Pick a Day

Music History Events: Releases

June 28, 2011 Bluegrass duo Gillian Welch and David Rawlings release The Harrow & The Harvest, their first album in eight years.More

June 21, 2011 Justin Vernon's group Bon Iver release their second album, which is self-titled. Vernon, who keeps a low profile, is shocked when it earns the group the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.

June 21, 2011 Crossfade return after five years with We All Bleed - the band's first album after being dropped by Columbia Records in 2008.

June 7, 2011 Def Leppard release their first ever live album: Mirrorball.

February 22, 2011 Adele releases her second album, 21, in the US. The record becomes the best-selling album of 2011, shifting a total of 5.82 million copies. Many of the songs, including "Rolling In The Deep" and "Set Fire To The Rain," are about the devastating breakup with her ex-boyfriend.

January 7, 2011 Ed Sheeran releases what will be his final independent EP, No.5 Collaborations Project, in the UK. The EP goes on to reach #2 on the UK's iTunes chart, despite Ed having no label.

December 10, 2010 Michael Jackson's first posthumous album, Michael, is released.

November 30, 2010 Seven months after being released from jail after serving three years for tax evasion, Ronald Isley of The Isley Brothers releases the album Mr. I, with contributions from Lauryn Hill and T.I.

November 26, 2010 Duffy releases her second album, Endlessly, in the UK. Unlike her breakthrough debut Rockferry, it gets little attention, with no hit singles.More

November 22, 2010 On their fourth and final album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, My Chemical Romance cast themselves as post-apocalyptic outlaws fighting corruption on the mean streets of California. More

October 25, 2010 Taylor Swift releases her third album, Speak Now. One of the more confessional songs is "Mean," where she takes aim at her critics, including industry insider Bob Lefsetz, who wrote that Swift was "too young and dumb to understand the mistake she made" in performing with Stevie Nicks at the Grammy Awards.

September 28, 2010 Bad Religion release their 15th full-length studio album, The Dissent of Man.

September 10, 2010 Linkin Park release their fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns, an apocalyptic-themed concept album that finds the rap-rockers exploring electronic rock on singles like "The Catalyst" and "Waiting For The End."

August 31, 2010 Papa Roach release their first live album, Time for Annihilation. Alongside nine live tracks, the record contains five new studio tracks.

August 24, 2010 Teenage Dream, Katy Perry's second major-label album, is released. It goes to #1 in the US, where the first five singles, starting with "California Gurls," all top the Hot 100.

August 2, 2010 Arcade Fire release The Suburbs, their third studio album. It's almost universally lauded by fans and critics alike, with the latter feeling that the album fully realizes the great artistic potential hinted at by Funeral and Neon Bible, the band's first two albums.More

June 22, 2010 Lynyrd Skynyrd release Live from Freedom Hall, their eight live album. It features music performed June 15, 2007 at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky.

March 30, 2010 Barenaked Ladies release their ninth studio album, All In Good Time. It's their first album since the departure of co-lead singer Steven Page, who officially left the band in 2009.

January 26, 2010 Lady Antebellum release their second album, Need You Now, which goes to #1 in America, where it sells over 4 million copies. The title track becomes the first country song to make a big impact on the pop chart since "Not Ready To Make Nice" by Dixie Chicks in 2007. Both groups later change their names, becoming Lady A and The Chicks.

December 1, 2009 R. Kelly releases Untitled, his ninth studio album.

November 3, 2009 Country singer Carrie Underwood releases her third studio album, Play On, featuring the crossover hit "Cowboy Casanova."

September 29, 2009 Lynyrd Skynyrd release Gods & Guns, their 13th album.

August 11, 2009 Lady Antebellum release "Need You Now," a song about drunk dialing. A huge crossover hit, it goes to #1 on the Country chart, #2 on the Hot 100, and sells 9 million digital downloads.

August 11, 2009 Train get back on track, releasing "Hey Soul Sister," their first hit since "Calling All Angels" in 2003. It becomes the top-selling song of 2010 on iTunes.

July 14, 2009 The debut album by The Dead Weather, Horehound, is released, and spawns the singles "Hang You from the Heavens," "Treat Me Like Your Mother," and "I Cut Like A Buffalo."

July 10, 2009 Shakira releases the electro-pop album She Wolf. The singer was in a bad mood when the disco-influenced title track roared out of her consciousness: "The image of the she wolf just came to my head, and when I least expected it I was howling and panting."

March 31, 2009 Lynyrd Skynyrd release Live at the Cardiff Capitol Theatre. It features music recorded at Cardiff, Wales' Capitol Theatre on November 4, 1975. It's released alongside the album Authorized Bootleg: Live In Winterland, San Francisco, CA, 3/07/76.

January 20, 2009 Bon Iver release Blood Bank, a four-track EP and follow-up to the hugely-successful For Emma, Forever Ago. The song "Woods" is sampled by Kanye West on his track "Lost in The World."

November 25, 2008 A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!, the soundtrack to the Christmas comedy special of the same name starring Stephen Colbert, is released on iTunes. Most of the songs featured on the album were written by comedy writer David Javerbaum and Adam Schlesinger, who is the bass player for Fountains of Wayne. The album will go on to win the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.

October 13, 2008 Five months after marrying Jay-Z, Beyoncé releases the sassy "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)." It goes to #1 in America for four weeks and win the Grammy for Song of the Year.