See also: 2000 in music, 2001 in music (UK), other events of 2001, 2002 in music, 2000s in music and the list of 'years in music'

Events

• January 1 - Hum disbands.
• January 17 - Bass player Jason Newsted leaves Metallica after 14 years with the band.
• January/February - Rush records Vapor Trails, which was released on May 14, 2002.
• February - CFXJ (Flow 93.5), Canada's first urban music station, goes to air for the first time as a testing signal (its official debut is on March 1.) This is a breakthrough for Canadian hip hop and R&B musicians, who had previously faced significant barriers to getting exposure for their music.
• February 13 - Peter Frampton receives the Orville H. Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award
• February 17 - Manic Street Preachers become the first western rock band to play in Cuba. (Fidel Castro was in attendance.)
• March 1 - Collin Raye is awarded the Artist Humanitarian Award from Country Radio Broadcasters Inc . The award was given in recognition of Raye's work on behalf of a number of different charitable organizations including Child help USA , USA Weekend's Make a Difference Day and the Native American organization Hecel Oyakapi.
• March 14 - The Court of Appeals in Rome finds Michael Jackson "not guilty" of plagiarism, reversing a decision made in 1999 by a lower court. Italian songwriter Albano Carrisi had claimed that Jackson's "Will You Be There" was a copy of his song "I Cigni Di Balaka."
• March 28 - Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 replaces Max Bruch's violin concerto at #1 in the Classic FM Hall of Fame.
• April 4 - Original Zombies lead singer Colin Blunstone and keyboardist Rod Argent, reunite for a two part performance at London's Jazz Cafe. This was the first time the two band members performed together in over 30 years.
• April 24 and October 30 - Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson release albums in the same year, respectively. Janet releases "All For You" and Michael releases "Invincible". Both albums would hit #1 on the album charts.
• May - The 4th EJCF in Basel was held. Next time was in 2004.
• June 16 - The Los Angeles, California radio station KROQ airs the 9th Annual of the Weenie Roast show with Blink-182, Coldplay, Crazy Town, The Cult, The Disturbed, Jane's Addiction, Linkin Park, The Living End, New Found Glory, Pennywise, Papa Roach, Stabbing Westward, Staind, Stone Temple Pilots, Sum 41 and 311.
• October 20 - airs on VH1, with performances by Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Billy Joel and others.
• November - The governing body of the UK Singles Chart, Chart Information Network Ltd. (CIN), changes its name to The Official UK Charts Company.
• Mariah Carey makes a number of unusual public appearances, including an unscheduled visit to MTV's Total Request Live. Rumors fly that the star had a mental breakdown.
• Area One music festival brings together a variety of acts including Moby, Incubus, Outkast, New Order, Nelly Furtado, The Roots, Rinocerose , Paul Oakenfold, and Carl Cox.
• Napster's popularity peaks
• Elastica disband
• Toadies disband
• Apollo Sunshine forms
• Audioslave forms
• Die Trying forms
• Franz Ferdinand forms
• Revolution forms
• The Underdog Project forms
• Zebra forms again
• Zwan forms

Albums released

• From Chaos - 311
• The Definitive Collection - ABBA
• Teen Spirit - A-Teens
• Just Push Play - Aerosmith
• 10,000 Hz Legend - Air
• ANThology - Alien Ant Farm
• Underground Network - Anti-Flag
• Wages of Sin - Arch Enemy
• End Is Forever - The Ataris
• drukqs - Aphex Twin
• The Metal Opera - Tobias Sammet's Avantasia
• The Process Of Belief - Bad Religion (released in the United States in 2002)
• Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits - Barenaked Ladies
• Long Stories Short - Bayside
• This Is Where I Came In - Bee Gees
• Vespertine - Björk
• Lions - The Black Crowes
• Take Off Your Pants And Jacket - Blink-182
• How I Spent My Summer Vacation - The Bouncing Souls
• Comfort Eagle - Cake
• Follow the Reaper - Children of Bodom
• Ten New Songs - Leonard Cohen
• Wake Up And Smell The Coffee - The Cranberries
• I Don't Care That You Don't Mind - Crash Test Dummies
• Weathered - Creed
• Greatest Hits - The Cure
• Révolution 5° du Nom - Dalida (Remix album)
• Everyday - Dave Matthews Band
• The Best of Bruce Dickinson - Bruce Dickinson
• Mutiny on the Bay - Dead Kennedys
• Day of the Death - Death By Stereo (released in Europe in 2000)
• Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia - Dimmu Borgir
• The Sickness - The Disturbed
• Sing Loud, Sing Proud - Dropkick Murphys
• Sinner - Drowning Pool
• Love and Theft - Bob Dylan
• Mandrake - Edguy
• Flirting with Twilight - Kurt Elling
• Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire and Demise - Emperor
• Girl - Eskimo Joe
• In Search of Truth - Evergrey
• Suburban Blight - F-Minus
• Falconer - Falconer
• Jaktens Tid - Finntroll
• Enjoy Yourself - Frantic Flintstones
• Lars Frederiksen & The Bastards - Lars Frederiksen
• The Argument - Fugazi
• No World Order - Gamma Ray
• [[Gorillaz(band}}]]Gorillaz
• Light of Day, Day of Darkness - Green Carnation
• International SuperHits! - Green Day
• International SuperVideos! - Green Day (DVD Release)
• Warning: - Green Day
• Trace - Gridlock
• Covered With Ants - Guttermouth
• Live Insurrection - Rob Halford
• Scattered, Smothered and Covered - Hootie & the Blowfish
• Horror Show - Iced Earth
• Morning View - Incubus
• Mechanized Warfare - Jag Panzer
• Arrival - Journey
• The Essential Journey - Journey
• Demolition - Judas Priest
• Karma - Kamelot
• Cocky - Kid Rock
• Violent Revolution - Kreator
• Unleashed Memories - Lacuna Coil
• Lenny - Lenny Kravitz
• V / Ecstatic Fanatic - Live
• Roll On - The Living End
• Wonders of the World - Long Beach Dub Allstars
• Awakening the World - Lost Horizon
• Word Of Mouf - Ludacris
• Driving Rain - Paul McCartney
• Greatest Hits - Tim McGraw
• The World Needs A Hero - Megadeth
• Destination Unknown - Mest
• God Says No - Monster Magnet
• Origin Of Symmetry - Muse
• The Big Combo - New Bomb Turks
• No More Shall We Part - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
• Silver Side Up - Nickelback
• Rock Steady - No Doubt
• Conspiracy Of One - The Offspring
• Blackwater Park - Opeth
• Down To Earth - Ozzy Osbourne
• Land Of The Free? - Pennywise
• Anyone's For Doomsday - Powerman 5000
• Freaked Out and Small - Presidents of the United States of America
• Nuclear Fire - Primal Fear
• Come Clean - Puddle Of Mudd
• We Are Puss - Puss
• Amnesiac - Radiohead
• Mutter - Rammstein
• Revolving Around The World - Revolution
• My Heart Is In Your Hands - Revolution
• Rain of a Thousand Flames - Rhapsody
• Melody A.M. - Röyksopp
• Poets and Madmen - Savatage
• Laundry Service - Shakira
• God Hates Us All - Slayer
• IOWA - Slipknot
• Pretty Together - Sloan
• Greatest Hits (2-Disc) - The Smashing Pumpkins
• Silence - Sonata Arctica
• Spy Kids - Soundtrack
• Break The Cycle - Staind
• Sound-Dust - Stereolab
• Is This It - The Strokes
• Start Static - Sugarcult
• All Killer No Filler - Sum 41
• Live on the Edge of Forever - Symphony X
• Toxicity- System of a Down
• Secrets of the Runes - Therion
• Mink Car - They Might Be Giants
• From Chaos - 311
• Lateralus - Tool
• Communication & Conviction: Last Seven Years - The Tossers
• It Doesn´t Matter - The Underdog Project
• World of Glass - Tristania
• Fuel For Life - The Turbo AC's
• Product Of Television - UP SyNDROME
• Final V.U. 1971-1973 - The Velvet Underground
• Bootleg Series, Vol. 1: The Quine Tapes - The Velvet Underground
• Weezer (2001) - Weezer
• Don't Tell the Band - Widespread Panic
• Swing When You're Winning - Robbie Williams
• The Sinister Urge - Rob Zombie
• Invincible - Michael Jackson
• All for you - Janet Jackson

Top hits on record

• "Ain't Nothing 'Bout You" - Brooks & Dunn
• "(Upside down) bouncing off the ceiling" - A-Teens
• "Crawling" - Linkin Park
• "Hey Baby" - No Doubt
• "Laissez-moi danser (By Cerrone)" - Dalida (Remix)
• "I Hope You Dance" - Lee Ann Womack
• "In The End" - Linkin Park
• "Million Miles Away" - The Offspring
• "My Baby" - Lil Romeo
• "One Step Closer" - Linkin Park
• Revolving Around The World - Revolution
• "Spy Kids Theme" - Fonda
• "Want You Bad" - The Offspring
• "Whenever Wherever"/"Suerte" - Shakira

See also: Hot 100 No. 1 Hits of 2001 (USA)

Top 10 selling albums of the year

1. Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory
2. Shaggy - Hotshot
3. NSYNC - No Strings Attached
4. Enya - A Day Without Rain
5. Staind - Break The Cycle
6. Alicia Keys - Songs in A Minor
7. Destiny's Child - Survivor
8. Creed - Weathered
9. Soundtrack - O Brother, Where Art Thou?
10. Various Artists - Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 6

Classical music

• Helmut Lachenmann - Grido (string quartet)
• Peter Ruzicka - Trans - Requiem für Giuseppe Sinopoli

Opera

• Theo Loevendie - Johnny & Jones

Musical theater

• 42nd Street     Broadway revival opened at the Ford Center on May 2
• A Class Act      Broadway production opened at the Ambassador Theatre on March 11 and ran for 105 performances
• Mamma Mia     Broadway production opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on October 18
• The Producers     Broadway production opened at St. James Theatre on April 19
• Urinetown     Broadway production opened at the Hudson Theatre on September 20 and ran for 965 performances

Musical films

• Moulin Rouge! released May 18, starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor

Births

Deaths

• January 7 - James Carr, soul singer
• February 4 - Iannis Xenakis, a Greek composer.
• February 13 - George Simon , Music critic and original Glenn Miller Band drummer, pneumonia
• February 19 - Charles Trenet, French singer, songwriter
• February 21 - Ronnie Hilton
• February 21 - Malcolm Yelvington
• February 22 - John Fahey, guitarist, indie label owner
• March 18 - John Phillips, cofounder of Popular Music group The Mamas and the Papas
• March 28 - Moe Koffman (73), Canadian Jazz singer
• April 15 - Joey Ramone, 49, lead singer for The Ramones
• April 20 - Giuseppe Sinopoli, composer and conductor
• May 12 - Perry Como, singer
• May 20 - Renato Carosone, Italian musician and singer
• June 4 - John Hartford, 64, Bluegrass musician
• June 21 - John Lee Hooker, 83, Blues musician
• June 30 - Chet Atkins, 77, country musician
• July 27 - Leon Wilkeson , 49, Bassist for Lynyrd Skynyrd
• August 25 - Aaliyah, 22, American singer and actress
• September 22 - Isaac Stern, 81, violinist
• November 29 - George Harrison, 58, musician and former member of The Beatles
• December 13 - Chuck Schuldiner, 34, vocalist and guitarist with Death
• December 16 - Stuart Adamson , Big Country
• December 18 - Gilbert Bécaud, singer-songwriter

Awards

• The following artists are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Aerosmith, Solomon Burke, The Flamingos, Michael Jackson, Queen, Paul Simon, Steely Dan and Ritchie Valens
• Inductees of the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame include Larry Norman, and Elvis Presley

Grammy Awards

• Grammy Awards of 2001

Juno Awards

• Juno Awards of 2001
  • March 4 - Bruce Cockburn is inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame

Country Music Association Awards

Eurovision Song Contest

• Eurovision Song Contest 2001

Mercury Music Prize

• Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea - P.J. Harvey wins.

Charts

Triple J Hottest 100

• Triple J Hottest 100, 2001