Music of the Millennium

Last updated

Music of the Millennium was a nation-wide public survey conducted in the United Kingdom in 1999 by HMV music stores, in partnership with the Channel 4 television network and Classic FM radio. One of many culture-related surveys leading up to the new millennium, it polled listeners to decide the best music of the previous 1000 years. Around 600,000 people participated in the poll, making it the largest survey on popular music up to that time.

Contents

Respondents listed their choice of best artist or work in ten categories. The results were announced on 6 November and presented seven days later on Channel 4's three-hour TV special Music of the Millennium. The Beatles, John Lennon, Elvis Presley, Madonna, Queen, Louis Armstrong, Mozart and Vivaldi each topped categories in the survey.

Concept and launch

HMV launched Music of the Millennium as a marketing venture on 18 January 1999. [1] It followed a similarly titled survey conducted the previous year by HMV and Channel 4 to determine the "greatest album of all time". [2] Concluding on 24 January 1999 and televised as Music of the Millennium – The Final Countdown, [3] the earlier survey attracted 36,000 respondents, all aged between 19 and 45. [2] The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band topped the poll, ahead of the Stone Roses' self-titled debut album and the Beatles' Revolver . [4] On the Channel 4 TV special, the results were discussed by a panel that included John Peel, Jo Whiley, Bob Geldof, Paul Gambaccini and Justine Frischmann, interspersed with pre-recorded endorsements from individuals such as Fay Weldon, John Cooper Clarke and Loyd Grossman. [3]

For the 1999 poll, the organisers sought to broaden its scope beyond albums and attract a wider range of musical tastes. [5] The survey consisted of ten categories: [6] Most Influential Musician, Best Band, Best Album, Best Songwriter, Best Song, Best Male Singer, Best Female Singer, Best Jazz Musician, Best Piece of Classical Music, and Best Classical Composer. [7] HMV marketing executive Cormac Loughran said that the company hoped the year-long survey would "run like an election", with people eager to ensure recognition for their preferred artists. He likened it to a "social statement" that would demonstrate music's impact on the British people. [5]

When announcing the venture, HMV said it planned to distribute 500,000 voting forms across its 108 stores and produce 25 million shopping bags to serve as additional forms. Classic FM helped publicise the project, while Channel 4 broadcast five-minute segments featuring musicians discussing their favourite artist or piece of music. The first batch of clips included Sinéad O'Connor (discussing Bob Marley), Herbie Hancock (George Gershwin) and Alexander O'Neal (Otis Redding). [1] By July, fifteen of these segments had aired on Channel 4. [8]

Shortly after the launch, Billboard magazine quoted Loughran as saying that 1999 was "going to be a year of lists", in the lead-up to the new millennium, and HMV's aim was to create "the definitive list". He also said that Classic FM's participation would ensure that genres other than pop and rock music would be well represented in the survey. [1] Aside from completing the HMV forms, respondents were able to vote by phone [5] or online at the Channel 4 and Classic FM websites. [9]

Results

Some 600,000 people voted in Music of the Millennium, making it the largest survey on popular music up to that time. [6] The results were announced on 6 November at an event filmed at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. Channel 4 broadcast this event nationally between 9pm and midnight on 13 November. [6] The programme was presented by Richard Blackwood, and Jo Whiley hosted the discussion panel. [10]

The top three in each category were as follows: [7]

Analysis

The Beatles dominated the results, [7] topping the list in four of the ten categories. [6] In the Best Band category, they received 20 per cent of the total votes cast and five times as many votes as the runner-up. By contrast, Queen's win in the Best Song category was achieved with just a 0.5 per cent advantage over the second-place song. [6]

Robbie Williams' prominence in the lists reflected the success he had achieved as a solo artist since leaving the boy band Take That in 1996. The survey also placed him at number 6 in the Most Influential Musician category – ahead of both Mozart and Bach. [7] Commenting on the results in The Guardian , Simon Frith, a film and media studies academic and chairman of the Mercury Prize panel, said Williams' high placings were indicative of his rapid rise to the level of Elton John and George Michael, and of how the poll represented a broad cross-section of ages. [7]

Jonathan Thompson, writing in Independent on Sunday , remarked on the national obsession with list-making throughout 1999, calling it "list mania". He said that the HMV-led poll was among those that "bring fresh, challenging perspectives to the history of the past 1,000 years" by suggesting that "Robbie Williams's contribution to music had been greater than that of Mozart", in the same way that a News of the World poll had placed the boy band Boyzone first in its "Irish Heroes of the Millennium" list. [11]

The NME also questioned the level of recognition afforded Williams and Michael Jackson as artists of influence, and described the overall results as "almost designed to bring on bouts of coronaries in the corridors of the Serious Culture sections of the broadsheets". The writer said that the poll was narrow in its representation of musical genres or any "music that strayed too far from a white middle class middle-aged mainstream". [12] Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian supported Williams' high placings as a songwriter, singer and musical influence, saying that his impact was reflected throughout the contemporary pop scene. She complained that the Beatles, Presley and Queen were perennial favourites but no longer relevant, and, typical of such polls, their voters were "people who buy two records a year". [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Beatles</span> English rock band (1960–1970)

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960, comprising John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the development of 1960s counterculture and the recognition of popular music as an art form. Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock 'n' roll, their sound incorporated elements of classical music and traditional pop in innovative ways. The band also explored music styles ranging from folk and Indian music to psychedelia and hard rock. As pioneers in recording, songwriting and artistic presentation, the Beatles revolutionized many aspects of the music industry and were often publicized as leaders of the era's youth and sociocultural movements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robbie Williams</span> British pop singer (born 1974)

Robert Peter Williams is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, launching a solo career in 1996. His debut studio album, Life thru a Lens, was released in 1997, and included his best-selling single "Angels". His second album, I've Been Expecting You, featured the songs "Millennium" and "She's the One", his first number one singles. His discography includes seven UK No. 1 singles, and all but one of his 14 studio albums have reached No. 1 in the UK. Six of his albums are among the top 100 biggest-selling albums in the UK, with two of them in the top 60, and he gained a Guinness World Record in 2006 for selling 1.6 million tickets in a single day during his Close Encounters Tour.

<i>Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band</i> 1967 studio album by the Beatles

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Released on 26 May 1967, Sgt. Pepper is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the roles of sound composition, extended form, psychedelic imagery, record sleeves, and the producer in popular music. The album had an immediate cross-generational impact and was associated with numerous touchstones of the era's youth culture, such as fashion, drugs, mysticism, and a sense of optimism and empowerment. Critics lauded the album for its innovations in songwriting, production and graphic design, for bridging a cultural divide between popular music and high art, and for reflecting the interests of contemporary youth and the counterculture.

<i>Revolver</i> (Beatles album) 1966 studio album by the Beatles

Revolver is the seventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released on 5 August 1966, accompanied by the double A-side single "Eleanor Rigby" / "Yellow Submarine". The album was the Beatles' final recording project before their retirement as live performers and marked the group's most overt use of studio technology to date, building on the advances of their late 1965 release Rubber Soul. It has since become regarded as one of the greatest and most innovative albums in the history of popular music, with recognition centred on its range of musical styles, diverse sounds and lyrical content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hey Jude</span> 1968 single by the Beatles

"Hey Jude" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released as a non-album single in August 1968. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The single was the Beatles' first release on their Apple record label and one of the "First Four" singles by Apple's roster of artists, marking the label's public launch. "Hey Jude" was a number-one hit in many countries around the world and became the year's top-selling single in the UK, the US, Australia and Canada. Its nine-week run at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 tied the all-time record in 1968 for the longest run at the top of the US charts, a record it held for nine years. It has sold approximately eight million copies and is frequently included on music critics' lists of the greatest songs of all time.

<i>Imagine</i> (John Lennon album) 1971 album by John Lennon

Imagine is the second solo studio album by English musician John Lennon, released on 9 September 1971 by Apple Records. Co-produced by Lennon, his wife Yoko Ono and Phil Spector, the album's elaborate sound contrasts the basic, small-group arrangements of his first album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970), while the opening title track is widely considered to be his signature song.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Black</span> American bassist (1926–1965)

William Patton Black Jr. was an American musician and bandleader who is noted as one of the pioneers of rock and roll. He played in Elvis Presley's early trio, The Blue Moon Boys. Black later formed Bill Black's Combo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Something (Beatles song)</span> 1969 song by the Beatles

"Something" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their eleventh studio album Abbey Road (1969). It was written by George Harrison, the band's lead guitarist. Together with his second contribution to Abbey Road, "Here Comes the Sun", it is widely viewed by music historians as having marked Harrison's ascendancy as a composer to the level of the Beatles' principal songwriters, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Two weeks after the album's release, the song was issued on a double A-side single, coupled with "Come Together", making it the first Harrison composition to become a Beatles A-side. The pairing was also the first time in the United Kingdom that the Beatles issued a single containing tracks already available on an album. While the single's commercial performance was lessened by this, it topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States as well as charts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and West Germany, and peaked at number 4 in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eleanor Rigby</span> 1966 song by the Beatles

"Eleanor Rigby" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1966 album Revolver. It was also issued on a double A-side single, paired with "Yellow Submarine". Credited to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership, the song is one of only a few in which John Lennon and Paul McCartney later disputed primary authorship. Eyewitness testimony from several independent sources, including George Martin and Pete Shotton, supports McCartney's claim to authorship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don't Be Cruel</span> 1956 single by Elvis Presley

"Don't Be Cruel" is a song that was recorded by Elvis Presley and written by Otis Blackwell in 1956. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2004, it was listed #197 in Rolling Stone's list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lady Madonna</span> 1968 single by the Beatles

"Lady Madonna" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. In March 1968 it was released as a mono non-album single, backed with "The Inner Light". The song was recorded on 3 and 6 February 1968, before the Beatles left for India, and its boogie-woogie style signalled a more conventional approach to writing and recording for the group following the psychedelic experimentation of the previous two years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Good Day Sunshine</span> 1966 song by the Beatles

"Good Day Sunshine" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1966 album Revolver. It was written mainly by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. McCartney intended it as a song in the style of the Lovin' Spoonful's contemporaneous hit single "Daydream". The recording includes multiple pianos played in the barrelhouse style and evokes a vaudevillian mood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia (Beatles song)</span> 1968 song by the Beatles

"Julia" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles. It is performed as a solo piece by John Lennon. The song was written by Lennon about his mother Julia Lennon, who died in 1958 at age 44.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Underground Garage</span> Sirius XM satellite radio channel

Underground Garage is the name of two different related radio outlets that present Rock 'n' Roll and Garage Rock on radio: a syndicated show and a satellite radio station. Steven Van Zandt, best known as a guitarist in Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, is the founder and supervisor of both outlets. Both play a mixture of past and current Garage Rock, and feature one song as "The Coolest Song in the World This Week.’’

Simon Hilton is an English music video, concert and documentary director and editor and multimedia creative based in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul McCartney</span> English musician and member of the Beatles (born 1942)

Sir James Paul McCartney is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One of the most successful composers and performers of all time, McCartney is known for his melodic approach to bass-playing, versatile and wide tenor vocal range, and musical eclecticism, exploring genres ranging from pre–rock and roll pop to classical, ballads, and electronica. His songwriting partnership with Lennon is the most successful in modern music history.

"(You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care" is a 1957 song recorded by Elvis Presley and performed in the MGM film Jailhouse Rock. It was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller for the film. Presley plays electric bass on the song.

"Baby Let's Play House" is a song written and originally recorded by Arthur Gunter in 1954 on the Excello Records label, and covered by Elvis Presley the following year on Sun Records. A line from the song was borrowed by John Lennon for his Beatles song "Run for Your Life", released on Rubber Soul in 1965.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kiss Me Quick (Elvis Presley song)</span> 1961 song by Elvis Presley

"Kiss Me Quick" is a 1961 song recorded by Elvis Presley which was first released on the album Pot Luck with Elvis. It was released as a single in the UK in 1963 and the U.S. in 1964.

The Beat Ballad Show Tour was a 1960 tour of Scotland by singer Johnny Gentle, backed by the Beatles. It was the first concert tour by the Beatles.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Ferguson, Tom (6 February 1999). "Virgin, HMV Go Back to the Future". Billboard . p. 52. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  2. 1 2 Badman, Keith (2001). The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970–2001. London: Omnibus Press. p. 586. ISBN   978-0-7119-8307-6.
  3. 1 2 Anon (31 January 1998). "Spin of the Century". The Irish Times . Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  4. ↑ "The music of the millennium". BBC News Online. 24 January 1998. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 "Entertainment: Music of the Millennium". BBC News Online. 4 January 1999. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Badman, Keith (2001). The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970–2001. London: Omnibus Press. p. 640. ISBN   978-0-7119-8307-6.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Wells, Matt (9 November 1999). "How Robbie headed Amadeus in the race to be music's man of the millennium". The Guardian . Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  8. ↑ Hay, Carla (17 July 1999). "Millennium Sets Look Back". Billboard . p. 107. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  9. ↑ Twomey, Seán (14 November 1999). "Music of the Millennium Poll – Kate Rides High". Kate Bush News. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  10. ↑ Upton, Sam (December 1999). "TV Times". Select . p. 104.
  11. ↑ Thompson, Jonathan (28 November 1999). "At Last – the List to End All Lists" . Independent on Sunday . Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  12. ↑ NME staff (8 November 1999). "Thousands Like Us". nme.com . Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  13. ↑ Sullivan, Caroline (9 November 1999). "The Millennium: Why Robbie is a true star". The Guardian . Retrieved 24 June 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.