A website dedicated to documenting musical history in a simple timeline claims to cover ‘a vast array of music and music makers including classical, jazz, rock, electronica, blues, folk and country’. The timeline is intended to document ‘major musical events’ and focusses on events of ‘artistic importance’ rather than commercial success.

The site’s anonymous creator acknowledges that the selection is subjective, however. ‘As I see it there are three grounds for inclusion — artistic merit, historical significance and cultural influence,’ says the individual behind the project. ‘Thus areas such as contemporary classical, jazz and the avant-garde are given more weight than their commercial clout would allow, but at the same time, significant mainstream pop acts are not ignored.’

The timeline’s coverage is acknowledged to be Europe and Americas centric, but it is something the author ‘intends to address in the future’.

A colour coding system is used in the timeline — which now includes over 60,000 entries. Entries are categorised into births, deaths, books/collections/manuscripts, single musical works, operas and other stage works, film/radio/television, albums, and singles and EPs.

According to the author, the site, which stretches from 41,000 BC (with the invention of the Divje Babe flute) to the present day, is 95% complete. ‘There is still much work to be done for the years post-1994,’ the site says, ‘but everything prior to that is much closer to completion: all years up to 1977 are finished.’

View the Music Timeline here.