Music History Events: Releases
October 30, 2006 Keane becomes the first major act to release a song on a USB memory stick. For £3.99, fans can purchase the 512MB drive at HMV stores, plug it into a computer, and transfer the track "Nothing In My Way" along with various videos and screensavers. The "single on a stick" format would fail to catch on.
October 3, 2006 Skillet releases their sixth studio album, Comatose. It's the Christian rock band's first gold-certified album, selling half a million copies. By 2016, sales reach one million, which earns the album platinum status.
June 5, 2006 "Hard Rock Hallelujah" by Lordi is released in the UK.
May 15, 2006 Dubstep artist Burial releases his debut album, Burial, the first full-length album released through Kode9's Hyperdub Records. It's an attempt to capture the feeling of 2000s London late at night, and the album cover features an aerial view of South London. The logo, which later becomes Burial's signature, represents a pirate radio signal.More
May 2, 2006 Neil Young releases Living With War, a very political album taking aim at the policies of US President George W. Bush.More
March 10, 2006 Lordi releases The Arockalypse, featuring the hit single "Hard Rock Hallelujah."
February 14, 2006 The Veronicas' debut studio album, The Secret Life of..., is released in the US.
December 6, 2005 T-Pain, 20, releases his first solo album, Rappa Ternt Sanga, the first major release with an Auto-Tune effect on every song. Soon, Auto-Tune is everywhere, with Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Migos and many other rappers embracing it.
November 22, 2005 Just six months after their Mezmerize album, System Of A Down release Hypnotize, which also goes to #1 in America. The band splits up the next year; they re-form in 2010, but go that entire decade without another release.
November 22, 2005 Ne-Yo releases "So Sick," his first #1 single (as a singer) in both the US and UK.
November 7, 2005 Twelve years after the release of her previous album, The Red Shoes, Kate Bush returns to the music scene with Aerial. The double album features the Elvis-inspired single, "King Of The Mountain."
October 4, 2005 Nickelback release their fifth album, All The Right Reasons, with the hits "Photograph," "Far Away" and "Rockstar." It goes to #1 in their native Canada and also in the US, where it sells over 10 million copies.
October 4, 2005 Exodus releases their seventh studio album, Shovel Headed Kill Machine.
October 3, 2005 Fiona Apple releases her third album, Extraordinary Machine, her first since When The Pawn... in 1999. The album was finished and slated for release in 2003, but Apple had second thoughts and put it on hold. After a leaked version appeared on the Internet in 2005, she re-recorded the songs and finally released the album.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
June 14, 2005 Backstreet Boys stray from their traditional pop fare with their rock-leaning comeback album, Never Gone. It debuts at #3 in America, sells over 10 million copies worldwide...and is slayed by critics.
May 17, 2005 System Of A Down release Mezmerize, with the war protest "B.Y.O.B." It debuts at #1 in America, as does their next album, Hypnotize, released six months later (a tactic cribbed from Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill movies).
May 3, 2005 Fall Out Boy release their breakthrough album, From Under the Cork Tree. Debuting at #9 on the albums chart, the sophomore effort is their first to crack the Top 10.
April 26, 2005 Amerie releases "Touch."
April 5, 2005 Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas releases his debut solo album, …Something To Be, featuring the Top 10 hit "Lonely No More."More
March 15, 2005 The third offering from Daft Punk, Human After All, is released in the US a day after its launch in the rest of the world. Recorded in just six weeks, it is a critical and commercial disappointment, leading the French duo to retreat into the studio to reconsider their direction and to call up some big-name collaborators for their next effort, Random Access Memories.
January 5, 2005 Amerie releases "1 Thing."
November 30, 2004 Linkin Park and Jay-Z release the collaborative EP Collision Course, which features mash-ups of the artists' songs. "Numb," from the nu-metal band's sophomore album, Meteora, is mixed with the rapper's Black Album track "Encore." The result, "Numb/Encore," wins the Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 2006 ceremony.
November 29, 2004 Green Day release "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." The title comes from a painting by Gottfried Helnwein depicting James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart, and Elvis Presley at a corner bar.
October 3, 2004 Tom Waits releases Real Gone, his fifteenth studio album. Featuring several political songs, including an "elliptical" protest against the Vietnam War titled "Day After Tomorrow," it's voted best album of 2004 by Harp Magazine.
September 21, 2004 Chris Tomlin releases his breakthrough album, Arriving. It will go on to peak at #3 on Billboard's Top Christian Albums chart.
September 14, 2004 Megadeth return after a two-year hiatus with The System Has Failed. This was originally intended to be a solo album by the band's founder Dave Mustaine, but due to contractual obligations owed to his publishing company, it had to be billed as a Megadeth album.
September 14, 2004 Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith of Tears for Fears reunite with the album Everybody Loves A Happy Ending. Their collaboration ended on a sour note in 1989 after the release of their third album, The Seeds Of Love.
September 14, 2004 The seven-member Canadian band Arcade Fire release their debut album, Funeral. It gets lots of positive press and sells very well over the next decade as the band make a steady rise.
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
©2026 Songfacts®, LLC