See also:

• 2004 in music (UK)
• Musical groups established in 2004
• Record labels established in 2004

Events

• January 1
• Vienna New Year's Concert by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Vienna, 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 was annulled two days later.
• January 15 Valfar, vocalist of black metal band Windir, dies in a blizzard of hypothermia.
• February 1 - Daron Hagen is appointed President of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation in New York City.
• 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 that band.
• February 24 - "Leave (Get Out)", JoJo's first hit single was released.
• 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 16 - Godsmack releases an EP titled The Other Side, which contains acoustic reworkings of some of their songs
• 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.
• Anastacia makes come back after cancer

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 - Blender magazine's May issue includes a "50 Worst Songs Ever!" list. "We Built This City," by Starship, is rated worst.
• May 10 - Keane release Hopes and Fears which converted into 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 - European Festival of Youth Choirs (EJCF) 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
• Jam band 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.
• Slipknot releases their third studio album Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses).
• May 26 - Fantasia Barrino wins the third season of American Idol, defeating Diana DeGarmo.
• June
• Staind start recording their fourth album, produced by David Bottrill.
• Velvet Revolver's first album Contraband debuts in the top slot on the Billboard album charts, selling over 250,000 copies its first week out.
• June - The Ramones guitarist Johnny Ramone is hospitalized in Los Angeles with prostate cancer and diagnosed.
• 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 10th.
• June 8- My Chemical Romance release their second album "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge."
• June 10 - Legendary blues and soul pianist and singer Ray Charles dies of liver disease at the age of 73.
• June 12 - The Los Angeles, California radio station KROQ 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.
• 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.
• New classic rock and New Wave-influenced bands such as the Killers begin to oust nu metal bands.
• 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 31 - Dispatch performs their last live show at the DCR Hatchshell in Boston, MA.
• August - Wes Borland returns to Limp Bizkit.
• 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.
• September 28
• Brian Wilson completes SMiLE, 37 years after its original planned release.
• October 11 - The original lineup of Duran Duran release their new album Astronaut, which was preceded by the single "(Reach Up For The) Sunrise".
• October 23 - Ashlee Simpson is accused of lip-synching after an abortive live performance on the television show Saturday Night Live.
• October 26 - Legendary DJ John Peel dies, after 40 years of massive influence upon popular music.
• November 4 - Three members of the band RAM, who all lived in a neighborhood known for its support of the then-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 - Shania Twain releases her Compilation album she called Greatest Hits, that contains her biggest hits from her 3 Diamond albums The Woman in Me , Come on Over and Up!.
• November 12 - Eminem's fourth major studio album, Encore is released four days before planned to combat 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 15 - "Breathe" single by Fabolous was released.
• November 24th - Brian & Eric Hoffman leave Deicide due to Royalities.
• December - Ned's Atomic Dustbin begins touring with 5 upcoming shows.
• November 30 - "Jay-Z and Linkin Park's album Collision Course debuts at number #01 at the Billboard 200, and the album converted in the most selling CD/DVD of that year.
• December 7 - Lindsay Lohan releases her debut album Speak
• December 8 - Dimebag Darrell is shot in the head 5 times
• December 11-12 - The Los Angeles, California radio station KROQ 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 14th - 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.
• Undated - Jack Owen leaves Cannibal Corpse to Focus on Adrift.

Bands formed

• A Little Bitter
• Ahab
• Alesana
• Alter Bridge
• Arctic Monkeys
• Asobi Seksu
• Band of Horses
• Cartel
• Cancer Bats
• Catherine
• The Car Is on Fire
• Celestiial
• Chrome Division
• Circa Survive
• Cold War Kids
• Crystal Castles
• The Devil Wears Prada
• Folkearth
• Frost
• The Grascals
• Hazen Street
• HeavyHeavyLowLow
• The Hush Sound
• I Am the Avalanche
• The Moog
• Nightmare of You
• Paramore
• Portugal. The Man
• RBD
• Red
• Saosin
• Scar Symmetry
• Test Icicles
• Veda

Bands disbanded

• Apartment 26
• Audiovent
• B2K
• The Beta Band
• Beulah
• Creed
• Damageplan
• Eve 6
• Gene
• Give Up the Ghost
• God Lives Underwater
• The Libertines
• Midtown
• Onelinedrawing
• Orbital
• Phish
• Sixpence None the Richer
• Small Brown Bike
• Soluna (hiatus)
• The Unicorns
• The Watchmen
• Windir

Bands re-formed

• Fear Factory (without original member Dino Cazares.)
• Megadeth
• Restless Heart
• Destiny's Child
• Vaya Con Dios

Albums released

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Unknown Release Date

• Tripped Into Divine - Dexter Freebish
• Bombs Below - Living Things
• Black Skies in Broad Daylight - Living Things
• Guerilla Disco - Quarashi

Top hits

• "Amazing" - George Michael
• "Breaking the Habit" - Linkin Park
• "Call On Me" - Eric Prydz
• "Dragostea din tei" - Haiducii
• "Dragostea din tei" - O-Zone
• "Dry Your Eyes" - The Streets
• "Everybody's Changing" - Keane
• "Everytime" - Britney Spears
• "Femme Like U (Donne-moi ton corps)" - K'Maro
• "From the Inside" - Linkin Park
• "Hey Ya!" - OutKast
• "I Don't Wanna Know" - Mario Winans featuring Enya & P.Diddy
• "Last Train Home" - Lostprophets
• "La Rivière de notre enfance" - Garou and Michel Sardou
• "Leave (Get Out)" - JoJo
• "Left Outside Alone" - Anastacia
• "Lying from You" - Linkin Park
• "Mockingbird" - Eminem
• "Modern Times" - J-five
• "Mr. Brightside" - The Killers
• "My Band" - D12
• "My Immortal" - Evanescence
• "My Happy Ending" - Avril Lavigne
• "My Secret Life" - Eric Burdon
• "Obsesión" - Aventura
• "Run" - Snow Patrol
• "She Will Be Loved" - Maroon 5
• "Shut Up" - Black Eyed Peas
• "Si demain... (Turn Around)" - Bonnie Tyler and Kareen Antonn
• "Somebody Told Me" - The Killers
• "Somewhere Only We Know" - Keane
• "Take Me Out" - Franz Ferdinand
• "Time Is Running Out" - Muse
• "Talk About Our Love" - Brandy featuring Kanye West
• "This Love" - Maroon 5
• "Toxic" - Britney Spears
• "Yeah!" - Usher featuring Lil Jon & Ludacris

Top 10 selling albums of the year in the US

1. Usher - Confessions
2. Norah Jones - Feels like Home
3. Eminem - Encore
4. Kenny Chesney - When the Sun Goes Down
5. Gretchen Wilson - Here for the Party
6. Tim McGraw - Live Like You Were Dying
7. Maroon 5 - Songs about Jane
8. Evanescence - Fallen
9. Ashlee Simpson - Autobiography
10. Jay-Z - The Black Album (Jay-Z)

Classical music

• Michel van der Aa - Second self
• Louis Andriessen - Racconto dall'Inferno
• Caroline Ansink - Sub Finem
• Vykintas Baltakas - Ouroboros
• Gerard Beljon - Morgen
• Valton Beqiri - Echos,os,os....
• Caroline Berkenbosch - Monument 35
• Cornelis de Bondt - Madame Daufine
• Anke Brouwer - Hammerfest
• Elliott Carter - Réflexions
• George Crumb - Winds of Destiny for soprano, percussion quartet and piano
• Mario Davidovsky - Sefarad: Four Spanish-Ladino Folkscenes, baritone voice, flute (piccolo, alto flute), clarinet (bass clarinet), percussion, violin and cello
• Jorrit Dijkstra - Veeg
• Wim Dirriwachter - Blanco
• David Dramm - Bitter Green Lullabies
• Joël-François Durand - Ombre/Miroir for flute and 14 instruments
• Benjamin Dwyer - Afterjoyce
• Mohammed Fairouz - Elegiac Verses
• Ivan Fedele - Odos
• Ron Ford - Ratrace
• Steven R. Gerber - Chaconne and Fugue for Viola and Cello
• Philip Glass - Symphony No. 7 Toltec
• Georg Friedrich Haas - Haiku
• Jeff Hamburg - Songs from Joshe Kalb
• Jörg Herchet - Sich Verräumlichend. Komposition 4 für Orchester
• Rozalie Hirs - Platonic ID
• Alun Hoddinott - Trombone Concerto
• York Höller - Ex Tempore
• Guus Janssen
• Memory Protect Extended
• Wankeling
• Karl Jenkins - In These Stones Horizons Sing
• Bart de Kemp - Ankers
• Jan Klusák - Axis Temporum
• Hans Kox - Twelve Monographies
• Rolands Kronlaks - Paion
• Hanna Kulenty - Run
• Theo Loevendie - De 5 Driften
• Roderik de Man - Mensa Sa
• Peter Maxwell Davies
• Naxos Quartet No. 4 Children's Games
• Naxos Quartet No. 5
• Matthew McConnell - Concerto for Toy Piano and Orchestra
• Mayke Nas - Musique qui sent la table et la pantoufle
• Willem Wander van Nieuwkerk - Dido's klacht
• Seung-Ah Oh - Circle
• Christina Viola Oorebeek - Traces of Anthem
• Martijn Padding - And Trees Would Sing
• Gao Ping - Twelve-Hour Bridge

Opera

• William Bolcom - A Wedding

Musical theater

• Assassins Broadway production
• Bombay Dreams Broadway production
• Fiddler On The Roof Broadway revival
• Jerry Springer - The Opera by Richard Thomas & Stewart Lee
• 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. Opened on September 15 at the Palace Theatre, London.
• People Are Wrong! Off-Broadway production

Musical films

• Beyond the Sea, starring Kevin Spacey as Bobby Darin
• De-Lovely released June 13 starring Kevin Kline as Cole Porter and Ashley Judd
• 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

Births

Deaths

• January 13 - Philip Crosby, 69, member of Crosby Boys band, son of crooner Bing Crosby
• January 17
• Czeslaw Niemen (65) - Polish rock singer
• Tom Rowe, musician
• January 22
• Billy May (87) - US big band & pop music arranger
• Ann Miller, actress, singer and dancer
• January 28 - Mel Pritchard, 56, drummer of Barclay James Harvest
• February 1 - Rocco Clein, 35, journalist, musician
• February 3 - Cornelius Bumpus, 58, musician (The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan)
• February 8 - Cem Karaca, 58, Turkish singer and composer
• February 16 - Doris Troy, 67, R&B singer
• February 21 - Bart Howard, 88, composer and pianist
• February 23
• Don Cornell, 84, US singer
• Alvino Rey, 95, US bandleader and guitarist
• 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 16 - Vilém Tauský, 93, Czech conductor and composer
• March 18 - Vytas Brenner, 57,musician, keyboardist and composer
• March 26 - Jan Berry, US singer of Jan and Dean
• March 28 - Sylvia Froos, 89, US singer
• April 3 - Gabriella Ferri, 62, Italian Singer
• 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
• Hans Gmür, 77, Swiss theatre author, director, composer and producer
• Ray Condo, Canadian rockabilly musician (b. 1950)
• May 1 - Felix Haug, 52, Swiss pop musician (Double)
• May 5 - Coxsone Dodd, 72, Jamaican record producer
• May 12
• John LaPorta, 84, Jazz clarinetist, composer and educator
• John Whitehead, 55, R&B artist, shot dead
• May 17 - 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
• 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 10 - Ray Charles, 73, US singer and pianist
• June 15 - James F. Arnold, 72, first tenor with the Four Lads
• June 17 - Jackie Paris, US jazz singer
• July 13 - Carlos Kleiber, 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 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 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, The Hollies , The Move , The Vikings
• September 11 Juraj Beneš, 64, Slovak composer
• September 12
• John Buller, 77, British composer
• 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 19 - Skeeter Davis, 72, US country singer
• October 25 - John Peel, 65, British DJ and broadcaster
• October 28 - Gil Melle, 72, film and television music composer
• November 1 - Mac Dre, 34, Bay Area rapper
• 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
• December 8 - Dimebag Darrell, 38, former Pantera guitarist, shot to death in Ohio
• December 13 - Alex Soria, 39, guitarist for The Nils
• December 14 - Sidonie Goossens, 105, harpist
• December 19 - Renata Tebaldi, 82, operatic soprano
• December 20 - Son Seals, 62, blues musician
• December 26 - Sigurd Kohn, 45, Norwegian saxiphonist of The Real Thing
• 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

External links

• KATS-FM
• New Rock 94.7 The Zone - WZZN-FM - Chicago
• Pause & Play's On The CD Front
• VH1
• MTV
• Rolling Stone