2004 in music

Events
January-February

January 1 The Vienna New Year's Concert is conducted by Riccardo Muti. Kurt Nilsen wins World Idol. January 3 – Britney Spears marries Jason Allen Alexander, a childhood friend, in Las Vegas. The marriage is annulled 55 hours later. January 15 – Rapper Mystikal is sentenced to six years in prison for sexual battery. February 1 Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake perform onstage at Super Bowl XXXVIII. The performance concludes with Jackson's right breast being exposed to the audience. The phrase "wardrobe malfunction" is coined during the ensuing controversy. Daron Hagen is appointed President of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation in New York City. February 8 – The 46th Annual Grammy Awards are held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below becomes the first rap album to win Album of the Year. Beyoncé Knowles won five awards. February 9 - Blink-182 release single "I Miss You" from the album Blink-182. The song reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock chart. February 10 - Paulina Rubio releases her seventh studio "Pau-Latina" under Universal Music Mexico. The album charted at #1 on the Billboard Latin Pop Albums and at #105 on the Billboard 200. The album also got certified 2× Platinum (Latin) by the RIAA. February 13 - Elton John begins The Red Piano concert residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Originally scheduled for 75 performances, it would run for 248 shows over five years, including twenty-four tour dates in Europe. February 17 BRIT Awards held in London. The Darkness, Dido, Busted, Justin Timberlake and KRS-One are among the winners. Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan posts a bitter message on his personal blog calling D'arcy Wretzky a "mean spirited drug addict" and blaming James Iha for the breakup of the band.

March–April

March 2 - Britney Spears embarked The Onyx Hotel Tour, her first tour in 2 years to support her fourth studio album, In The Zone. March 9 – Westlife member Brian McFadden leaves the band. March 10 – George Michael announces that Patience will be his last commercially released record. Future releases will be available from his web site in return for donations to his favourite charities. March 13 – Luciano Pavarotti gives his last performance in an opera, in Tosca at the New York Metropolitan Opera. March 23 – Usher releases his Confessions album selling 1.1 million copies its first week, making him the first R&B artist to ever accomplish that. The album would be the top seller of the year with four number one singles. April 6 A previously unreleased Johnny Cash album called My Mother's Hymn Book is released less than a year after his death on September 12, 2003. Modest Mouse, an American indie rock band releases Good News for People Who Love Bad News. April 20 – Fear Factory returns after their 2002 breakup with the new album Archetype. April 26 Deborah Voigt, sacked by Covent Garden for being too fat for an opera role, makes her recital debut to a rapturous reception at Carnegie Hall. Dream Theater performs at the Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan.

May–June

May 10 Blender magazine's May issue includes a "50 Worst Songs Ever!" list. "We Built This City," by Starship, is rated worst. Peter Tägtgren replaces Mikael Åkerfeldt In Bloodbath. Keane release Hopes and Fears which becomes the 16th best selling album of the millennium in the UK. It went 8x platinum and was nominated for the Mercury Prize and the BRIT award for best album. May 18 to May 23 – The European Festival of Youth Choirs (EJCF) is held in Basel. May 24 – Madonna starts The Re-Invention Tour in 20 cities with a total of 56 shows and making it the most successful concert tour of the year with a gross of $124.5 million. May 25 Phish announces that after 21 years they will break up following the Summer 2004 Tour. Skinny Puppy releases their first studio album since disbanding in 1996, called The Greater Wrong of the Right. May 26 – Fantasia Barrino wins the third season of American Idol, defeating Diana DeGarmo. May 28 to June 6 - The Rock in Rio concert festival is staged in Lisbon, Portugal under the name Rock in Rio Lisboa. Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel, Foo Fighters, Metallica, Britney Spears and Sting headline each of the six days. June 4 Karl Jenkins signs a 10-year recording deal with EMI. Creed dissolved. Guitarist Mark Tremonti, Drummer Scott Phillips and Brian Marshall (ex Bassist of Creed) were working on side project Alter Bridge along with Myles Kennedy of The Mayfield Four Their first album is One Day Remains, which is scheduled to be released on August 10. June 10 – Ray Charles dies at the age of 73 from acute liver disease. June 11 - The Van Halen Summer Tour 2004 kicks off in Greensboro, North Carolina, marking the return of Sammy Hagar on vocals for the first time since his acrimonious departure from the band in 1996. June 12 – The Los Angeles, California radio station KROQ-FM airs the 12th Annual KROQ Weenie Roast show with Bad Religion, Beastie Boys, Cypress Hill, The Hives, Hoobastank, The Killers, Modest Mouse, New Found Glory, Story of the Year, The Strokes, The Velvet Revolver, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Yellowcard. June 22 – 14th annual Lollapalooza festival, scheduled for July 17, is cancelled. Organizers cite "poor ticket sales". (See: Lollapalooza 2004 lineup.) June 23 – UK DJ Tony Blackburn is suspended by radio station Classic Gold Digital for playing songs by Cliff Richard, against station policy. June 25 - Eric Clapton sells his famous guitar "Blackie" at a Christie's auction, raising $959,000 to benefit the Crossroads drug rehabilitation center that he founded in 1998.[1]

July–August

July 10 – Ex-S Club star Rachel Stevens sets a world record for completing the fastest promotional circuit in just 24 hours- including a run for the charity Sport Relief. American Idol winner Fantasia becomes the first artist in history to debut at number-one on the Hot 100 with a first record. July 11 – McFly debut at #1 on the UK album charts with Room On The 3rd Floor. They break the record set by The Beatles as the youngest group ever to debut at #1 on the album charts. July 20 – Van Halen releases The Best of Both Worlds, a 36-song compilation album featuring three new recordings with Sammy Hagar on vocals. July 24 – The Robert Smith organized Curiosa Festival kicks off with a concert in West Palm Beach, Florida. Performing along with The Cure are Interpol, The Rapture, Mogwai, Cursive, Muse, Head Automatica, Thursday, Scarling., The Cooper Temple Clause, and Melissa Auf der Maur. July 25 - The Doobie Brothers record and perform Live at Wolf Trap at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, Virginia. The live album was released two months later, on October 26. July 31 Simon & Garfunkel perform a free concert in front of the Colosseum in Rome for an audience of 600,000 people.[2] Dispatch performs their last live show at the DCR Hatchshell in Boston, Massachusetts. August 8 – Dave Matthews Band's tour bus dumps 800 lb (360 kg) of human feces from a Chicago bridge, intending to unload it in the river, but it lands on an architecture tour boat. The bus driver and the band are sued by the state of Illinois. August 15 – Phish performs their final concert at a two-day festival in Coventry, Vermont. August 23 – The Prodigy release their much anticipated and postponed first full-length album Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned in 7 years since 1997's The Fat Of The Land.

September–October

September 18 – Britney Spears gets married to Kevin Federline. September 26 – Avril Lavigne begins her Bonez Tour. September 28 – Brian Wilson releases Brian Wilson Presents Smile, an interpretation of the Smile sessions which were shelved in 1967. October 2 - Billy Joel marries for the third time, to the food critic and chef Katie Lee. October 11 The original lineup of Duran Duran release their new album Astronaut, which was preceded by the single "(Reach Up For The) Sunrise". Melissa Etheridge undergoes surgery for breast cancer. October 23 – Ashlee Simpson is accused of lip-synching after an abortive live performance on the television show Saturday Night Live. October 25 - Indian singer Hariharan is awarded the Swaralaya-Kairali-Yesudas Award for his outstanding contribution to Indian film music.

November–December

November 4 – Three members of the band RAM, who all lived in a neighborhood known for its support of the recently deposed former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, are detained by Haitian police during a concert performance in Port-au-Prince; no charges are ever filed or official explanation for the detentions given. November 9 – Britney Spears releases her first compilation album titled Greatest Hits: My Prerogative. November 11 - Eric Clapton receives a CBE at Buckingham Palace.[3] November 12 – Eminem's fourth major studio album, Encore is released four days before schedule to combat Internet bootleggers. The album sells 710,000 copies in only three days and becomes Eminem's third consecutive album to debut at #1 on the Billboard charts. November 16 - Destiny's Child released their fourth and final studio album Destiny Fulfilled by Columbia Records in North America. November 17 - Within Temptation release the single "Stand My Ground". November 24 – Brian & Eric Hoffman leave Deicide after a royalties dispute. November 30 – Jay-Z and Linkin Park's album "Collision Course" debuts at number #01 in the Billboard 200, later becoming the best-selling CD/DVD of that year. December 7 – Lindsay Lohan releases her début album, Speak. December 8 – Dimebag Darrell is murdered on stage while performing in Columbus, Ohio, by a deranged fan,[4][5] who shoots the guitarist three times in the head with a 9mm Beretta handgun.[6] The gunman kills three other people and wounds a further seven before being shot dead by police. December 11–12 – The Los Angeles, California radio station KROQ-FM airs the 15th Annual of the Acoustic Christmas with Chevelle, Franz Ferdinand, Good Charlotte, Green Day, Hoobastank, Incubus, Interpol, Jimmy Eat World, Keane, The Killers, Modest Mouse, Muse, The Music, My Chemical Romance, Papa Roach, Snow Patrol, Social Distortion, Sum 41, Taking Back Sunday, The Shins, The Used, and Velvet Revolver. December 14 – Clint Lowery leaves Sevendust due to fights with band about gaining control of the band and doubts of the band's future after being released from their label TVT Records.

Bands formed
See Musical groups established in 2004

Bands on hiatus
Spineshank (reformed in 2008) Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus (disbanded in 2006)

Bands disbanded
See Musical groups disestablished in 2004

Bands re-formed
Megadeth Restless Heart Destiny's Child Vaya Con Dios The Shadows (till 2005)

Singles

 * These Words Natasha Bedingfield

Top 10 selling albums of the year in the US
1.Confessions – Usher ~ 7,979,000 2.Feels like Home – Norah Jones ~ 3,843,000 3.Encore – Eminem ~ 3,517,000 4.When the Sun Goes Down – Kenny Chesney ~ 3,072,000 5.Under My Skin – Avril Lavigne ~ 2,970,000 6.Live Like You Were Dying – Tim McGraw ~ 2,787,000 7.Songs About Jane – Maroon 5 ~ 2,708,000 8.Fallen – Evanescence ~ 2,614,000 9.Autobiography – Ashlee Simpson ~ 2,577,000 10.Now That's What I Call Music! 16 – Various ~ 2,560,000

Top 15 selling albums of the year globally
1.Confessions – Usher 2.Feels Like Home – Norah Jones 3.Encore – Eminem 4.How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb – U2 5.Under My Skin – Avril Lavigne 6.Love. Angel. Music. Baby. – Gwen Stefani 7.Greatest Hits – Robbie Williams 8.Greatest Hits – Shania Twain 9.Destiny Fulfilled – Destiny's Child 10.Greatest Hits – Guns N' Roses 11.Songs About Jane – Maroon 5 12.American Idiot – Green Day 13.Elephunk – The Black Eyed Peas 14.Greatest Hits: My Prerogative – Britney Spears 15.Here for the Party – Gretchen Wilson 16.Anastacia – Anastacia

Births
January 10 - Kaitlyn Maher, singer

Awards
The following artists were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Jackson Browne, The Dells, George Harrison, Prince, Bob Seger, Traffic, Z Z Top

ARIA Music Awards ARIA Music Awards of 2004

BRIT Awards 2004 BRIT Awards

Country Music Association Awards

Eurovision Song Contest Eurovision Song Contest 2004 Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004

Grammy Awards Grammy Awards of 2004

Juno Awards Juno Awards of 2004

MTV Video Music Awards 2004 MTV Video Music Awards

Charts
Triple J Hottest 100 Triple J Hottest 100, 2004