The best 2000s EDM artists changed how dance music sounded, traveled, or sold, and eight names tell that story. Tiësto, Paul van Dyk and Armin van Buuren suit you if you want trance. Daft Punk and Justice suit you if you like French electronic music. Benny Benassi gives you one early-2000s club hit. David Guetta suits you if you grew up on radio dance-pop, and Deadmau5 suits you if you want patient, late-decade progressive house.
Most lists of this era blur three decades together. They mix 1990s rave legends with 2010s festival stars, and they skip the fact that "EDM" was rarely the word people used in 2001. Back then you said trance, house, electro or just dance. This list keeps to artists whose defining work landed between 2000 and 2009, and it gives you tracks to start with, so you can rediscover the sound or learn it from scratch.
At RIKIO ROCKS we cover electronic dance music every day. Each pick below explains why the artist mattered and which songs to play first. A short section near the end separates early 2000s acts from late-decade ones.
1. Tiësto
Tiësto is the clearest answer to who ruled the early 2000s. He represents the moment trance became a stadium-sized business, and he is the best first listen for anyone who wants that sound.
Why Tiësto defined the decade
The Dutch DJ topped the DJ Mag Top 100 poll in 2002, 2003 and 2004. In 2004 he played the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympics, which put a DJ in front of a global television audience for the first time. His In Search of Sunrise mix series, which started in 2001, gave trance fans a yearly snapshot of where the genre stood.
His sound was melodic, uplifting and built for big rooms. Later in the decade he leaned toward progressive house and pop-friendly vocals, a move that explains why he was still headlining when festival EDM took off. Few trance peers made that jump.
Tiësto turned trance DJing into a stadium-sized career.
Tracks to start with
Start here if you want the most direct route into 2000s trance. These four show his range.
- "Traffic" (2003), a hard, riff-driven instrumental
- "Love Comes Again" (2004, with BT), a vocal trance anthem
- "Just Be" (2004, with Kirsty Hawkshaw), the title track of his vocal album
- "Adagio for Strings," his trance take on Samuel Barber, tied to the Athens era
2. Paul van Dyk
Paul van Dyk is the pick for listeners who want driving, emotional trance with a Berlin accent. He rose in the 1990s, but his biggest poll wins and tours came in this decade.
Why Paul van Dyk defined the decade
The Berlin-based DJ won the DJ Mag Top 100 in 2005 and 2006 and spent the early 2000s on world tours that treated trance as a main-stage genre. His mix album The Politics of Dancing (2001) is a good picture of his style: long, rolling builds with little downtime between tracks.
Van Dyk favored tension over tricks. His records lean on bright synth lines and steady four-on-the-floor drums. That made him a club-friendly trance choice, less sugary than some of his Dutch rivals.
Van Dyk made trance feel like a journey instead of a string of drops.
Tracks to start with
Play these if you want his big vocal records first, then the long-form material.
- "Nothing But You" (2000, with Hemstock & Jennings)
- "Time of Our Lives" (2008, with Vega 4)
- "For an Angel," a 1998 original that stayed in his sets and was rewo