s. Their body of work spans threedecades of success. Peter Gabriel took music videos to a new level by introducinganimation in his video “Sledgehammer”.On Sunday May 25,1986, The Hands Across America concert took place. Fivemillion participants in sixteen states involving president Reagan, linked hands to raisemoney for the hungry and the homeless in the US. In 1987 “Headbangers Ball” debuted onMTV, this show featured videos, interviews and performances by stars. CDs began to gainpopularity and music sales rose 150% in one year. In 1987 MTV debuted in fourteencountries in Europe. Metallica gained popularity with help from its public appearance onHeadbanger’s Ball. Guns N’ Roses was one of the most controversial heavy rock bands ofthe late 80s. Although their music was a great success, their career was littered withincidents involving drugs, drunkenness, and public disturbance offenses. Aerosmith wasone of the USA’s most popular hard rock acts, founded in the 70s but only beingrecognized and reaching great success in the 80s, due to MTV and the publicity of theirvideos such as “Dude looks like a lady”. Bon Jovi, Poison and Jane’s Addiction were alsoquite popular in the late 80s. In 1989 Madonna, as part of a multi-million dollar deal withPepsi-Cola, endorsed the soft drink with a worldwide television debut of her new single ina video commercial. MTV had become a 24 hour info-mercial, using every second on theair to sell a product or record label.In the early 90s, rock evolved into something containing more value and meaning.In stead of banging their heads, musicians started to think with them and use rock musiclyrics to comment on complicated issues of the world. This was the alternative movement,when rock began to turn grunge. Nirvana was the most significant icon for the alternativemovement, especially with their debut of “ Smells like teen spirit” video. They were...
