October 29 is a big day in music history. There were alot of groundbreaking events that happened on this day.
In 1955, Sun Records launched America’s first all-female radio station, WHER, in Memphis, Tennessee.
1976, officials in Lancaster, England cancelled a Sex Pistols show, claiming they don’t want “that sort of thing” in their town.
In 1983, Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” marks its 491st week on the Billboard 200 chart, when it finally fell off of list in October 1988, the concept album had spent a record 917 weeks on the chart.
When Sun Records launched WHER, they were breaking a plethora of social norms. These women were the first to have an all-female radio station at a time where women were only seen as baby makers and maids. This was also extremely important because of the prominence of Sun Records in the music industry.
Women at WHER ran the entire operation, from the voice to the engineer booth, unlike any other radio station at the time. WHER only lasted until 1973, rebranding as WWEE and then WOWW, but the short 18 years made an impact on women in the workforce and the radio industry.
According to a 2017 study by the Women’s Media Center, the presence of female radio and TV news directors rose to 33.1% in 2015, and women radio and TV news staffers made up 44.2% of the workforce overall, up from 42.3% in 2014 but were more likely to be working in the smallest markets. Without WHER, women possibly could have never had the ability to work in the radio industry.
The Sex Pistols unleashed an anarchistic punk rock movement in Britain when they stepped into the spotlight in 1975. They were known for their loud, dangerous sound and violent live performances. Their presence brought chaos and rebellion back to the rock ’n’ roll scene.
Almost every song or statement they made, attacked someone in power, whether it was the music industry or the queen. Their callous reputation led to their shows being canceled and bans implemented, hence officials in Lancaster cancelling their show in 1976. The negative publicity only enhanced their notoriety.
Nearly everyone has seen “The Dark Side of the Moon’s” legendary album cover, the one with a ray of light passing through a prism to form the bright colors of the visible light spectrum, which has been plastered on walls, T-shirts, phone cases and stickers everywhere since its debut in 1973. This influential album set a record, spending 917 weeks on the Billboard 200 charts before finally being pushed out in 1983.
Pink Floyd has a huge fan base and has influenced a great deal of musicians. They essentially created psychedelic rock, which has been a genre that has been on the rise since Pink Floyd’s breakthrough in the late 1960s. This album touched on topics such as mortality, capitalism and madness.
