1.
Mixtape
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A mixtape is a home-made compilation of music recorded in a specific order, traditionally onto a cassette tape, though later replaced by CD or MP3 playlist formats. The songs can be sequential, or by beatmatching the songs and creating overlaps, compilations may include a selection of favorite songs, or music linked by theme or mood, perhaps tailored to the tapes intended recipient. Writing in 2004, essayist Geoffrey OBrien called the mix tape perhaps the most widely practiced American art form. Homemade mix tapes became common in the 1980s, but improvements in fidelity finally allowed the cassette to become a major player. The growth of the mixtape was also encouraged by improved quality and increased popularity of audio players in car entertainment systems. These recordings tended to be of technical ability than home-made mixtapes. One 12 October 1974 article in Billboard Magazine reported, Tapes were originally dubbed by jockeys to serve as standbys for times when they did not have disco turntables to hand, the tapes represent each jockeys concept of programming, placing, and sequencing of record sides. The music is heard without interruption, one- to three-hour programs bring anywhere from $30 to $75 per tape, mostly reel-to-reel, but increasingly on cartridge and cassette. Club proprietors, as well as DJs, would often prepare such tapes for sale, throughout the 1980s, mixtapes were a highly visible element of youth culture. The high point of traditional culture was arguably the publication of Nick Hornbys novel High Fidelity in 1995. Some mix enthusiasts also appreciate the potential of the mix CD for extended, continuous mixes, MP3 players have further enhanced track accessibility, though ones without a screen defeat that purpose. Today, websites concerned with electronic music provide mixes in a digital format and these usually consist of recorded DJ sets of live, beat-matched mixes of songs, which are used by DJs seeking to demonstrate their mixing skills to an online audience. Some radio shows worldwide specialize in mix series, including The Breezeblock on BBC Radio 1, The Solid Steel Show, and Eddy Temple-Morris/The Remix on Xfm. Additionally, DJs such as Grandmaster Flash, DJ QBert, DJ Spooky, DJ Z-Trip or DJ Shadow, The Avalanches, and Rjd2 have gained fame for creating new songs by combining fragments of existing songs. This practice is derived from the use of song loops as musical backdrops for an MCs rhymes in hip hop music. Frank Creighton, a director of anti-copyright infringement efforts for the Recording Industry Association of America and this requires the mixtape creator to consider the transitions between songs, the effects caused by juxtaposing a soft song with a loud song, and the overall narrative arc of the entire tape. It also came with an actual CD featuring ten of the songs discussed in the text, many have been so widely distributed that the CDDB has logged and can identify ID3 tags when a disc mix tape is inserted into a PC. In hip hops earliest days, the music existed in live form, so performers music was spread via tapes of parties
2.
The Weeknd
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Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, known professionally as The Weeknd, is a Canadian singer, songwriter and record producer. In late 2010, Tesfaye anonymously uploaded several songs to YouTube under the name The Weeknd and he released three nine-track mixtapes throughout 2011, House of Balloons, Thursday and Echoes of Silence, which were critically acclaimed. In 2012, he released a compilation album Trilogy, thirty tracks consisting of the remastered mixtapes and it was released under Republic Records and his own label XO. In 2013, he released his studio album Kiss Land. The songs have held the top three spots on the Billboard Hot R&B Songs chart, making him the first artist in history to achieve this. The Weeknd has won two Grammy Awards and nine Juno Awards, in September 2016, the release of the third album Starboy was announced along with the release of the title track single Starboy, which subsequently reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Abel Makkonen Tesfaye was born on 16 February 1990, in Scarborough, Ontario and he is the only child of Makkonen and Samra Tesfaye, who were Ethiopian migrants to Canada in the 1980s. He was raised in Scarborough, a neighborhood within the city. During his youth, his mother would work several jobs to support the family, often as a nurse and caterer, while also attending night school. His father later abandoned the family, prompting his grandmother to take care for him and his paternal cousin Issam Nazar. This allowed him to become fluent in Amharic, with the Semitic language acting as his first language and she would also take him to services at an Ethiopian Orthodox church. He started smoking marijuana at age 11, and later moved on to hard drugs, describing his teenage years as KIDS without the AIDS, he would shoplift from the local supermarket with his cousin Issam, and began using MDMA, Xanax, cocaine, psilocybin and ketamine. He attended West Hill Collegiate Institute and Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute, the spelling was modified to avoid trademark issues with the Canadian band The Weekend. Tesfaye met producer Jeremy Rose, who had an idea for a dark R&B musical project called The Weeknd. After trying to pitch the idea to musician Curtis Santiago, Rose played one of his instrumentals for Tesfaye, who freestyled over it, and they began working on an album. He produced three songs – What You Need, Loft Music, and The Morning – and others that Tesfaye rapped on, Rose let Tesfaye keep the tracks he had produced under the condition that he would ultimately be credited for them. However, in December 2010, Tesfaye uploaded What You Need, Loft Music and The Morning to YouTube under the name The Weeknd, though his identity was initially unknown. The songs drew attention online through word of mouth, including a blog featuring the songs posted by rapper Drake and they subsequently received coverage from outlets such as Pitchfork Media and The New York Times
3.
Alternative R&B
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Alternative R&B is a term used by music journalists to describe a stylistic alternative to contemporary R&B. Alternative R&B was once used by the industry during the late 1990s to market neo soul artists, such as DAngelo, Erykah Badu. There has been a variety of discussion about the differing genre terms, the term hipster R&B has been commonly used, as has the term PBR&B—a combination of PBR and R&B. The first use of PBR&B was on Twitter by Sound of the City writer Eric Harvey on a March 22,2011 post, three years later, amazed and distressed at how far the term—meant as a joke—had traveled, Harvey wrote an extensive essay about it for Pitchfork. The genre has sometimes been called noir&B, however, the terms are often criticized for pigeonholing artists into hipster subculture and being used in a derisive manner. Brandon Neasman of The Grio observes a changing of the guard in R&B, from the smooth, cool heartthrobs to these vulnerable, additionally, for the most part, it doesnt feel as if these artists are selling sex as their main entrée. Granted, they sing about the topic, and in explicit detail. You don’t get that same diversity in subject matter from the majority of modern R&B singers, hermione Hoby of The Guardian writes that the music is quietly radical and observes an ongoing, mutually enriching dialogue between indie and electronic musicians and R&B artists. Gerrick D. Kennedy of the Los Angeles Times feels that the new movement feels like the most significant stylistic change in R&B since neo soul rolled around in the 1990s, janet Jacksons sixth studio album The Velvet Rope is cited as one the genres stylistic origins. Frank Ocean states that he does not like being called an R&B musician, how to Dress Well was not offended by the term PBR&B, but found it tacky. Miguel has said that he is comfortable with the term indie R&B because it insinuates a higher art, or a deeper or somehow more artistic delivery of rhythm and blues music. It suggests theres more artistry within a genre that has more of a cliche of itself. Eric Harvey, the writer who coined the term, wrote a response to its proliferation. FKA Twigs does not like the term, she told The Guardian Fuck alternative R&B. She finds the term racially charged, When I first released music and no one knew what I looked like, I would read comments like, Ive never heard anything like this before, and then my picture came out six months later, now shes an R&B singer. Stereogum described the genre as a fad that reached its point in early 2014. List of alternative R&B artists Hipster hop Neo soul Abebe, Nitsuh, PBR&B – A subgenre is born. Love vs. Money, The Weeknd, Frank Ocean, and R&Bs Future Shock
4.
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
5.
Cirkut
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The Cirkut is a rotating panoramic camera, of the type known as full rotation. It was patented by William J. Johnston in 1904, and was manufactured by Rochester Panoramic Camera Company starting in 1905, during that same year, manufacture of the camera continued through 1949. 16, named according to the width of the film accepted. The length of film, varied by model also, ranging up to 18 feet for the No,16, yielding a single negative with an area of more than 24 square feet. Thus, the content of Cirkut images can be in the gigapixel range. The camera captured an image by pivoting horizontally, while a roll of film moved across the film plane. The Attachment in itself is much like an ordinary Cartridge Roll Holder in that it is made to use Eastman Daylight-loading Cartridge Film, a complete circle of 360 degrees may thus be photographed if desired. There is an indicator on the top of the Film Holder showing the quantity of film exposed. By another very ingenious arrangement one is enabled to determine before exposure is made how long a photograph the view decided on will be
6.
Illangelo
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He released his debut concept album History of Man on August 20,2013 under his label Hear the Art Inc. Illangelo released a single titled What The Fuss on February 18,2014, earlier that month, he released a series of demos from the pre-House Of Balloons era on his Bandcamp page. On May 2,2014, Illangelo collaborated with the Sydney trio Movement on their self titled debut EP, additionally Like Lust and Ivory went on receive back to back Best New Track on Pitchfork. Illangelo released his single Clockwork, featuring vocalist Phlo Finister, on May 12,2014, shortly after he released a video with Los Angeles filmmaker Lance Drake that is as stunning and futuristic as the original composition. It has since gotten Staff Picked on Vimeo, in an interview with Earmilk on July 1,2014, Illangelo announced that he and Phlo Finister had created a band together called Youthquaker. The groups first release Projections, containing 3 songs, was released via a BitTorrent Bundle, the songs were downloaded over 900,000 times in the first week of release. Zambony – Producer, Engineer & Mixing 03, Night Flight – Producer, Engineer & Mixing 04. Born To Be – Producer, Engineer & Mixing 05, maybe – Producer, Engineer & Mixing 07. Ice Age – Producer, Engineer & Mixing 08, la Rude, Lord of the Flies – Producer, Engineer & Mixing 09. Gold Ribbons – Producer, Engineer & Mixing 11, Party & Bullshit – Producer, Engineer & Mixing 12. Gorgeous Flaws – Producer, Engineer & Mixing 01, high For This – Mixing Engineer 02. What You Need – Mixing Engineer 03, house of Balloons / Glass Table Girls – Producer & Engineer, Mixing 04. The Morning – Producer & Engineer, Mixing 05, wicked Games – Producer & Engineer, Mixing 06. The Party & The After Party – Engineer, Mixing 07, coming Down – Producer & Engineer, Mixing 08. Loft Music – Additional Instrumentation & Engineer, Mixing 09, the Knowing – Producer & Engineer, Mixing Trust Issues – Producer & Engineer, Mixing 01. Lonely Star – Producer & Engineer, Mixing 02, life of the Party – Producer & Engineer, Mixing 03. Thursday – Producer & Engineer, Mixing 04, the Zone – Producer & Engineer, Mixing 05. The Birds – Producer & Engineer, Mixing 06, the Birds – Producer & Engineer, Mixing 07
7.
Thursday (album)
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Thursday is the second mixtape by Canadian singer The Weeknd, independently released on August 19,2011. It follows his critically acclaimed, Polaris Music Prize-nominated debut mixtape House of Balloons and its music incorporates downtempo, dubstep, dream pop, hip hop, rock and reggae styles. As with his previous works, Canadian record producers Doc McKinney, Young Money artist Drake contributes guest vocals to the track The Zone. Thursday received generally positive reviews critics, who drew comparisons to House of Balloons. Rolling Stone and The Birds Part 1 were released as singles to precede the mixtapes release. Thursday was later remastered and packaged with The Weeknds compilation album Trilogy, Thursday received generally positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications. Club said, Its a rare songwriter who can craft music thats so repellent yet also so irresistible, alex Young of Consequence of Sound said, Despite the ridiculously high highs of this album, it fails to maintain a great pace throughout. It struggles back and forth between good and great, whereas its foregoer grabbed great by the balls on the first track and never let go. Benjamin Boles of Now said, Its not quite perfect, his voice is the star of the show but is buried under the clever beats. But thats a small complaint about someone whos looking more and more one of the most exciting artists to emerge this year. Brandon Soderberg of Pitchfork said, Though theres less breathing space on Thursday, BBC Musics Mike Diver made a positive review, saying, File him beside Frank Ocean as an R&B star set to climb to new heights in 2012. Matthew Cole of Slant Magazine wrote, The Weeknd is in command of his craft. Hes earned my trust, as would any other artist who had released two of the years best albums. Tyler Fisher of Sputnikmusic said, Listening to something like Thursday is the form of escapism that so many of us flock to music for. Thats a quality that should be celebrated, not criticized for its lack of immediate pleasure, jody Rosen of Rolling Stone gave a mixed review, commenting, While its refreshing to hear an R&B singer emphasizing the psychic toll of libertinism, his angst sex grows tiresome. Once in a while, cant this dude just get laid, all songs were produced by Doc McKinney and Illangelo. Sample credits The Birds Part 2 samples Sandpaper Kisses performed by Martina Topley-Bird
8.
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
9.
Wicked Games
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Wicked Games is the debut single by Canadian singer The Weeknd. It was recorded at Site Sound Studios and mixed at Liberty Studios in Toronto, producers Doc McKinney and Illangelo co-wrote the song and performed all instrumentation. Originally recorded for The Weeknds 2011 mixtape House of Balloons, the song was remastered and released as the single for his 2012 album Trilogy. It was released as a single on October 22,2012, by XO. Upon release, the single received acclaim from music critics. On May 9,2013, Wicked Games was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The music video for Wicked Games premiered on October 18,2012 on The Weeknds YouTube account on Vevo, since its release, the music video has received over 90 million views on YouTube. Credits adapted from liner notes for Trilogy
10.
Twenty Eight (song)
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Twenty Eight is a song by Canadian singer The Weeknd. It was recorded at Site Sound Studios and mixed at Liberty Studios in Toronto, producer Doc McKinney and Illangelo co-wrote the song and performed all instrumentation. The song was one of three tracks included at the end of each of the compilations discs from The Weeknds 2012 album Trilogy. The song was released as the single for the album, released as a digital single on December 10,2012, by XO. Credits adapted from liner notes for Trilogy, the Weeknd – composer, primary artist Doc McKinney – composer, instrumentation, producer Carlo Illangelo Montagnese – composer, instrumentation, mixing, producer
11.
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
12.
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
13.
Trip hop
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Trip hop is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. Trip hop can be highly experimental and it was pioneered by acts like Massive Attack, Tricky, and Portishead. Trip hop achieved commercial success in the 1990s, and has described as Europes alternative choice in the second half of the 90s. DJs, MCs, b-boys and graffiti artists grouped together into informal soundsystems, Bristols soundsystem DJs, drawing heavily on Jamaican dub music, typically used a laid-back, slow and heavy drum beat. Bristols Wild Bunch crew became one of the soundsystems to put a spin on the international phenomenon, helping to birth Bristols signature sound of trip hop. As the hip hop scene matured in Bristol and musical trends evolved further toward acid jazz and house in the late 1980s, another influence came from Gary Clails Tackhead soundsystem. Clail often worked with former The Pop Group singer Mark Stewart, produced by Adrian Sherwood, the music combined hiphop with experimental rock and dub and sounded like a premature version of what later became trip hop. In 1993, Kirsty MacColl released Angel, one of the first examples of the crossing over to pop. In the 1990s, Janet Jackson brought trip hop into the American charts with the song If, several songs on her Janet. and The Velvet Rope used this genre of music, Songs like Got Til Its Gone and You. Massive Attacks first album Blue Lines was released in 1991 to huge success in the UK, Massive Attack released their second album entitled Protection in 1994. The term trip hop was coined that year, but not in reference to anything on the Massive Attack albums, in 1993, Icelandic musician Björk released Debut, produced by Wild Bunch member Nellee Hooper. The album, although rooted in four-on-the-floor house music, contained elements of trip hop and is credited as one of the first albums to introduce electronic music into mainstream pop. She had been in contact with Londons underground electronic music scene and was involved with trip hop musician Tricky. Björk embraced trip hop even more with her 1995 album Post by collaborating with Tricky, homogenic, her 1997 album, has been described as a pinnacle of trip hop music. 1994 and 1995 saw trip hop near the peak of its popularity, with such as Howie B, Naked Funk. The period also marked the debut of two acts who, along with Massive Attack, would define the Bristol scene for years to come, in 1994 Portishead, a trio comprising singer Beth Gibbons, Geoff Barrow, and Adrian Utley, released their debut album Dummy. Their background differed from Massive Attack in many ways, one of Portisheads primary influences was 1960s and 1970s film soundtrack LPs, nevertheless, Portishead shared the scratchy, jazz-sample-based aesthetic of early Massive Attack, and the sullen, fragile vocals of Gibbons also brought them wide acclaim. In 1995, Dummy was awarded the Mercury Music Prize as the best British album of the year, Tricky also released his debut solo album Maxinquaye in 1995, to great critical acclaim
14.
Indie rock
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Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s. Originally used to independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock. In the mid-1980s, the term began to be used to describe the music produced on punk and post-punk labels. Some prominent indie rock record labels were founded during the 1980s, during the 1990s, Grunge bands broke into the mainstream, and the term alternative lost its original counter-cultural meaning. The term indie rock became associated with the bands and genres that remained dedicated to their independent status, by the end of the 1990s indie rock developed subgenres and related styles including lo-fi, noise pop, emo, slowcore, post-rock and math rock. In the 2000s, changes in the industry and in music technology enabled a new wave of indie rock bands to achieve mainstream success. In the early 2000s, a new group of bands played a stripped-down. The commercial breakthrough from these scenes was led by four bands, The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Hives, emo also broke into mainstream culture in the early 2000s. By the end of the 2000s the proliferation of bands was being referred to as indie landfill. The term indie rock, which comes from independent, describes the small and relatively low-budget labels on which it is released, the influences and styles of the artists have been extremely diverse, including punk, psychedelia, post-punk and country. Allmusic identifies indie rock as including a number of varying musical approaches compatible with mainstream tastes, in fact, there is an everlasting list of genres and subgenres of indie rock. Many countries have developed a local indie scene, flourishing with bands with enough popularity to survive inside the respective country. However, there are still indie bands that start off locally, Indie rock has been identified as a reaction against the macho culture that developed in alternative rock in the aftermath of Nirvanas success. However, Cortney Harding pointed out that this sense of equality is not reflected in the number of women running indie labels. The BBC documentary Music for Misfits, The Story of Indie pinpoints the birth of indie as the 1977 self-publication of the Spiral Scratch EP by Manchester band Buzzcocks, Indie pop and indie were originally synonymous. In the mid-1980s, indie began to be used to describe the music produced on post-punk labels rather than the labels themselves. The indie rock scene in the US was prefigured by the rock that dominated college radio playlists. In the United States, the term was associated with the abrasive, distortion-heavy sounds of the Pixies, Hüsker Dü, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr
15.
Dream pop
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Dream pop is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that developed in the 1980s. The style is typified by a preoccupation with atmosphere and texture as much as melody, the AllMusic Guide to Electronica defines dream pop as an atmospheric subgenre of alternative rock that relies on sonic textures as much as melody. Common characteristics are breathy vocals and use of effects, often producing a wall of noise. Dream pop tends to focus on textures and moods rather than propulsive rock riffs, lyrics are often introspective or existential in nature. In the view of music critic Simon Reynolds, dream pop celebrates rapturous and transcendent experiences, often using druggy, according to Rachel Felder, dream pop artists often resist representations of social reality in favor of ambiguous or hallucinogenic experiences. The term dream pop, which is thought to relate to the immersion in the experienced by the listener, was coined in the late 1980s by Alex Ayuli to describe the music of his band A. R. It was later adopted by Simon Reynolds to describe the nascent shoegazing scene in the UK, in the 1990s, dream pop and shoegazing were interchangeable and regionally dependent terms, with dream pop being the name by which shoegazing was known in America. Reynolds described dream pop bands as a wave of hazy neo-psychedelic groups, rolling Stone also described dream pop as originating with the early 1980s work of Cocteau Twins and their contemporaries. PopMatters noted an evolutionary line from gothic rock to dream pop, ambient pop music was described by AllMusic as essentially an extension of the dream pop that emerged in the wake of the shoegazer movement, distinct for its incorporation of electronic textures. According to N. George Harrisons 1970 album All Things Must Pass, with its Wall of Sound and fluid arrangements, led music journalist John Bergstrom to credit it as an influence on dream pop
16.
Toronto
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Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. With a population of 2,731,571, it is the fourth most populous city in North America after Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles. A global city, Toronto is a centre of business, finance, arts, and culture. Aboriginal peoples have inhabited the area now known as Toronto for thousands of years, the city itself is situated on the southern terminus of an ancient Aboriginal trail leading north to Lake Simcoe, used by the Wyandot, Iroquois, and the Mississauga. Permanent European settlement began in the 1790s, after the broadly disputed Toronto Purchase of 1787, the British established the town of York, and later designated it as the capital of Upper Canada. During the War of 1812, the town was the site of the Battle of York, York was renamed and incorporated as the city of Toronto in 1834, and became the capital of the province of Ontario during the Canadian Confederation in 1867. The city proper has since expanded past its original borders through amalgamation with surrounding municipalities at various times in its history to its current area of 630.2 km2. While the majority of Torontonians speak English as their primary language, Toronto is a prominent centre for music, theatre, motion picture production, and television production, and is home to the headquarters of Canadas major national broadcast networks and media outlets. Toronto is known for its skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere. The name Toronto is likely derived from the Iroquois word tkaronto and this refers to the northern end of what is now Lake Simcoe, where the Huron had planted tree saplings to corral fish. A portage route from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron running through this point, in the 1660s, the Iroquois established two villages within what is today Toronto, Ganatsekwyagon on the banks of the Rouge River and Teiaiagonon the banks of the Humber River. By 1701, the Mississauga had displaced the Iroquois, who abandoned the Toronto area at the end of the Beaver Wars, French traders founded Fort Rouillé on the current Exhibition grounds in 1750, but abandoned it in 1759. During the American Revolutionary War, the region saw an influx of British settlers as United Empire Loyalists fled for the British-controlled lands north of Lake Ontario, the new province of Upper Canada was in the process of creation and needed a capital. Dorchester intended the location to be named Toronto, in 1793, Governor John Graves Simcoe established the town of York on the Toronto Purchase lands, instead naming it after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. Simcoe decided to move the Upper Canada capital from Newark to York, the York garrison was constructed at the entrance of the towns natural harbour, sheltered by a long sandbar peninsula. The towns settlement formed at the end of the harbour behind the peninsula, near the present-day intersection of Parliament Street. In 1813, as part of the War of 1812, the Battle of York ended in the towns capture, the surrender of the town was negotiated by John Strachan. US soldiers destroyed much of the garrison and set fire to the parliament buildings during their five-day occupation, the sacking of York was a primary motivation for the Burning of Washington by British troops later in the war
17.
Beach House
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Beach House is an American dream pop band from Baltimore, Maryland, formed in 2004. The band consists of French-born Victoria Legrand and Baltimore native Alex Scally, there were different plant-names, Wisteria, that kind of thing. But, once we stopped trying, it just came out, in an interview with Pitchfork Media, Legrand addressed their two member status, ts a way to challenge ourselves, What do you do when its just the two of you. Ne of the reasons this has been such an experience for me is that with two people, its so much easier to achieve things that feel exciting and new. The song Apple Orchard was featured on a Pitchfork Media MP3 mixtape in August 2006, in October 2006 the bands self-titled debut album, Beach House, was released through Carpark Records. That year, Pitchfork Media ranked it 16th on its Best Albums list, Beach Houses second album, Devotion, was released on February 26,2008. It was received with acclaim and was included in Pitchforks Best Albums of 2008 list. On October 21,2008, the released the single Used to Be. Beach House also recorded a cover of Queens Play the Game for the iTunes Store release of the Red Hot Organizations 2009 compilation, in 2009, Legrand provided backing vocals on the song Two Weeks by the indie rock band Grizzly Bear. She later collaborated with the band again by providing vocals to Slow Life, in October 2010, the band contributed a charity T-shirt for the Yellow Bird Project to raise money for the House of Ruth womens shelter in Maryland, US for victims of domestic violence. Teen Dream, the dynamic and intense third album, was released on Sub Pop on January 26,2010. The album was released in the UK by Bella Union and in Mexico by Arts & Crafts and it contains a newer version of their 2008 single Used to Be. Norway was made available as a download on the bands website on November 17,2009. The album was produced and engineered by Chris Coady, the albums unanimously positive reviews have garnered the band a larger fan base, with Jay-Z and Beyoncé being spotted at the bands shows. I would not want to say that 2010 will be our year, necessarily, I don’t want to be defined by this year, I want it to just be a beginning. The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. On March 7,2012 the band streamed a new song, Myth, the album Bloom was released on May 15,2012 via Sub Pop. A second song from the album, Lazuli, was released on April 13,2012, Beach House was featured on the cover of Issue #80 of the Fader
18.
Aaliyah
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Aaliyah Dana Haughton was an American singer, dancer, actress, and model. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Detroit, at the age of 10, she appeared on the television show Star Search and performed in concert alongside Gladys Knight. At age 12, Aaliyah signed with Jive Records and her uncle Barry Hankersons Blackground Records, Hankerson introduced her to R. Kelly, who became her mentor, as well as lead songwriter and producer of her debut album, Age Aint Nothing but a Number. The album sold three million copies in the United States and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. After facing allegations of a marriage with R. Kelly, Aaliyah ended her contract with Jive. Aaliyah worked with record producers Timbaland and Missy Elliott for her album, One in a Million. In 2000, Aaliyah appeared in her first film, Romeo Must Die and she contributed to the films soundtrack, which spawned the single Try Again. The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 solely on airplay, making Aaliyah the first artist in Billboard history to achieve this goal, Try Again earned Aaliyah a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female R&B Vocalist. After completing Romeo Must Die, Aaliyah filmed her role in Queen of the Damned and she released her third and final album, Aaliyah, in July 2001. On August 25,2001, Aaliyah and eight others were killed in a crash in the Bahamas after filming the music video for the single Rock the Boat. The pilot, Luis Morales III, was unlicensed at the time of the accident and toxicology tests revealed that he had traces of cocaine, Aaliyahs family later filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Blackhawk International Airways, which was settled out of court. Aaliyahs music has continued to achieve success with several posthumous releases. Aaliyah has sold an estimated 24 to 32 million albums worldwide and she has been credited for helping redefine contemporary R&B, pop and hip hop, earning her the nicknames Princess of R&B and Queen of Urban Pop. She is listed by Billboard as the tenth most successful female R&B artist of the past 25 years, Aaliyah Dana Haughton was born on January 16,1979, in Brooklyn, New York, and was the younger child of Diane and Michael Miguel Haughton. She was African American, and had Native American heritage from a grandmother, at a young age, Aaliyah was enrolled in voice lessons by her mother. She started performing at weddings, church choir and charity events, when she was five years old, her family moved to Detroit, Michigan, where she was raised along with her older brother, Rashad. She attended a Catholic school, Gesu Elementary, where in first grade, from then on, she was determined to become an entertainer. In Detroit, her father working in the warehouse business
19.
Rock the Boat (Aaliyah song)
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Rock the Boat is a song by American recording artist Aaliyah. It was written by Static Major, Eric Seats and Rapture Stewart for her 2001 self-titled album Aaliyah, Rock the Boat was released as a single in January 2002 in the United States and May 2002 in the United Kingdom. Prior to its release as a single, Rock the Boat charted as an album cut, the song stayed on the chart for twenty-five weeks. Aaliyah initially started promotion for the second single More Than a Woman. Rock the Boat was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony, Rock the Boat features an atmospheric groove, hypnotic rhythms, and fluctuating instrumentation such as synthesizer effects. Lyrically, its female narrator instructs a lover on how to please her sexually and equates her erotic high to a drug high, I feel like Im on dope / Explore my body /. The words high and dope were censored on MTV, after making the countdown 65 times, the video was retired and inducted into 106 & Parks Hall of Fame. The follow-up More Than a Woman made the spot after Rock the Boat was retired. Rock the Boat appeared at #2 on the BET, Notarized Top 100 Videos of 2001, on the Billboard Hot 100, the song entered on the chart September 8,2001, at number 57, and peaked at number 14 in its twelfth week. The song stayed on the chart for twenty-five weeks, the song reached the top 20 of Belgium, Netherlands and United Kingdom. Rock the Boat still receives heavy rotation on radio stations among other Aaliyah hits. She also announced that it would be released back-to-back with More Than a Woman, the music video for the song was directed by Hype Williams. Aaliyah appears to be dancing on water, in a CGI scene, the dance routine was choreographed by Aaliyahs close friend Fatima Robinson. Dancers in the video include Carmit Bachar, Denosh Bennett, Nadine Ellis and Electrik Red members Binkie, filming started on August 22,2001, and made its world premiere on BETs Access Granted on October 9,2001. On August 25,2001, Aaliyah and eight others were killed in a crash in the Bahamas after filming the music video for Rock the Boat. The investigation of the found that the plane was over its total gross weight by 700 pounds and was loaded with one more passenger than it was allowed to carry. The pilot, Luis Morales III, was not licensed at the time of the accident, Rock the Boat at Discogs Rock the Boat music video on YouTube Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
20.
Siouxsie and the Banshees
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Siouxsie and the Banshees were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bass guitarist Steven Severin. Initially associated with the English punk rock scene, the band evolved to create a form of post-punk discord full of daring rhythmic and sonic experimentation. With the release of Juju in 1981, the group became an important influence on the emerging gothic rock scene. They disbanded in 1996, with Siouxsie and drummer Budgie continuing to record music as the Creatures, in 2004, Siouxsie began a solo career. Siouxsie and the Banshees work places highly in both polls and music papers lists. The Times cited the group as one of the most audacious, in 2006, Mojo rated guitarist John McGeoch in their list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time for his work on Spellbound. Siouxsie Sioux and Steven Severin met at a Roxy Music concert in September 1975, at a time when glam rock had faded, from February 1976, Siouxsie, Severin and some friends began to follow an unsigned band, the Sex Pistols. Journalist Caroline Coon dubbed them the Bromley Contingent, as most of them came from the Bromley region of South London, There was no such thing, it was just a bunch of people drawn together by the way they felt and they looked. They were all inspired by the Sex Pistols and their uncompromising attitude, two days later, the pair appeared at the festival held in London on 20 September 1976. With two borrowed musicians at their side, Marco Pirroni on guitar and John Simon Ritchie on drums, while the band intended to split up after the gig, they were asked to play again. Two months later, Siouxsie and Severin recruited drummer Kenny Morris, after playing several gigs in early 1977, the band realised that Fenton did not fit in because he was a real rock guitarist. John McKay finally took his place in July, while the band sold out venues in London in early 1978, they still had problems getting the right recording contract that could give them complete artistic control. Polydor finally offered this guarantee and signed them in June and their first single, Hong Kong Garden, featuring a xylophone motif, reached the top 10 in the UK shortly after. The band released their album, The Scream, in November 1978. Nick Kent of NME said of the record, The band sounds like some unique hybrid of the Velvet Underground mated with much of the ingenuity of Tago Mago-era Can, if any parallel can be drawn. At the end of the article, he added this remark, Certainly, the Banshees second album, Join Hands, was released in 1979. In Melody Maker, Jon Savage described Poppy Day as a short, powerful evocation of the Great War graveyards, the Banshees embarked on a major tour to promote the album. A few dates into the tour in September, Morris and McKay left an in-store signing after an argument, in need of replacements to fulfill tour dates, the Banshees manager called drummer Budgie, formerly with the Slits, and asked him to audition
21.
Happy House
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Happy House is a song by English post-punk band Siouxsie and the Banshees. The song was written by Siouxsie Sioux and Steven Severin and was released in 1980 by record label Polydor as the first single from the third album. Budgie, who was interested in African polyrhythms, used a reggae vibe on the song, Siouxsie stated that the band almost invented a new sound with this single, it was Banshees – phase two. When asked if Happy House was a song, Siouxsie replied. In a way, like television, all the media, it is like adverts, there are mental families really but the projection is everyone smiling, blond hair, sunshine, eating butter without being fat and everyone perfect. Happy House was released on 7 March 1980 by record label Polydor as the first single from the third studio album. The single became the second top 20 hit, peaking at number 17 in the UK Singles Chart. The video was set in a cartoon house made to look fun and happy. Siouxsie explored the house, dressed in a Harlequin outfit while the band supported her, despite the very distinctive guitar riff that is arguably the centrepiece of the song, McGeoch does not feature in the video. Instead Siouxsie occasionally mimics playing the riff with a ukulele, with Severin on bass, the song was later revisited by several acts. The Italian dance act Cappella had a hit single in 1993 with the Eurodance song U Got 2 Know, Cappella was later sued for failure to pay publishing royalties and lost. In 2000, electronic rock band Mindless Self Indulgence sampled the riff on their single Bitches. In 2003, European band Ginger Ale covered the song on their debut album, in 2011, The Weeknd sampled several elements of the original version in his song House of Balloons from the mixtape album of the same name. Pitchfork wrote in their review, Happy House is worked into a softly anthemic slow-burn number full of diva-ish vocals tied to a chilly beat. John McGeochs riff remains untouched and runs throughout most of the track, giving it a filmy pop feel that periodically peaks with a generous swipe from the Happy House chorus
22.
Heaven or Las Vegas
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Heaven or Las Vegas is the sixth album by Scottish band Cocteau Twins, their last for the music label 4AD. In terms of positions, it was the most successful Cocteau Twins album. The closing track of the mixtape Thursday by the Weeknd shares the same title, the song Cherry-Coloured Funk is also sampled by him on the track The Knowing, off his 2011 mixtape House of Balloons. The album is noteworthy for the evolution that the band displayed at the time. The lyrics of vocalist Elizabeth Fraser were more intelligible, many concerned her newborn daughter Lucy Belle, guitarist Robin Guthrie was experiencing problems with drug addiction. As a result of his time in the studio, bassist Simon Raymondes playing was more in the forefront. Thats why we continue to make more – because if we made the record wed sit back and say. We think all our other ones are fucking crap, Im slightly proud of a couple of tracks on a couple of them, but essentially Im really embarrassed about what weve done in the past. Heaven or Las Vegas was released in 1990 by 4AD in the UK, 4AD later reacquired American distribution rights for much of its back catalog, resulting in a 2003 reissue solely on 4AD, which was remastered by Guthrie. The album has received critical acclaim. Heaven or Las Vegas is their finest hour yet, enthused Martin Aston in Q, ten exquisite moments that make Kate Bush – their only possible comparison – sound as airborne as Motörhead. It was listed as the 90th best album of the 1990s by Pitchfork, who complimented Frasers more direct vocals, the album was also included in the 2008 edition of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, and in The Guardians online edition of a similar list. It was considered the bands strongest work since Treasure by AllMusic reviewer Ned Raggett, Heaven or Las Vegas was named by NME as the 28th best album of 1990. Retrospectively, The Observer listed the album as the 97th greatest British album ever made, all songs written by Cocteau Twins. Elizabeth Fraser - vocals Robin Guthrie - guitar Simon Raymonde - bass guitar Andy Rumball - photography Paul West - sleeve design Heaven Or Las Vegas at the Eyesore Database
23.
Cocteau Twins
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Cocteau Twins were a Scottish rock band active from 1979 to 1997. The original members were singer Elizabeth Fraser, guitarist Robin Guthrie, and bassist Will Heggie, the group has earned much critical praise for its innovative, ethereal sound and the distinctive soprano vocals of Fraser, which often seemed to veer into glossolalia and puirt à beul. Guthrie and Heggie, both from Grangemouth, Scotland, formed the band in 1979, at a local disco called Nash they met Fraser, also from Grangemouth, who would eventually provide vocals. The bands influences at the time included The Birthday Party, Sex Pistols, Siouxsie, the band was named after the song The Cocteau Twins by fellow Scotsmen Johnny and the Self-Abusers. Their debut recording, Garlands, was an instant success, as was the subsequent Lullabies EP, around that time, NMEs Don Watson compared the style of the band to gothic rock bands like Gene Loves Jezebel and Xmal Deutschland. While Spin magazines Sue Cummings compared it retrospectively to Siouxsie and the Banshees, in 1983, the band released a second EP, Peppermint Pig. Cocteau Twins sound on their first three recordings relied on the combination of Heggies rhythmic basslines, Guthries minimalist guitar melodies, and Frasers voice. The bands next full-length LP record, Head over Heels, relied solely on the two, following Heggies amicable departure after the tour that followed the release of Peppermint Pig. This led to the growth of the characteristic Cocteau Twins sound, Frasers voice, by turns ethereal and operatic, “The Cocteau Twins are still the best by far at the 4AD ethereal dreamscape, thanks largely to the extraordinary voice of Liz Fraser. Somehow shes found a voice that falls completely outside Rock or Pop, during the TMC sessions, Guthrie and Fraser became acquainted with another project contributor, multi-instrumentalist Simon Raymonde, who joined Cocteau Twins later that year. With Raymonde, the released a series of critically acclaimed albums. These included The Spangle Maker, Treasure, Aikea-Guinea, Tiny Dynamine and Echoes in a Shallow Bay, Raymonde returned to the group for The Moon and the Melodies, a collaboration with ambient composer Harold Budd, which was not released under the Cocteau Twins name. In 1985, 4AD signed an agreement with Relativity Records for distribution of Cocteau Twins releases in the US, to commemorate the event, the compilation The Pink Opaque was released as a way of introducing the new, broader audience to the bands back catalogue. The group released Heaven or Las Vegas in late 1990, the most commercially successful of their many recordings, the album rose to the higher reaches of the UK charts immediately after its release. Despite the success of the record and the subsequent concert tours, in 1991, 4AD and Capitol released a box set that compiled the bands EPs from 1982 to 1990, and also included a bonus disc of rare or previously unreleased material. The bands seventh LP, Four-Calendar Café, was released in late 1993, the two had been in a long-term relationship, and by this time had a young daughter, Lucy-Belle, born in 1989. 1995 saw the release of two new EPs, Twinlights and Otherness, some of the tracks on Twinlights and Otherness were versions of songs from the bands eighth album, Milk & Kisses. The record saw the return of more heavily layered guitars, and Fraser began once again to obscure her lyrics, two singles were taken from the album, Tishbite and Violaine, both exist in two CD versions, with different B-sides included on each
24.
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
25.
The xx
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The xx are an English band formed in 2005 in Wandsworth, London. The group released their album, xx, in August 2009. The album was a commercial and critical success and was ranked highly on many best of 2009 lists, including one on the list compiled by The Guardian. In 2010, the won the Mercury Prize for their debut album. Their second album, Coexist, was released on 10 September 2012, the bands third studio album, I See You, was released on 13 January 2017. The band members met whilst studying at Elliott School, the school that produced Hot Chip, Burial, Four Tet. The group has however downplayed the influence of the school on its career and we were left alone, more than anything – although Im sure that helped us in its own way. Oliver Sim and Romy Madley Croft started the band as a duo when they were 15, guitarist Baria Qureshi joined once it began performing in 2005, with Jamie Smith joining a year after. The album also ranked well on best of the lists, being placed at ninth on the Rolling Stone list. In the 2009 NME The Future 50 list, the xx was positioned at number six, in a first taste of success, its single Crystalised was featured on iTunes as Single of the Week, starting from 18 August 2009. Though the band had worked with producers including Diplo and Kwes. The xx recorded its first album in a garage that was part of the XL Recordings studio, often at night. In August 2009, the band headlined its own concert tour, the xx has toured with artists including Friendly Fires, The Big Pink, and Micachu. In January 2010, Matt Groening chose the band to play at the All Tomorrows Parties festival which he curated in Minehead, in addition, the band played at five of North Americas most popular music festivals, Coachella, Sasquatch, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits. In late 2009, second guitarist and keyboardist Baria Qureshi left the group and it was a decision that me, Romy, and Jamie made. In May 2010, the track Intro was used by the BBC in its coverage of the 2010 general election and this led to the band playing the track on an episode of Newsnight. The track was played before the UEFA Euro 2012 and UEFA Euro 2016 matches at stadiums in Poland, Ukraine. The song was sampled in Rihannas Drunk on Love from her album Talk That Talk and was featured in the movies Its Kind of a Funny Story
26.
Xx (album)
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Xx is the 2009 debut album by English indie pop band the xx. After they signed a contract with XL Recordings, the band recorded the album from December 2008 to February 2009 at the labels studio in London. Audio engineer Rodaidh McDonald worked with the xx during the sessions and strived to reproduce the intimate. The bands Jamie Smith produced xx on his laptop and created electronic beats for the songs, although the xx had been strongly influenced by R&B acts, the album also drew comparisons from critics to alternative rock, electronica, and post-punk sounds. Most of them were sung as duets by Croft and Sim. Xx was released in August 2009 by Young Turks, an imprint of XL and it sold steadily over its first few years of release, becoming a sleeper hit in the United Kingdom and the United States. Although none of its singles became hits, xx benefited commercially from the licensing of its songs to television programs, the record proved highly influential in subsequent years, as its distinctive stylistic elements were incorporated by many indie bands and top-selling pop acts. In 2013, xx was ranked number 237 on NME magazines list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, while students at South Londons Elliott School in 2005, childhood friends Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim formed the xx with Jamie Smith and Baria Qureshi. The band covered Aaliyahs Hot Like Fire, Womack & Womacks Teardrops, after posting the demos on their Myspace page, the xx drew the interest of Young Turks, an imprint label of XL Recordings. They submitted the demos to XLs head office at Ladbroke Grove and were signed to a recording contract. There was a lot of empty space in the xxs music, even then, but we just found that the best stuff was the most sparse. At the behest of XL owner Richard Russell, the xx recorded their album at the labels small. It was once the office buildings rear garage before Russell transformed it at the beginning of 2008 into a makeshift writing, rehearsal. Croft, on the hand, called it a pretty confined space the size of a bathroom. The xx started to record the album in December with McDonald and they would usually record at night after XLs staff had left, which Croft said made it feel isolated and quite creepy. To reproduce the sound he had heard on the demos, McDonald had them write down their instruments settings. Sim, who played a Precision Bass manufactured in the 1970s, was recorded in the hallway outside the studio with a Fender Bassman. Some of Qureshi and Crofts guitars were also done in the hallway, Qureshi played a Gibson SG with a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe or Blues Deluxe amplifier, while Croft played an Epiphone Les Paul on most of the album and a Gibson ES-335 on a few songs
27.
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
28.
Entourage (U.S. TV series)
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Entourage is an American comedy-drama television series that premiered on HBO on July 18,2004 and concluded on September 11,2011, after eight seasons. Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson served as the executive producers. The series deals with themes of friendship and real-life situations in modern-day Hollywood. The show is known for its array of guests, having featured several actors, athletes. According to Mark Wahlberg, Entourage was initially conceived when his assistant asked if he could film Wahlberg and his friends, other reports credit Eric Weinstein, a long-time friend of Wahlberg, with the idea of filming the actors group of friends. However, according to Donnie Carroll, who was the inspiration for the Turtle character and it had originated as a book idea, centered on Carrolls own life and his experiences with Wahlberg, titled From the Hood to Hollywood, A Soldiers Story. Vincent Chase was envisioned to be similar to Wahlberg. A lighter approach was subsequently decided upon and his best friend and manager is Eric Murphy. E, as his friends call him, is based on Mark Wahlbergs friend, hes also been reported to be inspired by Stephen Levinson, Mark Wahlbergs manager. Vincents older half-brother, Johnny Drama Chase, is Vinces personal chef, trainer, Johnny is a C-list actor who was in the fictional show Viking Quest during his younger days. His role in the new hit show Five Towns had begun to resurrect his fame and career. As the show went on, Drama got offers for more and more roles, the show ended with Drama having his own animated TV show called Johnnys Bananas and him landing a new TV movie with the help of Vince. Dramas character is based on Johnny Drama Alves, whom Donnie Wahlberg had hired to keep his brother out of trouble. Rounding out the entourage of friends is Salvatore Turtle Assante, who is another of Vinces old friends from childhood, Turtles official role is as Vinces driver and assistant, though his value as such is often brought into question. This character is based on Wahlbergs former gofer Donnie Carroll aka Donkey, Carroll auditioned for the role, but the Boston native was turned down when it was decided the actors would have to be New Yorkers. Carroll died on December 18,2005, after an asthma attack, Ari Gold is Vinces abrasive but lovable agent. The role has led to several nominations and Emmy Awards for Piven, Ari is based on Wahlbergs real-life agent Ari Emanuel. Connolly, Grenier, Dillon, Ferrara, and Piven are credited in episode in the opening credits of the entire series
29.
Music video
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A music video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. There are also cases where songs are used in tie in marketing campaigns that allow them to more than just a song. Tie ins and merchandising could be used in toys or marketing campaigns for food, although the origins of music videos date back to musical short films that first appeared in the 1920s, they came into prominence in the 1980s when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by terms including illustrated song, filmed insert, promotional film, promotional clip, promotional video, song video. Music videos use a range of styles of contemporary videomaking techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation, music, combining these styles and techniques has become more popular because of the variation it presents to the audience. Many music videos interpret images and scenes from the songs lyrics, other music videos may be without a set concept, being merely a filmed version of the songs live performance. Product placement is a technique in music videos, exemplified by the appearance of the Beats Pill in numerous hip hop videos. In 1894, sheet music publishers Edward B, marks and Joe Stern hired electrician George Thomas and various performers to promote sales of their song The Little Lost Child. Using a magic lantern, Thomas projected a series of images on a screen simultaneous to live performances. This would become a form of entertainment known as the illustrated song. In 1926, with the arrival of many musical short films were produced. Vitaphone shorts featured many bands, vocalists and dancers, early 1930s cartoons featured popular musicians performing their hit songs on-camera in live-action segments during the cartoons. The early animated films by Walt Disney, such as the Silly Symphonies shorts and especially Fantasia, the Warner Brothers cartoons, even today billed as Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, were initially fashioned around specific songs from upcoming Warner Brothers musical films. Live action musical shorts, featuring such performers as Cab Calloway, were also distributed to theaters. Blues singer Bessie Smith appeared in a short film called St. Louis Blues featuring a dramatized performance of the hit song. Numerous other musicians appeared in short musical subjects during this period, soundies, produced and released from 1940 to 1947, were musical films that often included short dance sequences, similar to later music videos
30.
Vimeo
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Vimeo is a video-sharing website in which users can upload, share and view videos. It was the first video sharing site to support high-definition video, Vimeo was founded in November 2004 by Jake Lodwick and Zach Klein. Vimeo was founded in November 2004 by Jake Lodwick and Zach Klein, the name Vimeo was created by Lodwick, as a play on the words video and me. Vimeo is also an anagram of the word movie, IAC purchased Vimeo in August 2006, as part of its acquisition of Connected Ventures. In January 2009, Dae Mellencamp joined IAC as general manager of Vimeo and she served as CEO until March 19,2012, when Kerry Trainor joined Vimeo as CEO. As of December 2013, Vimeo attracts more than 100 million unique visitors per month, fifteen percent of Vimeo’s traffic comes from mobile devices. As of February 2013, Vimeo accounted for 0. 11% of all Internet bandwidth, following fellow video sharing sites YouTube, the community of Vimeo includes indie filmmakers and their fans. The Vimeo community has adopted the name Vimeans, meaning a member of the Vimeo community, usually one who is active, the White House posts high-definition versions of its broadcasts to Vimeo. Vimeo has helped to offload traffic from Improv Everywheres servers after new pranks are announced, Vimeo was also the original location of Noah Kalinas everyday video, a popular viral video. On July 21,2008, Vimeo announced that it would no longer allow gaming videos, Vimeo cited a few reasons, including that the unusually long duration of gaming videos was holding back transcoder wait times, existing gaming videos were deleted on September 1,2008. The ban was lifted in October 2014, until then, all new uploads were subject to the rule, but machinima videos with a story of their own were still permitted. On December 2,2015, Vimeo released an update which will see 4K streaming technology rolling out within the first quarter of 2016, the Vimeo app, available for iOS and Android allows for video playback and limited user account management. On October 9,2007, Vimeo announced support for high definition playback in 1280×720, uploaded HD videos were automatically converted into 720/30p VP6 Flash video. Since August 2010, all videos are encoded into H.264 for HTML5 support, all videos uploaded before were re-encoded. Non-Plus users can upload up to 500 MB of videos per week, non-HD videos re-encode at a maximum of 30 frame/s but suffer in general video image quality, which is inline with the low bitrate for videos in the 640×360 size. Usually the video content is re-encoded to bitrate below 0.5 Mbit/s and this is not enough to reproduce the fine details that can be captured from, e. g. a consumer video camera or a smartphone. Vimeo began its service with free accounts, limited to 20 MB of disk space weekly. This limit was raised to 30 MB in 2006, then to 250 MB in January 2007, in July 2006, Vimeo Plus launched for $44. 95/year
31.
CeeLo Green
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Thomas DeCarlo Callaway, better known by his stage name CeeLo Green, is an American singer, rapper, songwriter, record producer, actor, and businessman. Green came to prominence as a member of the Southern hip hop group Goodie Mob and later as part of the soul duo Gnarls Barkley. Subsequently he embarked on a career, partially spurred by YouTube popularity. Internationally, Green is best known for his work, his most popular was Gnarls Barkleys 2006 worldwide hit Crazy. In the United States, Crazy reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and its parent album St. Elsewhere, was also a hit, peaked at number 1 on the UK Albums Chart and number 4 on the US Billboard 200 albums chart. Gnarls Barkleys second album, The Odd Couple, charted at number 12 on the Billboard 200, in 2010, Green took a hiatus from working with Danger Mouse, and released a solo single titled Fuck You. on August 19. The song became a single, with the radio-edit version Forget You, reaching the top spot in the UK. His next two singles, Its OK and Bright Lights Bigger City were also hits in Europe, from 2011 to 2014, Green was a judge and coach on American reality television singing competition The Voice, appearing on four of its seasons. In 2013, Green reunited with the rest of Goodie Mob, in 2011 he did a concert with Prince in Madison Square Garden. He worked as an actor in the animated feature Hotel Transylvania. Green has endorsed 7 Up, Duracell, M&M’s, and sake brand TY KU and his work has earned numerous awards and accolades, including five Grammy Awards, a BET Award, a Billboard Award, and a Brit Award. Green was born in Atlanta, Georgia and he graduated from high school at Riverside Military Academy, a boarding school for boys in Gainesville, Georgia. Both of his parents were ordained ministers, and he started his career in church. His father died when Green was two years old and his mother, Sheila J. Tyler-Callaway, a firefighter, was paralyzed in a car crash and died two years after the accident when Green was 18. At the time of his mothers death, Greens career with Goodie Mob had just begun taking off, Green also wrote about his mother in the song Guess Who from Goodie Mobs album Soul Food. Along with Big Gipp, T-Mo, and Khujo, Green was an member of the Atlanta hip hop group Goodie Mob. He is the youngest of the four, the Goodie Mob was a part of the Atlanta rap collective the Dungeon Family, which also included Outkast. Goodie Mob appeared on two tracks on OutKasts 1994 debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, with Green providing vocals for Call of da Wild and Git Up, Goodie Mob released their debut album, Soul Food, in 1995
32.
Time travel
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Some ancient myths depict skipping forward in time. The Buddhist Pāli Canon mentions the relativity of time, in the period of our century, one hundred years, only a single day, twenty four hours would have passed for them. The Japanese tale of Urashima Tarō, first described in the Nihongi tells of a fisherman named Urashima Taro who visits an undersea palace. After three days, he returns home to his village and finds himself 300 years in the future, where he has forgotten, his house is in ruins. Early science-fiction stories feature characters who sleep for years and awaken in a changed society. Among them LAn 2440, rêve sil en fût jamais by Louis-Sébastien Mercier, Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving, Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy, prolonged sleep, like the more familiar time machine, is used as a means of time travel in these stories. Decades-long and centuries-long sleep is featured in ancient myths. Like forward time travel, backward time travel has an uncertain origin, the narrator rides to ancient Greece on a hippogriff, meets Aristotle, and goes on a voyage with Alexander the Great before returning to the 19th century. While the narrator waits under a tree for a coach to take him out of Newcastle and he encounters the Venerable Bede in a monastery and explains to him the developments of the coming centuries. However, the story never makes it clear whether these events are real or a dream, charles Dickenss A Christmas Carol has early depictions of time travel in both directions, as the protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge, is transported to Christmases past and future. However, these might be interpreted as visions rather than as time travel because Scrooge experiences the time periods as a rather than as a participant. A clearer example of time travel is found in the popular 1861 book Paris avant les hommes by the French botanist and geologist Pierre Boitard. This may have been the first story to feature an alternate history created as a result of time travel. Early time machines One of the first stories to feature time travel by means of a machine is The Clock that Went Backward by Edward Page Mitchell, however, the mechanism borders on fantasy. An unusual clock, when wound, runs backwards and transports people nearby back in time, the author does not explain the origin or properties of the clock. Enrique Gaspar y Rimbaus El Anacronópete may have been the first story to feature a vessel engineered to travel through time, H. G. Wellss The Time Machine popularized the concept of time travel by mechanical means. In technical papers, physicists generally avoid the language of moving or traveling through time. Movement normally refers only to a change in position as the time coordinate is varied
33.
Science fiction
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Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, and has been called a literature of ideas. Science fiction is difficult to define, as it includes a range of subgenres and themes. Author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying science fiction is what we point to when we say it, a definition echoed by author Mark C. Glassy, who argues that the definition of science fiction is like the definition of pornography, you do not know what it is, in 1970 or 1971William Atheling Jr. According to science fiction writer Robert A, rod Serlings definition is fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science fiction is the improbable made possible, Science fiction is largely based on writing rationally about alternative possible worlds or futures. Science fiction elements include, A time setting in the future, in alternative timelines, a spatial setting or scenes in outer space, on other worlds, or on subterranean earth. Characters that include aliens, mutants, androids, or humanoid robots, futuristic or plausible technology such as ray guns, teleportation machines, and humanoid computers. Scientific principles that are new or that contradict accepted physical laws, for time travel, wormholes. New and different political or social systems, e. g. utopian, dystopian, post-scarcity, paranormal abilities such as mind control, telepathy, telekinesis Other universes or dimensions and travel between them. A product of the budding Age of Reason and the development of science itself. Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan considered Keplers work the first science fiction story and it depicts a journey to the Moon and how the Earths motion is seen from there. Later, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story about a flight to the moon, more examples appeared throughout the 19th century. Wells The War of the Worlds describes an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians using tripod fighting machines equipped with advanced weaponry and it is a seminal depiction of an alien invasion of Earth. In the late 19th century, the scientific romance was used in Britain to describe much of this fiction. This produced additional offshoots, such as the 1884 novella Flatland, the term would continue to be used into the early 20th century for writers such as Olaf Stapledon. In the early 20th century, pulp magazines helped develop a new generation of mainly American SF writers, influenced by Hugo Gernsback, the founder of Amazing Stories magazine. In 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs published A Princess of Mars, the first of his series of Barsoom novels, situated on Mars
34.
High-definition video
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High-definition video is video of higher resolution and quality than standard-definition. While there is no standardized meaning for high-definition, generally any video image with more than 480 horizontal lines or 576 horizontal lines is considered high-definition. 480 scan lines is generally the even though the majority of systems greatly exceed that. Images of standard resolution captured at rates faster than normal, by a camera may be considered high-definition in some contexts. Some television series shot on video are made to look as if they have been shot on film. The first electronic scanning format,405 lines, was the first high definition television system, from 1939, Europe and the US tried 605 and 441 lines until, in 1941, the FCC mandated 525 for the US. In wartime France, René Barthélemy tested higher resolutions, up to 1,042, in late 1949, official French transmissions finally began with 819. In 1984, however, this standard was abandoned for 625-line color on the TF1 network, modern HD specifications date to the early 1980s, when Japanese engineers developed the HighVision 1, 125-line interlaced TV standard that ran at 60 frames per second. The Sony HDVS system was presented at a meeting of television engineers in Algiers, April 1981. HighVision video is still usable for HDTV video interchange, but there is almost no modern equipment available to perform this function, attempts at implementing HighVision as a 6 MHz broadcast channel were mostly unsuccessful. All attempts at using this format for terrestrial TV transmission were abandoned by the mid-1990s, Europe developed HD-MAC, a member of the MAC family of hybrid analogue/digital video standards, however, it never took off as a terrestrial video transmission format. HD-MAC was never designated for video interchange except by the European Broadcasting Union, in essence, the end of the 1980s was a death knell for most analog high definition technologies that had developed up to that time. In the end, however, the DVB standard of resolutions, the FCC officially adopted the ATSC transmission standard in 1996, with the first broadcasts on October 28,1998. In the early 2000s, it looked as if DVB would be the video standard far into the future, high definition video is defined threefold, by, The number of lines in the vertical display resolution. High-definition television resolution is 1,080 or 720 lines, in contrast, regular digital television is 480 lines or 576 lines. However, since HD is broadcast digitally, its introduction sometimes coincides with the introduction of DTV, additionally, current DVD quality is not high-definition, although the high-definition disc systems Blu-ray Disc and the HD DVD are. The scanning system, progressive scanning or interlaced scanning, progressive scanning redraws an image frame when refreshing each image, for example 720p/1080p. Interlaced scanning yields greater image resolution if subject is not moving, the number of frames or fields per second
35.
AnyDecentMusic?
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AnyDecentMusic. is a website that collates album reviews from magazines, websites, and newspaper. It includes music albums, covering rock, pop, electronic, dance, folk, country, roots, reviews are sourced from more than 50 websites, magazines and newspapers, largely from the US and UK, but also from Canada, Ireland and Australia. AnyDecentMusic. was set up in 2009 by Ally Palmer and Terry Watson, the directors of PalmerWatson, on creating the site, Newspapers are our business. Our other passion is music, and weve combined the two things, the sites creators, Palmer and Watson, say, surveys reviews of recent album releases in newspapers and websites and provides a constantly updated chart of critical reaction. Ratings are averaged and albums ranked in a chart intended to give a picture of critical appraisal of current releases. This chart forms the centrepiece of the site, users can also view charts showing rankings over 3 months,6 months or 12 months. It is also possible to view a genre-specific chart, or to exclude genres not of interest, short extracts of the review are provided, with hyperlinks to the original article. Some print-only reviews are included, but not all of these have extracts from the original. Assesses reviews which do not provide a score and assigns what it deems to be an appropriate score, based on the tone. On album review pages, there generally is a link to streaming media such as Spotify. The music website AltSounds was added to the list of sources in November 2012. They announced it by saying, AltSounds has recently joined the tastemaking chart website Any Decent Music, in July 2012, an AnyDecentMusic app was launched within the music streaming service Spotify. This was Spotifys App of the Day on July 19 and it was described by Spotify, Developed from the AnyDecentMusic. According to Palmer and Watson, the focus on the ADM Spotify app is on all genres, from indie to electronic to hip hop. They went on to explain the process of aggregating reviews, Each day we sift through more than 50 music review publications. We reckon it’s a fairly representative spread of sources from the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Ireland, they’re different, but they’re all intelligent, independent and sussed and we think it gives a good cross-section of critical opinion. We are not a review aggregator, automatically sweeping up anything and everything relating to every album release. Everything on ADM has been reviewed, selected and added
36.
Metacritic
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Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of media products, music albums, games, movies, TV shows, DVDs, and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged, Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc Doyle, and Julie Doyle Roberts. The site provides an excerpt from each review and hyperlinks to its source, a color of Green, Yellow or Red summarizes the critics recommendations and therefore the general appeal of the product to reviewers and, to a lesser extent, the public. It is regarded as the game industrys foremost review aggregator. Metacritics scoring converts each review into a percentage, either mathematically from the mark given, before being averaged, the scores are weighted according to the critics fame, stature, and volume of reviews. Metacritic was launched in July 1999 by Marc Doyle, his sister Julie Doyle Roberts, rotten Tomatoes was already compiling movie reviews, but Doyle, Roberts, and Dietz saw an opportunity to cover a broader range of media. They sold Metacritic to CNET in 2005, CNET and Metacritic are now owned by the CBS Corporation. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal wrote in September 2004, Mr. Doyle,36, is now a product manager at CNET. Speaking of video games, Doyle said, A site like ours helps people cut through. unobjective promotional language and he added that the review process was not taken as seriously when unconnected magazines and websites provided reviews in isolation. In August 2010, the appearance was revamped, reaction from users was overwhelmingly negative. Certain publications are given more significance because of their stature, games Editor Marc Doyle was interviewed by Keith Stuart of The Guardian to get a look behind the metascoring process. Stuart wrote, the phenomenon, namely Metacritic and GameRankings, have become an enormously important element of online games journalism over the past few years. The ranging of metascores is, Metacritic is regarded as the foremost online review site for the video game industry. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal has written that Metacritic influence the sales of games and he explains its influence as coming from the higher cost of buying video games than music or movie tickets. Many executives say that low scores can hurt the sales potential. He claimed that a number of businesses and financial analysts use Metacritic as an early indicator of a games potential sales and, by extension. In 2004, Jason Hall of Warner Bros. began including quality metrics in contracts with partners licensing its movies for games, if a product does not at least achieve a specific score, some deals require the publisher to pay higher royalties. In 2008, Microsoft began using Metacritic averages to de-list underperforming Xbox Live Arcade games and these are the top 10 individual games with the highest scores on the site as of 2 April 2017
37.
AllMusic
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AllMusic is an online music guide service website. It was launched in 1991 by All Media Guide which later became All Media Network, AllMusic was launched in 1991 by Michael Erlewine of All Media Guide. The aim was to discographic information on every artist whos made a record since Enrico Caruso gave the industry its first big boost and its first reference book was published the following year. When first released onto the Internet, AMG predated the World Wide Web and was first available as a Gopher site, the AMG consumer web properties AllMusic. com, AllMovie. com and AllGame. com were sold by Rovi in July 2013 to All Media Network, LLC. All Media Network, LLC. was formed by the founders of SideReel. com. The following are contributors to AllMusic, as of this date, All Media Network also produced the AllMusic guide series that includes the AllMusic Guide to Rock, the All Music Guide to Jazz and the All Music Guide to the Blues. Vladimir Bogdanov is the president of the series, in August 2007, PC Magazine included AllMusic in its Top 100 Classic Websites list. All Media Network AllGame AllMovie SideReel All Music Guide to the Blues All Music Guide to Jazz Stephen Thomas Erlewine Official website
38.
The A.V. Club
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Club was initially created in 1993 as a supplemental part of The Onion and had a minimal presence on The Onion’s website in its early years. However, a 2005 website redesign placed The A. V, Club in a more prominent position, allowing its online identity to grow. Unlike its parent publication, The A. V, the publication’s name is a reference to school audiovisual clubs, composed of a bunch of geeks who actually knew how to run the film strip and film projectors. In 1993, five years after the founding of The Onion at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, UWM student Stephen Thompson launched an entertainment section, Club, as part of the newspapers 1995 redesign. Both The Onion and The A. V, Club made their Internet debut in 1996. Club acquired its own Internet domain name in December 1999, in December 2004, Stephen Thompson left his position as founding editor of The A. V. Club website was redesigned in 2005 to incorporate blogs and reader comments, in 2006, concurrent with another redesign, the website shifted its model to begin adding content on a daily, rather than weekly, basis. According to Sean Mills, then-president of The Onion, the A. V, Club website received more than 1 million unique visitors for the first time in October 2007. In late 2009, the website was reported as receiving over 1.4 million unique visitors and 75,000 comments per month, the offending review was removed from The A. V. Club, and then-editor Keith Phipps posted an apology on the website, leonard Pierce, the author of the review, was terminated from his freelance role with the website. At its peak, the print version of The A. V, Club was available in 17 different cities. Localized sections of the website were also maintained, with reviews and news relevant to specific cities, the print version and localized websites were gradually discontinued alongside the print version of The Onion, and in December 2013, publication ceased in the final three markets. On 13 December,2012, long-time writer and editor Keith Phipps and he stated, Onion, Inc. and I have come to a mutual parting of the ways. On 2 April,2013, longtime editor and critic Scott Tobias stepped down from his role as film editor of The A. V. Club stating via Twitter, After 15 great years @theavclub, I step down as Film Editor next Friday. In the comments section of the announcing the departures, writer Noel Murray announced he would also be joining their project. On 30 May,2013, it was announced that the six writers would be a part of the staff of The Dissolve. In April and June 2014, senior staff writers Kyle Ryan, Sonia Saraiya and Todd VanDerWerff left the website for positions at Entertainment Weekly, Salon and Vox Media, in 2015, Ryan returned to Onion, Inc. for a position in development
39.
The Phoenix (newspaper)
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These publications emphasize local arts and entertainment coverage as well as lifestyle and political coverage. The papers are somewhat similar in format and editorial content to the Village Voice, the Phoenix was founded in 1965 by Joe Hanlon, a former editor at MITs student newspaper, The Tech. Since many Boston-area college newspapers were printed at the printing firm, Hanlons idea was to do a four-page single-sheet insert with arts coverage. He began with the Harvard Business Schools newspaper The Harbus News, a student there, James T. Lewis, became Hanlons advertising manager. Boston After Dark began March 2,1966, theater enthusiast Larry Stark began contributing theater reviews with the second issue. When the insert idea did not pan out, the trio continued Boston After Dark as a free paper. A year after the launch, Hanlon sold off his half to Lewis, as the paper expanded, Mindich acquired a half interest. Stark quit in 1972 and began reviewing for the rival Cambridge Phoenix, the first managing editor of the Cambridge Phoenix was April Smith, who later became a novelist and TV writer-producer. Following a two-week writers strike in August 1972, the Cambridge Phoenix was sold to Boston After Dark, in the conflicts between writers and management, ousted writers immediately started another weekly, The Real Paper, while management continued the Boston Phoenix. In 1988, the company owns the Phoenix, Phoenix Media/Communications Group, bought a similar publication in neighboring Rhode Island called the NewPaper. In 1999, PM/CG branched out into Portland, Maine by creating the Portland Phoenix and that same year the nameplate changed from Phoenix B. A. D. to The Boston Phoenix. From 1992 through 2000, there was also a Worcester Phoenix, in 2005, the Phoenix underwent a major redesign, switching from a broadsheet/Berliner format to a tabloid format and introduced a new logo in order to increase its appeal to younger readers. Towards the end of its existence, The Phoenix had a circulation of 253,000. On August 1,2012, it was announced that Stuff Magazine and the Boston Phoenix newspaper would merge, the first issue of the new, glossy-paper Phoenix had a cover date of September 21,2012. On March 14,2013, the announced that the Boston Phoenix would fold effective as of the March 15,2013 print edition, though the Portland. In October 2014, The Phoenix announced that their Providence paper would cease publication. The Boston Phoenix published its last issue on March 14,2013, in November 2014, Mindich sold the Portland Phoenix to the Portland News Club LLC, publishers of The Portland Daily Sun. Although the Daily Sun would cease publication one month later, the Portland Phoenix continues to be published by the new weekly as of 2017
40.
Consequence of Sound
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Consequence of Sound is a Chicago-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music and movies. In addition, the website features the Festival Outlook micro-site. The website takes its name from the Regina Spektor song, Consequence of Sounds. The site was founded in September 2007 by Alex Young—who now has the role of the sites CEO and publisher—and it has a staff of over 50 writers, editors, graphic designers. In February 2012, the website launched a long form writing section, in March 2012, the website launched its first-ever mobile app at South by Southwest. Consequence of Sound is listed as one of the most influential music websites by Technorati, in 2010, About. com ranked Consequence of Sound the years best music blog, based on Technorati rankings and the online buzz throughout the year. In the Spring of 2014, Style of Sound calculated that Consequence of Sound charted as the No.2 Most Influential Music Blog, a popular feature of Consequence of Sound is the Festival Outlook, posting rumors regarding bands playing music festivals. However, it has caused some controversy, in 2009, CoS reported that Paul McCartney and The Killers would headline the 2009 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival prior to its lineup announcement. In 2010, CoS reported that Muse, Jay-Z, and Gorillaz would headline the 2010 Coachella Valley Music, official website Consequence of Sound on Facebook Consequence of Sound on Twitter
41.
PopMatters
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PopMatters is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters was founded by Sarah Zupko, who had established the cultural studies academic resource site PopCultures. PopMatters launched in the fall of 1999 as a site providing original essays, reviews. Over time, the site went from a publication schedule to a five-day-a-week magazine format, expanding into regular reviews, features. In the fall of 2005, monthly readership exceeded one million, from 2006 onward, PopMatters produced several syndicated newspaper columns for McClatchy-Tribune News Service. As of 2009, there are four different pop culture related columns each week, the PopMatters Book Imprint published Joss Whedon, The Complete Companion, edited by Mary Money, with Titan Books in May 2012. PopMatters publishes content from contributors located around the globe, based in six continents and its staff includes writers from various backgrounds, ranging from academics and professional journalists to career professionals and first time writers. Many of its writers are published authorities in various fields of study, notable former contributors include David Weigel, political reporter for Slate, Steven Hyden, staff writer for Grantland and author of Whatever Happened To Alternative Nation. And Rob Horning, executive editor of The New Inquiry, karen Zarker is the senior editor
42.
Rolling Stone
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Rolling Stone is an American biweekly magazine that focuses on popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner, who is still the publisher. It was first known for its coverage and for political reporting by Hunter S. Thompson. In the 1990s, the magazine shifted focus to a readership interested in youth-oriented television shows, film actors. In recent years, it has resumed its traditional mix of content, Rolling Stone magazine was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and Ralph Gleason. To get it off the ground, Wenner borrowed $7,500 from his own family and from the parents of his soon-to-be wife, Jane Schindelheim. The first issue carried a date of November 9,1967. Some authors have attributed the name solely to Dylans hit single, At Gleasons suggestion, Rolling Stone initially identified with and reported the hippie counterculture of the era. In the very first edition, Wenner wrote that Rolling Stone is not just about the music, in the 1970s, Rolling Stone began to make a mark with its political coverage, with the likes of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson writing for the magazines political section. Thompson first published his most famous work Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas within the pages of Rolling Stone, where he remained a contributing editor until his death in 2005. In the 1970s, the magazine also helped launch the careers of prominent authors, including Cameron Crowe, Lester Bangs, Joe Klein, Joe Eszterhas, Patti Smith. It was at point that the magazine ran some of its most famous stories. One interviewer, speaking for a number of his peers, said that he bought his first copy of the magazine upon initial arrival on his college campus. In 1977, the magazine moved its headquarters from San Francisco to New York City, editor Jann Wenner said San Francisco had become a cultural backwater. During the 1980s, the magazine began to shift towards being an entertainment magazine. Music was still a dominant topic, but there was increasing coverage of celebrities in television, films, the magazine also initiated its annual Hot Issue during this time. Rolling Stone was initially known for its coverage and for Thompsons political reporting. In the 1990s, the changed its format to appeal to a younger readership interested in youth-oriented television shows, film actors
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