History of Music (1950 - 2010)

History of Music

Jess Loader

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

The 1950 witnessed creation of the Rock’n’Roll genre, a genre still popular today. One of the first groups to portray this was Bill Haley & His Comets.

Founded in 1952, this group introduced the world to Rock’n’Roll; as white musicians. The band proved themselves successful achieving nine hits in the top 20, including one top of the chart and three more in the top ten.

The band was considered revolutionary in this era, with theirmatching plaid dinner jackets and energetic behaviour, even used by present day bands.

The arguably most iconic music figure of the 50’s was of course Elvis Presley.Renowned as ‘The King of Rock’n’Roll’, he launched his career in 1954 showing to the world his rockabilly subgenre (portmanteau of rock andhillbilly). He was adored by the young for his handsome looks andfantastic music and brought Rock’n’Roll squarely into the householdsof the 50’s. Producing over 32 number one hit singles and 18 number one albums.

With the “swinging-sixties” came ‘Motown Record Corporation’, with this arrived the important advance of racial integration into music, as this was the first record label to be owned by and primarily feature African American artists.

Motown’s first ever top 10 hit was in 1960 with ‘Shop Around’ by the Mircales, which peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100and was also Motown’s first million-selling record.

It was in this century that Bob Dylan lead us from the days of audio and brought us the music video. His single ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ brought with it one of the first ever music videos, a simple one-shot short but a revelation in the 60’s.

Pop group the Supremes released their album ‘The Supremes A’ Go-Go’ in 1966 and were the first all-female group to reach the top spot in the Billboard 200 Album Charts. This album was also produced by Motown Records.

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

The 70s were famous for its leap into the rock genre. This century brought us many of the most famous rock bands of all time, for example Aerosmith (officially formed in 1971) a worldly famous American hard-rock band, so much so they are often referred to as "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". The band signed a record deal with Columbia records in 1972 after which they released some of their most memorable songs such as Sweet Emotion (1975) which became the band’s first single within the top 40.

The hard-rock was a subgenre of rock taken to a whole new level by 70’s band KISS (formed 1973) were famous for their overly-creative outfits and highly distinctive face paints. KISS’s fame arose mostly with their crazed life performances which mostly consisted of, blood spitting, fire breathing and even levitating instruments. This helped KISS to remain a well-known group today, their unique style even appearing in the 2008 comedy ‘Role Models’.

The rock genre began to become more associated with the younger generations as they could relate their angst to the aggression shown by these bands in performances etc…

It was during this century (1974/76) that Punk Rock, the worldly-known subgenre was formed.

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

With the 80’s came one of the biggest revelations in music to date, MTV (1981). Standing for “Music Television”, this channel was created to show music videos, guided by a Video Jockey (an on-air host). MTV proved most popular within society at this time with popular slogans like “MTV is here” spoken throughout the public.

The Buggles were a ‘new wave’ band who are most remembered for their 1979 single ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ which was also MTV’s first video premier, ironically with the lyrics “pictures came and broke your heart”. The single was number 1 on the singles chart in 16 different countries.

The New Wave genre incorporated aspects like electronica and experimental music. It was also often associated with the Mod subculture.

The 80’s also saw to Blondie’s biggest hit ‘Call Me’. It peaked at number 1 for 6 weeks, and was certified Gold (for one million copies sold). Blondie was another creator of the New Wave genre however also became noted for its eclectic mix of musical styles incorporating elements of disco, pop, rap, and reggae.

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Hard rock, heavy metal, and glam metal experienced extreme popularity in 1980s, becoming one of the most dominant music genres of the decade, peaking with the arrival of such bands as Guns n' Roses and Bon Jovi.

The hip hop scene developed massively in the 80’s, exhibiting a much stronger influence on the music industry…

Run-D.M.C. were one of the most influential groups of this genre during the 80’s. They were the first group in their genre to have a Gold record and be nominated for a Grammy and they were among the first to show how important the MC/DJ relationship was.They were even named the Greatest Hip Hop Group of All Time by our old 70’s friend MTV.com

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

By this point in time the 90’s saw to several diverse genres of music on the scene...

Grunge music alongside similar subgenres peaked in popularity during 1990/91 with the success of bands such as Nirvana. This style today is still strongly associated with this decade.U2's groundbreaking Zoo TV and PopMart tours were the top selling tours of 1992 and 1997.

Britpop, a subgenre of alternative rock created in the UK was formed in this decade. This subgenre developed as a reaction against various musical and cultural trends from the early 1990s, especially the US made Grunge. Blur was one of the several groups to launch this movement by referencing British guitar music of the past and writing about uniquely British topics and concerns. This caught on and other bands still famous to date, such as Oasis joined this trend.

Female pop icons such as the “Spice Girls" manage to break America, taking the world by storm and becoming the most commercially successful British Group since The Beatles.

Their impact brings about a widespread invasion of teen pop acts around the world such as Britney Spears,Christina Aguilera, 'N Sync and Backstreet Boys.

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

While 'N Sync, Britney Spears, and Sisqo battled Eminem, Nelly, and Limp Bizkit for chart superiority, some of the year's most significant noise was being made far from studios and concert stages. The controversy over music sharing program ‘Napster’ began here. The creator Shawn Fanning was only 18 when he wrote the source codes that shook the music world. His free, Internet song-swapping service was the hype of downloaders everywhere. Napster came under heavy legal fire during this year from the five giants of the recording industry - Warner Brothers, EMI, Sony, BMG, and Universal, who sued to shut down the service, citing alleged copyright infringement.

Eminem has often been described as vile, violent, insensitive, misogynistic, and offensive, but Eminem's ability to throw down rhymes that outraged nearly everyone helped The Marshall Mathers LP rack up massive sales throughout 2000.

Britney Spears became a prominent figure in mainstream popular music and popular culture during the 2000’s. Her first two albums established her as a pop icon and broke sales records, while title tracks "...Baby One More Time" and "Oops!... I Did It Again" became international number-one hits.

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

During this year we see a complete change in the way music is brought. There is now a heavier outside influence on the songs that we purchase, an example of this being the Facebook influence in which outraged X-factor haters (sick of christmas number 1’s always being the X-factor winners) created a group called “Rage Against the Machine – Killing in the name of for chirtsmas number 1”. This saw to the single reaching number 1 in Christmas 2009. Another example of this is with many of the most popular songs of 2009 re-entering the top 40 in early 2010 due to the iTunes gift card effect, including Lady Gaga's "Poker Face", the biggest seller of 2009, which re-entered at No. 32.

Tinie Tempah is an English rapper from Plumstead, South London. His debut album, Disc-Overy, debuted at number-one on 10 October 2010 and was preceded by the number-one singles "Pass Out" and "Written in the Stars“. He even brought forward Timothy McKenzie better known by his stage name Labrinth, who helped co-write some of Tempah’s hits and then released a top 3 single of his own. The genre they portray was popular worldwide and even carried forward by American arstists such as Bruno Mars.