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Usher's 2004 album that opened with 1.1 million copies sold its first week and owned every school dance for the next year. "Yeah!" with Lil Jon and Ludacris became the crunk-and-B blueprint, and Confessions proved Usher was untouchable at the peak of 2000s R&B.
The love-triangle confession that made 18-year-old Usher a star: seven straight weeks at #2 on the Hot 100, held off the top the whole time by Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997." The video — five Ushers dancing in perfect sync inside a white-and-purple circular room — became his visual signature.