15 of the greatest moments in musical history (in 8 bit GIFS)

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There is more than one way to get your fill of music history but we can’t think of any more entertaining than absorbing it through 8 bit animations.

Music History Gifs have created a GIF for the most significant musical events for each year since 1964, providing an 8 bit history lesson in the most important events to take place. Each GIF has been hand crafted by Brooklyn based Joshua Carrafa, guitarist for band Old Monk and they are awesome. Check out our favourites below

1964.  The Beatles play the Ed Sullivan show.  everyone is all “aaaaaah”.  Especially the ladies.

1968.  Johnny Cash says hello to a bunch of inmates at Folsom State Prison in Folsom, California.  Also he plays songs for them and they get excited and yell.  The concert is recorded and released the same year. For some reason, not many other people made live prison albums.

1969.  Four dudes hang out in St John’s Wood, London.  Also they recorded an album, walked across a road, and did some other things. They were very good at these things.

1971.  Led Zeppelin releases their fourth album, and become the biggest band in the world.  They do this by singing about hobbits and magic and wizards and stuff. It’s true.  Also, it’s awesome.

1973.  David Bowie releases Aladdin Sane, his follow up persona/album to Ziggy Stardust.  In typical Bowie fashion, it is crazy good and a tad insane.

1974.  Ramones play their first show.  Oldie hooks. Classic chord changes.  Punk guitar.  Punk attitude.  Punk hyperspeed. Punk is awesome.

1975.  Kiss comes alive by releasing their breakthrough album: Alive!  This pushes them to the next level of success and their shows become madhouses of people rocking and rolling all throughout the night.

1983.  Michael Jackson debuts the moonwalk on Mo Town 25 during Billie Jean.  He’s pretty dang good at it. The ladies are all “aaaaaah”.  MJ is all “whatev”.

1987.  Rick Astley pulls the biggest prank in the history of the world by inventing rickrolling, and scoring a number one hit at the same time. Also, he is one hell of a dancer.

1989.  Madonna releases Like a Prayer and plays the MTV Music Awards.  Though she already has 3 incredibly successful albums at this point, Like A Prayer erased any doubt that she is an unstoppable pop diva. She sells an absurdly large number of records.

1990.  MC Hammer Scores a ridiculously popular hit, and popularizes some crazy pants at the same time. This made him a lot of money.  Then he hilariously spent it all.

1991.  Nirvana releases Nevermind.  Grunge is in full swing and Nirvana is the master.  This album has timeless hooks and incredible songwriting on every single song. I really can’t say enough nice things about these nice, clean-cut young men.

1993.  Prince changes his name to an unpronounceable symbol later dubbed Love Symbol #2.  At first everybody laughs, but then they remember he’s Prince and he can pretty much do whatever he wants anyways. Also, Prince’s label had to mail out a bunch of floppy disks with the custom image on it.  That fact makes me laugh.

1997.  Radiohead releases OK Computer, and it goes on to become one of the mostcritically acclaimed records of all time.  They released a couple of great videos, and a guy plays ping pong with an angel.  Also a guy cuts his own limbs off for some reason.

1999. The first Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival is held.  It went on to become one of the largest and most popular music festivals in the world.  Some of the biggest musical acts in history play here every year.  It is so popular, sometimes even dead people perform.

2004.  The Flaming Lips officially become the greatest live band in the world when Wayne Coyne gets in a giant hamster ball and rolls around on the audience at Coachella.  Plus, they pair it with crazy psychedelic lights, hands, and oh yeah, amazing songs.

2008.  Vampire Weekend asks everyone about their thoughts on Oxford Commas.  They also write a bunch of fantastic songs and stick them on a record.  A littlepunky, a little baroque, a little African, and lots awesome.

2012.  Psy releases his music video for Gangnam Style.  Never before has an artist so foreign been able to make such a huge impact with one crazy music video.  And this video is definitely crazy.  This is the Platonic Ideal of a viral sensation.