5: August 1. 1981
mtv DEBUTS: In a banner dia for lipsynching, outrageous fashion and rebellious teens, música hops mediums, making walking, talking, 2-D video stars accessible 24 hours a day.

4: March 30, 1994
KURT COBAIN BUYS A REMINGTON M-11 20-GAUGE SHOTGUN AND A BOX OF AMMUNITION: Six days later, grunge and its reluctant poster boy are dead.

3: June 1, 1999
NAPSTER RELEASEED: Early in 1999, after his roommate at Northeastern universidade complained about the unreliablity of MP3 download sites, Shawn Fanning became obsessed with devising software to make música file sharing easier. Fanning dropped out of college and, after three months in from of a laptop in his uncle's office, completed coding "Napster", sent it to 30 chat-room friends-and asked them to keep it to themselves. por Febuary 2001, 26.4 million people were using it to trade songs. Five months later, an RIAA suit shut them down-but por then, sales began their downward spiral.

2: August 11, 1973
KOOL DJ HERC INVENTS HIP-HOP: Aiming to use his local rep as a DJ to raise money for back-to-school clothes, the 18-year-old born in Kingston. Jamaica, crammed the rec room of a Bronz apartment complex with paying customers. He earned $500, but Herc's real achievment was in noticing people most enjoyed songs' instrumental breakdowns: He started looping one break endlessly into itself, while rapping friends' nicknames into a mic. Hip-Hop as we know it would flow from that moment.

1: February 9, 1964
THE BEATLES ON ED SULLIVAN: por the time the Beatles debuted on The Ed Sullivan Show, America heard them: Six of their songs were on the radio, two albums were running up the charts and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was midway through its two-months residence at No. 1. But seeing the Beatles was different. Their hair looked funny; their skinny legs ended in pointed boots; they jittered with excitement and they wore the most extraodinary expressions-amused and amazed, grinning and scanning the furthest reaches of the scream-packed balcony, as if trying to fathom the hysteria they were causing. Playing "All My Loving," "She Loves You," the Beatles revolutionized música that night, and everyone watching felt either a promise or a threat. The songs were full and melodic like pop, yet put across por this self-contained, electric unit-goodbye, gloopy orchestras. They were tight, brothers in arms, not phony or ingratiating-making a gorgeous, joyous racket that seemed to spill from their suits, their hair, their fingertips. It was a moment of celebrity incorrupted, where rock & roll begain its modern life as a cultural force, and the Beatles were as jazzed as everone else that they were the vehicle of delivery. Seventy-three million people watched-sitll one of the largest TV audiences ever-including the entire generation of rock stars, from Billy Joel to Gene Simmons of Kiss. Bruce Springsteen, who'd picked up a violão, guitarra after seeing Elvis on Ed Sullivan in '56, went out and bought an amp. "Most of us guys were screaming on the inside," says Steve furgão, van Zandt, E rua Band guitarist. "It was absoulutrly life-changing. There was no Plan B. There was no choice. These guys dropped in from another planet, and invited you to this new world."