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Featured Events
2008Eighteen-year-old Taylor Swift releases her second album, Fearless, which goes on to sell over 10 million copies in America. Standout tracks include "Love Story" and "You Belong With Me."
1994Christie's auction house in New York City holds their first-ever auction of rock memorabilia, including The Beach Boys' guitars, a stage outfit worn by Jimi Hendrix, and John Lennon's famous Army fatigues.
1986David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright announce they are working on a new Pink Floyd album despite a lawsuit from original member Roger Waters trying to retire the group. The album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, is issued the following year; soon after, the lawsuit is settled.
1982Prince begins his 1999 tour with a show in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The opening acts are two groups he put together in Minneapolis: The Time and Vanity 6.
1972Berry Oakley (bassist for The Allman Brothers Band) dies at age 24 after a motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia, just three blocks from the site of Duane Allman's fatal motorcycle crash a year earlier.
1970Bob Dylan publishes his first novel, a poorly received stream-of-consciousness work called Tarantula.
1968John Lennon and Yoko Ono release the album Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins with a cover photo of the pair naked. Many record stores stock it in a brown paper wrapper.More11
In Music History
2012During a show at the Perth Arena in Australia, INXS drummer Jon Farriss tells the crowd, "Tonight is very likely to probably be the last show we ever do." The next day, the band confirms that they are calling it quits after 35 years.
2011Black Sabbath announce they will reunite with their original lineup for a new album and tour in 2012. The press conference is hosted by Henry Rollins.
2007John Petersen (drummer for Beau Brummels, Harper's Bizarre) dies of a heart attack at age 65.
2005Billy Joel begins touring again, launching his first solo tour in eight years.
2004M'hammed Soumayah, bodyguard for Liza Minnelli, sues the singer for $100 million for allegedly forcing him to have sex with her or be fired.
2003The owner of a pub in Wiltshire, England, is awarded £40,000 in damages after suing Van Morrison for pulling out of a scheduled performance at the pub in the summer of 2002 at the last moment.
2003At the emotional funeral for Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield, Bill Medley, the remaining half of the famous blue-eyed-soul duo, sings the gospel standard "Precious Lord."
2000The original Meters reunite for one - and only one - gig in San Francisco, their first since 1977.
1999A teenaged Britney Spears wins for Best Female, Best Pop, Breakthrough Artist and Best Song ("Baby One More Time") at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Dublin.
1998Madrid band Jarabe De Palo tops the 45th Premios Ondas in Barcelona, winning for Best Album (Depende) and Best Video. Other winners include Alejandro Sanz for Best Song ("Corazon") and Ella Baila Sola, Best Group. The Ondas are organized by media group Prisa through Radio Barcelona.
1997Following in the footsteps of Garth Brooks, Metallica holds a free concert in Philadelphia to celebrate the release of their newest album, Re-Load.
1994Billy Vera, Micky Dolenz of The Monkees and Rick Neilsen of Cheap Trick all appear on the TV show Boy Meets World in the episode "Band on the Run."
1979Film score composer and conductor Dimitri Tiomkin - known for western scores like Duel in the Sun, High Noon, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and The Alamo - dies in London, England, at age 85.
1978Awolnation lead singer Aaron Bruno is born outside of Los Angeles.
Michael Jackson Crowns Himself King Of Pop
1991
Per Michael Jackson's wishes, one week before his controversial "Black Or White" music video airs, a memo circulates at MTV instructing the network's on-air personnel to refer to Jackson as the King of Pop at least twice a week during the next two weeks.
Tom Freston, chairman and CEO of MTV, doesn't mind doing a little ring kissing in exchange for rights to air the "Black Or White" video. After all, the memo assures staff members, "Fox and BET are already doing this," and no one wants to miss out on what could be the next "Thriller."
"The fact is that a lot of people have changed their names recently," Freston reasons. "M.C. Hammer is now Hammer and Michael Jackson is 'The King of Pop.' Who are we to stand in front of the wheels of progress? Whatever they want to call themselves, we try and oblige."
From the perspective of Jackson's apprehensive marketing team, including Epic Records executive Dan Beck, the singer's bid for royal status could be disastrous. Especially since the singer was moonwalking into strange territory as of late, with claims of skin-whitening and numerous plastic surgeries filling the tabloids inspiring the nickname "Wacko Jacko," not to mention his supposed purchase of the Elephant Man's bones. "Our feeling was that radio was going to just roll their eyes and say, 'Screw you!,'" Beck explains in a Songfacts interview.
Come premiere night, however, "Black Or White" draws approximately half a billion viewers across three networks. The newly minted King of Pop takes fans on an 11-minute trip around the world, dancing with various tribes, hanging with Macaulay Culkin and fighting racism along the way. Throw in some simulated masturbation and violent destruction of property and you have the hottest video on MTV.
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