1.
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
Single (music)
–
45
rpm single record
2.
Big Joe Turner
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Joseph Vernon Big Joe Turner, Jr. was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to the songwriter Doc Pomus, Rock and roll would have never happened without him and his greatest fame was due to his rock-and-roll recordings in the 1950s, particularly Shake, Rattle and Roll, but his career as a performer endured from the 1920s into the 1980s. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, known as The Boss of the Blues and Big Joe Turner, Turner was born in Kansas City. His father was killed in an accident when Joe was four years old. He first discovered a love of music in his involvement at church and he began singing on street corners for money, quitting school at age fourteen to work in Kansas Citys nightclubs, first as a cook, and later as a singing bartender. The Sunset was managed by Piney Brown and it featured separate but equal facilities for caucasian patrons. Turner wrote Piney Brown Blues in his honor and sang it throughout his entire career. At that time Kansas City nightclubs were subject to frequent raids by the police, wed walk in, sign our names and walk right out. Then we would cabaret until morning and his partnership with Johnson proved fruitful. C. Eventually they were seen by the talent scout John H, in part because of their appearance at Carnegie Hall, Turner and Johnson had a major success with the song Roll Em Pete. The track was basically a collection of blues lyrics. It was a song that Turner recorded many times, with combinations of musicians. Besides Roll Em, Pete, Turners best-known recordings from this period are probably Cherry Red, I Want a Little Girl, Cherry Red was recorded in 1939 for the Vocalion label, with Hot Lips Page on trumpet and a full band in attendance. The next year Turner contracted with Decca and recorded Piney Brown Blues, in 1941, he went to Los Angeles and performed in Duke Ellingtons revue Jump for Joy in Hollywood. He appeared as a policeman in a comedy sketch called Hes on the Beat. Los Angeles was his home for a time, and during 1944 he worked in Meade Lux Lewiss Soundies musical movies and he sang on the soundtrack recordings but was not present for filming, and his vocals were mouthed by the comedian Dudley Dickerson for the camera. In 1945 Turner and Pete Johnson established their bar in Los Angeles and that same year he contracted with National Records company, and recorded under Herb Abramsons supervision. His first hit single was a cover of Saunders Kings S. K. Blues and he recorded the songs My Gals a Jockey and the risqué Around the Clock the same year, and the Aladdin company released Battle of the Blues, a duet with Wynonie Harris
Big Joe Turner
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Big Joe Turner
Big Joe Turner
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Big Joe Turner performing on the Rock and Roll Revue (1955)
3.
A-side and B-side
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The terms A-side and B-side refer to the two sides of 78,45, and 33 1/3 rpm phonograph records, whether singles, extended plays, or long-playing records. Creedence Clearwater Revival had hits with both A-side and B-side releases, others took the opposite approach, producer Phil Spector was in the habit of filling B-sides with on-the-spot instrumentals that no one would confuse with the A-side. With this practice, Spector was assured that airplay was focused on the side he wanted to be the hit side, the earliest 10-inch,78 rpm, shellac records were single sided. Double-sided recordings, with one song on side, were introduced in Europe by Columbia Records. There were no record charts until the 1930s, and radio stations did not play recorded music until the 1950s, in this time, A-sides and B-sides existed, but neither side was considered more important, the side did not convey anything about the content of the record. The term single came into use with the advent of vinyl records in the early 1950s. At first, most record labels would randomly assign which song would be an A-side, under this random system, many artists had so-called double-sided hits, where both songs on a record made one of the national sales charts, or would be featured on jukeboxes in public places. As time wore on, however, the convention for assigning songs to sides of the record changed. By the early sixties, the song on the A-side was the song that the company wanted radio stations to play. It was not until 1968, for instance, that the production of albums on a unit basis finally surpassed that of singles in the United Kingdom. In the late 1960s stereo versions of pop and rock songs began to appear on 45s. The majority of the 45s were played on AM radio stations, by the early 1970s, double-sided hits had become rare. Album sales had increased, and B-sides had become the side of the record where non-album, non-radio-friendly, with the advent of cassette and compact disc singles in the late 1980s, the A-side/B-side differentiation became much less meaningful. With the decline of cassette singles in the 1990s, the A-side/B-side dichotomy became virtually extinct, as the dominant medium. However, the term B-side is still used to refer to the tracks or coupling tracks on a CD single. With the advent of downloading music via the Internet, sales of CD singles and other media have declined. B-side songs may be released on the record as a single to provide extra value for money. There are several types of material released in this way, including a different version, or, in a concept record
A-side and B-side
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Victor 17929A and 17929B.
A-side and B-side
4.
Gramophone record
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The groove usually starts near the periphery and ends near the center of the disc. The phonograph disc record was the medium used for music reproduction until late in the 20th century. It had co-existed with the cylinder from the late 1880s. Records retained the largest market share even when new formats such as compact cassette were mass-marketed, by the late 1980s, digital media, in the form of the compact disc, had gained a larger market share, and the vinyl record left the mainstream in 1991. The phonograph record has made a resurgence in the early 21st century –9.2 million records were sold in the U. S. in 2014. Likewise, in the UK sales have increased five-fold from 2009 to 2014, as of 2017,48 record pressing facilities remain worldwide,18 in the United States and 30 in other countries. The increased popularity of vinyl has led to the investment in new, only two producers of lacquers remains, Apollo Masters in California, USA, and MDC in Japan. Vinyl records may be scratched or warped if stored incorrectly but if they are not exposed to heat or broken. The large cover are valued by collectors and artists for the space given for visual expression, in the 2000s, these tracings were first scanned by audio engineers and digitally converted into audible sound. Phonautograms of singing and speech made by Scott in 1860 were played back as sound for the first time in 2008, along with a tuning fork tone and unintelligible snippets recorded as early as 1857, these are the earliest known recordings of sound. In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, unlike the phonautograph, it was capable of both recording and reproducing sound. Despite the similarity of name, there is no evidence that Edisons phonograph was based on Scotts phonautograph. Edison first tried recording sound on a paper tape, with the idea of creating a telephone repeater analogous to the telegraph repeater he had been working on. The tinfoil was wrapped around a metal cylinder and a sound-vibrated stylus indented the tinfoil while the cylinder was rotated. The recording could be played back immediately, Edison also invented variations of the phonograph that used tape and disc formats. A decade later, Edison developed a greatly improved phonograph that used a wax cylinder instead of a foil sheet. This proved to be both a better-sounding and far more useful and durable device, the wax phonograph cylinder created the recorded sound market at the end of the 1880s and dominated it through the early years of the 20th century. Berliners earliest discs, first marketed in 1889, but only in Europe, were 12.5 cm in diameter, both the records and the machine were adequate only for use as a toy or curiosity, due to the limited sound quality
Gramophone record
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Edison wax cylinder phonograph c. 1899
Gramophone record
Gramophone record
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Emil Berliner with disc record gramophone
Gramophone record
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Hungarian Pathé record, 90 to 100 rpm
5.
Rhythm and blues
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Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated as R&B or RnB, is a genre of popular African-American music that originated in the 1940s. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African-American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy. Lyrics focus heavily on the themes of triumphs and failures in terms of relationships, freedom, economics, aspirations, the term rhythm and blues has undergone a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s it was applied to blues records. This tangent of RnB is now known as British rhythm and blues, by the 1970s, the term rhythm and blues changed again and was used as a blanket term for soul and funk. In the 1980s, a style of R&B developed, becoming known as Contemporary R&B. It combines elements of rhythm and blues, soul, funk, pop, hip hop, popular R&B vocalists at the end of the 20th century included Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey. Although Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine is credited with coining the term rhythm and blues as a term in the United States in 1948. It replaced the term race music, which came from within the black community. The term rhythm and blues was used by Billboard in its chart listings from June 1949 until August 1969, before the Rhythm and Blues name was instated, various record companies had already begun replacing the term race music with sepia series. In 2010 LaMont Robinson founded the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame Museum, writer and producer Robert Palmer defined rhythm & blues as a catchall term referring to any music that was made by and for black Americans. He has used the term R&B as a synonym for jump blues, however, AllMusic separates it from jump blues because of its stronger, gospel-esque backbeat. Lawrence Cohn, author of Nothing but the Blues, writes that rhythm, according to him, the term embraced all black music except classical music and religious music, unless a gospel song sold enough to break into the charts. Well into the 21st century, the term R&B continues in use to music made by black musicians. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, arrangements were rehearsed to the point of effortlessness and were sometimes accompanied by background vocalists. Simple repetitive parts mesh, creating momentum and rhythmic interplay producing mellow, lilting, while singers are emotionally engaged with the lyrics, often intensely so, they remain cool, relaxed, and in control. The bands dressed in suits, and even uniforms, an associated with the modern popular music that rhythm. Lyrics often seemed fatalistic, and the music typically followed predictable patterns of chords, there was also increasing emphasis on the electric guitar as a lead instrument, as well as the piano and saxophone
Rhythm and blues
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T-Bone Walker, American Folk Blues Festival 1972 (Heinrich Klaffs Collection 46)
Rhythm and blues
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Louis Jordan, New York, N.Y., ca. July 1946 (William P. Gottlieb 04721).
Rhythm and blues
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Big Joe Turner, Hamburg 1974 (Heinrich Klaffs Collection 86)
Rhythm and blues
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The habanera rhythm shown as tresillo (lower notes) with the backbeat (upper note).
6.
Atlantic Records
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Atlantic Recording Corporation is an American major record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegün and Herb Abramson. In 2004, Atlantic Records and its sister label Elektra Records merged into Atlantic Records Group, craig Kallman is currently the chairman of Atlantic Records. Ahmet Ertegün served as founding chairman until his death on December 14,2006, the brothers had become ardent fans of jazz and rhythm & blues music, amassing a collection of over 15,00078 RPM records. He convinced the family dentist, Dr Vahdi Sabit, to invest $10,000 and recruited Herb Abramson, Abramson had worked as a part-time A&R manager/producer for the jazz label National Records, signing Big Joe Turner and Billy Eckstine. He founded Jubilee Records in 1946, but had no interest in its most successful artists, so, in September 1947, he sold his share in Jubilee to his partner, Jerry Blaine, and invested $2500 in the new Atlantic label. When interviewed in 2009 she attributed her reputation to the companys chronic cash-flow shortage, most of the problems we had with artists were that they wanted advances, and that was very difficult for us. We were undercapitalized for a long time, the labels original office in the Ritz Hotel, Manhattan proved too expensive so they relocated to an $85 per month room in the Hotel Jefferson. In its early years Atlantic focused principally on modern jazz although it released some country and western and spoken word recordings. The union action forced Atlantic to use almost all its capital to cut and stockpile enough recordings to last through the ban, Ertegun and Abramson spent much of the late 1940s and early 1950s scouring nightclubs in search of talent. Ertegun composed many songs under the alias A, in early 1949 a New Orleans distributor phoned Ertegun trying to obtain Stick McGhees Drinking Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee, which was unavailable due to the closure of McGhees previous label. Ertegun knew Sticks younger brother Brownie McGhee, with whom Stick happened to be staying, so he contacted the McGhee brothers, Ertegun asked about artists royalties, which he paid, which surprised Columbia executives, who did not, which scuttled the deal. On the recommendation of broadcaster Willis Conover, Ertegun and Abramson went to see Ruth Brown at the Crystal Caverns club in Washington and she was badly injured in a car accident en route to New York but Atlantic supported her for nine months and then signed her. Her first release for the label So Long, cut at her second Atlantic session on May 25,1949 with the Eddie Condon band, was a major hit, reaching #6 on the R&B chart. Brown went on to more than eighty songs for the label, becoming the most prolific. So significant was Browns success to Atlantics fortunes that the label became known colloquially as The House That Ruth Built. The Clovers Dont You Know I Love You became the labels first R&B #1 in September 1951 and she hit #1 again in March–April 1952 with 5-10-15 Hours. After she left the label in 1961 Browns fortunes declined rapidly - within a few years was reduced to working as a cleaner and bus-driver to support her children. Brown eventually received a payment of $20,000 and founded a charity
Atlantic Records
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"Weird Al" Yankovic edits the Atlantic Records' Wikipedia page to read "YOU SUCK!" in the music video for the song "
White & Nerdy "
Atlantic Records
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Atlantic Records logo as of 2015.
7.
Songwriter
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A songwriter is an individual who writes the lyrics, melodies and chord progressions for songs, typically for a popular music genre such as rock or country music. A songwriter can also be called a composer, although the term tends to be used mainly for individuals from the classical music genre. The pressure from the industry to produce popular hits means that songwriting is often an activity for which the tasks are distributed between a number of people. For example, a songwriter who excels at writing lyrics might be paired with a songwriter with a gift for creating original melodies, pop songs may be written by group members from the band or by staff writers – songwriters directly employed by music publishers. Some songwriters serve as their own publishers, while others have outside publishers. The old-style apprenticeship approach to learning how to write songs is being supplemented by university degrees and college diplomas, a knowledge of modern music technology, songwriting elements and business skills are necessary requirements to make a songwriting career in the 2010s. Several music colleges offer songwriting diplomas and degrees with music business modules, the legal power to grant these permissions may be bought, sold or transferred. This is governed by international copyright law, song pitching can be done on a songwriters behalf by their publisher or independently using tip sheets like RowFax, the MusicRow publication and SongQuarters. Skills associated with song-writing include entrepreneurism and creativity, songwriters who sign an exclusive songwriting agreement with a publisher are called staff writers. In the Nashville country music scene, there is a staff writer culture where contracted writers work normal 9-to-5 hours at the publishing office and are paid a regular salary. This salary is in effect the writers draw, an advance on future earnings, the publisher owns the copyright of songs written during the term of the agreement for a designated period, after which the songwriter can reclaim the copyright. In an interview with HitQuarters, songwriter Dave Berg extolled the benefits of the set-up, unlike contracted writers, some staff writers operate as employees for their respective publishers. Under the terms of work for hire agreements, the compositions created are fully owned by the publisher. In Nashville, young writers are often encouraged to avoid these types of contracts. Staff writers are common across the industry, but without the more office-like working arrangements favored in Nashville. All the major publishers employ writers under contract, songwriter Allan Eshuijs described his staff writer contract at Universal Music Publishing as a starter deal. His success under the arrangement eventually allowed him to found his own publishing company, so that he could. keep as much as possible, songwriters are also often skilled musicians. In addition to selling their songs and musical concepts for other artists to sing, songwriters need to create a number of elements for a song
Songwriter
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Songwriter and singer
Chris de Burgh.
8.
Twelve bar blues
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The 12-bar blues or blues changes is one of the most prominent chord progressions in popular music. The blues progression has a form in lyrics, phrase, chord structure. In its basic form, it is based on the I-IV-V chords of a key. The blues can be played in any key, mastery of the blues and rhythm changes are critical elements for building a jazz repertoire. In the key of C, one basic blues progression is as follows, a basic example of the progression would look like this, using T to indicate the tonic, S for the subdominant, and D for the dominant, and representing one chord. In Roman numeral analysis the tonic is called the I, the sub-dominant the IV, using said notations, the chord progression outlined above can be represented as follows. The first line takes four bars, as do the two lines, for a total of twelve bars. However, the vocal or lead phrases, though they come in threes. This overlap between the grouping of the accompaniment and the vocal is part of what creates interest in the twelve bar blues, handy, the Father of the Blues, codified this blues form to help musicians communicate chord changes. The length of sections may be varied to create eight-bar blues or sixteen-bar blues, seventh chords are often used just before a change, and more changes can be added. Basic jazz blues progression Play In jazz, 12-bar blues progressions are expanded with moving substitutions, the cadence uniquely leads to the root by perfect intervals of fourths. The Bebop blues, Play This progression is similar to Charlie Parkers Nows the Time, Billies Bounce, Sonny Rollinss Tenor Madness and it is a bop soloists cliche to arpeggiate this chord from the 3 up to the ♭9. Minor blues Play There are also minor 12-bar blues, such as John Coltranes Equinox and Mr. P. C. made famous by Lil Green with Big Bill Broonzy and then Peggy Lee with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. The chord on the scale degree may be major or minor, in which case it fits a dorian scale along with the minor i7 and iv7 chords. Major and minor can also be mixed together, a characteristic of the music of Charles Brown. While the blues is most often considered to be in strophic form with a verse-chorus pattern. Handys St. Louis Blues However, many using the blues chord progression have lyrics that are not in the three-line form. For instance, Im Moving On has a verse in the first four bars, Im movin on, Ill soon be gone You were flyin too high for my little old sky So Im movin on
Twelve bar blues
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Typical boogie woogie bassline on 12 bar blues progression in C, chord
roots in red.
9.
Rolling Stone
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Rolling Stone is an American biweekly magazine that focuses on popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner, who is still the publisher. It was first known for its coverage and for political reporting by Hunter S. Thompson. In the 1990s, the magazine shifted focus to a readership interested in youth-oriented television shows, film actors. In recent years, it has resumed its traditional mix of content, Rolling Stone magazine was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and Ralph Gleason. To get it off the ground, Wenner borrowed $7,500 from his own family and from the parents of his soon-to-be wife, Jane Schindelheim. The first issue carried a date of November 9,1967. Some authors have attributed the name solely to Dylans hit single, At Gleasons suggestion, Rolling Stone initially identified with and reported the hippie counterculture of the era. In the very first edition, Wenner wrote that Rolling Stone is not just about the music, in the 1970s, Rolling Stone began to make a mark with its political coverage, with the likes of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson writing for the magazines political section. Thompson first published his most famous work Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas within the pages of Rolling Stone, where he remained a contributing editor until his death in 2005. In the 1970s, the magazine also helped launch the careers of prominent authors, including Cameron Crowe, Lester Bangs, Joe Klein, Joe Eszterhas, Patti Smith. It was at point that the magazine ran some of its most famous stories. One interviewer, speaking for a number of his peers, said that he bought his first copy of the magazine upon initial arrival on his college campus. In 1977, the magazine moved its headquarters from San Francisco to New York City, editor Jann Wenner said San Francisco had become a cultural backwater. During the 1980s, the magazine began to shift towards being an entertainment magazine. Music was still a dominant topic, but there was increasing coverage of celebrities in television, films, the magazine also initiated its annual Hot Issue during this time. Rolling Stone was initially known for its coverage and for Thompsons political reporting. In the 1990s, the changed its format to appeal to a younger readership interested in youth-oriented television shows, film actors
Rolling Stone
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Cee Lo Green,
Adam Levine,
Christina Aguilera, and
Blake Shelton, on the cover of the February 1, 2012, issue of Rolling Stone
10.
Ahmet Ertegun
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Ahmet Ertegun (/ˈɑːmɛt ˈɛərtəɡən/, Turkish spelling, Ahmet Ertegün, was a Turkish-American businessman, songwriter and philanthropist. He was best known as the co-founder and president of Atlantic Records and he also wrote classic blues and pop songs, and served as the chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum, located in Cleveland, Ohio. Ertegun has been described as one of the most significant figures in the recording industry. He was also a significant figure in fostering ties between the U. S. and Turkey, his birthplace and he served as the chairman of the American Turkish Society for over 20 years until his death. He also co-founded the New York Cosmos soccer team of the original North American Soccer League. Born in Istanbul in 1923 to an aristocratic Turkish family, Ertegun and his family, including elder brother Nesuhi, moved to Washington, D. C. in 1935, with their father, Munir. Munir served as the second Ambassador of the then-young Republic of Turkey to the United States of America. Prior to his appointment as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Turkey to Washington, Erteguns mother was Hayrünnisa, an accomplished musician who played keyboard and stringed instruments. She bought the records of the day, to which Ertegun. His older brother Nesuhi introduced him to music, taking him at the age of nine to see the Duke Ellington. When Ahmet was 14, his mother bought him a record-cutting machine, although he attended Landon School, an affluent all-male private school in Bethesda, Maryland, Ahmet would joke I got my real education at Howard—Howard University being a historically black college. Despite his affluent upbringing, Ertegun began to see a different world from his affluent peers, Ahmet and Nesuhi staged concerts by Lester Young, Sidney Bechet and other jazz giants, often at the Jewish Community Center. In this period of segregation, it was the only place that would allow an ethnically mixed audience. They also traveled to New Orleans and to Harlem to listen to music, Ertegun graduated from St. Johns College in Annapolis in 1944. In November of the year, Munir Ertegun died. In 1946 President Harry Truman ordered the battleship USS Missouri to return his body to Turkey as a demonstration of friendship between the USA and Turkey and this act also served as a show of support to counter the Soviet Unions potential political demands on Turkey. At the time of his fathers death, Ahmet was taking courses in Medieval philosophy at Georgetown University. Soon afterward, the returned to Turkey to stay
Ahmet Ertegun
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Ahmet Ertegun circa 1960
Ahmet Ertegun
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The Ertegun family in 1942.
Ahmet Ertegun
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Ahmet Ertegun (left) with his brother
Nesuhi Ertegun, around 1960
11.
Kansas City, Missouri
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Kansas City is the largest city in Missouri and the sixth largest city in the Midwest. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the city had an population of 475,378 in 2015. It is the city of the Kansas City metropolitan area. Kansas City was founded in the 1830s as a Missouri River port at its confluence with the Kansas River coming in from the west, on June 1,1850 the town of Kansas was incorporated, shortly after came the establishment of the Kansas Territory. Confusion between the two ensued and the name Kansas City was assigned to them soon thereafter. Most of the city lies within Jackson County, but portions spill into Clay, Cass, along with Independence, it serves as one of the two county seats for Jackson County. Major suburbs include the Missouri cities of Independence and Lees Summit and the Kansas cities of Overland Park, Olathe, and Kansas City. The city is composed of neighborhoods, including the River Market District in the north, the 18th and Vine District in the east. Kansas City is also known for its cuisine, its craft breweries, Kansas City, Missouri was officially incorporated as a town on June 1,1850, and as a city on March 28,1853. The territory straddling the border between Missouri and Kansas at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers was considered a place to build settlements. The Antioch Christian Church, Dr. James Compton House, the first documented European visitor to Kansas City was Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont, who was also the first European to explore the lower Missouri River. Criticized for his response to the Native American attack on Fort Détroit, Bourgmont lived with a Native American wife in a village about 90 miles east near Brunswick, Missouri, where he illegally traded furs. In the documents, he describes the junction of the Grande Riv des Cansez and Missouri River, French cartographer Guillaume Delisle used the descriptions to make the areas first reasonably accurate map. The Spanish took over the region in the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the French continued their fur trade under Spanish license. After the 1804 Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark visited the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers, in 1831, a group of Mormons from New York settled in what would become the city. They built the first school within Kansas Citys current boundaries, but were forced out by mob violence in 1833, in 1833 John McCoy established West Port along the Santa Fe Trail,3 miles away from the river. In 1834 McCoy established Westport Landing on a bend in the Missouri to serve as a point for West Port. Soon after, the Kansas Town Company, a group of investors, began to settle the area, in 1850, the landing area was incorporated as the Town of Kansas
Kansas City, Missouri
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From top left: the
Liberty Memorial, the
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Kansas City skyline, the
Country Club Plaza,
Arrowhead Stadium, and
Kauffman Stadium
Kansas City, Missouri
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Kansas City Pioneer Square monument in Westport features
Pony Express founder
Alexander Majors, Westport/Kansas City founder
John Calvin McCoy and Mountainman
Jim Bridger who owned Chouteau's Store.
Kansas City, Missouri
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Walnut Street, Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, 1906.
Kansas City, Missouri
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Kansas City satellite map
12.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
World War II
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Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the
Battle of Wanjialing, Australian
25-pounder guns during the
First Battle of El Alamein, German
Stuka dive bombers on the
Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the
Lingayen Gulf,
Wilhelm Keitel signing the
German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the
Battle of Stalingrad
World War II
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The
League of Nations assembly, held in
Geneva,
Switzerland, 1930
World War II
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Adolf Hitler at a German
National Socialist political rally in
Weimar, October 1930
World War II
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Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
13.
Al Bernard
–
Al Bernard was an American vaudeville singer, known as The Boy From Dixie, who was most popular during the 1910s through early 1930s. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, he became a singer in minstrel shows before starting his recording career around 1916. He was one of the first white singers to record blues songs, Handy credited Bernard with helping his own career by recording a number of his songs, notably St. Louis Blues. Bernard recorded the song for nine different record labels, the most successful being what Handy called the sensational Victor recording in which he sang with the Dixieland Jazz Band, from 1919, he recorded solo for Okeh Records. His songs included one called Shake, Rattle and Roll, about a dice game, Bernard was sometimes billed as The Singing Comedian, and was the first American singer to record the song Frankie and Johnny in America. He also recorded duets with Ernest Hare, in which Bernard took the singing part, including his biggest hit. He recorded with songwriter J. Russel Robinson as The Dixie Stars and, with Robinson and he also co-wrote songs with Jimmy Durante. Later, he recorded with Vernon Dalhart, in 1925, inspired by Dalhart, he began recording hillbilly songs. His 1930 version of Hesitation Blues, recorded with the Goofus Five, is considered to predict the western swing style, with a combination of country and western. Bernard continued to record into the 1940s, and died in 1949 in New York City
Al Bernard
–
Al Bernard
14.
Dice
–
Dice are small throwable objects with multiple resting positions, used for generating random numbers. Dice are suitable as gambling devices for games like craps and are used in non-gambling tabletop games. A traditional die is a cube, with each of its six faces showing a different number of dots from 1 to 6. When thrown or rolled, the die comes to rest showing on its surface a random integer from one to six. A variety of devices are also described as dice, such specialized dice may have polyhedral or irregular shapes. They may be used to produce other than one through six. Loaded and crooked dice are designed to favor some results over others for purposes of cheating or amusement. A dice tray, a used to contain thrown dice, is sometimes used for gambling or board games. Dice have been used since before recorded history, and it is uncertain where they originated, the oldest known dice were excavated as part of a backgammon-like game set at the Burnt City, an archeological site in south-eastern Iran, estimated to be from between 2800–2500 BCE. Other excavations from ancient tombs in the Indus Valley civilization indicate a South Asian origin, the Egyptian game of Senet was played with dice. Senet was played before 3000 BC and up to the 2nd century AD and it was likely a racing game, but there is no scholarly consensus on the rules of Senet. Dicing is mentioned as an Indian game in the Rigveda, Atharvaveda, there are several biblical references to casting lots, as in Psalm 22, indicating that dicing was commonplace when the psalm was composed. Knucklebones was a game of skill played by women and children, although gambling was illegal, many Romans were passionate gamblers who enjoyed dicing, which was known as aleam ludere. Dicing was even a popular pastime of emperors, letters by Augustus to Tacitus and his daughter recount his hobby of dicing. There were two sizes of Roman dice, tali were large dice inscribed with one, three, four, and six on four sides. Tesserae were smaller dice with sides numbered one to six. Twenty-sided dice date back to the 2nd century AD and from Ptolemaic Egypt as early as the 2nd century BC, dominoes and playing cards originated in China as developments from dice. The transition from dice to playing cards occurred in China around the Tang dynasty, in Japan, dice were used to play a popular game called sugoroku
Dice
–
Four differently colored traditional dice showing all six different sides
Dice
–
The Royal Game of Ur, a Mesopotamian board game played with dice
Dice
–
Bone die found at
Cantonment Clinch (1823–1834), an American fort used in the
American Civil War by both
Confederate and
Union forces at separate times
Dice
–
A collection of historical dice from various regions of
Asia
15.
New York City
–
The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
New York City
–
Clockwise, from top:
Midtown Manhattan,
Times Square, the
Unisphere in
Queens, the
Brooklyn Bridge,
Lower Manhattan with
One World Trade Center,
Central Park, the
headquarters of the United Nations, and the
Statue of Liberty
New York City
–
New Amsterdam, centered in the eventual
Lower Manhattan, in 1664, the year
England took control and renamed it "New York".
New York City
–
The
Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the
American Revolution, took place in
Brooklyn in 1776.
New York City
–
Broadway follows the Native American Wickquasgeck Trail through Manhattan.
16.
Jerry Wexler
–
Gerald Jerry Wexler was a music journalist-turned music producer, and was one of the main record industry players behind music from the 1950s through the 1980s. Wexler was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, Wexler was born in The Bronx, New York City, had a Jewish father of Polish ancestry and mother of German origin, and grew up in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan. He graduated from George Washington High School at age 15 and dropped out after two semesters at City College of New York, in 1935, Wexler enrolled at what is now Kansas State University and dropped out several times. Following his service in the Army, Wexler became a serious student, during his time as an editor, reporter, and writer for Billboard Magazine, Wexler coined the term rhythm and blues. He became a partner in Atlantic Records in 1953, there followed classic recordings with Ray Charles, the Drifters and Ruth Brown. With Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegün, he built Atlantic Records into a force in the recording industry. In 1967 he was named Record Executive of the Year for turning Aretha Franklins career around, in the 1960s, he notably recorded Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin, and oversaw production of Dusty Springfields highly acclaimed Dusty in Memphis and Lulus New Routes albums. His work in this decade put Atlantic at the forefront of soul music, in 1975, Wexler left Atlantic Records for Warner Bros. In 1979, Wexler produced Bob Dylans controversial first born again album, Slow Train Coming at Muscle Shoals, when Wexler agreed to produce, he was unaware of the nature of the material that awaited him. Naturally, I wanted to do the album in Muscle Shoals - as Bob did -, thats when I learned what the songs were about, born-again Christians in the old corral. I like the irony of Bob coming to me, the Wandering Jew, I had no idea he was on this born-again Christian trip until he started to evangelize me. I said, Bob, youre dealing with a sixty-two-year-old confirmed Jewish atheist, in 1983, Wexler recorded with UK pop star George Michael. The most famous outtake of these sessions would prove to be an early version of Careless Whisper. In 1987, Wexler was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and he retired from the music business in the late 1990s. Wexler spent a majority of the 1990s living on Davids Lane in East Hampton, NY, in Ray, the biopic of Ray Charles, Jerry Wexler is portrayed by Richard Schiff. Interviews and archive footage of Wexler are featured prominently in the 2000 documentary film Immaculate Funk, Jerry Wexler died at his home in Sarasota, Florida, on August 15,2008, from congestive heart failure. Asked by a documentary filmmaker several years before his death what he wanted on his tombstone, Wexler replied Two words, Muscle Shoals, Alabama Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section Muscle Shoals Sound Studios FAME Studios Category, Albums produced by Jerry Wexler Jerry Wexler. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Jerry Wexler at Find a Grave Jerry Wexler at AllMusic Salon. com NYTimes obit Obituary in the Star Gazette
Jerry Wexler
–
Jerry Wexler
17.
Saxophone
–
The saxophone is a family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet, the saxophone family was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1840. He patented the saxophone on June 28,1846, in two groups of seven instruments each, each series consisted of instruments of various sizes in alternating transposition. The series pitched in B♭ and E♭, designed for bands, have proved extremely popular. The saxophone is used in music, military bands, marching bands. The saxophone was developed in 1846 by Adolphe Sax, a Belgian instrument maker, flautist, born in Dinant and originally based in Brussels, he moved to Paris in 1842 to establish his musical instrument business. Prior to his work on the saxophone, he had several improvements to the bass clarinet by improving its keywork and acoustics. Sax was also a maker of the ophicleide, a large conical brass instrument in the bass register with keys similar to a woodwind instrument. His experience with two instruments allowed him to develop the skills and technologies needed to make the first saxophones. As an outgrowth of his work improving the bass clarinet, Sax began developing an instrument with the projection of a brass instrument and he wanted it to overblow at the octave, unlike the clarinet, which rises in pitch by a twelfth when overblown. An instrument that overblows at the octave has identical fingering for both registers, Sax created an instrument with a single-reed mouthpiece like a clarinet, conical brass body like an ophicleide, and some acoustic properties of both the horn and the clarinet. Having constructed saxophones in several sizes in the early 1840s, Sax applied for, and received, the patent encompassed 14 versions of the fundamental design, split into two categories of seven instruments each, and ranging from sopranino to contrabass. Although the instruments transposed at either F or C have been considered orchestral, the C soprano saxophone was the only instrument to sound at concert pitch. Saxs patent expired in 1866, thereafter, numerous saxophonists and instrument manufacturers implemented their own improvements to the design, the first substantial modification was by a French manufacturer who extended the bell slightly and added an extra key to extend the range downwards by one semitone to B♭. It is suspected that Sax himself may have attempted this modification and this extension is now commonplace in almost all modern designs, along with other minor changes such as added keys for alternate fingerings. Using alternate fingerings allows a player to play faster and more easily, a player may also use alternate fingerings to bend the pitch. Some of the alternate fingerings are good for trilling, scales, a substantial advancement in saxophone keywork was the development of a method by which the left thumb operates both tone holes with a single octave key, which is now universal on modern saxophones. This enables a chromatic scale to be played two octaves simply by playing the diatonic scale combined with alternately raising and lowering this one digit
Saxophone
–
An alto saxophone in E ♭
Saxophone
–
Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone
Saxophone
–
A
military band saxophonist holding a
baritone saxophone
Saxophone
–
Straight saxophones, including common fully straight types and unusual variants with slightly curved bell. Clockwise from top left: an
E♭ baritone, a
B♭ tenor, a C soprano, a
B♭ soprano, and a
B♭ soprillo
18.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
United States
–
Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
–
Flag
United States
–
The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
–
The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
19.
Billboard (magazine)
–
Billboard is an American entertainment media brand owned by the Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group, a division of Eldridge Industries. It publishes pieces involving news, video, opinion, reviews, events and it is also known for its music charts, including the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200, tracking the most popular singles and albums in different genres. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm, and operates several TV shows, Billboard was founded in 1894 by William Donaldson and James Hennegan as a trade publication for bill posters. Donaldson later acquired Hennegens interest in 1900 for $500, in the 1900s, it covered the entertainment industry, such as circuses, fairs and burlesque shows. It also created a service for travelling entertainers. Billboard began focusing more on the industry as the jukebox, phonograph. Many topics it covered were spun-off into different magazines, including Amusement Business in 1961 to cover outdoor entertainment so that it could focus on music. After Donaldson died in 1925, Billboard was passed down to his children and Hennegans children, until it was sold to investors in 1985. The first issue of Billboard was published in Cincinnati, Ohio, on November 1,1894 by William Donaldson, initially, it covered the advertising and bill posting industry and was called Billboard Advertising. At the time, billboards, posters and paper advertisements placed in public spaces were the means of advertising. Donaldson handled editorial and advertising, while Hennegan, who owned Hennegan Printing Co. managed magazine production, the first issues were just eight pages long. The paper had columns like The Bill Room Gossip and The Indefatigable, a department for agricultural fairs was established in 1896. The title was changed to The Billboard in 1897, after a brief departure over editorial differences, Donaldson purchased Hennegans interest in the business in 1900 for $500, to save it from bankruptcy. That May, Donaldson changed it from a monthly to a paper with a greater emphasis on breaking news. He improved editorial quality and opened new offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, London and he also re-focused the magazine on outdoor entertainment like fairs, carnivals, circuses, vaudeville and burlesque shows. A section devoted to circuses was introduced in 1900, followed by more prominent coverage of events in 1901. Billboard also covered topics including regulation, a lack of professionalism, economics and it had a stage gossip column covering the private lives of entertainers, a tent show section covering traveling shows and a sub-section called Freaks to order. According to The Seattle Times, Donaldson also published articles attacking censorship, praising productions exhibiting good taste
Billboard (magazine)
–
An 1896 issue of Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
–
Cover of Billboard (January 26, 2013).
20.
Billboard Hot 100
–
The Billboard Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for singles, published weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales, radio play and online streaming, the weekly sales period was originally Monday to Sunday, when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but was changed to Friday to Thursday in July 2015. Radio airplay, which, unlike sales figures and streaming data, is available on a real-time basis. A new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by Billboard on Tuesdays, as of the issue for the week ending on April 15,2017, the Hot 100 has had 1,061 different number one hits. The current number one song is Shape of You by Ed Sheeran, prior to 1955, Billboard did not have a unified, all-encompassing popularity chart, instead measuring songs by individual metrics. At the start of the era in 1955, three such charts existed, Best Sellers in Stores was the first Billboard chart, established in 1936. This chart ranked the biggest selling singles in retail stores, as reported by merchants surveyed throughout the country, Most Played by Jockeys was Billboards original airplay chart. It ranked the most played songs on United States radio stations, as reported by radio disc jockeys, Most Played in Jukeboxes ranked the most played songs in jukeboxes across the United States. On the week ending November 12,1955, Billboard published The Top 100 for the first time, the Top 100 combined all aspects of a singles performance, based on a point system that typically gave sales more weight than radio airplay. The Best Sellers In Stores, Most Played by Jockeys and Most Played in Jukeboxes charts continued to be published concurrently with the new Top 100 chart. The week ending July 28,1958 was the publication of the Most Played By Jockeys and Top 100 charts. On August 4,1958, Billboard premiered one main all-genre singles chart, the Hot 100 quickly became the industry standard and Billboard discontinued the Best Sellers In Stores chart on October 13,1958. The Billboard Hot 100 is still the standard by which a songs popularity is measured in the United States, the Hot 100 is ranked by radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen BDS, sales data compiled by Nielsen Soundscan and streaming activity provided by online music sources. There are several component charts that contribute to the calculation of the Hot 100. Charts are ranked by number of gross audience impressions, computed by cross-referencing exact times of radio airplay with Arbitron listener data. Hot Singles Sales, the top selling singles compiled from a sample of retail store, mass merchant and internet sales reports collected, compiled. The chart is released weekly and measures sales of commercial singles. With the decline in sales of singles in the US
Billboard Hot 100
–
The Billboard logo
21.
Bill Haley
–
William John Clifton Bill Haley was an American rock and roll musician. He has sold over 25 million records worldwide, Bill Haley was born July 6,1925 in Highland Park, Michigan, as William John Clifton Haley. In 1929, the four-year-old Haley underwent an inner-ear mastoid operation which accidentally severed an optic nerve, leaving him blind in his left eye for the rest of his life. As a result of the effects of the Great Depression on the Detroit area, his father moved the family to Boothwyn, near Chester, Pennsylvania, Haley told the story that when he made a simulated guitar out of cardboard, his parents bought him a real one. Very soon after this he formed a group of enthusiastic youngsters. The sleeve notes continue, When Bill Haley was fifteen he left home with his guitar and very little else and set out on the road to fame. The next few years, continuing this story in a manner, were hard and poverty-stricken. Eventually he got a job with a group known as the Down Homers while they were in Hartford. Soon after this he decided, as all people must decide at some time or another, to be his own boss again –. These notes fail to account for his band, known as the Four Aces of Western Swing. During the 1940s Haley was considered one of the top cowboy yodelers in America as Silver Yodeling Bill Haley. The sleeve notes conclude, For six years Bill Haley was a director of Radio Station WPWA in Chester, Pennsylvania. It was then known as Bill Haleys Saddlemen, indicating their definite leaning toward the tough Western style and they continued playing in clubs as well as over the radio around Philadelphia, and in 1951 made their first recordings on Ed Wilsons Keystone Records in Philadelphia. On June 14,1951 the Saddlemen recorded a cover of Rocket 88.15 on Billboard, soon after, the bands name was revised to Bill Haley & His Comets. In 1953, a song called Rock Around the Clock was recorded by Haley, initially, it was relatively successful, peaking at no.23 on the Billboard pop singles chart and staying on the charts for a few weeks. A month later it re-entered at number 1 and he retained elements of the original, but sped it up with some country music aspects into the song and changed up the lyrics. Haley and his band were important in launching the music known as Rock, when Rock Around the Clock appeared as the theme song of the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle starring Glenn Ford, it soared to the top of the American Billboard chart for eight weeks. The single is used as a convenient line of demarcation between the rock era and the music industry that preceded it
Bill Haley
–
Bill Haley
Bill Haley
–
Sunday, August 7, 1955 rehearsal publicity photograph on the Ed Sullivan Show or Toast of the Town, CBS, Hartford, Connecticut
Bill Haley
–
Bill Haley and the Comets performing during 1974
Bill Haley
–
Bill Haley and Elvis Presley at the Brooklyn High School Auditorium, Cleveland, Ohio, October 20, 1955
22.
Marshall Lytle
–
Marshall Lytle was an American rock and roll bassist, best known for his work with the groups Bill Haley & His Comets and The Jodimars in the 1950s. He played upright bass on the iconic 1950s rock and roll records Crazy Man, Crazy, Shake, Rattle and Roll. Born in Old Fort, North Carolina, Lytle was a player before joining Bill Haleys country music group, The Saddlemen. But Lytle was hired to double bass for the group, replacing departing musician Al Rex. Soon after, Lytle co-wrote with Haley the bands first national hit, Crazy Man, Lytle played on all of Haleys recordings between mid-1951 and the summer of 1955, including the epochal Rock Around the Clock in 1954. He was paid $41.25 for the three-hour Decca recording session which included the original A side. He played a late 1940s model Epiphone B5 upright double bass, purchased in October 1951 and he used gut strings for the G and D strings while the A and E strings were wound. Lytles style of playing, which involved slapping the strings to make a sound, is considered one of the signature sounds of early rock and roll. The athletic Lytle also developed a routine, along with Ambrose. This became a performance for The Comets that later musicians working for Haley were instructed to emulate. He was part of the band when they appeared on the NBC Texaco Star Theatre show hosted by Milton Berle and he also appeared in the 1954 Universal International Pictures movie short Round Up of Rhythm. In September 1955, Lytle, along with drummer Dick Richards and Ambrose, quit The Comets in a dispute and formed their own musical group. Before leaving, Lytle and his colleagues offered to train their replacements in the art of rock and roll playing, Lytle was succeeded by Al Rex—ironically, the same musician he had originally been hired to replace. The Jodimars became one of the first rock and roll groups to take up residence in Las Vegas showrooms, by 1958 they had broken up, though Lytle attempted to continue the group on his own. Despite the musicians not having each other in decades, The Comets quickly found their groove again although Lytle sang the lyrics of Rock Around the Clock out-of-order. Their performance was the hit of the show, and over the couple of years The Comets began touring again. The band has recorded albums for the German label Hydra Records, the UK-based Rockstar Records. Lytle also recorded an album in 1993 entitled Air Mail Special back by members of The Stargazers, a UK rockabilly group, the album was credited to Marshall
Marshall Lytle
–
Marshall Lytle
Marshall Lytle
–
Top 40 hit "Fractured" by Bill Haley With Haley's Comets released as an Essex Records 78, 327-B, in 1953.
23.
Danny Cedrone
–
Donato Joseph Danny Cedrone was an American guitarist and bandleader, best known for his work with Bill Haley & His Comets on their epochal Rock Around the Clock in 1954. Cedrone was born in Jamesville, New York, in 1951, Cedrone played lead on their recording of Rocket 88 which is considered one of the first acknowledged rock and roll recordings. At around this time, Cedrone formed his own group, The Esquire Boys, Cedrones involvement with the Esquire Boys kept him off of Haleys recording schedule for most of 1952 and 1953. The first version was released in December,1952 on Rainbow Records as 200, the Esquire Boys recorded a second version of Rock-A-Beatin Boogie in 1954 released as Guyden 705-A, which reached no.42 on the Cashbox pop singles chart on October 30,1954. Cedrone returned to work with Haleys group in 1954, by time it had been renamed The Comets. He played a key role in the bands first recording session for Decca Records on April 12,1954 when they recorded Rock Around the Clock in New York City. According to the book Rock Around the Clock by Jim Dawson, one of the Comets suggested Cedrone repeat the solo hed played on Rock the Joint. The resulting solo, which was smoother than the recorded version, is widely considered one of the greatest rock. Cedrone was paid only $21 for his work on the session, Cedrone would also play on the June 7,1954 recording session for Haleys version of Shake, Rattle and Roll although he was not allotted the chance for another notable guitar solo. On June 17, ten days after this session, Cedrone died of a neck after falling down a staircase. His place as session musician in the Comets was taken by Franny Beecher, subsequently the song was performed on TV many times by Haley and the Comets, on several occasions the band would lip-synch to the 1954 recording. As a result, footage exists of both Bill Haley and Franny Beecher miming to Cedrones original solo, Beecher, himself an acclaimed and respected guitarist, did not begin to actually emulate Cedrones solo until as late as the 1980s. Up until that point, Beecher replaced the down-scale run that Cedrone used to conclude his Clock guitar solo with a series of fast arpeggios, Cedrone had four daughters with wife Millie. His family had attempted to get Cedrone named to the Rock, Cedrone fell down a flight of stairs and broke his neck, dying instantly on June 17,1954. Although well-identified with Bill Haley & His Comets, Cedrone only appears on a handful of the groups recordings. This is a list of the known Haley recordings on which Cedrone is either believed to have performed or has been confirmed, Rock the Joint - note, this is the earliest recording on which Cedrones involvement is definitely confirmed. According to Cedrones children, he did not perform on the songs B-side, according to Gardners database, a second unreleased recording from the August 1951 recording session may exist, but to date it has yet to be located and identified. No film footage or live recordings of Cedrone performing with the Comets is known to exist
Danny Cedrone
–
1952 recording of "Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie" released as a Rainbow Records 78, 200.
Danny Cedrone
–
The Esquire Boys featuring Danny Cedrone, second from right, early 1950s.
Danny Cedrone
–
1954 recording of "Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie" released as a Guyden 45, 705A.
24.
Milt Gabler
–
Milton Milt Gabler was an American record producer, responsible for many innovations in the recording industry of the 20th century. Milt Gabler was born in Harlem, New York, the son of Susie and his father was an Austrian Jewish immigrant, and his mothers family were Jewish immigrants from Russia. At 15, he working in his fathers business, the Commodore Radio Corporation. By the mid-1930s, Gabler renamed the business the Commodore Music Shop, Gabler started up a specialty label UHCA in about 1935 to reissue selected 78 r. p. m. Sides previously released by other companies and these reissues were from the original 78 stampers and were instrumental in spreading the concept of collecting classic performances from the past. A number of Paramount and Gennett sides were dubbed from clean copies and issued on UHCA, in 1937 he opened a new store on 52nd Street, and set up a series of jam sessions in a neighbouring club, Jimmy Ryans. Some of these he began recording, setting up his own record label and his role as a music producer soon superseded his other activities and he recorded many of the leading jazz artists of the day. One regular customer, Billie Holiday, found her record company, Columbia, resisting her appeals to release the song Strange Fruit, so she offered the song to Gabler. After getting the permission, he released her recording on Commodore in 1939, boosting her career and issuing what,60 years on. The success of Commodore Records inevitably led to an offer to join a major record label, Gabler was recruited to work for Decca Records in 1941, and left his brother-in-law Jack Crystal to run Commodore. In 1946 he produced and co-wrote Louis Jordan’s breakthrough single, Choo Choo ChBoogie, Gabler contributed a further slice of history when he signed Bill Haley and His Comets to Decca Records. He produced their initial recording session in April 1954, much of which was spent cutting a song which the thought the more likely hit of the two due to be recorded that day. Their efforts on 13 Women left only ten minutes for the second song, Rock Around The Clock was cut in two takes and changed the face of popular music. Gabler later commented, All the tricks I used with Louis Jordan, the only difference was the way we did the rhythm. On Jordan, we used a perfectly balanced rhythm section from the swing era, but Bill had the heavy backbeat. Commodore Records was wound up in 1954, Bob Shads Mainstream Records issued a series of albums of Commodore material in the early 1960s, keeping most of these recordings available. Gabler also continued to all of the Comets recordings for Decca until they left the label in 1959. Milt Gabler also produced all studio-albums in Hamburg for Bert Kaempfert and he wrote many lyrics for Kaempfert songs, like L-O-V-E, a very big hit for Nat King Cole, Danke schoen, etc
Milt Gabler
–
Milt Gabler (left), Herbie Hill, Lou Blum, Jack Crystal. Commodore Record Shop, August 1947. Photography by
William P. Gottlieb.
25.
Backing vocalist
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Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of sustained tonality, rhythm, and a variety of vocal techniques. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist, Singers perform music that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir of singers or a band of instrumentalists, Singers may perform as soloists, or accompanied by anything from a single instrument up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Singing can be formal or informal, arranged or improvised and it may be done as a form of religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort, or ritual, as part of music education, or as a profession. Excellence in singing requires time, dedication, instruction, and regular practice, if practice is done on a regular basis then the sounds can become more clear and strong. Professional singers usually build their careers around one specific genre, such as classical or rock. They typically take voice training provided by teachers or vocal coaches throughout their careers. Though these four mechanisms function independently, they are coordinated in the establishment of a vocal technique and are made to interact upon one another. During passive breathing, air is inhaled with the diaphragm while exhalation occurs without any effort, exhalation may be aided by the abdominal, internal intercostal and lower pelvis/pelvic muscles. Inhalation is aided by use of external intercostals, scalenes and sternocleidomastoid muscles, the pitch is altered with the vocal cords. With the lips closed, this is called humming, humans have vocal folds which can loosen, tighten, or change their thickness, and over which breath can be transferred at varying pressures. The shape of the chest and neck, the position of the tongue, any one of these actions results in a change in pitch, volume, timbre, or tone of the sound produced. Sound also resonates within different parts of the body and an individuals size, Singers can also learn to project sound in certain ways so that it resonates better within their vocal tract. This is known as vocal resonation, another major influence on vocal sound and production is the function of the larynx which people can manipulate in different ways to produce different sounds. These different kinds of function are described as different kinds of vocal registers. The primary method for singers to accomplish this is through the use of the Singers Formant and it has also been shown that a more powerful voice may be achieved with a fatter and fluid-like vocal fold mucosa. The more pliable the mucosa, the more efficient the transfer of energy from the airflow to the vocal folds, Vocal registration refers to the system of vocal registers within the voice. A register in the voice is a series of tones, produced in the same vibratory pattern of the vocal folds
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American jazz singer and songwriter
Billie Holiday in New York City in 1947
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"Vocalist" redirects here. See also:
Lead vocalist and
Backing vocalist.
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Ercole de' Roberti: Concert, c. 1490
