- January 1 - Comeback of Guns N' Roses in House Of Blues
- 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 - Sergei Rachmaninoff 's ''Piano Concerto No. 2'' replaces Max Bruch 's violin concerto at #1 in the Classic FM Hall of Fame.
- March 31 - Whitney Houston and husband Bobby Brown are banned for life from Hollywood 's Bel Air hotel after destroying their room. Property that was allegedly damaged included a TV, and two doors. According to Hotel Workers, the walls and carpets were also stained by alcohol. The Hotel closed down the room for five days for repairs.
- 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 , 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 .
- '' 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
- 5ive disband
- Apollo Sunshine forms
- Audioslave forms
- Die Trying forms
- Fall Out Boy forms
- Franz Ferdinand forms
- Revolution forms
- Savage Garden disband
- Steps disband
- The Underdog Project forms
- Weta disband
- Zebra forms again
- Zwan forms
''See also: Hot 100 No. 1 Hits Of 2001 (USA) ''
# Linkin Park - '' Hybrid Theory ''
# Shaggy - '' Hotshot ''
# Backstreet Boys - '' Black & Blue ''
# Enya - '' A Day Without Rain ''
# Janet Jackson - '' All For You ''
# Alicia Keys - '' Songs In A Minor ''
# Destiny's Child - '' Survivor ''
# Creed - '' Weathered ''
#Soundtrack - '' O Brother, Where Art Thou? ''
# Staind - '' Break The Cycle ''
- 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
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