1.
Album
–
Album, is a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item on CD, record, audio tape, or another medium. Albums of recorded music were developed in the early 20th century, first as books of individual 78rpm records, vinyl LPs are still issued, though in the 21st century album sales have mostly focused on compact disc and MP3 formats. The audio cassette was a format used from the late 1970s through to the 1990s alongside vinyl, an album may be recorded in a recording studio, in a concert venue, at home, in the field, or a mix of places. Recording may take a few hours to years to complete, usually in several takes with different parts recorded separately. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed live, the majority of studio recordings contain an abundance of editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology, musicians can be recorded in separate rooms or at times while listening to the other parts using headphones. Album covers and liner notes are used, and sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of the recording, historically, the term album was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage the word was used for collections of pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, the LP record, or 33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. It was adopted by the industry as a standard format for the album. Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, the term album had been carried forward from the early nineteenth century when it had been used for collections of short pieces of music. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, as part of a trend of shifting sales in the music industry, some commenters have declared that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as mini-albums or EPs, Albums such as Tubular Bells, Amarok, Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield, and Yess Close to the Edge, include fewer than four tracks. There are no rules against artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder referring to their own releases under thirty minutes as albums. These are known as box sets, material is stored on an album in sections termed tracks, normally 11 or 12 tracks. A music track is a song or instrumental recording. The term is associated with popular music where separate tracks are known as album tracks. When vinyl records were the medium for audio recordings a track could be identified visually from the grooves
2.
Pop music
–
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
3.
Taipei Arena
–
The Taipei Arena is an indoor sporting arena located in Songshan District, Taipei, Taiwan. It was designed by Archasia, a firm established in Taipei. It is located at the site of the former Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium, the arena was opened on December 1,2005. The main arena has a floor space, its minimum floor space is 60m × 30m. The Chinese Taipei Ice Hockey League plays out of the auxiliary arena, the basement now houses two large gas turbine power generators to be used for the surrounding district during emergencies. Since opening in 2005, the arena has held more art and cultural activities than sporting events and these have included Disney on Ice and Cirque du Soleil, Cats the Broadway Musical. International Artists in the table below are highlighted in light blue, non-Entertainment Events, Inaugural ceremony and celebrations of President Ma Ying-Jeou and Vice-President Vincent Siew on 20 May 2008. Dates Unknown, Jolin Tsai performed her 1st concert in the arena in November 2006 for her Dancing Forever World Tour, japanese singer Ayumi Hamasakis Asia Tour, which had more than 10,000 tickets sold out in 1 hour. That was the 1st concert at the venue to be performed by a J-Pop artist, taiwanese Aborigine pop star Chang Hui-meis STAR TOUR world tour. Irish-American dancer and musician Michael Flatley reprises his role as Lord of the Dance in the Feet of Flames 2009 tour, the Indiana Pacers vs Denver Nuggets game was the first National Basketball Association game held in the country back in 2009. Japanese singer Namie Amuro filmed her tour here for the DVD release of Best Fiction Tour 2008-2009, BIGBANG performed at the arena for the first time as part of their Big Bang Alive Galaxy Tour 2012 and brought in 26,000 audiences. The box office of both performances up to 202 millions TWD, making the most successful box offices in Taiwan performance history, in the rotation for the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships. The venue is a frequent host of the International Skating Union figure skating championship for the Americas, Asia, Oceania, Taipei Arena is accessible from Taipei Arena Station of the Taipei Metro. Taipei Arena official website CIHL official website
4.
Capitol Music Group
–
Capitol Music Group is an American front line umbrella label owned by the Universal Music Group. It oversees handling of record labels assigned to UMGs Capitol Records division and were inherited from its acquisition of EMIs catalog and it is one of five umbrella labels owned by UMG, with the other four being Interscope Geffen A&M, Island Records, Def Jam Recordings and Republic Records. Capitol Music Group was formed in February 2007 as a merger of Capitol Records and Virgin Records America in an effort by EMI to restructure, both Virgin Records and Capitol Records, however, remain imprints of the label. Virgin Records CEO Jason Flom was named the head of the division, as the head of the label, Flom reports directly to EMI Group CEO Eric Nicoli. A total of 283 artists signed to Capitol Music Group, including Mims, LeToya Luckett, J. Holiday, Royal Bliss, Mack 10, Faith Evans, Fat Joe and since 2007, Katy Perry, Ferras, and Rucka Rucka Ali. In 2014 both Morrissey and Neil Diamond were confirmed to have signed with Capitol Records, Morrissey having signed a two album deal, however, the latter was given to Parlophone as a result of that labels sale to Warner Music. In November 2012, it was announced that Steve Barnett would become Chairman, with EMIs absorption into Universal Music Group complete, the Capitol Music Group is now part of UMGs five label units in the UK. The Beatles have been confirmed to appear on Capitol UK, in April 2013, Robbie McIntosh was named head of Capitols international operations
5.
Greg Kurstin
–
Gregory Allen Greg Kurstin is an American record producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Described as the consummate DIY writer and producer, Kurstin has been associated with releases which have sold more than 60 million albums worldwide. He has been nominated for 10 Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year in 2010 and 2014, in addition to three other Grammys, Kurstin won Producer of the Year in 2017. Kurstin co-wrote, produced and played most of the instruments on the record-breaking 2015 Adele single, among others, he has worked with Sia, Beck, Kelly Clarkson, Ellie Goulding, Pink, the Shins, Tegan and Sara, and Lily Allen. He often plays guitar, bass, keyboards and drums, and engineers, an exceptionally accomplished musician, Kurstin began his career as a jazz pianist and later co-founded Geggy Tah. He has collaborated with Inara George in The Bird and the Bee since 2004, Kurstin was born and grew up in Los Angeles, California. He started playing piano at age 5, soon after, he picked up guitar, Kurstin joined his first band at the age of 11, and co-wrote Crunchy Water, the b-side to classmate Dweezil Zappas My Mother Is a Space Cadet at 12. In high school, Kurstin focused on jazz piano, after graduation, he moved to New York to study with Charles Mingus pianist Jaki Byard at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. In addition to coursework, as a student Kurstin played with prominent jazz artists including Bobby Hutcherson, George Coleman and he returned to Los Angeles to finish his degree, and graduated from the California School of the Arts with a BFA in 1992. In a 2013 interview, Kurstin said that his education in jazz had played a role in his pop success. “It’s still something I carry over into my pop music work, it’s really important to me that the notes I’m choosing strike the right emotional chord. ”Kurstin continued to perform with Hutcherson, Coleman, McPherson and others following his graduation. In 1994, he formed Geggy Tah with Tommy Jordan, whom he had met at an LA jam, a friend passed a demo they recorded on to David Byrne, who signed them to his label, Luaka Bop. They incorporate so many disparate elements into their sound that one senses a new sensibility afoot, in 1996 the band released Sacred Cow. It included the song Whoever You Are, which became a hit in 2001, as the song ascended the charts, Geggy Tah released their final album, Into the Oh. In addition to playing with Geggy Tah, Kurstin did session work, one-offs and tours with artists including Beck, Ben Harper, in 2001, he released an album under the name Action Figure Party on the Verve-affiliated label Blue Thumb Records. Flea, Sean Lennon, Soul Coughings Yuval Gabay as well as musicians who performed with Beck, Air, Gil-Scott Heron, Kurstin signed a worldwide publishing deal with EMI in 2002. While he had written songs since the age of 12, he intensified his efforts, working day and night. In addition to writing on his own, he collaborated with songwriters and artists including Sia, in 2004, Kurstin was introduced to singer Inara George by a mutual friend, Mike Andrews
6.
Agent J (album)
–
Agent J is the ninth studio album by Taiwanese singer Jolin Tsai. It was released on September 21,2007, by Capitol Music Taiwan and it was renamed Love Mission in mainland China. Tsais last studio album, Dancing Diva, not only brought her to the top of the charts, expectations were naturally high for the new record, and Tsai was upping the ante with eleven new tracks and her first ever music movie. The album is set to be as successful as Dancing Diva, the album has sold more than 2.5 million copies in Asia, with more than 200,000 copies sold in Taiwan alone, and became the best-selling album of the year in Taiwan. The eleventh track, Sun Will Never Set, reached number 1 on the Hit FM Annual Top 100 Singles, the title track, Agent J, reached number 14 on the chart. The second track, Bravo Lover, reached number 41 on the chart, the album earned Tsai an MTV Asia Award nomination for Favorite Artist Taiwan. To further promote the album, Tsai released her debut film under the title on September 5,2007. The film is directed by Jeff Chang, Sheng Kuang, and Wei-kang Lai and starring Jolin Tsai, Kim Jaewon, Stephen Fung, and Carl Ng, the film can be divided into three parts. In the first part, Tsai played a girl who traveled in Paris, France and she was taken away by a secret organization and got brainwashed, and she was selected as a special agent due to her lithe physique to help the organization to assassinate people. At the last, she was instructed by the organization to kill her boyfriend, because she lost all her memory, she was confused about the last smile the man gave to her, and she went to his apartment and found the old photos bearing witness to their relationship. In the second part, Tsai played a people in prison and was selected by an organization to carry out an assassination in exchange for her freedom. Her target, Blue Beard, received intelligence and sent two killers to assassinate her in London, England and she met a photographer named Hsiao-tung Lu, and she fled under the cover of the man. They started a relationship, but one day she found her boyfriend was also an agent sent by Blue Beard. On the night she went to kill Blue Beard, Blue Beard shot her boyfriend from behind, in the third part, she played an undercover agent who was instructed to save a fellow agent named Vince who approached a gang boss in Bangkok, Thailand. However, she found the Vince was her ex-boyfriend who was supposed to be died a few years ago was working for the gang boss, one day both of their undercover identities exposed, and they started a gun battle with the gang member. Vince took a bullet in the chest and was died, and he left her alone again
