History Awesome / Music

* Awesome/TheRamones

''Fifty billion rainbows''
->''And the sun is setting''
->''And the moon is setting also''
->''And you're there in a gazebo''
->''And then {{God}} descends from {{heaven}}''
->''And he gives you a million dollars''
->''Take that feeling''
->''And put it into a song"''

** The awesomeness of the entire ''S&M'' album/concert is undeniable, though their crowning moment has to be either ''Master of Puppets'' or "One".

** The fact that Music/GeorgeHarrison at first found Oasis "silly" and a "passing fad", and refused to speak to them, at the height of their arrogant, obnoxious, far from accurate "biggest band in the world" hype, counts as a Harrison Moment of Awesome. No, there should be no reason why George ''should'' speak to them, or why anyone should kiss up, deal with, or pay any attention to them, much less a former Beatle himself, no matter how "influenced" by them. As if they're the first, last, or only band to be influenced by Music/TheBeatles in the history of pop music.

* The New York Philharmonic Orchestra's visit to North Korea in early 2008. Not only was it a move to strengthen USA-North Korea relations, but it allowed the usually heavily censored media free and unrestricted access to it. Included on the set list were the works of Gershwin, Wagner, and Bizet, as well as ''Aegukka'' (South Korea's national anthem) and ''The Star-Spangled Banner''. The concert is especially amazing when you consider that since there was no peace treaty for the Korean War, the United States is technically ''still at war with North Korea''.

** The awesomeness of the entire ''S&M'' album/concert is undeniable, though their crowning moment has to be either ''Master of Puppets'' or ''One''.

* Awesome/{{Rush}}

* The Music/SexPistols renting a barge and following [[UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen Queen Elizabeth's]] Silver Jubilee parade while blasting "God Save the Queen" deified them in the minds of the {{punk|Rock}} community. Even after the group utterly failed in the U.S. and fell apart, they are still remembered for having the cast-iron balls to actually do it.

* Awesome/{{Nightwish}}

* Awesome/LemonDemon

* In June 2005, sextugenarian Knight of the Realm Sir Music/PaulMcCartney takes the stage at London's Hyde Park for the 'Live 8' charity event and plays... an awesomely near-apocalyptic version of the terminally Manson-linked Beatles metal freakout [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVw4u7rq6Ig Helter Skelter]].

** "This Kiss" has a bit of an '80s vibe to it and is a sort of Happy-Go-Lucky song for the dating scene. In the music video, Carly Rae wears a lot of attractive costumes, which make her look so sexy. The plot involves the singer going out with her friends to a nightclub and having a "Girls Night Out" kind of night until she meets a good looking guy, which later on causes her to ditch her friends in the favor of the guy. The video ends with them heading to a swimming pool, diving in and sharing a kiss underwater.

*** Put in further perspective: Prior to "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and the British Invasion, just four songs by British artists – "Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart" by Vera Lynn (nine weeks in 1952); "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" by Laurie London in 1958; and the instrumentals "Stranger on the Shore" by Acker Bilk and "Telstar" by the Tornados, both in 1962 – topped the chart. There had been occassional hits from the UK that gained mainstream popularity in the United States, but the proverbial floodgates opened when the Beatles and other acts, such as Music/TheRollingStones became hugely popular. In 1964 alone, nine songs by British artists reached No. 1 (out of that year's 24 songs that topped the Billboard Hot 100), more than twice the number of songs from the UK that had topped the chart in the previous 23-year history of the Billboard pop chart. By the end of the 1960s, 39 songs from Great Britain had gone No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, with nearly half (18) by the Fab Four (with The Rolling Stones the next closest at five).

* Music/JamesBrown's performance in the 1964 concert documentary ''Film/TAMIShow''. Easily the most electrifying moment of the show, and one of the greatest show-business performances ever caught on film. ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l89xJPi2U_Q This abbreviated clip gives you the tip of the iceberg]] -- at one point, he dances across the stage ''on one foot''.) Unbelievably enough, Brown was only the second-to-last act on the bill, and the band that had to follow him -- a bunch of English youngsters called Music/TheRollingStones -- were terrified over the prospect of having to top his act.

* Music/TheRollingStones Rock and Roll Circus. Early on in the show, Music/TheWho took the stage and played "A Quick One", regarded as one of their best live performances ever, which is something for a band like The Who. They kicked so much ass that the Rolling Stones, whose show it actually was, ended up not releasing it until 1996 allegedly because The Who upstaged them so much. Yeah, the Stones aren't very lucky with that kind of thing.

* Music/TheMonkees, a fictitious bubblegum pop band created for a TV show in TheSixties, a group often deliberately overlooked by the hipster [[CausticCritic Caustic Critics]] for having any influence or importance in popular music in spite of "bringing long hair into America's living rooms", is the first ever band to have a successful hit record in pop music using a synthesizer when Micky Dolenz uses a Moog modular synth on the track "Daily Nightly" (from the album ''Music/PiscesAquariusCapricornAndJonesLtd'' and its [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXmcweS2cnQ promotional video]]. In 1967. Ahead of Music/TheByrds, Music/TheBeatles, Music/TheRollingStones, Music/TheWho and other pop innovators. Ahead of even Music/WendyCarlos' ''Music/SwitchedOnBach'' a year later. In fact, one story goes that Music/JohnLennon was up all night visiting Dolenz in California making space noises on Dolenz's Moog. Music/TheBeatles didn't use a Moog until 1969's ''Music/AbbeyRoad''. Micky Dolenz helped usher in much of the next forty-something years of musical innovation on a slapstick teenybopper TV sitcom on NBC.

->''"Picture this:''
->''Fifty billion rainbows''

* Awesome/TheRollingStones

* Outside the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, [[Music/{{Nirvana}} Kurt]] and his wife Courtney Love meet Axl Rose. Courtney asks [[RantInducingSlight "Axl, will you be the godfather of our child?"]] Axl, infuriated, screams to Kurt "You better tell your bitch to shut up or I'll take you to the pavement!" Kurt humiliated the macho Axl by simply turning to his wife and saying "Shut up, bitch" in a sarcastic monotone. News of this helped ruin Axl's career.

* Music/TheCure's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHgBb3GWhys Robert Palmer Version]]" of "A Forest" at the 1981 Werchter Festival in Belgium. Performed only when the band was threatened with being booted off the stage if they didn't stop after the next song so Robert Palmer could play and thus played a nearly ten minute, extremely overlong and slower version of the song. You can practically hear Robert Palmer getting more and more annoyed with each additional minute The Cure are on stage.

* Awesome/{{Genesis}}

* Awesome/IronAndWine

* Similarly Ernie Isley's breakthrough performance on Music/TheIsleyBrothers ''3 + 3'' album. His guitar solos for the live cover of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mBW9bM9BEo Ohio/Machine Gun is legendary]].

* Similarly Ernie Isley's breakthrough performance on Music/TheIsleyBrothers ''3 + 3'' album. His guitar solos for the live cover of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mBW9bM9BEo Machinegun/Ohio is legendary]].

* Listen to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZZp76M4NGc this]] live recording of Lindsey Buckingham's "Big Love". How many guitars do you think are being played there? [[spoiler:Only one. All Lindsey.]]

* Awesome/{{Stormzy}}

* Awesome/Watsky

** On a general note for Live 8, getting Music/PinkFloyd's classic lineup to appear together for the first time since 1981. [[BittersweetEnding Sadly, it was also the last time, since Richard Wright]] [[AuthorExistenceFailure died in 2008]].

* Awesome/MarinaAndTheDiamonds

* At the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Music/TaylorSwift won the Best Female Video award and was interrupted halfway through her acceptance speech by rapper/career asshole Music/KanyeWest. Kanye said he would let her finish while insisting that Beyonce (who was also nominated in that category) should have won. Taylor never got to finish her speech, and Kanye was booted from the theater almost immediately afterwards. This sorry state of events led to two Moments of Awesome: whenever Kanye's name was mentioned the rest of the night, it was met with a violently negative reaction from the crowd, who seemed to finally grow tired of his antics; later on, Beyonce wound up winning Video Of The Year, and instead of giving an acceptance speech of her own, she showed a huge amount of class and ''brought Taylor Swift back out on stage to finish the speech Kanye interrupted.''
** Another arguable Moment of Awesome came from Music/{{Pink}}, who by all accounts had to be physically restrained to keep her from attempting to beat Kanye's face in.
** Taylor just seems to have a way of bringing out Moments of Awesome in others. After a poor performance at the 2010 Grammys (followed by her winning a bunch of awards), her manager attempted to defend her by saying, "This is not ''Series/AmericanIdol''. This is not a competition of getting up and seeing who can sing the highest note...It's not about that technically perfect performance." Needless to say, Music/KellyClarkson [[http://www.votefortheworst.com/story/2382/kelly-clarkson-rips-on-taylor-swifts-manager was NOT amused.]] Just one more reason that ''Idol'' will never be able to outdo their initial performance.