These, of course, are my personal opinions on when genres where invented, who invented them, and which were the most significant events. To understand how I justify these opinions you have to read my book "A History of Rock Music".
| 1970 |
TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.
- King Tubby invents "dub" in Jamaica using the recording console like an instrument ⇐
- Syd Barrett retires from music
- 12,000 people attend the alternative festival at Glastonbury, in England
- ZZ Top and Allman Brothers launch "southern-rock"
- Black Sabbath debut, playing heavy, dark rock music (the prototype for black metal and doom metal) ⇐
- Todd Rundgren plays all instruments by himself on Runt, the first "do it yourself" production
- German group Kluster (Cluster) plays keyboards-based instrumental music that is inspired by the industrial society
- At the peak of British jazz-rock, the Soft Machine cut Third
- Smokey Robinson's The Tears Of A Clown fuses vaudeville, classical music and soul music
- T.Rex's Ride A White Swan opens the age of glam-rock
- David Geffen founds Asylum Records
- Richard Branson founds Virgin to promote alternative musicians
- Pierre Boulez founds the IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique) at the Centre Pompidou in Paris
- Robert Moog unveils the Minimoog, the first portable synthesizer
- September: Jimi Hendrix dies at 28
- October: Janis Joplin dies at 27
- Other significant albums of the year: Nico's Desert Shore, Soft Machine's 3, Tim Buckley's Lorca, Syd Barrett's Barrett, Van Morrison's Moondance, Amon Duul II's Yeti, Third Ear Band's Third Ear Band, Peter Green's End Of The Game
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| 1971 |
TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.
- Jim Morrison of the Doors dies at 27 (July 3)
- The German band Tangerine Dream invents "kosmische musik", using synthesizers and sequencers ⇐
- Johnny Thunders forms the New York Dolls, a band of tranvestites with a trash aesthetic that plays very fast and simple rock"n"roll
- Alice Cooper mixes decadence, horror and hard-rock in his "shock rock"
- Marvin Gaye, Isaac Hayes, Curtis Mayfield and Stevie Wonder begin producing artsy soul records
- The musical Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber opens on Broadway
- Tonto's Expanding Head Band release Zero Time, the first pop album entirely played at the synthesizer
- The Joy Of Cooking debut, the first band led by feminists
- Alice Cooper's Love It To Death launches horror-shock rock
- German group Faust plays rock songs that are studio collages of rock music, electronic sounds and "concrete" noise
- Marvin Gaye's Mercy Mercy Me is the first ecological song
- Duane Allman dies at 25
- Gene Vincent dies at 36
- A benefit concert for Bangla Desh is attended by rock stars
- Sandy Pearlman of "Crawdaddy" uses the expression "heavy metal" for Artificial Energy on The Notorious Byrd Brothers
- Malcom McLaren opens a boutique in London that becomes a center for the non-conformist youth
- Rhys Chatam founds the avantgarde music program at the Kitchen Center in New York
- Alligator is founded in Chicago by Bruce Iglauer
- "Creem" writer Dave Marsh coins the term "punk-rock" for the music of Question Mark & The Mysterians
- Other significant albums of the year: John Fahey"s America, Captain Beefheart's Mirror Man, Can's Tago Mago, Kevin Ayers's Shooting At The Moon, Robbie Basho's Song of The Stallion, Joni Mitchell's Blue, David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name
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| 1972 |
TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.
- Popol Vuh's In Den Gaerten Pharaos is recorded inside a cathedral and fuses electronic music and Eastern music (predating new-age music)
- Deuter's Aum is released, a fusion of Eastern and Western religious music, of acoustic instruments and natural sounds
- Tangerine Dream's Zeit is a double album that contains four side-long suites
- Annette Peacock's I'm The One fuses synthesizer and vocals
- Neu! plays obsessively rhythmic music
- Klaus Schulze's Irrlicht is a cosmic symphony played with electronic instruments
- Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell form the Neon Boys
- Japanese group Taj-Mahal Travellers plays lengthy improvised psychedelic jams
- David Bowie's Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust is the culmination of glam-rock
- By fusing Mersey-beat, folk-rock and hard-rock, the Big Star coin power-pop ⇐
- Boom of singer-songwriters
- The Vertigo label is founded to promote progressive-rock
- Philips and Siemens merge their music companies into Polygram and buy MGM/Verve
- "Rolling Stone" writer Vince Aletti writes an article on "disco music"
- Cameroon-born and Paris-based musician Manu Dibango invents "disco music" with Soul Makossa ⇐
- Other significant albums of the year: Rolling Stones's Exile On Main Street, Roxy Music's Roxy Music, Nick Drake's Pink Moon, Yes's Close To The Edge
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| 1973 |
TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.
- George Lucas' film American Graffiti launches the nostalgic revival of the music of the 1950s and 1960s
- Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company is an album of lengthy electronic suites
- 500,000 people attend the Watkins Glen festival (Allman Brother, Grateful Dead, Band)
- "The Midnight Special" debuts on tv, led by Wolfman Jack and Helen Reddy
- The film The Harder They Come brings reggae to the West
- September: Gram Parsons dies at 26
- Barry Oakley of the Allman Brothers dies
- Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon invents a polished, keyboard-based sound for pop music, and would remain in the Billboard charts for over 600 weeks
- Mike Oldfield cuts an album-long suite of instrumental music, Tubular Bells, all played by himself
- A tv special uses the term "salsa" for Latin music ⇐
- Asylum buys Elektra
- Roland introduces the SH-1000, Japan's first synthesizer
- Other significant albums of the year: Popol Vuh's Hosianna Mantra, Gong's Radio Gnome Invisible, John Fahey's Fare Forward Voyagers, New York Dolls's I, Magma's Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh, Faust's IV, Klaus Schulze's Cyborg
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| 1974 |
TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show is released
- Barry White plays orchestral soul for the discos
- August: The Ramones debut at the CBGB's and launch punk-rock ⇐
- The Residents reinvent rock music with Meet The Residents
- The Grateful Dead, the most successful live band of all times, performs using 25 tons of loudspeakers
- Robert Wyatt cuts Rock Bottom, possibly the greatest Canterbury album
- Nick Drake dies at 26
- Brian Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy fuses electronics and pop, and introduces post-modernism into rock music
- The magazine "Trouser Press" is founded to cover the British music scene
- Kraftwerk's Autobahn becomes the first hit entirely played on electronic instruments and with an electronic rhythm, the blueprint for disco-music
- July: Patti Smith's Piss Factory is the first single of New York's "new wave"
- August: the "new wave" groups begin performing at New York's club CGBG's
- Charly is founded in France
- Technics introduces the Technics SL-1200, a turntable that becomes popular among New York DJs
- Greg Shaw founds Bomp Records in San Francisco, specializing in garage-rock
- Other significant albums of the year: Henry Cow's Unrest, Yahowa 13's Penetration - An Aquarian Symphony
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| 1975 |
TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.
- Boom of funk music
- Calhoun's Dance Dance Dance is the first 12" single
- Giorgio Moroder releases the first tracks of European "disco-music" and invent the extended "disco mix"
- Lou Reed releases Metal Machine Music, an album of pure noise
- Jamaican disc-jockey Clive "Hercules" Campbell re-invents the breakbeat in New York, thereby inventing "rap music" and "hip hop" ⇐
- The Queen film a bizarre, artistic video for Bohemian Rhapsody
- Tim Buckley dies at 28
- "Saturday Night Live" debuts on tv
- Robert Moog introduces the Polymoog, the first commercial polyphonic synthesizer
- 13-year old (Grand Wizard) Theodore Livingstone accidentally discovers the "skratching" sound of a turntable and uses it at a party in the Bronx
- Werner Uehlinger founds Hat Hut
- December: John Holmstrom founds the fanzine "Punk" in New York, the first fanzine for punk-rock and new-wave music
- Other significant albums of the year: Neil Young's Tonight's The Night
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| 1976 |
TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.
- Pere Ubu cut Modern Dance, possibly the greatest new-wave album
- Richard Hell cuts Blank Generation
- David Grisman coins "newgrass", a fusion of jazz and bluegrass
- Wanted: The Outlaws, featuring Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Tompall Glaser and Jessi Colter, is the first country album to be certified platinum
- April: the first Ramones album is released
- July: a Ramones tour organized by Malcom McLaren exports punk-rock to Britain
- September: the "100 Club Festival" turns British punk-rock into a national phenomenon
- September: the Saint's I'm Stranded is the first Australian punk-rock single
- November: the Sex Pistols' Anarchy In The UK is the first British punk-rock single
- Boom of reggae music outside of Jamaica
- Phil Ochs dies at 36
- Howling Wolf dies at 66
- William Ackerman invents new-age music and founds Windham Hill ⇐
- New York disc-jockey Grandmaster Flash begins spinning on Boston Road, where he experiments with "cutting" and "phasing"
- The magazine "Musician" begins publication
- The jazz magazine Cadence begins publication
- Independent labels founded in 1976 include: Beserkley (Berkeley), Stiff (London)
- December: Blondie's first album bridges the gap between disco-music and punk-rock
- Other significant albums of the year: Patti Smith's Radio Ethiopia, Penguin Cafe` Orchestra's Music From The Penguin Cafe
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| 1977 |
TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.
- Punk spawns a self-publishing revolution ("do it yourself") both for music and for magazines ("Ripped & Torn", "Sniffin' Glue", "48 Thrills")
- The film "Saturday Night Fever" starts the disco fever by promoting disco-music beyond gays and blacks
- April: The Screamers are a punk band that uses two keyboards and no guitars and performs at multimedia events on the Hollywood strip
- Boom of independent labels
- Suicide's Suicide fuses rockabilly and electronic music
- Elvis Presley dies at 42
- Peter Laughner of Pere Ubu dies
- Three members of the Lynyrd Skynyrd are killed in a plane crash
- Ronnie VanZandt dies at 28
- Bukka White dies at 71
- Marc Bolan of the T.Rex dies at 29
- The disco "Warehouse" opens in Chicago and Frankie Knuckles becomes its resident disc-jockey
- The magazine "OP" (later "Option") is founded in Olympia and becomes the reference for independent music of all genres
- Roland introduces the first commercial rhythm machine
- Martin Mills's record store Beggars Banquet becomes an independent label
- London record store Rough Trade becomes an independent label
- Affinity is founded by Joop Visser
- October: The Avengers' We Are The One is the first single of the punk scene of San Francisco's Mabuhay Garden club
- Other significant albums of the year: Television's Marquee Moon, Clash's Clash, Talking Heads's 77
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| 1978 |
TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.
- Brian Eno discovers the no-wave of DNA, Mars, Contortions, Lydia Lunch ⇐
- Brian Eno invents ambient music ⇐
- The Public Image Ltd bridge dub and punk
- The disco "Paradise Garage" for black gays opens in New York and its founder Larry Levan becomes the first superstar disc-jockey
- The California composer Monte Cazazza and the British band Throbbing Gristle coin "industrial music", that soon finds its headquarters in the English industrial town of Sheffield ⇐
- July: The Germs' Forming is the first single of California's punk-rock
- Fred Frith organizes the "Rock In Opposition" (RIO) festival that unites progressive-rock and militant politics
- Keith Moon of the Who dies at 32
- Sandy Denny dies at 31
- "Crawdaddy" ceases publication
- Mute is founded
- Roland introduces the MC-4 sequencer, the first sequencer for the masses
- Dave Smith (Sequential Circuits) introduces the Prophet-5, the world's first microprocessor-based musical instrument, and ushers in the age of digital synthesizers, replacing the voltage-controlled (analog) synthesizers
- Independent labels founded in 1978 include: Ace of Hearts (Boston), Cherry Red (London), Rhino
- Other significant albums of the year: Residents's Not Available, Talking Heads's More Songs About Building And Food, Michael Hoenig's Departure From The Northern Wasteland
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| 1979 |
TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.
- The Pop Group's Y delivers agip-prop anthems in a style that fuses punk-rock, jazz, dub and funk
- December: Clash's London Calling mixes punk-rock with reggae, ska, funk, blues, etc
- The Talking Heads' Fear Of Music, produced by Brian Eno, fuses new wave and funk, and invents "techno-funk"
- The B52's fuse new wave and dance music
- The Specials launch a ska revival in Britain
- Todd Rungren makes the first video-disc
- Sony and Philips invent the compact disc (CD), a digital storage for music
- Eleven fans die at a Who concert
- Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols dies at 21
- Youstol Dispage tops the charts
- Lowell George of the Little Feat dies at 34
- Maybellene Carter dies at 70
- The first New Music festival of avantgarde music is held in New York
- Sony launches the "Walkman" portable stereo
- The Australian company Fairlight Instruments introduces the first keyboard-based digital sampler, the CMI
- Independent labels founded in 1979 include: Alternative Tentacles (San Francisco), SST (Los Angeles), Factory (London)
- MCA purchases ABC
- The world's music market is worth over 10 billion dollars and five "majors" control over 70% of it
- September: Charles Mingus dies
- Other significant albums of the year: Chrome's Half Machine Lips Move, Pere Ubu's New Picnic Time, Public Image Ltd's Second Edition, This Heat's This Heat, Contortions's Buy
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