2000s: TBD
You don't think I would be so presumptuous as to assume that the best of our current decade has already emerged, do you? Well, I wouldn't be. We have three years left to pray for greatness. And pray hard we'd better, because never again are we likely to see a band sustain the kind of multialbum, multidecade career that the previously mentioned have enjoyed. It's an Internet-driven world now, where technology feeds our need for new and now - as in, right-this-moment now.

That's not to say that someone somewhere won't come crashing through our speakers with a previously unidentifiable noise that makes us shut up and say "Ahhh …" - just don't count on said future music hero (or heroes) to hold our collective attention for long. Noting this, and though none of them are as musically altering as Nirvana or Elvis, there are some contenders - the Killers, Arctic Monkeys, Hope of the States, Bright Eyes, Bloc Party - and there is one leader: Coldplay. It's somehow painful to say that, though, since Coldplay just doesn't seem tough enough nor extraordinary enough. But the fact of the matter is that this era hasn't seen any band step up as consistently and successfully. But, then again, what's so tough about "Love Me Do"?