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There are events that are milestones in our history. And this applies to many fields, including the history of music. Here in fact the marriage with pop culture has allowed exoduses and mass events that have marked the path of World Music. Let’s discover some of them together.
1964 was an important year for The Beatles. The Liverpool quartet, a world pop phenomenon, in fact, landed for the first time in the United States. In particular, they made their debut by participating in one of the leading programs of American television. And so, the participation in the Ed Sullivan Show is one of the historical moments of world music. The program was one of the most watched in the history of television with about 73 million people connected for a total of over 23 million homes.
“I heard that there were no crimes during the show, or very few crimes,” said George Harrison commenting on that performance years later. When The Beatles were at Ed Sullivan’s, even the criminals stopped for ten minutes.
Woodstock was born to be 3 days of peace and music, with a series of artists who would make their fortune on that stage. In August 1969, about 400 thousand people gathered to listen to some of those who became icons of world rock and to live days of peace and brotherhood.
The most curious thing is that the festival was to remain a ‘provincial festival’. No one expected that the event would host what was later to become the total influx of people. The organizers, in fact, expected about 200 thousand people, which is already a substantial figure. The people who attended the festival had the honor to see, cut others, Jimi Hendrix performing the psychedelic version – now a must – of the American anthem.
In 1985 Bob Geldof and Midge Ure organized Live Aid, which was one of the greatest concerts in the history of music. This event was unique as it took place in several locations around the world. In fact, it brought some of the major international artists to perform live on television to raise funds against the famine that was afflicting Ethiopia. There were 70 performances, including Queen’s, which people vote the most important performance ever. The audience, adding up Wembley Stadium and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia alone, reached about 160,000 people. Moreover, there was a total of about one and a half billion live viewers. Live Aid raised about 245 million dollars for the cause and is now a cornerstone when it comes to live.