2009Thanks to a surge in sales following his death on June 25, Michael Jackson holds the top nine positions on Billboard's Top Pop Catalog Albums chart.
2006During the brief time when American Idol Season 5 winner Taylor Hicks is the most popular Taylor in music, his first single, "Do I Make You Proud?," hits #1 in America.More
1987Napalm Death release their debut album, Scum, widely acknowledged as the first grindcore album. It peaks at #7 in the UK Indie chart.
1978The Texxas Jam takes place at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, with Aerosmith, Van Halen, Journey and Ted Nugent performing. 80,000 fans brave the 100 degree heat, cooled down by fire hoses brought in by the organizers. For Aerosmith, it marks a low point in their career as drug use and infighting are about to break up the band, and their performance suffers.
1971Missy Elliott is born in Portsmouth, Virginia.
1956The family-friendly Steve Allen Showdoesn't want Elvis Presleyshaking his legendary pelvis, so he sings "Hound Dog" to a basset hound. Both Elvis and the pooch are dressed in formal wear.More
201630-year-old Lady Gaga finally gets her driver's license.
2009Following Michael Jackson's death the previous week, he becomes the first act to sell more than 1 million song downloads in a week.
2008Crüe Fest kicks off in West Palm Beach, Florida. The tour features Mötley Crüe, Buckcherry, Papa Roach, Sixx:A.M., and Trapt; it earns about $40 million.
2008Mel Galley (former Whitesnake guitarist) dies of esophageal cancer at age 60.
2008Gym Class Heroes' lead singer Travie McCoy assaults a fan who shouts out a racial slur just as their set finishes during the Warped Tour in St. Louis.
2007In memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, a concert is held at the newly built Wembley Stadium in London. Acts include friends of the Princess Duran Duran and Elton John as well as artists she enjoyed such as Nelly Furtado, Tom Jones and Kanye West.
2006The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts opens on the grounds of the 1969 Woodstock festival in Bethel, New York. The brainchild of Alan Gerry, who sold his company, Cablevision Industries, to Time Warner for $2.8 billion, the Center includes a performance venue, and later, a museum.
2005Luther Vandross dies at age 54 after suffering a stroke two years earlier that left him in a wheelchair.
2003Flute player Herbie Mann dies of prostate cancer at age 73. His best-known song is "Hijack," a dance tune that hit #14 in 1975.
1999Guy Mitchell, '50s pop singer and TV host, dies of complications from cancer surgery at age 72.
1995Legendary DJ Wolfman Jack, who famously spun rock and roll records from a border blaster station in Mexico throughout the '60s, dies of a heart attack at age 57.
1982Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Fiverelease the early rap classic "The Message."
1981Rushton Moreve (original bass guitarist for Steppenwolf) dies in an automobile accident at age 32.
1977Liv Tyler is born. Her mother is the notorious groupie/muse Bebe Buell, and her father is Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler. By the time Liv is born, Bebe has gone back to her previous boyfriend, Todd Rundgren, and Rundgren raises her as his own. Liv is 11 years old when she finds out Tyler is her real dad.
Sony Introduces The Walkman
1979
The Sony Walkman debuts in Japan, making music portable.
Sony's co-founder Masaru Ibuka liked to listen to music on his business trips and was underwhelmed by the company's array of bulky electronics. He wondered whether a sleeker, more compact model of a cassette player could be designed for music lovers on the go. Enter the Sony Walkman TPS-L2, a lightweight blue-and-silver portable tape deck with two headphone jacks that allow two people to listen at once, plus a built-in microphone with a "hotline" button for speaking over the music. All for the retail price of around $150.00. Japanese consumers go crazy for the little stereo, buying over 50,000 units in two months, way beyond Sony's 5,000 per-month estimate.
The Walkman (also marketed as the Soundabout and the Stowaway) is welcomed with equal fanfare when it's introduced in June 1980 to the US, where customers are eager to design their own soundtracks to enliven mundane daily tasks like commuting, shopping, and exercising (the '80s are also the height of the aerobics craze). For the younger generation, the device is not only a status symbol, but makes it easier to share homemade tapes, the '80s answer to bootlegs.
With record prices on the rise, cassettes are fast becoming the cheaper and more convenient alternative to spinning vinyl at home. Within the next three years, the sale of cassette tapes outranks that of vinyl for the first time, with Sony and its competitors scrambling to release new models with new features, including waterproofing and AM/FM capability, to meet the demand.
The Walkman (also marketed as the Soundabout and the Stowaway) is welcomed with equal fanfare when it's introduced in June 1980 to the US, where customers are eager to design their own soundtracks to enliven mundane daily tasks like commuting, shopping, and exercising (the '80s are also the height of the aerobics craze). For the younger generation, the device is not only a status symbol, but makes it easier to share homemade tapes, the '80s answer to bootlegs.
With record prices on the rise, cassettes are fast becoming the cheaper and more convenient alternative to spinning vinyl at home. Within the next three years, the sale of cassette tapes outranks that of vinyl for the first time, with Sony and its competitors scrambling to release new models with new features, including waterproofing and AM/FM capability, to meet the demand.
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