2000

The year began with the Y2K panic, which mostly fizzled once the world's software had been quietly patched. Millennium parties went ahead regardless, and Vladimir Putin was elected President of Russia in March. The dot-com bubble peaked that spring, and the International Space Station got its first permanent crew.

Rock and metal sold at a high: American CD sales peaked in 2000 and have fallen ever since. Nu metal ruled, with Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory the year's biggest record in the vault, while Deftones went somewhere moodier and stranger on White Pony. Disturbed debuted with The Sickness and Papa Roach followed with Infest. Radiohead went the other way entirely with the electronic chill of Kid A, and Green Day returned with Warning:. Veterans kept turning up too: Iron Maiden with Brave New World, AC/DC with Stiff Upper Lip, Pantera with Reinventing the Steel and Motörhead with We Are Motörhead. The Smashing Pumpkins released MACHINA and, later, its follow-up, while Rage Against the Machine closed out with the covers set Renegades.

The drama was plentiful. Sharon Osbourne quit managing the Smashing Pumpkins after three months, blaming Billy Corgan for making her sick. Rage Against the Machine broke up, Mr. Bungle played their last show, and Metallica sued Napster, starting a fight that would run and run. Megadeth swapped Marty Friedman for Al Pitrelli, and Angela Gossow replaced Johan Liiva in Arch Enemy.