The Best-Selling Albums and Songs of 2004
Usher’s year: Confessions was the biggest album, “Yeah!” and “Burn” finished first and second on the Hot 100, and he swept all three artist titles.
Artists of the Year
Top 10 Albums of 2004 Billboard 200
- 1ConfessionsUsher
- 2Speakerboxxx/The Love BelowOutKast
- 3CloserJosh Groban
- 4The Diary of Alicia KeysAlicia Keys
- 5Feels Like HomeNorah Jones
- 6FallenEvanescence
- 7Shock’n Y’allToby Keith
- 8In the ZoneBritney Spears
- 9The Very Best of Sheryl CrowSheryl Crow
- 10When the Sun Goes DownKenny Chesney
Top 10 Songs of 2004 Hot 100
- 1Yeah!Usher ft. Lil Jon and Ludacris
- 2BurnUsher
- 3If I Ain’t Got YouAlicia Keys
- 4This LoveMaroon 5
- 5The Way You MoveOutKast ft. Sleepy Brown
- 6The ReasonHoobastank
- 7I Don’t Wanna KnowMario Winans ft. Enya and P. Diddy
- 8Hey Ya!OutKast
- 9GoodiesCiara ft. Petey Pablo
- 10Lean BackTerror Squad ft. Fat Joe and Remy Ma
What the 2004 Charts Show
- Usher swept all three artist titles in 2004: combined, albums and singles.
- Fallen placed in the year-end top 10 for a second straight year, having also charted in 2003.
How the 2004 charts were compiled
Every position here is a chart placement — measured sales, radio airplay and, in the years Billboard counted it, streaming across its tracking year — not an editorial ranking. Albums come from the year-end Billboard 200, songs from the year-end Hot 100.
Billboard’s tracking year runs from roughly late October to mid-October rather than January to December, which is why a late-autumn release can win the following year and why a song can appear on two consecutive year-end lists.
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