14 September 2011
Newsdesk
A panel of music stars and music industry experts have debated long and hard to decide upon Time Out’s definitive list of 100 songs that changed the course of world events and Public Enemy’s ‘Fight the Power’ has been chosen as number one.
Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” ranked number two, and Ramy Essam’s ‘Irhal’ (the anthem of the Egyptian protests against President Mubarak’s dictatorial regime) ranked number three.
The panel (list below) was made up of a set of carefully chosen and wide-ranging influential movers and shakers from the music industry and included Suede’s Brett Anderson, major rock concert promoter (and promoter of Band Aid) Harvey Goldsmith, The Horrors' Faris Badwan and current Mercury Prize nominee, Katy B.
The top ten (full details below) included “God Save the Queen” by the Sex Pistols, “Happy Birthday” by Steve Wonder and a surprise placing of “Looking for Freedom” by David Hasselhoff at number 10.
On the number one choice Matthew Collin, journalist and author of ‘This is Serbia Calling’ and ‘Altered State’ said; “First heard as the incendiary intro to Spike Lee’s film "Do the Right Thing" in 1989, "Fight the Power" encapsulated the resurgent Black Power spirit in rap music at the time – but it was far from the USA where the song had political impact.
“During an armed crackdown by Slobodan Milošević’s regime in the Serbian capital of Belgrade in 1991, rebel radio station B92 was banned from broadcasting news. The station responded by playing tracks like “Fight the Power” over and over again, subverting the ban by expressing in music what they weren’t allowed to say in words.”
Time Out’s Music Editor Eddy Lawrence said of the choice; “Subtlety and nuance are great qualities. Public Enemy's Chuck D had them in spades: he was a man so professor-like, he needed playful sprite Flavor Flav just to remind people to occasionally have fun. Subtlety and nuance don't change the world, however. 'Fight the Power' was incendiary because it was brutally explicit and unequivocal. What makes this our number one, is that it transcended its locality and became a call to action around the world: in Ireland, in Serbia, along the fault lines of the crumbling Soviet bloc and beyond.”
People can listen to all the songs on the list via the Time Out site, where they can also find an exclusive “mix-tape” of the top ten that people can listen to for free. http://www.timeout.com/london/feature/1481/100-songs-that-changed-history-the-mix
The full top 10 is below and the full 100 songs is here http://www.timeout.com/100-songs
The full panel are:
1. Current Mercury Prize nominee Katy B
2. Current Mercury Prize nominees, Everything Everything
3. The Horrors' Faris Badwan
4. Wild Beasts' Hayden Thorpe
5. Sam Duckworth, aka Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.
6. Howling Bells' Juanita Stein
7. Summer Camp (singer/songwriter Jeremy Warmsley and journalist and writer Elizabeth Sankey)
8. Emmy the Great (singer-songwriter Emma-Lee Moss and guitarist Euan Hinshelwood)
9. Suede front man Brett Anderson
10. BRIT Award-winning English singer-songwriter, James Morrison
11. Major rock concert promoter Harvey Goldsmith
12. Former editor of ‘The Wire’ magazine and contributor to ‘Uncut’, ‘Sight And Sound’, ‘Frieze’ and ‘Art Review’, Rob Young,
13. Art historian, honorary fellow of the Royal Institution of British Artists, author and TV/radio broadcaster Dan Cruickshank
14. Research fellow at King’s College London, fellow Of the Historical Association, New York Times bestselling author and TV/radio broadcaster, Bettany Hughes,
15. Author, TV and radio broadcaster Dan Snow,
16. Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, author and TV/radio broadcaster Michael Wood,
17. Author of ‘This is Serbia Calling’ and ‘Altered State’ Matthew Collin
