Nearly everyone remembers where they were when Kennedy was shot or when the spaceship Challenger exploded seconds after liftoff. Can you name the date or even the year Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane crashed (October 20th, 1977)? Here are a few more historic dates in music and why they changed our landscape forever…
February 2nd, 1959 was the ‘Day the Music Died,’ as the plane carrying Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie went down in the middle of a snow storm in Clear Lake, IA. This date is monumental as rock had not yet suffered a national tragedy, and kids realized the age of innocence was coming to an end. Buddy was the most innovative musician of that time (using over dubbing and other advanced techniques in the studio) and writing and performing his own songs, changing the way music royalties would be distributed.
December 8th, 1980 Howard Cosell told the nation in the middle of Monday Night Football that John Lennon had been killed by an assassin’s bullet. John’s death meant the Beatles would never get back together, nor would we ever have John the activist to help navigate the turbulent 80s.
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