Music that started a musical revolution

[riff gibson]

The Beatles "Revolver" came out when I was 15, changed everything for me..The Byrds "Tambourine Man" also..then in the late 70's or early 80's, when I thought songwriting was fading from rock, I heard "Refugee" by Tom Petty...I was also SO thankful when Nirvana killed the Hair Bands...

[John Sayers]

I may well be my age but I really do feel that there was a golden age of musical innovation that took place in the late sixties through mid seventies or so. So much of the equipment we now take for granted and so many of todays sounds were being created for the very first time back then.

IMHO Its much harder to be truly revolutionary today.

 

How about Donny Hathaway??

 

cheers

john

[Philip OKeefe]

Most of the ones I would suggest have already been mentioned... Bach, Robert Johnson, The Beatles (Ed Sullivan Show and Revolver / Pepper), Hendrix, Coltrane, Miles, Bird, Dizzy, Dylan, etc. etc.

 

Did anyone mention Motown?

[John Sayers]

Yeah Mowtown Phil

 

Joni Mitchell - probably more an influence now than when she first came out.

 

cheers

john

[Anderton]

<>

 

Yeah, that was the intention...but I've been really grooving on the responses here. It's been heartening to see all the Miles Davis references, he certainly broke a lot of molds indeed.

[Lee Knight]

MC5

 

The Stooges/Iggy Pop

 

New York Dolls

 

The Ramones

[Botch.]

Originally posted by Botch.:

A breath of fresh air swept the airwaves back in the late 70's, it wasn't BeeGees or other disco dreck, it sounded a bit like Dylan...

It was "Sultans of Swing", Dire Straits. It screamed, to me at least, that rock & roll wasn't dead yet!

May I quote myself? After rereading Craig's original question, you'd have to say disco itself belongs in this category (I'll leave it to the more historically astute to name the "first" disco hit). It changed the way everyone made records, and to this day the loud four-on-the-floor can be heard in dance clubs on remixes of everyone from The Boss to KISS.

[Hanshananigan]

I'm having difficulty separating who was truly "revolutionary" from who was just the "first in the spotlight..."

 

For example, Glen Miller was not Revolutionary, but popularized/epitomized Big Band for the White masses. Nirvana was not Revolutionary, but epitomized what would become known as "grunge" (with Pearl Jam, oddly enough, seemingly destined to be forgotten).

 

But then again, there are the bands that epitomize a subculture or style and have continued to be popular, suggesting they influenced the development of a subculture or style (pretty revolutionary, I'd say): Misfits, Depeche Mode, Black Flag, Black Sabbath, Miles Davis, Public Enemy...

 

I think there is a lot to be said for those who "gently nudged" music into a new direction, as well. For example, ZZ Top brought techno/synth rhythm to rock, and Madonna (or whoever produces) have nudged pop into some really interesting directions.

[Yuri T.]

As a little kid in the 70's all the Beatles albums in the house. I played them grooves smooth.

 

Rolling Stones Hot Rocks

 

Beethoven in general.

 

The Who "Who's Next"

 

Led Zeppelin II

 

Dark Side of the Moon

 

The Yes Album

 

Axis Bold as LOve

 

Allman Brothers "Beginnings" (ifr you haven't heard the early stuff the raw tru bluness of it is awesome. One of my blues guitar education albums)

 

Jeff Beck "Wired"

 

Miles Davis "Kind of Blue"

 

SRV "Couldn't Stand the Weather"

 

Police "Synchronicity"

 

et al, as nauseum

[Griffinator]

Ironic, the mention of the way-pavers vs. the people who actually ended up in the spotlight in a given movement...

 

The real groundbreakers in Art/Prog rock (to me) weren't Yes, but rather their forerunners, the slightly less talented, but far more eclectic Procol Harum - songs like "A Salty Dog" (1969) and "Conquistador" (1967) were, to the best of my somewhat limited knowledge of the music scene, were the real groundbreakers for the neo-classical art rock that we didn't see from Yes until 1971...

[Yuri T.]

Originally posted by Griffinator:

Ironic, the mention of the way-pavers vs. the people who actually ended up in the spotlight in a given movement...

 

The real groundbreakers in Art/Prog rock (to me) weren't Yes, but rather their forerunners, the slightly less talented, but far more eclectic Procol Harum - songs like "A Salty Dog" (1969) and "Conquistador" (1967) were, to the best of my somewhat limited knowledge of the music scene, were the real groundbreakers for the neo-classical art rock that we didn't see from Yes until 1971...

Guess it depends on your point of view. It's not science. You could say Brian Wilson started it all. Pet Sounds wasn't exactly just guitar pop...OOPS forgot to add that one.

[John Sayers]

Human league - first album to use a drum machine (Linn) throughout.

 

cheers

john

[D_dup3]

Originally posted by Anderton:

<>

In that case, even though I love many of those mentioned by others---(& more, including Capt Beefheart & Band)--- I still stick by "homever brought the 3rd as an interval into Eropean music" because it has been the single-most defining thing in Western music.

Who could imagine our music without it? It nearly defines the character of most of our music, especially in the major/minor::happy/sad simplification.

But until about the 14th C. it was considered a dissonance!

 

2nd choice: whomever designed the first vibrating string instrument (as opposed to things struck or utilizing air passages).

[whitefang]

Originally posted by Anderton:

<>

 

Yeah, that was the intention...but I've been really grooving on the responses here. It's been heartening to see all the Miles Davis references, he certainly broke a lot of molds indeed.

I'll have to agree. Many mentioned weren't really revolutionary, but damn sure made mighty fine music.

 

Griffinator brought up Procol Harum, and it was them and the Moody Blues who ushered in a whole new "genre" of music that pushed musicianship to higher levels.

 

Let's also not forget groups like:

 

Blood, Sweat and Tears, whose "Child is Father to the Man" swept the door open for Chicago, Electric Flag, White Trash and any of the other multi-horn "rock" bands of the early '70's.

 

The Count Five, Blues Magoos, Soft Machine, the Electric Prunes and the early Small Faces for the first efforts at early psycedelic music later refined by Hendrix, the Doors, Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead into the "acid-rock" that eventually defined the late '60's.

 

To d: The third once considered a "dissonance" that later shaped most western music can be joined by the flatted fifth, the foundation of much modern jazz. It, too, was once considered a musical heretic.

 

I'm going to stick my neck out(and likely get it chopped)and say that as a bluesman, Robert Johnston was outshined musically and compositionally by his contemporaries like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Elmore James, Josh White and Leadbelly. In my opinion. I believe the myth of his life and death carries more weight in his reputation than does his talent. Not that he was short of it...but the legend is far greater than any of his music.

 

Whitefang

[Lee Knight]

Originally posted by Robman2:

 

Anything that crossed Boss Radio and KRLA during the late 50's through the late 60's...

 

R

The Real Don Steele Show! I rode in our family's Chevy Impala station wagon, 2 or 3 times a week, every summer in the early 60's, from West Covina (LA suburb) to Huntingon Beach. We'd crank up the AM and listen to The Beach Boys, The Grass Roots, Mamas and the Papas, Glen Campbell...

 

I had white zinc oxide on my nose, my long tropical swim "jams", and short blonde hair parted on the side. Just lost in the wonderful world of AM radio... absolutely revolutionary!

[Mark Zeger]

Perhaps the birth of modern recording technique:

 

"In 1947, after experimenting in his garage studio and discarding some 500 test discs, Les Paul came up with a kooky version of "Lover" for eight electric guitars, all played by himself with dizzying multi-speed effects."

[D_dup3]

Hi, me again!

 

I just noticed that the actual title here is "music that started a revolution" not revolutionary musicians". This puts me in position of editing my overnight thoughts on the fly but here goes...

 

As earlier, I contend that much of what's actually been revolutionary in music goes unnoticed by most today with our ever-shortened memories. Here's a suggested but hardly comprehensive list of some people & things to consider. Some were revolutionary musicians; some made music that started revolutions.

 

Dutch engineer Simon Stevin & Italian mathemetician Giovanni Beneditti whose experiments set the stage for development of equal temperament by disproving scientifically the false notions Europeans had stumbled along with since Pythagoras screwed up the basis for tuning pitches. Musicians already knew things didn't sound right but many contended that was because "you weren't supposed to use those notes".

These guys started a revolution or at least made the tools available to execute one.

 

The Fisk University Singers were a gospel choir that toured the world in the late 19th C. showing what real American "roots" music was. Although minstrel shows had been around since long before the US Civil War, these folks brought the actual music. They tore the house up from England to Australia & set of a style of entertainment that continues to this day. Ray Charles had nothing on them.

 

Let's not forget the early female urban-blues singers like Bessie Smith, Lucille Bogan & many more. They not only proved the commercial viability of blues but were even imitated by the later "primitive" stylists of the Delta.

 

Thomas Cahill was an engineer who build an electronic music synthesiser & music delivery device before World War 1. Never popular, he may not have set off a revolution but his work presaged Leo Teremin, Robert Moog, Don Buchla, Subotnik, Xenakis, Babbitt, Wendy Carlos & other electronic/computer music cats (& kitties ) & that deserves recognition...even if we might trace Muzak to him.

Speaking of Moog, let's tie him, Fender & Rhodes together as fellows who didn't revolutionize music but revolutionized the design of several instruments, making them sturdier & more "user-friendly" than before.

It goes to Les Paul to be an instrument designer/inventor whose music actually set off a revolution. Multi-tracking---whoo-hoo!

 

One guy who didn't need multi-tracking was (is?) Conlon Nancarrow, a composer who works on piano rolls, hand punching them to make music that depends on some rather unique time signatures. Again not popular, so not a starter of revolutions but who knows what person listening to his work will take those ideas & make them mainstream?

After all, Jelly Roll Morton, Scott Joplin & Earl Hines (who handled some elaborate times himself!), did something revolutionary, too.

 

Another keyboard player of note is Jimmy Smith; whose histionic style was revolutionary way back when. Check out his work "The Preacher" sometime & then think about where Jimi Hendrix came from.

Regarding Hendrix, it's also important to remember Jeff Back who did most off the same things Jimi did first. Both were revolutionary; but Hendrix started a revolution.

Beck can also be given credit, perhaps, for the "raga rock" development of the mid-1960s that we usually pass to George Harrison...or maybe that should go to classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin who started studying yoga & Indian music in 1952 & did a set of performances & recordings with Ravi Shankar at least as early as the Beatles.

 

Some others to consider:

You like Chet Atkins playing two songs at once? Charles Ives did the same thing 50 years before & more elaborately.

 

Bob Marley? what about Peter Tosh & Bunny Wailer? Toots Hibbert? Engineers Coxsone Dodd & Lee Perry or the developers of dub?

 

Rap? Check out the Last Poets from the 1960s.

 

Bassists? Jamerson & Jaco were cool & all but go to Larry Graham from Sly's band for the source of what defines musch of modern soul.

 

& while we're in Funkville, James Brown set off a stylistic revolution with "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" that resonates still.

Props also to George Clinton & the whole PFumk gang for doing something to funk & pop that equals what the Beatles did for pop/rock.

 

I'd also like to bring up that while silent films were regularly accompanied by mood music, that faded when sound was introduced. Let's give props to that nameless director who decided to try laying music in behind the dialog!

 

Our list could go on but I want to close with one who may not have started a revolution but was revolutionary.

The late guitarist Lowell George.

Many consider his band Little Feat one of the premeier Americana bands, with the Byrds < the Band, or Fogerty's CCR but his real mark was as a guitarist.

Most slide players---& there are many great ones---have a sound & style that basically derives from what countless blues players have laid out. George developed a technique, based on a sustained & lightly overdriven sound, that was so unique that he may suffer in memory because anyone who follows his way is instantly marked as an imitator!