Aside from songs that were released in 2001, songs were counted as being from '01 if they debuted on the Billboard charts (or if they hit No.
2001 TAMIL HIT SONGS SERIES
This week, Billboard pays tribute to the music of the alternately smooth and tumultuous 2001, with a series of stories about and interviews with the makers of some of the year's most memorable music - and first, with a list of our staff's 100 favorite songs from the year. But by year's end, the industry had regained its footing, with many of its biggest artists leading the way both in charity efforts to help benefit the victims and first responders (as well as their families and communities), and in the music that helped uplift the nation during one of the worst crises in its then-225-year history. And then of course, a few weeks later, the music world ground to a halt - along with every other part of American life - by the catastrophic terrorist attacks of 9/11, with many left wondering how a return to pop frivolity would ever be possible after such a core-shaking event. One of the leading lights of popular music, 25-year-old R&B star Aaliyah, died in a plane crash in August, just a month after her career-defining self-titled third album was released. Of course, for all the fun there was to be had in 2001 pop music, it was still a year largely defined by tragedy. And a pair of robots made the trip over from France to provide pop fans with a tantalizing glimpse of electronic dance music's future. The underground rock scenes of New York and Detroit produced breakout bands whose back-to-basics approach and casual swagger electrified fans (and over-excited critics). Super-producers Timbaland and The Neptunes continued to expand hip-hop in all directions, with signature sounds that were nonetheless constantly shape-shifting, and increasingly fruitful artistic partnerships with some of the most open-minded and limber-tongued MCs of the new century. And some of the defining rappers and R&B stars of the early decade found common ground in massive pop jams, setting the precedent of crossover-courting collaboration that would last throughout the decade.īut even if the musical year was defined more by its stability, it certainly wasn't without its excitement. Some of the biggest hard rock bands sanded down their edges a little and invaded top 40 in the process. Boy bands and teen pop stars were still enormous, but not necessarily the world-swallowing force that they had been. After a frenetic, bursting-at-the-seams couple of years at the turn of the century, pop music started to settle into a calmer groove in 2001.