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Ongoing History of New Music
The 100 Greatest Rock Moments of the Millennium So Far - Part 1: (100-91)
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- [00:00]
Alan Cross
Hey, it's Alan and I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the ongoing history of new music, early and ad free on Amazon Music included with Prime.
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Jack
What's the best time of day to get a deal? All day with Jack in the box's all day. Big deal meal. You get to choose from four entrees like the supreme croissant and five tasty sides, plus a drink starting at $5. So hurry in or take your time. You've got all day at Jack. Every bite's a big.
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Alan Cross
Keeping up to date with the news cycle is exhausting. So much comes at us from so many different directions that it's impossible to know if we're in the middle of something that's important or not. Everything seems urgent. Everything seems threatening and life changing. There's precious little time for careful consideration, study and analysis of what's going on. Keeping up with technology and its effect on society is another big challenge. One moment everyone seems to be caught up with a particular gadget or app, but in a month or even a week later, that's old news. Everybody's moved on. Remember how the world was supposed to end when the planet's computers melted down over the Y2K bug? Wasn't the world supposed to end with the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012? Weren't we supposed to have run out of oil by now? When you mix technology with the news cycle, our ever shortening attention spans, how the world is connected 24 7, and how we're able to individualize everything that we take in, it's really easy to lose track of what the hell is actually happening. One of my favorite doomsday predictions had to do with the Large Hadron Collider along the Swiss French border before it was switched on. People were saying that scientists risked creating an artificial black hole that that would instantly suck everything into oblivion. Oh, and don't get me started on conspiracy theories. Chemtrails, flat earthers 911 was an inside job. The US government is using a facility in Alaska to control the world's weather. This is why it's important every once in a while that we stop and take stock of things. Big picture stuff matters. Long term consequences matter. The knock on effects of something that was once considered inconsequential and unnoticed matter. It's difficult to remember what exactly happened over the last week or the last month or the last year. It's even more difficult from today's perspective to determine what really mattered over the long term. Even so, what were Merely transient distractions may have turned out to be groundbreaking in the long run. Was that thing a fad or was it predictive of something bigger in the future? And then there's music. So much has changed in a very short period of time. And now that we're a quarter of the way through the 21st century. Yeah, I know. Enough time has passed so that we can look back on what happened with music with some clarity. Welcome to a special ongoing History of New Music series. These are the 100 most important moments in rock in the 21st century so far. Here is part one. This is the ongoing History of New Music podcast with Alan Cross. Hello again, I'm Alan Cross, and this is the first of a 10 part series looking back on the first 25 years of the 21st century to figure out what happened with music and rock specifically so that we know how we got to where we are today. And because people love lists, that's exactly how we're going to tackle things, starting with moment 100 and then working our way down to number one. Now, this may not be your definitive list, and there will be some arguments about how I've ranked everything, which of course is fine. But the important thing, though, is to remember what happened and to remember how these things, these people, these events, affected music and the industry and us. As fans of music, you're probably already thinking of things that should be included. So let's find out if you and I agree on this list. And as we do this, please keep track of things that you think I might have missed. We'll start with, like I said, of course, moment number 100. And I'm going to call this Reunion Fever. So many bands of all eras got back together over the past 25 years. Why? Well, the short answer is money. Once CD sales started to crater in 2000 and 2001, once healthy revenue streams began to shrink, acts that had seen nice royalty checks every six months for years, decades even saw those numbers on those checks getting smaller and smaller and smaller. So maybe it was time to get the band back together to play a few gigs. Meanwhile, large promoters like Live Nation and AEG needed to sell tickets for festivals, stadiums, amphitheaters and arenas. And as the new century wore on, there were fewer and fewer new acts reaching the superstar levels of heritage performers. Therefore, the most reliable way to solve these two problems was to appeal to boomers and Gen Xers and later millennials with strong feelings of nostalgia for the music of their youth. These demos also had disposable income that they were willing to spend on concert tickets and merchants. With artist revenue shrinking, promoters needed to fill these venues, and millions wanted to relive the music of their youth. It became evident very quickly that there was big money to be made by bringing back bands from the 90s, the 80s, the 70s and even the 60s. Soundgarden, a band that had a bad breakup in 1997, put all their differences aside in 2010 and continued to record and perform until Chris Cornell died in 2017. Blink 182 eventually sorted things out. So did the Smashing Pumpkins and Blur, and even the Stone Roses managed to hold it together for six years, starting in 2011. The list of reunions is long. The Stooges, Faith no More, the Verve, the Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, the Cars, Pulp, My Chemical Romance, the Go Go's, Fall Out Boy, the Replacements, no Doubt, Black Sabbath, Fleetwood Mac, Genesis, Guns N Roses, AC dc, the who, and of course, the Rolling Stones. You get the idea. And this strategy has paid off far more times than it's failed. Just ask the Police. This is a group that never did get along, but when Live Nation's head of global touring, Arthur Fogle, put an offer on the table, the numbers were so big that there was just no way the guys could turn it down. The Police reunion tour of 2007 and 2008 grossed 359 million. That's $508 million in today's cash. We'll talk more about band reunions and people coming out of retirement as we move further up our list of the top 100 greatest rock moments of the millennium. For number 99, though, I've got Maneskin winning Eurovision in 2021. Now, why would I do this? Well, because after years of the title going to pop bands, Maneskin brought the title home for rock. Not only that, they parlayed their Eurovision win into a global career. The thing about Eurovision is that it's largely ignored by countries that don't participate, and with pop bands or really weird entities somehow coming out on top. Much of the world wasn't interested in the winner usually, let alone everything that goes into the competition. But then Italy's Maneskin appears as part of Eurovision in 2021, giving the country its third ever win. And from there, the group shocked everyone by blowing up all over the world. Reviews for their Teatro Diera volume one album were great, and radio stations everywhere picked up on singles. Within a couple of months, they had more than half a billion collective streams globally, world tours commenced and the band continues to have a worldwide following. So Nice one, Maneskin. Good Eurovision win. And nice one for the fans of rock. Maneskin and I Wanna Be youe Slave, their Eurovision win in 2021, which is on my card as the 99th greatest moment in rock of the century so far. For number 98, I'm going to go with all the artists who oppose Donald Trump using their music as part of his campaign rallies. This is a tricky situation that caused a lot of anger. First of all, all venues that host any kind of public events need a performing rights license. This is a fee that they have to pay on an annual basis just in case any client plays copyrighted music live or recorded as part of their booking. Those fees are then carefully distributed to artists whose music is played in that space. The size of the fee depends on the size of the venue, and that fee may or may not be passed along to the client. And it's a blanket license, meaning that no one has to seek permission to use any particular song. Well, here's where the Trump campaign's argument begins. If a rally took place in an arena, for example, the arena's blanket performing rights license took care of the music rights. The Trump campaign, or any other campaign for that matter, didn't have to worry about getting permission to play whatever songs they wanted. Now, technically, that's largely true, but since we're talking about a political campaign, a lot of artists do not want their music being associated with Trump. Many complained all the way to filing cease and desist orders and lawsuits. The list of artists against Trump using their music is long. R.E.M. springsteen, Queen, the Rolling Stones, Adele, Tom Petty, Elton John, Aerosmith, Prince, Isaac Hayes, Leonard Cohen, Panic at the Disco. Even the Village People initially wanted Trump to stop using YM and Macho man at his rallies. And here's another band that filed a complaint over the use of this song without permission in a Twitter video. They were successful and that video was taken down. The controversies over songs used at Donald Trump's political rallies moment number 98 in the top 100 moments of rock in the millennium. So far. I'm gonna put the rise of artist residences at number 97. Touring is hard. You're on the road for months at a time, airport to airport, long bus trips, an unending series of hotels and weird hours. It's absolutely exhausting. But you have to go to the people with your music, right? Or do you? What if you could get fans to come to you? The Rolling Stones tried this on a limited basis a while back, but then Las Vegas really got into the game. Vegas Residencies have been a thing for decades, going back to before Elvis at the Las Vegas Hilton. That gig extended from July 1969 to December 1976. With more and more hotels opening bigger and bigger performance spaces, and with Vegas trying to diversify from being just a gambling destination, the number of artists signed to Vegas residencies increased. Celine Dion was one of the first to accept such a modern deal. This was in 2003. Over the next four years, she helped redefine the Vegas entertainment scene. Sure, people came for the slots in the blackjack, but they also came to see Celine. She was such a big deal that she had a second Caesar's palace residency from 2011 to 2019. Then came Britney Spears of Planet Hollywood. She was the first mainstream pop star to sign a multi year residency. 2013 to 2017. She sparked a new trend for pop stars in Vegas that led to Lady Gaga, Prince, the Backstreet Boys, Mariah Carey, Cher, Shania Twain, Bruno Mars, Adele, and dozens and dozens more. And it wasn't long before rock bands started entertaining and accepting offers. David Lee Roth, Aerosmith, Motley Crue, Journey, the Eagles, and Billy Idol among them. And residences aren't just limited to Las Vegas. In 2024, Live Nation built a temporary pop up stadium in munich that held 80,000 people. They created Adele World, a place where she could perform twice a week for a month. 730,000 people attended, spending enough money to break the record for a non Vegas residency. US$240 million over just 10 shows. And that month, half a billion euros poured into the city. But back to Las Vegas for a second. U2 was the first act booked at the $2.3 billion sphere. 40 shows, 663,000 people, and a box office of 245 million US. I was at one of those shows and I gotta say, it was pretty, pretty spectacular. Hello? Hello? Hola. We're at a police. We'll come back to the sphere a little later on on this list, but for now, we'll consider the rise of artist residencies as number 97 of the 100 greatest rock moments of the millennium so far. Speaking of residencies, number 96 involves another one of those. We'll get into it in just a moment.
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Humble and Fred
For years, Humble and Fred lived on the edge. For the last 13 years, they've pioneered podcast programming. It's a different type of show. Most podcasts are about one thing. This one's about nothing and everything. Politics, opinions, comedy, interviews, kids, dogs. They even have their own beer. Expect something completely different. The Humble and Fred show fiercely independent and available wherever you get your podcast. Check with your doctor to see if Humble and Fred are right for you.
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Alan Cross
This is part one of a ten part series that is attempting to recount the 100 greatest moments in rock in the 21st century so far. Number 96 on my bingo card is another residency and I was lucky enough to attend the very last of these shows. Kate Bush retired from touring in 1979 after releasing two albums. She was all of 20 years old. A couple of things contributed to that. First, she found the whole ordeal exhausting. Second, during a warm up show for that road trip which was called the Tour of Life, her lighting director was killed in a fall and that really soured things. Kate would appear on stage a few times over the coming decades, but just as a guest performer. There were no full live shows and no prospects for any. That is until March 2014 when she announced a 22 show residency at the Apollo Hammersmith in London. It began on August 26 and ended on October 1. Tickets disappeared in minutes. The concerts promoted under the name before the dawn were presented as multimedia events with elaborate costumes, magicians, dancers, puppets, 3D animation and more. People flew in from around the world to see a two act event plus encore featuring 25 songs. Reviews were ecstatic and fans went home very happy. And since then, nothing. No more live dates from Kate and there may never be any more. Here's one of the songs recorded live and later released on CD and vinyl. Number 95 on our top 100 list. Kate Bush and her spectacular residency at the Apollo Hammersmith in 2014. We now move from a triumph to a catastrophe. The 2017 Fyre Festival. This was one of the biggest disasters in the history of concert promotion. Billy McFarland fancied himself to be an entrepreneurial concert promoter. Together with rapper Ja Rule, he conceived the idea of an ultra exclusive multi day concert event on a private island in the Bahamas. A two weekend festival with VIP packages costing up to wait for it, $250,000. Big artists, gourmet food, open bars, luxury accommodation, private beaches, yachts. And it all looked legit. Especially when Internet influencers like Kendall Jenner, Emily Radzikowski and Bella Hadid posted about it. But when Everybody arrived on April 28, 2017, they realized they'd been took. There were no luxury villas, just disaster relief tents. There was no gourmet food, just sandwiches. There were no big recreational facilities. In fact, there was nothing. And all those big name artists. No shows. They got wind of how bad this was going to be and refused to show up Those who did make the trip, about 5,000 people were stranded on the island when return flights were canceled without notice. No proper food, no proper water, no proper accommodations. The reaction was predictably swift. The media jumped all over the fyre festival. In McFarland in particular, there were lawsuits and investigations and McFarland was arrested, convicted of wire fraud and sentenced to six years in jail. Today, the Fyre Festival is considered to be an example of how Internet influence culture can be empty and phony. It's also a cautionary tale that involved deceptive marketing. Like I said, Blink 182 was initially booked, but just a couple of days, hours really, before the festival was supposed to start, they told fans on Twitter that they were pulling out. Here's what they regrettably, and after much careful and difficult consideration, we want to let you know that we won't be performing at Fyre Fest in the Bahamas. We're not confident that we would have what we need to give you the quality of performances we always give fans. They weren't sure if they were going to be paid and if their basic production needs for staging, sound and lights would be adequate. So good move, guys. Back on Bored to death from Blink 182's 2016 album California. They were planning to play that song at the Fyre Festival before they wised up and pulled out. Moving to Greatest Rock moment of the millennium 94, we have the gold rush for artists catalogs. In the late 2010s, a number of companies began buying up the rights to artists music. They had names like Primary Wave, Hypnosis, Song Fund, Roundhill, Concord, and half a dozen others. For artists, this was a pretty cool opportunity. Yes, they sold off their life's work, but for a price determined by a multiple of what their songs generated over a given period of time. They got money up front for years of royalties, ensuring financial security for the rest of their lives. If there was a downturn in the music industry, no problem. They couldn't tour anymore. No problem. They had their cash. Want to make other investments? Now you have the money. Want to get into philanthropy or activism? Easy estate planning for your family and heirs? Now's the time to do it. There were tax advantages too. Taking royalties as they came in. You know that mailbox check every six months counts in most countries as a salary and you are taxed accordingly. Taking the cash up front makes it capital gains, which is taxed at a lower rate. So what would you do? Pay 50% tax or 20%? Yeah, I thought so. On the other side, the Purchasing companies and their investors see owning song catalogs to be a very lucrative long term proposition if the songs are exploited and monetized correctly, and because they're playing the long game so they can make all their money back. A side effect for the artist is that they will see their music stay in the public's consciousness for a lot longer than it otherwise would. Maybe 50 or 75 years longer. I've been maintaining a running list of artists who have made the plunge, and as I sit here, there are more than 200 names on this list. The biggest deal so far is a $1.3 billion deal for everything. Queen, Bruce Springsteen got 550 million. A chunk of Pink Floyd, 400 million. Kiss, 300 million. Even Silverchair cashed in. They sold their entire catalog to Sony. How much? Well, that's the thing about some of these sales. The price is sometimes kept secret. But you gotta think that Silverchair walked away with something worth at least eight figures. Silverthair, just one of the hundreds of artists who have decided to sell their song catalogs in exchange for big bucks and financial security. In a moment, number 93 on our list of the greatest rock moments of the millennium so far, and it's all fake. Who says that performers have to be flesh and blood? We're up to number 93 on our list of the most important moments in rock so far this century. The roots of holograms, or something close to them, goes all the way back to the late 19th century with an illusion called Pepper's ghost. Relatively easy thing to do using glass and lights if done properly. You see a 3D image on stage, but it's not exactly a hologram. It's just a projection. In 2007, a very dead Elvis Presley appeared on American Idol to duet with Celine Dion. This used archival footage and some really smart editing and projection techniques. This was a big advancement in the technology. Then in 2012, a very dead Tupac Shakur showed up at Coachella during a set featuring Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. Although it was billed as a hologram, it was actually more like a sophisticated take on Pepper's ghost and those techniques. It looked awfully lifelike and was a turning point in the development of hologram performances. Another big moment came during the Billboard Music Awards in 2014, when a very dead Michael Jackson performed the song Slave to the Rhythm. This involved some CGI and body doubles. By this time, hologram tours were being developed in 2018, Buddy Holly, dead since 1959, and Roy Orbison, dead since 1988. Were on stage again as holograms. So was metal singer Ronnie James Dio, even though he died in 2010. Two years later, there was a Whitney Houston hologram tour that came with a live band, dancers and more. And finally, ABBA Voyage, a trip back to the ABBA of the late 1970s and early 80s in a purpose built theater in London. All the members of the band are still alive, but have no interest in performing. Through the use of motion capture suits and some really cool projection technology, it really does look like the four members of ABBA are there on stage. And there's more coming too, although the technology still has a long way to go. Right now you need to know that holograms still need to be projected onto something like glass. No one has found a practical way, at least not yet, to project a 3D image in thin air. But with advances in augmented reality, virtual reality and artificial intelligence, who knows where things might go? In 2005, Gorillaz, already a virtual animated band, appeared on the MTV Europe Music video Awards with 3D illusions of the band's characters. Again, not actual holograms, but a very cool effect. For moment number 92 on our list. Let's go back to 2000. Pearl Jam was always a bootleg friendly group. Eddie Vedder remembers sneaking in recorders into shows when he was a kid, just so he could relive the concert experience over and over again at home. So when Pearl Jam got big, they made it a policy that if fans wanted to record their shows, then go with God. In 2000, they decided to take things one step further. They released a series of official bootlegs, all recorded at the Soundboard on tour. The audio was high quality and the CDs were affordable. The first series was launched during the Binaural tour. The first gig to be made available this week was a show in Lisbon. On May 23, 2000, 72 shows were recorded in North America and Europe, packaged in a plain cardboard sleeve and sold as double disc CDs in regular stores. Later they also became available as digital downloads. They did it again in 2003, 73 shows from Canada, US, Australia and Japan. In 2005, there were eight official bootlegs from a Canadian tour. The following year, 50 shows were released. More came in 2008 and 2009. The Backspacer tour in 2010 had its own bootlegs. And so it continued for 2011-2012-2013-2014, 2018 and 2022. So how many of these official bootlegs exist? I think somewhere north of 200 with close to 6,000 songs performed live. I've got a bunch of them in my collection, but nowhere near all of them. Here's a sample of a show recorded in Montreal on October 4, 2000. The last great moment for this episode is number 91, and I'm bringing in the impact of MySpace, one of the first great social media platforms. MySpace went online in 2003, founded by Tom Anderson and Krista Wolfe. At first, it was conceived as a place where people could create online profiles, connect with friends, share photos, and generally hang out together. Online users eventually steered much of the platform toward music. This was pretty radical. For the first time, artists could interact directly with fans without the need for radio, video channels, music, magazines, record labels, publicists, or anything else. Meanwhile, fans could communicate back to the artists, and the result was a far more intimate relationship than anything that had come before. It was like an always on fan club meeting. Artists big and small started loading music to their MySpace pages, completely circumventing the old ways. Songs could be streamed. A crazy thing at the time. Users could see play counts, which was a great way for artists to determine which of their songs were the most popular. Meanwhile, users browsed through what seemed like an endless library of artists and songs. They traded recommendations and made lists of their favorites. Communities were built, artist to fan and fan to fan. Things could go viral. Fans could become influencers. Before long, we had something called MySpace Artists, a distinctive set of styles that involved pop, punk, emo and indie acts. Artists started to launch careers by doing MySpace right. One act that figured things out very early was Arctic Monkeys. Against all conventional wisdom, they started uploading all their music onto MySpace. Anyone could listen to anything for free, and early fans were encouraged to share the music with anyone they wished. And it worked. Arctic Monkeys went viral on MySpace. Gigs started selling out fast. More and more people talked about them, and it wasn't long before record labels started calling and a bidding war broke out. By the time they signed with Domino Records, the band had a massive online following thanks to MySpace. And when their debut album, Whatever People say I Am, that's what I'm not, came out in 2006, it became the fastest selling debut album in the history of the uk. Even though all the songs on the album had already been released online. Here's a demo version of the song that became one of their first big hits. This is what people heard on MySpace. In 2006, the Arctic Monkeys basically broke the music industry with their use of MySpace. The platform itself helped transition the Internet and created the foundations for modern social networking. It was eventually crushed by Facebook and other companies, but For a while, MySpace was the biggest online deal in music. Let's review the 10 items on this list of the 100 Greatest Rock Moments of the millennium so far. At number 100, reunion fever and the trend for old bands to get back together, to cash in on a certain type of nostalgia and to replace lost revenue from declining CD sales. 99 was Maneskin's surprise win at Eurovision in 2021. 98 had to do with all the artists that went after Donald Trump for using their music in his campaigns. The trend toward more artist residencies and having fans come to the artist rather than the other way around was no. 97. At 96 was Kate Bush's historic 2014 residency in London. We talked about the disastrous Fyre Festival at number 95, the Gold Rush for Vine song catalogs at 94 and hologram shows at 93. And then there was Pearl Jam's massive releases of official bootlegs at 92. And finally, the disruption of the music industry by MySpace at 91. At part two of ten, we'll look at a botched attempt by an MP3 player, how a record label tried to wreck our computers and our first death on the countdown. That and a lot more coming up. Meanwhile, let's talk about these moments. I'm on most of the social media platforms and you can send emails to alanalancross.ca. there's my website, ajournalofmusicalthings.com that's updated every day. And you should have the free daily newsletter by now if you don't sign up for it. And don't forget my other podcast, Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry. What happens when true crime meets music? I will show you. See you next time for part two of the greatest rock moments of the millennium so far. Tactical Productions by Rob Johnston. I'm Alan Cross.
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Morris Chestnut
Everyone who comes into this clinic is.
- [31:24]
Alan Cross
A puzzle Sunday on Global.
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Morris Chestnut
Remember, we're doctors and we're detectives.
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Alan Cross
Morris Chestnut is.
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Morris Chestnut
Everyone's faces and bodies are clues. Dr. Watson, I promise you we will figure out what's wrong with you.
- [31:36]
Alan Cross
Where are you going?
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Morris Chestnut
To the scene of the crime. Let's go solve the mystery.
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Alan Cross
He may be reckless.
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Morris Chestnut
This is not an approved procedure.
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Alan Cross
But he's also a genius. Why would you do this?
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Morris Chestnut
Because no one else will.
- [31:47]
Alan Cross
Watson new series Sunday at 10 Eastern on Global Stream on STACK TV.