Here is, according to BLENDER magazine, the 100 most important days in music (well, rock music) history.....
100 - October 3rd, 2000: Radiohead release "Kid A". Spontaneously, guitar fans everywhere begin weeping.
99 - December 11th, 1965: The Velvet Underground play their first show. Giving birth to the sound of alternative rock.
98 - April 13th, 1963: The Kingsmen record "Louie Louie". When it becomes a hit, everyone assumes singer Jack Ely's incomprehensible mumbling masks obscenity, causing the first panic over lyrics.
97 - November 23rd, 1936: Robert Johnson's first recording session. The King of the Delta Blues Singers hooks up with the devil, provides a Rosetta Stone for rock pioneers including Eric Clapton and Keith Richards.
96 - December 14th, 1977: "Saturday Night Fever" debuts in New York. Prompting the inexorable march of polyester suits and disco into the suburbs - and throughout the world.
95 - August 21st, 1966: The Doors perform "The End" at L.A..'s Whisky a Go Go. Jim Morrison's 11 minute-plus nightmare about Oedipal desire, snakes and ancient lakes cements The Doors' Dionysian rep - and earns them a permanent ban from the club.
94 - February 1st, 2004: "Nipplegate" The most infamous Super Bowl Halftime ever deep-sixes Janet Jackson's career and ushers in a brave new era of "decency"
93 - June 30th, 1989: "Do The Right Thing" hits theatres. Introducing Public Enemy's righteous rage to the world at large. Spike Lee's breakout film practically doubled as a music video for "Fight the Power", which is heard no less than 15 times in the movie.
92 - January 31st, 1955: RCA demonstrates first synthesiser. The room-size machine capable of generating and shaping sounds makes "Abbey Road", dance music keytars and Madonna possible.
91 - September 8th, 1965: Classified ad runs to form The Monkees. The first fictionnal band was born, presaging Josie and the pussycats, Gorillaz and the current incarnation of Guns N' Roses.
90 - June 18th, 1988: Depeche Mode sell out The Rose Bowl. About 80,000 goths pack the So-Cal stadium - and syth-rock gets its stamp of legitimacy.
89 - July 6th, 1977: Roger Waters spits at a fan during a Pink Floyd show. The incident would inspire Waters to write "The Wall", a masterpiece of rock-star alienation and anomie.
88 - April 6th, 1974: ABBA win the Eurovision song contest. Making possible the ascendance of Swedish pop and approximately 18 bajillion drunken wedding dances.
87 - October 9th, 1999: Coachella Festival kicks off. Beginning the annual pilgrimage of alterna-kids to the Sonoran Desert.
86 - November 21st, 1959: Alan Freed fired in first payola (accepting money for airplay) scandal. Ending the career of the DJ who invented the term "rock n' roll".
85 - July 18th, 1991: Lollapalooza premieres. Introducing the US to the traveling music festival.
84 - September 19th, 1955: Pat Boone hits No. 1 with "Ain't That A Shame". With this bleached-out version of Fats Domino's original, Boone becomes the trailblazer for years of Whitey childproofing R&B.
83 - January 26th, 1995: First MPEG3 patent filed. Turning music loving into a no-strings-attached orgy.
82 - March 17th, 1958: Link Wray invents distortion. The brutal "rumble" introduces the world to the fuzztone sound.
81 - June 15th, 1984: "Scarface" tops the VHS rentals list. Sanctifying hip-hop's Church of Tony Montana.
80 - April 14th, 1982: Karaoke arrives in the US. At a bar called "Dimples" in Burbank, California.
79 - April 1st, 2032: Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy" released. Weeks after Axl's death in a tragic tanning-bed accident.
78 - May 29th, 1983: Heavy metal day at the US Festival. 300, 000 heads bang to Van Halen and Motley Crue, confirming hair metal's arrival.
77 - October 23rd 2002: Kanye West's car crash. In which hip-hop's best producer-rapper smashes his jaw, finds God and decides to write "Through the Wire", a career-making song about seat-belt safety.
76 - January 1st, 1994: Max Martin quits cashiering, starts producing. Millions of teenage girls feel the sudden urge to squeal.
75 - June 27th, 1966: Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention release "Freak Out!". Rock's first concept record.
74 - September 9th, 1934: "Muzak" is registered as a trademark. Elevators, retail stores, restaurants - none would go unmusically accompanied from here on in!
73 - December 18th, 2005: "Lazy Sunday" hits YouTube. The SNL skit helps turn a fledgling video-hosting site into the world's premier time suck.
72 - August 31st, 1963: The Ronettes "Be my baby" debuts on the charts. Producer Phil Spector's Wall of Sound changes the nature of pop records, from documents of performances to studio creations.
71 - November 16th, 1985: Starship's "We Built This City" reaches no. 1. The low-water mark of soul-crushing corporate rock - delivered by the onetime tie-dyed standard bearers of hippiedom.
70 - August 12th, 1972: Willie Nelson plays his first show at Austin's Armadillo World Headquarters. Kicks off the Nashville-defying "outlaw country" movement, bringing together gun-rack rednecks, sunbaked hippies, and maybe - just maybe - a weed dealer or two.
69 - October 1st, 1982: The first compact disc goes on sale in Japan. Billy Joel's "52nd Street" ushers in the new format, reaping enormous profits for the music industry - but also sowing the seeds of the digital revolution that will bring the biz to it's knees 20 years later.
68 - July 1st, 1979: The walkman goes on sale. When your kids ask you what those clunky plastic boxes were, you can say: "OGB iPods".
67 - January 13th, 1969: Jagermeister reaches the US. The after-dinner digestif is eventually adopted by hard-rock bands as the favored facilitator of wanton misbehavior and poor life choices.
66 - December 13th, 1967: Grateful Dead debut "Dark Star". The live epic that spurs the birth of the jam-band movement.
65 - March 30th, 1980: Van Halen find brown M&M's backstage. After a show at the University of Southern Colorado, in direct contravention of the clause in the band's contract, to be precise. They trash the dressing room, immortalizing the benchmark for all absurd backstage demands.
64 - September 26th, 1984: Def Jam releases LL Cool J's "I Need a Beat". Hip-hop's first powerhouse label and longest-running star both get their starts.
63 - March 2nd, 1984: "This is Spinal Tap" released. Rock bands become self-aware and drummers tread more carefully, particularly when undertaking chores in the garden.
62 - December 6th, 1969: Meredith Hunter stabbed to death at Altamont. Bringing a symbolic end to the optimistic peace-and-love counterculture of the 60's.
61 - June 3rd, 1992: Bill Clinton blows his sax on "Arsenio Hall". For the first time, a member of the rock n' roll generation is on his way to the White House.
60 - October 1st, 1957: Little Richard renounces rock n' roll for the Lord. Becoming the first rock star to be born again, paving the way for everyone from Al Green to Korn's Brian "Head" Welch.
59- June 5th, 1983: U2 plays Red Rocks. Despite a torrential downpour, U2 insisted that the show go on at the Colorado amphitheatre, an outdoor venue formed by two sandstone megaliths. And for good reason: U2 had committed their life savings to capturing the show on tape for what would become the "Under a Blood Red Sky" concert video. The evening's iconic moment came as Bono waved a large white flag during the political anthem "Sunday Bloody Sunday". When MTV put a clip of this in heavy rotation, it ushered U2's quarter-century of world domination.
58 - February 17th, 1976: Eagles release "Greatest Hits". Disco may have been in ascendance, but the Eagles' compilation nonetheless sold a million copies in 24 days - and has been selling ever since, clocking nearly 30 million record sales in the US alone, making it the most-bought album of all time. The comp's success firmly established baby boomers as rock's cash cow, ensuring that artists who came of age in the 60's and 70's would have lucrative careers that far outlasted their inspirationand, in many cases, even their deaths.
57 - June 23rd, 1987: Tiffany tours malls. Stumped by how to promote an album by a 15-year-old whose target audience was too young to even sneak into nightclubs, a desperate record executive suggested Tiffany spend her summer vacation touring the nation's malls. "The Beautiful You: Celebrating the Good Life Shopping Mall Tour '87" catapulted Tiffany to quadruple-platinum sales. In the process, it established the food court as the first stop of choice for many aspiring teen pop stars - including Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne - and opened the industry's eyes to the buying power of millions of tween-aged girls.
56 - February 20th, 1980: Bon Scott dies. When the AC/DC singer choked on his own vomit in a parked car after a London drinking session, the band's "Highway to Hell" had just grazed the Top 20 and they were really only appreciated by serious headbangers. After recruiting new singer Brian Johnson and releasing "Back in Black" - as a tribute to Scott - five months later, they were the biggest rock band in the world. They never came close to recapturing this crunching Matt Lange-produced manifesto of booze and womanizing, but at 42 million copies sold, this is the hard-rock album that EVERYONE owns.
55 - January 1st, 1953: Hank Williams found dead in his Cadillac. The ultimate country-music death also provides the archetype for rock-star martyrs to come, from Jimi to Kurt to Tupac.
54 - March 30th, 1965: Owsley receives his first shipment of lysergic monohydrate. With 800 grams of the raw materials for LSD, Augustus Owsley Stanley III manufactures 300,000 capsules of "White Lightning" acid - legal in California at the time - and turns on the entire West Coast. Hello, psychedelia!
53 - January 22nd, 1972: David Bowie reveals his bisexuality in "Melody Maker". Ziggy Stardust tells a reporter: "Yes, of course I'm gay, and always have been," becoming the first rock star to come out of the closet.
52 - January 20th, 1982: Ozzy Osborne bites the head off a live bat. Onstage at a solo concert in Des Moines, Iowa, Ozzy's ghoulish nosh establishes him as rock's alpha nutcase - a title yet to be wrested from his tremblng grasp.
51 - May 19th, 1965: Pete Townshend writes "My Generation". Forced to take the train after the queen has his Packard hearse towed, the Who guitarist uses his commute to author rock's first and greatest endorsement of voluntary euthanasia.
50 - November 16th, 1965: Bill Ham demonstrates the "Light Show". San Francisco visual artist displays "electric action paintings" - soon he'd projet them onto the area's frumpy psychedelic bands, forever altering the course of "whoa, trippy" - ness.
49 - January 18th, 1966: Brian Wilson begins work on "Pet Sounds". Inspired by The Beatles' "Ruibber 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 23rd, 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 Micheal 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 it's Cupertino, California, campus, a few VIPs received iPods by courier. "They didnt 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 "Nevemind". Some gadgets 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.
47 - August 1st, 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 labels' parent company, Priority Records, to "take exception" to an unspecified song that "encourages violence against and disrespect for the law enforcement officers." That song, of course, was the incendairy anti-cop track "Fuck Tha Police". The Feds never took any direct action against N.W.A. - but with this vaguely threatening letter, hip-hop came into it's own as a source of governmental concern, foreshadowing rising public and political anxiety about the influence of gangsta rap on it's increasingly white and suburban fanbase.
46 - January 30th, 1973: KISS perform in full makeup. Bassist Gene Simmons and singer Paul Stanley's previous group, Wicked Lester, had palyed wearing white face paint, but their new band had 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.
45 - May 21st, 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 15th, 1981: R.E.M. record "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 15th, 1955: Elvis signs with "Colonel" Tom Parker. Striking a bargain that begins the slow death of the Hillbilly Cat, the commercialization of rock n' roll - and the triumph of The Suit over creativity.
42 - July 13th, 1985: Live Aid. A staggering trans-Atlantic lineup and record-breaking TV audience of 1.5 billion ensures that philantropy - and U2's record sales - never be the same again.
41 - July 6th, 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 12th, 1957: Jerry Lee Lewis marries his 13-yar-old second cousin. And so the Killer extinguishes the early blaze of his career - and creates the first-ever rock scandal.
39 - April 7th, 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 counterculture across the US.
38 - May 9th, 1974: Springsteen discovered. Opening for Bonnie Rait 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: "I saw rock n' roll's future, and it's name is Bruce Springsteen." His next album, "Born to Run", got him onto the covers of both "Times" and "Newsweek", and The Boss never had to open for anyone else again.
37 - December 23rd, 2006: Tower Records closes. 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.
36 - December 7th, 1877: Edison invents the phonograph. For a revolutionnary 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 prinitng 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.
35 - April 20th, 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 buisness-savvy act of self-censorship soon allowed hip-hop to target children and go pop.
34 - October 11th, 1975: Debut of "Saturday Night Live". SNL goes on to introduce mainstream America to such sensations as Elvis Costello, talking Heads, and "Dick in a box".
33 - March 5th, 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 21st, 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 16th, 1991: Grand Upright Music vs. Warner Bros. Rapper Biz Markie's defeat in this federal-copyright lawsuit had a chilling effect on the then-unlimited hip-hop sampling. Gooodbye, Bomb Squad; hello; Diddy.
30 - October 5th, 2001: "Pop Idol" debuts on British TV. One year before "American Idol" flipped the music and TV buisnesses on their heads, former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller turned U.K. couch potatoes in A&R reps and nobodies into platinum-selling megastars.
29 - August 18th, 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 26th, 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 it's 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.
27 - August 28th, 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'd 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 straight line to Pepperland, Strawberry Fields and glass onions.
26 - December 31st, 1942: Frank Sinatra plays The Paramount. Two full decades before Beatlemania, Ol' Blue Eyes sends bobby-sockers into shrieking hysterics, shutting down Times Square and forcing NYC cops to call in the riot squad.
25 - September 18th, 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 15th, 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 26th, 1979: Congress hears of an impending cocaine-smoking epidemic. In a few years, urban America will be ravged by "crack" - offering rappers nationwide their tragic muse.
22 - December 8th, 1980: John Lennon murdered. Never mind what the calendar says: This is the day the 60s died.
21 - May 25th, 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.
20 - November 20th, 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.
19 - September 14th, 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 firestrom taught her a valuable career-defining lessons: sex sells, and controversy is fun. It also cemented her relationship with MTV an set the bar for countless outrageous VMAs moments to follow - not a few of which also involved Madonna.
18 - August 21st, 1993: Police raid Neverland Ranch. Investigating allegations of child molestation, the LAPD search Micheal Jackson's home in the Santa Ynez Valley, California, precipitating the superstar's slide from King of Pop to Wacko Jacko.
17 - April 16th, 1956: Chuck Berry nails his guitar sound. With the chord barrage that opens "Roll Over Beethoven", recorded at Chess Studios in Chicago, Berry perfects the sound of rock n' roll lead guitar.
16 - August 16th, 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 25th, 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 8th, 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 comehither 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 fuck you, right now." The combination worked well for Prince for the better part of 20 years.
13 - March 25th, 2002: Britney and Justin 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.
12 - February 2nd, 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 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 showsat CBGB's were 20-minute sets of two-minute songs played in what appeared to ba a frantic attempt to get offstage as soon as possible. After singing 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 goup from the release ofthat album onward is really copping to the Ramones."
11 - October 12th, 1995: Suge Knight bails out Tupac. Tupac Shakur and Notorios 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 Correctionnal Facility, where he heard rumors that Biggie had arranged the shooting. Death Row honcho Suge Knight, who had a long-time rivalry with Biggie's mentor P. Diddy, stoked Tupac's anti-B.I.G. rage and - in exchange for singing 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.
10 - April 26th, 1977: Studio 54 opens. It was the hottest sport 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 it's opening night, while Bianca's then-husband Mick and Frank Sinatra were amongst the hundreds starnded outside. Studio 54 made the party's exclusivity more important than the party itself - thogh the party was still awesome. "It was the only nightclub where you could have sex." said Prince Egan von Furstenberg.
9 - May 6th, 1965: Keith Richards writes "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" riff. One night on the Rolling Stones' third US 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 bad 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.
8 - December 21st, 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.") Thiryt-four days later, "Bob Dylan" , as he was now calling himself, arrived in New York and played his frirst gig there, an open mike at Cafe Wha?, beginning his career as the king of New York folkies.
7 - March 2nd, 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 Micheal Jackson. Everyone gets richer and cooler.
6 - October 25th, 1997: Dr. Dre hears Eminem freestyling on KPWR's "Wake Up Show" in L.A. Afterwards, Dre tracks down Marshall Mathers, signs him, and "white hip-hop" goes from low-melanin punch line to multimillion-dollar one-man art form.
5 - Agust 1st, 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 30th, 1994: Kurt Cobain buys a Remington M-II 20-gauge shotgun and a box of ammunition. Six days later, grunge and its reluctant poster boy are dead.
3 - June 1st, 1999: Napster released. Early in 1999, after his roommate at Northeastern University complained about the unreliability of MP/ download sites, Shwan 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.
2 - August 11th, 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, Jamica, 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 rappin' 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 Hillibillies': black gold. And it's still gushing."
1 - February 9th, 1964: The Beatles on "Ed Sullivan". By the time they 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 reachers 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 revolutionnized 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, gloomy 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 jazzed as everyone else that they were the vehicle of delivery. Seventy-three million people watched - still one of the largest audience - 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."
I got this list from Blender mag, for whoever's interested....if you have other great moments you can think of, let me know....
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