Honestly I think late 04 and very early 05 is underrated. I think for some reason we only remember the negatives, but it has to be to the best part of the mid 00s and it truly did contain more early 00s holdovers than any other part of the mid 2000s.
Other things about fall 2004:
- Mid 2000s don't feel completely dreadful yet
- New tech like social media, ipods etc are exciting to try for the first time
- The very start of growing awareness about environmental and related issues and more vocal support against bush
- Something feels more innovative about the year
- Comedy Central is gold
- Cds are most popular in this time than later in the mid 2000s
- Arcades were still a bit popular with better variety compared to a year like 2006-2007
- Gameboy Advance still pretty popular and Gamecube not completely dead yet
- The very very last traces of nu metal, goth, pop punk and skater culture of the early 2000s. You could even include pop vibes from earlier as well.
- Film and documentaries have a more experimental almost 90s quality to them and stand out in this period.
- A lot things were filmed in 2003 and early 2004 and released later. Sometimes tv shows and films from time period have early 2000s quality to them.