27 songs that changed the world: from the rock'n'roll revolution to era-defining protest anthems
Music history contains not only the biographies of individual artists but also the catalogue of cultural events that reframe entire eras. HistoryExtra's special compilation, '27 songs that changed the world', curated by journalist and music historian Jonathan Wright, offers a summary of that catalogue. The list brings together works that produced not only artistic but also political, cultural and social effects in music history from the mid-20th century into the 21st.
The first section of the list covers the rock'n'roll revolution between the late 1950s and the mid-1960s. The songs that defined that era include Bill Haley & His Comets's 'Rock Around the Clock' (1955), Chuck Berry's 'Johnny B. Goode' (1958) and The Beatles's 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' (1963). In Wright's HistoryExtra commentary, 'Johnny B. Goode' is highlighted as a milestone in the development of Berry's electric guitar technique.
The second arc of the list addresses the golden age of protest music. Bob Dylan's 'The Times They Are A-Changin'' (1964), Sam Cooke's 'A Change Is Gonna Come' (1964) and Pete Seeger's arrangement of 'We Shall Overcome' make up the soundscapes of the American Civil Rights movement. In Wright's commentary, the elevation of the Sam Cooke piece to Civil Rights anthem status is described as having occurred after the artist was subjected to racial segregation in Mississippi in March 1963.
The global impact of Latin music and world music also appears on the list. Antônio Carlos Jobim's 'The Girl from Ipanema' (1962) carried bossa nova onto the world music stage and emblematised Brazil's last golden economic era before the military coup. Bob Marley's 'No Woman, No Cry' (1975) elevated reggae to international spokespiece for political resistance. The choice of these two pieces shows the importance of music's cross-border circulation.
The rise of disco and electronic music is represented by two entries on the list. Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' (1977) is regarded as one of the first proofs that electronic music could be made with electronic instruments. This piece, along with Giorgio Moroder's synthesizer production, formed one of the foundations of today's electronic dance music. Wright's compilation records 'I Feel Love' as the first important meeting of artificial intelligence and music during the US disco era.
The punk movement is an important break point in music history. The Sex Pistols's 'Anarchy in the U.K.' (1976) and The Clash's 'London Calling' (1979) represent how Britain's late-1970s social and economic crisis turned into sound. Wright's HistoryExtra commentary recalls that 'London Calling' was recorded amid the nuclear-disaster anxiety of the Cold War era and was influenced by China-UK relations.
The global rise of hip-hop began in the late 1980s. Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five's 'The Message' (1982) appears on the list as the first major representation of the movement. This piece was assessed as a social commentary on urban poverty and the Black American community experience. Wright's compilation references how hip-hop in the subsequent four decades became a significant part of the global export of American culture.
For the 1990s and 2000s, the list covers different genres including Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' (1991) and Eminem's 'Lose Yourself' (2002). According to Wright, 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' carrying alternative rock into the mainstream was part of the music industry's structural transformation in the 1990s. During this period record companies turned away from investing in major rock stars and towards alternative groups.
Included among the 21st-century soundscapes on the list are Beyoncé's 'Single Ladies' (2008) and Kendrick Lamar's 'Alright' (2015). 'Alright' became the unofficial anthem of the Black Lives Matter movement and constituted the music-side reflection of the race question in American cultural space after 2015. In Wright's compilation, Lamar's winning of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2018 is noted as the formal endorsement of this cultural recognition.
At the end of the list are examples of new works from the 2020s: Lil Nas X's 'Old Town Road' (2019) and BTS's 'Dynamite' (2020) show how global music flows have changed on digital platforms. HistoryExtra's concluding assessment emphasises that works regarded as 'turning points' in music history are almost always linked to broader cultural events. Wright's compilation supports the idea that these works are not merely entertainment but sound recordings of the social movements that shaped their eras. The list appears in HistoryExtra's membership section, with all 27 tracks accompanied by musical and historical contextual analysis.