While the previous decade brought a fresh wave of fierce female voices and eclectic indie singer/songwriters to the foreground, the 2000s saw both a return to acoustic minimalism and an expansion of the genre as a whole. Post-Y2K, there were two main reactions: eschew technology or embrace it. Many simplicity-seeking artists found solace with little more than their voice and a guitar: Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam painted poignant folk vignettes with soft whispers, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon redefined loneliness in layers of falsetto and even one of alt-rock’s most beloved eccentrics, Beck, stripped down for some of his most moving material. Meanwhile, the rise of the internet fostered greater diversity, allowing for more experimental sounds and baroque instrumentation to seep into pop, including Imogen Heap’s innovative use of the vocoder and Feist’s whimsical blend of electronic, folk and indie pop.