Here’s a few facts that will cause you to confront your mortality a bit. Ten years ago, 2004 was coming to a close. Children born in that year are in the fifth grade and do not remember a world without iPhones. Among Forbes’ top technology predictions that year: video iPods, video blogs, and 42-inch flat screens that sell for less than $4,000 (they now sell for a tenth of that).
The year 2004 was also a profitable one for Usher and the year that had you questioning what a “Hoobastank” was. It was the year that Evanescence really understood my 11-year-old tribulations.
Here are the six songs that topped the Billboard charts in 2004, and though YouTube was yet to be invented, I would encourage you to watch their music videos to fully immerse yourself in the period.
1. Usher – “Yeah”
From “Yeah” to “Turn Down for What,” Lil Jon has made an entire career out of yelling and hyping up rappers who are better than him. What a guy.
2. Usher – “Burn”
“Burn” could have been “Trapped in the Closet” before the latter was even conceived. But wow, between all the fake fire and Usher wearing his sunglasses inside his mansion, as he dramatically overlooks the pool, this is the stuff “Saturday Night Live” skits are made of nowadays.
3. Alicia Keys – “If I Ain’t Got You”
The music video for this track opens with Keys playing piano in cutoff gloves and a furry coat, and if that doesn’t scream the edgy culture that was 2004, I’m not sure what does. The last time I heard this song was during an American Idol audition in 2008 — back when it was still acceptable to watch “American Idol.”
4. Maroon 5 – “This Love”
Adam Levine has seriously aged between ages 25 and 35, from a baby-faced, spiked haired babe to an older tattooed babe. Sadly, his voice sounds like a squealing, vibrato goat, and you’re still likely to hear this song on the radio.
5. Outkast – “The Way You Move”
This music video actually has it all: lightsaber battles in a dojo, eagle screams, trombone solos and scantily clad women working on cars. As much as I am happy that this is proof that my high school trombone career hasn’t gone to waste, it’s also testament to how much higher our tolerance for sexism used to be.
6. Hoobastank – “The Reason”
Hoobastank is the Maroon 5 that thankfully died out. These guys need to learn the concept of brevity, as they repeat “the reason is you” six times during the course of the song. But because the music video features an overhead projector, the “long sleeves under short sleeves” trend, heavy eyeliner, fauxhawks and soul patches, I commend them for effectively capturing 2004 culture better than anyone else. “The Reason” is what we’ll show our grandkids one day.