1.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer of novels, short stories, and nonfiction. In 2008 she was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant, Adichie, who was born in the city of Enugu, grew up the fifth of six children in an Igbo family in the university town of Nsukka. Nsukka is in Enugu State, southeast Nigeria, where the University of Nigeria is situated. While she was growing up, her father, James Nwoye Adichie, was a professor of statistics at the university and her familys ancestral village is in Abba in Anambra State. Adichie studied medicine and pharmacy at the University of Nigeria for a year, during this period, she edited The Compass, a magazine run by the universitys Catholic medical students. At the age of 19, Adichie left Nigeria for the United States to study communications and she soon transferred to Eastern Connecticut State University to be near her sister, who had a medical practice in Coventry. She received a degree from Eastern, with the distinction of summa cum laude in 2001. In 2003, she completed a degree in creative writing at Johns Hopkins University. In 2008, she received a Master of Arts degree in African studies from Yale University, Adichie was a Hodder fellow at Princeton University during the 2005–06 academic year. In 2008 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and she was also awarded a 2011–12 fellowship by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University. Adichie divides her time between Nigeria, where she teaches writing workshops, and the United States, in 2016 she was conferred an honorary degree - Doctor of Humane letters, honoris causa, by Johns Hopkins University. In a 2 July 2016 interview with the Financial Times she said that she had a baby daughter, Adichie published a collection of poems in 1997 and a play in 1998. She was shortlisted in 2002 for the Caine Prize for her short story You in America, in 2003, her story That Harmattan Morning was selected as a joint winner of the BBC Short Story Awards, and she won the O. Henry prize for The American Embassy. She also won the David T. Wong International Short Story Prize 2002/2003 and her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, received wide critical acclaim, it was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction and was awarded the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book. Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, named after the flag of the nation of Biafra, is set before. It received the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and her third book, The Thing Around Your Neck, is a collection of 12 stories that explore the relationships between men and women, parents and children, Africa and the United States. In 2010 she was listed among the authors of The New Yorker′s 20 Under 40 Fiction Issue, Adichies story Ceiling, was included in the 2011 edition of The Best American Short Stories. Her third novel, Americanah, an exploration of a young Nigerian encountering race in America, was selected by the New York Times as one of The 10 Best Books of 2013
2.
Parkwood Entertainment
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Parkwood Entertainment is an American entertainment and management company founded by American singer Beyoncé in 2007. It is located in Los Angeles and its involvements include products for music production, motion pictures, the companys first release was the film Cadillac Records. In October 2014, Beyoncé, with Parkwood Entertainment formed a collaboration with British-based fashion company Topshop. Parkwood Entertainment was founded in 2007 by American singer, actress, producer, the company is named after a street in Houston, Texas where Beyoncé once lived. With headquarters in New York City, the company serves as an umbrella for the various brands in music, movies, videos. The staff of Parkwood Entertainment have experiences in arts and entertainment, from filmmaking and video production to web, Parkwood Entertainments first production was the musical biopic Cadillac Records, in which Beyoncé starred and co-produced. In 2009, she starred in and executive produced the thriller Obsessed, in October 2014, Beyoncé with Parkwood Entertainment formed a large collaboration with Topshop, creating the subsidiary Parkwood Topshop Athletic Ltd, to produce an athletic, streetwear brand. The company and collaboration is a 50/50 split, with parent companies owning half of this new division. Beyoncé commented on the collaboration stating I could not think of a partner as I continue to grow the Parkwood business. In 2015, Parkwood expanded into managing the careers of upcoming artists and signed Chloe x Halle, Sophie Beem, in 2016, the general manager of Parkwood, and head of digital left the company after plans were announced to move the headquarters from New York to Los Angeles. Steve Pamon, from JP Morgan Chase took office as the COO of the company as well, Cadillac Records, with Sony Music Film Obsessed I Am
3.
Columbia Records
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Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. the United States division of Sony Corporation. It was founded in 1887, evolving from an enterprise named the American Graphophone Company. Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the sound business. Columbia Records went on to release records by an array of singers, instrumentalists. It is one of Sony Musics three flagship record labels alongside RCA Records and Epic Records, rather, as above, it was connected to CBS, a broadcasting media company which had purchased the company in 1938, and had been co-founded in 1927 by Columbia Records itself. Though Arista Records was sold to Bertelsmann Music Group, it would become a sister label of Columbia Records through its mutual connection to Sony Music. The Columbia Phonograph Company was founded in 1887 by stenographer, lawyer and New Jersey native Edward Easton and it derived its name from the District of Columbia, where it was headquartered. At first it had a monopoly on sales and service of Edison phonographs and phonograph cylinders in Washington. As was the custom of some of the regional companies, Columbia produced many commercial cylinder recordings of its own. Columbias ties to Edison and the North American Phonograph Company were severed in 1894 with the North American Phonograph Companys breakup, thereafter it sold only records and phonographs of its own manufacture. In 1902, Columbia introduced the XP record, a brown wax record. According to Gracyk, the molded brown waxes may have sold to Sears for distribution. Columbia began selling records and phonographs in addition to the cylinder system in 1901, preceded only by their Toy Graphophone of 1899. For a decade, Columbia competed with both the Edison Phonograph Company cylinders and the Victor Talking Machine Company disc records as one of the top three names in American recorded sound. In order to add prestige to its catalog of artists. The firm also introduced the internal-horn Grafonola to compete with the extremely popular Victrola sold by the rival Victor Talking Machine Company, during this era, Columbia used the famous Magic Notes logo—a pair of sixteenth notes in a circle—both in the United States and overseas. Columbia was split into two companies, one to make records and one to make players, Columbia Phonograph was moved to Connecticut, and Ed Easton went with it. Eventually it was renamed the Dictaphone Corporation, in late 1923, Columbia went into receivership
4.
Songwriter
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A songwriter is an individual who writes the lyrics, melodies and chord progressions for songs, typically for a popular music genre such as rock or country music. A songwriter can also be called a composer, although the term tends to be used mainly for individuals from the classical music genre. The pressure from the industry to produce popular hits means that songwriting is often an activity for which the tasks are distributed between a number of people. For example, a songwriter who excels at writing lyrics might be paired with a songwriter with a gift for creating original melodies, pop songs may be written by group members from the band or by staff writers – songwriters directly employed by music publishers. Some songwriters serve as their own publishers, while others have outside publishers. The old-style apprenticeship approach to learning how to write songs is being supplemented by university degrees and college diplomas, a knowledge of modern music technology, songwriting elements and business skills are necessary requirements to make a songwriting career in the 2010s. Several music colleges offer songwriting diplomas and degrees with music business modules, the legal power to grant these permissions may be bought, sold or transferred. This is governed by international copyright law, song pitching can be done on a songwriters behalf by their publisher or independently using tip sheets like RowFax, the MusicRow publication and SongQuarters. Skills associated with song-writing include entrepreneurism and creativity, songwriters who sign an exclusive songwriting agreement with a publisher are called staff writers. In the Nashville country music scene, there is a staff writer culture where contracted writers work normal 9-to-5 hours at the publishing office and are paid a regular salary. This salary is in effect the writers draw, an advance on future earnings, the publisher owns the copyright of songs written during the term of the agreement for a designated period, after which the songwriter can reclaim the copyright. In an interview with HitQuarters, songwriter Dave Berg extolled the benefits of the set-up, unlike contracted writers, some staff writers operate as employees for their respective publishers. Under the terms of work for hire agreements, the compositions created are fully owned by the publisher. In Nashville, young writers are often encouraged to avoid these types of contracts. Staff writers are common across the industry, but without the more office-like working arrangements favored in Nashville. All the major publishers employ writers under contract, songwriter Allan Eshuijs described his staff writer contract at Universal Music Publishing as a starter deal. His success under the arrangement eventually allowed him to found his own publishing company, so that he could. keep as much as possible, songwriters are also often skilled musicians. In addition to selling their songs and musical concepts for other artists to sing, songwriters need to create a number of elements for a song
5.
The-Dream
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Terius Youngdell Nash, better known by his stage name The-Dream, is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. His co-writing credits include songs with Dear Jayne, Me Against the Music for Britney Spears, Umbrella for Rihanna, Single Ladies for Beyoncé and Baby for Justin Bieber. He released five albums between 2007 and 2013, Love Hate, Love vs. Money, Love King, Terius Nash,1977. Terius Nash was born in Rockingham, North Carolina and he moved with his mother to Atlanta when he was two years old. After first learning to play trumpet in school, Nash learned how to play the drums. His mother died in 1992 when Nash was fifteen years old and he states that the death of his mother gave him a soft spot for women, to which he credits his desire to write songs about female empowerment such as Rihannas Umbrella. He moved in with his grandfather, a mason who instilled a strong work ethic in young Nash. Of his grandfather, Nash recalls He came out of a bad time for blacks in the South, but even though we lived in the hood, we had a boat, some cars, so Ive always had a different outlook on life. Nash met R&B producer Laney Stewart in 2001 and Stewart helped him get a deal after Nash wrote Everything for B2Ks album Pandemonium. Under the pen name The-Dream, Nash began writing lyrics for popular artists. He co-wrote Britney Spears hit Me Against the Music from her album In the Zone, Umbrella was nominated for Song of the Year at the 2008 Grammy Awards. In 2007 Nash signed a contract with Def Jam Recordings. The album was produced by The-Dream, his production partner Tricky Stewart, and Los da Mystro, the album was written and recorded in eight days with twelve tracks making the final cut. com said that the singer had hit a home run. In June 2008, The-Dream was named Best New Artist at the BET Awards, on March 10,2009, The-Dream released his second album Love vs. Money. He re-teamed with Tricky Stewart, who produced most of the tracks on the album, the album featured Mariah Carey, Kanye West, and Lil Jon and featured the singled Rockin That Shit, Walkin on the Moon and Sweat It Out. During the making of Love King, he recorded a song with T-Pain, in January 2010, The-Dream officially stated he was finished recording the album and he called it the best of his three albums. The album was released on June 29,2010, before the albums release, The-Dream announced that Love King will be his last solo album. Once again produced by The-Dream, Christopher Tricky Stewart, and Los da Mystro, despite positive reviews from critics, the album was less commercially successful than Love vs. Money, and debuted at number four on the Billboard 200
6.
Chauncey Hollis
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Chauncey Hollis, Jr. better known by his stage name Hit-Boy is an American record producer and hip hop recording artist from Fontana, California. In May 2011, Hollis had signed a deal with Kanye Wests GOOD Music production wing, beats and left the label after his contract expired in June 2013. In December 2012, it was revealed he had signed a contract with Interscope Records. Hollis got his start on Myspace when he received a message from Polow Da Don stating simply Let’s get this paper, the California native is one of the founding members of the collective brand Surf Club. Surf Club has become a team to host a number of artists as well as songwriters, Surf Club originated in southern California. They got their start in the industry in 2007, after linking with Polow Da Dons Zone 4 and he began his work with Kanye West when he produced his GOOD Friday track, Christmas in Harlem, Big Sean, Pusha T, Musiq Soulchild and Cyhi Da Prynce. On June 7,2012, Hollis released his first official song in which he raps, the promotional single Jay-Z Interview, later in July 2012, Hollis was featured rapping on CyHi The Prynces mixtape Ivy League Club, on the song Entourage. Hollis then released the self-produced track Old School Caddy, which features fellow GOOD Music member Kid Cudi and these two tracks appeared on his first full-length project, a mixtape titled HITstory, which was released for free download on his official website. On December 23,2012, Hollis secured a contract with Interscope Records, under the record label Blueprint Group. Soon after, he tweeted,2012 has been great to me, excited to see what God has planned for 2013. On January 23,2013, it was announced that his record label Hits Since 87, is now an imprint of Interscope Records. On June 29,2013 he announced that he is no longer signed to GOOD Music, Hit-Boy is the nephew of Rodney Benford, from the R&B group Troop. Hit-Boy uses FL Studio and custom music plug-ins to make his beats, the BET Hip Hop Awards were established in 2006 by the Black Entertainment Television network to celebrate hip-hop performers, producers and music video directors. Hit-Boy Discography Complete Surf Club Discography
7.
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
8.
Hit-Boy
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Chauncey Hollis, Jr. better known by his stage name Hit-Boy is an American record producer and hip hop recording artist from Fontana, California. In May 2011, Hollis had signed a deal with Kanye Wests GOOD Music production wing, beats and left the label after his contract expired in June 2013. In December 2012, it was revealed he had signed a contract with Interscope Records. Hollis got his start on Myspace when he received a message from Polow Da Don stating simply Let’s get this paper, the California native is one of the founding members of the collective brand Surf Club. Surf Club has become a team to host a number of artists as well as songwriters, Surf Club originated in southern California. They got their start in the industry in 2007, after linking with Polow Da Dons Zone 4 and he began his work with Kanye West when he produced his GOOD Friday track, Christmas in Harlem, Big Sean, Pusha T, Musiq Soulchild and Cyhi Da Prynce. On June 7,2012, Hollis released his first official song in which he raps, the promotional single Jay-Z Interview, later in July 2012, Hollis was featured rapping on CyHi The Prynces mixtape Ivy League Club, on the song Entourage. Hollis then released the self-produced track Old School Caddy, which features fellow GOOD Music member Kid Cudi and these two tracks appeared on his first full-length project, a mixtape titled HITstory, which was released for free download on his official website. On December 23,2012, Hollis secured a contract with Interscope Records, under the record label Blueprint Group. Soon after, he tweeted,2012 has been great to me, excited to see what God has planned for 2013. On January 23,2013, it was announced that his record label Hits Since 87, is now an imprint of Interscope Records. On June 29,2013 he announced that he is no longer signed to GOOD Music, Hit-Boy is the nephew of Rodney Benford, from the R&B group Troop. Hit-Boy uses FL Studio and custom music plug-ins to make his beats, the BET Hip Hop Awards were established in 2006 by the Black Entertainment Television network to celebrate hip-hop performers, producers and music video directors. Hit-Boy Discography Complete Surf Club Discography
9.
Boots (musician)
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Jordan Asher, better known as Boots, is an American record producer, singer, rapper, songwriter and musician. He first gained recognition in 2013 for his significant contributions to American singer-songwriter Beyoncés critically acclaimed self-titled fifth studio album, Jordan Asher was a frontman of bands such as Blonds, Young Circles, Blond Fuzz and Stonefox. In June 2013, he was signed to rapper Jay-Zs entertainment company and Sony Music Entertainment imprint, Roc Nation, under the pseudonym Boots. In the same month, a film featuring music by Boots was released. With his contributions to Beyoncés self-titled fifth studio album, released in December 2013, Boots came onto the music scene largely unknown. Upon the release of Beyoncé, he updated his Facebook page, saying he had working on for most of the past year. Boots contributed additional production, background vocals and instruments to the albums first R&B/hip hop single, Drunk in Love, featuring Jay-Z. Beyoncé later referenced Boots work on the album, saying he is a new producer that completely respect, that he is an innovator, and she is so proud to work with him. In an interview with The New York Times, Boots would not speak of his previous projects or how Beyoncé found his demo, a last-ditch bout of songwriting yielded “Im On To You, ” a moody minor-key song with layers of eerie background voices and a particular rhythmic undertow. He saw it as a template for a solo album, “That song was my heart, ” he said. At his first meeting with Beyoncé, he had written songs he believed would resonate with her. Beyoncé refused to leave the song alone, saying to Boots, the song became Haunted, and the previous title Im On To You was instead recorded as a phrase in the songs refrain. Following an infuriating meeting with a label, Boots wrote the stream of consciousness rap from Ghost. She identified with its content as she had similar experiences from signing a contract at a young age. Boots made the song in a state, saying, I started with guitars. And then I completely contained them within the beat, on February 13,2014 Beyoncés official Facebook page shared a link to Boots personal website which contained an original composition titled Dust with an accompanying music video. The song was of the first to be released which featured Boots singing lead vocals, on March 11,2014 Boots released two more songs. One titled Howl as well as another titled Autumn which featured R&B artist Kelela, the release of Autumn included another music video, directed by Boots
10.
XO (song)
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XO is a song by American singer Beyoncé from her fifth studio album, Beyoncé. Columbia Records released the song as the contemporary hit radio single from the album in the US. Ryan Tedder co-wrote and co-produced XO with Terius The-Dream Nash and Beyoncé, with production handled by Chauncey Hit-Boy Hollis. A pure midtempo pop song, XO is complete with electronic musical instrumentation, synthesizers. Musically, it was compared to Beyoncés own song Halo and was noted for having several music hooks including its call and response chorus. The usage of a sample from Space Shuttle Challenger disaster at the beginning of the song was criticized by the families of the lost crew, NASA. Beyoncé released a statement saying that the song was intended to help people who have lost loved people in their lives, XO managed to appear on many music charts across Europe and Oceania and it peaked at number 45 on the US Billboard Hot 100. A music video for the directed by Terry Richardson was filmed in Coney Island in late August 2013. It was made available on iTunes with the release of the album on December 13,2013 and was released three days later. Beyoncé performed the song during the last stops of the North American leg of The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour in December 2013, to further promote XO, she performed it at the 2014 BRIT Awards and later at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards. Haim and John Mayer covered the song in 2014, with the latter releasing it as a single, XO was written by Beyoncé, Terius The-Dream Nash and Ryan Tedder while the production was helmed by the aforementioned group as well as Chauncey Hit-Boy Hollis and HazeBanga. Ramon Rivas engineered the song, with assistance from Justin Hergett, Beyoncés vocals were recorded by Stuart White and Bart Schoudel while all instrumentation and programming was carried out by Tedder. The song was mixed by Andrew Scheps. XO was recorded in four studios, Jungle City Studios and Oven Studios, I think its a bigger, better song. However, he acknowledged that he did not know when the singer planned to release new material for her fifth album, the previous month, it was reported by a source to the Daily News that Beyoncé planned to release a new single and video on December 3,2013. The publication further speculated that the single was expected to be the song music video was filmed in August of the same year – XO. The release of Blow was therefore scrapped and XO impacted contemporary hit radio in Italy and it was also sent to US mainstream, urban and rhythmic radio on December 17. XO is a pop love power ballad that bears resemblance to Beyoncés own 2008 song Halo
11.
TED (conference)
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TED is a media organization which posts talks online for free distribution, under the slogan ideas worth spreading. TED was founded in February 1984 as a conference, which has been held annually since 1990. TEDs early emphasis was technology and design, consistent with its Silicon Valley origins, but it has broadened its focus to include talks on many scientific, cultural. The main TED conference is held annually in Vancouver, British Columbia, prior to 2014, the conference was held in Long Beach. TED events are held throughout North America and in Europe and Asia. They address a range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture. The speakers are given a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most innovative, TEDs current curator is the British former computer journalist and magazine publisher Chris Anderson. Since June 2006, TED Talks have been offered for free viewing online, under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license, as of March 2016, over 2,400 TED Talks are freely available on the website. In June 2011, TED Talks combined viewing figure stood at more than 500 million, not all TED Talks are equally popular, however. Those given by academics tend to be watched more online while art, TED was conceived in 1984 by architect and graphic designer Richard Saul Wurman, who observed a convergence of the fields of technology, entertainment, and design. Presentations were given by famous mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot and influential members of the community, like Nicholas Negroponte. The event was unsuccessful, it took six years before the second conference was organized. In 2000, Wurman, looking for a successor at age 65, met with new-media entrepreneur, Andersons UK media company Future bought TED. And in November 2001, Andersons non-profit The Sapling Foundation acquired TED from Future for £6m, in February 2002, Anderson gave a TED Talk in which he explained his vision of the conference and his future role of curator. Wurman left after the 2002 conference, in 2006, attendance cost was $4,400 per person and was by invitation only. The membership model was shifted in January 2007 to a membership fee of $6,000, which includes attendance of the conference, club mailings, networking tools. The 2017 conference will be $8,500 per attendee, in 2014, the conference was relocated to Vancouver. TED is currently funded by a combination of revenue streams, including conference attendance fees, corporate sponsorships, foundation support, licensing fees
12.
Billboard Hot 100
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The Billboard Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for singles, published weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales, radio play and online streaming, the weekly sales period was originally Monday to Sunday, when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but was changed to Friday to Thursday in July 2015. Radio airplay, which, unlike sales figures and streaming data, is available on a real-time basis. A new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by Billboard on Tuesdays, as of the issue for the week ending on April 15,2017, the Hot 100 has had 1,061 different number one hits. The current number one song is Shape of You by Ed Sheeran, prior to 1955, Billboard did not have a unified, all-encompassing popularity chart, instead measuring songs by individual metrics. At the start of the era in 1955, three such charts existed, Best Sellers in Stores was the first Billboard chart, established in 1936. This chart ranked the biggest selling singles in retail stores, as reported by merchants surveyed throughout the country, Most Played by Jockeys was Billboards original airplay chart. It ranked the most played songs on United States radio stations, as reported by radio disc jockeys, Most Played in Jukeboxes ranked the most played songs in jukeboxes across the United States. On the week ending November 12,1955, Billboard published The Top 100 for the first time, the Top 100 combined all aspects of a singles performance, based on a point system that typically gave sales more weight than radio airplay. The Best Sellers In Stores, Most Played by Jockeys and Most Played in Jukeboxes charts continued to be published concurrently with the new Top 100 chart. The week ending July 28,1958 was the publication of the Most Played By Jockeys and Top 100 charts. On August 4,1958, Billboard premiered one main all-genre singles chart, the Hot 100 quickly became the industry standard and Billboard discontinued the Best Sellers In Stores chart on October 13,1958. The Billboard Hot 100 is still the standard by which a songs popularity is measured in the United States, the Hot 100 is ranked by radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen BDS, sales data compiled by Nielsen Soundscan and streaming activity provided by online music sources. There are several component charts that contribute to the calculation of the Hot 100. Charts are ranked by number of gross audience impressions, computed by cross-referencing exact times of radio airplay with Arbitron listener data. Hot Singles Sales, the top selling singles compiled from a sample of retail store, mass merchant and internet sales reports collected, compiled. The chart is released weekly and measures sales of commercial singles. With the decline in sales of singles in the US
13.
Les Twins
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Professionally known as Les Twins, identical twin brothers Laurent and Larry Nicolas Bourgeois are French dancers, choreographers, and models. Often referred to by their nicknames, Lil Beast and Ca Blaze. Born and raised in Sarcelles, France, the dance duo became the darlings of the French audience in 2008 as finalists on the popular television show Incroyable Talent. In 2011 they won the Hip-hop New Style division of the international street dance competition Juste Debout. Les Twins have been featured dancers for various artists, including Beyoncé, Meghan Trainor. Standing at 64 tall, the brothers have modeled for French haute couture fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier and appeared in many high-profile, in addition to teaching their original choreography in workshops around the globe, they are also the founding members of the successful dance team Criminalz Crew. The twins were born on December 6,1988 in Sarcelles and they are the youngest in a large, Guadeloupean extended family of 9 children. Neither Larry nor Laurent received any formal dance training, instead, they learned by observing other breakers, lockers, and poppers and by teaching themselves classical ballet techniques. At the age of 12, they began performing in concerts, according to WAD Magazine, They were born dancers. They walked at 5 months, seriously moved their bodies at 18 months old, in 2007 they danced to sold-out audiences in the musical Pas de Quartier at France’s esteemed Avignon Festival. Following that success, they were finalists and audience favorites on Season 3 of Incroyable Talent aired on M6. On November 13,2008 the twins were among the top twelve finalists competing on the Incroyable Talent finale show attended by Princess Stéphanie of Monaco and watched by over 4 million viewers. In 2009 they were contracted to perform the two-man hip-hop comedy stage revue Twins choreographed by their long-time coach Abibou Playmo Kébe at the Théâtre Trévise in Paris, in August 2010 a video of their performance on the World of Dance tour in San Diego went viral on YouTube. On November 9,2010 they made their U. S. television debut on The Ellen Degeneres Show, in March 2011 the twins won the Hip-hop New Style division at Juste Debout, beating out over 353 dancers. Their collaboration with Knowles would continue in May 2012 at the Revel Presents, Larry and Laurent were star dancers on the Michael Jackson, The Immortal World Tour by Cirque du Soleil until December 2011. On March 6,2012 the pair joined rapper Big Sean on-stage at the after-party for Kanye West’s Fall 2012 fashion show at La Halle Freyssinet in Paris, one month later they performed with Missy Elliott and Timbaland at Hennessys Wild Rabbit campaign launch event in New York. Les Twins debuted on Japan’s largest television network Nippon TV on July 24,2012, in December 2012 the twins began working on multiple projects with Sony Japan. In 2013, they toured with Beyoncé as the male dancers on The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour
14.
ITunes Store
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ITunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28,2003, and has been the largest music vendor in the United States since April 2008, and the largest music vendor in the world since February 2010. It offers over 35 -40 million songs,2.2 million apps,25,000 TV shows, iTunes Stores revenues in the first quarter of 2011 totaled nearly US$1.4 billion, by May 28,2014, the store had sold 35 billion songs worldwide. On January 6,2009, Apple announced that DRM had been removed from 80% of its catalog in the US. As of June 2013, iTunes Store possesses 575 million active user accounts, before iTunes Store, most of the online music was download through websites like Napster. Steve Jobs expressed concern that people were illegally obtaining music because it was the option they had. In 2002, Steve Jobs made an agreement with the five major record labels to offer their content through iTunes, iTunes Store was introduced by Steve Jobs at a Worldwide Developers Conference to give music listeners a legal alternative to peer-to-peer file sharing networks. When it opened, it was the only legal digital catalog of music to songs from all five major record labels. At first, it was available on Mac OS X. Following the introduction of iTunes Store, individual songs were all sold for the same price, Music in the store is in the Advanced Audio Coding format, which is the MPEG-4-specified successor to MP3. Originally, songs were available with DRM and were encoded at 128 kbit/s. At the January 2009 Macworld Expo, Apple announced that all music would be made available without DRM. Previously, this model, known as iTunes Plus, had available only for music from EMI. Users can sample songs by listening to previews, ninety seconds in length, some Apps cost money and some are free. Developers can decide which prices they want to charge for apps, from a pre-set list of pricing tiers, when someone downloads an App,70 percent of the purchase goes to the developer, and 30 percent goes to Apple. At the Macworld 2008 keynote, Steve Jobs, who was Apples CEO at the time, movies are available for rent in iTunes Store on the same day they are released on DVD, though iTunes Store also offers for rental some movies that are still in theaters. Movie rentals are only viewable for 24 hours or 48 hours after users begin viewing them, iTunes Store also offers one low-priced movie rental a week, in the United States, this rental costs 99 cents. Movie rentals are not yet available in all countries but it is available in the United States, Mexico, there is a weekly promotion in which one to three songs are available to download for free to logged-in users
15.
The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour
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The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour was the fifth concert tour by American singer Beyoncé. Announced in February 2013 with initial dates in Europe and North America and it began in Belgrade, Serbia on April 15,2013 and concluded in Lisbon, Portugal on March 27,2014. Its title is a reference to her marriage with American rapper Shawn Jay-Z Carter, the tour featured royal themes with the singer emulating different queens through her fashion for which she collaborated with numerous designers and fashion houses. The set list of the shows in 2013 included songs from all four albums of Beyoncés solo career. After the release of her eponymous studio album, the 2014 shows were changed to incorporate tracks from the album. The tour was lauded by critics who praised Beyoncé for her energetic performances, dancing. Following the announcement of the tour, all the tickets available for the shows sold out. The tour grossed $188.6 million in 2013 and the 2014 shows grossed $41.1 million and this made The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour the highest-grossing female and solo tour of 2013, and one of the highest-grossing tours of the decade. Performances of numerous songs from the tour were broadcast and behind-the-scenes footage was released, Beyoncé announced the tour and its name after her performance the Super Bowl XLVII halftime show on February 3. The tours title refers to her marriage with Shawn Jay-Z Carter, however, the official poster of the tour with the name written on it was leaked on the tickets website Live Nation prior to the official announcement. It shows Beyoncé wearing a Victorian golden royal top and a crown, rosie Swash of The Guardian described it as a visual stamp of authority. Along with the name, initial dates in Europe and North America were announced, and later more were added in Latin America, Australia. Following the announcement of the title, Beyoncé was criticized by several critics. Questions were raised about how Beyoncé agreed to be known as a bride of another celebrity person and it comes from knowing my purpose and really meeting myself once I saw my child. I was like, OK, this is what you were born to do, the purpose of my body became completely different. After the second European leg was announced on December 11,2013, the concert at The O2 Arena in London was announced on February 3, along with a short advertisement for the tour, an extended version of the clip appeared in late February. It shows Beyoncé dressed with a corset and a royal gown with jewels. She is seen walking into a hall in slow-motion with several servants
16.
Jay-Z
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Shawn Corey Carter, known professionally as Jay Z, is an American rapper, businessman, and investor. He is one of the musicians of all time, having sold more than 100 million records. MTV ranked him the Greatest MC of all time in 2006, Rolling Stone ranked three of his albums—Reasonable Doubt, The Blueprint, and The Black Album —among the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2014, Forbes estimated his net worth at nearly $520 million, Jay Z co-owns the New York 40/40 Club sports bar, and is the co-creator of the clothing line Rocawear. He is the president of Def Jam Recordings, co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records. He also founded the sports agency Roc Nation Sports and is a certified NBA, as an artist, he holds the record for most number one albums by a solo artist on the Billboard 200 with 13. He has also had four number ones on the Billboard Hot 100, in 2009, he was ranked the tenth-most successful artist of the 2000s by Billboard as well as the fifth top solo male artist and fourth top rapper behind Eminem, Nelly, and 50 Cent. He was also ranked the 88th-greatest artist of all time by Rolling Stone, Jay Z married Singer-Songwriter Beyoncé in 2008. Shawn Carter was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was raised in Marcy Houses and he and his three siblings were raised by their mother, Gloria Carter after their father, Adness Reeves abandoned the family. Reeves would later meet and reconcile with Jay Z before dying from liver failure in 2003, Jay Z claims in his lyrics that in 1982, at the age of 12, he shot his older brother in the shoulder for stealing his jewelry. Along with future rapper AZ, Carter attended Eli Whitney High School in Brooklyn until it was closed down, according to his interviews and lyrics, during this period he sold crack cocaine and was shot at three times. According to his mother, Carter used to wake up his siblings at night banging out drum patterns on the kitchen table and she bought him a boom box for his birthday, sparking his interest in music. He began freestyling and writing lyrics, known as Jazzy around the neighborhood, Carter later adopted the showbiz/stage name Jay-Z in homage to his mentor Jaz-O. He would drop the hyphen in 2013, Jay Z can be briefly heard on several of Jaz-Os early recordings in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including The Originators and Hawaiian Sophie. Jay Z became embroiled in several battles with rapper LL Cool J in the early 1990s and he first became known to a wide audience on the posse cut Show and Prove on the 1994 Big Daddy Kane album Daddys Home. When I would leave the stage to go change outfits, I would bring out Jay Z and Positive K and let them freestyle until I came back to the stage. The young Jay Z appeared on a song by Big L, Da Graveyard, and on Mic Geronimos Time to Build. His first official rap single was called In My Lifetime, for which he released a music video, an unreleased music video was also produced for the B-side I Cant Get with That
17.
2014 MTV Video Music Awards
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The 2014 MTV Video Music Awards were held on August 24,2014 at The Forum in Inglewood, California. It was the 31st annual MTV Video Music Awards, beyoncé and Iggy Azalea led the nominees with eight nominations each, while Eminem followed them with seven. Beyoncé received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, following a 16-minute medley of her fifth studio album. The show had an audience of 8.3 million viewers, while 10.1 million cumulative with the other three Viacom networks that simulcast the presentation
18.
Timbaland
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Timothy Zachery Tim Mosley, known professionally as Timbaland, is an American record producer, singer, songwriter, rapper and DJ. Timbalands first full credit production work was in 1996 on Ginuwine. the Bachelor for R&B singer Ginuwine, after further work on Aaliyahs 1996 album One in a Million and Missy Elliotts 1997 album Supa Dupa Fly, Timbaland became a prominent producer for R&B and hip hop artists. As a rapper he released several albums with fellow rapper Magoo. A Timbaland-owned imprint label, Mosley Music Group, featured such as Nelly Furtado. In 2007, Timbaland released an album, Shock Value. As a songwriter he has written as of 2014,85 UK hits and 99 hits Stateside, Timbaland has received widespread acclaim for his production style. Timothy Zachery Mosley was born on March 10,1972 in Norfolk, Virginia, to Latrice, who ran a shelter, and Garland Mosley. He graduated from Salem High School of Virginia Beach, Virginia, during his time as a DJ, he was known as DJ Tim or DJ Timmy Tim. His brother, Sebastian, is reportedly around nine years younger and his sister Courtney Rashon is a makeup artist and author from New Jersey. While attending high school, Timbaland began a collaboration with rapper Melvin Barcliff. The teenage Mosley also joined the production ensemble S. B. I. which also featured Neptunes producer Pharrell, Mosley was also high school friends with brothers Terrence and Gene Thornton, who would become known as Pusha T and Malice of the rap group Clipse, respectively. In 1986, when Timbaland was 14 years old, he was shot by a co-worker at a local Red Lobster restaurant and was partially paralyzed for nine months. During this time, he began to learn how to DJ using his left hand, singer and rapper Missy Elliott heard his material and began working with him. She and her R&B group, Sista, auditioned for DeVante Swing, DeVante signed Sista to his Swing Mob record label and Elliott brought Mosley and Barcliff along with her to New York, where Swing Mob was based. It was DeVante who renamed the young producer Timbaland, after the Timberland brand of construction boots. He and Magoo became part of SCI Zakys School stable of Swing Mob signees known as Da Bassment crew, joining artists such as R&B singer Ginuwine, male vocal group Playa, and the girl group Sugah. Timbaland did production work on a number of projects with DeVante, including the 1995 Jodeci LP The Show, The After-Party, The Hotel, Elliott began receiving recognition as a songwriter for artists such as R&B girl group 702 and MC Lyte. Due to Timbalands connection with her, he was contacted to produce remixes of her songs
19.
O2 (UK)
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Telefónica UK Limited is a telecommunications services provider in the United Kingdom, owned by the Spanish multinational Telefónica. It is the second-largest mobile telecommunications provider in the United Kingdom after EE Limited, O2 was formed in 1985 as Cellnet, a 60,40 joint venture between BT Group and Securicor. In 1999, BT Group acquired Securicors 40 per cent share of Cellnet, in June 2000 BT Cellnet launched the worlds first commercial General Packet Radio Service. BT Cellnet, together with BT Groups mobile telecommunications businesses in Germany, Ireland and this was spun off from the BT Group in 2002 to form a new holding company, mmO2 plc, which introduced the new O2 brand for the businesses. MmO2 plc was subsequently renamed O2 plc, O2 plc was purchased by the Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica in 2006 for £18 billion. Under the terms of the acquisition, Telefónica agreed to retain the O2 brand, between 1985 and 1989, John Carrington was the CEO of British Telecoms Mobile Division and the Chairman of Cellnet. The equipment used was primarily a Motorola system initially designed for the American Advanced Mobile Phone System and had to be adapted for the British system, in the early days of the system, mobile calls cost £1 per minute. After months of rumours and speculation, Peter Bonfield publicly announced on 27 July 1999 that BT had agreed to buy Securicors 40 per cent share of Cellnet for £3.15 billion, Cellnet had five million customers at the time of its acquisition. The company was rebranded as BT Cellnet, and it became a part of BT Wireless. BT announced on 3 September 2001 that the BT Wireless business would be spun off from the group as a newly listed holding company, mmO2 plc. Shareholders approved the plan at a general meeting on 23 October 2001. BT Cellnet relaunched as O2 on 18 June 2002, along with other former BT subsidiaries, Esat Digifone in Ireland, Viag Interkom in Germany and Telfort Mobiel in the Netherlands. The rebranding was supported by a European advertising campaign, which began on 16 April 2002, across all four countries, the main launch campaign ran from 18 June and was developed by Vallance Carruthers Coleman Priest, working alongside brand consultancy Lambie-Nairn, creators of the O2 brand identity. On 30 November 2005, O2 agreed to a takeover by Telefónica and it went through finally in 2006. According to the announcement, O2 retained its name and continued to be based in the United Kingdom. The merger became unconditional on 23 January 2006, Telefónica chose to keep its existing mobile phone operations in the rest of the world under the brand Movistar. This name is used in Spain and in most of the Latin American countries, on 15 July 2009, O2 entered the financial services industry with the launch of O2 Money, which was the first step in the process of incorporating financial services into mobile phones. Future plans included manufacturing Near Field Communication technology in mobile phones in the United Kingdom, O2 and Vodafone signed a deal in June 2012 which will see the two companies pool their network technology, creating a single national grid of 18,500 transmitter sites
20.
Entertainment Weekly
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Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by Time Inc. that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books and popular culture. Different from celebrity-focused publications like Us Weekly, People, and In Touch Weekly, EW primarily concentrates on entertainment media news, however, unlike Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, which are aimed at industry insiders, EW targets a more general audience. The first issue was published on February 16,1990, the cover price was $1.95 The title word entertainment was not capitalized on the cover until mid-1992 and has remained so since. By 2003, the weekly circulation averaged 1.7 million copies per week. In March 2006, managing editor Rick Tetzeli oversaw an overhaul of EWs graphics, Entertainment Weekly follows a typical magazine format by featuring a letters to the editor and table of contents in the first few pages, while also featuring advertisements. While many advertisements are unrelated to the entertainment industry, the majority of ads are typically related to up-and-coming television and these beginning articles open the magazine and as a rule focus on current events in pop culture. First Look, subtitled An early peek at some of Hollywoods coolest projects, is a spread with behind-the-scenes or publicity stills of upcoming movies. The Hit List, written each week by critic Scott Brown, highlights ten major events, Typically, there will be some continuity to the commentaries. This column was written by Jim Mullen and featured twenty events each week. The Hollywood Insider is a section that reports breaking news in entertainment. It gives details, in the columns, on the most-current news in television, movie. The Style Report is a section devoted to celebrity style. Because its focus is on celebrity fashion or lifestyle, it is rich in nature. Recently, the converted to a new format, five pictures of celebrity fashions for the week. A spin-off section, Style Hunter, which finds reader-requested articles of clothing or accessories that have appeared in pop culture recently, appears frequently. The Monitor is a two-page spread devoted to events in celebrity lives with small paragraphs highlighting events such as weddings, illnesses, arrests, court appearances. Deaths of major celebrities are typically detailed in a one-half- or full-page obituary titled Legacy and this feature is nearly identical to sister publication Peoples Passages feature. Harris column focuses on analyzing current popular-culture events, and is generally the most serious of the columns, harris has written about the writers strike and the 2008 presidential election, among other topics
21.
Rush Limbaugh
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Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American entertainer, radio talk show host, writer, and conservative political commentator. Since he was 16, Limbaugh has worked a series of disc jockey jobs and his talk show began in 1984 at Sacramento, California radio station KFBK, featuring his ongoing format of political commentary and listener calls. In 1988, Limbaugh began broadcasting his show nationally from radio station WABC in New York City, and he currently resides in Palm Beach, Florida, where he broadcasts The Rush Limbaugh Show. According to December 2015 estimates by Talkers Magazine, Rush Limbaugh has a cume of around 13.25 million unique listeners, in the 1990s, Limbaughs books The Way Things Ought to Be and See, I Told You So made The New York Times Best Seller list. In his books and on his show, Limbaugh frequently criticizes what he regards as liberal policies and politicians, Limbaugh is among the highest paid people in U. S. media, signing a contract in 2008 for $400 million through 2016. In 2015, Forbes listed his earnings at $79 million for the previous 12 months and his most recent contract, signed on July 31,2016, will take his radio program to 2020, its 32nd year. Rush Hudson Limbaugh III was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri and his father was a lawyer and a U. S. fighter pilot who served in the China Burma India Theater of World War II. His mother was a native of Searcy, Arkansas, the name Rush was originally chosen for his grandfather to honor the maiden name of family member Edna Rush. Limbaugh is of part German ancestry and his family has many lawyers, including his grandfather, father and brother David. His uncle, Stephen N. Limbaugh, Sr. is a judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. His cousin, Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr. is currently a judge in the same court, the Federal Courthouse in Cape Girardeau is named for Limbaughs grandfather Rush. Limbaugh began his career in radio as a teenager in 1967 in his hometown of Cape Girardeau, Limbaugh graduated from Cape Girardeau, Missouri Central High School in 1969. Because of his parents desire to see him attend college, he enrolled in Southeast Missouri State University, According to his mother, he flunked everything, and he just didnt seem interested in anything except radio. Limbaughs biographer states that a part of his life has been dedicated to gaining his fathers respect. After dropping out of college, Limbaugh moved to McKeesport, Pennsylvania, in 1972, he became a Top 40 music disc jockey on WIXZ, a small AM radio station that reached much of the Pittsburgh area. He started with a show and later did mornings, broadcasting under the name Jeff Christie. Limbaugh moved to Pittsburgh station KQV in 1973 as the disc jockey. He was fired in late-1974, when the station was sold to Taft Broadcasting, Limbaugh was reportedly told by management that he would never make it as on-air talent, and should consider going into sales
22.
Keyshia Cole
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Keyshia Cole is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, businesswoman, and television personality. She was born in Oakland, California and her career began when she met MC Hammer at the age of 12, and later met rapper Tupac Shakur. At the age of 18, she moved to Los Angeles and was introduced to A&M Records. She released her album, The Way It Is, which spawned five singles, Never, I Changed My Mind, To Be Over, I Should Have Cheated. It was certified gold within 17 weeks, and then platinum just eight weeks later, the album stayed on the charts for over a year, selling over 1.6 million copies. Cole released her second album Just like You, and the album debuted and peaked at two on the Billboard 200. It was nominated for Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 50th Grammy Awards, the album has been certified platinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America, and has sold 1.7 million copies in the U. S. A Different Me is Coles third album, released in 2008, the album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of 322,000, the highest of Coles career. The album has certified platinum by the RIAA. Calling All Hearts is Coles fourth album, released on December 21,2010 in the United States by Geffen Records, the album debuted and peaked at number nine on the Billboard 200, with first week sales of 129,000. The album has sold 400,000 copies in the U. S. as of November 2012, Coles fifth album Woman to Woman debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200, with first week sales of 96,000, lower than her last effort. The album has sold 329,000 copies in the U. S. as of September 2013. Coles sixth album Point of No Return was released on October 7,2014, along with her music, Cole has ventured into reality television. Her second reality show, Family First premiered on October 9,2012 and her third reality show Keyshia Cole, All In premiered on February 24,2015. Keyshia Cole was born on October 15,1981 in Oakland, California, Cole and Hunter met for the first time in 2016 after a paternity test confirmed their connection. She was adopted at age two by family friends Leon and Yvonne Cole, changing her last name to Cole, at age 12, Cole was introduced into the music industry, along with her brother Sean, where she met and recorded with MC Hammer. She later formed a friendship with Tupac Shakur, who promised to help her start her singing career asking her to write a book on his project the night he died unexpectedly. Cole moved to Los Angeles at 18 to pursue a music career, during this time, Cole collaborated with artists from her native Bay Area, among them DWayne Wiggings of Tony Toni Tone and Messy Marv
23.
ITunes Radio
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ITunes Radio was an Internet radio service by Apple Inc. that let users listen to automatically generated playlists based on direct input as well as collected data on music preferences. It was launched on September 18,2013, as part of iOS7 and was available in the Music app on iOS devices and Apple TV as well as in iTunes 11.1 on OS X and it was only available in the United States and Australia. On January 15,2016, Apple announced that effective January 28,2016, iTunes Radio stations, barring Beats 1, on January 29,2016, the iTunes Radio channel was automatically removed from all Apple TV devices. Apple announced the Internet radio service at its June 10,2013 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference keynote speech, the service launched in the United States on September 18,2013, the same day as the release of iOS7, and in Australia on February 11,2014. Reports of a music service from Apple circulated for weeks before the announcement. As of January 2015, iTunes Radio was only available in the United States, Apple had announced plans to offer the service in other countries. In October 2013, Bloomberg reported that Apple had plans to expand the service to the UK, Canada, on January 15,2016, Apple announced that effective January 28,2016, iTunes Radio stations, barring Beats 1, will only be accessible by Apple Music subscribers. On January 29,2016, the iTunes Radio channel was removed from all Apple TV devices. ITunes Radio was a free, ad-supported service available to all iTunes users, users were able to skip tracks, customize stations, and purchase the stations songs from the iTunes Store. Users could also search through their history of previous songs, the number of track skips was limited like Pandora Radios service. ITunes Match subscribers could be able to use a version of the service. The service has pre-loaded stations, including a playlist of trending songs on Twitter, the service also generated a radio station based on input like a single artist with songs by them and others similar. The services selection was expected to learn the users preferences from input whether the user likes or dislikes the track, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs was previously opposed to the idea of music subscription services. Through its purchase of audio equipment maker Beats Electronics in 2014, with Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers also becoming responsible for the ad-supported iTunes Radio service, Business Insider later reported that Apple was planning to merge the two services together. Apple also hired noted British radio DJ Zane Lowe to serve as a music curator, after a period of rumors and anticipation, Apple Music was announced at Apples June 2015 Worldwide Developers Conference with plans for launch later that month. The one more thing reveal had been confirmed by Sony Music CEO Doug Morris, Morris added that he expected the service to restore the music industrys prior state of financial prosperity. He said that Apple Musics ad-supported streams would have an effect on the market where Spotify was unable to profit. Hip hop artist Drake appeared onstage at the announcement event to elaborate on how he used the Connect platform, Apple also emphasized how unsigned artists could participate in Connect
24.
Staccato
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Staccato is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation it signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence and it has been described by theorists and appeared in music since at least 1676. In 20th-century music, a dot placed above or below a note indicates that it should be played staccato, a number of signs came to be used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to discriminate more subtle nuances of staccato. This does not, however, alter the rhythm of the music, the opposite musical articulation of staccato is legato, signifying long and continuous notes. The scope of the dot, In the first measure. The staccato applies to both notes of the pairs, in the second measure, the pairs of notes are stemmed separately indicating two different parts, so the staccato applies only to the upper note. Playing staccato is the opposite of playing legato, a staccato passage for strings is by definition a bowed rather than a pizzicato technique, though pizzicato itself might be thought of as a kind of staccato effect. For example, Leroy Andersons Jazz Legato/Jazz Pizzicato, there is an intermediate articulation called either mezzo staccato or non-legato. In musical notation, staccatissimo indicates that the notes are to be played extremely separated and distinct, a few composers, such as Mozart, have used staccato dots accompanied by a written instruction staccatissimo when they mean the passage to be played staccatissimo. Glissando Legato Marcato Portato Slur Basic Music Theory Neil V. Hawes, organist and choirmaster of St. Marys Church, Osterley Staccato—video example of staccato playing
25.
Star Search
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Star Search is an American television show that was produced by T. P. E. /Rysher Entertainment from 1983 to 1995, hosted by Ed McMahon, and created by Alfred Masini. A relaunch was produced by 2929 Productions from 2003 to 2004, on both versions of the show, contestants competed in several genres of entertainment. The show was filmed at the old Earl Carroll Theatre, at 6230 Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood and later at the Disney Hollywood Studios in Orlando. Potential contestants auditioned to be on the show, in each category, two selected contestants would compete, a champion and a challenger. The challenger would usually perform first, while the champion performed second, in later seasons, the champion performed first. All acts were judged by a panel of four judges, once both acts were complete, Ed would reveal the scores, and the best average won. If there was a tie, an audience vote broke the tie. In later seasons, three-match winners were automatically retired, in this case, two new performers would compete in that category the following week. In most seasons, two shows took place, one in the fall, the other in the spring. No scoring was used, and the judges votes werent revealed, on the championship show, winners of Male Vocalist, Female Vocalist, Vocal Group, Comedy, and Dance, were awarded $100,000 but no record contract was guaranteed. The winner of the Spokesmodel category was awarded $100,000, the first Spokesmodel winner was Tracey Ross, who later became a leading actress on the soap opera Passions. Winners of Junior Vocalist, Junior Dance, Teen Vocalist, in early seasons, before the three match limit rule was adopted, the grand champions were determined by how long a champion held their title. While it is believed that Sam Harris holds the record for longest championship, at 14 weeks in Season 1 and this record is actually held by Singer Durell Coleman, who won the $100,000 on Season 2 with 15 wins and no defeats. This new version was judged by four panelists, including Ben Stein, Naomi Judd, Ahmet Zappa, among the winners were singer Tiffany Evans, comedian John Roy and singer Mark Mejia. The revival consisted of four series, for the first series, the categories were Adult and Junior Singer, Comedy, and Modeling. In series two and three, Modeling was replaced with Dance, in the final series, the Comedy category was scrapped altogether and only the singing and dancing categories remained. For the first three series, two new competitors faced off, the three house judges, along with the one celebrity judge, gave each contestant a score on a scale from one to five stars, making a maximum studio score 20 stars. During each commercial break, the audience went to www. cbs. com/star to rate the competitors who just performed
26.
Ed McMahon
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Edward Leo Peter Ed McMahon, Jr. was an American comedian, actor, singer, game show host and announcer. He is most famous for his work on television as Johnny Carsons sidekick, announcer and he also hosted the original version of the talent show Star Search from 1983 to 1995. He co-hosted TVs Bloopers & Practical Jokes with Dick Clark from 1982 to 1998 and he also presented sweepstakes for the direct marketing company American Family Publishers. McMahon annually co-hosted the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, in the 1970s and 1980s, he anchored the team of NBC personalities conducting the networks coverage of the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade. McMahon appeared in films, including The Incident, Fun With Dick and Jane, Full Moon High. He also performed in television commercials. According to Entertainment Weekly, McMahon is considered one of the greatest sidekicks, McMahon was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Edward Leo Peter McMahon, Sr. a fund-raiser and entertainer, and his wife Eleanor McMahon. He was raised in Lowell, Massachusetts often visiting his paternal Aunt Mary Brennan at her home on Chelmsford St. McMahon began his career as a caller in Maine when he was fifteen. Prior to this, he worked as a carnival barker for three years in Mexico, Maine and he put himself through college as a pitchman for vegetable slicers on the Atlantic City boardwalk. His first broadcasting job was at WLLH-AM in his native Lowell, McMahon hoped to become a United States Marine Corps fighter pilot. Prior to the US entry into World War II, however, McMahon enrolled into classes at Boston College and studied there from 1940–41. After completing the college requirement, McMahon was able to enlist as he previously wished and his primary flight training was in Dallas, followed by fighter training in Pensacola, where he also earned his carrier landing qualifications. He was a Marine Corps flight instructor for two years, finally being ordered to the Pacific fleet in 1945, however, his orders were canceled after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing Japans surrender unconditionally. As an officer in the reserves, McMahon was recalled to duty during the Korean War. This time, he flew the OE-1, an unarmed single-engine spotter plane and he functioned as an artillery spotter for the Marine batteries on the ground and as a forward controller for the Navy and Marine fighter bombers. He flew a total of 85 combat missions, earning six Air Medals, after the war, he stayed with the Marines as a reserve officer, retiring in 1966 as a colonel. In 1982, McMahon received a commission as a brigadier general in the California Air National Guard. After World War II, McMahon studied at The Catholic University of America under the GI Bill and he majored in speech and drama while studying under the Rev. Gilbert Hartke and was a member of Phi Kappa Theta fraternity
27.
Destiny's Child
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Destinys Child was an American girl group whose final and best-known line-up comprised Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams. Formed in 1997 in Houston, Texas, Destinys Child members began their musical endeavors as Girls Tyme comprising, formed in 1990, among others, Knowles, Rowland, LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett. After years of limited success, they were signed in 1997 to Columbia Records, both Roberson and Luckett were soon replaced with Williams and Farrah Franklin, however, in 2000, Franklin left, leaving the group as a trio. Their third album, Survivor, which themes the public interpreted as a channel to the groups experience, contains the worldwide hits Independent Women, Survivor. In 2002, they announced a hiatus and re-united two years later for the release of their fourth and final album, Destiny Fulfilled. Destinys Child has sold more than sixty million records worldwide to date, in 1990, Beyoncé Knowles met rapper LaTavia Roberson while auditioning for a girl group. Based in Houston, Texas, they were joined to a group that performed rapping and dancing, Kelly Rowland, who relocated to Knowless house because of family issues, joined them in 1992. Originally named Girls Tyme, they were cut down to six members including Támar Davis and sisters Nikki. With Knowles and Rowland, Girls Tyme attracted nationwide attention, west-coast R&B producer Arne Frager flew to Houston to see them. He brought them to his studio, The Plant Recording Studios, in Northern California, with focus on Knowless vocals because Frager thought she had personality and the ability to sing. With efforts to sign Girls Tyme to a record deal, Fragers strategy was to debut the group in Star Search. However, they lost the competition because, according to Knowles, their choice of song was wrong, because of the groups defeat, Knowless father, Mathew, voluntarily dedicated his time to manage them. Mathew Knowles decided to cut the original lineup to four, with the removal of Davis and the Taylor sisters, aside from spending time at their church in Houston, Girls Tyme practiced in their backyards and at Headliners Salon, owned by Knowless mother, Tina. The group would test routines in the salon, when it was on Montrose Boulevard in Houston and their try out would be critiqued by the people inside. During their school days, Girls Tyme performed at local gigs, when summer came, Mathew Knowles established a boot camp to train them in dance and vocal lessons. After rigorous training, they began performing as opening acts for established R&B groups of that such as SWV, Dru Hill. Tina Knowles designed the groups attire for their performances, over the course of the early years in their career, Girls Tyme changed their name to Something Fresh, Cliché, the Dolls, and to Destiny. The group signed with Elektra Records with the name Destiny, but were dropped several months later before they could release an album, in 1996, they changed their name to Destinys Child, which was taken from a passage in the Book of Isaiah
28.
Los Angeles Times
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The Los Angeles Times, commonly referred to as the Times or LA Times, is a paid daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008, the Times is owned by tronc. The Times was first published on December 4,1881, as the Los Angeles Daily Times under the direction of Nathan Cole Jr. and it was first printed at the Mirror printing plant, owned by Jesse Yarnell and T. J. Unable to pay the bill, Cole and Gardiner turned the paper over to the Mirror Company. Mathes had joined the firm, and it was at his insistence that the Times continued publication, in July 1882, Harrison Gray Otis moved from Santa Barbara to become the papers editor. Otis made the Times a financial success, in an era where newspapers were driven by party politics, the Times was directed at Republican readers. As was typical of newspapers of the time, the Times would sit on stories for several days, historian Kevin Starr wrote that Otis was a businessman capable of manipulating the entire apparatus of politics and public opinion for his own enrichment. Otiss editorial policy was based on civic boosterism, extolling the virtues of Los Angeles, the efforts of the Times to fight local unions led to the October 1,1910 bombing of its headquarters, killing twenty-one people. Two union leaders, James and Joseph McNamara, were charged, the American Federation of Labor hired noted trial attorney Clarence Darrow to represent the brothers, who eventually pleaded guilty. Upon Otiss death in 1917, his son-in-law, Harry Chandler, Harry Chandler was succeeded in 1944 by his son, Norman Chandler, who ran the paper during the rapid growth of post-war Los Angeles. Family members are buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery near Paramount Studios, the site also includes a memorial to the Times Building bombing victims. The fourth generation of family publishers, Otis Chandler, held that position from 1960 to 1980, Otis Chandler sought legitimacy and recognition for his familys paper, often forgotten in the power centers of the Northeastern United States due to its geographic and cultural distance. He sought to remake the paper in the model of the nations most respected newspapers, notably The New York Times, believing that the newsroom was the heartbeat of the business, Otis Chandler increased the size and pay of the reporting staff and expanded its national and international reporting. In 1962, the paper joined with the Washington Post to form the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service to syndicate articles from both papers for news organizations. During the 1960s, the paper won four Pulitzer Prizes, more than its previous nine decades combined, eventually the coupon-clipping branches realized that they could make more money investing in something other than newspapers. Under their pressure the companies went public, or split apart, thats the pattern followed over more than a century by the Los Angeles Times under the Chandler family. The papers early history and subsequent transformation was chronicled in an unauthorized history Thinking Big and it has also been the whole or partial subject of nearly thirty dissertations in communications or social science in the past four decades. In 2000, the Tribune Company acquired the Times, placing the paper in co-ownership with then-WB -affiliated KTLA, which Tribune acquired in 1985
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The Guardian
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The Guardian is a British daily newspaper, known from 1821 until 1959 as the Manchester Guardian. Along with its sister papers The Observer and The Guardian Weekly, The Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group, the Scott Trust became a limited company in 2008, with a constitution to maintain the same protections for The Guardian. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than to the benefit of an owner or shareholders, the Guardian is edited by Katharine Viner, who succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. In 2016, The Guardians print edition had a daily circulation of roughly 162,000 copies in the country, behind The Daily Telegraph. The newspaper has an online UK edition as well as two international websites, Guardian Australia and Guardian US, the newspapers online edition was the fifth most widely read in the world in October 2014, with over 42.6 million readers. Its combined print and online editions reach nearly 9 million British readers, notable scoops include the 2011 News International phone hacking scandal, in particular the hacking of murdered English teenager Milly Dowlers phone. The investigation led to the closure of the UKs biggest selling Sunday newspaper, and one of the highest circulation newspapers in the world, in 2016, it led the investigation into the Panama Papers, exposing the then British Prime Minister David Camerons links to offshore bank accounts. The Guardian has been named Newspaper of the Year four times at the annual British Press Awards, the paper is still occasionally referred to by its nickname of The Grauniad, given originally for the purported frequency of its typographical errors. The Manchester Guardian was founded in Manchester in 1821 by cotton merchant John Edward Taylor with backing from the Little Circle and they launched their paper after the police closure of the more radical Manchester Observer, a paper that had championed the cause of the Peterloo Massacre protesters. They do not toil, neither do they spin, but they better than those that do. When the government closed down the Manchester Observer, the champions had the upper hand. The influential journalist Jeremiah Garnett joined Taylor during the establishment of the paper, the prospectus announcing the new publication proclaimed that it would zealously enforce the principles of civil and religious Liberty. Warmly advocate the cause of Reform, endeavour to assist in the diffusion of just principles of Political Economy and. Support, without reference to the party from which they emanate, in 1825 the paper merged with the British Volunteer and was known as The Manchester Guardian and British Volunteer until 1828. The working-class Manchester and Salford Advertiser called the Manchester Guardian the foul prostitute, the Manchester Guardian was generally hostile to labours claims. The Manchester Guardian dismissed strikes as the work of outside agitators –, if an accommodation can be effected, the occupation of the agents of the Union is gone. CP Scott made the newspaper nationally recognised and he was editor for 57 years from 1872, and became its owner when he bought the paper from the estate of Taylors son in 1907. Under Scott, the moderate editorial line became more radical, supporting William Gladstone when the Liberals split in 1886
30.
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
31.
Foreign Policy
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Foreign Policy is an American news publication, founded in 1970 and focused on global affairs, current events, and domestic and international policy. It produces content daily on its website, and in six print issues annually, Foreign Policy is under the leadership of CEO and Editor of The FP Group David Rothkopf, who joined FP in that role 2012 after being a regular contributor to the publication since 1997. Foreign Policy magazine and ForeignPolicy. com are published by The FP Group, the FP Group also produces FP Events, Foreign Policys events division, launched in 2012. Huntington hoped it would be serious but not scholarly, lively, in the Spring of 1978, after six years of close partnership, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace acquired full ownership of Foreign Policy. In 2000, a change was implemented from a slim quarterly academic journal to a bi-monthly magazine. Also, it launched international editions in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, in September 2008, Foreign Policy was bought by The Washington Post Company. In 2012, Foreign Policy grew to become the FP Group – an expansion of Foreign Policy magazine to include ForeignPolicy. com, in December 2013, FP expanded and modernized ForeignPolicy. com as part of a complete website redesign. The new site was designed to present FPs readers with an array of editorial features. Morning Brief - FPs daily digest of top global news, flash Points - Weekly reader of highlights from foreignpolicy. com delivered every Friday morning. Democracy Lab Weekly Brief - Reporting on a world in transition, south Asia Daily - A daily synthesis of news about Afghanistan, Pakistan and India Mideast Daily Brief - A daily morning overview of major news in the region. com. FP is the independent magazine that has won consecutive digital national magazine awards every year from being established in 2009. 2014 Foreign Policy received its first design recognition for The Surveillance State, “Turtle Bay, ” the reported blog by journalist Colum Lynch, won the Digital National Magazine Award for best reporting for a series of hard-hitting investigative articles about the United Nations. 2010 Foreign Policy’s “The Best Defense” column authored by Tom Ricks received the Digital National Magazine Award for best blog,2009 Foreign Policy won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in the 100,000 to 250,000 circulation category. Forbes RealClearWorld designated ForeignPolicy. com as a top international news site,2008 Folio Magazine Gold Editorial Excellence Award – Consumer Magazine, News/Commentary/General Interest, What America Must Do by Kenneth Rogoff, Jan/Feb 2008. FPs What America Must Do feature received the Eddie Award as a Gold Winner for the Consumer News/Commentary/General Interest category for a Single Article, Folio Magazine Silver Editorial Excellence Award – Consumer Magazine, News/Commentary/General Interest, A World Enslaved by Benjamin Skinner, Mar/Apr 2008. Folio Magazine Silver Editorial Excellence Award – Consumer Magazine, News/Commentary/General Interest, media Industry Newsletters Best of the Web Award in the blog category for Passport a blog by the editors of Foreign Policy. 2007 Foreign Policy won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in the 100,000 to 250,000 circulation category, Foreign Policy was presented as a Gold Winner by the Eddie Awards for “Who Wins in Iraq, ” in the Consumer News/Commentary/General Interest category. 2003 Foreign Policy won the National Magazine Award for Outstanding Achievement, FP Top 100 Global Thinkers Foreign Policy of the United States Official website Foreign Policy Passport at Foreign Policy
32.
Pazz & Jop
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Pazz & Jop is an annual poll of musical releases compiled by American newspaper The Village Voice since 1971. The poll is tabulated from the submitted year-end top ten lists of hundreds of music critics and it was named in acknowledgement of the defunct magazine Jazz & Pop, and adopted the ratings system used in that publications annual critics poll. Pazz & Jop was introduced by The Village Voice in 1974 as an album-only poll, the Pazz & Jop albums poll utilizes a points system in formulating list rankings. Participating critics assign a value, ranging from five to thirty, to each of the albums on their top ten list. Singles lists, however, have always been unweighted, bob Dylan and Kanye West have topped the albums poll the most number of times, with four number-one albums each. West, in addition, won the poll of 2005. Music critic Robert Christgau oversaw the Pazz & Jop poll for more than thirty years, christgaus tenure as Pazz & Jop overseer came to an abrupt end when he was controversially fired from The Village Voice after a company buy-out in August 2006. Regardless, The Village Voice has continued to run the feature, with Rob Harvilla succeeding Christgau as music editor, christgaus annual Pazz & Jop overview essay was discontinued and substituted with multiple retrospective articles of the years music written by a selection of critics. In 2016, the name was changed from Pazz & Jop to the Village Voice Music Critics Poll by the new owners of the newspaper. Christgau, who has continued to vote in the poll since his departure from the newspaper, when the 2016 results were announced in January 2017, the poll had reverted to its Pazz & Jop name. Official Pazz & Jop page at The Village Voice Pazz & Jop polls and essays by Robert Christgau
33.
DJ Snake
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William Sami Etienne Grigahcine, known professionally as DJ Snake, is a French DJ and record producer. DJ Snake is a Grammy-nominated producer and artist who debuted into the scene with singles Bird Machine. Bird Machine is a collaboration with fellow French act Alesia, the single was picked up by Mad Decent, a Los Angeles-based record label run by Diplo, and released in February 2013. In June 2013, DJ Snake was invited by Diplo to do a mix on his radio show, Diplo & Friends. On 30 April 2014, DJ Snake was labeled as an Artist to Watch by FoxWeekly and he and Dillon Francis were announced as alternating supporting artists for the summer Mothership Tour 2014 with Skrillex. DJ Snake was born to Algerian parents in a Banlieue district outside Paris and he cites French film La Haine as well as hip-hop artists KRS-One and Cypress Hill as early influences. In his youth, DJ Snake produced graffiti art, earning him the moniker Snake because he was able to evade the police. Of his name, DJ Snake says When I started DJing, everyone called me ‘Snake’ in my city first, I was like ‘DJ Snake, OK let’s go for it. ’ The name sucks, but it’s too late now. He started DJ-ing at age 14, and later producing at 19 years old, in his early career, DJ Snake performed at clubs including Les Bains Douches in Paris. In 2005, he met his manager Steve Goncalves, who encouraged DJ Snake to begin creating his own music, in 2011, DJ Snake produced for Lady Gaga’s album Born This Way. This earned him a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year in February 2012, DJ Snake was co-producer for the song Government Hooker, which was voted best song by Lady Gaga fans after the release of the album. This song was supposed to be released as a single before Interscope Records decided to stop the marketing of the album after its release and he remixed Kanye Wests New Slaves, AlunaGeorges You Know You Like It, Duck Sauce’s Its You and Major Lazers Bubble Butt. Junior Senior sampled Michael Jackson for their track Move Your Feet, DJ Snake remixed the song in 2013. In 2013, DJ Snake produced three songs with Paul DJ White Shadow Blair on Lady Gaga’s album ARTPOP including Applause, Sexxx Dreams, DJ Snake and Dillon Francis were alternating supporting artists on the Mothership Tour 2014 with Skrillex. He performed at the 2015 Coachella Music Festival with guest appearances by AlunaGeorge and MØ, Lean On and DJ Snakes remix of AlunaGeorges You Know You Like It were both top 10 Shazamed songs from Coachella 2015. In October 2015, DJ Snake and fellow electronic producer Tchami were injured in a car crash, in January 2016, Forbes named him one of their 30 Under 30 In Music for the year. In December 2013, Turn Down for What, DJ Snakes collaboration with Lil Jon, was released on Columbia Records, the song was featured in a commercial for the Sol Republic DECK, a wireless speaker, which aired in October 2013. Turn Down for What entered the top ten of the Billboard Dance/Electronic chart during the last week of December, in January 2014, the single entered the top 5 on the Dance/Electronic chart and debuted No.38 on the Billboard Hot 100
34.
Lil Jon
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Jonathan Smith, better known by his stage name Lil Jon, is an American record producer, rapper, songwriter, entrepreneur, DJ and actor from Atlanta, Georgia. He was the frontman of the group Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz, which he formed in 1997, after going solo, he released a new album in 2010 titled Crunk Rock. He was featured on Celebrity Apprentice during its 11th and 13th seasons, born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Smith graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in Atlanta. After working as a DJ for Atlanta night clubs, he worked for So So Def Recordings between 1993 and 2000, Smith took the stage name Lil Jon and formed musical group Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, with rappers Big Sam and Lil Bo. The group signed to the Atlanta-based Mirror Image Records and were distributed by Ichiban Records, in 1997, Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz debuted with Get Crunk, Who U Wit, Da Album. It included singles Who U Wit. and Shawty Freak a Lil Sumthin, both singles charted on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at No.70 and No. In 2000, Jon started up his own label, BME Recordings and he released his breakthrough album titled We Still Crunk. Among the tracks on that project was the hit single I Like Those Girls, Lil Jon was talked about as the new guy by street team people in the markets where he was attracting his biggest audiences – namely Atlanta, St. Louis, Memphis and Dallas. Bryan Leach, A&R at TVT, went to one of Lil Jons Atlanta shows and was blown away by its immense energy. Leach told HitQuarters, It was like early Beastie Boys, when they had the energy of a group but they were rapping. Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz signed to TVT Records in 2001 and debuted there with Put Yo Hood Up, the groups first nationally played single was Bia Bia, which featured rappers Ludacris, Too Short, Big Kapp, and Chyna Whyte. Bia Bia peaked at No.97 on the Billboard Hot 100, in 2002, the group released Kings of Crunk. I Dont Give A. was its first single, it featured Mystikal and Krayzie Bone and peaked at No.50 on the R&B chart. What U Gon Do peaked at No.22 on the Hot 100, No.13 on the R&B chart, Lil Jon has also produced many hit urban singles. From 2003 to 2005, while still with The East Side Boyz, Lil Jon produced hits such as Salt Shaker by Ying Yang Twins, Yeah. By Usher, Freek-a-Leek by Petey Pablo, Shorty Wanna Ride by Young Buck, Shake That Monkey by Too Short, Girlfight by Brooke Valentine, during that same year he produced a song called Go to Church for Ice Cube. In 2006, Lil Jon severed his negotiation with record label TVT and he vowed never to record for TVT Records again, alleging that TVT owner Steve Gottlieb was shortchanging him. He also began recording a music album, Crunk Rock
35.
Turn Down for What
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Turn Down for What is a single by DJ Snake and Lil Jon released on December 18,2013. The song and its music video popularized the use of the phrase. Lil Jon and DJ Snake had met years prior to recording the song. In December 2013, Turn Down for What was premiered on Columbia Records website and released via iTunes shortly after. In an interview about the song, DJ Snake said, When I hit up the big homie Jon and asked him if he wanted to be on the track and he heard the beat and was instantly down with the vision. What he sent me back, though, absolutely blew my mind, I knew Jon was one of the best, but he absolutely killed it on this joint. Lil Jon said in an interview, When DJ Snake sent me the track with a sample, when I heard the song I was like this beat is too crazy for that sample. I wanted to make it hip and current, and the first thing came to mind was the phrase Turn Down for What. Turn Down for What contains the lyrics of Lil Jons powerful and iconic voice rapping Fire up that loud, another round of shots and it also contains bass and trap music elements that are original to Atlanta, GA, Lil Jons hometown. Turn Down for What is written in the E Phrygian mode and is set in time at a moderate tempo of 100 beats per minute. Turn Down for What entered the top 10 on Billboards Dance/Electronic chart during the last week of December, in January 2014, the single entered the top 5 on the Dance/Electronic chart and debuted at No.38 on Billboards Hot 100. It peaked at number 4 on the chart, becoming DJ Snakes first and Lil Jons ninth top ten and it reached its first million copies sold in the U. S. in March 2014. The song reached its 3 million sales mark in July 2014 and it became the seventh best-selling song of 2014 in the US with 3,449,000 copies sold for the year. Turn Down for What received generally positive reviews music critics. Rolling Stone voted Turn Down For What as the second best song of the year 2014, saying, DJ Snake brings the synapse-rattling EDM and Southern trap music, Lil Jon brings the dragon-fire holler for a hilarious, glorious, glowstick-punk fuck you. In January 2015, Turn Down for What was ranked at No,9, tied with Beyoncés Flawless, on The Village Voices annual year-end Pazz & Jop critics poll. An accompanying music video for Turn Down for What was directed by the filmmaking duo DANIELS, composed of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the clip stars co-director Daniel Kwan with Sunita Mani. He explained, For a while Daniel and I had been wanting to explore sexuality in a really weird way
36.
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
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