- 1 year ago
From tragic accidents to shocking acts of violence, the music world has experienced truly haunting moments. Join us as we explore the darkest chapters in music history that forever changed the cultural landscape. Our countdown includes stories of devastating fires, deadly crowd crushes, murdered icons, and the tragic "27 Club" phenomenon that claimed too many stars too soon.
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00:00The killer? A young man named Mark David Chapman.
00:05Who actually posed for pictures with Lennon earlier in the day.
00:09Welcome to WatchMojo.
00:11And today, we're looking at tragic events within the music industry that left a lasting cultural mark.
00:17Before you knew it, the lights went out and it was all over.
00:22The Beverly Hills Supper Club fire.
00:25On May 28th, 1977, a disastrous fire broke out at the Beverly Hills Supper Club before a show by singer John Davidson.
00:34Beverly Hills there, as you can see, has been almost completely destroyed.
00:37The place was packed this evening. John Davidson in concert.
00:41There were at least 5,000 dinners served there this evening.
00:44On top of all of the other people that came there not to eat, but just to see the John Davidson program.
00:48Overcrowding, inadequate fire alarms, and a lack of emergency exits were cited as major factors in the devastation that unfolded.
00:58The fire that engulfed the building caused its poorly built structure to cave in on itself.
01:04We could see that place was ablaze, and I have never seen a fire like that.
01:10With no way to help those trapped inside, 165 people lost their lives, while more than 200 suffered injuries.
01:19It was the worst multiple-death building fire in the U.S. in 55 years, and it highlighted the need for proper safety features and construction materials in the nightclub industry.
01:30If you go into a building now and see a sign on the wall that says the occupancy limit of that room, all can be traced back to the tragedy on that hillside 40 years ago.
01:40It was a truly dark day for the United States.
01:44The Astroworld crush.
01:46The worst thing about 2021's infamous Astroworld crush was the fact that it probably could have been avoided.
01:54On the evening of November 5th, tens of thousands of people in NRG Park in Houston waited in anticipation of rapper Travis Scott's performance.
02:04The event's organizers were aware that fitting 50,000 people into a space designed for under just 35,000 was a dangerous proposition.
02:13But when Travis Scott's boisterous live performance went ahead, the problems became very clear.
02:19Minutes into Scott's show, that same section had pockets of extremely high density.
02:24The crowd became physically overwhelmed during a particularly lively show with no way to escape.
02:31Ten people tragically lost their lives.
02:34A further 25 were hospitalized, and more than 300 sustained some form of injury.
02:39Blame was directed at the show's organizers, Scott himself, and even guest performer Drake.
02:45Overall, it was hard to shake the feeling that someone should have seen this coming.
02:51It's just something that you'll never forget, and something that's truly traumatizing.
02:56Phil Spector commits murder.
02:59Phil Spector was a producer-songwriter known for his innovative creation of the Wall of Sound method in popular music,
03:06and for credits ranging from the Beatles to the Ramones.
03:09These days, his reputation precedes him for a very different reason.
03:23Spector has been described as a violent man in a gun-toting menace in the years following his most prolific era.
03:30He appeared eccentric, troubled, lonely, a man mired in his own darkness.
03:35But in 2003, he shot and killed actress Lana Clarkson at his home in California,
03:41leading to a conviction for second-degree murder.
03:44During the trial, it was revealed that he had pulled a gun on at least four different women in the past,
03:50often when his romantic advances were rejected.
03:54He spent 12 years in prison before dying at the age of 81.
03:59But after one mistrial, Spector was convicted in 2009 of second-degree murder.
04:04His legacy will forever be that of a convicted murderer who happened to write songs.
04:10The murder of Selena.
04:12Selena was a true giant of Latin pop music,
04:16boasting a series of hits in the 1980s and 90s that saw her achieve breakout success globally.
04:22I could fall in love with you.
04:30But just as her fame began to truly reach the next level,
04:35she was shot and killed by her friend Yolanda Saldivar,
04:38who managed Selena's fan club and boutiques.
04:4134-year-old Yolanda Saldivar was arrested late yesterday after a nine-hour standoff with police.
04:47Crowds cheered as Selena's alleged killer gave herself up to authorities.
04:52She's accused of shooting Selena once in the back with a .38-caliber revolver.
04:56When their business relationship began to deteriorate, Selena fired Saldivar.
05:02The former associate thus decided to make four separate attempts to kill the pop star,
05:07failing to find the right time and place.
05:10When she did eventually get Selena alone,
05:13a fatal shot rang out around the world for years to come.
05:17The idol was just 23 years old at the time.
05:20It is a verdict that thousands of Selena fans have been hoping for,
05:24and they believe justice has been done tonight.
05:27Jimi Hendrix dies at 27 years old.
05:31The 27 Club refers to the troubling trend of famous musicians who passed away at the young age of 27.
05:38Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Robert Johnson, Jim Morrison, and many more fit into this bleak trend.
05:49One particularly impactful death was of the legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix,
05:54who passed away in 1970 from an overdose at the height of his stardom.
05:59During his short career, Hendrix flailed his electric guitar
06:04into some of the most unusual sounds of an unusual music.
06:07Regarded as one of the greatest guitarists to ever touch the instrument,
06:11Hendrix was a force of nature on stage and an innovator in the studio.
06:16But substance use disorder took hold of him in his mid-20s,
06:20and when he finally pushed things beyond the limits,
06:22it left the world of music without one of its brightest lights.
06:26Back and burning, but I don't know why
06:29Excuse me while I kiss the sky
06:33Kurt Cobain's death
06:35After an era when hair metal and the glamorization of excess were becoming the norm,
06:42the grunge of Nirvana was a breath of fresh air.
06:45Grab my candles in our days
06:48Cause I found God
06:50Yeah, yeah
06:52In their frontman Kurt Cobain,
06:55They had a singer who was becoming a figurehead for the disenfranchised youth of his generation.
07:00But his depression and growing dependence on substances was taking its toll on his personal life.
07:07Either I've accepted it or I've gone beyond insane to where I can deal with it emotionally.
07:13I really don't care.
07:15After undergoing detox treatment during a particularly troubled period,
07:19he took his own life in April of 1994.
07:22This sent tremors throughout the music world
07:25as they watched yet another brilliant young musician join the 27 Club.
07:30But for younger fans, his music captured the spirit of the difficult transition from youth to maturity.
07:36The Rolling Stones at Altamont
07:38When the Rolling Stones tried to replicate the success of Woodstock with their own counterculture festival in late 1969,
07:47it seemed like a shoe-in for success.
07:49Well, the Rolling Stones tour of the United States is over.
07:52They wound it up with a free concert at the Altamont Speedway for more than 300,000 people.
07:57There were four births, four deaths, and an awful lot of scuffles reported.
08:01But hiring the notorious biker gang the Hells Angels as security was a disastrous move.
08:07And the infrastructure was clearly not capable of handling the demands of all these people.
08:12I can't do any more than just ask you, to beg you, just to keep it together.
08:17Fights broke out and many people were injured in the chaos.
08:21Four people lost their lives, including Meredith Hunter,
08:25who was killed by a Hells Angel for drawing a gun mid-show.
08:28The concert has since been described as one of the darkest days in music history
08:33and a real moment of change in the 1960s.
08:38All right.
08:42See you.
08:43The murder of John Lennon
08:45The death of John Lennon was no overdose or downward spiral.
08:50It was a legendary musician who was murdered in cold blood by a fan for no reason.
08:56I was probably angered at his phoniness.
09:00I mean, I wasn't fuming, but I was saying what a fake he was, what a phony he was.
09:07Then I thought to myself that I was going to kill Tom Lennon.
09:10Mark David Chapman hated Lennon's suggestion that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus
09:15and the hypocrisy of his activism when he was so privileged.
09:19But in reality, Chapman had conspired to murder several other celebrities.
09:24He said, is that all?
09:27Do you want anything else?
09:29And I felt then and now that he knew something subconsciously
09:37that he was looking into the eyes of the person that was going to kill him.
09:40On December 8th, 1980,
09:43he shot Lennon four times in the back in front of his wife, Yoko Ono,
09:47and then waited calmly for the police to arrive.
09:49Reading aloud from the catcher in the ride.
09:52All the while, Lennon was 40 years old.
09:56John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the west side of New York City,
10:00the most famous perhaps of all of the Beatles,
10:03shot twice in the back,
10:05rushed to Roosevelt Hospital,
10:08dead on a run.
10:09It was a moment that brought the entire world to a standstill.
10:15Great Whites at the Station Night Club.
10:17When the heavy metal band Jack Russell's Great White took the stage at the station
10:22in Warwick, Rhode Island,
10:24what should have been a fun night of music,
10:26turned into a horrific tragedy.
10:28The club was a small, single-story wooden building.
10:32It had no sprinkler system
10:34and didn't have a license for pyrotechnics or firework displays.
10:37Soundproofing the venue with extremely flammable material
10:40was a huge mistake.
10:42When the band's pyrotechnics caused a fire during their set,
10:46it did not take long until the entire room was set ablaze.
10:49The band had just started playing.
10:52Ironically, the man taking these pictures
10:54was shooting a video about safety at pop venues.
10:56Then the pyrotechnics ignite the ceiling.
11:00The cameraman is already backing away.
11:03Poor emergency precautions left the crowd at the mercy of the flames.
11:06100 people lost their lives on this day,
11:09including the band's guitarist, Ty Longley,
11:12while another 230 were injured.
11:14It remains the fourth deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history,
11:19and a day that affected thousands of people.
11:22There was no malicious intent on anybody's part.
11:25You know, it was just a horrible, horrible accident.
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11:41The day the music died.
11:46The tragedy that later became known as the day the music died
11:50involved a terrible plane crash in which three iconic musicians lost their lives.
11:56When it finally sunk in to my head that he and Richie and the big bopper
12:03and the young pilot Roger were dead,
12:06it was just like, from that point on,
12:08it was just like somebody turning the lights out.
12:10Buddy Holly, Richie Valens,
12:13and J.P. the big bopper Richardson Jr.,
12:16along with pilot Roger Peterson,
12:18all perished in this fatal accident near Clear Lake, Iowa.
12:21The next night, Richie won a coin toss
12:24to get his seat on that small plane.
12:27It crashed shortly after takeoff.
12:29Poor conditions led to the pilot losing control of the vehicle,
12:33crashing it into a cornfield.
12:35Each of these musicians had so much more to give.
12:38The big bopper was 28,
12:40Buddy Holly was 22,
12:42and Richie Valens was 17.
12:45It was a truly heartbreaking moment for 1950s culture.
12:49The day the music died, as that phrase goes,
12:52it was a seed.
12:53And in that seed was Richie and Buddy and the big bopper.
12:58What do you guys consider to be the darkest day in music history?
13:03Let us know in the comments section below.
13:05The club was packed on that night of death
13:07for a performance by singer John Davidson.
13:10Exactly how many people were at Beverly that night
13:13never has been established,
13:14but it apparently was well above
13:16the legal occupancy limit of 1,600.
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