1.
Foot (unit)
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The foot is a unit of length in the imperial and US customary systems of measurement. Since 1959, both units have been defined by international agreement as equivalent to 0.3048 meters exactly, in both systems, the foot comprises 12 inches and three feet compose a yard. Historically the foot was a part of local systems of units, including the Greek, Roman, Chinese, French. It varied in length from country to country, from city to city and its length was usually between 250 mm and 335 mm and was generally, but not always, subdivided into 12 inches or 16 digits. The United States is the industrialized nation that uses the international foot and the survey foot in preference to the meter in its commercial, engineering. The foot is legally recognized in the United Kingdom, road signs must use imperial units, the measurement of altitude in international aviation is one of the few areas where the foot is widely used outside the English-speaking world. The length of the international foot corresponds to a foot with shoe size of 13,14,15.5 or 46. Historically the human body has been used to provide the basis for units of length. The foot of a male is typically about 15. 3% of his height, giving a person of 160 cm a foot of 245 mm. These figures are less than the used in most cities over time. Archeologists believe that the Egyptians, Ancient Indians and Mesopotamians preferred the cubit while the Romans, under the Harappan linear measures, Indus cities during the Bronze Age used a foot of 13.2 inches and a cubit of 20.8 inches. The Egyptian equivalent of the measure of four palms or 16 digits—was known as the djeser and has been reconstructed as about 30 cm. The Greek foot had a length of 1⁄600 of a stadion, one stadion being about 181.2 m, the standard Roman foot was normally about 295.7 mm, but in the provinces, the pes Drusianus was used, with a length of about 334 mm. Originally both the Greeks and the Romans subdivided the foot into 16 digits, but in later years, after the fall of the Roman Empire, some Roman traditions were continued but others fell into disuse. In AD790 Charlemagne attempted to reform the units of measure in his domains and his units of length were based on the toise and in particular the toise de lÉcritoire, the distance between the fingertips of the outstretched arms of a man. The toise has 6 pieds each of 326.6 mm, at the same time, monastic buildings used the Carolingian foot of 340 mm. The procedure for verification of the foot as described in the 16th century by Jacob Koebel in his book Geometrei, the measures of Iron Age Britain are uncertain and proposed reconstructions such as the Megalithic Yard are controversial. Later Welsh legend credited Dyfnwal Moelmud with the establishment of their units, the Belgic or North German foot of 335 mm was introduced to England either by the Belgic Celts during their invasions prior to the Romans or by the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th & 6th century
2.
Phonograph record
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The groove usually starts near the periphery and ends near the center of the disc. The phonograph disc record was the medium used for music reproduction until late in the 20th century. It had co-existed with the cylinder from the late 1880s. Records retained the largest market share even when new formats such as compact cassette were mass-marketed, by the late 1980s, digital media, in the form of the compact disc, had gained a larger market share, and the vinyl record left the mainstream in 1991. The phonograph record has made a resurgence in the early 21st century –9.2 million records were sold in the U. S. in 2014. Likewise, in the UK sales have increased five-fold from 2009 to 2014, as of 2017,48 record pressing facilities remain worldwide,18 in the United States and 30 in other countries. The increased popularity of vinyl has led to the investment in new, only two producers of lacquers remains, Apollo Masters in California, USA, and MDC in Japan. Vinyl records may be scratched or warped if stored incorrectly but if they are not exposed to heat or broken. The large cover are valued by collectors and artists for the space given for visual expression, in the 2000s, these tracings were first scanned by audio engineers and digitally converted into audible sound. Phonautograms of singing and speech made by Scott in 1860 were played back as sound for the first time in 2008, along with a tuning fork tone and unintelligible snippets recorded as early as 1857, these are the earliest known recordings of sound. In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, unlike the phonautograph, it was capable of both recording and reproducing sound. Despite the similarity of name, there is no evidence that Edisons phonograph was based on Scotts phonautograph. Edison first tried recording sound on a paper tape, with the idea of creating a telephone repeater analogous to the telegraph repeater he had been working on. The tinfoil was wrapped around a metal cylinder and a sound-vibrated stylus indented the tinfoil while the cylinder was rotated. The recording could be played back immediately, Edison also invented variations of the phonograph that used tape and disc formats. A decade later, Edison developed a greatly improved phonograph that used a wax cylinder instead of a foil sheet. This proved to be both a better-sounding and far more useful and durable device, the wax phonograph cylinder created the recorded sound market at the end of the 1880s and dominated it through the early years of the 20th century. Berliners earliest discs, first marketed in 1889, but only in Europe, were 12.5 cm in diameter, both the records and the machine were adequate only for use as a toy or curiosity, due to the limited sound quality
3.
Loudness war
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Increasing loudness was first reported as early as the 1940s with respect to mastering practices for 7 singles. With the advent of the Compact Disc, music is encoded to a format with a clearly defined maximum peak amplitude. Once the maximum amplitude of a CD is reached, loudness can be increased further through signal processing techniques such as dynamic range compression and equalization. Engineers can apply a high ratio of compression to a recording until it more frequently peaks at the maximum amplitude. In extreme cases, efforts to increase loudness can result in clipping, modern recordings that use extreme dynamic range compression and other measures to increase loudness therefore can sacrifice sound quality to loudness. The competitive escalation of loudness has led fans and members of the musical press to refer to the affected albums as victims of the loudness war. Jukeboxes became popular in the 1940s and were set to a predetermined level by the owner. Similarly, starting in the 1950s, producers would request louder 7 singles so that songs would stand out when auditioned by program directors for top 40 radio stations. In particular, many Motown records pushed the limits of how loud records could be made, according to one of their engineers, the stages of the CDs loudness increase are often split over the three decades of the mediums existence. Since CDs were not the medium for popular music until the late 1980s. CD players were very expensive and thus commonly exclusive to high-end systems that would show the shortcomings of higher recording levels. The average level of the rock song during most of the decade was around −16.8 dBFS. Engineers, musicians, and labels each developed their own ideas of how CDs could be made louder, in 1994, the digital brickwall limiter with look-ahead was first mass-produced. In 1997, Iggy Pop assisted in the remix and remaster of the 1973 album Raw Power by his former band The Stooges, in 2008, loud mastering practices received mainstream media attention with the release of Metallicas Death Magnetic album. The CD version of the album has a high average loudness that pushes peaks beyond the point of clipping, causing distortion. Ted Jensen, an engineer involved in the Death Magnetic recordings. A version of the album without dynamic range compression was included in the content for the video game Guitar Hero III. In late 2008, mastering engineer Bob Ludwig offered three versions of the Guns N Roses album Chinese Democracy for approval to co-producers Axl Rose and they selected the one with the least compression
4.
Amplitude
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The amplitude of a periodic variable is a measure of its change over a single period. There are various definitions of amplitude, which are all functions of the magnitude of the difference between the extreme values. In older texts the phase is called the amplitude. Peak-to-peak amplitude is the change between peak and trough, with appropriate circuitry, peak-to-peak amplitudes of electric oscillations can be measured by meters or by viewing the waveform on an oscilloscope. Peak-to-peak is a measurement on an oscilloscope, the peaks of the waveform being easily identified and measured against the graticule. This remains a common way of specifying amplitude, but sometimes other measures of amplitude are more appropriate. In audio system measurements, telecommunications and other areas where the measurand is a signal that swings above and below a value but is not sinusoidal. If the reference is zero, this is the absolute value of the signal, if the reference is a mean value. Semi-amplitude means half the peak-to-peak amplitude, some scientists use amplitude or peak amplitude to mean semi-amplitude, that is, half the peak-to-peak amplitude. It is the most widely used measure of orbital wobble in astronomy, the RMS of the AC waveform. For complicated waveforms, especially non-repeating signals like noise, the RMS amplitude is used because it is both unambiguous and has physical significance. For example, the power transmitted by an acoustic or electromagnetic wave or by an electrical signal is proportional to the square of the RMS amplitude. For alternating current electric power, the practice is to specify RMS values of a sinusoidal waveform. One property of root mean square voltages and currents is that they produce the same heating effect as direct current in a given resistance, the peak-to-peak value is used, for example, when choosing rectifiers for power supplies, or when estimating the maximum voltage that insulation must withstand. Some common voltmeters are calibrated for RMS amplitude, but respond to the value of a rectified waveform. Many digital voltmeters and all moving coil meters are in this category, the RMS calibration is only correct for a sine wave input since the ratio between peak, average and RMS values is dependent on waveform. If the wave shape being measured is greatly different from a sine wave, true RMS-responding meters were used in radio frequency measurements, where instruments measured the heating effect in a resistor to measure current. The advent of microprocessor controlled meters capable of calculating RMS by sampling the waveform has made true RMS measurement commonplace
5.
Music industry
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The modern Western music industry emerged between the 1930s and 1950s, when records replaced sheet music as the most important product in the music business. In the commercial world, the recording industry–a reference to recording performances of songs and pieces, labels outside of these three major labels are referred to as independent labels. The largest portion of the music market for concerts and tours is controlled by Live Nation. Live Nation is a subsidiary of iHeartMedia Inc, which is the largest owner of radio stations in the United States. In the first decades of the 2000s, the industry underwent drastic changes with the advent of widespread digital distribution of music via the Internet. A conspicuous indicator of changes is total music sales, since 2000. In 2011, the largest recorded music retailer in the world was now a digital, Internet-based platform operated by a computer company, printed music in Europe, Music publishing using machine-printed sheet music developed during the Renaissance music era in the mid-15th century. The development of music followed the evolution of printing technologies that were first developed for printing regular books. After the mid-15th century, mechanical techniques for printing music were first developed. The earliest example, a set of chants, dates from about 1465. Prior to this time, music had to be copied out by hand, to copy music notation by hand was a very costly, labor-intensive and time-consuming process, so it was usually undertaken only by monks and priests seeking to preserve sacred music for the church. The few collections of music that are extant were commissioned and owned by wealthy aristocrats. Examples include the Squarcialupi Codex of Italian Trecento music and the Chantilly Codex of French Ars subtilior music, the use of printing enabled sheet music to reproduced much more quickly and at a much lower cost than hand-copying music notation. This helped musical styles to spread to cities and countries more quickly. With music printing, though, a composers music could be printed, as sheet music of major composers pieces and songs began to be printed and distributed in a wider area, this enabled composers and listeners to hear new styles and forms of music. A German composer could buy songs written by an Italian or English composer, and this led to more blending of musical styles from different countries and regions. The pioneer of music printing was Ottaviano Petrucci, a printer and publisher who was able to secure a twenty-year monopoly on printed music in Venice during the 16th century. Venice was one of the business and music centers during this period
6.
Mento
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Mento is a style of Jamaican folk music that predates and has greatly influenced ska and reggae music. Mento typically features acoustic instruments, such as guitar, banjo, hand drums. The rhumba box carries the bass part of the music, Mento is often confused with calypso, a musical form from Trinidad and Tobago. Although the two share many similarities, they are separate and distinct musical forms, during the mid-20th century, mento was conflated with calypso, and mento was frequently referred to as calypso, kalypso and mento calypso. Mento singers frequently used calypso songs and techniques, as in calypso, mento uses topical lyrics with a humorous slant, commenting on poverty and other social issues. Mento draws on traditions brought by West African slaves. They also absorbed European musical traditions, creating a new form, slaves who could play musical instruments were often required to play music for their masters and often rewarded for such skills. The Africans created a music, incorporating such elements of these traditions, including quadrille. The Jamaican mento style has a history of conflation with Trinidadian calypso. The lyrics of songs often deal with aspects of everyday life in a light-hearted. Many comment on poverty, poor housing, and other social issues, thinly veiled sexual references and innuendo are also common. Mento, can be seen as a precursor of some of the movement motifs and it became more popular in the late 1940s, with mento performances becoming a common aspect of dances, parties and other events in Jamaica. His wildly popular hit records in 1956-1958, including Day-O and Jamaica Farewell, were mento songs sold as calypso, previously recorded Jamaican versions of many Belafontes classic calypso hits can be heard on the Jamaica - Mento 1951-1958 CD released by Frémeaux & Associés in 2009. Due in part to Belafontes popularity, mento became widely conflated with calypso in the 1950s, in a 1957 interview for Calypso Star magazine, Lord Flea explained, In Jamaica, we call our music mento until very recently. Today, calypso is beginning to be used for all kinds of West Indian music and this is because its become so commercialized there. Some people like to think of West Indians as carefree natives who work and sing and play, most of the people there are hard working folks, and many of them are smart business men. If the tourists want calypso, thats what we sell them and this was the golden age of mento, as records pressed by Stanley Motta, Ivan Chin, Ken Khouri and others brought the music to a new audience. In the 1960s it became overshadowed by ska and reggae, Mento is still played in Jamaica, especially in areas frequented by tourists
7.
Sound system (Jamaican)
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In the context of Jamaican popular culture, a sound system is a group of disc jockeys, engineers and MCs playing ska, rocksteady or reggae music. The sound system is an important part of Jamaican culture and history, the sound system concept first became popular in the 1950s, in the ghettos of Kingston. DJs would load up a truck with a generator, turntables, in the beginning, the DJs played American rhythm and blues music, but as time progressed and more local music was created, the sound migrated to a local flavor. The sound systems were big business, and represented one of the few ways to make money in the unstable economy of the area. The promoter or DJ made his profit by charging admission and selling food and alcohol and it was also around this time that Jamaicas first superstar DJ and MC, Count Machuki, rose to prominence. Competition between these systems was fierce, and eventually two DJs emerged as the stars of the scene, Clement Coxsone Dodd, and Duke Reid. Besides the DJ, who rapped over the music, there was also a selector, the popularity of a sound system was mainly contingent on one thing, having new music. In order to circumvent the release cycle of the American record labels, initially, they produced only singles for their own sound systems, known as Exclusives or Dubplates—a limited run of one copy per song. What began as an attempt to replicate the American R&B sound using local musicians evolved into a uniquely Jamaican musical genre, as this new musical form became more popular, both Dodd and Reid began to move more seriously into music production. Coxsone Dodds production studio became the famous Studio One, while Duke Reid founded Treasure Isle, as sound systems continued to gain in popularity through the 1960s and 1970s, they became politicized in many instances. Many sound systems, and their owners, were labeled as supporters of a political party. Nevertheless, as a cultural and economic phenomenon, the system was affected by the vast socio-political changes taking place in Jamaica at this time. An important part of sound system culture is the sound clash, the Guinness Sounds of Greatness is one of many such clashes. The culture of the Sound System was brought to the UK with the immigration of Jamaicans in the 1960s and 1970s. Notable UK Sound Systems include Sir Coxsone Outernational Jah Shaka, Channel One, Aba Shanti-I, Jah Observer, Iration Steppas, Fatman International and Saxon Studio International. One of the first sound systems in the United States was Downbeat the Ruler, founded in Bronx, New York and these sound systems were the method in which these migrants were able to maintain their cultural connection with their roots. They broadcast the remixed samples of Reggae beats and created a music culture. This culture was separate from the population which relied on the radio to provide popular music
8.
Rhythm and blues
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Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated as R&B or RnB, is a genre of popular African-American music that originated in the 1940s. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African-American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy. Lyrics focus heavily on the themes of triumphs and failures in terms of relationships, freedom, economics, aspirations, the term rhythm and blues has undergone a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s it was applied to blues records. This tangent of RnB is now known as British rhythm and blues, by the 1970s, the term rhythm and blues changed again and was used as a blanket term for soul and funk. In the 1980s, a style of R&B developed, becoming known as Contemporary R&B. It combines elements of rhythm and blues, soul, funk, pop, hip hop, popular R&B vocalists at the end of the 20th century included Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey. Although Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine is credited with coining the term rhythm and blues as a term in the United States in 1948. It replaced the term race music, which came from within the black community. The term rhythm and blues was used by Billboard in its chart listings from June 1949 until August 1969, before the Rhythm and Blues name was instated, various record companies had already begun replacing the term race music with sepia series. In 2010 LaMont Robinson founded the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame Museum, writer and producer Robert Palmer defined rhythm & blues as a catchall term referring to any music that was made by and for black Americans. He has used the term R&B as a synonym for jump blues, however, AllMusic separates it from jump blues because of its stronger, gospel-esque backbeat. Lawrence Cohn, author of Nothing but the Blues, writes that rhythm, according to him, the term embraced all black music except classical music and religious music, unless a gospel song sold enough to break into the charts. Well into the 21st century, the term R&B continues in use to music made by black musicians. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, arrangements were rehearsed to the point of effortlessness and were sometimes accompanied by background vocalists. Simple repetitive parts mesh, creating momentum and rhythmic interplay producing mellow, lilting, while singers are emotionally engaged with the lyrics, often intensely so, they remain cool, relaxed, and in control. The bands dressed in suits, and even uniforms, an associated with the modern popular music that rhythm. Lyrics often seemed fatalistic, and the music typically followed predictable patterns of chords, there was also increasing emphasis on the electric guitar as a lead instrument, as well as the piano and saxophone
9.
Island Records
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Island Records is a major record label that operates as a division of UMG Recordings, Inc. It was founded by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall and Leslie Kong in Jamaica in 1959, Blackwell sold the label to PolyGram in 1989. Three Island labels exist in the world, Island UK, Island US, and Island Australia, current key people of Island Records include Island president Darcus Beese, OBE and MD Jon Turner. Partially due to the labels significant legacy, Island remains one of UMGs pre-eminent record labels, Island Records was founded in Jamaica on 4 July 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall and Leslie Kong, and partially financed by Stanley Borden from RKO. Its name was inspired by the Harry Belafonte song Island in the Sun. Blackwell explained in 2009, “I loved music so much, I just wanted to get into it, or be as close to it as I could. ”Tom Hayes, the labels sales manager between 1965 and 1967, referred to the early period of the label in the UK as “organized chaos”. “My Boy Lollipop”, sung by Millie Small, was the labels first success in the UK, Blackwell explained in a 50-year-anniversary documentary that he was only interested in building long-term careers at that stage in time, rather than short-term projects. Suzette Newman has been a colleague of Chris Blackwells since working together in the early days of Island Records. Suzette Newman and Chris Salewicz were the editors for the book “The Story of Island Records, Blackwell relocated to England in May 1962 to garner greater levels of attention after the local Jamaican sound systems proved to be overwhelmingly successful. The vast majority of the artists who had signed to Blackwells fledgling label while he was in Jamaica agreed to allow the entrepreneur to release their music in the UK. While in England, Blackwell travelled throughout the city carrying his stock with him and he did not provide any copies to radio stations, as they would not play any of the Island music, the music was also not reviewed by the press. Meanwhile, Goodall left to start the Doctor Bird record label in 1965, Blackwell signed the Spencer Davis Group to the label. The group became popular and Island started their own independent series to spotlight UK rock talent. They signed artists like John Martyn, Fairport Convention, Free, by the late 1960s and early 1970s, they were a major label in England with artists like Roxy Music, King Crimson, Traffic, The Wailers, and many others. Blackwell had signed Bob Marley, and now Toots and the Maytals, in November 2016, Jackie Jackson described the formation of the group in a radio interview for Kool 97 FM Jamaica. Accompanied by Paul Douglas and Radcliffe Dougie Bryan in studio, Jackson explained, Were all original members of Toots, first it was Toots and the Maytals, three guys, Toots, Raleigh, and Jerry. …And then they were signed to Island Records, Chris Blackwell, and we were their recording band. One day we were summoned to Chris house, and he says, Alright gentleman, I think its time
10.
Rocksteady
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Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was performed by Jamaican vocal harmony groups such as The Gaylads, The Maytals, The Heptones, the term rocksteady comes from a dance style that was mentioned in the Alton Ellis song Rock Steady. Dances performed to rocksteady were less energetic than the earlier ska dances, the first international rocksteady hit was Hold Me Tight by the American soul singer Johnny Nash, it reached number one in Canada. Rocksteady uses some of the elements of rhythm and blues, jazz, ska, African and Latin American drumming. One of the most easily recognizable elements, as in ska, are offbeat rhythms, staccato chords played by a guitar and this offbeat can be counted so that it falls between each count as an and. Example,1 and 2 and 3 and 4, the perceived tempo became slower with the development of rocksteady than it had been in ska and this led to a number of changes in the music. The guitar and piano began to experiment with occasional accents around the basic offbeat pattern. This can be heard throughout Jamaican recordings in subsequent years, the snare drum often plays a side stick click rather that a full snare hit, an influence from Latin music. This differs markedly from the styles in R&B and rock and roll. Jamaican musicians sometimes refer to the second and fourth beats as the afterbeat, all the Jamaican styles of kit drumming since ska have incorporated a mixture of influences, including African burru percussion, American jazz and R&B, and Latin rhythms. The slowing in perceived tempo that occurred with rocksteady opened the door for drummers to explore these influences more, with the advent of the drum machine and computer in the 1980s, Jamaican popular music i. e. These new patterns fit very well with the modal chord progressions often used by Jamaican players. Byron Lee was the first ska band leader to have an electric bass. By 1966, the advantages of recording and performing with electric bass had meant most players made the switch to electric, a number of factors led to smaller band sizes and this in turn led to changes in the way the music was composed and arranged. The slower tempo and smaller sizes in turn led to a much larger focus on the bass line in general. In rocksteady, the lead guitar often doubles the bass line, in the muted picking style created by Lynn Taitt, smaller band sizes and slower tempos also led to a number of changes in the way horn parts were written and arranged. Rocksteady and reggae are perhaps best thought of and notated as a half time feel and this would mean the guitar-piano offbeats would fall on beats 2 and 4, and the one drop of the snare/kick drum would fall on beat 3. This also allows transcribers to use the term swing 8ths to help notate hi-hat patterns, there are rocksteady songs about religion and the Rastafari movement, though not to the same extent as in reggae
11.
Reggae
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Reggae is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A1968 single by Toots and the Maytals Do the Reggay was the first popular song to use the word reggae, effectively naming the genre, Reggae usually relates news, social gossip, and political comment. Reggae spread into a commercialized jazz field, being known first as ‘Rudie Blues’, then ‘Ska’, later ‘Blue Beat’ and it is instantly recognizable from the counterpoint between the bass and drum downbeat, and the offbeat rhythm section. The immediate origins of reggae were in ska and rock steady, from the latter, stylistically, reggae incorporates some of the musical elements of rhythm and blues, jazz, mento, calypso, African music, as well as other genres. One of the most easily recognizable elements is offbeat rhythms, staccato chords played by a guitar or piano on the offbeats of the measure, the tempo of reggae is usually slower than ska but faster than rocksteady. The concept of call and response can be found throughout reggae music, the genre of reggae music is led by the drum and bass. The bass guitar often plays the dominant role in reggae, the bass sound in reggae is thick and heavy, and equalized so the upper frequencies are removed and the lower frequencies emphasized. The guitar in reggae usually plays on the off beat of the rhythm and it is common for reggae to be sung in Jamaican Patois, Jamaican English, and Iyaric dialects. Reggae is noted for its tradition of criticism and religion in its lyrics, although many reggae songs discuss lighter, more personal subjects, such as love. Reggae has spread to countries across the world, often incorporating local instruments. Reggae en Español spread from the mainland South America countries of Venezuela, Caribbean music in the United Kingdom, including reggae, has been popular since the late 1960s, and has evolved into several subgenres and fusions. Many reggae artists began their careers in the UK, and there have been a number of European artists and bands drawing their inspiration directly from Jamaica, Reggae in Africa was boosted by the visit of Bob Marley to Zimbabwe in 1980. In Jamaica, authentic reggae is one of the biggest sources of income, the 1967 edition of the Dictionary of Jamaican English lists reggae as a recently estab. Sp. for rege, as in rege-rege, a word that can mean either rags, ragged clothing or a quarrel, a row. Reggae as a term first appeared in print with the 1968 rocksteady hit Do the Reggay by The Maytals which named the genre of Reggae for the world. Reggae historian Steve Barrow credits Clancy Eccles with altering the Jamaican patois word streggae into reggae, however, Toots Hibbert said, Theres a word we used to use in Jamaica called streggae. If a girl is walking and the look at her and say Man, shes streggae it means she dont dress well
12.
Dancehall
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Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, in the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably, with digital dancehall becoming increasingly characterized by faster rhythms. Dancehall music saw mainstream success in Jamaica throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, by the 2010s, dancehall began to heavily influence the work of established Western artists producers which has helped to further bring the genre into the Western music mainstream. Dancehall is named after Jamaican dance halls in which popular Jamaican recordings were played by local sound systems and they began in the late 1940s among people from the inner city of Kingston, who were not able to participate in dances uptown. Themes of social injustice, repatriation and the Rastafari movement were overtaken by lyrics about dancing, violence, around the same time, producer Don Mais was reworking old rhythms at Channel One Studios, using the Roots Radics band. Sound systems such as Killimanjaro, Black Scorpio, Gemini Disco, Virgo Hi-Fi, Volcano Hi-Power and Aces International soon capitalized on the new sound, deejay records became, for the first time, more important than records featuring singers. The early 1980s also saw the emergence of female deejays in dancehall music, such as Lady G, Lady Saw, other female dancehall stars include artistes like Diana King and in the late 1990s to the 2000s Ce Cile, Spice, Macka Diamond and more. In the mid-1980s, French Caribbean group Kassav, the first in the Caribbean to use MIDI technology, King Jammys 1985 hit, Sleng Teng by Wayne Smith, with an entirely-digital rhythm hook took the dancehall reggae world by storm. Many credit this song as being the first digital rhythm in reggae, however, this is not entirely correct since there are earlier examples of digital productions, such as Horace Fergusons single Sensi Addict produced by Prince Jazzbo in 1984. The Sleng Teng rhythm was used in over 200 subsequent recordings and this deejay-led, largely synthesized chanting with musical accompaniment departed from traditional conceptions of Jamaican popular musical entertainment. Dub poet Mutabaruka said, if 1970s reggae was red, green and gold and it was far removed from reggaes gentle roots and culture, and there was much debate among purists as to whether it should be considered an extension of reggae. This shift in style again saw the emergence of a new generation of artists, such as Buccaneer, Capleton and Shabba Ranks, the deejays became more focused on violence, with Bounty Killer, Mad Cobra, Ninjaman and Buju Banton becoming major figures in the genre. By the early 2000s, dancehall inspired pop music saw increased popularity in Jamaica, as well as in the United States and international markets. This was first seen with artists, such as Sean Paul whos single Get Busy became the first dancehall single to number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. The late 2000s saw domestic success for artists, such as Popcaan, Vybz Kartel, Konshens, Mr. Vegas. Donna P. Kingsley Stewart outlines ten of the major cultural imperatives or principles that constitute the dancehall worldview, such a drastic change in the popular music of the region generated an equally radical transformation in fashion trends, specifically those of its female faction. In lieu of traditional, modest rootsy styles, as dictated by Rastafari-inspired gender roles, women began donning flashy and this transformation is said to coincide with the influx of slack lyrics within dancehall, which objectified women as apparatuses of pleasure. These women would team up others to form modeling posses, or dancehall model groups
13.
Dub music
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Dub is a genre of music that grew out of reggae in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae. Other techniques include dynamically adding extensive echo, reverb, panoramic delay, Dub was pioneered by Osbourne King Tubby Ruddock, Lee Scratch Perry, Errol Thompson and others in the late 1960s. Augustus Pablo is credited with bringing the melodica to dub, and is also among the pioneers and creators of the genre, similar experiments with recordings at the mixing desk outside of the dancehall environment were also done by producers Clive Chin and Herman Chin Loy. These producers, especially Ruddock and Perry, looked upon the mixing console as an instrument, manipulating tracks to come up with something new and different. Dub has influenced many genres of music, including rock, pop, hip hop, disco, and later house, techno, ambient, electronic dance music, the verb dub is defined as making a copy of one recording to another. The term dub had multiple meanings in Jamaica around the time of the musics origin, in concert, the order dub this one. Meant put an emphasis on bass and drums, drummer Sly Dunbar points to a similar interpretation, relating the term dubwise to using only drums and bass. Another possible source was the term dub plate, as suggested by Augustus Pablo, the word duppy also relates to dub through Jamaicas history of intra-racial terror, violence, and murder that is often overlooked in favor of Jamaican ideologies of racial solidarity. The ghosts of these victims, or duppies, are thought to be captured best within the dub instrumentals, a version is a record with the vocals removed, the alternative cut of a song made for the DJ to toast over. These versions were used as the basis of new songs by rerecording them with new elements, the instrumental tracks are typically drenched in sound effects such as echo, reverberation, with instruments and vocals dropping in and out of the mix. Another hallmark of the dub sound is the prominent use of bass guitar, the music sometimes features other noises, such as birds singing, thunder and lightning, water flowing, and producers shouting instructions at the musicians. It can be augmented by live DJs. There is usually an organic feel to the music, even though the effects are electronically created. Often these tracks are used for toasters rapping heavily rhymed and alliterative lyrics, in forms of sound system based reggae, the performer using a microphone is referred to as the DJ or deejay, and the person choosing the music and operating the turntables is called the selector. A major reason for producing multiple versions was economic, a producer could use a recording he owned to produce numerous versions from a single studio session. A version was also an opportunity for a producer or remix engineer to experiment, Dub music and toasting introduced a new era of creativity in reggae music. From their beginning, toasting and dub music developed together and influenced each other, in 1968, Kingston, Jamaica sound system operator Rudolph Ruddy Redwood went to Duke Reids Treasure Isle studio to cut a one-off dub plate of The Paragons hit On The Beach. Engineer Byron Smith left the track out by accident, but Redwood kept the result
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King Tubby
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Osbourne Ruddock, better known as King Tubby, was a Jamaican electronics and sound engineer, known primarily for his influence on the development of dub in the 1960s and 1970s. He is often cited as the inventor of the concept of the remix, singer Mikey Dread stated, King Tubby truly understood sound in a scientific sense. He knew how the circuits worked and what the electrons did, thats why he could do what he did. Tubby owned a repair shop on Drumalie Avenue, Kingston. It was here that he built large amplifiers for the sound systems. Tubby would eventually form his own system, Tubbys Hometown Hi-Fi. It became a crowd due to the high quality sound of his equipment, exclusive releases and Tubbys own echo and reverb sound effects. Tubby began working as a cutter for producer Duke Reid in 1968. Before dub, most Jamaican 45s featured a version of the main song on the flipside. By the end of 1971 he was already providing dub mixes for producers such as Glen Brown, one unique aspect of his remixes or dubs was the result of creative manipulating of the built-in high-pass filter on the MCI mixer he had bought from Dynamic Studios. In 1973, he added a second 4-track mixer, and built a vocal booth at his studio so he could record vocal tracks onto the instrumental tapes brought to him by various producers and this process is known as voicing in Jamaican recording parlance. His name is credited on hundreds of B-side labels, with the possibility that others were by his hand yet uncredited. Several albums of Tubbys dub mixes were released, among the earliest the Perry-produced Blackboard Jungle and his most famous dub and one of the most popular dubs of all time was King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown from 1974. The original session was for a Jacob Miller song called Baby I Love You So, when Tubby completed the dub, which also featured Augustus Pablo on melodica, Barretts drums regenerated several times and created a totally new rhythm which was later tagged rockers. This seminal track later appeared on Pablos 1976 album King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown. k. a. King Tubby was shot and killed on 6 February 1989, outside his home in Duhaney Park, Kingston, upon returning from a session at his Waterhouse studio
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Dub plates
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The dub in dubplate is an allusion to the plates use in dubbing or doubling the original version of a track. These dubplates will often be either unreleased recordings or exclusive versions or remixes of existing recordings and they are often used as a market research tool to assess the probable sales of a tune once it is released, as they are far cheaper to produce than a pressed vinyl record. However, because the material of the disc is very soft, after about fifty plays the loss in sound quality becomes noticeable. Vinyl dubplates are a recently developed format which allow extremely durable recordings to be made and are suited to cases where no release is imminent. Although CD is now the preferred format for these recordings, the use of the word Dubplate to describe them has survived. These recordings are used for competing in a sound clash. Dubplate Specials are a tool in a sound clash – the more exclusive the better –. A notable example is the special of No, No, No recorded by Dawn Penn for a number of systems in the early nineties. The special recorded for Saxon Studio International sound system replaced the lyrics No, no, no, with No, no, no, cant test Saxon, referring to the invincibility of the sound system. The song became an hit, and Dawn Penn endorsed several other sound systems with the same lyrics. A list of currently operating dubplate cutting studios Ten of the baddest Roots Dubplates of all time – by Jah Warrior Dubplate Pressure – From Mixmag magazine
16.
DJ Kool Herc
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Clive Campbell, better known by his stage name DJ Kool Herc, is a Jamaican-American DJ who is credited with originating hip hop music in the early 1970s in The Bronx, New York City. His playing of hard funk records of the sort typified by James Brown was a both to the violent gang culture of the Bronx and to the nascent popularity of disco in the 1970s. Campbell began to isolate the portion of the record, which emphasized the drum beat—the break—and switch from one break to another. Using the same two turntable set-up of disco DJs, Campbell used two copies of the record to elongate the break. This breakbeat DJing, using hard funk and records with Latin percussion, campbells announcements and exhortations to dancers helped lead to the syncopated, rhymed spoken accompaniment now known as rapping. He called his dancers break-boys and break-girls, or simply b-boys, campbells DJ style was quickly taken up by figures such as Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash. Unlike them, he never made the move into commercially recorded hip hop in its earliest years, clive Campbell was the first of six children born to Keith and Nettie Campbell in Kingston, Jamaica. While growing up, he saw and heard the sound systems of neighbourhood parties called dancehalls, and he emigrated with his family at the age of 12 to the Bronx, New York in November 1967, where they lived at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue. Many landlords resorted to arson to recoup money through insurance policies, a violent new street gang youth culture emerged around 1968, and spread with increasing lawlessness across large parts of the Bronx by 1973. He began running with a crew called the Ex-Vandals, taking the name Kool Herc. Herc recalls persuading his father to buy him a copy of Sex Machine by James Brown, a record not a lot of his friends had. He and his sister, Cindy, began hosting parties in the recreation room of their building,1520 Sedgwick Avenue. DJ Kool Herc developed the style that was the blueprint for hip hop music, Herc used the record to focus on a short, heavily percussive part in it, the break. Since this part of the record was the one the dancers liked best, Herc isolated the break and prolonged it by changing between two record players. As one record reached the end of the break, he cued a second back to the beginning of the break. This innovation had its roots in what Herc called The Merry-Go-Round, Herc told The New York Times that he first introduced the Merry-Go-Round into his sets in 1972. From the Bongo Rocks break, Herc used a record to switch to the break on The Mexican by the English rock band Babe Ruth. Kool Herc also contributed to developing the style of hip hop by punctuating the recorded music with slang phrases, announcing, Rock on
17.
Dennis Alcapone
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Dennis Alcapone is a reggae DJ and producer. Smith initially trained as a welder and worked for the Jamaica Public Services, smith then moved to Coxsone Dodds Studio One where he decided on a change of name, Al Capone being a nickname that had stuck with him since going to see a gangster movie with friends. This resulted in the Nanny Version single, which was another big Jamaican hit, johnson and Phil Pratt, often recording for several producers on the same day. Alcapone had his own distinct style with high-pitched whoops, with his influence clearly visible in DJs that followed such as I-Roy. The second-wave DJ Dillinger initially named himself after Dennis Alcapone, using the name Young Alcapone before changing his name at the suggestion of Lee Perry. He also began working as a producer, working with such as Dennis Brown, Augustus Pablo and Delroy Wilson. He was named Best DJ by Jamaican magazine Swing in 1972 and he returned to live performance and recording in the 1988 and appeared at the WOMAD festival in 1989. He returned to Jamaica in 1990 to record again with Bunny Lee and he released an album with Mad Professor in 1997, 21st Century Version. com Biography at allmusic
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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
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Mixing engineer
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A mixing engineer is a person responsible for combining the different sonic elements of a piece of recorded music into a final version of a song. He or she mixes the elements of a piece together to achieve a good balance of volume, while at the same time deciding other properties such as pan positioning, effects. The best mixing professionals typically have many years of experience and training with audio equipment, a mixing engineer occupies a space between artist and scientist, using their skill at assessing the harmonic structure of sound to enable them to fashion highly appealing timbres. Their work is found in all music, but many artists now mix and produce their own music with a digital audio workstation. A more technical definition, an engineer in sound recording, audio editing and sound systems who balances the relative volume. Typically, these sources are the different musical instruments in a band or vocalists. Mixing Engineers are sometimes formally trained in a background. A degree in music can help and broaden the engineers credentials, the mixing ear comes from years of observing all kinds of sounds, frequencies, and variations of effects and filters, through the process of trial and error. They show up well after the artists or session musicians are done recording and their job consists of balancing the relative impact of each audio stream, by putting them through effects processors, and having the right amount of each. Removing conflicting frequencies from 250–800 Hz is crucial, where interference, cuts in this area can help with artificial sounding brightness. By boosting frequencies below this range, one can give more fullness. Above this, boost can gives voices presence, but only if they do not overlap with another voices more prominent higher harmonics, key in removing mud is making the proper boosts higher up, to replace brightness lost when cutting shared frequencies. A spectrum analyzer can help in viewing harmonic structure of voices, every mixer approaches the challenge of equalization differently, as everyone has a slightly different psychoacoustic perception of sound, and different levels of physical hearing loss. Dynamic range compression-Compression reduces the range between a signals lowest low and highest high, the threshold controls how much of the top is cut off. By adjusting attack and release settings, and having the right ratio, one can give a track more presence, by setting the trigger to another audio source, called side-chaining, higher levels of compression, and even hard clipping to a very small degree. This is often used in music, however the effect is very artificial, really only good for one kind of pumping. Panning- settings spread the field out, which can create space for voices otherwise lacking. Stereo playback will result in different frequency response then the signal
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Dynamic range
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Dynamic range, abbreviated DR, DNR, or DYR is the ratio between the largest and smallest values that a certain quantity can assume. It is often used in the context of signals, like sound and it is measured either as a ratio or as a base-10 or base-2 logarithmic value of the difference between the smallest and largest signal values, in parallel to the common usage for audio signals. The human senses of sight and hearing have a high dynamic range. A human is capable of hearing anything from a quiet murmur in a room to the sound of the loudest heavy metal concert. Such a difference can exceed 100 dB which represents a factor of 100,000 in amplitude, a human cannot perform these feats of perception at both extremes of the scale at the same time. The eyes take time to adjust to different light levels, the instantaneous dynamic range of human audio perception is similarly subject to masking so that, for example, a whisper cannot be heard in loud surroundings. In practice, it is difficult to achieve the full dynamic range experienced by humans using electronic equipment. For example, a good quality LCD has a range of around 1000,1. Paper reflectance can achieve a range of about 100,1. A professional ENG camcorder such as the Sony Digital Betacam achieves a range of greater than 90 dB in audio recording. A nighttime scene will usually contain duller colours and will often be lit with blue lighting, the dynamic range of human hearing is roughly 140 dB, varying with frequency, from the threshold of hearing to the threshold of pain. The dynamic range of music as normally perceived in a concert hall doesnt exceed 80 dB, the dynamic range differs from the ratio of the maximum to minimum amplitude a given device can record, as a properly dithered recording device can record signals well below the noise RMS amplitude. Digital audio with undithered 20-bit digitization is theoretically capable of 120 dB dynamic range, 24-bit digital audio calculates to 144 dB dynamic range. Multiple noise processes determine the noise floor of a system, noise can be picked up from microphone self-noise, preamp noise, wiring and interconnection noise, media noise, etc. Early 78 rpm phonograph discs had a range of up to 40 dB, soon reduced to 30 dB. Ampex tape recorders in the 1950s achieved 60 dB in practical usage, the peak of professional analog magnetic recording tape technology reached 90 dB dynamic range in the midband frequencies at 3% distortion, or about 80 dB in practical broadband applications. The Dolby SR noise reduction gave a 20 dB further increased range resulting in 110 dB in the midband frequencies at 3% distortion. Specialized bias and record head improvements by Nakamichi and Tandberg combined with Dolby C noise reduction yielded 72 dB dynamic range for the cassette
21.
Nightclub
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A nightclub is an entertainment venue and bar which serves alcoholic beverages that usually operates late into the night. Another distinction is that whereas many pubs and sports bars aim at a market, nightclubs typically aim at a niche market of music and dancing enthusiasts. The upmarket nature of nightclubs can be seen in the inclusion of VIP areas in some nightclubs, for celebrities, nightclubs are much more likely than pubs or sports bars to use bouncers to screen prospective clubgoers for entry. Some nightclub bouncers do not admit people with ripped jeans or other clothing or gang apparel as part of a dress code. The busiest nights for a nightclub are Friday and Saturday night, most clubs or club nights cater to certain music genres, such as house music or gothic rock. A nightclub may also be called a discothèque, disco, or dance club, from about 1900 to 1920, working class Americans would gather at honky tonks or juke joints to dance to music played on a piano or a jukebox. Webster Hall is credited as the first modern nightclub, being built in 1886 and starting off as a hall, originally functioning as a home for dance. During Prohibition in the United States, nightclubs went underground as illegal speakeasy bars, with Webster Hall staying open, with rumors circulating of Al Capones involvement and police bribery. With the repeal of Prohibition in February 1933, nightclubs were revived, such as New Yorks 21 Club, Copacabana, El Morocco, in Germany, possibly the first discothèque was Scotch-Club. These discothèques were also patronized by anti-Vichy youth called zazous, there were also underground discothèques in Nazi Germany patronized by anti-Nazi youth called the swing kids. In Harlem, Connies Inn and the Cotton Club were popular venues for white audiences, before 1953 and even some years thereafter, most bars and nightclubs used a jukebox or mostly live bands. The Whisky à Gogo set into place the elements of the modern post World War II discothèque-style nightclub. At the end of the 1950s, several of the bars in Soho introduced afternoon dancing. In the early 1960s, Mark Birley opened a members-only discothèque nightclub, Annabels, in Berkeley Square, in 1962, the Peppermint Lounge in New York City became popular and is the place where go-go dancing originated. However, the first rock and roll generation preferred rough and tumble bars and taverns to nightclubs, disco has its roots in the underground club scene. It brought together people from all walks of life and backgrounds and these clubs acted as safe havens for homosexual partygoers to dance in peace and away from public scrutiny. Disco allowed patrons to explore sexuality and push the envelope on the dance floor, disco clubs acted as an escape from such depressing environments and acted as the fantasy marginalized peoples could escape to forget oppression and racism. Disco clubs originally functioned as liberated party spaces and were seen as places of political statement, a smooth mix of long single records to keep people dancing all night long
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Sound quality
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Sound quality is typically an assessment of the accuracy, enjoyability, or intelligibility of audio output from an electronic device. In other cases, the goal may be to reproduce audio as closely as possible to the original, when applied to processing steps such as mastering recordings, absolute accuracy may be secondary to artistic or aesthetic concerns. In still other situations, such as recording a musical performance. Digital audio is stored in many formats, the simplest form is uncompressed PCM, where audio is stored as a series of quantized audio samples spaced at regular intervals in time. As samples are placed together in time, higher frequencies can be reproduced. For example, for human hearing bandwidth between 0 and 20 kHz, audio must be sampled at above 40 kHz. Due to the need for filtering out ultrasonic frequencies resulting from the conversion to an analog signal, in PCM, each audio sample describes the sound pressure at an instant in time with a limited precision. The limited accuracy results in error, a form of noise that is added to the recording. To reduce quantization error, more precision can be used in each measurement at the expense of larger samples, with each additional bit added to a sample, quantization error is reduced by approximately 6 dB. For CD audio, this is 44,100 samples per second,16 bits per sample, however, this space can be greatly reduced using audio compression. In audio compression, audio samples are processed using an audio codec, in a lossless codec audio samples are processed without discarding information by packing repetitive or redundant samples into a more efficiently stored form. A lossless decoder then reproduces the original PCM with no change in quality, lossless audio compression typically achieves a 30-50% reduction in file size. Common lossless audio codecs include FLAC, ALAC, Monkeys Audio, if additional compression is required, lossy audio compression such as MP3, Ogg Vorbis or AAC can be used. After the removal of details, lossy compression can be applied to the remainder to greatly reduce the file size. Lossy audio compression therefore allows a 75-95% reduction in file size, but runs the risk of potentially reducing audio quality if important information is mistakenly discarded
23.
When You're Young and in Love
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When Youre Young and in Love is a song composed by Van McCoy. The first recording of the song was by Ruby & the Romantics, released in September 1964, Ruby & the Romantics When Youre Young. Reached the Top Five in Honolulu but otherwise failed to register strongly in any US market reaching #48 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1964. Ruby & the Romantics would score one subsequent Hot 100 placing, with Does He Really Care For Me. However, the song was a bigger hit in Canada, peaking at #25 on the RPM Top Tracksthat year. The song was covered in 1967 by the Marvelettes with the track - produced by James Dean and William Weatherspoon - reaching #23 on the Hot 100 that June, although not one of the Marvelettes very biggest US hits, When Youre Young. Became the only record by the group to hit status in the UK with a #13 peak in July 1967. The track is one of the last Marvelettes singles to feature Gladys Horton although the lead is by Wanda Young, Horton would only appear. Besides Horton and veteran Marvelette Katherine Anderson, Rogers vocal backing on When Youre Young, features Motowns premier session singers the Andantes while the original instrumental backing on the track by the Funk Brothers was augmented by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. In the autumn of 1975 competing versions of When Youre Young, ralph Carter would promote his version with a performance on the April 3,1976 episode of his Good Times sitcom, his recording was produced by Norman Bergen and Reid Whitelaw. The Choice Four version was produced by the songs composer Van McCoy, a 1979 remake of When Youre Young. Single barely registering on the R&B charts at #91, gitte made a recording of When Youre Young and in Love on 23 October 1964. The song has also recorded by Donny and Marie - as Young and in Love. It reached number 7 in the UK
24.
Frankie Valli
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Frankie Valli is an American singer, known as the frontman of The Four Seasons beginning in 1960. He is known for his powerful falsetto voice. Valli scored 29 Top 40 hits with The Four Seasons, one Top 40 hit under The Four Seasons alias The Wonder Who. and nine Top 40 hits as a solo artist. As a member of The Four Seasons, Vallis number-one hits included Sherry, Big Girls Dont Cry, Walk Like a Man, Rag Doll, Vallis recording of the song Cant Take My Eyes Off You reached number two in 1967. Youre Ready Now, a Valli solo recording from 1966, became a hit in the UK as part of the Northern soul scene. As a solo artist, Valli scored number-one hits with the songs My Eyes Adored You and Grease. Valli, Tommy DeVito, Nick Massi and Bob Gaudio – the original members of The Four Seasons – were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999. Valli was born Francesco Stephen Castelluccio, the eldest of three sons to an Italian family in the First Ward of Newark, New Jersey. His father, Anthony Castelluccio, was a barber and display designer for Lionel model trains, his mother, Mary Rinaldi, was a homemaker and beer company employee. He was inspired to take up a career at the age of seven after his mother took him to see the young Frank Sinatra at the Paramount Theater in New York City. One of his favorite singers was Texas Jean Valli, from whom he obtained his last name. Until he could support himself with music, he worked as a barber, Vallis birth year has been called into question. Valli never addressed the issue himself, until the 2007 posting at the Official Frankie Valli Site, sponsored by his current record label, much of the previous official publicity surrounding his career used 1937 as the birth year. Other sources, such as the Bear Family Records release, titled The Four Lovers, as well as a 1965 mug shot, available through The Smoking Gun, Valli began his singing career in the early 1950s with the Variety Trio. Vallis desire to sing in public was granted when, having heard Valli sing. In late 1952, the Variety Trio disbanded and Valli, along with Tommy DeVito, became part of the band at The Strand in New Brunswick. For his part, Valli played bass and sang and he cut his first single, My Mothers Eyes, in 1953 as Frankie Valley, a variation on a name he adopted from Texas Jean Valli, a female hillbilly singer as discussed in a 2014 article. Frankie said in 2010 that Jean took him to music publishers Paul and Dave Kapp
25.
Love to Love You Baby (song)
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Love to Love You Baby is a song by American singer Donna Summer from her second album of the same name. It became one of the first disco hits to be released in an extended form, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named it one of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll, Summers only selection on this list. By 1975, Summer had been living in Germany for eight years and had participated in musical theatre shows. She had also released an album in the Netherlands entitled Lady of the Night, written by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte and produced by Bellotte and she was still a complete unknown in her home country when she suggested the lyric Love to Love You Baby to Moroder in 1975. He turned the lyric into a disco song and asked Summer to record it. The full lyrics were somewhat explicit, and at first, Summer said she would record it as a demo to give to someone else. However, Summers erotic moans and groans impressed Moroder so much that he persuaded her to release it as her own song, and Love to Love You became a moderate hit in the Netherlands. In an interview in 1976, Summer responded to a number of questions that she claimed shed been asked about the process of recording the song, Everyones asking, yes, I was alone in the studio. Yes, well, actually I had my hand on my knee, yes, on my handsome boyfriend Peter. A tape of the song was sent to Casablanca Records president Neil Bogart in the U. S. impressed with the track, Bogart continued to play it over and over all night. He later contacted Moroder and suggested that he make the track longer - possibly as long as 20 minutes, however, Summer again had reservations, she wasnt sure of all of the lyrics. Nevertheless, she imagined herself as a playing the part of someone in sexual ecstasy. The studio lights were dimmed so that Summer was more or less in complete darkness as she lay on the floor, the final recording lasted over 16 minutes, and according to the BBC, contained 23 orgasms. By that point, the song was renamed Love to Love You Baby and it took up the entire first side of the album of the same name, and was also released as a 12 single. Edited versions were found on 7 vinyl. Originally released in November 1975, the became an international disco smash. In the UK, upon release in January 1976, the song reached #4 on the UK Singles Chart in spite of the BBCs initial refusal to promote it and they also refused to play it. As a result of the success of the song, Summer would be named the first lady of love, Casablanca Records became responsible for the distribution of Summers work in the U. S. and later in other parts of the world
26.
Donna Summer
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LaDonna Adrian Gaines, better known by her stage name Donna Summer, was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She gained prominence during the era of the late 1970s. Summer has reportedly sold over 140 million records, making her one of the worlds best-selling artists of all time and she also charted two number-one singles on the R&B charts in the U. S. and one number-one in the U. K. Summer earned a total of 32 hit singles on the U. S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in her lifetime, with 14 of those reaching the top ten. She claimed a top 40 hit every year between 1975 and 1984, and from her first top ten hit in 1976, to the end of 1982, she had 12 top ten hits, more than any other act. She returned to the Hot 100s top five in 1983, and her most recent Hot 100 hit came in 1999 with I Will Go With You. While her fortunes on the Hot 100 waned through those decades, while influenced by the counterculture of the 1960s, Summer became the lead singer of a psychedelic rock band named Crow and moved to New York City. Joining a touring version of the musical Hair, she left New York and spent several years living, acting, and singing in Europe and she became known as the Queen of Disco, while her music gained a global following. Summer died on May 17,2012, at her home in Naples, in her obituary in The Times, she was described as the undisputed queen of the Seventies disco boom who reached the status of one of the worlds leading female singers. Giorgio Moroder described Summers work with him on the song I Feel Love as really the start of electronic dance music, in 2013, Summer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In December 2016, Billboard Magazine ranked her as the 6th most successful dance artist of all-time, laDonna Adrian Gaines was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Andrew and Mary Gaines, and was one of seven children. She was raised in the Boston neighborhood of Mission Hill and her father was a butcher and her mother was a schoolteacher. Summers performance debut occurred at church when she was eight years old and she later attended Bostons Jeremiah E. Burke High School where she performed in school musicals and was considered popular. In 1967, just weeks before graduation, Donna left for New York where she joined the rock band Crow. After they were passed on by a label that was only interested in the bands lead singer. Summer stayed in New York and auditioned for a role in the counterculture musical and she landed the part of Sheila, and agreed to take the role in the Munich production of the show, moving there after getting her parents reluctant approval. Summer eventually became fluent in German, singing songs in that language, and participated in the musicals Ich bin ich, Godspell. Within three years, she moved to Vienna, Austria, and joined the Vienna Volksoper and she briefly toured with an ensemble vocal group called FamilyTree, the creation of producer Günter Yogi Lauke
27.
Atlantic Records
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Atlantic Recording Corporation is an American major record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegün and Herb Abramson. In 2004, Atlantic Records and its sister label Elektra Records merged into Atlantic Records Group, craig Kallman is currently the chairman of Atlantic Records. Ahmet Ertegün served as founding chairman until his death on December 14,2006, the brothers had become ardent fans of jazz and rhythm & blues music, amassing a collection of over 15,00078 RPM records. He convinced the family dentist, Dr Vahdi Sabit, to invest $10,000 and recruited Herb Abramson, Abramson had worked as a part-time A&R manager/producer for the jazz label National Records, signing Big Joe Turner and Billy Eckstine. He founded Jubilee Records in 1946, but had no interest in its most successful artists, so, in September 1947, he sold his share in Jubilee to his partner, Jerry Blaine, and invested $2500 in the new Atlantic label. When interviewed in 2009 she attributed her reputation to the companys chronic cash-flow shortage, most of the problems we had with artists were that they wanted advances, and that was very difficult for us. We were undercapitalized for a long time, the labels original office in the Ritz Hotel, Manhattan proved too expensive so they relocated to an $85 per month room in the Hotel Jefferson. In its early years Atlantic focused principally on modern jazz although it released some country and western and spoken word recordings. The union action forced Atlantic to use almost all its capital to cut and stockpile enough recordings to last through the ban, Ertegun and Abramson spent much of the late 1940s and early 1950s scouring nightclubs in search of talent. Ertegun composed many songs under the alias A, in early 1949 a New Orleans distributor phoned Ertegun trying to obtain Stick McGhees Drinking Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee, which was unavailable due to the closure of McGhees previous label. Ertegun knew Sticks younger brother Brownie McGhee, with whom Stick happened to be staying, so he contacted the McGhee brothers, Ertegun asked about artists royalties, which he paid, which surprised Columbia executives, who did not, which scuttled the deal. On the recommendation of broadcaster Willis Conover, Ertegun and Abramson went to see Ruth Brown at the Crystal Caverns club in Washington and she was badly injured in a car accident en route to New York but Atlantic supported her for nine months and then signed her. Her first release for the label So Long, cut at her second Atlantic session on May 25,1949 with the Eddie Condon band, was a major hit, reaching #6 on the R&B chart. Brown went on to more than eighty songs for the label, becoming the most prolific. So significant was Browns success to Atlantics fortunes that the label became known colloquially as The House That Ruth Built. The Clovers Dont You Know I Love You became the labels first R&B #1 in September 1951 and she hit #1 again in March–April 1952 with 5-10-15 Hours. After she left the label in 1961 Browns fortunes declined rapidly - within a few years was reduced to working as a cleaner and bus-driver to support her children. Brown eventually received a payment of $20,000 and founded a charity
28.
Try Me, I Know We Can Make It
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Try Me, I Know We Can Make It is a song by American singer and songwriter Donna Summer from her third studio album Love Trilogy album released in 1976. Due to its success the format was repeated with the next album, in fact, Try Me, I Know We Can Make It actually lasted even longer than Love To Love You Baby, clocking in at eighteen minutes. Edited versions were released on the 7 single format. The song peaked at number eighty on the American pop chart and it was more popular with disco audiences, however, becoming Summers second number one single on the dance chart in May 1976 and remaining atop that chart for three weeks. The song also peak #6 in Spain singles charts and #22 in Spain Radio chart, Try Me, I Know We Can Make It Wasted The song can be heard in the 1977 film Looking For Mr. Goodbar. Features in the club scene for the pilot of Nighthawks. List of number-one dance hits Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
29.
Salsoul Records
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This article is about the record label. For SalSoul the Puerto Rican Salsa radio station see Cadena Salsoul, Salsoul Records is a New York City based record label, founded by three brothers, Joseph Cayre, Kenneth Cayre, and Stanley Cayre. Salsoul issued about 300 singles, including many disco 12-inch releases, the label started in business in 1974, went defunct in 1985 and was relaunched in 1992. The Cayre family had been involved in many entrepreneurial ventures before they manufactured and distributed 8-track tapes and they had purchased some catalogs of Mexican music to distribute, and infringed on the copyrights of CBS Records and RCA Records by selling them in the United States. They acquired a license for North American distribution for some of CBSs Latino catalog and this led to recording sessions that were distributed by CBS. When CBS was unable to increase profits, the rights reverted to the Cayres, according to Ken Cayre, it was his exposure to early discothèques that gave him the idea to record music for the dance market. Salsoul released the first commercially available 12-inch single, Double Exposures Ten Percent, Salsoul was affected by the disco backlash of 1979, but it was one of the few labels to survive after the death of disco. It continued to new material until 1984, when the Cayre brothers shut down their recorded music operations to concentrate on the home video business. In 1992, Salsoul Records was revived as Salsoul New Generation Records and it is notably more popular in Europe and the United Kingdom than in the United States. Two volumes of albums were also issued the same year. The labels name was conceived by artist Joe Bataan, who recorded some of the earliest sessions for the Cayre brothers before the labels formation, Salsoul was street lingo for the musical culture of urban Latinos who were listening to soul music and combining it with salsa music. Bataan chose the name for an LP he made for the Cayre brothers, Bataan had the first single, The Bottle, and album, Afro-filipino, on the initial Salsoul label released through Epic, before a deal with RCA. Ken Cayre sought session musicians to play Philly soul, Gamble and Huff were in dispute with their key musicians over business matters and Salsoul quickly took the chance to put them under contract. Among these Philly soul artists were Vince Montana, Norman Harris, Ronnie Baker, Earl Young, Bunny Sigler, Baker, Harris and Young are now widely credited with crystallizing the sound and structure of a disco record. Baker would plant his key bass notes on top of the kick drum and his widely imitated signature style is best heard on the record Love is the Message by MFSB. Montana wrote, arranged, and produced the first Salsoul hit, Salsoul Hustle by the newly formed Salsoul Orchestra, which included members of the Philly session players. During the following years, the label enjoyed a string of hits, instant Funk reached the top of the Billboard R&B chart in 1979 with Got My Mind Made Up, a million-seller produced by Bunny Sigler, with the groups follow-up album also going gold. Skyy made it to No.1 R&B in 1981 with Call Me and Aurra climbed to No.6 R&B in the year with their release
30.
Bob Marley and the Wailers
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Bob Marley and the Wailers were a Jamaican reggae band led by Bob Marley which developed from the earlier ska vocal group, the Wailers, created by Marley with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer in 1963. By late 1963 singers Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, and Cherry Smith had joined the Wailers, by the early 1970s, Marley and Bunny Wailer had learned to play some instruments and brothers Aston Family Man Barrett and Carlton Barrett, had joined the band. After Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh left the band in 1974 and his new backing band included the Barrett brothers, Junior Marvin and Al Anderson on lead guitar, Tyrone Downie and Earl Wya Lindo on keyboards, and Alvin Seeco Patterson on percussion. The I Threes, consisting of Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths, the Wailers were formed when self-taught musician Hubert Winston McIntosh met the singers Neville Livingston, and Robert Nesta Marley in 1963. The lineup was known variously as the Teenagers, the Wailing Rudeboys, the original lineup featured Junior Braithwaite on vocals, Bob Marley on guitar, Peter Tosh on keyboard, Neville Livingston on drums, and Cherry Smith and Beverley Kelso on backing vocals. By 1966 Braithwaite, Kelso and Smith had left the band, some of the Wailers most notable songs were recorded with Lee Scratch Perry and his studio band the Upsetters. In 1964, the Wailers topped the Jamaican charts with Simmer Down, during the early 1970s the Upsetters members Aston Family Man Barrett and his brother Carlton Barrett, formed the Wailers Band, providing instrumental backing for The Wailers. The Wailers recorded groundbreaking ska and reggae songs such as Simmer Down, Trenchtown Rock, Nice Time, War, Stir It Up and Get Up, Stand Up. An attempt at creating a full overview of all the music made by The Wailers prior to their signing to Island Records was made by the Roots Reggae Library, the original Wailers line-up disbanded in 1974 due to Tosh and Livingstons refusal to play freak clubs. The pair believed doing so would violate their Rastafarian faith, Bob Marley formed Bob Marley and the Wailers with himself as guitarist, songwriter and main singer, the Wailers Band as the backing band, and the I Three as backup vocalists. The I Three consisted of Bob Marleys wife Rita Marley, Judy Mowatt and these changes caused a major dispute between Marley and Perry, when the former saw the albums, six months after their publication, in the Half Way Road in England. Bob Marley and the Wailers, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer all enjoyed success as reggae music continued to gain popularity during the 1970s and 1980s. One of the last performances that included Marley was in 1980 at Madison Square Garden, several of the groups members have died subsequent to Marleys death in 1981, Carlton Barrett and Tosh in 1987, Braithwaite in 1999, and Smith in 2008. Bunny Wailer and Beverley Kelso are the surviving members of the groups original line-up. The I Three, commonly called I Threes, were formed in 1974 to support Bob Marley, the three members were Marleys wife Rita Marley, Judy Mowatt and Marcia Griffiths. Their name is intended as a spin on the Rastafarian I and I concept of the Godhead within each person. W, norton & Company ISBN 978-0-393-08117-6 Official website 45cat Bob Marley discography www. MusicGonnaTeach. com - The Wailers
31.
Lee "Scratch" Perry
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Lee Scratch Perry OD is a Jamaican music producer and inventor noted for his innovative studio techniques and production style. Perry was a pioneer in the 1970s development of dub music with his adoption of remixing. He has worked with and produced for a variety of artists, including Bob Marley and the Wailers, Junior Murvin, the Congos, Max Romeo, Adrian Sherwood, the Beastie Boys, Ari Up. Perry was born in Kendal in the parish of Manchester, the child of Ina Davis. His mother had strong African traditions originating from her Yoruba ancestry that she passed on to her son and he later moved to Kingston where he apprenticed at Studio One. Perrys musical career began in the late 1950s as a seller for Clement Coxsone Dodds sound system. Disagreements between the pair due to personality and financial conflicts led him to leave the studio and seek new musical outlets and he soon found a new home at Joe Gibbss Amalgamated Records. Working with Gibbs, Perry continued his career but, once again. Perry broke ranks with Gibbs and formed his own label, Upsetter Records and his first major single People Funny Boy, which was an insult directed at Gibbs, sold well with 60,000 copies sold in Jamaica alone. It is notable for its use of a sample as well as a fast. Similarly his acrimonious 1967 single as Lee King Perry Run for Cover was likewise aimed at Sir Coxsone, from 1968 until 1972 he worked with his studio band The Upsetters. During the 1970s, Perry released numerous recordings on a variety of labels that he controlled. He soon became known for his production techniques as well as his eccentric character. In 1970 Perry produced and released The Wailers track Mr Brown with its use of studio effects. With his own studio at his disposal, Perrys productions became more lavish, virtually everything Perry recorded in The Black Ark was done using basic recording equipment, through sonic sleight-of-hand, Perry made it sound unique. Paul Douglas mentions, “Scratch had a sound and everybody was fascinated by his sound. He had this way of putting together, it was just his sound and it influenced a lot of people. ”Perry remained behind the mixing desk for many years, producing songs. By 1978, stress and unwanted outside influences began to take their toll, eventually, the studio burned to the ground
32.
The Clash
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The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, dub, funk, ska, for most of their recording career the Clash consisted of Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Nicky Topper Headon. Headon left the group in 1982, and internal friction led to Joness departure the following year, the group continued with new members, but finally disbanded in early 1986. The Clash achieved commercial success in the United Kingdom with the release of their debut album, The Clash. Their third album, London Calling, released in the UK in December 1979 and it was declared the best album of the 1980s a decade later by Rolling Stone. In 1982 they reached new heights of success with the release of Combat Rock and their final album, Cut the Crap, was released in 1985. The Clashs politicised lyrics, musical experimentation, and rebellious attitude had a influence on rock. They became widely referred to as The Only Band That Matters, originally a promotional slogan introduced by the record label. In January 2003, shortly after the death of Joe Strummer, in 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked the Clash number 28 on their list of the 100 greatest artists of all time. Before the Clashs founding, the future members were active in different parts of the London music scene. John Graham Mellor sang and played guitar in the pub rock act the 101ers. Mick Jones played guitar in protopunk band London SS, which rehearsed for much of 1975 without ever playing a live show and recording only a single demo. London SS was managed by Bernard Rhodes, an associate of impresario Malcolm McLaren and a friend of the members of the McLaren managed band. Jones and his bandmates became friendly with Sex Pistols Glen Matlock and Steve Jones, among those who auditioned for London SS without making the cut were Paul Simonon, who tried out as a vocalist, and drummer Terry Chimes. Nicky Headon drummed with the band for a week, then quit, after London SS broke up in early 1976, Rhodes continued as Joness manager. In February, Jones saw the Sex Pistols perform for the first time, You knew straight away that was it, and it was a new scene, new values—so different from what had happened before. At the instigation of Rhodes, Jones contacted Simonon in March, soon Jones, Simonon on bass, Keith Levene on guitar and whoever we could find really to play the drums were rehearsing. Chimes was asked to audition for the new band and got the job, the band was still searching for a lead singer
33.
Drum and bass
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Drum and bass is a genre and branch of electronic music which emerged from rave and oldschool jungle scenes in England during the early 1990s. The style is characterised by fast breakbeats with heavy bass and sub-bass lines, sampled sources. The popularity of drum and bass at its peak ran parallel to several other homegrown dance styles in the UK including big beat. Drum and bass incorporates a number of scenes and styles, a major influence on jungle and drum and bass was the original Jamaican dub and reggae sound. Another feature of the style is the syncopation of the drum tracks breakbeat. Drum and bass subgenres include breakcore, ragga jungle, hardstep, darkstep, techstep, neurofunk, ambient drum and bass, liquid funk, deep, drumfunk, funkstep, sambass, dnbnoise, from its roots in the UK, the style has established itself around the world. Drum and bass has influenced other genres like hip hop, big beat, dubstep, house, trip hop, ambient music, techno, rock. Drum and bass is dominated by a small group of record labels. The major international labels have shown very little interest in the drum. But rave music tended to feature stronger bass sounds and a faster tempo beats per minute than that of early house music and it is important to note when discussing the history of drum and bass that prior to jungle, rave music was getting faster and more experimental. Professional DJ and producer C. K. states, There was a progression as far as the speed of music is concerned, anyone buying vinyl every week from 1989 to 1992 noticed this. By 1994, jungle had begun to gain popularity and fans of the music became a more recognisable part of youth subculture. However, this developed in tandem with the positive reputation of the music as part of the wider rave scene. As the genre became more polished and sophisticated technically, it began to expand its reach from pirate radio to commercial stations. It also began to split into subgenres such as jump-up. The popularity of drum and bass at its peak ran parallel to several other homegrown dance styles in the UK including big beat. But towards the turn of the millennium its popularity was deemed to have dwindled as the UK garage style known as speed garage yielded several hit singles. London DJ/producer C. K. says, It is often forgotten by my students that a type of music called garage house existed in the late 1980s alongside hip house, acid house and other forms of house music
