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Featured Events
1992Guns N' Roses' "November Rain" video debuts on MTV. The 9-minute epic is the most expensive video ever made to this point, costing $1.5 million. Much of the budget was spent constructing a church in the desert so Slash could solo in front of it.
1987Heart release their ninth album, Bad Animals, which like their previous album, uses outside songwriters. The big hit from the disc is the #1 ballad "Alone," written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly.More
1987"You Keep Me Hangin' On" hits #1 in the US for the second time when Kim Wilde's version tops the chart. The Supremes original made the top spot in 1966.
1982The "Peace Sunday: We Have a Dream" concert takes place in Los Angeles, featuring Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne and Stevie Wonder. 85,000 attend the show, which supports nuclear disarmament.
1975"It was the dark of the moon on the sixth of June," according to C.W. McCall's song "Convoy."
1964The Dixie Cups' "Chapel Of Love," a Phil Spector wall-of-sound production, hits #1 in America, where it stays for three weeks.
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In Music History
2012One Direction's video release of Up All Night: The Live Tour debuts at #1 on the Billboard Music Video Sales chart. In the same week, "What Makes You Beautiful" is also peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
2006Billy Preston, a virtuoso keyboardist who worked with the likes of Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, and The Beatles, dies of kidney failure at age 59 after a long battle with kidney disease and hypertension. His funeral is held in Inglewood, California, on June 20th.
2005A Los Angeles jury begins deliberation in the Michael Jackson child molestation trial.
2003Dave Rowberry (keyboardist for The Animals) dies at age 62 of an ulcer hemorrhage.
2002Natalie Appleton (of All Saints) marries Liam Howlett (of The Prodigy) in France. They met two years earlier at England's V Festival.
2001Elton John auctions off 20 vehicles in his car collection, earning $2.75 million. He says he "doesn't have time to drive them anymore."
1993The Velvet Underground re-form for the first time in 24 years for a show at London's Wembley Arena.
1992David Bowie and Iman renew their vows in Florence, Italy, after wondering about the legality of their wedding in Switzerland.
1991Jazz saxophonist Stan Getz dies of liver cancer at age 64. His ashes are poured from his saxophone case by his grandson off the coast of Marina del Rey, California.
1989Metallica issue their second home video, 2 Of One, which is comprised of two versions of their first music video, "One."
1987After being criticized by church members for his "worldliness," Michael Jackson cuts ties with the Jehovah's Witnesses.
1986Dick Rowe, the Decca Records executive who rejected The Beatles but signed The Rolling Stones, dies of diabetes at age 64.
1979A gig at a British club gets a good review and leads to a record deal for Def Leppard.
2 Live Crew Declared Legally Obscene
1990
The 2 Live Crew album As Nasty As They Wanna Be becomes the first album declared legally obscene when Federal District Judge Jose Gonzalez rules that the album violates community obscenity standards in three south Florida counties: Broward, Dade, and Palm Beach.
The ruling sets off a censorship firestorm which drives sales of the album past 2 million copies. Two days later, a record store owner is arrested for selling the album, and two days after that, the group is arrested for performing the songs in concert. The court ruling is eventually overturned.
According to the standards set by the United States Supreme Court, art is judged obscene if it:
1) Appeals primarily to prurient interest.
2) Is patently obscene by community standards.
3) Lacks serious artistic, literary, political or scientific merit.
2 Live Crew's case rests on #3, with their lawyer arguing that the group's songs "reflect exaggeration, parody, humor, even about delicate subjects." The case illuminates the divide between those who appreciate hip-hop and those who see it as meaningless. When the case is finally decided, it proves that by legal standards, even the crudest form of hip-hop has artistic merit, just as the nastiest punk rock and metal did before.
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