Music is such an important and intricate part of our lives that most of use cannot even imagine life without it. Everyone has a soundtrack to their life, whether they realize it or not. Music is there to cheer us up when we are down and be the back drop to our happy times. It plays an important role in memorable life events. For some, lyrics can be so close to their own thoughts and feeling that they feel a connection to the singer.
There are many little known facts out there relating to music. Some are informative and others are downright strange. Here are just a few that I came across:
In 1980, Philips and Sony developed the CD.
Around 40 billion songs are downloaded illegally each year, which is nearly 90% of all music downloads
Even though the music industry make about $4 billion in online music, it loses about $40 billion due to illegal downloads.
Mad scientist from the movie Barbarella is what inspired the name Duran Duran.
Peter Stewart of Birmingham, UK set a world record in 1983 – he disco danced for a whopping 408 hours.
The English are the highest spenders on music, buying 7.2% of the world music market.
The world’s best-selling musical instrument is surprisingly the harmonica.
The best selling singles ever are “Candle in the Wind ‘97″by Elton John, which sold 33 million, “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby, selling 30 million, and “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley selling 25 million.
Frank Beard is the only member of ZZ Top who does not have a beard.
Bruce Springsteen’s song “Born in the USA” was the first CD in the U.S.
Birds, similar to human beings, can learn music while still in the egg stage.
Coincidentally, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Jim Morrison all died at the young age of 27.
While listening to heavy metal, termites will eat through wood two times faster.
Musician Eric Clapton spent many years of his childhood under the impression that his mother was actually his sister.
The very first video to appear by a black artist on MTV was ‘Billie Jean’ by Michael Jackson. Originally, the channel was not keen on the idea of playing music by black artists.
And there you have it – strange but true!