1.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
2.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
3.
Alternative rock
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Alternative rock is a genre of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s and 2000s. In this instance, the word refers to the genres distinction from mainstream rock music. The terms original meaning was broader, referring to a generation of musicians unified by their debt to either the musical style or simply the independent. Ethos of punk rock, which in the late 1970s laid the groundwork for alternative music, Alternative rock is a broad umbrella term consisting of music that differs greatly in terms of its sound, its social context, and its regional roots. Most of these subgenres had achieved minor mainstream notice and a few bands representing them, such as Hüsker Dü, with the breakthrough of Nirvana and the popularity of the grunge and Britpop movements in the 1990s, alternative rock entered the musical mainstream and many alternative bands became successful. By the end of the decade, alternative rocks mainstream prominence declined due to a number of events that caused grunge and Britpop to fade, emo attracted attention in the larger alternative rock world, and the term was applied to a variety of artists, including multi-platinum acts. Post-punk revival artists such as Modest Mouse and The Killers had commercial success in the early, before the term alternative rock came into common usage around 1990, the sort of music to which it refers was known by a variety of terms. In 1979, Terry Tolkin used the term Alternative Music to describe the groups he was writing about, in 1979 Dallas radio station KZEW had a late night new wave show entitled Rock and Roll Alternative. College rock was used in the United States to describe the music during the 1980s due to its links to the radio circuit. In the United Kingdom, dozens of small do it yourself record labels emerged as a result of the punk subculture, according to the founder of one of these labels, Cherry Red, NME and Sounds magazines published charts based on small record stores called Alternative Charts. The first national chart based on distribution called the Indie Chart was published in January 1980, at the time, the term indie was used literally to describe independently distributed records. By 1985, indie had come to mean a particular genre, or group of subgenres, at first the term referred to intentionally non–mainstream rock acts that were not influenced by heavy metal ballads, rarefied new wave and high-energy dance anthems. The use of alternative gained further exposure due to the success of Lollapalooza, for which festival founder, in the late 1990s, the definition again became more specific. Defining music as alternative is often difficult because of two conflicting applications of the word, the name alternative rock essentially serves as an umbrella term for underground music that has emerged in the wake of punk rock since the mid-1980s. Alternative bands during the 1980s generally played in clubs, recorded for indie labels. Sounds range from the gloomy soundscapes of gothic rock to the guitars of indie pop to the dirty guitars of grunge to the 1960s/1970s revivalism of Britpop. This approach to lyrics developed as a reflection of the social and economic strains in the United States and United Kingdom of the 1980s, by 1984, a majority of groups signed to independent record labels mined from a variety of rock and particularly 1960s rock influences. This represented a break from the futuristic, hyper-rational post-punk years
4.
Pop punk
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Pop punk is a punk rock music genre and a fusion genre that combines elements of punk rock with elements of pop music. Pop punk typically combines fast punk rock tempos, power chord changes and loud, distorted guitars with pop-influenced melodies. Pop-influenced punk rock emerged in the mid-1970s with a style that was stylistically similar to power pop. By the mid-1980s, several bands merged hardcore punk with pop music to create a new, faster pop punk sound such as Dag Nasty, Pop punk in the United States began to grow in popularity locally in California in the mid-to-late 1980s. Pop punk particularly thrived in California, where independent record labels adopted a do it approach to releasing music. By the mid-1990s, a few pop punk bands had started to sell millions of records and receive radio and television airplay. By 1994, pop punk was quickly growing in mainstream popularity, the late 1990s, exemplified by the 1999 release of Blink-182s Enema of the State, represented the genres mainstream peak, although some pop punk bands scored successful album chartings in the 2000s. In the mid-2000s, emo pop, a genre combining emo and pop punk. By the end of the 2000s, the pop sound of the 1990s had largely waned in mainstream popularity. Pop punk typically merges upbeat pop melodies with catchy hooks, catchy choruses, harmonies, speedy tempos, punk rock power chord changes and loud, distorted electric guitars. About. com has described second-wave pop punk bands as having a radio friendly sheen to their music, club, pop punk often pits sweet harmonies against bratty, rowdy riffs. Lyrical topics that are common in pop punk include love, lust, drunkenness, adolescence, cartoonish violence, some pop punk lyrics focus on jokes and humor. Some pop punk music features elements of rock, power pop. According to Ryan Cooper of About. com, pop punk is a style that more to the Beatles. It is not clear when the pop punk was first used. Protopunk and power pop bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s helped lay the groundwork for the pop punk sound, the Beatles, the Kinks and the Beach Boys all paved the way for pop punk. With their love of the Beach Boys and late 1960s bubblegum pop, the Ramones loud and fast melodic minimalism differentiated them from other bands in New York Citys budding art rock scene, but pop punk was not considered a separate subgenre until later. An early use of the pop punk appeared in a 1977 New York Times article, Cabaret
5.
Mark Hoppus
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Born in Ridgecrest, California, Hoppus spent his childhood moving back and forth between his mother and fathers houses, as they divorced when he was in third grade. He became interested in skateboarding and punk rock in junior high, after moving to San Diego in 1992, Hoppus sister introduced him to Tom DeLonge, and together with drummer Scott Raynor, they formed the band Blink-182. Following Raynor and DeLonges departures from the band in 1998 and 2015, respectively, after replacing Raynor with Travis Barker, the trio recorded Enema of the State, which launched the band into multiplatinum success, becoming the biggest pop punk act of the era. Two more records followed—the heavier Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, Hoppus continued playing with Barker in +44 in the late 2000s. Blink-182 subsequently reunited in 2009 and continue to record and tour worldwide and he has previously co-owned two companies, Atticus and Macbeth Footwear, and has begun a clothing line named Hi My Name is Mark. Hoppus hosted a weekly podcast in 2005 through 2006 which returned in 2015, Mark Hoppus was born in Ridgecrest, California, on March 15,1972, to Kerry Wernz and Tex Hoppus. Ridgecrest is a town in the California desert, composed mainly of what Hoppus later described as geniuses, scientists, physicists. Hoppus Finnish paternal great-grandparents, Aaron and Lempi Orrenmaa, emigrated to the U. S. from Laihia and his father, like many in Ridgecrest, worked for the U. S. Department of Defense, designing missiles and bombs for the towns Navy testing center. Hoppus describes himself as pretty mellow until his parents divorced when he was eight, when my parents argued, it was always behind closed doors. I remember sitting outside my parents room when I was seven years old, following these events, he spent two years shuffling between his parents homes with sister Anne, until he and his father moved to nearby Monterey. His father was often away earning a degree in college. He later would describe his childhood as lonely, remarking, was living by myself in the fifth grade, Hoppus describes himself as pretty straight until junior high, when he began skateboarding and listening to punk rock. I didnt know where I should stand or what I should do, so my friends and I bought some menthol cigarettes and smoked for the first time and we probably looked like idiots, Hoppus remembered. Hoppus received his first bass as a gift from his father and he earned money for a set of amplifiers by helping him paint his house. Hoppus never took lessons, instead he taught himself by playing to bands such as the Descendents, The Cure. Hoppus has remarked that Silly Girl by the Descendents was the song made me fall in love with punk rock music that song changed my life forever. Likewise, Hoppus borrowed a cassette version of The Cures Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Hoppus began to dress like frontman Robert Smith, donning eyeliner and occasionally bright red lipstick to his high school classes. Beginning in his first year, Hoppus gained solace through music of both The Cure and The Smiths, Hoppus returned to Ridgecrest in 1989, completing high school at Burroughs High School
6.
Rock music
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It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by blues, rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of genres such as electric blues and folk. Musically, rock has centered on the guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar. Typically, rock is song-based music usually with a 4/4 time signature using a verse-chorus form, like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. Punk was an influence into the 1980s on the subsequent development of subgenres, including new wave, post-punk. From the 1990s alternative rock began to rock music and break through into the mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the visually distinctive goth and emo subcultures and this trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, Hammond organ and synthesizers. The basic rock instrumentation was adapted from the blues band instrumentation. A group of musicians performing rock music is termed a rock band or rock group, Rock music is traditionally built on a foundation of simple unsyncopated rhythms in a 4/4 meter, with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies are often derived from older musical modes, including the Dorian and Mixolydian, harmonies range from the common triad to parallel fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock, because of its complex history and tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that it is impossible to bind rock music to a rigidly delineated musical definition. These themes were inherited from a variety of sources, including the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music and rhythm, as a result, it has been seen as articulating the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality, according to Simon Frith rock was something more than pop, something more than rock and roll. Rock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with the concept of art as artistic expression, original. The foundations of music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music, with country. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music for a multi-racial audience, debate surrounds which record should be considered the first rock and roll record. Other artists with rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis
7.
Blink-182
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Blink-182 is an American rock band formed in Poway, California in 1992. The band currently consists of bassist and vocalist Mark Hoppus, drummer Travis Barker, Blink-182 was initially known as Blink until an Irish band of the same name threatened legal action, in response, the band appended the meaningless number -182. In its early years, Blink-182 toured heavily behind the bands debut, the group signed with major label MCA Records to co-distribute its second album, Dude Ranch. Raynor was fired midway through a 1998 tour and replaced by Barker, the groups next two releases, Enema of the State and Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, were enormous successes on the strength of radio and MTV airplay. The eponymously titled Blink-182 followed in 2003 and marked a shift for the group. DeLonge quit in 2005, sending the band into what was termed an indefinite hiatus and they reunited in 2009, producing the trios sixth album, Neighborhoods. In 2015, DeLonge again exited and was replaced by Alkaline Trio guitarist and vocalist Matt Skiba, the bands seventh studio album, California, was released on July 1,2016. Blink-182 is considered a key group in the development of pop punk, the trio has sold over thirteen million albums in the United States, and over 50 million albums worldwide. Blink-182 was formed in Poway, California, a suburb outside of San Diego, tom DeLonge was expelled from Poway High for attending a basketball game drunk and was forced to attend another local school for one semester. At Rancho Bernardo High School, DeLonge performed at a Battle of the Bands competition and he also befriended Kerry Key, who too was interested in punk music. Keys girlfriend, Anne Hoppus, introduced her brother Mark Hoppus—who had recently moved from Ridgecrest to work at a record store, the two clicked instantly and played for hours in DeLonges garage, exchanging lyrics and co-writing songs—one of which became Carousel. Hoppus, in trying to impress Delonge, managed to fall from a lamppost in front of DeLonges garage and crack his ankles, the trio began to practice together in Raynors bedroom, spending hours together writing music, attending punk shows and movies, and playing practical jokes. Hoppus and DeLonge would alternate singing vocal parts, the trio first operated under a variety of names, including Duck Tape and Figure 8, until DeLonge rechristened the band Blink. Shortly thereafter, DeLonge and Raynor borrowed a four-track recorder from friend and collaborator Cam Jones and were preparing to record a demo tape, Hoppus promptly broke up with his girlfriend and returned to the band. Flyswatter—a combination of songs and punk covers—was recorded in Raynors bedroom in May 1993. Southern California had a large population in the early 1990s, aided by an avid surfing, skating. In contrast to East Coast punk music, the West Coast wave of groups, Blink included, New York is gloomy, dark and cold. The Californian middle-class suburbs have nothing to be that bummed about, San Diego at this time was hardly a hotbed of activity, but the bands popularity grew as did California punk rock concurrently in the mainstream
8.
The Click Five
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The Click Five was an American rock band from Boston, Massachusetts. The original members, most of students at Berklee College of Music, started on January 1,2004. They then quickly got the attention of talent scout Wayne Sharp, the Click Five made their first recording, a two-song demo session, in early 2004 after successful local touring. They released their debut album Greetings from Imrie House in 2005, after vocalist Eric Dill left the group, he was replaced by Kyle Patrick who debuted on their second album Modern Minds and Pastimes in 2007. Their third album, TCV, was released in Asia in 2010 and they prefer to classify their music as new school power pop. However, they have also classified as pop punk and teen pop. They achieved significant commercial success with their first album in the US and their second release met with popularity in Asian countries such as Cambodia. In total, the band has two million albums worldwide and have created eight number one singles in seven different nations. The band starred in the 2007 film Taking Five with Alona Tal and Daniella Monet, Ben Romans studied songwriting, Ethan Mentzer studied production and engineering, and Joey Zehr double majored in production/engineering and business at the Berklee College of Music. Roommates and close-friends Mentzer and Zehr moved to a place on Imrie Road in the neighborhood of Allston when they were both sophomores, Calling their place Imrie House, they met with Romans and Joe Guese and formed a kind of pseudo-fraternity. The four played in local bands, none of which had any success. However, they drew the attention of Wayne Sharp, a talent agent who had mostly worked in jazz although he had also worked with the mid-1980s power pop group Candy. Early iterations of the band also included studio musician Jude Jones until Dills departure in 2007. Romans went to work for a company in Nashville. Jeff Dorenfeld, former manager of the band Boston, saw Guese and Mentzer performing in May 2003, Sharp liked their playing, but he had a low regard for their songs and their appearance. The first words Sharp ever said to them were This isnt going to work unless you listen to me, the four soon took in Eric Dill, a high-school friend of Zehr from when they both lived in Indianapolis. They were all in their very early-20s, according to Zehr, the group would play several shows a week that were booked under different band names to get around local clubs rules preventing artists from playing that close to each other. Their playing then got the attention of Mike Denneen, Boston-based producer of Fountains of Wayne, Denneen also introduced them to Kiss guitarist Paul Stanley, who was strongly supportive
9.
All Time Low
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All Time Low is an American rock band from Towson, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore, formed in 2003. The band currently consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Alex Gaskarth, lead guitarist and backing vocalist Jack Barakat, bassist and backing vocalist Zack Merrick, the bands name is taken from lyrics in the song Head on Collision by New Found Glory. The band consistently tours year-long, has headlined tours, and has appeared at music festivals including Warped Tour, Reading and Leeds. Beginning as a school band, the band released their debut EP The Three Words to Remember in Dealing with the End EP in 2004 through local label Emerald Moon. Since then the band has released six albums, The Party Scene, So Wrong, Its Right, Nothing Personal, Dirty Work, Dont Panic. All Time Low released their first live album, Straight to DVD, in 2010, on February 17,2017, the band announced a new single entitled Dirty Laundry on The Radio 1 Breakfast Show - their first single since their move from Hopeless Records to Fueled by Ramen. Formed while still in school in 2003, All Time Low started covering songs by pop punk bands such as Blink-182. The bands line-up consisted of Alex Gaskarth on vocals, Jack Barakat on guitar, TJ Ihle on lead guitar and backing vocals, Chris Cortilello on bass and Rian Dawson on drums. Cortilello and Ihle left the band, resulting in the band laying dormant until Zack Merrick joined on bass and they released a four-song EP in November before signing to Emerald Moon Records in 2004. They released their second EP, titled The Three Words to Remember in Dealing with the End EP later that same year, the band released their debut studio album, The Party Scene, in July 2005. Before graduating from school in 2006, All Time Low scored another record deal. The band said in an interview that they were starting to get serious about music while in their year of high school. The EP entered the Independent Albums chart at No.20, All Time Low began a busy tour for the EP in late 2006. After the tour, the band began writing material for their studio album. In the summer of 2007, All Time Low played the Vans Warped Tour on the Smartpunk Stage and they made their live debut in the UK in late 2007 supporting Plain White Ts. All Time Low released their studio album So Wrong, Its Right in September 2007. It peaked at No.62 on the Billboard 200 and No.6 on the Independent Albums chart. The second single from the album, Dear Maria, Count Me In, in 2011, the single was certified Gold for 500,000 shipments
10.
Twitter
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Twitter is an online news and social networking service where users post and interact with messages, tweets, restricted to 140 characters. Registered users can post tweets, but those who are unregistered can only read them, users access Twitter through its website interface, SMS or a mobile device app. Twitter Inc. is based in San Francisco, California, United States, Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams and launched in July. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity, in 2012, more than 100 million users posted 340 million tweets a day, and the service handled an average of 1.6 billion search queries per day. In 2013, it was one of the ten most-visited websites and has described as the SMS of the Internet. As of 2016, Twitter had more than 319 million monthly active users. On the day of the 2016 U. S. presidential election, Twitter proved to be the largest source of breaking news, Twitters origins lie in a daylong brainstorming session held by board members of the podcasting company Odeo. Jack Dorsey, then a student at New York University. The original project name for the service was twttr, an idea that Williams later ascribed to Noah Glass, inspired by Flickr. The developers initially considered 10958 as a code, but later changed it to 40404 for ease of use. Work on the project started on March 21,2006, when Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 9,50 PM Pacific Standard Time, Dorsey has explained the origin of the Twitter title. we came across the word twitter, and it was just perfect. The definition was a short burst of inconsequential information, and chirps from birds, and thats exactly what the product was. The first Twitter prototype, developed by Dorsey and contractor Florian Weber, was used as a service for Odeo employees. Williams fired Glass, who was silent about his part in Twitters startup until 2011, Twitter spun off into its own company in April 2007. Williams provided insight into the ambiguity that defined this early period in a 2013 interview, With Twitter and they called it a social network, they called it microblogging, but it was hard to define, because it didnt replace anything. There was this path of discovery with something like that, where over time you figure out what it is, Twitter actually changed from what we thought it was in the beginning, which we described as status updates and a social utility. It is that, in part, but the insight we eventually came to was Twitter was really more of an information network than it is a social network, the tipping point for Twitters popularity was the 2007 South by Southwest Interactive conference. During the event, Twitter usage increased from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000, the Twitter people cleverly placed two 60-inch plasma screens in the conference hallways, exclusively streaming Twitter messages, remarked Newsweeks Steven Levy
11.
Homestar Runner
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Homestar Runner is a Flash-animated Internet cartoon series created by Mike and Matt Chapman, also known as The Brothers Chaps. Its comedy mixes surreal humor, self-parody, and references to 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s pop culture, in video games, classic television. Since 2000, the site has grown to encompass a variety of cartoons and web games featuring Homestar, Strong Bad, at the peak of its popularity, the site was one of the most-visited sites with collections of Flash cartoons on the Internet, spreading via word of mouth. The site sustains itself through merchandise sales and has never featured advertisements, the Brothers Chaps have turned down offers to make a television series. After a four-year hiatus beginning in 2010, Homestar Runner returned with a new Holiday Toon on April 1,2014, for April Fools Day. Afterwards, co-creator Matt Chapman had announced plans to give the site semi-regular updates starting in the fall, More cartoons have since been released on the website on an occasional basis, usually to celebrate holidays. Matt described the origin of the name Homestar Runner as a in-joke between themselves and James Huggins, a friend of the Chapman brothers while growing up in Dunwoody. It actually comes from a friend of ours, there was an old local grocery store commercial, and we live in Atlanta, and it advertised the Atlanta Braves. It was like, the Atlanta Braves hit home runs, and so there was this player named Mark Lemke, and they said something like All star second baseman for the Braves. And we were just like, Homestar Runner, that’s the best thing we’ve ever heard. The idea to use Homestar Runner for a book came while Mike and Craig were in a bookstore. They spent around two hours designing the look of Homestar Runner, Pom Pom, Strong Bad, and the Cheat and they only printed about five to ten copies to share with friends, and had no intention to publish it. However, they were unaware that their father had sent out the book as a manuscript for submission to about 80 different publishers and they later used the Super NES video game Mario Paint to create the first cartoon featuring the characters. Around 1999, Mike recognized how popular Flash animation was taking off, looking for something on which to practice, they found inspiration in the old childrens book. Their initial cartoons were launched on their website, homestarrunner. com. In February 2001, it gained a new look, which has remained consistent to the present with minor changes. The site grew slowly at first, and primarily through word-of-mouth and they were able to sell a few dozen t-shirts by 2001. Mike moved back to New York in mid-2001 and he and Matt started crafting the first Strong Bad Email some kinda robot and their father suggested Matt quit his full-time time job to devote time to creating more Homestar Runner shorts
12.
Alex Gaskarth
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Alex hosted the 2015 and 2016 Alternative Press Music Awards along with bandmate Jack Barakat. Alex also stated in an interview with Rock Sound that he knows how to read the stars, Gaskarth was born in Essex, United Kingdom to Peter and Isobel Gaskarth. He moved to Baltimore, Maryland, United States when he was six years old, during his teens, Gaskarth was part of a band performing cover songs called Crew Fighters. Soon after, he met Jack Barakat, who persuaded him to join All Time Low, All Time Low started doing cover songs of Blink-182 and Green Day. Subsequently, the formation of the band was completed by Zack Merrick and Rian Dawson, Gaskarth started playing music with bandmate Jack Barakat in eighth grade. In ninth grade they acquired Zack Merrick and Rian Dawson, forming the band All Time Low in 2003 and they signed to Emerald Moon Records in 2004 while still in high school and released their debut EP, The Three Words to Remember in Dealing with the End. In 2005, they released their studio album The Party Scene. In 2006 the band signed with Hopeless Records, in 2007, they released a Platinum single Dear Maria, Count Me In and in 2008 it was certified 4x Platinum by Billboard. They also released their studio album So Wrong, Its Right in 2007. In 2009, All Time Low released their studio album Nothing Personal which debuted number 4 in Billboard 200. In 2010 the band released two CD/DVD packages, MTV Unplugged and the documentary/live concert Straight to DVD, in 2011, the band signed with Interscope Records and released their fourth studio album Dirty Work. In early 2012, the band re-signed with Hopeless Records and released their studio album Dont Panic. K official Album Charts with 19,400 copies being sold. In 2016, Straight to DVD2, Past Present and Future Hearts was released and this is a sequel to Straight to DVD, documenting the past four years of the band as well as another live concert. In 2017, the released a new song entitled Dirty Laundry. Gaskarth has written songs for/with other bands such as 5 Seconds of Summer, McBusted and he has also been a host of the podcast Full Frontal with bandmate Jack Barakat since 2013. Up until around mid-2013, Gaskarth used a variety of custom-made Paul Reed Smith guitars and he stated in a Reddit AMA that he abandoned the instruments due to difficulties replacing parts while overseas. Gaskarth currently uses Fender guitars, most notable the Telecaster Deluxe models, although he has been using a Starcaster. Gaskarth has also seen using Gibson electric guitars
