Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice and augments regular speech by the use of sustained tonality, a variety of vocal techniques. A person who sings is called a vocalist. Singers perform music that can be sung without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir of singers or a band of instrumentalists. Singers may perform as soloists or accompanied by anything from a single instrument up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Different singing styles include art music such as opera and Chinese opera, Indian music and religious music styles such as gospel, traditional music styles, world music, blues and popular music styles such as pop, electronic dance music and filmi. Singing arranged or improvised, it may be done as a form of religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort or ritual, as part of music education or as a profession. Excellence in singing requires time, dedication and regular practice.
If practice is done on a regular basis the sounds can become more clear and strong. Professional singers build their careers around one specific musical genre, such as classical or rock, although there are singers with crossover success, they take voice training provided by voice teachers or vocal coaches throughout their careers. In its physical aspect, singing has a well-defined technique that depends on the use of the lungs, which act as an air supply or bellows. Though these four mechanisms function independently, they are coordinated in the establishment of a vocal technique and are made to interact upon one another. During passive breathing, air is inhaled with the diaphragm while exhalation occurs without any effort. Exhalation may be aided by lower pelvis/pelvic muscles. Inhalation is aided by use of external intercostals and sternocleidomastoid muscles; the pitch is altered with the vocal cords. With the lips closed, this is called humming; the sound of each individual's singing voice is unique not only because of the actual shape and size of an individual's vocal cords but due to the size and shape of the rest of that person's body.
Humans have vocal folds which can loosen, tighten, or change their thickness, over which breath can be transferred at varying pressures. The shape of the chest and neck, the position of the tongue, the tightness of otherwise unrelated muscles can be altered. Any one of these actions results in a change in pitch, timbre, or tone of the sound produced. Sound resonates within different parts of the body and an individual's size and bone structure can affect the sound produced by an individual. Singers can learn to project sound in certain ways so that it resonates better within their vocal tract; this is known as vocal resonation. Another major influence on vocal sound and production is the function of the larynx which people can manipulate in different ways to produce different sounds; these different kinds of laryngeal function are described as different kinds of vocal registers. The primary method for singers to accomplish this is through the use of the Singer's Formant, it has been shown that a more powerful voice may be achieved with a fatter and fluid-like vocal fold mucosa.
The more pliable the mucosa, the more efficient the transfer of energy from the airflow to the vocal folds. Vocal registration refers to the system of vocal registers within the voice. A register in the voice is a particular series of tones, produced in the same vibratory pattern of the vocal folds, possessing the same quality. Registers originate in laryngeal function, they occur. Each of these vibratory patterns appears within a particular range of pitches and produces certain characteristic sounds; the occurrence of registers has been attributed to effects of the acoustic interaction between the vocal fold oscillation and the vocal tract. The term "register" can be somewhat confusing; the term register can be used to refer to any of the following: A particular part of the vocal range such as the upper, middle, or lower registers. A resonance area such as chest voice or head voice. A phonatory process A certain vocal timbre or vocal "color" A region of the voice, defined or delimited by vocal breaks.
In linguistics, a register language is a language which combines tone and vowel phonation into a single phonological system. Within speech pathology, the term vocal register has three constituent elements: a certain vibratory pattern of the vocal folds, a certain series of pitches, a certain type of sound. Speech pathologists identify four vocal registers based on the physiology of laryngeal function: the vocal fry register, the modal register, the falsetto register, the whistle register; this view is adopted by many vocal pedagogues. Vocal resonation is the process by which the basic product of phonation is en
Unleashed (Bow Wow album)
Unleashed is the third studio album by American rapper Bow Wow. It was released on August 2003, by Columbia Records. Recording sessions for the album took place from 2002 to 2003; the album features guest appearances from Amerie, Baby and Jagged Edge, with its production handled by Bink!, The Neptunes, Jazze Pha, Swizz Beatz and Lil Jon, among others. It is Bow Wow's first album without assistance or production from his mentor Jermaine Dupri, where he dropped the'Lil' from his stage name after his film debut in Like Mike. Unleashed received mixed reviews from critics, who felt that despite the changes in flow and lyrics, Bow Wow didn't distinguish himself enough to stand out from other rappers; the album debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 129,000 copies in the United States. It was supported by two singles: "Let's Get Down" and "My Baby"; the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, with excess shipments of 500,000 copies in the United States.
Following the release of his sophomore album Doggy Bag, Lil' Bow Wow achieved minor success on the Top R&B Singles charts, with "Thank You" and "Take Ya Home". In 2002, after finishing production on his debut film Like Mike and releasing his cover of "Basketball" for the film's soundtrack, Bow Wow chose to drop the "Lil" from his name and continue his career as Bow Wow. In an interview with MTV, he said that he wanted to distinguish himself from the other rappers, who had the word in their moniker: "All these Lil’ rappers, I’m just kind of getting real irritated by it. I said,'You know what? Drop the Lil'. Forget it. I’m Bow Wow.' Besides, I’m growing up, I’m not little anymore. Two weeks ago. I got irritable. It's all these Lil' cats. I’m Bow Wow now. Everything is just'Bow Wow,' no'Lil' Bow Wow.'" In an interview with Billboard, he spoke about the album's content, saying that he wanted his fans to follow him on the journey that he has started three years ago with a new sound and different lyrical content that defines his growing maturity.
The lead single, titled "Let's Get Down", co-written by a unknown, Clifford Harris. Bow Wow talked with Billboard on wanting to make an impact, after changing his name and wanting to work with rapper Baby, saying that he was looking for a single that would grab people's attention and that Baby's inclusion didn't happen but changed his mind to work with him on the song. In September 2003, in an interview with website Whudat, T. I. talked about his contribution to Bow Wow's third album and the song itself: "Yeah this time around I wrote some songs for him. On the single,'Let's Get Down'. I wrote the hook. How we did it was he'll write one verse, Bow Wow would write one verse, his homeboy Rocka would write one, I'd write a verse and come up with the hook." In 2009, in an interview with HipHopDX, Bow Wow commented on how getting T. I. to ghostwrite for him on his third album didn't tarnish his credibility as a rapper, saying that he learned about the songwriting process by contributing about 85 percent to the album while T.
I. wrote a full song and a couple verses to a few tracks."Eighteen", produced by Lil Jon, is described as a coming-of-age song, where Bow Wow is proclaiming some things that he wants to do when he reaches that milestone age. "My Baby" is an emotional song a friend dealing with a broken heart. Bow Wow described on this Neptunes-produced track "The Don, The Dutch" as "the'2Pac record'" that'll surprise listeners not expecting it. Another Neptunes track "I'll Move On", has him asking his fans to let him grow up into adulthood and not overthink the decisions he makes as he progresses; the album received mixed reviews from music critics who appreciated the maturity in the production and lyrics but felt that Bow Wow hasn't found a style that defines him. Steve'Flash' Juon of RapReviews praised the album for being consistent with its beats and Bow Wow for changing his lyrical tone saying, "By maturing his musical sound along with his voice, he sheds the "Lil" image for good and makes an effective play for establishing his longevity in the business."
Donnie Kwak of Vibe said that Bow Wow manages to by past formulas with his mature flow and display his sensitive side on "I'll Move On" concluding that, "Because he's willing to embrace his growing pains, Bow Wow's future is promising." Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic commented on how the album manages to straddle the line between Bow Wow's previous pop rap material and his new mature hip hop image. Despite changing his flow and lyrics and experimenting with new beats, People felt that Bow Wow "has yet to develop his own style and sometimes regresses to playing to the kiddie crowd." Credits for Unleashed adapted from AllMusic
Like Mike
Like Mike is a 2002 American comedy film directed by John Schultz and written by Michael Elliot and Jordan Moffet. Starring Lil' Bow Wow, Morris Chestnut, Jonathan Lipnicki, Brenda Song, Robert Forster, Crispin Glover and Eugene Levy, the film follows an orphan who gets basketball talents after finding a pair of Michael Jordan's shoes, it was produced by NBA Productions and features cameo appearances by NBA players. The film was released on July 2002, by 20th Century Fox. Calvin Cambridge and his two best friends and Reg Stevens, live in an orphanage. Murph is the youngest of the trio, has a close bond with Calvin. At night they all have to sell chocolate for the awkward orphanage director, Stan Bittleman, after each home game of the NBA team, the Los Angeles Knights. Calvin meets the team's coach, impressed by Calvin's knowledge of basketball and honesty about the chocolates, offers Calvin tickets for the next game. Inside a thrift store donation box, Calvin finds a pair of old sneakers with the initials "MJ" written on them.
Calvin's sneakers are taken by a jealous bully named Ox. When Calvin tries to retrieve them that night during a rainstorm, he is shocked by a lightning bolt. Calvin and his friends attend the basketball game between the Knights and the Minnesota Timberwolves. After the second quarter ends, the team's star player, Tracy Reynolds, prepares for a halftime contest. Calvin's ticket number is called and he goes one-on-one with Tracy. Calvin ends the contest with a dunk after bouncing the ball off the backboard. Reg and the crowd give Calvin a standing ovation. Calvin is signed to a one-day contract by the Knights. Calvin realizes that he is not there to play; when the Knights play the San Antonio Spurs they start losing badly and Coach Wagner decides to let Calvin play in the fourth quarter. Calvin leads a comeback against the Spurs and they win, which leads to Calvin getting a season contract. Reynolds becomes his mentor. Calvin makes them one of the best teams in the league. Tracy starts to respect Calvin after he gets himself into trouble when making sure that Tracy didn't miss his curfew.
Bittleman signs a contract with the team that all of Calvin's money will go to him until Calvin is eighteen, or adopted. When the second option is about to become true, Bittleman grows desperate and steals Calvin's shoes and bets US$100,000 against the Knights. After convincing Ox and his cohorts that Bittleman is selfish, Ox takes the shoes out of Bittleman's safe; the kids head to the arena with Calvin's sneakers. Bittleman sends goons after Calvin in a failed attempt to retrieve the shoes. Calvin makes it to the arena with the shoes after the 3rd quarter ends with Vince Carter and the Toronto Raptors routing the Knights 80–59. In the 4th quarter of the last regular season, Calvin is put into the game by the coach and the Knights start to make a comeback. After a pile-on towards the end of the game, Calvin's shoes are ruined with the Knights down by one point. Without the shoes, wanting to be a normal child, Calvin tells the team that this will be his last game. In the final play, Calvin manages to pump fake to get Vince Carter to jump and pass the ball to Tracy.
Tracy makes the game-winning shot to clinch the Knights their first playoff appearance. After going back to his orphanage and Murph get adopted by Tracy, Reg by a different family, though they stay in touch. Bittleman is missing because he doesn't have enough money to pay the bet, the orphanage is now sponsored by the Knights. Like Mike grossed $51.4 million in North America and $10.8 million overseas for a total worldwide gross of $62.3 million, against its budget of $30 million. The film opened fifth at the box office with a 3-day gross of $12.2 million from 2,410 theaters and $19 million over its five-day opening. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 57% based on 97 reviews, an average rating of 5.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A pleasant and innocuous diversion for kids, but adults may have trouble sitting through its predictable plotlines and schmaltz." On Metacritic, it has a score of 47 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Like Mike 2: Streetball Like Mike on IMDb Like Mike at AllMovie Like Mike at Rotten Tomatoes Like Mike at Box Office Mojo
The Cars
The Cars were an American rock band that emerged from the new wave scene in the late 1970s. The band originated in Boston in 1976, with singer, rhythm guitarist, songwriter Ric Ocasek; the Cars were at the forefront in merging 1970s guitar-oriented rock with the new synthesizer-oriented pop, becoming popular and which flourished in the early 1980s. Robert Palmer, music critic for The New York Times and Rolling Stone, described the Cars' musical style by saying: "they have taken some important but disparate contemporary trends—punk minimalism, the labyrinthine synthesizer and guitar textures of art rock, the'50s rockabilly revival and the melodious terseness of power pop—and mixed them into a personal and appealing blend."The Cars were named "Best New Artist" in the 1978 Rolling Stone Readers' Poll and won "Video of the Year" for "You Might Think" at the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984. Their debut album, The Cars, sold six million copies and appeared on the Billboard 200 album chart for 139 weeks.
As of 2001, the Cars have sold over 23 million albums in the United States. The band broke up in 1988, Ocasek discouraged talk of a reunion. Orr died in 2000 from pancreatic cancer. In 2005, Easton and Hawkes joined with Todd Rundgren to form a spin-off band, the New Cars, which performed classic Cars and Rundgren songs alongside new material; the original surviving members reunited in 2010 to record a new album, Move Like This, released in May 2011, followed by a short tour. In April 2018, The Cars were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, reunited once more to perform at the induction ceremony. Before the Cars, members of the band performed together in several different incarnations. Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr met in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1960s after Ocasek saw Orr performing with his band the Grasshoppers on the Big 5 Show, a local musical variety program; the two were in various bands in Columbus and Ann Arbor, Michigan before re-locating to Boston in the early 1970s. In Boston and Orr, along with lead guitarist Jas Goodkind, formed a Crosby and Nash-style folk rock band called Milkwood.
They released one album. After Milkwood and Orr formed the group Richard and the Rabbits, whose name was suggested by Jonathan Richman; the band included Greg Hawkes, who had studied at the Berklee School of Music and had played saxophone on Milkwood's album. Hawkes left to tour with Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture, a musical comedy act in which Mull played a variety of instruments. Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr performed as an acoustic duo called Ocasek and Orr at the Idler coffeehouse in Cambridge; some of the songs they played became the early Cars songs. Ocasek and Orr teamed up with guitarist Elliot Easton in the band Cap'n Swing. Cap'n Swing featured drummer Glenn Evans followed by Kevin Robichaud, a jazzy bass player, which clashed with Ocasek's more rock and roll leanings. Benjamin Orr did not play an instrument. Cap'n Swing soon came to the attention of WBCN disc jockey Maxanne Sartori, who began playing songs from their demo tape on her show. After being rejected by several record labels, Ocasek got rid of the bass player and drummer and decided to form a band that better fit his style of writing.
Orr took over on bass and Robichaud was replaced by David Robinson, best known for his career with the Modern Lovers. Robinson had played in DMZ and the Pop! Hawkes returned to play keyboards and the band became "The Cars," a name suggested by Robinson, whose sense of fashion had a strong influence on the band's image; the Cars played their first show at Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire on December 31, 1976 and spent early 1977 playing throughout New England, developing the songs that appeared on their debut album. A nine-song demo tape was recorded in early 1977 and soon "Just What I Needed" was getting heavy airplay on Boston radio stations WBCN and WCOZ. By virtue of that airplay, the band was signed to Elektra Records; the band's debut album, The Cars, was released in June 1978, reaching No. 18 on the Billboard 200. "Just What I Needed" was released as the debut single from the album, followed by "My Best Friend's Girl" and "Good Times Roll" all three charting on the Billboard Hot 100.
The album featured multiple album tracks that received substantial airplay, such as "You're All I've Got Tonight," "Bye Bye Love," and "Moving in Stereo." The band's second album, Candy-O, was released in June 1979. Featuring an album cover created by the famed Playboy artist Alberto Vargas, the album reached No. 3 on the Billboard album chart in America. The album featured their first Top 20 single, "Let's Go." Follow-up singles "It's All I Can Do" and "Double Life" were released, although with less success. Following the success of Candy-O, the band's third studio album, was released in 1980; the album, considered more experimental than its predecessors, featured only one Top 40 hit with "Touch and Go". Although the album peaked at No. 5 in America, it did not receive the critical praise of The Cars and Candy-O, with Rolling Stone describing the album as "an out-and-out drag". In 1981, the Cars purchased Intermedia Studios in Boston; the only Cars album recorded there was the band's fourth album, Shake It Up, a more commercial album than Panorama.
It was their first album to spawn a top 10 single with the title track, it included another hit in "Since You're Gone". Following their 1982 tour, the Cars took a short break and went to work on solo projects, with Ocasek and Hawkes both releasing debut
Leftovers
Leftovers are the uneaten edible remains of a meal after everyone has finished eating. Food scraps that are not directly edible are not regarded as leftovers, but rather as waste material; some only use "leftovers" to refer to extra food that constitutes a meal by itself, not just portions of the original. The ultimate use of leftovers depends on where the meal was eaten, preferences of the diner, the prevailing social culture. People save home cooking leftovers to eat later; this is facilitated by the private environment and convenience of airtight containers and refrigeration. People may eat some leftover food cold from the refrigerator, or reheated it in a microwave or conventional oven, or mix it with additional ingredients and recooked to make a new dish; the word "ort", meaning a small scrap of food left after a meal is completed, is not heard in conversation, but is encountered in crossword puzzles. New dishes made from leftovers are common in world cuisine. People invented many such dishes.
Besides capturing nutrition from otherwise inedible bones and broths provide a base for leftover scraps too small to be a meal themselves. Casseroles, fried rice, Shepherd pies, pizza can be used for this purpose, may have been invented as a means of reusing leftovers. Among American university students, leftover pizza itself has acquired particular in-group significance, to the extent that the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service offers, as its first tip under "Food Safety Tips for College Students" by Louisa Graham, a discussion of the considerable risks of eating unrefrigerated pizza. At some holiday meals, such as Christmas and Thanksgiving in the United States, it is customary to prepare much more food than necessary so the host can send leftovers home with guests. Cold turkey is archetypal in the United States as a Thanksgiving leftover, with turkey meat reappearing in sandwiches and casseroles for several days after the feast. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Chinese cuisine gained a foothold in the United States with the opening of several chop suey restaurants.
There is no set history of how American diners became enamored of "chop suey"—which means "assorted pieces" or "miscellaneous leftovers"—although it is unlikely that actual leftovers were served at any chop suey restaurants. Diners in a restaurant may leave uneaten food for the restaurant to discard, or take it away for consumption. To take the food away, the diner might ask a server to package it; such a container is colloquially called a doggy doggie bag. This most derives from the euphemistic pretense that the diner plans to give the food to a pet, rather than eat it; some speculate the name was born during World War II when food shortages encouraged people to limit waste, pet food was scarce. However, it may derive from the East Anglian term docky; the term doggy bag was popularized in the 1970s etiquette columns of many newspapers. Doggy bags are most common in restaurants that offer a take-out food service as well as sit-down meals, their prevalence as an accepted social custom varies by location.
In some countries in continental Europe, some people would frown upon a diner asking for a doggy bag. Foam food container Oyster pail Food waste Pagpag Tirit Bibimbap
The Neptunes
The Neptunes are an American production duo, composed of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. The Neptunes' sound is a distinctive brand of off-kilter, stripped-down electronic funk with sounds from Middle Eastern and Asian music including percussion and woodwind. Pharrell provides additional vocals and raps on records as well as appears in music videos, unlike Hugo, who tends to stay behind the scenes. Before gaining success and forming The Neptunes and Hugo along with local producer Timbaland and rapper Magoo formed a group "Surrounded by Idiots" in the early'90s, but disbanded before recording together. Timbaland & Magoo emerged as a hip hop duo collaborating with The Neptunes; the Neptunes are estimated to have a net worth of $160 million and are considered one of the most successful producers in music history, noted by twenty-four Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hits during the late 1990s and 2000s. In 2009, Billboard ranked The Neptunes number one on their list of the top 10 producers of the decade.
Pharrell and Chad met at a summer camp for the school of The Gifted and Talented in Virginia Beach, where Williams was a drummer and Hugo played tenor saxophone. They were both members of a marching band. In 1990 Chad and Pharrell formed a 4-piece "R&B type" group along with friends Shay and Mike Etheridge, which they named The Neptunes. Upon entering a local talent contest, they were discovered by Teddy Riley, whose studio was close to Pharrell's school. After graduating from high school, they signed with Riley as a group. Through working with Riley, Pharrell went on to write a verse for Wreckx-N-Effect's 1992 #2 Billboard Hot 100 hit "Rump Shaker". In 1994, Hugo and Williams had established themselves formally as a production duo under the used name "The Neptunes", assistant-produced "Tonight's The Night" from Teddy Riley's group BLACKstreet's self-titled debut. Over the next three years they continued to produce occasionally; some of the production, such as for SWV and Total, had little resemblance to what would become their distinctive sound, while other songs such as Mase's 1998 No.8 Billboard Hot 100 hit "Lookin' at Me" showed clear signs the Neptunes sound was developing.
Their first major production hit, the most clear beginning of the distinctive Neptunes sound, came with N. O. R. E.'s "Superthug" in 1998, reaching #36 on the Billboard Hot 100, gaining them widespread attention for the first time. The duo went on to work with Kelis, producing her first album Kaleidoscope, the duo's first full album production and Ol' Dirty Bastard's record "Got Your Money", on which Kelis is featured, they achieved huge commercial success with tracks like Jay-Z's "I Just Wanna Love U", Mystikal's "Shake Ya Ass", then-newly renamed Diddy's single "D. I. D. D. Y". Other notable hits during their commercial rise were Busta Rhymes' "Pass the Courvoisier, Part II”, Usher's "U Don't Have to Call" and Foxy Brown’s “Candy”. Kelis was one of several artists whose careers Williams have helped launch, they have helped re-launch the careers of Snoop Dogg, Robin Thicke and Mystikal. In 2001, The Neptunes gained their first worldwide hit with Britney Spears' single, "I'm A Slave 4 U", which reached #1 in several countries in Europe and South America.
The following year they reached #1 in the U. S. with Nelly's single, "Hot in Herre". In August of the same year, The Neptunes were named "Producers of the Year" at both The Source Awards and the Billboard Music Awards. In 2003, they released a self-credited album called The Neptunes Present... Clones, featuring songs and remixes from various Star Trak artists; this album topped the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart. The Neptunes went home with two Grammy Awards in 2004, one for "Producer of the Year, Non-Classical", another for "Best Pop Vocal Album" for their work on Justin Timberlake's No.2 Billboard hit Justified. They gained their first UK #1, again with Nelly, Flap Your Wings. Their'sound' is synthesizer riffs, sampling keyboard and modules; the Neptunes sound was first heard on Noreaga's 1998 track "Superthug". Although not their first production, the song became known as an example for the "Neptunes Sound". Another example of the Neptunes Sound is their remix of the Daft Punk song "Harder, Faster, Stronger".
The song was released on Daft Punk's remix album, Daft Club, released internationally on December 3, 2003 and in the U. S. on January 27, 2004. A Neptunes production is characterized by flat, punchy drum machine sounds and the use of module presets. "Grindin'" was a drum track that paid tribute to Eric B. & Rakim's song of the same nature, "My Melody". Justin Timberlake's "Like I Love You" paid tribute to the drums of the funk era, where the loop consisted of various snare sounds. On Busta Rhymes' "Light Yo Ass On Fire" they used a heavy chorus effect on the rhythm track suggesting an industrial or robotic theme, they have used the popular Roland TR-808 drum sound on such songs as LL Cool J's and Jamie Foxx's collaboration "Best Dress" but production work introduced'live' drum sounds similar to the ones they would use under their N*E*R*D guise. Both The Neptunes and Pharrell as a solo producer are well known for their extensive use of percussion other than drums. Examples of Pharrell's use of percussion are in Robin Thicke's 2013 hit "Blurred Lines" on which he featured with rapper T.
I. and Get Like Me by Nelly, which featured Nicki Minaj and himself. The Neptunes' engineer, in an interview with Sound on Sound magazine, revealed many o
