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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
Verdi - (C) APIC
Verdi composed this opera, a tale of the Jewish people’s exile at the hands of the Babylonians, during a period where Italy was split into separate provinces, most of which was ruled by Austria. One chorus – known as ‘The Slave’s Chorus’ – is based on Psalm 137 and is sung by exiled Hebrew slaves longing for their homeland. At its first performances, the crowd demanded an encore, which was forbidden by the government of the time. Some historians contest that the encore was of a more innocuous portion than the slave’s chorus, which means this is less of an insurrectionary act than has long been believed. This opera nonetheless is closely associated with the revolution that followed.
If any song has demonstrated the value of being banned as a highly successful marketing ploy, it’s the notorious ‘Relax’. Its initial chart showing had been mediocre, but on January 5, Frankie… appeared on ‘TOTP’, and the following week the single shot up to number six. It was then banned by the BBC, who felt obliged to back Radio 1 DJ Mike Read in his refusal to play it. The now officially transgressive song hit the number one spot on January 24, where it remained for five weeks. Commercial radio and TV were still playing it at the time, ensuring that the days of Smashie and Nicey-styled establishment DJs were numbered.
Before Jerry Dammers went to an anti-apartheid gig in 1983, he’d barely heard of Nelson Mandela. And until the March 1984 release of this upbeat, brass-strafed protest song, Mandela’s plight was a minnow of a political issue in the UK. But alongside Eddy Grant’s ‘Gimme Hope Jo’anna’, it brought the former ANC military leader’s incarceration to the forefront of the national consciousness. The resulting political pressure saw then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher do a U-turn on her refusal to impose economic sanctions on the South African government, and a month later, the first meeting between Mandela and the SA government took place, starting the long process that led to his release. The rest is history.
Nelson Mandela and Francois Pienaar celebrate South Africa's Rugby World Cup win in 1995 - (C) Getty Images
‘When minority rule ended in South Africa, a lot of people predicted widespread blood shed. “Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika” – an ex-liberation song which became part of the South African national anthem – was designed to be a call for harmony. It’s a song for many different voices, and it became a powerful unifying force. The South African team won the 1995 Rugby World Cup with it as their anthem, and the white community really took it to their heart. Plus, it enabled the black community to warm to the Springboks - previously seen as almost a symbol of oppression. Its role in stopping bloodshed is un-provable, but who knows? History is made by these strange things.’
Ice T’s heavy-metal number about a cop killer inspired one of the greatest outbreaks of public hysteria against the arts since Orson Welles’s reading of ‘The War of the Worlds’. Dennis R Martin of the National Association of Chiefs of Police blamed the song directly for the shootings of ‘at least’ two police officers and suggested it was responsible for ‘inflaming racial tensions’ immediately prior to the outbreak of the Los Angeles riots – though most would agree the acquittal of four police officers for the beating of Rodney King was a more significant factor. Although initially supportive of T’s right to freedom of speech, his label, Time Warner, eventually buckled under pressure from shareholders and removed the track from later pressings of the album.
On January 6 1957, The King made the last of three appearances on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ (rather bizarrely, dressed like Rudolph Valentino in ‘The Sheikh’), swivelling, gyrating and stamping his way through ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ and six other numbers. Cameramen were famously instructed to film him from the waist up only (save for a small section of ‘Hound Dog’), lest Elvis’s shockingly lewd display excite morally corruptible teens, although the reasons given differ. Whatever, it shows just how high a risk to public decency Elvis was judged to be, and surely represents the first instance of pop-induced panic – a good seven years before Beatlemania hit America.
Along with Marilyn French’s novel ‘The Women’s Room’ and Judy Chicago’s ‘The Dinner Party’ artwork, this song was massively emblematic of ’70s feminism. Co-written with Ray Burton and inspired by the empowerment Reddy felt when she joined the women’s movement, it failed to set the charts on fire when first released in May 1972. However, after it was taken up as an anthem by feminists everywhere, it was re-released and went on to top the Billboard 100 in December that year. Reddy won a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the song and her acceptance speech famously saw her thanking God ‘because She makes everything possible.’
‘It’s unbelievable to think that America, which prides itself as the home of democracy, needed to have the civil rights movement in our lifetimes. But lynchings were still going on in South through to the ‘60s, with the last one happening in the ‘70s. And this song, with its terrible image of lynching in the South – this strange fruit hanging from a tree – was really the start of the civil rights movement. The way she’d dim the lights, and then end every gig with it: it changed popular consciousness. It was the catalyst that started off all these other civil rights songs. So eventually it bore its fruit many years later.’
Recorded on June 1 1969, during Lennon and Ono’s infamous Montreal hotel ‘bed-in’, it was designed to draw attention to and rally support for the worldwide peace movement. On November 15, a 250,000-strong Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam marched on Washington DC. It featured Pete Seeger leading the crowd in a sing-along of ‘Give Peace a Chance.’ With staggeringly hubristic understatement, President Nixon responded by saying, ‘as far as this kind of activity is concerned, we expect it. However, under no circumstances will I be affected whatever by it.’ He had, however, felt the pulse of the nation quicken against him.
Emmy says: ''Wannabe' broke The Spice Girls, and soon after Cool Britannia hit its international peak. Not a coincidence. Their success at home and abroad – and Geri Halliwell's Union Jack dress – contributed to a perceived British takeover, with the inevitable comparisons to Beatlemania. But I'm pretty sure they also helped speed Cool Britannia’s demise. What pisses me off about the Spice Girls is how they co-opted genuine feminist sentiment and turned it into a marketing tool. Girl Power, and its predecessor Grrrl Power, had far more clued-up advocates before it was turned into a hand signal by Geri and the gang. I don't agree with those who say the Spice Girls were anti-feminist, but that's because I don't think they belong on any feminist timeline. Call it what it was: Scary, Posh, Ginger, Sporty and Baby mark a milestone in the history of branding.'
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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