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.
Faith Evans
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Faith Renée Evans is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, actress, and author. Born in Florida and raised in New Jersey, Evans relocated to Los Angeles in 1993 for a career in the music business, after working as a backing vocalist for Al B. Blige and Carl Thomas and released three platinum-certified studio albums between 1995 and 2001, including Faith, Keep the Faith and Faithfully, in 2003, she ended her relationship with the company to sign with Capitol Records. Following a longer hiatus, Evans released her fifth album Something About Faith on the independent label Prolific/E1 Music in 2010, other than her recording career, Evans is mostly known as the widow of New York rapper Christopher The Notorious B. I. G. Wallace, whom she married on August 4,1994, a few weeks after meeting at a Bad Boy photo shoot, a 1997 tribute single featuring Puff Daddy and the band 112, named Ill Be Missing You, won Evans a Grammy Award in 1998. Also an actress and writer, Evans made her debut in the 2000 musical drama Turn It Up by Robert Adetuyi. Her autobiography Keep the Faith, A Memoir was released by Grand Central Publishing in 2008, Evans was born on June 10,1973, in Lakeland, Florida to an African American mother, Helene Evans, a professional singer. Her father, Richard Swain, who was Caucasian, was a musician who left before Evans was born, Faith had known Johnnie Mae and Orvelt Kennedy as her grandparents. It was not until a couple of later that Helenes career floundered. Faith, however, was afraid to leave what shed been used to, raised in a Christian home, Evans began singing at church at age two. At age four, she caught the attention of the congregation of the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Newark when she sang The 5th Dimensions song Let the Sunshine In. After graduating from school in 1991, Evans attended Fordham University in New York City to study marketing. In 1993, she relocated to Los Angeles, where she worked as a backup vocalist for singer Al B, when she was noticed by musician Sean Puff Daddy Combs. Impressed with her, Combs contracted her as the first female artist to his Bad Boy Entertainment record label during 1994, Faith became a success based on the singles You Used to Love Me and Soon as I Get Home. The album was certified platinum with 1.5 million copies sold. A year before, on August 4,1994, Evans married rapper, Wallace, after having met him at a Bad Boy photo shoot. During early 1997, after her separation from Wallace, but before his death, Faith began dating Russaw during her and Wallaces separation and after Wallace died, Evans became pregnant by Russaw. The couple had their first son Joshua on June 8,1998, during the summer of 1998, Evans and Russaw were married, and on March 22,2007, they had their second son Ryder Evan Russaw
3.
The First Lady (Faith Evans album)
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The First Lady is the fourth studio album by American recording artist Faith Evans. Released by Capitol Records, it marked Evans debut on the EMI subsidiary, despite this, the singer reunited with much of her frequent contributors to work on the album, including The Neptunes, Chucky Thompson, and Mario Winans. Duo Carvin & Ivan of Karma Productions wrote and produced the predominant part of all songs that were included in the track listing. Generally well received by critics, The First Lady debuted at two on the U. S. Billboard 200 and number one on the U. S. Top R&B/Hip-Hop albums with opening sales of 157,000 units. It remains Evans highest ranking album on chart, and the best first week sales of her career. By the end of 2005, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, in support of the album, Evans embarked on a concert tour, The First Lady Tour, in the United States and Europe in mid-2005. In 2006, it was nominated for Best Female R&B/Soul Album at the 20th Soul Train Music Awards, the title of the album was inspired by Evans original nickname with Bad Boy Records, The First Lady of Bad Boy. On her decision to use a version of the name Diddy dubbed her with, Evans commented, did carry over, cause Im the first artist in my genre at Capitol. More so, I chose the title The First Lady because a lot of my personality reminds me of people like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, of course, they go through things, cause theyre human like all of us. But when you see the first lady, you regard her being the first lady, ive made it my business to try and handle certain turbulence in my life with a certain dignity and ladylike. The First Lady received positive reviews from most music critics upon its release, in his review for Allmusic, Andy Kellman wrote that if there was any creative block during time away, it doesnt show. In fact, The First Lady proves that she gets better with time, as she goes through more ups and downs. In review of her 2010 album Something About Faith he called The First Lady one of Faith Evans strongest albums and it smartly incorporates throwback aspects into state-of-the-art pop-soul. The Washington Post gave it a review, stating, No further proof is needed than The First Lady. The industry gave it to her—with the appendage of hip-hop soul—after she started running in the circles as Sean P. Diddy Combs. Shes still known as Biggies widow, even though she married her musical collaborator, Todd Russaw. But all the drama and the sorrow barely matter at this point, blogcritics also gave it a favorable review, stating that it is a musical mood ring, encapsulating and displaying the last ten years of her life
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Contemporary R&B
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Contemporary R&B, also known as simply R&B, is a music genre that combines elements of rhythm and blues, soul, funk, pop, hip hop and dance. The genre features a record production style, drum machine-backed rhythms, an occasional saxophone-laced beat to give a jazz feel. Electronic influences are becoming a trend and the use of hip hop or dance-inspired beats are typical, although the roughness. Contemporary R&B vocalists are often known for their use of melisma, popularized by such as Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Craig David, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston. That same year, Teddy Riley began producing R&B recordings that included hip hop influences and this combination of R&B style and hip hop rhythms was termed new jack swing and was applied to artists such as Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat, Al B. Guy, Jodeci and Bell Biv DeVoe, the style became less popular by the end of the 1990s, but later experienced a resurgence. In 1990 Mariah Carey released Vision of Love as her debut single and it was immensely popular peaking at number 1 in many worldwide charts including the Billboard Hot 100, and it propelled Mariahs carrier. The song is said to have popularized the use of melisma. During the mid-1990s, Whitney Houstons The Bodyguard, Original Soundtrack Album sold over 40 million copies becoming the best-selling soundtrack of all time. Janet Jacksons self-titled fifth studio album janet. which came after her historic multimillion-dollar contract with Virgin Records, sold over twenty million copies worldwide. Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey recorded several Billboard Hot 100 No.1 hits, including One Sweet Day, Carey also released a remix of her 1995 single Fantasy, with Ol Dirty Bastard as a feature, a collaboration format that was unheard of at this point. Carey, Boyz II Men and TLC released albums in 1994 and 1995—Daydream, II and CrazySexyCool. In the late 1990s, neo soul, which added 1970s soul influences to the hip hop soul blend, arose, led by such as DAngelo, Erykah Badu. Hill and Missy Elliott further blurred the line between R&B and hip hop by recording both styles, beginning in 1995, the Grammy Awards enacted the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, with II by Boyz II Men becoming the first recipient. The award was received by TLC for CrazySexyCool in 1996, Tony Rich for Words in 1997, Erykah Badu for Baduizm in 1998. At the end of 1999, Billboard magazine ranked Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson as the first, simultaneously, in the second half of the 1990s, The Neptunes and Timbaland set influential precedence on contemporary R&B and hip hop music. R&B acts such as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Usher, in 2001, Alicia Keys released Fallin as her debut single. It peaking at one on the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Top 40
5.
Neo soul
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Neo soul is a genre of popular music. The term was coined by music industry entrepreneur Kedar Massenburg during the late 1990s to market and describe a style of music emerged from soul. It has been noted by writers for its traditional R&B influences, conscious-driven lyrics. Neo soul developed during the 1980s and early 1990s, in the United States and United Kingdom and it earned mainstream success during the 1990s, with the commercial and critical breakthroughs of several artists, including DAngelo, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Maxwell. Their music was marketed as an alternative to the producer-driven, digitally approached R&B of the time and its mainstream presence declined during the 2000s, although newer artists emerged through more independent means of marketing their music. According to music journalist Mark Anthony Neal, neo-soul and its various incarnations has helped to redefine the boundaries, the success of DAngelos 1995 debut album Brown Sugar has been regarded by several writers and music critics as inspiration behind the terms origin. In a 2002 interview for Billboard, Massenburg said that genre classifications are often unpopular because they may be suggestive of a short-lived trend. However, although he said neo soul is still essentially soul music, neo-soul artists tried to look both backward and forward, acting in the belief that a continuum might exist. Despite some ambivalence from artists, the term received widespread use by music critics and writers who wrote about artists, African American studies professor Mark Anthony Neal has described neo soul as everything from avant-garde R&B to organic soul. A product of trying to something outside of the norm in R&B. They also infuse jazz, funk, and African musical elements into R&B, noting that most of the genres artists are singer-songwriters, writers have viewed their lyrical content as more conscious-driven and having a broader range than most other R&B artists. AllMusic calls it roughly analogous to contemporary R&B, dimitri Ehrlich of Vibe said that they emphasize a mix of elegant, jazz-tinged R&B and subdued hip hop, with a highly idiosyncratic, deeply personal approach to love and politics. Music writers have noted that neo soul artists are predominantly female, jason Anderson of CBC News called neo soul a sinuous, sly yet unabashedly earnest alternative and kind of haven for listeners turned off by the hedonism of mainstream hip-hop and club jams. Neo soul artists are associated with alternative lifestyles and fashions, including organic food, incense. In a 1998 article on neo soul, Time journalist Christopher John Farley wrote that such as Hill, DAngelo. Neo soul artists during the 1990s were heavily inspired by the sound and mellow instrumentation of Gil Scott-Herons. All About Jazz cited Jackson as one of the architects of the sound. Neo soul originated in the 1980s and early 1990s, with the work of acts such as Prince
6.
Capitol Records
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Capitol Records, LLC is an American record label which operates as a division of the Capitol Music Group. The label was founded as the first West Coast-based record label in the United States in 1942 by three industry insiders named Johnny Mercer, Buddy DeSylva and Glenn Wallichs, in 1955, the label was acquired by the British music conglomerate EMI as its North American subsidiary. EMI was later acquired by Universal Music Group in 2012 and was merged with the company in 2013, making Capitol Records, Capitol Records circular headquarter building located in Los Angeles is a recognized landmark of California. Mercer first raised the idea of starting a company while golfing with Harold Arlen. By 1941, Mercer was a songwriter and a singer with multiple successful releases. Mercer next suggested the idea to Wallichs while visiting his record store, Wallichs expressed interest in the idea and the pair negotiated an agreement whereby Mercer would run the company and identify their artists, while Wallichs managed the business side. On February 2,1942, Mercer and Wallichs met with DeSylva at a Hollywood restaurant to inquire about the possibility of investment of the company from Paramount Pictures, while DeSylva declined the proposal, he handed the pair a check worth $15,000. On March 27,1942, the three men incorporated as Liberty Records, in May 1942, the application was amended to change the companys name to Capitol Records. On April 6,1942, Mercer supervised Capitols first recording session where Martha Tilton recorded the song Moon Dreams, on May 5, Bobby Sherwood and his orchestra recorded two tracks in the studio. On May 21, Freddie Slack and his orchestra recorded three tracks in the studio, one with the orchestra, one with Ella Mae Morse called Cow-Cow Boogie, on June 4,1942, Capitol opened its first office in a second-floor room south of Sunset Boulevard. On that same day, Wallichs presented the companys first free record to Los Angeles disc jockey Peter Potter, on June 5,1942, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra recorded four songs at the studio. On June 12, the recorded five more songs in the studio. On June 11, Tex Ritter recorded Jingle Jangle Jingle and Goodbye My Little Cherokee for his first Capitol recording session, and the songs formed Capitols 110th produced record. 133 - Get On Board Little Chillun - July 31,1942 - is a Freddie Slack/Ella Mae Morse/Mellowaires recording that might be the first rock n roll record and she has sometimes been called the first rock n roll singer. A good example is her 1942 recording of song which, with strong gospel, blues, boogie. Bone Walker recorded Mean Old World a pioneering example of the use of electric guitar. The earliest recording artists included co-owner Mercer, Whiteman, Tilton, Morse, Margaret Whiting, Jo Stafford, the Pied Pipers, Johnnie Johnston, Tex Ritter, Capitols first gold single was Morses Cow Cow Boogie in 1942. Capitols first album was Capitol Presents Songs By Johnny Mercer, a three 78-rpm disc set with recordings by Mercer, Stafford and the Pied Pipers, all with Westons Orchestra
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
