What made Y2K pop music so unforgettable? Join us as we explore the secret sauce behind the era's most irresistible beats, spotlighting the iconic work of super-producers Max Martin, Timbaland, and The Neptunes. From Britney Spears to Justin Timberlake, discover the innovative sounds that defined a generation!
00:00I can't help the way I feel, but my life has been so over-protected.
00:07Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're breaking down the factors that have made the pop music of the early 2000s so hard to resist.
00:14We'll be looking at the genre through the output of three super producers, Max Martin, Timbaland, and the Neptunes.
00:30In order to truly understand the sound of Y2K-pop, we'll have to take it back, way back.
00:38In 1993, Karl Martin Sandberg was hired by Chiron Studios, a Swedish recording company based in Stockholm.
00:46Sandberg was brought on by revered music producer Dennis Popp, who took Sandberg under his wing as his mentee.
00:52Deciding that Sandberg needed a more marketable, generically global name, Popp took the liberty of crediting the production of This Is The Way by E-Type,
01:00to Max Martin. Sandberg was only informed after the record had already been printed.
01:10Over the next few years, the newly minted Max Martin amassed several production credits before making a household name of himself in 1998.
01:18Chiron Studios had been hired to write songs for unknown pop singer Britney Spears' then-untitled debut album.
01:25Said Spears to Billboard in 1999, quote,
01:28Spears' first ever single, Baby One More Time, quickly rose to the top of the charts, hitting number one in most countries where it charted,
01:57including her native United States, where it spent two weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100.
02:02Since 1999, Spears' debut hit has become one of the best-selling singles of all time, with over 10 million copies sold.
02:11Martin's partnership with Britney Spears went on, producing a number of hits for her until the release of her 2003 album, In The Zone.
02:17Of course, Martin's hot streak didn't end there.
02:30A few years prior to crafting Baby One More Time, Martin had produced some songs on the Backstreet Boys' debut album.
02:36Their profile steadily rising, Martin re-teamed with them for their third album, Millennium, earning credits on seven of the album's 12 songs.
02:45Most notably, Martin was responsible for a little song called I Want It That Way,
02:50which almost instantly became one of pop music's biggest, most enduring hits in years.
02:54Millennium became the best-selling album in its debut week ever, arguably due to Martin's considerable contributions.
03:10While the lyrical content of I Want It That Way has been widely scrutinized and debated over the years,
03:16it is undeniable that it and the rest of his late 90s output set the stage for Martin's pop music dominance into the early 2000s.
03:24Cause I want it that way
03:29Of course, it's worth noting that Britney and the Backstreet Boys were not the only pop prodigies to emerge from Chiron Studios.
03:37For their third studio album, 2000's No Strings Attached,
03:41Backstreet Boys' rivals NSYNC worked extensively with Kristen Lundin, Andreas Carlson and Rami Yacoub, all Chiron alums.
03:48Unsurprisingly, it paid off, and No Strings Attached beat the Backstreet Boys' record for one-week sales,
03:54with the record moving 2.4 million copies in its first seven days.
03:58So, 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 genre sound.
04:13Widely imitated, but never quite duplicated.
04:15But it would be foolish to chalk up the sound of Y2K-pop solely to Martin and the rest of the folks at Chiron Studios.
04:21Thousands of miles away from Sweden in the United States, big things were happening in the late 90s.
04:36Norfolk, Virginia native Timothy Mosley, who took to calling himself Timbaland after the iconic boot,
04:41became acquainted with a then-unknown Melissa Missy Elliott,
04:45who helped him find work producing for R&B groups like Suga and Playa.
04:49Mosley began garnering mainstream recognition as a talented producer in 1996.
05:00That was after working extensively with two major R&B breakouts,
05:05Aaliyah and Genuine, on their respective albums One in a Million and Genuine the Bachelor.
05:09Both were certified double platinum within just a few years of their releases.
05:14Responsible for those albums' massive hits, If Your Girl Only Knew and The Undying Pony,
05:19Mosley kept his momentum up, producing Elliott's debut album, Super Duper Fly, in its entirety.
05:25He also produced hits for rappers Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, and Bubba Sparks.
05:34But just as Mosley was, too, becoming a household name,
05:37tragedy struck and changed the trajectory of his career.
05:40The plane crash that killed a rising star in the world of music and film reaction today after Aaliyah and eight others were killed when their plane went down.
05:50In August of 2001, Mosley was deeply affected by Aaliyah's tragic, untimely death.
05:55Speaking to Total Request Live, Mosley revealed that,
05:58I noticed you posted a picture of her today, so obviously she's on your mind a lot.
06:17However, the following year, Mosley would join forces with a new muse, NSYNC member Justin Timberlake,
06:34who was freed from his boy band commitments while the group went on hiatus.
06:37Desperate to shed his teeny-bopper image, Timberlake sought out producers who would help him move in an R&B-influenced direction.
06:44Given his track record, Mosley was the perfect candidate,
06:48and worked with Timberlake to produce the iconic top-five single, Cry Me a River,
06:52a not-so-subtle jab at the pop star's ex-girlfriend,
06:55who was coincidentally none other than Britney Spears.
06:57In any case, Cry Me a River established Timberlake as a force to be reckoned with in the world of mainstream music,
07:09and its success could arguably be attributed to Timberland's experimental, groundbreaking production.
07:17Of course, it's impossible to talk about Justified without talking about the super-producer duo
07:25that worked with Timberlake on the rest of the album's hits.
07:28Justin, Timberlake had to be thrilled with you, because, I mean, you put him back,
07:32you made him relevant again, don't you think?
07:35Well, I wouldn't say that.
07:36I would say, you know, what I'm good at doing is holding up the mirror to an artist
07:40and showing them some of the things that they kind of ignore about themselves,
07:44and I kind of like to just point things out like,
07:47hey, you know this is there, and this is there, and you have this,
07:50and maybe you should turn this up and use this.
07:52Over in Virginia Beach, Timberland's cousin Pharrell Williams
07:55and his close friend Chad Hugo were cooking up something interplanetary.
08:00Founded in 1991 to participate in a local talent show,
08:03the duo, who called themselves The Neptunes,
08:06quickly struck up a relationship with hitmaker Teddy Riley.
08:09Through Riley, The Neptunes worked their way up to producing consecutive albums for Khalees,
08:141999's Kaleidoscope, and 2001's Wonderland,
08:17as well as her Got Your Money,
08:19a smash hit collaboration with the Wu-Tang Clan's ODB.
08:22They became particularly well-known for their highly distinctive production style,
08:32a stripped-down blend of funk and R&B that, while rarely mixing up the formula,
08:36never seemed to yield the same result twice.
08:38This caught the ear of none other than Britney Spears,
08:46who, not unlike Timberlake, wanted to pursue a more mature image and sound.
08:50Originally written for Janet Jackson,
08:52The Neptunes gave Britney I'm a Slave for You,
08:55which in her hands became an unambiguous plea
08:57to no longer be perceived as a teen star.
09:00At around the same time,
09:09Hugo and Williams became acquainted with one Justin Timberlake,
09:12having produced the NSYNC single Girlfriend.
09:15Bonding over their shared musical influences,
09:17Timberlake recruited The Neptunes to produce the majority of the aforementioned Justified.
09:21Said Hugo,
09:22the collaborators looked to foster
09:24that sense of those timeless classic songs
09:27without any of the bling-bling hit-me-on-my-two-way style of the new R&B.
09:31It has elements of the old and the new.
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09:57Williams and Hugo produced the majority of Justified,
10:00including three of its four wildly popular singles.
10:04While it didn't reach the commercial heights of Timberlake's work with NSYNC,
10:07debuting at number two on the Billboard 200
10:09and selling nearly 450,000 copies in its first week,
10:13it cemented him as a breakout star.
10:24In 2018,
10:26Consequence of Sound called Justified,
10:28So, now that we've brought you on a journey through the biggest hits of the early 2000s,
10:37what exactly was the special sauce that made all of these songs so irresistible?
10:40Was it Max Martin's Ear for Hits?
10:42Was it Timbaland's Innovative Production Style?
10:45Was it the Neptune's stripped-down aesthetic?
10:47The answer is...not exactly.
10:49Of course, these musicians played a massive part
10:51in determining what the hit sounds of the day would be,
10:54and provided a roadmap for countless musicians going forward.
10:57But ultimately, what made the songs and artists we've talked about today so special
11:01was the unique ways that they interpreted the sounds of the past
11:04and put their own personal spin on them,
11:06rather than trying to repurpose what had already been done.
11:10By synthesizing pop, hip-hop, and R&B,
11:12the producers we've looked at let their individualism shine,
11:16even if it meant taking a commercial risk.
11:18Sing this song with me
11:20What do you think made music of the early 2000s so special?
11:27Be sure to let us know in the comments below.
