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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
Conceived by advertising exec Bill Backer after observing a group of people drinking Coco-Cola and laughing during an unexpected airport layover, Backer saw the fizzy drink as more than just a refreshment but rather ‘a subtle way of saying, “Let's keep each other company for a little while.”’ Cheesy in the extreme, but the concept in the hands of songwriters Roger Cook and Roger Greenway ended up as The New Seekers’ biggest hit. The accompanying hilltop commercial featuring a multi-racial group clutching cokes and singing in unison became instantly iconic and quickly spawned the reworked hit ‘I’d Like To Teach the World To Sing (in Perfect Harmony)’. Ad jingles were hardly a revolutionary concept in 1971, but this song forged a lasting and profitable relationship between pop and commerce, paving the way for countless branded musical endorsements.
Woody Guthrie - (C) Lester Balog Courtesy Of Woody Guthrie Archives
Flag-waving jingoism was simply not Woody Guthrie's bag. Famously 'This Land Is Your Land' was written in direct response to Irving Berlin's complacent and triumphalist 'God Bless America'. Yet when the USS Reuben James was sunk by a German submarine in 1941 (before the USA had joined WWII), Guthrie crafted this stirring tribute to the 88 dead crewmen, loaded with the implication that this was a national issue via the line 'did you have a friend on that good Reuben James?' Why? The man who displayed the legend 'This machine kills fascists' on his guitar may well have used the sinking as a focus for his own anti-fascism, but the effect was certain: to galvanise the American left into supporting intervention.
The 1969 Stonewall protests
‘We are the Stonewall girls/We wear our hair in curls/We don’t wear underwear/We show our public hair’ may not match ‘The Red Flag’ as a revolutionary manifesto, but this was the ballad that precipitated the great watershed moment for gay rights. Sung by Stonewall protesters as they faced off against New York’s Tactical Police Force, it was set to the theme tune of creepy US puppet show ‘Howdy Doody’. The improvised lyrics united campaigners in a positive spirit cemented by a chorus-line, high-kick routine, enraging the police so much that they rushed in and beat them. This violence ultimately galvanised broader public support for the protesters’ cause.
Immediately following the assassination of Martin Luther King, cities across America were going up in flames as anguish gave way to rioting. Boston was a powder keg with a tiny fuse. To make matters worse for the city's mayor, James Brown was scheduled to play to 20,000 no-doubt livid fans the following night, April 5 1968. Fearing chaos, a plan was hatched to broadcast the concert live on television in an attempt to keep people off the streets. Such was the dynamism and power of the Godfather of Soul at the time, it actually worked. After a delayed start, he launched into 'That's Life' and proceeded to deliver a spellbinding show that actually united the city while others around it burned.
This was one of several tracks denounced by the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) for containing graphic lyrics of a violent, sexual or occult nature. Led by Al Gore’s sassy wife Tipper, the PMRC saw rock and rap as ‘infecting the youth of the world with messages they cannot handle’. In Prince’s case, they had a point – we first meet the song’s protagonist masturbating in public – but some of the PMRC’s other targets were less judiciously selected (eg John Denver’s easy listening classic ‘Rocky Mountain High’, one of Denver’s state songs). After a Senate hearing in September 1985, the parental advisory warning (or ‘Tipper sticker’) was introduced to protect younglings’ fragile little minds.
Crosy Still Nash Young - (C) Redferns
When the National Guard opened fire on a peaceful protest against Nixon's invasion of Cambodia, four Kent State students were dead and America was shocked and confused. As Devo's Jerry Casale, who was on the campus that day, said, 'the government and the press tried to lie about what happened as well as they could. The fact that anybody knows what happened is amazing because they did such a good job of muddying it up'. Step forward the counter-culture's own CNN. The band recorded this protest song, with no overdubs, the day it was written and soon after it was on the airwaves. The huge harmonies, Neil Young's trademark guitar crunch and that urgent coda of 'Four dead in Ohio' would keep this massacre seared onto the minds of a generation.
What wits and wags the interrogators at Guantanamo were... From a sinister playlist that included Eminem, AC/DC, Queen and the charming 'Fuck Your God' by death metal band Deicide, the saccharine-coated theme from kids show ‘Barney & Friends’ ended up being the song most played by psyops teams as a form of horrifically loud, endlessly looped aural torture. Some artists, like Metallica, were happy that their music was being used to instil madness in untried prisoners. Since Barney wasn't available for comment, we're just going to presume he felt such a crass and cruel use of his theme tune was symptomatic of the amateurism and bungling incompetence that characterised the camp.
In what looks like a town hall and in a video of handy-cam quality, a good Christian boy from Ontario, Canada, decked out in a crisp white shirt and tie, stretches his impressive 12-year-old lungs on a cover of Ne-Yo’s slick R&B hit ‘So Sick’ to a room full of parents and friends who have no idea this kid is going to be an international megastar. While scouring YouTube, talent scout Scooter Braun discovered this video, and so began the phenomenon of viral video stardom. ‘If Justin Bieber can do it, why can’t I?’ was the thought on everybody’s minds. Forget ‘X Factor’; this doesn’t even involve leaving the house! Of course, it also helps if your rich parents throw a wad of cash at you, like Rebecca Black, who in February 2011 unleashed her auto-tune-heavy song ‘Friday’ on unwitting YouTube viewers. They were so disgusted by it – the video racked up 3,190,000 dislikes within four months compared to 451,000 likes – that they shared it with all their friends, and she ended up on ‘The Tonight Show With Jay Leno’.
Fela Kuti - (C) Getty Images
The brass-punched, good-time feel of this epic Afrobeat workout belies not only its serious political message but also its devastating repercussions. It’s directly critical of a corrupt Nigerian government and accuses the military of mindless, zombie-like brutality against its own people. In retaliation for this, 1000 of General Obasanjo’s soldiers attacked and burned down Fela Kuti’s compound (his ‘Kalakuta Republic’), including his house and recording studio, and beat him severely. His 82-year-old mother – a well-regarded anti-colonial activist – was thrown from a second-story window and subsequently died from her injuries. Fela Kuti was later inspired to launch his own political party (Movement of the People) and twice ran for presidency.
Oliver Cromwell - (C) Time Life Pictures/ Getty Images
‘This song is from 1643 and was a protest against Cromwell’s Parliament attempting to ban the celebration of Christmas. It’s really important because it’s this fundamental protest saying that the state cannot tell people not to enjoy themselves. It told the powers that this is one of the most dangerous things that they can do. It was incredibly popular: people used to sing it together in pubs as a protest at not being allowed to drink and feast. Within a couple of years, the king was back, and maybe this inspired grassroots opinion that it wasn’t such a bad thing to have a king as well as a Parliament.’
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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