December 19, 2003 Tori Amos makes her film debut in the Julia Roberts movie Mona Lisa Smile. In her cameo as a '50s big band singer at a wedding reception, she sings the standards "You Belong To Me" and "Murder, He Says," which also appear on the movie's soundtrack.
November 14, 2003 Love Actually opens in the theaters. Among its musical moments: Hugh Grant dancing to the Pointer Sisters' "Jump (For My Love)" and Emma Thompson having a breakdown to Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now."More
October 22, 2003 In the middle of their first world tour and flush with fame from their debut album, Evanescence founder Ben Moody abruptly quits the band.More
September 29, 2003 McDonald's launches the "I'm Lovin' It" ad campaign in America, with Justin Timberlake singing the "ba da ba ba bah" hook and releasing a full-length version of the jingle as a single. It becomes the company's longest-running ad campaign.More
September 14, 2003 Jet release their debut album, Get Born, on Elektra Records. Leading the Australian invasion of the early 2000's with bands like The Vines, the album would go on to sell well over three million copies. The title is lifted from the lyrics of Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues."
July 30, 2003 When the disease SARS spreads to Toronto, it scares a lot of people away. To get visitors back, the city puts on a huge open-air concert featuring The Rolling Stones, The Guess Who, Rush, The Isley Brothers, The Flaming Lips and Justin Timberlake (who is jeered and has muffins thrown at him). About 450,000 people attend.More
July 26, 2003 Limp Bizkit appear at the Hawthorne Racetrack in Chicago as part of Metallica's Summer Sanitarium tour with Deftones, Linkin Park and Mudvayne. But the crowd soon shows how they feel about frontman Fred Durst and his crew, as the band is booed and Durst is pelted with coins and bottles, leading him to launch into homophobic taunts. As a result, Limp Bizkit leaves the stage after 30 minutes and only six songs, but not before Durst challenges audience members to a fight.
June 20, 2003 For his 54th birthday, Lionel Richie receives a special gift: a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. According to Richie, the star's location on Hollywood Blvd. isn't far from the Holiday Inn where The Commodores stayed on their first trip to LA while recording their debut album.
May 20, 2003 Lynyrd Skynyrd release Vicious Cycle, their twelfth studio album. It's the last to feature work by bassist Leon Wilkeson, who passed away during recording. Kid Rock appears on the album in a remake of "Gimme Back My Bullets."
May 11, 2003 Noel Redding (bassist for the Jimi Hendrix Experience), age 57, is found dead in his Ireland home from a hemorrhage related to cirrhosis of the liver.
April 29, 2003 The movie Only The Strong Survive (with many R&B legends, including Jerry Butler) premieres in New York.
April 28, 2003 Apple launches the iTunes store, the first widely successful legal music download app, thanks to the emergence of the iPod, which lets people take their music with them. At first, the service is available only to Mac users, with the music files encoded in Apple's proprietary format (AAC) restricting where they can be played.More
April 22, 2003 Songwriter Felice Bryant dies of cancer at age 77 in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Known for a string of hits with co-writer husband Boudleaux Bryant, including The Everly Brothers' "All I Have to Do Is Dream" and "Bye Bye Love."
March 17, 2003 On the very first episode of MTV's practical joke show Punk'd, host Ashton Kutcher stages a prank involving the IRS that makes Justin Timberlake cry.More
February 23, 2003 Norah Jones wins all five Grammy Awards she is nominated for, including Record Of The Year and Song Of The Year for "Don't Know Why." Also at the ceremony, Simon & Garfunkel get a Lifetime Achievement Award and sing together for the first time in 10 years.
February 15, 2003 With war in Iraq imminent, millions march for peace around the world, including System Of A Down, who shoot the video for their song "Boom" at the protests with Michael Moore directing.
January 9, 2003 MC Hammer and Vince Neil star in the first season of The Surreal Life on the WB network.More
December 29, 2002 Creed play a disastrous show in Chicago, leading four fans to sue the band, claiming lead singer Scott Stapp was either medicated or drunk, and "unable to sing the lyrics of a single Creed song." Stapp denies that he was drunk and claims rolling around on stage was an "Artistic Moment." The case is thrown out of court.
November 19, 2002 The game show Weakest Link welcomes a diverse group of "Music Makers" to compete on tonight's episode, including "I'll Be" singer Edwin McCain, Sheila E., Deborah Gibson, Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, Lila McCann, Coolio, Skid Row's Sebastian Bach, and Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil.
November 12, 2002 Missy Elliott releases her most popular album, Under Construction. Most of the tracks, including the hits "Gossip Folks" and "Work It," she produced along with her fellow beatmaker Timbaland.
November 10, 2002 Johnny Griffith dies of a heart attack at age 66. As a keyboardist for Motown's in-house band, The Funk Brothers, he played on several of the label's hits, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "Stop! In the Name of Love."
November 8, 2002 8 Mile, a semi-biographical look at Eminem's early days as a struggling rapper in Detroit, opens in theaters. The film is a critical and commercial success, and Eminem's "Lose Yourself" becomes the first rap song to win the Oscar for Best Original Song.More
November 5, 2002 Johnny Cash releases American IV: The Man Comes Around, his last album before his death 10 months later. Like the previous three in the series, it's produced by Rick Rubin and made up mostly of home recordings. His cover of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt" gets a startling video that shows Cash looking back at his life knowing he's nearing the end.
October 17, 2002 The Ronettes lose their case against Phil Spector, claiming they are owed royalties for songs used in movies, TV shows and commercials.More
October 17, 2002 The International Bluegrass Music Awards honors Down from the Mountain as Album of the Year. The collection is comprised of artists featured on the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack to the Coen Brothers movie O Brother Where Art Thou?, including Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, John Hartford, and Ralph Stanley (of The Stanley Brothers). Dan Tyminski, who sang lead on the Soggy Bottom Boys' "Man Of Constant Sorrow" for the movie, also wins Male Vocalist of the Year.
September 30, 2002 Faith Hill releases "Cry," the title track from her latest country pop album. It's another crossover success for the country singer, landing at #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart and giving her a second win for Best Female Country Vocal Performance (the first being for "Breathe").
September 4, 2002 Kelly Clarkson beats Justin Guarini to become the first winner of American Idol.More
July 16, 2002 After unfinished tracks from their shelved project The Lillywhite Sessions are leaked on the internet, Dave Matthews Band reworks the songs and release them as Busted Stuff.More
June 25, 2002 Benson Boone is born in Monroe, a small town in Washington. After building an online following he competes on American Idol but drops out in the round of 24. Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons signs him to his imprint and releases Boone's debut album, Fireworks & Rollerblades, in 2024, which includes the hit "Beautiful Things."
June 5, 2002 Eleven weeks after being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Dee Dee Ramone, a founding member of the Ramones, dies of a heroin overdose at age 50.
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