2000s Music
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
This 2000s music trivia quiz has 164 free questions with answers and covers the decade from NSYNC's record-breaking No Strings Attached to the Black Eyed Peas' 26 straight weeks at number one. Expect the pop giants (Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Kelly Clarkson, Lady Gaga), the hip-hop and R&B era (Eminem, OutKast, Usher, Kanye West, Beyoncé, Rihanna), the rock and emo revival (The White Stripes, The Killers, Green Day, My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy), the British wave (Coldplay, Amy Winehouse) and the technology that changed how everyone listened: Napster, the iPod and the iTunes Store. About a third of the questions are easy for anyone who owned a burned CD, a third are medium, and the rest dig into samples, Grammy wins, chart records and the stories behind the songs. Every answer has been checked against a primary or encyclopaedic source, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
30 of 164 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which rapper was the top-selling artist of the 2000s across all genres?
Eminem
Eminem was Nielsen SoundScan's best-selling artist of the 2000s in the US, moving about 32 million albums over the decade, ahead of The Beatles.
Q 02Which album finally broke NSYNC's first-week US sales record set by No Strings Attached?
Adele's 25
Adele's 25 sold 3.38 million in its opening week in 2015.
Q 03In the 'Bye Bye Bye' video, NSYNC are portrayed as what, a nod to their legal fight with manager Lou Pearlman?
Puppets
The 'Bye Bye Bye' video shows NSYNC as marionette puppets dangling on strings, echoing the album title No Strings Attached after their split from Lou Pearlman.
Q 04Eminem's 2000 single 'Stan' samples 'Thank You' by which British singer?
Dido
Dido's opening lines of 'Thank You' run under 'Stan'; the title character's name became slang for an obsessive fan and entered the Oxford English Dictionary.
Q 05Who accepted the 2003 Best Original Song Oscar for 'Lose Yourself' while Eminem stayed home?
Luis Resto
Co-writer Luis Resto accepted the Oscar; Eminem, not expecting to win, was asleep at home in Detroit and skipped the ceremony.
Q 06Under what name did Linkin Park originally form in 1996?
Xero
Linkin Park formed as Xero in 1996, became Hybrid Theory after Chester Bennington joined in 1999, then took the Linkin Park name before their 2000 debut.
Q 07Which Linkin Park song won the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2002?
Crawling
'Crawling' won Best Hard Rock Performance at the 2002 Grammys, Linkin Park's first Grammy, while 'In the End' was the album's highest-charting single.
Q 08Which band sued Napster in April 2000 after an unreleased demo leaked onto it?
Metallica
Napster shut its network down in July 2001 to comply with a court injunction.
Q 09When Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPod in 2001, its 5 GB hard drive was pitched with what slogan?
'1,000 songs in your pocket'
'1,000 songs in your pocket' was how Jobs sold a Mac-compatible player with a 5 GB hard drive; Apple sold about 450 million iPods before discontinuing the line in May 2022.
Q 10In what year did Apple open the iTunes Store, selling songs for download?
2003
It opened on 28 April 2003, two years after the first iPod.
Q 11Which Missy Elliott single, built on a Punjabi tumbi melody, won the 2002 Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance?
Get Ur Freak On
'Get Ur Freak On' won Best Rap Solo Performance at the 2002 Grammys; Timbaland built its beat around a bhangra-style Punjabi tumbi riff.
Q 12Nelly's 'Hot in Herre' (2002) was the first Billboard number one for which production duo?
The Neptunes
The Neptunes, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, produced 'Hot in Herre', which spent seven weeks atop the Hot 100 in 2002, their first Billboard number one as producers.
Q 13Kelly Clarkson won the first American Idol in 2002 with 58% of the vote against which runner-up?
Justin Guarini
Q 21Which Green Day single won the top Grammy single prize in 2006?
Boulevard of Broken Dreams
'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' won Record of the Year at the 2006 Grammys, a year after American Idiot had taken Best Rock Album.
Q 22Gwen Stefani's 'Hollaback Girl' (2005) was the first single to pass what US download milestone?
A million downloads
'Hollaback Girl' became the first song to pass a million downloads in the US, in 2005; in the video the Harajuku Girls spell out B-A-N-A-N-A-S with cue cards.
Q 23Kanye West's 2005 hit 'Gold Digger' samples 'I Got a Woman' by which artist?
Ray Charles
Justin Guarini was the season-one runner-up to Kelly Clarkson; the pair then co-starred in the 2003 box-office flop From Justin to Kelly.
Q 14The bass-like riff of 'Seven Nation Army' (2003) was played on a guitar through what?
A Whammy pedal
Jack White played the riff on a semi-acoustic guitar through a Whammy pedal by DigiTech pitched an octave down, since the White Stripes had no bassist.
Q 15'Crazy in Love' built its horn hook on a sample of 'Are You My Woman' by which 1970s soul group?
The Chi-Lites
The horns come from The Chi-Lites' 1970 track 'Are You My Woman (Tell Me So)', written by Eugene Record; 'Crazy in Love' won two Grammys in 2004.
Q 16How many members of a fictional band does André 3000 play in the 'Hey Ya!' video?
Eight
André 3000 plays all eight members of the fictional band in the 'Hey Ya!' video, a pastiche of the Beatles' Ed Sullivan Show debut; the song topped the Hot 100 for nine weeks.
Q 17Which Coldplay song, from A Rush of Blood to the Head, won the Grammy for Record of the Year in 2004?
Clocks
'Clocks' won Record of the Year at the 2004 Grammys; Chris Martin came up with its piano riff late one night at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool.
Q 18Brandon Flowers wrote 'Mr. Brightside' after seeing his girlfriend with another man where?
Las Vegas
Flowers walked in on his girlfriend with another man at the Crown & Anchor pub in Las Vegas, the city where the Killers formed in 2001.
Q 19Usher's 2004 hit 'Yeah!' featured Ludacris and which other guest artist?
Lil Jon
Lil Jon dubbed the style 'crunk&B'; the single was knocked off number one by Usher's own 'Burn'.
Q 20Green Day's 2004 concept album American Idiot follows an anti-hero with what name?
Jesus of Suburbia
The album follows Jesus of Suburbia, a disaffected suburban youth who leaves for the city and meets St. Jimmy and Whatsername; it became a Broadway musical in 2010.
Ray Charles's 1954 song 'I Got a Woman' supplied the line 'she give me money when I'm in need', sung on the track by Jamie Foxx; 'Gold Digger' spent 10 weeks at number one.
Q 24Fall Out Boy formed in 2001 in Wilmette, a suburb of which city?
Chicago
Wilmette sits on Chicago's North Shore; Fall Out Boy's 2005 breakthrough 'Sugar, We're Goin Down' reached number eight on the Hot 100.
Q 25The Crazy Frog's 2005 hit was a cover of 'Axel F', the theme from which film series?
Beverly Hills Cop
Harold Faltermeyer's 'Axel F' was the theme to 1984's Beverly Hills Cop; the Crazy Frog began as The Annoying Thing, built on Daniel Malmedahl's two-stroke engine impression.
Q 26Shakira's 'Hips Don't Lie' (2006), her first US number one, featured which former Fugee?
Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jean co-wrote and rapped on 'Hips Don't Lie', and the pair performed it at the 2006 World Cup closing ceremony in Berlin before the final.
Q 27Which Nelly Furtado single, produced by Timbaland, became her first US number one in 2006?
Promiscuous
"Promiscuous", featuring Timbaland, topped the Hot 100 for six weeks from July 2006, Nelly Furtado's first US number one; "Say It Right" followed in 2007.
Q 28Which single piano note famously opens 'Welcome to the Black Parade'?
G
'Welcome to the Black Parade' opens on a lone G struck on the piano, a note so recognizable that My Chemical Romance fans call it simply 'the G note'.
Q 29Amy Winehouse's Back to Black (2006) was produced entirely by Salaam Remi and which British DJ-producer?
Mark Ronson
Mark Ronson produced Back to Black's Motown-flavoured half, including 'Rehab', with Salaam Remi handling the rest; Ronson won Producer of the Year at the 2008 Grammys.
Q 30Which Amy Winehouse song swept the two biggest single categories at the 2008 Grammys?
Rehab
'Rehab' won both Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the 2008 Grammys, the night Back to Black also took Best Pop Vocal Album.