2017 Music History: Key Events, Band Formations & Album Releases
Acts Formed
black midi
London, England
Art Rock
Caroline
London, England
Post Rock
Dry Cleaning
London, England
Indie Rock
Fleshwater
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Shoegaze
Fontaines D.C.
Dublin, Ireland
Indie Rock
Tropical Fuck Storm
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Art Punk
Wednesday
Asheville, North Carolina, USA
Indie Rock
January 3rd
Janet Jackson gives birth to her first child at 50.
January 8th
Metal Hammer and Classic Rock magazines are purchased by Future Publishing for £800,000, saving them from closure.
January 19th
The former business manager of Alanis Morissette, Jonathan Todd Schwarz, is found guilty of embezzling $4.8 million from the singer. GSO Business Management repay all the money Schwartz stole from his clients.
February 12th - Grammy Awards
Album of the Year: Adele - 25
Song of the Year: Adele - 'Hello'
February 13th
Trish Doan, former bassist of Kittie, commits suicide at 31 in Surfers Paradise, Australia.
March 9th
The US streaming market passes 7 billion per week for the first time, marking a significant shift from ownership to access.
March 22nd
Host country Ukraine ban the Russia entrant at this years Eurovision Song Contest, Julia Samoylova, from entering the country as she supports the annexation of Crimea. Instead of providing an alternative contestant, Russia withdraw.
May
Jeremy Corbyn strikes a chord with young inner city voters via the Grime4Corbyn campaign. Several of the genre's leading performers, such as Stormzy and JME, actively support him with videos and appeals to vote.
May 4th
Blur drummer, Dave Rowntree, is elected as the Labour party candidate to Norfolk County Council.
May 22nd
A bomb is detonated at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. 22 people are killed.
May 18th
Chris Cornell, of Soundgarden, commits suicide by hanging at 52. His body is found on at the MGM Grand Detroit hotel. Soundgarden played in Detroit that very night.
June 2nd
Beach Fossils release Somersault.
June 2nd
A song that lambasts the British Prime Minister Theresa May, 'Liar, Liar', reaches number 4 on the UK singles chart. It was banned from national radio.
June 4th
A benefit gig to raise money for the victims of the Manchester terrorist attack takes place in the city. Adriana Grande, Robbie Williams, Katy Perry, and Justin Bieber are some of the many performers.
June 20th
Prodigy, of Mobb Deep, chokes to death at 42.
June 24th
Jeremy Corbyn appears on the main stage at Glastonbury to thunderous applause and chants of 'Oh Jeremy Corbyn' to the tune of 'Seven Nation Army' by The White Stripes.
July 20th
Chester Bennington, of Linkin Park, commits suicide at 41 in Palos Verdes Estates, California.
June 25th
Alvvays release Antisocialites.
June 27th
The concert discovery service Songkick is sold to Warner Music Group for an undisclosed sum.
August 4th
'Despacito' by Luis Fonsi becomes YouTube's most watched video with over 3 billion views in just seven months.
September 14th - Mercury Prize
Best British Album: Sampha - Process
September 14th
Grant Hart, of Hüsker Dü, dies at 56 of liver cancer.
September 23th
Soul and funk singer Charles Bradley dies at 68 of stomach cancer.
September 28th
Mach-Hommy releases 'The G.A.T.' with a limited run of only 28 copies to position his music as a luxury good through artificial scarcity. The album is initially priced at $999, and has never been available on streaming services.
October 2nd
Tom Petty dies at 66 of a heart attack.
October
The #MeToo movement against sexual harassment goes viral. Hollywood talent agency Creative Artists play an instrumental role after damaging allegations about Harvey Weinstein go public.
November 10th
The lip-syncing app musical.ly is purchased by TikTok's parent company ByteDance for approximately $800 million to $1 billion.
November 26th
The dancefloor collapses at the Butterfly Disco Club in Tenerife, injuring 40. Clubbers fell into the venue's basement.
Late 2017
Streaming amounts to over half of the UK's music consumption.
2017
R&B/Hip-Hop overtake rock as the most popular form of music in the US according to data by Nielsen Soundscan. R&B/Hip-Hop accounted for 24.5% of music consumption, compared to rock's 20.8%.
2017
Global sales of Electronic Dance Music fall for the first time in 10 years. The genre saw a 2% retraction.
