The Birth of the Benefit Concert

July 13, 2007 — -- As I escape from the New York City hustle on a sweltering July weekend, a symphony of sounds -- horns, sirens and a lot of percussion -- serves as my own personal soundtrack along the way.

Clearly, it's not very soothing, which is why God (or Steve Jobs, my God) gave us the iPod. With one, we can all march to the beat of our own drummer. But music is best served fresh, and that means live.

Live performances have changed vastly since the big band supper-club era, when orchestras wailed and torch singers titillated before elegantly dressed audiences.

In the 1960s music and politics fused into a movement.

On March 24, 1965, on the last night of the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed, "Segregation is on its death bed." Thousands celebrated and commemorated this moment at a concert starring musical heavyweights Tony Bennet, Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, and Peter, Paul and Mary, who rejoiced and sang songs of freedom to an exhausted but emotionally charged crowd.

By 1969, rock 'n' roll and live performances had become a lifestyle. In Woodstock, N.Y., the mother of all concerts was held on 6,000 acres, rented for $50,000 to hold an estimated 60,000 people. Tickets were $24.

But by the time the show began, 400,000 people had shown up for three days of sleepless, partying nights, and another 250,000 who never even made it to the show flooded the area. This culture of free love and peace was intensified by hallucinogenic drugs.

Legendary performances by icons like Janice Joplin and Jimi Hendrix made Woodstock one of the most significant events in musical and pop culture history. Both would be dead a year later.

Woodstock changed the way we wanted to see and hear music forever. The venues and crowds became bigger and bigger, so the business interests did too. Marketing teams, big-time promoters and the media stepped in. And with the cameras and klieg lights pointed at them, artists realized they could promote their own causes.

The benefit concert was born.