Most of Confessions is lush, expertly crafted R&B about byzantine romantic travails. That narrative turned out to be compellingly messy, and the compelling mess worked as well to sell records in 2004 as it did in 1977. They wanted to make art that would build on the image of Usher that already existed out in the world, and they wanted to get people invested in Usher’s personal narrative. For most of Confessions, though, Usher and his collaborators were chasing something else. In the context of Confessions, “Yeah!” was a glorious anomaly, an anthemic hookfest that felt bigger than any one person. But even amidst all that doom and gloom, Usher’s Confessions emerged as a bona fide blockbuster, a four-quadrant monster.Įarlier this week, writing about Usher’s insanely dominant club klaxon “ Yeah!,” I called Confessions “a Thriller for the post-Napster era.” But the better comparison might be Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, the messiest all-conquering smash of the ’70s. Young people just weren’t buying music anymore. The iTunes Music Store hadn’t yet emerged as a money-maker, and label people were mad that they had to do business according to Steve Jobs’ terms, selling all of their songs for only a dollar apiece. The labels and their lawyers had managed to put Napster out of business, but tons of other file-sharing services were popping up to fill that hole. The industry was a few years past the peak of the CD-sales boom. In 2004, the music business was in trouble. I can imagine record-label bean-counters looking back on Usher’s 2004 and softly weeping, pining for the days that they can’t have back. For that one year, Usher was putting up numbers. But nothing in the man’s career, before or since, can measure up to what Usher did in 2004, the year that he truly owned the pop charts. That happened just a couple of months ago, when a moment of beautifully hammy showmanship from a Tiny Desk Concert reached meme status. Usher might not reliably chart the way that he once did, but he can still become a viral sensation out of nowhere. Usher Raymond was a star long before 2004, and he remained a star for years after. One of them is a 2002 “Male R&B/Soul Album” award the singer received at the Soul Train Music Awards.In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present. In addition to the album’s commercial success across the globe, it has also earned Usher a number of significant accolades. Furthermore, it went Platinum in multiple countries, including Denmark and New Zealand. It also received 2x Platinum certification in the UK and Australia. It was certified 4x Platinum in the US, for exceeding 4,000,000 units in sales. It peaked in the top-10 of the following countries: The project also enjoyed enviable chart positions in other regions. “8701” peaked at #4 in the US and reached #1 in the UK and Canada. “U-Turn” and “Can U Help Me”, the album’s fourth and fifth singles, were, respectively, released in March and August of 2002. In January 2002, “U Don’t Have to Call” was issued as the third single from the album. For instance, “ U Remind Me“, which is the first official single from this project, also peaked at #1 in the US. “8701”, which was released through Arista Records on August 7 of 2001, contains some of Usher’s biggest songs. Australian recording artist, Airling also recorded a version of this single in 2015. In 2001 a cover version of this tune was performed by Jamaican artist, Sanchez. This piece was composed by Usher together with its producers, Bryan-Michael Cox and Jermaine Dupri. It was certified 2x Platinum in Australia for recording over 140,000 copies in sales. This ballad has also been certified Gold in the US, New Zealand, and the UK. “Best R&B Video” is one of the categories it was nominated for. In 2002, the accompanying video for this track received 2 nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards. This single has earned him many accolades including a Teen Choice award and an ASCAP Award, which he received in 20, respectively. This is no doubt one of Usher’s greatest songs. It reached #3 on the charts of the following countries: In December of 2001 it became the singer’s third single to reach #1 on the Hot 100. “U Got It Bad” was a big hit on the charts in the US and many other nations. It was issued as the second of five singles from Usher’s third studio project entitled “8701”. “U Got It Bad” officially hit the airways in August 2001. This R&B ballad was performed by one of America’s biggest singers, Usher.
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