1.
Iceland
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Iceland is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of 332,529 and an area of 103,000 km2, the capital and largest city is Reykjavík. Reykjavík and the areas in the southwest of the country are home to over two-thirds of the population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active, the interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains and glaciers, while many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a climate, despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle. Its high latitude and marine influence still keeps summers chilly, with most of the archipelago having a tundra climate. According to the ancient manuscript Landnámabók, the settlement of Iceland began in the year 874 AD when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfr Arnarson became the first permanent settler on the island. In the following centuries, Norwegians, and to a lesser extent other Scandinavians, emigrated to Iceland, the island was governed as an independent commonwealth under the Althing, one of the worlds oldest functioning legislative assemblies. Following a period of strife, Iceland acceded to Norwegian rule in the 13th century. The establishment of the Kalmar Union in 1397 united the kingdoms of Norway, Denmark, Iceland thus followed Norways integration to that Union and came under Danish rule after Swedens secession from that union in 1523. In the wake of the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars, Icelands struggle for independence took form and culminated in independence in 1918, until the 20th century, Iceland relied largely on subsistence fishing and agriculture, and was among the poorest in Europe. Industrialisation of the fisheries and Marshall Plan aid following World War II brought prosperity, in 1994, it became a part of the European Economic Area, which further diversified the economy into sectors such as finance, biotechnology, and manufacturing. Iceland has an economy with relatively low taxes compared to other OECD countries. It maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. Iceland ranks high in economic, political and social stability and equality, in 2013, it was ranked as the 13th most-developed country in the world by the United Nations Human Development Index. Iceland runs almost completely on renewable energy, some bankers were jailed, and the economy has made a significant recovery, in large part due to a surge in tourism. Icelandic culture is founded upon the nations Scandinavian heritage, most Icelanders are descendants of Germanic and Gaelic settlers. Icelandic, a North Germanic language, is descended from Old Norse and is related to Faroese
2.
Alternative rock
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Alternative rock is a genre of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s and 2000s. In this instance, the word refers to the genres distinction from mainstream rock music. The terms original meaning was broader, referring to a generation of musicians unified by their debt to either the musical style or simply the independent. Ethos of punk rock, which in the late 1970s laid the groundwork for alternative music, Alternative rock is a broad umbrella term consisting of music that differs greatly in terms of its sound, its social context, and its regional roots. Most of these subgenres had achieved minor mainstream notice and a few bands representing them, such as Hüsker Dü, with the breakthrough of Nirvana and the popularity of the grunge and Britpop movements in the 1990s, alternative rock entered the musical mainstream and many alternative bands became successful. By the end of the decade, alternative rocks mainstream prominence declined due to a number of events that caused grunge and Britpop to fade, emo attracted attention in the larger alternative rock world, and the term was applied to a variety of artists, including multi-platinum acts. Post-punk revival artists such as Modest Mouse and The Killers had commercial success in the early, before the term alternative rock came into common usage around 1990, the sort of music to which it refers was known by a variety of terms. In 1979, Terry Tolkin used the term Alternative Music to describe the groups he was writing about, in 1979 Dallas radio station KZEW had a late night new wave show entitled Rock and Roll Alternative. College rock was used in the United States to describe the music during the 1980s due to its links to the radio circuit. In the United Kingdom, dozens of small do it yourself record labels emerged as a result of the punk subculture, according to the founder of one of these labels, Cherry Red, NME and Sounds magazines published charts based on small record stores called Alternative Charts. The first national chart based on distribution called the Indie Chart was published in January 1980, at the time, the term indie was used literally to describe independently distributed records. By 1985, indie had come to mean a particular genre, or group of subgenres, at first the term referred to intentionally non–mainstream rock acts that were not influenced by heavy metal ballads, rarefied new wave and high-energy dance anthems. The use of alternative gained further exposure due to the success of Lollapalooza, for which festival founder, in the late 1990s, the definition again became more specific. Defining music as alternative is often difficult because of two conflicting applications of the word, the name alternative rock essentially serves as an umbrella term for underground music that has emerged in the wake of punk rock since the mid-1980s. Alternative bands during the 1980s generally played in clubs, recorded for indie labels. Sounds range from the gloomy soundscapes of gothic rock to the guitars of indie pop to the dirty guitars of grunge to the 1960s/1970s revivalism of Britpop. This approach to lyrics developed as a reflection of the social and economic strains in the United States and United Kingdom of the 1980s, by 1984, a majority of groups signed to independent record labels mined from a variety of rock and particularly 1960s rock influences. This represented a break from the futuristic, hyper-rational post-punk years
3.
Disc jockey
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A disc jockey is a person who mixes different sources of pre-existing recorded music as it is playing, usually for a live audience in a nightclub or dance club or via broadcasting. DJs typically perform for an audience in a nightclub or dance club or a TV, radio broadcast audience, or in the 2010s. DJs also create mixes, remixes and tracks that are recorded for later sale, in hip hop music, DJs may create beats, using percussion breaks, basslines and other musical content sampled from pre-existing records. In hip hop, rappers and MCs use these beats to rap over, DJs use equipment that can play at least two sources of recorded music simultaneously and mix them together. This allows the DJ to create seamless transitions between recordings and develop unique mixes of songs, DJ equipment, notably the specialized DJ mixer, a small audio mixer with a crossfader and cue functions. The crossfader enables the DJ to blend or transition from one song to another, the cue knobs or switches allow the DJ to preview a source of recorded music in headphones before playing it for the live club or broadcast audience. Previewing the music in headphones helps the DJ pick the track they want to play. DJs may also use a microphone to speak to the audience, effects such as reverb to create sound effects, drum machines. The title DJ is also used by DJs in front of their real names or adopted pseudonyms or stage names as a title to denote their profession. Some DJs focus on creating a mix of songs for the club dancers or radio audience. Other DJs use turntablism techniques such as scratching, in which the DJ or turntablist manipulates the record player turntable to create new sounds. In many types of DJing, including club DJing and radio/TV DJing, there are several types of disc jockey. Radio DJs or radio personalities introduce and play music that is broadcast on AM, FM, club DJs select and play music in bars, nightclubs or discothèques, or at parties, raves, or even in stadiums. Mobile DJs travel with portable sound systems and play recorded music at a variety of events. Some mobile DJs also serve as the master of ceremonies at weddings or other events, directing the attention of attendees, there are also many competitions for DJs that specialize in different turntablism techniques, such as mixing, hip hop music-style scratching or other kinds of techniques. Other types of DJ use musical performance techniques that allow them to be categorized as performing musicians, hip hop DJs and are also often songwriters or music producers who use turntablism and sampling to create backing instrumentals for new tracks. In reggae, the DJ is a vocalist who raps, toasts, chants or chats over pre-recorded rhythm tracks, the individual who helps the DJ by selecting tracks or records to be played is called the selector. Many electronica artists and producers who work as DJs often perform music by combining turntablism with keyboards, digital musical instruments
4.
John Peel
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John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE, known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, fellow DJ Paul Gambaccini described Peel as the most important man in music for about a dozen years. In 2012 he was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles Sgt, peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover. Another popular feature of his shows was the annual Festive Fifty countdown of his listeners favourite records of the year. Peel appeared occasionally on British television as one of the presenters of Top of the Pops in the 1980s and he became popular with the audience of BBC Radio 4 for his Home Truths programme, which ran from the 1990s, featuring unusual stories from listeners domestic lives. John Peel was born in Heswall Cottage Hospital in Heswall on the Wirral Peninsula, near Liverpool, the solitary Peel was an avid radio listener and record collector from an early age, cutting his teeth on fare offered by the American Forces Network and Radio Luxembourg. He later recalled an early desire to host a programme of his own so that I could play music that I heard. In his posthumously published autobiography, Peel revealed that he had been raped by an older pupil while at Shrewsbury, whilst in Rochdale Monday to Friday, he stayed in a bed-and-breakfast in the area of Milkstone Road and Drake Street and developed long-term associations with Rochdale through the years. In 1960, aged 21, he went to the United States to work for a producer who had business dealings with his father. Once this job finished, he took a number of others, including working as an insurance salesman. While in Dallas, Texas, where the company he worked for was based, he conversed with the presidential candidate John F. Kennedy. Johnson, who were touring the city during the 1960 election campaign and he later phoned in the story to the Liverpool Echo. While working for the company, Peel wrote programs for punched card entry for an IBM1410 computer. There, he presented the second hour of the Monday night programme Kats Karavan, following this, and as Beatlemania hit the United States, Peel got a job with the Dallas radio station KLIF as the official Beatles correspondent on the strength of his connection to Liverpool. He later worked for KOMA in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, until 1965 when he moved to KMEN in San Bernardino, California, using the name John Ravencroft to present the breakfast show. While in Dallas, in 1965, he married his first wife, Shirley Anne Milburn, then aged 15, the marriage was never happy and although she accompanied Peel back to Britain in 1967, they were soon separated. The divorce became final in 1973, Shirley Anne Milburn later took her own life. Peel returned to England in early 1967 and found work with the pirate radio station Radio London
5.
Talking Heads
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Talking Heads was an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, after a hiatus, the band hit its commercial peak in 1983 with the US Top 10 hit Burning Down the House and released the concert film Stop Making Sense, directed by Jonathan Demme. They would release more albums, including their best-selling LP Little Creatures. In 2002, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Talking Heads were also included at number 64 on VH1s list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In the 2011 update of Rolling Stones 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, David Byrne, Chris Frantz, and Tina Weymouth were alumni of the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island. There, Byrne and Frantz formed a band called The Artistics in 1973, Weymouth was Frantzs girlfriend and often provided transportation for the band. The Artistics dissolved the year, and the three moved to New York, eventually sharing a communal loft. Unable to find a player in New York City, Frantz encouraged Weymouth to learn to play bass by listening to Suzi Quatro albums. They played their first gig as Talking Heads opening for the Ramones at CBGB on June 5,1975, later that year, the trio recorded a series of demos for CBS, but the band was not signed to the label. They quickly drew a following and were signed to Sire Records in November 1976, the group released their first single in February that year, Love → Building on Fire. In March 1977, they added Jerry Harrison, formerly of Jonathan Richmans band The Modern Lovers and their first album was released soon afterwards, Talking Heads,77, which did not contain the earlier single. The album received acclaim and spawned what became the groups first charted single. The song was released to the radio just months after the killer known as the Son of Sam had been terrorizing New York City. However, it was revealed that Byrne had written the song nearly four years earlier. This recording also established the long term recording studio relationship with the famous Compass Point Studios in Nassau. Cover of Al Greens Take Me to the River broke Talking Heads into general public consciousness, Music journalist Simon Reynolds cited Fear of Music as representing the Eno-Talking Heads collaboration at its most mutually fruitful and equitable. The single Life During Wartime produced the catchphrase, This aint no party, the song refers to the Mudd Club and CBGB, two popular New York nightclubs of the time. 1980s Remain in Light was heavily influenced by the afrobeat of Nigerian bandleader Fela Kuti and it explored West African polyrhythms, weaving these together with Arabic music from North Africa, disco funk, and found voices
6.
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
7.
David Bowie
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David Robert Jones, known professionally as David Bowie, was an English singer, songwriter and actor. He was a figure in music for over five decades, regarded by critics and musicians as an innovator. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, his music, during his lifetime, his record sales, estimated at 140 million worldwide, made him one of the worlds best-selling music artists. In the UK, he was awarded nine platinum album certifications, eleven gold and eight silver, in the US, he received five platinum and seven gold certifications. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, born in Brixton, South London, Bowie developed an interest in music as a child, eventually studying art, music and design before embarking on a professional career as a musician in 1963. Space Oddity became his first top-five entry on the UK Singles Chart after its release in July 1969, after a period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with his flamboyant and androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The character was spearheaded by the success of his single Starman and album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, in 1976, Bowie starred in the cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth and released Station to Station. Heroes and Lodger followed, each reached the UK top five. He then reached his peak in 1983 with Lets Dance. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with styles, including industrial. He stopped concert touring after 2004, and his last live performance was at a charity event in 2006, in 2013, Bowie returned from a decade-long recording hiatus with the release of The Next Day. He remained musically active until he died of cancer two days after the release of his final album, Blackstar. David Robert Jones was born on 8 January 1947, in Brixton, south London and his mother, Margaret Mary Peggy, was born in Kent, and had Irish ancestry, she worked as a waitress. His father, Haywood Stenton John Jones, from Yorkshire, was an officer for the childrens charity Barnardos. The family lived at 40 Stansfield Road, near the border of the south London areas of Brixton, Bowie attended Stockwell Infants School until he was six years old, acquiring a reputation as a gifted and single-minded child—and a defiant brawler. In 1953, Bowie moved with his family to the suburb of Bromley and his voice was considered adequate by the school choir, and he demonstrated above-average abilities in playing the recorder. Upon listening to Little Richards song Tutti Frutti, Bowie would later say, presleys impact on him was likewise emphatic, I saw a cousin of mine dance to. Hound Dog and I had never seen her get up and be moved so much by anything and it really impressed me, the power of the music
8.
Iggy Pop
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James Newell Osterberg, Jr. known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, producer and actor. He was the vocalist of influential proto-punk band The Stooges, who reunited in 2003, Pops music has encompassed a number of styles over the course of his career, including garage rock, punk rock, hard rock, art rock, new wave, jazz and blues. In 2010, The Stooges were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Osterberg was raised in a trailer park in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He is of German, English and Irish descent on his fathers side and his father was adopted by a Swedish American family and took on their surname. His later stage name, Iggy, is derived from the Iguanas, after exploring local blues-style bands such as the Prime Movers, he eventually dropped out of the University of Michigan and moved to Chicago to learn more about blues. While in Chicago, he played drums in blues clubs, helped by Sam Lay who shared his connections with Iggy, inspired by Chicago blues as well as bands like The Sonics, MC5 and The Doors, he formed the Psychedelic Stooges and began calling himself Iggy. The band was composed of Iggy on vocals, Ron Asheton on guitar, Ashetons brother Scott on drums and their first show was played at a Halloween party at a house in Detroit, Michigan. Members of the MC5 were also in attendance, the seeds of Pops stage persona were sown when he saw The Doors perform in 1967 at the University of Michigan and was amazed by the stage antics and antagonism displayed by singer Jim Morrison. Morrisons extreme behavior, while performing in a band, inspired the young Pop to push the boundaries of stage performance. Other influences on Pops vocals and persona were Mick Jagger and James Brown, Pop was the first performer to do a stage-dive, which he started at a concert in Detroit. Pop, who traditionally performs bare-chested, also performed such stage theatrics as rolling around in broken glass, exposing himself to the crowd, I attended two concerts by the Doors. The first one I attended was early on and they had not gotten their shit together yet and that show was a big, big, big influence on me. They had just had their big hit, “Light My Fire”, so, here’s this guy, out of his head on acid, dressed in leather with his hair all oiled and curled. The stage was tiny and it was really low, part of me was like, Wow, this is great. He’s really pissing people off and he’s lurching around making these guys angry, people were rushing the stage and Morrison’s going Fuck you. You can fill in your sexual comments yourself, the other half of it was that I thought, If they’ve got a hit record out and they can get away with this, then I have no fucking excuse not to get out on stage with my band. It was sort of the case of, Hey, I can do that, there really was some of that in there. In a 1995 interview with Bust Magazine, he relates, And the other thing was we went to New York. ”And we didn’t have anywhere to crash, and they played for us, and they completely rocked, and we were really ashamed. ”In 1968, one year after their debut and now dubbed The Stooges, the band signed with Elektra Records, again following in the footsteps of The Doors
9.
Saturday Night Live
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Saturday Night Live is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11,1975, under the original title NBCs Saturday Night, the shows comedy sketches, which parody contemporary culture and politics, are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest and features performances by a musical guest, an episode normally begins with a cold open sketch that ends with someone breaking character and proclaiming, Live from New York, its Saturday Night. In 1980, Michaels left the series to other opportunities. He was replaced by Jean Doumanian, who was replaced by Ebersol after a season of bad reviews, Ebersol ran the show until 1985, when Michaels returned, Michaels has remained since then. Many of SNLs cast found national stardom while appearing on the show, others associated with the show, such as writers, have gone on to successful careers creating, writing, or starring in TV and film. The show format has developed and recreated in several countries. Successful sketches have seen life outside of the show as feature films, throughout four decades on air, Saturday Night Live has received a number of awards, including 50 Primetime Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, and three Writers Guild of America Awards. In 2000, it was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame and it was ranked tenth in TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time list, and in 2007 it was listed as one of Time magazines 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME. As of 2012, it has received 156 Emmy nominations, the most received by any TV show, the live aspect of the show has resulted in several controversies and acts of censorship, with mistakes and intentional acts of sabotage by performers as well as guests. From 1965 until September 1975, NBC ran The Best of Carson reruns of The Tonight Show, in 1974, Johnny Carson announced that he wanted the weekend shows pulled and saved so that they could be aired during weeknights, allowing him to take time off. In 1974, NBC president Herbert Schlosser approached his vice president of late night programming, Dick Ebersol, at the suggestion of Paramount Pictures executive Barry Diller, Schlosser and Ebersol then approached Lorne Michaels. Over the next three weeks, Ebersol and Michaels developed the idea for a variety show featuring high-concept comedy sketches, political satire. By 1975 Michaels had assembled a talented cast, including Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Michael ODonoghue, Gilda Radner, and George Coe. The show was originally called NBCs Saturday Night, because Saturday Night Live was in use by Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell on the rival network ABC, NBC purchased the rights to the name in 1976 and officially adopted the new title on March 26,1977. In 1975 and 1976, they were the most desirable demographic for television advertisers, NBC executives agreed with Michaels and decided to keep the show on the air despite many angry letters and phone calls that the network received from viewers who were offended by certain sketches. Chevy Chase left the show in November of the season and was replaced a few months later by the then-unknown comic actor Bill Murray. Aykroyd and Belushi left the show in 1979 after the end of season four, in May 1980, Michaels—emotionally and physically exhausted—requested to put the show on hiatus for a year to give him time and energy to pursue other projects
