1.
Alice in Chains
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Alice in Chains is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1987 by guitarist and songwriter Jerry Cantrell and original lead vocalist Layne Staley. The initial lineup was rounded out by drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike Starr, although widely associated with grunge music, the bands sound incorporates heavy metal elements. Since its formation, Alice in Chains has released five studio albums, the band is known for its distinctive vocal style, which often included the harmonized vocals of Staley and Cantrell. Alice in Chains rose to fame as part of the grunge movement of the early 1990s, along with other Seattle bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam. The band was one of the most successful acts of the 1990s, selling over 20 million records worldwide. In 1992 the bands album, Dirt, was released to critical acclaim and was certified quadruple platinum. Their third album, Alice in Chains, was released in 1995 and has been certified double platinum and it achieved No.1 position on the Billboard 200 chart. The band has had 14 top ten songs on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, although never officially disbanding, Alice in Chains was plagued by extended inactivity from 1996 onwards due to Staleys substance abuse, which resulted in his death in 2002. The band reunited in 2005 for a benefit show, performing with a number of guest vocalists. They toured in 2006, with William DuVall taking over as lead vocalist full-time, the new line-up released the bands fourth studio album, Black Gives Way to Blue, in 2009. The album received gold certification by the RIAA, in 2013, the band released The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, its fifth studio album. The band has toured extensively and released videos in support of these albums. Alice in Chains is currently working on their studio album. Other members of this group at that time were guitarists Johnny Bacolas and Zoli Semanate, drummer James Bergstrom and this was prompted by a conversation that Bacolas had with a singer from another band about backstage passes. Staley met guitarist Jerry Cantrell while working with Alice N Chains at Music Bank rehearsal studios, the two struggling musicians became roommates, living in a rehearsal space they shared. Alice N Chains soon disbanded, and Staley joined a band that also required a guitarist at the time. Staley asked Cantrell to join as a sideman, Cantrell agreed on condition that Staley join Cantrells band, which at the time included drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike Starr. Local promoter Randy Hauser became aware of the band at a concert, however, one day before the band was due to record at the Music Bank studio in Washington, police shut down the studio during the biggest cannabis raid in the history of the state
2.
Seattle
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Seattle is a seaport city on the west coast of the United States and the seat of King County, Washington. With an estimated 684,451 residents as of 2015, Seattle is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America. In July 2013, it was the major city in the United States. The city is situated on an isthmus between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, about 100 miles south of the Canada–United States border, a major gateway for trade with Asia, Seattle is the fourth-largest port in North America in terms of container handling as of 2015. The Seattle area was inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent European settlers. Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived from Illinois via Portland, the settlement was moved to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay and named Seattle in 1852, after Chief Siahl of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. Logging was Seattles first major industry, but by the late-19th century, growth after World War II was partially due to the local Boeing company, which established Seattle as a center for aircraft manufacturing. The Seattle area developed as a technology center beginning in the 1980s, in 1994, Internet retailer Amazon was founded in Seattle. The stream of new software, biotechnology, and Internet companies led to an economic revival, Seattle has a noteworthy musical history. From 1918 to 1951, nearly two dozen jazz nightclubs existed along Jackson Street, from the current Chinatown/International District, to the Central District, the jazz scene developed the early careers of Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Ernestine Anderson, and others. Seattle is also the birthplace of rock musician Jimi Hendrix and the alternative rock subgenre grunge, archaeological excavations suggest that Native Americans have inhabited the Seattle area for at least 4,000 years. By the time the first European settlers arrived, the people occupied at least seventeen villages in the areas around Elliott Bay, the first European to visit the Seattle area was George Vancouver, in May 1792 during his 1791–95 expedition to chart the Pacific Northwest. In 1851, a party led by Luther Collins made a location on land at the mouth of the Duwamish River. Thirteen days later, members of the Collins Party on the way to their claim passed three scouts of the Denny Party, members of the Denny Party claimed land on Alki Point on September 28,1851. The rest of the Denny Party set sail from Portland, Oregon, after a difficult winter, most of the Denny Party relocated across Elliott Bay and claimed land a second time at the site of present-day Pioneer Square, naming this new settlement Duwamps. For the next few years, New York Alki and Duwamps competed for dominance, david Swinson Doc Maynard, one of the founders of Duwamps, was the primary advocate to name the settlement after Chief Sealth of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. The name Seattle appears on official Washington Territory papers dated May 23,1853, in 1855, nominal land settlements were established. On January 14,1865, the Legislature of Territorial Washington incorporated the Town of Seattle with a board of managing the city
3.
Grunge
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Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock and a subculture that emerged during the mid-1980s in the Pacific Northwest U. S. state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. The early grunge movement revolved around Seattles independent record label Sub Pop, the success of these bands boosted the popularity of alternative rock and made grunge the most popular form of rock music at the time. Grunge was also an influence on subsequent genres such as post-grunge, Grunge fuses elements of punk rock and heavy metal, such as the distorted electric guitar used in both genres, although some bands performed with more emphasis on one or the other. Like these genres, grunge typically uses electric guitar, bass guitar, a drummer, Grunge also incorporates influences from indie rock bands such as Sonic Youth. Lyrics are typically angst-filled and introspective, often addressing themes such as alienation, apathy, concerns about confinement. A number of factors contributed to decline in prominence. During the mid-late 1990s, many grunge bands broke up or became less visible, the word grunge was used in print in prior to the use of the term in mainstream publications to refer to the Seattle music genre. Rock has always been about it, Theres primal grunge. distortion. and fuzz. especially on the underground, a reference to distorted sounds in rock in a general sense. Mark Arm, the vocalist for the Seattle band Green River—and later Mudhoney—is generally credited as being the first to use the term grunge to describe the Seattle genre of music. Arm first used the term in 1981, when he wrote a letter under his given name Mark McLaughlin to the Seattle zine Desperate Times, criticizing his own band Mr. Epp and the Calculations as Pure grunge. Sub Pop called Green Rivers 1986 EP Dry as a Bone ultra-loose GRUNGE that destroyed the morals of a generation, Everett True states that when Arm stated that the streets of Seattle paved with grunge, he was using the term disparagingly. In this use of the word grunge, Arm was using it as an adjective, Arm said years later, Obviously, I didnt make grunge up. I got it from someone else, the term was already being thrown around in Australia in the mid-80s to describe bands like King Snake Roost, The Scientists, Salamander Jim, and Beasts of Bourbon. Arm used grunge as a descriptive rather than a genre term. When grunge first developed, music journalists called it rock, due to the genres focus on impossibly. Evergreen State was a college which did not use grading. Bands from Portland, Oregon, such as the Wipers, also influenced the genres pioneers. Some bands associated with the genre, such as Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, have not been receptive to the label, preferring instead to be referred to as rock and roll bands
4.
Alternative rock
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Alternative rock is a genre of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s and 2000s. In this instance, the word refers to the genres distinction from mainstream rock music. The terms original meaning was broader, referring to a generation of musicians unified by their debt to either the musical style or simply the independent. Ethos of punk rock, which in the late 1970s laid the groundwork for alternative music, Alternative rock is a broad umbrella term consisting of music that differs greatly in terms of its sound, its social context, and its regional roots. Most of these subgenres had achieved minor mainstream notice and a few bands representing them, such as Hüsker Dü, with the breakthrough of Nirvana and the popularity of the grunge and Britpop movements in the 1990s, alternative rock entered the musical mainstream and many alternative bands became successful. By the end of the decade, alternative rocks mainstream prominence declined due to a number of events that caused grunge and Britpop to fade, emo attracted attention in the larger alternative rock world, and the term was applied to a variety of artists, including multi-platinum acts. Post-punk revival artists such as Modest Mouse and The Killers had commercial success in the early, before the term alternative rock came into common usage around 1990, the sort of music to which it refers was known by a variety of terms. In 1979, Terry Tolkin used the term Alternative Music to describe the groups he was writing about, in 1979 Dallas radio station KZEW had a late night new wave show entitled Rock and Roll Alternative. College rock was used in the United States to describe the music during the 1980s due to its links to the radio circuit. In the United Kingdom, dozens of small do it yourself record labels emerged as a result of the punk subculture, according to the founder of one of these labels, Cherry Red, NME and Sounds magazines published charts based on small record stores called Alternative Charts. The first national chart based on distribution called the Indie Chart was published in January 1980, at the time, the term indie was used literally to describe independently distributed records. By 1985, indie had come to mean a particular genre, or group of subgenres, at first the term referred to intentionally non–mainstream rock acts that were not influenced by heavy metal ballads, rarefied new wave and high-energy dance anthems. The use of alternative gained further exposure due to the success of Lollapalooza, for which festival founder, in the late 1990s, the definition again became more specific. Defining music as alternative is often difficult because of two conflicting applications of the word, the name alternative rock essentially serves as an umbrella term for underground music that has emerged in the wake of punk rock since the mid-1980s. Alternative bands during the 1980s generally played in clubs, recorded for indie labels. Sounds range from the gloomy soundscapes of gothic rock to the guitars of indie pop to the dirty guitars of grunge to the 1960s/1970s revivalism of Britpop. This approach to lyrics developed as a reflection of the social and economic strains in the United States and United Kingdom of the 1980s, by 1984, a majority of groups signed to independent record labels mined from a variety of rock and particularly 1960s rock influences. This represented a break from the futuristic, hyper-rational post-punk years
5.
Columbia Records
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Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. the United States division of Sony Corporation. It was founded in 1887, evolving from an enterprise named the American Graphophone Company. Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the sound business. Columbia Records went on to release records by an array of singers, instrumentalists. It is one of Sony Musics three flagship record labels alongside RCA Records and Epic Records, rather, as above, it was connected to CBS, a broadcasting media company which had purchased the company in 1938, and had been co-founded in 1927 by Columbia Records itself. Though Arista Records was sold to Bertelsmann Music Group, it would become a sister label of Columbia Records through its mutual connection to Sony Music. The Columbia Phonograph Company was founded in 1887 by stenographer, lawyer and New Jersey native Edward Easton and it derived its name from the District of Columbia, where it was headquartered. At first it had a monopoly on sales and service of Edison phonographs and phonograph cylinders in Washington. As was the custom of some of the regional companies, Columbia produced many commercial cylinder recordings of its own. Columbias ties to Edison and the North American Phonograph Company were severed in 1894 with the North American Phonograph Companys breakup, thereafter it sold only records and phonographs of its own manufacture. In 1902, Columbia introduced the XP record, a brown wax record. According to Gracyk, the molded brown waxes may have sold to Sears for distribution. Columbia began selling records and phonographs in addition to the cylinder system in 1901, preceded only by their Toy Graphophone of 1899. For a decade, Columbia competed with both the Edison Phonograph Company cylinders and the Victor Talking Machine Company disc records as one of the top three names in American recorded sound. In order to add prestige to its catalog of artists. The firm also introduced the internal-horn Grafonola to compete with the extremely popular Victrola sold by the rival Victor Talking Machine Company, during this era, Columbia used the famous Magic Notes logo—a pair of sixteenth notes in a circle—both in the United States and overseas. Columbia was split into two companies, one to make records and one to make players, Columbia Phonograph was moved to Connecticut, and Ed Easton went with it. Eventually it was renamed the Dictaphone Corporation, in late 1923, Columbia went into receivership
6.
Rock music
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It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by blues, rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of genres such as electric blues and folk. Musically, rock has centered on the guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar. Typically, rock is song-based music usually with a 4/4 time signature using a verse-chorus form, like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. Punk was an influence into the 1980s on the subsequent development of subgenres, including new wave, post-punk. From the 1990s alternative rock began to rock music and break through into the mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the visually distinctive goth and emo subcultures and this trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, Hammond organ and synthesizers. The basic rock instrumentation was adapted from the blues band instrumentation. A group of musicians performing rock music is termed a rock band or rock group, Rock music is traditionally built on a foundation of simple unsyncopated rhythms in a 4/4 meter, with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies are often derived from older musical modes, including the Dorian and Mixolydian, harmonies range from the common triad to parallel fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock, because of its complex history and tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that it is impossible to bind rock music to a rigidly delineated musical definition. These themes were inherited from a variety of sources, including the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music and rhythm, as a result, it has been seen as articulating the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality, according to Simon Frith rock was something more than pop, something more than rock and roll. Rock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with the concept of art as artistic expression, original. The foundations of music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music, with country. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music for a multi-racial audience, debate surrounds which record should be considered the first rock and roll record. Other artists with rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis
7.
Heart (band)
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Heart is an American rock band that first found success in Canada and later in the United States and worldwide. Over the groups history, it has had three primary lineups, with the constant center of the group since 1973 being sisters Ann Wilson. Heart rose to fame in the mid-1970s with music influenced by rock and heavy metal. Their popularity declined in the early 1980s, but the band enjoyed a comeback starting in 1985 and experienced greater success with album-oriented rock hits. With Jupiters Darling, Red Velvet Car, Fanatic, and Beautiful Broken Heart made a return to its hard rock, to date, Heart has sold over 35 million records worldwide, including over 22.5 million in album sales in the U. S. The group was ranked number 57 on VH1s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock, with Top 10 albums on the Billboard Album Chart in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2010s, Heart is among the most commercially enduring hard rock bands in history. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, since 2002, the band has had six members. In 1967, bassist Steve Fossen formed a band, The Army, along with Roger Fisher on guitar, Don Wilhelm on guitar, keyboards and lead vocals and they played for several years in and around the Bothell, Washington area. They frequently played Bothell High School, Inglemoor High School and Shorecrest High School, as well as many taverns, the name was a creation of Cooper Edens, a nationally known artist/illustrator in Seattle. It had been created for a band that included his brother in law, lead guitarist, Toby Cyr. Army asked and received permission from Toby Cyr to use the Cooper Edens created name, for a brief time in 1970 this line-up shortened its name to Heart and dropped White, however, the band went through more personnel changes. In 1971, Heart consisted of Steve Fossen, Roger Fisher, David Belzer, after Ann Wilson joined, the band was renamed Hocus Pocus. Mike Fisher, Rogers brother, was set to be drafted into the military, Nancy Wilson has stated that when he did not report for duty, his home was raided, but he slipped out a rear window, escaped to Canada and became a Vietnam War draft dodger. One day in 1972, Mike crossed the border to visit family and, by chance, according to Nancy, that meeting was when she and Michael fell in love and Ann decided to follow Mike back to Canada. Steve Fossen finished his education before he also decided to move to Canada in late 1972. Along with Mike and Ann, the band Heart was officially formed, the group played numerous shows around their new home in Vancouver, and they recorded a demo tape with the assistance of producer Mike Flicker and session-guitarist and keyboard player, Howard Leese. Hannah and Johnstone had left by this time, and soon after Leese became a full-time member, Flicker produced the bands first five albums. This team recorded the album, Dreamboat Annie, at Can-Base Studios in Vancouver
8.
Jerry Cantrell
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Jerry Fulton Cantrell Jr. is an American musician who is best known as the founder, lead guitarist, co-lead vocalist and main songwriter for the rock band Alice in Chains. He also has a career and released the albums Boggy Depot in 1998. Cantrell noted in an interview that he was raised on music as a youth. He also considers himself half Yankee and half redneck, however, hard rock music caught Cantrells interest predominantly, and he bought his first guitar in his mid teens. It would not be until the age of 17 that he began playing the instrument. Cantrell would later cite guitarists such as Ace Frehley, Tony Iommi, Angus Young, Jimmy Page, Glenn Tipton, downing, David Gilmour and Eddie Van Halen as major influences. Cantrell attended junior high and high school in Spanaway, Washington and, in his senior year Cantrell became choir president, and the quartet sang the national anthem at basketball games and won competitions with the highest marks achievable. Cantrell has cited his interest in dark tones as dating back to this period. His choir teacher and drama teacher were, early on, his two greatest motivators toward a career in music, when Alice in Chains first album went gold, Cantrell sent both teachers a gold record. Cantrells parents divorced when he was seven, and his mother died in 1987 when he was 21 years old, in the mid-1980s, Cantrell began a band called Diamond Lie which included drummer Bobby Nesbitt and bassist Mike Starr. Layne Staley, a vocalist and Cantrells roommate, also agreed to join on the condition that Cantrell join his funk project, Diamond Lie gained attention in the Seattle area and eventually took the name of Alice N Chainz, then renamed Alice in Chains. Cantrells guitar contribution gave a heavy metal edge to the bands basic grunge style, the band reformed in 2005 with its surviving members. Although Cantrell acknowledges the benefits of working as a solo artist, he expressed his happiness with being back in the band culture. On September 29,2009, Alice in Chains, with William DuVall as co-vocalist, released their first record since the death of Layne Staley, Black Gives Way to Blue, and toured in support of the album. The band released their studio album, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here. Cantrells career outside Alice in Chains has consisted of two albums, as well as many appearances with other musicians and on film soundtracks. His first solo material came in a song entitled Leave Me Alone and this was released exclusively on The Cable Guy soundtrack in 1996, featuring Alice in Chains drummer Sean Kinney. It had a video and reached Number 14 on Billboards Mainstream Rock Tracks
9.
Chris Cornell
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He has released four solo studio albums, Euphoria Morning, Carry On, Scream, Higher Truth and live album Songbook. Cornell was born and raised in Seattle, Washington, and attended Christ the King Catholic elementary school and his parents are Ed Boyle and Karen Cornell. He has five siblings, older brothers Peter and Patrick, and younger sisters Katy, Suzy, Peter, Katy and Suzy all performed in the band Inflatable Soule in the 1990s. Peter was the frontman for the New York-based rock band Black Market Radio and released a new album, Champion. Katy performs as lead vocalist for the Seattle band Into the Cold, Cornell was a loner, however, he was able to deal with his anxiety around other people through rock music. During his teenage years, Chris spiralled in to depression, dropped out of school. Before becoming a musician, he worked at a seafood wholesaler and was a sous-chef at a restaurant named Rays Boathouse. In the early 1980s, Cornell was a member of a band called The Shemps that performed around Seattle. The Shemps also featured bassist Hiro Yamamoto, following Yamamotos departure from The Shemps, the band recruited guitarist Kim Thayil as its new guitarist. Cornell and Yamamoto stayed in contact, and after The Shemps broke up, Cornell and Yamamoto started jamming together, Soundgarden was formed in 1984 by Cornell, Thayil and Yamamoto with Cornell originally on drums and vocals. In 1985, the band enlisted Scott Sundquist as the drummer to allow Cornell to concentrate on vocals, the bands first recordings were three songs that appeared on a compilation for C/Z Records called Deep Six. In 1986, Sundquist, who by that point had a wife and he was replaced by Matt Cameron, the drummer for Skin Yard, who became Soundgardens permanent drummer. Soundgarden signed to Sub Pop, releasing the Screaming Life EP in 1987, the band subsequently signed with A&M Records, becoming the first grunge band to sign to a major label. In 1989, the released their second effort, and their first for a major label. Following the release of Louder Than Love, Yamamoto left the band to finish his masters degree in chemistry at Western Washington University. He was replaced by former Nirvana guitarist Jason Everman, Everman was fired following Soundgardens tour supporting Louder Than Love. In 1990, the band was joined by a new bassist, along with Alice in Chains, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam, Soundgarden became one of the most successful bands from Seattles emerging grunge scene in the early 1990s. With Shepherd, the new line-up recorded Badmotorfinger in 1991, the album brought the band to a new level of commercial success, and Soundgarden found itself amidst the sudden popularity and attention given to the Seattle music scene
10.
Megaphone
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A megaphone, speaking-trumpet, bullhorn, or loud hailer is a portable, usually hand-held, cone-shaped acoustic horn used to amplify a person’s voice or other sounds and direct it in a given direction. The sound is introduced into the end of the megaphone, by holding it up to the face and speaking into it. The megaphone increases the volume of sound by increasing the acoustic impedance seen by the cords, matching the impedance of the vocal cords to the air. It also serves to direct the waves in the direction the horn is pointing. It somewhat distorts the sound of the voice because the response of the megaphone is greater at higher sound frequencies. Since the 1960s the voice-powered acoustic megaphone described above has been replaced by the electric megaphone, the initial inventor of the speaking trumpet is a subject of historical controversy, both Samuel Morland and Athanasius Kircher invented megaphones around the same time in the 17th century. Morland, in a work published in 1655, wrote about his experimentation with different horns and his largest megaphone consisted of over 20 feet of copper tube and could reportedly project a persons voice a mile and a half. Twenty years earlier, Kircher described a device that could be used as both a megaphone and for overhearing people speaking outside a house. His coiled horn would be mounted into the side of a building, with a narrow end inside that could be spoken into or listened to. Morland favored a straight, tube-shaped speaking device, kircher’s horn, on the other hand, utilized a “cochleate” design, where the horn was twisted and coiled to make it more compact. A later, papier-mache trumpet of special design was the Sengerphone, additionally, in ruins of Tiwanaku are stones around the central place with holes shaped in megaphones profile. Their purpose is unknown, but as local guards can show. The term ‘megaphone’ was first associated with Thomas Edison’s instrument 200 years later, in 1878, Edison developed a device similar to the speaking trumpet in hopes of benefiting the deaf and hard of hearing. His variation included three separate funnels lined up in a row, the two outer funnels, which were six feet and eight inches long, were made of paper and connected to a tube inserted in each ear. The middle funnel was similar to Morland’s speaking trumpet, but had a slot to insert a user’s mouth. With Edison’s megaphone, a low whisper could be heard a thousand feet away, on the listening end, the receiver could hear a low whisper at a thousand feet away. However the apparatus was much too large to be portable, limiting its use, george Prescott wrote, “The principal drawback at present is the large size of the apparatus. An electric megaphone is a public address system, an electronic device that amplifies the human voice like an acoustic megaphone
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