Top 5 Most Important Songs Of All Time

Few recordings changed the perceived civic power of popular song as dramatically.

A landmark protest recording that forced American popular music to confront racial terror directly, expanding what a song could do politically and emotionally.

It is a clear before-and-after record for the ambition and acceptable form of mainstream rock.

Helped redefine the pop single as a vehicle for literary ambition, length, ambiguity, and adult disillusionment, reshaping rock songwriting expectations.

Its importance lies in opening the recorded-market pathway for one of the world's dominant music cultures.

The first rap single to become a major commercial breakthrough, turning hip-hop from a local live culture into a recorded music industry force.

It marks one of pop's most consequential market and cultural inflection points.

The single that accelerated Beatlemania in the United States and helped trigger the British Invasion, changing pop stardom, youth culture, and the global music business.