Marianne Faithfull 

In the 1960s, Marianne Faithfull emerged as the ethereal muse of Mick Jagger, inspiring numerous songs by the Rolling Stones, including “Wild Horses” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Being attached to the Stones came with plenty of turmoil and turbulence, but Faithfull survived the excesses of the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle while contributing significantly to the band’s creative evolution. Faithfull was far more than just a muse, though — she was a rock star and music icon in her own right, and one of the leading female artists of the British Invasion.

Yoko Ono 

Yoko Ono was an avant-garde artist who became John Lennon’s wife, collaborator, and muse. She was unfairly blamed for the breakup of the Beatles, a stigma that has yet to be fully shed — being labeled a “Yoko” is still the death knell of many a rock muse. But without Ono as his creative partner and inspiration, Lennon wouldn’t have penned songs such as the Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down” and “I Want You (She's So Heavy).” Fans also would have missed out on Lennon’s most famous and beloved solo track, “Imagine,” for which Ono received a co-writing credit.   

Mary Austin

In 1969, just a year before Queen formed, Freddie Mercury met Mary Austin at the fashion boutique where she worked in Kensington, London. They began a long-term romantic relationship that ended when Mercury told Austin that he was gay, but their friendship remained strong. Austin became Mercury’s lifelong soulmate and muse, and he wrote several songs about her, most notably “Love of My Life.” In 1985, six years before his death, Mercury said, “All my lovers asked me why they couldn’t replace Mary, but it’s simply impossible. The only friend I’ve got is Mary, and I don’t want anybody else.” Austin was by Mercury’s side when he died, and he left her half of his $75 million estate. 

Bebe Buell

In the 1970s, Bebe Buell caused quite a buzz. As well as being a model and Playboy magazine’s “Playmate of the Month” in November 1974, she mixed with many of the most legendary bands and musicians of the decade — not as a groupie, as she has often said, but as a muse. Enough songs to fill an entire album are believed to have been written about Buell, including Todd Rundgren’s “Can We Still Be Friends,” Prince’s “Little Red Corvette,” and Elvis Costello’s “Human Hands.” Her other high-profile rock star relationships included Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop, Jimmy Page, Rod Stewart, and Steven Tyler (Buell is Liv Tyler’s mother) — so it’s likely she inspired more rock ’n’ roll tunes than we know. 

Linda McCartney 

Linda Eastman met Paul McCartney in 1967 while on a photo assignment in London. The two hit it off almost immediately, beginning one of the greatest love stories in pop music history. Linda McCartney became Paul’s wife, soulmate, and musical partner in the band Wings, forging a personal and artistic relationship that spanned three decades until Linda’s death in 1998. She inspired many of Paul’s songs, including “Maybe I’m Amazed,” “My Love,” “Heart of the Country,” and “The Lovely Linda.” Paul once said of his wife, “Any love song I write is written for Linda.”

A Neanderthal Flute May Be 60,000 Years Old

In 1995, an archaeological team discovered an unusual object in the cave of Divje Babe, located around 755 feet above the Idrijca River in Western Slovenia. This object was a 4.5-inch bone that featured two perfectly preserved holes and two partial holes lined up on one side, along with what appeared to be a sharpened rim on one end. 

The bone was revealed to be the femur of a juvenile cave bear. Analysis of the archaeological layer where both the bone and stone tools were found yielded an age of around 50,000 to 60,000 years old. Because Homo sapiens didn't arrive in Europe until around 40,000 years ago, these objects were attributed to the Neanderthals. 

Researchers were intrigued by what they determined to be symmetrical, human-made holes on the bone. Through careful replication of the item, musicologists discovered that the pitches created by blowing into the bone and varying finger placement on the holes matched the notes of the standard diatonic scale. The result was a playable instrument that created what certainly sounds like music to modern ears.

Beyond holding a claim as the oldest known instrument, the Divje Babe flute presented a new dilemma for sociologists to consider: If Neanderthals were capable of designing instruments to express themselves through music, they were perhaps far more intelligent than initially believed.

Critics Dispute the Age and Origins of the Neanderthal Flute

Despite the flute's well-publicized place on the National Museum of Slovenia's website, some archaeologists aren’t buying its designation as a landmark discovery.

In a 2015 paper, paleoecologist Cajus G. Diedrich of the Paleo-Logic Independent Institute of Geosciences detailed his examinations of the Neanderthal flute and what he found to be a lack of any telltale signs of human-instigated puncturing. He suggested that the shape and positioning of holes were indicative of the bite marks of an Ice Age spotted hyena instead.

While one might point to the playability of the flute as proof that it was fashioned as an instrument, the paper cast doubt on the reliability of the techniques that determined its age. Even the museum describes the treasured object as "about 20,000 years older than other known flutes," providing additional fodder for critics who are skeptical of this outlier of such extraordinary age.

Musical Discoveries in Germany Are More Reliably Dated

If the Divje Babe bone is no more than a hyena chew toy, then other Paleolithic flutes present sturdier evidence of being the oldest surviving musical instruments.

During the first decade of the 2000s, a series of excavations in caves in southwestern Germany uncovered a variety of flutes made from bird bones and mammoth ivory by some of the earliest humans in the area. Although the artifacts were originally believed to be in the neighborhood of 35,000 years old, improved radiocarbon dating technology has pushed the ages of the flutes from one site to between 42,000 and 43,000 years old.

Overall, this discovery is more consistent with the long-held view that Homo sapiens were able to eclipse the Neanderthals through their capacity for innovation. Additionally, researchers cited the radiocarbon dating results as evidence that our prehistoric ancestors appeared in the Upper Danube region earlier than originally thought, before a cold climactic phase settled in the area approximately 40,000 years ago.

Perhaps this ability to make music is something to be celebrated as distinctly human. And as modern musicians keep pushing the envelope with their original compositions and means for conveying them, we may be fortunate enough to learn more about humanity’s musical origins as even older instruments are discovered.

1930s

The 1930s were dominated by legendary artists such as Cab Calloway and Fred Astaire. In 1935, a program called Your Hit Parade debuted on TV and radio, and published the first weekly music chart in the U.S., preceding the Billboard charts by five years. The list took into account multiple factors such as record sales and total radio plays, and it debuted with “Soon” by Bing Crosby in the No. 1 spot for the inaugural week of April 20, 1935. The top song of the entire decade, meanwhile, was “My Reverie” by Larry Clinton, which stayed at No. 1 for eight weeks in 1938.

1930 — “Happy Days Are Here Again” by Ben Selvin
1931 — “Minnie the Moocher” by Cab Calloway & His Cotton Club Orchestra
1932 — “Night and Day” by Fred Astaire and Leo Reisman
1933 — “Stormy Weather (Keeps Rainin’ All the Time)” by Ethel Waters
1934 — “Moonglow” by Benny Goodman
1935 — “Cheek to Cheek” by Fred Astaire
1936 — “The Way You Look Tonight” by Fred Astaire
1937 — “Once in a While” by Tommy Dorsey
1938 — “My Reverie” by Larry Clinton
1939 — “Over the Rainbow” by Glenn Miller

1940s

Billboard unveiled its first music chart in July 1940, and the song “I’ll Never Smile Again” — which featured a young Frank Sinatra on vocals — topped the chart for the first 12 weeks. From 1940 through 1943, Billboard only took into account retail sales for determining the top song, but later years saw the introduction of charts that tracked other metrics, such as total jukebox plays and radio play. Throughout the 1940s, orchestral bandleaders such as Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, and Glenn Miller dominated the music scene in terms of retail sales and on-air playtime. Here’s a look at the most popular Billboard songs from the 1940s based on total sales, the one metric that was used throughout the decade. 

1940 — “I’ll Never Smile Again” by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra with Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers
1941 — “Frenesi” by Artie Shaw and His Orchestra
1942 — “Moonlight Cocktail” by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra
1943 — “I’ve Heard That Song Before” by Harry James and His Orchestra with Helen Forrest
1944 — “Swinging on a Star” by Bing Crosby with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra and the Williams Brothers Quartet 
1945 — “Till the End of Time” by Perry Como with Russ Case and His Orchestra
1946 — “The Gypsy” by the Ink Spots
1947 — “Heartaches” by Ted Weems and His Orchestra with Elmo Tanner
1948 — “Mañana (Is Soon Enough for Me)” by Peggy Lee with Dave Barbour and the Brazilians
1949 — “Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend)” by Vaughn Monroe and His Orchestra

1950s

The early 1950s continued many of the musical trends from the 1940s, as bandleaders and musical standards continued to dominate the top of the charts — that is, until Elvis Presley showed up and revolutionized the music scene. Elvis topped the charts in both 1956 and 1957, the two years that preceded the first-ever Hot 100 ranking. In 1958, the weekly Hot 100 chart debuted with Ricky Nelson’s “Poor Little Fool” in the No. 1 spot, though it was “Volare” by Domenico Modugno that ended up being the best-performing song that year, based on the number of weeks it spent on the chart, the number of records sold, and how much airplay it received.

1950 — “Goodnight Irene” by Gordon Jenkins and His Orchestra and the Weavers
1951 — “How High the Moon” by Les Paul and Mary Ford
1952 — “Cry” by Johnnie Ray and the Four Lads
1953 — “The Song From Moulin Rouge (Where Is Your Heart)” by Percy Faith and His Orchestra featuring Felicia Sanders
1954 — “Little Things Means a Lot” by Kitty Kallen with Jack Pleiss and His Orchestra 
1955 — “Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White” by Pérez Prado and His Orchestra
1956 — “Don’t Be Cruel” by Elvis Presley
1957 — “All Shook Up” by Elvis Presley
1958 — “Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blue)” by Domenico Modugno
1959 — “The Battle of New Orleans” by Johnny Horton

1960s

The 1960s saw a seismic shift in the types of songs people listened to. While the year 1960 saw the orchestral “Theme From a Summer Place” top the Hot 100, it wasn’t long until pop acts began dominating the charts: The Beatles reached No. 1 for the first time with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in 1964, and also produced the most popular song of 1968, “Hey Jude.” Some songs, such as 1965’s “Wooly Bully,” never actually reached No. 1, but still performed better in terms of overall sales and total airplay than any other song that year. By the end of the 1960s, pop and rock music had completely displaced orchestral tunes as the most popular music genres in the country.

1960 — “Theme From a Summer Place” by Percy Faith
1961 —  “Tossin’ and Turnin’” by Bobby Lewis
1962 — “Stranger on the Shore” by Acker Bilk
1963 — “Sugar Shack” by Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs
1964 — “I Want To Hold Your Hand” by the Beatles
1965 — “Wooly Bully” by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs
1966 — “The Ballad of the Green Berets” by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler
1967 — “To Sir With Love” by Lulu
1968 — “Hey Jude” by the Beatles
1969 — “Sugar, Sugar” by the Archies

1970s

The 1970s were a time of rich musical diversity. The decade opened with the folksy vocal stylings of Simon & Garfunkel atop the charts, but by 1979, the Hot 100 was all about powerful drums and raging guitar solos, and the Knack’s “My Sharona” was the most popular song in the decade’s final year. During the years in between, legendary performers such as Barbra Streisand, Rod Stewart, and Paul McCartney’s Wings topped the charts.

1970 — “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon & Garfunkel
1971 — “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night
1972 — “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” by Roberta Flack
1973 — “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” by Dawn featuring Tony Orlando
1974 — “The Way We Were” by Barbra Streisand
1975 — “Love Will Keep Us Together” by Captain & Tennille
1976 — “Silly Love Songs” by Wings
1977 — “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright)” by Rod Stewart
1978 — “Shadow Dancing” by Andy Gibb
1979 — “My Sharona” by the Knack

1980s

Acts such as George Michael, Prince, and the Police dominated the 1980s with their smash hit songs, many of which began to incorporate melancholic themes and relied heavily on minor keys. What’s notable about this decade is that pretty much every one of the top-performing songs continues to get widespread airplay today, proving just how much of an impact the 1980s had on the musical world.

1980 — “Call Me” by Blondie
1981 — “Bette Davis Eyes” by Kim Carnes
1982 — “Physical” by Olivia Newton-John
1983 — “Every Breath You Take” by the Police
1984 — “When Doves Cry” by Prince
1985 — “Careless Whisper” by Wham! featuring George Michael
1986 — “That’s What Friends Are For” by Dionne and Friends
1987 — “Walk Like an Egyptian” by the Bangles
1988 — “Faith” by George Michael
1989 — “Look Away” by Chicago

1990s

The 1990s saw the rise of R&B and rap music. Boys II Men topped the Hot 100 in 1992 with “End of the Road,” and 1995 saw Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” climb to No. 1. Meanwhile, Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind 1997” topped the Hot 100 chart as a tribute to the late Princess Diana. In fact, that song is the second-highest-selling physical single of all time, with 33 million copies sold, around 17 million fewer copies than Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas.”

1990 — “Hold On” by Wilson Phillips
1991 — “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” by Bryan Adams
1992 — “End of the Road” by Boyz II Men
1993 — “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston
1994 — “The Sign” by Ace of Base
1995 — “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio featuring L.V.
1996 — “Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)” by Los del Río
1997 — “Candle in the Wind 1997” by Elton John
1998 — “Too Close” by Next
1999 — “Believe” by Cher

21st Century

As we push further into the 21st century, we’ve come a long way since the songs of the 1940s. This century has seen an eclectic mix of music top the Hot 100 charts, including the harder rock stylings of Nickelback, hip-hop tunes from Usher, and songs produced by larger-than-life celebrities such as Beyoncé and Justin Bieber. Here’s a look at the most popular songs from each year of the 21st century thus far.

2000 — “Breathe” by Faith Hill
2001 — “Hanging by a Moment” by Lifehouse
2002 — “How You Remind Me” by Nickelback
2003 — “In da Club” by 50 Cent
2004 — “Yeah!” by Usher featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris
2005 — “We Belong Together” by Mariah Carey
2006 — “Bad Day” by Daniel Powter
2007 — “Irreplaceable” by Beyoncé
2008 — “Low” by Flo Rida featuring T-Pain
2009 — “Boom Boom Pow” by the Black Eyed Peas
2010 — “Tik Tok” by Kesha
2011 — “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele
2012 — “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye featuring Kimbra
2013 — “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz
2014 — “Happy” by Pharrell Williams
2015 — “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars
2016 — “Love Yourself” by Justin Bieber
2017 — “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran
2018 — “God’s Plan” by Drake
2019 — “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus
2020 — “Blinding Lights” by the Weeknd
2021 — “Levitating” by Dua Lipa
2022 — “Heat Waves” by Glass Animals
2023 — “Last Night” by Morgan Wallen

Dylan Goes Electric 

Rock historians aren’t in total agreement as to what precisely went down when Bob Dylan took the stage at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965. They all agree, however, that it was a hugely significant night for rock music. Dylan was the champion of the folk music revival of the early 1960s — a traditionally all-acoustic movement. So, when he strode onto the stage carrying a Fender Stratocaster rather than his more familiar acoustic guitar, the crowd was not pleased. 

At the time, Dylan’s now-classic single “Like a Rolling Stone” was hugely popular on the radio, but folk purists didn’t like the song’s mix of electric blues and rock ’n’ roll. When Dylan and his accompanying backing band — some also wielding electronic instruments — started playing, sections of the crowd began booing. Accounts vary as to the intensity of the crowd’s reaction, but Dylan played only three songs before leaving the stage. When he returned, he performed two songs on acoustic guitar — “Mr. Tambourine Man,” followed by “It's All Over Now, Baby Blue” — and then left for good. It was an edgy night by most accounts, but a pivotal moment in the development of folk rock, expanding the bounds of rock ’n’ roll. 

The Beatles Release “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” 

In 1967, Paul McCartney played the Beatles’ latest album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” to Bob Dylan. Dylan’s response: “Oh, I get it, you don’t want to be cute anymore.” He was right — the Fab Four had turned a creative corner. Deciding that live performances and screaming fans weren’t enough, they wanted to become a serious studio band, and with “Sgt. Pepper’s,” the Beatles announced to the world that they were true artists. The album was revolutionary. Regarded by many as the first concept album, it is bursting with creativity and musical innovation, featuring French horns, tape loops, bass harmonicas, harpsichords, sitars, and more. The album changed not only rock music, but pop culture itself.

Woodstock

On August 15, 1969, 32 acts and more than 400,000 attendees arrived at Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in Bethel, New York, for three days of peace, love, drugs, and, most importantly, rock ’n’ roll. It was immediately obvious that the festival was going to be big, but no one knew just how iconic Woodstock would become. Despite various technical difficulties, food shortages, and bad weather, the festival became a living embodiment of the 1960s counterculture. As for the lineup, it was quite something: The Who, Carlos Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone, the Grateful Dead, The Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joan Baez, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, to name but a few. And then there was Jimi Hendrix, who gave arguably the most iconic performance of the entire festival with his stirring, feedback-fueled rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” 

The Launch of MTV 

Just after midnight on August 1, 1981, MTV — the world’s first television channel devoted to showing music videos — launched with the announcement, “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll,” as the station went on air. The first video broadcast on the fledgling channel was, fittingly, “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. Despite some initial hype and interest, MTV struggled in its early years, in part due to a lack of music videos. But as it expanded its programming, MTV took off in a major way. By the mid-1980s, it was having a major cultural impact not only on music and TV but also on movies and advertising. Record companies began noting video’s effect on record sales, and soon the channel was launching the careers of newcomers such as Prince, Cyndi Lauper, and Duran Duran, and turning the likes of Madonna and Michael Jackson into global superstars. Music videos became big business, and MTV’s adoption of grunge and rap in the 1990s brought about a major shift in popular music.