Editors' Roundtable: RS Staffers Debate the Decade's Best Music

Determining the best albums, songs and artists of the decade was no easy task, and as our roundtable discussion about the 2000s' best music demonstrates, there's quite a diversity of opinions in the Rolling Stone reviews department. Watch as managing editor Will Dana talks with critics David Fricke, Rob Sheffield and Jody Rosen about how music changed over the past 10 years and their personal picks for the greatest music of the decade.

"Pop divas are the rock stars of the 'naughts," says Rosen, arguing that "in terms of radical sounds, the Top 40 has been dominated by hip-hop production." "I think the first important rock record that had an important pop influence was Kid A by Radiohead," Fricke says, adding he was surprised it was voted Number One on our albums list.

Sheffield's favorite album belonged to the Hold Steady, and he recalls seeing the band (accidentally) in Brooklyn several years ago. Fricke explains why Green Day's American Idiot topped both his albums and songs lists, and Rosen chats about his two Number Ones: Brad Paisley and Missy Elliott. Plus, don't miss Sheffield making his case for Britney Spears' "Toxic" as the era's definitive track.

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  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
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  MOVIES 'Great Gatsby' Is a Crushing Disappointment
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  TV Why You Should Watch 'Happy Endings'
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  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

More Song Stories entries »

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