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Featured Events
2016In her Grammy acceptance speech for Album of the Year, Taylor Swift warns of "people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame." This is in response to Kanye West, who rapped about Swift, "I made that b--ch famous" in his song "Famous."More
1979Saturday Night Fever and Billy Joel are big winners at The Grammys, with the soundtrack getting Album of the Year and "Just The Way You Are" taking Record of the Year and Song of the Year.More15
In Music History
2011A stunned Laura Marling accepts the Brit Award for Best British Female at the O2 Arena in London. In an interview later that year Marling says she was "terrified" at the awards ceremony, clarifying that she's "been around people for whom [winning a Brit] has changed things and it is uncomfortable to watch. I'm not built for that."
2006Anna Marly, composer of "Chant des Partisans," dies at age 88.
2006Kaiser Chiefs take home three trophies to dominate the BRIT Awards, held at London's Earls Court.
2006The gravesite of AC/DC singer Bon Scottin Fremantle Cemetery in Western Australia is classified with a heritage listing.
2005French singer Pierre Bachelet dies of lung cancer at age 60.
2003Good Charlotte's "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" peaks at #20 on the Billboard Hot 100, the highest they would get on the chart.
2001George Harrison enters the cyber age with an online chat on MSN Live.
1998Fans of Japanese rock act Glay cause the Tokyo area phone system to break down as they try to reserve tickets for an upcoming concert by the band. Chaos ensues at the Nagano Winter Olympics main pressroom as long distance lines go down during the ski-jumping event.
1995ASCAP honors songwriter Diane Warrenwith the Voice of Music Award.
1995The Los Angeles, California, heavy metal radio station KNAC goes off the air and is replaced by the Spanish radio station KBUE on the same channel - 105.5FM. The station signs off at approximately 1:59PM after playing Metallica's "Fade to Black." Three years, later KNAC goes back on the air, this time on the internet at KNAC.com.
1991Rod Stewart's ex-girlfriend, supermodel Kelly Emberg, files a $25 million palimony suit against the singer in Los Angeles Superior Court.
1984Ethel Merman, one of the top singers in Broadway musicals, dies of brain cancer at age 76.
1982The Tennessee General Assembly votes the bluegrass tune "Rocky Top," originally recorded by The Osborne Brothers and made popular by Lynn Anderson, the fifth official state song. It was written by celebrated husband-and-wife songwriting team Felice and Boudleaux Bryant.
1981Mike Bloomfield, a renowned guitarist with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and The Electric Flag, is found dead in his car under mysterious circumstances. Al Kooper, who played with him on many Bob Dylan sessions, surmises that Bloomfield overdosed and his drug dealer drove him to a secluded spot to be found later.
Rolling Stone Introduces America To Groupie Culture
1969
Rolling Stone's front cover features an article on "groupies" - introducing a new term to the popular lexicon.
As rock and roll matures, fan culture also becomes more refined, and a name is needed for the ladies who hang out at the stage door hoping for some intimate interaction with the band. These girls add color to and intrigue to the rock stars' stories, but they are typically minor characters in music journalism, often sneered upon in print. Rolling Stone, in just their 27th issue, makes them the cover story and defines their moniker: Groupie.
Groupie culture shows up in dozens of songs: One of the most infamous of all groupies, Cynthia "Plaster Caster" Albritton (who gets her name from her penchant for taking casts of band members' members) is immortalized in Kiss's "Plaster Caster" and The Eagles document a particularly debauched event in "Pretty Maids All In A Row." Frank Zappa goes one further than writing songs, and forms a group made up entirely of groupies: The GTO's. They release a single album: "Permanent Damage (1969).
Some groupies become well-known in their own right, preempting the post-millennial culture of becoming "famous for being famous." Among them are Bebe Buell (the mother of Liv Tyler) and Pamela Des Barres, who writes two books on the subculture: I'm With The Band (1977) and Take Another Little Piece of My Heart: A Groupie Grows Up (1993). By the late 1980s there is even a male groupie known as Pleather who follows all-female bands such as the Bangles and L7.
Not all of the liaisons between rocks stars and groupies are one-night stands: Several performers marry their fans, although these are rarely lifelong unions. Todd Rundgren married Bebe Buell, The The Velvet Underground's John Cale married Cynthia Wells of the GTO's, and Whitesnake's David Coverdale wed Tawny Kitaen, who became a video vixen when she appeared in "Here I Go Again."
As for how the word "groupie" developed a negative connotation, Pamela Des Barres says, "People just got jealous because we were getting backstage and they weren't." Cynthia Albritton, the "Plaster Caster," adds, "Some band members didn't like the fact that girls were willing to have sex with other band members besides themselves. They were insecure about their pecking order."
Groupie culture shows up in dozens of songs: One of the most infamous of all groupies, Cynthia "Plaster Caster" Albritton (who gets her name from her penchant for taking casts of band members' members) is immortalized in Kiss's "Plaster Caster" and The Eagles document a particularly debauched event in "Pretty Maids All In A Row." Frank Zappa goes one further than writing songs, and forms a group made up entirely of groupies: The GTO's. They release a single album: "Permanent Damage (1969).
Some groupies become well-known in their own right, preempting the post-millennial culture of becoming "famous for being famous." Among them are Bebe Buell (the mother of Liv Tyler) and Pamela Des Barres, who writes two books on the subculture: I'm With The Band (1977) and Take Another Little Piece of My Heart: A Groupie Grows Up (1993). By the late 1980s there is even a male groupie known as Pleather who follows all-female bands such as the Bangles and L7.
Not all of the liaisons between rocks stars and groupies are one-night stands: Several performers marry their fans, although these are rarely lifelong unions. Todd Rundgren married Bebe Buell, The The Velvet Underground's John Cale married Cynthia Wells of the GTO's, and Whitesnake's David Coverdale wed Tawny Kitaen, who became a video vixen when she appeared in "Here I Go Again."
As for how the word "groupie" developed a negative connotation, Pamela Des Barres says, "People just got jealous because we were getting backstage and they weren't." Cynthia Albritton, the "Plaster Caster," adds, "Some band members didn't like the fact that girls were willing to have sex with other band members besides themselves. They were insecure about their pecking order."
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