November 15, 2005 American Idol winner Carrie Underwood releases her debut album, Some Hearts. Featuring the hits "Jesus, Take The Wheel" and "Before He Cheats," it becomes the best-selling album of the year.More
August 28, 2005 To promote their new line of fall denim, the Gap recruits seven artists to cover their favorite songs on a commercial that airs during the MTV Video Music Awards. Joining Alanis Morissette, who sings Seal's "Crazy" in the clip, are Keith Urban, Joss Stone, Michelle Williams (of Destiny's Child), Jason Mraz, John Legend, and Incubus frontman Brandon Boyd.More
August 9, 2005 Nickelback release "Photograph," the first single from their album All The Right Reasons. Inspired by a drunken snapshot, the song is about Chad Kroeger's memories of growing up in a small town in Alberta.More
November 14, 2004 Gwen Stefani performs on TV as a solo artist (no No Doubt) for the first time when she takes the stage at the American Music Awards to sing "What You Waiting For."
September 21, 2004 Green Day release American Idiot, their first album in four years. Overtly political in places, it takes on President George W. Bush, especially on the title track. With a more refined sound, the album outsells even their punk rock touchstone Dookie, released 10 years earlier.
September 21, 2004 Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens), is denied entry into the United States when he shows up on a terrorist watch list, accused of funding terror groups.More
September 1, 2004 Under pressure to account for download sales, the Official Charts company releases its first UK Download Chart. The boy band Westlife claims the #1 spot with a live release of their 1999 song "Flying Without Wings."More
July 13, 2004 Jimmy Buffett releases License To Chill, his 21st studio album. It's mostly a collection of duets with fellow country stars, including Martina McBride, Kenny Chesney, and George Strait. It's also his first album to go to #1 in the US.More
June 26, 2004 Defying predictions of musical and personal implosion, Velvet Revolver, fronted by Scott Weiland and with three ex-Guns N' Roses members in the lineup, debuts at #1 in America with their first album, Contraband.More
May 11, 2004 John Whitehead (of the R&B duo McFadden & Whitehead), age 55, is murdered outside of his Philadelphia home when he's shot while fixing his car. The crime, thought to be a tragic case of mistaken identity, remains unsolved.
April 21, 2004 Future Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson gets voted off season three of American Idol, where she finishes in seventh place.More
March 27, 2004 Prince kicks off his Musicology tour with a show in Reno, Nevada. The average ticket costs $61, which includes a copy of the Musicology album. These are counted as sales according to Billboard, so the album rises to #3 (his previous three albums failed to chart). The tour takes in $87.4 million, making it the highest-grossing of 2004.
February 10, 2004 Kanye West, known for producing tracks on Jay-Z's 2001 album The Blueprint, releases his debut album, The College Dropout.More
February 8, 2004 At the Grammy Awards, OutKast is the first hip-hop act to win Album of the Year, for Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, and Evanescence takes Best New Artist, beating out 50 Cent, who comes on stage anyway.More
February 1, 2004 Justin Timberlake punctuates the Super Bowl halftime show by tearing away part of Janet Jackson's costume, revealing her right breast to a massive audience that quickly reaches for their TiVos for a replay. Both artists blame it on a "wardrobe malfunction," but while Jackson gets blacklisted, Timberlake is welcomed back by the music industry and the NFL after a series of apologies.More
January 21, 2004 The warts-and-all Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster makes its debut at the Sundance Film Festival.More
November 20, 2003 The first ever Vibe Awards takes place in Santa Monica, California, with 50 Cent winning for Artist of the Year, Dopest Album (Get Rich or Die Tryin') and Hottest Hook ("In Da Club").
October 9, 2003 Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O, a very frenetic performer, is hurt when she tumbles off the stage at a show in Sydney and a monitor lands on her head. After one more song she's taken to the hospital, but two days later she performs from a wheelchair when the band return to the same venue for a festival.
June 7, 2003 The rain-soaked Field Day Festival takes place at Giants Stadium, with performances by Radiohead, Beastie Boys, Blur, Bright Eyes and several other acts. It was scheduled as a two-day event at a different site but hastily moved when permits didn't come through. Beck is supposed to perform but injures his ribs in a collision with a stagehand and is taken to the hospital. The festival does plant the seeds of Monsters Of Folk, as Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes and Jim James of My Morning Jacket meet backstage and later form the group with M. Ward.
May 2, 2003 Dixie Chicks appear naked on the front cover of Entertainment Weekly, with slogans such "Traitors," "Hero," "Boycott," "Saddam's Angels" and "Proud Americans" printed across their bodies. The slogans represent the mixed reaction Dixie Chicks received following singer Natalie Maines' anti-George W. Bush comments.More
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
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
September 30, 2002 Christina Aguilera's "Dirrty" video hits MTV, shocking viewers with bawdy scenes where she's doing some dirrty dancing. It's a major image makeover for Aguilera, a former Disney star whose 1999 debut album established her as wholesome pop star.More
September 4, 2002 Kelly Clarkson beats Justin Guarini to become the first winner of American Idol.More
August 29, 2002 Enrique Iglesias and the tennis star Anna Kournikova show up as a couple for the first time when they attend the MTV Video Music Awards, where Eminem takes Video Of The Year for "Without Me."
July 23, 2002 New Jersey-based alt rockers My Chemical Romance release their vampire-themed debut album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. Released through the independent punk label Eyeball Records, it was produced by Thursday frontman Geoff Rickly.More
June 11, 2002 American Idol premieres on the FOX network. A singing competition judged by three hosts, it becomes one of the most popular network reality shows and launches a number of careers, with many contestants - and not just winners - becoming stars.More
June 4, 2002 Avril Lavigne, 17, releases her debut album, Let Go, which goes to #1 in her native Canada and sells over 7 million copies in America.More
June 1, 2002 Eminem, still without an American chart-topper, lands his third UK #1 hit with "Without Me," where he takes shots at a number of soft targets including Chris Kirkpatrick, Limp Bizkit and Moby.
March 23, 2002 At the 22nd Golden Raspberry Awards, Mariah Carey takes home her first Razzie as Worst Actress for her starring role in Glitter. The film earns a total of six nominations, including one for Mariah's cleavage as Worst Couple.
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