100 Days That Changed Music

**elicoleman** · 07-03-2007, 07:17 PM

Re: 100 Days That Changed Music

50. November 16, 1965
Bill Ham demonstrates the “light show”
San Francisco visual artist displays “electric action paintings” — soon he’d project them onto the area’s frumpy psychedelic bands, forever altering the course of “whoa, trippy”–ness.

49. January 18, 1966
Brian Wilson begins work on Pet Sounds
Inspired by the Beatles’ Rubber Soul, the Beach Boys’ obsessive genius transforms pop into high art with a concept album of startling complexity — just one year before he withdraws into a vortex of mental illness.

48. October 23, 2001
The Unveiling of the iPod
Apple Computer launched the iPod less than six weeks after 9/11, with the dot–com industry in free fall and sales for the Nomad and other MP3 players moping along. “Hundreds of young companies were dying,” says tech journalist Michael S. Malone. “Nobody was expecting the first great consumer electronics product of the 21st century.” People in Silicon Valley “thought we were insane,” recalls Greg Joswiak, VP of worldwide iPod product marketing.

As Apple introduced the device in a packed auditorium on its Cupertino, California, campus, a few VIPs received iPods by courier. “They didn’t even trust Federal Express,” says Steven Levy, author of The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness. White, serene and minimalist, it looked “like a thermostat,” he says, and came loaded with about a dozen CDs, including A Hard Day’s Night and Nevermind.

Some gadget freaks snorted derisively that day. Rob Malda, a.k.a. Commander Taco, lord of the influential Slashdot.com message board, wrote: “No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.”

But the biggest nerd of all spotted the possibilities. Two days after he got the iPod, Levy showed it to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, the most powerful man in technology. “He said, ‘This is very cool,’” Levy notes. ‘And then he said, ‘It’s only for Macintosh?’ He immediately saw it could be of wider appeal.”

After sales of 100 million iPods and 2.5 billion songs in the iTunes store, that appeal is undeniable. Where prior players were dowdy or clunky, the iPod’s smart design fomented a kind of fetishism — white earbuds were a status symbol, like a coke spoon in the ’70s. Apple extended the revolution Thomas Edison had begun: Where vinyl made it possible for people in Peoria or Pretoria to hear the New York Philharmonic whenever they wanted, the iPod let us hear music wherever we wanted. Everyone became a DJ. Everyone could own their own radio station.
Glenn Zorpette

47. August 1, 1989
The FBI sends a letter to N.W.A
A year after the release of N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton, FBI Assistant Director of the Office of Public Affairs Milt Ahlerich wrote their label’s parent company, Priority Records, to “take exception” to an unspecified N.W.A song that “encourages violence against and disrespect for the law enforcement officer.” That song, of course, was the incendiary anti–cop track “**** Tha Police.” The feds never took any direct action against N.W.A — but with this vaguely threatening letter, hip–hop came into its own as a source of governmental concern, foreshadowing rising public and political anxiety about the influence of gangsta rap on its increasingly white and suburban fan base.
Unintended consequence: Barbershop 2: Back in Business

46. January 30, 1973
KISS perform in full makeup
Bassist Gene Simmons and singer Paul Stanley’s previous group, Wicked Lester, had played wearing white face paint, but their new band developed this into “personalities” — the Demon (Simmons), the Starchild (Stanley), the Space Ace (guitarist Ace Frehley) and, yes, the Catman (drummer Peter Criss). At the Popcorn Club in Queens, the live debut of the self–proclaimed hottest band in the world was witnessed by a total of three people, but the idea of a band as otherworldly cartoon characters — with merchandise to match — caught on nonetheless.
Unintended consequence: Your mom may well have had sex with Gene Simmons

45. May 21, 1992
The Real World debuts
The show about seven strangers living together in front of television cameras prompts the gradual disappearance of actual music videos on MTV and gives birth to reality television.

44. April 15, 1981
R.E.M. records “Radio Free Europe”
Minting the new sound of college rock — jangly guitars and incomprehensible lyrics — that eventually made R.E.M. the biggest cult band in history.

43. August 15, 1955
Elvis signs with “Colonel” Tom Parker
Striking a bargain that begins the long slow death of the Hillbilly Cat, the commercialization of rock & roll — and the triumph of The Suit over creativity.

42. July 13, 1985
Live Aid
A staggering trans–Atlantic lineup and a record–breaking TV audience of 1.5 billion ensures that philanthropy — and U2’s record sales — will never be the same again.

41. July 6, 1957
John meets Paul
The teenage music geeks encounter each other when Lennon’s group takes part in a village festival; McCartney impresses him by playing “Twenty Flight Rock” on an upside–down guitar, and the partnership that would become the Beatles is born.

40. December 12, 1957
Jerry Lee Lewis marries his 13–year–old second cousin
And so the Killer extinguishes the early blaze of his career — and creates the first–ever rock scandal.

39. April 7, 1967
The birth of free–form FM radio
San Francisco’s KMPX pioneers the previously little–used FM band to eschew jingles, playlists and Top 40 singles, thus beginning the spread of the counterculture across the U.S.

38. May 9, 1974
Springsteen Discovered
Opening for Bonnie Raitt at a show in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 25–year–old Bruce Springsteen was bursting with new material and severely in need of some kind of big break. He got it when Jon Landau, reviewing the show for The Real Paper, wrote passionately (and ungrammatically): “I saw rock & roll’s future and its name is Bruce Springsteen.” His next album, Born to Run, got him onto the covers of both Time and Newsweek, and the Boss never had to open for anyone else again.
Unintended consequence: “They’re not booing, they’re yelling Bruuuuuce”

37. December 23, 2006
Tower Records closes shop
In 1991, Russ Solomon sat at the head of the Tower Records empire — boasting over 200 stores and $1 billion in annual sales. But by 2000, despite the advent of MP3s, Solomon had borrowed millions to build new stores in an Internet–ignoring gambit that led to the gradual ruin of America’s most iconic record chain. Two days before Christmas 2006, the 89 remaining locations — littered with 50–cent Richard Marx “Best Of”s and the like — were shuttered. It was a symbolic funeral for the brick–and–mortar record store.
Unintended consequence: People can now buy show tunes without fear of public humiliation

36. December 7, 1877
Edison invents the phonograph
For a revolutionary invention, it looked a lot like a sausage grinder. On Christmas Eve, 1877, novice inventor Thomas Edison stretched tin foil around a metal cylinder, connected it to a hand crank and two needles, and created the first device for recording and playing back sound. It was to music what Gutenberg’s printing press was to Jesus: Music had previously existed only in live performances, but now one could preserve, collect and distribute performances on the cheap. After some
refinement, this coup led to the 45” single — and thus, pop music itself.
Unintended consequence: the double album

35. April 20, 1987
2 Live Crew release the first “clean” album
In 1986, after a Florida record–store clerk was charged with felony corruption of a minor for selling a copy of the amazingly profane The 2 Live Crew Is What We Are to a 14–year–old girl, the porn–rap crew decided to change tack. The next year, they dodged legal hot water — without hurting sales — by releasing an inoffensive alternate version of their next album, Move Somethin’; this business–savvy act of self–censorship soon allowed hip–hop to target children and go pop.
Unintended consequence: Hammer time!

34. October 11, 1975
Debut of Saturday Night Live
SNL goes on to introduce mainstream America to such musical sensations as Elvis Costello, Talking Heads and “**** in a Box.”

33. March 5, 1971
“Stairway to Heaven” is played live for the first time
Unveiled in Belfast, Ireland, Zeppelin’s sprawling 7:55 minute quiet–loud showpiece at once breaks the rules and sets the standard for what constitutes a rock anthem.

32. January 21, 1959
Marv Johnson releases “Come to Me”
The first single on Berry Gordy’s little Detroit label Tamla — later known as Motown — is also its first hit, featuring the Funk Brothers, musicians whose sound would help make the label famous.

31. December 16, 1991
Grand Upright Music vs. Warner Bros.
Rapper Biz Markie’s defeat in this federal–copyright lawsuit had a chilling effect on then–unlimited hip–hop sampling. Goodbye, Bomb Squad; hello; Diddy.

30. October 5, 2001
Pop Idol debuts on British TV
One year before American Idol flipped the music and TV businesses on their heads, former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller turned U.K. couch potatoes into A&R reps and nobodies into platinum–selling megastars.

29. August 18, 1969
Hendrix plays “The Star–Spangled Banner” at Woodstock
On a Monday morning, 400,000 hippies ditched work to watch him immortalize the festival as a countercultural landmark with his feedback–tortured transformation of the national anthem.

28. November 26, 1976
Sex Pistols release “Anarchy in the U.K.”
The first punk band in Britain had been making headlines for close to a year; now it was time for them to make a record. Their first single, with its Situationist slogans and commands to destroy everything, terrified the stodgy older generation as much as it delighted the kids. Every British punk band of the next few years sprang to life in the wake of “Anarchy” — and, for a few months, the Pistols made it seem like punk was actually going to incite a political revolution.
Unintended consequence: $400 ripped T–shirts at Fred Segal

27. August 28, 1964
The Beatles smoke pot
Bob Dylan had thought that the line “I can’t hide” in “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was “I get high,” but he was wrong. Hanging out with the Beatles at New York’s Delmonico Hotel after their gig in Forest Hills, Dylan discovered that, despite the Fab Four’s years playing in the fleshpots of Hamburg, they’ve never tried anything stronger than the occasional pill. He smoked them up, and Paul McCartney began a lifelong love affair with pot, declaring, “I’m thinking for the first time — really thinking.” After that, it was a straight line to Pepperland, Strawberry Fields and glass onions.
Unintended consequence: goo goo g’joob

26. December 31, 1942
Frank Sinatra plays the Paramount
Two full decades before Beatlemania, Ol’ Blue Eyes sends bobby–soxers into shrieking hysterics, shutting down Times Square and forcing NYC cops to call in the riot squad.

25. September 18, 1979
The Sugarhill Gang release “Rapper’s Delight”
Hip–hop’s first classic is also its first gold record, proving the genre’s commercial viability — and paving the way for the Rappin’ Granny.

24. May 15, 1954
The first Fender Stratocaster is shipped
Among rock guitars, this is the O.G. — the one Hendrix used to play Woodstock, the one George Harrison used on Rubber Soul and the one that adorns Buddy Holly’s grave

23. July 26, 1979
Congress hears of an impending cocaine–smoking epidemic
In a few years, urban America will be ravaged by “crack” — offering rappers nationwide their tragic muse.

22. December 8, 1980
John Lennon murdered
Never mind what the calendar says: This is the day the ’60s died.

21. May 25, 1991
SoundScan Debuts
In mid–1991, Billboard began using bar–code–based data from SoundScan to track CD sales, rather than relying on retailers’ own often–faulty, sometimes–fraudulent tally. The week of the change, 15 more country albums appeared in the Top 200 than the previous week; four months later, Garth Brooks’s Ropin’ the Wind became the first country album to debut at No. 1. The more democratic chart system opened the industry’s eyes to the widespread popularity of not only country but also hip–hop, which had been considered little more than a niche genre. In turn, country and urban artists were lavished with more attention and dollars, fueling the commercial ascent of both.
Unintended consequence: The Life of Chris Gaines

20. November 20, 1969
Clyde Stubblefield plays on “Funky Drummer”
Beginning with Stubblefield’s first single with James Brown, 1967’s “Cold Sweat,” the Godfather made room for his mind–bending drummer to solo whenever possible. Five minutes and 22 seconds into the final hit recorded by Brown’s classic ’60s band, at a session at King Records in Cincinnati, Stubblefield got his defining moment: an entire song built around his eight–bar break. When DJs a decade later discovered that they could loop two copies of it endlessly, Stubblefield’s beat became arguably the most–sampled rhythm in hip–hop history, appearing on well over 150 records.
Unintended consequence: crate–digging nerds

19. September 14, 1984
Madonna sings “Like a Virgin” at the VMAs
Before the Sex book, the burning crosses, the Britney–Christina three–way and African adoptions, Madge was just a 26–year–old girl in a wedding dress. Performing her first No. 1 hit at MTV’s inaugural Video Music Awards, she danced on a 10–foot wedding cake in a veil, garters and her infamous “Boy Toy” belt, then descended to the stage for a bout of simulated masturbation. The ensuing media firestorm taught her valuable career–defining lessons: Sex sells, and controversy is fun. It also cemented her relationship with MTV and set the bar for countless outrageous VMA moments to follow — not a few of which also involved Madonna.
Unintended consequence: Diana Ross boob–jiggles Lil’ Kim

18. August 21, 1993
Police raid Neverland Ranch
Investigating allegations of child molestation, the LAPD search Michael Jackson’s home in the Santa Ynez Valley, California, precipitating the superstar’s slide from King of Pop to Wacko Jacko.

17. April 16, 1956
Chuck Berry nails down his guitar sound
With the chord barrage that opens “Roll Over Beethoven,” recorded at Chess Studios in Chicago, Berry perfects the sound of rock & roll lead guitar.

16. August 16, 1977
Elvis Presley dies
The King is found slumped in the bathroom of Graceland, launching a still–thriving multimillion dollar industry and a wave of implausible legends and posthumous “sightings.”

15. July 25, 1965
Bob Dylan goes electric at Newport
Backed up by members of Paul Butterfield’s Blues Band, he makes it through only three electric songs before getting booed offstage by the folk–festival crowd; but that’s enough to slam the door shut on the ’60s folk revival. Acoustic guitars never get anyone laid again.

14. October 8, 1980
Prince poses in black undies
Until this point, Prince had been just another upstart R&B singer. With the cover of his third album, Dirty Mind — a black–and–white shot of him giving the camera a come–hither look, wearing bikini briefs, a jacket, a bandanna and nothing else, and standing in front of an abstract design that looks a lot like bedsprings — he became something else. It looked (and the album sounded) like a new–wave record, and it delivered two clear messages. One was “I don’t fit into any category anybody wants to put me in.” The other was “I am coming to **** you, right now.” The combination worked well for Prince for the better part of 20 years.
Unintended consequence: Carmen Electra’s career

13. March 25, 2002
Justin and Britney split
When they split, Britney Spears was pop’s reigning princess and Justin Timberlake was a singer for a boy band with little musical credibility and plummeting commercial prospects. Maybe Brit was weighing JT down? He’s since released two monster solo albums, establishing him as a credible superstar on speed dial for rappers hunting for pop crossover. She’s released one album of new material — a relative flop — and spent her time getting married (twice), having kids (twice), entering and ditching rehab, shaving her head and, for a while, carrying on a public campaign against wearing underwear.
Unintended consequence: “Popozão!”

12. February 2, 1976
Ramones make a record
It is a tale told by four idiots, full of sound and fury, recorded for $6,000. “It was real rushed,” Tommy (Ramone) Erdelyi says of recording at Radio City Music Hall’s studio. “Very low–budget and quick.” Each song got one take: guitarist Johnny played in a gym the Rockettes used for dance rehearsal; bassist Dee Dee in the control room; and in another room on drums, Tommy — a guitarist who’d never sat behind a kit in his life.

Not that Erdelyi and the Queens, New York, band fronted by singer Jeffrey Hyman (“Joey Ramone”) were idiots. But if anyone was in touch with their inner idiot it was the authors of “Blitzkrieg Bop,” “Beat on the Brat” and the other mini–songs they put to vinyl.

Their shows at CBGB were 20–minute sets of two–minute songs played in what appeared to be a frantic attempt to get offstage as soon as possible. After signing to Sire Records, they lugged their gear to Radio City, where “the guard took one look at us and called up to make sure we were really booked,” says Erdelyi. The result? Fourteen tracks and 29 minutes of nearly identical three–chord ditties about the CIA, Nazis and the Ice Capades sung with a faux–British accent. Genius — or moronic?

Most Americans assumed the latter. But many Londoners saw that while one or two such songs may signify incompetence, an album’s worth shows true artistic intent — a manifesto of a stripped–down rock & roll atavism — and began forming bands: the Sex Pistols, the Clash and other shapers of rock’s next 20 years. Recording budget: six grand. Launching punk: priceless. “The Ramones’ first album is the blueprint for punk rock,” the Clash’s Joe Strummer once said. “So, any other group from the release of that album onward is really copping to the Ramones.”
Chris Norris

11. October 12, 1995
Suge Knight bails out Tupac
Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. started out friends, but their relationship began to crumble when Shakur was shot in late 1994. One day before, Shakur was found guilty of sexual assault and later imprisoned at NYC’s Clinton Correctional Facility, where he heard rumors that Biggie had arranged the shooting. Death Row honcho Suge Knight, who had a longtime rivalry with Biggie’s mentor P. Diddy, stoked Tupac’s anti–B.I.G. rage and — in exchange for signing a contract with Death Row — posted ’Pac’s $1.4 million bail. It would prove a Faustian bargain: With Shakur under Knight’s wing, the Death Row/Bad Boy feud escalated, diss tracks led to assaults and by 1997, Pac and Biggie had been murdered — set up, some close to the case contend, by Knight himself.
Unintended consequence: 1,376 posthumous tuPac albums (and counting)

10. April 26, 1977
Studio 54 opens
It was the hottest spot of the disco era, a destination where glamorous people, groovy music and tons of white powder joined forces to change celebrity culture forever. Bianca Jagger, Donald Trump and 11–year–old Brooke Shields hustled across the converted TV studio’s parquet floor on its opening night, while Bianca’s then–husband Mick and Frank Sinatra were among the hundreds stranded outside. Studio 54 made the party’s exclusivity more important than the party itself — though the party was still awesome. “It was the only club where you could have sex,” said Prince Egon von Furstenberg.
Unintended consequence: Paris Hilton

9. May 6, 1965
Keith Richards writes the “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” riff
One night on the Rolling Stones’ third U.S. tour, Richards awoke in his room at the Gulf Motel in Clearwater, Florida, with a riff in his head: He played it into a tape recorder beside the bed and went back to sleep. The next day, Keith explained to Mick Jagger that the words he’d thought up were “I can’t get no satisfaction”; neither Keith nor Mick wanted the finished song released as a single, but they were outvoted — it became the Stones’ first No. 1, and the ascent of the Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World began.
Unintended consequence: Pirates of the Caribbean, 1–3

8. December 21, 1960
Bob Dylan leaves Minnesota
He’d been talking for ages about hitting the road like his idol Woody Guthrie, and a few days before Christmas, 19–year–old folk–music buff Bobby Zimmerman finally made his move: He packed up his guitar and harmonica, walked out to Highway 61 and hitched a ride away from the Twin Cities. (As he later put it: “I had to get out of there and not come back.”) Thirty–four days later, “Bob Dylan,” as he was now calling himself, arrived in New York and played his first gig there, an open mike at Cafe Wha?, beginning his career as the king of the New York folkies.
Unintended consequence: Jews get cool

7. March 2, 1983
MTV airs “Billie Jean” video
Formerly all but off–limits to black artists, the fledgling music video channel is finally strong–armed into featuring Michael Jackson. Everyone gets richer and cooler.

6. October 25, 1997
Dr. Dre hears Eminem freestyling on KPWR’s “Wake Up Show” in L.A.
Afterward, Dre tracks down Marshall Mathers, signs him, and “white hip–hop” goes from low–melanin punch line to a multimillion–dollar one–man art form.

5. August 1, 1981
MTV debuts
In a banner day for lip–synching, outrageous fashion and rebellious teens, music hops mediums, making walking, talking 2–D video stars accessible 24 hours a day.

4. March 30, 1994
Kurt Cobain buys a Remington M–11 20–gauge shotgun and a box of ammunition
Six days later, grunge and its reluctant poster boy are dead.

3. June 1, 1999
Napster released
Early in 1999, after his roommate at Northeastern University complained about the unreliability of MP3 download sites, Shawn Fanning became obsessed with devising software to make music file sharing easier. Fanning dropped out of college and, after three months in front of a laptop in his uncle’s office, completed coding “Napster,” sent it to 30 chat–room friends — and asked them to keep it to themselves. By February 2001, 26.4 million people were using it to trade songs. Five months later, an RIAA suit shut them down — but by then, people were used to getting music for free; CD sales began their downward spiral.
Unintended consequence: Lars Ulrich has one less Basquiat in his collection

2. August 11, 1973
Kool DJ Herc invents hip–hop
Aiming to use his budding local rep as a DJ to raise money for back–to–school clothes, the 18–year–old born in Kingston, Jamaica, crammed the rec room of a Bronx apartment complex with paying customers. He earned $500, but Herc’s real achievement was in noticing that people most enjoyed songs’ instrumental breakdowns: He started looping one break endlessly into itself, while rapping friends’ nicknames into a mic. Hip–hop as we know it would flow from that moment: “After that,” Herc tells Blender, “You couldn’t put a cap on it. It was like The Beverly Hillbillies: black gold. And it’s still gushing.”
Unintended consequence: Skyrocketing sales of Cristal, Versace and Escalades

1. February 9, 1964
The Beatles on Ed Sullivan
By the time the Beatles debuted on The Ed Sullivan Show, America had heard them: Six of their songs were on the radio, two albums were running up the charts and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was midway through its two–month residence at No. 1. But seeing the Beatles was different. Their hair looked funny; their skinny legs ended in pointed boots; they jittered with excitement and they wore the most extraordinary expressions — amused and amazed, grinning and scanning the furthest reaches of the scream–packed balcony, as if trying to fathom the hysteria they were causing. Playing “All My Loving,” “She Loves You” and even the mildly drippy “’Til There Was You,” the Beatles revolutionized music that night, and everyone watching felt either a promise or a threat. The songs were full and melodic like pop, yet put across by this self–contained, electric unit — goodbye, gloopy orchestras. They were tight, brothers in arms, not phony or ingratiating — making a gorgeous, joyous racket that seemed to spill from their suits, their hair, their fingertips. It was a moment of celebrity uncorrupted, where rock & roll began its modern life as a cultural force, and the Beatles were as jazzed as everyone else that they were the vehicle of delivery.

Seventy–three million people watched — still one of the largest TV audiences ever — including the entire next generation of rock stars, from Billy Joel to Gene Simmons of Kiss. Bruce Springsteen, who’d picked up a guitar after seeing Elvis on Ed Sullivan in ’56, went out and bought an amp. “Most of us guys were screaming on the inside,” says Steve Van Zandt, E Street Band guitarist. “It was absolutely life–changing. There was no Plan B. There was no choice. These guys dropped in from another planet, and invited you to this new world.”
Karen Schoemer

**GBrushTWood** · 07-04-2007, 12:07 AM

Re: 100 Days That Changed Music

Originally posted by elicoleman

Napster released
Early in 1999, after his roommate at Northeastern University complained about the unreliability of MP3 download sites, Shawn Fanning became obsessed with devising software to make music file sharing easier. Fanning dropped out of college and, after three months in front of a laptop in his uncle’s office, completed coding “Napster,” sent it to 30 chat–room friends — and asked them to keep it to themselves. By February 2001, 26.4 million people were using it to trade songs. Five months later, an RIAA suit shut them down — but by then, people were used to getting music for free; CD sales began their downward spiral.
Unintended consequence: Lars Ulrich has one less Basquiat in his collection

Pretty goofy. Go NU. It all started there..

Also, good Beatles stuff.

**SPTO** · 07-04-2007, 12:20 AM

Re: 100 Days That Changed Music

I think they made a bit of a cop out in regards to the Motown date. They should've used the date that Smokey Robinson lent Berry Gordy the money to start up Tamla Records.

Also I had no idea that synths were around THAT long.

**Flyboy** · 07-04-2007, 01:15 AM

Re: 100 Days That Changed Music

#83 should be way higher.

**TheMatrix31** · 07-04-2007, 05:32 AM

Re: 100 Days That Changed Music

Any list that doesn't include the death of Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly, and the Big Bopper is immediately null and void.

Not to mention the omission of Jim Morrison's death.

**rubisco43** · 07-04-2007, 07:27 AM

Re: 100 Days That Changed Music

#79? stupid.

**CMH** · 07-04-2007, 12:45 PM

Re: 100 Days That Changed Music

This would have been a great list if they took out the dumb comedic comments at the end.

Just stick to the facts and tell me what you think affected music.

**eXperiment63** · 07-04-2007, 02:35 PM

Re: 100 Days That Changed Music

One more thing... Where is Stevie Ray Vaughan???

100 Days That Changed Music

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