among millennial middle schoolers in 1999, it was Eminem’s sophomore release a year later that really made the Walkman rounds with songs like "The Real Slim Shady" and “Stan” being ingrained into pop culture forever, especially the latter, which went on to become a widely used term to describe obsessed fans. One of the finest moments in hip hop was, well, whenever Outkast decided to grace the world with new music, but it is 2000’s Stankonia that means a little more to millennials because most of their school days started with the video for "Ms. Jackson" playing in the background on either MTV, VH1, or BET; it was inescapable. There was a point in time where every other song on the radio felt like it was by the Black Eyed Peas. At the time, it seemed grand, as it got “it” started, whatever it was, no one was sure, but they were the music the world apparently needed at the time, and they served their purpose. With four amazing singles, The Writing's on the Wall from Destiny’s Child wasn’t an album anyone was worried about spending a chunk of change on because they knew it was going to be worth it, and it was. The ‘90s had grunge and the ‘00s had emo, but nestled between those two, for a few years, was a genre called Nu Metal. It was basically what Affliction t-shirts would sound like if put to music. At the forefront of that, really, was a band who helped bring the genre to the masses thanks to their appeal to the MTV generation who spent their afternoons glued to Total Request Live. While many of their records from the late ‘90s and early ‘00s fared well, it was Follow the Leader that left the biggest mark on millennials. In 2005, a huge chunk of millennials were getting ready for school one morning, saw the video for Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar, We're Goin Down,” and immediately made it their entire personality. That would then lead them to listen to the Chicago band’s sophomore studio LP, From Under the Cork Tree, repeatedly for the next two decades and counting. Christina Aguilera came about in 1999 when there was a blonde pop star everywhere one turned. However, unlike the countless singers in the pages of Tiger Beat, Christina had the vocal chops to stick around and maintain. After her ‘99 debut, she released a Spanish record and one for the holidays, but it was 2002’s Stripped that reintroduced her to the world in a big way. She was no longer the pint-sized pop star. She was back, “Dirrrty,” and ready to dominate, which she did. Linkin Park’s music was raw, emotional, and really built a bridge between the intensity of Nu Metal and the emotional depths of emo music. It was also a nice blend of rap and rock that felt so genuine that it satisfied listeners of both genres in a major way. The lore around 50 Cent when he hit the scene, his ties to Eminem, and his catchy as heck take on hip hop in songs like "P.I.M.P." and "In da Club" are why his debut went platinum nine times over.
