1.
Album
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Album, is a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item on CD, record, audio tape, or another medium. Albums of recorded music were developed in the early 20th century, first as books of individual 78rpm records, vinyl LPs are still issued, though in the 21st century album sales have mostly focused on compact disc and MP3 formats. The audio cassette was a format used from the late 1970s through to the 1990s alongside vinyl, an album may be recorded in a recording studio, in a concert venue, at home, in the field, or a mix of places. Recording may take a few hours to years to complete, usually in several takes with different parts recorded separately. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed live, the majority of studio recordings contain an abundance of editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology, musicians can be recorded in separate rooms or at times while listening to the other parts using headphones. Album covers and liner notes are used, and sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of the recording, historically, the term album was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage the word was used for collections of pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, the LP record, or 33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. It was adopted by the industry as a standard format for the album. Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, the term album had been carried forward from the early nineteenth century when it had been used for collections of short pieces of music. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, as part of a trend of shifting sales in the music industry, some commenters have declared that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as mini-albums or EPs, Albums such as Tubular Bells, Amarok, Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield, and Yess Close to the Edge, include fewer than four tracks. There are no rules against artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder referring to their own releases under thirty minutes as albums. These are known as box sets, material is stored on an album in sections termed tracks, normally 11 or 12 tracks. A music track is a song or instrumental recording. The term is associated with popular music where separate tracks are known as album tracks. When vinyl records were the medium for audio recordings a track could be identified visually from the grooves
2.
Marian Gold
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Hartwig Schierbaum, better known by his stage name Marian Gold, is the lead singer of the German synthpop group Alphaville, and has also recorded as a solo artist. In 1982, he joined Lloyd and Frank Mertens in the band Forever Young and he sang lead vocals on Alphavilles 1980s pop singles, including Forever Young, Big in Japan, Sounds Like a Melody, and Dance with Me. Since the early 1990s, Gold has taken Alphaville from a project to a successful live act and has established the bands website. Golds first solo album, So Long Celeste, was released in 1992, included on the album were cover versions of The Shape of Things to Come and One Step Behind You. A second solo album, United, followed in 1996, in the late 1980s Gold lived in Münster with his then wife Amy Magill. Gold states that he has six children by four different mothers, the oldest child was born in 1998 and the youngest in 2013. Moonbase - Official Alphaville Web Site Marian Gold at the Internet Movie Database Marian Gold at AllMusic
3.
Synth-pop
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Synth-pop is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic, art rock, disco, and particularly the Krautrock of bands like Kraftwerk. It arose as a genre in Japan and the United Kingdom in the post-punk era as part of the new wave movement of the late-1970s to the mid-1980s. In Japan, Yellow Magic Orchestras success opened the way for bands such as P-Model, Plastics. The development of polyphonic synthesizers, the definition of MIDI. This, its adoption by the acts from the New Romantic movement, together with the rise of MTV. Synth-pop is sometimes deployed interchangeably with electropop, but electropop may also denote a variant of synth-pop that places emphasis on a harder. In the late 1980s duos such as Erasure and Pet Shop Boys adopted a style that was successful on the US dance-charts. Some artists and bands were criticised for gender bending, Synth-pop was defined by its primary use of synthesizers, drum machines and sequencers, sometimes using them to replace all other instruments. Borthwick and Moy have described the genre as diverse but, many synth-pop musicians had limited musical skills, relying on the technology to produce or reproduce the music. The result was often minimalist, with grooves that were woven together from simple repeated riffs often with no harmonic progression to speak of. Early synth-pop has been described as eerie, sterile, and vaguely menacing, using droning electronics with little change in inflection, common lyrical themes of synth-pop songs were isolation, urban anomie, and feelings of being emotionally cold and hollow. Synthesizers were increasingly used to imitate the conventional and clichéd sound of orchestras, thin, treble-dominant, synthesized melodies and simple drum programmes gave way to thick, and compressed production, and a more conventional drum sound. Lyrics were generally optimistic, dealing with more traditional subject matter for pop music such as romance, escapism. According to music writer Simon Reynolds, the hallmark of 1980s synth-pop was its emotional, at times operatic singers such as Marc Almond, Alison Moyet and Annie Lennox. Because synthesizers removed the need for groups of musicians, these singers were often part of a duo where their partner played all the instrumentation. Later synth-pop saw a shift to a style influenced by other genres. Electronic musical synthesizers that could be used practically in a recording studio became available in the mid-1960s, the portable Minimoog, which allowed much easier use, particularly in live performance was widely adopted by progressive rock musicians such as Richard Wright of Pink Floyd and Rick Wakeman of Yes
4.
Warner Music Group
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Warner Music Group is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. With a multibillion-dollar annual turnover, WMG employs in excess of 3,500 people and has operations in more than 50 countries throughout the world, the company owns and operates some of the largest and most successful record labels in the world, including its flagship labels Warner Bros. WMG also owns Warner/Chappell Music, one of the worlds largest music publishers, the film company had no record label division at the time and one of its contracted actors, Tab Hunter, scored a hit song for Dot Records, which was a division of rival Paramount Pictures. In order to prevent any repetition of its actors recording for rival companies, in 1963, Warner purchased Reprise Records, which had been founded by Frank Sinatra three years earlier so that he could have more creative control over his recordings. With the Reprise acquisition, Warner gained the services of Mo Ostin, the Canadian unit was opened in 1967 as Warner Reprise Canada Ltd, now called Warner Music Canada Co. After Warner Bros. was sold to Seven Arts Productions in 1967, it purchased Atlantic Records, founded in 1947 and WMGs oldest label and this acquisition brought Neil Young into the company fold, initially as a member of Buffalo Springfield. The Geffen catalogue, now owned by Universal Music Group, represents Youngs only major recordings not under WMG ownership, in 1969, two years after being purchased by Seven Arts, the Warner Bros. -Seven Arts company was sold to the Kinney National Company. Kinney combined the operations of all of its labels. An earlier attempt by Warner Bros. Records to create a distribution arm in 1958 didnt materialize. So in 1969, Elektra Records boss Jac Holzman approached Atlantics Jerry Wexler with the idea of setting up a joint distribution network for Warner, Elektra, an experimental branch was established in Southern California as a possible prototype for an expanded operation. Atlantic, its subsidiary Atco Records, and its affiliate Stax Records paved the way for Warners rise to industry prominence, the purchase brought in Atlantics lucrative back-catalogue, which included classic recordings by Ray Charles, the Drifters, the Coasters, and many more. But the sale led to Stax leaving the Atlantic fold because the new Warner owners insisted on keeping the rights to Stax recordings and it was soon apparent in 1969 that Atlantic/Atco president Ahmet Ertegün viewed Warner/Reprise president Mike Maitland as godlike. Maitland believed that, as vice-president in charge of the Warner Bros, in retrospect Ertegün clearly feared that Maitland would ultimately have more power than him and so he moved rapidly to secure his own position and remove Maitland. Following the takeover, Warners music group briefly adopted the umbrella name Kinney Music, erteguns campaign against Maitland began in earnest that summer. Atlantic had agreed to help Warner Bros. in its efforts to establish its labels overseas, Mike Maitland complained bitterly to Kinney executive Ted Ashley, but to no avail – by this time Ertegun was poised to make his move against Maitland. As he had with Hyman, Ertegun urged Steve Ross to extend Mo Ostin and Joe Smiths contracts, in response, Ertegun broadly hinted that Maitlands days were numbered and that he, Ertegun, was about to take over the recording division. Unlike the Warner/Reprise executives, Atlantics execs the Ertegun brothers and Wexler owned stock in Kinney, on Sunday January 25, Ted Ashley went to Maitlands house to tell him he had been dismissed, and Maitland declined the offer of a job at the movie studio. One week later, Mo Ostin was named as the new President of Warner Bros, Records, with Joe Smith as his Executive Vice-President
5.
Discogs
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Discogs, short for discographies, is a website and crowdsourced database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs. com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc. and are located in Portland, Oregon, US. While the site lists releases in all genres and on all formats, it is known as the largest online database of electronic music releases. Discogs currently contains over 8 million releases, by nearly 4 and he was inspired by the success of community-built sites such as Slashdot, eBay, and Open Directory Project, and decided to use this model for a music discography database. The sites original goal was to build the most comprehensive database of music, organized around the artists, labels. In 2003 the Discogs system was rewritten, and in January 2004 it began to support other genres. Since then, it has expanded to include rock and jazz in January 2005 and funk/soul, Latin, in January 2006 blues and non-music were added. On 30 June 2004, Discogs published a report, which included information about the number of its contributors and this report claimed that Discogs had 15,788 contributors and 260,789 releases. On 20 July 2007 a new system for sellers was introduced on the site called Market Price History. However, at the beginning of 2008, the Market Price History was also free of charge for all users. In late 2014, the company released two new beta websites, gearogs lets users add and track music equipment like synths, drum machines, and other electronic music making equipment. At the start of 2015, the company began another beta project — Bibliogs, users can submit information about their books, physical or electronic, different versions and editions, and also connect different credits to these books. 21,000 books were submitted by the end of 2016, the project remains in its beta phase. The license has since changed to a public domain one. Prior to the advent of this license and API, Discogs data was only accessible via the Discogs web sites HTML interface and was intended to be viewed only using web browsers, the HTML interface remains the only authorized way to modify Discogs data. On 7 June 2011 version 2 of the API was released, notable in this release was that a license key was no longer required, the default response was changed from XML to JSON, and the 5000 queries per day limit was removed. On 1 November 2011 a major update to version 2 of the API was released and this new release dropped support for XML, data is always returned in JSON format, however the monthly data dumps of new data are only provided in XML format. Additionally the Premium API service was dropped, on 24 June 2014 Discogs deprecated their XML API in lieu of a JSON-formatted API
6.
Alphaville (band)
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Alphaville is a German synthpop/new wave band which gained popularity in the 1980s. The founding members were lead singer Marian Gold, Bernhard Lloyd, the band was at first named Forever Young before being changed to Alphaville. They achieved chart success with the singles Big in Japan, Jet Set, Dance With Me, Alphaville formed in early 1982, when Marian Gold and Bernhard Lloyd met at the music project Nelson Community. Many months later, Frank Mertens joined the project, together the three wrote Forever Young and recorded their first demo of the same name. In 1984, the newly renamed Alphaville released their single, Big in Japan. In autumn 1984, they released their album, Forever Young, produced by Colin Pearson, Wolfgang Loos. Despite its success, Frank Mertens left the band that year and was replaced in January 1985 by Ricky Echolette, Forever Young on the surface, is a hopeful song celebrating the virtues of youth, but a closer listen reveals a fear of aging and death. The song was written during the Cold War, where the singer is hoping for the best, Big in Japan was Alphavilles biggest hit, topping the charts in Germany, Greece, Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey, Venezuela, and the US Billboard Dance Chart. The single also reached the Top Five in Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Ireland and it became the groups only Top 20 single in the UK, peaking at No.8. Big In Japan tells about a couple of lovers trying to get off Heroin and they both imagine how great it would be to love without the drug, no steal, no clients, no ice age in the pupil, real emotions, true worlds. Even today Berlin Zoo station is an important meeting place for junkies, the bands next two singles, Sounds Like a Melody and Forever Young, were also both European Top 5 successes, although the former track failed to make an impression on the American charts. Branigans version, though promoted on stickers adorning the album, remained an album cut in the US and she performed the song as an encore at nearly every concert she performed, until her death in 2004. The Alphaville version was released a third time in the US in 1988, to promote Alphaville, The Singles Collection,65, their highest charting single on the Billboard Hot 100. International re-releases of Alphavilles Forever Young followed in 1989,1993,1996,1999,2001,2005 and 2009, several covers have been recorded featuring male or female vocalists often erroneously attributed to be Alphavilles Marian Gold or Laura Branigan. It reached the Top 30 in Austria, Italy and in the US Club Play chart, the albums second single was Universal Daddy. For their third single, the band released Jerusalem in Germany only, while they went with Sensations for Austria, France, the Netherlands, the final single from Afternoons in Utopia was Red Rose, in 1987. The LP was followed up in 1989 with The Breathtaking Blue, including the acclaimed singles Romeos, the album was released as a CD+G, including black & white stills with original lyrics and German translation. As an alternative to individual videos, the band enlisted nine directors, among them Godfrey Reggio
7.
Forever Young (Alphaville album)
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Forever Young is the debut album released by German synthpop/rock group Alphaville on September 27,1984, by Warner Music Group. It is Alphavilles most critically acclaimed album, with an estimated 2,000,000 copies sold, reviews are generally positive, with one reviewer calling it a classic synth pop album and a wonderfully fun ride from start to finish. It charted well, hitting the Top 20 in six European countries, Alphaville followed up with their second album in 1986 with the release of Afternoons in Utopia
8.
Afternoons in Utopia
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Afternoons in Utopia is the second album released by Alphaville in 1986, by Warner Music. The album was recorded between September 1985 and May 1986, and Alphaville employed no less than 27 guest musicians,500,000 copies of the album have been sold. The album finished in the Top 20 in five European countries, another reviewer points out that by the time of this albums 1986 release, synth-pop was no longer a chart concern. The albums lyrics make references to cosmic entities, including comets, the planet Mars and its landscape. When the word smile is used in the songs Afternoons in Utopia, Lassie Come Home, a reference to Timothy Leary, which stands for Space Migration, Increased Intelligence, Life Extension. The first song, IAO, begins with the word night, the album ends with the song Lady Bright, a limerick about relativity, wherein the Lady Bright leaves one day and returns the previous. Thus the album back to its beginning. The song Afternoons in Utopia is dedicated For Inka in the notes for the album. Afternoons in Utopia was composed by Marian Gold, Bernhard Lloyd, all songs produced by Peter Walsh except where noted
9.
The Breathtaking Blue
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The Breathtaking Blue is the third album released by the German band Alphaville in 1989. A companion video, Songlines was released in 1990, the Compact Disc release of this album was one of the first commercial CD+G format discs. Production of the album was difficult, singer Marian Gold would later say the production saw Alphaville in the horrors of permanent crisis, there was an ongoing war between. The furious guitar shrieks during the intro being an indication of the real spirit of the production. The cover of the album is a composite of two works, the first being The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel, the second being the blue sun, the face in the blue sun is credited to Michelangelo, from a sibyl on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The halo of sunrays is of unknown origin, the year 1989 is displayed in Roman numerals across the bottom of the cover. The back cover has a drawing of Pharaoh Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti, about 400,000 copies of the album have been sold. Cater did like some of the tracks on the album, calling Heaven or Hell one of the albums more interesting efforts. Graeme Kay, writing for Q Magazine, was positive, calling the album a highly polished cluster of glimmering technopop and saying that the overall effect is accessible. Gabi Becker would record with Alphaville again, on 2003s CrazyShow
10.
Salvation (Alphaville album)
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Salvation is the fifth album by Alphaville which was released in Europe in 1997, and in the U. S. in 1999 with different artwork and three bonus tracks. Three tracks from the album were released as singles, Wishful Thinking Flame Soul Messiah However, the German synthpop bands last album at the Warner/metropolis label. Their next major album Catching Rays on Giant was released at the We Love Music/Universal label, the subsequent split that led Alphaville to establishing their own, concert- and online-focused communication, promotion, and distribution platform. Even though the circumstances for Salvation were not favorable, the album quite a success for its circumstances. This is mainly due to the returning to their synthpop-roots. There is a similarity between Forever Young and Salvation. An estimated 200.000 copies of the album have been sold, a departure from the experimental predecessors, Prostitute and The Breathtaking Blue, the straighter, simpler style appealed to old fans and a younger audience alike
11.
So80s presents Alphaville
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So80s presents Alphaville is a compilation album for the band Alphaville, released in October 2014. The release includes all of their original 12inch 1980s maxi-singles and their respective B-sides and this 2-CD collection includes all original 1980s 12 singles starting with Big in Japan through Mysteries of Love. Also included are the original B-sides and select alternate mixes, including original instrumental, one original mix is also included. The tracks were remastered from the master tapes, and initial copies were signed by the band. The album has been reviewed, and entered the German charts at #26
12.
Big in Japan (Alphaville song)
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Big in Japan is the debut single of the German band Alphaville. It is from their 1984 album Forever Young, the single was a great success in many countries, including Switzerland, Germany and Sweden. It was also the groups only UK hit, getting to No.8 on the UK Singles chart, the song also reached number one on the Hot Dance Club Play in December 1984. The title comes from the phrase Big in Japan, which was used to describe Western bands who are popular with Japanese audiences while garnering little attention in their home country. In 1986, Marian Gold recalled that he bought an album of an unknown British band named Big in Japan, as you know, theres a considerable musical market in Japan. If you wanted to become famous, what you should do was to form a rock group and then release an album over there. The statement fitted well to my storyline about a couple of drug addicted lovers, the video was directed by Yellos Dieter Meier. The 7 version is a different studio recording from the one released later on the album, a new remix of Seeds also appears on Dreamscapes. The original version of the song appears on So80s presents Alphaville. Alphaville re-released the song, with new remixes, in 1992 to coincide with the release of their compilation album First Harvest 1984–92, EU CD single Big in Japan 1992 A. D. Freedom Mix –3,14 Big in Japan The Mix –4,14 Big in Japan 1992 A. D, freedom Mix –4,51 Big in Japan The Mix –6,05 The Mix is the same as the Culture Mix from First Harvest 1984–92. EU CD single Big in Japan Swemix Remix Big in Japan –3,57 Big in Japan –8,27 Big in Japan –6,44 EU12 vinyl single Big in Japan 1992 A. D. Freedom Mix –4,51 Big in Japan 1992 A. D, in 2000, Guano Apes released a cover version as their lead single for their second album Dont Give Me Names on 12 April 2000. The music video shows the band performing in an empty arena and she sang the song in German, as Japan ist weit. The song was produced by her future husband Michael Cretu and was Sandras first try as a solo artist after she separated from the trio Arabesque, the song was not successful, as only 125 copies were sold. Swedish melodic black metal band Embraced did a cover of Big in Japan on their 1998 album Amorous Anathema, Spanish singer José Galisteo, a contestant in the fifth season of the Spanish reality television series Operación Triunfo, covered the song for his 2007 debut album Remember. In 2008, Norwegian singer Ane Brun did her own version of Big in Japan. The song was recorded to be part of the soundtrack for the Swedish TV-documentary Stor i Japan on TV6 and it has been released on Ane Bruns albums Live at Stocholm Concert Hall, Songs 2003-2013, Song Tour 2013, and as a bonus track on Changing of the Seasons
13.
Sounds Like a Melody
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Sounds Like a Melody is a song by the German group Alphaville, from the groups debut album Forever Young. The single was released on 14 May 1984, the song was a big success in continental Europe and South Africa, reaching the Top 10, it topped the charts in Italy and Sweden, and was certified Gold in Germany. Originally, Alphaville had planned to release Forever Young as their second single, however, record studio executives requested that Alphaville release an additional song between the two singles, and as a result Sounds Like a Melody was written and arranged in just two days. Of the experience, singer Marian Gold said the whole affair felt like an insult to our naive hippie instincts, writing music exclusively for the sake of commercial success seemed like the sell-out of our virtual beliefs. On the other hand, did not open up possibilities for wonderful games to play in the brave new world of pop music. This corporate pressure caused the band to dislike the song and they refused to play it live for over 10 years, the B-side is commonly referred to simply as The Elevator, and a remix appears on 1999s Dreamscapes. In 1993 an Italian Eurodance duo group Cappella made a club hit U Got 2 Let the Music by sampling this song and it was also covered by the dance group Lichtenfels. In 1998, the Serbian Eurodance group Tap 011 released a version of this song on Serbian language, with lyrics Sto dana u mesecu. Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
14.
Forever Young (Alphaville song)
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Forever Young is a song from German rock group Alphavilles 1984 debut album of the same name. The single was a hit in Scandinavia and in the European German-speaking countries in the same year. Originally released by Alphaville as a single in 1984, Forever Young was available in both its original mix and also in a version titled the Special Dance Mix. Over the years the band has released remixes and demo versions of the song. The single reached the number 65 spot on the U. S. Billboard Hot 100, Hot Dance Music/ Club Play Singles. The songs music video shows the band performing in one of the halls at Holloway Sanatorium in Virginia Water, Surrey, a number of ragged people ranging from children to the elderly awake to observe the band, then walk through a diamond-shaped glowing portal. Forever Young has been performed by musical groups and in different versions and has appeared in television series, movies. It also plays in the movie Listen to Me and during the dance scene of the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite. In 2006 and 2007, the song was used in advertisements for the Scandinavian banks SEB in Estonia and Sweden and it also appeared in prom-themed advertisements for Saturn Ion automobiles. In Argentina, it was used in advertisements for Consolidar AFJP and it was also sung by one of the characters in the Soulmates episode of the American television program, Parks and Recreation. It has become a signature tune for the Vietnamese channel YanTV, in 2015, the song is also used for the commercial for Centrum brand of multivitamins in the Philippines. 7 single Forever Young —3,45 Welcome to the Sun —3,0912 maxi Forever Young —6,06 Forever Young —3,45 Welcome to the Sun —3,09 Welcome to the Sun also appeared on 1999s Dreamscapes. This single contained three tracks, one spoken word track, and a PC-only track. This CD was released to fans for free, only postage needed to be paid, the names of every fan who had requested a copy were printed on the inside cover. Copies were hand-signed by the band, the remixes that appear on the single have not appeared on other releases. The cover is an image from the video, which was created by The Cartoon Saloon. CD single Forever Young —3,56 Remixed by, F. A, the Magix PlayR track was a PC-only application that allowed fans to customize the FAF remix to their liking. CD promo single Forever Young —3,56 This promotional CD was produced in a limited run of 500 copies
15.
Jerusalem (Alphaville song)
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Jerusalem is third single from Alphavilles album Afternoons in Utopia. It is their seventh overall, although it was only made available in Germany. It was released in November 1986 and its the story of a man, who at night convinces lonely passers-by on Brooklyn Bridge to commit suicide. He offers them as sacrifices for his lover, who. In his frenzy he turns her into Eris, the Goddess of Revenge, due to time problems, we were unable to pursue this project. But it was in time, that Jerusalem came to life. The song was recorded and mixed at Studio 54, Berlin, in September 1985, overall, the song Jerusalem has been universally well received by critics. It was described as the highlight of the album, with a wonderful chorus. Another reviewer acknowledges that song is one of the most beautiful songs Alphaville has ever created. A third reviewer writes that it reside in the echelon of early-80s synth pop. 7 single Jerusalem –3,45 Vingt mille lieues sous les mers incl, the Nelson Highrise Sector 3, The Garage –5,0012 single Jerusalem –6,17 Jerusalem –4,21 Vingt mille lieues sous les mers incl. The Nelson Highrise Sector 3, The Garage –5,00 The 4,21 version of Jerusalem on the 12 is not given a name
16.
Fools (Alphaville song)
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Fools is the first single from Alphavilles fourth album Prostitute, and their fourteenth single overall. It was released in July 1994, the Faithful & True and 12 Inch Berlin remixes appeared again later on the Dreamscapes release, where the Berlin remix was re-labeled as the Speed remix. Fools hit #10 in Finland and #70 in their native Germany, lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
