2004 in music

Specific locations

• 2004 in British music
• 2004 in Irish music
• 2004 in Norwegian music
• 2004 in South Korean Music

  Specific genres

• 2004 in classical music
• 2004 in country music
• 2004 in heavy metal music
• 2004 in hip hop music
• 2004 in Latin music
• 2004 in jazz

  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 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 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 18-23 – The European Festival of Youth Choirs 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 – 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 were working on side project Alter Bridge along with Myles Kennedy of The Mayfield Four Their first album is One Day Remains, which was scheduled to be released on August 10.
• June 8 – Velvet Revolver released their first album Contraband.
• 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, Velvet Revolver, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Yellowcard.
• June 22 – 14th annual Lollapalooza festival, scheduled for July 17, is cancelled. Organizers cite "poor ticket sales".
• 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.
• * While in Scheeßel, Germany for his A Reality tour, David Bowie suffers a heart attack onstage and is subsequently rushed to the emergency room for an angioplasty. The incident brings an abrupt end to the tour and prompts Bowie to move away from both musicianship and public life in the following years, with his next album coming out nearly nine years later.

  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.
• *Dispatch performs their last live show at the DCR Hatchshell in Boston, Massachusetts.
• August 8 – Dave Matthews Band's tour bus dumps 800 lb 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, 7 years after 1997's The Fat Of The Land.

  September–October

• September 18 – Britney Spears marries Kevin Federline.
• September 20 – Green Day release their seventh studio album American Idiot, making a comeback for the band, following disappointing sales of their 2000 album Warning. American Idiot eventually receives the award for Best Rock Album at the 47th Grammy Awards on February 13, 2005.
• September 26 – Avril Lavigne begins her Bonez Tour.
• September 28
• *Brian Wilson releases Brian Wilson Presents Smile, the first official interpretation of the Smile sessions since their shelving in 1967.
• *On the same day, young Filipino singer Christian Bautista unveiled his first self-titled debut album.
• October – Jazz at Lincoln Center performance venue opens in New York City.
• 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 is preceded by the single " 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 .
• November 11 – Eric Clapton receives a CBE at Buckingham Palace.
• 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, who shoots the guitarist three times in the head with a 9mm Beretta handgun. The gunman kills three other people and wounds a further three 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

Bands on hiatus

• Spineshank
• Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus
• Matchbox Twenty

  Bands disbanded

Bands re-formed

• Megadeth
• Restless Heart
• Destiny's Child
• Vaya Con Dios
• The Shadows
• New York Dolls

  Albums released

January–March

April–June

July–September

October–December

Unknown release dates

• 3rd Strike – 3 Feet Smaller
• 5 Stories EP – Manchester Orchestra
• 9Live – Angie Aparo
• Bombs Below – Living Things
• Crwth – Cass Meurig
• Field Rexx – Blitzen Trapper
• ForThemAsses – OPM
• Gathering Speed – Big Big Train
• Get Saved – Pilot to Gunner
• Golden – Failure
• Guerilla Disco – Quarashi
• Leaving Town Tonight – Hit the Lights
• Life Story – The Shadows
• Negatives 2 – Phantom Planet
• Oceanic Remixes/Reinterpretations – Isis
• The Pink Spiders Are Taking Over! – The Pink Spiders
• Point of Origin – There for Tomorrow
• The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus – The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
• Safely From the City – Locksley
• Set Your Goals – Set Your Goals
• Sherwood – Sherwood
• Smoking Weed in the President's Face – Hockey
• Tripped Into Divine – Dexter Freebish
• Watching the Snow – Michael Franks
• We Care – The Management

  Popular songs

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

11. Confessions – Usher
12. Feels Like Home – Norah Jones
13. Encore – Eminem
14. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb – U2
15. Under My Skin – Avril Lavigne
16. Love. Angel. Music. Baby. – Gwen Stefani
17. Greatest Hits – Robbie Williams
18. Greatest Hits – Shania Twain
19. Destiny Fulfilled – Destiny's Child
20. Greatest Hits – Guns N' Roses
21. Songs About Jane – Maroon 5
22. American Idiot – Green Day
23. Elephunk – The Black Eyed Peas
24. – Britney Spears
25. Anastacia – Anastacia

    Classical music

• Michel van der Aa – Second self
• Louis Andriessen – Racconto dall'Inferno
• Cornelis de Bondt – Madame Daufine
• Elliott Carter – Réflexions
• George Crumb – Winds of Destiny for soprano, percussion quartet and piano
• Mario Davidovsky – Sefarad: Four Spanish-Ladino Folkscenes, baritone voice, flute, clarinet, percussion, violin and cello
• Joël-François Durand – Ombre/Miroir for flute and 14 instruments
• Ross Edwards – Concerto for Guitar and Strings
• Ivan Fedele – Odos
• Lorenzo Ferrero – Guarini, the Master for violin and strings
• Philip Glass – Symphony No. 7 Toltec
• Georg Friedrich Haas – Haiku
• Hans Werner Henze – Sebastian im Traum
• Alun Hoddinott – Trombone Concerto
• York Höller – Ex Tempore
• Guus Janssen
• *Memory Protect Extended
• *Wankeling
• Karl Jenkins – In These Stones Horizons Sing
• Jan Klusák – Axis Temporum
• Rolands Kronlaks – Paion
• Hanna Kulenty – Run
• Theo Loevendie – De 5 Driften
• Frederik Magle – Souffle le vent, 1st symphonic poem from the suite Cantabile.
• Roderik de Man – Mensa Sa
• Peter Maxwell Davies
• *Naxos Quartet No. 4 Children's Games
• *Naxos Quartet No. 5
• Marijn Simons
• *Symphony No 1, Opus 26
• *String Quartet No. 3, Opus 27
• Dobrinka Tabakova
• *Concerto for Viola and Strings
• *Schubert Arpeggione, arrangement for string orchestra
• *Suite in Old Style for viola, strings and harpsichord
• *Whispered Lullaby for viola and piano

  Opera

• Thomas Adès – The Tempest
• Harrison Birtwistle – The Io Passion
• William Bolcom – A Wedding

  Jazz

Musical theater

• Assassins – Broadway production opened at Studio 54 and ran for 101 performances
• Bombay Dreams – Broadway production opened at The Broadway Theatre and ran for 284 performances
• Fiddler On The Roof – Broadway revival
• The Woman in White, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by David Zippel and book by Charlotte Jones, freely adapted from the novel by Wilkie Collins – London production opened on September 15 at the Palace Theatre, London.
• People Are Wrong! – Off-Broadway production

  Musical films

• Alt for Egil, starring Kristoffer Joner
• Beyond the Sea, starring Kevin Spacey as Bobby Darin
• Bride and Prejudice, starring Aishwarya Rai
• De-Lovely released June 13, starring Kevin Kline as Cole Porter and Ashley Juddk
• Home on the Range, a Disney animated feature
• Ray, starring Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles
• Red Riding Hood
• Pixel Perfect, a Disney Channel Original Movie that is also a musical.
• The Phantom of the Opera, starring Emmy Rossum as Christine and Gerard Butler as the Phantom
• Where's Firuze?, starring Haluk Bilginer and Demet Akbağ

  Births

• January 4 – Alexa Curtis, Australian singer, Winner of The Voice Kids Australia, Coach was Delta Goodrem
• January 10 – Kaitlyn Maher, American child singer and actress
• January 15 – Grace VanderWaal, American musician, singer/songwriter, ukelele player
• June 4 – Mackenzie Ziegler, American dancer, singer, actress and model

  Deaths

January–February

• January 3 – Ronald Smith, 82, British pianist
• January 6 – Jimmy Hassell, 62, Guitarist/co-lead singer in The First Edition from 1972–76
• January 12 – Randy VanWarmer, 48, songwriter and guitarist
• January 15 – Terje Bakken, 25, also known as Valfar, lead singer and founder of Norwegian black/folk metal band Windir
• January 16 – John Siomos, 56, drummer
• January 17
• *Czeslaw Niemen, 65, Polish rock singer
• *Tom Rowe, 53, musician
• January 22
• *Billy May, 87, US big band & pop music arranger
• *Ann Miller, 80, actress, singer and dancer
• January 28 – Mel Pritchard, 56, drummer of Barclay James Harvest
• January 30 – Julius Dixson, 90, songwriter and record company executive
• February 3 – Cornelius Bumpus, 58, musician
• February 6 – Jørgen Jersild, 90, Danish composer and music educator
• February 8 – Cem Karaca, 58, Turkish singer and composer
• February 16 – Doris Troy, 67, R&B singer
• February 21
• *Les Gray, 57, English singer
• *Bart Howard, 88, composer and pianist
• February 23
• *Don Cornell, 84, US singer
• *Alvino Rey, 95, US bandleader and guitarist
• February 24 – A.C. Reed, 77, blues saxophonist

  March–April

• March 4 – John McGeoch, 48, British guitarist with Magazine, Siouxsie and the Banshees and PiL
• March 6 – Peggy DeCastro, 82, US singer born in the Dominican Republic, eldest of the DeCastro Sisters
• March 9 – Rust Epique, 36, guitarist
• March 10 – Dave Schulthise, 47, punk bassist
• March 11 – Edmund Sylvers, 47, lead singer of The Sylvers
• March 13 – Vilayat Khan, 75, sitar player
• March 15 – Eva Likova, 84, operatic soprano
• March 16 – Vilém Tauský, 93, Czech conductor and composer
• March 18
• *Vytas Brenner, 57, musician, keyboardist and composer
• *Erna Spoorenberg, 78, Dutch operatic soprano
• March 21 – Johnny Bristol, 65, singer, songwriter and record producer
• March 26 – Jan Berry, 62, US singer of Jan and Dean
• March 30 – Timi Yuro, 63, soul and R&B singer and songwriter
• April 1 – Paul Atkinson, 58, guitarist for The Zombies
• April 3 – Gabriella Ferri, 62, Italian singer
• April 6 – Niki Sullivan, 66, guitarist for The Crickets
• April 9 – Harry Babbitt, 90, US singer with Kay Kyser & his Orchestra
• April 10 – Jacek Kaczmarski, 47, Polish poet and singer, the bard of Solidarity
• April 15
• *Ray Condo, 53, Canadian rockabilly musician
• *Hans Gmür, 77, Swiss theatre author, director, composer and producer

  May–June

• May 1 – Felix Haug, 52, Swiss pop musician
• May 5 – Coxsone Dodd, 72, Jamaican record producer
• May 6 – Barney Kessel, 80, jazz guitarist
• May 11 – John Whitehead, 55, R&B artist
• May 12 – John LaPorta, 84, Jazz clarinetist, composer and educator
• May 17
• *Gunnar Graps, 52, Estonian singer
• *Elvin Jones, 76, Jazz Drummer, notably with the John Coltrane Quartet of the 1960s
• May 19 – Arnold Moore, 90, blues artist
• May 23 – Gundars Mauševics, 29, Latvian guitarist of Brainstorm
• May 31 – Robert Quine, 61, guitarist
• June 2 – Billboard, 25, rapper, The Game's best friend
• June 4 – Irene Manning, 91, US actress, singer and dancer
• June 6 – Iona Brown, 63, conductor and violinist
• June 7 – Quorthon, 38, Swedish multi-instrumentalist, founder and songwriter of Bathory
• June 10 – Ray Charles, 73, US singer and pianist
• June 15 – James F. Arnold, 72, first tenor with the Four Lads
• June 17 – Jackie Paris, 77, US jazz singer
• June 27 – Sis Cunningham, 95, folk musician

  July–August

• July 6 – Syreeta Wright, 57, singer
• July 13
• *Arthur Kane, 55, bassist
• *Carlos Kleiber, 74, conductor
• July 21 – Jerry Goldsmith, 75, US composer, Academy Award winner
• July 22
• *Illinois Jacquet, 81, US jazz saxophonist
• *Sacha Distel, 71, French singer
• August 2 – Don Tosti, 81, American composer
• August 6
• *Rick James, 56, US funk singer
• *Argentino Ledesma, 75, Argentinian singer
• *Tony Mottola, 86, US Guitarist
• August 9 – David Raksin, 92, US composer
• August 15 – William Herbert York, 85, bassist for Drifting Cowboys
• August 17 – Bernard Odum, 72, bass player for James Brown
• August 18 – Elmer Bernstein, 82, US composer
• August 20 – María Antonieta Pons, 82, Cuban Rumbera
• August 26 – Laura Branigan, 47, US singer
• August 31 – Carl Wayne, 61, vocalist

  September–October

• September 2 – Billy Davis
• September 11 – Juraj Beneš, 64, Slovak composer
• September 12
• *John Buller, 77, British composer
• *Kenny Buttrey, 59, Nashville session drummer
• *Fred Ebb, 72, US lyricist
• September 15 – Johnny Ramone, 55, US guitarist and founding member of The Ramones
• September 16 – Izora Armstead, 62, member of The Weather Girls
• September 30 – Jacques Levy, 69, songwriter and theatre director
• October 1 – Bruce Palmer, 58, bassist of Buffalo Springfield
• October 19 – Greg Shaw, 55, music historian and record label owner
• October 25 – John Peel, 65, British DJ and broadcaster
• October 28 – Gil Melle, 72, film and television music composer

  November–December

• November 1
• *Mac Dre, 34, Bay Area rapper
• *Terry Knight, 61, lead singer of Terry Knight and the Pack and manager-producer of Grand Funk Railroad
• November 12 – Usko Meriläinen, 74, Finnish composer
• November 13
• *John Balance, 42, British musician from Coil
• *Ol' Dirty Bastard, 35, African American rapper
• *Carlo Rustichelli, 87, Italian film composer
• November 14 – Michel Colombier, 65, composer
• November 18 – Cy Coleman, 75, US composer
• November 19 – Terry Melcher, 62, musician and producer
• December 2 – Kevin Coyne, 60, singer, composer and guitarist
• December 8 – Dimebag Darrell, 38, former Pantera guitarist
• December 13 – Alex Soria, 39, guitarist for The Nils
• December 14 – Sidonie Goossens, 105, harpist
• December 16 -Freddie Perren, 61, songwriter, producer, arranger and conductor
• December 19 – Renata Tebaldi, 82, operatic soprano
• December 20 – Son Seals, 62, blues musician
• December 26 – Sigurd Køhn, 45, Norwegian jazz saxophonist
• December 27 – Hank Garland, 74, Nashville session guitarist
• December 30 – Artie Shaw, 94, Swing Era Clarinetist and Bandleader

  Awards

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