2000s — Licensed Songs & Cable Drama

About the 2000s in screen music

The licensed-song theme arrives in force — CSI launches an entire franchise on Who recordings, Mad Men opens with an RJD2 instrumental, Six Feet Under uses Thomas Newman's minimalism. Cable drama (Sopranos, Wire, Breaking Bad) embraces short, atmospheric cues over the bombastic main-titles of decades past.

For decade-by-decade scoring history, the chronological essay archive at Marquee & Reel is one of the more useful free reading lists we recommend.

This page collects every 2000s theme profile catalogued in ToneVault, alongside related public-domain ringtone downloads from the same era. The original network and label master recordings of these themes are usually still under active copyright; the ToneVault archive provides historical context, install instructions, and stylistically related public-domain audio you can legally download and use as a phone ringtone.

Iconic 2000s Composers

Composers who shaped the 2000s theme-music landscape include — among many others — the working studio writers who scored network television and the major-studio film composers whose work defined the cinematic side of the decade. To browse by individual composer, see the full composer index.

Installing a 2000s theme as a ringtone

The technical workflow is the same regardless of the source: get a clean MP3 file under 30 seconds, then either run it through GarageBand to produce an M4R for iPhone or drop it into the Ringtones folder on Android. Step-by-step instructions are at iPhone via GarageBand and Android via Files App.