Monday 6pm ET: MaxMusic 21st Century – 2014

January 26 – The 56th Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Daft Punk won 5 awards, including Album of the Year for Random Access Memories and Record of the Year for “Get Lucky”.
January 28 – Mötley Crüe sign a “Cessation of Tour” agreement which will see them retire after a final world tour ending in 2015.
February 2 – Soprano Renée Fleming makes history as the first opera singer to perform the National Anthem at the Super Bowl. Bruno Mars performs during the halftime show, with an appearance from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
February 4 – Transatlantic released their first album in five years, Kaleidoscope.
February 25 – As I Lay Dying lead singer Tim Lambesis pleads guilty to felony solicitation of murder after attempting to hire a hitman to kill his estranged ex-wife.
Whole February – Katy Perry tops the US Billboard Hot 100 with her song “Dark Horse”, which overtakes Madonna in the most weeks at No. 1, and ties with Janet Jackson.
March 23 – Dave Brockie (also known as Oderus Urungus), lead singer of Gwar, died from an accidental overdose. After his public memorial in August, his character’s infamous costume received a Viking funeral at Haddad’s Lake in Gwar’s hometown of Richmond, Virginia. The band reformed, resumed touring, and began ending their sets with a revised cover of Jim Carroll’s punk classic, “People Who Died.”
March 27 – Christine McVie rejoined Fleetwood Mac for first time in 16 years.
April 1 – Nickel Creek released their first album in nine years, A Dotted Line.
April 10 – The 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame took place. Nirvana, Kiss, Peter Gabriel, Hall & Oates, Cat Stevens and Linda Ronstadt were inducted at the ceremony.
April 22 – Actor and pop rock musician Drake Bell releases his first album in eight years (third overall), Ready Steady Go!, under indie label Surfdog Records. The album received considerable attention, from media outlets such as KTLA, Good Day L.A., and Entertainment Tonight, for its revival of rockabilly. The album was produced by Stray Cats frontman Brian Setzer. It was praised by critics for Bell’s performance and direction for the album. It had poor sales however, peaking at number 182 on the Billboard 200, and only selling 2,000 copies in its first week of release.
May 13 – Michael Jackson’s second posthumous album of previously unreleased tracks, Xscape, was released. Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s duet “Love Never Felt So Good” was announced as the official lead single.
May 17 – Saosin performed at the Skate and Surf festival with their original lead vocalist, Anthony Green (who is also Circa Survive’s frontman). This was the first time Green had performed with Saosin since departing in 2004 to form Circa Survive.
May 20 – Josh Kaufman is crowned winner of the 6th season of The Voice, with Jake Worthington and Christina Grimmie finishing runner-up and third place respectively.
May 21 – Caleb Johnson is crowned winner of the 13th season of American Idol while Jena Irene is named the runner-up.
June 30 – After being their drummer for 21 years, Our Lady Peace announces that Jeremy Taggart has parted ways with the band.
July 29 – NSYNC releases their third compilation album The Essential *NSYNC, four years after their second.
August 13 – After being with the band for 17 years, guitarist Chris Walla leaves Death Cab for Cutie.
August 18 – Taylor Swift releases her hit single Shake It Off, lead single for her upcoming album 1989.
August 24 – The 31st Annual MTV Video Music Awards take place in Inglewood, California. Beyoncé wins 4 awards that night and also received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, presented to her by her husband Jay Z and her daughter Blue Ivy following her 16-minute performance to close the show.
September 16 – Chris Brown comes back with the release of his sixth studio album X and for the sixth time makes the top 10.
September 30 – Finch releases Back to Oblivion, their first studio album in nine years, following a series of disbandings and reunions.
October 20 – Gwen Stefani releases her comeback single as a solo artist, “Baby Don’t Lie”.
October 21 – Slipknot released their first album in six years, .5: The Gray Chapter.
October 27
Taylor Swift releases her fifth studio album, 1989, which debuts at number one with 1,287,000 copies sold in its first week. This is the highest debut sales week for an artist since Eminem’s 2002 album The Eminem Show and the second highest debut for a female artist, behind Britney Spears’ album Oops!… I Did It Again (2000).
Cimorelli comes back once again with the release of their fifth EP Renegade.
November 10 – Taylor Swift releases 2nd single “Blank Space” from her successful album 1989. “Blank Space” reached number one in November, ending the run of Swift’s own “Shake It Off”. In doing so, Swift became the first female artist in the history of the Hot 100, and tenth act overall, to replace herself at the top of the chart. With “Shake It Off” and “Blank Space”, Swift was also the only artist to notch multiple number-ones in 2014.
November 23 – The 2014 American Music Awards took place in Los Angeles, California. Winners included Iggy Azalea, One Direction, Katy Perry, among others.
November 24 – Cimorelli releases their sixth EP Christmas Magic.
December 15 – TLC releases their first single in nine years called “Gift Wrapped Kiss”.
December 16 – Craig Wayne Boyd is crowned winner of the 7th season of The Voice, with Matt McAndrew, Chris Jamison and Damien finishing runner-up, third place and fourth place respectively.