1.
Single (music)
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In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record, an album or an EP record. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats, in most cases, a single is a song that is released separately from an album, although it usually also appears on an album. Typically, these are the songs from albums that are released separately for promotional uses such as digital download or commercial radio airplay and are expected to be the most popular, in other cases a recording released as a single may not appear on an album. As digital downloading and audio streaming have become prevalent, it is often possible for every track on an album to also be available separately. Nevertheless, the concept of a single for an album has been retained as an identification of a heavily promoted or more popular song within an album collection. Despite being referred to as a single, singles can include up to as many as three tracks on them. The biggest digital music distributor, iTunes, accepts as many as three tracks less than ten minutes each as a single, as well as popular music player Spotify also following in this trend. Any more than three tracks on a release or longer than thirty minutes in total running time is either an Extended Play or if over six tracks long. The basic specifications of the single were made in the late 19th century. Gramophone discs were manufactured with a range of speeds and in several sizes. By about 1910, however, the 10-inch,78 rpm shellac disc had become the most commonly used format, the inherent technical limitations of the gramophone disc defined the standard format for commercial recordings in the early 20th century.26 rpm. With these factors applied to the 10-inch format, songwriters and performers increasingly tailored their output to fit the new medium, the breakthrough came with Bob Dylans Like a Rolling Stone. Singles have been issued in various formats, including 7-inch, 10-inch, other, less common, formats include singles on digital compact cassette, DVD, and LD, as well as many non-standard sizes of vinyl disc. Some artist release singles on records, a more common in musical subcultures. The most common form of the single is the 45 or 7-inch. The names are derived from its speed,45 rpm. The 7-inch 45 rpm record was released 31 March 1949 by RCA Victor as a smaller, more durable, the first 45 rpm records were monaural, with recordings on both sides of the disc. As stereo recordings became popular in the 1960s, almost all 45 rpm records were produced in stereo by the early 1970s
2.
R. Kelly
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Robert Sylvester Kelly, known professionally as R. Kelly, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and former professional basketball player. A native of Chicago, Illinois, Kelly began performing during the late 1980s, in 1993, Kelly went solo with the album 12 Play. In 1998, Kelly won three Grammy Awards for I Believe I Can Fly and his distinctive sound and style has influenced numerous hip hop and contemporary R&B artists. Kelly became the first musician to play basketball, when he was signed in 1997. Kelly has written, produced, and remixed songs and albums for artists, including Aaliyahs 1994 debut album Age Aint Nothing. In 1996, Kelly was nominated for a Grammy for writing Michael Jacksons song You Are Not Alone. In 2002 and 2004, Kelly released collaboration albums with rapper Jay-Z and has been a guest vocalist for other hip hop artists like Nas, Sean Combs, in March 2011, R. Kelly was named the most successful R&B artist of the last 25 years by Billboard. Kelly has released 12 solo studio albums, and sold over 100 million records worldwide making him the most successful R&B male artist of the 1990s and he has been credited for helping redefine R&B and hip hop, earning the nicknames King of R&B and King of Pop-Soul. He is listed by Billboard as the most successful R&B/Hip Hop artist of the past 25 years and also the most successful R&B artist in history. Throughout his career, Kelly has won awards, including a Guinness World Records as well as countless of other awards like Grammy, BET, Soul Train, Billboard, NAACP. Robert Sylvester Kelly was born on January 8,1967 at Chicago Lying-in Hospital in Hyde Park, Kelly is the third of four children. Kellys single mother, Joanne, was a singer, Kellys father was absent throughout his sons life. Kellys family lived in the Ida B, wells Homes public housing project in Chicagos Bronzeville neighborhood. Lena McLin described Kellys childhood home, It was bare, there was no father there, I knew that, and they had very little. Kelly began singing in the choir at age eight. Kelly grew up in a full of women, whom he said would act differently when his mother. At a young age Kelly was often abused by a woman who was at least ten years older than himself. I was too afraid and too ashamed, Kelly wrote in his autobiography about why he never told anyone, at age 11, he was shot in the shoulder while riding his bike home, the bullet is reportedly still lodged in his shoulder
3.
Happy People/U Saved Me
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Happy People/U Saved Me is the sixth studio album and the second double album by R&B singer R. Kelly, where he mixed feel-good danceable soul records with gospel anthems. Released in 2004, it peaked at No.2 on the pop albums chart and this is R. Kellys 2nd double album in 6 years. The album contained the hit single Happy People, and the minor hit U Saved Me, on Red Carpet, Kelly sampled the song Step in the Name of Love on his previous album which was released in 2003. Happy People/U Saved Me received mostly positive reviews, the Los Angeles Times said, Charming, unpretentious and effortless, the singer presides over a party whose pace never flags and whose soul is fun-loving and wholesome. Uncut said, Happy People is a cunning, crackling, cant-keep-still classic, however many found his gospel/Christian based songs to be at stark contrast to his legal history. In his home country of United States, Happy People/U Saved Me debuted at two on the Billboard 200, selling 264,000 copies in its first week, behind Tim McGraws Live Like You Were Dying. The album was the sixth consecutive Kellys solo album to debut at number one on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, in its second week, the album remained in the top ten at Billboard 200, fell to number six, selling 127,000 copies. On September 24,2004, the album has been certified 3x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. As of December 6,2011, Happy People/U Saved Me has sold 5.2 million copies worldwide, all songs written, produced and arranged by R. Kelly. List of number-one R&B albums of 2004
4.
Contemporary R&B
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Contemporary R&B, also known as simply R&B, is a music genre that combines elements of rhythm and blues, soul, funk, pop, hip hop and dance. The genre features a record production style, drum machine-backed rhythms, an occasional saxophone-laced beat to give a jazz feel. Electronic influences are becoming a trend and the use of hip hop or dance-inspired beats are typical, although the roughness. Contemporary R&B vocalists are often known for their use of melisma, popularized by such as Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Craig David, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston. That same year, Teddy Riley began producing R&B recordings that included hip hop influences and this combination of R&B style and hip hop rhythms was termed new jack swing and was applied to artists such as Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat, Al B. Guy, Jodeci and Bell Biv DeVoe, the style became less popular by the end of the 1990s, but later experienced a resurgence. In 1990 Mariah Carey released Vision of Love as her debut single and it was immensely popular peaking at number 1 in many worldwide charts including the Billboard Hot 100, and it propelled Mariahs carrier. The song is said to have popularized the use of melisma. During the mid-1990s, Whitney Houstons The Bodyguard, Original Soundtrack Album sold over 40 million copies becoming the best-selling soundtrack of all time. Janet Jacksons self-titled fifth studio album janet. which came after her historic multimillion-dollar contract with Virgin Records, sold over twenty million copies worldwide. Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey recorded several Billboard Hot 100 No.1 hits, including One Sweet Day, Carey also released a remix of her 1995 single Fantasy, with Ol Dirty Bastard as a feature, a collaboration format that was unheard of at this point. Carey, Boyz II Men and TLC released albums in 1994 and 1995—Daydream, II and CrazySexyCool. In the late 1990s, neo soul, which added 1970s soul influences to the hip hop soul blend, arose, led by such as DAngelo, Erykah Badu. Hill and Missy Elliott further blurred the line between R&B and hip hop by recording both styles, beginning in 1995, the Grammy Awards enacted the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, with II by Boyz II Men becoming the first recipient. The award was received by TLC for CrazySexyCool in 1996, Tony Rich for Words in 1997, Erykah Badu for Baduizm in 1998. At the end of 1999, Billboard magazine ranked Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson as the first, simultaneously, in the second half of the 1990s, The Neptunes and Timbaland set influential precedence on contemporary R&B and hip hop music. R&B acts such as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Usher, in 2001, Alicia Keys released Fallin as her debut single. It peaking at one on the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Top 40
5.
Soul music
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Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It combines elements of African-American gospel music, rhythm and blues, Soul music became popular for dancing and listening in the United States, where record labels such as Motown, Atlantic and Stax were influential during the Civil Rights Movement. Soul also became popular around the world, directly influencing rock music, catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps and extemporaneous body moves, are an important feature of soul music. Other characteristics are a call and response between the lead vocalist and the chorus and a tense vocal sound. The style also occasionally uses improvisational additions, twirls and auxiliary sounds, Soul music reflected the African-American identity and it stressed the importance of an African-American culture. The new-found African-American consciousness led to new styles of music, which boasted pride in being black, Soul music dominated the U. S. R&B chart in the 1960s, and many recordings crossed over into the pop charts in the U. S. By 1968, the music genre had begun to splinter. Some soul artists developed funk music, while other singers and groups developed slicker, more sophisticated, by the early 1970s, soul music had been influenced by psychedelic rock and other genres, leading to psychedelic soul. The United States saw the development of neo soul around 1994, there are also several other subgenres and offshoots of soul music. The term soul had been used among African-American musicians to emphasize the feeling of being an African-American in the United States, according to another source, Soul music was the result of the urbanization and commercialization of rhythm and blues in the 60s. The phrase soul music itself, referring to music with secular lyrics, is first attested in 1961. The term soul in African-American parlance has connotations of African-American pride, gospel groups in the 1940s and 1950s occasionally used the term as part of their name. The jazz style that derived from gospel came to be called soul jazz, important innovators whose recordings in the 1950s contributed to the emergence of soul music included Clyde McPhatter, Hank Ballard, and Etta James. Ray Charles is often cited as popularizing the genre with his string of hits starting with 1954s I Got a Woman. Singer Bobby Womack said, Ray was the genius and he turned the world onto soul music. Charles was open in acknowledging the influence of Pilgrim Travelers vocalist Jesse Whitaker on his singing style, little Richard and James Brown were equally influential. Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson are also acknowledged as soul forefathers. Cooke became popular as the singer of gospel group The Soul Stirrers
6.
Disc jockey
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A disc jockey is a person who mixes different sources of pre-existing recorded music as it is playing, usually for a live audience in a nightclub or dance club or via broadcasting. DJs typically perform for an audience in a nightclub or dance club or a TV, radio broadcast audience, or in the 2010s. DJs also create mixes, remixes and tracks that are recorded for later sale, in hip hop music, DJs may create beats, using percussion breaks, basslines and other musical content sampled from pre-existing records. In hip hop, rappers and MCs use these beats to rap over, DJs use equipment that can play at least two sources of recorded music simultaneously and mix them together. This allows the DJ to create seamless transitions between recordings and develop unique mixes of songs, DJ equipment, notably the specialized DJ mixer, a small audio mixer with a crossfader and cue functions. The crossfader enables the DJ to blend or transition from one song to another, the cue knobs or switches allow the DJ to preview a source of recorded music in headphones before playing it for the live club or broadcast audience. Previewing the music in headphones helps the DJ pick the track they want to play. DJs may also use a microphone to speak to the audience, effects such as reverb to create sound effects, drum machines. The title DJ is also used by DJs in front of their real names or adopted pseudonyms or stage names as a title to denote their profession. Some DJs focus on creating a mix of songs for the club dancers or radio audience. Other DJs use turntablism techniques such as scratching, in which the DJ or turntablist manipulates the record player turntable to create new sounds. In many types of DJing, including club DJing and radio/TV DJing, there are several types of disc jockey. Radio DJs or radio personalities introduce and play music that is broadcast on AM, FM, club DJs select and play music in bars, nightclubs or discothèques, or at parties, raves, or even in stadiums. Mobile DJs travel with portable sound systems and play recorded music at a variety of events. Some mobile DJs also serve as the master of ceremonies at weddings or other events, directing the attention of attendees, there are also many competitions for DJs that specialize in different turntablism techniques, such as mixing, hip hop music-style scratching or other kinds of techniques. Other types of DJ use musical performance techniques that allow them to be categorized as performing musicians, hip hop DJs and are also often songwriters or music producers who use turntablism and sampling to create backing instrumentals for new tracks. In reggae, the DJ is a vocalist who raps, toasts, chants or chats over pre-recorded rhythm tracks, the individual who helps the DJ by selecting tracks or records to be played is called the selector. Many electronica artists and producers who work as DJs often perform music by combining turntablism with keyboards, digital musical instruments
7.
Jive Records
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Jive Records was an American record label under the RCA Music Group formed in 1981 by Zomba Records. Formerly headquartered in New York City, the label was best known for a string of successes with hip hop artists in the 1980s, and also in teen pop and boy bands during the 1990s, jIVEs best-selling artists worldwide were the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, and Britney Spears. Today, the Jive brand is being used under the Sony Music France division under the name JIVE Epic France. In 1971, South African musicians Clive Calder and Ralph Simon began a publishing and it was named Zomba Records and relocated to London, England, four years later, their first client was a young Robert Mutt Lange. Zomba originally wanted to record labels, choosing instead to focus on their songwriters and producers while allowing other established labels to release the material. Later that decade, the opened offices in the US. In 1981, Zomba formed JIVE Records, whose operations began with the release of British dance and pop music such as Q-Feel, A Flock of Seagulls and its name was inspired by township JIVE, a type of music that originated in South Africa. Davis had hoped that Zombas connection with Mutt Lange would help alleviate the difficulties Arista was having finding potentially successful rock acts. By 1982, Calder was introduced to Barry Weiss, a college graduate who took Calder out to hip-hop clubs in New York City for his job interview with Zomba. He was immediately impressed, Together, they began grooming musicians for what would eventually become Whodini, after two days, the group created and recorded its hit single Magics Wand. While the group would eventually leave JIVE, the success allowed the label to focus on hip-hop artists throughout the 1980s. In 1987, JIVE cut distribution ties with Arista, effectively separating them from Daviss authority, who eschewed hip-hop. As the 1980s drew to a close, the label entered a deal with RCA Records, by the late 1990s, JIVE began signing pop acts Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, and Britney Spears. All three achieved massive success as the 2000s dawned, becoming the three best-selling acts in the labels history, in 1991, Barry Weiss became CEO and president of JIVE Records. After two decades, he left JIVE in March 2011 for Universal Music Group, the company was later reorganized with some artists moving to a restructured Epic Records, while others stayed with JIVE as it moved under the RCA Music Group. In April 2011, it was reported that Jay-Z had outbid executives at JIVE to acquire independent record label Block Starz Music. On October 7,2011, it was announced that JIVE, along with Arista and J Records would be shut down to refresh, all artists on those labels were moved to RCA Records. JIVE Records remains active in France as JIVE Epic, serving as the label for international pop
