19 SEPTEMBER
Featured Events
1999 The Dixie Chicks become the first country group to top the Billboard albums chart when Fly debuts at #1. More
1997 The pitch-correction software Auto-Tune hits the market and soon becomes ubiquitous in recording studios, especially after Cher hits #1 with her Auto-Tuned "Believe."More
1991 Michael Jackson is a guest voice on The Simpsons, where he plays a mental patient Homer befriends named Leon Kompowsky.
1990 Eddie Vedder is selected as lead vocalist of what will become Pearl Jam after Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard and Mike McCready hear his demo tape where he added vocals to three instrumental tracks the band had recorded.
1987 The Grateful Dead hit #10 on the US Hot 100 with "Touch Of Grey," the only hit song for the band.More
1984 At a whistle-stop in Hammonton, New Jersey, campaigning president Ronald Reagan praises singer Bruce Springsteen, saying: "America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts; it rests in the message of hope in songs so many young Americans admire: New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen. And helping you make those dreams come true is what this job of mine is all about." This leads to widespread criticism in the press because Springsteen's recent hit, "Born In The U.S.A.," is in fact a bitter cry of outrage at how poorly the United States treats its veterans, which Reagan had apparently mistaken for a straight-forward patriotic anthem - an easy mistake to make if you listen to the chorus only and not the lyrics.
1981 Thanks to MTV airplay for the lead single "Start Me Up," the Rolling Stones album Tattoo You goes to #1 in America, where it stays for nine weeks. It's their last #1 album in the US.
1979 James Taylor, Jackson Browne, The Doobie Brothers, Graham Nash and Bonnie Raitt perform at Madison Square Garden for the first of five "no nukes" concerts.More
1973 Gram Parsons of The Byrds dies at age 26 after taking a shot of liquid morphine in his room at Joshua Tree Inn. Parsons had been recovering from drug and alcohol addiction, but relapsed during his trip to Joshua Tree National Park. "He was clean and took a strong shot," his friend Keith Richards says. "It's the one mistake you don't want to make."
1960 Chubby Checker's version of "The Twist" goes to #1 in America, while the original version by Hank Ballard & The Midnighters reaches its peak chart position of #28. Checker's version tops the chart again in 1962.
1952 Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers is born in New York City. His sophisticated disco group transforms the genre in the '70s with hits like "Le Freak," "Good Times" and "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)." Rodgers becomes a legendary producer for the likes of Diana Ross (Diana), David Bowie (Let's Dance), Daft Punk (Random Access Memories), and Madonna (Like A Virgin).
19 SEPTEMBER
In Music History
2017 Harry Styles kicks off his first solo tour with a show at the 3,200-capacity Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco, part of a series of small, intimate performances before working his way up to arenas in 2018. Tickets for the initial leg sold out in 29 seconds; the tour ends up selling nearly one million tickets across 89 sold-out shows.
2016 Tom Waits and wife/collaborator Kathleen Brennan, along with John Prine, receive the PEN Lyric Award Prize, given in partnership with the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
2014 James Blunt marries Sofia Wellesley, granddaughter of the 8th Duke of Wellington, at a private ceremony in Majorca, Spain.
2012 Fiona Apple is arrested when her tour bus is stopped in the West Texas town of Sierra Blanca, the same place where Willie Nelson and Snoop Dogg were previously busted. Border patrol agents find four grams of hash on the bus, which Apple says is hers. She spends a night in jail before being released on bail.
2012 The Dave Matthews Band sees their album Away From the World debut at #1 on the Billboard albums chart. This continues the band's unbroken winning streak of six #1 albums on the Billboard 200.
2009 Roc Raida (of X-Ecutioners) dies of a heart attack at age 37, weeks after sustaining a Krav Maga-related injury.
2009 Arthur Ferrante, half of the piano-playing duo Ferrante and Teicher, dies at age 88.
2008 Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and DJ AM are seriously injured when the plane they are riding in hurtles off the end of a runway in South Carolina and hits a highway embankment.More
2008 Ten years after getting arrested for lewd behavior in a Los Angeles public bathroom, George Michael is arrested on drug charges in a restroom north of London. "I want to apologize to my fans for screwing up again, and to promise them I'll sort myself out," the singer says. "And to say sorry to everybody else, just for boring them."
2006 Saxophonist Danny Flores (writer of The Champs' "Tequila") dies of complications from pneumonia at age 77.
2005 Fergie, along with her group The Black Eyed Peas, appears on the "Viva Las Vegas" episode of Las Vegas, where she meets the show's star, Josh Duhamel. They get married in 2009.
2004 Country singer Skeeter Davis, known for the 1962 crossover hit "The End of the World," dies of breast cancer at age 72.
2003 Australian country singer Slim Dusty, real name David Gordon Kirkpatrick, dies of kidney and lung cancer at age 76.
2003 Jazz saxophonist Frank Lowe dies of lung cancer at age 60.
2003 A week after his death at the age of 71, country legend Johnny Cash is bestowed with artist, song and album of the year awards at the Americana Music Awards ceremony in Nashville. Cash wins Song of the Year for his cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" and Album of the Year for American IV: The Man Comes Around, the fourth in a series produced by Rick Rubin.
Janet Jackson Introduces the Rhythm Nation
1989Janet Jackson releases her groundbreaking album Rhythm Nation 1814. It contains seven Top 5 hits and a message imploring young people to come together and stand up for education and equality.
"The theme of the album is people united through music and dance, and deals with a lot of the social problems we have today - bigotry, illiteracy, drugs, violence, the homeless," Jackson writes in her tour book. "There's also the issue of leaving those problems behind for the next generation, which has little control over them." The message songs on the album, including "The Knowledge," "State Of The World" and "Rhythm Nation," are introduced by spoken passages that establish the concept. These songs are offset by fun tunes like "Miss You Much" and "Escapade," and tracks like "Love Will Never Do (Without You)" and "Someday Is Tonight" that deal with the vagaries of love. It's Jackson's fourth album, coming three years after he breakthrough, Control, where she asserted her independence and also introduced dance into her repertoire. Like Control, the album is produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who along with Prince, crafted a funky Minneapolis sound. Like her brother Michael, Jackson got an early start; her debut album was released when she was 16, and she's just 23 when Rhythm Nation 1814 drops. Another talent she's developed is songwriting - six of the tracks she co-wrote with Jam and Lewis, and a seventh, "Black Cat," she wrote solo. So yeah, singing, dancing, songwriting... what else can she do as well as Michael? How about music videos? The videos for "Miss You Much" and "Rhythm Nation" are extracted from a 30-minute film Jackson made that debuted on MTV and was released on home video three days before the album. MTV gives the videos top billing along with the others she makes for the album, including the Carnival-themed "Escapade." As for why the album has 1814 in the title, Janet explains: "When we were making the track 'Rhythm Nation' we all got excited thinking that it would make a great anthem for dancers everywhere. Then somebody mentioned that Francis Scott-Key wrote the American national anthem in 1814 and because of that, the number began to take on a significance for us. It wasn't until later that we realized 'R' is the 18th letter of the alphabet and 'N' is the 14th letter. What's even more coincidental is that Scott-Key wrote the song on September 14 and our album was shipping on September 18." With those seven Top 5 hits from one album, Janet sets a mark that even Michael never matches. She hopes the hits are a gateway to a deeper understanding. "I want to catch people's attention through the dance and through the music," she writes. "Hopefully then they'll listen to the message too, and we'll be able to join hands and work on these problems. I'm not naive - I know I can't change the world singlehandedly. But if there's anyone sitting on the fence, no knowing which way to turn, maybe I can lead them in a positive direction." "Dreams do come true, but you can't just sit there and wait for it to happen," she adds. "That's the way I've always felt, and that's the way my whole family's felt. Nothing is impossible, but you have to work to make it happen." After a headlining tour - her first - Jackson takes some time off and gets to work on her next album, Janet, released in 1993. Hits from that one include "That's The Way Love Goes" and "Again."
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