chronicle - history

-1899
- before 1775
- 1775 - 1865
- 1865-1899
- 1890
- 1891
- 1892
- 1893
- 1894
- 1895
- 1896
- 1897
- 1898
- 1899
1900-1919
- 1900
- 1901
- 1902
- 1903
- 1904
- 1905
- 1906
- 1907
- 1908
- 1909
- 1910
- 1911
- 1912
- 1913
- 1914
- 1915
- 1916
- 1917
- 1918
- 1919
1920s
- 1920
- 1921
- 1922
- 1923
- 1924
- 1925
- 1926
- 1927
- 1928
- 1929
1930s
- 1930
- 1931
- 1932
- 1933
- 1934
- 1935
- 1936
- 1937
- 1938
- 1939
1940s
- 1940
- 1941
- 1942
- 1943
- 1944
- 1945
- 1946
- 1947
- 1948
- 1949
1950s
- 1950
- 1951
- 1952
- 1953
- 1954
- 1955
- 1956
- 1957
- 1958
- 1959
1960s
- 1960
- 1961
- 1962
- 1963
- 1964
- 1965
- 1966
- 1967
- 1968
- 1969
1970s
- 1970
- 1971
- 1972
- 1973
- 1974
- 1975
- 1976
- 1977
- 1978
- 1979
1980s
- 1980
- 1981
- 1982
- 1983
- 1984
- 1985
- 1986
- 1987
- 1988
- 1989
1990s
- 1990
- 1991
- 1992
- 1993
- 1994
- 1995
- 1996
- 1997
- 1998
- 1999
2000s
- 2000
- 2001
- 2002
- 2003
- 2004
- 2005
- 2006
- 2007
- 2008
- 2009
2010-
- 2010
- 2011
- 2012
- 2013
- 2014

before 1775:

history:

1442: Africa: Portuguese began trade with African slaves
1491: Africa: baptism of the king of Congo
1501: first Africans in the New World
1541: Canada: Newfoundland was founded by the French
1607: US: Virginia as the first permanent New World English colony
1620s: slavery became established in the West Indies
1618-48: Europe: Thirty Years' War (initially, the war was fought largely as a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics) (because of war and epidemic diseased estimates put the reduction of population in the German states at about 15% to 30%)
1618: US: Jamestown: first arrivals of Africans in the English colonies (status of indentured servants as other whites (as Irish) and Native Americans)
1620: US: landing of the Pilgrims
1622: US: Massachusetts as the second permanent New World English colony
1631: US: Boston was founded
1641: US: a Massachusetts law prohibited enslavement (easy to evade)
1642: Canada: Montreal was founded
1644: US: the first slaves from Angola were manumitted
1655: Spanish possession Santiago became the British colony Jamaica, an important trans-shipment center for slave trade
1660s: US: colonies giving statutory recognition to black slavery (by 1700 a reality in all 13 colonies)
1664: US: Dutch Nieuwe Amsterdam --> the British took over the colony by annexation --> New York
1672: foundation of the Royal African Company, granted a monopoly over the English slave trade
since 1681: US: French settled down in Louisiana - Louisiana Territory ranged over to parts of Alabama, Georgia in the east of the Mississippi, and to parts of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma in the west, till the French Revolution Catholic
1688: US: Germantown protest: pioneer attack on the institution of slavery
1707: the Acts of Union become law, uniting the Parliaments of the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland to form the Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain
1712: US: New York City slave insurrection
1718: US: La Nouvelle Orléans was founded
1773: US: Boston Tea Party
18th century: many of European countries abolished slavery

culture:

since 17th century: Maroons: runaway slaves, who formed independent settlements together, because of the climate especially possible in Latin America and Caribbean islands, they escaped frequently within the first generation of their arrival from Africa and often preserved their African languages and much of their culture and religion
Latin-America: Spanish and Portuguese brought Catholicism - Catholic liturgy and veneration of saints, often in a very sensuous kind of way echoed in Santeria, Candomblé, Voodoo (Vodou)
religious instructions as a basic part of daily life (such as a Massachusetts law of 1648 instructed "all masters ... once a week (at the least) catechize their children and servants in the grounds and principles of Religion" or a teacher's contract of 1682 in New York "school shall begin with the Lord's prayer and close by singing a Psalm")
1640: first book published in the English colonies: Bay Psalm Book (Boston MA)
1693: US: Founding of the Society of Negroes, Boston MA
18th century: dances: country dances, minuets, reels, jig (such as Negro Jig)
1701: Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG), an Anglican missionary organization was formed (founded schools for the religious instruction of black folk)
1729: Methodist Church founded
1735: members of the Moravian Church (German Origin - Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine) came to the colonies (their hymns influenced the development of Methodist hymnody what indirectly affected Negro hymnody as well), first settled in Georgia, then permanentley in Bethlehem PA (Sea Congregation)
1744: Charles Town WV: some white artisans petitioned the commons house for relief from the ruinous competion of black men who were able to develop their talents and skills in Charles Town to a greater extent than in any other colonial town and worked at all trades, crafts and arts
c1750-1850: 'Lection Day Festivities: in northern cities a colonial holiday observed solely by black folk where they elected their own "governors" or "kings" in May or June for what they were given vacation period from Wednesday to Sunday (originated in Connecticut), with election parade, marching to the music of fifers and drummers, merrymaking, games, dancing
Pinkster Day (Pentecost Sunday, Whitsunday): Dutch colonists and settlers brought the celebration of Pinkster to North America in the 17th century, by the 19th century, Pinkster had evolved into a primarily African-American holiday, celebrated by slaves and free blacks, and liberally seasoned with African culture and traditions - "black men and women took over completely with their Congo dances, dancing as they had in Africa. The Festivals attracted large crowds of white spectactors from both city and rurals sections..." (James Fenimore Cooper) - tents with exhibitions of wild animals, rope dancing, bareback riding, dancing to the music of drums constructed by deawing skins over the ends of hollow logs, singing African songs, strum banjos... - "Pinkster, the Carnival of the Africans" - celebrated in New York, parts of Pennsylvania and Maryland, especially in Albany NY (managed by King Charles) (till next sabbath after Pinkster), City Hall Park in Manhattan (during three days after Pinkster)
numerous references in American literature of female slaves of colonial times who kept young audiences and adults spellbound with their ancient tales, like for example Lucy Terry of Deerfield and Senegambia of Narrangansett RI

music:

1491: baptism of the king of Congo - congolese delegates were in Portugal, Portuguese delegates (as Franciscan) in Congo - prob. the first contact of sub-Saharan Africa with European music
1640: firts book published in the English colonies: Bay Psalm Book (Boston MA), contained no music in this first edition
1698: Bay Psalm Book now with 13 melodies included
from 18th century: records of music in Africa at the area and time of slave-trade (from explorers and traders such as Edward Baldwin, Robert Noris... or the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano (publ. 1789) who came as a slave to America) telling about the important role of music, music instruments, dance for cultural life in Africa
from 18th century - colonist could afford to cultivate the fine arts - music, singing and dancing school
colonial newspaper provides a rich source of information about slave musicians who played the French horn, the fiddle, violin, the drum, fife, German flute, trumpet, who are good in whistling, singing and making fiddles
other sources: town and court records, various kinds of personal writing as the diary of Puritan judge Samuel Sewall, Boston MA
imported: retained cultural traditions of Africans brought to America - psalm books, musical instruments, popular musical traditions from Europe ("call and responce" scheme in sea shanties (from 18th century the British domaited the slave trade), worksongs and some kind of Catholic liturgy)
vocal music - dominat throughout most of the 18th century, psalmody, hymnody (practice: "lining out" - precentor's chanting one or two lines, congregation following with the singing of the same line, generally with some elaboration of the tune - it later became a characteristic feature of hymn singing in black churches) - sung in the meetinghouse or at home, essential at weddings and funerals, often African Americans together with whites but seperately - old ballads (as Barb'ry Ellen (Barbara Allen), Dirante, My Son (Lord Randall, My Son)), worksongs (as sea chanties, weaver's songs, sugar-making songs...), catches, glees, canons ... black folk singing also African songs as long as they could remember them (especially on the occasions of special slave festivals) and making up their own songs in the new languages
dance music as chief type of instrumental music (violin, played by white and black fiddlers, for gala occasions string ensembles, often added oboes and transverse flutes (Thompson's Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances... (by Charles and Samuel Thompsons, London 1773, was set for violin, german flute and hautboy)) - fife, trumpet and drum music of the militia - used at home: vialls (viols), virginals (small harpischords), hautboys (oboes), guittars, flutes, fortepianos, harmonicas
1707: Publication of Hymns and Spiritual Songs by Isaac Watts. London (American Ed. 1729/39), became immensely popular in the colonies, especially among the black folks - people began to neglect psalms
1714: first permantent church organ in King's Chapel, Boston MA
1721: first music-instruction books published in the colonies: An Introduction to the Singing of Psalm-Tunes, In a plain & Easy Method by Reverend John Tufts. The Grounds and Rules od Musick Explaines, or An Introduction to the Art of Singing by Note by Reverend Thomas Walter (both Boston MA)
1723: first record of a black army musician (trumpeter)
1729: first public concert in the colonies (Boston MA) - Publication of Psalms of David, Imitated (Hymns and Spiritual Songs) by Isaac Watts, Philadelphia PA
1735: members of the Moravian Church (German origin) came to the colonies (their deeply moving hymns influenced the development of Methodist hymnody what indirectly affected Negro hymnody as well)
1739: Publication of Hymns and Spiritual Songs by Isaac Watts, Boston MA
1741: Moravians settled permanently in Bethlehem PA (Sea Congregation), gave musical instructions to converted black colonists, as Andrew the Negro (Andreas der Mohr). Especially Bethlehem became a musical center where visitors came from near and far to hear impressive performances of choral and instrumental music
1752: the president of the Tuesday Club in Annapolis MD complained that the member's musical compositions were of low quality, that "only the ditties of a visiting Negro boy showed talent"
1774: (in 18th century only few references to exclusively black musical activities) Nicholas Cresswell wrote about some instruments (a banjo and a selfmade "guitar" with four strings), about singing of "very droll music indeed" about their masters and mistresses "in a very satirical manner" and dancing which was "so irregular and grotesque" that he was "not able to describe it"

musical instruments:

development of the banjo (first mentioned by Nicholas Cresswell 1774 in his journal, describing "dancing to the banjo" at a "Negro Ball")

TOP

-1899
- before 1775
- 1775 - 1865
- 1865-1899
- 1890
- 1891
- 1892
- 1893
- 1894
- 1895
- 1896
- 1897
- 1898
- 1899
1900-1919
- 1900
- 1901
- 1902
- 1903
- 1904
- 1905
- 1906
- 1907
- 1908
- 1909
- 1910
- 1911
- 1912
- 1913
- 1914
- 1915
- 1916
- 1917
- 1918
- 1919
1920s
- 1920
- 1921
- 1922
- 1923
- 1924
- 1925
- 1926
- 1927
- 1928
- 1929
1930s
- 1930
- 1931
- 1932
- 1933
- 1934
- 1935
- 1936
- 1937
- 1938
- 1939
1940s
- 1940
- 1941
- 1942
- 1943
- 1944
- 1945
- 1946
- 1947
- 1948
- 1949
1950s
- 1950
- 1951
- 1952
- 1953
- 1954
- 1955
- 1956
- 1957
- 1958
- 1959
1960s
- 1960
- 1961
- 1962
- 1963
- 1964
- 1965
- 1966
- 1967
- 1968
- 1969
1970s
- 1970
- 1971
- 1972
- 1973
- 1974
- 1975
- 1976
- 1977
- 1978
- 1979
1980s
- 1980
- 1981
- 1982
- 1983
- 1984
- 1985
- 1986
- 1987
- 1988
- 1989
1990s
- 1990
- 1991
- 1992
- 1993
- 1994
- 1995
- 1996
- 1997
- 1998
- 1999
2000s
- 2000
- 2001
- 2002
- 2003
- 2004
- 2005
- 2006
- 2007
- 2008
- 2009
2010-
- 2010
- 2011
- 2012
- 2013
- 2014

1775 - 1865:

history:

(general notice: engagement in antislavery doesn't always imply also anti racism)

18th century: many of European countries abolished slavery
1775: US: Dunmore Proclamation: promised freedom to all slaves who joined the British arrmy - organization of the first anti-slavery society by the Quakers, Philadelphia PA
1775-83: US: American Revolutionary War
1776: US: Declaration of Independence, Philadelphis PA
1783: US: Slavery abolished by law, first in Massachusetts, followed by laws in other New England states - Northwest Territory ceded to the United States
1787: US: Slavery was banned in the Northwest Territory with the Northwest Ordinance (for the pupose of being devoid of African Americans)
1789-99: Europe: French revolution
1790: US: Washington was founded, till 1850 major market in the American slave trade
1791-1804: Haitian Revolution. Haiti as the only nation whose independence was gained as part of a successful slave rebellion
1800: US: Gabriel Prosser slave revolt, Richmond VA
1803: US: France (Napoleon Bonaparte) sold the Louisiana territory to the United States (Louisiana Purchase)
1804: Haiti declares independence and abolishes slavery
1804: US: The Northern states had passed laws to abolish slavery. In the South slavery remained legal
1808: US: Congress banned the African slave-trade
1812: US: War of 1812
1816: US: Organization of the American Colonization Society, whose aim was to repatriate black men and women to Africa
1819: US: Spanish Cession (Florida Territory)
1821: Africa: Establishment of the American Colony of Liberia on the west coast with 130 American blacks
1822: US: Denmark Vesey insurrection, Charleston SC
1827: US: publication of The Appeal by David Walker (pamphlet combined a piercing indictment of slavery and racism with a passionate call for action by Black men)
1830: US: first National Convention of the Free People of Color, Philadelphia PA, Richard Allen elected president
1831: US: Nat Turner slave revolt, Southampton County VA
1833: US: founding of the American Anti-Slavery Society, Philadelphia PA
1845: US: Annexion of Texas Territory
1846: US: Annexion of Oregon Territory
1848: Europe: Revolutions in Austria, France, Hungary...
1848: US: Mexican Cession (New Mexico and California Territories) - "Gold Rush" to California
1850: US: Compromise of 1850: Abolition of the slave trade in Washington DC - the demand from the South for more effective Federal legislation was voiced in the second fugitive slave law
1853: US: aborted slave revolt, New Orleans LA
1856: US: establishment of the first African American college: Wilberforce University, Wilberforce OH
1857: US. Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court, affirming that a slva could not be recognized as a citizen to the US
1860: US: Election of Abraham Lincoln
1861: US: Abraham Lincoln inaugurated as 16th president of the US
1861-65: US: American Civil War
1862: US: Emancipation Proclamation. Proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them
1865: US: The 13th Amendment finally made slavery illegal everywhere in the United States

culture:

(general notice: not until 1848 the federal territory of the US had it's contemporary extent (Louisiana Territory till 1803 French, part of Alabama till 1817, Florida till 1819 Spanish, Texas till 1836 Mexican, New Mexico, Arizona and California from 1848 American - so especially in that territories there was not only Puritan influence)

Latin-America: Spanish and Portuguese brought Catholicism - Catholic liturgy and veneration of saints, often in a very sensuous kind of way echoed in Santeria, Candomblé, Voodoo (Vodou)
since 17th century: Maroons: runaway slaves, who formed independent settlements together, because of the climate especially possible in Latin America and Caribbean islands, they escaped frequently within the first generation of their arrival from Africa and often preserved their African languages and much of their culture and religion
c1750-1850: 'Lection Day Festivities: in northern cities a colonial holiday observed solely by black folk where they elected their own "governors" or "kings" in May or June for what they were given vacation period from Wednesday to Sunday (originated in Connecticut), with election parade, marching to the music of fifers and drummers, merrymaking, games, dancing
Pinkster Day (Pentecost Sunday, Whitsunday): Dutch colonists and settlers brought the celebration of Pinkster to North America in the 17th century, by the 19th century, Pinkster had evolved into a primarily African-American holiday, celebrated by slaves and free blacks, and liberally seasoned with African culture and traditions - "black men and women took over completely with their Congo dances, dancing as they had in Africa. The Festivals attracted large crowds of white spectactors from both city and rurals sections..." (James Fenimore Cooper) - tents with exhibitions of wild animals, rope dancing, bareback riding, dancing to the music of drums constructed by deawing skins over the ends of hollow logs, singing African songs, strum banjos... - "Pinkster, the Carnival of the Africans" - celebrated in New York, parts of Pennsylvania and Maryland, especially in Albany NY (managed by King Charles) (till next sabbath after Pinkster), City Hall Park in Manhattan (during three days after Pinkster)
1784: first black man, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, granted to preach by the Methodists
1787: founding of the Free African Society, Philadelphia PA
1788: founding of the first black church in the United States, Savannah GA (African Baptist Church)
1789: publication of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gusatvus Vassa the African, Written by Himself, London UK
1790: first census taken in US: black population more than three-quarters of a million, including 50.000 free blacks
1794: first independent black churches in the North at Philadelphia PA: St. Thomas African Episcopal Church, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church
1796: second independent black church in the North at New York: African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
1800: beginning of the Second Awakening (Great Revival), first historic camp in Logan County KY
1804: Haiti declares independence and abolishes slavery. Thousands of refugees settled in Louisiana, New Orleans, what caused a great cultural influence, like vodu (voodoo)
1821: founding of the African Grove Theatre in New York
1827: publication of the first African American newspaper Freedom's Journal, New York City
1852: publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
1860: census indicates 4,441,830 African Americans in the US, including 488,070 free persons

music:

imported: retained cultural traditions of Africans brought to America - psalm books, musical instruments, popular musical traditions from Europe ("call and responce" scheme in sea shanties (from 18th century the British domaited the slave trade), worksongs and some kind of Catholic liturgy)
from 1768: Charles Dibdin uses songs and dances of slaves for his musical exravaganzas
1782: Publication of Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs by James Aird (included the first known printing of Yankee Doodle and a Negro Jig), Glasgow, Scotland
1815: first record for the waltz in Mexico
1822: actor Charles Mathews is traveling through US, uses the dialect of African Americans and the songs from the plantations, music for banjo for his sketches and stump speeches what was from the end of 1820s was called minstrelsy
end of 1820s: George Washington Dixon crew with blackface on the stage, beginning of the blackface minstrelsy with the American sterotype figures Jim Crow (the "happy-go-lucky darky on the plantation") and Zip Coon or Dandy Jim (the "dandified coon")
1830s: the modern banjo was popularized by the American minstrel performer Joel Sweeney - because of the making fun of slaves in minstrelsy, the banjo lost it's attractiveness for African American and the banjo was used more and more in white country music and Irish music
1832: the story tells that Mexican cowboys brought the guitar to Hawaii, where string instruments where unknown before
1834: first record for the polka in Brazil
1840-70: blackface minstrelsy has become the prevalent entertainment form (now as an independent form)
1840s: minstrelsy with two parts: first part Zip Coon, second part Jim Crow
1842: founding of the New York Philharmonic Society
1843: first organized minstrel show, Joes Sweeney's group, the Virginia Minstrels, at the Bowery Amphitheatre, New York City with Dan Emmett (composer of I wish I Was In Dixie's Land) - when they toured through UK they introduced the banjo there which became very popular then
1850: first record for the mazurka in Martinique
1850s: minstrelsy had developed to a show with three parts: first part with more ballads and sentimental songs, second part olio with virtuoso music and dances, also with European groups, third part walk-around. minstrelsy became now more kind of a vaudeville, now also with women, now with making fun also of European immigrants and Native Americans
record of songs from the time before American Civil War: publication of Slave Songs of the United States/William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware and Lucy McKim Garrison. New York, 1867 (first published collection of African-American music of any kind)

musical instruments:

from c 1925: probably invented in Vienna, the harmonica (or "mouth organ") becomes known throughout Central Europe
from c 1830: harmonica production flourishing in Vienna, Saxony, Bohemia and Württemberg
1833: C.F Martin arrives in the USA - Christian Frederick Martin's, a German immigrant, first American guitars were lookalikes based on the work of Austrian maker Johann Stauffer, with whom Martin had been apprenticed in the 1820s
1839: C.F. Martin move from New York to Cherry Hill PA (the Martin company continues to operate from this area today), he maintains dealings in New York with the help of a number of guitar teachers and distributors based in the city, including John Coupa, Charles Bruno and the C.A. Zoebisch company
1857: Matthias Hohner begins making harmonicas

recordings:

(1860 (April 9): Au Clair de la Lune, recorded on a phonautograph (not playable))

recording technology:

1857: Phonautograph (by Leon Scott), unable to play back the recording

TOP

-1899
- before 1775
- 1775 - 1865
- 1865-1899
- 1890
- 1891
- 1892
- 1893
- 1894
- 1895
- 1896
- 1897
- 1898
- 1899
1900-1919
- 1900
- 1901
- 1902
- 1903
- 1904
- 1905
- 1906
- 1907
- 1908
- 1909
- 1910
- 1911
- 1912
- 1913
- 1914
- 1915
- 1916
- 1917
- 1918
- 1919
1920s
- 1920
- 1921
- 1922
- 1923
- 1924
- 1925
- 1926
- 1927
- 1928
- 1929
1930s
- 1930
- 1931
- 1932
- 1933
- 1934
- 1935
- 1936
- 1937
- 1938
- 1939
1940s
- 1940
- 1941
- 1942
- 1943
- 1944
- 1945
- 1946
- 1947
- 1948
- 1949
1950s
- 1950
- 1951
- 1952
- 1953
- 1954
- 1955
- 1956
- 1957
- 1958
- 1959
1960s
- 1960
- 1961
- 1962
- 1963
- 1964
- 1965
- 1966
- 1967
- 1968
- 1969
1970s
- 1970
- 1971
- 1972
- 1973
- 1974
- 1975
- 1976
- 1977
- 1978
- 1979
1980s
- 1980
- 1981
- 1982
- 1983
- 1984
- 1985
- 1986
- 1987
- 1988
- 1989
1990s
- 1990
- 1991
- 1992
- 1993
- 1994
- 1995
- 1996
- 1997
- 1998
- 1999
2000s
- 2000
- 2001
- 2002
- 2003
- 2004
- 2005
- 2006
- 2007
- 2008
- 2009
2010-
- 2010
- 2011
- 2012
- 2013
- 2014

1865 - 1899:

history:

1865: US: The 13th Amendment finally made slavery illegal everywhere in the United States
1865(63)-1877: US: Reconstruction Era
1888: Brazil abolished slavery
1889: the legislature passed a constitutional amendment incorporating a "grandfather clause" that effectively disfranchised freedmen as well as the propertied people of color manumitted before the war - New Orleans' large community of well-educated, often French-speaking free persons of color (gens de couleur libres), who had been free prior to the Civil War, suddenly segregated, fought against Jim Crow laws

music:

imported: retained cultural traditions of Africans brought to America - psalm books, musical instruments, popular musical traditions from Europe
march music played by black bands, ragtime (played on piano or by bands (later also on guitar))
from 1865: minstrelsy with African American groups, with positiv image of African Americans, great success with spirituals in that shows
1867: publication of Slave Songs of the United States by William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware and Lucy McKim Garrison (first published collection of African-American music of any kind)
1870s: in minstrelsy the cakewalk is used for the walkaround, later it became an international dance
from 1889: because of "grandfather clause" Creole people had to make music together
1890s: ragtime (from "ragged time", though the syncopated rhythm that may be heard is based on time-line patterns, an additive pattern like it is also used, for example, when playing a rumba) - first recorded music with the term ragtime in the titel - Scott Joplin, Artie Matthews, James Scott, Tom Turpin - played by pianists, string bands, military bands - often composed by composers with education in classical music
Jelly Roll Morton explained 1938 Alan Lomax how he developed the Tiger Rag from a quadrille with five strains (waltz, mazurka...)
1895: first published sheet of music ragtimes
1897: Ben Harney in "Rag Time Insctructor": "Rag time originally takes its initiative steps from Spanish music, or rather from Mexico, where it is known under the head and names of Habanera, Danza, Sguidilla..." --> originated in the Cuban Danza and Habanera, who originated in the European contradanza
1899: Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag was published - Eubie Blake's Sounds of Africa was composed (1909 sheet music released, 1921 recorded as an example for the change from ragtime to jazz: the left hand is playing some kind of ragtime or cakewalk, the left hand a bassline like you find it in boogie woogies!
around 1900: minstrelsy dissolved --> jazz and --> Broadway

musical instruments:

from 1880: harmonicas: transiticion to industrial mass production
1883: Lyon & Healy makes the first Washburn guitars - built at various times by various makers (such as Lyon & Healy, Gibson, J.R. Stewart, Regal) - early Washburn guitars reveal an intriguing story
1894: Orville Gibson starts making instruments

recordings:

1888 (June 29): oldest known surviving musical recordings (phonograph cylinder recordings of Handel's choral music at The Crystal Palace in London)
from 1890: George W. Johnson (The Whistling Coon, The Laughing Song)
1898: Joseph P. Cullen (bj), William G. Collins (bj): Eli Green's Cake Walk (a cakewalk like it was used in minstrelsys)

recording technology:

1874: Phonautograph (by Graham Bell)
1877: first patent in UK of a functional phonograph (gramophone) (by Thomas Edison), cylinder with "hill-and-dale" motion of the stylus, first made of tinfoil, after some years made of wax (2-3 minutes recording possible)
1887: gramophone (by Emil Berliner), using a lateral (back and forth) movement of the stylus as it traced a spiral onto a disc (recored made on a zinc disc coated with wax)
1892: Thomas Edison introduced the use of sapphire for the stylus (cylinder phonograph)
1899: first magnetic recording introduced by the Danish inventor Valdemar Poulsen (telegraphon) on a solid band of magnetically hard steel
till 1929: discs and cylinders both usual
first needles made of copper, steel or cactus thorns

recording business:

1883: first piano rolls by Welte & Sons - piano rolls were the first medium which could be produced and copied industrially and made it possible to provide the customer with actual music quickly and easily
1886: Volta Graphophone Company (Alexandria, Virginia)
1887: American Graphophone Company (later The Volta Graphophone Company merged with American Graphophone and later get Columbia Records)
1888: North American Phonograph Company formed from Edison and Tainter and Bell patents to exploit commercial applications of cylinders
1889: Columbia Records founded, as agent of North American Phonograph Company in the District of Washington DC - first coin-operated phonographin a saloon (by Pacific Phonograph Company) - Berliner licenses Kämmerer and Reinhardt in Germany to produce grammophones and discs as toys
1890: the New York Phonograph Company opens the first recording studio
1892: Berliner forms the United States Gramophone Company, selling his cheap gramophone player and the commercial production of his disc records made of hard rubber (five-inch, recorded on one side only) - Columbia severs links with Edison and North American Phonograph Company and henceforce sells only its own products
1893: Carl Lindström Company formed, initially to manufacture gramophones and later discs, the company's numerous lables included Bekka, Fonotopia, Jumbo, Odeon, Parlophon, activ in Europe and South America
1895: Seven-inch (17,5 cm) records
1897: Gramophone Company was formed in UK with exclusive rights from Berliner to sell gramophones and discs in Europe (from 1900 to 1907 named the Gramophone and Typewriter Company)
1898: Berliner forms Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft to press records for the Gramophone Company

further issues:

1899: first sound archive founded in Vienna, Austria (Phonogrammarchive)

TOP

-1899
- before 1775
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2010-
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1900-1919:

history:

1912: US: New Mexico is admitted as the 47th U.S. state

culture:

1914: ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) was founded

music:

cakewalk (not only in US, but also, for example, in Trinidad, like the piano rolls from the pianist Lionel Belasco from the year 1915)
ragtime
Hawaiian music is known for popularizing slide guitar playing in the US
1902: Ma Rainey remembered first hearing the blues in 1902 - Morton claimed to have invented jazz outright in 1902 "Jazz is a name that has no meaning at all. I started using the word jazz in 1902. That was to show the people the difference between ragtime" (interview with Alan Lomax 1938) - Morton obviously didn't knew the basic meaning of the word jazz (only because of the fact that Anglo-American didn't knew the meaning of the word it was possible that jazz got a new meaning in music)
1903: W.C. Handy heard a man singing in a Mississippi train station, plunking in a guitar and rembered that he heard that kind of music ("blues") as a boy in Alabama - Scott Joplin finished his opera Treemonisha
1905: first published (in New Orleans) Blues: "I Got the Blues (Up-to-Date Rag)" by Antonio Maggio
1906/07: Jelly Roll Morton claims that he and Tony Jackson used scat singing (Bee-la-bah-bee-bab-a-lee-ba) already in 1906/07, long before Louis Armstrong [Morton, Jelly Roll, Alan Lomax: Mister Jelly Roll. Berkeley, 1973, p.129]
1908: Jelly Roll Morton meets W.C. Handy in Memphis, who tells him that blues couldn't be played in a band ... Handy didd't know anything about the bluesand he doesn't know anythong about jazz and stomps [Morton, Jelly Roll, Alan Lomax: Mister Jelly Roll. Berkeley, 1973, p.141] - Chicago IL, Pekin Theatre, the first black owned musical and vaudeville stock theatre in the United States
1912: W.C. Handy: Memphis Blues, Dallas Blues, Baby Seals Blues
1914: W.C. Handy: St. Louis Blues publ. and rec. by Victor Military Band
1915: first Blues recording with singing: Memphis Blues by Morton Harvey
1917: first jazz recording: Original Dixieland "Jass" Band: Livery Stable Blues - first recording of Dallas Blues by Marie Cahill
jazz: offsetting (maybe the last remain of African cross-rhythm) together with the homogenous rhythm (assumed from European music) as the most important attributes of swing (improvisation you find also in other kind of music, classical music, rock...) (African cross-rhythm needs a high degree of discipline, the homogenous rhythm seems to give an unlimited room for improvisation for each) (offsetting is also mostly the difference between black and white rock in later years - offbeat vs. onbeat) - "swing"'s always played by ensembles (Jelly Roll Morton 1938 to Alan Lomax: ... the main idea of playing jazz - there's no jazz piano player can ever really play jazz unless they try to get - to give the imitation of a band..." - drums weren't recordable at that time of jazz, so we don't know the beat that was played, but probably it was a kind of marching rhythm, like we still find it in recordings of the late 20s

musical instruments:

1900: The Larson Brothers set up in Chicago, beginning a 40-year run of some superb guitar making. August and Carl Larson take over the Maurer workshop, soon producing Maurer, Stahl and Dyer instruments
1902: C.F. Martin introduces style 45 - Gibson Guitar-Mandolin Co. formed
1903: the Trossingen-based firms Hohner and Koch begin manufacturing accordions
1910: guitars: harps, metal boards and muting bars - a great number of guitar-makers, inventors and business people in the US are feeling their way around the fretted instrument scene, trying to define exactly what kind of instrument the guitar is to become
1914-18: in the World War harmonicas are the most popular instruments among soldiers on both sides

recordings:

until 1920: recorded music and songs in the tradition of minstrelsy, as coon songs and ragtimes, like the recordings
of Sylvester "Vess" Louis Ossman (bj)... (A Coon Band Contest, Buffalo Rag, Florida Rag, Maple Leaf Rag, St. Louis Tickle (with an allusion to Jelly Roll Morton's Buddy Bolden's Blues)... 1897-1906) -
of Arthur Collins (v) and Sylvester "Vess" Louis Ossman (bj): All Coons Look Alike to Me (1902) - (an example for the kind of songs sung in minstrelsy - in that case it was composed by the Afro American Ernest Hogan!)
Fred van Eps, Leonard "Len" Garfield Spencer, Bert Williams - listen to Bert Williams' Nobody on YouTube (1906)
of Sophie Tucker (Reuben Rag, Some Of These Days)
Original Dixieland "Jass" Band: Livery Stable Blues - the"first jazz recording" , 1917
A Coon Band Contest by Arthur Pryor, recorded by Krell's Orchestra 1899 as a cakewalk-two step, 1900 by Sousa's Band as a march with exaggerated syncopes
A Coon Band Contest by Arthur Pryor, 1917 recorded by Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band, offsetting gives the music a rhythm quality, we would call "swing"

recording technology:

1901: ten-inch (25 cm) records, double-sided disc recordings
by 1906: first disc player with the horn inside the cabinet instead of outside (Victrola by Victor Talking Machine Company)
1910: Thomas Edison introduced the use of diamond for the stylus (cylinder phonograph)
from early 1910s till 50s the double-sided 78 rpm shellac disc was the standard consumer music format (10 inch)

recording business:

by 1900: about 3 million records were selled a year in U.S. - top-selling cylinders prob. military bands playing dance music (waltzes, polkas, cakewalks...)
1900: Columbia label introduced into Europe
1901: Victor Talking Machine Company was formed in USA to produce gramophones and discs from Berliner's inventions. Together with the Columbia Company, which in the same year starts to sell discs, maintains US monopoly until 1910
1905: Pathé Company, already formed in France and manufacturing phonographs and cylinders, starts to manufacutre and sell discs, with vertically cut grooves and playes from centre to edge
1909: Gramophone Company starts to use the His Master's Voice image
1914: Deutsche Grammophon separates from parent company, moves into German hands and releases records on the Polydor and Polyphon lables
1919: Victor and Columbia (USA) cartel declared illegal by US Supreme Court, many small labels created as a result, e.g. Black Swan, Cameo, Gennett, Grey Gull, Paramount, Perfect, Plaza

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2010-
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1920s

music:

1938 (interview with Alan Lomax) - Jelly Roll Morton brings the "white" influence on Jazz out "... and we had big Kid Ross, a white boy... one of the outstanding hot piano players in the country, there was no question about it..."
important names of "white" jazz as bandleader - Ted Lewis, Jean Goldkette, Paul Whiteman (with music between dance music and jazz, but important jazz musicians like Bix Beiderbecke...) - or manager Irving Mills and his Hotsy Totsy Gang (Benny Goodman...)
era of Chicago gospel and Thomas Dorsey ("Father of Gospel Music")
New Orleans Jazz, Dixieland ("black" and "white" jazz) - Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five or Hot Seven

musical instruments:

1922: Gibson launches Lloyd Loar's master models, over the following 2 years the groundbreaking L-5 guitar, F-5 mandolin, H-5 mandola, and K-5 mandocello are introduced by Gibson
1923: first recording of a soprano saxophon, played by Sidney Bechet
1927: Epiphone's "Recording Guitars" are released, Epiphone is named for Epi Stathopoulo, a man of Greek extraction who emigrated to US in the early 1900s - Hawaiian influence continues not only in playing guitar but also for the Hawaiian guitar itself - National introduces first resonator guitars (by John Dopyera and George Beauchamp)
1928: Gibon's first "Signature" guitar and "Nick Lucas" model
1929: John Dopyera begins to make a new line of redisigend woodbody (and later metal-body) resonator guitars in California, the new guitars have the Dobro brandname - Martin makes it's first 14-fret guitar (after a request from banjo player Perry Bechtel, Martin introduces the "long-neck" Orchestra Model (OM), easing the path of banjoists to the newly popular guitar)

recordings:

Oscar "Papa" Celestin, Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra: It's Jam Up (1927) - Afro American groups like that were often used for funerals

recording technology:

radio technology
introduction of oxide-coated tapes in place of solid steel wired and bands
Edison announced a long-playing 12 inch disc capable holding 29 minutes of music per side
electronic audio recording

1924: Columbia experimentalizes with electromagnetic cutting head (developed by the Western Electric Company)
1925: first released electrical recordings (Columbia, Victor) - electric microphones
1927: first movie with sound The Jazz Singer (though with disk technique, not photoelectric)
1929: last cylinders produced
late 20s: first commercialy issued records using over-dubbing

recording business:

first recordings of black jazz artists on records

about 1920: over 150 companies were making records
1920: Victor buys significant interest in the Gramophone Company to assist the re-capitalisation of the company after the First Worl War - Brunswick Records starts to sell lateral cut recordings and soon establishes itself as a rival to Victor and Columbia in USA
early 20s: the size of the industry in the U.S. alone declined by about one half
around 1922: radio broadcasting starts in U.S.
1923: Lindström establishes the British branch of the Parlophon/Parlophone label - Columbia (UK)'s British management buys Columbia (UK) from Columbia (USA)
1925: Columbia (UK) buys Columbia (USA), to exploit electrical recording patents available only to American companies - Gramophone Company creates Electrola label to market records in Germany
1926: Columbia (UK) buys the American OKeh label and buys controlling interests in Lindström
1927: Consortium of US banks buys controlling interest in Victor
1929: Radio Corporation of America (RCA) buys Victor from banks and creates the RCA Victor label - Decca Record Company formed in UK to manufacture discs (Decca Gramophone Company already in existance as manufaturer of gramophones, natably during the First World War)
Columbia was purchased by the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) - Transoceanic Trading (a Dutch company formed to exploit Lindström's overseas assets) - Nipponophone and Pathé

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2010-
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1930s

music:

jazz - an other important influence on jazz is the music of East European jews (from Belarus, Romania, Ukraine...), those parents emigrated to the United States (as Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw (both playing clarinet), George Gershwin), bringing influences of Klezmer, the traditional music of Ashkenazic jews, with oriental influences in it's melodic line (as you can hear in Summertime <Porgy and Bess> in the original opera (not in jazz variations)), used especially on the clarinet (maybe coming from Turkish people, living in the Crimea) - listen to George Gershwin: Summertime (first performed 1935 - here Leontyne Price singing, Vienna Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond., June 1960) - listen to Benny Goodman and Martha Tilton (Carnegie Hall Concert 1938): Bei mir bist du schen, a song by Sholom Secunda (sung in Yiddish and English), Ziggy Elman (tp) playing a Frahlich (Freilach), a jewish wedding dance (track 2)

musical instruments:

1930: Regal acquires former Stewart/Washburn factory - Vega's main manufacturing period begins around 1930 and uses an unusual body construction thet the Vega company had first applied to mandolins ("cylinder back") - Stromberg begins making handcarved archtop guitars
1931: Martin launches the dreadnought guitar (classic big-body acoustic flat-top - D-18, D-28, D-45)
1932: John D'Angelico establishes the archtop acoustic guitar with his powerful, stylish instuments, made in New York from the early 30s to 60s
1933: Gretsch introduces own-brand guitars - the guitar is quickly replacing the banjo to become the leading string instrument
1934: Gibson's first jumbo flat-tops announced (i.e. the Super 400)
1935: Rickenbacker adds electrics (as one of the earliest companies, offering a new "solidbody" Bakelite instrument and a wooden body electric - Epiphone launches the Emperor
1938: first recordings with e-guitar
1939: Wilkanowski makes violin shape guitars

recording technology:

optical sound-on-film system (standard till the 60s)
magnetic tape recording invented by German audio engeneers
interest in "high fidelity" increased

c1930: electrically powered phonographs
1931: first long-playing records were introduced unsuccessfully by RCA
1932: BBC first used a steel tape recorder for their broadcasts
1935: AEG created the first practical magnetic tape recorder (K1 Magnetophon)
1937: first practical stereo sound was made by Bell Laboratories (dual optical sound tracks on film)
1938: first stereo sound recording in a commercial film (Listen, Darling)
late 30s: crystal pickups, electronic reproduction

music business:

first live recordings in the late 30s (e.g. Glenn Miller and his orchestra) - first long playing record sold by Columbia in the early 30s (failed) - the jukebox became popular - the radio developed to a mass medium - big decreasing sales
Record labels under the Nazi regime: EMI, Electrola, EMI-Lindström: Columbia, Odeon. Siemens: Deutsche Grammophon, Telefunken
1930: Consolidated Film Laboratories buys Cameo and Plaza labels and the American branch of Pathé
1931: Consolidated Film Laboratories buys the Brunswick and Vocalion labels - Gramophone Company and Columbia (UK) merge to form Electric and Musical Industries (EMI) - Columbia (UK) sells Columbia (USA) to Grigsby-Gronow Corporation
1932: Decca buys the UK branch of Brunswick Records
1934: Consolidated Film Laboratories (through its American Record Corporaration operation) buys Columbia (USA) from the Grigsby-Gronow Corporation - Decca Record Company establishes an American subsidiary of the same name and buys Gennett's recordings
1938: Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) buys entire Consolidated Films' record concern, including Columbia (USA) label
1939: Blue Note label formed
1939-45: Decca has to dispose of Decca label in USA, after which the American label functions separately

further issues:

1934: UK: sound recordings are treated differently from musical works under copyright law

TOP

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- before 1775
- 1775 - 1865
- 1865-1899
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2010-
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1940s

music

modern jazz, bepop

from 1942: Minton's Playhouse (Harlem) - Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk

musical instruments:

1947: Leo Fender renames his business The Fender Electric Instrument Co., becoming one of the most radical guitar makers of the 50s and 60s, shaking up the industry with boldky styled, mass produced electric guitars
1949: Gibson introduces the first three-pickup guitar (ES-5)

recording technology:

vinyl as record material
magnetic tape became basis for almost all commercial recording from the 1950s to the 1980s

1941: first recording with playbacks, all 6 instruments played by Sidney Bechet (Victor had to pay 6 musicians for it and wasn't allowed to do that any more)
1943: AEG developed the first stereo tape recorders - first stereo recording on magnetic tape (by German engineers)
1945: Allied captured German Magnetophon recorders - John T. Mullin then modified and improved their performance
about 1946: wire recorders were introduced
1947: Mullin gave Bing Crosby a demonstration of his magnetic tape recorders and Crosby became the first major American music star to use tape pre-record radio broadcasts
late 40s: vinyl microgroove record was introduced (invented by Peter Carl Goldmark) (45-rpm disc and Long Playing Records) - first commercially available tape recorders produced, with the possibility of stereo recording (by Ampex)
1948: first long-playing records were introduced by Columbia Records (unsuccessfully by RCA in 1931)

music business:

1941: Siemens buys Deutsche Grammophon
1942: Capitol label formed, the first major label to be based on the west coast of America
1943: King Records label formed
1945: Mercury label formed
1946: MGM records label formed by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio to release soundtrack albums
1947: Atlantic label formed
1948: Columbia (USA) releases the first long-playing LP records
1949: Prestige and Westminster labels formed

further issues:

1942: Petrillo's War: James Petrillo (president of the American Federation of Musicians) began demanding compensation to musicians for records being played on the radio or on jukeboxes. When the record companies refused, Petrillo called for a general strike and no records were produced between the summer of 1942 and November 1944

TOP

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- before 1775
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2010-
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1950s

arts:

beat, beat generation, beatnik (William S. Burrough, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg...)

music:

1951: first Jazz Conference in Frankfurt Germany (from 1953 called Deutsches Jazzfestival Frankfurt/German Jazz Festival Frankfurt), organized by Horst Lippmann
from 1955: SWF-TV series Jazz gehört und gesehen (Joachim-Ernst Berendt, Horst Lippmann, Günther Kieser)

musical instruments:

1951: Gibson introduces its new CES electrics (Super 400CES, L-5CES)
1952: Bigsby makes first electric double-neck (guitar and five-string mandolin) - Gibson launches its first solidbody electric (Les Paul)
1953: Maccaferri introduces plastic guitars
1956: Gretsch releases the White Penguin
1957: Kay creates the new Barney Kessel model - Gibson acquires the Epiphone company - D'Angelico designs and builds the Teardrop
1958: Fender launches its new Jazzmaster model - Gibson adds the Explorer, the Flying V and the ES-335
1959: Gibson makes its first stereo guitar (ES-345)

recording technology:

magnetic tape became basis for almost all commercial recording from the 1950s to the 1980s
early 50s: first custom-built eight-track recorder (Ampex)

1954: first transistor radio developed
late 50s: stereo recordings become the standard system for commercial music recording - invention of transistors
1957: Max Mathews of Bell develops the process to digitally record sound via computer

music business:

1950: Chess and Philips labels formed
1951: Deutsche Grammophon releases its first LP
1952: Columbia (USA) switches its European distribution from EMI (which markets the Columbia (UK) label) to Philips
1955: EMI buys Capitol label and initiates the Angel label in the USA
1956: Roulette label founded by Morris Levy
1957: RCA-Victor switches its European distribution from EMI to Decca
1958: Warner Bros. Records formed
1959: Tamla Records formed, later known as Motown

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2010-
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1960s

music:

from 1962: American Folk Blues Festival in Europe
from 1965: Spiritual+Gospel Festival in Europe

musical instruments:

1962: Valco introduces fiberglass guitars (National)
1965: D'Aquisto begins making guitars in his own right, following the death of John D'Angelico
1968: Micro-Frets releases the first wireless guitar (connects the guitar with FM radio waves to its amplifier)

recording technology:

about 1960: last 78-rpm discs were issued
most pop singles were mixed into monophonic sound until the mid 1960s, and it was common for major pop releases to be issued in both mono and stereo until the early 1970s
portable record players
from 1965 to the late 1970s: 8-track tapes popular

1960: first synthesizer by Robert Moog
1962: Philips electronics company introduced the cassette tape
late 60s: studio effects like echo and reverbbecame the norm
1966: Dolby A noise reduction system (invented by Ray Dolby)
1967: first digital tape recorder is invented

music business:

CBS and RCA establish subsidiary companies in the UK
1961: Philips acquires the Mercury label
1962: Deutsche Grammophon and Philips begin to collaborate through a 50 per cent share swap, and the creation of the Phonogram company - Music Corporation of America (MCA) buys the American Decca label
1963: Warner label grows by acquiring middle-level labels (Reprise)
1964: concert artists' agency Lippmann+Rau (Horst Lippmann, Fritz Rau) founded
1967: Warner label grows by acquiring middle-level labels (Atlantic) - first CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in New York City (since 1995 in Las Vegas NV)
end of 60s/1970: Scout label formed (Horst Lippmann, Fritz Rau, Günther Kieser layout)

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- before 1775
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1900-1919
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1920s
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1970s
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1980s
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1990s
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2000s
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2010-
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1970s

musical instruments:

1979: Martin sets up a shop to produce custum orders and limited editions

recording technology:

rise of high fidelity
Sony Walkman

1970: RCA records introduced quadrophonic sound to the market - first digital-to-optical recording and playback system (by James Russell)
1971: Compatible Discrete 4 (CD-4) or Quadradisc was introduced as a discrete quadraphonic system created by JVC
1972: first digital audio recorder (reel-to-reel deck) introduced by Denon (PCM recording) (till the end of the 90s mostly recorded on videotape (e.g. ADAT)
1978: introduction of the Walkman tape player
1979: first digital Compact Disc prototype - first digitally recorded album of popular music Bop 'Til You Drop by Ry Cooder is released by Warner Bros. Records

music business:

Major dedicated international record companies: CBS, EMI, Polygram, RCA, Warner
1970: VCR (Videocassette recorder) was presented at CES
1972: Warner label grows by acquiring middle-level labels (Elektra, Nonesuch, Asylum) - Phonogram merges with Polydor to form Polygram, which acquires inter alia MGM - EMI Records label created, absorbing the HMV and Columbia (UK) labels
1974: Laserdiscplayer was presented at CES - Vienna Blues Fan Club founded in Vienna, Austria (later transformed to Wolf Records)
1977: Thorn Electronics buys EMI to form Thorn-EMI
1979: EMI buys record division of United Artists

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-1899
- before 1775
- 1775 - 1865
- 1865-1899
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1900-1919
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1980s
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1990s
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2000s
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2010-
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1980s

history:

1981: Mauritania (as the last country in the world) abolished slavery

culture:

1989: Tim Berners-Lee, now the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium, wrote a proposal for what would eventually become the World Wide Web

recording technology:

compact disc

1982: MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) protocol was defined
1984: first optical turntable was shown on Consumer Electronics Show (CES)
1986: first working model of an optcal turntable (Finial LT-1) was presented at the CES (never went into mass production) - first CD-i (Compact Disc Interactive) was announced (first CD-i player 1991)

music business:

1980: L+R Records label founded (Horst Lippmann, Fritz Rau) - Polygram acquires Decca
1981: Camcorder and CD player was presented at CES
1982: first digital compact discs are marketed
1982: Wolf Records founded in Vienna, Austria
1983: Finial Technology was founded (by Robert S. Reis and Robert E. Stoddard) - development of optical turntables
1986: Bertellsmann Music Group (BMG) buys record divison of RCA
1987: Siemens sells its interest in Polygram to Philips, which becomes the majority shareholder in the company - Sony buys record division of CBS - Naxos label founded
1989: Polygram acquires Island

TOP

-1899
- before 1775
- 1775 - 1865
- 1865-1899
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1900-1919
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1970s
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1980s
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1990s
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2000s
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2010-
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1990s

culture:

1990: With help from Robert Cailliau, Tim Berners-Lee published a more formal proposal to build a "Hypertext project" called "WorldWideWeb" (one word, also "W3") as a "web" of "hypertext documents" to be viewed by "browsers" using a client–server architecture

musical instruments:

1995: Manzer builds the 42-string (on 4 necks) Pikasso II
1996: Collector Scott Chinery commissions 21 makers to build the Blue Guitar Collection, based on its existing D'Aquiso Centura Deluxe, showcases archtops - Peavey issues Eddie Van Halen Signature model
1997: development of the acoustic-electric hybrid
1998: PRS launches its first hollowbody models
1999: Danelectro releases retro U-3 model - Taylor guitars celebrates twenty-fifth anniversary

recording technology:

1990: first digital radios begin
1992/93: Digital Mass Storages (DMS), an ideal solution for digital audio archiving are introduced by radio sound archives (first: SW Rundfunk Baden-Baden, Germany)
mid 90s: recordable CDs generally available
1994: the Fraunhofer Society released the first software MP3 encoder
1995: first real-time software MP3 player Winplay3
1996: first DVD-recorders (in Japan)
1999: digital video recorder was presented at CES
end of 90s: hard disk recording became more popular

music business:

1990: Warner merges with Time-Life Corporation to form Time Warner
1991: first CD-i (Compact Disc Interactive) player was presented at CES
1992: Warner label grows by acquiring middle-level labels (Erato) - Thorn-EMI acquires Virgin Records
1993: IUMA (Internet Underground Music Archive) started by Rob Lord, Jeff Patterson and Jon Luini from the University of California, Santa Cruz, for the purpose of providing a venue for unsigned artists to share their music and communicate with their audience, to help independent artists use the Internet to distribute their music to fans while circumventing the usual distribution model of using a record company
1994: Polygram acquires Motown
1995: Seagram Company of Canada, led by Edgar Bronfman Jr., acquires 80 per cent of MCA
1996: Wolf Records USA was founded - DVD was presented at CES - MCA renamed Universal Music - Naxos best-selling classical music label in UK - EMI demerged from Thorn-EMI to become EMI Group
1998: Seagram buys Polygram labels and folds them into Universal Music
1999: NAPSTER, online music peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) service was created by Shawn Fanning while he was attending Northeastern University in Boston. Shut down by court order 2001

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-1899
- before 1775
- 1775 - 1865
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1900-1919
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1970s
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1980s
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1990s
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2000s
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2010-
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2000-2011

musical instruments:

2000: Fender honors founder with anniversary Broadcaster model
2002: Taylor launches its first nylon-string model (NS line)
2004: Fender's custom shop makes Day-Of-The-Dead Telecaster
2005: PRS celebrates 20th anniversary with Singlecut return
2007: EVH duplicats Van Halen's most famous guitar
2009: Collings adds 360 model to electric line
2010. ESP pulls out the stops with Amakusa one-off
2011: Gibson & Fender continue to plunder the past to define the future

recording technology:

2006: IRENE system installed in the Library of Congress (optical scanning of old audio records)

music business:

2000: Time Warner merges with AOL to form AOL Time Warner - Vivendi acquires Universal Music from Seagram which ceases to exist - online music store MusicNet (Warner, EMI, BMG...) - Satellite radio was presented at CES
2001: Apple iTunes released (offered the music of all great labels and independent labels) with Apple DRM (Digital Rights Management) system "Fairplay"
2002: Electrola merged with the German branch of Virgin Records to form EMI Music Germany - online music store Pressplay (Sony, Universal) (till 2003) - home server for digital media was presented at CES
2003: iTunes version 4.1 added support for Microsoft Windows - Blu-ray Disc was presented at CES
2003: less than 50 licensed music services - industry’s digital revenues: US $20 million
2004: Edgar Bronfman Jr. buys Warner Music Group from AOL Time Warner - Sony forms a joint venture with BMG
2006: Wireless energy transfer (Wireless power) was presented at CES
2007: the venture capital company Terra Firma acquires EMI Group
2008: Sony acquires BMG
2009: iTunes store music without DRM - around 400 licensed music services - industry’s digital revenues: US $4.2 billion
2010: 400+ licensed music services with 13 million tracks - industry’s digital revenues: US $4.6 billion (1000%+ increase in the value of the digital music market 2004-10; -31% decline in the value of the global recorded music industry 2004-10) - 29% of industry revenues from digital channels (2% in 2004) [source: IFPI Digital Music Report 2011]
2011: Universal acquires EMI

TOP

-1899
- before 1775
- 1775 - 1865
- 1865-1899
- 1890
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1900-1919
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1970s
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1980s
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1990s
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2000s
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2010-
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Article: Aktuelle Entwicklungen im Bereich Musikdistribution (Topical developments in music distribution) / Anita Pravits (2009 (Ergänzungen 2010/11)) (German only)

... keep on living ...

before 1775:

1775 - 1865:

1865 - 1899:

1900-1919:

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000-2011