11 AUGUST
Featured Events
1995 Dangerous Minds, starring Michelle Pfeiffer as an inner-city schoolteacher, debuts in US theaters. The movie's soundtrack tops the Billboard albums chart thanks to its lead single, Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise."
1986 The Monkees, on a reunion tour, have an amazing six albums on the Billboard 200. The highest is The Monkees at #92.
1980 Johnny Cash sings a duet of "Jackson" with Miss Piggy on The Muppet Show. He also gets under the fur of Rowlf the dog with his song "Dirty Old Egg-Sucking Dog."
1976 Keith Moon trashes a hotel room - no surprise there. But this time The Who drummer is hospitalized after beating up his room at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami.More
1973 The first big oldies revival kicks off in earnest as George Lucas' new film, American Graffiti, opens in theaters. Set in 1962, the film creates a wave of nostalgia for songs from the '50s and early '60s.More
1964 With Beatlemania at a fever pitch, the group's first movie, A Hard Day's Night, debuts in America.More
11 AUGUST
In Music History
2023 The Hip Hop 50 Live concert goes down at Yankee Stadium, celebrating 50 years since Kool Herc birthed the genre in the Bronx. Performers include Snoop Dogg, The Sugarhill Gang, Lauryn Hill, and Run-D.M.C. in their last performance.
2016 For the second year, President Obama releases two summer playlists on Spotify. It's his last year in office, which might be why "So Very Hard To Go" is on the list.More
2012 Geto Boys reunite at the 12th annual Gathering Of The Juggalos.
2011 Go-Go's receive the 2,444th star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. It is located where the legendary punk club The Masque used to stand. Go-Go's frequently played this club during their early years.
2011 Warrant lead singer Jani Lane dies at age 47 after a long battle with drug and alcohol addiction.
2009 Train get back on track, releasing "Hey Soul Sister," their first hit since "Calling All Angels" in 2003. It becomes the top-selling song of 2010 on iTunes.
2009 Lady Antebellum release "Need You Now," a song about drunk dialing. A huge crossover hit, it goes to #1 on the Country chart, #2 on the Hot 100, and sells 9 million digital downloads.
2008 Noah and the Whale debut Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down is released on the Mercury/Vertigo label. Laura Marling, who was a member of the band at the time of recording but soon left to focus on her solo career, is featured as a vocalist on the album. Fellow Indie-Folk artist Emmy the Great also contributes vocals to the album.
2008 The Canadian singer Feist appears on Sesame Street, where she turns her song "1234" into a lesson in counting. It becomes one of the most popular music segments on the show, and far more popular than the original.
2006 Singer/talk show host Mike Douglas dies suddenly on his 86th birthday after a bout of dehydration in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
2004 Vanessa Williams and her basketball-player husband Rick Fox get divorced.
2003 Phish bass player Mike Gordon is arrested backstage at a Grateful Dead concert in Jones Beach after he is found taking photos of a 9-year-old girl. He is later cleared of the charges, and the girl's parents agree that it was an "unfortunate misunderstanding."
2000 Madonna gives birth to her second child, Rocco. The father is Guy Ritchie, director of the films Snatch and Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels.
1999 Kiss are awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1997 Backstreet Boys release their second album, Backstreet's Back, in international markets. It tops the charts in several countries, including Canada, Spain and Germany. In America, some of the songs appear on their next album, Millennium, in 1999.
Hip-Hop Born In The Bronx
1973At a dance party in the Bronx, DJ Kool Herc plays a set with lots of instrumental breaks that his friend MCs over, marking what many consider the beginning of hip-hop.
The party takes place in the rec room of Herc's apartment in the Bronx. The 16-year-old DJ, born Clive Campbell but known as "Hercules" thanks to his size and strength, is helping his sister raise money for new school clothes: admission is 50 cents for the fellas and 25 for the ladies. The party is advertised around the Bronx with homemade flyers - it's billed as the "Back To School Jam." About 300 people show up to hear something special: Herc plays extended intros and instrumental passages while his buddy, Coke La Rock, shouts out people in the crowd. It's a variation on the "toasting" Herc saw growing up in Jamaica, where they would talk over reggae songs. Word gets out, and in the summer of 1974 Herc throws outdoor dance parties in Cedar Park where he develops a technique that will form the cornerstone of rap: extended breakbeats. One one turntable he plays an instrumental portion of a record, known as the "break." On the other turntable, he cues a copy of the same record to the beginning of the break and lets it fly when the first record gets to the end of the break. In this way, he can loop the beat, creating a cozy bed for an MC to talk over. He calls this the "merry-go-round." Other DJs, notably Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa, refine the technique and add rappers to their shows, bringing the form to a new level. Eventually, the rappers become the star attraction. Herc isn't able to cash in on his innovations, but is hailed as the father of hip-hop, cited by most early practitioners as the founder of the form.
Categories
©2024 Songfacts®, LLC
Comments
send your comment