(April 15, 2024). There’s something magical — even mystical — about years ending in “4” when it comes to music.
Something special, in fact… especially in even-numbered decades like this one.
Without exception, those years have generated some of the most impactful, most influential, culturally shifting, and most historical musical moments (and songs/albums) since the rock-and-roll era began nearly 70 years ago.
Not that other years haven’t also done so, but rarely, if ever, have they done it with the kind of consistency and patterning established by the 4’s, specifically 1964, 1984, and 2004.
And it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the rock era itself began with a song that was originally recorded in a year that ended in 4: 1954.
That was when the classic version of Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock” — the song whose popularity has been credited with ushering in the rock era a year later — was originally recorded. It was after its rerelease in 1955 that “Clock” really took off after being included in the film Blackboard Jungle.
But ever since that seminal moment in rock-and-roll history, the even-decade years that end in 4 — specifically beginning with 1964 and recurring every 20 years — have produced blockbuster moments that have shaped music history for the years and decades that followed.
Well, here we find ourselves in another such year — just over a quarter of the way through, in fact — and we’re left to ponder whether 2024 can live up to the huge creative and industry-shifting precedents set by its three 20-year predecessors, musically and historically speaking.
There are some promising signs for the current year, which I’ll get to at the end of the article, but first a recap of 1964, ‘84 and 2004 with just some of the unprecedented and historic moments that made those years stand out.
1964
It was in early 1964 that the Beatles — already popular in Europe in ‘63 — came to the U.S. to launch their unprecedented assault on our record charts amid the debut of their first American hit, “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
The Fab Four — Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — of course, would go on to become the most revered and most influential band in the history of recorded music.
Beginning in January, “Hand” remained on the U.S. charts for months and was followed in rapid succession by more from the Beatles, including “She Loves You,” “Please Please Me,” “Twist and Shout,” “Do You Want to Know a Secret,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” and “Love Me Do,” among many others.
In 1964, the four lads from Liverpool hit No. 1 with six different songs — which is STILL a calendar-year record (despite streaming’s current attempts to shatter every Beatles record known to man). On April 4, the foursome occupied all five of the top slots on the Hot 100 (no act matched that feat during the 20th century and only Taylor Swift and Drake have done it since, with streaming making it much easier).
By the end of the year, Beatlemania had clearly taken over the world.
Though they only remained together until 1970, it is likely that no other rock band has been more cited in music journals — nor its songs more covered by other artists — than the Beatles.
Almost as importantly, the Fab Four started the British Music Invasion in this country with acts like the Rolling Stones, the Dave Clark Five, the Kinks, the Who, the Animals, Dusty Springfield, Peter and Gordon, the Yardbirds, Herman’s Hermits, the Hollies, Petula Clark and many others all dominating America’s radio stations and record stores in ‘64 and the years to come.
Some of the classic non-Beatles songs to come out of 1964 from British acts included “The House of the Rising Sun” (Animals), “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” (Manfred Mann), “A World Without Love” (Peter & Gordon), “She’s Not There” (Zombies), “Time is On My Side” (Rolling Stones), “Wishin’ and Hopin’” (Dusty Springfield), “You Really Got Me” (The Kinks), and “I’m Into Something Good” (Herman’s Hermits).
But it wasn’t all about British music that year.
Iconic American acts arguably made some of their best music in 1964 as well. Roy Orbison topped the charts with the timeless “Oh, Pretty Woman.” The Beach Boys continued making hits with classics like the No. 1 “I Get Around” and top-5 “Fun, Fun, Fun.” And Beatle-killer (at least temporarily) Louis Armstrong struck No. 1 gold with “Hello Dolly!”
American women continued with timeless entries as well. Dionne Warwick’s “Walk on By” (immortalized in last year’s No. 1 “Paint the Town Red” by rapper Doja Cat), Leslie Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me,” Barbra Streisand’s “People” and Dixie Cups’ “Chapel of Love” all hit big in 1964.
So did The Shangri-Las who, like the Dixie Cups, hit No. 1 with “Leader of the Pack.” Between those two groups and the Supremes, five songs by “girl groups” topped the Hot 100 in ‘64, still the most ever in a calendar year.
Protest music was also gaining ground during ‘64 at the height of the Civil Rights movement.
Bob Dylan released his landmark protest record The Times They Are A-Changin’ that year.
And speaking of changing times, Sam Cooke’s album Ain’t That Good News — itself considered one of soul music’s all-time best — featured his landmark social protest record “A Change Is Gonna Come,” released only months before the legendary singer was killed in an infamous hotel incident that December.
With the enactment of the Civil Rights Act that summer — signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson — no two songs could have been more prescient in the pivotal year of ‘64 than those two by Dylan and Cooke.
But the first full year of Johnson’s presidency was also the year that another major American force in ‘60s music really exploded: Motown Records.
It was during that summer that the Supremes had their first No. 1 with “Where Did Our Love Go,” after years of trying to get a major hit with very little success. They rapidly followed with a string of No. 1s including “Baby Love,” “Come See About Me” (both topping the chart before ‘64 ended), and nine more chart toppers before the decade was done.
While Motown was already becoming a formidable force in the industry prior to ‘64 with hits by Martha and the Vandellas, Mary Wells, Little Stevie Wonder, and Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, the Supremes’ 1964 success took the label to another level, helping make it the most successful independent label of the ‘60s with one of the most incredible artist rosters in history.
And there was still room at the top for two Motown girl groups. While the Supremes were riding high in the fall of ‘64 with both “Baby Love” and “Where Did Our Love Go,” Martha & the Vandellas hit big with their signature classic “Dancing in the Street” (relegated to runner-up status on the Billboard chart by Manfred Mann’s “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”).
“Dancing,” itself co-opted into a Civil Rights anthem, has proven so venerable that it’s been remade into top-40 hits by the likes of rock icons Van Halen and David Bowie & Mick Jagger, plus other non-hit versions by the Mamas & the Papas, the Grateful Dead, and the Kinks.
Motown’s second-biggest group of the era, the Temptations, also exploded onto the scene in 1964 after having lackluster sales in prior years. Their first Hot 100 single and first No. 1 R&B hit, “The Way You Do the Things You Do” was released that January, while their signature single (and first No. 1 pop hit), “My Girl,” was issued that December (topping the charts in 1965).
And Motown’s greatest crooner, Marvin Gaye, who’d only scored three top-40 hits prior to ‘64, achieved six in that year alone — the most he’d attain in any calendar year — including his biggest to that date, “How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You.”
The year 1964 was indeed a landmark one for British pop, Motown soul, girl groups, protest music, and rock and roll music in general.
With a largely upbeat canon of hits coming during a time when music was arguably at its most creative, it’s not lost on this blogger that 1964 also came in the immediate aftermath of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination the previous November when America had been in weeks of mourning and despair.
It was time for a reawakening, so to speak, and music apparently provided that for millions of people in need of uplift.
Indeed 1964 proved to be a historic year for music, but 1984 was no slouch either.
1984
The year President Ronald Reagan won reelection by a historic landslide has been heralded by some music historians as the greatest year in pop. And there’s good evidence to backup that claim.
Like 1964, the year 1984 began in the wake of one of the most culturally impactful and historical events occurring the year before.
Except, in this case, it was an event that did not involve a president’s death and was largely positive for the music industry — one that changed how albums would be marketed forever.
That event was Thriller, both the album and the music video (for its title track). By the end of 1983, Michael Jackson’s juggernaut had become the best-selling LP in history (and still is).
Indeed, Thriller, released at the tail-end of 1982, was still a major force in ‘84. It began the new year at the top of the Billboard 200 and spent nearly four more months at No. 1.
Thriller’s continued dominance was largely due to the title track and seventh single — released commercially in January 1984 — and its music video, which had premiered on MTV the month before.
With the kind of popularity that would be considered “viral” today, demand for the album was at its highest levels yet with reports of more than a million physical copies a week being moved by CBS/Epic Records during the early winter months of December’83/ Jan. ‘84. Thriller would end 1984 as it had 1983: the top-selling album on Billboard’s year-end charts.
But, more importantly, the top-10 success of “Thriller” — the single — and all six of its predecessors (“The Girl Is Mine,” “Billie Jean,” “Beat It,” etc.), changed how hit albums would be marketed going forward.
Gone were the days when a label would shelve an album after two or three single releases. By ‘84, an LP wasn’t considered a blockbuster success unless it had a minimum of four top-40 and, in many cases, at least three top-10 hits, while selling millions of copies.
As examples, the following thirteen multi-platinum albums generated at least three top-10 singles apiece in 1984 or were released that year and would later achieve that many: Can’t Slow Down (Lionel Richie), Sports (Huey Lewis & the News), Seven and the Ragged Tiger (Duran Duran), Breakout(Pointer Sisters), She’s So Unusual (Cyndi Lauper), Footloose soundtrack, Private Dancer (Tina Turner), Born In the USA (Bruce Springsteen ), Suddenly (Billy Ocean), Purple Rain (Prince & the Revolution), Make It Big (Wham!), Emergency (Kool & the Gang), and Like A Virgin (Madonna).
All but four of those albums (by Turner, Ocean, Kool & the Gang, and Duran Duran) had at least four top-10 hits apiece, and all but five (by the Pointer Sisters, Kool & the Gang, Ocean, Duran Duran, and Wham!) had at least five top-40 singles each.
Madison Square Garden alumnus Billy Joel’s 1983 LP An Innocent Man joined this group with four top-40 singles in 1984 (and six overall), plus the Footloose soundtrack and Born in the USA each had six and seven top-40 hits, respectively.
Never before had so many albums generated that many hits apiece (Thriller had been only the fourth in history to have at least four top tens… after Jackson’s own Off The Wall, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, and the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever).
The album competition was so great in 1984 — and the bar set so high — that only five LPs were able to occupy the No. 1 position on the Billboard 200 during the calendar year: Thriller, Footloose, Sports, Born in the USA, and Purple Rain. A typical year in the 21st century sees that many by the end of February.
That total, btw, is still the fewest No. 1s during any year in album chart history.
Further adding to 1984’s accomplishments, former Commodore Lionel Richie made history when his late-1983 No. 1 LP Can’t Slow Down rode the top ten of the Billboard 200 every week in 1984, making it the first time any album had ever done that in a calendar year.
But there was more to 1984 than amazing chart feats and blockbuster albums. The music itself was phenomenal. It was an unusual time when the general consensus was that the charts and the critics were aligned on what was considered some of the greatest music of the year and, arguably, the decade.
A large part of the euphoria surrounding 1984 was owed to MTV — then Music Television — which had been launched in 1981 and whose growth was synonymous with that of Jackson.
By ‘84, MTV was in peak form with artists and labels now totally committed to the platform. For the first time in history, every song that reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 that year had an official accompanying music video. It was also the year of the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards where Madonna gave her now-legendary performance of “Like a Virgin.”
While there was no singular artist that dominated the landscape quite like the Beatles had 20 years earlier (or like MJ had in ‘83), there were several American megastars in the making in 1984.
Scoring their first No. 1 singles that year were Cyndi Lauper (“Time After Time”), Prince (“When Doves Cry”), Phil Collins (“Against All Odds”), and Madonna (“Virgin”), while Bruce Springsteen had a near-miss with the first single (“Dancing in the Dark”) from his landmark Born in the USA LP.
And similar to 1964, we were in the throes of a second British Music Invasion with acts like Duran Duran, Culture Club and Wham! leading the way. All three bands scored their first U.S. No. 1 singles (respectively, “The Reflex,” “Karma Chameleon” and “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go”) in ‘84.
Other British acts riding this second wave across the Atlantic in ‘84 included Bananarama, Wang Chung, the Fixx, John Waite, Eurythmics, Billy Idol, Berlin, Elvis Costello, Howard Jones, Thompson Twins, New Order, The Smiths, Talk Talk, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Tracey Ulllman, The Cure, and many others.
European acts led the charge with socially conscious fare in ‘84 as well. Band-Aid, led by Irish rock band Boomtown Rats leader Bob Geldof and consisting of some of the biggest British acts of the day, recorded “Do They Know It’s Christmas” to address famine in Africa.
The rising Irish Band U2 recorded one of the most important social anthems of the decade in “Pride (In The Name of Love),” commemorating the legacy of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s anti-war “Two Tribes” made waves in Britain before the group crossed the Atlantic and blew up in here in America.
And on the American front, Springsteen’s “Born In The USA,” released as a single in October, famously tackled the ills of the Vietnam War.
Motion picture soundtracks made a huge comeback in 1984 as well. There were seven No. 1 songs from movies that year (“Footloose,” “Against All Odds,” “Let’s Hear It For The Boy,” “When Doves Cry,” “Ghostbusters,” “Let’s Go Crazy,” and “I Just Called to Say I Love You”). That beat the previous record of six, set in ‘78 when six songs from Saturday Night Fever and Grease topped the chart.
And speaking of Saturday Night Fever, dance music also made a big return in 1984, achieving its biggest share of top-20 pop crossover hits since disco’s heyday five years earlier.
Thanks in large part to doors that had been opened by Thriller the prior year, artists like Madonna, Shannon, Sheila E., the Romantics, Yes, Ollie & Jerry, Diana Ross, Deniece Williams, Laura Branigan, Irene Cara and too many others to mention all scored with hits that made the top 20 on both the Hot 100 and Billboard’s Hot Dance/Disco chart.
Pop music was so huge in 1984 that even then-73-year-old President Reagan — young by today’s presidential standards — got in on the action. That May, the 40th Commander-in-Chief presented King of Pop Michael Jackson with the Presidential Public Safety Commendation award while noting, “well, isn’t this a Thriller!”
Just a few months later while on the campaign trail in Hammonton, New Jersey, Reagan famously co-opted Springsteen’s No. 1 Born in the USA album when he made the following statement during a stump speech: “America’s future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts. It rests in the message of hope in the songs of a man so many young Americans admire — New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen.”
You can’t say the president’s advisers weren’t well connected (if maybe not so informed by Springsteen’s intent). As noted earlier, Jackson’s and Springsteen’s album’s were the first two in history to generate seven top-10 singles apiece on the Hot 100.
You get the sense that even the artists themselves knew they had been part of something special that year. After the following January’s American Music Awards, which commemorated the best of 1984’s accomplishments, 45 artists — most of them superstars who’d hit big in ‘84 — came together as USA for Africa to record “We Are The World,” written by two of ‘84’s biggest musicians, Jackson and Richie.
In 2024, Richie curated a critically acclaimed documentary commemorating the “Greatest Night in Pop” in a documentary celebrating the anniversary of the recording of “We Are The World,” perhaps in a nod not to 1985, the year it was recorded, but in a 40-year ode to 1984, the year whose events culminated in it.
Nineteen eighty-four had been written about in books (notably George Orwell’s titular classic about the dystopian future that ‘84 was to be), had found its way into the title of a huge album (Van Halen’s big seller that year featuring their biggest hit “Jump”), and was an album track on the biggest comeback story of the decade (Tina Turner’s apocalyptic “1984” from her magnum opus Private Dancer).
The prospect of 1984 as some future mythical year certainly held more than its share of intrigue. And when it finally did arrive, it more than lived up to that promise, musically speaking.
But 2004 had its share of unprecedented musical moments as well.
2004
Like 1964 and ‘84 before it, 2004 was not short on historical significance. It was a year America found itself at the forefront of two wars on foreign soil — in Iraq and Afghanistan. And like ‘64 and ‘84 — both also election years — America elected its incumbent president, George W. Bush, for four more years in office.
The year 2004 was also when MySpace, launched the year before, was on its way to becoming the premier social networking platform in the world (before Facebook, Twitter and others began their takeover later in the decade).
But 2004 also marked the beginning of a sea change in how Americans — and, by extension, the world — would consume music going forward.
Of note, ‘04 was the last year that any physical single (CD, cassette, or vinyl) sold a million copies (just five did that year, none have since).
It was the first year in which paid digital downloads, introduced by Apple via its iTunes Store to combat Napster and free download piracy, would be charted in Billboard. On October 30 that year, the magazine introduced its Hot Digital Songs chart — now just Digital Songs (they’re not so hot anymore) — which has been tracking sales of paid downloads ever since.
That year, 141 million different tracks were downloaded via iTunes, a figure that would more than double the following year and continue exponentially increasing through the remainder of the decade (until streaming took over in the 2010s). Digital downloads — and now streaming — have virtually replaced physical singles as the main means of single-song consumption in this country and abroad.
But equally as compelling as the change in how people were consuming songs (and how Billboard charted them) was what they were buying.
Simply put, if 1964 and ‘84 were characterized by British music invasions, 2004 was the year that America came roaring back.
For the first time in Hot 100 history, every song that topped the chart was by an American act, beginning with Atlanta-based hip-hop duo OutKast in January (“Hey Ya!”) and ending with Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot” (featuring Pharrell Williams) that December.
It was also a year in which pop and R&B/hip-hop had become synonymous with one another. For the first and still only time in Hot 100 history, every song that occupied the No. 1 spot during 2004 was by a Black artist, and all of them had been top-ten hits on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
There were also times in ‘04 when the entire top-10 of the Hot 100 were songs by Black acts, something that hasn’t happened in any year since.
Seven of the year’s top-10 pop acts — Usher, Alicia Keys, OutKast, Beyoncé, Kanye West, Twista and Jay-Z — were also among 2004’s ten biggest R&B/Hip-Hop artists.
One of those artists emerged as the newly crowned king of both genres: Usher.
That January, Usher made an inauspicious debut on the Hot 100 with “Yeah!” featuring Lil Jon & Ludicris. That crunk classic was No. 1 a month-and-a-half later and would spend 12 weeks at the top, easily making it the year’s biggest hit.
“Yeah!” would be replaced at No. 1 by Usher’s follow-up “Burn,” a smoldering ballad that itself spent eight weeks at the top.
In doing so, it made Usher the first non-rap male soloist to replace himself at the top in Hot 100 history. He was also the first artist ever to spend 19 consecutive weeks atop the chart (“Burn” was interrupted after seven weeks by that year’s American Idol winner Fantasia’s “I Believe” before returning for its eighth and final week at No. 1).
And Usher still wasn’t done.
While “Burn” had been in its ascendancy, the album’s title track and third single, “Confessions, Pt. 2,” was released and replaced “Burn” at No. 1 that July, making Usher the first act since the Beatles in 1964 to replace himself at No. 1 twice with consecutive followup hits in the same year.
But Usher still wasn’t done.
Later that summer, he released “My Boo,” a ballad duet with the top female artist of the year, Alicia Keys, which was added to a deluxe version of his Confessions album.
“My Boo” shot to No. 1 in October and spent six weeks there, giving Usher a total of 28 weeks atop the Hot 100 in 2004 alone. That still stands as the most weeks any act has spent at No. 1 during a calendar year in Hot 100 history.
Needless to say, Usher was named by Billboard as the year’s top pop and R&B/hip-hop artist. His songs “Yeah!” and “Burn” were also ranked as the No. 1 and No. 2 songs of 2004, making him the first artist to earn the year’s top two singles since, you guessed it, the Beatles did it in 1964 with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You.”
The album Confessions was the year’s top-seller and has since been certified diamond (with more than 13 million copies sold in the U.S.), making it the biggest R&B album of the 21st century, as well as the biggest-selling album by a Black act since Whitney Houston’s 1992 Bodyguard soundtrack.
Confessions remains the last album by a Black artist to sell more than a million units in one week (1.2 million units sold in its debut frame).
But Usher’s label mates OutKast also had a career year in 2004. Their blockbuster double-CD Speakerboxxx/The Love Below took home the Grammy that year for Best Album, making it the first and still only LP by a rap duo or group (and the second hip-hop act overall after Lauryn Hill) to win music’s top award.
Furthermore, the album’s two landmark singles — the ‘60s pop-leaning “Hey Ya!” (helmed by André 3000) and soulful ‘70s throwback “The Way You Move” (led by Big Boi) — kicked off 2004 in the top two positions of the Hot 100, with the latter replacing the former at No. 1 that February.
OutKast’s dominance to begin the year, followed by Usher’s throughout 2004, made their label LaFace Records the only one to have two of its acts replace themselves at No. 1 in the same calendar year.
And OutKast remains the only regularly recording rap duo or group to have as many as two No. 1 singles (they’ve had three when you throw in 2001’s “Ms. Jackson).
OutKast were proven chart veterans. But the mass public was introduced to a future hip-hop icon in 2004: Kanye West.
Ye’s critically acclaimed College Dropout album yielded the singles “Jesus Walks,” “Through the Wire,” (both released in late 2003) plus “All Falls Down” and his first No. 1 single (with Twista), “Slow Jamz.”
While no one could’ve predicted then the mercurial and highly controversial public figure that West would become over the next two decades (including as a half-seriously taken presidential candidate in 2020), there’s no denying that he’s been one of the most important, most influential artists of the 21st century.
Among 2004’s other major newsmakers was the aforementioned Alicia Keys, the year’s second biggest act, whose album The Diary spawned ‘04’s third-biggest hit (behind Usher’s top two) in “If I Ain’t Got You.”
That classic piano ballad also topped the year-end R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, ahead of Usher’s two biggest hits, and combined with her “Diary” and “You Don’t Know My Name” to give Keys three of the six biggest R&B/Hip-Hop songs of 2004. (Keys famously reprised “If I Ain’t Got You” during her surprise duet with Usher at the 2024 Super Bowl halftime show this past February.)
Women continued to push boundaries in 2004. While Keys played down her sensuality with thoughtfully penned ballads from The Diary, others weren’t so coy.
As the year started, Kelis was still riding high with her clever classic “Milkshake,” a blatantly metaphorical song that saw new life 20 years later in a commercial synch with Uber One.
Britney Spears took on the role of temptress with one of the year’s standout pop moments in “Toxic,” a critically acclaimed single particularly memorable for its video in which Spears played a flirty flight attendant, a new-world biker chick, and a secret agent who poisons her love interest.
And then there was Beyoncé who, of course, was still riding high with singles from her first solo album, Dangerously in Love. The sexy third single “Naughty Girl” rose to No. 3 on the Hot 100 in ‘04 following the success of two huge No. 1s in 2003 — “Crazy in Love” and “Baby Boy” ft. Sean Paul.
While such musical statements from women were highly welcomed in 2004, they didn’t work for everybody in every venue.
That year was the same one with the career-shifting wardrobe malfunction by Janet Jackson (thanks, in part, to Spears’ former boo Justin Timberlake) at Super Bowl XXXVIII.
While Jackson, whose sales quickly eroded because of the fallout (pun intended), would later partially recover from the backlash caused by “Nipplegate,” her career would never be the same, an ironic new reality for the “Control” singer given the preeminence of R&B/Hip-Hop in ‘04 and the fact that she had been one of the genre’s most successful acts of the prior two decades.
But R&B/Hip-Hop (and Usher) — while certainly among the year’s biggest stories — wasn’t 2004’s only story.
Two music icons, ironically both of whom had achieved breakout success in 1984, emerged as the year’s highest grossing touring acts.
Madonna’s “Re-Invention Tour” was the year’s biggest with $125 million in total box office, while Prince’s “Musicology Tour” came in second with $90 million in gross sales.
It was also the year that saw a brief turnaround for CDs, which, for the first time in four years registered an increase in year-over-year sales numbers (by nearly 4%) compared to 2003. It was the only time during the 21st century’s first two decades that CD sales actually increased year-over-year as that physical format eventually ceded its lead to digital downloads and later — go figure — vinyl records(!).
Also experiencing a bit of an oasis that year was rock music, a genre whose ability to regularly generate exciting new acts with mainstream appeal was diminishing with each year of the new millennium.
Amid 2004’s sea of R&B/hip-hop successes, rock groups like the Killers (debut album Hot Fuss and smash singles “Mr. Brightside” and “Somebody Told Me”) and Linkin Park (who continued to mine singles from their landmark 2023 album Meteora, including “Breaking the Habit” and “Numb” — refreshed later that year in a remix with Jay-Z’s “Encore” — offered glimmers of hope for their genre.
Maroon 5, the California pop/rock band led by Adam Levine, scored big singles from its hit-laden 2002 debut album Songs About Jane. In 2004, both “This Love” and “She Will Be Loved” were major hits, with the former ranking as the year’s fourth biggest Hot 100 single behind the aforementioned tunes by Usher and Alicia Keys.
Meanwhile, alternative-punk veterans
Green Day released their political rock opera American Idiot in September 2004.
That critically acclaimed album, with hit singles that would chart well into 2005, including the title track, plus “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” “Holiday” and “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” may be the set — along with 1994’s Dookie — that cemented their Rock Hall of Fame induction in 2015.
Country music, itself experiencing a bit of a renaissance in 2004, was a mix of new, old and in between, and helped add diversity to music’s popular landscape.
The late Toby Keith, who’d earlier raised eyebrows with his response to 9/11 and the 2001 terrorist attacks on America (the 2002 song “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue”), continued as the year’s top country act with the success of his late 2003 album Shock’n Y’all. Newcomer Gretchen Wilson was the year’s most promising upstart with her huge hit “Redneck Woman” (come to think of it, where is she now?).
And iconic inductee to both the Country Music and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame Johnny Cash had 2004’s biggest selling country single (again) with his 2002 version of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt,” a searing ballad whose enduring success that year (it took home the 2004 Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video) outlasted Cash himself, who’d died the previous September from complications due to diabetes.
Like Green Day and Cash, several of 2004’s biggest stars will likely be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame someday, including Beyoncé, Kanye West, OutKast, Usher, Maroon 5, The Killers and Linkin Park.
But the year’s biggest musical story was clearly Usher and R&B/Hip-Hop in general, and the kind of historic dominance the genre hadn’t seen before or since, which brings us to today.
2024
The year of Biden vs. Trump — the rematch — marks the second time in American history that two one-time occupants of the White House were battling it out for a second term (after presidents Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland duked it out for a second time in 1892).
And while America lamented its options in this year’s two main candidates — both of whom are already the two oldest sitting presidents in the country’s history — 2024 has also seen more than its share of rehashing old favorites when it comes to popular music.
The year began with the 1958 classic “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by 79-year-old Brenda Lee topping the Hot 100. Though she recorded the song when she was 13, she is technically the oldest artist to have a No. 1 single in Billboard history.
The following month began what marked a return of three veteran superstars from 2004: Usher, Beyoncé and Kanye West — all now in their 40s and all having career moments this year.
Starting with Usher, who after performing February’s record-breaking and highly acclaimed Super Bowl halftime show, released his latest album, Coming Home, and watched it debut and peak at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. It was his highest charting album in more than a decade.
The album that prevented Usher’s from topping the chart was Kanye’s & Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures 1. That hip-hop collaboration debuted at No. 1 in February to give Ye his eleventh topper (tying him for fifth place all-time among all acts).
Ye, like everyone else in 2004 as noted above, played second fiddle to Usher’s blockbuster Confessions with his College Dropout album, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard charts. Thus, Ye’s No. 1 blockout of Usher in 2024 had to feel like some sort of redemption for a rapper who always seems to be seeking it.
Then there is Beyoncé, the superstar among superstars who, in 2024, released Cowboy Carter, a genre-spanning, deep dive into her southern country roots and arguably her most critically acclaimed album yet.
That No. 1 album — her eighth on the Billboard 200 — has been the most talked-about release not only of 2024, but arguably of the entire decade. It became the first album by a Black female to top the Hot Country Albums chart and remains atop the chart as of this writing.
Even with new albums expected from Taylor Swift — her The Tortured Poets Department is due this Friday (April 19) — and Drake (who has become much maligned by his rap peers, more below) in ‘24, it is Cowboy Carter that we will likely be talking about for decades to come.
But it hasn’t all been about older veterans when it comes to this year’s newsworthy moments.
Relative new acts Teddy Swims and Benson Boone have created highly acclaimed rock-oriented tunes that have struck chords with America and have been battling for chart supremacy for the past two months. Both singer/songwriters will likely be Best New Artist contenders at next year’s Grammy Awards, thanks to the chart-topping successes of “Lose Control” (Swims) and “Beautiful Things” (Boone).
And then there’s hip-hop, the half-century-old genre that, seemingly, took a backseat to country music in 2023. Thanks to some well-timed (and highly potent) diss tracks by A-list rappers, the genre has come roaring back in 2024.
Four of this year’s nine (so far) No. 1 songs have been by rappers (Jack Harlow, Megan Thee Stallion, Kanye & Ty Dolla $ign, and Future/Metro Boomin). And two of them — Megan’s “Hiss” and Future/Metro’s “Like That” (featuring Kendrick Lamar) owe their chart-topping status solely to rap beefs stirred by direct shots contained in the songs’ lyrics.
The latter song has sparked a new World War among hip-hop’s most elite rappers — including Drake, Lamar, J. Cole, Future, Boomin (who doesn’t rap, he produces), and even former A-lister Rick Ross, with each artist issuing (or in Drake’s case, leaking) new diss tracks that have created the kind of buzz hip-hop hasn’t generated in decades.
But like its 20-year predecessors, 2024 is marking its own place in history both in terms of how music is consumed and what music people are consuming most.
This will be the first full year that Billboard has charted the most popular tunes on the social media platform TikTok, itself in danger of being banned by Congress. Undaunted by the proposed legislation, Billboard’s Top 50 TikTok Songs chart will celebrate its first anniversary in September.
And while the prevailing belief is that a song has to be viral on TikTok before it becomes a hit on the Hot 100, there hasn’t been that kind of synergy at the top of the charts. Of the fourteen songs that have topped the TikTok Top 50 since its inauguration, only two — Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and Kanye/Ty’s “Carnival” — have also topped the Hot 100.
Indeed, 2024 has seen a shift in how popular songs are marketed. With the advent of video-sharing platforms, where users now generate their own content soundtracked by popular hits, artists no longer have to create music videos to promote their songs.
Of this year’s seven new No. 1 songs (excluding holdovers from 2023 by Brenda Lee and Jack Harlow), only three have accompanying “official” music videos (two by Ariana Grande and one by Megan Thee Stallion). The remaining four — by Kanye/Ty, Beyoncé, Teddy Swims and Future/Metro — are supported by “lyric videos” or “visualizers” (or both), marking a complete reversal of 1984 (and 2004) when all of the Hot 100’s No. 1 hits had official videos.
And then there’s the what in what fans are consuming the most.
So far in 2024, in perhaps a nod to 2004, every song that has occupied the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 has been by American artists. While it’s still early, it’s rare to go nine No. 1 songs deep into a year without at least one foreign-born artist topping the list.
Perhaps there’s a bit of isolationism at the top of the charts this year, notably an election year in which immigration and America’s role in current foreign wars are hot-button issues. Or, more likely, it’s just coincidence that we haven’t yet seen the likes of Canada’s Drake or Ireland’s Hozier (who’s mounting a huge threat with his current No. 2 smash, “Too Sweet”) at the top of the chart.
While none of this year’s biggest songs so far have offered anything in the way of social commentary in a year that is certainly worthy of it, perhaps it’s fitting that 2024’s music has provided the kind of escapism that used to characterize pop music.
Whatever happens for the rest of the year, only time will tell whether 2024 ultimately owns the kind of historical significance that 1964, 1984, and 2004 had.
This year clearly has a lot to live up to.
But it seems to be off to a good start.
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog and on Meta’s Threads.
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