1.
Album
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Album, is a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item on CD, record, audio tape, or another medium. Albums of recorded music were developed in the early 20th century, first as books of individual 78rpm records, vinyl LPs are still issued, though in the 21st century album sales have mostly focused on compact disc and MP3 formats. The audio cassette was a format used from the late 1970s through to the 1990s alongside vinyl, an album may be recorded in a recording studio, in a concert venue, at home, in the field, or a mix of places. Recording may take a few hours to years to complete, usually in several takes with different parts recorded separately. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed live, the majority of studio recordings contain an abundance of editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology, musicians can be recorded in separate rooms or at times while listening to the other parts using headphones. Album covers and liner notes are used, and sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of the recording, historically, the term album was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage the word was used for collections of pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, the LP record, or 33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. It was adopted by the industry as a standard format for the album. Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, the term album had been carried forward from the early nineteenth century when it had been used for collections of short pieces of music. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, as part of a trend of shifting sales in the music industry, some commenters have declared that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as mini-albums or EPs, Albums such as Tubular Bells, Amarok, Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield, and Yess Close to the Edge, include fewer than four tracks. There are no rules against artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder referring to their own releases under thirty minutes as albums. These are known as box sets, material is stored on an album in sections termed tracks, normally 11 or 12 tracks. A music track is a song or instrumental recording. The term is associated with popular music where separate tracks are known as album tracks. When vinyl records were the medium for audio recordings a track could be identified visually from the grooves
2.
Del the Funky Homosapien
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Teren Delvon Jones, better known as Del the Funky Homosapien or Sir DZL, is an alternative American hip hop MC, producer and singer. Born in Oakland, California, he is the cousin of seminal west coast rapper Ice Cube, in 1991, with the help of Ice Cube, Del released his first solo album, I Wish My Brother George Was Here, at the age of 18. The album was a success largely due to the popularity of the hit single. Ultimately Del, who was not pleased with the musical range of the album, severed his production-artist relationship with Ice Cube for his next album. No Need for Alarm saw the introduction of the Oakland clique Hieroglyphics, whose members included Souls of Mischief, Casual, Pep Love, Del. No Need for Alarm helped to both the regional Oakland sound of hip hop, as well as the freestyle based, golden era 90s style of hip hop being expanded at the time. Del would not produce another album for five years, about a month before the release of his third album, Future Development, Del received a letter from his label, Elektra, stating that his contract had been terminated. Future Development became available in 1998, the album was only available on the Hieroglyphics website in tape form, but was re-released in 2002 under the Hieroglyphics Imperium label. Del also released another collaborative work with the Hieroglyphics crew in 1998, two years later, Del released his fourth solo album, Both Sides of the Brain, as well as Deltron 3030 which was a collaborative work with artists Dan the Automator and Kid Koala. With Nakamura and Koala, Del was also a guest performer for Gorillaz 2001 eponymous album Gorillaz and he appeared on the singles Clint Eastwood and Rock the House. 2003 saw the release of Full Circle, the second album from the Hieroglyphics crew. In 2004 Elektra released The Best of Del tha Funkee Homosapien, the CD only includes songs from his first two albums, along with a handful of b-sides from that era. Del was not pleased and advised people to not buy the CD, on March 11,2008 Del released Eleventh Hour through Definitive Jux. On March 31,2009 Dels next album Funk Man was made available for download on the internet. The album is available at his page on Bandcamp, though he gave away some hard copies on his supporting Funk Man tour, in September of the same year, he released a new album, Automatik Statik, for an unfixed rate with a minimum of $3. Del released his next album It Aint Illegal Yet on August 6,2010, there is no fixed price for the album, allowing listeners to pay whatever they wish for the album. Del shared a free LP entitled Iller Than Most on January 2,2014 and he uploaded the record to SoundCloud under the username Zartan Drednaught COBRA. He described the project as lyrically ill but fun to listen to, Del handled the production on the project as well
3.
Hip hop music
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It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements, MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling beats or bass lines from records, while often used to refer solely to rapping, hip hop more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. Hip hops early evolution occurred as sampling technology and drum machines became available and affordable. Turntablist techniques such as scratching and beatmatching developed along with the breaks and Jamaican toasting, rapping developed as a vocal style in which the artist speaks or chants along rhythmically with an instrumental or synthesized beat. The Sugarhill Gangs 1979 song Rappers Delight is widely regarded to be the first hip hop record to gain popularity in the mainstream. The 1980s marked the diversification of hip hop as the genre developed more complex styles, prior to the 1980s, hip hop music was largely confined within the United States. However, during the 1980s, it began to spread to scenes in dozens of countries. New school hip hop was the wave of hip hop music, originating in 1983–84 with the early records of Run-D. M. C. The Golden age hip hop period was a period between the mid-1980s and the early 1990s. Notable artists from this era include the Juice Crew, Public Enemy, & Rakim, Boogie Down Productions and KRS-One, EPMD, Slick Rick, Beastie Boys, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Ultramagnetic MCs, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest. Gangsta rap is a subgenre of hip hop that often focuses on the violent lifestyles, in the West Coast hip hop style, G-funk dominated mainstream hip hop for several years during the 1990s. I. G. In the 1990s, hip hop began to diversify with other regional styles emerging, such as Southern rap, at the same time, hip hop continued to be assimilated into other genres of popular music, examples being Neo soul and nu metal. Hip hop became a pop music genre in the mid-1990s. The popularity of hip hop music continued through the 2000s, with hip hop influences also increasingly finding their way into mainstream pop, the United States also saw the success of regional styles such as crunk, a Southern genre that emphasized the beats and music more than the lyrics. Starting in 2005, sales of hip hop music in the United States began to severely wane, during the mid-2000s, alternative hip hop secured a place in the mainstream, due in part to the crossover success of artists such as OutKast and Kanye West. Creation of the hip hop is often credited to Keith Cowboy, rapper with Grandmaster Flash. However, Lovebug Starski, Keith Cowboy, and DJ Hollywood used the term when the music was known as disco rap. Cowboy later worked the hip hop cadence into a part of his stage performance, the first use of the term in print was in The Village Voice, by Steven Hager, later author of a 1984 history of hip hop
4.
Funk
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Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid- 1960s when African American musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of soul music, jazz, and rhythm and blues. Like much of African-inspired music, funk typically consists of a groove with rhythm instruments playing interlocking grooves. Funk uses the same richly-colored extended chords found in jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths. Other musical groups, including Sly and the Family Stone and Parliament-Funkadelic, soon began to adopt, Funk samples have been used extensively in genres including hip hop, house music, and drum and bass. It is also the influence of go-go, a subgenre associated with funk. The word funk initially referred to a strong odor and it is originally derived from Latin fumigare via Old French fungiere and, in this sense, it was first documented in English in 1620. In 1784 funky meaning musty was first documented, which, in turn, in early jam sessions, musicians would encourage one another to get down by telling one another, Now, put some stank on it. At least as early as 1907, jazz songs carried titles such as Funky, as late as the 1950s and early 1960s, when funk and funky were used increasingly in the context of jazz music, the terms still were considered indelicate and inappropriate for use in polite company. According to one source, New Orleans-born drummer Earl Palmer was the first to use the word funky to explain to other musicians that their music should be made more syncopated, the style later evolved into a rather hard-driving, insistent rhythm, implying a more carnal quality. This early form of the set the pattern for later musicians. The music was identified as slow, sexy, loose, riff-oriented, a great deal of funk is rhythmically based on a two-celled onbeat/offbeat structure, which originated in sub-Saharan African music traditions. New Orleans appropriated the bifurcated structure from the Afro-Cuban mambo and conga in the late 1940s, New Orleans funk, as it was called, gained international acclaim largely because James Browns rhythm section used it to great effect. Funk creates an intense groove by using strong guitar riffs and bass lines, like Motown recordings, funk songs used bass lines as the centerpiece of songs. Slap basss mixture of thumb-slapped low notes and finger popped high notes allowed the bass to have a rhythmic role. In funk bands, guitarists typically play in a style, often using the wah-wah sound effect. Guitarist Ernie Isley of The Isley Brothers and Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic were notably influenced by Jimi Hendrixs improvised solos, Eddie Hazel, who worked with George Clinton, is one of the most notable guitar soloists in funk. Ernie Isley was tutored at an age by Jimi Hendrix himself. Jimmy Nolen and Phelps Collins are famous funk rhythm guitarists who both worked with James Brown, on Browns Give It Up or Turnit a Loose, Jimmy Nolens guitar part has a bare bones tonal structure
5.
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
6.
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
7.
Metacritic
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Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of media products, music albums, games, movies, TV shows, DVDs, and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged, Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc Doyle, and Julie Doyle Roberts. The site provides an excerpt from each review and hyperlinks to its source, a color of Green, Yellow or Red summarizes the critics recommendations and therefore the general appeal of the product to reviewers and, to a lesser extent, the public. It is regarded as the game industrys foremost review aggregator. Metacritics scoring converts each review into a percentage, either mathematically from the mark given, before being averaged, the scores are weighted according to the critics fame, stature, and volume of reviews. Metacritic was launched in July 1999 by Marc Doyle, his sister Julie Doyle Roberts, rotten Tomatoes was already compiling movie reviews, but Doyle, Roberts, and Dietz saw an opportunity to cover a broader range of media. They sold Metacritic to CNET in 2005, CNET and Metacritic are now owned by the CBS Corporation. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal wrote in September 2004, Mr. Doyle,36, is now a product manager at CNET. Speaking of video games, Doyle said, A site like ours helps people cut through. unobjective promotional language and he added that the review process was not taken as seriously when unconnected magazines and websites provided reviews in isolation. In August 2010, the appearance was revamped, reaction from users was overwhelmingly negative. Certain publications are given more significance because of their stature, games Editor Marc Doyle was interviewed by Keith Stuart of The Guardian to get a look behind the metascoring process. Stuart wrote, the phenomenon, namely Metacritic and GameRankings, have become an enormously important element of online games journalism over the past few years. The ranging of metascores is, Metacritic is regarded as the foremost online review site for the video game industry. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal has written that Metacritic influence the sales of games and he explains its influence as coming from the higher cost of buying video games than music or movie tickets. Many executives say that low scores can hurt the sales potential. He claimed that a number of businesses and financial analysts use Metacritic as an early indicator of a games potential sales and, by extension. In 2004, Jason Hall of Warner Bros. began including quality metrics in contracts with partners licensing its movies for games, if a product does not at least achieve a specific score, some deals require the publisher to pay higher royalties. In 2008, Microsoft began using Metacritic averages to de-list underperforming Xbox Live Arcade games and these are the top 10 individual games with the highest scores on the site as of 2 April 2017
8.
AllMusic
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AllMusic is an online music guide service website. It was launched in 1991 by All Media Guide which later became All Media Network, AllMusic was launched in 1991 by Michael Erlewine of All Media Guide. The aim was to discographic information on every artist whos made a record since Enrico Caruso gave the industry its first big boost and its first reference book was published the following year. When first released onto the Internet, AMG predated the World Wide Web and was first available as a Gopher site, the AMG consumer web properties AllMusic. com, AllMovie. com and AllGame. com were sold by Rovi in July 2013 to All Media Network, LLC. All Media Network, LLC. was formed by the founders of SideReel. com. The following are contributors to AllMusic, as of this date, All Media Network also produced the AllMusic guide series that includes the AllMusic Guide to Rock, the All Music Guide to Jazz and the All Music Guide to the Blues. Vladimir Bogdanov is the president of the series, in August 2007, PC Magazine included AllMusic in its Top 100 Classic Websites list. All Media Network AllGame AllMovie SideReel All Music Guide to the Blues All Music Guide to Jazz Stephen Thomas Erlewine Official website
9.
The A.V. Club
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Club was initially created in 1993 as a supplemental part of The Onion and had a minimal presence on The Onion’s website in its early years. However, a 2005 website redesign placed The A. V, Club in a more prominent position, allowing its online identity to grow. Unlike its parent publication, The A. V, the publication’s name is a reference to school audiovisual clubs, composed of a bunch of geeks who actually knew how to run the film strip and film projectors. In 1993, five years after the founding of The Onion at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, UWM student Stephen Thompson launched an entertainment section, Club, as part of the newspapers 1995 redesign. Both The Onion and The A. V, Club made their Internet debut in 1996. Club acquired its own Internet domain name in December 1999, in December 2004, Stephen Thompson left his position as founding editor of The A. V. Club website was redesigned in 2005 to incorporate blogs and reader comments, in 2006, concurrent with another redesign, the website shifted its model to begin adding content on a daily, rather than weekly, basis. According to Sean Mills, then-president of The Onion, the A. V, Club website received more than 1 million unique visitors for the first time in October 2007. In late 2009, the website was reported as receiving over 1.4 million unique visitors and 75,000 comments per month, the offending review was removed from The A. V. Club, and then-editor Keith Phipps posted an apology on the website, leonard Pierce, the author of the review, was terminated from his freelance role with the website. At its peak, the print version of The A. V, Club was available in 17 different cities. Localized sections of the website were also maintained, with reviews and news relevant to specific cities, the print version and localized websites were gradually discontinued alongside the print version of The Onion, and in December 2013, publication ceased in the final three markets. On 13 December,2012, long-time writer and editor Keith Phipps and he stated, Onion, Inc. and I have come to a mutual parting of the ways. On 2 April,2013, longtime editor and critic Scott Tobias stepped down from his role as film editor of The A. V. Club stating via Twitter, After 15 great years @theavclub, I step down as Film Editor next Friday. In the comments section of the announcing the departures, writer Noel Murray announced he would also be joining their project. On 30 May,2013, it was announced that the six writers would be a part of the staff of The Dissolve. In April and June 2014, senior staff writers Kyle Ryan, Sonia Saraiya and Todd VanDerWerff left the website for positions at Entertainment Weekly, Salon and Vox Media, in 2015, Ryan returned to Onion, Inc. for a position in development
10.
Pitchfork (website)
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Pitchfork is an American online magazine launched in 1995 by Ryan Schreiber, based in Chicago, Illinois and owned by Condé Nast. The site generally concentrates on new music, but Pitchfork journalists have also reviewed reissues, in late 1995, Ryan Schreiber, a recent high school graduate, created the magazine in Minneapolis. Influenced by local fanzines and KUOM, Schreiber, who had no writing experience. At first being Turntable, the site was updated monthly with interviews and reviews, in May 1996, the site began publishing daily and was renamed Pitchfork, alluding to Tony Montanas tattoo in Scarface. In early 1999, Schreiber relocated Pitchfork to Chicago, Illinois, by then, the site had expanded to four full-length album reviews daily, as well as sporadic interviews, features, and columns. It had also begun garnering a following for its coverage of underground music and its writing style. In October, the added a daily music news section. Pitchfork has launched a variety of subsidiary websites, Pitchfork. tv, a website displaying videos related to many independent music acts, launched in April 2008. It features bands that are found on Pitchfork. In July 2010, Pitchfork announced Altered Zones, a blog devoted to underground. On 21 May 2011, Pitchfork announced a partnership with Kill Screen, Altered Zones was closed on November 30. On December 26,2012, Pitchfork launched Nothing Major, a website that covered visual arts such as fine art, Nothing Major closed in October 2013. On October 13,2015, Condé Nast announced that it had acquired Pitchfork, following the sale, Schreiber remained as editor-in-chief. On March 13,2016, Pitchfork was redesigned, some publications have cited Pitchfork in having played a part in breaking artists such as Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Interpol, The Go. Conversely, Pitchfork has also seen as being a negative influence on some indie artists. A dismissive 0.0 review of former Dismemberment Plan frontman Travis Morrisons Travistan album led to a sales drop. On the other hand, an endorsement from Pitchfork – which dispenses its approval one-tenth of a point at a time, up to a maximum of 10 points – is very valuable, indeed. Examples of Pitchforks impact include, Arcade Fire is among the bands most commonly cited to have benefited from a Pitchfork review
11.
PopMatters
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PopMatters is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters was founded by Sarah Zupko, who had established the cultural studies academic resource site PopCultures. PopMatters launched in the fall of 1999 as a site providing original essays, reviews. Over time, the site went from a publication schedule to a five-day-a-week magazine format, expanding into regular reviews, features. In the fall of 2005, monthly readership exceeded one million, from 2006 onward, PopMatters produced several syndicated newspaper columns for McClatchy-Tribune News Service. As of 2009, there are four different pop culture related columns each week, the PopMatters Book Imprint published Joss Whedon, The Complete Companion, edited by Mary Money, with Titan Books in May 2012. PopMatters publishes content from contributors located around the globe, based in six continents and its staff includes writers from various backgrounds, ranging from academics and professional journalists to career professionals and first time writers. Many of its writers are published authorities in various fields of study, notable former contributors include David Weigel, political reporter for Slate, Steven Hyden, staff writer for Grantland and author of Whatever Happened To Alternative Nation. And Rob Horning, executive editor of The New Inquiry, karen Zarker is the senior editor
12.
Robert Christgau
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Robert Thomas Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed Dean of American Rock Critics. One of the earliest professional rock critics, he spent 37 years as the music critic and senior editor for The Village Voice. He has also covered popular music for Esquire, Creem, Newsday, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Billboard, NPR, Blender, and MSN Music, and is a visiting arts teacher at New York University. Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, first published in his Consumer Guide columns during his tenure at The Village Voice from 1969 to 2006 and he has written three books based on those columns, along with two collections of essays. He continued writing capsule reviews in MSN Music, Cuepoint, Christgau was born in Greenwich Village and grew up in Queens, the son of a fireman. He has said he became a rock and roll fan when disc jockey Alan Freed moved to the city in 1954. After attending a school in New York City, he left New York for four years to attend Dartmouth College. While at college his musical interests turned to jazz, but he returned to rock after moving back to New York. Christgau has said that Miles Davis 1960 album Sketches of Spain initiated in him one phase of the disillusionment with jazz that resulted in my return to rock and he was deeply influenced by New Journalism writers such as Gay Talese and Tom Wolfe. My ambitions when I went into journalism were always, to an extent, literary, Christgau initially wrote short stories, before giving up fiction in 1964 to become a sportswriter, and later, a police reporter for the Newark Star-Ledger. He became a writer after a story he wrote about the death of a woman in New Jersey was published by New York magazine. He was asked to take over the dormant music column at Esquire, after Esquire discontinued the column, Christgau moved to The Village Voice in 1969, and he also worked as a college professor. In early 1972, he accepted a job as music critic for Newsday. Christgau returned to the Village Voice in 1974 as music editor and he remained there until August 2006, when he was fired shortly after the papers acquisition by New Times Media. Two months later, Christgau became an editor at Rolling Stone. Late in 2007, Christgau was fired by Rolling Stone, although he continued to work for the magazine for three months. Starting with the March 2008 issue, he joined Blender, where he was listed as senior critic for three issues and then contributing editor, Christgau had been a regular contributor to Blender before he joined Rolling Stone. He continued to write for Blender until the magazine ceased publication in March 2009, in 1987, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in the field of Folklore and Popular Culture to study the history of popular music
13.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
14.
Billboard 200
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The Billboard 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists, often, a recording act will be remembered by its number ones, those of their albums that outperformed all others during at least one week. The chart is based mostly on sales of albums in the United States, the weekly sales period was originally Monday to Sunday when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but since July 2015, tracking week begins on Friday and ends on Thursday. A new chart is published the following Tuesday with an issue post-dated to the Saturday of the following week, the charts streaming schedule is also tracked from Friday to Thursday. Example, Friday January 1 – sales tracking week begins Thursday January 7 – sales tracking week ends Tuesday January 12 – new chart published, New product is released to the American market on Fridays. Digital downloads of albums are included in Billboard 200 tabulation. Albums that are not licensed for sale in the United States are not eligible to chart. As of the issue dated April 15,2017, the album on the Billboard 200 is More Life by Drake. Billboard began an album chart in 1945, initially only five positions long, the album chart was not published on a weekly basis, sometimes three to seven weeks passing before it was updated. A biweekly, 15-position Best-Selling Popular Albums chart appeared in 1955, the position count varied anywhere from 10 to 30 albums. The first number-one album on the new weekly list was Belafonte by Harry Belafonte, the chart was renamed to Best-Selling Pop Albums later in 1956, and then to Best-Selling Pop LPs in 1957. Beginning on May 25,1959, Billboard split the ranking into two charts Best-Selling Stereophonic LPs for stereo albums and Best-Selling Monophonic LPs for mono albums and these were renamed to Stereo Action Charts and Mono Action Charts in 1960. In January 1961, they became Action Albums—Stereophonic and Action Albums—Monophonic, three months later, they became Top LPs—Stereo and Top LPs—Monaural. On August 17,1963 the stereo and mono charts were combined into a 150-position chart called Top LPs, on April 1,1967, the chart was expanded to 175 positions, then finally to 200 positions on May 13,1967. In 1960, Billboard began concurrently publishing album charts which ranked sales of older or mid-priced titles and these Essential Inventory charts were divided by stereo and mono albums, and featured titles that had already appeared on the main stereo and mono album charts. In January 1961, the Action Charts became Action Albums—Monophonic, Albums appeared on either chart for up to nine weeks, then were moved to an Essential Inventory list of approximately 200 titles, with no numerical ranking. This list continued to be published until the consolidated Top LPs chart debuted in 1963, in 1982, Billboard began publishing a Midline Albums chart which ranked older or mid-priced titles. The chart held 50 positions and was published on a bi-weekly basis, on May 25,1991, Billboard premiered the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart
15.
Ladybug Mecca
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Digable Planets was an American alternative hip hop trio formed in 1987, in Brooklyn, New York. The trio is composed of rappers Ishmael Butterfly Butler, Mary Ann Ladybug Mecca Vieira, Butler and Irving met in Philadelphia in the late 1980s, Vieira and Irving had been a couple while attending Howard University. The initial demos recorded under the name Digable Planets featured only Butler, after a brief stint with two other members, Butler began collaborating with Irving and Vieira in 1989. The group signed to Pendulum Records in 1992 and all three members moved to New York, where Butler and Irving became roommates. Their debut album Reachin was released in 1993 and certified gold by the RIAA, the track peaked at #67 in the UK Singles Chart in February 1995. The groups second album Blowout Comb was released in 1994, the album was noted by critics as a stark departure from the previous album, being darker, less hook-oriented and more overtly political in its references to Black Panther and Communist imagery. Writing for Spin in December 1994, Craig Marks declared it, a beguiling, demanding, damn near revolutionary follow-up. Blowout Comb features guest appearances from artists Jeru the Damaja, Sulaiman, in the same year the group appeared on the Red Hot Organizations compilation album, Stolen Moments, Red Hot + Cool. The album, meant to raise awareness and funds in support of the AIDS epidemic in relation to the African American community, was heralded as Album of the Year by Time magazine, the band subsequently disbanded in early 1995 citing creative differences. From 2009 to 2011, Butler and Irving toured across the U. S. Canada, and Europe with a live band, support acts included Camp Lo and Butlers Shabazz Palaces. The group performed at Numbers, in Houston, Texas, on May 15,2010, the group also performed alongside hip-hop group The Pharcyde at the North by Northeast music festival in Toronto, Ontario on June 19,2011. A reunion show scheduled for December 2012 in Seattle, Washington was cancelled days before the performance, when asked in a subsequent interview about the groups status, Butler stated I think its the end. Despite Butlers previous statement, it was announced in October 2015 that the trio would reunite for a concert at Seattles Neptune Theatre on December 30 alongside Shabazz Palaces. Digable Planets held a tour during spring and summer 2016. Butler released Bright Black under the moniker Cherrywine in 2003 before going on to collaborate with multi-instrumentalist Tendai Baba Maraire as Shabazz Palaces, in 2009 the duo self-released two EPs, Shabazz Palaces and Of Light before becoming the first Hip-hop act to be signed to Sub Pop Records. Their debut LP Black Up was released in 2011 followed by Lese Majesty in 2014, Butler has also been signed to Sub Pops A&R division and is helping the label build its repertoire of artists that are imaginative and daring. Butler and Maraire later collaborated with Hussein Kalonji as Chimurenga Renaissance to release riZe vadZimu riZe in March 2014 on Brick Lane Records. Irving, also known as Cee Knowledge, tours with Cee Knowledge & the Cosmic Funk Orchestra and has released two albums in limited edition on FarmHouse Records, Vieira, also known as Lady Mecca, released Trip The Light Fantastic in 2005
16.
CBS Interactive
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CBS Interactive Inc. is an American media company and is a division of the CBS Corporation. It is a content network for information and entertainment. Its websites cover news, sports, entertainment, technology and business and it is headed by Jim Lanzone. On May 30,2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last. fm for £140 million, on June 30,2008, CNET Networks was acquired by CBS and the assets were merged into CBS Interactive, including Metacritic, GameSpot, TV. com, and Movietome. In April 2014, CBS Interactive quietly acquired a site Modern Auto Reviews to roll its extensive user database and it was never disclosed how much CBS Interactive paid for the acquisition but it likely to be in the 10-15 million dollar range. CBS Interactives entertainment brands are CBS, CBS Interactives music brands are Last. fm, the music discovery service and listening service, and MetroLyrics, lyrics, videos and news for music. CBS Interactives sports brands are CBSSports. com, the home of CBS Sports, with news, scores, video. BNET, founded in 2007, was a magazine dedicated to issues of business management. It merged into CBS MoneyWatch in June 2008 to become the anchor to CBS business-related content
17.
Wax Poetics
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Since the first issue of Wax Poetics was published in December 2001, the magazine has expanded its operations to include apparel sales, a record label, and book publishing imprint. In November 2008, Wax Poetics, Inc. unveiled Wax Poetics Japan and he scrapped the documentary and, instead, decided to start his own quarterly to fill what he perceived to be gaps in the landscape of contemporary music magazines. No one was even touching jazz, soul, funk, or anything like that, what I was trying to do was essentially look at hip-hop through that lens. Torres enlisted the help of Brian DiGenti, a friend with editorial experience as a freelance writer. Both Torres and DiGenti had graduated from the University of Florida in 1995—Torres with a degree in painting, although they had met at school, they didnt begin to develop a friendship until they had both moved to New York City in the late 1990s. There, they often made beats and went mining for vinyl together, further cultivating a common fascination with the crate-digging lifestyle, DiGenti had moved to California about a year before Torres called about the start-up, but agreed to co-found the publication across the country. For a year, DiGenti and Creative Director Kevin DeBernardi, then a partner in the fledgling quarterly, collaborated to create a mock-up of Wax Poetics. In December 2001, Torres, DiGenti, and DeBernardi independently published the first issue, which cost $6 USD and featured stories on Bobbito, Scotty Hard, Idris Muhammad, Charles Mingus, the magazine continues to be independently published. Starting with Issue 2, Torres began to incorporate a one-page editors letter to preface the magazines content, with Issue 15, published in February 2006, Wax Poetics transitioned from a quarterly to bimonthly magazine. As of September 2011, forty-eight issues of the magazine have been published, in terms of physical size, the magazine is a 7x10-inch publication in the vein of National Geographic. It has grown from 81 pages in its first issue to 130 pages on average, aside from regular contributions from editors, the magazine has no staff writers and relies exclusively on freelance work. According to a 2009 press manual released by Wax Poetics, Inc. readership has grown exponentially. Today, there are approximately three readers to each issue, making for an audience of 232,200. About 92% of Wax Poetics readership lies within the United States, ninety-seven percent of readers claim to collect their issues, according to a Wax Poetics reader survey conducted in June 2008. Torres manifesto was not only to shed light on funk, soul, and jazz and we dibble-dabble in the new and the old, Torres told Current TV. Young people come to this music, its through hip-hop. Its hearing someone sample something and saying, Oh, yo and you use hip-hop to travel back and pick up on everything thats happened before. Since Issue 4, every issue of the features a re, Discovery
18.
HipHopDX
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HipHopDX is an online magazine of hip hop music criticism and news. The websites current president and publisher is Sharath Cherian and the editor-in-chief is Trent Clark, HipHopDX is the flagship publication of Cheri Media Group. HipHopDX was nominated for Best Hip Hop Online Site at the 2012 BET Hip Hop Awards, on September 3,2013, The Source named HipHopDX, number three on their 2013 Digital Power 30 list, which ranks websites that are the most popular in the hip hop industry
19.
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
20.
Discogs
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Discogs, short for discographies, is a website and crowdsourced database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs. com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc. and are located in Portland, Oregon, US. While the site lists releases in all genres and on all formats, it is known as the largest online database of electronic music releases. Discogs currently contains over 8 million releases, by nearly 4 and he was inspired by the success of community-built sites such as Slashdot, eBay, and Open Directory Project, and decided to use this model for a music discography database. The sites original goal was to build the most comprehensive database of music, organized around the artists, labels. In 2003 the Discogs system was rewritten, and in January 2004 it began to support other genres. Since then, it has expanded to include rock and jazz in January 2005 and funk/soul, Latin, in January 2006 blues and non-music were added. On 30 June 2004, Discogs published a report, which included information about the number of its contributors and this report claimed that Discogs had 15,788 contributors and 260,789 releases. On 20 July 2007 a new system for sellers was introduced on the site called Market Price History. However, at the beginning of 2008, the Market Price History was also free of charge for all users. In late 2014, the company released two new beta websites, gearogs lets users add and track music equipment like synths, drum machines, and other electronic music making equipment. At the start of 2015, the company began another beta project — Bibliogs, users can submit information about their books, physical or electronic, different versions and editions, and also connect different credits to these books. 21,000 books were submitted by the end of 2016, the project remains in its beta phase. The license has since changed to a public domain one. Prior to the advent of this license and API, Discogs data was only accessible via the Discogs web sites HTML interface and was intended to be viewed only using web browsers, the HTML interface remains the only authorized way to modify Discogs data. On 7 June 2011 version 2 of the API was released, notable in this release was that a license key was no longer required, the default response was changed from XML to JSON, and the 5000 queries per day limit was removed. On 1 November 2011 a major update to version 2 of the API was released and this new release dropped support for XML, data is always returned in JSON format, however the monthly data dumps of new data are only provided in XML format. Additionally the Premium API service was dropped, on 24 June 2014 Discogs deprecated their XML API in lieu of a JSON-formatted API
21.
No Need for Alarm
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No Need for Alarm is the second studio album by hip hop artist Del the Funky Homosapien. It was released on November 23,1993 on Elektra Records and it was a complete departure from his G-Funk influenced first album and without the assistance of his older cousin, Ice Cube. Primarily produced by Del and the rest of his hip hop collective Hieroglyphics, no Need For Alarm would be one of three classic Hiero Golden Age albums the collective would release to critical acclaim. No Need for Alarm on Discogs
22.
Future Development
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Future Development is the third studio album by Del the Funky Homosapien under the Hieroglyphics Imperium Recordings label. Its 1997 release was only on the Hieroglyphics website and as a cassette in Japan and it was rereleased in America as a CD in 2002. It was still able to achieve decent success, selling over 400,000 copies worldwide, all tracks written and produced by Del the Funky Homosapien, except where noted. Lyric Lickin -4,49 Stress The World -4,44 Why Ya Want to Get Funkee. com Future Development at Discogs
23.
Eleventh Hour (Del the Funky Homosapien album)
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Eleventh Hour is the fifth studio album by American hip hop artist Del the Funky Homosapien. It was announced and partially recorded in 2004, but didnt come out until March 11,2008 and it is Dels first solo album in eight years, following his 2000 album Both Sides of the Brain. The album is produced by Del himself with additional production from Opio, KU, the album debuted at number 122 on the U. S. Billboard 200 chart, selling 5,810 copies in its first week
24.
Hieroglyphics (group)
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Hieroglyphics, also known as the Hieroglyphics Crew and Hiero, is an American underground hip hop collective based in Oakland, California. The collective was founded in the early-1990s by rapper Del the Funky Homosapien, Hieroglyphics combine fundamental sound deliveries and lyrical content with original and sometimes jazzy or funky beats and samples. Since their inception, Hieroglyphics have found a following largely through their concerts, podcasts. The collective uses a three-eyed, straight-lipped face logo that figures prominently on their albums, website, stickers, as a collective, the Hieroglyphics have released three studio albums, 3rd Eye Vision in 1998, Full Circle in 2003, and The Kitchen in 2013. In 2005, the released a live DVD and accompanying CD of the Hieros 2003 Full Circle Tour. The collective has also released five albums, Hieroglyphics B-Sides and Hieroglyphics Oldies. I in 1997, Hieroglyphics Oldies, Vol. II in 1998, The Building in 2004, The Corner in 2005, individual members of the collective have also released albums of their own, either through solo projects or outside group projects. The collectives ubiquitous, third eye logo is the Mayan numerical for 8, also used as a symbol for infinite
25.
Gorillaz
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Gorillaz are a British virtual band created in 1998 by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. The band consists of four animated members, 2D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle and these members are fictional and are not personas of any real life musicians involved in the project. Their fictional universe is explored through the website and music videos, as well as a number of other media. In reality, Albarn is the only permanent musical contributor, writers and critics have described their music as alternative rock, Britpop, trip hop, hip hop, electronica, indie, dub, reggae and pop. The bands 2001 debut album Gorillaz sold over seven million copies and it was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2001, but the nomination was later withdrawn at the bands request. Their second studio album Demon Days went five times platinum in the UK, the band has won other awards, including one Grammy Award, two MTV Video Music Awards, an NME Award, three MTV Europe Music Awards, and have been nominated for nine Brit Awards. The bands third album, Plastic Beach, was released in March 2010. Their fourth studio album called The Fall was released in December 2010 as a download for fan club members. After a five-year hiatus, Gorillaz announced their fifth studio album Humanz, musician Damon Albarn and comic book artist Jamie Hewlett met in 1990 when guitarist Graham Coxon, a fan of Hewletts work, asked him to interview Blur, a band Albarn and Coxon had recently formed. The interview was published in Deadline magazine, home of Hewletts comic strip, Hewlett initially thought Albarn was arsey, a wanker, despite becoming acquaintances with the band, they often did not get on, especially after Hewlett began seeing Coxons ex-girlfriend Jane Olliver. Despite this, Albarn and Hewlett started sharing a flat on Westbourne Grove in London in 1997, Hewlett had recently broken up with Olliver and Albarn was at the end of his highly publicised relationship with Justine Frischmann of Elastica. The idea to create Gorillaz came about when Albarn and Hewlett were watching MTV, Hewlett said, If you watch MTV for too long, its a bit like hell – theres nothing of substance there. So we got this idea for a band, something that would be a comment on that. Although not released under the Gorillaz name, Albarn has said one of the first ever Gorillaz tunes was Blurs 1997 single On Your Own. The bands first release was the EP Tomorrow Comes Today, released in 2000, the bands first single was Clint Eastwood and was released on 5 March 2001, reaching No.4 in the UK. The Phi Life Cypher version of Clint Eastwood appears on the B-side album G Sides, Later that same month, their first full-length album, the self-titled Gorillaz, was released, producing four singles, Clint Eastwood, 19-2000, Tomorrow Comes Today, and Rock the House. In June 2001, 19–2000 charted at No.6 in the UK, the end of the year brought the song 911, a collaboration between Gorillaz and hip hop group D12 and Terry Hall about the September 11 attacks. Gorillaz performed at the 2002 Brit Awards in London on 22 February, the band was nominated for four Brit Awards, including Best British Group, Best British Album and Best British Newcomer, but did not win any awards
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