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The 1950's
The Birth of Rock and Roll: -
1950's Top 3 Best Selling Singles Worldwide
1 Bill Haley & his Comets - Rock Around the Clock - 1955
2 Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock - 1957
3 Jo Stafford - You Belong to Me - 1952 -
The end of the 1950's
The end of the decade is marked by tragedy as a February 1959 plane crash takes the lives of rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -
The 1960's
Expanding The Boundaries of Rock -
1960's Top 3 Best Selling Singles Worldwide
1 The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - 1967
2 The Beatles - Abbey Road - 1969
3 The Beatles - Revolver - 1966 -
Outdoor rock music begins
In the late sixties outdoor rock music festivals begin. First with 1967's Monterey Pop Festival which attracts 55,000 fans per day to a three day concert. In the summer of 1969 the Woodstock Music and Art Fair draws 500,000 people to a three day concert in Bethel, New York. -
The 1970's
Rock Becomes Big Business -
1970's Top 3 Best Selling Singles Worldwide
1 Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water - 1970
2 Fleetwood Mac - Rumours - 1977
3 Bee Gees - Saturday Night Fever - 1978 -
The death of Elvis
Elvis Presley dies in 1977 at age 42. Huge crowds begin flocking to his Memphis home, Graceland -
The 1980's
CD's, Synths, and the Rise of MTV -
The death of John Lennon
John Lennon is shot to death by a fan in 1980 just as he was coming back into the public eye with a new album. -
1980's Top 3 Best Selling Singles Worldwide
1 Michael Jackson - Thriller - 1982
2 Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms - 1985
3 U2 - The Joshua Tree - 1987 -
The 1990's
The Internet and Digital Music -
Main streams of 1990's
Alternative Rock and it's sub-genres Grunge and Pop Punk expand in popularity and ironically, explode into the mainstream during the 1990's. -
1990's Top 3 Best Selling Singles Worldwide
1 Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill
2 Nirvana - Nevermind
3 Whitney Houston - The Bodyguard
