In October, Justin Hawkins, lead singer of The Darkness, announced that he's leaving the band because he can't live the rock 'n' roll lifestyle again after completing rehab... Weird Al Yankovic's White & Nerdy becomes the parody singer's first ever top-ten hit... and legendary NYC nightclub CBGB, where bands like the Ramones, Talking Heads and Blondie got their start, closed; Patti Smith was the final act... Beck took things to the next level by releasing his latest album, The Information with sets of stickers so fans could create their own cover art; however, the revolutionary move prompted UK charts to bar the album from consideration... and, fittingly, on Halloween Britney Spears' husband, Kevin Federline released his debut album, Playing With Fire, which far exceeded the expectations of many.

New albums from: Lady Sovereign, Monica, The Hold Steady, The Killers, Amos Lee, Evanescence, Jet, Spitalfield, The Decemberists, South Park Mexican, Lloyd Banks, Rx Bandits, Sister Hazel, Trivium, Cobra Starship, Senses Fail, Rod Stewart, Badly Drawn Boy, Cradle Of Filth, Fishbone, Aerosmith, Diddy, Ruben Studdard, Me First And The Gimme Gimmes, JoJo, Dave Matthews Band, Primus, Xzibit, Sarah McLachlan, MCR, Pet Shop Boys, Robbie Williams, Brooke Hogan, Jibbs, Shareefa, Bright Eyes, Taylor Swift, Sting, John Legend, Sparta, Europe, Madeleine Peyroux, Barry Manilow, Meat Loaf, Deftones, Skid Row, The Who, and Kellie Pickler.

Barely over a week after K-Fed's album dropped, Britney Spears dropped a bomb of her own, filing for divorce. She sent Federline a text message to let him know it was over. Click here for all the latest on how ugly it's gonna get... a pair of rap/hip-hop giants released new albums, Snoop Dogg released Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, and Jay-Z "unretired" with Kingdom Come... on a sad and sudden note, R&B singer Gerald Levert passed on... comedian Jimmy Kimmel hosted the 34th Annual American Music Awards, the show featured new music from Gwen Stefani and Jay-Z; and the top album awards went to Nickelback's All the Right Reasons (Pop/Rock), Tim McGraw's Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (Country), Mary J. Blige's The Breakthrough (Soul/R&B), and The Black Eyed Peas' Monkey Business (Rap/Hip-Hop)... and Yusuf Islam, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens, released his first album in nearly 30 years.

November kicked off the holiday shopping season with new albums from Damien Rice, Moby, McFly, Foo Fighters, Bowling For Soup, Josh Groban, Ricky Martin, Keith Urban, Depeche Mode, Sugababes, Nickel Creek, Army Of Anyone, The Game, Staind, +44, Tenacious D, Akon, Fat Joe, The Corrs, U2, Oasis, The Brand New, Tupac Shakur, Daughtry, The Beatles, Sufjan Stevens, Tom Waits, Christina Milian, Ying Yang Twins, Clipse, Incubus, Sugarland

In December, Gwen Stefani returned with her second solo album, The Sweet Escape, which was unintended. Despite her intentions of a No Doubt reunion, she'll tour in 2007... it was announced that the Grateful Dead, Joan Baez, Booker T. & The MG's, Maria Callas, Ornette Coleman, Bob Wills, and The Doors would receive Lifetime Achievement Awards at the 2007 Grammys... and sadly, the music world lost a legend when James Brown died on Christmas day at age 73.

New albums in December from: Ciara, Kutless, Brian McKnight, Eminem, Lil Scrappy, Drake Bell, Mary J Blige, Taylor Hicks, Fantasia Barrino, Tyrese, Young Jeezy, Nas, Bow Wow, Trick Daddy, Styles P, RBD, and Omarion.


Starpulse.com's This Year In Music:
Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4