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.
Blondie (band)
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Blondie is an American rock band founded by singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American new wave, Blondie broke up after the release of its sixth studio album The Hunter in 1982. The band re-formed in 1997, achieving renewed success and a one single in the United Kingdom with Maria in 1999. The group toured and performed throughout the world during the following years, Blondie has sold 40 million records worldwide and is still active. The bands tenth studio album Ghosts of Download, was released in 2014, inspired by the burgeoning new music scene at the Mercer Arts Center, Chris Stein sought to join a similar band. He joined the Stillettoes in 1973 as their guitarist and formed a relationship with one of the bands vocalists, Debbie Harry. Harry had been a member of a band, the Wind in the Willows. In July 1974, Stein and Harry parted ways with the Stillettoes and Elda Gentile, originally billed as Angel and the Snake for two shows in August 1974, they renamed themselves Blondie by October 1974. The name derived from comments made by truck drivers who catcalled Hey, by the spring of 1975, after some personnel turnover, Stein and Harry were joined by drummer Clem Burke, and bass player Gary Valentine. Blondie became regular performers at Maxs Kansas City and CBGB, in June 1975, the bands first recording came in the way of a demo produced by Alan Betrock. To fill out their sound, they recruited keyboard player Jimmy Destri in November 1975, the band signed with Private Stock Records and their debut album, Blondie, was issued in December 1976 but was initially not a commercial success. In September 1977, the bought back its contract with Private Stock. The first album was re-released on the new label in October 1977 and it also noted that Harry was the possessor of a bombshell zombies voice that can sound dreamily seductive and woodenly Mansonite within the same song. Jimmy Destri later credited the shows Molly Meldrum for their initial success, Stein asserted that X-Offender was too crazy and aggressive, while In the Flesh was not representative of any punk sensibility. Over the years, Ive thought they played both things but liked one better. In retrospect, Burke described In the Flesh as a forerunner to the power ballad, the single reached number 2 in Australia, while the album reached the Australian top twenty in November 1977, and a subsequent double-A release of X-Offender and Rip Her to Shreds reached number 81. A successful Australian tour followed in December, though it was marred by an incident in Brisbane when disappointed fans almost rioted after Harry cancelled a performance due to illness, in February 1978, Blondie released their second album, Plastic Letters. The album was recorded as a four-piece as Gary Valentine had left the band in mid 1977, Plastic Letters was promoted extensively throughout Europe and Asia by Chrysalis Records
3.
American Gigolo (soundtrack)
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American Gigolo is the soundtrack album to the 1980 movie of the same name, starring Richard Gere and Lauren Hutton. The music was composed and performed by Giorgio Moroder and was released worldwide on the Polydor label and it peaked at #7 in the Billboard 200 Album charts. All the cuts from the soundtrack went to number two for five weeks on the disco/dance charts. Call Me by Blondie is the song for the soundtrack and was played during the films intro. The single, released on Blondies label Chrysalis Records in February 1980, was a one hit in the U. S. Canada and the U. K. and a top ten hit in most other parts of the world and it was No.1 on the U. S. Billboard charts for six weeks and named Billboards No.1 song of 1980. The song is listed at No.44 on Billboards All Time Top 100, in 1981, the song was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The band also recorded a Spanish-language version of Call Me, entitled Llamame, Giorgio Moroders instrumental track Night Drive, another variation on the Man Machine/Call Me theme, was also issued as a single in certain territories. The instrumental The Seduction a saxophone tune performed by German bandleader James Last, in 1979, Moroder had won an Academy Award for Original Music Score for his soundtrack to Midnight Express. At the same ceremony, Donna Summers Last Dance, produced by Moroder from the soundtrack to Thank God Its Friday, following the success of American Gigolo and Blondies Call Me in 1980, Moroder went on to compose and produce for several more soundtracks throughout the 1980s. The American Gigolo soundtrack album has been re-issued on CD by both PolyGram and its successor company Universal Music, All tracks written by Giorgio Moroder unless otherwise noted Side A, Call Me -8,05 Listen Performed by Blondie. Love and Passion -5,51 Vocals by Cheryl Barnes Night Drive -3,54 Side B, -4,36 Based on clarinet concerto K.622 in A Major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mixed and mastered at Allen Zentz Recording
4.
A-side and B-side
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The terms A-side and B-side refer to the two sides of 78,45, and 33 1/3 rpm phonograph records, whether singles, extended plays, or long-playing records. Creedence Clearwater Revival had hits with both A-side and B-side releases, others took the opposite approach, producer Phil Spector was in the habit of filling B-sides with on-the-spot instrumentals that no one would confuse with the A-side. With this practice, Spector was assured that airplay was focused on the side he wanted to be the hit side, the earliest 10-inch,78 rpm, shellac records were single sided. Double-sided recordings, with one song on side, were introduced in Europe by Columbia Records. There were no record charts until the 1930s, and radio stations did not play recorded music until the 1950s, in this time, A-sides and B-sides existed, but neither side was considered more important, the side did not convey anything about the content of the record. The term single came into use with the advent of vinyl records in the early 1950s. At first, most record labels would randomly assign which song would be an A-side, under this random system, many artists had so-called double-sided hits, where both songs on a record made one of the national sales charts, or would be featured on jukeboxes in public places. As time wore on, however, the convention for assigning songs to sides of the record changed. By the early sixties, the song on the A-side was the song that the company wanted radio stations to play. It was not until 1968, for instance, that the production of albums on a unit basis finally surpassed that of singles in the United Kingdom. In the late 1960s stereo versions of pop and rock songs began to appear on 45s. The majority of the 45s were played on AM radio stations, by the early 1970s, double-sided hits had become rare. Album sales had increased, and B-sides had become the side of the record where non-album, non-radio-friendly, with the advent of cassette and compact disc singles in the late 1980s, the A-side/B-side differentiation became much less meaningful. With the decline of cassette singles in the 1990s, the A-side/B-side dichotomy became virtually extinct, as the dominant medium. However, the term B-side is still used to refer to the tracks or coupling tracks on a CD single. With the advent of downloading music via the Internet, sales of CD singles and other media have declined. B-side songs may be released on the record as a single to provide extra value for money. There are several types of material released in this way, including a different version, or, in a concept record
5.
New wave music
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New wave is a genre of rock music popular from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s with ties to 1970s punk rock. New wave moved away from smooth blues and rock and roll sounds to create pop music that incorporated electronic and experimental music, mod, initially new wave was similar to punk rock, before becoming a distinct genre. It subsequently engendered subgenres and fusions, including synth-pop, college rock, common characteristics of new wave music include the use of synthesizers and electronic productions, the importance of styling and the arts, as well as diversity. In the mid-1980s, differences between new wave and other genres began to blur. New wave has enjoyed resurgences since the 1990s, after a rising nostalgia for several new wave-influenced artists, subsequently, the genre influenced other genres. During the 2000s, a number of acts explored new wave and post-punk influences, such as the Strokes, Interpol, Franz Ferdinand and these acts were sometimes labeled new wave of new wave. The catch-all nature of new music has been a source of much confusion. The 1985 discography Whos New Wave in Music listed artists in over 130 separate categories, the New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock calls the term virtually meaningless, while AllMusic mentions stylistic diversity. New wave first emerged as a genre in the early 1970s, used by critics including Nick Kent and Dave Marsh to classify such New York-based groups as the Velvet Underground. It gained currency beginning in 1976 when it appeared in UK punk fanzines such as Sniffin Glue and newsagent music weeklies such as Melody Maker and New Musical Express. In November 1976 Caroline Coon used Malcolm McLarens term new wave to designate music by bands not exactly punk, the term was also used in that sense by music journalist Charles Shaar Murray in his comments about the Boomtown Rats. For a period of time in 1976 and 1977, the new wave. By the end of 1977, new wave had replaced punk as the definition for new music in the UK. As radio consultants in the United States had advised their clients that punk rock was a fad, like the filmmakers of the French new wave movement, its new artists were anti-corporate and experimental. At first, most U. S. writers exclusively used the new wave for British punk acts. Music historian Vernon Joynson claimed that new wave emerged in the UK in late 1976, in the U. S. the first new wavers were the not-so-punk acts associated with the New York club CBGB. CBGB owner Hilly Kristal, referring to the first show of the band Television at his club in March 1974, said, furthermore, many artists who would have originally been classified as punk were also termed new wave. A1977 Phonogram Records compilation album of the same name features US artists including the Dead Boys, Ramones, Talking Heads, New wave is much more closely tied to punk and came and went more quickly in the United Kingdom than in the United States
6.
Polydor Records
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Polydor is a British record label and company, that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a relationship with Universals Interscope Geffen A&M label. In turn, Polydor distributes Interscope releases in the United Kingdom, Polydor Records Ltd. was established in London in 1954 as a British subsidiary of German company Deutsche Grammophon GmbH. The Polydor label was founded on 2 April 1913 by German Polyphon-Musikwerke AG in Leipzig, during World War I on 24 April 1917, Polyphon-Musikwerke AG acquired the German Deutsche Grammophon-Aktiengesellschaft record plant and company from the German government. The German state was taken over Grammophon and the British holdings as enemies property during World War I, Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Polyphon-Grammophon-Konzern group. It was used as a label since 1924. The British and German branches of the Gramophone Company were so departed during World War I, in turn, Deutsche Grammophon records exported from Germany were released on the Polyphon Musik and Polydor labels. The new foreign branches were founded for example into Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Polydor became a popular music label in 1946, while the new Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft label was to become a classical music label in 1949. The previously used label, Grammophon, was disbanded, DGG gave, with an agreement dated 5 July 1949, an exclusive license from 1 July 1951 to use the Nipper-dog with gramophone to the original owners company Electrola, the German branch of EMI. In 1970, Polydor acquired the Hong Kong-based Diamond Records, which had owned and founded by the local Portuguese merchant Ren da Silva in the late 1950s. In 1972, The Grammophon-Philips Group reorganized to create PolyGram, the Polydor label continued to run as a subsidiary label under the new company. The name PolyGram is a portmanteau of Polydor and PhonoGram, into the 1980s, Polydor continued to do respectable business, in spite of becoming increasingly overshadowed by its PolyGram sister label Mercury Records. Polydor took over management of British Deccas pop catalog, A&R manager Frank Neilson was able to score a major top ten hit in March 1981 for the label with Do The Hucklebuck by Coast to Coast as well as signing Ian Dury and Billy Fury to the company. In 1984, the name was parodied in the rockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap. By the early 1990s, Polydor had begun to underperform, in 1994, as Island Records recovered from its sales slump, PolyGram dissolved most of PLG into it. Meanwhile, Polydor Records and Atlas Records merged, briefly called Polydor/Atlas, in 1995, Polydor/Atlas became simply Polydor Records again. Over the next few years, Polydor tried to keep itself afloat with new artist signings, new releases, in 1998, PolyGram was purchased by Seagram and absorbed into its Universal Music Group. Today, in America, the Polydor Records name and logo is used on reissues of older material from its 1960s and 1970s heyday
7.
Chrysalis Records
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Chrysalis Records /ˈkrɪ. sə. lɪs/ is a British record label that was created in 1969. The name was both a reference to the stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders names, Chris Wright. It started as the Ellis-Wright Agency and this was after the single Sunshine Day/Aeroplane was incorrectly credited to Jethro Toe. Jethro Tull signed with Reprise Records in the United States, which led Chrysalis to an American distribution deal with Reprises parent company and this lasted from 1972 until U. S. Chrysalis switched to independent distribution in 1976. PolyGram handled international distribution and Festival Records covered Australia and New Zealand, towards the end of the 1970s, the label began to extend its range of music, incorporating acts from the Punk Rock scene such as Generation X. The Chrysalis offshoot 2 Tone Records brought in such as The Specials. In 1979 Chrysalis bought and distributed U. S. folk label Takoma Records, naming manager/producer Denny Bruce as president, jon Monday who was Vice President of Takoma Records prior to the acquisition continued as General Manager, later becoming Director of Marketing of Chrysalis Records. Chrysalis made history in 1979 by creating the first music video album, in the 1980s, Chrysalis was at the forefront of the British New Romantic movement with bands such as Gen X, Ultravox, and Spandau Ballet. The 1980s proved to be the most successful time for the label, whose roster then included Billy Idol, Pat Benatar, Blondie and Huey Lewis, Chrysalis also distributed Animal Records, the short-lived label founded by Blondie guitarist Chris Stein. In 1983 Daniel Glass moved to Chrysalis as Director of New Music Marketing, advancing later to Senior Vice President. The Chrysalis Records label was sold 50% in 1990, then the half in 1991 to EMI with catalogue. Chrysalis Records folded into EMI subsidiary and flagship label EMI Records in 2005, the British Chrysalis catalogue was put up for sale by Universal Music Group after its acquisition of EMI. In July 2013, Warner Music Group completed acquisition of Parlophone Label Group, when Universal Music Group purchased EMI in 2012 ownership of Chrysalis passed to UMG. In 2013 Warner Music Group acquired part of EMI from UMG, in May 2016, Blue Raincoat Music purchased Chrysalis Records Ltd and the artist catalogue from Warner Music Group. Blue Raincoat founders Jeremy Lascelles and Robin Millar brought in Robert Devereux and this reunited founder Wright with the company he set up 47 years previously. Chris Wright is now non-executive Chairman of Chrysalis Records Ltd, since the acquisition from Warner Music Group, Chrysalis has acquired the catalogues of Suzi Quatro, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, Athlete and Fun Lovin Criminals. Official site for Chrysalis Records UK at Blue Raincoat Music Ben Sisario, New York Times, Media Decoder blog,7 February 2013 Discogs page on Chrysalis Records
8.
Salsoul Records
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This article is about the record label. For SalSoul the Puerto Rican Salsa radio station see Cadena Salsoul, Salsoul Records is a New York City based record label, founded by three brothers, Joseph Cayre, Kenneth Cayre, and Stanley Cayre. Salsoul issued about 300 singles, including many disco 12-inch releases, the label started in business in 1974, went defunct in 1985 and was relaunched in 1992. The Cayre family had been involved in many entrepreneurial ventures before they manufactured and distributed 8-track tapes and they had purchased some catalogs of Mexican music to distribute, and infringed on the copyrights of CBS Records and RCA Records by selling them in the United States. They acquired a license for North American distribution for some of CBSs Latino catalog and this led to recording sessions that were distributed by CBS. When CBS was unable to increase profits, the rights reverted to the Cayres, according to Ken Cayre, it was his exposure to early discothèques that gave him the idea to record music for the dance market. Salsoul released the first commercially available 12-inch single, Double Exposures Ten Percent, Salsoul was affected by the disco backlash of 1979, but it was one of the few labels to survive after the death of disco. It continued to new material until 1984, when the Cayre brothers shut down their recorded music operations to concentrate on the home video business. In 1992, Salsoul Records was revived as Salsoul New Generation Records and it is notably more popular in Europe and the United Kingdom than in the United States. Two volumes of albums were also issued the same year. The labels name was conceived by artist Joe Bataan, who recorded some of the earliest sessions for the Cayre brothers before the labels formation, Salsoul was street lingo for the musical culture of urban Latinos who were listening to soul music and combining it with salsa music. Bataan chose the name for an LP he made for the Cayre brothers, Bataan had the first single, The Bottle, and album, Afro-filipino, on the initial Salsoul label released through Epic, before a deal with RCA. Ken Cayre sought session musicians to play Philly soul, Gamble and Huff were in dispute with their key musicians over business matters and Salsoul quickly took the chance to put them under contract. Among these Philly soul artists were Vince Montana, Norman Harris, Ronnie Baker, Earl Young, Bunny Sigler, Baker, Harris and Young are now widely credited with crystallizing the sound and structure of a disco record. Baker would plant his key bass notes on top of the kick drum and his widely imitated signature style is best heard on the record Love is the Message by MFSB. Montana wrote, arranged, and produced the first Salsoul hit, Salsoul Hustle by the newly formed Salsoul Orchestra, which included members of the Philly session players. During the following years, the label enjoyed a string of hits, instant Funk reached the top of the Billboard R&B chart in 1979 with Got My Mind Made Up, a million-seller produced by Bunny Sigler, with the groups follow-up album also going gold. Skyy made it to No.1 R&B in 1981 with Call Me and Aurra climbed to No.6 R&B in the year with their release
9.
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
10.
Debbie Harry
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Deborah Ann Debbie Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress best known as the lead singer of the new wave band Blondie. She recorded several worldwide number one singles with Blondie during the 1970s and 1980s and she is sometimes considered the first rapper to chart at number one in the United States owing to her work on Rapture. She has also had success as a solo artist before reforming Blondie in the late 1990s and her acting career spans over 60 film roles and numerous television appearances. Deborah Harry was born in Miami, Florida, and then adopted at three months of age by Richard Smith and Catherine Harry, gift shop proprietors in Hawthorne and she attended Hawthorne High School, where she graduated in 1963. She graduated from Centenary College in Hackettstown, New Jersey, with an Associate of Arts degree in 1965, before starting her singing career, she moved to New York City in the late 1960s and worked as a secretary at BBC Radios office there for one year. Later, she was a waitress at Maxs Kansas City, a dancer in a Union City, New Jersey discothèque. In the late 1960s, Harry began her career as a backing singer for the folk rock group the Wind in the Willows. The group also recorded an album, it was never released. In 1974, Harry joined the Stilettoes with Elda Gentile and Amanda Jones and her eventual boyfriend and Blondie guitarist, Chris Stein, joined the band shortly after. After leaving the Stilettoes, Harry and Stein formed Angel and the Snake with Tish Bellomo, shortly thereafter, Harry and Stein formed Blondie, naming it after the term of address men often called Harry when she bleached her hair blonde. Members of Blondie quickly became regulars at Maxs Kansas City and CBGB in New York City, after a debut album in 1976, commercial success followed in the late 1970s to the early 1980s, first in Australia and Europe and then in the United States. In 1989 and 2010 interviews, Harry claimed that during the early 1970s she had lured into a car driven by serial killer Ted Bundy while in New York City. Snopes. com noted that Ann Rule, an author of a book on Bundy, while leading Blondie, Harry and Stein became partners in life as well as musically. In the mid 1980s, she took a few years off to care for Stein while he suffered with pemphigus, Stein and Harry broke up in the 1980s but continued to work together. In a 2014 Daily Mail interview, Harry confirmed rumors that she has had relationships with women. She had made remarks in previous interviews. With her distinctive features and two-tone bleached-blonde hair, Harry quickly became a punk icon. Her look was popularized by the bands early presence in the music video revolution of the era
11.
Giorgio Moroder
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Giovanni Giorgio Moroder is an Italian singer, songwriter, DJ and record producer. Moroder is frequently credited with pioneering Italo disco and electronic dance music, when in Munich in the 1970s, he started his own record label called Oasis Records, which several years later became a subdivision of Casablanca Records. Moroder also composed the soundtrack for the film Midnight Express, which won an Academy Award, in 1990, he composed Unestate italiana, the official theme song of the 1990 FIFA World Cup. He also created a score of songs for performers including David Bowie, Kylie Minogue, Irene Cara, Janet Jackson, Madleen Kane, Melissa Manchester, Blondie, Japan, Moroder has stated that the work of which he is most proud is Berlins Take My Breath Away. What a Feeling earned him the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1986 and 1983, Moroder was born Giovanni Giorgio Moroder on 26 April 1940 in Urtijëi in South Tyrol, Italy. He came to prominence in 1969, when his recording Looky Looky and he then made a name for himself in studios around Germany in the early 1970s. That same year he co-wrote and produced the seminal Donna Summer hit single I Feel Love, the following year he released Chase, the theme from the film Midnight Express. Chase is often used on the American syndicated late-night radio show Coast to Coast and was used as an entrance theme for wrestlings group The Midnight Express. These songs achieved some success in the United Kingdom, the United States and across Europe. The full film score for Midnight Express won him his first Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1979, in 1979 Moroder released his album E=MC². Text on the albums cover stated that it was the first electronic live-to-digital album and he also released three albums between 1977–1979 under the name Munich Machine. In 1980, he composed and produced two soundtrack albums, the first for Foxes and the second for American Gigolo. A double album of the Foxes soundtrack was released on the disco label Casablanca Records which includes Donna Summers hit single On the Radio, the Foxes soundtrack also contains a song titled Bad Love, written and performed by the singer-actress Cher and produced by Moroder. The American Gigolo soundtrack featured the Moroder-produced Call Me by Blondie, the combined club play of the albums tracks was number two for five weeks on the disco/dance charts. In 1982 he wrote the soundtrack of the movie Cat People, in 1983, Moroder produced the soundtrack for the film Scarface. During its initial release, the album was available in a few countries. Notable Moroder-produced tracks included Scarface by Paul Engemann, Rush Rush by Debbie Harry, in 1984, Moroder compiled a new restoration and edit of the silent film Metropolis and provided it with a contemporary soundtrack. This soundtrack includes seven pop music tracks from Pat Benatar, Jon Anderson, Adam Ant, Billy Squier, Loverboy, Bonnie Tyler and Freddie Mercury
12.
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
13.
The Hardest Part (Blondie song)
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The Hardest Part is a 1979 song by the American new wave band Blondie. In North America, it was released as the single from the bands fourth album Eat to the Beat. It was written by the principal songwriting partnership, Deborah Harry. The single achieved success, reaching #84 and #86 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song describes an armored car robbery, the title refers to the hardest part of the plan - progressing past several armed guards. It would be revealed later in an interview, that the original working title for this song was The Stiffest Piece. As with all songs on the album, a video was produced to promote the single. It features Debbie Harry in a dark wig wearing a dress designed by Anya Phillips. The video was directed by David Mallett, US7 The Hardest Part -3,42 Sound-A-Sleep –4,18
14.
Atomic (song)
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Atomic is a hit song by the American new wave band Blondie, written by Debbie Harry and Jimmy Destri and produced by Mike Chapman. It was released as the single from the bands Platinum-selling 1979 album Eat to the Beat. Atomic was composed by Jimmy Destri and Debbie Harry, who stated He was trying to do something like Heart of Glass, before that it was just lying there like a lox. The lyrics, well, a lot of the time I would write while the band were just playing the song and trying to figure it out, I would just be scatting along with them and I would just start going, Ooooooh, your hair is beautiful. The word atomic in the song carries no fixed meaning and functions as a signifier of power, the bridge to, and the break in the melody before Atomic is spoken, is heavily influenced by the bridge in the song Im on my way by Dean Parish. The song was produced as a mixture of new wave, rock and disco which had proven to be so successful in their No.1 hit from earlier in 1979 and it is written in E natural minor. The 1980 single version of Atomic was a remix, the 7 version mixed by Mike Chapman omits the Three Blind Mice intro and replaces the instrumental break with a repeat of the verse. The song became the third number one in the UK Singles Chart. It reached the Top 40 in the US in Spring 1980, the B-side was Die Young, Stay Pretty, also from the album Eat to the Beat, a reggae-influenced track, a style the band would perform again in their global chart-topper The Tide Is High. The UK12 single contained a cover version of Bowies Heroes featuring Robert Fripp on guitar recorded at Londons Hammersmith Odeon just a month before. The track was included on 1993s rarities compilation Blonde and Beyond, Atomic was remixed and re-released in the UK in September 1994 where it peaked at #19 on the UK Top 40 singles chart. The subsequent April 1995 US release reached #1 on the Billboard Dance/Club Play Charts, the 1994 remix was included on the compilations The Platinum Collection, Beautiful - The Remix Album and Remixed Remade Remodeled - The Remix Project. The track was remixed again four years later for the UK compilation Atomic - The Very Best of Blondie, the song was also featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto, Vice City on the new wave/pop radio station, Wave 103. Its 7 mix was covered by Sleeper for the Trainspotting soundtrack in 1996, the song was used in Coca-Colas global television ad for 1998 and 2002 FIFA World Cup campaigns. Both ads use the Eat football, the song is used in a Gameloft mobile game Real Football 2006. Blondie re-recorded the song for their 2014 compilation album Greatest Hits Deluxe Redux, the compilation was part of a 2-disc set called Blondie 4 Ever which included their 10th studio album Ghosts of Download and marked the 40th anniversary of the forming of the band. The music video depicts the band performing on stage at what looks like a nightclub in which Debbie Harry is wearing a garbage bag as a punkish futuristic costume. The audience at the club are also dressed in futuristic costumes, and footage of a horseman
15.
YouTube
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YouTube is an American video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California. The service was created by three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim—in February 2005, Google bought the site in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion, YouTube now operates as one of Googles subsidiaries. Unregistered users can watch videos on the site, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos deemed potentially offensive are available only to registered users affirming themselves to be at least 18 years old, YouTube earns advertising revenue from Google AdSense, a program which targets ads according to site content and audience. YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, Hurley had studied design at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and Chen and Karim studied computer science together at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Karim could not easily find video clips of either event online, Hurley and Chen said that the original idea for YouTube was a video version of an online dating service, and had been influenced by the website Hot or Not. YouTube began as a venture capital-funded technology startup, primarily from an $11.5 million investment by Sequoia Capital between November 2005 and April 2006, YouTubes early headquarters were situated above a pizzeria and Japanese restaurant in San Mateo, California. The domain name www. youtube. com was activated on February 14,2005, the first YouTube video, titled Me at the zoo, shows co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo. The video was uploaded on April 23,2005, and can still be viewed on the site, YouTube offered the public a beta test of the site in May 2005. The first video to reach one million views was a Nike advertisement featuring Ronaldinho in November 2005. Following a $3.5 million investment from Sequoia Capital in November, the site grew rapidly, and in July 2006 the company announced that more than 65,000 new videos were being uploaded every day, and that the site was receiving 100 million video views per day. The site has 800 million unique users a month and it is estimated that in 2007 YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000. The choice of the name www. youtube. com led to problems for a similarly named website, the sites owner, Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment, filed a lawsuit against YouTube in November 2006 after being regularly overloaded by people looking for YouTube. Universal Tube has since changed the name of its website to www. utubeonline. com, in October 2006, Google Inc. announced that it had acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock, and the deal was finalized on November 13,2006. In March 2010, YouTube began free streaming of certain content, according to YouTube, this was the first worldwide free online broadcast of a major sporting event. On March 31,2010, the YouTube website launched a new design, with the aim of simplifying the interface, Google product manager Shiva Rajaraman commented, We really felt like we needed to step back and remove the clutter. In May 2010, YouTube videos were watched more than two times per day. This increased to three billion in May 2011, and four billion in January 2012, in February 2017, one billion hours of YouTube was watched every day
16.
American Gigolo
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American Gigolo is a 1980 American romantic crime-drama film starring Richard Gere, Lauren Hutton, Hector Elizondo, Nina Van Pallandt and Bill Duke, written and directed by Paul Schrader. The film is notable for establishing Gere as a leading man and it is also notable for its accompanying soundtrack, composed by Giorgio Moroder and featuring the number-one hit single Call Me by Blondie. Schrader considers it one of four films, which he calls double bookends, Taxi Driver, bookended by Light Sleeper. Julian Kaye is an escort in Los Angeles whose job supports his expensive taste in cars and clothes. He is blatantly materialistic, narcissistic and superficial, however, he claims to take pleasure in his work from being able to sexually satisfy women. Julians procuress, Anne, sends him on an assignment with an old widow, Mrs. Dobrun. Afterwards, he goes to the bar and meets Michelle Stratton, a senators beautiful but unhappy wife. Meanwhile, Julians other pimp, Leon, sends him to Palm Springs on an assignment to the house of Mr. Rheiman, Rheiman asks Julian to have rough, sado-masochistic sex with his wife Judy while he watches them. The next day, Julian berates Leon for sending him to a rough trick, as Julian begins to get to know Michelle, he learns that Judy Rheiman has been murdered. Los Angeles Police Department Detective Sunday investigates Julian as a primary suspect, though he was with another client, Lisa Williams, on the night of the murder, she refuses to give Julian an alibi in order to protect her and her husbands reputations. As Julians relationship with Michelle deepens, evidence connecting him with the murder mounts and he soon realizes that he is being framed and grows increasingly desperate. Julian finally concludes that Leon and Rheiman himself are the ones trying to frame him, and he goes to confront Leon, telling him he knows everything, but Leon refuses to help him. Julian pleads with Leon to clear his name, even offering to work exclusively for him and do kink and gay assignments, during a brief scuffle, Julian accidentally pushes Leon over the apartment balcony and he falls to his death. With no one to him, Julian ends up in jail. However, when all seems lost, Michelle risks her reputation, Gere said in 2012 that he was drawn to the role because of its gay subtext. I read it and I thought, This is a character I dont know very well and he speaks languages, I dont speak any languages. Theres kind of a gay thing thats flirting through it and I didnt know the gay community at all, I wanted to immerse myself in all of that and I had literally two weeks. John Travolta became interested in the part and briefly acted in it before getting cold feet, Paul Schrader had threatened to sue Travolta if Richard Gere wasnt cast in the film knowing full well that Travolta had his eye on the script of another Paramount production Urban Cowboy
17.
Billboard Hot 100
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The Billboard Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for singles, published weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales, radio play and online streaming, the weekly sales period was originally Monday to Sunday, when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but was changed to Friday to Thursday in July 2015. Radio airplay, which, unlike sales figures and streaming data, is available on a real-time basis. A new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by Billboard on Tuesdays, as of the issue for the week ending on April 15,2017, the Hot 100 has had 1,061 different number one hits. The current number one song is Shape of You by Ed Sheeran, prior to 1955, Billboard did not have a unified, all-encompassing popularity chart, instead measuring songs by individual metrics. At the start of the era in 1955, three such charts existed, Best Sellers in Stores was the first Billboard chart, established in 1936. This chart ranked the biggest selling singles in retail stores, as reported by merchants surveyed throughout the country, Most Played by Jockeys was Billboards original airplay chart. It ranked the most played songs on United States radio stations, as reported by radio disc jockeys, Most Played in Jukeboxes ranked the most played songs in jukeboxes across the United States. On the week ending November 12,1955, Billboard published The Top 100 for the first time, the Top 100 combined all aspects of a singles performance, based on a point system that typically gave sales more weight than radio airplay. The Best Sellers In Stores, Most Played by Jockeys and Most Played in Jukeboxes charts continued to be published concurrently with the new Top 100 chart. The week ending July 28,1958 was the publication of the Most Played By Jockeys and Top 100 charts. On August 4,1958, Billboard premiered one main all-genre singles chart, the Hot 100 quickly became the industry standard and Billboard discontinued the Best Sellers In Stores chart on October 13,1958. The Billboard Hot 100 is still the standard by which a songs popularity is measured in the United States, the Hot 100 is ranked by radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen BDS, sales data compiled by Nielsen Soundscan and streaming activity provided by online music sources. There are several component charts that contribute to the calculation of the Hot 100. Charts are ranked by number of gross audience impressions, computed by cross-referencing exact times of radio airplay with Arbitron listener data. Hot Singles Sales, the top selling singles compiled from a sample of retail store, mass merchant and internet sales reports collected, compiled. The chart is released weekly and measures sales of commercial singles. With the decline in sales of singles in the US
18.
Billboard (magazine)
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Billboard is an American entertainment media brand owned by the Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group, a division of Eldridge Industries. It publishes pieces involving news, video, opinion, reviews, events and it is also known for its music charts, including the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200, tracking the most popular singles and albums in different genres. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm, and operates several TV shows, Billboard was founded in 1894 by William Donaldson and James Hennegan as a trade publication for bill posters. Donaldson later acquired Hennegens interest in 1900 for $500, in the 1900s, it covered the entertainment industry, such as circuses, fairs and burlesque shows. It also created a service for travelling entertainers. Billboard began focusing more on the industry as the jukebox, phonograph. 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 Hennegans children, until it was sold to investors in 1985. The first issue of Billboard was published in Cincinnati, Ohio, on November 1,1894 by William Donaldson, initially, it covered the advertising and bill posting industry and was called Billboard Advertising. At the time, billboards, posters and paper advertisements placed in public spaces were the 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, 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 Hennegans interest in the business in 1900 for $500, to save it from bankruptcy. That May, Donaldson changed it from a monthly to a paper with a greater emphasis on breaking news. He improved editorial quality and opened new offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, London and he also re-focused the magazine on outdoor entertainment like fairs, carnivals, circuses, vaudeville and burlesque shows. A section devoted to circuses was introduced in 1900, followed by more prominent coverage of events in 1901. Billboard also covered topics including regulation, a lack of professionalism, economics and it had a stage gossip column covering the private lives of entertainers, a tent show section covering traveling shows and a sub-section called Freaks to order. According to The Seattle Times, Donaldson also published articles attacking censorship, praising productions exhibiting good taste
19.
Disco
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Disco is a genre of dance music containing elements of funk, soul, pop, and salsa. It achieved popularity during the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, Disco can be seen as a reaction against both the domination of rock music and the stigmatization of dance music by the counterculture during this period. It was popular with men and women, from many different backgrounds. The disco sound often has several components, a beat, an eighth note or 16th note hi-hat pattern with an open hi-hat on the off-beat. In most disco tracks, string sections, horns, electric piano, Orchestral instruments such as the flute are often used for solo melodies, and lead guitar is less frequently used in disco than in rock. Many disco songs use electronic synthesizers, particularly in the late 1970s, well-known 1970s disco performers included Donna Summer, the Bee Gees, Boney M. KC and the Sunshine Band, The Trammps, Sylvester, Village People, Gloria Gaynor and Chic. While performers and singers garnered much attention, record producers working behind the scenes played an important role in developing the disco sound. Many non-disco artists recorded songs at the height of discos popularity. Disco was the last mass popular movement that was driven by the baby boom generation. Disco was a phenomenon, but its popularity drastically declined in the United States in 1980. Disco Demolition Night, an anti-disco protest held in Chicago on 12 July 1979, is thought of as a factor in discos fast. By the late 1970s most major U. S. cities had thriving disco club scenes, Studio 54, a venue popular amongst celebrities, is a well-known example of a disco club. Popular dances included the Hustle, a suggestive dance. Discotheque-goers often wore expensive, extravagant and sexy fashions, Disco clubs were also associated with promiscuity. Disco was a key influence on the 1980s electronic dance style called house. The term is derived from discothèque, by the early 1940s, the terms disc jockey and DJ were in use to describe radio presenters. During WWII, because of restrictions set in place by the Nazi occupiers, eventually more than one of these jazz venues had the proper name discothèque. By 1959, the term was used in Paris to describe any of these type of nightclubs and that year a young reporter named Klaus Quirini started to select and introduce records at the Scotch-Club in Aachen, West Germany
20.
Stevie Nicks
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Stephanie Lynn Stevie Nicks is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as the Queen of Rock n Roll, Nicks is best known for both her work as frontwoman of Fleetwood Mac and for her solo career and she is also known for her distinctive voice, mystical visual style, and symbolic lyrics. As a member of Fleetwood Mac, she was inducted into the Rock and she has garnered eight Grammy Award nominations and two American Music Award nominations as a solo artist. She has won awards with Fleetwood Mac, including a Grammy Award. Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975 along with her then boyfriend, the album remained at number one on the American albums chart for 31 weeks and reached Number One in various countries worldwide. The album won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1978 and it produced four U. S. top-10 singles, with Nicks Dreams being the bands first and only U. S. number-one hit. She has released a total of eight studio albums to date, with her most recent titled 24 Karat Gold, Songs from the Vault. During her solo career, she has had a working relationship with Tom Petty. They served as a band for several tracks on each of her solo albums. The song Stop Draggin My Heart Around, performed by Nicks, Nicks was born at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, to Jess Nicks, former president of Greyhounds Armour-Dial, and Barbara Nicks, a homemaker. Nicks, Sr. a struggling country singer, taught Nicks to sing duets with him by the time she was four years old. Nickss mother was so protective that she kept her at home more than most people, the infant Stephanie could pronounce her own name only as tee-dee, which led to her nickname of Stevie. Her fathers frequent relocation as a business executive had the family living in Phoenix, Albuquerque, El Paso, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles. With the Goya guitar that she received for her 16th birthday, Nicks wrote her first song, Ive Loved and Ive Lost and she spent her adolescence playing records constantly, and lived in her own little musical world. While attending Arcadia High School in Arcadia, California, she joined her first band, the Changing Times, Nicks first met her future musical and romantic partner, Lindsey Buckingham, during her senior year at Menlo-Atherton High School. When she saw Buckingham playing California Dreamin at Young Life club and she later recalled, I was a senior in high school and Lindsey was a junior. I thought he was a darling, I didnt see him again for two years and he called me up and asked if I wanted to be in a band. And so, I was in band with him for three and a half years ~ a band called Fritz
21.
Fleetwood Mac
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Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band, formed in London in 1967. The band has more than 100 million records worldwide, making them one of the worlds best-selling bands of all time. In 1998, selected members of Fleetwood Mac were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, to date, the album has sold over 40 million copies worldwide, making it the eighth-highest-selling album of all time. Due to numerous changes, the only original member present in the band is drummer Mick Fleetwood. Keyboardist Christine McVie, who joined the band in 1970 while married to John McVie, has appeared on every album except the debut album and she left the band in 1998 but returned in 2014. Fleetwood Mac were formed in July 1967 in London when Peter Green left the British blues band John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Peter Green had replaced guitarist Eric Clapton in the Bluesbreakers, and received critical acclaim for his work on their album A Hard Road. After he had been in the Bluesbreakers for some time, Green asked if drummer Mick Fleetwood could replace Aynsley Dunbar, Green had been in two bands with Fleetwood—Peter Bs Looners and the subsequent Shotgun Express. John Mayall agreed and Fleetwood became a member of the band, the Bluesbreakers now consisted of Green, Fleetwood, John McVie and Mayall. Mayall gave Green free recording time as a gift, in which Fleetwood, McVie, the fifth song was an instrumental which Green named after the rhythm section, Fleetwood Mac. Soon after, Green contacted Fleetwood to form a new band, the pair wanted McVie on bass guitar and even named the band Fleetwood Mac as a way to entice him. However, McVie opted to keep his income with Mayall rather than take a risk with a new band. The Green, Fleetwood, Spencer, Brunning version of the band made its debut on 13 August 1967 at the Windsor Jazz, Brunning merely played at a handful of gigs with Fleetwood Mac. Within weeks of this show, John McVie agreed to join the band as permanent bassist, Fleetwood Macs first album, Fleetwood Mac, was a no-frills blues album and was released on the Blue Horizon label in February 1968. In fact there were no players on the album. The album was successful in the UK, hitting No,4, though it did not have any singles on it. The band soon released two singles Black Magic Woman and Need Your Love So Bad, the bands second album, Mr. Wonderful, was released in August 1968. Like the first it was an album, but this time they made a few changes. The album was recorded live in the studio with miked amplifiers and PA system and this method provided the ideal environment for producing this style of music, and gave it an authentically vintage sound
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