About The Book: The past decade will be looked back upon as a rather significant one for the record industry. It was the era when compact discs would begin to be replaced by digital downloads; thus, ending a long line of storage methods for music from 78s to vinyl, eight-tracks to cassette tapes.

Ironically, it was also an era that saw technology make the recording process become easier and more affordable than ever for artists. In essence, the years 2001-2010 may be remembered as the final decade of what we currently know as the record industry.

Computer recording software like ProTools finally became affordable for the average musician at the end of the '90s. This led to the advent of home studios that could create recordings that rivaled the best in the business. This also meant that, for the first time, great songs heard in clubs across the country no longer had to be erased from history. Bands could easily put together a quality recording and have their songs preserved forever.

The idea of documenting the best records from the end of the compact disc era and the beginning of the digital era fascinated me. Since this time period was also the first decade in which I was actually able to make a living as a music journalist, I felt a special connection to the records that I covered. My writings largely dealt with local artists, so I decided to focus on the artists with a strong connection to New Jersey. Since most of the decade followed 9/11, I thought it would be interesting to see how that event affected the music from this area. This was also the first generation in a long time to come of age with America at war for most of their lives. I wondered how growing up with war would seep into the lyrics of emerging songwriters. Looking back on many of the albums in this book, many of the best work was inspired by 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Over the years, I had amassed a collection of nearly 1,000 records by New Jersey artists released between 2001-2010. That was my starting point. I then spent several months searching the web for any mention of artists who might be from New Jersey and tracked down their music from websites like Napster.com and CDbaby.com. In the end, I listened to roughly 2,200 records and graded each one. Each grade was put into a MYSQL database. With a few keystrokes, the computer spit out the initial top 100 names. Over the next few months, I listened to those 100 records hundreds of times to come up with the final order.

I was looking for great records - not records with a great song or two. Digital downloads of singles harken back to the beginning of rock and roll and 45s. With more and more artists releasing songs one at a time, the concept of the album may be obsolete. These 100 records are the best of an era that we may never see again.

-- Gary Wien