1988 in music - Definition and Overview

See also: 1987 in music, other events of 1988, 1989 in music, 1980s in music and the list of 'years in music'

Events

• January – Broadcast of the Cinemax television special Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night, recorded on September 30, 1987 at the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles, California.
• February 13 - Michael Jackson purchases a ranch in Santa Ynez, California. He calls his new home "Neverland".
• February 16 - Billy Vera receives a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame
• February 17 - A 12-year old Mötley Crüe fan in Florida is badly burned while trying to imitate a stunt in the band's "Live Wire" music video. The boy suffered burns over ten percent of his body. Mötley Crüe issued a statement saying the band's stunts should not be tried at home.
• February 24 - Alice Cooper announces that he is going to run for Governor of Arizona.
• March 10 - During a concert in Perth, Australia, George Michael thanks Tipper Gore, head of the Parents Music Resource Center, for helping the sales of his Faith album.
• March 12 - Record producer Jimmy Iovine presents the Special Olympics with a donation of $5 million, which was raised with the release of the A Very Special Christmas album.
• April to July - Suicidal Tendencies records How Will I Laugh Tomorrow If I Can't Even Smile Today?, which will be a blockbuster album on September 13
• April 19 - Former rock and roll singer Sonny Bono is inaugurated as the Mayor of Palm Springs, California
• May 1 - Citing the 1st Amendment, a judge drops all charges filed against singer Billy Joel. Joel was being sued by Jack Powers for defamation following an interview with Playboy magazine in which he called Powers a "creep".
• July 1 - Quartetto Cetra's last concert.
• August 28 - While traveling down the Ventura Freeway in Southern California, the motor home carrying the Charlie Daniels band bursts into flames. Daniels and his band members escape without injury.
• October 10 - Acid House: Genesis'88 stage their first illegal Acid House Party in UK
• November - The "Guess The Eddies" contest begins, inviting people to guess the identities of the six members of the rock band The Swirling Eddies.
• Compact discs outsell vinyl records for the first time.
• "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" experiences a surge in popularity sparked by television commercials featuring claymation raisin figures dancing to the song. The California Raisins version of the song peaks at No. 84 on Billboard's Hot 100.
• December 4 - singer Roy Orbison gives his last concert in Akron, Ohio.
• December 31 - Acid House: Genesis & Sunrise/Back to the Future stage the biggest Acid Party in the world in a warehouse in Hackney, UK (5,000 people)

• Nirvana's career begins
• Phish's career begins
• Steven Morrissey begins solo career;
• The Offspring begins their recording career
• Baha Men forms
• After 7 forms
• Blind Melon forms
• Blues Traveler forms
• Cypress Hill forms
• Guttermouth forms
• Jesus Jones forms
• No Doubt forms
• Radiohead forms (as On A Friday)
• Warrior Soul forms
• Big Black break up
• The Cars break up

Albums released

• Blow Up Your Video - AC/DC
• Forever Your Girl - Paula Abdul (debut)
• Y Kant Tori Read - Tori Amos (debut)
• State Of Euphoria - Anthrax
• Pound For Pound - Anvil
• Saints Will Conquer - Armored Saint
• Suffer - Bad Religion
• Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart - Camper Van Beethoven
• In Heat - Black N' Blue (final album)
• New Jersey - Bon Jovi
• Britny Fox - Britny Fox (debut ALBUM)
• Bullet Boys - Bullet Boys (debut)
• Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman (debut)
• 19 - Chicago
• LOng Cold Winter - Cinderella
• I'm Your Man - Leonard Cohen
• The Trinity Sessions - Cowboy Junkies
• Dangerous Age - Bad Company
• Danzig I - Danzig (debut, Glenn Danzig's 3rd band following The Misfits & Samhain)
• Wyau - Datblygu
• Bug - Dinosaur Jr.
• Beast From the East - Dokken (live album)
• Big Thing - Duran Duran
• Copperhead Road - Steve Earle
• The Innocents - Erasure
• Wild Wild West - The Escape Club
• On Target - Fastway (final album)
• Only Life - The Feelies
• Lita - Lita Ford
• Live 1 EP - Frehley's Comet
• Second Sighting - Frehley's Comet
• Fugazi (album) - Fugazi (debut EP)
• Breakwater - Lennie Gallant (debut)
• Gipsy Kings - Gipsy Kings
• The Sweet Children - Green Day
• GNR Lies - Guns N' Roses
• Racing after Midnight - Honeymoon Suite
• Over The Edge - Hurricane (debut ALBUM)
• Seventh Son of a Seventh Son - Iron Maiden
• Colin James - Colin James
• Nothing's Shocking - Jane's Addiction
• 20 Years of Jethro Tull - Jethro Tull
• Reg Strikes Back - Elton John
• Greatest Hits (1977-1987) - Journey
• Ram It Down - Judas Priest
• Straight Out The Jungle - The Jungle Brothers
• Shadowland - k.d. lang
• Big Deal - Killer Dwarfs
• Smashes, Thrashes & Hits - KISS
• King Kobra III - King Kobra (final album)
• Blow My Fuse - Kix
• Kylie - Kylie (debut album)
• L.A. Guns - L.A. Guns (debut)
• Lillian Axe - Lillian Axe
• Vivid - Living Colour
• Pontiac - Lyle Lovett
• Odyssey - Yngwie Malmsteen (or Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force)
• So Far, So Good... So What! - Megadeth
• ...And Justice for All - Metallica
• Time Odyssey - Vinnie Moore
• No Sleep At All - Motörhead (live album)
• Isn't Anything - My Bloody Valentine
• Land of Dreams - Randy Newman
• Tender Prey - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
• If You Can't Lick Em'...Lick Em' - Ted Nugent (last solo album before forming the 90's band Damn Yankees)
• The Lion and the Cobra - Sinéad O'Connor
• Outrider - Jimmy Page
• Force Majuer - Doro Pesch (former Warlock vocalists solo debut album)
• Introspective - Pet Shop Boys (EP)
• The Indescribable Wow - Sam Phillips
• Delicate Sound of Thunder - Pink Floyd
• Surfer Rosa - Pixies
• Open Up And Say...Ahh!! - Poison
• Lovesexy - Prince
• It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back - Public Enemy
• Operation: Mindcrime - Queensrÿche
• Quiet Riot - Quiet Riot
• Green - R.E.M.
• Abbey Road EP - The Red Hot Chili Peppers
• The Uplift Mofo Party Plan - The Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Talk Is Cheap - Keith Richards
• Skyscraper - David Lee Roth
• Savage Amusement - Scorpions
• Sick Of It All - Sick of it All (debut album)
• South of Heaven - Slayer
• Green Thoughts - The Smithereens
• Out Of Order - Rod Stewart
• In God We Trust - Stryper
• How Will I Laugh Tomorrow If I Can't Even Smile Today? - Suicidal Tendencies
• Daydream Nation - Sonic Youth
• Junekbox - Jamaaladeen Tacuma
• Toots in Memphis - Toots
• Traveling Wilburys, Volume I - Traveling Wilburys
• The Live Brain Wedgie/WAD - Ween
• Lucinda Williams - Lucinda Williams
• Winger - Winger (debut)
• Roll With It - Steve Winwood
• Rattle and Hum - U2
• OU812 - Van Halen
• Vixen - Vixen (debut)

Top hits

• "Kokomo" - The Beach Boys
• "Don't Worry, Be Happy" - Bobby McFerrin
• "Man in the Mirror" - Michael Jackson
• "Get Outta My Dreams (Get Into My Car)" - Billy Ocean
• "Anything for You" - Gloria Estefan
• "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" - Poison
• "Never Gonna Give You Up" - Rick Astley
• "Look Away" - Chicago
• "Johnny B. Goode" - Judas Priest
• "One More Try" - George Michael
• "Roll With It" - Steve Winwood
• "Sweet Child O' Mine" -Guns N' Roses
• "Mountain Song" - Jane's Addiction
• "Got My Mind Set On You" - George Harrison
• "1-2-3" - Gloria Estefan & the Miami Sound Machine
• "Forever Young" - Rod Stewart
• "Is this Love" - Whitesnake
• "I Get Weak" - Belinda Carlisle
• "The Promise" - When In Rome

Published popular music

• "Kissing A Fool" w.m. George Michael

Classical music

• Mario Davidovsky - Synchronisms No. 9 for violin and tape
• Peter Sculthorpe - Kakadu
• Tōru Takemitsu - Tree Line for chamber orchestra
• John Tavener - The Akathist of Thanksgiving

Musical theater

• Bitter Sweet (Noel Coward) - London revival
• Chess (Tim Rice, Benny Andersson & Bjorn Ulvaeus) - Broadway production
• The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Broadway production
• Sarafina     Broadway production

Births

• May 5 - Skye Sweetnam, Canadian pop singer
• August 27 - Alexa Vega, Spy Kids as Carmen Cortez and song for "Isle Of Dreams"
• October 8 - Scott Gall, graffiti artist.

Deaths

• January 19 - Evgeny Mravinsky, conductor
• February 27 - Gene De Paul, US pianist and composer
• March 8 - Henryk Szeryng, violinist
• March 10 - Andy Gibb, singer
• April 9 - Brook Benton, complications of spinal meningitis.
• April 9 - Dave Prater, of Sam & Dave, car accident
• May 22 - Dennis Day, US singer
• June 25, Hillel Slovak, Red Hot Chili Peppers, guitarist
• August 9 - Giacinto Scelsi, composer
• October 7 - Billy Daniels, US singer
• October 19, Son House, blues musician
• November 13 - Antal Doráti, conductor
• December 2 - Tata Giacobetti, Italian singer and lyricist (Quartetto Cetra)
• December 6, Roy Orbison, singer

Awards

• The following artists are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Drifters, Bob Dylan, and The Supremes

Grammy Awards

• Grammy Awards of 1988

Country Music Association Awards

Eurovision Song Contest

• Eurovision Song Contest 1988

External links

Acid House E-Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/acidhouse88/)