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Most Famous Music Break Ups In History

These music breakups changed not only music, but pop culture forever.

By Adam QuinnPublished 7 years ago 7 min read
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Everyone loves one form of music or another, and every person has a band they love, and every person has a music breakup they never forgot. Bands come and go, but their music can last forever. When you hear a band you love, it can change everything for you. When that band breaks up, it can seem like your own family is breaking up.

There have been many band breakups in the past, and many have changed music forever. Sometimes, the band members get back together later for reunion tours but once the breakup happens, it is never the same again.

Music Break Ups: 1960s & 1970s

When rock music was still forming, music break ups were few and far between but as the genre grew in popularity, more and more bands would break up under the pressures of fame, fortune and the push to create new music.

The Beatles

There has never been a greater band, nor a more well-known music breakup than The Beatles. Everything began to fall apart after the death of Brian Epstein in 1967, but in 1969 John Lennon told the band that he was looking to leave. That same year, both Ringo Starr and George Harrison said they were leaving the band but would return in the end.

Several books have been written on the break-up of The Beatles, and it can be hard to know for sure what it was. Most likely, it was the growing apart of the band members, and the growing desire to become solo artists away from The Beatles brand.

In the end, the band would break up in 1970, with each member having success on their own. All four members have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as solo artists.

The Everly Brothers

The two brothers would define music in the 1950s and 1960s. They would find immense success for their ballads and influencing many bands including The Beatles. The two brothers were able to hold things together for two decades until 1973 when Don Everly showed up drunk to a show in Hollywood. His brother Phil became so mad with the screwed up lyrics that he smashed his guitar over his brother's head.

The two brothers wouldn't speak for 10 years, except at their father's funeral. Things would never be the same for them but they would reconcile somewhat in 1983. That was one heck of a music break up.

The Eagles

One of the most successful bands of the 1970s, they had legions of fans who loved their smooth vocals and relaxed songs. In 1980, they were the biggest band in the country but Don Henley and Glen Frey were at each other's throats. Joe Walsh was on drugs and drinking heavily, and Don Felder was tired of his place in the band. That year, they played a benefit show for Senator Alan Cranston. Tensions backstage escalated and the band would break up that night after Glenn Frey lost his temper on Felder. Felder left in his limo immediately after the last song and the band would not play together again for a decade-and-a-half.

Black Sabbath

This wasn't so much a music break up as the leaving of the most iconic member of the band, which in its own way is a breakup. After the success of their new heavy metal sound in the 1970s, the members of Black Sabbath barely talked to each other by 1979. With drugs and alcohol fueling things by that point, their concerts were awful and the band members hated performing. In the end, Ozzy Osbourne would leave the band that year, replaced by Ronny James Dio. Osbourne would do okay though, becoming a massive star in the 1980s as a solo artist. Two decades later, the band re-united and everything has been fine since.

Music Break Ups: 1980s

The 1980s gave us a changing music scene and the Second British Invasion. That decade also gave us some very iconic bands and some very iconic music break ups.

The Police

There was not a bigger band on the planet in the 1980s than The Police. They had hit after hit, and their music was loved by millions of people. Sting was one of the most well-known lead singers of his day, and their album Synchronicity changed music forever.

Unfortunately, their greatest album was also their last. After growing tensions that began in 1981 with the recording of Ghost in the Machine, Sting began to focus more and more on being a solo artist. Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers both wanted to write but were unable to because of the influence of Sting on the band. In 1984, Sting finally called the band quits after their long stadium tour to support Synchronicity.

The band would come back together for a few reunion shows after 2000.

The Clash

The forefront of the punk movement, The Clash had several massive hits including London Calling and Rock the Casbah. Interestingly, the band didn't break up because they hated each other, but because they wanted to keep their music fresh. When they performed on the farewell tour of The Who in 1982, they saw their future, growing old and getting paid a lot of money to play football stadiums. They were not interested. In the end, they band began to feel like sellouts for starting to play corporate gigs like the US Festival in 1983. The band would break up that year, making it one of the more interesting music break ups in the history of rock and roll.

Music Break Ups: 1990s til Now

When the 1990s came along, so too did a change in music with Grunge. Kurt Cobain changed music forever, and many bands came and went over the next 25 years. Some would break up because of changing times, others broke up because of hatred among the band members.

Guns N' Roses

Other than The Beatles, there probably isn't a more well-known music break up than Guns Ní Roses. The band was going strong through the late-1980s and early-1990s but by 1993 after the Use Your Illusion tour, band members were hating each other with a passion. Axl Rose showed up to shows late, and several of the band members were on heavy drugs and drinking a lot of alcohol.

By the end of the tour, it was the end with Axl calling Slash a cancer on the band. Axl didn't even show up for the band's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In the end, money came calling and the band reunited for a very successful reunion tour in 2016.

Oasis

The Everly Brothers may have been a band of brothers first, but their breakup pales in comparison to that of the Gallagher brothers in Oasis. Exploding into the music world in the mid-1990s, they were touted as the next Lennon-McCartney.

Throughout the decade and into the next, they would break up and re-unite frequently, often fighting each other and causing huge tension for the rest of the band. By 2009, at a festival in Paris, the brothers got into a fight and called off the show. The band has not played together since that point and there is unlikely to be any chance of them coming back together soon. At least we will always have Wonderwall.

Smashing Pumpkins

There was The Smashing Pumpkins and then there was Billy Corgan. The perfectionist in everything he did musically, he insisted on playing guitar and bass on Siamese Dream, the band's breakthrough in 1993. The band members put up with Corgan until 1996 when Jonathan Melvoin died from a heroin overdose and the band's drummer Jimmy Chamberlin overdosed the same night. He was kicked out of the band and things would never be the same with a revolving door of bandmembers trying to put up with Corgan. They would call it quit officially as a band in 1999.

Pink Floyd

The band that defined psychedelic music in the 1970s and 1980s seemed to be going strong into the 1990s. After an initial split in 1983, the band quickly got back together but the damage had been done and things began to fail. Roger Waters, the creative force behind the band, wanted to do solo work and he took the band to court for the use of the name and the bandís music, in 1985. The suit was settled out of court but things continued to fall apart and by 1994, the band had officially broken up.

The band would reunite in 2005 for Live 8, which was good news considering Richard Wright, the keyboardist, died three years later. After The Endless River was released by the band in 2014, Gilmour and Mason, two more members, officially called it quits with the band.

Music breakups are never easy for the fans, nor the band members, but they are a necessary part of the evolution of a band and the music they have helped to define. As each band fades, a new band comes up to take its place. It is the way of nature and the way of music.

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About the Creator

Adam Quinn

Music student and proud Chipotle fanatic. Playing local shows and writing his own music between classes and burritos.

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