The following is a list of notable music events and releases that occurred in 2010 in the United States.
Events
January
- 1 â Frontman Chris Cornell announces the reunion of Soundgarden.
- Drummer Travis Barker announces that the Transplants would reunite for a new album and tour.
- 7 â Lady Gaga becomes the first artist in the survey's 17-year history to send her first five singles to number one on the Billboard Pop Songs chart with her single "Bad Romance".
- 11 â System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian makes a Twitter post, which read: "Are u guys ready for System???", leading to speculation of a reunion. However, weeks later, frontman Serj Tankian stated that System of a Down's hiatus is not over yet while adding: "We always have offers to play, from festivals and stuff, but we have not decided to do anything as of yet".
- 13 â R&B and soul legend Teddy Pendergrass dies at age 59.
- Jay Reatard is found dead in his sleep at the age of 29, with the cause of death being cocaine intoxication.
- 18 â The surviving members of Sublime settle their lawsuit over use of the band's name. The new version of Sublime (featuring Rome Ramirez, Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh) performed together as Sublime with Rome (up until their dissolution in 2024).
- 22 â Hope for Haiti Now telethon. Featuring performances from Wyclef Jean, Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Shakira, Sting, Alicia Keys, Dave Matthews, Neil Young, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, Stevie Wonder, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Emeline Michel, Keith Urban, Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow, Coldplay, Bono, The Edge, Jay-Z, and Rihanna.
- 27 â Hope for Haiti Now becomes the first digital-only album to top Billboard 200 albums chart and the largest pre-order album on iTunes until broken in 2012 by Madonna's album MDNA. The album sold 171,000 copies in two days of release and since then became available on Amazon.com and Rhapsody.
- 29 â The Red Hot Chili Peppers make their live comeback with new guitarist, Josh Klinghoffer, paying tribute to Neil Young at MusiCares.
- 31 â The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards were held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Beyoncé breaks a record, winning 6 Grammys in one night, including Song of The Year for "Single Ladies (Put A Ring on It)". Taylor Swift wins 4 Grammys, including Album of The Year for Fearless. At just 20 years old Swift became the youngest ever winner of Album of the Year.
February
March
April
- 1 â Canadian teen pop/R&B singer Justin Bieber debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 after the release of his latter debut studio album My World 2.0. At sixteen years old, it makes him the youngest solo male act to top the chart since 1963 when Stevie Wonder did with ', and the first artist to occupy two top five spots on the chart since Nelly in 2004. With the album, Bieber also became the second youngest artist overall to achieve the number one, only being beaten out by a fifteen-year-old Miley Cyrus in 2008 with Breakout.
- 14 â Type O Negative singer and bassist Peter Steele dies of heart failure at age 48.
- 18 â The 45th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards took place in Las Vegas. Carrie Underwood became the first female in history to win Entertainer of the Year twice, as well as consecutively.
- 19 â Gangstarr emcee Guru suffered a heart attack, went into a coma, and died at age 48.
- 20 â Sublime with Rome, the new version of the defunct ska punk band with the same name, began their first world tour together, with possible new material to follow.
May
June
- 4 â Christina Aguilera released her fourth studio album Bionic, and debuts No. 3 on the Billboard 200, charting within the top ten, the album became Aguilera's fifth straight top ten album, selling 110,000 copies in its first week. Bionic is the first studio album in four years since Back to Basics (2006).
- 15 â Devo releases Something for Everybody, their first album in 20 years.
- 21 â Rap superstar Eminem releases his seventh album Recovery in the U.S. which spent seven weeks at number one on billboard's top 200 and was the top selling album of 2010.
- 29 â Drake is sued by Playboy Enterprises over the use of the 1974 song "Fallin' In Love" by Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds in Drake's 2009 hit "Best I Ever Had." Playboy, which owns the rights to "Fallin' In Love," claims Drake used the song's sample without permission and is seeking to claim any profits made from the Drake single.
July
- 6 â Enrique Iglesias released his first bilingual album Euphoria with contained equal amount of original English and Spanish tracks with two different singles successfully released to English and Latin formats simultaneously.
- 7 â Due to poor sales and possibly a decline in ratings and interest in this season's installment, the accompanying "American Idols LIVE! Tour 2010" cancels eight of its 38 shows.
- Former Beatle Ringo Starr and his eleventh All-Starr Band perform at Radio City Music Hall for his seventieth birthday. During the closing song, "With a Little Help from My Friends" into "Give Peace a Chance", there were the following special guests: Steven Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren, Billy Squier, Men at Work's Colin Hay, Dr. John, Ray Davies, Zak Starkey (his son and The Who drummer), and Yoko Ono. His grandsons came out and gave him a birthday cake Ludwig drum set. Just when he thought the show was over, Paul McCartney came out and performed the Beatles classic, "Birthday".
- 13 â Korn's ninth studio album, , debuts at number 2 on the Billboard 200 with 63,000 copies sold in its first week. Former fill-in drummer Ray Luzier is appointed as a permanent member of the band, confirming David Silveria's departure in 2006.
August
- 4 â Taylor Swift's lead single, "Mine" leaks and later Big Machine Record releases it on iTunes, becoming No. 1 after only 5 hours. It set a record for the fastest climbing song to number one.
September
- 12 â Lady Gaga sweeps the Video Music Awards, winning 8 awards, 7 for her "Bad Romance" video, and Best Collaboration for her song "Telephone" with Beyoncé. Gaga also gave an acceptance speech for Video of the Year in a dress made entirely of meat, she also announced the title of her third album, Born This Way which was released in May 2011. Lady Gaga was nominated for 13 VMA awards, the most in the show's history, and another 5 nominations for her contribution to Beyoncé's "Video Phone". Also, Justin Bieber won the award for Best New Artist, making him the youngest person to ever win a VMA.
October
November
December
- 9 â Jim Morrison, the former lead singer of The Doors, is granted a posthumous pardon, 39 years after his death. The pardon relates to a six-month prison sentence for indecent exposure handed to Morrison in 1969, following a performance in Miami earlier that year. Morrison had appealed his sentence, and died in 1971 without the matter being legally resolved.
- 18 â Josh and Zac Farro announce their exit from the band Paramore.
Bands formed
Bands reformed
Bands on hiatus
Bands disbanded
Albums released
All releases are LPs unless otherwise stated.
January
January 4
January 5
January 8
January 11
January 12
January 14
January 19
January 22
January 25
January 26
January 28
February
February 1
February 2
February 3
February 5
February 9
February 14
February 16
February 23
February 24
March
March 2
March 3
March 9
March 15
March 16
March 17
March 22
March 23
March 26
March 30
April
April 6
April 8
April 13
April 19
April 20
April 21
April 27
April 30
May
May 4
May 11
May 14
May 17
May 18
May 21
May 25
May 31
June
June 1
June 7
June 8
June 14
June 15
June 16
June 18
June 21
June 22
June 28
June 29
July
July 6
July 7
July 12
July 13
July 15
July 20
July 25
July 27
July 29
August
August 3
August 17
August 24
August 31
September
September 7
September 14
September 21
September 23
September 28
October
October 5
October 11
October 12
October 19
October 22
October 25
October 26
October 27
November
November 2
November 9
November 16
November 22
November 23
November 30
December
December 7
December 14
December 21
Best-selling albums in the U.S.
The best-selling records in 2010 in the US according to Nielsen Soundscan:
Top songs on record
Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 Songs
Billboard Hot 100 Top 20 Hits
All songs that reached the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the year, complete with peak chart placement.
Deaths
January
- January 1 â Lhasa de Sela, 37, singer, breast cancer
- January 1 â Gregory Slay, 40, drummer for Remy Zero, cystic fibrosis
- January 4 â Tony Clarke, 68, The Moody Blues producer
- January 5 â Willie Mitchell, 81, producer and arranger, cardiac arrest
- January 7 â Thomas Sam Davis, a.k.a. Eric Shark, 59, singer for Deaf School, lung failure
- January 12 â Yabby You, 63, reggae singer and producer, brain aneurysm
- January 12 â Dannie Flesher, 58, Wax Trax! Records co-founder, pneumonia
- January 12 â Brian "Damage" Keats, 46, drummer for Misfits, liver cancer
- January 12 â Jimmy O, 35, Haitian musician of Barikad Crew, earthquake victim
- January 13 â Ed Thigpen, 79, jazz drummer
- January 13 â Teddy Pendergrass, 59, R&B singer, colon cancer
- January 13 â Jay Reatard, 29, garage punk singer and guitarist, cocaine toxicity
- January 14 â Bobby Charles, 71, songwriter and swamp pop musician
- January 14 â Chilton Price, 96, songwriter
- January 23 â Earl Wild, 94, pianist, congestive heart disease
February
- February 4 â Helen Tobias-Duesberg, 90, Estonian-American organist and composer
- February 13 â Dale Hawkins, 73, singer-songwriter and guitarist
- February 14 â Doug Fieger, 57, lead singer of The Knack, cancer
- February 14 â Lee Freeman, 60, guitarist for Strawberry Alarm Clock, cancer
- February 17 â Kathryn Grayson, 88, singer and actress
- February 23 â Chilly B, 47, rapper for Newcleus, stroke
- February 27 â Tom "T-Bone" Wolk, 58, bassist for Hall & Oates, stroke
March
- March 4 â Lolly Vegas, 70, lead singer of Redbone, lung cancer
- March 6 â Mark Linkous, 47, singer and guitarist for Sparklehorse, suicide
- March 10 â Evelyn Dall, singer and actress
- March 17 â Alex Chilton, 59, singer and guitarist for Big Star, heart attack
- March 28 â Herb Ellis, 88, jazz guitarist, Alzheimer's disease
April
May
- May 3 â Chubby Carrier, 63, zydeco musician
- May 3 â Eddie L. Jackson, 63, guitarist for Brenda & The Tabulations
- May 7 â Dave Fisher, 69, singer, musician for The Highwaymen
- May 9 â Lena Horne, 92, singer and actress, heart failure
- May 16 â Hank Jones, 91, jazz pianist and bandleader
- May 16 â Ronnie James Dio, 67, singer for Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell and Dio, stomach cancer
- May 19 â Larry Dale, 87, blues musician
- May 23 â Billy Francis, 68, rock keyboardist (Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show)
- May 24 â Paul Gray, 38, bassist for Slipknot
- May 26 â Judy Lynn, 74, country singer
- May 28 â Slim Bryant, 101, country singer-songwriter
June
- June 5 â Tony Peluso, 60, guitarist, record producer
- June 6 â Marvin Isley, 56, bassist for The Isley Brothers
- June 7 â Oliver N'Goma, 51, Gabonese singer and guitarist
- June 7 â Stuart Cable, 40, drummer for The Stereophonics
- June 13 â Jimmy Dean, 81, country singer
- June 15 â Busi Mhlongo, 62, South African singer
- June 16 â Bill Dixon, 84, jazz musician
- June 16 â Garry Shider, 56, guitarist for Parliament-Funkadelic, brain cancer
- June 23 â Pete Quaife, 66, original bassist for The Kinks
- June 24 â Fred Anderson, 81, avant-garde jazz musician
- June 26 â Benny Powell, 80, jazz trombonist with Lionel Hampton and Count Basie
- June 26 â Sergio Vega, 40, Mexican singer, stage name "El Shaka"
- June 27 â Rammellzee, 49, hip hop musician, graffiti artist
July
- July 1 â Ilene Woods, 81, singer, actress
- July 6 â Harvey Fuqua, 80, singer for The Moonglows and record producer
- July 10 â Sugar Minott, 54, reggae singer
- July 11 â Walter Hawkins, 61, gospel singer, pancreatic cancer
- July 12 â Tuli Kupferberg, 86, poet and singer for The Fugs
- July 13 â Olga Guillot, 87, Cuban singer, "Queen of Bolero"
- July 14 â Gene Ludwig, 72, jazz organist
- July 15 â Hank Cochran, 74, country singer-songwriter, brother of Eddie Cochran
- July 15 â Yandé Codou Sène, 78, Senegalese singer
- July 17 â Fred Carter, Jr., 76, guitarist, songwriter, producer
- July 19 â Andy Hummel, 59, bassist for Big Star, cancer
- July 26 â Al Goodman, 63, singer for The Moments and Ray, Goodman & Brown
- July 27 â Ben Keith, 73, guitarist, steel guitarist, musician and producer
- July 31 â Mitch Miller, 99, producer, musician
August
- August 3 â Mitch Jayne, 82, bassist for bluegrass band The Dillards
- August 3 â Bobby Hebb, 72, soul singer
- August 6 â Chris Dedrick, 62, singer for The Free Design
- August 6 â Catfish Collins, 66, guitarist with James Brown, Parliament/Funkadelic and brother to Bootsy Collins
- August 8 â Ted Kowalski, 79, singer with Canadian doo-wop group, The Diamonds
- August 10 â Dana Dawson, 36, soul singer, actress
- August 12 â Richie Hayward, 64, drummer for Little Feat, and with Bonnie Raitt and Eric Clapton among others
- August 14 â Abbey Lincoln, 80, jazz singer, actress
- August 15 â Ahmad Alaadeen, 76, jazz musician
- August 18 â Kenny Edwards, 64, pianist, singer-songwriter. In The Stone Poneys with Linda Ronstadt
- August 19 â Michael Been, 60, singer and guitarist for The Call
- August 20 â Charles Haddon, 22, member of Ou Est Le Swimming Pool
- August 23 â Bill Phillips, 74, country singer
September
- September 8 â Rich Cronin, 36, lead singer and songwriter for LFO
- September 11 â King Coleman, 78, R&B singer
- September 15 â Arrow, 60, Montserratian soca musician
- September 19 â Buddy Collette, 89, jazz saxophonist
- September 20 â Leonard Skinner, 77, schoolteacher and namesake of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Alzheimer's disease
- September 22 â Eddie Fisher, 82, vocalist
- September 27 â Buddy Morrow, 91, aka Moe Zudekoff, jazz bandleader, trombonist
October
- October 8 â Albertina Walker, 81, gospel singer and member of The Caravans
- October 10 â Dame Joan Sutherland, 83, opera soprano
- October 10 â Solomon Burke, 70, R&B singer
- October 13 â General Norman Johnson, 69, singer for Chairmen of the Board, songwriter and producer
- October 16 â Eyedea, 28, rapper and guitarist for Eyedea & Abilities
- October 22 â Denis Simpson, 60, singer for the Canadian band, The Nylons
- October 25 â Gregory Isaacs, 59, reggae singer
December
See also
References