Janet Jackson's nipple, Britney's marriage(s) and Brian McFadden waving goodbye to Westlife dominated the music headlines ten years ago.

It might be hard to believe for some but ten whole years have passed since Outkast implored you to "shake it like a Polaroid picture", or since Peter Andre awkwardly gyrated beneath a waterfall to the tune of 'Mysterious Girl' and Ray Charles, John Peel and Johnny Ramone shuffled loose their mortal coils.

Let's take a look at some of 2004's most memorable music moments:

JANUARY

• Jan 3rd - Britney Spears married childhood friend Jason Alexander (sadly not the guy who played George Costanza in Seinfeld) in Las Vegas. Their wedded bliss lasted a grand total of 55 hours, effectively making their entire marriage a 'honeymoon period'.

FEBRUARY

• Feb 1st - Janet Jackson's briefly exposed nipple during her Superbowl halftime show performance with Justin Timberlake causes a media meltdown in the United States, tremors of which resonate around the globe. The public's "disgust" at the incident somehow made the image the most searched for picture in the entire history of the internet and popularised the term 'Wardrobe Malfunction'.

• Feb 8th - Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below becomes the first rap record to win the Grammy for Album of the Year. Beyonce also takes home five gongs for her trophy cabinet.

• Feb 17th - The BRIT Awards decide to honour The Darkness and Busted instead.

MARCH

• March 9th - Crisis hotlines are set up in Ireland and the UK after Westlife loses its chief backing vocalist and fringe aficionado Brian McFadden who opts to pursue an ultimately unsuccessful solo career. Fans claim that life will never be the same again. However, life returns to normal quite shortly thereafter.

• March 13th - Luciano Pavarotti gives what will be his final ever life performance, performing Tosca at the New York Metropolitan Opera.

APRIL

• April 6th - Johnny Cash's first posthumous album My Mother's Hymn Book is released less than a year after his death.
MAY

• May 24th - Madonna sets off on her Re-Invention Tour, a series of shows which will eventually gross her almost €100 million.

JUNE

• June 4th - Creed answer the prayers of millions by announcing their split. Unfortunately this lasted for only five years before they were back touring again.

• June 10th - Ray Charles dies at the age of 73.

• June 22nd - The 14th annual Lollapalooza festival is cancelled less than a month before it was due to start due to poor ticket sales. It was due to be headlined by Morrissey, PJ Harvey, Sonic Youth and The Killers.

• June 23rd - UK disc jockey Tony Blackburn is suspended by Classic Gold Digital for violating station policy - by playing a Cliff Richard song on the air.

JULY

• July 10th - Rachel Stevens (remember her?) sets a World Record for "completing the fastest promotional circuit in 24 hours", whatever that means.

• July 31st - Simon & Garfunkel play a free concert in Rome's Colosseum to an audience of around 600,000 people. The queue for the bar must have been a nightmare.

AUGUST

• Aug 8th - Dave Matthews incites a lawsuit from the city of Chicago after his tour bus dumps 800lb of human shit from a bridge onto a tour boat passing beneath. Never has a truer metaphor for Matthews' music been uttered.

• Aug 18th - Composer Elmer Bernstein dies at the age of 82

SEPTEMBER

• Sept 15th - Johnny Ramone of The Ramones dies, aged 55.

• Sept 18th - Britney Spears gets married for a second time this year, shacking up with her backing dancer Kevin Federline.

• Sept 28th - Beach Boy Brian Wilson releases Brian Wilson Presents Smile, a record which he first began working on in 1967.

OCTOBER

• Oct 23rd - Ashlee Simpson endures what is probably the most cringeworthy moment in television that year, after being caught out for lip-synching during a broadcast of Saturday Night Live, effectively bringing to an end to her upstart music career in one fell swoop.

• Oct 25th - British broadcaster John Peel dies suddenly at the age of 65.

NOVEMBER

• Nov 11th - Eric Clapton is awarded a CBE in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

• Nov 12th - Eminem's fourth record Encore is unexpectedly releases four days before it was due to combat internet piracy, a phenomenon that the music industry now views as a massive threat to its sales.

DECEMBER

• Dec 7th - Lindsay Lohan gives one of her best acting performances to date, pretending to be a musician and releasing an album called Speak.

• Dec 8th - Former Pantera guitarist 'Dimebag' Darrell is gunned down on stage by a deranged fan while performing in a club in Columbus, Ohio. The gunman kills three others and wounds a further seven before being shot to death by police.

GLOBAL TOP FIVE SELLING RECORDS OF 2014

1. Usher - 'Confessions'
2. Avril Lavigne - 'Under My Skin'
3. Eminem - 'Encore'
4. Gwen Stefani - 'Love. Angel. Music. Baby'
5. Norah Jones - 'Feels Like Home'