1.
Jazz
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Jazz is a music genre that originated amongst African Americans in New Orleans, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in Blues and Ragtime. Since the 1920s jazz age, jazz has become recognized as a form of musical expression. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms, Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African-American music traditions including blues and ragtime, as well as European military band music. Although the foundation of jazz is deeply rooted within the Black experience of the United States, different cultures have contributed their own experience, intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as one of Americas original art forms. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on different national, regional, and local musical cultures, New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass-band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. In the 1930s, heavily arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz, bebop emerged in the 1940s, shifting jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging musicians music which was played at faster tempos and used more chord-based improvisation. Cool jazz developed in the end of the 1940s, introducing calmer, smoother sounds and long, modal jazz developed in the late 1950s, using the mode, or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation. Jazz-rock fusion appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s, combining jazz improvisation with rock rhythms, electric instruments. In the early 1980s, a form of jazz fusion called smooth jazz became successful. Other styles and genres abound in the 2000s, such as Latin, the question of the origin of the word jazz has resulted in considerable research, and its history is well documented. It is believed to be related to jasm, a term dating back to 1860 meaning pep. The use of the word in a context was documented as early as 1915 in the Chicago Daily Tribune. Its first documented use in a context in New Orleans was in a November 14,1916 Times-Picayune article about jas bands. In an interview with NPR, musician Eubie Blake offered his recollections of the slang connotations of the term, saying, When Broadway picked it up. That was dirty, and if you knew what it was, the American Dialect Society named it the Word of the Twentieth Century. Jazz has proved to be difficult to define, since it encompasses such a wide range of music spanning a period of over 100 years. Attempts have been made to define jazz from the perspective of other musical traditions, in the opinion of Robert Christgau, most of us would say that inventing meaning while letting loose is the essence and promise of jazz. As Duke Ellington, one of jazzs most famous figures, said, although jazz is considered highly difficult to define, at least in part because it contains so many varied subgenres, improvisation is consistently regarded as being one of its key elements
2.
RCA
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RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. General Electric took over the company in late 1985 and split it up the following year, after World War I began in August 1914, radio traffic across the Atlantic Ocean increased dramatically after the western Allies cut the German transatlantic telegraph cables. In 1917 the government of the United States took charge of the owned by the major companies involved in radio manufacture in the United States to devote radio technology to the war effort. All production of equipment was allocated to the U. S. Army, U. S. Navy, U. S. Marine Corps. The War Department and the Navy Department sought to maintain a monopoly of all uses of radio technology. The wartime takeover of all radio systems ended late in 1918, the war ended in November of that year. The ending of the governments monopoly in radio communications did not prevent the War. On 8 April 1919, naval Admiral W. H. G. Bullard, the proposal presented by the government was that if GE created an American-owned radio company, then the Army and Navy would effect a monopoly of long-distance radio communications via this company. This marked the beginning of a series of negotiations through which GE would buy the American Marconi company, the Army and the Navy granted RCA the former American Marconi radio terminals that had been confiscated during the War. Admiral Bullard received a seat on the Board of Directors of RCA for his efforts in establishing RCA, the result was federally-created monopolies in radio for GE and the Westinghouse Corporation and in telephone systems for the American Telephone & Telegraph Company. The first chief officer of RCA was Owen D. Young. RCAs incorporation papers required that a majority of its stock be held by American citizens, as the years went on, RCA either took over, or produced for itself, a large number of patents, including that of the superheterodyne receiver invented by Edwin Armstrong. Over the years, RCA continued to operate international services, under its subsidiary RCA Communications, Inc. GE used RCA as its retail arm for radio sales from 1919, Westinghouse also marketed home radios through RCA until 1930. In 1929, RCA purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company, then the worlds largest manufacturer of phonographs and this included a majority ownership of the Victor Company of Japan. The new subsidiary then became RCA Victor, with Victor, RCA acquired New World rights to the Nipper His Masters Voice trademark. This trademark is used by the British music & entertainment company HMV. RCA began selling the first electronic turntable in 1930, in 1931, RCA Victor began selling 33⅓ rpm records
3.
Sherman Brothers
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The Sherman Brothers were an American songwriting duo that specialized in musical films, made up of Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman. The Sherman Brothers wrote more motion-picture musical song scores than any other songwriting team in film history, Film scores of the Sherman Brothers include Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Jungle Book, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Charlottes Web and The Aristocats. Sons of Russian Jewish immigrants, Robert and Richard Sherman began writing together in 1951 on a challenge from their father. The brothers wrote together and with different songwriting partners throughout the rest of the decade and they wrote the title song for Doris Days album Bright and Shiny, recorded in 1960 and released a year later. In 1958, Robert founded the publishing company Music World Corporation. That same year, the Sherman Brothers had their first top-ten hit with Tall Paul, sung by Mouseketeer Judy Harriet on the Surf Records label and then covered by Mouseketeer Annette Funicello. The success of this song yielded the attention of Walt Disney, the first song they wrote on personal assignment by Walt Disney was Strummin Song in 1961. It was used in the Annette Funicello made-for-television movie called The Horsemasters and they also wrote what is perhaps their best-known song, Its a Small World, for the 1964 New York Worlds Fair. In 1965, the Sherman Brothers won two Academy Awards for Mary Poppins, which includes the songs Feed The Birds, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, and the Oscar-winning Chim Chim Cher-ee. Since Mary Poppins premiere, the Shermans have subsequently earned nine Academy Award nominations, since leaving the company, the brothers have worked freelance as songwriters on scores of motion pictures, television shows, theme-park exhibits, and stage musicals. Their first non-Disney assignment came with Albert R, in 1970, the Shermans returned to Disney for a brief stint where they completed work on The Aristocats and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. The latter film garnered the brothers their fourth and fifth Oscar nominations,1972 saw the release of Snoopy Come Home, for which the brothers received a Grammy nomination. In 1973, the Sherman Brothers also made history by becoming the only Americans ever to win First Prize at the Moscow Film Festival for Tom Sawyer, in 1976, “The Slipper and the Rose” was picked to be the Royal Command Performance of the year. The performance was attended by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, a modern musical adaptation of the classic Cinderella story, Slipper, also featured songs, score, and screenplay by the Sherman Brothers. Two further Academy Award nominations were garnered by the brothers for the film and that same year the Sherman Brothers received their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame directly across from Graumans Chinese Theater. Outside the motion-picture realm, their Tony Award-nominated smash hit Over Here, was the biggest-grossing original Broadway musical of that year. Other top-ten hits include Pineapple Princess, Lets Get Together, in 2000, the Sherman Brothers wrote the song score for the Disney film The Tigger Movie. This film marked the brothers first major picture for the Disney company in over 28 years
4.
Mary Poppins (film)
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Mary Poppins is a 1964 American musical-fantasy film directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Walt Disney, with songs written and composed by the Sherman Brothers. The screenplay is by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, loosely based on P. L. Travers book series Mary Poppins, Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson, and Glynis Johns are featured in supporting roles. The film was entirely at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. In 2013, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. Mary Poppins is widely considered to be Walt Disneys crowning achievement, in Edwardian London,1910, Bert entertains a crowd when he senses a change in the wind. Afterwards, he addresses the audience and gives them a tour of Cherry Tree Lane. George Banks returns home from his job at the bank to learn from Winifred that Katie Nanna has left their service after Jane and they are returned shortly after by the local constable, who reveals the children were chasing a lost kite. The children ask their father to build a better kite. Taking it upon himself to hire a nanny, George advertises for a stern, the next day, a queue of elderly, sour-faced nannies appear outside. However, a strong gust of wind blows the nannies away, outside, they meet Bert who now works as a screever, Mary uses her magic to transport the group into one of the drawings. While the children ride on a carousel, Mary Poppins. Mary enchants the carousel horses and participates in a race which she wins. While being asked to describe her victory, Mary announces the nonsense word Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, however, the outing is ruined when a thunderstorm demolishes Berts drawings, returning the group back to London. On another outing, the four meet Uncle Albert who has floated up in the air due to his uncontrollable laughter, George becomes increasingly annoyed by the cheery atmosphere of his family and threatens to fire Mary. Instead, Mary inverts his attempt by convincing him to take the children to the bank for a day, George takes Jane and Michael to the bank, where they meet Mr. Dawes Sr. and his son. Dawes aggressively attempts to have Michael invest his tuppence in the bank, Michael demands it back, causing other customers to misinterpret and all demand their money back, causing a bank run. Jane and Michael flee the bank, getting lost in the East End until they run into Bert, Jane and Michael give their father Michael’s tuppence in the hope to make amends. George walks through London to the bank, where he is given a humiliating cashiering and is dismissed, looking to the tuppence for words, he raucously blurts out, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
5.
Disco
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Disco is a genre of dance music containing elements of funk, soul, pop, and salsa. It achieved popularity during the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, Disco can be seen as a reaction against both the domination of rock music and the stigmatization of dance music by the counterculture during this period. It was popular with men and women, from many different backgrounds. The disco sound often has several components, a beat, an eighth note or 16th note hi-hat pattern with an open hi-hat on the off-beat. In most disco tracks, string sections, horns, electric piano, Orchestral instruments such as the flute are often used for solo melodies, and lead guitar is less frequently used in disco than in rock. Many disco songs use electronic synthesizers, particularly in the late 1970s, well-known 1970s disco performers included Donna Summer, the Bee Gees, Boney M. KC and the Sunshine Band, The Trammps, Sylvester, Village People, Gloria Gaynor and Chic. While performers and singers garnered much attention, record producers working behind the scenes played an important role in developing the disco sound. Many non-disco artists recorded songs at the height of discos popularity. Disco was the last mass popular movement that was driven by the baby boom generation. Disco was a phenomenon, but its popularity drastically declined in the United States in 1980. Disco Demolition Night, an anti-disco protest held in Chicago on 12 July 1979, is thought of as a factor in discos fast. By the late 1970s most major U. S. cities had thriving disco club scenes, Studio 54, a venue popular amongst celebrities, is a well-known example of a disco club. Popular dances included the Hustle, a suggestive dance. Discotheque-goers often wore expensive, extravagant and sexy fashions, Disco clubs were also associated with promiscuity. Disco was a key influence on the 1980s electronic dance style called house. The term is derived from discothèque, by the early 1940s, the terms disc jockey and DJ were in use to describe radio presenters. During WWII, because of restrictions set in place by the Nazi occupiers, eventually more than one of these jazz venues had the proper name discothèque. By 1959, the term was used in Paris to describe any of these type of nightclubs and that year a young reporter named Klaus Quirini started to select and introduce records at the Scotch-Club in Aachen, West Germany
6.
John McLaughlin (musician)
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John McLaughlin, also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer. His music includes many genres of jazz which he coupled with elements of rock, Indian classical music, Western classical music, flamenco, after contributing to several key British groups of the early 1960s McLaughlin made Extrapolation, his first album as a bandleader, in 1969. His 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz, McLaughlin has been cited as an influence by a number of prominent musicians. He is a Grammy award winner and has awarded multiple Guitarist of the year and Best Jazz Guitarist awards from magazines such as Down Beat. In 2003, he was ranked 49th in Rolling Stone magazines list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, in 2009, Down Beat Magazine included McLaughlin in its unranked list of 75 Great Guitarists, in the Modern Jazz Maestros category. In 2012, Guitar World magazine ranked him #63 on its top 100 list, in 2010, guitarist Jeff Beck called him the best guitarist alive. McLaughlin was also referred to as the best guitarist alive by Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin is a leading guitarist in jazz and jazz fusion. His style has been described as one that incorporates aggressive speed, technical precision and he is known for using exotic scales and unconventional time signatures. Indian music has had a influence on his style, and, it has been written. Speaking of himself, McLaughlin has stated that the guitar is part of his body. During the 1960s he often had to himself with session work which he often found unsatisfying. Also, he gave lessons to Jimmy Page. In 1963, Jack Bruce formed the Graham Bond Quartet with Bond, Ginger Baker and they played an eclectic range of music genres, including bebop, blues and rhythm and blues. In January 1969 McLaughlin recorded his debut album Extrapolation in London and it prominently features John Surman on saxophone and Tony Oxley on drums. The albums Post-bop style is different than McLaughlins later fusion works. McLaughlin moved to the U. S. in 1969 to join Tony Williams group Lifetime, a recording from the Record Plant, NYC, dated 25 March 1969, exists of McLaughlin jamming with Jimi Hendrix. McLaughlin recollects we played one night, just a jam session, and we played from 2 until 8, in the morning. I thought it was a wonderful experience, I was playing an acoustic guitar with a pick-up
7.
Al Di Meola
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Al Di Meola is an American jazz fusion and Latin jazz guitarist, composer, and record producer of Italian origin. Albums such as Friday Night in San Francisco have earned him both artistic and commercial success with a fan base throughout the world. Di Meola grew up in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and attended Bergenfield High School and he has been a resident of Old Tappan, New Jersey. Having grown up with the music of Elvis Presley, The Ventures and The Beatles. By his early teens, he was already an accomplished player. He was soon taken with Larry Coryell’s blending of jazz, blues and rock in the late 1960s, which would become known as fusion, in 1972, Di Meola enrolled in Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. By his second semester at Berklee, Al had joined a fusion quartet headed by keyboardist Barry Miles, in 1974, Di Meola made his Return to Forever debut on the album Where Have I Known You Before. Two more albums, No Mystery and Romantic Warrior were released during Di Meolas stay in the band and this lineup featured him playing with Corea, Stanley Clarke, and Lenny White until it was disbanded in 1976. Di Meola went on to explore a variety of styles, but is most noted for his Latin-influenced jazz fusion works and he also guested on Allergies from Paul Simons Hearts and Bones album. He also appeared with Frank Zappa, live at the Ritz, NYNY in 1981. In the beginning of his career, as evidenced on his first solo album Land of the Midnight Sun, Di Meola was noted for his mastery and extremely fast, complex guitar solos. But even on his albums, he had begun to explore Mediterranean cultures. Good examples are Mediterranean Sundance and Lady of Rome, Sister of Brazil from the Elegant Gypsy album and his early albums were very influential among rock and jazz guitarists alike. Di Meola continued to explore Latin music within the jazz fusion genre on albums like Casino, the latter album became one of the most popular live albums for acoustic guitar ever recorded, and sold more than two million copies worldwide. In 1980, he toured with fellow Latin rocker Carlos Santana. After being named Best Jazz Guitarist in Guitar Player Magazines Readers Poll for a consecutive year in 1981. With Scenario, he explored the electronic side of jazz in a collaboration with Jan Hammer, beginning with this change, he further expanded his horizons with the acoustic album Cielo e Terra. He began to incorporate the Synclavier guitar synthesizer on mid-1980s albums such as Soaring Through a Dream, by the 1990s, Di Meola recorded albums closer to World music and modern Latin styles than jazz
8.
Chick Corea
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Armando Anthony Chick Corea is an American jazz and fusion pianist, keyboardist, and composer. Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards, as a member of Miles Daviss band in the late 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever, along with Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, and Keith Jarrett, he has been described as one of the major jazz piano voices to emerge in the post-John Coltrane era. Corea continued to other collaborations and to explore various musical styles throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He is also known for promoting and fundraising for a number of social issues, armando Corea was born in Chesterfield, Massachusetts. He is of southern Italian and Spanish descent and his father, a jazz trumpet player who had led a Dixieland band in Boston in the 1930s and 1940s, introduced him to the piano at the age of four. Growing up surrounded by music, he was influenced at an early age by bebop and stars such as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Horace Silver. At eight Corea also took up drums, which would influence his use of the piano as a percussion instrument. Corea developed his skills by exploring music on his own. He also spent several years as a performer and soloist for the St. Rose Scarlet Lancers, given a black tuxedo by his father, he started playing gigs when in high school. He enjoyed listening to Herb Pomeroys band at the time, and had a trio that played Horace Silvers music at a jazz club. He eventually decided to move to New York City, where he studied education for one month at Columbia University. He quit after finding both disappointing, but liked the atmosphere of New York, and the scene became the starting point for his professional career. Coreas first major gig was with Cab Calloway. Corea started his career in the 1960s playing with trumpeter Blue Mitchell and Latin musicians such as Herbie Mann, Willie Bobo. One of the earliest recordings of his playing is with Mitchells quintet on The Thing To Do. His first album as a leader was Tones for Joans Bones in 1966, two years before the release of his album Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, with Roy Haynes on drums and he made another sideman appearance with Stan Getz on 1967s Sweet Rain. From 1968 to 1971 Corea had associations with avant garde players, in September 1968 Corea replaced Herbie Hancock in the piano chair in Daviss band and appeared on landmark albums such as Filles de Kilimanjaro, In a Silent Way, and Bitches Brew
9.
Drew Barrymore
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Drew Blythe Barrymore is an American actress, author, director, model and producer. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American stage and film actors, Barrymore began acting on television, and soon transitioned to film with roles in E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Irreconcilable Differences. Following a turbulent childhood that was marked by drug and alcohol abuse with two stints in rehab, she wrote her autobiography, Little Girl Lost and she appeared in a string of hit films, including Poison Ivy, Boys on the Side, Scream and Ever After. She has also co-starred with Adam Sandler in The Wedding Singer,50 First Dates, Other acting credits include Music and Lyrics, Hes Just Not That Into You, Going the Distance and Miss You Already. Barrymore won the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of Little Edie in Grey Gardens, Barrymore currently stars with Timothy Olyphant in the Netflix comedy series Santa Clarita Diet. She was named an Ambassador Against Hunger for the UN World Food Programme, since then, she has donated over $1 million to the program. A recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Barrymore was born in Culver City, California, to actor John and Jaid, an aspiring actress. Barrymores mother was born in a displaced persons camp in Brannenburg, West Germany and her parents divorced in 1984, when she was nine years old. She is one of four children with a half-brother, John and her godfather is Steven Spielberg while her godmother is Anna Strasberg, Lee Strasbergs widow. Meanwhile, Barrymore is the god-daughter of director Steven Spielberg, Barrymore recounted in her 1989 autobiography, Little Girl Lost, early memories of her abusive father, who left the family when Barrymore was six months old. They never had anything resembling a significant relationship and seldom spoke to each other, Barrymore grew up on Poinsetta Place in West Hollywood until the age of 7, when she moved to Sherman Oaks. In her 2015 memoir Wildflower, she says she talks like a girl because she grew up in Sherman Oaks. She moved back to West Hollywood upon becoming emancipated at 14, Barrymore attended elementary school at Fountain Day School in West Hollywood and Country School. In the wake of her stardom, Barrymore endured a notoriously troubled childhood. Her nightlife and constant partying became a subject with the media. She was in rehab at the age of fourteen, where she spent eighteen months in an institution for the mentally ill, a suicide attempt, also at age fourteen, put her back in rehab, followed by a three-month stay with singer David Crosby and his wife. The stay was precipitated, Crosby said, because she needed to be some people that were committed to sobriety. Barrymore later described this period of her life in her autobiography, after a successful juvenile court petition for emancipation, she moved into her own apartment at the age of fifteen
10.
Lucy Liu
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Lucy Liu /ˈluː/ is an American actress, voice actress, director, producer, singer and artist. In 2008, she starred in an ABC comedy-drama, Cashmere Mafia, the show was one of only a few American television shows to have an Asian American series lead. In 2012, Liu joined the cast of the TNT series Southland in the role of Jessica Tang. Lucy Liu was born on December 2,1968 in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City, in high school, she adopted a middle name, Alexis. She is the youngest of three born to Cecilia, who worked as a biochemist, and Tom Liu, a trained civil engineer who sold digital clock pens. Lius parents originally came from Beijing and Shanghai and emigrated to Taiwan as adults before meeting in New York and she has an older brother, Alex, and an older sister, Jenny. Her parents worked many jobs while Lucy and her siblings were growing up, Liu has stated that she grew up in a diverse neighborhood. She learned to speak Mandarin at home and began studying English when she was 5 and she studied the martial art kali-eskrima-silat as a hobby when she was young. Liu attended Joseph Pulitzer Middle School, and graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1986 and she later enrolled at New York University and transferred to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she was a member of the Chi Omega sorority. Liu earned a degree in Asian languages and cultures. Liu worked as a waitress at the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase club circa 1988–89, Liu was discovered by an agent at the age of 21 while traveling on the subway. As a member of the Basement Arts student-run theater group, she auditioned in 1989 for the University of Michigans production of Alice in Wonderland during her year of college. Although she had tried out for only a supporting part. While queuing up to audition for the musical Miss Saigon in 1990, she told The New York Times, There arent many Asian roles, in May 1992, Liu made her New York stage debut in Fairy Bones, directed by Tina Chen. Liu had small roles in films and TV, marking her debut, Liu originally auditioned for the role of Nelle Porter, and the character Ling Woo was later created specifically for her. Lius part on the series was originally temporary, but high audience ratings secured Liu as a permanent cast member, in Payback, Liu portrayed Pearl, a high-class BDSM prostitute with links to the Chinese mafia. Liu was cast as Alex Munday in the film Charlies Angels, alongside Drew Barrymore, the film opened in November 2000 and earned more than $125 million in the United States. Charlies Angels earned a total of more than $264 million
11.
Cameron Diaz
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Cameron Michelle Diaz is an American actress, producer, and former fashion model. She rose to stardom with roles in The Mask, My Best Friends Wedding and Theres Something About Mary, in 2013, Diaz was named the highest-paid actress over 40 in Hollywood. Diaz was born in San Diego, California and her mother, Billie, was an import/export agent, and her father, Emilio Diaz, worked for the California oil company Unocal as a foreman. Diaz has a sister, Chimene. Her fathers family is Cuban, and Diazs ancestors had moved from Spain to Cuba. Later they settled in Ybor City, Tampa, before moving to California and her mother has English, Scots-Irish, German and Cherokee ancestry. Diaz grew up in Long Beach and attended Los Cerritos Elementary School, and then Long Beach Polytechnic High School and she began her career as a fashion model at the age of 16, and did contract work with a modeling agency, Elite Model Management. For the next months, she worked all over the world on contracts for companies including Calvin Klein, when she was 17, she was featured on the front cover of the July 1990 issue of Seventeen. Diaz also modeled for 2 to 3 months in Australia and shot a commercial for Coca-Cola in Sydney in 1991. Rutter approached Diaz in 2003, ahead of the release of Charlies Angels, Full Throttle, offering to sell the pictures and he stated that he was offering her first right of refusal to them, she saw it as attempted blackmail and sued him. In July 2004, the 30-minute video of the photoshoot, entitled Shes No Angel, was released on a Russian website, on July 26,2005, Rutter was convicted of attempted grand theft, forgery, and perjury. On September 16,2005, Rutter was sentenced to more than three years in prison. At the age of 21, Diaz auditioned for The Mask, based on the recommendation of an agent for Elite, having no previous acting experience, she started acting lessons after being cast. The Mask became one of the top ten highest-grossing films of 1994, for the next three years, Diaz played roles in the independent films The Last Supper, Feeling Minnesota, Shes the One, and Head Above Water. She was scheduled to perform in the film Mortal Kombat, but had to resign after breaking her hand while training for the role, Diaz returned to mainstream films with My Best Friends Wedding and A Life Less Ordinary, both released in 1997. The following year, she played the role in Theres Something About Mary. She received critical acclaim for her performance in Being John Malkovich, which earned her Best Supporting Actress nominations at the Golden Globe, BAFTA, and SAG Awards. Between 1998 and 2000, Diaz was featured in movies, such as Very Bad Things, Any Given Sunday, Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her
12.
The Pussycat Dolls
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The Pussycat Dolls were an American girl group and dance ensemble, founded in Los Angeles, California, by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995 as a burlesque troupe. Overseen by Antin, Interscope and various partners, the group was transformed into a global image, the Pussycat Dolls achieved worldwide success with hit singles Dont Cha, Buttons, Stickwitu, and their first album PCD. However, despite their success, the group was plagued by internal conflict due to the emphasis on Scherzinger, the groups lead vocalist. Bachars departure from the group preceded the release of their second and final studio album Doll Domination, in 2009, they announced a minor hiatus that was later revealed to be an official break-up. The Dolls brand diversified into merchandise, reality programs, a Las Vegas act, product endorsements, spin-off recording groups. Billboard ranked the Pussycat Dolls as the 80th most successful act of the 2000s. The group has sold 54 million records worldwide, making one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. In 2012, The Pussycat Dolls ranked 100th on VH1s 100 Greatest Women in Music, Antin began exploring the idea of a modern burlesque troupe during 1990 with Carla Kama and Christina Applegate as performers. The troupe began to perform in 1995, with a repertoire of 1950s and 1960s popular music standards while dressed in lingerie or old-fashioned pin-up costumes and they secured a Thursday night residency at a Los Angeles nightclub, the Viper Room, where they stayed from 1995 to 2001. They appeared briefly in the 1998 films Matters of Consequence, from 1995 to 2003 there were numerous guest vocalists, and many changes to the dance personnel. The troupe received wider press coverage during June 1999, when Playboy featured a Pussycat Dolls pictorial, three years later, The Pussycat Dolls moved to the Roxy. They were featured in magazines, television specials for MTV and VH1, ad campaigns, some of The Pussycat Dolls appeared in the 2003 film Charlies Angels, Full Throttle, dancing to Mancinis The Pink Panther Theme. They were also featured in Pinks Trouble music video, along with Applegate, Christina Aguilera and Carmen Electra the troupe was featured in a Maxim magazine shoot in 2002, which increased public interest in them. Following their growing popularity, music producers Jimmy Iovine and Ron Fair became involved with the group helping them to transform into a franchise, the former dance troupe evolved into a popular music recording group and became employees of Iovines label Interscope Records. The only troupe members who remained after the process were Robin Antin, Carmit Bachar, Cyia Batten, Kasey Campbell, Ashley Roberts, Jessica Sutta. During 2003, Antin struck a joint venture with Interscope Records to develop The Pussycat Dolls into a brand, auditions followed suit, for a separate group which would not include celebrity members. Singers Nicole Scherzinger, Melody Thornton and Kaya Jones were recruited, joining Carmit Bachar, Ashley Roberts, Jessica Sutta, in February 2004 they performed Big Spender live at the MTV Asia Awards. In 2004, they recorded We Went as Far as We Felt Like Going for the Shark Tale soundtrack and recorded the single, Jones left the group in 2005, Batten and Campbell had left earlier
