Conspiracy of One is the sixth studio album by American rock band the Offspring, released on November 14, 2000, by Columbia Records. By the time of its release, the band had come out in support of peer-to-peer file sharing, claiming it would not hurt sales. Conspiracy of One was originally planned to be released directly on their website before retail, until Columbia Records threatened to sue and the album ended up as a physical release. The album was the last to feature drummer Ron Welty, who was fired from the band in 2003[1][2] and went on to form his own band Steady Ground.
The Offspring spent much of 1999 on tour promoting the Americana album. They also appeared at the infamous Woodstock 1999, where their performance was broadcast live on pay-per-view television. After some time off, the members reconvened in early 2000 to begin work on new material, nine songs of which were in the demo phase at the time. Frontman Dexter Holland told Rolling Stone in May 2000 that, "we came home last Christmas and we kind of took a month just trying to recoup and we started thinking, 'Well, do we want to get started on another record right away?'. "We're all pretty excited about the way things have gone so I spent a couple of months trying to come up with some new material and then [started] jamming out these demos."[4] The Offspring entered the studio to begin recording sessions for Conspiracy of One in June 2000. For the recording of the album, the band tapped Brendan O'Brien as its producer and recorded the album at NRG studios in North Hollywood, California over a two-month period.
Conspiracy of One was released on November 14, 2000, and peaked at number 9 on the US Billboard 200 album chart.[16] Five weeks after its release, the album was certified gold and platinum.[17] The album was also successful in Canada, selling 25,231 copies in its first week and debuting at #4 on the Canadian Albums Chart.[18] The album was certified 2× Platinum by the CRIA in February 2007.[19]
Liana Jonas of AllMusic described Conspiracy of One as the Offspring's "most musically mature collection to date". Jonas praised the music as "tight arrangements, vocal interplay and refined guitar work" and claims the band injected "elements of hip hop, rap metal, and Nirvana-like grunge into a few songs". The album received a rating of three and a half out of five stars, while producing three singles, "Original Prankster", "Want You Bad" and "Million Miles Away", that earned the Offspring its commercial success.[6] So far, the album holds a score of 60 out of 100 from Metacritic based on "mixed or average reviews".[5] The album was included at number 13 on Rock Sound's "The 51 Most Essential Pop Punk Albums of All Time" list.[20]
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
^"European Top 100 Albums 2001"(PDF). Music & Media. December 22, 2001. p. 15. Archived(PDF) from the original on August 23, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2021 – via World Radio History.
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