17 October

Pick a Day

17 OCTOBER

In Music History

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2020 Directed by Spike Lee, the film version of David Byrne's American Utopia, which ran on Broadway from October 2019 to February 2020, debuts on HBO. Many of the songs from Stop Making Sense, the concert film Byrne did with the Talking Heads, are also in this one, but a showstopper is a cover of Janelle Monáe's "Hell You Talmbout," which ties into the Black Lives Matter movement.

2017 To commemorate the 28-year anniversary of Selena's self-titled debut album, Google Doodle pays tribute to the late singer, who was murdered by her ex-fan club president in 1995, with an animated video about her rise to fame. The clip features her hit single "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom."More

2017 Gord Downie, leader of the Canadian band The Tragically Hip, dies at 53 after a battle with cancer.

2010 Blues scholar Stephen Calt dies in Queens, New York, at age 62.

2008 The Four Tops lead singer Levi Stubbs dies at age 72.

2007 Teresa Brewer, known for the 1953 hit, "Till I Waltz Again with You," dies of progressive supranuclear palsy at age 76.

2007 The state of California announces that Dionne Warwick owes nearly $2.67 million in back taxes.

2007 A section of Detroit's West Grand Boulevard (the original home of Motown Records) is renamed "Berry Gordy, Jr. Boulevard" after the Motown founder.

2006 Stevie Wonder receives a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.

2004 At the ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) Music Awards, Jet dominates the competition, winning awards for six of their seven nominations, including Album of the Year, Single of the Year, Best Group and Breakthrough Artist. During the ceremony Nic Chester performs as a member of the Australian super-group The Wrights.

2002 The International Bluegrass Music Awards honors Down from the Mountain as Album of the Year. The collection is comprised of artists featured on the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack to the Coen Brothers movie O Brother Where Art Thou?, including Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, John Hartford, and Ralph Stanley (of The Stanley Brothers). Dan Tyminski, who sang lead on the Soggy Bottom Boys' "Man Of Constant Sorrow" for the movie, also wins Male Vocalist of the Year.

2002 Country musician Bashful Brother Oswald (real name Beecher Ray Kirby) dies in Madison, Tennessee, at age 90. Popularized the use of the resonator guitar.

2001 Composer Jay Livingston dies in Los Angeles, California, at age 86. Known for his work with songwriting partner Ray Evans, including the Doris Day hit "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)."

2000 Limp Bizkit go to Times Square in New York City to celebrate the release of their third album, Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water. They appear on MTV's TRL and sign autographs for some of the 2000 fans who show up to greet them, before heading to the hip-hop station Hot 97 for an interview with Funkmaster Flex. Like their previous album, Significant Other, it debuts at #1 in America.

1999 Steel guitarist Tommy Durden, who co-wrote Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel," dies at age 79.

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Marshall Mathers Is Born In Missouri

1972

Eminem is born Marshall Bruce Mathers III in St. Joseph, Missouri. He eventually settles in Warren, Michigan.


Marshall and his mother, Debbie, finally settle down in Detroit after bouncing around several states in search of a steady home. The future rapper has a hard time fitting in as a white kid in a predominately black neighborhood, where he is routinely beaten up. When his uncle Ronnie Polkinghorn introduces him to hip-hop music, he discovers an outlet to release his frustration and explore his love of storytelling. Adopting the moniker Enimem, inspired by his initials, the teen competes in local rap battles and gains a following with the underground hip-hop crowd. In 1996, the same year he releases his ill-fated independent album, Infinite, he catches the attention of Dr. Dre, who signs Em to his Aftermath record label. Dre produces three tracks on the The Slim Shady LP, including the breakthrough hit "My Name Is," that introduces the rapper's alter-ego, Slim Shady. Straight from the streets, Shady is wreaking havoc. When he's not guzzling vodka and calling out his mom for smoking more dope than he does, he's smacking around Pam Anderson and assaulting his teachers. The unapologetically violent lyrics draw the usual controversy, but most listeners are curious to know more about the rapper who signs his autographs "thanks for the support, asshole!" The Slim Shady LP sells a few million copies and puts Eminem on the fast track to hip-hop stardom, a track paved with controversy as the rapper continues to spit out vicious lyrics about murdering his wife ("Kim") and bringing his young daughter along for the ride ("'97 Bonnie & Clyde"). His chart-topping follow-up, The Marshall Mathers LP (2000), also earns him a few enemies as he shreds everyone from Will Smith to Britney Spears to Christina Aguilera in "The Real Slim Shady." Nevertheless, the single earns him a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance and proves his no-f--ks attitude is a boon to success. By 2013, he becomes the best-selling hip-hop artist of all time, with ten #1 albums to his credit in addition to five #1 singles, and 15 Grammy Award wins. He also stars in the semi-biographical film 8 Mile, which earns him an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Lose Yourself."

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