Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is an American entertainment media brand owned by the Billboard-Hollywood Reporter Media Group, a division of Eldridge Industries. It publishes pieces involving news, opinion, reviews and style, is known for its music charts, including the Hot 100 and Billboard 200, tracking the most popular songs and albums in different genres, it hosts events, owns a publishing firm, operates several TV shows. Billboard was founded in 1894 by William Donaldson and James Hennegan as a trade publication for bill posters. Donaldson acquired Hennegen's interest in 1900 for $500. In the early years of the 20th century, it covered the entertainment industry, such as circuses and burlesque shows, created a mail service for travelling entertainers. Billboard began focusing more on the music industry as the jukebox and radio became commonplace. Many topics it covered were spun-off into different magazines, including Amusement Business in 1961 to cover outdoor entertainment, so that it could focus on music.
After Donaldson died in 1925, Billboard was passed down to his children and Hennegan's children, until it was sold to private investors in 1985, has since been owned by various parties. The first issue of Billboard was published in Cincinnati, Ohio by William Donaldson and James Hennegan on November 1, 1894, it covered the advertising and bill posting industry, was known as Billboard Advertising. At the time, billboards and paper advertisements placed in public spaces were the primary means of advertising. Donaldson handled editorial and advertising, while Hennegan, who owned Hennegan Printing Co. managed magazine production. The first issues were just eight pages long; the paper had columns like "The Bill Room Gossip" and "The Indefatigable and Tireless Industry of the Bill Poster". A department for agricultural fairs was established in 1896; the title was changed to The Billboard in 1897. After a brief departure over editorial differences, Donaldson purchased Hennegan's interest in the business in 1900 for $500 to save it from bankruptcy.
That May, Donaldson changed it from a monthly to a weekly paper with a greater emphasis on breaking news. He improved editorial quality and opened new offices in New York, San Francisco and Paris, re-focused the magazine on outdoor entertainment such as fairs, circuses and burlesque shows. A section devoted to circuses was introduced in 1900, followed by more prominent coverage of outdoor events in 1901. Billboard covered topics including regulation, a lack of professionalism and new shows, it had a "stage gossip" column covering the private lives of entertainers, a "tent show" section covering traveling shows, a sub-section called "Freaks to order". According to The Seattle Times, Donaldson published news articles "attacking censorship, praising productions exhibiting'good taste' and fighting yellow journalism"; as railroads became more developed, Billboard set up a mail forwarding system for traveling entertainers. The location of an entertainer was tracked in the paper's Routes Ahead column Billboard would receive mail on the star's behalf and publish a notice in its "Letter-Box" column that it has mail for them.
This service was first introduced in 1904, became one of Billboard's largest sources of profit and celebrity connections. By 1914, there were 42,000 people using the service, it was used as the official address of traveling entertainers for draft letters during World War I. In the 1960s, when it was discontinued, Billboard was still processing 1,500 letters per week. In 1920, Donaldson made a controversial move by hiring African-American journalist James Albert Jackson to write a weekly column devoted to African-American performers. According to The Business of Culture: Strategic Perspectives on Entertainment and Media, the column identified discrimination against black performers and helped validate their careers. Jackson was the first black critic at a national magazine with a predominantly white audience. According to his grandson, Donaldson established a policy against identifying performers by their race. Donaldson died in 1925. Billboard's editorial changed focus as technology in recording and playback developed, covering "marvels of modern technology" such as the phonograph, record players, wireless radios.
It began covering coin-operated entertainment machines in 1899, created a dedicated section for them called "Amusement Machines" in March 1932. Billboard began covering the motion picture industry in 1907, but ended up focusing on music due to competition from Variety, it created a radio broadcasting station in the 1920s. The jukebox industry continued to grow through the Great Depression, was advertised in Billboard, which led to more editorial focus on music; the proliferation of the phonograph and radio contributed to its growing music emphasis. Billboard published the first music hit parade on January 4, 1936, introduced a "Record Buying Guide" in January 1939. In 1940, it introduced "Chart Line", which tracked the best-selling records, was followed by a chart for jukebox records in 1944 called Music Box Machine charts. By the 1940s, Billboard was more of a music industry specialist publication; the number of charts it published grew after World War II, due to a growing variety of music interests and genres.
It had eight charts by 1987, covering different genres and formats, 28 charts by 1994. By 1943, Billboard had about 100 employees; the magazine's offices moved to Brighton, Ohio in 1946 to New York City in 1948. A five-column tabloid format was adopted in November 1950 and coated paper was first used in Billboard's print issues in January 1963, allowing for photojournalis
Grinding (dance)
Grinding, is a type of close partner dance where two or more dancers rub or bump their bodies against each other, most with a female dancer rubbing her buttocks against a male dancer's crotch area. The male dancer will place his hands on the female dancer's waist, hips, or buttocks. Grinding gained widespread popularity as a hip hop dance in night clubs, moved on to high school and middle school dances in the US and Canada where there have been cases of administrators attempting to ban it due to its explicit nature. A predecessor to grinding as a sexually charged high-contact social dance was "The Bump", popular in the 1970s, in which the contact between partners involved the hips or buttocks of one dancer "bumping" those of the other dancer in temporary contact. Other predecessor elements of grinding may be attributed to the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, the lambada, a brief dance craze of the 1980s that featured grinding actions, as seen in the films The Forbidden Dance and Lambada. A more explicit form of the dance is known as daggering.
Perreo Twerking
Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B is a music genre that combines elements of rhythm and blues, soul, hip hop and electronic music. The genre features a distinctive record production style, drum machine-backed rhythms, pitch corrected vocals, a smooth, lush style of vocal arrangement. Electronic influences are becoming an increasing trend and the use of hip hop or dance-inspired beats are typical, although the roughness and grit inherent in hip hop may be reduced and smoothed out. Contemporary R&B vocalists are known for their use of melisma, popularized by vocalists such as Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Craig David, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. Contemporary R&B originated at the end of the disco era, in the late-1970s, when Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones added more electronic elements to the sound of the time to create a smoother dancefloor-friendly sound; the first result was Off the Wall, which—according to Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic—"was a visionary album, that found a way to break disco wide open into a new world where the beat was undeniable, but not the primary focus" and "was part of a colorful tapestry of lush ballads and strings, smooth soul and pop, soft rock, alluring funk".
Richard J. Ripani wrote that Janet Jackson's Control was "important to the development of R&B for a number of reasons", as she and her producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, "crafted a new sound that fuses the rhythmic elements of funk and disco, along with heavy doses of synthesizers, sound effects, a rap music sensibility." Ripani wrote that "the success of Control led to the incorporation of stylistic traits of rap over the next few years, Janet Jackson was to continue to be one of the leaders in that development." That same year, Teddy Riley began. This combination of R&B style and hip hop rhythms was termed new jack swing and was applied to artists such as Michael Jackson, Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat, Al B. Sure!, Guy and Bell Biv DeVoe. In contrast to the works of Boyz II Men and similar artists, other R&B artists and groups from this same period began adding more of a hip-hop sound to their work, like the innovative group Jodeci; the synthesizer-heavy rhythm tracks of new jack swing were replaced by grittier East Coast hip hop-inspired backing tracks, resulting in a genre labeled hip hop soul by Mary J. Blige and producer Sean Combs who had mentored group Jodeci in the beginning and helped them with their unique look.
The style became less popular by the end of the 1990s, but experienced a resurgence. In 1990, Mariah Carey released Vision of Love, it was immensely popular peaking at number 1 in many worldwide charts including the Billboard Hot 100, it propelled Mariah's career. The song is said to have popularized the use of melisma and brought it in to mainstream R&B. During the mid-1990s, Whitney Houston's The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album sold over 40 million copies worldwide becoming the best-selling soundtrack of all time. Janet Jackson's 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", a collaboration between both acts, which became the longest-running No. 1 hit in Hot 100 history. Carey released a remix of her 1995 single "Fantasy", with Ol' Dirty Bastard as a feature, a collaboration format, unheard of at this point.
Carey, Boyz II Men and TLC released albums in 1994 and 1995 -- II and CrazySexyCool. In the late 1990s, neo soul, which added 1970s soul influences to the hip hop soul blend, led by artists such as D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill and Maxwell. Hill and Missy Elliott further blurred the line between 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 and Lauryn Hill for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in 1999. At the end of 1999, Billboard magazine ranked Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson as the first and second most successful artists of the 1990s. 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 and Toni Braxton are some of the best-selling music artists of all time.
Following periods of fluctuating success, urban music attained commercial dominance during the early 2000s, which featured massive crossover success on the Billboard charts by R&B and hip hop artists. In 2001, Alicia Keys released "Fallin"', it peaking at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Top 40 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. It won three Grammy Awards in 2002, including Song of the Year, Best R&B Song, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, it was nominated for Record of the Year. Beyoncé's solo studio debut album Dangerously in Love has sold over 5 million copies in the United States and earned five Grammy Awards. Usher's Confessions sold 1.1 million copies in its first week and over 8 million copies in 2004, since it has been certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America and, as of 2016, has sold over 10 million copies in the US and over 20 million copies worldwide. Confessions had four consecutive Billboard Hot 100 number one singles—"Yeah!", "Burn", "Confessions Part II" and "My Boo".
In 2004, all 12 songs that topped Billboard Hot 100 were
Timbaland
Timothy Zachary Mosley, known professionally as Timbaland, is an American record producer, singer, songwriter and DJ. Timbaland's first full credit production work was in 1996 on Ginuwine...the Bachelor for R&B singer Ginuwine. After further work on Aaliyah's second studio album One in a Million and Missy Elliott's debut studio album Supa Dupa Fly, Timbaland became a prominent producer for R&B and hip hop artists; as a rapper he released several albums with fellow rapper Magoo, followed by his debut solo album Tim's Bio in 1998. In 2002, Timbaland produced the hit single "Cry Me a River" for Justin Timberlake, going on to produce most of Timberlake's subsequent LPs such as FutureSex/LoveSounds and The 20/20 Experience and their respective hit singles. A Timbaland-owned imprint label, Mosley Music Group, featured artists such as Nelly Furtado, whose Timbaland-produced album Loose was a commercial and critical success. In 2007, Timbaland released a solo album, Shock Value, followed by Shock Value II in 2009.
Aside from the aforementioned artists, Timbaland's production credits from the 2000s forward include work with Jay-Z, Ludacris, Bubba Sparxxx, Rihanna, OneRepublic, Drake, Rick Ross and others. As a songwriter he has written as of 85 UK hits and 99 hits Stateside. Timbaland has received widespread acclaim for his production style. In 2007, Entertainment Weekly stated that "just about every current pop trend can be traced back to him — from sultry, urban-edged R&B songstresses... to the art of incorporating avant-garde sounds into No. 1 hits." Timothy Zachary Mosley was born on March 10, 1972 in Norfolk, Virginia, to Latrice, who ran a homeless shelter, Garland Mosley, an Amtrak employee. He graduated from Salem High School of Virginia. During his time as a DJ, he was known as "DJ Tim" or "DJ Timmy Tim", his brother, Sebastian, is around nine years younger. His sister Courtney Rashon is a makeup author from New Jersey. While attending high school, Timbaland began a long-term collaboration with rapper Melvin Barcliff.
The teenage Mosley joined the production ensemble S. B. I. which featured Neptunes producer Pharrell. Mosley was high school friends with brothers Terrence and Gene Thornton, who would become known as Pusha T and Malice of the rap group Clipse, respectively. In 1986, when Timbaland was 14 years old, he was accidentally shot by a co-worker at a local Red Lobster restaurant and was paralyzed for nine months. During this time, he began to learn. Singer and rapper Missy Elliott began working with him, she and her R&B group, auditioned for DeVante Swing, a producer and member of the successful R&B act Jodeci. DeVante signed Sista to his Swing Mob record label and Elliott brought Mosley and Barcliff along with her to New York, where Swing Mob was based, it was DeVante who renamed the young producer Timbaland, after the Timberland brand of construction boots. He and Magoo became part of SCI Zakys School stable of Swing Mob signees known as "Da Bassment" crew, joining artists such as R&B singer Ginuwine, male vocal group Playa, the girl group Sugah.
Timbaland did production work on a number of projects with DeVante, including the 1995 Jodeci LP The Show, The After-Party, The Hotel, Sista’s début LP 4 All the Sistas Around da World. Elliott began receiving recognition as a songwriter for artists such as R&B girl group 702 and MC Lyte. Due to Timbaland's connection with her, he was contacted to produce remixes of her songs. Timbaland began his producing career for R&B acts. In the early-1990s, he produced a few songs for R&B acts such as Sista. In 1996, he made his mainstream breakthrough by producing the majority of both Aaliyah's second album One in a Million and Ginuwine's debut album Ginuwine...the Bachelor. This included the major hit singles "If Your Girl Only Knew" by Aaliyah and "Pony" by Ginuwine. While Timbaland was producing for R&B artists, his trademark sound was much rooted in hip-hop with its fast-paced nature and clear drum breaks, he was taking a hip-hop sound and applying it to R&B, in this way his sound was instrumental in blurring the distinction between hip-hop and R&B production.
In 1997, he produced Supa Dupa Fly, the debut album of Missy Elliott, a childhood friend of Mosley. In this album Timbaland continued with his now trademark electronic production style, but since Missy rapped the music was considered hip-hop. In 1997, he released his first album with his partner Magoo, Welcome to Our World a hip-hop album. In the late 1990s, his hip-hop production sound would become influential and common as he produced for many high-profile hip-hop artists including Jay-Z, The LOX. In 1999, he scored a major hit with Jay Z and rap group UGK with the hit "Big Pimpin'", he fully produced Missy's second album in 1999, Da Real World. Still Timbaland in this period produced for R&B artists, he continued to produce for Ginuwine and Aaliyah, as well as contributing to albums by Xscape, Nicole and Total. He remixed Usher's major hit "You Make Me Wanna". In the early 2000s Timbaland produced songs including Ludacris' "Roll Out", Jay-Z's "Hola' Hovito", Petey Pablo's "Raise Up", Beck's cover of David Bowie's "Diamond Dogs" during this period.
He contributed three songs, all released as singles, to Aaliyah’s self-titled third album, the exotic lead single "We Need a Resolution", "More than a Woman", the ballad "I Care 4 U". He makes an ap
Pop music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form in the United States and United Kingdom during the mid-1950s. The terms "popular music" and "pop music" are used interchangeably, although the former describes all music, popular and includes many diverse styles. "Pop" and "rock" were synonymous terms until the late 1960s, when they became differentiated from each other. Although much of the music that appears on record charts is seen as pop music, the genre is distinguished from chart music. Pop music is eclectic, borrows elements from other styles such as urban, rock and country. Identifying factors include short to medium-length songs written in a basic format, as well as common use of repeated choruses, melodic tunes, hooks. David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop music as "a body of music, distinguishable from popular and folk musics". According to Pete Seeger, pop music is "professional music which draws upon both folk music and fine arts music". Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music.
The music charts contain songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz and novelty songs. As a genre, pop music is seen to develop separately. Therefore, the term "pop music" may be used to describe a distinct genre, designed to appeal to all characterized as "instant singles-based music aimed at teenagers" in contrast to rock music as "album-based music for adults". Pop music continuously evolves along with the term's definition. According to music writer Bill Lamb, popular music is defined as "the music since industrialization in the 1800s, most in line with the tastes and interests of the urban middle class." The term "pop song" was first used in 1926, in the sense of a piece of music "having popular appeal". Hatch and Millward indicate that many events in the history of recording in the 1920s can be seen as the birth of the modern pop music industry, including in country and hillbilly music. According to the website of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the term "pop music" "originated in Britain in the mid-1950s as a description for rock and roll and the new youth music styles that it influenced".
The Oxford Dictionary of Music states that while pop's "earlier meaning meant concerts appealing to a wide audience since the late 1950s, pop has had the special meaning of non-classical mus in the form of songs, performed by such artists as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, ABBA, etc." Grove Music Online states that " in the early 1960s,'pop music' competed terminologically with beat music, while in the US its coverage overlapped with that of'rock and roll'". From about 1967, the term “pop music” was used in opposition to the term rock music, a division that gave generic significance to both terms. While rock aspired to authenticity and an expansion of the possibilities of popular music, pop was more commercial and accessible. According to British musicologist Simon Frith, pop music is produced "as a matter of enterprise not art", is "designed to appeal to everyone" but "doesn't come from any particular place or mark off any particular taste". Frith adds that it is "not driven by any significant ambition except profit and commercial reward and, in musical terms, it is conservative".
It is, "provided from on high rather than being made from below... Pop is not a do-it-yourself music but is professionally produced and packaged". According to Frith, characteristics of pop music include an aim of appealing to a general audience, rather than to a particular sub-culture or ideology, an emphasis on craftsmanship rather than formal "artistic" qualities. Music scholar Timothy Warner said it has an emphasis on recording and technology, rather than live performance; the main medium of pop music is the song between two and a half and three and a half minutes in length marked by a consistent and noticeable rhythmic element, a mainstream style and a simple traditional structure. Common variants include the verse-chorus form and the thirty-two-bar form, with a focus on melodies and catchy hooks, a chorus that contrasts melodically and harmonically with the verse; the beat and the melodies tend to be simple, with limited harmonic accompaniment. The lyrics of modern pop songs focus on simple themes – love and romantic relationships – although there are notable exceptions.
Harmony and chord progressions in pop music are "that of classical European tonality, only more simple-minded." Clichés include the barbershop quartet-style blues scale-influenced harmony. There was a lessening of the influence of traditional views of the circle of fifths between the mid-1950s and the late 1970s, including less predominance for the dominant function. Throughout its development, pop music has absorbed influences from other genres of popular music. Early pop music drew on the sentimental ballad for its form, gained its use of vocal harmonies from gospel and soul music, instrumentation from jazz and rock music, orchestration from classical music, tempo from dance music, backing from electronic music, rhythmic elements from hip-hop music, spoken passages from rap. In the 1960s, the majority of mainstream pop music fell in two categories: guitar and bass groups or singers
Jadakiss
Jason Terrance Phillips, is an American rapper better known by his stage name Jadakiss. He is known for being one third of the New York hip hop group The Lox, as well as being a member of the Ruff Ryders collective and for his solo work, he is signed to both Def Jam Records and his own label, D-Block Records, which he founded with the other members of The Lox. Jadakiss has released four studio albums, with the most recent being Top 5 Dead or Alive on November 20, 2015. Jadakiss began rapping in the early 1990s as a member of The Lox, with the group signing to Puff Daddy's record label Bad Boy Entertainment. After leaving Bad Boy in 2000, the group all signed to Ruff Ryders, where they embarked on solo careers, with Jadakiss releasing his debut solo album Kiss Tha Game Goodbye in 2001. Since the release of his first album in 2001, Jadakiss has gone on to release three more solo studio albums, as well as an album with The Lox and a joint album with Fabolous. In 2007, Jadakiss signed with Jay Z's Roc-A-Fella Records and Def Jam Recordings, who both released his 2010 album The Last Kiss along with Ruff Ryders Entertainment.
Jadakiss was born Jason Terrance Phillips on May 27, 1975, in Yonkers, New York, had an interest in hip hop from an early age. At the age of 12, he began selling drugs, he soon stopped selling drugs and instead began freestyle rapping for money after watching other people do it on the street corner. While freestyling, he met longtime friends Sheek Louch and Styles P. Phillips developed a small underground fanbase and at the age of 12, entered himself into a freestyle competition in Florida where he attracted the attention of the owners of Ruff Ryders Entertainment. Along with Styles and Louch, he formed a group known as The Warlocks, the trio began rapping together, they met Mary J. Blige, impressed with their lyrics, handed their demo to Puff Daddy, who signed the group to his label, Bad Boy Entertainment. Upon signing with Bad Boy, Puff Daddy shortened the groups name from The Warlocks to "The LOX", they made their first appearance on The Main Source's 1994 LP Fuck What You Think on the track "Set it Off."
They began writing and performing on hit songs with fellow Bad Boy artists, including Puff Daddy's "It's All About the Benjamins" and "I Got the Power", Mase's "24 Hrs. to Live", Mariah Carey's "Honey", Mary J. Blige's "Can't Get You Off My Mind" and Notorious B. I. G.'s "Last Day". The group developed a close relationship with B. I. G. during which time Jadakiss was taken under his wing. The LOX's first hit song was a tribute to The Notorious B. I. G. in the wake of his 1997 death, titled "We'll Always Love Big Poppa". The song was chosen as the B-side to Puff Daddy's smash hit B. I. G. Tribute song "I'll Be Missing You", received widespread commercial success, achieving multi-platinum status from the Recording Industry Association of America; the success and reception of the song opened the door for them to write more of their own songs, in 1998, the LOX released their debut studio album, Power & Respect. The album was both a commercial and critical success, peaking at number 3 on the Billboard 200 and number 1 on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, went on to achieve platinum status.
Though the record was successful, The Lox grew unhappy with Bad Boy Records and Puffy's glossy, radio friendly production, feeling it conflicted with their grimier street aesthetic. Following the release of their debut album, the group left the label to sign with Ruff Ryders Entertainment, they released their second album, We Are The Streets in 2000, through Ruff Ryders. The album was once again a success, peaking at number 5 on the Billboard 200 and number 2 on the US Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart, it featured production from Swizz Beatz and Timbaland, spawned one single, Ryde or Die, Bitch featuring fellow Ruff Ryders artist Eve. Jadakiss began embarking on a solo career in 2001, his debut album, Kiss Tha Game Goodbye, was released in August on the Ruff Ryders/Interscope label; the album featured popular guests and producers such as DJ Premier, The Alchemist, DMX, Snoop Dogg and Swizz Beatz, was commercially successful, going on to be certified gold by the RIAA and selling over 200,000 copies during its first week of release.
Despite commercial success, the album received negative reception from critics who criticised the album for being repetitive and uninspired. Jadakiss has acknowledged the criticism as valid, saying the record was done less out of inspiration but rather out of contractual obligations to Bad Boy; the album produced three singles, "We Gonna Make It" featuring Styles P, "Knock Yourself Out" and "Put Ya Hands Up". Jadakiss followed this album with Kiss of Death, released in June 2004, it features guest appearances from Snoop Dogg, The Lox, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Nate Dogg, DJ Quik and more. His song "Why?", featuring Anthony Hamilton and produced by Havoc of Mobb Deep, became one of the year's biggest hits, spawning a remix featuring Styles P, Common and Nas. "Why?" remains Jadakiss' biggest hit, peaking at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song garnered controversy for a line in which Jadakiss claims that he believes George W. Bush planned the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Another single from the record, "U Make Me Wanna," featuring Mariah Carey peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The album was both a commercial and critical success, receiving better reviews than his previous album and debuted at number 1 on both the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums charts. In late 2007, Jadakiss signed to Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella Records, a move Jay had been trying to arrange for a long time; the move came on the heels of increased D-Block/Roc
