“Yeah!” is less a song and more four-minute fire alarm that alerts everyone that they must report to the dance floor immediately for their own safety (it also brought us the delightful word “Ursher”). But Confessions also includes “Yeah!” which is both a blessing and a curse to the Usher discography. The album is the apex of vintage Usher, who melded club bravado, classic romance, and earnest pledges to be a better man. So it’s not a huge shock that Confessions remains his most popular album, according to Spotify data.

Usher was ubiquitous in a way that no artist may ever be again. The Thunderclap overtook middle schools across America. The album sold more than 10 million copies in the United States.

Confessions’ three main singles spent a combined 22 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. There is no artist that dominated a year this millennium the way Usher dominated 2004. But who’s the more popular artist in 2016? Spotify’s got the stats. And they’ve both knelt at the throne of the King. These two men have both been releasing music for two decades and wowing audiences with their dance moves for just as long. Eventually they’d meet in the pop-R&B middle with a pair of the definitive albums of the 2000s - Usher’s Confessions in 2004 and Justin Timberlake’s FutureSex/LoveSounds in 2006. The other was a bubblegum pop star from Memphis.

One was an R&B crooner from Atlanta by way of Chattanooga. In the 1990s, a pair of Southern boys rose to singing stardom. How are today’s young people connecting with the legendary artists of yesteryear, and what does it say about the way these artists will be interpreted in the future? The Rivalry Pac or Biggie ? Britney or Christina ? Destiny’s Child or TLC ? Beatles or Stones? In the series Pop Battles, The Ringer tries to settle long-standing music rivalries using listener data from Spotify, the world’s largest music-streaming service. One of the most rewarding parts of being a music fan is picking a side and arguing for it to the ends of the earth.

Usher confessions album stream