1.
R. Kelly
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Robert Sylvester Kelly, known professionally as R. Kelly, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and former professional basketball player. A native of Chicago, Illinois, Kelly began performing during the late 1980s, in 1993, Kelly went solo with the album 12 Play. In 1998, Kelly won three Grammy Awards for I Believe I Can Fly and his distinctive sound and style has influenced numerous hip hop and contemporary R&B artists. Kelly became the first musician to play basketball, when he was signed in 1997. Kelly has written, produced, and remixed songs and albums for artists, including Aaliyahs 1994 debut album Age Aint Nothing. In 1996, Kelly was nominated for a Grammy for writing Michael Jacksons song You Are Not Alone. In 2002 and 2004, Kelly released collaboration albums with rapper Jay-Z and has been a guest vocalist for other hip hop artists like Nas, Sean Combs, in March 2011, R. Kelly was named the most successful R&B artist of the last 25 years by Billboard. Kelly has released 12 solo studio albums, and sold over 100 million records worldwide making him the most successful R&B male artist of the 1990s and he has been credited for helping redefine R&B and hip hop, earning the nicknames King of R&B and King of Pop-Soul. He is listed by Billboard as the most successful R&B/Hip Hop artist of the past 25 years and also the most successful R&B artist in history. Throughout his career, Kelly has won awards, including a Guinness World Records as well as countless of other awards like Grammy, BET, Soul Train, Billboard, NAACP. Robert Sylvester Kelly was born on January 8,1967 at Chicago Lying-in Hospital in Hyde Park, Kelly is the third of four children. Kellys single mother, Joanne, was a singer, Kellys father was absent throughout his sons life. Kellys family lived in the Ida B, wells Homes public housing project in Chicagos Bronzeville neighborhood. Lena McLin described Kellys childhood home, It was bare, there was no father there, I knew that, and they had very little. Kelly began singing in the choir at age eight. Kelly grew up in a full of women, whom he said would act differently when his mother. At a young age Kelly was often abused by a woman who was at least ten years older than himself. I was too afraid and too ashamed, Kelly wrote in his autobiography about why he never told anyone, at age 11, he was shot in the shoulder while riding his bike home, the bullet is reportedly still lodged in his shoulder
2.
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
3.
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
4.
Hip hop music
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It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements, MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling beats or bass lines from records, while often used to refer solely to rapping, hip hop more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. Hip hops early evolution occurred as sampling technology and drum machines became available and affordable. Turntablist techniques such as scratching and beatmatching developed along with the breaks and Jamaican toasting, rapping developed as a vocal style in which the artist speaks or chants along rhythmically with an instrumental or synthesized beat. The Sugarhill Gangs 1979 song Rappers Delight is widely regarded to be the first hip hop record to gain popularity in the mainstream. The 1980s marked the diversification of hip hop as the genre developed more complex styles, prior to the 1980s, hip hop music was largely confined within the United States. However, during the 1980s, it began to spread to scenes in dozens of countries. New school hip hop was the wave of hip hop music, originating in 1983–84 with the early records of Run-D. M. C. The Golden age hip hop period was a period between the mid-1980s and the early 1990s. Notable artists from this era include the Juice Crew, Public Enemy, & Rakim, Boogie Down Productions and KRS-One, EPMD, Slick Rick, Beastie Boys, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Ultramagnetic MCs, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest. Gangsta rap is a subgenre of hip hop that often focuses on the violent lifestyles, in the West Coast hip hop style, G-funk dominated mainstream hip hop for several years during the 1990s. I. G. In the 1990s, hip hop began to diversify with other regional styles emerging, such as Southern rap, at the same time, hip hop continued to be assimilated into other genres of popular music, examples being Neo soul and nu metal. Hip hop became a pop music genre in the mid-1990s. The popularity of hip hop music continued through the 2000s, with hip hop influences also increasingly finding their way into mainstream pop, the United States also saw the success of regional styles such as crunk, a Southern genre that emphasized the beats and music more than the lyrics. Starting in 2005, sales of hip hop music in the United States began to severely wane, during the mid-2000s, alternative hip hop secured a place in the mainstream, due in part to the crossover success of artists such as OutKast and Kanye West. Creation of the hip hop is often credited to Keith Cowboy, rapper with Grandmaster Flash. However, Lovebug Starski, Keith Cowboy, and DJ Hollywood used the term when the music was known as disco rap. Cowboy later worked the hip hop cadence into a part of his stage performance, the first use of the term in print was in The Village Voice, by Steven Hager, later author of a 1984 history of hip hop
5.
Tupac Shakur
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Tupac Amaru Shakur, also known by his stage names 2Pac, Makaveli or just Pac, was an American rapper, record producer, actor, activist and poet. As of 2007, Shakur has sold over 75 million records worldwide and his double disc albums All Eyez on Me and his Greatest Hits are among the best-selling albums in the United States. He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by publications, including Rolling Stone. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time, on April 7,2017, Shakur will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. Shakur began his career as a roadie, backup dancer, and MC for the hip hop group Digital Underground. The themes of most of Shakurs songs revolved around the violence and hardship in inner cities, racism, and other social problems. Both of his parents and several people in his family were members of the Black Panther Party, whose ideals were reflected in his songs. I. G. On September 7,1996, Shakur was fatally shot in a shooting at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Las Vegas. He was taken to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, Shakur was born on June 16,1971, in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City. His mother Afeni Shakur and his father Billy Garland were active members of the Black Panther Party in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Lesane was born a month after his mother was acquitted of more than 150 charges of Conspiracy against the United States government, Many people in Shakurs life were involved with the Black Liberation Army, some were convicted of serious criminal offenses and imprisoned, including his mother. His godfather, Elmer Geronimo Pratt, a high-ranking Black Panther, was convicted of murdering a school teacher during a 1968 robbery and his stepfather, Mutulu, spent four years at large on the FBIs Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list beginning in 1982. Mutulu was wanted for having helped his sister Assata Shakur, Tupacs godmother and she had been imprisoned since 1977 for killing a state trooper in 1973. She lived as a fugitive for years before gaining asylum in Cuba in 1985. Mutulu was caught in 1986, tried and convicted, and imprisoned for the robbery of a Brinks armored truck in two police officers and a guard were killed. Shakur had a stepbrother, Mopreme Komani Shakur, and a half-sister, Sekyiwa. His stepbrother Mopreme performed in many of his recordings, in 1986, his family moved to Baltimore, Maryland. After completing his year at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School
6.
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
7.
J. Cole
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Jermaine Lamarr Cole, better known by his stage name J. Cole, is an American hip hop recording artist and record producer. Raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Cole initially gained recognition as a following the release of his debut mixtape, The Come Up. Intent on further pursuing a career as a rapper, he went on to release two additional mixtapes after signing to Jay Zs Roc Nation imprint in 2009. Cole released his studio album, Cole World, The Sideline Story. It debuted at one on the U. S. Billboard 200. His next two releases, 2013s Born Sinner and 2014s 2014 Forest Hills Drive, received positive reviews from critics. The latter earned him his first Grammy Award nomination for Best Rap Album, in 2016 Cole released his fourth studio album 4 Your Eyez Only, the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. He has also developed other ventures, including Dreamville Records, as well as non-profit organization the Dreamville Foundation, Jermaine Lamarr Cole was born on January 28,1985 at a United States Army base in Frankfurt, West Germany. His father is an African-American former soldier for the U. S. Army, Coles father later abandoned the family during his youth, prompting his mother to relocate Cole and his brother, Zach Cole to Fayetteville, North Carolina. But at the end of the day, never felt white, I can identify but never have I felt like Im one of them. I identify more with what I look like, because thats how I got treated not necessarily in a negative way, during his youth, Cole expressed an affinity for basketball and music, and served as a first-chair violinist for the Terry Sanford Orchestra until 2003. Cole began rapping at 12, and saw it as a profession in 2000. During this period, Cole heightened emphasis on improving his production skills, Cole later collaborated with local group Bomm Sheltuh, rapping and producing while a member of the group. Upon graduating high school with a 4.2 GPA, Cole decided that his chances of securing a contract would be better in New York City. He relocated there and accepted a scholarship to St. Johns University, initially majoring in computer science, Cole later switched to communication and business after witnessing the life of a lonely computer science professor. While a student at the college, Cole was the president of Haraya, by 14, Cole had various notebooks filled with song ideas, however, was unable to produce beats further than sampling. Coles mother later purchased him the Roland TR-808 drum machine in order to further Coles understanding of production, over the next three years, he began posting songs on various internet forums under the moniker Blaza, but later switched to the name Therapist. Cole waited for three hours, before being dismissed by Jay Z. Cole later used the CD as the backdrop for his debut mixtape
8.
Born Sinner
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Born Sinner is the second studio album by American hip hop recording artist J. Cole. It was released on June 18,2013, by Dreamville Records, ByStorm Entertainment, Roc Nation, the album serves as the follow-up to his debut album, Cole World, The Sideline Story. The album features guest appearances from Miguel, Amber Coffman, Jhené Aiko, James Fauntleroy, Bas, TLC, the album was also primarily produced by Cole himself, along with others such as Jake One, Syience, Christian Rich and Elite. The album was supported by four singles, Power Trip, Crooked Smile, Forbidden Fruit and She Knows. Born Sinner received generally positive reviews from critics, the album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 297,000 copies in its first week of release. After two weeks of being at number two, Born Sinner climbed to one in its third week. The album has since been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, as of December 2016, the album has sold 796,000 copies in the United States. Only a week after the release of his Gold certified-debut album Cole World, The Sideline Story, Cole began working on his second album and he said that it allowed him to, reinvigorate himself both mentally and creatively. On October 24,2011, during his interview with Hot 106s Rise & Grind morning show, Cole revealed that he had working on his second studio album. On February 24,2012, J. Cole reached two million followers on Twitter, he celebrated by releasing the song Grew up Fast, on March 1,2012, J. Cole returned to his hometown of Fayetteville, North Carolina. To celebrate his return, he released the song Visionz of Home to inspire the youth of his hometown to achieve great things. On July 26, he returned to Twitter after a 100-day absence and went on to reveal, however they were not tied to any project. Maine on Fire would end up appearing on a Funkmaster Flex mixtape, on November 5, Cole revealed the title of his second album, and an album teaser for it, Born Sinner and the release date of January 28,2013, via Ustream. With the title he ended his basketball-themed series of projects and he would say, It was just time for something new. I wouldnt have minded doing it again but I felt that I closed that story and that metaphor and that storyline had really ended. Metaphorically I was just a kid working to get on this team, got cut — that was The Come Up, then The Warm Up was like, alright I made the team, Im on the team. Im not in the game, Ill just ride the end of the bench, then Friday Night Lights was like come on man, youre still not gonna put me in the game. Here, Im gonna kill it in practice, Sideline Story was like, Wow, I really am starting now, and I feel like I ended that chapter when its all said and done
9.
Mainstream Top 40
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Mainstream Top 40 is a 40-song music chart published weekly by Billboard Magazine which ranks the most popular songs being played on a panel of Top 40 radio stations in the United States. The rankings are based on radio airplay detections as measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, arbitron refers to the format as contemporary hit radio. The chart debuted in Billboard Magazine in its issued date October 3,1992, both Top 40 charts measured actual monitored airplay from data compiled by Broadcast Data Systems. Both charts were born of then-new BDS electronic monitoring technology as a more objective and this data was also used as the airplay component for Hot 100 tabulations. They returned to the print edition in the August 2,2003, songs on the chart are ranked by the total number of spins detected per week. Songs which gain plays or remain flat from the week will receive a bullet. A song will also receive a bullet if its loss in plays does not exceed the percentage of monitored station downtime for the format. If two songs are tied in total plays, the song with the increase in plays is placed first. Since the introduction of the chart until 2005, songs below No.20 were moved to recurrent after 26 weeks on the chart, in the chart week of December 3,2005, songs below No.20 were moved to recurrent after 20 weeks on the chart. Since the issue dated December 4,2010, songs older than 20 weeks on the chart are moved to recurrent after they drop below No.15 and this chart was often mistaken for and confused with the now discontinued Pop 100 Airplay chart. 12, Mariah Carey - Dreamlover, Taylor Swift - Shake It Off No,13, Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick Lamar - Bad Blood No. 14, Lady Gaga - Born This Way, Justin Timberlake featuring Jay-Z - Suit & Tie No,16, Madonna - Frozen, Britney Spears - Hold It Against Me No. I. The panel is regularly updated, with stations being added or removed sometimes even weekly, as of 2011, Britney Spears holds the record for the longest span between No. 1s at 12 years, seven months and four days between her first No.1 and her latest, katy Perrys Teenage Dream is the first and only album to have 6 singles top the chart. JoJo at age 13, became the youngest solo artist to have a single on the chart with Leave. Three acts have replaced themselves at No,1, Mariah Carey, OutKast and Iggy Azalea - with Azalea being the only one to do so with her first two chart entries. com BDS Top 40/CHR chart
10.
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
11.
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
12.
Grammy Award
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A Grammy Award, or Grammy, is an honor awarded by The Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the mainly English-language music industry. The annual presentation ceremony features performances by prominent artists, and the presentation of awards that have a more popular interest. It shares recognition of the industry as that of the other performance awards such as the Emmy Awards, the Tony Awards. The first Grammy Awards ceremony was held on May 4,1959, to honor, following the 2011 ceremony, The Academy overhauled many Grammy Award categories for 2012. The 59th Grammy Awards, honoring the best achievements from October 2015 to September 2016, was held on February 12,2017, the Grammys had their origin in the Hollywood Walk of Fame project in the 1950s. The music executives decided to rectify this by creating a given by their industry similar to the Oscars. This was the beginning of the National Academy of Recording Arts, after it was decided to create such an award, there was still a question of what to call it, one working title was the Eddie, to honor the inventor of the phonograph, Thomas Edison. They finally settled on using the name of the invention of Emile Berliner, the gramophone, for the awards, the number of awards given grew and fluctuated over the years with categories added and removed, at one time reaching over 100. The second Grammy Awards, also held in 1959, was the first ceremony to be televised, the gold-plated trophies, each depicting a gilded gramophone, are made and assembled by hand by Billings Artworks in Ridgway, Colorado. In 1990 the original Grammy design was revamped, changing the traditional soft lead for a stronger alloy less prone to damage, Billings developed a zinc alloy named grammium, which is trademarked. The trophies with the name engraved on them are not available until after the award announcements. By February 2009,7,578 Grammy trophies had been awarded, the General Field are four awards which are not restricted by genre. Album of the Year is awarded to the performer and the team of a full album if other than the performer. Record of the Year is awarded to the performer and the team of a single song if other than the performer. Song of the Year is awarded to the writer/composer of a single song, Best New Artist is awarded to a promising breakthrough performer who releases, during the Eligibility Year, the first recording that establishes the public identity of that artist. The only two artists to win all four of these awards are Christopher Cross, who won all four in 1980, and Adele, who won the Best New Artist award in 2009 and the other three in 2012 and 2017. Other awards are given for performance and production in specific genres, as well as for other such as artwork. Special awards are given for longer-lasting contributions to the music industry, the many other Grammy trophies are presented in a pre-telecast Premiere Ceremony earlier in the afternoon before the Grammy Awards telecast
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