GENRE / 2000S POP-PUNK & RADIO R&B-POP

WHAT IT IS / WHEN

Two parallel formulas dominated 2002–2009 radio. One: pop-punk with a female lead, guitars mixed like pop and choruses written by professionals (Avril Lavigne, via the writing team The Matrix). The other: R&B-pop rebuilt around Timbaland's rhythmic vocabulary — stuttered, syncopated, space-heavy — which took over the charts almost completely after Nelly Furtado's Loose (2006). Jay Sean represents the British-Asian R&B wing that crossed to the US at the end of the decade.

SIGNIFICANT ARTISTS

Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson, Paramore on the rock side; Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake, Nelly, Jay Sean on the R&B side. The real authors: The Matrix (Lauren Christy, Graham Edwards, Scott Spock), Timbaland and Danja, Max Martin's Cheiron team, and Dr. Luke.

TRIVIA

"Complicated" was written by The Matrix, who had originally pitched Lavigne much softer material and rebuilt her sound after she rejected it — the resulting authorship arguments defined her early press. "Say It Right" was reportedly written and cut in a single night at the end of the Loose sessions, almost as an afterthought, and became the album's biggest US hit; its airy, minor-key restraint is atypical of everything else Timbaland and Danja were doing that year.

SONIC SIGNATURE

Verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus, chorus by 0:45. Pop-punk side: palm-muted power chords, snare on 2 and 4 with heavy gate, vocals doubled and pitch-corrected transparently. Timbaland side: almost no bass in the traditional sense, a spare syncopated kick pattern, vocal chops used as percussion, and huge amounts of empty space in the arrangement.

KEY GEAR

Pro Tools plus Antares Auto-Tune, which by 2003 was standard and inaudible when used correctly. Timbaland worked on an Ensoniq ASR-10 for years, plus Korg Triton and Roland V-Synth. Guitars on the pop-punk records are usually a session player through a Mesa or Vox, DI'd and re-amped for control.

RATIONALE & PRODUCTION

This is the peak of the loudness war — masters from 2005–2008 routinely sit at DR4–6 with visible clipping — because CD and radio processing rewarded it. Vocals are comped syllable by syllable from dozens of takes. The pop-punk records deliberately mix guitars quieter than a rock record would, so the vocal never has to compete; the R&B records leave the low end almost empty so the kick and vocal own it.

TRACKS IN THIS GENRE

Each control plays a ten-second excerpt of the track, taken from its catalogue preview clip.

• ComplicatedAvril Lavigne[►]
• CrushJennifer Paige[►]
• Say It RightNelly Furtado[►]
• TemperatureSean Paul[►]
• ApologizeTimbaland, OneRepublic[►]