Music, like most forms of entertainment or art, finds its beauty in the eye of the beholder
(or in this case, the ear).
So, while that does make it hard to explicitly say what the biggest moments in music history
are, it doesn't make it impossible, as there are objective things that have happened over
the course of the past century or so that have changed the future of music or influenced
nearly every musician.
Moments that were substantial enough to alter the rest of music history that took place
after those events.
So, grab your favorite headphones, kick back and get ready for the Top 10 Most Important
Moments in Music History.
Sugar Hill Gang Hits the Top 40
While most people think that rap or hip-hop started in the early 1980's, the reality is
that the first rap song to actually make the Top 40 chart was released in 1979 by a group
named the Sugar Hill Gang.
Like Rock 'N Roll before it, Rap was an entirely new form of music that had never really been
heard before, and in what perhaps should've been a sign for things to come, the song wasn't
actually written by the 'Gang themselves.
Produced by Sylvia Robinson, 'Rapper's Delight' is often credited with introducing hip-hop
music to a wider and whiter audience, and a lot of the components of that song are still
major parts of rap music today.
From the bragadoccio incorporated by the members of the Gang to the candid nature of their
rhymes, their talk of sex and also of dancing, they put down the major tenets of what rap
and hip-hop are and have been about since their inception.
The song also utilized the beat from another song, which while not direct sampling, was
something that is still utilized heavily in rap songs of today.
A lot of people thought that the new genre was a passing fad and couldn't have been more
incorrect, as it seems that rap and hip-hop are getting more and more popular as the years
go on - and without 'Rappers Delight', that may not have happened, which explains why
it was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2011.
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Michael Jackson's Thriller
Michael Jackson is by far the most popular solo artist of all-time, selling more records
than anyone else and breaking nearly every record for sales with his gigantic album Thriller.
Before Thriller, Michael Jackson was still mostly known for his work as the lead singer
of The Jackson Five, despite the success that came from his first solo album, Off the Wall
in 1979.
Thriller was released three years later in 1982, in a time that was reportedly filled
with depression for the young singer.
He stated in interviews at the time that "even at home" he would sit in his room and "cry"
because of his inability to make friends.
He channeled that emotion into his most famous recording, one that completely changed the
musical landscape forever.
Together with legendary musician and producer Quincy Jones, they worked together on 30 songs,
with nine making the final album.
A lot of those were released as singles, and that's why this album makes the list as: due
to not just how many hit songs were on the record, but also that Thriller changed how
people perceived singles, and beyond that it really raised the bar in terms of releasing
a complete album and not focusing solely on a hit single or two like most singers or groups
did before that.
While you could also give the Beatles and Beach Boys credit for the same thing, the
proper way to explain it would be to say that those groups began the change and Jackson
finished it.
Bob Dylan Goes Electric
Whether or not you're a fan of Bob Dylan, you have to admit that he's one of the most
influential acts in the history of music.
He was typically a one-man band, one that included his trusty harmonica, acoustic guitar,
and one-of-a-kind voice.
Dylan was perhaps the best-known protest singer of his era, and it was his extremely intelligent
and borderline esoteric lyrics that personified the 1960's counter-culture, hippy movements,
and the opposition to the Vietnam War.
Despite the universal praise for Dylan now, in July of 1965, his fans were actually really
torn when he decided to pick up an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival and added
a backing band to rock out for nearly 20 minutes.
That performance was met by as many boos and jeers as it was with applause and awed silence,
and it is actually considered one of the most important moments in Rock and Rock history,
period.
In one 17 minute set, Dylan basically ended the Folk revival that he had been at the forefront
of years.
That was followed by his new single, 'Like a Rolling Stone' which was six minutes long,
changing how people perceived singles and commercial radio, as songs tended to be no
more than three minutes long before.
Other singers and bands also decided to go electric to keep up with the times, as they
were a changin'.
So while his switch was definitely controversial at the time and very well could have meant
the end of his career, Dylan proved that he is beholden to no man, sound, or expectation,
and changed the future of Rock music forever.
Phil Spector and the Wall of Sound
Speaking of changing sound, if there's any single producer from that era that was almost
as famous as most bands it would've been Phil Spector.
While Spector is famous now for being an eccentric murderer, the list of artists that he worked
with is a basic who's who of influential groups from that time period.
Spector was known for revolutionizing the sound of music itself, or how at least how
it sounded when played at home, in what was then known as the "Spector Sound" and eventually
the "Wall of Sound".
Spector mostly recorded during this time at Gold Star Studios in the 1960s, which is located
in Los Angeles, California.
He often worked with the same studio musicians regardless of what singer or band he was recording,
and that group was known as "The Wrecking Crew".
The goal of The Wall of Sound was to "exploit the possibilities of studio recording" by
creating an orchestral aesthetic that was unusually dense, which allowed the music to
come across a lot better than the songs recorded before it regardless of the output.
What Spector did was change the quality of albums in the most important way possible:
how they sound.
Beyond that, the fact that he included a ton of non-traditional instruments for ensembles
but also for Rock music (like strings, woodwind or brass) he helped the genre continue to
evolve through the 60's and into the 70's.
Talk about an influential person!
Chuck Berry releases “Maybellene"
Written and recorded in 1955 by Berry, Chuck Berry’s Maybellene was similar to 'Rapper's
Delight' in that it helped define a new genre of music and incorporated aspects from songs
that already existed.
In the case of Maybellene, Berry adapted the Western Swing fiddle song "Ida Red" (which
was recorded in 1938 by Bobb Wills and his Texas Playboys).
The song included a lot of the early Rock 'N Roll cliches like hot rod racing and a
broken romance.
Rolling Stone magazine claimed that 'Maybellene' was the first song to establish and utilize
Rock & Roll guitar, and its influence can be heard in countless songs that came out
after it's release.
The song also helped bridge the divide that existed between black and white audiences
in terms of the music that they listened to.
Granted, white parents were terrified by the "black music" that was Rock & Roll, but as
the teenagers who went crazy to songs like 'Maybellene' got older, they clearly didn't
believe in things like segregation anymore, and while it took about a decade for the Civil
Rights bill to be passed, it's safe to say that without songs like 'Maybellene' it could
have taken a lot longer than that.
The Death of Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain and his band Nirvana get a lot of the credit for ushering in the Grunge movement
that exploded on the scene in the early '90's.
It was a burden that Cobain struggled with, as he clearly loved to make music and art
but didn't necessarily want to be known as the voice of his generation or the poster
boy for disaffected youth.
It was something that he struggled with up until his death by suicide in 1994, after
multiple failed attempts by his then-wife and band-mates to get him into treatment for
his heroin addiction.
His death changed the future of music forever.
It's impossible to say what would've happened with rock music had Cobain not died in 1994,
especially considering the growth that you could hear between Nirvana's second and third
albums ('Nevermind' and 'In Utero').
Another great example of where Nirvana and thus rock music could've ended up came courtesy
of the now legendary performance that Cobain and Nirvana (and others) had done a few months
before his death for MTV's Unplugged.
Nirvana rustled a lot of feathers from the powers that be at MTV as well as from the
audience itself by mostly ignoring their own catalogue and instead sang a lot of covers
of obscure songs that were as old as 125 years.
The best example of this was the song "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" which was made into
an instant classic by Cobain and Nirvana.
The song was first noticed in the 1870's and went by a few different titles, but became
one of Nirvana's most well-known songs because of the epic performance by the band and the
meaning a lot of it ended taking on after his death only a matter of weeks later.
The Death of Biggie and Tupac
Like with the death of Kurt Cobain only two years before, music was rocked to its core
when two of the most beloved rappers of their generation, Tupac Shakur and Christopher "The
Notorious BIG" Wallace were killed in drive-by-shootings a mere six months apart from one another.
The entire saga is being covered by countless documentaries and Hollywood films these past
few years, and it's not really hard to see why as the story of Biggie and Tupac reads
like something straight out of Shakespeare.
It’s a bit of a long story, but it’s safe to say that had they both lived the music
industry would look completely different.
Tupac was set to launch "Death Row East" and basically would've or could've signed a lot
of the East Coast rappers that we know of today (like 50 Cent) and who knows what would've
happened with Eminem, who signed with Dr. Dre.
Biggie is credited with popularizing mafioso rap and his 'Life After Death' seems like
the blueprint for a lot of the rappers that came after him, namely Jay-Z who like DMX
filled the void left by the genres two-biggest stars.
They'd both still be under the age of 50 right now, which means that we would've had countless
more albums from them, or in the case of someone like Tupac, countless albums, films and perhaps
even political aspirations.
What a shame.
The Day the Music Died
It was 1959 and Rock & Roll was in full swing, and three of the biggest stars happened to
be touring the upper-midwest together doing shows for teenagers.
Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P.
"The Big Bopper" Richardson had just performed at a small club in Clear Lake, Iowa, as part
of the "Winter Dance Party" tour.
All three were fed up with the grueling schedule and all the traveling.
Their tour buses were uncomfortable and freezing, and that was negatively affecting their ability
to perform as they had been getting colds, the flu, and even frostbite.
Holly became so fed up with this in fact that he chartered a plane from Clear Lake to their
next location which was set to be Moorhead, Minnesota.
At the last second, Richardson nabbed a seat on the plane in lieu of Waylon Jennings, who
was a part of Holly's band at the time, as Richardson was still getting over the flu
and Jennings thought that Richardson needed the spot more than he did.
Valens also almost didn't make it on the plane and only did after he won a coin-toss over
another member of Holly's band.
Because it was late at night and visibility was low from of the wintry weather conditions,
the pilot ended up losing control of their small plane, a Beechcraft Bonanza, which ended
up crashing in a cornfield not long after takeoff in Clear Lake, Iowa.
Everyone aboard the plane died instantly and it's safe to say that it changed the future
of music forever.
All three left behind catalogs of music that have gone on to influence singers and bands
for decades.
Elvis on Milton Berle's Show
At the end of 1955 Elvis Presley was nearing a year-and-a-half on the road, and while he
had a couple of modest hits, those happened to be on Country and Western charts, and not
on the Rock & Roll charts that he became the "King" of not long after.
In the spring of 1956, Presley was promoting his debut single on RCA/Victor records, a
little song named "Heartbreak Hotel", and while it was already a hit before he joined
The Milton Berle show, it was that TV appearance that changed the way the world viewed Elvis.
The performance is legendary and was surprisingly not Presley's first time on television, or
even the Milton Berle show.
The main difference between those previous appearances and what would become his signature
performance was the song he was singing, or more importantly the type of song.
He had previously focused on singing ballads, which "Heartbreak Hotel" was not, and because
of that he hadn’t been doing much of his now famous dancing.
It was the dancing that accompanied his performance of "Heartbreak Hotel" that instantly made
Elvis the symbol of his generation.
The way he moved his hips around the stage terrified a lot of people and created such
a fervor that when he returned to American television afterward, he was filmed from the
waist up for years.
While Presley most likely would've hit it big without that performance, it was the turning
point from a young and promising artist to the legend that dictated the future of Rock
& Roll, as well as gospel and some country music.
The Beatles on Ed Sullivan
The only group that could really outdo Elvis Presley in general or in terms of what a single
television performance meant for their band and the future of Rock & Roll is, of course,
the Beatles.
They were catapulted to international superstars after their February 1964 appearance on the
Ed Sullivan show.
It was a performance that a lot of music historians look back upon as one of the most significant
in terms of how it influenced music afterward.
The appearance marked the beginning of what is known as the "British Invasion" and started
the beginning of Beatlemania.
It's impossible to overstate how important the Beatles were in terms of what they did
for music or how influential they were and continue to be.
It's amazing to think that this group was only together for about five-to-six years
after that appearance on Ed Sullivan, but somehow in that time managed to completely
change popular music in almost every way possible, and create music that is as relevant today
as it was when it was released.
There will never be another band like The Beatles, and while it's fun to think what
would've happened had they not broken up, the individual members all released solo albums
that were massively influential in their own right.
It all goes back to that Ed Sullivan appearance, one which is often cited as the biggest moment
in television history as well, and it's because of that that the Beatles top this list, something
I'm sure they're not used to by now.
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