Some songs don't just top the charts - they change the world. Join us as we count down the musical moments that made time stand still and transformed culture as we know it! Our list celebrates iconic tracks that transcended entertainment to become powerful symbols of their era. Which anthem gave you chills?
00:08And today, we're counting down our picks for the top 10 songs that have come to be remembered as hugely significant cultural moments globally.
00:17Yeah, you got that something, I think you'll understand.
00:24Number 10. Respect Aretha Franklin.
00:30Though not originally written by Aretha Franklin, when the legendary vocalist got her hands on respect, she turned it into one of the defining feminist anthems of the 21st century.
00:46In fact, the song's core message and values are so universal that it could serve as an empowering message for a wide array of people.
01:02Franklin well and truly sent her stock into the stratosphere with this one, becoming a leading figure in R&B and soul overnight.
01:09It was a smash hit for Aretha, catapulting her into global fame.
01:21For our money, music has rarely sounded as assertive and uplifting as it did here.
01:27Number 9. Johnny B. Goode, Chuck Berry.
01:39The guitar is an instrument that has been revolutionized several times over.
01:53However, when it comes to electric guitar riffery, you can draw a divide between the songs that came before Johnny B. Goode and the ones that followed it.
02:01Deep down in Louisiana, close to New Orleans, way back up in the woods among the evergreens.
02:06Chuck Berry took the genres of blues, rockabilly, and rock and roll, compiling everything about them into one track.
02:13If the song's many iconic phrases sound familiar to you as a first-time listener, it's because it influenced so much of what would come after it.
02:22But he could play a guitar just like a ring and a bell. Go, go. Go, Johnny, go. Go. Go, Johnny, go.
02:31It was a top ten hit on the Billboard charts when it first came out, but it was its lasting effect that really proved its greatness.
02:39Go. Johnny B. Goode.
02:45Number 8. A Change Is Gonna Come. Sam Cooke.
02:49There might not have been a more fitting anthem for the civil rights movement than the one crafted by Sam Cooke in 1964.
03:04A Change Is Gonna Come is just about as direct a message as can be.
03:09Inspired by Cooke's first-hand experiences with racism, the song achieves a feeling that hits on hope and despair in equal measure.
03:16The change is gonna come. Oh, yes it will.
03:22Though it was released after the very controversial circumstances surrounding the singer's death, it went on to become a track that was too all-encompassing to belong to just one man.
03:32To cap it all off musically, it just so happens to be one of the most moving ballads of the 1960s.
03:47But I know a change is gonna come.
03:52Number 7. Smells Like Teen Spirit. Nirvana.
04:04Rock music was in need of something special by the time the 1980s were through.
04:08The glamour and excess of hair metal and arena rock had, in many ways, taken away the very fundamentals that the genre was built on.
04:16However, grunge music, and specifically Nirvana, played a large part in changing that.
04:22As soon as Smells Like Teen Spirit hit the airwaves, along with its iconic music video, things changed.
04:36Nirvana weren't necessarily making any direct statements about the world of music, and yet, it was seen as a statement nonetheless.
04:43The track was raw, visceral, and made no attempts to paint Kurt Cobain and company as rock gods who lorded over the common man.
04:59A true turning point in 90s culture.
05:02Number 6. Bohemian Rhapsody. Queen.
05:13Is there a live performance in rock music history that made the world stand still quite like Queen at Live Aid?
05:19Well, right at the center of that 1985 tour de force was the band's defining track Bohemian Rhapsody.
05:25The music video alone would be worthy of a mention, but there might not be a more elaborate song in rock that remains so insanely accessible and widely loved.
05:42It took everything Queen did well.
05:48The operatic styling, flavors of prog, space rock, and theater, and combined it perfectly into one track.
05:57I see a little silhouette of a man. Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the bandango?
06:03It spent nine weeks at the top of the UK charts and has since been regarded as one of the greatest songs in music history.
06:11Number 5. Strange Fruit. Billie Holiday.
06:23The metaphors that make up the lyrics to Strange Fruit are pretty easy to peel away.
06:36The song did not attempt to be vague in its protests against the lynching of black Americans in the South.
06:41Southern trees bear strange fruit.
06:50The idea of people as the strange fruit hanging from the southern trees was a harrowing image in 1939 when Billie Holiday released the song.
06:58And it remains the same today.
07:09No singer of the era was better equipped to deliver these lyrics.
07:13Holiday in her prime had a certain haunting quality to her performance that suited writer Abel Mirapol's perfectly.
07:20It went on to sell one million copies in 1939 alone, eventually becoming her best-selling record.
07:36Number 4. Like a Rolling Stone, Bob Dylan.
07:40From its opening snare drum hit onwards, Bob Dylan was determined to show the world that he was not playing around.
07:54People who lived through the release of 1965's Like a Rolling Stone describe it as a song that tore apart the idea of what music could be and what a singer could say.
08:03Dylan had written plenty of protest songs and personal insights up to that point, but backed by his new electric band, he never sounded so scathing.
08:20This was music that came packaged with a lot more venom in it.
08:33Just a matter of months after totally shedding his folk savior image, Dylan immediately had an even bigger impact on the future of rock and roll.
08:49Number 3. Thriller, Michael Jackson.
08:59It's bizarre to think about now, but Michael Jackson wasn't originally supposed to release Thriller as a single.
09:05However, when the album of the same name began to finally decline in sales, his record label decided to put out a seventh and final single.
09:12Yes, you heard us. This song was released after six other singles from the album.
09:24Epic Records supposedly thought it was a novelty song that nobody would be interested in.
09:30What they weren't counting on was that its music video would set the world alight.
09:44Thriller and its release were a cultural moment, eventually becoming one of the biggest selling singles of all time.
09:51Due to its spooky themes, it also has the benefit of returning to the charts sporadically around Halloween season.
10:01The world had never seen a humanitarian effort from musicians quite like the one turned in by the group known as USA for Africa in 1985.
10:21The list of stars simply contains too many names to list here.
10:31Written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, We Are The World was conceived in the hopes of raising money and awareness of the famine that had left hundreds of thousands of dead in Ethiopia.
10:46It became the fastest selling pop single in US history, eventually going quadruple platinum.
10:54It also began a positive trend of humanitarian movements from musicians and celebrities more generally.
11:06Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
11:10This is America, Childish Gambino, the 2018 instant classic that started a thousand important conversations.
11:26Candle in the Wind, 1997, Elton John, the 1974 anthem that was re-released to mark Princess Diana's funeral.
11:34And it seems to me you've lived your life like a candle in the wind.
11:41Like a prayer.
11:43Madonna.
11:44Condemned by the Vatican, but adored by millions.
11:47When you call my name, it's like a little prayer.
11:51I'm down on my knees, I wanna take you there.
11:56Where were you when the world stopped turning?
11:58Alan Jackson.
11:59A song that captured America's grief post 9-11.
12:06Where were you when the world stopped turning?
12:08On that September day.
12:11I want to hold your hand.
12:13The Beatles.
12:14The song that launched Beatlemania in the United States.
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12:391.
12:40Imagine.
12:41John Lennon.
12:42Out of all of the post-Beatles solo hits, no song has endured the test of time quite like
12:56John Lennon's Imagine.
12:57It's a song delivered by a man who was going through a number of key changes in his life,
13:03becoming a far more spiritual and compassionate person.
13:12The song instantly became a huge cultural talking point, with many praising the frank delivery
13:19of Lennon's lyrics.
13:21Sure, the idea of a multi-millionaire preaching to the masses didn't go down well with everyone,
13:34but the song was revered as one of the best that Lennon had ever written.
13:39When he was tragically murdered in 1980, the track somehow became even more poignant.
13:45But what era-defining songs spring to your mind when you think about the most important
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