2004 in Music

The dropout and the chipmunk A producer who spent years begging to be taken seriously as a rapper releases his debut album in February. It sells 441,000 copies in its first week. The production technique is distinctive: soul and gospel vocal samples sped up until they sound like chipmunks, then layered over string arrangements and gospel choirs. One track was recorded with the rapper's jaw wired shut after a car accident. The album wins Best Rap Album at the Grammys, and the rapper who was once told he would never be more than a beatmaker becomes the most influential figure in popular music.

A mask and a fallout shelter A masked rapper and a producer who works out of a converted 1950s fallout shelter release a collaboration album on a small independent label. Most of the instrumentals were built during a trip to Brazil using only a portable sampler, a turntable, and a tape deck. Twenty-two tracks, most under three minutes, no hooks, no choruses, abstract wordplay over samples pulled from jazz records and film scores. It barely charts. Within a few years it is regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever made.

Nine sixteenths of a second During the Super Bowl halftime show in February, a performer's costume tears on live television, exposing skin for a fraction of a second. Over 540,000 complaints hit the FCC. Congress increases indecency fines tenfold. The network's parent company effectively blacklists the female performer from its television and radio stations, while the male performer's career continues to rise. The incident inspires a frustrated viewer who cannot find the clip online to co-found a video-sharing website the following year.

Ten thousand dollars and a funeral A band from Montreal records its debut album for roughly ten thousand dollars, partly in a studio and partly in an apartment, all on analog tape. Multiple band members lose close relatives during the sessions. The finished record layers guitars, strings, accordion, and French-language vocals into arrangements that sound like a congregation singing through grief. It becomes the fastest-selling album in its independent label's history and the record that redefines what an indie band can achieve without a major-label budget.

Jesus of Suburbia A punk trio from the East Bay releases a concept album about American disillusionment, structured as a rock opera with multiple extended suites. It debuts at number one, eventually sells over sixteen million copies, and later becomes a Broadway musical. The band had been written off after a poorly received album four years earlier. The new record wins Best Rock Album at the Grammys and proves that punk, or at least something wearing punk's clothes, can work on the scale of classic rock ambition.

A million in one week An R&B singer releases a confessional album in March that sells 1.1 million copies in its first week, the highest opening ever for an R&B artist. Its lead single, built on a crunk beat with a call-and-response hook, spends twelve weeks at number one. A second single replaces it at the top for another eight weeks. The album becomes the best-selling record of the year in the United States and eventually earns a Diamond certification.

Grey Tuesday A producer creates a mashup album by layering a rapper's a cappella vocals over samples from a 1968 rock record. The resulting bootleg is never officially released. When the copyright holder issues cease-and-desist letters, an activist group coordinates a protest: 170 websites host the album for free download on a single day, and over 100,000 copies are downloaded in twenty-four hours. The producer parlays the notoriety into a career producing for major artists. The legal battle becomes a landmark in the debate over sampling and fair use.

The colored click wheel In January, Apple announces a smaller version of its portable music player, available in five anodized aluminum colors. Demand consistently exceeds supply. Total sales of the device line hit 8.2 million units by year's end. The company's music store sells its 200 millionth song in December. Meanwhile, a social networking site launched the previous year reaches five million users and creates a music subsection that lets any band stream songs and offer free downloads, bypassing labels, distributors, and radio entirely.

The first podcast In August, a former television VJ launches a daily audio show distributed automatically to portable music players via RSS feeds. The term for this new medium, coined by a journalist earlier in the year, combines the name of the dominant music player with the word broadcasting. By late 2004, businesses and independent creators are experimenting with the format. A new distribution channel for audio has been born, though it will take a decade to reach mass adoption.

Redneck Woman A country singer's debut single, co-written with half of a genre-bending Nashville duo, spends five weeks at number one on the country chart. It celebrates working-class identity as a deliberate rejection of the polished pop-country that dominates Nashville radio. The singer, the duo, and a loose collective of Nashville outsiders are blurring the lines between country, rock, and hip-hop, treating genre boundaries as suggestions rather than rules.

Leviathan surfaces An Atlanta metal band releases a concept album based on a nineteenth-century novel about a whaling captain's obsession. The drumming shifts between odd time signatures, the guitars layer sludge riffs over progressive structures, and each track maps onto a chapter of the source material. Three magazines name it album of the year. It becomes a defining record of a new wave of American heavy metal that peaks this year, with multiple bands on the circuit releasing career-best work simultaneously.