When I hear certain songs from the year 2000, I am right back in my pre-teen bedroom lying on the floor looking up at my sky-blue walls (12-year-old me did not know this, but cerulean blue was the Pantone colour of the year in 2000, so your girl was on trend). I'd roll over only to press skip on my CD player to get to Aaliyah’s “Try Again” on the Romeo Must Die soundtrack.
That was the most 2000 sentence, ever.
As soon as Timbaland’s soothing voice kicks in with, “without a dope beat to step to, step to, step to,” I am 12 again, singing along while flipping through the pages of my soon-to-be favourite book (Zadie Smith’s White Teeth) and wearing my knockoff Juicy Couture velour tracksuit (from Stitches, of course). OK, that was the most 2000 sentence ever.
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The year 2000 wasn’t just instrumental in skyrocketing my boy-band obsession, strengthening my affinity for celebrity gossip through the pages of CosmoGirl (or Seventeen, or Bop, or Teen People, RIP teen mags of my youth), and defining my future music tastes. It was a transformative year in entertainment — we got the first illegal music streaming service in Napster, the origin story of Netflix and Google Images. The year 2000 shifted us into a digital future all those '80s movies predicted — minus the flying cars. The computers around the world didn’t crash as the clock struck midnight on December 31, 1999, but change did come.
The year 2000 also brought us some of the greatest pop culture memories in history — like Jennifer Lopez’s Versace Grammys dress, Brad and Jen's wedding, and the brilliance of Bring It On. Let me transport you back to your childhood bedrooms and take you on a journey through the defining moments and people of 2000 that would go on to shape the industry as we know it today.
Here are the cultural touchstones celebrating their 20th anniversary in 2020 that solidified the year 2000 as one of the most iconic in TV, movies, music and celebrity gossip.
Jennifer Lopez In That Grammy Dress
Twenty years later, this dress is still the dress. The plunging green Versace gown Lopez wore to the 42nd Grammy Awards in February 2000 has its own Wikipedia page, a spot in the Grammy Museum and a special place in pop-culture history for creating so much of a stir online, Google execs have admitted that it inspired the creation of Google Images.
This fact makes it even more prophetic when JLo’s Grammy co-presenter David Duchovny said, as he walked out on the stage beside JLo, “this is the first time in five or six years that I'm sure that nobody is looking at me.” Correct, David.
Cut to 2019: JLo has appeared in this dress twice this year. Once in September for the Versace spring 2020 show at Milan Fashion Week and again during her opening monologue at SNL. Lopez is no longer walking red carpets with Diddy, but she is still one of the most famous celebrities in the world (and potential 2020 Oscar nominee) and she’s still leaving bodies in her wake at red carpets. Long may JLo slay.
Brad & Jen Get Married — So Did Angelina & Billy Bob
Whew. This is a gossip tidbit that seems too good to be true, but totally isn't. In the year 2000, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got married — to other people. Pitt and Friends superstar Jennifer Aniston wed in an uber-fancy, super private (except for the helicopters hovering above) ceremony in Malibu. It was the first marriage for both.
On the other side of the Pinterest wedding inspo spectrum, Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton got married in Vegas at the Little Church of the West, the oldest building on the Vegas strip and well-known celeb-friendly wedding spot. It was the fifth marriage for Thornton and second for Jolie. They would make it three (public, messy, sex-in-limos, viles-of-blood, rumour-heavy, JUICY) years before their divorce.
Pitt and Aniston lasted five years before his alleged affair with Jolie ended their picture-perfect union and soccer moms around America turned Jolie into a forever villain. This story singlehandedly kept the U.S. tabloid industry afloat throughout the 2000s. Twenty years later, the tabloids are still obsessed with Brad and Jen (who are both potentially single) and whether they will “reunite” for Christmas. It’s the gossip gift that keeps on giving!
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Napster Revolutionizes The Music Industry
Just say the word Napster and I am transported back to the unique impatience of waiting for Outkast’s “Ms. Jackson” to download so that my other download — Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me” — could start. As you can tell, I was heavy into hip-hop and R&B in the year 2000. But the one rock album I remember that was really on my radar was Radiohead’s Kid A. While other artists were pissed at Napster, the OG illegal music downloading site, for leaking their songs early (Metallica and Dr. Dre both sued in 2000, and Madonna was not happy her song “Music” got an illegal early release), Radiohead got a serious promotional boost after Kid A was shared a month before its release.
It was estimated to have been downloaded by millions by the time it did drop, and Napster is now credited for helping the album score a slot at Billboard #1. Napster was forced to shut down after losing its biggest lawsuit to Metallica and ended up filing for bankruptcy — but it did create a blueprint for the streaming services we know and love today. Plus, Radiohead’s success on the charts made a case that streaming services might not kill the music industry, but actually save it by giving artists that are less radio-friendly the promotion they deserve.
Destiny's Child Releases "Say My Name" With New Members
Ah, the Destiny’s Child “Say My Name” era. What a time to be alive. In January 2000, LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson were let go from Destiny’s Child in a way straight out of a Lifetime movie about a group on the 20th anniversary of their breakup. (I’m just saying I’m available to write this, Lifetime.)
Rumour has it that Luckett and Roberson claimed Matthew Knowles (manager, father of Beyoncé, grandfather of Blue Ivy and the twins) was favouring Kelly Rowland and Beyoncé (as he should). The pair were allegedly dismissed because of their complaints. The next month, the music video for “Say My Name” premiered featuring two whole ass new humans whose names were not LeToya or LaTavia. Diehard Destiny’s Child fans like myself were SHOOKETH.
The “Say My Name” video was our first introduction to Michelle Williams (aka Poor Michelle) and Farrah Franklin (I don’t know her). They hadn’t even taken LeToya and LaTavia’s vocals off the track! Drama! Aside from the Lifetime movie theatrics, this song is still an absolute banger, and our introduction to Beyoncé’s brilliance. Also, you could argue that replacing members without telling anyone was Beyoncé’s first surprise drop many many years before she would revolutionize the way artists released albums with another surprise drop. We stan a strategic queen.
Christina Aguilera Wins Best New Artist
The fact that Christina Aguilera won a Grammy over Britney Spears makes complete sense in the year 2019 but in 2000, Britney was the bigger star. Aguilera noted in her acceptance speech for her Best New Artist win that she didn’t prepare anything to say because she barely made the Grammy cut-off. “Genie In A Bottle” and “What A Girl Wants” were her only singles (two eternal bops, might I add).
She was up against Spears, Kid Rock and Macy Gray, but after the success of Baby One More Time, the Grammy felt like Spears’ award to lose. Vocally, there is no question that Aguilera pulled ahead in this showdown and the Recording Academy seemed to agree. Aguilera would go on to win five Grammys out of 20 nominations while Spears has only won one (for Toxic).
I don’t love comparing the two artists because #feminism, but in 2000, the rivalry between the former Mouseketeers was at an all-time high. In the years that would follow, Xtina would become one of the greatest voices of her generation and her talent would outshine any rumours of a feud with Spears.
Britney Spears Shuts Down The MTV VMAs
The MTV Video Music Awards could act as a pop culture time capsule for any given year of the 2000s. In the year 2000, the VMA’s most memorable performance featured a 19-year-old Britney Spears, who started out in a black-and-white suit singing “Satisfaction,” before stripping down into a nude sheer number with strategically-placed sequins for the hit, “Oops I Did It Again.”
Today, the performance feels tame in comparison to the award-show routines we’ve seen since (Miley twerking, anyone?). But back then, it was scandalous for a publicly chaste Britney to do a pseudo striptease on cable television.
She was the biggest pop star in the world (dating Justin Timberlake, so her personal life was also on full display) and the backlash was swift. But our girl Britney persevered. A year later, she’d return to the same stage (still lip-syncing, #consistency) and deliver another iconic performance — this time with a snake — that made everyone forget about the barely-there sequins. Even though Janet Jackson and Madonna did the sexy pop-dance-number-thing first, this performance in 2000 made Britney an artist-to-watch at awards shows and redefined how a new generation of female artists could express their sexuality on stages like the VMAs.
*NSYNC Sells A Shit Ton Of No Strings Attached Albums
In 2000, *NSYNC had something to prove. They were the second all-white boyband coming to the pop landscape on the heels of the Backstreet Boys. And, after their first two albums, they were still seen as the guys who ripped off Backstreet (who ripped off NKOTB who ripped off New Edition).
Then came No Strings Attached, their first album free from Lou Pearlman, the evil exec and boyband puppeteer who conned boy bands out of millions. (The name was inspired by their newfound freedom.) The album would produce the group’s biggest hits like “Bye Bye Bye,” “It’s Gonna Be Me,” and my personal fave, “This I Promise You.” No Strings Attached sold over 2.4 million copies in its first week and became the first album in history to sell more than copies 2 million in a week. That record wouldn’t be broken until Adele, 15 years later.
No Strings Attached went on to become the number-one album of 2000 and turned JC, Justin, Joey, Lance and Chris into household names. It also changed what the record industry thought was possible when it came to music sales — and proved the buying power of teen girls. The success of No Strings also signifies the glory days of album sales and stands as the now-defunct group’s seminal release.
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Blockbuster Turns Down Netflix
We’ve all made dumb decisions, especially in the early 2000s. I wore lime green head-to-toe — including UGGs — for basically a whole year in high school. But the award for the dumbest decision and the biggest regret of the year 2000 (maybe ever) has to go to Blockbuster for refusing to buy Netflix.
GQ details how co-founders Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings of Netflix met with Blockbuster in 2000 looking to sell their company for US $50 million — that’s a fraction (1/26000th) of what it is worth today. The rest is a cautionary tale for any other business who refuses to get with the times. Netflix went on to give us eight-hour (approx) films from Martin Scorsese alongside rom-coms about time-travelling knights and ultimately change the way we consume TV and movies. Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in 2010.
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Survivor, The TV Show, Thrives
The year 2000 was revolutionary for reality TV. Not only were people getting married on a whim for the cameras, they were voluntarily travelling to remote islands to live without access to food and fresh water.
Survivor premiered on May 31, 2000. The first season was an instant smash — 52 million people watched Richard Hatch win US $1 million during the finale. The highest-rated broadcasts of the year don’t rake in even half those numbers now. In a retrospective about Survivor’s impact on reality television, TIME noted that, while it didn’t invent reality TV, “the show’s appeal lay in the Machiavellian twist of the voting-off structure, and thus in the suffering, the mean-spiritedness, the humiliation.” Survivor is still one of the most successful TV shows on the air and a fascinating case study in human behavior — the good and the bad. It also inspired a scripted show (Lost) and a bunch of competition-based reality shows.
The World Stans Eminem, The Real Slim Shady
2000’s The Marshall Mathers LP is Eminem’s seminal album. It’s the one that made him an artist you couldn’t ignore, even if you wanted to. It’s his third studio album and there are a lot of things on this record that don’t hold up (like blatant homophobia and threats to his ex-wife Kim), but it’s undeniable that Eminem displays insurmountable talent on The Marshall Mathers LP.
Eminem became a cultural phenomenon partly because of said talent but also because of his race (he would outsell all of his Black peers that year), and because of the controversy that surrounded his lyrics. He was almost barred from entering Canada because of his lyrics that glamourize violence against women. You can’t talk about Eminem’s legacy without talking about his offensive lyrics. You also can’t talk about it without mentioning two of the biggest songs of 2000: “The Real Slim Shady” and “Stan.” The latter would inspire a whole new designation for rapid fandom that was added to Miriam-Webster’s dictionary this year. I guess we have no choice but to… stan. I’m sorry, I had to.
Janet Jackson Does Really Matter
Janet Jackson is included in this slideshow mainly because she influenced so many of the other artists on here, and, despite being almost two decades older than all of them, she was still kicking their asses on stage and on the charts in 2000. Her song “Doesn’t Really Matter” (still slaps!) became her ninth number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100.
Janet would also appear in her second film, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps as Professor Denise Gaines this year. The fact that “Doesn’t Really Matter” was originally recorded for the Nutty Professor soundtrack and became such a big hit is a credit to how major soundtracks were back then, and how prolific Jackson was. She is an icon, a legend, and a visionary whose career would be derailed four years later when she performed on The Super Bowl halftime show with an artist who still hasn’t apologized for hanging her out to dry. Our memories are long like Janet’s impact.
The "Doesn't Really Matter" music video’s futuristic aesthetic inspired other videos by Britney Spears, Cassie, Jessica Simpson and Rihanna. It also features a then-unknown Jenna Dewan, who credits Janet for her role in Step Up (which co-starred Dewan’s future ex-husband Channing Tatum in one of his breakout roles) So basically, we have Janet to thank for Channing Tatum. Her impact!
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Bring It On Saves Teen Movies
Bring It On was written by a woman and stars multiple Black women who, even though they are supporting characters, feel like fully-formed human beings with their own feelings and ambitions. If you look at the teen movies of this era, that in and of itself is revolutionary.
Kirsten Dunst and Gabrielle Union give two of the best performances of their early careers as head cheerleaders Torrence and Isis, who lead their respective teams to the national championships and go head-to-head. Both actresses are still killing it today. In an oral history of Bring It On for MTV, Gabrielle said she worked closely with Peyton Reed (the director who would go on to make Ant Man) to make sure her character was authentic because, during the first table read, she was a “combination of Foxy Brown and about eight other Blaxploitation characters.” So, Union saved Bring It On, a cheerleading movie that turned into one of the smartest satires on cultural appropriation, thus making her a hero to the entire genre.
Her tendency to stand up for what’s right on her projects came full circle this year when she was fired from America’s Got Talent for speaking up about injustices on set. Union has always been a champion for equality — also, she can still fit into her Clovers costume. This is what happens when you stay unproblematic and moisturized.
Oprah's O Magazine Debuts
Racked called Oprah “the first influencer” and while that feels like that title diminishes Oprah Winfrey’s worth, I think it’s accurate. She was the first celebrity “with the ability to sway purchasing decisions based on the power and impact they have on an audience.” And she’s a Black woman.
Oprah paved the way for women of colour on daytime TV, but she also revolutionized the wellness industry. With her magazine, which launched in 2000, she reiterated her power in both capacities. She was a trailblazer by declaring every cover of O would feature herself (a MOOD I attempt to emulate in my daily life) and also that its content would feature the kind of wellness tips you now see on Instagram every day now. The magazine’s motto has been “Live Your Best Life” long before hashtag, “#LIVINGMYBESTLIFE” became a hashtag.
Love & Basketball Invents Love
It’s crazy how love didn’t exist before Love & Basketball. OK fine, maybe love was a thing before this movie premiered in 2000, but I can tell you that I had never seen a love story like this play out before Monica and Quincy showed me what Black love onscreen could look like.
The film made Sanaa Lathan a bonafide leading lady and launched the career of writer/director Gina Prince-Bythewood, who would go on to make Girlfriends, Beyond The Lights and Shots Fired. Prince-Bythewood wrote Monica as tough, strong, ambitious independent human who could also be vulnerable and in love. Twelve-year-old me, who was working on her jumpshot when she wasn’t watching Notting Hill or My Best Friend’s Wedding, thought this movie was perfect, and I still do.
Making The Band & O-Town Are Born
The first time I logged on to a chatroom to discuss a TV show online with strangers was for Dawson’s Creek. The second time was for the first season of Making The Band. My childhood friend Natasha and I would race home on Friday nights, record every episode on VHS (so we could turn around and watch it again immediately, of course) and obsess over the boys (men) competing for a spot in our new favourite boy band.
We didn’t choose to love O-Town. We were preconditioned to fall in love with this group based on a well-produced TV show that first made us emotionally invested in these characters before we heard any music. It was genius. I try to forget that this genius idea was the brainchild of Lou Pearlman (see *NSYNC slide for refresher on how evil this man is). After a grueling audition process that was RIVETING to watch, Erik-Michael Estrada, Trevor Penick (my boo), Jacob Underwood, Ashley Parker Angel and Ikaika Kahoano (later replaced by boy band MVP Dan Miller) formed O-Town and became the stars of all of our liquid dreams.
The formation of O-Town was important because it threw another boy band into the already-crowded market, but also because it predated Idol and The Voice, and at its core, it was a music competition reality show. It was so before its time. O-Town still tours.
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