Music history in gifs…La historia musical en GIFs…

1994.  Weezer releases their debut album.  They came to deliver geek rock and power pop to the nerds awesome people.  They did it so incredibly well that Bill Gates became their biggest fan.

And I will forever think of Windows 95 when I watch this amazing video.

1993.  Prince changes his name to an unpronounceable symbol later dubbed Love Symbol #2.  At first everybody laughs, but then they remember he’s Prince and he can pretty much do whatever he wants anyways.

Also, Prince’s label had to mail out a bunch of floppy disks with the custom image on it.  That fact makes me laugh.

1992.  Guns N’ Roses releases their sweeping symphonic rock epic, November Rain.  It has one of the most expensive and longest music videos of all time ($1.2 million, 9 min 8 sec).  Also, a guy jumps on a cake for some reason.

When I was 10 there was nothing I wanted to do more than take a guitar solo while standing on a grand piano with a large orchestra behind me.

1991.  Nirvana releases Nevermind.  Grunge is in full swing and Nirvana is the master.  This album has timeless hooks and incredible songwriting on every singlesong.

I really can’t say enough nice things about these nice, clean-cut young men.

1990.  MC Hammer Scores a ridiculously popular hit, and popularizes some crazy pants at the same time.

This made him a lot of money.  Then he hilariously spent it all.

1989.  Madonna releases Like a Prayer and plays the MTV Music Awards.  Though she already has 3 incredibly successful albums at this point, Like A Prayer erased any doubt that she is an unstoppable pop diva.

She sells an absurdly large number of records.

1988.  Sonic Youth releases Daydream Nation.  It is a masterpiece and incredibly influential on the development of indie and alternative rock.

Even the Library of Congress thinks it’s rad.

1987.  Rick Astley pulls the biggest prank in the history of the world by inventing rickrolling, and scoring a number one hit at the same time.

Also, he is one hell of a dancer.

1986.  Jello Biafra and Alternative Tentacles are dragged in to court and charged with “distributing harmful matter to minors” over the visual and lyrical content of the Dead Kennedys album Frankenchrist.  After the police raid Biafra’s house and lawyers probe through the album, they remember there is some law or something that says you can’t censor that kind of stuff.

A lot of jerks were crazy about that stuff back then.  Luckily they keep their dumb faces shut for the most part these days.

1985.  Marty McFly travels back in time to 1955 to write Johnny B Goode for Chuck Berry.  This was depicted in great detail in the documentary film, Back To the Future.

This is all true.

1984.  Talking Heads release the concert movie Stop Making Sense.  David Byrne wears a hilariously oversized suit and does some of the raddest dance moves ever invented.

Byrne’s stage presence is among the top in music history.

1983.  Michael Jackson debuts the moonwalk on Mo Town 25 during Billie Jean.  He’s pretty dang good at it.

The ladies are all “aaaaaah”.  MJ is all “whatev”.

1982.  The first album ever to be released on CD goes on sale in Japan.  It was Billy Joel’s 52nd Street.  This is what the first purchaser looked like immediately following the transaction.

He was excited.

1981.  MTV is launched.  At first, it’s cool.  But then we all know what happened.  Ozzy Osbourne was one of the first to realize this.  Immediately after MTV launched, he had visions of its fate, and he got so angry he bit the head off of a dove.

It’s all true.

1980.  The Cure releases their US Debut, Boys Don’t Cry, as they begin to explore offshoots of Punk and Post-Punk.  Through this exploration they help define Gothic Rock and it becomes a thriving subculture, and Robert Smith is sad.

Also, hair.

1979.  Frank Zappa releases Sheik Yerbouti.  He masters the combination of humor and music, and it becomes his most successful album.  His song titles are dead serious though, like “I Have Been In You”, “Broken Hearts Are for Assholes”, and“Jewish Princess”.

Frank was a serious man.

1978.  Devo releases their debut album, Are We Not Men? We Are Devo!.  Their stage antics are full of wacky dancing, sci-fi outfits, and just all around amazingness.

Also their songs are so, so good.

1977.  Pink Floyd releases Animals,.  They sang about pigs. And dogs.  And sheep.  But they mostly liked pigs.  So much that they used giant inflatable ones both on their album art, and in real life at their shows during their In The Flesh tour that year.

Pink Floyd Likes pigs.  I like Pink Floyd.

1976.  Thin Lizzy has to cancel their american tour after Brian Robertson hurt his hand in a bar fight.  This is what I imagine it looked like.

I am probably right.  Also, I love Thin Lizzy.

1975.  Kiss comes alive by releasing their breakthrough album: Alive!  This pushes them to the next level of success and their shows become madhouses of people rocking and rolling all throughout the nite.

Goofy outfits and stuff, whatever.  Alive! is awesome.

1974.  Ramones play their first show.  Oldie hooks. Classic chord changes.  Punk guitar.  Punk attitude.  Punk hyperspeed.

Punk is awesome.

1973.  David Bowie releases Aladdin Sane, his follow up persona/album to Ziggy Stardust.

In typical Bowie fashion, it is crazy good.  A lad insane.

1972.  T. Rex plays Empire Pool in Wembley.  Ringo Starr films it for his documentary, Born to Boogie.

If there has ever been a man that was born to boogie, that man is Marc Bolan.

1971.  Led Zeppelin releases their fourth album, and become the biggest band in the world.  They do this by singing about hobbits and magic and wizards and stuff.

It’s true.  Also, it’s awesome.

1970.  Black Sabbath releases Paranoid.  It’s so crazy good that people decide to use it as the framework for a brand new genre of music.

Everyone loved it.  Well, everyone except the ladies.  But they came around later.

1969.  Four dudes hang out in St John’s Wood, London.  Also they recorded an album, walked across a road, and did some other things.

They were very good at these things.

1968.  Johnny Cash says hello to a bunch of inmates at Folsom State Prison in Folsom, California.  Also he plays songs for them and they get excited and yell.
The concert is recorded and released the same year.

For some reason, not many other people made live prison albums.

1967.  The Who play The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.  Keith Moon detonates his drum set right into Pete Townshend’s head, and gives him tinnitus.

Keith don’t care.  Keith is really pretty badass.

1966.  the rolling stones release paint it, black.  it becomes the first number one single in the us/uk to feature a sitar.

george harrison was jealous.

1965.  bob dylan plays his first electric set at the newport folk festival.  his dumb acoustic fans are all “booooo”

later they realize they were dumb.

1964.  the beatles play the ed sullivan show.  everyone is all “aaaaaah”.

especially the ladies.