100 songs that changed history: the full list

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Time Out explores the music that changed the course of world events

Inspired (kind of) by Pete Seeger's quote that 'the right song at the right time can change history', Time Out assembled a panel of musicians, historians and enthusiasts to debate and collate the 100 songs which have had the most significant impact on real-world events – culturally, socially and politically.

Browse the full list below, click on each song to read more and tell us what you think in the comments.

100 - 91 | 90 - 81 | 80 - 71 | 70 - 61 | 60 - 51 | 50 - 41 | 40 - 31 | 30 - 21 | 20 - 11 | 10 - 1

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(1 rating)

One that is missing..............."Who's Gonna Take You Home' by Cars. Played in the midway point of the Live Aid in '85 after Bob Geldorf screamed 'Give us yer money!' Played over the original news VT and was apalling and amazing at the same time, But it did the trick.............I've never ever forgotten it.

DiamondBird Wed Sep 21 2011
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as an ageing Mod (1st time around in the 60s) I am delighted to see some notable soul songs here particularly Sam Cooke : this song still makes me cry and puts a lot of "modern" songs into perspective (I heard the new solo single by Nicola Roberts from Girls Aloud yesterday : dire, the lines of the lyrics don't even scan - how lazy is that?) it also says something that people appear on shows like X Factor and announce that they are going to sing To Love Somebody by Michael Bolton - what ? you don't even know who originally wrote it ? Again, lazy the point I am trying to make is that stuff like that and some of the comments people have made on these pages indicate a laziness about musical knowledge/history that irks me - what's the point in just saying the list is "crap" ? I don't always agree with the TO Music Section and sometimes their reviews baffle me (but I am 58) with the language they use (Italo disco ? means nothing to me) but you can see that some thought has gone into this and for that they should be acknowledged and not just dismissed with throwaway comments

Terry Wed Sep 21 2011
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#72 is a purely barbaric song that should never have been in the discussion. What a joke.

George Mon Sep 19 2011
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what about pink Floyd ?? Bob Marley ?? bob Dylan ??

soul from egypt Sun Sep 18 2011
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good of the TO Music Section to give us mere mortals permission to disagree with their version of history - it's not as if any of them remotely compare to Nick Kent, Charles Shaar Murray, Lester Bangs, Ian MacDonald or Pete Erskine, let's face it, and jazz/blues are significant in their absence - some of the more contemporary choices would not exist without such obvious sources as the old "Delta" blues singers - ignoring them is like Page/Plant giving themselves the writing credit for Whole Lotta Love when it's ripped off wholesale from Muddy Waters (a common practice by rock groups in those days)

Alan Fri Sep 16 2011
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Learn a second langage (spanish, chinese, russian, teke, anything ...), it wil change your world more surely than any of those songs.

Alain Thu Sep 15 2011
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I understand what "change the world" means: change the thing I'm watching on MTV...

Alain Thu Sep 15 2011
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As many have said this is a very poor list. The only songs on here which made a difference to life as we know it are Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday, Band Aid's Feed the World and The Specials Free Nelson Mandela. The rest is just packing.

Julie Thu Sep 15 2011
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Impressed you included a couple Classical pieces - but what about Mozart, Haydn, Bach, Handel, all of whom had indelible influence on the music that followed? What about Jazz - admittedly not a universally popular genre, but definitely took music in new directions, and still is! Although I do like some of your selections, topp 100 its definitely not!

Ron Thu Sep 15 2011
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I might have put about 10% of this list in the top 100

Dennis Wed Sep 14 2011
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100 songs that changed history: the full list

100 - 91

90 - 81

80 - 71

70 - 61

60 - 51

50 - 41

40 - 31

30 - 21

20 - 11

10 - 1

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