January 1
The Vienna New Year's Concert is 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 is annulled 55 hours later.
January 15 – Rapper Mystikal is sentenced to six years in prison for sexual battery.
February 1
Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake perform onstage at Super Bowl XXXVIII. The performance concludes with Jackson's right breast being exposed to the audience. The phrase "wardrobe malfunction" is coined during the ensuing controversy.
Daron Hagen is appointed President of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation in New York City.
February 8 – The 46th Annual Grammy Awards are held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below becomes the first rap album to win Album of the Year. Beyoncé won five awards.
February 9 - Blink-182 release single "I Miss You" from the album Blink-182. The song reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock chart.
February 10 - Paulina Rubio releases her seventh studio "Pau-Latina" under Universal Music Mexico. The album charted at #1 on the Billboard Latin Pop Albums and at #105 on the Billboard 200. The album also got certified 2× Platinum (Latin) by the RIAA.
February 13 - Elton John begins The Red Piano concert residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Originally scheduled for 75 performances, it would run for 248 shows over five years, including twenty-four tour dates in Europe.
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 the band.
March 2 - Britney Spears embarked The Onyx Hotel Tour, her first tour in 2 years to support her fourth studio album, In The Zone.
March 9 – Westlife member Brian McFadden leaves the band.
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 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.
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 10
Blender magazine's May issue includes a "50 Worst Songs Ever!" list. "We Built This City," by Starship, is rated worst.
Peter Tägtgren replaces Mikael Åkerfeldt In Bloodbath.
Keane release Hopes and Fears which becomes 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 18-23 – The European Festival of Youth Choirs (EJCF) is held 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
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.
May 26 – Fantasia Barrino wins the third season of American Idol, defeating Diana DeGarmo.
May 28-June 6 - The Rock in Rio concert festival is staged in Lisbon, Portugal under the name Rock in Rio Lisboa. Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel, Foo Fighters, Metallica, Britney Spears and Sting headline each of the six days.
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 was scheduled to be released on August 10.
June 10 – Ray Charles dies at the age of 73 from acute liver disease.
June 11 - The Van Halen Summer Tour 2004 kicks off in Greensboro, North Carolina, marking the return of Sammy Hagar on vocals for the first time since his acrimonious departure from the band in 1996.
June 12 – The Los Angeles, California radio station KROQ-FM 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.
June 25 - Eric Clapton sells his famous guitar "Blackie" at a Christie's auction, raising $959,000 to benefit the Crossroads drug rehabilitation center that he founded in 1998.
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.
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 25 - The Doobie Brothers record and perform Live at Wolf Trap at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, Virginia. The live album was released two months later, on October 26.
July 31
Simon & Garfunkel perform a free concert in front of the Colosseum in Rome for an audience of 600,000 people.
Dispatch performs their last live show at the DCR Hatchshell in Boston, Massachusetts.
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.
August 23 – The Prodigy release their much anticipated and postponed first full-length album Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned in 7 years since 1997's The Fat Of The Land.
September 18 – Britney Spears marries Kevin Federline.
September 26 – Avril Lavigne begins her Bonez Tour.
September 28 – Brian Wilson releases Brian Wilson Presents Smile, an interpretation of the Smile sessions which were shelved in 1967.
October – Jazz at Lincoln Center performance venue opens in New York City.
October 2 – Billy Joel marries for the third time, to the food critic and chef Katie Lee.
October 11
The original lineup of Duran Duran release their new album Astronaut, which is preceded by the single "(Reach Up For The) Sunrise".
Melissa Etheridge undergoes surgery for breast cancer.
October 23 – Ashlee Simpson is accused of lip synching after an abortive live performance on the television show Saturday Night Live.
October 25 – Indian singer Hariharan is awarded the Swaralaya Kairali Yesudas Award for his outstanding contribution to Indian film music.
November 4 – Three members of the band RAM, who all lived in a neighborhood known for its support of the 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 – Britney Spears releases her first compilation album titled Greatest Hits: My Prerogative.
November 11 - Eric Clapton receives a CBE at Buckingham Palace.
November 12 – Eminem's fourth major studio album, Encore is released four days before schedule to combat Internet 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 16 - Destiny's Child released their fourth and final studio album Destiny Fulfilled by Columbia Records in North America.
November 17 - Within Temptation release the single "Stand My Ground".
November 24 – Brian & Eric Hoffman leave Deicide after a royalties dispute.
November 30 – Jay-Z and Linkin Park's album "Collision Course" debuts at number #01 in the Billboard 200, later becoming the best-selling CD/DVD of that year.
December 7 – Lindsay Lohan releases her début album, Speak.
December 8 – Dimebag Darrell is murdered on stage while performing in Columbus, Ohio, by a deranged fan, who shoots the guitarist three times in the head with a 9mm Beretta handgun. The gunman kills three other people and wounds a further seven before being shot dead by police.
December 11–12 – The Los Angeles, California radio station KROQ-FM 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 14 – 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.
See Musical groups established in 2004
Bands on hiatus
Spineshank (reformed in 2008)
Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus (disbanded in 2006)
Bands disbanded
See Musical groups disestablished in 2004
Megadeth
Restless Heart
Destiny's Child
Vaya Con Dios
The Shadows (till 2005)
3rd Strike – 3 Feet Smaller
5 Stories EP – Manchester Orchestra
9Live – Angie Aparo
Bombs Below – Living Things
Crwth - Cass Meurig (first ever album of crwth music )
Field Rexx – Blitzen Trapper
ForThemAsses - OPM
Gathering Speed – Big Big Train
Get Saved - Pilot to Gunner
Golden (compilation) – Failure
Guerilla Disco – Quarashi
Leaving Town Tonight (EP) – Hit the Lights
Life Story (compilation) – The Shadows
Negatives 2 – Phantom Planet
Oceanic Remixes/Reinterpretations - Isis
The Pink Spiders Are Taking Over! - The Pink Spiders
Point of Origin – There for Tomorrow
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus – The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Safely From the City – Locksley
Set Your Goals (Demo EP) – Set Your Goals
Sherwood (EP) – Sherwood
Smoking Weed in the President's Face by Hockey
Tripped Into Divine – Dexter Freebish
Watching the Snow – Michael Franks (United States release)
We (Don't) Care – The Management (MGMT)
"99 Problems" - Jay-Z
"1985" – Bowling for Soup
"À chaque pas" – Jonatan Cerrada
"Accidentally In Love" – Counting Crows
"All Downhill From Here" - New Found Glory
"All That I've Got" - The Used
"Always" - Blink-182
"Amazing" – George Michael
"American Idiot" - Green Day
"Banzai" – B'z
"Because of You" - Nickelback
"Black Betty" – Spiderbait
"Breakaway" – Kelly Clarkson
"Breaking the Habit" – Linkin Park
"Bring 'Em Out" - T.I.
"Burn" – Usher
"Bus durch London" – Christina Stürmer
"California Dreamin'" – Royal Gigolos
"Call On Me" – Eric Prydz
"Cerca de ti" – Thalía
" Cold" – Crossfade
"Come Clean" – Hilary Duff
"Daughters" – John Mayer
"A Decade Under the Influence" - Taking Back Sunday
"Despre tine" – O-Zone
"Det gör ont" – Lena Philipsson
"Ding Dong Song" – Günther and the Sunshine Girls
"Dirt off Your Shoulder" - Jay-Z
"Dragostea din tei" – O-Zone
"Don't Tell Me" – Avril Lavigne
"Down" - Blink-182
"Dry Your Eyes" – The Streets
"Duality" – Slipknot
"Everybody's Changing" – Keane
"Everytime" – Britney Spears
"Face à la mer – Calogero and Passi
"Feelin' Way Too Damn Good" - Nickelback
"Femme Like U (Donne-moi ton corps)" – K.Maro
"Figured You Out" - Nickelback
"Fit But You Know It" – Streets
"Flap Your Wings" – Nelly
"Flawless (Go to the City)" – George Michael
"Força" - Nelly Furtado
"From the Inside" – Linkin Park
"F*ck It (I Don't Want You Back)" – Eamon
"Go D.J." - Lil Wayne
"Goodies" – Ciara featuring Petey Pablo
"(Can't Get My) Head Around You" - The Offspring
"Heaven" – Los Lonely Boys
"Hey Mama" - The Black Eyed Peas
"Hey Ya!" – OutKast
"Hitomi no Juunin" – L'Arc-en-Ciel
"I Am" – Killing Heidi
"I Don't Wanna Know" – Mario Winans featuring Enya & P.Diddy
"I Just Wanna Live" - Good Charlotte
"I Miss You" – Blink-182
"In the Shadows" – The Rasmus
"Just Lose It" – Eminem
"Laissez-moi danser" – Star Academy 4
"Last Train Home" – Lostprophets
"La Rivière de notre enfance" – Garou and Michel Sardou
"Leave (Get Out)" – JoJo
"The Leaving Song Pt. II" - AFI
"Left Outside Alone" – Anastacia
"Let's Get It Started" – The Black Eyed Peas
"Little Voice" - Hilary Duff
"Live Like You Were Dying" – Tim McGraw
"Lose My Breath" – Destiny's Child
"Lovesong" – 311
"Lying from You" – Linkin Park
"Meant to Live" – Switchfoot
"Milkshake" – Kelis
"Modern Times" – J-five
"Mr. Brightside" – The Killers
"Musicology – Prince
"My Band" – D12
"My Immortal" – Evanescence
"My Happy Ending" – Avril Lavigne
"My Place" – Nelly featuring Jaheim
"My Prerogative" – Britney Spears
"My Secret Life" – Eric Burdon
"Naughty Girl" – Beyoncé
"Nobody's Home" - Avril Lavigne
"Not in Love" – Enrique Iglesias featuring Kelis
"Ocean Avenue" - Yellowcard
"Obsesión" – Aventura
"On n'oublie jamais rien, on vit avec" – Hélène Ségara & Laura Pausini
"On the Way Down" – Ryan Cabrera
"Outrageous" - Britney Spears
"Pain" – Jimmy Eat World
"Party for Two" – Shania Twain featuring Billy Currington/Mark McGrath
"Physical – Alcazar
"Pieces of Me" – Ashlee Simpson
"Predictable" – Good Charlotte
"Pump It Up!" – Danzel
"The Reason" – Hoobastank
"Same Direction" – Hoobastank
"See You at the Show" - Nickelback
"She Will Be Loved" – Maroon 5
"Shadow" – Ashlee Simpson
"Shut Up" – The Black Eyed Peas
"Si demain... (Turn Around)" – Bonnie Tyler and Kareen Antonn
"Single" - Natasha Bedingfield
"Sobri (notre destin)" – Leslie & Amine
"Solitary Man" – H.I.M.
"Soldier" – Destiny's Child
"Somebody Told Me" – The Killers
"Somethin' is Goin' On" – Cliff Richard
"Somewhere Only We Know" – Keane
"Spare Me the Details" - The Offspring
"Sunshine" – Twista featuring Anthony Hamilton
"Superstar" – Jamelia
"Take It Away" - The Used
"Take Me Out" – Franz Ferdinand
"Take My Breath Away" – Jessica Simpson
"Talk About Our Love" – Brandy featuring Kanye West
"Thank You" – Jamelia
"These Words" – Natasha Bedingfield
"Time Is Running Out" – Muse
"Tipsy" – J-Kwon
"This Is the World We Live In" – Alcazar
"This Love" – Maroon 5
"Toujours pas d'amour" – Priscilla Betti
"Toxic" – Britney Spears
"Trick Me" – Kelis
"True" – Ryan Cabrera
"Truth of My Youth" - New Found Glory
"Unholy Confessions" - Avenged Sevenfold
"Unwritten" - Natasha Bedingfield
"Vertigo" - U2
"Vindicated – Dashboard Confessional
"Walkie Talkie Man" - Steriogram
"Welcome to My Life" - Simple Plan
"We're All To Blame" - Sum 41
"What You Waiting For?" – Gwen Stefani
"When You're Gone" - Richard Marx
"Who I Am Hates Who I've Been - Relient K
"With You" – Jessica Simpson
"Yeah!" – Usher featuring Lil Jon & Ludacris
"You Won't Forget About Me" – Dannii Minogue vs. "Flower Power"
- Confessions – Usher ~ 7,979,000
- Feels like Home – Norah Jones ~ 3,843,000
- Encore – Eminem ~ 3,517,000
- When the Sun Goes Down – Kenny Chesney ~ 3,072,000
- Under My Skin – Avril Lavigne ~ 2,970,000
- Live Like You Were Dying – Tim McGraw ~ 2,787,000
- Songs About Jane – Maroon 5 ~ 2,708,000
- Fallen – Evanescence ~ 2,614,000
- Autobiography – Ashlee Simpson ~ 2,577,000
- Now That's What I Call Music! 16 – Various ~ 2,560,000
- Confessions – Usher
- Feels Like Home – Norah Jones
- Encore – Eminem
- How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb – U2
- Under My Skin – Avril Lavigne
- Love. Angel. Music. Baby. – Gwen Stefani
- Greatest Hits – Robbie Williams
- Greatest Hits – Shania Twain
- Destiny Fulfilled – Destiny's Child
- Greatest Hits – Guns N' Roses
- Songs About Jane – Maroon 5
- American Idiot – Green Day
- Elephunk – The Black Eyed Peas
- Greatest Hits: My Prerogative – Britney Spears
- Here for the Party – Gretchen Wilson
- Anastacia – Anastacia
Michel van der Aa – Second self
Louis Andriessen – Racconto dall'Inferno
Cornelis de Bondt – Madame Daufine
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
Joël-François Durand – Ombre/Miroir for flute and 14 instruments
Ross Edwards - Concerto for Guitar and Strings
Ivan Fedele – Odos
Lorenzo Ferrero – Guarini, the Master for violin and strings
Philip Glass – Symphony No. 7 Toltec
Georg Friedrich Haas – Haiku
Hans Werner Henze – Sebastian im Traum
Alun Hoddinott – Trombone Concerto
York Höller – Ex Tempore
Guus Janssen
Memory Protect Extended
Wankeling
Karl Jenkins – In These Stones Horizons Sing
Jan Klusák – Axis Temporum
Rolands Kronlaks – Paion
Hanna Kulenty – Run
Theo Loevendie – De 5 Driften
Frederik Magle - Souffle le vent, 1st symphonic poem from the suite Cantabile.
Roderik de Man – Mensa Sa
Peter Maxwell Davies
Naxos Quartet No. 4 Children's Games
Naxos Quartet No. 5
Martijn Padding – And Trees Would Sing
Marijn Simons
Symphony No 1, opus 26
Streichquartett no 3: opus 27
Dobrinka Tabakova
Concerto for Viola and Strings
Schubert Arpeggione, arrangement for string orchestra
Suite in Old Style for viola, strings and harpsichord
Whispered Lullaby for viola and piano
Thomas Adès – The Tempest
Harrison Birtwistle – The Io Passion
William Bolcom – A Wedding
Karlheinz Stockhausen – Licht
Assassins - Broadway production opened at Studio 54 and ran for 101 performances
Bombay Dreams - Broadway production opened at The Broadway Theatre and ran for 284 performances
Fiddler On The Roof - Broadway revival
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 - London production opened on September 15 at the Palace Theatre, London.
People Are Wrong! - Off-Broadway production
Alt for Egil, starring Kristoffer Joner
Beyond the Sea, starring Kevin Spacey as Bobby Darin
Bride and Prejudice, starring Aishwarya Rai
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
Some Kind of Monster
Where's Firuze?, starring Haluk Bilginer and Demet Akbağ
January 10 - Kaitlyn Maher, singer
January 3 - Ronald Smith, 82, British pianist
January 6 – Jimmy Hassell, 62, Guitarist/co-lead singer in The First Edition from 1972–76
January 12 - Randy VanWarmer, 48, songwriter and guitarist
January 15 – Terje Bakken, 25, also known as Valfar, lead singer and founder of Norwegian black/folk metal band Windir (died of hypothermia in a blizzard)
January 16 - John Siomos, 56, drummer
January 17
Czeslaw Niemen, 65, Polish rock singer
Tom Rowe, 53, musician
January 22
Billy May, 87, US big band & pop music arranger
Ann Miller, 80, actress, singer and dancer
January 28 – Mel Pritchard, 56, drummer of Barclay James Harvest
January 30 - Julius Dixson, 90, songwriter and record company executive
February 3 – Cornelius Bumpus, 58, musician (The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan)
February 6 – Jørgen Jersild, 90, Danish composer and music educator
February 8 – Cem Karaca, 58, Turkish singer and composer
February 16 – Doris Troy, 67, R&B singer
February 21
Les Gray, 57, English singer (Mud)
Bart Howard, 88, composer and pianist
February 23
Don Cornell, 84, US singer
Alvino Rey, 95, US bandleader and guitarist
February 24 - A.C. Reed, 77, blues saxophonist
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 9 - Rust Epique, 36, guitarist (Crazy Town)
March 10 - Dave Schulthise, 47, punk bassist (The Dead Milkmen)
March 11 - Edmund Sylvers, 47, lead singer of The Sylvers
March 15 - Eva Likova, 84, operatic soprano
March 16 – Vilém Tauský, 93, Czech conductor and composer
March 18
Vytas Brenner, 57, musician, keyboardist and composer
Erna Spoorenberg, 78, Dutch operatic soprano
March 21 - Johnny Bristol, 65, singer, songwriter and record producer
March 26 – Jan Berry, 62, US singer of Jan and Dean
March 30 - Timi Yuro, 63, soul and R&B singer and songwriter
April 1 - Paul Atkinson, 58, guitarist for The Zombies
April 3 – Gabriella Ferri, 62, Italian singer
April 6 - Niki Sullivan, 66, guitarist for The Crickets
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, 53, Canadian rockabilly musician
May 1 – Felix Haug, 52, Swiss pop musician (Double)
May 5 – Coxsone Dodd, 72, Jamaican record producer
May 6 - Barney Kessel, 80, jazz guirist
May 11 - John Whitehead, 55, R&B artist (shot dead)
May 12 - John LaPorta, 84, Jazz clarinetist, composer and educator
May 17
Gunnar Graps, 52, Estonian singer (Magnetic Band and Gunnar Graps Group)
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
May 31 - Robert Quine, 61, guitarist
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 7 – Quorthon, 38, Swedish multi-instrumentalist, founder and songwriter of Bathory.
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, 77, US jazz singer
June 27 - Sis Cunningham, 95, folk musician
July 6 – Syreeta Wright, 57, singer (congestive heart failure, a side effect of cancer treatment)
July 13
Arthur Kane, 55, bassist (New York Dolls)
Carlos Kleiber, 74, 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 2 – Don Tosti, 81, American composer
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 15 - William Herbert York, 85, bassist for Drifting Cowboys
August 17 - Bernard Odum, 72, bass player for James Brown
August 18 – Elmer Bernstein, 82, US composer
August 20 – María Antonieta Pons, 82, Cuban Rumbera
August 26 – Laura Branigan, 47, US singer (brain aneurysm)
August 31 – Carl Wayne, 61, vocalist (The Move)
September 2 – Billy Davis
September 11 – Juraj Beneš, 64, Slovak composer
September 12
John Buller, 77, British composer
Kenny Buttrey, 59, Nashville session drummer
Fred Ebb, 72, US lyricist
September 15 – Johnny Ramone, 55, US guitarist and founding member of The Ramones (prostate cancer)
September 16 – Izora Armstead, 62, member of The Weather Girls
September 30 - Jacques Levy, 69, songwriter and theatre director
October 1 - Bruce Palmer, 58, bassist of Buffalo Springfield
October 19 - Greg Shaw, 55, music historian and record label owner
October 25 – John Peel, 65, British DJ and broadcaster (heart attack)
October 28 – Gil Melle, 72, film and television music composer
November 1
Mac Dre, 34, Bay Area rapper (highway shooting)
Terry Knight, 61, lead singer of Terry Knight and the Pack and manager-producer of Grand Funk Railroad(stabbed in domestic dispute)
November 12 – Usko Meriläinen, 74, Finnish composer
November 13
John Balance, 42, British musician from Coil
Ol' Dirty Bastard, 35, African American rapper (drug overdose)
Carlo Rustichelli, 87, Italian film composer
November 14 – Michel Colombier, 65, composer
November 18 – Cy Coleman, 75, US composer
November 19 - Terry Melcher, 62, musician and producer
December 2 - Kevin Coyne, 60, singer, composer and guitarist
December 8 – Dimebag Darrell, 38, former Pantera guitarist (shot to death in Ohio)
December 13 – Alex Soria, 39, guitarist for The Nils (suicide)
December 14 – Sidonie Goossens, 105, harpist
December 16 -Freddie Perren, 61, songwriter, producer, arranger and conductor
December 19 – Renata Tebaldi, 82, operatic soprano
December 20 – Son Seals, 62, blues musician
December 26 – Sigurd Køhn, 45, Norwegian jazz saxophonist (tsunami)
December 27 - Hank Garland, 74, Nashville session guitarist
December 30 – Artie Shaw, 94, Swing Era Clarinetist and Bandleader
The following artists were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Jackson Browne, The Dells, George Harrison, Prince, Bob Seger, Traffic, Z Z Top
ARIA Music Awards of 2004
2004 BRIT Awards
Eurovision Song Contest 2004
Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004
Grammy Awards of 2004
Juno Awards of 2004
2004 MTV Video Music Awards
Triple J Hottest 100, 2004
