Billboard's Top Artists, Songs, Albums, and Touring Artists of the Decade

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Top 10 Artists of the Decade:

1. Eminem

Don't call it a comeback. Marshal Mathers has been here for 10 solid years. "Relapse," Eminem's 2009's effort, marked his fifth consecutive No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 -- in other words, every album he released this decade went straight to the top of the charts. "Me and Dre are back in the lab like the old days," Eminem said of the set in 2008. "I don't have chemistry like that with any (other) producer, not even close. We are up to our old mischievous ways." Though many of his early-decade contemporaries have been all but forgotten by the masses, everything Eminem touches still turns to platinum.

2. Usher

For much of the 2000s, Usher Raymond IV was the unstoppable force in popular music. He scored a whopping eight No. 1s on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart (more than any other artist this decade), plus his 2004 album "Confessions" sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. And the man with the golden pipes and fancy footwork shows no signs of slowing down. "There are tons of artists I want to work with," Usher told Billboard last year. "I'm interested in working with artists who are out of the range I'm accustomed to. I want to try new things."

3. Nelly

No sophomore jinx befell Nelly. His 2002 album "Nellyville" became his second consecutive Billboard 200 topper, and scored two monster hits, "Hot in Herre" and "Dilemma." "I can't do (debut release) 'Country Grammar' again," the rapper said at the 2001 Billboard Music Awards. "You have a lifetime to do your first album, and 18 months for your second. It's just a matter of drawing on the talent I have inside." His talents proved to be extensive, as he placed three more albums into the Billboard top five before the end of the decade.

4. Beyonce

Billboard's Top Female Artist of the 2000s has cultivated a catalog of hits that transcend chart achievements. "Crazy in Love," "Irreplaceable," and "Single Ladies" all topped the Hot 100, but they also helped Beyonce become the queen of this decade's pop-culture pantheon. "I've always tried to pick songs and singles that were … a part of things that people are passionate about and want to talk about and debate," Beyonce said in October. "'Single Ladies' is an uptempo song that's fun. But it's also something women go through every day."

5. Alicia Keys

"I really know that I'm going to be here for a long time," Alicia Keys told us in 2003, "so I thought I owed it to myself to live my life and take the time I needed to develop my songs, my music and whatever vision I had to do it right." The thought process has worked well for Ms. Keys. Not only did she score one of the biggest songs of the 2000s ("No One" ranks No. 6 on our Hot 100 songs of the decade chart), her "Empire State of Mind" collaboration with Jay-Z has spent an entire month atop the charts this year.

6. 50 Cent

50 Cent spent a staggering 45 weeks on top of the Rap Songs chart this decade, more than any other rapper can boast. Not only did the hits make the Queens , NY native a nationwide phenomenon, it took his rhymes across the globe. "At first, my love was just to be in the studio and make the music," he said in 2003, "but now the biggest thing is the response of the people. I've been in Tokyo where people sang word for word and when the music stopped, they couldn't speak to me. I've seen the music break the language barrier."

7. Nickleback

Nickelback's "How You Remind Me" is the top song on Billboard's decade-end Rock Songs chart. The achievement may not win the Canadian band any favor with the rock press, but they're not sweating it. "We've just accepted that we're never going to be the critics' darlings, lead singer Chad Kroeger told Billboard in 2007, "and we're OK with that."

8. Britney Spears

When Britney Spears wasn't shaving her head or dropping babies this decade, she was churning out a succession of hit singles that continue to resonate with fans the world over. She scored four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 and two Hot 100 chart-toppers, including "3," which debuted atop the chart in October 2009. "I want to do things that people have never seen before," she said in 2001. "I don't want to be considered a role model."

9. Destiny's Child

"The best thing (about being in Destiny's Child) is that I've gained two sisters who have my back," Michelle Williams told us in 2006. "I learned about love and loyalty through good and bad, thick and thin." We're sure the string of multi-platinum albums and five No.1 singles this decade didn't hurt either.

10. Jay-Z

Even though Jay-Z has appeared on 14 top 10s singles this decade, it took him until 2009 to take a song from one of his own albums to No. 1 on the Hot 100. But the artist with the empire state of mind has more things on his plate than crafting hit singles. "I'm an entrepreneur, that's what I've been all my life," he told us in July. "I can't just sit here and make records and not do anything else."

For complete lists of 100 artists, go here: http://www.billboard.com/#/features/artist-of-the-decade-1004053060.story

Top 10 Songs of the Decade:

1. We Belong Together by Mariah Carey

2. Yeah by Usher

3. Low by flo rida featuring T-Pain

4. How You Remind Me by Nickleback

5. I Gotta Feeling by The Black Eyed Peas

6. No One by Alicia Keys

7. Boom Boom Boom by The Black Eyes Peas

8. Let Me Love You by Mario

9. Gold Digger by Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx

10. Apologize by Timbaland featuring OneRepublic

Top 10 Albums of the Decade:

1. No Strings Attached by 'N Sync

2. Confessions by Usher

3. The Eminem Show by Eminem

4. Come Away With Me by Norah Jones

5. Human Clay by Creed

6. Oops...I did It Again by Britney Spears

7. The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem

8. 1 by The Beatles

9. Supernatural by Santana

10. Country Grammar by Nelly

Top 10 Touring Acts of the Decade:

1. The Rolling Stones

2. U2

3.Madonna

4. Bruce Springsteen

5. Elton John

6. Celine Dion

7. Dave Matthews Band

8. Kenny Chesney

9. Bon Jovi

10. Billy Joel

For more lists broken down by genre go here: http://www.billboard.com/charts#/features/best-of-the-2000s-1004051233.story

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I think this is the first time in a couple of decades that an artist from the previous decade didn't make it to the top 10 artists in the present decade. Madonna (#2 artist of the 80's and #6 artist of the 90's) and Whitney Houston both made the top 10 of Artists lists from Billboard in both the 80's and 90's. 90's top artist, Maria Carey, managed to peak out at #11 on the artists of this decade list though.

[Actor87]

I'm surprised Britney's so low on the list...

[Y&RWorldTurner]

They took into account both how well singles and albums did. Britney doesn't have a very successful run as a singles artist, though her recent singles have done better than singles from her earlier in the decade. Also, there was a huge drop off in album sales and album longevity (in terms of how long they spent on the album chart) for Britney from the beginning of the decade to the end of the decade. Whereas, Eminem, for example, tended to have more consistent sales album to album and his albums have had more longevity on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Their formula was a point system that combined chart performance data from the Billboard 200 albums chart and the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. This system awarded points, based on a complex, inverse relation to chart position, for each week a title appeared on the pertinent charts. The decade recap reflected chart performance from the start of 2000 through the end of the 2009 chart year.

[alphanguy74]

Looking at that list, the world has officially come to an end.

[bellcurve]

Now, now.

McFadden and Whitehead might make a comeback in the 2010's.