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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
Jean Sibelius - (C) Getty Images
In 1899 Finland was under Russian rule. But after decades of cordial relations between the two nations, the Tsarist authorities had begun attempting to limit Finnish national identity. To assert their freedom of speech, the Finns put on an evening of ‘Press Celebrations’, for which the composer Jean Sibelius wrote his symphonic poem to accompany a tableaux of Finnish history. It was adopted as the anthem of Finnish national struggle and was performed at concerts under a false name to avoid censorship. Whistling it in public became an important gesture of rebellion. Eighteen years later, the failure of russification was made official as Finland declared independence from Russia. To this day, ‘Finlandia…’ remains one of the most important national songs of Finland.
Dan says: ‘Released in 2008, Björk initially dedicated her lyrics to the Faroe Islands and Greenland. I only really became aware of this song later when she caused uproar in China by shouting "Tibet! Raise your flag!" during a part of the song. Before this performance, she played in Tokyo and stated her support for Kosovo's declaration of independence, which led to claims that she was banned from performing at Exit Festival in Serbia over fears she may dedicate the song to Kosovo in a similar fashion.’
It may not be the very first rock ’n’ roll record – that’s arguably Haley’s ‘Crazy Man, Crazy’ from 1953 – but this rather basic, swinging 12-bar blues number became an instant classic and is widely acknowledged as the song that propelled rock ’n’ roll into mainstream popular culture. Thanks to its use in the opening credits of the 1955 movie ‘Blackboard Jungle’, it’s also responsible for inventing the concept of the teenager. Before this time, teens were viewed as unformed mini-adults, rather than as a separate and distinct demographic in their own right. That year, Haley handed advertising agencies the world over the phenomenally lucrative marketing gift that keeps on giving, the teenager with disposable income.
American slaves reaching freedom via the underground railroad - (C) Time Life Pictures/ Getty Images
Although in the UK these days it’s largely thought of as the rugby national anthem, ‘Swing Low...’ has a more noble history. The seemingly sacred lyrics are actually coded instructions advising slaves on how to escape to the free north. Songs were an important element of the underground railroad, allowing slaves to share information without arousing suspicion. ‘Swing low’ is an exhortation to crouch while moving through long grass to escape detection, while the ‘band of angels’ refers to slavery abolitionists who held sway over the other side of ‘Jordan’, ie the Mississippi River.
Martin Luther - (C) Getty Images
Martin Luther may be best known for instigating the Protestant Reformation after pinning a memo on a church door, but all music truly owes him an incalculable debt. He was the first to suggest that an entire congregation should sing, not just professional choirs, and in a language they actually understood (German, as opposed to Latin). He instigated the chorale tradition, which led to multiple-part harmonies, and as a hymn writer, he would take popular folk melodies and construct new words around them – just like J-Lo did with the Lambada recently. 'A Mighty Fortress...' was his best-known composition. An adaptation of Psalm 46, its melody has reappeared through the ages, from Bach to Mendelssohn to Vaughan Williams and beyond.
When it comes to the classics of misheard lyrics, the evergreen ‘’Scuse me while I kiss this guy’ seems positively sensible compared to Charles Manson’s garbled interpretation of ‘Helter Skelter’. Somehow the petty crook turned psychopath heard ‘When I get to the bottom/I go back to the top of the slide’ as ‘Instruct your followers to kill innocent people in the wrong house’. If only he’d heard it on a Memorex. Manson’s aim with the Tate/LaBianca murders was to kickstart an apocalyptic race war he believed was prophesied in the throwaway Beatles number, which we must say casts some doubt on his hippy credentials. Still, it’s at least fitting that the band credited with turning the world on to the psychedelic ideal would also soundtrack its bloody demise.
Michael says: ‘Bo Diddly took the western African griot beat, which was in turn taken by Elvis, and he made it absolutely electrifying. At the time, we were coming out of World War II, the Cold War was on, and Britain and America were very conformist in their attitudes. That sound coming in the reserved post-war era was seen as very dangerous – it was lock-up-your-daughter time. You can see how scary it was to people by the Daughters of the American Revolution’s attempts to ban it. It absolutely changed everything.’
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - (C) Getty Images
Juanita says: 'One of the greatest, and definitely, most important hip hop tracks of our time. The message is clear, the conviction is all in the delivery. The lyrics could be felt and understood universally. It also has a video, as it mirrors the song's sentiment so accurately - Grandmaster Flash is looking through the lens of a camera with such intent. The track's political commentary is speaking for a million people who felt trapped and disappointed. This paved the way for so many other groundbreaking hip hop artists, as well as heralding a new era in American music.'
Back when Barack Obama was just a tall, sexy Senator from Illinois, one of the things that marked him out as candidate material among Democrats was his grasp of the web. Fast forward to the 2008 campaign, and just as JFK had conquered the new medium of television, Obama had mastered the internet as a means of connecting with voters. The love affair went both ways. 'Obama Girl' was one of the first Obama virals to surface, and with tongue-in-cheek lines like 'universal health reform/it makes me warm' delivered by a smitten fan, it was the more lol-some counterpart to will.i.am's earnest 'Yes We Can'. Candidates have always had songs written about them – see 'Lincoln And Liberty', 'Nixon's The One' or 'Hello Lyndon'. Never before had 20,000,000 people heard them though.
In a thrilling moment of live television, Sinéad O'Connor used her gift as a provocateur to hurtle the issue of abuse in the Catholic church into the mainstream. During dress rehearsal, O'Connor had held up a picture of a Balkan refugee at the climax of her solemn, a capella cover of 'War'. On air though, things began to go awry when she altered the words from 'racism' to 'child abuse'. As the camera went in close, she switched pictures, produced a photo of Pope John Paul II, tore it in half and shouted 'fight the real enemy'. The show's producers were stunned and felt betrayed, yet still allowed her the dignity of not cutting her performance from its later West coast airing. Many others wouldn't be so kind. With no apparent irony, headlines the next day read 'Holy Terror', and with his typical charm towards women, Frank Sinatra allegedly said he wanted to 'punch her right in the mouth'.
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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