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
2.
Lil' Mo
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Cynthia Karen Loving, best known by her stage name Lil Mo, is an American R&B singer, radio personality, songwriter, and record producer. She debuted on the scene as Missy Elliotts protégée and contributed guest vocals to some of Elliotts work. Thereafter, Lil Mo would go on to release four albums, eleven music videos. Mo would also be responsible for bringing then-unknown rapper Fabolous to mainstream media attention. Born into a family, Loving was raised primarily on Long Island, New York. Along with her parents, Bishop Jacob and First-Lady Cynthia Loving Sr. she lived in Texas, Georgia, dreams of becoming a famous singer began early and she always pertained to the goal, performing in talent competitions wherever her family would settle. By her adulthood, Mo set out to reside in New York Citys Manhattan borough, intrigued by Lil Mos voice, Missy Elliott requested Mo to come to the Elektra Recording studios immediately in New Jersey. Upon her arrival, Mo landed a deal with Elektra. Shortly after the release of labelmate Nicoles 1998 debut album, Make It Hot, in between recording sessions for the debut, Mo would either collaborate on Elliotts records or perform in Elliotts touring venues. By fall 1998, Elektra Records had serviced Mos debut single,5 Minutes to radio airwaves as the lead single for both the Why Do Fools Fall in Love soundtrack and Mos debut. However, because the single underperformed in the US, the song was pulled from the final track-listing of Mos debut album, as a scheduled release date for March 1999 approached, Elektra pushed the album multiple times in hopes of revamping Mos image and sound. By late 1999, Mo would go on to further exposure for her appearance on Ol Dirty Bastards Good Morning Heartache. Mos next big exposure came in 2000, when she was granted her own company, HoneyChild Entertainment. The single was a hit on urban and pop radio, and reached number eight on the US pop charts. More collaborations by Ja Rule and Lil Mo followed, including I Cry, after years of successful collaborations, Lil Mo would finally release a successful hit of her own, Superwoman Pt. II, on March 6,2001. The single peaked at #11 on Billboard Hot 100 and helped bring underground rapper Fabolous to mainstream attention, on June 26,2001, Mos debut album, Based on a True Story was released to generally favorable reviews. Additionally, the peaked at #14 on Billboard 200 and attained a gold certification from the RIAA. In August 2001, the debut generated a single titled Gangsta
3.
Lil' Kim
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Kimberly Denise Jones, known by her stage name Lil Kim, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, model, and actress. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, living much of her adolescent life on the streets after being expelled from home. In her teens, Jones would freestyle rap, heavily influenced by actress/singer Diana Ross, performing a freestyle rap for The Notorious B. I. G. got her music career start in 1995 with his group Junior M. A. F. I. A. Whose debut album Conspiracy generated two top 20 singles in the United States and her following albums, The Notorious K. I. M. and La Bella Mafia, were certified Platinum, making her the only female rapper besides Missy Elliott to have at least 3 Platinum albums. In addition, the remake won two MTV Video Music Awards including Video of the Year, and a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals at the 44th Grammy Awards in 2002. In 2005, she served a prison sentence for lying to a jury about her friends involvement in a shooting four years earlier. During her incarceration, her fourth album The Naked Truth was released and she returned to the public eye in 2009 with an appearance on Dancing with the Stars. Throughout her career, Jones has sold over 15 million albums and 30 million singles worldwide. Jones has earned many accolades and honorific titles for her work including the Queen of Hip-Hop. Her songs No Time, Big Momma Thang and Ladies Night were listed on Complex Magazines The 50 Best Rap Songs By Women, at number 24,13 and 7, respectively. Crush On You, Its All About the Benjamins and Money, Power, in 2012, Lil Kim was honorably listed on VH1s 100 Greatest Women In Music list at number 45, the second highest position for a solo female hip-hop artist. Jones was born in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, the child of Linwood Jones, a former U. S. Marine. She has one brother named Christopher. As a child, Jones attended Queen of All Saints Elementary School in Brooklyn, at the age of 9, her parents separated, and Jones was raised by her father, with whom she had a tumultuous relationship. After being kicked out of her house by her dad, Jones dropped out of high school, while still a teen, Jones met The Notorious B. I. G. Jones attended Sarah J. Hale Vocational High School for two and a half years, many of her friends also went there and she would often skip school to hang out with them. Since her school work wasnt being completed, the decision was made for her to transfer to Brooklyn College Academy to finish her remaining year and it was the same school that fellow rappers Nas and Foxy Brown also attended. In 1994, B. I. G. was instrumental in introducing and promoting the Brooklyn-based group, which included Jones, who was only 19 at the time. Wallace wrote most of the albums material, Three hit singles came from Conspiracy, Players Anthem, I Need You Tonight, and Get Money
4.
Meet the Girl Next Door
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Recorded during Mos eighth-month preagnancy, it features guest appearances by Fabolous, Lil Kim, Missy Elliott, Chucky Thompson, Bryan-Michael Cox, Warryn Campbell, Precision and rapper Free. Less than a year after Mos debut album was certified Gold by the RIAA and she decided to work with producers that didnt get the credit they deserved. In 2002, Lil Mo developed an interest in communications after her work as a anchor for Baltimore urban radio station WXYV-FM. That same year, Mo began work on her second album, Mo revealed to Billboard magazine that she was going to purposely use a different sound for the effort in hopes of convincing the public to overlook her credibility for Superwoman Pt. II. As early as December 2002, the album generated three singles, 4Ever,21 Answers and Ten Commandments, the former being the only successful, alongside being granted a music video release. On April 29,2003, Meet the Girl Next Door was released to favorable reviews, promotion for the album was limited, according to Lil Mo, this was largely due to the fact that she was pregnant and Elektra did not give her proper support. Despite minimal promotion, Mo went on to perform the album singles on very few shows, including Jimmy Kimmel Live. 4Ever was released on February 18,2003 as the lead single from the album. The song features guest vocals by rapper Fabolous and production by Bryan-Michael Cox and it peaked #37 at Billboard Hot 100, #13 at Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and #24 at the Rhythmic chart. The second single Ten Commandments was released on radio airplay on October 25,2002, the song peaked #1 at Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles. Reviews for the album were mostly positive, unlike her debut album, Meet the Girl Next Door was given 4/5 stars by Andy Kellman of AllMusic, who described Mos voice more rangy and versatile. He also stated that the album had terrific highlights, as well as more lyrics than her debut. However, he described the album being, four songs too long and its apparent that Lil Mo really ought to devote the bulk of her working time — if not all of it — to making music. Upon its release, Meet the Girl Next Door debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 17, to date, it remained her highest-charting album on the latter chart. The album sold an estimate of 110,000 copies within its first week, in February 2003, 4Ever, featuring Fabolous, was released as a lead single for the album, and received somewhat lukewarm reviews by most critics. The song peaked at number 37 on Billboard Hot 100 and at number 13 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Ten Commandments, featuring Lil Kim, was slated to follow as the single, however, due to limited promotion, and failed attempts for a video. 21 Answers was sent to radio in May 2003 as a promotional single, because it did not finalize in time to meet the albums deadline, it never appeared on the original track listing. Because of lack of promotion for the album, as well as no new singles to be released, Meet the Girl Next Door at AllMusic
5.
LP record
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The LP is an analog sound storage medium, a vinyl record format characterized by a speed of 33 1⁄3 rpm, a 12 or 10 inch diameter, and use of the microgroove groove specification. Introduced by Columbia in 1948, it was adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry. Apart from a few relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound, the new product was a 12- or 10-inch fine-grooved disc made of vinyl and played with a smaller-tipped microgroove stylus at a speed of 33 1⁄3 rpm. Each side of a 12-inch LP could play for more than 20 minutes, although the LP was suited to classical music because of its extended continuous playing time, it also allowed a collection of ten or more pop music recordings to be put on a single disc. The use of the word album persisted for the one-disc LP equivalent, the prototype of the LP was the soundtrack disc used by the Vitaphone motion picture sound system, developed by Western Electric and introduced in 1926. For soundtrack purposes, the less than five minutes of playing time of side of a conventional 12-inch 78 rpm disc was not acceptable. The sound had to play continuously for at least 11 minutes, long enough to accompany a full 1, the disc diameter was increased to 16 inches and the speed was reduced to 33 1⁄3 revolutions per minute. Unlike their smaller LP descendants, they were made with the same large standard groove used by 78s, unlike conventional records, the groove started at the inside of the recorded area near the label and proceeded outward toward the edge. Like 78s, early soundtrack discs were pressed in an abrasive shellac compound, syndicated radio programming was distributed on 78 rpm discs beginning in 1928. The desirability of a longer continuous playing time soon led to the adoption of the Vitaphone soundtrack disc format, 16-inch 33 1⁄3 rpm discs playing about 15 minutes per side were used for most of these electrical transcriptions beginning about 1930. Transcriptions were variously recorded inside out like soundtrack discs or with an outside start, some transcriptions were recorded with a vertically modulated hill and dale groove. This was found to allow deeper bass and also an extension of the frequency response. Neither of these was necessarily an advantage in practice because of the limitations of AM broadcasting. Today we can enjoy the benefits of those higher-fidelity recordings, even if the radio audiences could not. Initially, transcription discs were pressed only in shellac, but by 1932 pressings in RCA Victors vinyl-based Victrolac were appearing, by the late 1930s, vinyl was standard for nearly all kinds of pressed discs except ordinary commercial 78s, which continued to be made of shellac. Use of the LPs microgroove standard began in the late 1950s, the King Biscuit Flower Hour is a late example, as are Westwood Ones The Beatle Years and Doctor Demento programs, which were sent to stations on LP at least through 1992. RCA Victor introduced a version of a long-playing record for home use in September 1931. These Program Transcription discs, as Victor called them, played at 33 1⁄3 rpm and used a somewhat finer and they were to be played with a special Chromium Orange chrome-plated steel needle
6.
12-inch single
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The 12-inch single is a type of gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time compared to typical LPs. This allows for levels to be cut on the disc by the cutting engineer, which in turn gives a wider dynamic range. This record type is used in disco and dance music genres. They are played at either 33 1⁄3 or 45 rpm, 12-inch singles typically have much shorter playing time than full-length LPs, thus require fewer grooves per inch. This extra space permits a broader dynamic range or louder recording level as the grooves excursions can be greater in amplitude. Many record companies began producing 12-inch singles at 33 1⁄3 rpm, although 45 rpm gives better treble response and was used on many 12-inch singles, the gramophone records cut especially for dance-floor DJs came into existence with the advent of recorded Jamaican mento music in the 1950s. With the 1967 Jamaican invention of remix, called dub on the island, those specials became valuable items sold to allied sound system DJs, who could draw crowds with their exclusive hits. The popularity of sound engineer King Tubby, who singlehandedly invented and perfected dub remixes from as early as 1967. By then 10-inch records were used to cut those dubs, by 1971, most reggae singles issued in Jamaica included on their B-side a dub remix of the A-side, many of them first tested as exclusive dub plates on dances. Those dubs basically included drum and bass-oriented remixes used by sound system selecters, the 10-inch acetate specials would remain popular until at least the 2000s in Jamaica. Most likely, the use of exclusive dub acetates in Jamaica also led American DJs to do the same. In the United States, the 12-inch single gramophone record came into popularity with the advent of music in the 1970s after earlier market experiments. In early 1970, Cycle/Ampex Records test-marketed a 12-inch single by Buddy Fite, the experiment aimed to energize the struggling singles market, offering a new option for consumers who had stopped buying traditional singles. The record was pressed at 33 rpm, with run times to the 7-inch 45-rpm pressing of the single. Several hundred copies were available for sale for 98 cents each at two Tower Records stores. Another early 12-inch single was released in 1973 by soul/R&B musician/songwriter/producer Jerry Williams, 12-inch promotional copies of Straight From My Heart were released on his own Swamp Dogg Presents label, with distribution by Jamie/Guyden Distribution Corporation. It was manufactured by Jamie Record Co. of Philadelphia, PA, the B-side of the record is blank. The first 12-inch single made specifically for DJs was actually a 10-inch acetate used by a mix engineer in need of a Friday-night test copy for famed disco mixer Tom Moulton, the song was Ill be holding on by Al Downing
7.
Recording studio
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A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are designed by an acoustician or audio engineer to achieve optimum acoustic properties. The engineers and producers listen to the music and the recorded tracks on monitor speakers and/or headphones. Major recording studios typically have a range of large, heavy, Isolation booths are small sound-insulated rooms with doors, designed for instrumentalists. This equipment may interfere with the recording process, Recording studios are carefully designed around the principles of room acoustics to create a set of spaces with the acoustical properties required for recording sound with precision and accuracy. This will consist of both room treatment and soundproofing to prevent sound from leaving the property. Even though sound isolation is a key goal, the musicians, singers, audio engineers and record producers still need to be able to see other, to see cue gestures. As such, the room, isolation booths, vocal booths. Some smaller studios do not have instruments, and bands and artists are expected to bring their own instruments, having musical instruments and equipment in the studio creates additional costs for a studio, as pianos have to be tuned and instruments need to be maintained. However, it makes it convenient for recording artists, as they do not have to bring in large. As well, less costly studio time is spent moving in gear, drummers bring their own snare drum, cymbals and sticks/brushes. The types and brands of equipment owned by a studio depends on the styles of music for the bands. A studio that mainly records heavy metal music will be likely to have large, powerful guitar amp heads, in contrast, a studio which mainly records country bands will likely have a selection of small, vintage combo amps. A studio that records a lot of 1970s-style funk may have an electric piano. General purpose computers have rapidly assumed a role in the recording process. A computer thus outfitted is called a Digital Audio Workstation, or DAW, other software applications include Ableton Live, Mixcraft, Cakewalk Sonar, ACID Pro, FL Studio, Adobe Audition, Auto-Tune, Audacity, and Ardour. While Apple Macintosh is used for most studio work, there is a breadth of available for Microsoft Windows. If no mixing console is used and all mixing is done using only a keyboard and mouse, the OTB is used when mixing with other hardware and not just the PC software
8.
New York City
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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
