In the early 1980s, Michael Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced hip hop, pop and contemporary R&B artists. In 1982, Michael Jackson issued his second Epic album, Thriller. The album remained in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 for 80 consecutive weeks and 37 of those weeks at the peak position. It was the first album to have seven Billboard Hot 100 top 10 singles, including "Billie Jean", "Beat It" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'". Thriller was certified for 28 million shipments by the RIAA, giving it Double Diamond status in the US It is often cited as the best-selling album of all time, with worldwide sales between 47 million and 109 million copies.

In September 1989, Jackson released her fourth album, Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814, imbued with a socially conscious message. Jackson stated, "I'm not naive—I know an album or a song can't change the world. I just want my music and my dance to catch the audience's attention, and to hold it long enough for them to listen to the lyrics and what we're saying." Vince Aletti observed Jackson shifted from "personal freedom to more universal concerns—injustice, illiteracy, crime, drugs—without missing a beat." Billboard named Rhythm Nation 1814 the number-one selling album of the year in 1990, winning multiple music awards. Jackson was dubbed a reigning "Princess of Pop" by the Chicago Tribune.

James Brown, known as "The Godfather of Soul, is recognized as one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular music. Brown was a pivotal force in the music industry. He left his mark on numerous artists and his music left its mark on the rhythms of American pop music and provided a template for the most important genre of dance music- Soul and Funk music.

By mid-1960s, James Brown had developed his signature groove that emphasized the downbeat – with heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure to etch his distinctive sound, rather than the backbeat that typified African American music. Two of Brown's signature tunes Papa's Got a Brand New Bag and I Got You (I Feel Good), both from 1965, were his first Top 10 pop hits, as well as major #1 R&B hits, with each remaining the top-selling singles in black venues for over a month. Papa's Got a Brand New Bag is widely considered the first recording to showcase what later became Brown's signature musical style, and marks the beginning of the development of the musical genre of funk. In 2004, Papa's Got a Brand New Bag was ranked number 72 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Little Richard is considered a key figure in the transition from rhythm & blues to rock & roll in the 1950s. Little Richard's reputation rests on a string of groundbreaking hit singles from 1955 through 1957, such as Tutti Frutti, Lucille and Long Tall Sally, which helped lay the foundation for rock and roll music and influenced generations of rhythm & blues, rock and soul music artists. He was honored by being one of seven of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

Exploding into the American consciousness in the mid-50's..."awop-bop-a-loo-mop-alop-bam-boom", he singlehandedly laid the foundation and established the rules for a new musical form: rock and roll. People magazine said, "There could not have been a Michael Jackson if there had not been a Little Richard." And the NEW YORK TIMES Book K Review unabashedly stated “a contemporary pop rebel like Prince seems like small potatoes compared with Little Richard, the original wild man of rock 'n' roll."

Aretha Franklin, commonly referred to as "The Queen of Soul", is one of the most influential singers of the twentieth century. In 2008, the American music magazine Rolling Stone ranked Franklin #1 on its list of The Greatest Singers of All Time. Franklin is one of the most honored artists by the Grammy Awards, with 20 Grammys to date, which include the Living Legend Grammy and the Lifetime Achievement Grammy. She is the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In early 1968 Franklin won her first two Grammies (for Respects), including the first Grammy awarded in the "Best Female R&B Vocal Performance" category. She went on to win eight "Best Female R&B Vocal Performance" awards in a row. By the end of the 1960s, Franklin's position as Soul Sister #1 was firmly established. As Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun observed, "I don't think there's anybody I have known who possesses an instrument like hers and who has such a thorough background in gospel, the blues and the essential black-music idiom...She is blessed with an extraordinary combination of remarkable urban sophistication and of the deep blues feeling that comes from the Delta. The result is maybe the greatest singer of our time."

As Reconstruction passed into the Jim Crow Era, predominately African-American music such as jazz and blues evolved. This music explored and reflected the lived experience of African-Americans in America. This music also began advocating for social change. Songs that promoted social activism were rare before the mid 1960s. One of the earliest of these songs, "Strange Fruit," was sung by the blues singer, Billie Holiday. She first sang it in a New York club in 1938. The song condemned American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans that had occurred chiefly in the South but also in all regions of the United States. Holiday's version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1978. It was also included in the list of Songs of the Century, by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Holiday said that because the imagery in Strange Fruit reminded her of her father, she persisted in singing it. The song begins with a paradox: Southern trees bear strange fruit/ Blood on the leaves and blood at the root. Holiday then reveals the strangeness of the trees: black bodies swinging in the southern breeze/ strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. The song became a regular part of Holiday's live performances. The song became an instant success and was most identified with Holiday. Numerous other singers have performed it. The song ultimately became the anthem of the anti-lynching movement. The dark imagery of the lyrics struck a chord. It also contributed to what would later become the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s.

Everyday, somewhere, a trumpet or cornet player tries to render an emulation of Louis Armstrong playing the West End Blues. West End Blues is one of the most famous recordings in the history of jazz for the following reasons: 1) Armstrong's introduction showed how dazzling his skills as a trumpeter were; 2) he laid the groundwork for jazz soloists to be considered true artists, the same as musicians in other styles of music and; 3) the recording introduced Earl Hines as the first real jazz pianist, who was Armstrong's equal in creative musical thought.

West End Blues" is a multi-strain 12 bar blues composition by Joe "King" Oliver. It is most commonly performed as an instrumental. King Oliver and his Dixie Syncopates made the first recording of the tune for Brunswick Records on June 11, 1928. By far the most well known recording of "West End Blues" is the 3-minute-plus, 78 RPM record recording made by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five in 1928, considered one of the masterpieces of early jazz. Louis Armstrong plays trumpet (and does some relaxed scat singing) backed by a band that included the pianist Earl Hines. In an eight-bar trumpet solo near the end of the record, Armstrong played a solo considered among the finest recordings in jazz history.

Surely, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme has relevance today and carries a message which speaks to the necessity of improving the human condition through elevated consciousness and practice. Coltrane produced a musical statement which tapped into the spiritual consciousness of a broad range of people- student and worker, white and black, religious and non religious. More than a jazz classic, A Love Supreme, transcended the musical category and time. As drummer Elvin Jones put it, "John deserves all the recognition-all the credit-for what A Love Supreme became. It was his music, his technique, his philosophy of sound, his liner notes. It's unique. In a sense, it's not even jazz. It broadens the concept of what music was. It's totally spiritual."

Recorded in December 1964 and released the following year, A Love Supreme is a tribute to God and represents an autobiographical statement of Coltrane's "spiritual Awakening" and "remaking" of himself, casting off the artificial pleasures of drugs and alcohol for joy of living and experiencing life at a higher level. A Love Supreme is one of jazz's great concept albums, a forty minute suite that links together four different pieces into a larger spiritual statement on the promise and power of love. In brief, Coltrane's statement is that love trumps everything and has the capacity transform lives, putting us in touch with our ‘better selves' and in the process honoring God or the highest values of humankind which becomes a manifestation of God.

Since it hit the airwaves half a century ago, Kind of Blue by Miles Davis has influenced the hearts and minds of jazz fans everywhere. Its songs became instant classics, and it has also converted many a non jazz fan to appreciate the subtlety and complexity of this masterpiece. Kind of Blue has also been recognized as one of the most influential albums in the history of jazz and is consistently ranked among the greatest albums of all time. One reviewer has called it a "defining moment of twentieth century music." The album's influence has reached beyond jazz, as musicians of such genres as rock and classical have been influenced by it, while critics have acknowledged it as one of the most influential albums of all time. Many improvisatory rock musicians of the 1960s referred to Kind of Blue for inspiration. One significant aspect of Kind of Blue is that the entire record, not just one track, was revolutionary. Gary Burton noted this occurrence, stating "It wasn't just one tune that was a breakthrough, it was the whole record.

Kind of Blue, recorded 1959, was a re-statement of the beauty and possibility which jazz offered as an art form. With Kind of Blue, Miles Davis radically detached himself from his comfortable but fairly safe career to craft a more interesting future. More pointedly, simplicity was essential to the success of Kind of Blue. Simplicity empowered and freed Davis's players- tenor saxophonist John Coltrane's intense spirals of sounds,; alto saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley,'s penetrating funk, pianists Bill Evans's introspective romanticism and Wynton Kelly's pensive mood- to improvise and create without requiring them to put their technical mastery on show. In word, Kind of Blue changed the jazz vocabulary and jazz itself. As Eric Nisenson insightfully observed, "The unmistakable beauty of kind of Blue rest on two qualities of great death: the splendor of the sound and the starkness of its hard-won truths. Kind of Blue is further proof of Keats's statement that beauty and truth are inseparable."

What's Going On is not only Marvin Gaye's masterpiece; it was a ground breaking album for Motown and for music in general. Gaye had been affected by what he had seen and heard in Vietnam and wanted to take his sound in a new direction, using it to inform and motivate people to act. Reflecting on his music, Gaye said, "In 1969 or 1970, I began to re-evaluate my whole concept of what I wanted my music to say. I was very much affected by letters my brother was sending me from Vietnam, as well as the social situation here at home. I realized that I had to put my own fantasies behind me if I wanted to write songs that would reach the souls of people. I wanted them to take a look at what was happening in the world." The result was What's Going On, one of the most popular and critically acclaimed albums of all time.

The album is told from the point of view of a Vietnam War veteran returning to the country he had been fighting for, and seeing nothing but injustice, suffering and hatred. With What's Going On, Gaye meditated on what had happened to the American dream of the past- as it related to urban decay, environmental woes, military turbulence, police brutality, unemployment, poverty civil unrest, drug abuse, taxes and abandoned children-themes that still resonate today. Marvin's overarching message offered the promise of redemption through love and mutual understanding. What's Going On is ground breaking for a soul, pop or rock record and is unsurpassed in its political commentary allied to a mixture of jazz, gospel, and soul music. It is a stunning album and rightly considered one of the finest albums ever.