Things Fall Apart: The Music of 1999

date Wednesday, 29 March 2017 time 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

👤 Neal Fersko 🏢 Petworth Citizen & Reading Room

Past

1999 was an unprecedented year of commercial prosperity and critical acclaim for music across all genres. The age of Britney Spears, Ricky Martin, and the Backstreet Boys tearing up the pop charts and selling out arenas was counterbalanced by the The Flaming Lips, Moby, The Roots, and The Magnetic Fields garnering high praise from journalists and listeners.

On the cusp of the new millennium, the horizons for popular music seemed endless. A short time later, it would all plunge into chaos with the increasing obsolescence of physical albums, the widespread filesharing of songs (Napster started in 1999), and the fracturing of culture on the whole.

In this presentation, you’ll learn about the music of 1999 in great detail, in an effort to better understand the evolution of music over the last 15 years and how the challenges artists and labels currently face manifested themselves during one of the recording industry’s most successful years. 

Location

Petworth Citizen & Reading Room
829 Upshur St. NW
Washington, DC 20011
Neighborhood: Petworth

Past event