January 7 – Welsh punk band Mclusky officially announce their disbanding via their website. Weeks later, Welsh noisecore/punk band Jarcrew disband due to their drummer becoming a Jehovah's Witness – remnants of the two bands later went on to join forces and become Future of the Left.
After being silent since late 2004, Blink-182 announce that they will be taking an indefinite hiatus, the news comes as a big shock for fans. According to guitarist Tom DeLonge, the band will not come completely inactive.
Brian Welch, guitarist of Korn, leaves the band after converting to Christianity.
March 7 – Koichi Fukuda rejoins Static-X on guitar after 5 years away from the band. Fukuda replaces Tripp Eisen, who was arrested twice in February over two separate charges of sexual intercourse with underage girls.
March 29 – Mariah Carey releases her second single, "We Belong Together", from her tenth studio album, The Emancipation of Mimi. The song would hold the number one position on the Billboard Hot 100 for 14 weeks, the highest record for the entire decade. Will Smith releases his fourth studio album (first under Interscope Records) Lost and Found.
Alice in Chains original bass player Mike Starr is arrested for "investigation of property destruction and theft". He was also sentenced to 30 days for misdemeanor drug possession in April 1994, two years after being replaced from the group during the recording of Dirt.
April 12 – Mariah Carey releases her tenth studio album, The Emancipation of Mimi. The album went on to become the best-selling album of 2005 in the US, and the second-best seller worldwide, with global sales of 10 million copies.[2] Its second single, "We Belong Together", was later hailed "Song of the Decade" by Billboard[3] and accumulated 14 weeks at number one in the US, while its third single, "Shake It Off", reached number two. The album marked a career revival for the songstress and was her biggest success of the decade.
Linkin Park issues a press release demanding to end its contract with Warner Music Group, on the grounds that the label would fail to meet its "fiduciary responsibility to market and promote Linkin Park" due to cost-cutting efforts at the company.[4]
June 12 – Pink Floyd announce that they will reunite with former bassist Roger Waters, who left the band in 1985, on July 2 for the Live 8 London concert. This will be the first time the band played together as a quartet since The Wall tour in 1981, and the first public performance by Pink Floyd since 1994.
July 6 – Lil' Kim is sentenced to a year and a day in prison for lying to a federal grand jury about her knowledge of suspects in a 2001 shooting outside a New York radio station.[5]
August 18 – Interscope Records reports that Eminem has entered rehab for dependency on sleep medication. The rapper had canceled the European leg of the Anger Management 3 Tour two days earlier, citing exhaustion.[6] A four-year hiatus would ensue until the release of the Relapse album in 2009.
August 24-31 – The UNESCO-sponsored Fifth Sharq Taronalari (Melodies of the East) International Music Festival is held in Samarkand.[7]
October 31 – Greatest Hits is released. It is a collection of Blink-182's greatest singles. At the time of the release, Blink-182 were on an indefinite hiatus but would later reunite in 2009 and release their sixth studio album Neighborhoods in 2011.
November 5, guitarist Link Wray of the Ray Men dies at age 76 in Copenhagen, Denmark
November 6 – Madonna earns her 36th Top Ten single with Warner Bros. Records-based, ABBA-sampled "Hung Up". This ties her with Elvis Presley for the most Top Ten singles. The Beatles have 34. "Hung Up" is also Madonna's 47th Top Forty single – the most for any female artist. Her new album Confessions On A Dance Floor hits #1 in 40 countries during the month, a new record. (The Beatles also previously held this record when The Beatles 1 went to #1 in 36 countries in 2000.)
November 8 – The first Guitar Hero video game is released for the PlayStation 2. The game becomes a major hit, would help make rhythm games one of the most popular video game genres, and increased the sales of artists who have their songs included in the games.
The Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal breaks as Sony BMG announces that it will recall all remaining stock of an estimated 15 million CDs containing copy protection that exposes the computers of consumers to serious security risks if played in their PC disc drives. Several class action lawsuits are filed against Sony in the ensuing public relations disaster.[10]
All-female group Danity Kane is formed on MTV show Making The Band.
November 20 – Madonna's Warner Bros. Records-based (Festival Mushroom Records in Australia) single, "Hung Up" takes the title as the ARIA #1 single.
November 29 – Chris Brown comes onto the music scene at age 16 with the release of his debut album Chris Brown. Making him the second youngest male R&B artist to come into the music business since Usher in 1994.
November 30 – Apocalyptica change locations of the shoot of their DVD "The Life Burns Tour" from Erfurt, Germany (Dec. 2) to Düsseldorf, Germany (Dec. 4) due to technical reasons.
December 15 – Madonna's Warner Bros. Records-based single, "Hung Up" sets a new record in the download charts by staying at #1 for 7 consecutive weeks. The single first appears on Z100 New York, closely followed by 2Day FM (Sydney), Fox FM (Melbourne) and Nova 96.9 (Sydney) other stations follow including: Mix 106.5 (Sydney), Mix 101.1 (Melbourne), Vega 95.3 (Sydney), Vega 91.5 (Melbourne) and the rest of the MIX FM stations.
December 21 – Elton John marries David Furnish in London. This marriage comes in the wake of new British laws affording gay unions the same legal protection enjoyed within straight marriages.
Glue Gun reforms after eight years, with frontman Bob Oedy the only original member. The new line-up is Bob Oedy (vocals), Joey Rimicci (guitars), Brian Priess (bass) and Andy Alverez (drums). Rimicci and Priess were previously members of Jughead's Revenge.
