Nostalgic Y2K Beats: What Made Them Slap So HARD?

Nostalgic Y2K Beats: Whats the Secret Sauce?

Welcome to MsMojo, and today were breaking down the factors that have made the pop music of the early 2000s so hard to resist. Well be looking at the genre through the output of three super-producers: Max Martin, Timbaland, and the Neptunes.

In order to truly understand the sound of Y2K pop, well have to take it back way back. In 1993, Karl Martin Sandberg was hired by Cheiron Studios, a Swedish recording company based in Stockholm. Sandberg was brought on by revered music producer Denniz Pop, who took Sandberg under his wing as his mentee. Deciding that Sandberg needed a more marketable, generically global name, Pop took the liberty of crediting the production of This Is the Way by E-Type to Max Martin (Sandberg was only informed after the record had already been printed). Over the next few years, the newly minted Max Martin amassed several production credits before making a household name of himself in 1998. Cheiron Studios had been hired to write songs for unknown pop singer Britney Spears then-untitled debut album. Said Spears to Billboard in 1999, I had been in studio for about six months listening and recording material, but I hadn't really heard a hit yet. When I started working with Max Martin in Sweden, he played the demo for Baby One More Time for me, and I knew from the start it [was one] of those songs you want to hear again and again. Spears first-ever single, ...Baby One More Time quickly rose to the top of the charts, hitting #1 in most countries where it charted, including her native United States, where it spent two weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. Since 1999, Spears debut hit has become one of the best-selling singles of all time, with over 10 million copies sold. Martins partnership with Britney Spears went on, producing a number of hits for her until the release of her 2003 album In the Zone.

Of course, Martins hot streak didnt end there. A few years prior to crafting ...Baby One More Time, Martin had produced some songs on the Backstreet Boys debut album. Their profile steadily rising, Martin reteamed with them for their third album Millennium, earning credits on 7 of the albums 12 songs. Most notably, Martin was responsible for a little song called I Want It That Way, which almost instantly became one of pop musics biggest, most enduring hits in years. Millennium became the best-selling album in its debut week ever, arguably due to Martins considerable contributions. While the lyrical content of I Want It That Way has been widely scrutinized and debated over the years, its undeniable that it, and the rest of his late 90s output, set the stage for Martins pop music dominance into the early 2000s. Of course, its worth noting that Britney and the Backstreet Boys werent the only pop prodigies to emerge from Cheiron Studios. For their third studio album, 2000s No Strings Attached, Backstreet Boys rivals NSYNC worked extensively with Kristian Lundin, Andreas Carlsson, and Rami Yacoub, all Cheiron alums. Unsurprisingly, it paid off, and No Strings Attached beat the Backstreet Boys record for one-week sales, with the record moving 2.4 million copies in its first seven days.

So, as you can clearly see, pop music in the early 2000s was defined by the output of a few Swedish guys who essentially had a stranglehold on the genres sound, widely imitated but never quite duplicated. But it would be foolish to chalk up the sound of Y2K pop solely to Martin and the rest of the folks at Cheiron Studios. Thousands of miles away from Sweden, in the United States, big things were happening in the late 90s. Norfolk, Virginia native Timothy Mosley, who took to calling himself Timbaland after the iconic boot, became acquainted with a then-unknown Melissa Missy Elliott, who helped him find work producing for R&B groups like Sugah and Playa. Mosley began garnering mainstream recognition as a talented producer in 1996. That was after working extensively with two major R&B breakouts: Aaliyah and Ginuwine, on their respective albums One in a Million and Ginuwinethe Bachelor. Both were certified double platinum within just a few years of their releases. Responsible for those albums massive hits If Your Girl Only Knew and the undying Pony, Mosley kept his momentum up, producing Elliotts debut album Supa Dupa Fly in its entirety. He also produced hits for rappers Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, and Bubba Sparxxx. But just as Mosley was, too, becoming a household name, tragedy struck and changed the trajectory of his career.

In August of 2001, Mosley was deeply affected by Aaliyahs tragic, untimely death. Speaking to Total Request Live, Mosley revealed that She was like blood, and I lost blood. Me and her together had this chemistry. I kinda lost half of my creativity to her. It's hard for me to talk to the fans now. Beyond the music, she was a brilliant person, the [most special] person I ever met. However, the following year, Mosley would join forces with a new muse: NSYNC member Justin Timberlake, who was freed from his boy band commitments while the group went on hiatus. Desperate to shed his teenybopper image, Timberlake sought out producers who would help him move in an R&B-influenced direction. Given his track record, Mosley was the perfect candidate, and worked with Timberlake to produce the iconic, top 5 single Cry Me a River, a not-so-subtle jab at the pop stars ex-girlfriend who was, coincidentally, none other than Britney Spears. In any case, Cry Me a River established Timberlake as a force to be reckoned with in the world of mainstream music, and its success could arguably be attributed to Timbalands experimental, groundbreaking production. Of course, its impossible to talk about Justified without talking about the super-producer duo that worked with Timberlake on the rest of the albums hits

Over in Virginia Beach, Timbalands cousin Pharrell Williams and his close friend Chad Hugo were cooking up something interplanetary. Founded in 1991 to participate in a local talent show, the duo who called themselves the Neptunes quickly struck up a relationship with hitmaker Teddy Riley. Through Riley, the Neptunes worked their way up to producing consecutive albums for Kelis, 1999s Kaleidoscope and 2001s Wanderland, as well as her Got Your Money, a smash hit collaboration with the Wu-Tang Clans ODB. They became particularly well-known for their highly distinctive production style: a stripped-down blend of funk and R&B that, while rarely mixing up the formula, never seemed to yield the same result twice. This caught the ear of none other than Britney Spears, not unlike Justin Timberlake, who wanted to pursue a more mature image and sound. Originally written for Janet Jackson, the Neptunes gave Britney Im a Slave 4 U, which in her hands became an unambiguous plea to no longer be perceived as a teen star. At around the same time, Hugo and Williams became acquainted with one Justin Timberlake, having produced the NSYNC single Girlfriend. Bonding over their shared musical influences, Timberlake recruited the Neptunes to produce the majority of the aforementioned Justified. Said Hugo, the collaborators looked to foster that sense of those timeless, classic songs, without any of the bling, bling, hit me on my two-way style of the new R&B. It has elements of the old and the new.

Williams and Hugo produced the majority of Justified, including three of its four wildly popular singles. While it didnt reach the commercial heights of Timberlakes work with NSYNC, debuting at #2 on the Billboard 200 and selling nearly 450,000 copies in its first week, it cemented him as a breakout star. In 2018, Consequence of Sound called Justified the standard for former teen pop stars' bids to be taken seriously. So, now that weve brought you on a journey through the biggest hits of the early 2000s, what exactly was the special sauce that made all of these songs so irresistible? Was it Max Martins ear for hits? Was it Timbalands innovative production style? Was it the Neptunes stripped-down aesthetic? The answer is not exactly. Of course, these musicians played a massive part in determining what the hit sounds of the day would be, and provided a roadmap for countless musicians going forward. But ultimately, what made the songs and artists weve talked about today so special was the unique ways that they interpreted the sounds of the past and put their own personal spin on them, rather than trying to repurpose what had already been done. By synthesizing pop, hip hop, and R&B, the producers weve looked at let their individualism shine even if it meant taking a commercial risk.

What do you think made music of the early 2000s so special? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!