Sunday, August 15, 2010

Musicology and the history of the Music....

Musicology (Greek: μουσική = "music" and λόγος = "word" or "reason") is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture. In the intermediate sense, it includes all relevant cultures and a range of musical forms, styles, genres and traditions. In the broad sense, it includes all musically relevant disciplines and all manifestations of music in all cultures. The broad meaning corresponds most closely to the word's etymology, the entry on "musicology" in Grove's dictionary, the entry on "Musikwissenschaft" in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, and the classic approach of Adler (1885). In the broad definition, the parent disciplines of musicology include history; cultural studies and gender studies; philosophy, aesthetics and semiotics; ethnology and cultural anthropology; archeology and prehistory; psychology and sociology; physiology and neuroscience; acoustics and psychoacoustics; and computer/information sciences and mathematics. Musicology also has two central, practically oriented subdisciplines with no parent discipline: performance practice and research, and the theory, analysis and composition of music. The disciplinary neighbors of musicology address other forms of art, performance, ritual and communication, including the history and theory of the visual and plastic arts and of architecture; linguistics, literature and theater; religion and theology; and sport. Musical knowledge and know-how are applied in medicine, education and music therapy, which may be regarded as the parent disciplines of Applied Musicology. Traditionally, historical musicology has been considered the largest and most important subdiscipline of musicology. Today, historical musicology is one of several large subdisciplines. Historical musicology, ethnomusicology, and systematic musicology are approximately equal in size - if numbers of active participants at international conferences is any guide. Systematic musicology includes music acoustics,the science and technology of acoustical musical instruments, physiology, psychology, sociology, philosophy and computing. Cognitive Musicology is the set of phenomena surrounding the computational modeling of music.
 
Music history or historical musicology studies the composition, performance, reception, and criticism of music over time. Historical studies of music are for example concerned with a composer's life and works, the developments of styles and genres (e. g. baroque concertos), the social function of music for a particular group of people (e. g. court music), or modes of performance at a particular place and time (e. g. Johann Sebastian Bach's choir in Leipzig). Like the comparable field of art history, different branches and schools of historical musicology emphasize different types of musical works and different approaches to music. There are also national differences in the definition of historical musicology. In theory, "music history" could refer to the study of the history of any type or genre of music (e.g., the history of Indian music or the history of rock). In practice, these research topics are more often considered within ethnomusicology (see below) and "historical musicology" is assumed (ethnocentrically) to imply Western Art music. The methods of historical musicology include source studies (esp. manuscript studies), paleography, philology (especially textual criticism), style criticism, historiography (the choice of historical method), musical analysis, and iconography. The application of musical analysis to further these goals is often a part of music history, though pure analysis or the development of new tools of music analysis is more likely to be seen in the field of music theory. Music historians create a number of written products, ranging from journal articles describing their current research, new editions of musical works, biography of composers and other musicians, or book-length studies. Music historians may examine issues in a close focus, as in the case of scholars who examine the relationship between words and music for a given composer. On the other hand, some scholars take a broader view, and assess the place of a given type of music in society using techniques drawn from other fields, such as economics, sociology, or philosophy.
New musicology is a term applied since the late 1980s to a wide body of work emphasizing cultural study, analysis, and criticism of music. Such work may be based on feminist, gender studies, queer theory, or postcolonial theory, or the work of Theodor Adorno. Although New Musicology emerged from within historical musicology, the emphasis on cultural study within the Western art music tradition places New Musicology at the junction between historical, ethnological and sociological research in music.
New musicology was a reaction against traditional historical musicology, which according to Susan McClary, "fastidiously declares issues of musical signification off-limits to those engaged in legitimate scholarship." Charles Rosen, however, retorts that McClary 'sets up, like so many of the "new musicologists," a straw man to knock down, the dogma that music has no meaning, and no political or social significance. (I doubt that anyone, except perhaps the nineteenth-century critic Hanslick, has ever really believed that, although some musicians have been goaded into proclaiming it by the sillier interpretations of music with which we are often assailed.)' (Rosen 2000).Today, many musicologists no longer distinguish between musicology and New Musicology, since many of the scholarly concerns that used to be associated New Musicology have now become mainstream, and the term "new" clearly no longer applies.

....."Music - Genera"

              A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music.
Music can be divided into many genres in many different ways. Due to the different purposes behind them and the different points of view from which they are made, these classifications are often arbitrary and controversial and closely related genres often overlap. Many do not believe that generic classification of musical genres is possible in any logically consistent way, and also argue that doing so sets limitations and boundaries that hinder the development of music. While no one doubts that it is possible to note similarities between musical pieces, there are often exceptions and caveats associated.

There are several academic approaches to genre. In his book Form in Tonal Music, Douglass M. Green lists the madrigal, the motet, the canzona, the ricercar, and the dance as examples of genres (from the Renaissance period). According to Green, "Beethoven's Op. 61 and Mendelssohn's Op. 64 are identical in genre - both are violin concertos - but different in form. Mozart's Rondo for Piano, K. 511, and the Agnus Dei from his Mass, K. 317 are quite different in genre but happen to be similar in form." Some treat the terms genre and style as the same, and state that genre should be defined as pieces of music that share a certain style or "basic musical language". Others state that genre and style are two separate terms, and that secondary characteristics such as subject matter can also differentiate between genres. A music genre (or sub-genre) could be defined by the techniques, the styles, the context and the themes (content, spirit). Also, geographical origin sometimes is used to define the music genre, though a single geographical category will normally include a wide variety of sub-genres.Kembrew McLeod, in an essay entitled "Genres, Subgenres, Sub-Subgenres and More", suggested that in electronic music, "the naming of new subgenres can be linked to a variety of influences, such as the rapidly evolving nature of the music, accelerated consumer culture, and the synergy created by record company marketing strategies and music magazine hype. The appropriation of the musics of minorities by straight, middle and upper-middle-class Whites in the United States and Great Britain plays a part, and the rapid and ongoing naming process within electronic/dance music subcultures acts as a gate-keeping mechanism, as well."A list of genres of music (including sub genres) can be found at List of music genres. There are a number of criteria with which one may classify musical genres, including:

The Art/Popular/Traditional distinction


Time period


Regional and national distinctions


Technique and instrumentation


Fusional origins

Sociological function




The Art/Popular/Traditional distinction:


Art music:
Art music primarily refers to Classical music or others listed at List of art music traditions (including non-European classical music), Contemporary classical music (including Electronic music, Experimental music and Minimalist music). Art music may also include certain forms of Jazz (even though jazz is primarily a form of popular music), Religious music, folk, and world beat music. New Age is also used as an form an art music. Art music is music that is used as in a form of a work of art, and uses many textbook elements of music. Art music is mostly instrumental, but lyrics are added but are in a poetic, political, or religious sense. Art music is music generally discussed in music education and played on public radio stations.



Popular music:
The usual stereotype of "popular music" is music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and are disseminated by one or more of the mass media. For a critical introduction, see the work of Richard Middleton (e.g. Studying Popular Music 1998) and Starr/Waterman American Popular Music (2004). Popular music is also used in more of a sense with the market economy, in a way music can be used to make a profit. Popular music is usually found on most commercial radio stations, in most commercial music retailers and department stores, and for use in movie and television soundtracks. Popular music is also recorded on the Billboard charts and uses music producers as opposed to singer songwriters and composers.

The relationship between (particularly, the relative value of) classical music and popular music is a controversial question. Some partisans of classical music may claim that classical music constitutes art and popular music only light entertainment. However, many popular works show a high level of artistry and musical innovation and many classical works are unabashedly crowd-pleasing. The elevation of classical music to a position of special value is closely connected to the concept of a Western canon, and to theories of educational perennialism.The very distinction between classical and popular music has sometimes been blurred in the border regions , for instance minimalist music and light classics. In this respect music is like fiction, which likewise draws a distinction between classics and popular fiction that is not always easy to maintain.



“ Neat divisions between 'folk' and 'popular', and 'popular' and 'art', are impossible to find ... arbitrary criteria [are used] to define the complement of 'popular'. 'Art' music, for example, is generally regarded as by nature complex, difficult, demanding; 'popular' music then has to be defined as 'simple', 'accessible', 'facile'. But many pieces commonly thought of as 'art' (Handel's 'Hallelujah Chorus', many Schubert songs, many Verdi arias) have qualities of simplicity; conversely, it is by no means obvious that the Sex Pistols' records were 'accessible', Frank Zappa's work 'simple', or Billie Holiday's 'facile'." (Middleton, 1990) ”



Traditional music:
Traditional music is the modern name for what used to be called "Folk music", before the term "Folk music" was expanded to include a lot of non-traditional material. The defining characteristics of traditional music are:

Oral transmission: The music is passed down, or learned, through singing and listening and sometimes dancing.

Cultural basis: The music derives from and is part of the traditions of a particular region or cultur

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

U 2

U2 has been perhaps the biggest music act in the world since the late 1980s to the current day. They take prominent stands on human rights issues, expressed through their lyrics and other public statements and actions. The band's lead singer, Bono, has become quite prominent in charity movements and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The band consists of Bono, lead singer and songwriter; The Edge, lead guitar, keyboards, vocals; Adam Clayton, bass guitar; Larry Mullen Jr., drums. Their manager is Paul McGuinness.

The band formed in Dublin, Ireland, in 1976. The three members who strongly identified themselves as Christians (all except Clayton) decided to pursue and promote the band's career in a manner that would be consistent with their religious beliefs, which are heavy on social action. Theology professor Eugene Peterson says the band has "little patience with media-driven aspects of the Christian religion and a church and culture that shows little concern for justice and poverty and sickness".

The band's popular 1983 song "Sunday Bloody Sunday" commemorated the slaughter of innocent civilians during the Irish troubles. It called for a renunciation of violence, a sentiment that resonated greatly with the people of Ireland. Throughout the 1980s the band used this song to campaign against the Irish Republican Army's (IRA) efforts to raise money to fuel continued armed conflict. The IRA sent a threat to U2 that if they continued their campaign they would be kidnapped. The band continued anyway.

The band's 1984 album "Unforgettable Fire" was named after paintings made by the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs. The album's songs "Pride" and "MLK" were both tributes to the modern-day leader they most admire, Martin Luther King. Another song, "Bad", was about heroin addiction, which was a serious problem in their home town of Dublin at that time.

U2 were major participants in the historic and seminal "Live Aid" concert of 1985, which raised funds for relief from a severe drought in Ethiopia. The band was seen by many of the 1.5 billion people who viewed the concert on live television, and Bono's unscripted leap into the crowd captured the imagination of all. The more than 75 performing groups raised some $250 million for the charity. In the months following the concert, U2's record sales skyrocketed and have never come back down. In 1986 the band headlined a promotional tour to support Amnesty International, and the effort reportedly tripled the organization's membership.

In the 1990s the band's music and concerts mocked the excesses of commercialism. Some critics failed to understand that Bono's exaggerated on-stage personas during the "Zoo TV" tour were parodies, and thus concluded that the band had given in to what they in fact were criticizing. In the early 2000s U2 shifted from stadium extravaganzas to performing in smaller arenas where they were closer to their audiences. In 2004 the band teamed up with iPod for an innovative promotional campaign.

U2 continues their work for charity and social action. They promoted the Northern Ireland Peace Accords, raised money for the survivors of the Omagh bombing, played in devastated Sarajevo following the war there, helped bolster the shaky economy of New York City by playing there following the September 11 terrorist attacks, participated in the Live 8 series of concerts to relieve Third World debt, and continue to promote the Make Poverty History campaign. Bono has become prominent in efforts to end poverty and seek relief from AIDS and promote trade for Africa. He has become quite celebrated for these efforts apart from his music and he often finds himself publicly hobnobbing with presidents and finance ministers to promote these charitable ends.

U2 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. By that year they had won 22 Grammy awards, a historic record surpassed only by Stevie Wonder.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Political Economy Of Black Music

If there is an East Coast/West Coast rivalry over the control of hip hop, it is not unlike the "rumble in the jungle" that recently took place in the former Zaire. Like the situation in the re-christened Congo, where American and European interests are occluded by the media, masked as humanitarian," the control of black music by the corporate entertainment industry is never highlighted. The six major record firms have a colonial-like relationship with the black Rhythm Nation of America that produces hip hop and other forms of black music. Despite the names of a few big money makers - Suge Knight, Sean Combs, and Russell Simmons - or the lurid deaths of Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace (also known as Notorious B.I.G. and Biggie Smalls), rap, like most black music, is under the corporate control of whites and purchased mostly by white youths.

No better example of how black artists are colonized by white recording companies - aided and abetted by blacks - than the case of Tupac Shakur. Originally on contract to Interscope, founded by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Fields, heir to the Marshall Fields fortune, Tupac was "handed over" to Death Row Record's Marion (Suge) Knight when the enfant terrible of rap was in a New York State penitentiary. While Death Row Records was the creation of Dr. Dre and Knight, it practically owned its existence to Interscope (and some say to a drug dealer named Michael "Harry-O" Harris). Desperate to get out of jail, Tupac signed an onerous agreement with Death Row that made David Kenner, Death Row's counsel, his counsel and manager, a direct and unmistakable conflict of interest. Tupac, according to Connie Bruck in her July 7 New Yorker article, "The Takedown of Tupac," was trying to extricate himself from Death Row but was killed. Now Interscope is willing to intercede on behalf of Tupac's estate, represented by his mother, Afeni, because it might come under scrutiny and its relationship with Death Row, currently under investigation by state and federal authorities for possible racketeering, exposed.


While the rise of rap had not been foreseen, what rap represents - breaking the "bonds of solidarity in chains"
between the black lower class and the middle class - had been foretold by E. U. Essien-Udom in his book, Black Nationalism. Written more than thirty years ago, Essien-
Udom observed that class tensions were developing between thelower and middle classes, with black middle-class leadership assuming that its leadership represented the strivings of
the masses. "Lower class-Negroes," observed Essien-Udom, 
"are beginning to define themselves in relation to the Negro 'image' portrayed by the middle class and are attracted to
it; they are also repelled by it because their conditions do not permit genuine identification with middle-class Negroes. As it is in their relations with white society, lower-class Negroes tend to withdraw and disassociate themselves from the middle and upper class Negroes. This estrangement suggests the beginning of class consciousness and conflict among the Negro masses, not directed against whites, but
against the Negro middle and upper classes." Today's black leadership cannot relate to those who are the engines of a $1 billion genre of a multi-billion dollar industry. Such an estrangement is self-inflicted cultural, political and economic genocide.


Black leaders have bought into a whole set of assumptions based on white beliefs and the American rules of the game. Consequently, they have never be able to educate those who have talent about protecting their rights as musicians and artists, to expect to be able to earn a living from their crafts. If black music had been nurtured and understood as a source of cultural pride and cultural capital, blacks would have been able to more fully develop an entre- preneurial class of artists, businessmen and women, lawyers, and accountants, create and support their own institutions. In other words, build the sort of true bourgeois class that would have not been afraid to express its own nationalism and build some level of group economics on its own people's talent, and such a development would have entailed making black workers and artists realize that they are enmeshed in an economic system that had to be struggled against by organizing on their terms and interest rather than just racial solidarity. They, like the Jews who invented Holly- wood, could have had "an empire of their own," as Neal Gabler documented in his aptly titled book. Black music could have been the engine of a black-led music industry with all the necessary contradictions of capital and labor.

Today's Music And Economy..

"Diddy enjoying a big gulp"

Diddy Enjoying A Big Gulp
                       As America enters a time period of financial uncertainty, many citizens of this country feel the pressures that our forefathers felt in the 1930’s. Speaking for the generation that encompasses men and women in their twenties, we have never been so afraid financially. We come from a time when internet business gave birth to millionaires and billionaires under the age of thirty, including prosperous entrepreneurs such as Shawn Fanning (creator of Napster), Sergey Brin and Larry Page (founders of Google), and Tom Anderson (Founder of MySpace). And as we continue to explore the vast possibilities of the internet and how it can be used, many industries face expulsion from the world’s stage by new technologies that provide services understanding to modern needs.
And now more than ever, the record industry is facing difficult times ahead. As the “Big Four” (a term used to name the four biggest record companies in the world: Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, EMI Group, and Warner Music Group) struggle in a turbulent ocean to keep afloat, many artists are leaving them to sign with independent labels that give them better deals on their royalty percentages. Radio Head recently released a studio album in which profits were generated by donations. Madonna recently left Warner to sign with Live Nation, which technically isn’t a record label. In fact, they are a concert promotion company. And with instances like these occurring more often than not, the “Big Four” are forced to try new ideas to keep revenue at the levels they are used to.

David Bowie Glamming It Up:
                      In 2001, the record industry took its biggest financial hit. After writing computer code in his dorm room for months, Shawn Fanning released Napster to the world, an internet website that allowed subscribers to freely download licensed music onto their computer and burn it onto CD, all the while not paying anything for it. Although it flew under the radar for a while, many artists and record executives started to take notice of the buzz generated by this website. After multiple lawsuits were filed against the Napster Company, it finally closed its ‘doors’ (so to speak) in 2002 by declaring itself bankrupt and selling its assets to the Best Buy corporation.As of 2008, the Compact Disc (which in dates past covered 80% of the record companies’ sales) dropped 30%. As the record executives promise that recovery is just on the horizon with the advent of digital download, the average share price of the record labels dropped 72% in this decade (according to economist.com). And as the companies lose more and more money, the future of the industry is definitely on shaky ground.
As someone that believes in paying the artists for the music that they create, I wonder to myself, did the record industry have it coming to them? At the end of the forties, the record industry became more organized. The music became more accessible. All fans had to do was go to the local record store and find the album they were looking for. And as businessmen realized the potential earning power of selling vinyl records to the public, marketing schemes were instilled to sell music. By the time the fifties dawned, Rock and Roll captivated the nation with a musical revolution that has not yet been surpassed. And when Elvis Presley made his first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show in September of 1956 with a flashy, rebellious attitude, the record companies realized that nonconformity sold records.

With acts such as David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Elton John, KISS, everybody in the eighties, the Cash Money Millionaires, and so on, the record industry has produced more and more acts that focus on flashiness and glam to sell records. Now I’m not saying that these artists cannot be respected creatively, but their superstar status can be linked to the antics they do on and off the stage. In this decade alone, the term ‘making it rain’ can be heard on a good percentage of songs on the radio. ‘Making it rain’ refers to an individual taking their money and throwing it up in the air so as if to brag that they have money to burn.
But as we enter an era of economic dreariness, does one have the capital freedom to throw up money in the air and walk away from it just so that those around them can grabble in their wake? In my opinion, they do not. And as Sony, EMI, and such promote these lavish lifestyles, I think that the public has finally had enough. Enough of the Ferraris, the Lamborghinis, the $100,000 pieces of jewelry, and the artists throwing their riches into their fans faces. It’s almost as if these artists are telling their fans, “Look what you paid for! You paid for my $4 million house.” And now I think that the fans are finally saying, “I’m not paying for your 4-year-old’s yoga classes anymore.”
And although I am an advocate of paying artists for their art, can you blame the consumers for their lack of willingness to pay their hard earned money considering the shenanigans seen in the supermarket tabloids? Something to think about; but again that’s me, make up your own mind, peace…

Friday, August 6, 2010

Development Of Classic Music

In European classical music,musical development is a process by which a musical idea is communicated in the course of a composition. It refers to the transformation and restatement of initial material, and is often contrasted with musical variation, which is a slightly different means to the same end. Development is carried out upon portions of material treated in many different presentations and combinations at a time, while variation depends upon one type of presentation at a time
In this process, certain central ideas are repeated in different contexts or in altered form so that the mind of the listener consciously or unconsciously compares the various incarnations of these ideas. Listeners may apprehend a "tension between expected and real results" (see irony), which is one "element of surprise" in music. This practice has its roots in counterpoint, where a theme or subject might create an initial impression of a pleasing or affective sort, but would go on to further delight the mind as its contrapuntal capabilities are gradually unveiled.
The musical form which traditionally exploits development to the fullest is the sonata form. In this form there is a section after the exposition and before the recapitulation which is called the development section, where material from the exposition section is developed. In some older texts the development section of a sonata may be referred to as "free fantasia."

Beyonce


Birth Name: Beyoncé Giselle Knowles
Birth Date: September 4, 1981
Birth Place: Housten, Texas, USA
Occupation: Singer, Model, Actress
Claim to Fame: Lead singer of Destiny's Child
Height: 5' 6" (1.68 m)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown
Nickname: JuJu , Mothe , Bee
Born to a loving family in Houston, Texas, Beyonce (rhymes with fiance) Giselle Knowles showed an aptitude for music before she could even talk. As a young girl, she would drown out everyone, including the church choir, on Sundays at church. Every weekend, she tuned her voice by doing soulful hymns with the congregation and then moved on to opera classes, in which she was classically trained.

Father set up Destiny
A normal childhood was not in the books for Beyonce. At 8 years old, she met LaTavia Robertson while auditioning for a girls musical group and Matthew Knowles, Beyonce's manager and father, later paired the two with LeToya Luckett. In 1992, cousin Kelly Rowland joined the group, and they performed together on Star Search.
Small gigs and much label-shopping later, the four beauties cemented their relationship by calling themselves Destiny's Child. In 1997, "No, No, No" became their first official single, and they got off to a big start as the track went multi-platinum. The girls were instantly popular in the media and impressed all with their self-titled debut.

Bringing in the bills, bills, bills
If critics were impressed with this new R&B group's success, they were absolutely floored when The Writing's on the Wall hit stores in 1999. DC, led by the incomparable Beyonce, had three top ten hits within the year: "Jumpin, Jumpin," "Say My Name" and "Bills, Bills, Bills." They became one of the best-selling female groups of recent memory after this second album sold more than 9 million units worldwide. At the same time, it was announced that their single "Independent Women Part 1," off the Charlie's Angels soundtrack, had reached the largest audience ever in the recorded radio airplay -- 140.4 million pairs of ears.
 
Grammys came during group split
Shortly after the announcement of five Grammy nominations at the 2001 awards show and the excitement of the unbelievable record sales, LeToya and LaTavia left the group amid management struggles. Legal problems ensued, but Destiny's Child became whole again with the arrival of Michelle Williams, and, for a short stint only, backup singer Farrah Franklin. At the Grammys, DC took home two awards, Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group, both for "Say My Name."
Now a trio, Destiny's Child's third album, Survivor, which debuted in the spring of '01, garnered a whole new set of hits, like "Bootylicious" and the title track. The success of Survivor resulted in another Grammy for the group in February 2002. In fact, the American Music, MTV, Soul Train and Image Awards all showered the group with more hardware and praise.

Breaking records and breakup
After all this success, the group's three talented sistas decided to try their hands at solo careers before investing their time in another Destiny's Child album. To no one's surprise, Beyonce has captured the bulk of the spotlight with her sex appeal and strong vocals. Even before her first album was organized, she had a hit with Jay-Z called "Bonnie and Clyde '03" and was cracking up audiences with her big-screen debut alongside Mike Myers in Austin Powers in Goldmember. This simply prepared fans for what was to come with Dangerously In Love, released in June 2003.

Knowles a dangerous artist & actor
Beyonce displayed a versatile style with this solo effort, creating the club hit "Baby Boy," the pop success "Crazy In Love" and the soulful "The Closer I Get To You" with Luther Vandross. Like her work in Destiny's Child, Beyonce wrote or co-wrote many of the tracks and performed her heart out on award shows to get the word out to a huge audience. She has emerged as a diva, making the best videos, catchiest songs and creating the most headlines. Rumors have swirled that she is involved with rapper Jay-Z, and talk of another Destiny's Child album has surfaced.
Her work outside the recording studio does not go ignored either. As she prepares for a solo tour, Beyonce can be seen in ads for L'Oreal and Pepsi, and in the musical/comedy The Fighting Temptations. A star of her caliber comes along very rarely, so we expect even bigger things from our favorite R&B star in the near future: more music, movies and sexy outfits, please.
"It's not like I can go shopping and go to the mall and go get my nails done without people asking for autographs and taking pictures. Then when it's Michelle, Kelly and me, it makes it even harder. It's like, 'Destiny's Child is here.' So that is a sacrifice. Normalcy is sacrificed. But that's just a part of it. You can't complain about it." 

Biography-----Avril



Avril Lavigne
Avril Lavigne Rock & roll wild child Avril Lavigne hit big in summer 2002 with her spiky-fun debut song "Complicated," shifting pop music into a different direction. Lavigne, who was 17 at the time, didn't seem concerned with the glamor of the TRL-dominated pop world and such confidence allowed her star power to soar.

The middle of three children in small town Napanee, Ontario, Lavigne's rock ambitions were noticeable around age two. By her early teens, she was already writing songs and playing guitar. The church choir and local festivals and county fairs also allowed Lavigne to get her voice heard, and luckily, Arista Records' main man Antonio "L.A." Reid was listening. He offered her a deal, and at 16, Lavigne's musical dreams became reality.

With Reid's assistance and a new Manhattan apartment, Lavigne found herself surrounded by prime songwriters and producers, but it wasn't impressive enough for her to continue. She had always relied on her own ideas to create a musical spark and things weren't going as planned. Lavigne wasn't disillusioned, though. She headed for Los Angeles and Nettwerk grabbed her. Producer/songwriter Clif Magness (Celine Dion, Wilson Phillips, Sheena Easton) tweaked Lavigne's melodic, edgy sound and her debut, Let Go, was the polished product. Singles such as "Complicated" and "Sk8er Boi" went top 10 while "I'm With You" and "Losing Grip" did moderately well at radio. Butch Walker of the Marvelous 3, Our Lady Peace frontman Raine Maida and Don Gilmore (Linkin Park, Good Charlotte) signed on to produce Lavigne's second album. Under My Skin appeared in May 2004. 

Mr. Bieber


Early life
Bieber was born on March 1, 1994, in Stratford, Ontario. Bieber's mother, Pattie Mallette, was 18 years old when she became pregnant with her son. Mallette, who worked a series of low paying office jobs, raised Bieber as a single mother. However, Bieber maintains contact with his father, Jeremy Bieber.As he grew, Bieber taught himself to play the piano, drums, guitar, and trumpet. In early 2007, when he was twelve, Bieber sang Ne-Yo's "So Sick" for a local singing competition in Stratford and placed second. Mallette posted a video of the performance on YouTube for their family and friends to see. She continued to upload videos of Bieber singing covers of various R&B songs, and Bieber's popularity on the site grew.
While searching for videos of a different singer, Scooter Braun, a former marketing executive of So So Def, clicked on one of Bieber's videos by accident. Impressed, Braun tracked down the theater Bieber was performing in, located Bieber's school, and finally contacted Mallette. Mallette was reluctant; she remembered praying, "God, I gave him to you. You could send me a Christian man, a Christian label!" However, after praying with her church elders and receiving their encouragement, she permitted Braun to fly Bieber, then 13, to Atlanta, Georgia to record demo tapes. A week after arriving, Bieber sang for R&B singer/songwriter Usher, who arranged an audition with Antonio L.A. Reid at Island Def Jam Music Group, who in turn signed him to Island Records in October 2008. Justin Timberlake was reportedly in the running to sign Bieber, but he eventually signed with Usher. Bieber and his mother then moved to Atlanta, also the home of Usher and Braun, to base his career.



Career
2009–2010: My World and My World 2.0
Bieber's first single, "One Time", was released to radio while Bieber was still recording his debut album. Thsong reached number 12 on the Canadian Hot 100 during its first week of release in July 2009, and later peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. During fall 2009 it had success in international markets. The song was certified Platinum in Canada and the U.S. and Gold in Australia and New Zealand. Bieber's first album My World, was released on November 17, 2009. Three consecutive singles, "One Less Lonely Girl", "Love Me", and "Favorite Girl", were released exclusively on the iTunes store and charted within the top forty of the Billboard Hot 100. "One Less Lonely Girl" was later also released to radio and peaked within the top fifteen in Canada and the U.S., being certified Gold in the latter. My World was eventually certified Platinum in the U.S. and Canada and Silver in the UK. To promote the album, Bieber performed in several live shows such as mtvU's VMA 09 Tour, European program The Dome, YTV's The Next Star, The Today Show, The Wendy Williams Show, Lopez Tonight, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, It's On with Alexa Chung, Good Morning America, Chelsea Lately, and BET's 106 & Park with Rihanna. Bieber also guest starred in an episode of True Jackson, VP in late 2009.


At New York City signing venue, Nintendo Store on September 1, 2009.Bieber performed Stevie Wonder's "Someday at Christmas" for U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama at the White House for Christmas in Washington, which was broadcast on December 20, 2009, on U.S. television broadcaster TNT. Bieber was also one of the performers at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest on December 31, 2009. Bieber was a presenter at the 52nd Grammy Awards on January 31, 2010. He was invited to be a vocalist for the remake of We Are The World for its 25th anniversary to benefit Haiti after the earthquake. Bieber sings the opening line, which was sung by Lionel Richie in the original version. On March 12, 2010, a version of K'naan's "Wavin' Flag" recorded by a collective of Canadian musicians known as Young Artists for Haiti was released. Bieber is featured in the song, performing the closing lines.
"Baby", the lead single from the second half of his debut album, which features Ludacris, was released in January 2010 and became his biggest hit thus far, charting at number five in the U.S. and reaching the top ten in seven other countries. Two digital singles, "Never Let You Go", and "U Smile" were top thirty hits on the U.S. Hot 100, and top twenty hits in Canada. According to review aggregator Metacritic, the album has received "generally favorable reviews". It debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, making Bieber the youngest solo male act to top the chart since Stevie Wonder in 1963. My World 2.0 also debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, Irish Albums Chart, and Australian Albums Chart, and the New Zealand Albums Chart and reached the top ten of fifteen other countries. To promote the album, Bieber appeared on several live programs including The View, the 2010 Kids Choice Awards, Nightline, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Dome and 106 and Park. On April 10, 2010, Bieber was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. On July 4, 2010, Bieber performed at the Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular in New York City. The second single from My World 2.0, "Somebody to Love", was released in April of 2010 but failed to garner chart success, so it was re-released as a remix featuring Bieber's mentor Usher in June of 2010, and has reached number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100.



2010–present: My World Tour and work on second album
On June 23, 2010, Bieber went on his first official headlining tour, starting in Hartford, Connecticut, to promote My World and My World 2.0. The tour is called My World Tour and it will be concluding in December 2010. In July 2010, it was reported that Bieber was the most searched for celebrity on the Internet.That same month his music video, "Baby", surpassed Lady Gaga's, "Bad Romance", to become the most viewed YouTube video ever.
Bieber began recording his second album in the July of 2010 in New York City. At this point, his voice was deeper than it was when he recorded his first album because of puberty. In April 2010, the singer discussing his vocals remarked, "It cracks. Like every teenage boy, I'm dealing with it and I have the best vocal coach in the world. [...] Some of the notes I hit on "Baby" I can't hit anymore. We have to lower the key when I sing live."British singer/songwriter Taio Cruz confirmed in July of 2010 that he is writing songs for Bieber's next album.Hip hop producer Dr. Dre produced a couple songs with Bieber in July 2010 but it is unknown if they were made for the album, which is currently due for a 2011 release.
Bieber will guest star in the season premiere of the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which is scheduled to air on September 23, 2010. According to Reuters, he will play a "troubled teen who is faced with a difficult decision regarding his only brother." Bieber will continue to appear in later episodes of the season as his character's story progresses. Also Bieber is planning to write a memoir about his life and rise to stardom. The planned title is Justin Bieber: First Step 2 Forever: My Story. The publisher said the book is set to be released in October of 2010. Justin released this statement "excited to share just a little bit more of my world." Other projects by Justin Bieber are a 3D movie about himself. Its slated for a 2011 Valentine's Day release. Bieber tweeted "This is so sick!! Gonna come out in theatres Worldwide Valentine's 2011!!! I'm taking this thing worldwide thanks to u all!! Hyped!!"



Image
According to Jan Hoffman of The New York Times, part of Bieber's appeal stems from his YouTube channel. Long before he released his EP, My World, in mid-November, the YouTube videos attracted millions of views." Braun recognized the appeal. Prior to flying him to Atlanta, Braun wanted to "build him up more on YouTube first" and had Bieber record more home videos for the channel. "I said: 'Justin, sing like there’s no one in the room. But let’s not use expensive cameras.' We’ll give it to kids, let them do the work, so that they feel like it’s theirs," recalled Braun. Bieber continues to upload videos to the same channel and has opened a Twitter account, from which he interacts with fans regularly.The accounts also serve marketing purposes; for example, Bieber's music video for "One Time" only began selling quickly after it was uploaded to YouTube.
Usher comments that while he and Bieber were both signed at the same age, "I had the chance to ramp up my success, where this has happened to Bieber abruptly." As a result, Usher, Braun, Bieber's bodyguard Kenny, and other adults surrounding Bieber constantly coach him on handling fame and his public image. After signing Bieber, Usher appointed one of his former assistants, Ryan Good, to be Bieber's road manager and stylist. Good, once nicknamed Bieber's "swagger coach", created a "streetwise look" for the singer which consisted of baseball caps, hoodies, dog chains and flashy sneakers. Amy Kaufman of The Los Angeles Times comments, "Though a product of a middle-class suburban upbringing in Stratford, Ontario, Bieber's manner of dress and speech ("Wassup man, how you doin'?" or "It's like, you know, whateva' ") suggest he's mimicking his favorite rappers."
Bieber is often featured in teen magazines such as Tiger Beat, and has been labeled a "teen hearthrob".
Thrash metal generally features fast tempos, low-register, complex guitar riffs, high-register guitar solos, double bass drumming, and an aggressive vocal style, ranging from the gruff voices of Metallica's James Hetfield and Tom Araya of Slayer to the signature "snarl" of Dave Mustaine (Megadeth). Occasionally, a thrash metal band will have a more melodic singer. The most prominent example of this is Joey Belladonna of Anthrax, whose style follows a similar vein to that of Bruce Dickinson and Rob Halford.
Most thrash guitar solos are played at high speed, as they are usually characterized by shredding, and use techniques such as sweep picking, legato phrasing, alternate picking, Tremolo picking, string skipping, and two-hand tapping. Thrash lead guitarists are often influenced by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement.
Thrash guitar riffs often use chromatic scales and emphasize the tritone and diminished intervals, instead of using conventional single scale based riffing. For example, the main riff of Metallica's "Master of Puppets" is a chromatic descent, followed by a chromatic ascent based on the tritone. Rhythm guitar playing is characterized by extensive palm muting and down picking to give the riffs a chugging sound, along with extensive use of the pedal point technique (creating what can be considered a distinctive, 'thrashy' sound).
Speed, pacing, and time-changes also define thrash metal. Thrash tends to have an accelerating feel which may be due in large part to its aggressive drumming style. For example, thrash drummers often use two bass drums, or a double-bass pedal, in order to create a relentless, driving beat. Cymbal stops/chokes are often used to transition from one riff to another or to precede an acceleration in tempo.
To keep up with the other instruments, many thrash bassists use a pick. However, some prominent thrash metal bassists have used their fingers, such as Frank Bello, Greg Christian, Jack Gibson, Steve DiGiorgio, Robert Trujillo and the late Cliff Burton. Several bassists use a distorted bass tone, an approach popularized by Burton and Motörhead's Lemmy.
Lyrical themes in thrash metal include isolation, alienation, corruption, injustice, addiction, suicide, murder, warfare, and other maladies that afflict the individual and society. Humor and irony can occasionally be found, but they are limited, and are the exception rather than the rule.

Musica Traits Of Thrash Music...

Thrash metal generally features fast tempos, low-register, complex guitar riffs, high-register guitar solos, double bass drumming, and an aggressive vocal style, ranging from the gruff voices of Metallica's James Hetfield and Tom Araya of Slayer to the signature "snarl" of Dave Mustaine (Megadeth). Occasionally, a thrash metal band will have a more melodic singer. The most prominent example of this is Joey Belladonna of Anthrax, whose style follows a similar vein to that of Bruce Dickinson and Rob Halford.
Most thrash guitar solos are played at high speed, as they are usually characterized by shredding, and use techniques such as sweep picking, legato phrasing, alternate picking, Tremolo picking, string skipping, and two-hand tapping. Thrash lead guitarists are often influenced by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement.
Thrash guitar riffs often use chromatic scales and emphasize the tritone and diminished intervals, instead of using conventional single scale based riffing. For example, the main riff of Metallica's "Master of Puppets" is a chromatic descent, followed by a chromatic ascent based on the tritone. Rhythm guitar playing is characterized by extensive palm muting and down picking to give the riffs a chugging sound, along with extensive use of the pedal point technique (creating what can be considered a distinctive, 'thrashy' sound).
Speed, pacing, and time-changes also define thrash metal. Thrash tends to have an accelerating feel which may be due in large part to its aggressive drumming style. For example, thrash drummers often use two bass drums, or a double-bass pedal, in order to create a relentless, driving beat. Cymbal stops/chokes are often used to transition from one riff to another or to precede an acceleration in tempo.
To keep up with the other instruments, many thrash bassists use a pick. However, some prominent thrash metal bassists have used their fingers, such as Frank Bello, Greg Christian, Jack Gibson, Steve DiGiorgio, Robert Trujillo and the late Cliff Burton. Several bassists use a distorted bass tone, an approach popularized by Burton and Motörhead's Lemmy.
Lyrical themes in thrash metal include isolation, alienation, corruption, injustice, addiction, suicide, murder, warfare, and other maladies that afflict the individual and society. Humor and irony can occasionally be found, but they are limited, and are the exception rather than the rule.

Pictures Of Blues Band




Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Thrash Music

Thrash metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized by its fast tempo and aggression. Thrash metal songs typically use fast, percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work. Thrash metal lyrics often deal with social issues using direct and denunciatory language, an approach which partially overlaps with the hardcore genre. The "Big Four" bands of thrash metal are Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica, and Slayer, who simultaneously created and popularized the genre in the early 1980s.
The origins of thrash metal are generally traced to the late 1970s and early 1980s, when a number of bands began incorporating the sound of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, creating a new genre and developing into a separate movement from punk rock and hardcore. This genre is more aggressive compared to its relative, speed metal, and can be seen in part to be a reaction to the lighter, more widely acceptable sounds and themes of glam metal.

Biography of John Bonham (Drummer)


Early years
Bonham was born on 31 May 1948, in Redditch, Worcestershire, England, to Joan and Jack Bonham. He first learned to play drums at the age of five, making a drum kit out of containers and coffee tins, imitating his idols Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. His mother gave him a snare drum at the age of ten. He received his first proper drum kit from his father at fifteen, a Trixon kit. Bonham never took any formal drum lessons, though as a teen he would get advice from other Redditch drummers. Between 1962-63, while still at school, Bonham joined the Blue Star Trio, and Gerry Levene & the Avengers.
Bonham attended Lodge Farm Secondary Modern School, where his headmaster once wrote in his school report card that "He will either end up a dustman or a millionaire". After leaving school in 1964, he worked for his father as an apprentice carpenter in between drumming for different local bands. In 1964, Bonham joined his first semi-professional band, Terry Webb and the Spiders, and met his future wife Pat Phillips around the same time. He also played in other Birmingham bands such as The Nicky James Movement, and The Senators, who released a moderately successful single "She's a Mod," in 1964. Bonham then took up drumming full-time. Two years later, he joined A Way of Life, but the band soon became inactive. In desperation for a regular income, he joined a blues group called Crawling King Snakes whose lead singer was a young Robert Plant.
In 1967, A Way of Life asked Bonham to return to the group, and he agreed—though throughout this period, Plant kept in constant contact with Bonham. When Plant decided to form Band of Joy, Bonham was first choice as drummer. The band recorded a number of demos but no album. In 1968 American singer Tim Rose toured Britain and invited Band of Joy to open his concerts. When Rose returned for another tour months later, Bonham was formally invited by the singer to drum for his band, which gave him a regular income.

Something about the drum that was played by the great drummer...

Drums
John Bonham playing his first green sparkle Ludwig drum kit
Bonham initially used Premier drums, but in the late 1960s was introduced to Ludwig drums by Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge. Throughout the remainder of his career, Bonham was a major endorser of Ludwig Drums. In concert, he used a wide range of different drum kits, but mostly of the same sizes. From 1970 onwards, he used a 26"x14" bass drum, which was the most identifiable part of his setup. He used 16"x16", 16"x18" and (on certain live performances) a 20"x18" floor tom, while occasionally changing his tom sizes, which included sizes 12"x14", 10"x14", and 12"x15".

Studio and Touring Kit (1970–1973)
Drums — Ludwig Green Sparkle
14x10" Tom (mounted on a rail consolette mount)
16x16" Floor Tom
18x16" Floor Tom
26x14" Bass Drum
14x6.5" Ludwig Chrome Supraphonic 402 Snare
29" Machine Timpani (1972+)
29" 32" Universal Timpani (1972+)
Ludwig Speed King Bass pedal
John was known for telling the band that the Green Sparkle kit was his favourite and best sounding kit, and it was used on all recordings from IV onwards, excluding Presence where he used the Silver Sparkle kit.
"The Song Remains The Same" Kit (1973–1975)
Drums — Ludwig Amber Vistalite
14"x10" Tom
16x16" Floor Tom
18x16" Floor Tom
20x16" Floor Tom
26x14" Bass Drum
14x6.5" Ludwig Chrome Supraphonic 402 Snare
29" Machine Timpani
29" 32" Universal Timpani
Ludwig speed king bass pedal
A spare bass drum was kept, as these drums were renowned for cracking..


Cymbals
Bonham used Paiste Cymbals exclusively. His cymbal setup included Paiste Giant Beat cymbals until 1970. The Paiste Endorsement Agreement shows he experimented with cymbals including the 602 series before changing to a complete set of what is now the 2002 series in '71, which he used for the rest of his career. His setup:
15" 2002 Sound Edge Hi-Hat
24" 2002 Ride
20" 2002 Medium Crash
18" 2002 Crash (Switched to 18" 2002 Medium Crash in 1973)
16" 2002 Medium Crash
36-38" Symphonic Gong
Drum Heads
Bonham played Remo drum heads throughout his career. For his wood drums, he always used Remo Coated Emperors (or Ludwig equivalent) on his batter sides, while using coated ambassadors on the resonant side of his toms, and a diplomat or clear ambassador on the resonant side of his snare drum. The bass drums front head was always a medium weight head, for instance a Remo Coated Ambassador. The batter head was always tuned medium-tight, (almost jazz-like) and the resonate head was always tuned way up, for a full, round sound. He never put anything inside his bass drum (although his band members have said that he would sometimes fill it with crumpled tin foil, so that it would project). He only used a felt strip on the batter side occasionally. The bass drum heads were also tuned a lot higher than one would think. Some have claimed he used to make "Ritchie Rings" cut out of old drum heads for his front bass drum head, but this anomaly is simply the surrounding light producing a shadow from the hoop on the white drum head producing the ring effect (you can produce the same effect with a front bass drum head, as long as the head is coated).
On the Vistalites he used Remo CS black dots on the batter side of the toms and the bass drum and clear ambassadors on the resonate side. The snare always had a coated emperor on the batter side and an ambassador or a diplomat on the snare side. He sometimes used a Gretsch 42-strand snare wires to fatten the snare sound.


Bass Drum Pedal
Bonham used Ludwig Speed King Pedal (AKA "Squeak king") (with tight spring tension) throughout his career. His trademark bass drum "triplets," — played interchangeably with doubles and singles — which are most notable in "Good Times Bad Times", were played on a single bass pedal, and not a double bass pedal. Unlike some contemporary drummers, Bonham did not use a double-bass drum kit. He did once own one (it was featured in the demo "Communication Breakdown"), but it was removed from his kit by the rest of the band. John Bonham did play double bass drums while the band was touring with the band Vanilla Fudge {as quoted by Carmine Appice.}
It is possible to hear the squeak of the pedal in several recordings, including "Since I've Been Loving You", "The Ocean", "The Rain Song", "Houses of the Holy", "Ten Years Gone", "Bonzo's Montreux" and the live version of "I Can't Quit You Baby" on Coda and "All My Love" on In Through The Out Door. Jimmy Page later commented:
The only real problem I can remember encountering was when we were putting the first boxed set together. There was an awfully squeaky bass drum pedal on "Since I've Been Loving You". It sounds louder and louder every time I hear it! [laughs]. That was something that was obviously sadly overlooked at the time.


Tribute kits
In 2005, Ludwig began issuing Bonham reissue kits in green sparkle maple and amber Vistalite. Ludwig currently offers "Zep Kits" in their Vistalite and Classic lines, with a 26" bass drum, a 14" tom mounted on a snare stand, and 16" and 18" floor toms. In 2007 they issued a limited edition stainless steel kit similar to the ones Bonham used on the last Led Zeppelin tours in the 1970s. The stainless steel shells were manufactured by Ronn Dunnett of Dunnett Classic Drums.

Doom and gothic metal

Emerging in the mid-1980s with such bands as California's Saint Vitus, Maryland's The Obsessed, Chicago's Trouble, and Sweden's Candlemass, the doom metal movement rejected other metal styles' emphasis on speed, slowing its music to a crawl. Doom metal traces its roots to the lyrical themes and musical approach of early Black Sabbath. The Melvins have also been a significant influence on doom metal and a number of its subgenres. Doom emphasizes melody, melancholy tempos, and a sepulchral mood relative to many other varieties of metal.
"Country Doctor"
"Country Doctor" from Crippled Lucifer (1998) by doom metal band Burning Witch
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The 1991 release of Forest of Equilibrium, the debut album by UK band Cathedral, helped spark a new wave of doom metal. During the same period, the doom-death fusion style of British bands Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema gave rise to European gothic metal, with its signature dual-vocalist arrangements, exemplified by Norway's Theatre of Tragedy and Tristania. New York's Type O Negative introduced an American take on the style. In the United States, sludge metal, mixing doom and hardcore, emerged in the late 1980s—Eyehategod and Crowbar were leaders in a major Louisiana sludge scene. Early in the next decade, California's Kyuss and Sleep, inspired by the earlier doom metal bands, spearheaded the rise of stoner metal, while Seattle's Earth helped develop the drone metal subgenre. The late 1990s saw new bands form such as the Los Angeles–based Goatsnake, with a classic stoner/doom sound, and Sunn O))), which crosses lines between doom, drone, and dark ambient metal—the New York Times has compared their sound to an "Indian raga in the middle of an earthquake".

Black Metal


The first wave of black metal emerged in Europe in the early and mid-1980s, led by Britain's Venom, Denmark's Mercyful Fate, Switzerland's Hellhammer and Celtic Frost, and Sweden's Bathory. By the late 1980s, Norwegian bands such as Mayhem and Burzum were heading a second wave. Black metal varies considerably in style and production quality, although most bands emphasize shrieked and growled vocals, highly distorted guitars frequently played with rapid tremolo picking, a "dark" atmosphere and intentionally lo-fi production, with ambient noise and background hiss. Satanic themes are common in black metal, though many bands take inspiration from ancient paganism, promoting a return to pre-Christian values. Numerous black metal bands also "experiment with sounds from all possible forms of metal, folk, classical music, electronica and avant-garde." Darkthrone drummer Fenriz explains, "It had something to do with production, lyrics, the way they dressed and a commitment to making ugly, raw, grim stuff. There wasn't a generic sound."
1990, Mayhem was regularly wearing corpsepaint; many other black metal acts also adopted the look. Bathory inspired the Viking metal and folk metal movements and Immortal brought blast beats to the fore. Some bands in the Scandinavian black metal scene became associated with considerable violence in the early 1990s, with Mayhem and Burzum linked to church burnings. Growing commercial hype around death metal generated a backlash; beginning in Norway, much of the Scandinavian metal underground shifted to support a black metal scene that resisted being co-opted by the commercial metal industry. According to former Gorgoroth vocalist Gaahl, "Black Metal was never meant to reach an audience.... [We] had a common enemy which was, of course, Christianity, socialism and everything that democracy stands for."
"De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas"
The title track of Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994)
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By 1992, black metal scenes had begun to emerge in areas outside Scandinavia, including Germany, France, and Poland. The 1993 murder of Mayhem's Euronymous by Burzum's Varg Vikernes provoked intensive media coverage. Around 1996, when many in the scene felt the genre was stagnating, several key bands, including Burzum and Finland's Beherit, moved toward an ambient style, while symphonic black metal was explored by Sweden's Tiamat and Switzerland's Samael.In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Norway's Dimmu Borgir brought black metal closer to the mainstream, as did Cradle of Filth, which Metal Hammer calls England's most successful metal band since Iron Maiden.

About Kurt Cobain

Early Years

Cobain and Novoselic met in 1985. Both were fans of the Melvins, and frequented the band's practice space. After a couple of false starts at forming their own band, the duo recruited drummer Aaron Burckhard, creating the first incarnation of what would eventually become Nirvana. Cobain later described the sound of the band when they first started as "a Gang of Four and Scratch Acid ripoff." Within a few months, Burckhard was fired from the band. He was temporarily replaced by Dale Crover of the Melvins, who played on the band's first demos. Dave Foster then began a brief tenure as the band's drummer.
During its initial months, the band went through a series of names, including Pen Cap Chew, and Ted Ed Fred. The band finally settled on Nirvana in early 1988, which Cobain said was chosen because "I wanted a name that was kind of beautiful or nice and pretty instead of a mean, raunchy punk rock name like the Angry Samoans." Nirvana played their first show under the name that March. A couple of months later, the band finally settled on a drummer, Chad Channing.
[edit] Early releases
Nirvana's first release was the single "Love Buzz/Big Cheese" in 1988 on Seattle independent record label Sub Pop. The following year, the band released its first album, Bleach. To record Bleach, the band turned to noted local producer Jack Endino, who had recorded the band's first studio demos. Bleach was highly influenced by the heavy dirge-rock of the Melvins and Mudhoney, 1980s punk rock, and the 1970s heavy metal of Black Sabbath. Novoselic noted in a 2001 interview with Rolling Stone that the band had played a tape in their van while on tour that had an album by The Smithereens on one side and an album by the black metal band Celtic Frost on the other, and noted that the combination probably played an influence as well.[6] Bleach became a favorite of college radio stations nationally, but gave few hints of where the band would find itself two years later.
The money for the recording sessions for Bleach, listed as $606.17 on the album sleeve, was supplied by Jason Everman. Everman was introduced to Cobain by Dylan Carlson, but had known Channing since the fifth grade. Everman began hanging out with the band, and offered to lend the money to them for the recording. Though Everman did not actually play on the album, he was credited for playing guitar on Bleach because, according to Novoselic, they "wanted to make him feel more at home in the band." After the album was completed, Everman had a brief stay with the band as a second guitar player, but was fired following their first US tour.
In a late 1989 interview, Cobain noted that the band's music was changing. He said, "The early songs were really angry ... But as time goes on the songs are getting poppier and poppier as I get happier and happier. The songs are now about conflicts in relationships, emotional things with other human beings." In April 1990, the band began working with producer Butch Vig at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin on recordings for the follow-up to Bleach. During the sessions, Cobain and Novoselic became disenchanted with Channing's drumming, and Channing expressed frustration at not being actively involved in songwriting. Not long after the sessions were complete, Channing left the band. After a few weeks with Dale Crover of the Melvins filling in, Nirvana hired Mudhoney drummer Dan Peters, with whom they recorded the song "Sliver" that was released as a single in 1990. A few weeks later, Buzz Osborne of the Melvins introduced them to Dave Grohl, who was looking for a new band following the sudden break-up of D.C. hardcore punks Scream. A few days after arriving in Seattle, Novoselic and Cobain auditioned Grohl, with Novoselic later stating, "We knew in two minutes that he was the right drummer."
Mainstream success
"Smells Like Teen Spirit"
Sample of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," the first single from the band's breakthrough release Nevermind (1991). The song was a worldwide hit, and its "quiet verses with wobbly, chorused guitar, followed by big, loud hardcore-inspired choruses" became a much-emulated template in alternative rock.
Disenchanted with Sub Pop and with the Smart Studios sessions generating interest, Nirvana decided to look for a deal with a major record label. Following repeated recommendations by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, Nirvana signed to DGC Records in 1990. The band subsequently began recording its first major label album, Nevermind. They were offered a number of producers to choose from, but ultimately held out for Butch Vig. Rather than recording at Vig's Madison studio as they had in 1990, they shifted to Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California. For two months, the band worked through a variety of songs in their catalog. Some of the songs, including "In Bloom" and "Breed", had been in the band's repertoire for years, while others, including "On a Plain" and "Stay Away," lacked finished lyrics until mid-way through the recording process. After the recording sessions were completed, Vig and the band set out to mix the album. However, the recording sessions had run behind schedule and the resulting mixes were deemed unsatisfactory. Slayer mixer Andy Wallace was brought in to create the final mix. After the album's release, members of Nirvana expressed dissatisfaction with the polished sound the mixer had given Nevermind.
Initially, DGC Records was hoping to sell 250,000 copies of Nevermind, which was the same level they had achieved with Sonic Youth's Goo. However, the album's first single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" quickly gained momentum, thanks in part to significant airplay of the song's music video on MTV. As they toured Europe during late 1991, the band found that the shows were dangerously oversold, that television crews were becoming a constant presence onstage, and that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was almost omnipresent on radio and music television. By Christmas 1991, Nevermind was selling 400,000 copies a week in the US.[22] On January 11, 1992, the album reached number one on the Billboard album charts, displacing Michael Jackson's album Dangerous. The album also topped the charts in numerous countries worldwide.The month Nevermind reached number one, Billboard proclaimed, "Nirvana is that rare band that has everything: critical acclaim, industry respect, pop radio appeal, and a rock-solid college/alternative base."
In February 1992, following the band's Pacific Rim tour, Cobain married Hole frontwoman Courtney Love in Hawaii. Love gave birth to a daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, the following August. Citing exhaustion, the band decided not to undertake another U.S. tour in support of Nevermind, instead opting to make only a handful of performances later that year. Just days after Frances Bean's birth, Nirvana performed one of its best-known concerts, headlining at the Reading Festival in England. Amid rumors about Cobain's health and the possibility the band might break up, Cobain entered the stage in a wheelchair as a practical joke, then proceeded to get up and join the rest of the band in tearing through an assortment of old and new material. Dave Grohl related in 2005 on the radio program Loveline that the band was genuinely concerned beforehand that the show would be a complete disaster, given all that had happened in the months leading up to the show. Instead, the performance ended up being one of the most memorable of their career.
Less than two weeks later, Nirvana performed at the MTV Video Music Awards. During the first rehearsal for the show, Cobain announced that they were going to play a new song during the broadcast, and the band rehearsed "Rape Me". MTV's executives were appalled by the song, and, according to show producer Amy Finnerty, the executives believed that the song was about them. They insisted that the band could not play "Rape Me," even threatening to throw Nirvana off the show and stop airing their videos entirely. After a series of intense discussions, MTV and Nirvana agreed that the band would play "Lithium", their latest single. When the band began their performance, Cobain strummed and sang the first few bars of "Rape Me" before breaking into "Lithium". Near the end of the song, frustrated that his amp had stopped functioning, Novoselic decided to toss his bass into the air for dramatic effect. He misjudged the landing, and the bass ended up bouncing off his forehead, causing him to stumble off the stage in a daze. As Cobain trashed their equipment, Grohl ran to the mic and began yelling "Hi, Axl!" repeatedly, referring to Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose, with whom the band and Courtney had had a bizarre and bellicose encounter before the show.
Nirvana released Incesticide, a collection of rarities and B-sides, in December 1992. Many of Nirvana's radio sessions and unreleased early recordings were starting to circulate via trading circles and illegal bootlegs, so the album served to circumvent the bootleggers.
In Utero
For Nirvana's third album In Utero, the band brought in producer Steve Albini, well-known for his work on the Pixies album Surfer Rosa. As Nevermind had brought in a new audience of listeners who had little or no experience with the alternative, obscure, or experimental bands Nirvana saw as their forebears, bringing in Albini appeared to be a deliberate move on Nirvana's part to give the album a raw, less-polished sound. For example, one song on In Utero featuring long periods of shrill feedback noise was titled, ironically, "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter" (in the industry, a "radio-friendly unit shifter" describes an "ideal" album: one capable of heavy radio play and ultimately selling many copies, or "units"). However, Cobain insisted that Albini's sound was simply the one he had always wanted Nirvana to have: a "natural" recording without layers of studio trickery. The sessions with Albini were productive and notably quick, and the album was recorded and mixed in two weeks for a cost of $25,000 at Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota.
Several weeks after the completion of the recording sessions, stories ran in the Chicago Tribune and Newsweek that quoted sources claiming DGC considered the album "unreleasable".As a result, fans began to believe that the band's creative vision might be compromised by their label. While the stories about DGC shelving the album were untrue, the band actually was unhappy with certain aspects of Albini's mixes. Specifically, they thought the bass levels were too low,and Cobain felt that "Heart-Shaped Box" and "All Apologies" did not sound "perfect". Longtime R.E.M. producer Scott Litt was called in to help remix those two songs, with Cobain adding additional instrumentation and backing vocals.
In Utero debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart in September 1993.[40] Time's Christopher John Farley wrote in his review of the album, "Despite the fears of some alternative-music fans, Nirvana hasn't gone mainstream, though this potent new album may once again force the mainstream to go Nirvana." Although commercially successful, the album did not achieve the same success as Nevermind. That fall, Nirvana embarked on its first major tour of the United States in two years. For the tour, the band added Pat Smear of the punk rock band Germs as a second guitarist.Early years
Cobain and Novoselic met in 1985. Both were fans of the Melvins, and frequented the band's practice space. After a couple of false starts at forming their own band, the duo recruited drummer Aaron Burckhard, creating the first incarnation of what would eventually become Nirvana. Cobain later described the sound of the band when they first started as "a Gang of Four and Scratch Acid ripoff." Within a few months, Burckhard was fired from the band. He was temporarily replaced by Dale Crover of the Melvins, who played on the band's first demos. Dave Foster then began a brief tenure as the band's drummer.
During its initial months, the band went through a series of names, including Pen Cap Chew, and Ted Ed Fred. The band finally settled on Nirvana in early 1988, which Cobain said was chosen because "I wanted a name that was kind of beautiful or nice and pretty instead of a mean, raunchy punk rock name like the Angry Samoans." Nirvana played their first show under the name that March. A couple of months later, the band finally settled on a drummer, Chad Channing.
Early releases
Nirvana's first release was the single "Love Buzz/Big Cheese" in 1988 on Seattle independent record label Sub Pop. The following year, the band released its first album, Bleach. To record Bleach, the band turned to noted local producer Jack Endino, who had recorded the band's first studio demos. Bleach was highly influenced by the heavy dirge-rock of the Melvins and Mudhoney, 1980s punk rock, and the 1970s heavy metal of Black Sabbath. Novoselic noted in a 2001 interview with Rolling Stone that the band had played a tape in their van while on tour that had an album by The Smithereens on one side and an album by the black metal band Celtic Frost on the other, and noted that the combination probably played an influence as well. Bleach became a favorite of college radio stations nationally, but gave few hints of where the band would find itself two years later.
The money for the recording sessions for Bleach, listed as $606.17 on the album sleeve, was supplied by Jason Everman. Everman was introduced to Cobain by Dylan Carlson, but had known Channing since the fifth grade. Everman began hanging out with the band, and offered to lend the money to them for the recording. Though Everman did not actually play on the album, he was credited for playing guitar on Bleach because, according to Novoselic, they "wanted to make him feel more at home in the band." After the album was completed, Everman had a brief stay with the band as a second guitar player, but was fired following their first US tour.
In a late 1989 interview, Cobain noted that the band's music was changing. He said, "The early songs were really angry ... But as time goes on the songs are getting poppier and poppier as I get happier and happier. The songs are now about conflicts in relationships, emotional things with other human beings." In April 1990, the band began working with producer Butch Vig at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin on recordings for the follow-up to Bleach. During the sessions, Cobain and Novoselic became disenchanted with Channing's drumming, and Channing expressed frustration at not being actively involved in songwriting. Not long after the sessions were complete, Channing left the band. After a few weeks with Dale Crover of the Melvins filling in, Nirvana hired Mudhoney drummer Dan Peters, with whom they recorded the song "Sliver" that was released as a single in 1990. A few weeks later, Buzz Osborne of the Melvins introduced them to Dave Grohl, who was looking for a new band following the sudden break-up of D.C. hardcore punks Scream. A few days after arriving in Seattle, Novoselic and Cobain auditioned Grohl, with Novoselic later stating, "We knew in two minutes that he was the right drummer."
Mainstream success
"Smells Like Teen Spirit"
Sample of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," the first single from the band's breakthrough release Nevermind (1991). The song was a worldwide hit, and its "quiet verses with wobbly, chorused guitar, followed by big, loud hardcore-inspired choruses" became a much-emulated template in alternative rock.
Nirvana decided to look for a deal with a major record label. Following repeated recommendations by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, Nirvana signed to DGC Records in 1990. The band subsequently began recording its first major label album, Nevermind. They were offered a number of producers to choose from, but ultimately held out for Butch Vig. Rather than recording at Vig's Madison studio as they had in 1990, they shifted to Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California. For two months, the band worked through a variety of songs in their catalog. Some of the songs, including "In Bloom" and "Breed", had been in the band's repertoire for years, while others, including "On a Plain" and "Stay Away," lacked finished lyrics until mid-way through the recording process. After the recording sessions were completed, Vig and the band set out to mix the album. However, the recording sessions had run behind schedule and the resulting mixes were deemed unsatisfactory. Slayer mixer Andy Wallace was brought in to create the final mix. After the album's release, members of Nirvana expressed dissatisfaction with the polished sound the mixer had given Nevermind.
Initially, DGC Records was hoping to sell 250,000 copies of Nevermind, which was the same level they had achieved with Sonic Youth's Goo. However, the album's first single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" quickly gained momentum, thanks in part to significant airplay of the song's music video on MTV. As they toured Europe during late 1991, the band found that the shows were dangerously oversold, that television crews were becoming a constant presence onstage, and that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was almost omnipresent on radio and music television. By Christmas 1991, Nevermind was selling 400,000 copies a week in the US. On January 11, 1992, the album reached number one on the Billboard album charts, displacing Michael Jackson's album Dangerous. The album also topped the charts in numerous countries worldwide. The month Nevermind reached number one, Billboard proclaimed, "Nirvana is that rare band that has everything: critical acclaim, industry respect, pop radio appeal, and a rock-solid college/alternative base."
In February 1992, following the band's Pacific Rim tour, Cobain married Hole frontwoman Courtney Love in Hawaii. Love gave birth to a daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, the following August. Citing exhaustion, the band decided not to undertake another U.S. tour in support of Nevermind, instead opting to make only a handful of performances later that year. Just days after Frances Bean's birth, Nirvana performed one of its best-known concerts, headlining at the Reading Festival in England. Amid rumors about Cobain's health and the possibility the band might break up, Cobain entered the stage in a wheelchair as a practical joke, then proceeded to get up and join the rest of the band in tearing through an assortment of old and new material. Dave Grohl related in 2005 on the radio program Loveline[28] that the band was genuinely concerned beforehand that the show would be a complete disaster, given all that had happened in the months leading up to the show. Instead, the performance ended up being one of the most memorable of their career.
Less than two weeks later, Nirvana performed at the MTV Video Music Awards. During the first rehearsal for the show, Cobain announced that they were going to play a new song during the broadcast, and the band rehearsed "Rape Me". MTV's executives were appalled by the song, and, according to show producer Amy Finnerty, the executives believed that the song was about them. They insisted that the band could not play "Rape Me," even threatening to throw Nirvana off the show and stop airing their videos entirely. After a series of intense discussions, MTV and Nirvana agreed that the band would play "Lithium", their latest single. When the band began their performance, Cobain strummed and sang the first few bars of "Rape Me" before breaking into "Lithium". Near the end of the song, frustrated that his amp had stopped functioning, Novoselic decided to toss his bass into the air for dramatic effect. He misjudged the landing, and the bass ended up bouncing off his forehead, causing him to stumble off the stage in a daze. As Cobain trashed their equipment, Grohl ran to the mic and began yelling "Hi, Axl!" repeatedly, referring to Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose, with whom the band and Courtney had had a bizarre and bellicose encounter before the show.
Nirvana released Incesticide, a collection of rarities and B-sides, in December 1992. Many of Nirvana's radio sessions and unreleased early recordings were starting to circulate via trading circles and illegal bootlegs, so the album served to circumvent the bootleggers.
In Utero
For Nirvana's third album In Utero, the band brought in producer Steve Albini, well-known for his work on the Pixies album Surfer Rosa. As Nevermind had brought in a new audience of listeners who had little or no experience with the alternative, obscure, or experimental bands Nirvana saw as their forebears, bringing in Albini appeared to be a deliberate move on Nirvana's part to give the album a raw, less-polished sound. For example, one song on In Utero featuring long periods of shrill feedback noise was titled, ironically, "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter" (in the industry, a "radio-friendly unit shifter" describes an "ideal" album: one capable of heavy radio play and ultimately selling many copies, or "units"). However, Cobain insisted that Albini's sound was simply the one he had always wanted Nirvana to have: a "natural" recording without layers of studio trickery. The sessions with Albini were productive and notably quick, and the album was recorded and mixed in two weeks for a cost of $25,000 at Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota.
Several weeks after the completion of the recording sessions, stories ran in the Chicago Tribune and Newsweek that quoted sources claiming DGC considered the album "unreleasable". As a result, fans began to believe that the band's creative vision might be compromised by their label. While the stories about DGC shelving the album were untrue, the band actually was unhappy with certain aspects of Albini's mixes. Specifically, they thought the bass levels were too low, and Cobain felt that "Heart-Shaped Box" and "All Apologies" did not sound "perfect". Longtime R.E.M. producer Scott Litt was called in to help remix those two songs, with Cobain adding additional instrumentation and backing vocals.
In Utero debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart in September 1993. Time's Christopher John Farley wrote in his review of the album, "Despite the fears of some alternative-music fans, Nirvana hasn't gone mainstream, though this potent new album may once again force the mainstream to go Nirvana." Although commercially successful, the album did not achieve the same success as Nevermind. That fall, Nirvana embarked on its first major tour of the United States in two years. For the tour, the band added Pat Smear of the punk rock band Germs as a second guitarist.
 

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