I thought it might be fun to devise a list of breakthrough artists (musicians, actors, writers etc.) who were the sensations of particular years. For example, I might choose 1964 as the Beatles’ breakthrough year. You can choose another artist for that year, if you feel strongly that someone else had a bigger breakthrough in 1964, and we might discuss whose was the bigger, more spectacular, more artistically significant breakthrough, but I’m imagining in my ideal world a list we can all agree upon.
To qualify, each artist (in the Beatles’ case each group of collaborative artists) must be relative unknowns in previous years (the Beatles obviously had hit records in late 1963 but really broke through as big successes with their post-Ed Sullivan records of 1964). For my second example, I’ll choose 1948 and Norman Mailer, whose debut novel The Naked and the Dead stayed on the best seller list for over a year.
A further guideline, which applies to my two examples, might be that the artist(s) not be one-hit wonders. That is, their debuts would be followed up by successful careers in succeeding years.
Interesting. I’ve never heard him referred to a session musician before. Jimmy Page was a session musician, but was Hendrix a hired gun on any notable recordings?
Edited to add: Never mind. I see that he did do some session work. Ignorance fought.
Nothing very notable at the time (much of it was re-released after his solo success on exploitation records), but he played live and in the studio for Little Richard, the Isley Brothers and Curtis Night, to name the biggest acts.
ETA: here’s an interesting collection of some of his pre-fame recordings:
1969 was certainly a breakthrough year for Led Zeppelin. Their first two albums were released that year, putting them firmly on the map around the world.
Can we maybe get a few non-musician types in here? That side of the boat is getting a bit heavy. I’ll go with 1947 and Marlon Brando’s stage performance as Stanley Kowalski.
1964 was the breakthrough year for the Beatles, at least in the US. They appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in February and "I Want to Hold Your Hand” became the first Beatles single to hit #1 in the U.S. on February 1st, 1964.
In the interest of broadening out from popular musicians and singers, I’ll suggest 1913 as Igor Stravinsky’s sensational Rite of Spring, and 1949 as the year of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
Both had previous had careers as composer and playwright, but I think these works were far more successful than any they had before, and which introduced their talents to the world in a way they hadn’t been perceived before, much as the Beatles had a career prior to 1964 but by the end of that year were widely known and celebrated by the general public. Of course, I wasn’t around in either year, so I have no first-hand knowledge, but I think these were the first works of theirs that became widely known and celebrated.
Most artists, I think, don’t exactly have breakthrough debuts. Thinking on it, they’re kind of rare. Mostly artists become known over a period of years, and build on that slowly until they become prominent. I wonder if there’s a book in this subject, artists who burst onto the scene in spectacular fashion. It’s certainly rarer than I had supposed.
Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, 1926. His breakout novel that established many themes that ran throughout his subsequent novels and the mythos of his actual life itself.
Would a review of TIME or NEWSWEEK covers turn up some new sensations for that year? I’d think so, one or two at least–a spectacular artistic debut is what they loved to feature every so often.
