2004 was ten years ago...

In all the recent rose-tinted Britpopmanic 94eva retrogrungie furore, it's easy to forget another more recent anniversary.

2004 (like '94) felt like a banner year for music for me, maybe thanks to our house finally getting broadband. It felt like a floodgate of previously undiscovered styles and sounds being opened. The previous year had been spent toiling in 'old music' limbo but '04 was all about new music from microhouse to freak folk to undie rap and pretty much anything I could find on Soulseek.

Let us remember 2004 - What were you listening to? What do you still listen to? Was it a special year for you too?

lol, I was not connected to the internet at the time. Also fairly poor. Made purchases mostly based on alt weekly reviews and record store "recommended" shelves.

Notable purchases:

New Pornographers - Electric Version - Enjoyed very much for a few years, but according to itunes, I haven't listened to this since 2010.
Camper Van Beethoven - Tusk - Not currently in my itunes, so I haven't listened to it since prior to 2010 when I switched laptops. As with many people, this album eventually led to my Fleetwood Mac awakening.

That's all I got!

I remember ILX being really really fun that year - going punting at a Cambridge FAP with Ken C, Branwell and others was a highlight. I think I bought albums by Deerhoof and Devendra Banhart from Fopp that day.

second half of the year was real interesting and wouldn't mind this year to end up similarly

it was also the year i started listening to wilco

Oh yeah, catching up on the previous years' Wilco and Neko Case records.

My 2004 was a bit... odd. Really got into Keane, Interpol's second album, and Jay-Z's Grey Album. Dabbled in Franz Ferdinand and Blink 182's final pre-comeback album. Began to hate the Killers, which continues to this day.

i have no strong attachment to the music of this year, think i spent most of my time listening to fairport convention and ghost's hypnotic underworld. became a dad, did some bike races

For me, 2004 was the year of Katamari Damacy and its awesome soundtrack :)

I listened to John Kerry's loss.

It was (for me at least) the year when 'indie' music became almost 100% US-centric, discovering Wilco, AC, Devendra and loads of other post-NMH music that was a nice antidote to the New Rock Revolution stuff the NME continued to peddle at the time.

I preferred John Kerry's earlier material.

January 2004 = I discovered ILM :D

Before that time I was listening to nothing but Insane Clown Posse, Dave Matthews, and the Eagles

the year i fell back in love with country. gretchen wilson's "redneck woman," which i heard repeatedly on the radio during a weekend trip to nashville that spring, was the moment of impact for me. she and big & rich both released their debut albums that year and kind of changed everything for me. even though they both flamed out pretty fast, they planted the seeds for a lot of what's happened since.

I listened to John Kerry's loss.

oh yeah, that too. though that was an al gore cover, wasn't it?

released on Reagan Records, 1980.

2014 is also the 5th anniversary of 2009

Also it seems to have gone unremarked but 2007 was 7 years ago

http://www.stereogum.com/1691734/blueberry-boat-turns-10/franchises/the-anniversary/

Biggest release of 2004 for me was The World of Arthur Russell - the wonderful music aside, it was the last time that a single album opened up new areas of listening for me. I had more or less never paid attention to disco or 80s dance music before. The first time I heard "In the Light of the Miracle" my response (iirc) was "ew - piano house!".

it was the year of hearing ashlee simpson and usher and ciara on the radio

yeah I was listening to Confessions last night and fell in love with it again

This must have been the time I got into 'proper' dance music (read: house) as opposed to IDM / rip-yer-face-off hard dance. As Matt DC was saying on another thread, the advent of microhouse coming at a time between Soulseek and the proliferation of YouTube really helped.

I went to Glastonbury for the first time in 2004. Barely remember seeing any bands except Plaid and Squarepusher but I do remember jumping around a large hotdog van with about 100 other people at 3am.

Usher flat-out dominated the radio that year. The three big singles from Confessions topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a combined 22 weeks, not even counting the later run by "My Boo"

But really, this was my 2004:

http://www.billboard.com/files/media/kanye-west-college-dropout-410-410.jpg

it's not fashionable but aww man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbv41rqWERA

I listened to John Kerry's loss.

oh yeah, that too. though that was an al gore cover, wasn't it?

LOL

I ran a website called Leaked Albums at the time so I was listening to lots of music and writing about it. I was also a bit unhappy at the time and I was drinking a lot. Loved the Kanye West album, Junior Boys 1st one, Strokes 2nd one. Was well into the 1st Only Ones record. I don't really know if it was an exceptional year tbh but there was some good stuff I guess.

for me this was a pretty big year for Kompakt and The Knife and european dance music in general, all of which was mere prelude to the Robyn album in 2005 obv

lol this was also the year i went to T in the Park!! all i remember was MUSE

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/images/original/45302.grand-dont-come-for-free.gif?wmode=transparent 03: The Streets
A Grand Don't Come for Free
[Vice]
To this day, I still find it hard to understand how Mike Skinner could lose a shoebox full of money in (not behind-- in) a TV. I mean, given that he's not exactly rolling in it, I guess it stands to reason that he'd have one of those secondhand refrigerator box clunkers but my grandmother had one of those too, and she never lost anything down it, much less a shoebox's worth.

In the end it doesn't matter much-- Skinner's charms are such that I'm willing to suspend disbelief for the sake of continuity. As on his debut, Original Pirate Material, he proves himself a gifted narrator, with the massive scope afforded by the album's 11-song story arc giving him even more freedom to dote on the day's minutiae. And much like actual life, Skinner's so caught up on the little things that he doesn't see the big ones coming-- he stews over cellphone signals and broken televisions without realizing that his best friend and girlfriend have begun an affair. The drama leads to a goosebump-inducing soliloquoy in the closer "Empty Cans", which eventually concludes just as the album began: with Skinner leaving his house in a rush, his mind on the day ahead of him, dismantling it one small detail at a time. --Mark Pytlik

Basically I spent the whole year just listening to The College Dropout, The Pretty Toney Album, and Madvilliany (plus Confessions through my sister's bedroom wall)

Whenever I think about 2004 musically my mind just instantly defaults to big-room electrohouse at its absolute peak. Apparently some other music was made as well but who cares.

Franz Ferdinand's first album is still a rocker.

2004 = peak teenpop. lindsay/hilary/avril/jojo/skye/ashlee gave me life at school

For reference: Rolling 2004 Best Singles Thread

Oh fuck yeah I forgot about this, probably my fave dance mix

http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhenc8zYRn1qf1hswo1_500.jpg

Released Nov 03 but I didn't hear it til summer 04

forgot about it for a while but faust + dalek 'derbe respec alder' feels like it was an important album for me at the time

de la's the grind date had some refreshing tracks.

I went to my first ATP and I credit that for some kind of spark that turned me from fairly generic P4k guy towards whatever I am now, a fine summer spent in my bedroom downloading noise and free-folk and so on.