March 5, 2021 Kings Of Leon release their album When You See Yourself in a non-fungible token (NFT) auction that also includes digital artwork and "Golden Tickets." Other acts (notably, Grimes) have sold NTF art, but KoL is the first big name to try it with an album and VIP package.More
February 22, 2021 Daft Punk, the electronic music duo that formed in 1993, announce their split via a video called Epilogue, where we learn they have self-destruct buttons.
January 31, 2021 Capping a massive bender, Morgan Wallen yells the n-word at his (white) drinking buddy outside his home. It's caught on video, and when it's released two days later, Wallen is dropped from most radio stations and banished from playlists on major streaming services. The controversy earns him a surge in streams and sales, keeping his Dangerous: The Double Album, which debuted at #1 in America on January 23, at the top for a total of 10 weeks.
January 22, 2021 In their hometown of Oklahoma City, Flaming Lips pull off the first COVID-protected space bubble concert, with audience members enclosed in plastic bubbles like the kind frontman Wayne Coyne often uses to walk over the crowd.
January 20, 2021 On his last day in office, President Donald Trump pardons Lil Wayne, who pleaded guilty to weapons charges. Days before the election, the rapper was photographed with Trump and tweeted his support.
January 20, 2021 At Joe Biden's inauguration, Lady Gaga sings the national anthem and Jennifer Lopez belts out "This Land Is Your Land" before he is sworn in. At night, Bruce Springsteen, John Legend, Demi Lovato, and Tim McGraw all perform on a socially distanced concert special capped by a massive fireworks display on the National Mall as Katy Perry sings, of course, "Firework."
January 16, 2021 Renowned producer Phil Spector, 81, dies after getting coronavirus in prison, where he was serving time for killing the actress Lana Clarkson in 2003.
January 4, 2021 Lola Young is born in Croydon, South London. After graduating from the BRIT School for Performing Arts, where Amy Winehouse went, she's discovered by Nick Shymansky, who also managed Winehouse. Young breaks through in 2024 with her song "Messy," which exemplifies her highly confessional songwriting and refreshingly imperfect veneer.
December 18, 2020 Paul McCartney releases McCartney III. He's a one-man band on the album, playing all the instruments (save for one track) and writing all the songs, which he also did on the prequels, McCartney in 1970 and McCartney II in 1980.
December 16, 2020 After nearly 178 days, Twenty One Pilots pull the plug on the livestream for their "Level Of Concern" video, which refreshed every 3:40 with new footage uploaded by fans. Guinness declares it the longest music video ever made.
December 12, 2020 El Ultimo Tour del Mundo by Bad Bunny becomes the first entirely Spanish-language album to top the Billboard 200 albums chart.
December 12, 2020 Bad Bunny's El Último Tour Del Mundo hits #1 on the US albums chart, becoming the first album entirely in Spanish to top the tally.
December 5, 2020 BTS hit #1 in America with "Life Goes On." Most of the lyric is Korean, making it the first chart-topper since "Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco with lyrics predominantly in a language other than Spanish or English.
December 1, 2020 South Korea, which requires men to enlist in the military by the time they turn 28, passes a law to defer service for K-pop stars who have "elevated the country's cultural influence around the world" until age 30. This keeps BTS intact, as Jin turns 28 three days later.
November 22, 2020 For the third consecutive year, Taylor Swift wins Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards. She accepts from a Nashville studio where she's re-recording her first six albums, which have been acquired by a holding company.
November 17, 2020 Shazam announces the most-Shazamed songs in history. The Top 5: 1) "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I 2) "Prayer In C" - Lilly Wood & The Prick 3) "Let Her Go" - Passenger 4) "Wake Me Up" - Avicii 5) "Lean On" by Major Lazer
November 13, 2020 Kylie Minogue's album Disco goes to #1 in the UK, making her the only woman to top the chart in five consecutive decades.
November 7, 2020 The Doobie Brothers, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, Whitney Houston, The Notorious B.I.G., and T. Rex enter the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Because of coronavirus, the ceremony is virtual and there are no performances.
November 6, 2020 System Of A Down release two songs - "Protect The Land" and "Genocidal Humanoidz" - supporting their home country of Armenia in a war that has broken out in the region. It's the first new material from the band since their album Hypnotize in 2005.
November 2, 2020 Thanks to a swell of views from children home during the coronavirus pandemic, "Baby Shark" overtakes "Despacito" as the most-viewed video in YouTube history, with a little over 7 billion views.
October 17, 2020 Directed by Spike Lee, the film version of David Byrne's American Utopia, which ran on Broadway from October 2019 to February 2020, debuts on HBO. Many of the songs from Stop Making Sense, the concert film Byrne did with the Talking Heads, are also in this one, but a showstopper is a cover of Janelle Monáe's "Hell You Talmbout," which ties into the Black Lives Matter movement.
October 7, 2020 After social media videos show him kissing girls and having an intimate, maskless good time with fans in Alabama, country singer Morgan Wallen is scratched as musical guest from Saturday Night Live for breaking coronavirus protocols. He is welcomed back to the show on December 5, when he performs two songs and does a send-up of the Tuscaloosa evening that got him in trouble.
September 15, 2020 Sotheby's holds the first-ever auction of hip-hop memorabilia, which includes a set of Tupac Shakur's love letters ($75,600), Slick Rick's eye patch ($25,200), and Salt-N-Pepa's jackets ($23,940). The marquee item is the plastic crown Notorious B.I.G. wore on his last photo shoot, which sells for $594,750.
September 10, 2020 Alicia Keys performs "Lift Every Voice And Sing" at the NFL season opener between the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs. The league has ordered the song, considered the "Black national anthem," played before every game in Week 1. The NFL cracked down on players who refused to stand for "The Star-Spangled Banner" after Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the song in 2016, a stance that is out of touch with the Black Lives Matter movement.
September 7, 2020 Lily Allen marries David Harbour (Hopper on Stranger Things) at the Graceland Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, with an Elvis impersonator presiding. Their breakup in 2025 inspires her album West End Girl, which is filled with songs about cheating and deceit.
August 30, 2020 Lady Gaga is the big winner at MTV Video Music Awards, taking Artist of the Year, Song of the Year (her Ariana Grande collaboration "Rain On Me") and the Tricon Award, formerly the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. With the coronavirus lockdown still in place, two new categories are awarded: Best Music Video From Home ("Stuck with U" by Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber) and Best Quarantine Performance (CNCO: Unplugged at Home).
August 22, 2020 "WAP" by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion hits #1 in America, becoming the most sexually explicit song ever to top the tally. It's bumped off two weeks later by a wholesome slice of K-pop: "Dynamite" by BTS.
August 15, 2020 Harry Styles lands his first #1 hit in the US with "Watermelon Sugar," a song he later admits is about "the sweetness of life," but also "the female orgasm."
August 14, 2020 The sports comedy drama Ted Lasso premieres on Apple TV+ with a theme song by Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons. Jason Sudeikis, who portrays the title character, is a longtime friend of the British folk rocker. He even portrayed Mumford in the band's music video for their 2013 single "Hopeless Wanderer."
August 10, 2020 Split Enz hit #1 in their native New Zealand with the 40th anniversary reissue of their album True Colours, knocking off Folklore by Taylor Swift, who was born nine years after the album was first released.
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