19 AUGUST
Featured Events
2003 MTV debuts the reality series Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, following the recent marriage of Jessica Simpson and 98 Degrees' Nick Lachey. The show is a hit thanks to Jessica's "dumb blonde" antics and lasts three seasons, after which the couple promptly divorce.
1980 "The Breaks" by Kurtis Blow becomes the first rap single certified Gold.More
1973 They aren't quite the Sonny and Cher power couple, but Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge get married. They divorce in 1980.
1972 The Midnight Special debuts on NBC. At first just a one-off special presentation, the next year it is launched as a regular show, with Wolfman Jack serving as announcer. The first performance is "Slippin' Into Darkness" by War.
1969 Crosby, Stills and Nash appear on the Dick Cavett Show, giving a first-hand account of the Woodstock festival that took place over the weekend. Joni Mitchell, who skipped the festival to make sure she could keep her appearance on the show, performs a song she wrote about it called "Woodstock."
1957 In a "Special Music Report," Newsweek puts Pat Boone on the cover with the tagline, "His Refreshing Song Fills The Air."More
19 AUGUST
In Music History
2016 Former music mogul Lou Pearlman, creator of 'N Sync and the Backstreet Boys, dies at age 62 while serving a 25-year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas. In 2008, he was convicted of conspiracy and money laundering related to a massive Ponzi scheme.
2013 The phrase "bro-country" appears for the first time, used by Jody Rosen in a New York magazine story to describe the Florida Georgia Line song "Cruise." Rosen crowns Luke Bryan king of the genre, which he describes as "music by and of the tatted, gym-toned, party-hearty young American white dude."
2008 Dave Matthews Band saxophonist/arranger LeRoi Moore dies at 46 after being injured in an ATV accident in Charlottesville, Virginia.
2006 Drake makes his professional debut with a 30-minute set at the Kool Haus in Toronto opening for Ice Cube. It earns him $100.
2001 Betty Everett, the first to have a hit with "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)," dies at 61.
1991 At CNE Stadium in Toronto on the last date of the Operation Rock & Roll tour, Judas Priest lead singer Rob Halford's motorcycle entrance goes horribly wrong and he hits a metal beam, breaking his nose and spraining his neck. He completes the show up is taken to a hospital immediately afterward.
1990 Leonard Bernstein conducts his final concert, playing Benjamin Britten's "Four Sea Interludes" and Beethoven's Seventh Symphony with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood in Massachusetts.
1989 Lou Reed breaks his ankle after a soundcheck in Cleveland, and is forced to cancel the remainder of his tour.
1989 Rapper Lil' Romeo is born Percy Romeo Miller Jr. in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1988 Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" is named the most-played song in the first 100 of the jukebox.
1984 Singer Kirsty MacColl marries the producer Steve Lillywhite. In 1987, she sings on The Pogues Christmas classic "Fairytale Of New York," which Lillywhite produces. They have two children together before divorcing in 1994.
1983 Having been sporadic since it was originally shut down in 1968, "pirate radio" station Radio Caroline makes its comeback on board the ship Ross Revenge in the North Sea's international waters. Six years to the day later, it would be shut down again.
1981 Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant meet at an electronics shop in London and start talking synthesizers. They form Pet Shop Boys, and five years later land their first hit with "West End Girls."
1979 Dorsey Burnette (of Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio) dies of a massive coronary in Canoga Park, California, at age 46.
Lady Gaga Drops Debut Album, The Fame
2008After two years performing in the New York City club scene, 22-year-old Lady Gaga releases her debut album, The Fame, a look at how fame is all about attitude. Thanks to the hits "Just Dance" and "Poker Face," it makes her famous worldwide, not just in her mind.
"There's really an art to fame," Gaga says. "I'd be in the studio all day and then I'd go out at night with my artist friends in New York City on the Lower East Side. And I realized that we don't have any money, we're not famous, there's no paparazzi chasing us, but when we walk down the street people wonder who we are. That's inner fame. That's that swagger, that inner sense of passion for your music, your art, your style. That's infectious. Nobody knew who I was but everybody wanted to know who I was." After the album drops, Gaga goes on tour as the opening act for New Kids On The Block and makes the media rounds performing the first single, "Just Dance." The album is very techno, a sound that's big in Europe and in dance clubs, but hasn't crossed over to the American pop charts. That changes when Gaga draws lots of eyeballs and "Just Dance" rises to #1 in January 2009, with "Poker Face" taking the top spot in April. It's like she manifested her stardom. Her next album, released in November 2009, is The Fame Monster, a very self-aware title as she tries to stay connected with Stefani Germanotta (her real name), the down-to-earth girl from New York City. This album is even bigger, with hits that include "Bad Romance" and a Beyoncé collaboration, "Telephone." Gaga's outlandish style and techno dance sound lead the way for Kesha, Black Eyed Peas, LMFAO and many other visually intricate acts with club-ready songs.
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