With recording, everything changed. The prospect of music being detachable from time and place meant that one could start to think of music as a part of one’s furniture. It’s an idea that many composers have felt reluctant about because it seemed to them to diminish the importance of music.
Brian EnoI read every book there was on jazz, about the original players – King Oliver, Buddy Bolden and all those groups. At one time I was fairly well schooled in that… I could tell you who played where and when, historically, way before my time.
Clint EastwoodI probably could have toured off ‚Trilogy‘ for the rest of my life. It definitely changed the culture. No one can do a trilogy again without thanking The Weeknd.
The WeekndMick Fleetwood was one of my first interviews. And if you’ve ever talked to that dude, he’s the sweetest guy in the world – he’s just a trip.
Dave GrohlPeople today are still living off the table scraps of the sixties. They are still being passed around – the music and the ideas.
Bob DylanBefore recording technology existed, you could not separate music from its social context.
David ByrneMy mother and my father have been married 50 years, and he’s just started to understand that something’s wrong with the system. He accepted the whole thing, you see. Yet this industrious kind of engagement didn’t bring him the success, according to American terms, that he wanted. I was probably affected by this very much. In fact, I know I was.
Huey NewtonI grew up on the Beatles; I love Linkin Park and Green Day. I heard hip-hop for the first time at 11 and realized what I was missing.
Billie EilishPeople don’t realize what they had till it’s gone. Like President Kennedy, there was no one like him, the Beatles, and my man Elvis Presley. I was the Elvis of boxing.
Muhammad AliI have a very eclectic iPod. So I’ve got my cardio people – so it’s anything from Beyonce to some Jay-Z to Janelle Monae, her song ‚Tightrope,‘ that’s a good cardio song. And then I’ve got Sting. I’ve got Mary J. Blige. I’ve got The Beatles. I’ve got Michael Jackson. I try to pick the songs that I personally love.
Michelle ObamaPeople like Frank Zappa and Bryan Ferry knew we could pick and choose from the history of music, stick things together looking for friction and energy. They were more like playwrights; they invented characters and wrote a life around them.
Brian EnoPixies and Sonic Youth were so important to the eighties.
David BowieMy idea is always to reach my generation. The wise writer writes for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterward.
F. Scott FitzgeraldThe great music for so many artists – the Beatles, the Rolling Stones – was always at the moment when they were closest to pop. It would be easy for U2 to go off and have a concept album, but I want us to stay in the pop fray.
BonoJohn Lennon was definitely my favorite Beatle, hands down.
Kurt CobainIf it weren’t for the Beatles, I would not be a musician.
Dave GrohlThe Beatles created something that never trailed off. What a gift that was to their fans. If you’re into the Beatles, you loved them from beginning to end.
Jerry SeinfeldIt’s insane that, since the Beatles and Dylan, it’s assumed that all musicians should do everything themselves. It’s that ridiculous, teenage idea that when Mick Jagger sings, he’s telling you something about his own life. It’s so arrogant to think that people would want to know about it anyway!
Brian EnoTrap is new. It didn’t start yesterday, but when I was 5, it didn’t exist – not even in the U.S. I’ve evolved with the music.
Bad BunnyThe women of my generation and my daughter’s generation, they were very active in moving along the social change that would result in equal citizenship stature for men and women.
Ruth Bader GinsburgYou have to be a bastard to make it, and that’s a fact. And the Beatles are the biggest bastards on earth.
John LennonI was 19 or 20 when The Beatles were at their peak, and I was coming up to the peak of my career, too. I was also the first footballer to have long hair, and that’s how I got my nickname ‚the Fifth Beatle.‘
George BestMy model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each others‘ negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts.
Steve JobsWe have to understand what the older generation has dealt to us, what mess they have created that we have to clean up and live with.
Greta ThunbergI want to thank The Beatles for almost single-handedly getting me out of writer’s block.
Frank OceanI really love Linkin Park, and I loved Chester Bennington, and it is horrible what happened to him. I grew up listening to him because my dad would make these mixtapes with a lot of different artists – Linkin Park, Avril Lavigne, The Beatles, Sarah McLachlan, I just really loved Linkin Park, and their production is really sick.
Billie EilishI wish I could tell you me and my rock band were traveling around, strung out. No, we were a family band. Straight Partridge Family.
Bruno MarsThe great moments of rock ‚n‘ roll were never off in some corner of the music world, in a self-constructed ghetto.
BonoTupac, Biggie, Jay. Your usual suspects. These were the people that was played in my household.
Kendrick LamarThe signing of the Sex Pistols was a turning point for Virgin. It put the company on the map and, over the years, attracted bands such as Genesis, the Rolling Stones, Lenny Kravitz, and Janet Jackson. It also attracted Culture Club, who were ground-breaking.
Richard Branson