From Elton John at the piano to Stormzy at Glastonbury and Madonna snogging Britney: 41 era-defining music photos

Icons, rock stars – and divas behaving badly: these pictures of musicians struck a chord all over the world

It’s unclear which artist first uttered the phrase, “It’s all concerning the music” – a fast Google search reveals it being deployed by indie bands, techno DJs, heavy metallers and, winningly, the Icelandic entrant in the 2024 Eurovision music contest – but whoever it was was mendacity. Pop music in its multifarious varieties isn't all concerning the music, nor has it ever been. It was all the time inexorably linked with visible imagery (in the 1920s, country star Jimmie Rodgers underlined his working-man authenticity by being photographed in his brakeman’s overalls years after he give up working on the railroads; the mystique of Billie Holiday or Charlie Parker was at the very least partly defined by William Gottlieb’s photographs in jazz journal DownBeat), however there’s little question the connection was supercharged by rock’n’roll’s arrival. America was much less shocked by what Elvis Presley appeared like than how he seemed: the comparatively lengthy hair, the clothes that borrowed as closely from Black culture as his music, the actions critics in comparison with a burlesque dancer or an animal. Over in suburban north London, a schoolboy referred to as Reg Dwight gawped at a photo of Elvis lengthy earlier than he heard him sing. “Compared to individuals in Pinner… he may as nicely have been vibrant inexperienced with antennae,” he recalled. Take a look at any photograph of Elton John (as Reg would turn out to be) in the 1970s – including the Terry O’Neill shot right here – and it’s tempting to say you'll be able to tell that rock’n’roll arrived in his world image-first.

In the meantime, at their press conferences within the early 60s, the Beatles spent more time fielding questions about their haircuts than their music. Previous to the drug busts or the terrifying events at Altamont captured right here, the outrage brought on by the Rolling Stones revolved largely round their look. The same was true of Jimi Hendrix, who didn’t set his guitar on hearth as a result of it improved its sound, but as a result of he understood that the pictures carried virtually as much weight as the music.