Entertainment For Lively Minds
The ennui-stricken eddie g's guide to all the signifiant events in modern music.
Posted by eddie g on 21 April 2011 - 12:00pm.
Lounging here atop the medieval parapets of g towers shooting crows with my crossbow I was suddenly struck by a jolt of pure ennui and, as usually happens when these afflictions take hold, I hurled the crossbow in the vague direction of my haughty manservant and decided to draw up a chronicle of the significant developments in this thing we call rock- and, indeed- roll. Now, being a mighty scroll of tunes, groups and events it would surely rile you good people if I planted it here so I have placed it firmly in the comments section. Have I missed anything perchance? Or given undue attention to the ( whisper it ) *Fabs*?
Oh, hang on…here comes another crow. Hand me that bow at once you scoundrel…..
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Here 'tis
Rock Around the Clock
Heartbreak Hotel
Elvis joins the Army
Buddy Holly dies
She Loves You
Beatlemania
I Want To Hold Your Hand
Beatles on Ed Sullivan
The British Invasion
A Hard Day’s Night
The Freewheelin Bob Dylan
Ready Steady Go
Motown
Dylan plugs in
Revolver
Like A Rolling Stone
The Monkees
Sgt Pepper
Hendrix at Monterey
Otis dies
Dylan falls off his bike
The Beatles go to India
The White Album
Woodstock
Brian Jones dies
Altamont
Hendrix dies
Janis dies
Jim dies
Beatles split
Led Zeppelin break through big
The rise of prog- Yes, ELP et alia…
T Rex
Slade
Bowie wraps his arm around Ronno on TOTP
Rollermania
OGWT and Bob
Lots of denim-clad beardies doing singer-songwriterly stuff on it
New York Dolls ‘mock rock’
Peel plays ‘New Rose’
The Sex Pistols
The Clash
Vicious dies
Two Tone
Post punk- lots of intense bands in raincoats.
Boy George
Duran Duran
The Smiths
Live Aid
The Smiths split
The Stone Roses
Screamadelica
E
Oasis
Britpop
Radiohead
The death of the ‘record’.
Grandmaster Flash, Rap & Hip-Hop maybe?
Bob Marley live at the Rainbow Theatre or Lyceum.
Ramones first UK show at the Roundhouse 1976.
Sex Pistols at Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall 1976.
Rap. Yes.
Point taken. Passed me personally but hugely significant in the grand scheme of things. Ramones too. I remember having to order 'Sheena Is a Punk Rocker' and, when it finally reached the tumbleweed-combed wilderness of North Wales from the Magical Lands Of Plenty ( somehere in Hayes probably ) I hugged it to my beating breast and was almost too scared to place it on my Marconiphone record player. But play it I did. Seventeen times in a row.
Are you suggesting
the only significant event in music of the last dozen years is the death of the record?
I'd probably agree that in that time period, the significant events were in the way we consume music rather than the music itself, but it seems a bit reductionist to put it all under one heading. What about: Napster, the iPod classic, Amazon, iTunes, The Pirate Bay, Spotify, Record Store Day?
Again, good point.
And the blind spot is probably down to the fact that I personally don't use itunes, Spotify, Napster, Pirate Bay ( never even heard of that one ) and I don't have an ipod ( I cling manfully to CD ). Musically I think something went wrong after 1978 and nothing much has grabbed me in the last few years ( apart from Sufjan Stevens maybe- but I don't see him as 'significant' ) but, hey, that's possibly yet another of my myopic faults.
Kraftwerk and Electronica
that's missing too.
Heartbreak Hotel
Should be replaced by "That's Alright (Mama).
Possibly.
In terms of chronology yes but, in terms of the effect it had on a wide group of people and future musicians I'd stick with HH because RCA had the means to reach the masses. And the UK of course. It's the one people like Lennon always mentioned.
Velvet Underground?
Mainly as influence on other bands at later date
Yep, Byrds too
influencing no end of jingly-jangly Indie guitar poppets over the years.
Agreed.
I knew I'd missed something out. 'Freak Out' should probably be there too.
Lists of this sort always betray the list-ee's prejudices however 'subjective' they try to be so the fact that I missed out electronica, Abba and disco is probably down to the fact that they never really touched me personally. But the Velvets did so I should have put them in somewhere around Pepper. Dammit.
No one's complained about too much Beatles yet. Interesting....
Oh...and don't let James Blast
notice you missed out the whole G*th movement...!
Wot no Disco?
Or Abba for that matter.
Saturday Night Fever OST
would probably make the list for me come to think of it.
Sid dying
made little difference to members of his own family let alone the fabric of musical history.
You might as well have put 'Iron Maiden get to No,1 with 'Bring Your Daughter To the Slaughter'
It was a kind of
'symbolic' death of sorts. He was a berk, I agree. But he did almost 'represent'- for good or for bad ( probably for bad )- the cartoon-like extremities of the punk 'movement'.
Michael Jackson releases "Thriller."
X-factor.
Kurt Cobain dies.
BBC cancels TOTP.
"Johnny B. Goode"
Brian Eno releases "Music For Airports."
I think that should be...
...'Michael Jackson releases seven singles from Thriller', myself.
Thriller, yes.
Kurt too. And Chuck.
Not sure about TOTP or Eno though. ( Was 'Music for Airports' *that* significant? )
You've missed out...
...Kylie and Jason.
Which wcould be seen as ushering the whole celebrity-as-a-portable-commodity-across-the-media thing that culminates in I'm-a-celebrity-X-factor-Over-the-rainbow-on-ice-Christmas-number-one thingie.
So, the revised list....with added Velvets et al
Rock Around the Clock
Heartbreak Hotel
Elvis joins the Army
Johnny B. Goode
Buddy Holly dies
She Loves You
Beatlemania
I Want To Hold Your Hand
Beatles on Ed Sullivan
The British Invasion
A Hard Day’s Night
The Freewheelin Bob Dylan
Ready Steady Go
Motown
Dylan plugs in
Revolver
Like A Rolling Stone
‘Freak Out’- Zappa
The Monkees
Sgt Pepper
Hendrix at Monterey
Velvet Underground
Otis dies
Dylan falls off his bike
The Beatles go to India
The White Album
Woodstock
Brian Jones dies
Altamont
Hendrix dies
Janis dies
Jim dies
Beatles split
Led Zeppelin break through big
The rise of prog- Yes, ELP et alia…
Can
T Rex
Slade
Bob Marley
Bowie wraps his arm around Ronno on TOTP
Rollermania
OGWT and Bob
Lots of denim-clad beardies doing singer-songwriterly stuff on it
New York Dolls ‘mock rock’
Grandmaster Flash
Disco
Peel plays ‘New Rose’
The Sex Pistols
The Clash
The Ramones
Vicious dies
Two Tone
Post punk- lots of intense bands in raincoats.
Boy George
Duran Duran
The Smiths
Live Aid
The Smiths split
Thriller
The Stone Roses
Screamadelica
E
Kurt dies
Oasis
Britpop
Radiohead
The death of the ‘record’.
What about
"Rocket 88" right at the top of the list?
Possibly,
but I was trying to define that Big Bang moment where pop-orientated 'crossover' 'rock and roll' actually began. Blues-influenced three-chord songs had clearly been around for a while but had been largely confined to the R&B charts. I would argue that, with Haley, it became 'pop' and absorbed into the mainstream for the first time even though artists like Howlin Wolf were possibly more 'rock and roll' in spirit.
Hank Williams invents rock n roll
"Move it on over" - released 1947. Nicked as "rock around the clock" some years later.
Once again
I'll be the New Orleans bore.
This melody goes back much further than Hank. There are versions going back to the very roots of jazz. Nowadays it is known as 'Second Line'.
Of course Hank's tune was much more an influence on R&R but I just wanted to point out that the melody goes back even further.
This has the potential to be one of those
"What have the Romans done for us" lists...
Duran Duran...
...shurley shome mishtake here ?
Pop fluff, in no way influential. On that basis there are a hundred bands who should be on the list.
That aside I think, with Hip Hop now represented, it's about there, although I think I'd still add Eminem.
Some more
Les Paul builds 'The Log' in 1940
Ray Charles' Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
Sampling (If no Eno solo then My Life In The Bush of Ghosts)
Jeffrey Daniel body pops
MTV launches
Sinead O'Connor cries on video to Nothing Compares 2 U
No mention of
Eurovision Song Contest. It was a significant milestone in my life, being in the hotel foyer when Dana International marched in (alone) clutching her/his trophy. If I ever find the photo I took I will post it.
Hey you missed out...
Sigue Sigue Sputnik! Get a grip man!
Did they
do Eurovision too?
What about The Word ?!?!?!
Surely our favourite magasine / website / podcast should get an automatic place on the list?
Sampling.
You've got to pop the Synclavier in there somewhere.
The other rather important thing is the release of the first version of ProTools.
I'd argue that, in terms of keyboard samplers, the Fairlight
is the significant one. The Synclavier was the first modern 'music workstation'.
Surely though, the ur-sampler is the Akai s1000? That was the machine that brought sampling to the mass market, especially in the world of hip-hop.
In terms of it's effect on music, it's as significant as Les Paul's 'log' and, I'd argue, had a wider long term impact that the death of (say) Jim Morrison.
I agree with Stimpy
The S1000 brought powerful sampling to the masses and had a huge effect on popular music from the late 80's onwards. Mine is sitting gathering dust in a cupboard somewhere. I can't quiet bring myself to part with it.
The Fairlight makes me think of Orchestral stabs and Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
I once midied a Fairlight to an Atari ST to use the drum sounds :-)
Could We Include The Mellotron, Then?
Arguably the first sampler, an iconic sound that formed the backbone of some Psychedelia and a lot of Prog, and is still used a lot (albeit as the M-Tron) in modern music: Lilly Allen's albums are basically made on the damn thing.
Steven Wilson
is married to one.
You can't leave out
The Buggles
Or Trevor Horn.
Agreed
Chris Evans played "Video Killed..." this morning and for a moment I remembered how new it sounded and looked like in the late 70's. Never mind all the ZTT stuff
I suppose
there's a peculiar and almost indefinable line which segregates the *good* from the truly *significant*. Trevor Horn and the Buggles might have been fun but I would argue that the history of pop is littered with such fun but that 'catchy', 'quirky' and 'gimmicky' do not tend to register highly on the Clapometer of True Greatness- not in the rarefied environs of g towers at any rate.
Was Horn a Spector? I don't think so.
Shit. Spector. Forgot him too.....
Horn was similar to Spector in that he pushed the then current
studio technology to it's limits. In production terms he bestrode the 80s like a colossus. The work he did at Sarm still makes my jaw drop with it's inventiveness.
Remember also that VKTRS ushered in the MTV era - literally so, in that was the first video to be played on MTV.
I'm sure this is true
and probably highlights my prejudicial opinion that the best of pop was over by 1978. I was still a relative youngster then ( still in my teens ) but I quickly came to the conclusion that, after punk died, I was discovering more joy going backwards and that the 60s was the era where all the great musical revolutions happened. Apart from the Smiths, nothing really touched me after that even though I liked the odd record- and still do ( hell, I have loads of odd records ). Most of the gaps people have suggested seem to come from the 80s- a decade that I really struggled with and can hardly find anything of any great note to talk about. Apart from The Smiths of course, who were mighty and completely unlike any other band- before or since.
Er, in my opinion....
Am I right in thinking that.....
Video killed the radio star was the first song ever played on MTV? If it was, then like it or loathe it, surely that makes it a significant event.
(Much the same as "Flowers in the rain" being the first song on Radio one )
Health and safety...
Eddie, you need to be more careful. Hurling a crossbow at one's haughty manservant sounds positively foolhardy. Unless you've already had a vasectomy.
PS - I think you need to mention Kraftwerk in your list. They were game-changing.
Don't worry,
he's used to it. And he loves the challenge of trying to catch it. Bless.
Apropos Kraftwerk
I've included Can because I think they were possibly there first and had a wider influence.
OK
I know very little about Can, but I see your point.
For me, the big deal about Kraftwerk was their entirely synthetic approach - no organic instruments at all.
Had anyone done that before, and had big selling, influential hit records?
They gave rise to early 80s synth music in the UK - Human League, OMD, Depeche - all massive acts.
Especially Depeche Mode - still going strong.
I think Kraftwerk's approach and music shaped all subsequent generations of pop musicians.
But, it's your list, man. :-)
Au contraire
Kraftwerk started out playing flute and violin as well as instruments commonly used in rock music before settling on a completely electronic sound which included making their own electronic drums.
Yes. I was aware of that.
My point was about the pioneering nature (and popularity) of their entirely electronic sound.
Great list!
I started thinking about which event in music has ended up having the greatest effect on my personal listening, and decided it was the Sex Pistols two gigs at Manchester Free Trade Hall in June 1976.
Stock Aitken and Waterman?
X Factor?
MySpace? (Facebook?)
1954
Les Paul's experiments in multitracking (which started as early as 1948) lead to him commissioning the world's first multitrack tape recorder.
Just after the OGWT point,
I'd have to have Marley/Spear/Culture/Uhuru/Perry/Tubby/Gibbs/Bovell et al somehow represented.
My own record collection went off like a rocket in the general (Saint) direction of the Caribbean at that point, careered around the various studios and then landed back in Blighty somewhere in the vicinity of Handsworth and St. Pauls.
Departing via Solid Air, returning via Two Sevens Clash sort of thing.
1962
The Beatles record Love Me Do. Three versions are made, one with drummer Pete Best, who is subsequently replaced by Ringo Starr.
He records a second version before a third, final version featuring Andy White on drums and Ringo on maracas.
As far as the UK is concerned
The influence of Hank Marvin and his red Stratocaster in 1959 cannot be overestimated.
The Shadows helped kick-start a million British bands and just about every well known guitarist from the 60s will cite Hank as a major influence in one form or another.
While in Hamburg, even the Beatles wrote and recorded an instrumental track called Cry For A Shadow.
If The Shadows were significant
then so were Chris Barber and Lonnie Donegan. The latter for recording and having hits with black American music. The former for bringing black American artists over to the UK and showcasing them, causing the Stones, Yardbirds, Animals, Beatles etc. to form and culminating in the British blues boom circa 1968, the better exponents of which then showed white America what it had not noticed on it's own doorstep.
Thinking about it a bit deeper, Monterey Pop and Otis Redding playing there in 1967 were enormously significant too.
Totally agree
I was also going to add Lonnie Donegan to the list, but didn't want to push my luck.
As well as Chris Barber, I would also consider Alexis Korner and John Mayall. The latter are not particularly huge talents in themselves, but as catalysts they have probably nurtured more UK musicians of note than almost anyone else.
Yep....
.....Skiffle.
No skiffle - no Beatles, no Stones, no Shadows etc. etc.
8th January '56 and 'Rock Island Line' unexpectedly charts in the UK.
I'd also throw in 14th July '56 when the 2Is coffee bar first featured skiffle.
There's a gap
in the list of around four years between Buddy Holly dying and She Loves You appearing.
Hank and his famous red Strat would fill it as well as anything else. And of course The Shadows are inextricably linked with the 2 i's coffee bar.
Point taken.
Consider the Shads added in that gap. Agree about Lonnie too, although not entirely convinced about Chris Barber and Alexis- much as I admire them both.
Lonnie Donegan & Chris Barber
can't really be separated as Lonnie started out as the guitar and banjo player in Chris Barber's band.
Barber, due to his and Lonnie's love of old blues recordings, allowed Mr Donegan a short solo spot in his shows to play songs by the likes of Leadbelly and Big Bill Broonzy. It went down so well that the spots were extended and Lonnie was soon able to get a career out of the material. Mr Barber, meanwhile set about getting a load of American blues and gospel artists over here to guest on his shows, which were once again very well-received.
I appreciate the point Mike
but would argue that it was Lonnie who became the household name and therefore the biggest influence on the most number of people.
As a performer, maybe
but I'd argue that Barber had a greater long-term influence as an 'enabler' by allowing Donegan to perform and also his promotion of visiting American artists.
As an aside, Barber had a Lotus Elite with the personal registration DAD1O.
Peel
May I suggest 'John Peel gets a spot on Texas Radio as The Fifth Beatle'.
If that hadn't happened the second half of your list would have been empty/different
Yes, possibly.
I agree that Peelie had a major influence. Not sure about the Texas period though. I would have thought he was more influential from the late sixties onwards. Regarding the second half of my list I must admit I find that period considerably less interesting and invigorating that the first. But that's just me. Peelie himself often wondered out loud on his show whether it was time for him to 'hop off the bus'. He never did but I did round about 1978 and my interest in pop has only been passing since then give or take one or two exceptions like The Smiths.
Actually it's just The Smiths.
Surprised
you havent included MTV which was far more influential than OGWT to a lot more people.
Also Dire Straits Brothers in Arms.
I would have included Costello too as the best songwriter this country has produced since Lennon/McCartney but concede this may be personal opinion.
Then
in 1968/69 The Band changed things for better or worse by stemming the tide of overblown psychedelic rock and taking things in a more organic direction. This paved the way for CSNY and other practitioners of wooden music.
New Orleans
"I may be wrong but I believe all music comes from New Orleans"
Ernie K-Doe, Emperor Of The Universe (deceased)
Nothing from NOLA on the list?
The 4/4 rock beat was first played here when Earl Palmer tried to follow Little Richard's right hand (steady now!).
The ONE beat - as in funk - can be heard in the music of the Mardi Gras Indians and in Professor Longhair, long before James Brown was doing it.
Missing
a lot of the 80s / 90s "tribes" - goth, grebo, psychobilly etc. Not suggesting that the Guanabatz are the most significant band ever, but I think that sense of affiliation to a scene is the thing most missing from modern rock (to its detriment he typed, wearing his grumpiest old man face). Hell, you could put mods v rockers on Brighton beach on there as well.
Also, what about Castlemorton? I can't think of many subsequent music-driven events that created such a news splash, and even led to a change in the law.
Possibly.
But surely I can't have been the only one here who had to google 'Castlemorton' to find out what it was?
My Personal List
The first viewing of TOTP in 1994, in which Manchester Utd were number one with their FA Cup Final song (it could only get better from there).
Now 31-37 are bought as birthday/christmas presents; admiration for Britpop begins.
The Euro '96 version of 'Three Lions' becomes the first single I buy, and the only one I buy for five years.
Travis- The Man Who is the first album I buy, in 1999.
I am given a copy of The Beatles-One for Christmas 2000 and I immediately understand their significance. More Beatle-related albums, books, DVDs, information follows over the next ten years.
Radiohead come along, and pass me by. Pink Floyd come along, and pass me by. Eels come along, and pass me by. Later on they return, and I accept them.
I read a review of The Coral's debut album that prompts me to go out and buy the record, despite never having heard any of their stuff.
Whilst in 6th Form, I catch the bus in to town and pick up a copy of Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits for £5. Much like I did with The Beatles, I just get it immediately. I've still not dared to buy his 80s output.
Soon after starting university, I show an interest in the record collection of my Halls of Residence neighbour. He lets me borrow his Belle and Sebastian stuff, his Hefner and his Eels. I repay his kindess by purchasing said albums for myself at a latter date. Later on he introduces me to a new band he has heard called Arcade Fire, forcing me to listen to the album (Funeral) numerous times until I accept it.
I stumble across an album called 'Picaresque' by The Decemberists, and am immediately fascinated by the lyrics within the booklet. By the middle of track two ('We Both Go Down Together') I am convinced I've discovered my new favourite band.
A new band called Arctic Monkeys appear from nowhere. Alex Turner becomes a name on my switch-list, and I'm immediately aware of the fact that I'd have been in the same year as these lads at school. The bastards.
I get a job at a well known, three-initialed 'music' retailer and I'm introduced to the music of Half Man Half Biscuit, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey et al by members of management.
I take advantage of the store's 3 for £15 offer to listen to composers such as Holst, Elgar, Barber, Vaughan-Williams etc. Nothing sounds as good as 'Jupiter' or 'The Lark Ascending'.
If E belongs in the list
then surely LSD does too? I'd contend that it influenced more (and better) music than E ever did.
Then there's the Benzedrine that fuelled early Rock and Roll.
And what about Payola?
Also the Ramones should be probably a couple of places higher up?
All fair points.
To be honest I was struggling a bit with the nineties due to a general lack of interest. Perhaps I should have stayed true to my conviction that nothing of any import really happened after punk.
Sorry
if it seemed like I was carping. I wasn't. I thought your list was a fine piece of work.
I'm not altogether convinced that all the deaths
are that significant in the overall development of pop music though.
Unless it is one's own, I suppose...
All demises are equal, but some are more equal than others... For me Kurt Cobain and River Phoenix were significant, era-shifting losses... for others I suspect it was all a bit 'who he?'
May I also take this opportunity to apologise to Retro Man, who had already noted the glaring omission of Kraftwerk way up the thread before me. Good work Retro!
But is it the death that's influential on the development of
pop music or was it the music produced during the life? I'd suggest the latter...
True.
But sometimes a 'significant' death gives rise to something new. A sort of rock entropy.
Deaths
I think the Hendrix, Janis & Jim death items should be compressed into one single item. That spate of rock deaths was nonetheless of great importance in the timeline.
I'll mention 3 things
As others have mentioned Kraftwerk. To that I'd add Walter/Wendy Carlos' A Clockwork Orange soundtrack and Moroder/Donna Summer's I Feel Love. Oh and Suicide.
Without those there would have been no Human League, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode. Bowie's Berlin period might have been completely different. The early hip hop musicians move into more electro areas would not have happened. And without the likes of Depeche Mode no Chicago Techno which would have probably meant no Acid House/Rave scene springing up on this side of the water. Which would have meant the rise like a colossus of dance music through the 90s wouldn't have happened and most of the sounds and techniques used in a lot of modern music would never have occurred.
Throw in there somewhere the Atari computer with a cracked copy of Cubase and a battered Akai sampler too. All of these things have had as much of an impact on music in the last 30 years as electrifying a guitar had on the previous 30.
New Order
Should probably chuck them in too as the Indie band that made it ok to dance, along with The Clash and Blondie's adoption of early Rap/Hip Hop. Planet Rock should get a mention, and the pirate radio stations in the 80s that championed the rise of said Rap/Hip Hop - Tim Westwood might annoy/irritate/make people laugh but he was a huge cog in the wheel that made hip hop become huge in the UK.
I was a funny fish in the 80s. I was a Mod, with all the musical trappings of the tribe, but I did like my 'modern' music too. Loved early hip hop and electro and all the futuristic electronic movements. It seemed to me to be true to the proper roots of Mod to like all this up to the minute underground music that was forward looking and bloody hell, really exciting. It's no wonder there were loads of ex punks looking to it for inspiration.
graceland and world music
early eighties
drugs
hard to pin point
uppers sixties > acid
coke 70s /80's> smack
E's nineties etc
Drugs
good point Junior, I had never considered them, with hindsight I think they were a big influence on music.
a few more rock landmarks
late 60s - add The Who release Tommy (the invention of the rock opera)
early 70s - "Dark Side of the Moon"
mid 70s - death of Elvis
late 70s - Bruce Springsteen releases "Born to Run"
just after punk - the rise of New Wave of British Heavy Metal
1980 - the death of Bon Scott and the release of AC/DC "Back in Black" (the 2nd biggest selling album of all time)
1981 - assassination of Lennon
Xmas 1984 - Band Aid
1987 - U2 release "The Joshua Tree" (establishing themselves as a top stadium act)
Lennon's murder
was December 1980
Elvis P died in 1977
Born To Run was released in 1975
Evening new here
What about the beach boys pet sounds , smile and sitting in a sandpit wearing a fire mans helmet.