WHAT IS MUSICDAYZ?
MusicDayz is the world's largest online archive of date-sorted facts, and we're dedicated to bringing day-by-day music facts instantly to your fingertips - whether you're a fan, a music industry professional or a music related business.
HISTORY
The site was founded in 2010 as RockSourceArchive but, as the archive of facts grew, that name became somewhat restrictive, because we have extensive sections on other genres, including jazz, blues and country.
FACTS ABOUT OUR FACTS
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How many?
As of June 2020, the online archive included over 170,000 facts, and many more are added daily.
We concern ourselves largely with forms of music that could be categorised as popular - so everything from early folk songs and tunes, to historic ballads, parlour songs, music hall songs, early sound recordings and the diverse forms of popular music being made today.
Before anyone accuses us of not liking classical music, let me say that we love it and we fully appreciate how much popular music has been based on the works of the great composers, just as much as we know that countless classical melodies were appropriated from folk songs and dance music throughout the centuries. The two forms of music are inextricably intertwined.
However, the task of documenting popular music has so far proved sufficiently daunting without getting involved in the classical side of things. One day, if things change, we'd love to chronicle classical music day by day.
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What kind?
We try not to make value judgements. Music is music. Within MusicDayz, jazz is not necessarily 'better than' rap. Rock is not necessarily 'better than' pop. Blues is not necessarily 'better than' country. They're all just popular music forms. Anyone who thinks differently, should reflect on the fact that perhaps the greatest 'soul' voice of 20th century, Ray Charles, enjoyed some of his greatest successes with 'country' songs. If it's good enough for Ray, it's good enough for us.
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Why are our facts better?
Unlike most day-by-day music history sites, our facts are usually linked to other websites for rapid access to authoritative biographies, news stories, reviews and more. Wherever possible, we also provide YouTube links to relevant performances of songs, tv shows and other features. If a fact has a MORE button, that will link either to eye-witness quotes about the event on that date, or to in-depth feature articles.
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Fact frequency?
Our earliest facts date back to ancient times but when we reach the 19th century, the frequency of our recorded facts increases. In the 20th Century and beyond we have facts for nearly every day.
From January 1, 1950 onward, our aim is to have multiple facts for every day. So when you search for your birth date, wedding date, etc etc, there's a good chance you will find out who recorded songs on that specific day, played gigs, died, was born and more.
From January 1, 1960 onward, our aim is to have a minimum of eight facts for every day. We're not quite there yet, but we think you'll be impressed.
WHO ARE WE?
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Johnny Black : Music journalist, author, broadcaster and archivist. I started collecting date-related music facts in the early 1990s when I was writing the Time Machine section of Mojo Magazine, and also the Eye Witness section of Q Magazine.
For many years, I simply collected all of the dates and used them for my own personal research purposes. In 2008, my good friend John Burgoyne suggested that if the dates were entered into a database, they'd be much more usable, and could be presented as a website. John built the original RockSourceArchive database from scratch and, without him, this project might never have happened.
For more, click here to see my biography.
John Burgoyne : Computer programmer, founder and CEO of LogixComms. It was John who, in 2008, suggested putting RockSourceArchive online, and made it possible by designing and building our first database.
Grant Wall : Untutored maverick computer wiz. Grant began the work of re-designing our database and web presence, by moving RockSourceArchive onto the Cloud and introducing more modern search functions, tags etc. Tragically, Grant died in September 2012 before he was able to complete the new site. We miss him terribly.
Oli Powlesland : Youthful computer wiz. Oli heroically stepped into Grant Wall's shoes in early 2013, and initiated the second re-design which has enabled us to re-launch as MusicDayz. All of our new whizz-bang search features and tagging functions and data presentation formats on the new site are down to Oli.
Jo Black : Tattoo design genius and founder of Black Inc. tattoo studio. Jo created our gorgeous new logo and drafted up the look and feel of the new site. If she doesn"t get too famous, we're hoping to keep her involved in the evolution of the site. Click here to learn more about Jo and her company Black Inc.
Jan Watterson : Lifelong systems designer and good friend. Although her life is already more than busy enough, Jan designed a procedure which has enabled us to speed up loading batches of dates from our original word files into the database.