See also:
1973 in music,
other events of 1974,
1975 in music, 1970s in music and the list of 'years in music'
Events
- February 10 - record producer Phil Spector is badly injured in a car accident. Details of the accident are kept secret.
- February 12 - New York's legendary rock club, The Bottom Line, opens in Greenwich Village.
- February 14 - The Captain & Tennille are married in Virginia City, Nevada.
- February 18 - Yes sells out the first of two nights at Madison Square Garden, without a bit of advertising for the show.
- February 20 - Cher files for divorce from her husband of 10 years, Sonny Bono.
- March 12 - John Lennon is involved in an altercation with a photographer outside the Troubador club in Los Angeles, California. Lennon and friend Harry Nilsson had been heckling comedian Tommy Smothers and were forced to leave the club.
- April 6 - 200,000 music fans attend The California Jam rock festival. Artists performing at the event include Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Black Oak Arkansas, and the Eagles.
- April 25 - Pam Morrison, Jim Morrison's widow, is found dead in her Hollywood, California apartment from an apparent heroin overdose.
- August 7 - Peter Wolf, lead singer of the J. Geils Band, marries actress Faye Dunaway.
- Patti Smith releases her debut recording, "Hey Joe", which many consider to be the first punk rock single.
- Lord Shorty's Endless Vibrations is the first soca LP and the first major soca hit worldwide.
- Peter Gabriel leaves Genesis and begins solo career.
- Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is performed for the first time.
- Rover Thomas claims to have been visited in a dream by a deceased friend near Warmun, Australia and receives the Krill Krill song cycle.
- Dino Martin, singer and son of Dean Martin, is arrested on suspicion of possession and sale of two machine guns.
- Journey signs to Columbia Records.
- Talking Heads forms.
- Japan forms.
- Firefall forms.
- Daniel Amos forms out of the remnants of Jubal's Last Band.
- The Ramones form.
Albums released
Top hits on record
Published popular music
Births
Deaths
- February 15 - Kurt Atterberg, composer
- March 7 - Alberto Rabagliati, Italian singer and actor
- March 28 - Arthur Big Boy Crudup
- March 28 - Dorothy Fields, lyricist
- April 15 - Giovanni D'Anzi, Italian songwriter
- April 17 - Blossom Seeley, US singer and vaudeville entertainer
- April 25 - Pam Morrison, Jim Morrison's widow, heroin overdose
- May 24 - Duke Ellington
- June 22 - Darius Milhaud, composer
- June 27 - Cliff Friend, US composer
- July 29 - "Mama" Cass Elliott, singer The Mamas & the Papas
- September 3 - Harry Partch, composer
- September 23 - Robbie McIntosh, drummer Average White Band
- October 24 - David Oistrakh, violinist
- November 11 - Alfonso Leng, composer
- November 19 - George Brunies, jazz musician
Awards
Washington Post Music Critic Tim Page has described 1974 as being the worst year in pop music.
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