1.
Today (U.S. TV program)
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Today, also called The Today Show, is an American news and talk morning television show that airs on NBC. The program debuted on January 14,1952 and it was the first of its genre on American television and in the world, and is the fifth-longest-running American television series. Originally a two-hour program on weekdays, it expanded to Sundays in 1987, the weekday broadcast expanded to three hours in 2000, and to four hours in 2007. Todays dominance was virtually unchallenged by the other networks until the late 1980s, Today has maintained its No.2 status since the summer of 2012 each year behind GMA. In 2002, Today was ranked No.17 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, the shows first broadcast aired on January 14,1952. It was the brainchild of Sylvester B, Pat Weaver, Jr. who was then vice president of NBC. Weaver was president of the company from 1953 to 1955, during which time Todays late-night companion The Tonight Show premiered, in pre-production, the shows proposed title was The Rise and Shine Revue. Today was the first program of its genre when it premiered with original host Dave Garroway, the program blended national news headlines, interviews with newsmakers, lifestyle features, other light news and gimmicks, and local news updates from the networks stations. It has spawned several other shows of a type, including ABCs Good Morning America. In other countries, the format was copied – most notably in the United Kingdom with the BBCs Breakfast Time and TV-ams Good Morning Britain, and in Canada with Canada AM on CTV. When Today debuted, it was seen only in the Eastern and Central time zones. Since 1958, Today has been tape-delayed for the five other U. S. time zones, partly to accommodate host Dave Garroways declining health, the program ceased live broadcasts in the summer of 1958, opting instead to broadcast an edition taped the previous afternoon. The experiment, which drew criticism from many sides, ended when John Chancellor replaced Garroway in July 1961, a fourth hour was eventually added on September 10,2007. NBC stations in some markets air the third and fourth hours of Today on tape delay, WHDH in Boston, Massachusetts was an NBC station that would follow this practice to accommodate an hour of local news at 9,00 am. On January 1,2017, the NBC affiliation in Boston moved to a new owned-and-operated station, WBTS, which airs the third and fourth hours of Today at its regular 9,00 am and 10,00 am timeslots. Generally, the program live in the Eastern Time Zone. When breaking news stories warrant, Today will broadcast a live West Coast edition, the live updates typically do not last longer than the 7,00 a. m. hour and once completed, will return to the taped East Coast feed. When the anchors welcome the viewers to the show, they note the current time as being Pacific Time
2.
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
3.
USA Today
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USA Today is an internationally distributed American daily middle-market newspaper that serves as the flagship publication of its owner, the Gannett Company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15,1982, it operates from Gannetts corporate headquarters on Jones Branch Drive in McLean, Virginia and it is printed at 37 sites across the United States and at five additional sites internationally. USA Today is distributed in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, with an international edition distributed in Canada, Asia and the Pacific Islands, Gannett formally announced the launch of the paper on April 20,1982. USA Today began publishing on September 15,1982, initially launching in the Baltimore and Washington, on July 2,1984, the newspaper switched from a largely black-and-white to a color publication, featuring full color photography and graphics in all four sections. On April 8,1985, the paper published its first special bonus section, a 12-page section called Baseball 85, on May 6,1986, USA Today began printing production of its international edition in Switzerland. On April 15, USA Today launched an international printing site. On August 28,1995, an international publishing site was launched in Frankfurt, Germany, to print. On October 4,1999, USA Today began running advertisements on its front page for the first time. The paper launched a sixth printing site for its international edition on May 15,2000, in Milan, Italy, followed on July 10 by the launch of a printing facility in Charleroi. That November, USA Today migrated its operations from Gannetts previous corporate headquarters in Arlington, in 2010, USA Today launched the USA Today API for sharing data with partners of all types. On August 27,2010, USA Today announced that it would undergo a reorganization of its newsroom and it also announced that the paper would shift its focus away from print and place more emphasis on its digital platforms and launch of a new publication called USA Today Sports. On September 14,2012, USA Today underwent the first major redesign in its history, to accomplish this goal, Gannett migrated its newspaper and television station websites to the Presto platform and the USA Today site design throughout 2013 and 2014. On January 4,2014, USA Today acquired the book and film review website, on September 3,2014, USA Today announced that it would lay off roughly 70 employees in a restructuring of its newsroom and business operations. In October 2014, USA Today and OpenWager Inc. entered into a partnership to release a Bingo app called USA TODAY Bingo Cruise, USA Today is known for synthesizing news down to easy-to-read-and-comprehend stories. In the main edition circulated in the United States and some Canadian cities, each consists of four sections, News, Money, Sports. The international edition of the paper features two sections, News and Money in one, with Sports and Life in the other, atypical of most daily newspapers, the paper does not print on Saturdays and Sundays, the Friday edition serves as the weekend edition. USA Today prints each complete story on the front page of the section with the exception of the cover story. The cover story is a story that requires a jump
4.
American Broadcasting Company
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The network is headquartered on Columbus Avenue and West 66th Street in Manhattan, New York City. There are additional offices and production facilities elsewhere in New York City, as well as in Los Angeles and Burbank. Since 2007, when ABC Radio was sold to Citadel Broadcasting, ABC originally launched on October 12,1943, as a radio network, separated from and serving as the successor to the NBC Blue Network, which had been purchased by Edward J. Noble. It extended its operations to television in 1948, following in the footsteps of established broadcast networks CBS, in the mid-1950s, ABC merged with United Paramount Theatres, a chain of movie theaters that formerly operated as a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. Leonard Goldenson, who had been the head of UPT, made the new television network profitable by helping develop, in 1996, most of Capital Cities/ABCs assets were purchased by The Walt Disney Company. The television network has eight owned-and-operated and over 232 affiliated television stations throughout the United States, most Canadians have access to at least one U. S. ABC News provides news and features content for radio stations owned by Citadel Broadcasting. In the 1930s, radio in the United States was dominated by three companies, the Columbia Broadcasting System, the Mutual Broadcasting System and the National Broadcasting Company. The last was owned by electronics manufacturer Radio Corporation of America, in 1938, the FCC began a series of investigations into the practices of radio networks and published its report on the broadcasting of network radio programs in 1940. The report recommended that RCA give up control of either NBC Red or NBC Blue, at that time, the NBC Red Network was the principal radio network in the United States and, according to the FCC, RCA was using NBC Blue to eliminate any hint of competition. Once Mutuals appeals against the FCC were rejected, RCA decided to sell NBC Blue in 1941, the newly separated NBC Red and NBC Blue divided their respective corporate assets. Investment firm Dillon, Read & Co. offered $7.5 million to purchase the network, Edward John Noble, the owner of Life Savers candy, drugstore chain Rexall and New York City radio station WMCA, purchased the network for $8 million. Due to FCC ownership rules, the transaction, which was to include the purchase of three RCA stations by Noble, would require him to resell his station with the FCCs approval, the Commission authorized the transaction on October 12,1943. Soon afterward, the Blue Network was purchased by the new company Noble founded, Noble subsequently acquired the rights to the American Broadcasting Company name from George B. Meanwhile, in August 1944, the West Coast division of the Blue Network, both stations were then managed by Don Searle, the vice-president of the Blue Networks West Coast division. The ABC Radio Network created its audience slowly, the network also became known for such suspenseful dramas as Sherlock Holmes, Gang Busters and Counterspy, as well as several mid-afternoon youth-oriented programs. S. From Nazi Germany after its conquest, to pre-record its programming, while its radio network was undergoing reconstruction, ABC found it difficult to avoid falling behind on the new medium of television. To ensure a space, in 1947, ABC submitted five applications for television station licenses, the ABC television network made its debut on April 19,1948, with WFIL-TV in Philadelphia becoming its first primary affiliate
5.
Record producer
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A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu
6.
Counterpoint
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In music, counterpoint is the relationship between voices that are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradition, strongly developing during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period, the term originates from the Latin punctus contra punctum meaning point against point. Counterpoint generally involves musical lines with strongly independent identities, Counterpoint has been used to designate a voice or even an entire composition. In each era, contrapuntally organized music writing has been subject to rules—sometimes strict ones, chords are the simultaneous soundings of notes, whereas harmonic, vertical features are considered secondary and almost incidental when counterpoint is the predominant textural element. Counterpoint focuses on melodic interaction—only secondarily on the produced by that interaction. In the words of John Rahn, It is hard to write a beautiful song and it is harder to write several individually beautiful songs that, when sung simultaneously, sound as a more beautiful polyphonic whole. The way that is accomplished in detail is, some examples of related compositional techniques include, the round, the canon, and perhaps the most complex contrapuntal convention, the fugue. All of these are examples of imitative counterpoint, Species counterpoint generally offers less freedom to the composer than other types of counterpoint and therefore is called a strict counterpoint. The student gradually attains the ability to free counterpoint according to the given rules at the time. The idea is at least as old as 1532, when Giovanni Maria Lanfranco described a concept in his Scintille di musica. Zacconi, unlike later theorists, included a few extra contrapuntal techniques, a succession of later theorists quite closely imitated Fuxs seminal work, often with some small and idiosyncratic modifications in the rules. The following rules apply to melodic writing in each species, for each part, if the final is approached from below, then the leading tone must be raised in a minor key, but not in Phrygian or Hypophrygian mode. Thus, in the Dorian mode on D, a C♯ is necessary at the cadence, permitted melodic intervals are the perfect fourth, fifth, and octave, as well as the major and minor second, major and minor third, and ascending minor sixth. The ascending minor sixth must be followed by motion downwards. The three notes should be from the triad, if this is impossible, they should not outline more than one octave. In general, do not write more than two skips in the same direction, if writing a skip in one direction, it is best to proceed after the skip with motion in the other direction. The interval of a tritone in three notes should be avoided as is the interval of a seventh in three notes, there must be a climax or high point in the line countering the cantus firmus. This usually occurs somewhere in the middle of exercise and must occur on a strong beat, an outlining of a seventh is avoided within a single line moving in the same direction
7.
The Tonight Show
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The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show currently broadcast from the Rockefeller Center in New York City and airing on NBC since 1954. It is the worlds longest-running talk show, and the longest running and it is the third-longest-running show on NBC, after the news-and-talk shows Today and Meet the Press. Over the course of more than 60 years, The Tonight Show has undergone only minor title changes and it aired under the name Tonight for several of its early years, eventually settling on The Tonight Show after the seating of long-time host Johnny Carson in 1962. In 1957, the show briefly tried a more news-style format and it has otherwise remained a talk show throughout its run. The Tonight Show began broadcasting in 1954 and it has had six official hosts, beginning with Steve Allen, followed by Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Conan OBrien, and Jimmy Fallon. It has had recurring guest hosts, a practice especially common during the Paar. Carson is the longest-serving host to date, the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson aired for 30 seasons between October 1962 and May 1992. Leno, however, has the record of having hosted the greatest number of total televised episodes, during Johnny Carsons first eighteen years, the show ran for ninety minutes. During Johnnys 1980 contract negotiations, the show was shortened to sixty minutes, besides the guest hosts Johnny used, NBC ran The Best of Carson which was reruns of popular older shows Johnny had done. Prior to the starting of Saturday Night Live in 1975, NBC showed The Best of Carson on Saturday nights at 11,30 pm, outside of its brief run as a news show in 1957, OBrien is the shortest-serving host. OBrien hosted 146 episodes over the course of less than eight months, current host Fallon took the helm on February 17,2014. Fallon had previously hosted Late Night, and before Late Night he was a member of the cast of Saturday Night Live. From 1950 to 1951 NBC aired Broadway Open House, a variety show hosted primarily by comic Jerry Lester. Broadway… demonstrated the potential for late-night network programming. The format of The Tonight Show can be traced to a nightly 40-minute local program in New York, hosted by Allen and it was quickly retitled The Steve Allen Show. This premiered in 1953 on WNBT-TV, the local affiliate in New York City. Beginning in September 1954, it was renamed Tonight. and began its run on the full NBC network. Notes for hosting history The first Tonight announcer was Gene Rayburn, when the show became a success, Allen got a primetime Sunday comedy/variety show in June 1956, leading him to share Tonight hosting duties with Ernie Kovacs during the 1956–57 season
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.
Country pop
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Country pop is a subgenre of country music and pop music that was developed by members of the Country genre out of a desire to reach a larger, mainstream audience. It is a continuation of efforts that began in the late 1950s originally known as Nashville sound. By the mid-1970s, many artists were transitioning to the pop-country sound which led to some records charting high on mainstream top 40 as well as country Billboard charts. According to Bill Ivey, this genre originated in Nashville, Tennessee. He believes that the Nashville Sound often produced records that sounded more pop than country, after the removal of the fiddle, Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, and Eddy Arnold were among the most popular artists during this time. This was intended to have country singers gain more success in pop music, the first male artists to come out of this new genre were Jim Reeves and Eddy Arnold, who both grew to have widespread acceptance among both country and pop music listeners. Both Jim Reeves and Eddy Arnold had major influence on their RCA labelmate Elvis Presley, apparent not only in secular songs, the first female country singer to emerge from this new genre was Patsy Cline in the early 1960s. The example she created was followed by female country artists, such as Lynn Anderson, Crystal Gayle and Shania Twain. Country pop found its first widespread acceptance during the 1970s and it started when pop music singers, like Glen Campbell, John Denver, Olivia Newton-John and Anne Murray, began having hits on the country charts. Songs like Campbells Rhinestone Cowboy were among the biggest crossover hits in country music history and these pop-oriented singers thought that they could gain higher record sales and a larger audience if they crossed over into the country world. One of the artists who did this was Olivia Newton-John, who emerged from Australia in the mid-1970s, a group of artists, troubled by this trend, formed the Association of Country Entertainers in 1974. The debate raged into 1975, and reached its apex at that years Country Music Association Awards when reigning Entertainer of the Year Charlie Rich presented the award to his successor, as he read Denvers name, Rich set fire to the envelope with a cigarette lighter. The action was taken in some quarters as a protest against the pop style in country music. However, the ACE would only last two years, its two biggest backers, firm traditionalists George Jones and Tammy Wynette, faced a bitter divorce. In 1979 Barbara Mandrell had her highest crossover hit with her number 1 song I Dont Want to Be Right It charted number 31 on the Billboard Top 40, several of her other hits charted well on the adult contemporary charts and the Bubbling under 100 charts. Mandrell also did countrypolitan style music on her Barbara Mandrell & the Mandrell Sisters show and she had R & B artists, pop artists and country artists featured every week. It was the last successful musical variety show on TV and she is also known for her Blue-Eyed Soul sound. She was given the nickname The Princess of Steel, for her ability at the steel guitar and she was one of country musics most successful crossover artists during the 1970s and 1980s
10.
Pop music
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Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form in the United States and United Kingdom during the mid 1950s. The terms popular music and pop music are used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular. Pop and rock were synonymous terms until the late 1960s, when they were used in opposition from each other. Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music. Pop music is eclectic, and often borrows elements from other such as urban, dance, rock, Latin. Identifying factors include generally short to medium-length songs written in a format, as well as the common use of repeated choruses, melodic tunes. David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop music as a body of music which is distinguishable from popular, jazz, according to Pete Seeger, pop music is professional music which draws upon both folk music and fine arts music. Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music, the music charts contain songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz, rock, and novelty songs. Pop music, as a genre, is seen as existing and developing separately, pop music continuously evolves along with the terms definition. The term pop song was first recorded as being used in 1926, Hatch and Millward indicate that many events in the history of recording in the 1920s can be seen as the birth of the modern pop music industry, including in country, blues and hillbilly music. The Oxford Dictionary of Music states that while pops earlier meaning meant concerts appealing to a wide audience. Since the late 1950s, however, pop has had the meaning of non-classical mus, usually in the form of songs, performed by such artists as the Beatles. Grove Music Online also states that, in the early 1960s pop music competed terminologically with beat music, while in the USA its coverage overlapped with that of rock and roll. From about 1967, the term was used in opposition to the term rock music. Whereas rock aspired to authenticity and an expansion of the possibilities of music, pop was more commercial, ephemeral. It is not driven by any significant ambition except profit and commercial reward, and, in musical terms, it is essentially conservative. It is, provided from on high rather than being made from below, pop is not a do-it-yourself music but is professionally produced and packaged. The beat and the melodies tend to be simple, with limited harmonic accompaniment, the lyrics of modern pop songs typically focus on simple themes – often love and romantic relationships – although there are notable exceptions
11.
Lee Ann Womack
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Lee Ann Womack is an American country music singer and songwriter. Her 2000 single, I Hope You Dance was a major crossover hit, reaching No.1 on the Billboard Country Chart. Her 2000 album I Hope You Dance had a different sound. It wasnt until the release of Theres More Where That Came From in 2005 that Womack returned to recording country music. As of 2016, Womack has released a total of six studio albums, four of her studio albums have received a Gold certification or higher by the RIAA. Additionally, she has received five Academy of Country Music Awards, six Country Music Association Awards, and she has sold over 6 million albums worldwide. Womack was born and raised in Jacksonville, Texas, at an early age, she was interested in country music. Her father, a jockey, often took his daughter to work with him to help choose records to play on the air. Womack was the second of two daughters and her mother was a schoolteacher and her father was also a high school principal. As a child, Womack studied the piano and later graduated from Jacksonville High School in 1984, after graduating, Womack attended South Plains Junior College in Levelland, Texas. The college was one of the first in the nation to offer country music degrees, and soon she became a member of the college band, Country Caravan. A year later, she left the college and after an agreement with her parents, Womack enrolled at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, in Nashville, she interned at the A&R department of MCA Records. She studied at the college until 1990, leaving the school a year before graduation, Womack spent a few years raising her children before reentering the music business in the mid 90s. In 1995 she began performing her music in songwriting demos and at showcase concerts, at one of these showcase concerts, she was spotted by Tree Publishings, who signed her after listening to one of her original demo recordings. Womack wrote songs with some popular Nashville songwriters, including Bill Anderson and Ricky Skaggs, after divorcing her first husband around that time, Womack decided to pursue a career as a country music artist. She auditioned for MCA chairman, Bruce Hinton, who praised her talents, shortly afterward, she accepted a contract from MCAs sister record company, Decca Nashville in 1996. Womack released her debut album in May 1997, produced by Mark Wright. The album consisted of self-penned material as well as written by other artists, including Mark Chesnutt, Ricky Skaggs
12.
Rachel Platten
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Rachel Ashley Platten is an American singer and songwriter. She released three independent albums between 2003 and 2014, before signing with Columbia Records in early 2015, Platten won an Emmy Award for the live performance of the song on Good Morning America. Her major-label debut album, Wildfire, released in 2016, was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America and featured the hits Stand by You and Better Place. Platten was born on May 20,1981, in New York City to a mother of Irish ancestry, Platten studied classical piano from the age of 5 and then took up guitar in high school. She attended Buckingham Browne and Nichols high school, where she sang in the singing group. At Trinity College, she was a member of the Trinity College Trinitones, as a part of a study abroad program, she went to Trinidad to do an internship at a diplomats office and at a record label. While she was there, she sang backup for a band in front of over 80,000 people at the International Soca Monarch finals in 2002. According to Platten, from that moment on she knew she had to pursue music full-time, Platten graduated from Trinity College with a degree in international relations in 2003. She then moved to New York Citys Greenwich Village where she cut her teeth playing with Prince and Sly, in 2012, she married Kevin Lazan. She performed her music around the Village and eventually began touring the country. She has worked with charities, Musicians on Call for 11 years. She also works with the Ryan Seacrest Foundation and was an ambassador for Live Below the Line, Platten released her debut studio album Trust in Me in 2003, which she has called a collection of demos. Her second album, Be Here, was released from Rock Ridge Music in 2011 and her 2011 single 1,000 Ships peaked at number 24 on the US Billboard Adult Top 40 chart, also playing at various radio stations. An earlier song, Seven Weeks, was used for the film The Good Guy, the theme song for ABC Familys Jane by Design, Work of Art was performed by Platten on hire. Also, her song Begin Again was used in the hit ABC Family TV show Pretty Little Liars 100th episode Miss Me x 100 and her song Dont Care What Time It Is was used in VH1s Basketball Wives. Her song Youre Safe was used in MTVs Finding Carter in September 2014, on June 27,2014, Platten debuted Fight Song on the music social network We Heart It as part of an artist spotlight. In the spring of 2015, Platten released Fight Song from Wildfire, the song was used in the Christmas episode of Pretty Little Liars fifth season and in promos for the fourth season of Revenge on the Seven Network in Australia. In May 2015, the song was featured in the trailer for the then-upcoming CBS Television series Supergirl and it was the official anthem of the presidential campaign of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton
