21 JULY
Featured Events
2016 Ivanka Trump speaks in support of her father Donald at the Republican National Convention, taking the podium as "Here Comes The Sun" plays. The estate of George Harrison, who wrote the song, Tweets: "The unauthorized use of #HereComestheSun at the #RNCinCLE is offensive & against the wishes of the George Harrison estate. If it had been "Beware Of Darkness," then we MAY have approved it! #TrumpYourself"
2015 When Drake doesn't promote Meek Mill's album on Twitter, Mill accuses him of using a ghostwriter, tweeting: "Stop comparing drake to me too.... He don't write his own raps! That's why he ain't tweet my album because we found out!" A feud ensues when Drake releases the diss track "Charged Up," which Mill says is "Baby lotion soft."
2002 Steve Earle appears on the HBO series The Wire playing a recovering drug addict in what becomes a recurring role. He has no trouble playing the part, having struggled with addiction for much of his life.
2000 About 7,000 Insane Clown Posse fans, many in clown makeup like the group, descend on the Novi Expo Center in Novi, Michigan for the first Gathering Of The Juggalos. By the end of the Gathering, the place is sticky with Faygo soda and left in ruins - all to be expected at an ICP fete.More
1989 Performing on the Club MTV tour at a stop in Bristol, Connecticut, Milli Vanilli's tracks go screwy when they try to lip-synch to the song "Girl You Know It's True." As the line "girl you know it's..." repeats over and over, the duo panic and scurry off stage. It is later revealed that they didn't sing on their album.More
1987 Guns N' Roses release their first album, Appetite For Destruction. It's a landmark debut, featuring the hits "Welcome To The Jungle" and "Sweet Child O' Mine."More
1948 Cat Stevens is born Steven Demetre Georgiou in Marylebone, London, England. In 1977, he becomes a Muslim and changes his name to Yusuf Islam.
1942 Kim Fowley is born in Los Angeles, California. The flamboyant writer and record producer puts together the all-female rock band The Runaways in 1975 and later goes on to write for Kiss and Alice Cooper.
21 JULY
In Music History
2023 At the Good Vibes festival in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, The 1975 frontman Matt Healy speaks out against the country's ban on homosexuality and kisses bass player Ross MacDonald in protest. The Malaysian government responds by canceling the last two days of the festival.
2023 Tony Bennett dies at 96 after a battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was still making music at 95, when he released his last album, Love For Sale, a collaboration with Lady Gaga.
2017 The day after the suicide of lead singer Chester Bennington, Linkin Park cancel their upcoming tour and set up a tribute page on their website with resources for suicide prevention.
2012 Singer-songwriter Tulisa Contostavlos is cleared of conspiring to supply Class A drugs after the notorious "Fake Sheikh" Mazher Mahmood sets up one entrapment operation too many.
2009 Brad Paisley performs at the White House, where he plays his new song "Welcome to the Future," which was inspired by Barack Obama's election. Paisley returns in 2012 to play a 4th of July concert at the White House, and in 2013 he plays an inauguration concert after Obama is re-elected.
2008 Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O premieres her new side project, Native Korean Rock, at Union Pool in Brooklyn, New York.
2006 Herbie Kalin (of The Kalin Twins) dies of a heart attack at age 72.
2005 Blues singer Long John Baldry, a huge influence on Elton John, dies of a chest infection at age 64. Baldry had a #1 UK hit with "Let The Heartaches Begin."
2004 Jerry Goldsmith, an Academy Award-winning film composer known for Chinatown, The Omen, and five of the original Star Trek films, among others, dies of colon cancer at age 75.
2002 Gus Dudgeon, frequent producer of Elton John's recordings, dies in a car accident along with his wife, Sheila, at age 59. Elton dedicates his 2004 album, Peachtree Road, to the couple.
2002 At the Peoria Civic Center in Illinois, fans riot at the third annual Gathering Of The Juggalos when police try to stop Juggalettes from taking their shirts off. Peoria joins Novi, Michigan and Toledo, Ohio on the list of cities where this Gathering is no longer welcome.
2001 Lauryn Hill tapes her MTV Unplugged special, playing new songs in a very emotional performance. It's clear that she's not going for mainstream appeal, and is not about to follow up her The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill album with another big seller.
1999 Charley Pride receives a star of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1999 MP3.com, a website that lets users download music files for free, goes public and quickly reaches a valuation of $6.9 billion. Months later, they're sued by various record companies and the RIAA. In 2001, it sells to Vivendi for $372 million.
1997 As the forerunner of a new era of women in rock, Jewel becomes the first Atlantic Records artist to grace the cover of TIME magazine.
"The Wall" Rises Where Berlin Wall Fell
1990With a bevy of special guests, Roger Waters performs The Wall at the former site of the Berlin Wall, which came down eight months earlier.
Waters staged The Wall in 1980 and 1981 with his band Pink Floyd. A stunning spectacle with elaborate props like 30-foot-tall inflatables, it visualized the concept of the album with a giant wall erected on stage as the band performed. The show was as unprofitable as it was ambitious; Waters would play only indoor venues because the whole point was to avoid the disconnect of stadium performances. When asked if he would ever do it again, he replied, "I might do it outdoors if they ever take the wall down in Berlin." In November 1989, the Berlin Wall came down, removing the barrier between Communist East Germany and Democratic West Germany that had stood since 1961. The concert is held at Potsdamer Platz, where a mound marks what was once the entrance to Hitler's bunker. The site is significant to Waters: his father, a member of the British Army, was killed in World War II in 1944, months before Roger was born. The event supports the Memorial Fund For Disaster Relief, set up by the British war hero Leonard Cheshire. Pink Floyd is out of the picture for this one - the group split in 1983, then re-formed in 1986 without Waters, whose legal efforts to retire the band name failed. With David Gilmour and original member Nick Mason at the helm, this iteration of Pink Floyd released A Momentary Lapse of Reason in 1987, which fared far better than Waters' solo albums, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking (1984) and Radio K.A.O.S. (1987). Staging The Wall at the site of the Berlin Wall makes it an irresistible media event, ensuring plenty of viewship for the broadcast, the only way it can cover costs and still raise money for the Memorial Fund. The props for this one are huge, much bigger than those used in the original that were confined to arenas. The wall itself is 60 feet high and spans about 200 yards. The inflatables are touted as the biggest puppets ever made, a credible claim as they measure about 40 feet tall. And there are helicopters! Two to fly over at the intro to "Another Brick In The Wall (part II)," which features Cyndi Lauper on vocals. The Soviet army band even makes and appearance for "Bring the Boys Back Home." The show is marred by technical difficulties, including a sound outage that forces Waters into a (literal) tap dance, but the spirit of unity prevails, as a crowd estimated at 250,000 watch as Joni Mitchell "Goodbye Blue Sky," Sinéad O'Connor ("Mother"), The Scorpions "Run Like Hell" and several other guest stars take the stage. It is released as a live album a month later. In 2010, Waters brings back The Wall, this time as a touring production that runs through 2013.
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