The band's core members are Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. This duo recorded and released the band's ambient debut album, Feel Good Lost, on Noise Factory Records in 2001, with contributions by Justin Peroff, Charles Spearin and Bill Priddle. However, when they played shows to support the album, Drew and Canning found it difficult to put together an entertaining show based on Feel Good Lost, which was an almost entirely instrumental album.

As a result, they brought in a number of friends from the Toronto indie scene—Andrew Whiteman, Jason Collett, Leslie Feist, and Metric's Emily Haines—to flesh out their live show with lyrics and vocals. Over time, the band also came to include contributions from James Shaw, Evan Cranley, Justin Peroff, John Crossingham, Stars' Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan.

All of the later guest musicians joined with Drew, Canning, Peroff and Spearin to record the band's second album, You Forgot It in People. The album won the Alternative Album of the Year Juno Award in 2003. The album also included musical contributions by Priddle, Jessica Moss, Brodie West, Susannah Brady and Ohad Benchetrit, but these were credited as supporting musicians rather than band members. On the supporting tour, the core band consisted of Drew, Canning, Peroff, Whiteman and Jason Collett, along with any other band member who was available to attend any individual show.

In 2003, the B-sides and remix collection Bee Hives was released. Broken Social Scene released their third full-length, Broken Social Scene on October 4, 2005, with new contributors including k-os, Jason Tait and Murray Lightburn. The inside booklet accompanying album also noted several new faces as part of Broken Social Scene. A limited edition EP, E.P. To Be You And Me was also printed along with the album. David Newfeld, who has produced Broken Social Scene's albums, is listed as a band member for the first time.

The group appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on January 31, 2006 performing "7/4 (Shoreline)". At the 2006 Juno Awards, they performed "Ibi Dreams of Pavement" at the show and their eponymous album won the Alternative Album of the Year award. In July, 2006 the band announced a temporary hiatus following the conclusion of their November US tour while members work on their other projects.[1]

Broken Social Scene's song Lover's Spit from 2002's You Forgot It in People has been featured in director Clément Virgo's movie Lie with Me (2005), Paul McGuigan's Wicker Park (2004), Bruce McDonald's The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess (2004), and Showtime's Queer as Folk (2003). The version of "Lover's Spit" found on 2004's Bee Hives record was also featured in an episode of the third season of the FX series Nip/Tuck. Showtime's television program The L Word featured "Pacific Theme" "Looks Just Like the Sun" both from You Forgot It in People in the show's first season. A single from You Forgot It in People also apeared in the movie "The Invisible". Music from the band's albums were used to score the 2006 film Half Nelson. They have also composed and recorded an original score for the Canadian film Snow Cake. Broken Social Scene also scored the 2007 film adaptation of Maureen Medved's novel, The Tracey Fragments.

Broken Social Scene were last minute replacement performers at North America's first Virgin Festival, at Toronto Islands Park, the weekend of September 9–10, 2006. Contacted on September 7, after headliners Massive Attack cancelled due to problems involving obtaining US visas, the entire band, just returned from a European tour in August, managed to assemble to close the festival Sunday night. Appearing on the main Virgin Mobile Stage, immediately following performances by international superstar bands The Strokes and The Raconteurs, BSS took the stage at 10:00 p.m., and played a set of over an hour. Through the performance the band was joined by part-time members, and stars in their own right: Leslie Feist, Amy Millan of Stars, k-os, and Emily Haines of Metric. This was also the last Canadian performance of the band to date and features the rare 15 member lineup of the band.

In late 2006, several members of the band appeared as special guests on The Stars and Suns Sessions, the second album from Mexican indie band Chikita Violenta. The album was produced by Dave Newfeld.

In 2008 Justin Peroff contributed a t-shirt design to the Yellow Bird Project on behalf of the band, to raise money for Lake Ontario Waterkeeper. It has also been confirmed through interviews with various band members that they will indeed be taking part in the 2008 Virgin Festival on Toronto's Olympic Island.