What Was Hot In 2004?

Author: Tamara Hodkinson
10 years really does go by very quickly. So much can happen in that time, like huge leaps in technology or vast changes in the state of the global economy. Yet at the same time so much can stay the same, like some of the social issues we face as a nation, or the way we like to spend our spare time. Let’s take a look back at the year 2004 for a bit of fun to remind ourselves of what music we were listening to, what movies we were watching and what we were wearing only 10 short years ago….

Music

It seems we were enjoying a mixture of local cover versions as well as new songs from international pop stars in 2004. Both Shannon Noll and Spiderbait featured in the top 3 singles with their covers of ‘What about Me’ and ‘Black Betty”. We were also enjoying pop music from the Black Eyed Peas, Anastacia and Kelis to name a few.

Television

In having a quick glance at the Logie Award winners from 2004 we are able to see which programs we were watching on a weekly basis at the time. The Footy show was a firm favourite on the sporting front while Rove Live and Cath and Kim were hugely popular in the comedy category. We were also spending much of our viewing time watching the overseas favourites of Friends and CSI Crime Scene Investigation. Other well-loved programs according to the Screen Australia website included Survivor All Stars, 60 Minutes, The Block and Dancing With The Stars, a few of which are still on our screens today.

 2004 Australian Logie Award Winners:
    

Movies

A few good movies were released in 2004, a year when kids movies out ranked adult movies at the box office. Shrek 2 topped the list as highest grossing movie while Harry Potter the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Incredibles and Spiderman 2 were also firm favourites. As far as adult viewing went Bridget Jones, Oceans 12 and Meet The Fockers were among the top rating movies for the year.

Fashion

It seems 10 years is not quite long enough to really find some of the fashion of the time truly hideous. I have however managed to identify some of the more terrible pieces from 2004 to share with you.

First and foremost for women would have to be the velour tracksuit. J-Lo seems to be responsible for bringing this item into popular fashion, available in almost every colour of the rainbow and worn in its entirety. Ugg boots worn as normal everyday footwear in public, regardless of the weather, was also very popular, as were cowboy boots! Bootleg jeans also proved very fashionable at the time. Sequinned embellishments on almost any piece of clothing and floral dresses were two of the more classic trends of 2004.

When it comes to the men, things are really not too bad. Cargo shorts were huge as were bootleg jeans, trucker caps and vintage classic rock t-shirts. Apparently aviator jackets were a big hit along with cable knit jumpers, khakis and western style shirts. So it seems that popular fashion had the men looking either like cowboys in their western shirts or someone who has just stepped off the set of “Top Gun” in their aviator jacket! I am really not sure which is better!

So we had a few shockers in 2004 but nothing too outrageous. I do think however that it will all seem a whole lot more terrible in another 10 years when we look back once again, but this time to a period 20 years earlier. We may also have to have a glance at the year 2014 when we do and have a bit of a laugh at all of the things we are loving right now.