Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today December 22
2002
Joe Strummer dies, punk's political conscience
Joe Strummer, leader of The Clash, dies of an undiagnosed congenital heart defect at 50, at his Somerset home. With “London Calling” he had expanded punk toward reggae, rockabilly and the whole world, always with social justice as his compass. Days earlier he had played a benefit for striking firefighters: coherent to the final chord.
Joe Strummer
The Clash
1858
Giacomo Puccini is born, who walked thirty kilometres to see an opera and decided his life
On December 22, 1858, Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca, the fifth generation of church musicians in his family. At eighteen he walked thirty kilometres to Pisa to see "Aida" and came back determined to write operas. He composed "La Bohème", "Tosca" and "Madama Butterfly", which failed spectacularly on its opening night and is today among the most performed in the world.
Giacomo Puccini
1883
Edgard Varèse is born, who wrote a piece for percussion alone thirty years too early
On December 22, 1883, Edgard Varèse was born in Paris. His earliest scores burned in a Berlin warehouse. He rebuilt his career from nothing in New York: in 1931 he premiered "Ionisation", written for thirteen percussionists and nothing else, and in 1958 he filled a pavilion designed by Le Corbusier with four hundred loudspeakers. Frank Zappa discovered him at fifteen and was never the same.
Edgard Varèse
Frank Zappa
1949
Robin and Maurice Gibb are born, the twins who completed the Bee Gees
Twins Robin and Maurice Gibb are born in Douglas, Isle of Man. With their older brother Barry they would form the Bee Gees: Robin brought the plaintive vibrato of “I Started a Joke”, and Maurice the group's instrumental and harmonic glue. Both died before Barry, leaving him the lone guardian of one of pop's great dynasties.
Robin Gibb
Maurice Gibb
Bee Gees
1960
Luther Campbell is born, whose records reached the American courts twice
On December 22, 1960, Luther Campbell was born in Miami, leader of 2 Live Crew. In 1990 a federal judge declared one of his albums obscene, something that had never happened in the United States; the ruling was overturned on appeal. Four years later the Supreme Court decided another case in his favour, establishing that a musical parody can be a legitimate use of someone else's work.
Luther Campbell
2 Live Crew
1901
Andre Kostelanetz is born, who sold fifty million records of light orchestral music
On December 22, 1901, Andre Kostelanetz was born in St Petersburg. He fled the Russian revolution and arrived in the United States with nothing. He assembled enormous orchestras to record popular songs in lush arrangements and sold some fifty million records. With that clout he commissioned from Aaron Copland a work about Abraham Lincoln that is played worldwide today.
Andre Kostelanetz
Aaron Copland
1972
Vanessa Paradis is born, who was number one in France at fourteen
On December 22, 1972, Vanessa Paradis was born near Paris. At fourteen she released "Joe le taxi" and spent eleven weeks at number one in France. Rather than settling into teen pop, at twenty she made an album written and produced by Serge Gainsbourg and then another with Lenny Kravitz, while building a parallel career as an actress.
Vanessa Paradis
Serge Gainsbourg
1972
Mark Hill is born, producer of the track that put UK garage on the radio
On December 22, 1972, Mark Hill was born in England, half of the duo Artful Dodger. In 1999 he recorded "Re-Rewind" with an unknown eighteen-year-old singer named Craig David, and the track took UK garage out of London clubs and into the national charts. Grime and dubstep would later come out of that same scene.
Mark Hill
Artful Dodger
Craig David
1993
Meghan Trainor is born, whose biggest hit was a demo several artists turned down
On December 22, 1993, Meghan Trainor was born in Nantucket. She was working as a songwriter for other people. She recorded "All About That Bass" as a demo, with an arrangement imitating fifties pop, and offered it to several singers who turned it down. She ended up releasing it herself in 2014 and it was number one in more than fifty countries.
Meghan Trainor
1998
Latto is born, who won a rap competition at sixteen and later changed her name
On December 22, 1998, Alyssa Stephens was born in Ohio and raised outside Atlanta. At sixteen she won a rap competition show and began releasing mixtapes under a stage name referring to her skin colour. In 2021 she changed it after years of criticism that it reinforced racial hierarchies, and under the new name reached the upper reaches of the American chart.
Latto
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