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.
Kate Bush
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Catherine Kate Bush, CBE is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. She has since released twenty-five UK Top 40 singles, including the top ten hits The Man with the Child in His Eyes, Babooshka, Running Up That Hill, Dont Give Up and King of the Mountain. She has released ten albums, all of which reached the UK Top 10, including the UK number-one albums Never for Ever. She is the first British solo female artist to top the UK album charts, Bush has received widespread critical acclaim for her eclectic and idiosyncratic music as well as her theatrical performances. She has been nominated 13 times for British Phonographic Industry accolades, during the course of her career, she has also been nominated for three Grammy Awards. In 2002, she was recognised with an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music, Bush was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to music. A diverse range of artists have claimed Bush as an influence on their work, Bush was born in Bexleyheath, Kent, to English medical doctor Robert Bush and Hannah Daly. She was raised as a Roman Catholic in their farmhouse in East Wickham, both brothers were involved in the local folk music scene. One of the instructors, Dave Hazard, later noted in his autobiography that her dance moves seemed to owe something to karate and her familys musical influence inspired Bush to teach herself the piano at the age of 11. She also played the organ in a barn behind her parents house and she soon began writing her own tunes and eventually added lyrics to them. Bush attended St Josephs Convent Grammar School, a Catholic girls school, in Woolwich Road, Abbey Wood, south east London, during this time her family produced a demo tape with over 50 of her compositions, which was turned down by record labels. David Gilmour of Pink Floyd received the demo from Ricky Hopper, a friend of Gilmour. Impressed with what he heard, Gilmour helped the sixteen-year-old Bush get a more professional-sounding demo tape recorded that would be more saleable to the record companies, three tracks in total were recorded and paid for by Gilmour. The tape was produced by Gilmours friend Andrew Powell, who would go on to produce Bushs first two albums, and sound engineer Geoff Emerick, the tape was sent to EMI executive Terry Slater. Slater was impressed by the tape and signed her, the British record industry was reaching a point of stagnation. Progressive rock was popular and visually oriented rock performers were growing in popularity. Bush was put on retainer for two years by Bob Mercer, managing director of EMI group-repertoire division. According to Mercer he felt Bushs material was good enough to be released but felt if the album failed it would be demoralising
3.
Hounds of Love
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Hounds of Love is the fifth studio album by English singer-songwriter and musician Kate Bush, released by EMI Records on 16 September 1985. It was a success and marked a return to the public eye for Bush after the relatively poor sales of her previous album. In the US, it reached the top 40 on the Billboard 200, the second side, subtitled The Ninth Wave, forms a conceptual suite about a person drifting alone in the sea at night. Hounds of Love received critical acclaim on its release and in retrospective reviews and it is considered by many fans and music critics to be Bushs best album, and has been regularly voted one of the greatest albums of all time. The album was nominated at the 1986 BRIT Awards for Best Album, where Bush was also nominated for the awards for Best Producer, Best Female Artist, and for Best Single. Following the disappointing sales of Bushs fourth album, The Dreaming, I finished my last album, did the promotion, then found myself in a kind of limbo, she later explained. It took me four or five months to be able even to write again and its very difficult when youve been working for years, doing one album after another. You need fresh things to stimulate you, thats why I decided to take a bit of the summer out and spend time with my boyfriend and with my family and friends, just relaxing. Not being Kate Bush the singer, just being myself, in the summer of 1983, Bush built her own 48-track studio in the barn behind her family home which she could use any time she liked. Bush began recording demos for Hounds of Love in January 1984, rather than re-record music, she took the demos and enhanced them during the recording sessions. After five months, she began overdubbing and mixing the album in a process took a year. The recording sessions included use of the Fairlight CMI synthesiser, piano, traditional Irish instruments, the chorale in Hello Earth is a segment from the traditional Georgian song Tsintskaro, performed by the Richard Hickox Singers. The lines Its in the trees, from the beginning of the title track are sampled from a seance scene from the 1957 British horror film Night of the Demon, spoken by actor Maurice Denham. The album was produced as two suites - side one being Hounds of Love and side two a seven-track concept piece, The Ninth Wave, Bush described it as being about a person who is alone in the water for the night. Its about their past, present and future coming to keep awake, to stop them drowning. On 5 August 1985 Bush performed the new single Running Up That Hill on Terry Wogans BBC1 chat show Wogan, the single entered the UK singles chart at number 9 and ultimately peaked at number 3, becoming Bushs second highest charting single. The album launch party was held at the London Planetarium on 5 September 1985, the invited guests were treated to a playback of the entire album while watching a laser show inside the Planetarium. Hounds of Love was released 16 September 1985 by EMI Records on vinyl, XDR cassette and it entered the UK album chart at number one, knocking Madonnas Like a Virgin from the top position
4.
A-side and B-side
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The terms A-side and B-side refer to the two sides of 78,45, and 33 1/3 rpm phonograph records, whether singles, extended plays, or long-playing records. Creedence Clearwater Revival had hits with both A-side and B-side releases, others took the opposite approach, producer Phil Spector was in the habit of filling B-sides with on-the-spot instrumentals that no one would confuse with the A-side. With this practice, Spector was assured that airplay was focused on the side he wanted to be the hit side, the earliest 10-inch,78 rpm, shellac records were single sided. Double-sided recordings, with one song on side, were introduced in Europe by Columbia Records. There were no record charts until the 1930s, and radio stations did not play recorded music until the 1950s, in this time, A-sides and B-sides existed, but neither side was considered more important, the side did not convey anything about the content of the record. The term single came into use with the advent of vinyl records in the early 1950s. At first, most record labels would randomly assign which song would be an A-side, under this random system, many artists had so-called double-sided hits, where both songs on a record made one of the national sales charts, or would be featured on jukeboxes in public places. As time wore on, however, the convention for assigning songs to sides of the record changed. By the early sixties, the song on the A-side was the song that the company wanted radio stations to play. It was not until 1968, for instance, that the production of albums on a unit basis finally surpassed that of singles in the United Kingdom. In the late 1960s stereo versions of pop and rock songs began to appear on 45s. The majority of the 45s were played on AM radio stations, by the early 1970s, double-sided hits had become rare. Album sales had increased, and B-sides had become the side of the record where non-album, non-radio-friendly, with the advent of cassette and compact disc singles in the late 1980s, the A-side/B-side differentiation became much less meaningful. With the decline of cassette singles in the 1990s, the A-side/B-side dichotomy became virtually extinct, as the dominant medium. However, the term B-side is still used to refer to the tracks or coupling tracks on a CD single. With the advent of downloading music via the Internet, sales of CD singles and other media have declined. B-side songs may be released on the record as a single to provide extra value for money. There are several types of material released in this way, including a different version, or, in a concept record
5.
7" vinyl
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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
6.
12-inch single
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The 12-inch single is a type of gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time compared to typical LPs. This allows for levels to be cut on the disc by the cutting engineer, which in turn gives a wider dynamic range. This record type is used in disco and dance music genres. They are played at either 33 1⁄3 or 45 rpm, 12-inch singles typically have much shorter playing time than full-length LPs, thus require fewer grooves per inch. This extra space permits a broader dynamic range or louder recording level as the grooves excursions can be greater in amplitude. Many record companies began producing 12-inch singles at 33 1⁄3 rpm, although 45 rpm gives better treble response and was used on many 12-inch singles, the gramophone records cut especially for dance-floor DJs came into existence with the advent of recorded Jamaican mento music in the 1950s. With the 1967 Jamaican invention of remix, called dub on the island, those specials became valuable items sold to allied sound system DJs, who could draw crowds with their exclusive hits. The popularity of sound engineer King Tubby, who singlehandedly invented and perfected dub remixes from as early as 1967. By then 10-inch records were used to cut those dubs, by 1971, most reggae singles issued in Jamaica included on their B-side a dub remix of the A-side, many of them first tested as exclusive dub plates on dances. Those dubs basically included drum and bass-oriented remixes used by sound system selecters, the 10-inch acetate specials would remain popular until at least the 2000s in Jamaica. Most likely, the use of exclusive dub acetates in Jamaica also led American DJs to do the same. In the United States, the 12-inch single gramophone record came into popularity with the advent of music in the 1970s after earlier market experiments. In early 1970, Cycle/Ampex Records test-marketed a 12-inch single by Buddy Fite, the experiment aimed to energize the struggling singles market, offering a new option for consumers who had stopped buying traditional singles. The record was pressed at 33 rpm, with run times to the 7-inch 45-rpm pressing of the single. Several hundred copies were available for sale for 98 cents each at two Tower Records stores. Another early 12-inch single was released in 1973 by soul/R&B musician/songwriter/producer Jerry Williams, 12-inch promotional copies of Straight From My Heart were released on his own Swamp Dogg Presents label, with distribution by Jamie/Guyden Distribution Corporation. It was manufactured by Jamie Record Co. of Philadelphia, PA, the B-side of the record is blank. The first 12-inch single made specifically for DJs was actually a 10-inch acetate used by a mix engineer in need of a Friday-night test copy for famed disco mixer Tom Moulton, the song was Ill be holding on by Al Downing
7.
Baroque pop
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Baroque pop is a pop music subgenre that fuses classical music, orchestral pop, rock, and Baroque music. It is identifiable for its use of melodies, functional harmony patterns. The genre emerged in the 1960s after pop musicians and record producers began placing the harpsichord in the foreground of their arrangements, other typical baroque pop instrumentation includes string sections, French horns, and oboes. Baroque pops mainstream popularity faded by the 1970s, partially because punk rock, disco and hard rock took over, nonetheless, music was still produced within the genres tradition. Philadelphia soul in the 1970s and chamber pop in the 1990s both incorporated the spirit of baroque pop while the latter contested much of the low fidelity musical aesthetic. Baroque pop, stylistically, fuses elements of rock with classical music, often incorporating layered harmonies, strings and its prominent characteristics are the use of contrapuntal melodies and functional harmony patterns. It was intended to be a serious and mature outgrowth of rock music. English baroque is used by journalist Bob Stanley to describe a subset that existed between 1968 and 1973, starting in the 1960s, pop musicians and record producers like Phil Spector and the Beach Boys Brian Wilson began placing the harpsichord in the foreground of their arrangements. Harpsichords were widely available in recording studios, and had used in popular music since as early as the 1940s. One of the first pop hits to use a harpsichord was the Jamies Summertime, Summertime. Later examples range from the Beach Boys I Get Around and When I Grow Up to the Righteous Brothers Youve Lost That Lovin Feelin and the Mamas & the Papas Monday, Monday. The Boston Globes Matthew Guerriri speculates that the harpsichord may have been desirable for its buzzing, stinging timbre, slates Forrest Wickman credits Wilson and the Beatles producer, George Martin, as some of the men most responsible for the move into baroque pop. Along with Burt Bacharach, Spector had melded pop music with classical elements before they were melded with rock, writer Andrew Jackson suggests that the era of baroque pop in which rock melded with classical elements was prefaced by the Rolling Stones and Brian Wilson. The Beatles benefited from the music skills of Martin, who played a baroque harpsichord solo on the song In My Life. Author Joe Harrington noted that after its release, many baroque-rock works would soon appear, producer Tommy LiPuma believed, Once the Beatles featured that harpsichord sound on In My Life, pop producers began working it in. The genre is traced to the United States and the United Kingdom, by early 1966, various groups began using baroque and classical instrumentation, described as a baroque rock movement by Gendron. The Zombies single Shes Not There marked a point for British baroque pop. Stanley explains that the song didnt feature any oboes but stuck out rather dramatically in 1964, Shes Not There would inspire New York musician Michael Brown to form the Left Banke, whose song Walk Away Renée is considered by Stanley to be the first recognizable baroque pop single
8.
Art rock
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Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from teen entertainment to an artistic statement, influences may be drawn from genres such as experimental rock, avant-garde music, classical music, and jazz. The genres greatest level of popularity was in the early 1970s through British artists, art rock is most associated with a certain period of rock music, beginning in 1966–67 and ending with the arrival of punk in the mid 1970s. After, the genre would be infused within later popular music genres of the 1970s–90s, in the rock music of the 1970s, the art descriptor was generally understood to mean aggressively avant-garde or pretentiously progressive. Art rock is used synonymously with progressive rock. Historically, the term has been used to describe at least two related, but distinct, types of rock music, art rock emphasizes Romantic and autonomous traditions, in distinction to the aesthetic of the everyday and the disposable embodied by art pop. Common characteristics include album-oriented music divided into compositions rather than songs, with complicated and long instrumental sections. Its music was used within the context of concept records. Compared to progressive rock, art rock is more challenging, noisy and unconventional and less classically influenced, art rock can also to refer to either classically driven rock, or a progressive rock-folk fusion. S. Eliot than to Carl Perkins or Willie Dixon, the boundaries between art and pop music became increasingly blurred throughout the second half of the 20th century. The first usage of the art rock, according to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, was in 1968. As pop musics dominant format transitioned from singles to albums, many rock bands created works that aspired to make grand artistic statements, as it progressed in the late 1960s – in tandem with the development of progressive rock – art rock acquired notoriety alongside experimental rock. According to biographer Richard Williams, created a new concept, the producer as overall director of the creative process, Spector transformed rock music as a performing art to an art which could only exist in the recording studio, which paved the way for art rock. The Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson is also cited as one of the first examples of the music producer. Like Spector, Wilson was known as an eremitic studio obsessive who laboriously produced fantastical soundscapes through his mastery of recording technology. Biographer Peter Ames Carlin wrote that Wilson was the forerunner of a new kind of art-rock that would combine the transcendent possibilities of art with the accessibility of pop music. According to journalist Richard Goldstein, many musicians from California desired to be acknowledged as artists. They yearned for fame, as only needy people can, but they wanted to make art
