History NewerThanTheyThink / Music

* It's easy to think that "Mary Jane's Last Dance" by Music/TomPetty & The Heartbreakers came out in the 1970's or 1980's, but it came out in 1993.

* Despite being a staple of traditional Colombian music, the whole "carranga" musical genre was invented by Jorge Velosa in the 70's.

* The term "HairMetal" was invented early in TheNineties (one early citation is in a 1996 issue of the college radio trade magazine ''CMJ New Music Report''), long after the genre's heyday. In TheEighties, "pop metal", "glam metal", "lite metal" or "mainstream metal" were the usual terms used for it.

* The "Ave Maria" attributed to Baroque Italian composer Guilio Caccini (1551–1618) was written by Russian lutenist Vladimir Vavilov in 1972.
** This is ''not'' the same "Ave Maria" as the one you're thinking of right now, which is either the one arranged by Charles Gounod in 1853 (using a 17th-century melody by [[Music/JohannSebastianBach Bach]]), or the one written by [[Music/FranzSchubert Schubert]] in 1825 (which was used in ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'').
*** What's more, neither of THOSE was written as "Ave Maria", either. Gounod's was originally an instrumental ("Medidtation"), and Schubert's was a song called "Ellens Gesang III" (which started with the words "Ave Maria" but was a different text entirely). Incidentally, Vavilov's original was attributed to "Anonymous" and it was a student of his who perpetuated the hoax that it was by Caccini. Just one of the many musical hoaxes throughout the centuries.

* The song "Edelweiss" from ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic'' was written, in English, for that musical. It was later translated into German, and seems so natural in that language, many people have claimed to have heard it before the musical was written, and complimented Rodgers and Hammerstein on the faithfulness of their "adaptation". In fact, according to Website/TheOtherWiki, some folks even assume it to be the national anthem of Austria! In style it's close enough to Austria's actual anthem ("Land der Berge, Land am Strome") that it's a forgivable misconception.
** Furthermore, the "Edelweiss" popular at the time the movie was set in was a Nazi marching song.

** The [[UsefulNotes/JewishHolidays Hanukkah]] standard "I Have a Little Dreidel" ("dreidel, dreidel, dreidel") was written in 1927 in New York. It only became famous in TheFifties, after its composer Samuel Goldfarb became the music director of a Seattle synagogue and taught it to the congregation's children.

* While it may seem like the two genres have always been seen as distinct but related entities like they are now, post-punk and new wave were used pretty much interchangeably in the 1980s (with "new music" also being commonly used), with the differentiation of the two genres not being common until the 1990s, after both genres had gone out of style.

* Post-punk and synthpop were referred to as "New Wave" interchangeably in the 1980s (with "New music" also being commonly used). The differentiation of the two genres was not common until the nineties, after both genres had gone out of style. In the UK, New Wave originally applied to the power pop artists like Elvis Costello who came around the time of punk but did not have its energy or anger, whereas in the US, it applied to punk-influenced bands who had synths (Blondie, The B-52's and Devo being notable ones). Most people tend to associate it with synthpop these days because that is the predominant genre associated with the eighties.

* Many revered hymns that people assume must be hundreds of years old were products of the 20th century. "The Old Rugged Cross" and "In the Garden" were both written in 1912. "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" was first published in 1940. "How Great Thou Art" was written in 1953 (it's set to an old Swedish melody, though).

* While the term "[[AlternativeRock Alternative music]]" dates back to 1979, it wasn't a ubiquitous umbrella genre term until around 1991, when [[Music/JanesAddiction Perry Farrell]] used it to describe the varied, but largely guitar-oriented, bands on his Lollapalooza touring festival, and [[UsefulNotes/GrammyAward The Grammys]] began to award a Best Alternative Music Album trophy. Creator/{{MTV}}'s ''Alternative Nation'' popularized it shortly thereafter. During the '80s, when alternative bands like Music/{{REM}} were beginning to break through to the mainstream, a variety of terms were used to describe the style, including "post-modern", "college rock", "modern rock" (which ''Billboard'' and radio preferred) and "techno rock" (this one specifically referring to post-new wave rock bands that used synthesizers, like Music/{{The Cure|Band}} and Music/DepecheMode).

* "Baby, It's Cold Outside" owes most of its status as one of the classic ChristmasSongs to its RevivalByCommercialization in the 2003 ''Film/{{Elf}}''. Before then, it was just a plain old Great American Songbook standard, associated more with composer Frank Loesser and its UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestOriginalSong than with the season (though a few singers had included it on holiday-themed albums). In Europe, it became a popular Christmas song only slightly earlier, thanks to Music/TomJones and Cerys Matthews' 1999 recording (prior to which it was obscure enough that many people were unaware it was a cover version).

* For many modern kids, the Macarena could be seen as an age-old traditional folk melody, like "I've Been Workin' on the Railroad", but it was written in the 1990s, although, anyone born before the year 2000 knows that.

* The children's song [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_You%27re_Happy_and_You_Know_It#History "If You're Happy and You Know It"]], which you might think has been passed down through countless generations, was first published in 1957. The similarity of its melody to "Molodejnaya" from the 1938 Soviet movie musical ''Volga-Volga'' (the major difference being that the main melody lines of "Molodejnaya" have two extra notes) have led to speculation of some distant connection between the two, but none has ever been found.

** The major/minor key structure is no older than the late 17th century – and orchestras in their modern form -- certainly of more than about six musicians playing at once – were barely viable before that (because of the difficulty of pitching all the instruments to one another in the earlier modal scale).

* Music/JohannSebastianBach's StandardSnippet/ToccataAndFugueInDMinor was written as early as 1704, but was not published until 1833, until which point it survived in a single manuscript copied by music teacher Johannes Ringk c. 1725. Music/FelixMendelssohn played its first known public performance, in 1840, and the exposure he gave to it gradually increased its fame from there, but it not become one of Bach's better-known pieces, or a classical standard, until the early 20th century.

* The famous Adagio in G minor by Tommaso Albinoni (1674-1745) is an original composition by 20th-century "arranger" Remo Giazotto, who published the piece in 1958.
* The "Ave Maria" attributed to Baroque Italian composer Guilio Caccini (1551-1618) was written by Russian lutenist Vladimir Vavilov in 1972.
** This is ''not'' the same "Ave Maria" as the one you're thinking of right now, which was either the one created by Gounod in the 19th century using a 17th-century melody by Bach or the one by Schubert which was used in ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}''.
*** And neither of THOSE were written as "Ave Maria" either. Gounod's was originally an instrumental ("Medidtation"), and Schubert's was a song called "Ellens Gesang III" (which started with the words "Ave Maria" but was a different text entirely). Incidentally, Vavilov's original was attributed to "Anonymous" and it was a student of his who perpetuated the hoax that it was by Caccini. Just one of the many musical hoaxes throughout the centuries.

* ''Barrett's Privateers'' sounds like an old sea shanty, but it was written by Stan Rogers in the 1970s.

* "Greensleeves" cannot have been written by Henry VIII as urban myth commonly supposes, as it was written in a style which didn't arrive in England until after Henry VIII's death. Though the words and music do appear to have originated separately, it is unlikely Henry VIII had a hand in either. Though in this case, it's only ''slightly'' newer than they think: Henry VIII died in 1547, and the song had already been written by 1580 at the latest. By the time of Creator/WilliamShakespeare, it was already considered an old standard.