Like so many other things, music seemed better, more innovative and more influential in the last 100 years than at any other time in history. The variety, the crossovers, the plethora of influences made music a monumental force in culture, society and politics. It changed lives and continues to do so. So much happened that 20 moments in the whole century will never be enough to even scratch the surface. We hope the following moments help piece together the framework of the last 100 years of music.
1. Charley Patton first records - 1929
Often cited as the father of Delta Blues and having inspired more subsequent blues men than any other artist, Charley Patton made his most important recordings for Paramount and Gennett in 1929. He became known for stage tricks like playing the guitar behind his head, on his knees and behind his back. This was back in the early 30's – nearly forty years before Jimi Hendrix would become famous for the same tricks. Blues formed the backbone to rock and pop music and Charley Patton was there at the start.
2. Invention of the solid body electric guitar - 1940Although others had produced amplified semi-acoustic guitars before 1940, it was Les Paul who is credited with inventing the solid body electric guitar. It was known as ‘the log’ and bore little resemblance to the Gibson Les Paul that would later be released. For the non-guitarists out there, the solid body guitar is by far the most popular kind of electric guitar and essentially any one that doesn’t have ‘the hole’ in it. The effect on modern music does not need to be explained here, but the design and that of its successors leapt straight to the core of modern music.
3. Two turntables and a microphone - 1947
Alleged predatory child molester he may have been, but Jimmy Savile is held by many to be the first person to hook up two record decks with a mixer and a microphone between them. It was a far cry from beat-matching and scratching, but at 1947 was certainly pioneering. He was once challenged by a colleague who asked ‘can’t the audience wait for you to change the record?’. ‘Mine can’t,’ he said. Dead air is now as dead as the dodo in clubs throughout the world.
4. Elvis Presley makes his first mark - 1954
It was with the recording of That’s All Right that Elvis began his journey to becoming the most recognisable figure in modern music. The record company boss Sam Phillips wanted to find a white person who had the sound and feel of a black performer; he said it would make him a billion dollars. He found such a man in Elvis – at the time a 19-year-old truck driver – in 1954. Rock and roll was around before Elvis, but he was the one who blew it onto the world stage and made it a global phenomenon.
5. Independence of Jamaica - 1962
In 1962 the independence of Jamaica coincided with the growing popularity of the new sounds of ska and reggae. The national pride of the two million inhabitants birthed celebratory songs and a unique Jamaican identity that would be exported around the world and have repercussions long beyond the decades of its inception. A Jamaican diaspora took the music most importantly to London, where it would later influence the birth of all dance music – particularly jungle, drum and bass, dubstep and rave.
6. The Beatles invade America - 1964The Beatles’ stranglehold on pop music in the 60's was only truly confirmed once they crossed the Atlantic, and they paved the way for many more British bands that would follow in their footsteps as part of the ‘British Invasion’. They appeared on TV a number of times and returned later in the same year. It was while in America that the Beatles had their first taste of illegal drugs after being offered a joint by Bob Dylan. The importance of this, and the subsequent influence of drugs on the Beatles and most 60's bands, is also difficult to understate.
7. Dylan goes electric - 1965
Bob Dylan, famed for his acoustic guitar and harmonica performances and antiestablishment lyrics, was the darling of the folk scene in the early 60's. His decision to “go electric” in '65 with one side of his Bringing it All Back Home – and on his live tour – was met with hostility from folk music purists who said Dylan had sold out. His live gigs – starting with a performance at the Newport Folk Festival in ’65 – were played acoustically for the first half and backed by an electric band the Hawks for the second half. He was famously called ‘Judas’ by a fan while on tour in England in 1966. His decision to go electric blew open the doors to the experimental second half of the 60's.
8. Woodstock - 1969
The legendary free concert that attracted around 400,000 people to a farm in upstate New York rubberstamped the 60's claim over 20th century music. It was initially intended to make money – nearly 190,000 tickets were sold before the concert – but faced with numbers way in excess of that, organisers ordered that the fences be taken down the night before the show opened. It had it all – sex, drugs, rock and roll, and mud. Jimi Hendrix’s performance has gone into rock folklore, but only a tiny percentage saw him – most had left by the Monday morning because of the weather.
9. Black Sabbath form - 1969The first true heavy metal band was the ultimate antithesis to the peace and love generation it grew from. With occult references and heavy guitars, the band were inspired by horror films, but also wrote songs on more political topics. Fronted by Ozzy Osbourne until 1979 - and then again years later - the band (in one form or another) has continued writing and touring to this day, surpassing many of the later metal bands they influenced.
10. The Rolling Stones at Altamont - 1969
It was heralded as the day the hippie dream died. The Rolling Stones management had decided to employ the Hell’s Angels as security for their free 1969 concert, but the motorcycle gang members proved the wrong choice as rising crowd violence erupted. Some of the crowd were trying to get on stage and when 18-year-old Meredith Hunter pulled out a gun he was stabbed to death by a gang member. The incident was captured on film and the ill-fated concert was enshrined in the Rolling Stones film Gimme Shelter.
