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Musicians and writers select the songs you have to hear – everything from sex to heartbreak, operatic villains to rock in the movies and beyond
Dan says: ‘Purcell’s music captured the historic importance of the death of a thoughtful, intelligent woman and queen. As joint monarch with William III, Queen Mary II helped to formulate the Bill of Rights: the most important constitutional document in British history. It guaranteed the powers of parliament, with pre-eminence given to elected members of the House of Commons, and limited the powers of the monarchy. Purcell’s music to celebrate her untimely death was powerful, beautiful and solemn. A year later it was played again at another public funeral - that of Purcell himself.’
Crass
Crass’s agit-punk anthem has had a direct effect on the culture and tourism policy of Iceland – or, at least, that’s the opinion of Einar Orn, former Sugarcubes singer turned Icelandic minister for culture and tourism. ‘This inspired me politically and socially,’ Orn told Time Out. ‘Back in 1976 when I was 14, I listened to punk. Punk is my roots. It is me still today.’ Orn is not, of course, the only former musician turned politician. Tropicalia figurehead Gilberto Gil, imprisoned by the Brazilian military regime in 1969 for his subversive artistic activities, went on to serve as the country's minister for culture from 2003 to 2008, during which time he established the successful Culture Point programme, which gave access to music education and equipment to Brazil’s poor. And Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett has been a member of the Australian House Of Representatives since 2004, and currently serves as minister for school education, early childhood and youth. And let’s not forget Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry, who was marginally more successful as a bassist from 1960 no-hit wonders The Electras.
Beethoven - © Getty Images
Dan says: ‘It was started in 1804, during the Napoleonic wars. By then Beethoven's initial admiration for Napoleon as a representative of enlightenment and liberty had turned to loathing when it became clear Napoleon was a despot and dynastic imperialist. Its first performance in Vienna in 1808 – after Napoleon’s forces had occupied the city – soon saw it recognised as representing spiritual struggle against tyranny. The bizarre and powerful simplicity of a strange opening passage which repeated three short notes and one long note was a clarion call, a declaration of intent. Later, it became significant in the Second World War as an audible symbol of defiance to totalitarian aggression, for the three short beats and one long coincided with the Morse code for V - three dots and a dash. V, representing victory, was painted surreptitiously in occupied Europe while the opening phrase of Beethoven's Fifth was broadcast on the BBC. It’s the sound of freedom.’
Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle - (C) Popperfoto/ Getty Images
‘It’s the first of its kind. No such song had ever been composed. A soldier and amateur musician wrote it one night, and it was played at a patriotic banquet. Right from the moment that it was composed, the revolutionaries saw the power of it and handed out copies. So as thousands of troops entered Paris in 1792, they marched on the royal palace singing the song. It’s this electric moment, and all the English radicals were over there – Mary Wollstoncraft, Wordsworth – to see this phenomenon. Every subsequent revolution was influenced by the French Revolution, and this song is still sung all over the world today.’
Homer - (C) Getty Images
Dan says: ‘This is a slightly naughty choice. But it was known as the Song of Ilium. It may not have necessarily been sung, but it would have been chanted. It’s the oldest surviving piece of storytelling in the Western world, and it’s influenced soldiers, religious leaders and would-be conquerors across the ages in ways you can hardly overestimate. Just to take one example: Alexander the Great was self-consciously copying the Iliad when he set out to conquer the world. It’s had a massive impact on world history.’
When Latin country musician Ned Sublette wrote this song back in 1981, it was a groundbreaking moment: the exploration of a subject utterly taboo within the famously conservative music genre. In fact, Sublette composed it with Nelson in mind, but it wasn’t until after 'Brokeback Mountain' that the outspoken country legend decided it was time this brilliantly titled ditty came out of the closet. Although Nelson’s cover wasn’t the first country tune to be embraced by the LGBT community – Garth Brooks’ hit 'We Shall Be Free' became an anthem in 2000 – 'Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)' was the first song to address sexuality solely and specifically. Released in 2006 with the campest of fanfares, the promo came replete with rippling biceps, hip thrusts and cowboys doing the do-si-do. Despite some American country stations refusing to give the song airtime, it became Nelson’s biggest hit since 1984 and thousands of closeted spur-rocking cowboys rejoiced.*
*Probably.
Acrassicauda - (C) Getty Images
In 2004, the young men of Iraqi metal band Acrassicauda had on their doorstep what 99% of Western counterparts could only evoke: misery, fear and despair. During the horrors of the Baghdad insurgency, they recorded 'Beginning of The End' as part of a set of scratchily recorded demos. They ended up receiving death threats from Islamic militants for their trouble.
They didn't sing about politics. They didn't need to. The simple fact that they and their generation were unable to rock in the free world tugged at global heartstrings, their plight championed across the political spectrum (from Vice magazine to Fox News), uniquely engaging ordinary folk with the conflict in Iraq in the process.
Sam says: ‘Steel Pulse came at a funny time. The National Front was pretty prevalent and there was a lot of frontline street racism. It was the first dub reggae, white men and black men onstage crossover. It gave a different weight to the rock against racism movement. The slogan of the campaign was ‘Black and White Unite and Fight’ and not only did two cultures came together but it paved the way for the two-tone movement. They were pioneering and the lyrics of the song are pretty heavy – very much an attack on racism in Britain at that time. The fact that they dressed up as the Ku Klux Klan onstage – the white hoods with these massive dreads down the back - was bonkers! I think it really galvanised communities and different generations especially in the West Indian population that were living around Brick Lane at the time and the festivals and celebrations that were going on in Coventry – I guess it paved the way for band members of different races.’
Joan Baez - (C) Redfern
Perhaps best known through Joan Baez’s rendition, it sets lyrics lifted from Rev Charles A Tindley’s gospel song of 1900 to the opening and closing melodies of a pre-American Civil War spiritual. Thanks to folk icon Pete Seeger, who’d learned it as early as 1947 via The Highlander Folk School, the song was picked up, taught to other folk singers and adopted as an anthem of the African-American Civil Rights Movement throughout the late ’50s and early ’60s, when it was sung en masse at rallies to strengthen crowd solidarity. Unusually, the song’s determinedly religious lyrics in no way diminish its secular force.
Never a single, but surely the best known of the Cali gangsta rap crew’s tracks, this was a standout from their 'Straight Outta Compton' debut LP and hit out explicitly at the LAPD for their brutality and practice of racial profiling. Bowing to pressure from evangelical Christian organisation Focus On the Family, an assistant director of the FBI wrote to both Ruthless Records and its distributor, warning against the record’s inflammatory nature, which saw police refusing to provide security for NWA shows. 'Fuck tha Police' may be credited with setting the ubiquitous Parental Advisory sticker ball rolling; outraged protest groups had their label-warning way – and inevitably helped drive up record sales.
Re: the James Brown. Great choice but the vid clip to go for is perhaps the one on YouTube 'I Can't Stand It (Finale)'. That's the one where he talks down a riot single-handed. It's incredible. Of course with JB the performance is always involved and perhaps things are not quite as they seem but still, it's truly incredible. Cheers for an interesting list
Peace,World Love is One World........... visit www.reverbnation.com/johnnybonkers
I do hope at least someone will read the whoel thing.. it means so much to me..
if if it's one month old
The chart sounds a bit like this -music can be labeled as: good music, heart touching music, bad example music (somebody needs to make a fool of himself averynow and then and music seems to be the right environment), revolutionary music(triggers or embodies revolutions - not necessarily good music).. ..at the same time revolutionary music has more impact on the world than the rest of labels, while good music seems to be one of the least important things that actually change the world (more obvious if one looks at the end of the chart....
towards the beggining of the chart we have more complex songs that combine the initial labels into things like verygood music and captivating message etc. although towards the final three positions the kind of correctness and rigor that could be felt throughout becomes extrem and no 2 is chosen (i'm not saying is good or bad) due to helping raise 160 mil "quid" whilst number 1 is somehow what i have expected- a rap song- and i think it has to do with the fact that rap was born as (not anymore) social-political music and it holds an implicit message of rebellion or uprising.
now, what i draw out of all this is the fact that when listening to music people feel different things and out of those feelings some are more likely than other to push people to the streets or unite people into action – the visible revolution! but i'm also wondering about the song that spread through out the world, that lives in everyone mind and heart and is invisible in it's direct effects - nothing to be televised about it... the song we all now about, the one that embodies the idea of song- our internal notion of what a song is.... i think it's jingle bells... no just joking, i don't know what it is, but to go back to my analysis, due to this rigour of thought and criteria through out the top i was left with the feeling that this top was purely informative... this was not a good moment to make a top 100...i think there was another one last week, and I think there are tv stations specialized in this … and why make a top like this, what;s the use of it ???????? (this my true question) i didn't participate and no one will ever acknowledge this because it's not normal to acknowledge something like this and i think it a very strange way to look at music.!
not to mention that maybe, who knows what crazy thing happened in this century that was done by one men who got a crazy idea (invading polland) while listening to his favourite ...oh by the way, i completly agree to puting biber in the chart - as I was saying i think it's very important for someone to give a face to contemporary eveil and allow as to candidly dipise a certain category of people… to be able to look the enemy in the eye!..if you know what I mean…. Kisses ,
Actually I would give Biber no 1, for his personal sacrifice. You little shit!
sorry time out, this was so unprofessional . is very clear, that you really dont know what changed the history, who did this article? a 20 years old kid? or a 17 years old girl ? How in this world, Justin bieber, and others of the same type, how they can change the history? is a joke right? please tell me it is. because If you want to talk about facts, real facts, this list would be very different.
number 1 changed history? even number 2.. not that much.
Iam sure that a lot of others songs, did a bid difference and a big change in the history. chuck berry, mick jaegger, axl? where are they? even bee gees, ray charles, Elvis is not in top 10? the king of rock n roll, who created the rock how can he be at 30,20's,...??
you should do this article again, more accurate next time please
Number 100. <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7MVQV-SuPZg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
yet again we get the cliched Elivis & his gyrations/rock'n'roll outraged the world
and induced panic in the music business perspective : Charlie Parker and the be-boppers were causing moral concern 2 decades earlier when this style of jazz was seen as polluting young minds and was referred to as "devil's music" ( as were
the songs of certain blues singers) well before the phrase was applied to R'nR and well before punks thought it was clever to wear Swastika t - shirts
I have to totally disagree with NUMBER ! but certainly NUMBER 2 changed the world - however its just a shame it did not change it permanently as we are still seeing the same poverty all over the world now!!!!!! I look forward to looking through all the other 98? Pauline
well i agree with most of the list, but you forgot a song that did make history and that's Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi, that should of been in the top 70 at least
This list is beyond terrible...... I'm seriously offended, as a person with ears who's not tone deaf and is interested in the cultural history of things.
Also, I was in Tahrir square the entire 18 days. Ramy Essam is a very nice guy and a very passionate singer, but by no means did his songs resonate across Egypt. They were important for one of the groups in the square (not even all of them). The song you specifically chose, is actually a combination of a few chants that we were all used to saying. These chants should be included in this list, and not the song. Ie, this song did not "drive" anything in the revolution, but was more of a transcription (one of many).
what the hell justin bieber is doing here?!
and why even in 20 aren't ,,Zombie'' and ,,Wind of change'' ? ...
This song has raised the enthusiasm of many people in tahrir square ... It is one of the sparks for the continuation of demanding the departure of regime
This song has raised the enthusiasm of many people in tahrir square ... It is one of the sparks for the continuation of demanding the departure of regime
I was alerted to this list by a friend ( I now live abroad and do not read Time Out
anymore)
There is a certain amount of arrogance implicit in the fact that these music journalists and panel of experts think that they can determine what goes into this kind of list and then invite the rest of us plebs to comment whilst at the same time stating that they stand by their choices - I've not actually heard of any of these people apart from the historians etc . . . TO journalists are not known beyond the sphere of London surely ?
some of the comments suggest to me that we need to distinguish between music that changed the world, music that changed music and music that people like . . .
Smells Like Teen Spirit is probably the favourite song of a lot of people and in itself it's very good but it did not change music & it did not change history
likewise Woodstock : the event was historically significant to a small degree but the
song did not change history nor musical history : it's not that good a piece of music
out of it's particular nostalgic context
Don't know about "Tipper stickers" protecting "young, fragile minds" from Prince :
have you heard Bessie Smith's Empty Bed Blues with it's references to "coffee
grinders" & "deep sea divers" ? Never ceases to make me smile with it's
outrageous innuendo - makes Prince look positively adolescent
I don't know who Michael Wood is but he clearly doesn't know that That's Alright Mama
has absolutely nothing to do with Bo Diddley - it was written by Arthur Crudup
fully agree with this thread apart from " had", Chuck D still empowers ppl with his music and teachings and therefore he HAS.......
What about CSN&Y Teach Your Children
Hendrix All Along the Watchtower?
GREENDAY IS NOT POP PUNK! And what about the people who's songs and styles changed music. Like WHERE THE HELL IS LES PAUL? This whole artical is crap. It's like a sixth grader who only used only the small knowledge of music they have wrote this, it sucks!
I called BS on this list the moment I saw Justin Bieber's name. When has he EVER changed the world? Never. That's when. He only convinced a large group of teenie-boppers to constantly spam the internet. This list is a complete joke.
I was honestly expecting Bohemian Rhapsody to be on here... how did Barney and friends get on here, but not that?
So let me get this straight. Justin Bieber, The Spice Girls, and Barney and Friends are on the list, but U2 isn't? Have you ever heard of Sunday Bloody Sunday? Where the Streets Have no Name? Walk On? Look up how these songs ACTUALLY changed the world.
I agree with the comment left by "Chris" on one of the other pages of comments :
where on earth is Paul Robeson ? I was listening to Ole Man River just the other night
and some of his other more overtly "political" songs and he deserves to be on the list if only because of the activist & musical risks he took in that whole Cold War
period - he makes Lennon look like a lightweight poseur
it saddens me that there is a whole generation who think Bieber is talented and
who have never heard of, let alone heard, Robeson, Mario Lanza or Richard Tauber sing & who have never heard of, let alone heard, Fritz Kreisler play
Chanson Hindoue on violin : the very definition of sadness
where are "where the streets have no name", "I still haven't found..." and "with or without you" of U2 ?
Not a fan.............but it was my impression that Elvis changed the way we all listen to music..........how on earth he like many of the GREATS has not even made the top ten. I can only assume that those that took part in the pool are tone death or teeny boppers.
Great though this version is the original by Bob Marley is vastly superior and is based on a speech made by the Emperor Haile Selassie to the League of Nations in 1936.
not sure I would describe some of the contributors ( Katy B ? ) as "experts" - I still
have the Vox booklets mentioned by "Terry" and they had some real heavyweight
contributors to them, not here-today-gone-tomorrow-forgotten next-week types
and I'm ambivalent about a music section that constantly refers to itself as "we" !
however, interesting reading none the less and plenty to debate . . . . .
my personal choices would have included :
Beach Boys God Only Knows (for it's production)
Miles Davis Bitches Brew (boundary stretching)
South Wales Striking Miners Stout Hearted Men on Test Dept's Shoulder To
Shoulder ( captures the significant miner's strike perfectly)
Moondog Stamping Ground (captures the mood of a personally significant year)
I guess it's in the nature of these things that we could all come up with our own
Top 100 so I'll leave it at those 3 !
Attributing the birth of the acid house scene to the boom in football's success as a business is more than a little tenuous T.O? Yes, it may have had an effect on reducing football violence, but there were thousands more catalysts that fired football's resurgence, Sky being the largest. And you can't blame Danny Rampling for spawning Three Lions either. I think the birth of acid/house music, and in particular the emergence of tracks such as 'Phuture' are responsible for much more. Most notably, it influenced a generation who adopted a certain attitude - by creating a movement that exemplified freedom of choice combined with a certain kinship. It laid the foundations that enabled a thousand dance sub-genres to proliferate. No taste is left undernourished - garage, dubstep, grime, trance, gabba, ambient, you name it - literally. It nurtured a change in approach to clubbing - dancing was at the heart and rarely was there a dress code, any code for that matter. It led to the emergence of the Superclub and Superstar DJ, the sought after producer with that magic touch that can turn an album filler into a floor-filler (Oakenfold/Orbit/Cooke). Clubbers became walking (or dancing) advocates for the brand and the sound. Dance festivals and street parties now stand alongside the traditional rock events and in most cases, infiltrate them with a dance tent or silent disco. Let's broaden our horizons a little and credit 'Phuture' for more than the Premier League.
As I recall Vox Magazine did something like this in the late 80s or early 90s in the form
of 2 booklets issued with the magazine (although I think it included LPs as well as
individual songs) ?
Interesting list, pleased to see "classical" music get some acknowledgement but
I don't see any jazz (specifically Coltrane's Love Supreme) nor blues (given the
huge influence of some of it's exponents) but was very pleased to see Sam Cooke
there along with some folk songs such as Woody Guthrie :
so, good to see lots if items that would possibly have been overlooked by younger
readers who think that a lot of the "45 second attention span music" as I call it
has any lasting influence
the song on this list that has the most resonance for me is God Save The Queen, purely because I saw them on Xmas Day 1977 at Huddersfield Ivanhoes : their last
UK gig
if I could choose one song to add to the list it would be Robert Wyatt Shipbuilding
(can't see it there & apologies if it is & I've missed it)
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