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 26, 2016 A group of 40 or so Broadway stars takes the stage on Day 2 of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia to sing "What the World Needs Now Is Love" in support of gun control legislation. These stars are part a group called Broadway For Orlando that was put together to record the song in honor of victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting on June 12, when 49 people were killed.More
July 21, 2016 Ivanka Trump speaks in support of her father Donald at the Republican National Convention, taking the podium as "Here Comes The Sun" plays. The estate of George Harrison, who wrote the song, Tweets: "The unauthorized use of #HereComestheSun at the #RNCinCLE is offensive & against the wishes of the George Harrison estate. If it had been "Beware Of Darkness," then we MAY have approved it! #TrumpYourself"
July 17, 2016 Kim Kardashian posts a video on her Snapchat account of a phone call between Kanye West and Taylor Swift where Kanye recites the line, "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex," from his song "Famous," and she seems OK with it. Swift responds on Instagram by posting, "Where is the video of Kanye telling me he was going to call me 'that bitch' in his song? It doesn't exist because it never happened."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
July 15, 2016 In what they famously describe as a "conscious uncoupling," Chris Martin (of Coldplay) and Gwyneth Paltrow officially divorce after 13 years of marriage.
July 11, 2016 Country singer Craig Morgan mourns the death of his son Jerry Greer after the 19-year-old's body is discovered the day after he goes missing while tubing on the Tennessee River. Jerry is one of four sons born to Morgan and his wife, Karen.
July 10, 2016 Aerosmith lead guitarist Joe Perry suffers a cardiac arrest while performing with Alice Cooper and Johnny Depp, fellow members of the supergroup The Hollywood Vampires, in Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York. The 65 year old is rushed to Coney Island hospital, where's he's listed in stable condition.
July 3, 2016 Maren Morris releases her first major-label album, Hero. It goes to #1 on the Country chart and includes one of her most enduring songs, "My Church."
June 28, 2016 Elvis Presley's original guitarist, Scotty Moore, dies at age 84. Moore, who played on rock classics like "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Jailhouse Rock," was the last living member of the team (Elvis, bass player Bill Black and producer Sam Phillips) that created The King's legendary sound.
June 24, 2016 Kanye West debuts the video for "Famous," which shows him in bed with nude likenesses of his wife Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump, Bill Cosby, Rihanna, and other celebrities and associates. West appears next to a likeness of Taylor Swift, who is derisively mentioned in the lyrics, "I made that bitch famous." West calls the video "a comment on fame."
June 23, 2016 After a trial in which the three living members of Led Zeppelin testified, a jury rules that they are not guilty of plagiarizing the intro of "Stairway To Heaven" from the 1968 song "Taurus" by the band Spirit. In 2018, the case is sent back to trial on a technicality, but is upheld in a 2020 ruling.
June 17, 2016 Tom DeLonge reveals his true reason for leaving blink-182: to investigate UFOs. In an interview with Mic, the "Aliens Exist" singer claims the truth is out there: "There's been hundreds and hundreds of thousands of eyewitness accounts. Trace evidence that's been analyzed by scientists across the world. Events have happened on the ground. It's all around us. I know of stuff I can't talk about right now."
June 15, 2016 Jimmy Page takes the stand in a trial where he is accused of stealing part of the song "Taurus" for the intro to "Stairway To Heaven." Led Zeppelin played on the same bills with the band Spirit, who performed "Taurus" in their sets, but Page says he never heard that song before writing "Stairway." The jury rules in favor of Led Zeppelin.
June 10, 2016 Rick Astley releases 50, his first album of original songs in 15 years, in the UK. It goes to #1 its first week.
June 8, 2016 Brian May of Queen posts a note on his website objecting to Donald Trump's use of "We Are The Champions" at campaign events. "Regardless of our views on Mr. Trump's platform, it has always been against our policy to allow Queen music to be used as a political campaigning tool," May writes. The following month, Trump uses the song as his entrance music when he makes his first appearance at the Republican convention.
June 3, 2016 After a 32-year battle with Parkinson's disease, Muhammad Ali, the heavyweight boxing champion and civil rights activist who was the subject of the 1975 hit "Black Superman," dies of respiratory complications at age 74.
May 31, 2016 Alicia Keys announces that she will no longer wear makeup, embracing the #nomakeup movement.More
May 26, 2016 Gucci Mane gets out of jail after serving three years on gun charges. He goes home and records vocals for "1st Day Out tha Feds," which is released the next day.
May 21, 2016 Following the release of his album Views, Drake places a record 20 songs on the Hot 100, besting Justin Bieber's mark of 17 on December 5, 2015.
May 20, 2016 The National release an anthology album of 59 Grateful Dead covers called Day of the Dead, with appearances by Lucinda Williams, Bruce Hornsby, Courtney Barnett and Wayne Coyne. Proceeds go to the Red Hot Organization, which helps fight AIDS.
May 20, 2016 Barenaked Ladies release the live album BNL Rocks Red Rocks, which was recorded on June 10, 2015, at the famous Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado, during the band's Last Summer On Earth tour. Guests include former Men at Work frontman Colin Hay and Violent Femmes sax player Blaise Garza, who join BNL for a rendition of Hay's 1982 hit "Who Can It Be Now?"
May 17, 2016 Moby releases his memoir Porcelain, named because he threw up into a lot of porcelain toilets. It's also the title of a hit single from his landmark album, Play.
May 14, 2016 Following the release of Beyoncé's Lemonade, all 12 tracks on the album debut on the Hot 100, breaking Taylor Swift's 2010 record for most songs on the chart at the same time by a female artist.More
May 13, 2016 Kristian Bush of Sugarland appears on the TLC reality series Say Yes To The Dress, where he is flummoxed by bridal culture. While shooting the episode, he is asked to write a new theme song for the show, which he does with "Forever Now (Say Yes)."
May 10, 2016 Justin Timberlake performs his new single "Can't Stop the Feeling" in the interval of the Eurovision Song Contest as the show is broadcast in America for the first time. His appearance in Stockholm, Sweden, leads to speculation that the USA will be invited to enter the song competition, following the successful addition of Australia to the line-up in 2015.
May 7, 2016 After completing a tour with Guns N' Roses, Axl Rose takes over as lead singer for AC/DC, filling in for Brian Johnson at a show in Lisbon after Johnson is told that continuing the tour could result in permanent hearing loss. Rose fills in on the remaining dates as a guest vocalist.
May 5, 2016 Arsenio Hall files a $5 million defamation suit against Sinead O'Connor after the singer posts a message on Facebook suggesting he was the recently deceased Prince's drug dealer. She later apologizes and Hall drops the suit.
May 4, 2016 After Donald Trump's campaign plays "Start Me Up" following his victory speech celebrating his path to the Republican nomination, The Rolling Stones ask him to stop, joining several other artists in decrying his use of their songs.More
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