History OlderThanTheyThink / Music

* Some Music/KateBush fans are adamant in claiming that she was the first quirky keyboard-playing female singer-songwriter, and that every female musician with a penchant for weirdness to come after ripped off of her. What they don't know is that Music/{{Nico}} predated Kate by ''12 years''. Bizarre chords and melodies and expert piano playing are also the province of one Music/JoniMitchell.

** By 1964, ska had attracted enough attention outside Jamaica that Music/TheBeatles threw a ska-rhythm guitar solo into "I Call Your Name", and Creator/AnnetteFunicello, of all people, recorded a DanceSensation song called "Jamaica Ska".

** By 1964, ska had attracted enough attention outside Jamaica that Music/TheBeatles threw a ska-rhythm guitar solo into "I Call Your Name", and Creator/AnnetteFunicello, of all people, recorded a song called "Jamaica Ska".

* Press any kid growing up in the 90's or 00's when they think {{ska}} started and most will say that it was started in the United States in the 90's with bands like Music/ReelBigFish, Music/TheMightyMightyBosstones, and Music/NoDoubt, and that it's "punk with horns". In fact, ska is a Jamaican music genre that's only slightly younger than rock n roll. It actually predates reggae (Music/BobMarley and the Wailers started out as a ska band).

** The change in rhythm in the guitar solo to Music/TheBeatles' "I Call Your Name", released in 1964, was an attempt to emulate ska music.
** Annette Funicello (of the Mouseketeers) recorded "Jamaica Ska" in 1964!

* The mainstream success of Music/{{Nirvana}}, Music/AliceInChains and Music/PearlJam often overshadows the many similar American bands we now call 'alternative' that were around in the eighties such as Music/HuskerDu, Music/SonicYouth, Music/DinosaurJr, Music/ThePixies, Music/MeatPuppets (who were actually covered on Nirvana's MTV Unplugged), and Music/{{Minutemen}}; not to mention that, aside from Music/{{REM}} and Music/TheCure, the 80s alternative artists who were more closely derived from post-punk/new wave tend to get even less attention (at least in America). Music critic Michael Azerrad was compelled to write the 2001 book ''Our Band Could Be Your Life'', a now essential tome on 1980s alternative rock, after watching a documentary on the history of rock & roll that skipped from Music/TalkingHeads straight to Nirvana, ignoring all of those bands.

* The mainstream success of Music/{{Nirvana}}, Music/AliceInChains and Music/PearlJam often overshadows the many similar American bands we now call 'alternative' that were around in the eighties such as Music/HuskerDu, Music/SonicYouth, Music/DinosaurJr, Music/ThePixies, Music/MeatPuppets, and Music/{{Minutemen}}; not to mention that, aside from Music/{{REM}} and Music/TheCure, the 80s alternative artists who were more closely derived from post-punk/new wave tend to get even less attention (at least in America). Music critic Michael Azerrad was compelled to write the 2001 book ''Our Band Could Be Your Life'', a now essential tome on 1980s alternative rock, after watching a documentary on the history of rock & roll that skipped from Music/TalkingHeads straight to Nirvana, ignoring all of those bands.

* The mainstream success of Music/{{Nirvana}}, Music/AliceInChains and Music/PearlJam often overshadow the many similar American bands we now call 'alternative' that were around in the eighties such as Music/HuskerDu, Music/SonicYouth, Music/DinosaurJr, Music/ThePixies, Music/MeatPuppets, and Music/{{Minutemen}}; not to mention that, aside from Music/{{REM}} and Music/TheCure, the 80s alternative artists who were more closely derived from post-punk/new wave tend to get even less attention (at least in America). Music critic Michael Azerrad was compelled to write the 2001 book ''Our Band Could Be Your Life'', a now essential tome on 1980s alternative rock, after watching a documentary on the history of rock & roll that skipped from Music/TalkingHeads straight to Nirvana, ignoring all of those bands.

* The mainstream success of Music/{{Nirvana}}, Music/AliceInChains and Music/PearlJam often overshadow the many American bands we now call 'alternative' that were around in the eighties such as Music/HuskerDu, Music/SonicYouth, Music/DinosaurJr, Music/ThePixies, and Music/{{Minutemen}}; not to mention that, aside from Music/{{REM}} and Music/TheCure, the 80s alternative artists who were more closely derived from post-punk/new wave tend to get even less attention (at least in America). Music critic Michael Azerrad was compelled to write the 2001 book ''Our Band Could Be Your Life'', a now essential tome on 1980s alternative rock, after watching a documentary on the history of rock & roll that skipped from Music/TalkingHeads straight to Nirvana, ignoring all of those bands.

* The mainstream success of Music/{{Nirvana}}, Music/AliceInChains and Music/PearlJam tends to overshadow the many American bands we now call 'alternative' that were around in the eighties like Music/HuskerDu, Music/SonicYouth, Music/DinosaurJr, Music/ThePixies, Music/{{Minutemen}}, etc. - Meat Puppets were comprehensively CoveredUp by Nirvana's unplugged album. Music critic Michael Azerrad was compelled to write the 2001 book ''Our Band Could Be Your Life'', a now essential tome on 1980s alternative rock, after watching a documentary on the history of rock & roll that skipped from Music/TalkingHeads straight to Nirvana, ignoring all of those bands.

* Andy Grammer's been active long before "Honey, I'm Good" became a hit in 2015. He had a pair of AC hits in 2011 with "Keep Your Head Up" and "Fine By Me".

** "Emo" hairstyles look suspiciously like the Mod styles of the 1960s.

* Music/{{Sia}} has been making music since the mid 1990s however a large number of her fans didn't notice her until the early 2010s, when she was picked to sing on "[[Music/FloRida Wild Ones]]" and "[[Music/DavidGuetta Titanium]]".

* Music/{{Aborted}} was formed in 1995 and released their first album in 1999, but it's extremely easy to mistake them for a much newer band. This is due quite a few factors. Firstly, until their 2012 record ''Global Flatline'' (which was also around the time they finally had a fairly stable lineup), they were a third-tier band at best and received very little attention outside of the brutal death metal scene back then. Second, their sound consistently updates their sound with elements of modern sounds for the time period. Third, they frequently collaborate with other artists on their albums, many of which are from the current era at the time of release.

* Heavyweight vinyl records of 180 grams or higher are often associated with the Vinyl Revival starting in the 2000s, but the first LP records when Creator/ColumbiaRecords launched the format in 1948 weighed 220 grams. The lighter weight records through the LP's heyday were a cost-cutting measure. Colored vinyl is also used for modern limited-edition reissues, but RCA [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience had color-coded vinyl for each genre]] when they launched the 45 rpm record a year after the LP. Even those suitcase-style record players have been around for a long time, being most popular among younger listeners for being cheap and compact from the 1950s until the 1970s, when cassettes became popular.

* Here's a little drinking game for you: find any Youtube video for the band Overkill that includes an image of their mascot Chalie (a skull with bat wings) on it, then look through the comments section and take a shot each time someone insists that the idea was stolen from Avenged Sevenfold. Take an extra shot if they stick to their guns even after being informed that Overkill has been using the character since the early '80s, well over a decade before A7X existed.

* Music/{{Psy}}'s work before "Gangnam Style" (and to a lesser extent, "Gentleman") predates to '''2001'''. However, his earlier songs were DarkerAndEdgier, which resulted in controversies and he's unable to get out of his DorkAge until later.

* Some people are under the impression that Music/SamSmith is the first gay musician to gain commercial success in the mainstream. Never mind that before him there was Music/EltonJohn in TheEighties.

* "Up On The Housetop" sounds like something that might have been written around the same time as other novelty holiday songs like "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" or "Frosty The Snowman": late 1940s-early 1950s. It was actually written before the end of the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar Civil War]] (1864, most likely). It was the first song to have Santa Claus in a flying sleigh landing on rooftops and coming down chimneys.

*** Recorded samples for musical effect in the modern sense is generally attributed to Pierre Schaffer in the late 1940s (called "Musique Concrête")

* What was the first rap record, the Music/TheSugarHillGang's "Rapper's Delight" in 1979? Music/TheLastPoets or Music/GilScottHeron's beat poetry on ''Music/TheRevolutionWillNotBeTelevised (1974)''? Or the ouevre of the Last Poets, who formed in 1968 and released their debut in 1970? Or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvMBxlu62c0&feature=player_embedded this track]] by comedian Pigmeat Markham from '68? Or the Jubalaires back in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNzKZ7lJRUc 1937?]] In a sense, scatting from the 1920s is a precursor to rapping.

** The use of drum machines and heavy synthesizers in country music had to be a product of the increasing pop and EDM influences of TheNewTens, right? Mark [=McGuinn=] was using drum loops as early as 2001 (they were also present in Music/{{Lonestar}}'s 2002 hit "Unusually Unusual", which he wrote), and Crystal Gayle's "Straight to the Heart" used them in 1986. Also, Music/RonnieMilsap's 1987 hit "Button Off My Shirt" was done entirely on synthesizers, and Music/RayStevens (of all people) used a vocoder on "Bionie and the Robotics" in 1986.

* There are a lot of people who think Music/{{Queen}}'s "Bohemian Rhapsody" from ''Music/ANightAtTheOpera'' (1975) was first released in 1992 with ''Film/WaynesWorld'' (Music/FreddieMercury died the year before).

** Music/{{Queen}}'s "Bohemian Rhapsody" (1975) is often claimed to be the first "true" music video, despite the fact that many [[TheSixties '60s]] groups, such as Music/TheBeatles and Music/TheMonkees, were doing them ten years earlier. Music/TheBeatles' clips were even made for the same reason the Queen clip was -- to stand in for live TV appearances on various shows (''Top of the Pops'' in Queen's case). The idea of having a group shoot a video to promote a single on TV spots and send out as many copies of it as required, rather than have them jetting from studio to studio to appear (often miming) was sensible. Music/PinkFloyd, Music/{{Yes}}, Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer and Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} also appeared in films during the 1960s and '70s. Most were intended for release as theatrical features, for internal music industry promotion, or were just the group messing about. Some had limited releases at the time, and most of the others remained hidden for years before the general public saw them (Music/DavidBowie's featurette ''Love You Till Tuesday'' was made in 1969 but not screened until 1984, for instance).

* Music/MichaelJackson gets a lot of hype from his estate and fans as the originator of the story-driven ConceptVideo, a point also argued in [[http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/06/michael-jacksons-unparalleled-influence/58616 this article]]: "Jackson turned the low-budget, promotional clips record companies would make to promote a hit single into high art, a whole new genre that combined every form of 20th century mass media: the music video." But concept videos existed in the late 1970s and early '80s, while Jackson's ''Music/{{Thriller}}'' videos didn't arrive until 1983. The Jacksons (including Michael) ''did'' have a ConceptVideo in 1980's "Can You Feel It", but even then they're predated by the work of such artists as Music/GeorgeHarrison (1976's comic "This Song" and "True Love" clips) and Music/DavidBowie ("Look Back in Anger" and "D.J." in 1979). Often forgotten is the fact that the first winners of the MTV Video Vanguard Award in 1984 were Music/TheBeatles and Richard Lester, due to the influence of the films they made in TheSixties, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9K3Qh0nYTQ Bowie]]. Jackson didn't win until 1988, but the award was renamed after him in 1991, which only aids misperceptions about his influence.
** {{Music/Devo}} thrived on the use of multi-media in this regard, having creating the short film ''The Truth About De-evolution'' in 1976 which could be described as an early concept video (featuring two songs and a dialogue between their mascot characters, Booji Boy and General Boy). They also created concert interstitials set in their fictional Spudland universe such as ''Roll the Barrel'', and several pre-MTV promotional videos that in some way or another tied in with de-evolution. The home video compilations ''The Men Who Make the Music'' (1978) and ''We're All Devo'' (1984) expanded on this universe with further scenes from the band, General Boy, Rod Rooter, and so forth.

* Dennis [=DeYoung=] of Music/{{Styx}} mentioned in an interview that his band, which did not get major mainstream success until 1977, was often accused of being a rip-off of Music/{{Queen}} in their use of operatic, high-pitched harmonies and grandiose prog-rock/arena-rock instrumentation, in spite of the fact that the band, formed in Chicago in TheSixties, claims they experimented with the sound long before Queen were well-known.
* Some of the "fans" of Music/JoyDivision point out that their disdain for Music/NewOrder is because of how New Order dropped much of the traditional guitar and drum parts for electronic SynthPop music and was far less heavy and "rock". However one more obscure Music/JoyDivision track is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvZYrT48Np0 "As You Said"]], which sounds like something from Music/{{Kraftwerk}} (who were a major influence on the band).

* Many younger Millennials thought “[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZONKoKIQ9RY All Through The Night]]” by Music/CyndiLauper sampled “[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0EcGVzCNjw Sugar Rush]]” by Swedish band Music/ATeens due to the similar beat. Lauper's "All Through The Night" was released in October 1983, while “Sugar Rush” was released in February 2001. Even further, Lauper's version [[CoveredUp isn't the original]]; it was originally performed by folksy singer-songwriter Jules Shear, whose version was released roughly five months before Lauper's.

** You don't even have to go back that far. You only have to look back about a decade, and you'll find Frank Sinatra. Sinatra was a band singer with Tommy Dorsey, and when he went solo, he drew enormous crowds of teenage girls, known as bobbysoxers, who would scream and pass out at his concerts.

* Listen to this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKtYqh7VDEo piece of music.]] Now listen to this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i139Ew6mMFM one.]] Even to this day, people are still confused as to who ripped off whose music. (If only they checked out the dates: ''Film/{{Leviathan|1989}}'' came out in 1989, whereas ''Roleplay/RecordofLodossWar'' came out in 1990.) And to even ask if the veteran composer like Music/JerryGoldsmith ripped off music from an obscure (at that time anyways) anime series is kinda unthinkable.

* Contrary to popular belief, ProgressiveRock bands were not the first artists to mix rock and classical influences. British band Music/TheMove did just that at the tail end of 1966. The riff of their first hit, "Night of Fear", was based on ''1812 Overture'' by Music/PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky. This was right before before ''Sgt. Pepper'' or "A Whiter Shade of Pale", so the Move could be considered the UrExample.

* Openly singing about sex seems to be something that is very modern. But early 1920s and 1930s blues recordings prove that musicians back then weren't shy about the subject either. Wiki/TheOtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_blues has an entire article about it]]. And even Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart once composed a piece called "Lick My Arse, Quick!" We are NOT making this up! But this has probably been done for ages before Mozart. The English ayre ''It fell on a summer´s day'' from about 1600 goes into detail on the subject of fingering. Other madrigals from all over Europe tend to be ''very'' explicit on this subject as well.

** Speaking of Elvis, Elvis impersonators have been a thing not only since before he died, but also since his peak popularity during the 1950s. Wiki/TheOtherWiki gives some examples of this.