October 7, 2008 Spotify launches. The most-streamed song for October is "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay; for all of 2008 it's "Human" by The Killers. Ten years later, the company boasts 180 million active users and over 40 million songs.
October 5, 2008 After 17 years living as a couple, Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night finally tie the knot. Blackmore is formerly of the bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. Night and Blackmore were brought together through a shared love of Renaissance music and together form the band Blackmore's Night, which enjoys nominal success as a British traditional folk / Renaissance music project.
October 4, 2008 Darius Rucker, known as the frontman for the '90s pop band Hootie & the Blowfish, hits #1 on the Country chart with his first country single, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It," making him the first African American singer to top that tally since 1985, when Ray Charles hit the top with "Seven Spanish Angels," a duet with Willie Nelson.
September 30, 2008 Disney releases Nightmare Revisited, a cover album of songs from The Nightmare Before Christmas. The new album commemorates the fifteenth anniversary of the film's original 1993 release and features new arrangements by KoRn, Amy Lee of Evanescence, and Marilyn Manson.
September 29, 2008 T.I. releases the album Paper Trail, made mostly under house arrest while awaiting trial on gun charges. It includes collaborations with Justin Timberlake ("Dead And Gone") and Rihanna ("Live Your Life"), and the hit "Whatever You Like."
September 25, 2008 MySpace Music launches, allowing artists to upload songs to their profiles for fans to stream for free. With 5 million artist pages, MySpace is hoping to compete with iTunes, but it's hemorrhaging users to Facebook and never makes much impact as a streaming service.
September 23, 2008 Guns N' Roses' Appetite For Destruction is certified for sales of 18 million by the RIAA, overtaking Boston's self-titled album (at 17 million) to become the all-time best-selling debut album in America. Ten years later, Hootie & the Blowfish earn the title when their album Cracked Rear View is certified at 21 million.
September 19, 2008 Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and DJ AM are seriously injured when the plane they are riding in hurtles off the end of a runway in South Carolina and hits a highway embankment.More
September 19, 2008 Ten years after getting arrested for lewd behavior in a Los Angeles public bathroom, George Michael is arrested on drug charges in a restroom north of London. "I want to apologize to my fans for screwing up again, and to promise them I'll sort myself out," the singer says. "And to say sorry to everybody else, just for boring them."
September 7, 2008 While performing the song "Morning Glory" at the V Festival in Toronto, Noel Gallagher of Oasis is attacked by a concert-goer who rushes the stage and pushes him into his monitor. The band continues the show, but Gallagher is taken to a hospital that night to treat injuries to his ribs. He suffers a fractured rib and ligament damage, which forces the cancellation of several Oasis concerts.
September 5, 2008 The first Fender Stratocaster set alight on stage by Jimi Hendrix is auctioned. The guitar sells for $575,000 to collector Daniel Boucher - less than the $1 million predicted. It is one of only two guitars definitively burned by Hendrix - the other was at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.
August 24, 2008 Barenaked Ladies frontman Ed Robertson emerges unscathed after he crashes his Cessna 206 float-plane near Bancroft, Ontario. Three other passengers, including wife Natalie, are also miraculously uninjured. The Transportation Safety Board is unable to determine the cause of the crash, but clears Robertson of any wrongdoing.
August 24, 2008 Leona Lewis and Jimmy Page perform during the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at the National Stadium (also known as the Bird's Nest). The duo perform the Led Zeppelin classic "Whole Lotta Love."More
August 23, 2008 Madonna starts her Sticky & Sweet Tour (supporting her album Hard Candy) with a show in Cardiff, Wales. Her first excursion under her Live Nation contract, it breaks the record she set on her 2006 Confessions Tour for biggest-selling tour by a solo artist: the 85 dates earn about $408 million, second only to The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang Tour at $558 million.
August 19, 2008 After two years performing in the New York City club scene, 22-year-old Lady Gaga releases her debut album, The Fame, a look at how fame is all about attitude. Thanks to the hits "Just Dance" and "Poker Face," it makes her famous worldwide, not just in her mind.More
August 15, 2008 Music producer Jerry Wexler dies of congestive heart failure in Sarasota, Florida, at age 91. Known for reviving Aretha Franklin's career in the '60s and producing Bob Dylan's Slow Train Coming album.
August 11, 2008 Noah and the Whale debut Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down is released on the Mercury/Vertigo label. Laura Marling, who was a member of the band at the time of recording but soon left to focus on her solo career, is featured as a vocalist on the album. Fellow Indie-Folk artist Emmy the Great also contributes vocals to the album.
August 9, 2008 In an interview with the Calgary Herald, Full House actor Dave Coulier claims he's the subject of his ex-girlfriend Alanis Morissette's hit 1995 song "You Oughta Know." Morissette won't confirm or deny the mystery man's identity, but tells Entertainment Weekly: "Fifty-five people can take credit for that song, and I'm always curious about why they're doing it. But Dave is the most public about it."
July 22, 2008 Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor foots the bill for the band's seventh studio album, The Slip, which is released digitally on their website for free with the tag, "This one's on me." Fans wanting a physical copy, however, will have to shell out their money for a limited-edition CD two months later. (NIN also did this four months earlier with the free digital release of Ghosts I-IV, an album made up of almost entirely instrumental, unnamed tracks.)
July 18, 2008 Billy Joel plays the "Last Play at Shea" concert - the final show before Shea Stadium is closed down. Joel is joined on stage by Paul McCartney, Garth Brooks, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, and The Who's Roger Daltrey.More
July 11, 2008 Barenaked Ladies' co-lead singer Steven Page is busted for cocaine possession while visiting his girlfriend's apartment in Fayetteville, New York. The charges will eventually be dropped, but the incident is a point of contention with his clean-cut bandmates and leads to his departure the following year.
July 10, 2008 By simply tapping an app button on an iPhone, music fans can finally get an answer to the timeless question, "What's that song?" Shazam's free smartphone app is the first music recognition service of its kind - using a phone's microphone to listen to any song being played publicly - like in a restaurant, at a friend's house, or on TV - and identify it. And it actually works.More
July 5, 2008 Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" hits #1 in the US, where it stays for seven weeks. Perry's first chart-topper, it's a startling turnabout from just seven years earlier, when she was a gospel singer recording under her real name: Katy Hudson.More
July 4, 2008 The movie Mamma Mia!, featuring the music of ABBA and based on the musical, opens in Sweden where the group attends the screening, briefly reuniting Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, and Agnetha Faltskog.More
July 1, 2008 Crüe Fest kicks off in West Palm Beach, Florida. The tour features Mötley Crüe, Buckcherry, Papa Roach, Sixx:A.M., and Trapt; it earns about $40 million.
June 28, 2008 During her performance at Glastonbury Festival, Amy Winehouse punches a fan she mistakenly believes had thrown a hat at her beehive.More
June 17, 2008 Katy Perry's major-label debut album, One of the Boys, is released, featuring the hit single "I Kissed a Girl." It's not her first album: In 2001 she released a gospel album under her real name, Katy Hudson.More
June 14, 2008 Pearl Jam and My Morning Jacket bond, a tardy Kanye West riles the crowd and calls organizers "squid brains," and MGMT dance like hippies at Bonnaroo 2008.More
June 13, 2008 R. Kelly is innocent! After a six-year legal battle, he's acquitted of all charges after less than a day of deliberations in his child pornography trial. Prosecutors had argued that a video tape mailed to the Chicago Sun-Times in 2002 showed Kelly doing horrible things with a 13-year-old girl.
June 7, 2008 Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones make a surprise appearance to jam with Foo Fighters during their Wembley Stadium gig in London. The one-night-only supergroup plays "Rock And Roll" and "Ramble On."
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