1.
Single (music)
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In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record, an album or an EP record. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats, in most cases, a single is a song that is released separately from an album, although it usually also appears on an album. Typically, these are the songs from albums that are released separately for promotional uses such as digital download or commercial radio airplay and are expected to be the most popular, in other cases a recording released as a single may not appear on an album. As digital downloading and audio streaming have become prevalent, it is often possible for every track on an album to also be available separately. Nevertheless, the concept of a single for an album has been retained as an identification of a heavily promoted or more popular song within an album collection. Despite being referred to as a single, singles can include up to as many as three tracks on them. The biggest digital music distributor, iTunes, accepts as many as three tracks less than ten minutes each as a single, as well as popular music player Spotify also following in this trend. Any more than three tracks on a release or longer than thirty minutes in total running time is either an Extended Play or if over six tracks long. The basic specifications of the single were made in the late 19th century. Gramophone discs were manufactured with a range of speeds and in several sizes. By about 1910, however, the 10-inch,78 rpm shellac disc had become the most commonly used format, the inherent technical limitations of the gramophone disc defined the standard format for commercial recordings in the early 20th century.26 rpm. With these factors applied to the 10-inch format, songwriters and performers increasingly tailored their output to fit the new medium, the breakthrough came with Bob Dylans Like a Rolling Stone. Singles have been issued in various formats, including 7-inch, 10-inch, other, less common, formats include singles on digital compact cassette, DVD, and LD, as well as many non-standard sizes of vinyl disc. Some artist release singles on records, a more common in musical subcultures. The most common form of the single is the 45 or 7-inch. The names are derived from its speed,45 rpm. The 7-inch 45 rpm record was released 31 March 1949 by RCA Victor as a smaller, more durable, the first 45 rpm records were monaural, with recordings on both sides of the disc. As stereo recordings became popular in the 1960s, almost all 45 rpm records were produced in stereo by the early 1970s
2.
Cutting Crew
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Cutting Crew are an English rock band formed in London in 1985. They are best remembered for their debut album Broadcast and hit singles, Died in Your Arms, Ive Been in Love Before, One for the Mockingbird, while touring Canada, The Drivers had a support band called Fast Forward, whose line up included guitarist Kevin Macmichael. Van Eede was so impressed with Macmichaels guitar playing that he asked him to form a new band with him, the Drivers split in 1983, but Van Eede and Macmichael joined forces in 1985 by relocating to London, England. Initially, the two made demos that led to a contract, before bassist Colin Farley and drummer Martin Beedle joined in 1986. Their first album, Broadcast, was released on Virgin Records in 1986, although Virgin Records was already a major label in the UK, their debut song, Died in Your Arms, provided the first US hit for Virgin as a full-fledged label. This song release quickly helped the band gain popularity, Virgin flew the band to New York City for initial recordings of the album, then to Australia to shoot music videos. The unknown band shot to No.1 in the major US market, as well as smaller markets such as Canada and Norway, with their debut single. The song peaked at No.4 in another major market and it went to No.2 in Sweden and Ireland, and No.9 in Austria. The choice for follow-up single in the UK had been Ive Been In Love Before,38 and hitting No.29 on the Mainstream Rock chart in the US, No.47 in Canada and No.52 in the UK Singles Chart. The band took a chance on Ive Been in Love Before again, the song became Cutting Crews second US Top 10 on the Hot 100, peaking at No. 9, and was their first major hit on the US Adult Contemporary chart and this success prompted a UK re-release, and this time it spent five weeks in the UK Singles Chart Top 40, peaking at No.24. The song failed to chart throughout most of Europe, but it peaked at No.8 in Canada, despite an unflattering review by Rolling Stone magazine, Cutting Crew received a Grammy nomination as the Best New Artist of 1987. Disputes with management led to a recording hiatus, which stalled the bands career momentum. Cutting Crews second album, The Scattering, was released in early 1989. Its lead single, Rock and a Hard Place, failed to reach the Top 40, Van Eedes vocal style, however, did score a sizable US Adult Contemporary hit with Everything But My Pride. That song peaked at No.4 and stayed in the top 50 for 22 weeks and it climbed to No.72 on the Canadian pop charts, though it failed to hit the US Hot 100. The prophetically named The Last Thing scaled the AC charts as high as No.17 in early 1990 and went to No.90 on the Canadian chart, and has been their final chart hit to date. Although a video for the track did air briefly in the UK and North America
3.
Broadcast (Cutting Crew album)
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Broadcast is the debut studio album by the English rock band Cutting Crew. It was released on 22 November 1986 in Europe with different packaging eight months before it was released in the United States, for the American version, four tracks were remixed, all of which were the singles from the album. The current American CD in print is the European version but with the American packaging and it was the first album to be released in the United States by Virgin Records new American imprint, Virgin Records America. Broadcast was re-released by Cherry Red Records on 24 May 2010, with tracks including for the 1st time ever on CD For the Longest Time. In a retrospective review, Michael Sutton of AllMusic gave the four stars. He concludes the review by saying the album is not a creative breakthrough, any Colour Note, Chart positions are all Billboard Hot 100 unless noted otherwise
4.
A-side and B-side
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The terms A-side and B-side refer to the two sides of 78,45, and 33 1/3 rpm phonograph records, whether singles, extended plays, or long-playing records. Creedence Clearwater Revival had hits with both A-side and B-side releases, others took the opposite approach, producer Phil Spector was in the habit of filling B-sides with on-the-spot instrumentals that no one would confuse with the A-side. With this practice, Spector was assured that airplay was focused on the side he wanted to be the hit side, the earliest 10-inch,78 rpm, shellac records were single sided. Double-sided recordings, with one song on side, were introduced in Europe by Columbia Records. There were no record charts until the 1930s, and radio stations did not play recorded music until the 1950s, in this time, A-sides and B-sides existed, but neither side was considered more important, the side did not convey anything about the content of the record. The term single came into use with the advent of vinyl records in the early 1950s. At first, most record labels would randomly assign which song would be an A-side, under this random system, many artists had so-called double-sided hits, where both songs on a record made one of the national sales charts, or would be featured on jukeboxes in public places. As time wore on, however, the convention for assigning songs to sides of the record changed. By the early sixties, the song on the A-side was the song that the company wanted radio stations to play. It was not until 1968, for instance, that the production of albums on a unit basis finally surpassed that of singles in the United Kingdom. In the late 1960s stereo versions of pop and rock songs began to appear on 45s. The majority of the 45s were played on AM radio stations, by the early 1970s, double-sided hits had become rare. Album sales had increased, and B-sides had become the side of the record where non-album, non-radio-friendly, with the advent of cassette and compact disc singles in the late 1980s, the A-side/B-side differentiation became much less meaningful. With the decline of cassette singles in the 1990s, the A-side/B-side dichotomy became virtually extinct, as the dominant medium. However, the term B-side is still used to refer to the tracks or coupling tracks on a CD single. With the advent of downloading music via the Internet, sales of CD singles and other media have declined. B-side songs may be released on the record as a single to provide extra value for money. There are several types of material released in this way, including a different version, or, in a concept record
5.
Rock music
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It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by blues, rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of genres such as electric blues and folk. Musically, rock has centered on the guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar. Typically, rock is song-based music usually with a 4/4 time signature using a verse-chorus form, like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. Punk was an influence into the 1980s on the subsequent development of subgenres, including new wave, post-punk. From the 1990s alternative rock began to rock music and break through into the mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the visually distinctive goth and emo subcultures and this trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, Hammond organ and synthesizers. The basic rock instrumentation was adapted from the blues band instrumentation. A group of musicians performing rock music is termed a rock band or rock group, Rock music is traditionally built on a foundation of simple unsyncopated rhythms in a 4/4 meter, with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies are often derived from older musical modes, including the Dorian and Mixolydian, harmonies range from the common triad to parallel fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock, because of its complex history and tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that it is impossible to bind rock music to a rigidly delineated musical definition. These themes were inherited from a variety of sources, including the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music and rhythm, as a result, it has been seen as articulating the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality, according to Simon Frith rock was something more than pop, something more than rock and roll. Rock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with the concept of art as artistic expression, original. The foundations of music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music, with country. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music for a multi-racial audience, debate surrounds which record should be considered the first rock and roll record. Other artists with rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis
6.
Virgin Records
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Virgin Records is a British-founded record label originally founded by English entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman in 1972. It was later sold to Thorn EMI in 1992, today, the operations of Virgin Records America, Inc. are still active and headquartered in Hollywood, California, as it operates exclusively under the Capitol Music Group since 2007. US artists include Knox Hamilton, LTric and Rise Against, in fact the first real store was above a shoe shop at the Tottenham Court Road end of Oxford Street. After making the shop into a success, they turned their business into a fully fledged record label, the name Virgin, according to Branson, arose from Tessa Watts, a colleague of his, when they were brainstorming business ideas. She suggested Virgin – as they were all new to business – like virgins, the original Virgin logo was designed by English artist and illustrator Roger Dean, a young naked woman in mirror image with a large long-tailed serpent and the word Virgin in Deans familiar script. A variation on the logo was used for the spin-off Caroline Records label and this was soon followed by some notable krautrock releases, including electronic breakthrough album Phaedra by Tangerine Dream, and The Faust Tapes and Faust IV by Faust. The Faust Tapes album retailed for 49p and as a result allowed this relatively unknown band to reach number 12 in the album charts, other early albums include Gongs Flying Teapot, which Daevid Allen has been quoted as having never been paid for. Under the guidance of Tessa Watts, Virgins Head of Publicity, shortly afterwards, the Notting Hill record shop was raided by police for having a window display of the Sex Pistols album Never Mind the Bollocks, Heres the Sex Pistols in the window. After modified versions of the label came the red, white and blue design introduced in 1975. The current Virgin logo was created in 1978, commissioned by Simon Draper, brian Cooke of Cooke Key Associates commissioned a graphic designer to produce a stylised signature. In 1983 Virgin purchased Charisma Records, renaming it Charisma/Virgin, then later Virgin/Charisma, before folding the label in 1986, in the process they acquired Genesis and comedy group Monty Python. The Charisma label was reactivated in the US in 1990 and enjoyed success with such as Maxi Priest, Right Said Fred,38 Special. When this Charisma label was retired in 1992, all of its artists were, as before, in 1987, Venture Records was created for new age and modern classical artists including Klaus Schulze, who had been associated with Virgin since the early 1970s. 10 Records Immortal Records Delabel Caroline Records was a label used from 1973 to 1977. The name and logo were used for some American editions of Virgin records in the 1980s and 1990s. Caroline was primarily used for independent distribution until the label was reactivated in 2013, today, Caroline Records acts as an independent label taking the place of EMI Label Services, after Virgins former parent company EMI was purchased by Universal Music Group. Front Line Records was a label for issuing Jamaican and English reggae music from 1978 to approximately 1987, a short-lived associated label, Dindisc, had Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and The Monochrome Set during its brief existence, after which its recordings became part of Virgins catalogue. Noo Trybe Records was a hip hop label that existed from 1994 to 1999
7.
Songwriter
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A songwriter is an individual who writes the lyrics, melodies and chord progressions for songs, typically for a popular music genre such as rock or country music. A songwriter can also be called a composer, although the term tends to be used mainly for individuals from the classical music genre. The pressure from the industry to produce popular hits means that songwriting is often an activity for which the tasks are distributed between a number of people. For example, a songwriter who excels at writing lyrics might be paired with a songwriter with a gift for creating original melodies, pop songs may be written by group members from the band or by staff writers – songwriters directly employed by music publishers. Some songwriters serve as their own publishers, while others have outside publishers. The old-style apprenticeship approach to learning how to write songs is being supplemented by university degrees and college diplomas, a knowledge of modern music technology, songwriting elements and business skills are necessary requirements to make a songwriting career in the 2010s. Several music colleges offer songwriting diplomas and degrees with music business modules, the legal power to grant these permissions may be bought, sold or transferred. This is governed by international copyright law, song pitching can be done on a songwriters behalf by their publisher or independently using tip sheets like RowFax, the MusicRow publication and SongQuarters. Skills associated with song-writing include entrepreneurism and creativity, songwriters who sign an exclusive songwriting agreement with a publisher are called staff writers. In the Nashville country music scene, there is a staff writer culture where contracted writers work normal 9-to-5 hours at the publishing office and are paid a regular salary. This salary is in effect the writers draw, an advance on future earnings, the publisher owns the copyright of songs written during the term of the agreement for a designated period, after which the songwriter can reclaim the copyright. In an interview with HitQuarters, songwriter Dave Berg extolled the benefits of the set-up, unlike contracted writers, some staff writers operate as employees for their respective publishers. Under the terms of work for hire agreements, the compositions created are fully owned by the publisher. In Nashville, young writers are often encouraged to avoid these types of contracts. Staff writers are common across the industry, but without the more office-like working arrangements favored in Nashville. All the major publishers employ writers under contract, songwriter Allan Eshuijs described his staff writer contract at Universal Music Publishing as a starter deal. His success under the arrangement eventually allowed him to found his own publishing company, so that he could. keep as much as possible, songwriters are also often skilled musicians. In addition to selling their songs and musical concepts for other artists to sing, songwriters need to create a number of elements for a song
8.
Nick Van Eede
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Nick Van Eede is an English musician, producer, and songwriter. He is best known for singing and writing the 1986 U. S. #1 power ballad hit Died in Your Arms for his band Cutting Crew. While working as an orderly in the late 1970s, Van Eede was discovered playing by the ex-Animal Chas Chandler. Van Eede was only 18 when sent on the road and he recalls I went with a kazoo and an acoustic guitar and opened for Slade in amphitheatres in front of 18,000 people. I went down as a storm and had the loudest kazoo in Europe and his career continued with tours supporting headliners like David Essex, Hot Chocolate and Alan Price. During that time, Van Eede released five singles between 1978 and 1980, but none of them charted in the UK Singles Chart. The first three were, Rock n Roll Fool b/w Ounce Of Sense All Or Nothing b/w Hold On To Your Heart I Only Want To Be Number One b/w Dicing All were issued by Barn Records and he formed The Drivers with friends Mac Norman and Steve Boorer. In the early 1980s they signed with a label in Canada. They had a couple of hits there with Tears On Your Anorak and Talk All Night and they had a support band called Fast Forward, whose line up included guitarist Kevin MacMichael. Van Eede was impressed with MacMichaels guitar playing that he asked him to form a new band with him, after a final single release with Things, a Bobby Darin cover version, The Drivers split in 1983. Whilst Kevin MacMichael was with Fast Forward, the band was involved in an accident which left all of the members except MacMichael unable to continue touring. Ready to begin working with Van Eede, MacMichael moved from Toronto to London and they recruited drummer Martin Frosty Beedle, previously a member of the cabaret band on the QE2, and bass player Colin Farley, a session musician living in Spain. In 1985, Cutting Crew staged a showcase at a London recording studio for representatives from numerous labels, the first single to be released by the band was Died In Your Arms b/w For The Longest Time released in the UK in August 1986. In total, the song went to Number 1 in 19 Countries and this would be their biggest hit single. Van Eede came up with the title and concept for Died In Your Arms after making love with his girlfriend, I actually remember saying that, he admitted, and promptly jotted a note on a pad he always kept close at hand. The next single, Ive Been In Love Before b/w Life In A Dangerous Time failed to break in the UK on its first release in November 1986 but was released again to reach #50 in the charts. The album Broadcast was released shortly, when it reached 41 in the UK Albums Chart, after Cutting Crews demise, Van Eede went on to write and produce for other artists, including producing the original demo of Chers hit Believe. In 1996, he auditioned for the job as the new singer of Genesis
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