A chronology of music from prehistory to the present day
This is a chronological timeline of major musical events, works, composers and artists, colour coded for ease of use (see below for key). At the moment it is a skeletal list of facts – births, deaths, premieres of major works, publication dates of key books, release dates of important singles and albums and key events. As the site develops, more flesh will be added to the bare bones of facts. It is intended to keep this up to date. Anybody who spots omissions or errors can post a comment.
So far, the site goes up to 1984
Pre-1500
16th Century
17th Century
18th Century
19th Century
20th Century
21st Century
KEY
Books, collections, manuscripts etc
Musical works, songs
Operas, operettas, musicals
Film, radio, television
Albums
Singles
Red dates are Saturdays (Gregorian calendar) and dates are in European d/m/y format
SOURCES (incomplete)
Abraham – Concise Oxford History of Music (Oxford 1985)
All Music Guide
American Music
Amazon
Answers.com
Both Sides Now Album Discographies
Classical Composers Database
Classicalmanac
The Dead Rock Stars Club
Discogs
George / Defoe – International Discography of the New Wave (Omnibus 1982)
Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings
Marv Goldberg’s R&B Notebooks
Terry Gordon’s Rockin’ Country Style
Gramophone Magazine archives
The Guardian (obituaries)
Here of a Sunday Morning
Jazz Discography Project
The Mozart Forum
Naxos
Neely – Goldmine Standard Catalog of American Records 1950-1975 (Krause 2004)
The New York Times (obituaries)
The Online 78 RPM Discography Project
Opera Glass
Rate Your Music
The Red Hot Jazz Archive
Roberts – Guinness British Hit Singles & Albums 17th edition (Guinness World Records 2004)
Ross – The Rest is Noise (Fourth Estate 2008)
Ruppli – Atlantic Records. A Discography (Greenwood Press 1979)
Secondhand Songs
Paul Scharfenberger’s Music and History website
Soulful Kind of Music
Strong – The Great Rock Discography 7th Edition (Canongate 2004)
Various individual artist discography / biography web pages
Various record sleeve notes
Whitburn – Pop Memories 1890-1954 (Record Research 1986)
Whitburn- Top Pop Albums 1955-2001 (Record Research 2003)
Whitburn – Top Pop Singles 1955-2002 (Record Research 2002)
Whitburn – Top R&B Singles 1942-1999 (Record Research 2000)
Wikipedia
