May 10, 2018 Responding to the #MuteRKelly campaign, Spotify removes R. Kelly and XXXTentacion from playlists as part of a new policy against "hate content" and "hateful conduct." The capricious policy is rescinded two weeks later after an industry backlash.
April 5, 2018 The EP Universal Love – Wedding Songs Reimagined is released, with six classic songs sung from the perspective of same-sex couples. Bob Dylan does "She's Funny That Way" as "He's Funny That Way," and St. Vincent turns "Then He Kissed Me" into "Then She Kissed Me."More
March 26, 2018 Kesha, an ordained minister, presides over a same-sex wedding between two of her fans in Las Vegas. Footage is used in her video for "I Need A Woman To Love," a reworking of the Janis Joplin song "I Need a Man to Love."
March 25, 2018 Founding member Steven Page, who left the Barenaked Ladies nine years earlier, performs with the band at the Juno Awards, where they are honored for their induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip, who died the previous year, earns Artist of the Year.
January 28, 2018 Bruno Mars goes six for six at the Grammys, winning every award he's nominated for, including Album Of The Year for 24K Magic and Song Of The Year for "That's What I Like" (he gets a trophy for that one because he co-wrote the song). Best New Artist goes to Alessia Cara.
December 8, 2017 Johnny Mathis releases The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection. The 68-disc box set includes 67 remastered albums, including two that have never been released in their entirety: I Love My Lady, a 1981 album written and produced by Chic founders Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, and The Island, a Brazilian-flavored album produced by Sérgio Mendes in 1989.
September 21, 2017 To thwart low payouts on YouTube, Post Malone releases a version of his latest single, "Rockstar," that is just the chorus looped five times. Comments are disabled, and users are offered a link to hear the full version on more profitable platforms.More
June 9, 2017 Gene Simmons of Kiss files a trademark application for the devil horns hand gesture, which he claims he invented in 1974.More
May 12, 2017 To commemorate the 30th anniversary of their acclaimed 1987 album, The Joshua Tree, U2 embarks upon The Joshua Tree Tour 2017, with an opener in Vancouver, Canada. The band plays through the entire album, including rare treats "Exit" and "Trip Through Your Wires," which haven't been performed since the '80s, and a live first for "Red Hill Mining Town."
April 19, 2017 Kid Rock and Ted Nugent join Sarah Palin at the White House, where they get a personal tour from President Trump.More
April 11, 2017 J. Geils, guitarist and founding member of J. Geils Band, dies at age 71.
April 4, 2017 Pepsi posts a commercial featuring the Skip Marley protest song "Lions" that is pulled the next day amid controversy that it makes light of actual protests.More
February 5, 2017 Lady Gaga opens the Super Bowl halftime show with a verse from "God Bless America," followed by the song Woody Guthrie wrote as a parody, "This Land Is Your Land."More
February 1, 2017 In a post on Instagram that is liked over 8 million times in 24 hours, Beyoncé reveals she is pregnant with twins.More
December 25, 2016 George Michael dies of heart failure aged just 53 in bed at his riverside home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. He is found by his boyfriend, Australian hair stylist Fadi Fawaz.More
December 18, 2016 Fifth Harmony announce that Camila Cabello has left the group. They soldier on as a quartet but keep the name; Cabello does pretty well on her own, landing a #1 with "Havana" in 2018.
December 10, 2016 Bob Dylan accepts the Nobel Prize in Literature. He doesn't attend the ceremony, but sends an insightful speech that is read by the US ambassador to Sweden.More
November 29, 2016 Minneapolis-based musicians Lydia Liza and Josiah Lemanski flame a cultural debate about gender roles when they post a reinterpreted version of the Christmas song "Baby It's Cold Outside" with new lyrics: Instead of pressuring her to spend the night, the guy respects her decision to leave and helps her get home safely.More
November 8, 2016 Despite strident support from a passel of stars, including Katy Perry, Barbra Streisand and Bruce Springsteen, Hillary Clinton loses the US presidential election to Donald Trump, whose supporters include Ted Nugent, Loretta Lynn and Wayne Newton. Miley Cyrus, who said she would move if Trump was elected, decides to stay in the country.
October 13, 2016 Jon Sudano posts a video on YouTube where he sings the lyrics to Smash Mouth's "All Star" over the music to John Lennon's "Imagine." It takes off, and he racks up millions of views with similar videos where he sings "All Star" over other famous songs, including "Y.M.C.A.," "Under the Bridge" and "Wonderwall."More
October 6, 2016 Prince's Paisley Park compound opens to the public.More
August 24, 2016 Jeanne Martin, ex-wife of the late Dean Martin, dies of cancer at age 89. She married the singer in 1949, and gave birth to three children, including Dean Paul Martin, in addition to raising four more from Dean's first marriage. They divorced in 1972.
August 4, 2016 Nationwide insurance announces a new ad campaign with Brad Paisley and Rachel Platten.More
July 26, 2016 A video of celebrities performing an a cappella version of Rachel Platten's "Fight Song" is shown at the Democratic National Convention before Hillary Clinton takes the stage to accept the nomination.More
July 15, 2016 As he's done since 1972, Alice Cooper announces he's running for president, this time with the campaign slogan "A Troubled Man for Troubled Times." His platform includes "Adding Lemmy to Mount Rushmore" and "Getting Brian Johnson back in AC/DC." He loses to Donald Trump, but gains more exposure for his song "Elected."More
April 21, 2016 Prince dies at age 57 after overdosing on fentanyl, a highly addictive opioid.More
March 17, 2016 Prince's ex-wife Mayte Garcia puts a collection of his memorabilia up for auction.More
March 16, 2016 First Lady Michelle Obama delivers the keynote address at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, promoting her "Let Girls Learn" initiative and launching the star-studded Diane Warren-penned anthem "This Is For My Girls."More
March 14, 2016 Sony pays $750 million to Michael Jackson's estate for the King of Pop's half of Sony/ATV Music, a publishing company that owns the rights to some 4,000 pop songs, including 250 Lennon-McCartney tunes from the Beatles catalog. Jackson bought ATV Music in 1985 for $47.5 million and merged with Sony a decade later. Jackson's estate retains the rights to songs written by Jackson.
March 12, 2016 Ariana Grande hosts Saturday Night Live, where she meets her future fiancé, cast member Pete Davidson. They don't go through with the wedding, but he gets a mention in her 2018 song "Thank U, Next."More
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