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What is the most important moment in music history?

Music is one of the most debatable topics that exist. Nudging it's way into the make-up of everyone's personality – music has started revolutions, spoke out against war and generally just made people think about themselves and the things around them. So what happens when we try to figure out what the most important moment in music history? HEAVE dissects and disagrees on a rather hard question to answer.

Greg Herald

I have pondered the question, "What’s the most important moment in music history?" for weeks now, and I cannot come up with answer. For me it is just too open ended. I suppose I will go ahead and throw an answer out since everyone else will come up with something. My answer is this: The most important moment in music history is when virtuoso pianist Franz Liszt became the first teen music idol. With his striking posture and Hungarian charm, Franz was quite the ladies man. He made being a musician cool.

However, I will re-work the original question to give this answer: The Beatles releasing Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967. The new question is: “What’s the most important moment in rock music history?” First of all, Sgt. Peppers is not my favorite Beatles album, but it is the most important album of rock history. Here’s why. First, before Sgt. Peppers, albums (for the most part) were composed of a handful of singles and filler. Although the Beatles had cut out the filler in previous albums such as Revolver and Rubber Soul, the idea of a concept album was not even close to mainstream. The two aforementioned albums still had songs specifically geared towards singles releases whereas Sgt. Peppers did not. Second Sgt. Peppers created the idea that an album was to be packaged as an interesting and unique unit. There was more to records than just music. For example, I personally have spent hours studying the bizarre, celebrity filled cover. The inside sleeve labeled everyone and everything on the cover. After this achievement, bands were forced to kick it up a notch and provide better/more interesting artwork on albums. Lastly, Sgt. Peppers inspired Brian Wilson to create Pet Sounds.

Ryan Peters

Picking the most important moment in music history is a little bit like being asked to pick the favorite breath that you've ever taken - there's too many to choose from and each seem equally important. But, when broken down into periods and decades, the task seems slightly more manageable. Within the last ten years, it seems to me that one of the most significant moments in music was the controversy surrounding Marilyn Manson's music and the Columbine school shootings.

In the wake of the slayings, parents, pundits and activists searched high and low to find a simple explanation for happened. And they found an easy scapegoat in Manson; his purposefully shocking appearance and lyrics dealing with alienation and anger must surely have been what caused two seemingly intelligent, yet terribly lonely, teenagers to kill more than a dozen of their classmates. Or so the chorus of blame and shame went. It reignited a debate that still rages to this day about the effect that music has on young people, about whether it motivates anger or serves as a method of catharsis.

Very few seemed to consider the fact that Manson was once in the same position and Dylan Kleibold and Eric Harris - he too was ostracized for the way he looked and the things that interested him. But rather than pick up a gun, Manson picked up a guitar and a pencil to channel his anger and depression into something artistic and expressive. No one seemed to consider the possibility that Manson might have set a positive example for alienated teens, rather than the other way around.

When asked what he would have told the teens to stop what happened, Manson replied that he would not have said anything to them, but instead listened to what they had to say. It was the most honest and intelligent thing I ever heard someone say about what happened at Columbine, and it came from the mouth of the person who felt the full brunt of a society's degradation and anger.

Alyssa Vincent

Without a doubt, the most important moment in music history is the arrival of The Beatles in America. Yes, it may be a clichéd answer, but at the end of the day, this one band managed to change how Americans look at music forever. First of all, The Beatles marked the beginning of the British invasion. This allowed bands like The Rolling Stones and The Kinks to find favor in good ol' US of A - and really, where would we be without those two bands? I’ll tell you - up a creek with no real soundtrack of rebellion to play. After these sensations, we couldn't get enough of the Brits. Our music was suddenly dated, and if you wanted to impress people, you knew to look across the pond for the latest sound. We still can’t get enough of British music today, and in our ADD culture, any band that can manage to make an impact over a span of 40-odd years deserves some credit.

Lisa White

Such a broad question can have no one answer. Historically documented moments (The Beatles appearing on Ed Sullivan) and not so historically documented moments (Robert Johnson meeting Satan at the crossroads and selling his soul) all define music and what it means to be a fan, and for every fan there is a different answer.

For me the most important moment in music history was the Woodstock Music Festival back in 1969. It was the first large scale destination festival, and really set the foundation for festivals in the US like Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Lollapalooza as well as countless destination festivals in the U.K. Destination festivals now account for a large portion of revenue in the recording industry, helps expose bands to a new audience that may not hear them on a conventional tour and really encourages enjoying live music as a communal experience. Some of the best memories for me of live music have been at festivals, and without the success and failures of Woodstock 1969, the modern day music festival maybe radically different.

Joe Roth

The invention of punk, garage, indie, or what have you, can be traced back to a 1958 Sock Hop where Link Wray and His Ray Men performed the most menacing song ever made, "Rumble."

Born out of performing a haphazard version of The Stroll, (a big hit at the time performed by the Diamonds), Link Wray unknowingly invented punk and performed the song three more times that night for the screaming teenagers.

Wray went into a studio soon after to record "Rumble," but had trouble replicating the sound he'd gotten on-stage. Thinking it had something to do with the studio amps, Wray took a pencil and punched holes in his speakers, thereby inventing the fuzzbox and becoming one of the first guitarists to experiment with feedback and distortion.

This song was so controversial at the time it was banned by many radio stations who thought it might incite gang violence because of its title, and it's an instrumental! Rumble is dripping with sinister reverb and devilish strumming, so exciting in fact, it made Pete Townshend pick up a guitar and Bob Dylan even called it "the greatest instrumental of all time."

Thanks Link!

Cory Roop

The most important moment in music history is hands down the birth of Robert Allen Zimmerman, better known as Bob Dylan. Dylan is easily one of the most influential artists of all time. His songs have been covered by everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Guns n' Roses. Even today, bands are listing him as one of their major influences or favorite artists. The times they have a-changed, but Dylan is still one of the greatest musicians of all time.

Leen Morrissey

The phonograph. While written sheet music and newspaper accounts of live performances begin the understanding of music in culture, the power of recorded sound starts the real fun. Edison's yellow paraffine cylinders in 1888 led the world in realizing that music could be shared beyond live performances. The progression has been amazing, from records to 8-tracks, cassettes to CDs, and MP3s to who knows what next. Holding an orchestra in your hand for the very first time - now that's a powerful moment.

Wes Soltis

There are several angles that you could look at this question. The Beatles, Elvis and the blues obviously changed the face of music forever, but can only be understood on a historical context, as none of us witnessed it first hand. Something we have witnessed, and will possibly go down as the most important factor in music history, is the birth of Napster and all of it’s sister programs. Completely changing the way labels operate, digital downloading (mostly free digital downloading) has made major labels scratch their head on how to adapt, and made grass root labels rise and become relevant again.

The listener is exposed to more music than they ever would have been exposed to before, and bands are finding themselves sitting on quite a bit more fans now that their music is available through all of these digital media means. It’s made it easier for lazy listeners to be exposed to a ton of music – and we are witnessing the changing of the music industry as we speak.

Agree or disagree? Send us an email at wes@heavemedia.com. We may feature your answer.

Posted by Wes Soltis on Jan 17, 2008 @ 12:00 am