You’ll see a lot of lists trumpeting the Top 500 Songs or Records Of The Decade (and, full disclosure, we’ll be doing our own shorter versions of those lists), but when you think back to decades past, it’s usually in terms of influential artists rather than their specific songs or albums. For example, I think of the Beatles in the 60′s, the Stones in the 70′s, The Talking Heads in the 80′s, and Nirvana in the 90′s. So who are the musicians we’ll be talking about 10, 20 or 30 years from now when we remember the first decade of the new millennium? Here are my picks of the biggest innovators and hitmakers of the Aughties.

1) Radiohead
Radiohead released two of the best records of the 90′s, 1995′s glammy The Bends and 1997′s glacial OK Computer, but it wasn’t until this decade that they became a towering monolith, the seemingly unmatchable standard by which all other music is judged. 2000′s Kid A kicked off the decade with its best record, a tightly focused and staggeringly original collection of glitchy A.I. experiments (the title track), cynical capitalist anthems (“Optimistic”), and rantings about societal collapse nonetheless appropriate for the dance floor (“Idioteque”). A year later brought the more song-oriented but no less ambitious and otherworldly Amnesiac, and 2003′s Hail to the Thief turned up the volume, broadened their sound and brought Jonny Greenwood’s guitar back into the mix. 2007′s melodic In Rainbows continued the band’s sonic growth while marking a return to a more traditional live band structure (and upending the business model of the music industry with its “pay what you want” download release). Time and time again, their work from this decade has completely changed the idea of what a rock band can do with a rock record.

2) Kanye West
Kanye West is undoubtedly the dominant hip hop artist of the decade, and arguably the single best and most important figure in pop music as a whole. He’s the ultimate trendsetter, having been ripped off so regularly that sounds and styles that were once his trademarks (sped-up soul samples, shutter shades) have become homogenized parts of the pop culture landscape. But the glut of copycats have caused his music to take a quantum leap forward every year, forcing exponential growth from album to album with the four classic records he’s recorded in just four years. He’s not the greatest MC in the world (his unspectacular delivery can hobble otherwise perfect records), but he is the greatest producer, and as the warm soul sounds that informed his first two records have given way to the icy electro of his second two, he’s entered deeply vulnerable territory that’s surprising from the biggest ego in the entertainment world today.

3) The White Stripes
Jack and Meg White began the decade as a divorced couple in a basement. They ended it as the most celebrated rock band of their generation. But the band that recorded 2000′s De Stijl on a beat up 8-track in Detroit is unmistakably the band that internationally released 2007′s Icky Thump in a plethora of formats, including limited collector’s edition USB drives. Despite their humble roots, The White Stripes were a pop juggernaut in disguise the whole time. When White Blood Cells finally got major distribution, “Fell In Love With A Girl” and “Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground” brilliantly set the stage for their real commercial breakthrough with “Seven Nation Army”, the best rock radio song of the decade. It wasn’t even the best song on 2003′s Elephant, though, an amazing record filled with equal parts shimmery pop and grimy blues that still stands as the band’s masterpiece. They then plunged into experimentation with Icky Thump and 2005′s Get Behind Me Satan, balancing Jack’s guitar god cred with new instrumentation like piano, marimba and mariachi horns. Their music got weirder and more challenging, but never became inaccessible, making The White Stripes the rare great band that everyone can agree on.

4) LCD Soundsystem
In 2001, the music world was ruled by awful shit; the Billboard Top 10 Singles list for that year includes Train, Crazy Town and Staind. But deep in the heart of Brooklyn, producers James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy (known collectively as The DFA) were creating a new sound with an obscure punk band called The Rapture. The resulting single, “Out Of The Races And Onto The Tracks”, was unlike anything else at the time: stark, raw and extremely danceable. Then came “House Of Jealous Lovers”, a revelation that mixed the jagged guitars of Gang of Four with hi-hat disco beats. The DFA spread the word of disco-punk with remixes and production for Le Tigre, Metro Area and Radio 4, but Murphy saved the best beats for his own band, LCD Soundsystem. Propulsive krautrock-inspired epics like “Losing My Edge”, “Beat Connection” and “Yeah” continued their hit streak, and with their 2005 self-titled LP, LCD Soundsystem crafted the purest distillation of the best and most exciting musical genre of the decade. 2007′s Sound of Silver was even better, dimming the lights on the party with its moody centerpieces “Someone Great” and “All My Friends”. When not making their own brilliant music, Murphy and Goldsworthy started DFA Records and released fantastic records by a roster of like-minded artists including Hercules And Love Affair, Hot Chip and The Juan Maclean. In terms of sheer volume and creativity, LCD Soundsystem and the rest of the DFA family can’t be topped.

5) Animal Collective
I spent most of this decade thinking Animal Collective were a bunch of morons hopping around making pointless noise while music critics fawned over them endlessly. But with the release of this year’s Merriweather Post Pavilion and 2007′s Panda Bear solo project Person Pitch, their entire body of work clicked for me. It’s hard to get a foothold on Animal Collective at first, because what they do is utterly without precedent. You can pick out a Beach Boys sound here or a Scott Walker sample there, but you can’t jot down a list of influences the way you can for any other artist on this list. Through sound – and with their newer work, through melody – they create abstract compositions that evoke innocence, beauty, and sometimes terror. They’ve been labeled with ridiculous tags like “neo-primitivists”, but don’t pay attention to that nonsense. They’re feeble attempts to pigeonhole the most forward-thinking and original band of the decade.

6) TV On The Radio
The New York rock renaissance brought us great bands like The Strokes, Liars and Interpol, but the greatest was the dense, dark and soulful TV On The Radio. Their superb first two releases, 2003′s Young Liars and 2004′s Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, made it clear that TVOTR were something new and different. Tunde Adebimpe’s voice was unlike anyone else’s in rock (in overwrought critic mode, I once described him as “Peter Gabriel in a nuclear winter”), and the alternately warm and menacing wall of distortion created by producer/guitarist David Andrew Sitek made them sound like the biggest three piece in music history. They became even better after bringing in drummer Jaleel Bunton and keyboardist Gerard Smith on 2006′s incredible Return to Cookie Mountain and loosened up with last year’s Dear Science, adding horns from Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra and some Prince-style funk into the mix.

7) Arcade Fire
Easily the greatest French Canadian/Texan/Haitian Bowie/Springsteen-loving indie gypsy folk troupe in history, Arcade Fire synthesize their disparate influences into a compelling sound that’s uniquely theirs. 2004′s Funeral is one of the greatest debut records ever recorded, displaying astonishing range without a bum track in the bunch. 2007′s Neon Bible is about as far from a sophomore slump as one can imagine; listening to it even now is a tremendously moving experience that improves on its universally-adored predecessor in every way. Question is, after two modern classics pondering life, death and faith in an era of reality TV, where do they go from here? Honestly, it doesn’t matter; they could pack it in right now and still have a hallowed place in music history.

8) Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Clearly, Karen O is the rock star of the decade, the rambunctious fashion-forward spawn of Chrissie Hynde and Iggy Pop. What’s surprising is that the screaming art-punk queen from 2004′s electrifying Fever To Tell would turn into an introspective folkie on 2006′s Show Your Bones and this year’s It’s Blitz! But whether she’s in strummy acoustic mode on the spare “Warrior” or cranking up synths on the triumphant “Zero”, Karen’s undeniable magnetism holds us in rapt attention.

9) M.I.A.
It’s hard to think of a more global artist than Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, a Sri Lankan/British MC who regularly draws inspiration from Afrobeat, reggaeton, dancehall and Baltimore club. Over the course of two modern classic albums and a phenomenal mixtape, M.I.A. has created her own world party where Bollywood chills with New Order and The Pixies. And with “Paper Planes”, one of the decade’s best songs, she even brought her sound to the mainstream by mixing The Clash with “Rumpshaker”.

10) Jay-Z
Even before he declared himself “Sinatra at the opera” on this year’s fantastic single “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)”, Jay-Z had long established himself as my generation’s Frank. With 2001′s The Blueprint, Jay gave us one of the decade’s first great albums, and through his five other records this decade (the second of which was supposed to mark his retirement) he’s ruled pop and hip hop radio with an astonishing string of hits including “99 Problems”, “Roc Boys” and “Empire State of Mind”. But more than that, he’s the standard bearer for the music world in general, a benevolent don who spends most of his time living it up with his gorgeous wife, descending from his Manhattan penthouse from time to time to remind us why he’s king.