1.
Album
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Album, is a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item on CD, record, audio tape, or another medium. Albums of recorded music were developed in the early 20th century, first as books of individual 78rpm records, vinyl LPs are still issued, though in the 21st century album sales have mostly focused on compact disc and MP3 formats. The audio cassette was a format used from the late 1970s through to the 1990s alongside vinyl, an album may be recorded in a recording studio, in a concert venue, at home, in the field, or a mix of places. Recording may take a few hours to years to complete, usually in several takes with different parts recorded separately. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed live, the majority of studio recordings contain an abundance of editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology, musicians can be recorded in separate rooms or at times while listening to the other parts using headphones. Album covers and liner notes are used, and sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of the recording, historically, the term album was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage the word was used for collections of pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, the LP record, or 33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. It was adopted by the industry as a standard format for the album. Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, the term album had been carried forward from the early nineteenth century when it had been used for collections of short pieces of music. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, as part of a trend of shifting sales in the music industry, some commenters have declared that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as mini-albums or EPs, Albums such as Tubular Bells, Amarok, Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield, and Yess Close to the Edge, include fewer than four tracks. There are no rules against artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder referring to their own releases under thirty minutes as albums. These are known as box sets, material is stored on an album in sections termed tracks, normally 11 or 12 tracks. A music track is a song or instrumental recording. The term is associated with popular music where separate tracks are known as album tracks. When vinyl records were the medium for audio recordings a track could be identified visually from the grooves
2.
Los Straitjackets
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Los Straitjackets is an American instrumental rock band that formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 1988. Esbeck left the band in 1998 and was replaced by Pete Curry, the current lineup also features Greg Townson on guitar and Chris Sprague on drums. The band has released thirteen albums, four collaboration albums. Eddie Angel was a noted rockabilly guitarist, who moved to Nashville in the early 1980s to record, Danny Amis recorded and performed with the Raybeats, then worked as a sound engineer in Nashville. The two formed The Straitjackets in 1988 with Jimmy Lester, a Nashville session player who had worked and toured with Robert Gordon and they played several gigs during the summer of that year, but soon broke up. In 1994, they reformed as Los Straitjackets, adding bass player Scott Esbeck and their first album, The Utterly Fantastic and Totally Unbelievable Sound of Los Straitjackets, was released the following year on Upstart Records. In the post-Pulp Fiction surf revival, the group began attracting a following, over the next few years, the band developed a cult following through its tight instrumentation and stage shows. In its live performances, band members dress in black suits, gold Aztec medallions. Amis is the member who speaks, introducing songs in fast. In 1998, Esbeck left the band during the recording of The Velvet Touch of Los Straitjackets and was replaced by Pete Curry, formerly of the Halibuts, in 2005, Lester left and was replaced by Jason Teen Beat Smay. Theyve become known as frequent collaborators, recording Sing Along With Los Straitjackets with a number of different artists and they were nominated for a Grammy Award for their collaboration with blues singer Eddy Clearwater, Rock N Roll City. As time goes on, their shows have become more elaborate. In recent years, they have staged festive Christmas shows during the holiday season, in 2010, Danny Amis was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. He was sidelined from recording and touring while under treatment, Los Straitjackets recruited guitarist Greg Gregorio El Grande Townson to fill Amis role during his absence. In 2012, Amis announced that his cancer was under control and he would return to recording and this coincided with the bands new studio release Jet Set and debut of new drummer Chris Sugar Balls Sprague. Los Straitjackets provided some of the music for the independent film Psycho Beach Party and they also recorded two albums of music specifically for television and commercial use, and their work is often heard as filler or background music on radio and television shows. In the late 1990s, Conan OBrien had the band perform Christmas music each holiday season on his television program
3.
Surf music
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Surf music is a subgenre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1962 to 1964 in two major forms, the first is instrumental surf, distinguished by reverb-drenched electric guitars played to evoke the sound of crashing waves, largely pioneered by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones. The second is vocal surf, which took the original sound and added vocal harmonies backed by basic Chuck Berry rhythms. Dick Dale developed the sound from instrumental rock, where he added Middle Eastern and Mexican influences, a spring reverb. His regional hit Lets Go Trippin launched the surf music craze, the genre reached national exposure when it was represented by vocal groups such as the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, and Bruce & Terry. Their vocal surf style drew more from African-American genres such as doo wop with its scat singing, Dale is quoted on such groups, They were surfing sounds surfing lyrics. In other words, the music wasnt surfing music, the words made them surfing songs. The real surfing music is instrumental, at the height of its popularity, surf music rivaled girl groups and Motown for top American popular music trends. It is sometimes referred to interchangeably with the California Sound, during the later stages of the surf music craze, many of its groups started to write songs about cars and girls, this was later known as hot rod rock. Surf music began in the early 1960s as instrumental music, almost always in straight 4/4 time. The outboard separate Fender Reverb Unit that was developed by Fender in 1961 was the actual first wet surf reverb tone and this unit is the reverb effect heard on Dick Dale records, and others such as Pipeline by the Chantays and Point Panic by the Surfaris. It had more of a wet plucky tone than the built in amp reverb, guitarists also made use of the vibrato arm on their guitar to bend the pitch of notes downward, electronic tremolo effects and rapid tremolo picking. Guitar models favored included those made by Fender, Mosrite, Teisco, or Danelectro, Surf music was one of the first genres to universally adopt the electric bass, particularly the Fender Precision Bass. Classic surf drum kits tended to be Rogers, Ludwig, Gretsch or Slingerland, some popular songs also incorporated a tenor or baritone saxophone, as on The Lively Ones Surf Rider and The Revels Comanche. Often an electric organ or an electric piano featured as backing harmony, by the early 1960s, instrumental rock and roll had been pioneered successfully by performers such as Link Wray, The Ventures and Duane Eddy. This trend was developed by Dick Dale, who added Middle Eastern and Mexican influences, the distinctive reverb, groups such as The Bel-Airs, The Challengers and then Eddie & the Showmen followed Dale to regional success. The Chantays scored a top ten hit with Pipeline, reaching number 4 in May 1963. The group also had two other hits, Surfer Joe and Point Panic
4.
Garage rock
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Garage rock is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada. The term derives from the perception that groups were made up of young amateurs who rehearsed in the family garage. The style, a precursor to rock, is characterized by aggressive and unsophisticated lyrics and delivery. In the US and Canada, surf rock—and later the Beatles, hundreds of acts produced regional hits, and some had national hits. Though largely associated with North America, counterparts were present elsewhere as part of the beat boom of the era. As critics of the period began to prescribe a scope for genre, they used the term punk rock. Garage rock has experienced various revivals in the years and continues to influence acts who prefer a back to basics. In the early- to mid-1980s, several garage revival scenes sprung up featuring acts that consciously attempted to replicate the look, in the 2000s, a wave of garage rock revival acts associated with the post-punk revival emerged, and a handful achieved airplay and commercial success. The term garage rock comes from the perception that its performers were young and amateurish, while numerous bands were made up of middle-class teenagers from the suburbs, others were from rural or urban areas or were composed of professional musicians in their twenties. The term garage band often refers to acts in this genre. Garage bands performed in a variety of venues, less-established groups typically played at parties, school dances, and teen clubs. For acts of legal age, bars, nightclubs, and college fraternity socials also provided regular engagements, occasionally, local groups had the opportunity to open at shows for famous touring acts. Some garage rock bands went on tour, particularly better-known acts, groups often competed in battles of the bands, which gave musicians an opportunity to gain exposure and a chance to win a prize, such as free recording time in a local studio. Battles of the bands were held, locally, regionally and nationally, and two of the most prestigious contests were held annually by the Tea Council of the U. S. A. and the Music Circus. Performances often sounded amateurish, naïve or intentionally raw, with typical themes revolving around the traumas of high school life, instrumentation was characterized by electric guitars often distorted through a fuzzbox, teamed with bass and drums. Guitarists sometimes played using aggressive-sounding bar chord riffs, sometimes referred to as power chords, organs such as the Farfisa were commonly used as well as mouth harmonicas or hand-held percussion such as tambourines. Occasionally, the tempo sped up in certain passages, sometimes referred to as raveups, Garage rock acts were diverse in both musical ability and in style, ranging from crude two- and three-chord music to near-studio musician quality. There were also variations in flourishing scenes, such as in California
5.
Rock and roll
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While elements of rock and roll can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s, the genre did not acquire its name until the 1950s. For the purpose of differentiation, this deals with the first definition. The beat is essentially a blues rhythm with an accentuated backbeat, classic rock and roll is usually played with one or two electric guitars, a double bass or string bass or an electric bass guitar, and a drum kit. Beyond simply a style, rock and roll, as seen in movies and on television, influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes. In addition, rock and roll may have contributed to the civil rights movement because both African-American and white American teens enjoyed the music and it went on to spawn various genres, often without the initially characteristic backbeat, that are now more commonly called simply rock music or rock. The term rock and roll now has at least two different meanings, both in common usage, the American Heritage Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary both define rock and roll as synonymous with rock music. Encyclopædia Britannica, on the hand, regards it as the music that originated in the mid-1950s. In 1934, the song Rock and Roll by the Boswell Sisters appeared in the film Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round, in 1942, Billboard magazine columnist Maurie Orodenker started to use the term rock-and-roll to describe upbeat recordings such as Rock Me by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. By 1943, the Rock and Roll Inn in South Merchantville, in 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing this music style while popularizing the phrase to describe it. The origins of rock and roll have been debated by commentators. The migration of former slaves and their descendants to major urban centers such as St. The immediate roots of rock and roll lay in the rhythm and blues, then called race music, particularly significant influences were jazz, blues, gospel, country, and folk. The 1940s saw the use of blaring horns, shouted lyrics. In the same period, particularly on the West Coast and in the Midwest, similarly, country boogie and Chicago electric blues supplied many of the elements that would be seen as characteristic of rock and roll. Rock and roll arrived at a time of technological change, soon after the development of the electric guitar, amplifier and microphone. It was the realization that relatively affluent white teenagers were listening to music that led to the development of what was to be defined as rock. Because the development of rock and roll was a process, no single record can be identified as unambiguously the first rock. Other artists with rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis
6.
Record producer
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A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu
7.
AllMusic
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AllMusic is an online music guide service website. It was launched in 1991 by All Media Guide which later became All Media Network, AllMusic was launched in 1991 by Michael Erlewine of All Media Guide. The aim was to discographic information on every artist whos made a record since Enrico Caruso gave the industry its first big boost and its first reference book was published the following year. When first released onto the Internet, AMG predated the World Wide Web and was first available as a Gopher site, the AMG consumer web properties AllMusic. com, AllMovie. com and AllGame. com were sold by Rovi in July 2013 to All Media Network, LLC. All Media Network, LLC. was formed by the founders of SideReel. com. The following are contributors to AllMusic, as of this date, All Media Network also produced the AllMusic guide series that includes the AllMusic Guide to Rock, the All Music Guide to Jazz and the All Music Guide to the Blues. Vladimir Bogdanov is the president of the series, in August 2007, PC Magazine included AllMusic in its Top 100 Classic Websites list. All Media Network AllGame AllMovie SideReel All Music Guide to the Blues All Music Guide to Jazz Stephen Thomas Erlewine Official website
8.
Guitar
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The guitar is a musical instrument classified as a fretted string instrument with anywhere from four to 18 strings, usually having six. The sound is projected either acoustically, using a wooden or plastic and wood box, or through electrical amplifier. It is typically played by strumming or plucking the strings with the fingers, the guitar is a type of chordophone, traditionally constructed from wood and strung with either gut, nylon or steel strings and distinguished from other chordophones by its construction and tuning. There are three types of modern acoustic guitar, the classical guitar, the steel-string acoustic guitar, and the archtop guitar. The tone of a guitar is produced by the strings vibration, amplified by the hollow body of the guitar. The term finger-picking can also refer to a tradition of folk, blues, bluegrass. The acoustic bass guitar is an instrument that is one octave below a regular guitar. Early amplified guitars employed a body, but a solid wood body was eventually found more suitable during the 1960s and 1970s. As with acoustic guitars, there are a number of types of guitars, including hollowbody guitars, archtop guitars and solid-body guitars. The electric guitar has had a influence on popular culture. The guitar is used in a variety of musical genres worldwide. It is recognized as an instrument in genres such as blues, bluegrass, country, flamenco, folk, jazz, jota, mariachi, metal, punk, reggae, rock, soul. The term is used to refer to a number of chordophones that were developed and used across Europe, beginning in the 12th century and, later, in the Americas. The modern word guitar, and its antecedents, has applied to a wide variety of chordophones since classical times. Many influences are cited as antecedents to the modern guitar, at least two instruments called guitars were in use in Spain by 1200, the guitarra latina and the so-called guitarra morisca. The guitarra morisca had a back, wide fingerboard. The guitarra Latina had a sound hole and a narrower neck. By the 14th century the qualifiers moresca or morisca and latina had been dropped, and it had six courses, lute-like tuning in fourths and a guitar-like body, although early representations reveal an instrument with a sharply cut waist
9.
Bass guitar
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The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb, by plucking, slapping, popping, strumming, tapping, thumping, or picking with a plectrum, often known as a pick. The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to a guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length. The four-string bass, by far the most common, is tuned the same as the double bass. The bass guitar is an instrument, as it is notated in bass clef an octave higher than it sounds to avoid excessive ledger lines. Like the electric guitar, the guitar has pickups and it is plugged into an amplifier and speaker on stage, or into a larger PA system using a DI unit. Since the 1960s, the guitar has largely replaced the double bass in popular music as the bass instrument in the rhythm section. While types of basslines vary widely from one style of music to another, many styles of music utilise the bass guitar, including rock, heavy metal, pop, punk rock, country, reggae, gospel, blues, symphonic rock, and jazz. It is often a solo instrument in jazz, jazz fusion, Latin, funk, progressive rock and other rock, the adoption of a guitar form made the instrument easier to hold and transport than any of the existing stringed bass instruments. The addition of frets enabled bassists to play in more easily than on acoustic or electric upright basses. Around 100 of these instruments were made during this period, around 1947, Tutmarcs son, Bud, began marketing a similar bass under the Serenader brand name, prominently advertised in the nationally distributed L. D. Heater Music Company wholesale jobber catalogue of 1948, however, the Tutmarc family inventions did not achieve market success. In the 1950s, Leo Fender, with the help of his employee George Fullerton and his Fender Precision Bass, which began production in October 1951, became a widely copied industry standard. This split pickup, introduced in 1957, appears to have been two mandolin pickups, the pole pieces and leads of the coils were reversed with respect to each other, producing a humbucking effect. Humbucking is a design that electrically cancels the effect of any AC hum, the Fender Bass was a revolutionary new instrument, which could be easily transported, and which was less prone to feedback when amplified than acoustic bass instruments. Monk Montgomery was the first bass player to tour with the Fender bass guitar, roy Johnson, and Shifty Henry with Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five, were other early Fender bass pioneers. Bill Black, playing with Elvis Presley, switched from bass to the Fender Precision Bass around 1957. The bass guitar was intended to appeal to guitarists as well as upright bass players, following Fenders lead, in 1953, Gibson released the first short scale violin-shaped electric bass with extendable end pin, allowing it to be played upright or horizontally. In 1959 these were followed by the more conventional-looking EB-0 Bass, the EB-0 was very similar to a Gibson SG in appearance
10.
Drum kit
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A drum kit consists of a mix of drums and idiophones most significantly cymbals but also including the woodblock and cowbell. In the 2000s, some also include electronic instruments and both hybrid and entirely electronic kits are used. If some or all of them are replaced by electronic drums, the drum kit is usually played while seated on a drum stool or throne. The drum kit differs from instruments that can be used to produce pitched melodies or chords, even though drums are often placed musically alongside others that do, such as the piano or guitar. The drum kit is part of the rhythm section used in many types of popular and traditional music styles ranging from rock and pop to blues. Other standard instruments used in the section include the electric bass, electric guitar. Many drummers extend their kits from this pattern, adding more drums, more cymbals. Some performers, such as some rockabilly drummers, use small kits that omit elements from the basic setup, some drum kit players may have other roles in the band, such as providing backup vocals, or less commonly, lead vocals. Thus, in an early 1800s orchestra piece, if the called for bass drum, triangle and cymbals. In the 1840s, percussionists began to experiment with foot pedals as a way to them to play more than one instrument. In the 1860s, percussionists started combining multiple drums into a set, the bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, and other percussion instruments were all played using hand-held drum sticks. Double-drumming was developed to one person to play the bass and snare with sticks. With this approach, the drum was usually played on beats one. This resulted in a swing and dance feel. The drum set was referred to as a trap set. By the 1870s, drummers were using an overhang pedal, most drummers in the 1870s preferred to do double drumming without any pedal to play multiple drums, rather than use an overhang pedal. Companies patented their pedal systems such as Dee Dee Chandler of New Orleans 1904–05, liberating the hands for the first time, this evolution saw the bass drum played with the foot of a standing percussionist. The bass drum became the central piece around which every other percussion instrument would later revolve and it was the golden age of drum building for many famous drum companies, with Ludwig introducing
11.
Triangle (musical instrument)
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The triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the percussion family. It is a bar of metal, usually steel but sometimes other metals like beryllium copper, the instrument is usually held by a loop of some form of thread or wire at the top curve. It was first made around the 16th century in England, on a triangle instrument, one of the angles is left open, with the ends of the bar not quite touching. This causes the instrument to be of indeterminate or not settled or decided pitch and it is either suspended from one of the other corners by a piece of, most commonly, fishing line, leaving it free to vibrate, or hooked over the hand. It is usually struck with a beater, giving a high-pitched. Although the shape is generally in the form of an equilateral triangle. In the early days the triangles did not have an opening and had jingling rings along the lower side, the triangle is often the subject of jokes and one liners in Europe and North America as an archetypal instrument that requires no skill to play. However, triangle parts in music can be very demanding. In the hands of an expert it can be a subtle, a triangle roll, similar to a snare roll, is notated with three lines through the stem of the note. It requires the player to move the wand back and forth in the upper corner. In European classical music, the triangle has been used in the classical orchestra since around the middle of the 18th century. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven all used it, the first piece to make the triangle really prominent was Franz Liszts Piano Concerto No. 1, where it is used as an instrument in the third movement. In the 19th century, the triangle was used in music by Richard Wagner. Johannes Brahms uses the triangle to particular effect in the movement of his Fourth Symphony. The triangle is used extensively in Hans Rotts Symphony in E major, particularly in the BIS recording, in later recordings, the conductor has reduced its role. Most difficulties in playing the triangle come from the rhythms which are sometimes written for it. Very quiet notes can be obtained by using a much lighter beater — knitting needles are used for the quietest notes
12.
Audio engineer
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An audio engineer works on the recording, manipulating the record using equalization and electronic effects, mixing, reproduction, and reinforcement of sound. Audio engineers work on the. technical aspect of recording—the placing of microphones, pre-amp knobs, the physical recording of any project is done by an engineer. Many audio engineers creatively use technologies to produce sound for film, radio, television, music, electronic products and computer games. Audio engineers also set up, sound check and do live sound mixing using an audio console, research and development audio engineers invent new technologies, equipment and techniques, to enhance the process and art of audio engineering. They might also be referred to as acoustic engineers, audio engineers in research and development usually possess a bachelors degree, masters degree or higher qualification in acoustics, physics, computer science or another engineering discipline. They might work in consultancy, specializing in architectural acoustics. Alternatively they might work in companies, or other industries that need audio expertise. Some positions, such as faculty require a Doctor of Philosophy, in Germany a Toningenieur is an audio engineer who designs, builds and repairs audio systems. The listed subdisciplines are based on PACS coding used by the Acoustical Society of America with some revision, audio engineers develop algorithms to allow the electronic manipulation of audio signals. These can be processed at the heart of audio production such as reverberation. Alternatively, the algorithms might carry out echo cancellation on Skype, or identify, architectural acoustics is the science and engineering of achieving a good sound within a room. For audio engineers, architectural acoustics can be about achieving good speech intelligibility in a stadium or enhancing the quality of music in a theatre, architectural Acoustic design is usually done by acoustic consultants. Electroacoustics is concerned with the design of headphones, microphones, loudspeakers, sound reproduction systems, examples of electroacoustic design include portable electronic devices, sound systems in architectural acoustics, surround sound in movie theater and vehicle audio. Musical acoustics is concerned with researching and describing the science of music, in audio engineering, this includes the design of electronic instruments such as synthesizers, the human voice, computer analysis of audio, music therapy, and the perception and cognition of music. Psychoacoustics is the study of how humans respond to what they hear. At the heart of audio engineering are listeners who are the final arbitrator as to whether a design is successful. The production, computer processing and perception of speech is an important part of audio engineering, ensuring speech is transmitted intelligibly, efficiently and with high quality, in rooms, through public address systems and through mobile telephone systems are important areas of study. Producer, engineer, and mixer Phil Ek has described audio engineering as the aspect of recording—the placing of microphones, the turning of pre-amp knobs
13.
Album cover
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An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. In the case of all types of records, it also serves as part of the protective sleeve. Around 1910, 78-rpm records replaced the cylinder as the medium for recorded sound. These were invariably made out of paper, limiting conservability. Generally the sleeves had a circular cutout allowing the label to be seen. Records could be laid on a shelf horizontally or stood upright on an edge, german record company Odeon pioneered the album in 1909 when it released the Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky on four double-sided discs in a specially designed package. The practice of issuing albums does not seem to have taken up by other record companies for many years. Beginning in the 1920s, bound collections of empty sleeves with a paperboard or leather cover were sold as record albums that customers could use to store their records. These empty albums were sold in both 10- and 12-inch sizes, starting in the 1930s, record companies began issuing collections of 78-rpm records by one performer or of one type of music in specially assembled collections. These albums of several 78-rpm records could include a collection of songs related by either performer or style, or extended-length classical music. In 1938, Columbia Records hired Alex Steinweiss as its first art director and he is credited with inventing the concept of album covers and cover art, replacing the plain covers used before. After his initial efforts at Columbia, other companies followed his lead. By the late 1940s, record albums for all the companies featured their own colorful paper covers in both 10- and 12-inch sizes. Some featured reproductions of art while others utilized original designs. From the 1950s through to the 1980s, the 12 LP record, the LP format remains in use for occasional new releases, though other formats have largely supplanted it. The size of the typical cardboard LP sleeve cover is 12.375 in square, since the mid-1990s, the compact disc has become the most common form of physically-distributed music products. Packaging formats vary, including the common plastic jewel-case. Typically the album cover component of these packages is approximately 4.75 in square, the cover became an important part of the culture of music
14.
Photography
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Typically, a lens is used to focus the light reflected or emitted from objects into a real image on the light-sensitive surface inside a camera during a timed exposure. With an electronic sensor, this produces an electrical charge at each pixel. A negative image on film is used to photographically create a positive image on a paper base, known as a print. The word photography was created from the Greek roots φωτός, genitive of φῶς, light and γραφή representation by means of lines or drawing, several people may have coined the same new term from these roots independently. Johann von Maedler, a Berlin astronomer, is credited in a 1932 German history of photography as having used it in an article published on 25 February 1839 in the German newspaper Vossische Zeitung. Both of these claims are now widely reported but apparently neither has ever been confirmed as beyond reasonable doubt. Credit has traditionally given to Sir John Herschel both for coining the word and for introducing it to the public. Photography is the result of combining several technical discoveries, later Greek mathematicians Aristotle and Euclid also independently described a pinhole camera in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. Daniele Barbaro described a diaphragm in 1566, wilhelm Homberg described how light darkened some chemicals in 1694. The fiction book Giphantie, published in 1760, by French author Tiphaigne de la Roche, the discovery of the camera obscura that provides an image of a scene dates back to ancient China. Leonardo da Vinci mentions natural camera obscura that are formed by dark caves on the edge of a sunlit valley, a hole in the cave wall will act as a pinhole camera and project a laterally reversed, upside down image on a piece of paper. So the birth of photography was primarily concerned with inventing means to capture, renaissance painters used the camera obscura which, in fact, gives the optical rendering in color that dominates Western Art. The camera obscura literally means dark chamber in Latin and it is a box with a hole in it which allows light to go through and create an image onto the piece of paper. Around the year 1800, British inventor Thomas Wedgwood made the first known attempt to capture the image in a camera obscura by means of a light-sensitive substance and he used paper or white leather treated with silver nitrate. The shadow images eventually darkened all over, the first permanent photoetching was an image produced in 1822 by the French inventor Nicéphore Niépce, but it was destroyed in a later attempt to make prints from it. Niépce was successful again in 1825, in 1826 or 1827, he made the View from the Window at Le Gras, the earliest surviving photograph from nature. Because Niépces camera photographs required a long exposure, he sought to greatly improve his bitumen process or replace it with one that was more practical. With an eye to eventual commercial exploitation, the partners opted for total secrecy, Daguerres efforts culminated in what would later be named the daguerreotype process
15.
Eddy Clearwater
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Eddy The Chief Clearwater is the stage name of Edward Harrington, an American Chicago blues musician. Blues Revue said he plays “joyous rave-ups…he testifies with stunning soul fervor, one of the blues’ finest songwriters. ”Harrington was born in Macon, Mississippi, on January 10,1935. Raised by his Cherokee grandmother in Mississippi, he began playing guitar at the age of 13 and his family moved to Birmingham, Alabama, in 1948. He taught himself to play the guitar and began performing with gospel groups and he moved to Chicago in 1950, playing predominantly gospel, and later developed his blues artistry after working with Magic Sam, Otis Rush, and others. Clearwater is best known for his activity in the Chicago blues scene since the 1950s and he performs in the U. S. and internationally, having played at blues festivals in France, Germany, Denmark, Poland and the Netherlands. His sound has been described as “hard-driving Windy City blues, soul-tinged balladry, acoustic blues and gospel uplift…. good natured fretboard fireworks. ”When he left the South for Chicago in 1950, he worked as a dishwasher while living with an uncle, through whom he met many of Chicago’s blues masters, including Otis Rush. Inspired by the music of Chuck Berry, he began performing some of Berry’s songs, Clearwater still regularly performs songs by Rush, Magic Sam and Berry, as well as original compositions. In 1953, then known as Guitar Eddy, he began working regularly in bars on Chicago’s South and he recorded a few more singles, which had some local radio airplay. Eventually the name Clear Waters evolved into Eddy Clearwater and he worked steadily throughout the 1960s and 1970s and was among the first blues musicians to find success with Chicago’s North Side college audiences. He was a regular Saturday act on the stage of the blues club Kingston Mines. He toured Europe twice during the 1970s and appeared on BBC Television, Clearwater acquired the nickname The Chief and sometimes performs wearing a Native American headdress. The release of his 1980 album, The Chief, on the Rooster Blues label, two encores for Rooster Blues, Help Yourself and Mean Case of the Blues, cemented Clearwaters reputation. His album Cool Blues Walk was released in 1998, followed by Chicago Daily Blues in 1989, in 2004, he was nominated for a Grammy Award with Los Straitjackets for their collaborative album Rock n Roll City. His album West Side Strut, released by Alligator Records in 2008, was described by Vintage Guitar magazine as “great blues, eddy’s tone shows a masterful command of the guitar. It’s hard to believe he can reach heights in a recording studio. One listen and you’ll wonder why Clearwater’s name isn’t respectfully spoken in the breath as Freddie King and Otis Rush. ”Clearwater is married to his manager. They once owned Reservation Blues, a Wicker Park blues bar and restaurant and he is the father of two children, Jason and Edgar Harrington, and three stepchildren. He has two grandchildren He was married to Earlean Harrington of Chicago and was the stepfather of her late son Daryl Thompson and he is a cousin of the blues harmonica player Carey Bell
16.
The World Famous Pontani Sisters
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The World Famous Pontani Sisters are a dance act and burlesque revue based in New York City, consisting of three sisters, Angie Pontani, Tara Pontani, and Helen Pontani. They have been billed more recently as Angie Pontani and the World Famous Pontani Sisters and they have since taken part in burlesque-style performances and revues on the East Coast and throughout the United States. The sisters dance in a wide and eclectic variety of styles covering much of twentieth century dance, the sisters perform in a variety of exotic costumes featuring ostrich feathers, tassels, sequins, and fancy headdresses, many of which they design themselves. The act was conceived by performer/costume designer/choreographer Angie Pontani, the youngest of the three dancing sisters and she described the beginnings of the act in an interview, The Pontani Sisters were literally born dancing on the boardwalk in Coney Island. I had been performing in a show in Manhattan almost direct from high school. Within a month we were performing four nights a week throughout NYC, there is also a younger sister in the family named Dana, who, according to the Pontanis official website, occasionally performs with her sisters as a singer. The sisters have toured Europe and the United States extensively, often with Los Straitjackets, the Pontanis appear on the cover of the Los Straitjackets album Twist Party. Also credited to Los Straitjackets with the World Famous Pontani Sisters and Kaiser George and they have performed several times with Los Straitjackets on Late Night with Conan OBrien. The Pontani Sisters were the subject of a 2004 documentary film by Rebecca Shapiro, Showy, the Sisters have released two DVDs combining dance instruction with aerobic exercise- Go-Go Robics & Go Go Robics II. com. They currently appear in the weekly long-running show in Manhattan, This is Burlesque with drag-King Murray Hill Pontani Sisters Website Article On Burlesque Revival
17.
Deke Dickerson
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Deke Dickerson is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. After playing in several local bands, Deke formed The Untamed Youth at age 17 in his hometown of Columbia. In 1991 he moved to Los Angeles and joined Dave Stuckey to form the Dave & Deke Combo, joining the Ecco-Fonics in 1998, Deke toured non-stop, signed to HighTone Records and released three albums for the label. His style incorporates country, alternative country, rockabilly, hillbilly, blues, Western swing, Dickerson writes a regular column in Guitar Player magazine and feature articles in Vintage Guitar magazine and The Fretboard Journal. He also organizes an annual Guitar Geek Festival held in Anaheim, California, every January, strong attendance in 2011 might lead to expansion in 2012, to a two-day event. He owns a Ray Butts EchoSonic, serial number 24, an amplifier with built-in tape echo that used to belong to Scotty Moore. Deke Dickerson homepage Dekes Guitar Geek Festival Website Deke Dickerson bio Deke Dickerson radio interview
18.
Nick Lowe
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Nicholas Drain Nick Lowe is an English singer-songwriter, musician, and producer. A noted figure in UK pub rock, power pop and new wave, along with vocals, Lowe plays guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica. He is best known for his songs Cruel to Be Kind and I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass, as well as his work with Elvis Costello, Graham Parker. Lowe also wrote Peace, Love, and Understanding, a hit for Costello and he lives in Brentford, London, England. Lowe attended the independent Woodbridge School in Suffolk and he began his musical career in 1967, when he joined the band Kippington Lodge, along with his school friend Brinsley Schwarz. After leaving Brinsley Schwarz in 1975 Lowe began playing bass in Rockpile with Dave Edmunds, in August 1976, Lowe released So It Goes b/w Heart of the City, the first single on the Stiff Records label, where he was an in-house producer. The single and the label were funded by a loan of £400 from Dr. Feelgoods Lee Brilleaux, the labels first EP was Lowes 1977 four-track release Bowi, apparently named in response to David Bowies contemporaneous LP Low. The joke was repeated when Lowe produced the Rumours album Max as an answer to Fleetwood Macs Rumours, Lowe continued producing albums on Stiff and other labels. In 1977 he produced Dr. Feelgoods album, Be Seeing You, private Practice, issued the next year, included Milk and Alcohol, written by Lowe and Gypie Mayo. This song and I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass are the only Lowe compositions to reach the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart, seconds of Pleasure featured the Lowe songs When I Write the Book and Heart. Lowes album Labour of Lust received a certification in Canada in November 1979. Lowe was quoted as saying that he had escaped from the tyranny of the drum in No Depression. A re-recording of Cruel to Be Kind was his only US Top 40 hit, in 1979, Lowe married country singer Carlene Carter, daughter of fellow country singers Carl Smith and June Carter Cash and stepdaughter of Johnny Cash. He adopted her daughter, Tiffany Anastasia Lowe, the marriage ended in 1990, but they remained friends, and Lowe remained close to the Carter/Cash family. He played and recorded with Johnny Cash, and Cash recorded several of Lowes songs, Lowe and Carters 1979 wedding was filmed and the footage became the basis for the promotional video clip for Cruel to be Kind. After the demise of Rockpile, Lowe toured for a period with his band Noise to Go and later with the Cowboy Outfit, which also included the noted keyboard player Paul Carrack. Lowe was also a member of the short-lived mainly studio project Little Village with John Hiatt, Ry Cooder and Jim Keltner, who originally got together to record Hiatts 1987 album Bring the Family. In 1992, Peace, Love, and Understanding was covered by Curtis Stigers on the album to The Bodyguard
19.
Lucha libre
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Lucha libre is a term used in Mexico for a form of professional wrestling developed in the country. Professional wrestling is a form of entertainment based on a portrayal of a combat sport. Mexican wrestling is characterized by colorful masks, rapid sequences of holds and maneuvers, as well as high-flying maneuvers, Tag team wrestling is especially prevalent in lucha libre, particularly matches with three-member teams, called trios. Lucha libre wrestlers are known as luchadores and they usually come from extended wrestling families who form their own stables. One such line integrated to the United States professional wrestling scene is Los Guerreros, Lucha libre has also transcended the language barrier to some extent as evidenced by works such as Los Luchadores, ¡Mucha Lucha. and Nacho Libre. Lucha libre also appears in pop culture such as mainstream advertising, in Canada. The rules of lucha libre are similar to American singles matches, matches can be won by pinning the opponent to the mat for the count of three, making him submit, knocking him out of the ring for a predetermined count or by disqualification. Using the ropes for leverage is illegal, and once a luchador is on the ropes, his opponent must release any holds, most matches are two out of three falls, which had been abandoned for title bouts in North America and Japan in the 1970s. As the legal wrestler can step to the floor willingly, there is no need for an actual tag to a teammate to bring him into a match. This often allows for much more action to take place in the ring than would otherwise be possible under standard tag rules. The promotion company flourished and quickly became the premier spot for wrestlers, moreover, it was the emergence of television that allowed Lutteroth to promote lucha libre’s first breakout superstar into a national pop-culture phenomenon. In 1942, lucha libre would be changed when a silver-masked wrestler, known simply as El Santo. He made his debut in Mexico City by winning an 8-man battle royal, the public became enamored by the mystique and secrecy of Santos personality, and he quickly became the most popular luchador in Mexico. He achieved international fame as one of the first high-flyers, something he was not considered in Mexico, Luchadores are traditionally more agile and perform more aerial maneuvers than professional wrestlers in the United States, who more often rely on power and hard strikes to subdue their opponents. For this same reason, aerial maneuvers are almost always performed to opponents outside the ring, allowing the luchador to break his fall with an acrobatic tumble. Lucha libre has several different weight classes, many catered to smaller agile fighters and this system enables dynamic high-flying luchadores such as Rey Mysterio, Jr. Juventud Guerrera, Super Crazy and Místico, to develop years of experience by their mid-twenties. A number of prominent Japanese wrestlers also started their careers training in Mexican lucha libre before becoming stars in Japan and these include Gran Hamada, Satoru Sayama, Jushin Thunder Liger, and Último Dragón. Lucha libre is also known for its tag team wrestling matches, the teams are often made up of three members, instead of two as is common in the United States
20.
Psycho Beach Party
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Psycho Beach Party is a 2000 comedy horror film based on the off-Broadway play of the same name, directed by Robert Lee King. Charles Busch wrote both the play and the screenplay. As the title suggests, Psycho Beach Party, set in 1962 Malibu Beach, is a parody of 1950s psychodramas, 1960s beach movies, Florence Forrest is a Gidget-like character determined to learn to surf, and earns the nickname Chicklet from the surfer guys. The deaths are investigated by Captain Monica Stark, who also suspects Chicklets mother, Chicklets best friend Berdine, surfing guru The Great Kanaka and B-movie actress Bettina Barnes. Lauren Ambrose as Florence Chicklet Forrest Thomas Gibson as Kanaka Nicholas Brendon as Starcat Kimberley Davies as Bettina Barnes Matt Keeslar as Lars Charles Busch as Capt, in the original 1987 production, Charles Busch played the role of Chicklet. Deciding that he not be believable in the role of a sixteen-year-old girl. After over 20 years, the play had its premiere UK production by Vertigo Theatre Productions in Manchester in March 2011, the production returned in August 2012 at Sachas Hotel Ballroom. A production was held in Australia at the Bondi Pavilion Theatre from November to December 2012, productions also ran in Melbourne in early 2013, on critical review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film maintains a rotten score of 55% from 31 reviews. In a positive review, Stephen Holden of The New York Times states that the film accomplishes what no stage production could, most of the plays subversive humor has arrived on the screen intact. The latter is too often the case here, praising the strong women of the film, Bob Graham of the San Francisco Chronicle also wrote that Busch captures the woman-alone-in-the-world toughness of the roles played by the stars he loves. However, Graham reasoned that the film has rough edges, despite conceding that they work to this larky, cheeky pictures advantage. He subsequently notes that In some instances, its hard to tell the bad acting from the intentionally bad acting. The film was released unrated on Region 1 DVD on November 8,2005, the disc contains an audio commentary with director Robert Lee King and screenwriter Charles Busch, the theatrical trailer, and the music video of Tempest by the band Los Straitjackets. A Blu-ray was released on 18 August 2015, the film runs for 95 minutes NTSC on its American DVD release, but the version that was submitted to the British Board of Film Classification runs 85 minutes. It was passed uncut with a 15 rating, suggesting that it may have been pre-cut by TLA Releasing before submission. Similarly, the version submitted by Magna Pacific to the Office of Film, the film was rated M in Australia, indicating that the film may not have been cut due to concerns over material. Charles Buschs website Psycho Beach Party at the Internet Movie Database Psycho Beach Party at AllMovie