2000s Music Quiz: Guess the Song with Friends

This is a quiz of the big international hits of the 2000s: Britney and Rihanna, Linkin Park and The Killers, Eminem and 50 Cent, plus the dance tracks that closed every school disco. It's the decade of MTV, ringtones and burned CDs, which makes it a great fit for anyone who was a teenager or in their twenties at the time, and it still works with younger players because half of these songs never left the party playlist.

How to play this quiz

1. Open this page on the big screen (a smart TV browser, a laptop hooked up to the TV, or just a laptop), hit "Play this quiz", then "Start". The room is created with the playlist already loaded.
2. Everyone scans the QR code with their phone and types a name. The first person in is the host and picks the mode and the target score.
3. Our pick for this decade: "Song and year" mode. Every song falls within ten years, so placing each one on your timeline gets tricky fast. Did "Toxic" come out before or after "Umbrella"? That's where games are won.
4. With a confident group, drop "Seconds to buzz" from the default 30 to 15 or 20. Most of these songs give themselves away in the first few seconds.
5. Whoever buzzes first gets 20 seconds to type the song, and the search box suggests titles from the playlist. Get it wrong and you lose a point while the music keeps playing for everyone else.

Songs that might come up

Deezer maintains the playlist and it can change, but these are some of the songs in it, among others.

Rock and indie

• "Yellow" – Coldplay (2000): clean guitar and a "Look at the stars" the whole room will sing.
• "In the End" – Linkin Park (2001): that five-note piano riff.
• "Mr. Brightside" – The Killers (2003): the racing guitar intro. A singalong staple; expect someone to start singing before they buzz.
• "Take Me Out" – Franz Ferdinand (2004): starts slow, then switches tempo. People who only know the second half buzz late.
• "Bring Me to Life" – Evanescence (2003): piano and Amy Lee's voice before the guitars crash in.

Pop and R&B

• "Can't Get You Out of My Head" – Kylie Minogue (2001): the "la la la" hook and that electronic bass.
• "Complicated" – Avril Lavigne (2002): acoustic guitar and pure teenage angst.
• "Toxic" – Britney Spears (2004): the high strings in the intro.
• "Hips Don't Lie" – Shakira (2006): the trumpets and Wyclef Jean's opening ad-libs.
• "Crazy" – Gnarls Barkley (2006): a spaghetti-western backing track and CeeLo Green's voice.
• "Umbrella" – Rihanna (2007): opens with Jay-Z's "Uh-huh, uh-huh", then the "ella, ella".
• "Bad Romance" – Lady Gaga (2009): "Rah rah ah-ah-ah" before anything else.

Hip-hop

• "Ms. Jackson" – Outkast (2000): the apology in the chorus.
• "It Wasn't Me" – Shaggy (2000): that unmistakable low voice.
• "Lose Yourself" – Eminem (2002): slow guitar and the spoken intro before the beat drops.
• "In da Club" – 50 Cent (2003): "Go, shorty, it's your birthday."
• "Yeah!" – Usher (2004): the squealing synth and Lil Jon shouting over it.

Dance floor

• "Dragostea din tei" – O-Zone (2003): the "Ma-ia-hii" that the internet turned into the "Numa Numa" song.

Difficulty and tips to win

Recognising these songs is the easy part. Dating them is not: everything sits inside one decade, and almost nobody can tell 2003 from 2005 by ear. In "Song only" mode, it all comes down to speed.

• Watch for songs that sound like another era. Bon Jovi's "It's My Life" and *NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye" are both from 2000, though many people file them under the 90s. Smash Mouth's "I'm a Believer" (2001, the Shrek one) is a cover of The Monkees' 1966 hit, and Adele's "Make You Feel My Love" covers Bob Dylan, who released it in 1997.
• Hip-hop tracks announce themselves. Most rap hits here open with a shout or a spoken line before the first verse: Lil Jon's "Yeah!", 50 Cent's "Go, shorty". Know the voice, hit the buzzer.
• Linkin Park shows up more than once. "In the End", "Numb" and "What I've Done" are all in there. Distorted guitars and Chester Bennington's voice tell you the band, not the song. Wait a beat.
• Coldplay too. "Yellow", "Clocks" and "The Scientist" are all candidates. "Clocks" is the one with the rolling piano.
• "Dragostea din tei" is a timeline trap. It first took off in Romania in 2003 and became a hit across Europe later, so people tend to place it too late.

Making it harder

• Drop "Seconds to buzz" to 10. With clips that short, only the real 2000s experts get in on time.
• Switch the search to "Title only". Knowing it's Coldplay is no longer enough; you have to know which Coldplay song.
• Play to 15 or 20 points in "Song and year" so the timelines fill up with 2003s, 2004s and 2005s and every new card is a coin toss for the unprepared.

Want a generational showdown? Play one round of this and one of our 90s songs quiz or the 2010s songs quiz. If your crowd prefers reggaeton and Latin pop from the same era, we also have a list of 2000s Latin and Spanish hits for a party.

FAQ

Do we need to install an app?

No. Track Attack runs in the browser: the big screen plays the music and everyone uses their phone as a buzzer by scanning a QR code. No account needed, and no Spotify or Deezer subscription either.

How many people can play?

A group of friends or a family gathering works fine. Everyone just needs their own phone.

Can we play without a TV?

Yes. A laptop with speakers loud enough for the room does the job. The TV just makes it easier for everyone to see the screen.

Are there any songs in Spanish?

Hardly any. This playlist is almost all English-language hits, with the odd exception like Daddy Yankee's "Lo Que Pasó, Pasó". For a Latin-flavoured night, use the list linked above.