In the early 2000s, a movie's soundtrack was more than background music – it was a marketing powerhouse. Teen-oriented films and studios leveraged music to attract audiences and even launch artists' careers.

Picture April 2004: teens flock to see Mean Girls in theaters, then rush to buy the soundtrack CD to relive the movie's best moments. This era saw soundtracks becoming cultural touchstones, with fans forming communities around the music as much as the movies.

Released in March 1999, 10 Things I Hate About You arrived just before the 2000s teen film boom, but it set a template for soundtrack strategy. This modern high-school retelling of The Taming of the Shrew opened with a modest $8.3 million weekend yet gained cult-classic status.

Its soundtrack featured pop-rock gems that resonated with late-'90s youth: Letters to Cleo, Save Ferris, and even classics like Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation" in the opening credits. The film's climactic scene – Julia Stiles' character being serenaded with "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by a marching band – underscored how music became a narrative device for emotional payoff.

If 10 Things set the stage, Crossroads took soundtrack marketing to another level. Starring pop superstar Britney Spears, this road-trip film premiered amid Britney's peak fame. The soundtrack strategy was a coordinated pop music tie-in.

Rather than simply releasing a standard various-artists album, Spears' record label promoted her then-new album Britney (2001) as the film's soundtrack. Several songs from Britney (including the ballad "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman," featured in the film) were integral to Crossroads, effectively making the movie a feature-length music video for her album.

A teen comedy phenomenon, Mean Girls was released in April 2004 and shocked industry observers with a $24.4 million opening weekend. Beyond its box-office success, Mean Girls left a lasting cultural mark, and its soundtrack became a time capsule of mid-2000s teen pop.

Rather than original songs, the soundtrack curated of-the-moment tracks by artists like Pink, Kelis, and The Donnas. This effectively turned the album into a playlist of a 2004 teenager's life, allowing fans to take the movie's mood home with them.

Released in July 2004, Zach Braff's Garden State was a sleeper hit that grossed a decent $26.8 million domestically. But Garden State's soundtrack became a phenomenon unto itself, arguably eclipsing the film's own profile.

Curated by Braff from his personal favorite indie tracks, the album featured then-obscure artists like The Shins, Frou Frou, and Iron & Wine. The film's iconic scene – Natalie Portman's character handing Braff's character her headphones saying, "You gotta hear this one song – it'll change your life, I swear," as The Shins' "New Slang" plays – became a generational touchstone.

By the late 2000s, the playbook of tying music to movies reached a fever pitch with Twilight. Released in November 2008, Twilight opened to a massive $69.6 million weekend, as a generation of "Twi-hard" fans poured into theaters.

The Twilight soundtrack was released before the film – and in an unprecedented feat, it debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, selling about 165,000 copies in its first week. It was the first soundtrack to reach #1 prior to its film's release since 8 Mile in 2002.

Though at the tail end of our timeframe (released July 2009), (500) Days of Summer earns inclusion for how it encapsulated the "mixtape movie" approach of the 2000s. An offbeat romantic dramedy, it had a gradual rollout – grossing about $32 million total in the U.S.

Director Marc Webb filled the movie with indie pop, Britpop, and retro classics that mirrored the characters' emotional arcs. By blending cult favorites with contemporary indie, 500 Days positioned itself as a tastemaker's playlist.

The early 2000s established the formula of the "music-powered film" in the U.S. market. Studios realized that investing in a great soundtrack could both differentiate their movie and create an additional revenue stream.

This era's practices have evolved with technology (today, viral TikTok scenes drive soundtrack streams), but the blueprint remains. Whether it was a pop idol vehicle like Crossroads, a teen comedy time capsule like Mean Girls, an indie-breakout like Garden State, or a fan-fueled juggernaut like Twilight, each leveraged music in unique ways.