1996 in music

See also: 1995 in music, other events of 1996, 1997 in music, 1990s in music and the list of 'years in music'

Table of contents

1 Events 2 Albums released 3 Top hits 4 Classical music 5 Opera 6 Musical theater 7 Musical films 8 Births 9 Deaths 10 Awards 10.1 Grammy Awards 10.2 Country Music Association Awards 10.3 Eurovision Song Contest 10.4 Mercury Music Prize

Events

• January 16 - Jamaican authorities open fire on Jimmy Buffett's seaplane, mistaking it for a drug trafficker's plane. U2 singer Bono was also on the plane, but neither singer was injured.
• January 18 - Lisa Marie Presley files for divorce from Michael Jackson.
• January 28 - Chris Isaak makes a guest appearance on the television show Friends.
• January 29 - Garth Brooks refuses to accept his American Music Award for "Favorite Overall Artist". Brooks says that Hootie and the Blowfish had done more for music that year than he did.
• February 4 - Former Milli-Vanilli member Rob Pilatus is hospitalized when a man hits him over the head with a baseball bat in Hollywood, California. Pilatus was attempting to steal the man's car.
• February 14 - The Artist Formerly Known As Prince marries backup singer Mayte Garcia
• February 20 - Snoop Doggy Dogg and his bodyguard are acquitted of first degree murder. The jury deadlocks on voluntary manslaughter charges and a mistrial is declared.
• March 13 - Ramones fans riot in Buenos Aires, Argentina after waiting all night for concert tickets only to find out that the show had been sold out.
• March 16 - Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men ends its 16th consecutive week at No. 1 with "One Sweet Day". It is the longest consecutive week stay at No. 1 in Billboard Hot 100 history.
• March 18 - The Sex Pistols announce that they are reuniting for a 20th anniversary tour.
• March 28 - Phil Collins announces that he is leaving Genesis to focus on his solo career.
• April 3 - M.C. Hammer files for bankruptcy.
• April 4 - The Grateful Dead's Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia's widow, Deborah, scatter part of Garcia's ashes in the Ganges River in India.
• April 15 - The remaining part of Jerry Garcia's ashes are scattered near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.
• April 24 - This Train, Rick Elias, Jimmy A, Phil Keaggy, Carolyn Arends, Third Day & Ashley Cleveland perform a tribute concert for Rich Mullins at Nashville's Cafe Milano. Speakers included Reunion Records executive Terry Hemmings, record producer Reed Arvin, disc jockey Jon Rivers, & author Brennan Manning.
• May 8 - In Los Angeles, California, a judge rules against Tommy Lee and wife actress Pamela Anderson Lee in their attempt to keep Penthouse magazine from publishing still photos taken from an X-rated home movie which was stolen from their home.
• June - The Offspring records Ixnay On The Hombre, which will be a blockbuster album on February 4, 1997.
• July - The Smashing Pumpkins drummer, Jimmy Chaimberland, is arrested for possession of a controlled substance. The remaining members of the Smashing Pumpkins fire Chaimberland because they said his "insidious battle with drugs and alcohol" had nearly ruined everything for the band.
• September 7 - Gangster singing rapper Tupac Shakur was shot 4 times and was wounded at Las Vegas, Nevada after seeing the Mike Tyson vs. Bruce Seldon fight at the MGM Grand as they were leaving the hotel, obviously suggested that event was caused by the drive-by shooting. Tupac was taken into hospital.
• September 12 - Controversy follows The Eagles when the band dedicates "Peaceful Easy Feeling" to Saddam Hussein at a United States Democratic Party fundraiser held in Los Angeles.
• September 13 - Tupac Shakur died in hospital after his wounds with the Las Vegas, Nevada MGM Grand shooting.
• Sheryl Crow's self titled album is banned from Wal-Mart stores because of the lyric "Watch out sister, watch out brother/watch our children while they kill each other/with a gun they bought at Wal-Mart Discount Stores".
• Dashboard Confessional forms
• Linkin Park forms
• Me First and the Gimme Gimmes forms
• Orgy's forms
• Coal Chamber's career begins
• Jay-Z's musical career begins
• Poison reunites
• Singer Tori Amos is sued when a man crashes his car after being distracted by a billboard advertising her album; the billboard featured a photo of Amos breastfeeding a piglet.
• Amos's single "Caught a Lite Sneeze" becomes the first song offered as a free digital download by a major record label.

Albums released

• Ayreon - Actual Fantasy
• Elegy - Amorphis
• Boys for Pele - Tori Amos
• 1977 - Ash
• The Gray Race - Bad Religion
• Odelay - Beck
• The Beatles Anthology, volume 2 - The Beatles
• Three Snakes & One Charm; - The Black Crowes
• The Great Escape - Blur
• Fashion Nugget - Cake
• Vile - Cannibal Corpse
• Swansong - Carcass
• Dance Into the Light - Phil Collins
• Dusk... and Her Embrace - Cradle of Filth
• None So Vile - Cryptopsy
• Death Threatz - MC Eith
• Face to Face - Face To Face
• Cat's Clause - The Germs
• Frozen - Gridlock
• Afterlife - The Godfathers
• The Dark Saga - Iced Earth
• Jerky Boys 3 - Jerky Boys
• Life Is Peachy - Korn
• Louder Than Hell - Manowar
• Load - Metallica
• Irreligious - Moonspell
• High/Low - Nada Surf
• Murder Ballads - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
• Curb - Nickelback
• Hesher - Nickelback
• Beacon Street Collection - No Doubt
• Ixnay on the Hombre - The Offspring
• The Great Southern Trendkill - Pantera
• Off Parole - Rappin 4-Tay
• One Hot Minute - Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Greatest Hits - Poison
• Da Villain in Black - MC Ren
• Test for Echo - Rush
• Roots - Sepultura
• Call the Doctor - Sleater-Kinney
• One Chord to Another - Sloan
• Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - The Smashing Pumpkins
• Tha Doggfather - Snoop Dogg
• White Light, White Heat, White Trash - Social Distortion
• Irresistible Bliss - Soul Coughing
• Down on the Upside - Soundgarden
• Emperor Tomato Ketchup - Stereolab
• ''Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop - Stone Temple Pilots
• Episode - Stratovarius
• Sublime - Sublime
• Factory Showroom - They Might Be Giants
• 311 - 311
• Ænima - Tool
• All Eyez on Me - 2Pac
• Supercharged Straight to Hell - The Turbo AC's
• Best of, Volume 1 - Van Halen
• Running on Ice - Vertical Horizon
• Bad Hair Day - Weird Al Yankovic
• Antichrist Superstar - Marilyn Manson

Top hits

• "Ironic" - Alanis Morissette
• "Change the World" - Eric Clapton, written by Wayne Kirkpatrick, Gordon Kennedy and Tommy Sims, won a Grammy award for song of the year in 1997
• "Free As A Bird" - The Beatles
• "Wonderwall" - Oasis
• "California Love" - 2Pac
• "How Do U Want It" - 2Pac
• "6th Avenue Heartache" - The Wallflowers
• "If It Makes You Happy" - Sheryl Crow
• "Aeroplane" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
• "Give Me One Reason" - Tracy Chapman
• "Macarena" - Los Del Rio
• "Wash Away" - Vertical Horizon
• "All Mixed Up" - 311
• "Head Over Feet" - Alanis Morissette
• "Down" - 311
• "Can't Get You Off My Mind" - Lenny Kravitz
• "I Want To Come Over" - Melissa Etheridge
• "Professional Widow (Star Trunk Funkin' Mix)" - Tori Amos
• "You Learn" - Alanis Morissette

See also: Hot 100 No. 1 Hits of 1996

Classical music

• Juan Maria Solare - Diez Estudios Escénicos

Opera

• Peter Maxwell Davies - The Doctor of Myddfai

Musical theater

• Chicago (Kander and Ebb) - Broadway revival
• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Stephen Sondheim) - Broadway revival
• I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change     off-Broadway production
• The King and I (Rodgers & Hammerstein) - Broadway revival
• Once upon a Mattress     Broadway revival
• Rent (Jonathan Larson) - Broadway production (originally off-Broadway}
• State Fair     Broadway production

Musical films

• Everyone Says I Love You
• Evita
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame     animated feature
• James and the Giant Peach     animated feature

Births

Deaths

• February 17 - Evelyn Laye, 95, English actress and singer
• February 20 - Toru Takemitsu, composer
• March 4 - Minnie Pearl (84)
• March 15 - Olga Rudge (101), violinist
• March 22 - Don Murray, The Turtles
• April 18 - Bernard Edwards, Chic, pneumonia
• May 25 - Brad Nowell, lead singer and guitarist for Sublime
• June 15 - Ella Fitzgerald, jazz singer
• July 17 - Marcel Dadi 45, French country and western guitarist died in crash of TWA flight 800
• July 29 - Jason Thirsk, bass member of Pennywise
• August 13 - David Tudor, pianist and composer
• August 14 - Sergiu Celibidache, orchestral conductor
• September 13 - Tupac Shakur, rapper, poet, actor
• November 30 - Tiny Tim, musician
• December 29 - Mireille, French singer

Awards

• The following artists are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: David Bowie, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Jefferson Airplane, Little Willie John, Pink Floyd, The Shirelles and The Velvet Underground

Grammy Awards

• Grammy Awards of 1996

Country Music Association Awards

Eurovision Song Contest

• Eurovision Song Contest 1996

Mercury Music Prize

• Different Class - Pulp wins.