1.
Jefferson, Texas
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Jefferson is a historic city in Marion County in northeastern Texas, United States. The population was 2,024 at the 2000 census and it is the county seat of Marion County, Texas, and is situated in East Texas. Tourism in Jefferson is enhanced by a number of events that are throughout the year. The fountain includes a statue of Hebe, the Greek goddess of Youth, early records indicate that Jefferson was founded around 1841 on land ceded from the Caddo Indians. At that time, a log jam more than 100 miles long existed on the Red River north of present Natchitoches, the Indians said that this log jam, known as the Great Red River Raft, had always existed. The Red River Raft acted as a dam on the river and raised the level of Caddo Lake, Jefferson was one of the most important ports in Texas between 1845 and 1872. The town reached its peak population just a few years after the Civil War and is reported to have exceeded 30,000, during this time, Jefferson was the sixth largest town in Texas. There were attempts over the years to remove the raft and permit the flow of the Red River. In 1873, using nitroglycerin, the Army Corps of Engineers was finally able to clear the raft from the Red River and this lowered the level of Caddo Lake and Big Cypress to the extent that riverboat traffic to Jefferson was no longer commercially feasible. At the peak of river traffic Jefferson had a population of over 7,000, a few years later, it had dropped to a little over 3,000. One of the legends surrounding Jefferson involved Jay Gould, the railroad magnate, the legend goes that Gould wanted to bring his railroad through Jefferson but the town leaders refused because they had the river traffic. Gould responded by saying that grass would grow in the streets without the railroad, Gould is even given credit for supporting the removal of the Red River Raft and the subsequent decline of Jefferson as a river port. Much of this tale is fiction, but it makes a good tale, townspeople obtained Goulds railcar and it is displayed as a tourist attraction in downtown Jefferson. Jefferson, since 2000, has been the location for the Pulpwood Queens Book Club Girlfriend Weekends annual conference, Jefferson is located at 32°45′40″N 94°20′58″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 4.4 square miles. The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers, according to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Jefferson has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated Cfa on climate maps. As of the census of 2000, there were 2,024 people,871 households, the population density was 465.7 people per square mile. There were 1,042 housing units at a density of 239.7 per square mile
2.
Bridgeport, Connecticut
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Bridgeport is a seaport city in the U. S. state of Connecticut. It is the largest city in the state and is located in Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnock River on Long Island Sound, Bridgeport had a population of 144,229 during the 2010 Census, making it also the 5th-most populous in New England. It is bordered by the towns of Trumbull to the north, Fairfield to the west, the Greater Bridgeport area is the 48th-largest urban area in the United States and forms part of the Greater New York City Area. Bridgeport was inhabited by the Paugussett Indian tribe at the time of its English colonization, the English farming community became a center of trade, shipbuilding, and whaling. The town incorporated itself to subsidize the Housatonic Railroad and rapidly industrialized following its connection to the New York, manufacturing was the mainstay of the local economy until the 1970s. Industrial restructuring and suburbanization caused the loss of jobs and affluent residents, leaving Bridgeport struggling with problems of poverty. In the 21st century, conversion of office and factory buildings to residential use, the showman P. T. Barnum was a resident of the city and served as the towns mayor in the late 19th century. Barnum built four houses in Bridgeport, and housed his circus in town during winter, the first Subway restaurant opened in the North End section of the city in 1965. The Frisbie Pie Company was located here, and Bridgeport is credited as the birthplace of the Frisbee, the first documented English settlement within the present city limits of Bridgeport took place in 1644, centered at Black Rock Harbor along North Avenue and between Park and Briarwood Avenues. The place was called Pequonnock, after a band of the Paugussett, one of their sacred sites was Golden Hill, which overlooked the harbor and was the location of natural springs and their planting fields. The Golden Hill Indians were granted a reservation here by the Colony of Connecticut in 1639 that survived until 1802, a village called Newfield began to coalesce around the corner of State and Water Streets in the 1760s. The area officially known as Stratfield in 1695 or 1701 due to its location between the already existing towns of Stratford and Fairfield. During the American Revolution, Newfield Harbor was a center of privateering, Newfield initially expanded around the coasting trade with Boston, New York, and Baltimore and the international trade with the West Indies. The commercial activity of the village was clustered around the wharves on the west bank of the Pequonnock, in 1800, the village became the Borough of Bridgeport, the first so incorporated in the state. It was named for the Newfield or Lottery Bridge across the Pequonnock, Bridgeport Bank was established in 1806. In 1821, the township of Bridgeport became independent of Stratford, the West India trade died down around 1840, but by that time the Bridgeport Steamship Company and Bridgeport Whaling Company had been incorporated and the Housatonic Railroad chartered. The HRRC ran upstate along the Housatonic Valley, connecting with Massachusettss Berkshire Railroad at the state line, Bridgeport was chartered as Connecticuts fifth city in 1836 in order to enable the town council to secure funding to provide to the HRRC and ensure that it would terminate in Bridgeport. The Naugatuck Railroad—connecting Bridgeport to Waterbury and Winsted along the Naugatuck—was chartered in 1845, the same year, the New York and New Haven Railroad began operation, connecting Bridgeport to New York and the other towns along the north shore of the Long Island Sound
3.
Country music
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Country music is a genre of United States popular music that originated in the southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from the genre of United States, such as folk music. Blues modes have been used throughout its recorded history. The term country music is used today to many styles and subgenres. In 2009 country music was the most listened to rush hour radio genre during the evening commute, immigrants to the Southern Appalachian Mountains of North America brought the music and instruments of Europe and Africa along with them for nearly 300 years. Country music was introduced to the world as a Southern phenomenon, Bristol, Tennessee, has been formally recognized by the U. S. Congress as the Birthplace of Country Music, based on the historic Bristol recording sessions of 1927. Since 2014, the city has been home to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, historians have also noted the influence of the less-known Johnson City sessions of 1928 and 1929, and the Knoxville sessions of 1929 and 1930. Prior to these, pioneer settlers, in the Great Smoky Mountains region, had developed a musical heritage. The first generation emerged in the early 1920s, with Atlantas music scene playing a role in launching countrys earliest recording artists. Okeh Records began issuing hillbilly music records by Fiddlin John Carson as early as 1923, followed by Columbia Records in 1924, many hillbilly musicians, such as Cliff Carlisle, recorded blues songs throughout the 1920s. The most important was the Grand Ole Opry, aired starting in 1925 by WSM in Nashville, during the 1930s and 1940s, cowboy songs, or Western music, which had been recorded since the 1920s, were popularized by films made in Hollywood. Bob Wills was another musician from the Lower Great Plains who had become very popular as the leader of a hot string band. His mix of country and jazz, which started out as dance hall music, Wills was one of the first country musicians known to have added an electric guitar to his band, in 1938. Country musicians began recording boogie in 1939, shortly after it had played at Carnegie Hall. Gospel music remained a component of country music. It became known as honky tonk, and had its roots in Western swing and the music of Mexico. By the early 1950s a blend of Western swing, country boogie, rockabilly was most popular with country fans in the 1950s, and 1956 could be called the year of rockabilly in country music. Beginning in the mid-1950s, and reaching its peak during the early 1960s, the late 1960s in American music produced a unique blend as a result of traditionalist backlash within separate genres
4.
Edison Records
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Edison Records was one of the earliest record labels which pioneered sound recording and reproduction and was an important player in the early recording industry. The first phonograph cylinders were manufactured in 1888, followed by Edisons foundation of the Edison Phonograph Company in the same year, until 1910 the recordings did not carry the names of the artists. The company began to lag behind its rivals in the 1920s, Edison invented the phonograph, the first device for recording and playing back sound, in 1877. The earliest phonograph was something of a curiosity, although it was one that fascinated much of the public. Early machines were sold to entrepreneurs who made an out of traveling around the country giving phonograph concerts. Talking dolls and Talking clocks were manufactured as expensive novelties using the early phonograph, in 1887, Edison turned his attention back to improving the phonograph and the phonograph cylinder. The following year, the Edison company debuted the Perfected Phonograph, Edison introduced wax cylinders approximately 4 1⁄4 inches long and 2 1⁄4 inches in external diameter, which became the industry standard. Several experimental wax cylinder recordings of music and speech made in 1888 still exist, the wax entertainment cylinder made its commercial debut in 1889. At first, the customers were entrepreneurs who installed nickel-in-the-slot phonographs in amusement arcades, saloons. At that time, a phonograph cost the equivalent of several months wages for the worker and was driven by an electric motor powered by hazardous. When relatively affordable spring-motor-driven phonographs designed for home use appeared in the mid-1890s, blank records were an important part of the business early on. Most phonographs had or could be fitted with attachments for the users to make their own recordings, one important early use, in line with the original term for a phonograph as a talking machine, was in business for recording dictation. Attachments were added to facilitate starting, stopping, and skipping back the recording for dictation, the business phonograph eventually evolved into a separate device from the home entertainment phonograph. Edison Records brand of business phonograph was called The Ediphone, see Phonograph cylinder, Edison also holds the achievement of being one of the first companies to record the first African-American quartet to record, the Unique Quartet. A notable technological triumph of the Edison Laboratories was devising a method to mass-produce pre-recorded phonograph cylinders in molds and this was done by using very slightly tapered cylinders and molding in a material that contracted as it set. To Edisons disappointment the commercial potential of this process was not realized for some years, most of the regional Edison distributors were able to fill the small early market for recordings by mechanical duplication of a few dozen cylinders at a time. Molded cylinders did not become a significant force in the marketplace until the end of the 1890s, before using metal cylinders though Edison used paraffin paper. In 1902, Edisons National Phonograph Company introduced Edison Gold Moulded Records, cylinder records of improved hard black wax, capable of being played hundreds of times before wearing out
5.
RCA Records
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RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. It is one of SMEs three flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records and Epic Records. The label has released multiple genres of music, including pop, rock, hip hop, R&B, blues, jazz, the companys name is derived from the initials of the labels former parent company, the Radio Corporation of America. It is the second oldest recording company in US history, after sister label Columbia Records, RCAs Canadian unit is Sonys oldest label in Canada. It was one of only two Canadian record companies to survive the Great Depression, kelly, Enrique Iglesias, Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon, Kesha, Miley Cyrus, Giorgio Moroder, Jennifer Hudson, DAngelo, Pink, Tinashe, G-Eazy, Pitbull, Zayn and Wizkid. In 1929, the Radio Corporation of America purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company, then the worlds largest manufacturer of phonographs and phonograph records. The company then became RCA Victor but retained use of the Victor Records name on their labels until the beginning of 1946 when the labels were finally switched over to RCA Victor. With Victor, RCA acquired New World rights to the famous Nipper His Masters Voice trademark, in Shanghai, China, in 1931, RCA Victors British affiliate the Gramophone Company merged with the Columbia Graphophone Company to form EMI. This gave RCA head David Sarnoff a seat on the EMI board, in September 1931, RCA Victor introduced the first 33⅓ rpm records sold to the public, calling them Program Transcriptions. In the depths of the Great Depression, the format was a commercial failure, during the early part of the depression, RCA made a number of attempts to produce a successful cheap label to compete with the dime store labels. The first was the short-lived Timely Tunes label in 1931 sold at Montgomery Ward, in 1932, Bluebird Records was created as a sub-label of RCA Victor. It was originally an 8-inch record with a blue label. In 1933, RCA reintroduced Bluebird and Electradisk as a standard 10-inch label, another cheap label, Sunrise, was produced. The same musical couplings were issued on all three labels and Bluebird Records still survives eight decades after Electradisk and Sunrise were discontinued, RCA also produced records for Montgomery Ward label during the 1930s. Besides manufacturing records for themselves, RCA Victor operated RCA Custom which was the leading record manufacturer for independent record labels, RCA Custom also pressed record compilations for The Readers Digest Association. RCA sold its interest in EMI in 1935, but EMI continued to distribute RCA recordings in the UK, RCA also manufactured and distributed HMV classical recordings on the RCA and HMV labels in North America. During World War II, ties between RCA and its Japanese affiliate JVC were severed, the Japanese record company is today called Victor Entertainment and is still a JVC subsidiary. From 1942 to 1944, RCA Victor was seriously impacted by the American Federation of Musicians recording ban, virtually all union musicians could not make recordings during that period
6.
Columbia Records
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Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. the United States division of Sony Corporation. It was founded in 1887, evolving from an enterprise named the American Graphophone Company. Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the sound business. Columbia Records went on to release records by an array of singers, instrumentalists. It is one of Sony Musics three flagship record labels alongside RCA Records and Epic Records, rather, as above, it was connected to CBS, a broadcasting media company which had purchased the company in 1938, and had been co-founded in 1927 by Columbia Records itself. Though Arista Records was sold to Bertelsmann Music Group, it would become a sister label of Columbia Records through its mutual connection to Sony Music. The Columbia Phonograph Company was founded in 1887 by stenographer, lawyer and New Jersey native Edward Easton and it derived its name from the District of Columbia, where it was headquartered. At first it had a monopoly on sales and service of Edison phonographs and phonograph cylinders in Washington. As was the custom of some of the regional companies, Columbia produced many commercial cylinder recordings of its own. Columbias ties to Edison and the North American Phonograph Company were severed in 1894 with the North American Phonograph Companys breakup, thereafter it sold only records and phonographs of its own manufacture. In 1902, Columbia introduced the XP record, a brown wax record. According to Gracyk, the molded brown waxes may have sold to Sears for distribution. Columbia began selling records and phonographs in addition to the cylinder system in 1901, preceded only by their Toy Graphophone of 1899. For a decade, Columbia competed with both the Edison Phonograph Company cylinders and the Victor Talking Machine Company disc records as one of the top three names in American recorded sound. In order to add prestige to its catalog of artists. The firm also introduced the internal-horn Grafonola to compete with the extremely popular Victrola sold by the rival Victor Talking Machine Company, during this era, Columbia used the famous Magic Notes logo—a pair of sixteenth notes in a circle—both in the United States and overseas. Columbia was split into two companies, one to make records and one to make players, Columbia Phonograph was moved to Connecticut, and Ed Easton went with it. Eventually it was renamed the Dictaphone Corporation, in late 1923, Columbia went into receivership
7.
Vernon, Texas
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Vernon is a city in Wilbarger County, Texas, United States. It is the county seat, and as of the 2010 Census had a population of 11,002, the original town was called Eagle Springs by the Tonkawa Indians as early as 1858. After the American Civil War, more settlers began moving in the area, post Office rejected the name, saying too many Texas towns were already called Eagle something. The town then chose the name Vernon, after George Washingtons home, an estimated seven million head of cattle passed through Vernon on the Great Western Cattle Trail between 1873 and the 1890s. The historic trail was located ninety miles west of and parallel to the better-known Chisholm Trail, Vernon is located at 34°09′04″N 99°17′26″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has an area of 8.1 square miles. The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers, according to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Vernon has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated Cfa on climate maps. As of the census of 2000, there were 11,660 people,4,506 households, the population density was 1,439.2 people per square mile. There were 5,166 housing units at a density of 637.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 76. 33% White,9. 65% African American,0. 69% Native American,0. 71% Asian,0. 02% Pacific Islander,10. 72% from other races, and 1. 89% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 22. 39% of the population,31. 2% of all households were made up of individuals and 16. 4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the family size was 3.07. In the city, the population was out with 26. 6% under the age of 18,10. 1% from 18 to 24,25. 2% from 25 to 44,20. 9% from 45 to 64. The median age was 36 years, for every 100 females there were 92.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.4 males, the median income for a household in the city was $28,194, and the median income for a family was $36,913. Males had an income of $25,167 versus $18,971 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,747, about 10. 2% of families and 14. 1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17. 2% of those under age 18 and 14. 6% of those age 65 or over. In 1905, the Wichita Mill and Elevator Company, owned and managed by the entrepreneur Frank Kell of Wichita Falls, kells business partner was W. O. Anderson
8.
Dalhart, Texas
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Dalhart is a city in Dallam and Hartley counties in the U. S. state of Texas, and the county seat of Dallam County. The population was 7,930 at the 2010 census, founded in 1901, Dalhart is named for its location on the border of Dallam and Hartley counties, its name is a portmanteau of the names of the two counties. The city was founded at the site of a railroad junction, Dalhart was in the center of the Dust Bowl, an area adversely affected by a long period of drought and dust storms during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Fox and his two Chinese copilots were killed when their Douglas C-52 cargo plane crashed, in 2002, the Peoples Republic of China made a bronze bust in Foxs honor and presented it to Dalhart. Dalhart is located in northwestern Texas at 36°3′39″N 102°31′7″W, according to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.8 square miles, of which 0.01 square miles, or 0. 21%, is water. Dalhart sits at the intersection of U. S. Highway 87,385, two miles south of Dalhart is Rita Blanca Canyon, site of Rita Blanca Lake State Park. Dalhart is located closer to six state capitals than to Texas capital of Austin. Dalhart experiences a climate with cool, dry winters and hot summers. Depending on the standard consulted, Dalharts climate is classified as semi-arid or steppe, the average annual rainfall of less than 16 inches strongly influences both Dalharts ecological climate and agricultural practices, especially center-pivot irrigation. In December 2015, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer voted Dalhart No.8 of the ten most conservative cities in the United States in regard to campaign contributions, other West Texas communities in the most conservative lineup are Hereford, Monahans, and Childress. In contrast, El Cerrito, California, was named the most liberal city in the nation regarding political donations, as of the 2010 Census, Dalhart had a population of 7,930 living in 2,957 housing locations. 50. 3% of the population was male, with 49. 7% being female, the census revealed that 28. 9% of the population was under the age of 18, while 12. 4% of citizens were over the age of 65. With an area of 4.78 square miles, the City of Dalhart has a density of 1659.0 persons/square mile. 10. 5% of the population identified themselves as some other race. 34. 0% of the population identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino of any race, in 2010,9. 9% of the population identified as being foreign-born, with 25. 4% of households in Dalhart speaking a primary language other than English at home. Data demonstrated that 79. 6% of residents over 25 had earned at least a High School Diploma, over the 4-year period between 2007-2011, the median household income was $53,210, with a larger mean household income of $69,190. The median per-capita income was found to be $24,979, the census showed that 6. 4% of the population lived below the federal poverty line, and 3. 4% of the population was unemployed. 71. 1% of Dalhart residents owned a home, with the home value being $91,800
9.
Herding
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Herding is the act of bringing individual animals together into a group, maintaining the group, and moving the group from place to place—or any combination of those. Herding can refer either to the process of forming herds in the wild. While the layperson uses the term herding to describe this human intervention, most individuals involved in the term it mustering, working stock. Some animals instinctively gather together as a herd, instincts in herding dogs and trainability can be measured at noncompetitive herding tests. Dogs exhibiting basic herding instincts can be trained to aid in herding and to compete in herding, sperm whales have also been observed teaming up to herd prey in a coordinated feeding behavior. Herding is used in agriculture to manage domesticated animals, herding can be performed by people or trained animals such as herding dogs that control the movement of livestock under the direction of a person. The people whose occupation it is to herd or control animals often have added to the name of the animal they are herding to describe their occupation. A competitive sport has developed in countries where the combined skill of man. Animals such as sheep, camel, yak, and goats are mostly reared and they provide milk, meat and other products to the herders and their families
10.
Jew's harp
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The tongue/reed is placed in the performers mouth and plucked with the finger to produce a note. Jews harps may be categorized as idioglot or heteroglot, the shape of the frame, by the number of tines, the frame is held firmly against the performers parted teeth or lips, using the jaw and mouth as a resonator, greatly increasing the volume of the instrument. The volume of the note can be varied by breathing in, according to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, The vibrations of the steel tongue produce a compound sound composed of a fundamental and its harmonics. By using the cavity of the mouth as a resonator, each harmonic in succession can be isolated and reinforced, the lower harmonics of the series cannot be obtained, owing to the limited capacity of the resonating cavity. The black notes on the show the scale which may be produced by using two harps, one tuned a fourth above the other. The player on the Jews harp, in order to isolate the harmonics and this instrument is considered to be one of the oldest musical instruments in the world, a musician apparently playing it can be seen in a Chinese drawing from the 4th century BC. Despite its common English name, and the sometimes used Jews trump and this instrument is native to Asia and used in all tribes of Turkic peoples in Asia, among whom it is variously referred to as a temir komuz, agiz komuzu, gubuz or doromb. When the tongue is made to vibrate, a buzzing is heard which imitates that of bees, wasps, several Jews harps of various sizes, a curious harmony is produced. The instrument is known in different cultures by many different names. The common English name Jews harp is considered controversial or potentially misleading. Since trances are facilitated by droning sounds, the Jews harp has been associated with magic and has been an instrument in shamanic rituals. The temir komuz is made of iron usually with a length of 100–200 mm, the range of the instrument varies with the size of the instrument, but generally hovers around an octave span. The Kyrgyz people are proficient on the temir komuz instrument and it is quite popular among children. There is a National Artist of Kyrgyz Republic who performs on the instrument, one time twenty Kirgiz girls played in a temir komuz ensemble on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. Temir komuz pieces were notated by Zataevich in two or three parts, apparently an octave drone is possible, or even an ostinato alternating the fifth step of a scale with an octave. There are many theories for the origin of the name Jews harp, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, this name appears earliest in Walter Raleighs Discouerie Guiana in 1596, spelled Iewes Harp. The jaw variant is attested at least as early as 1774 and 1809 and it has also been suggested that the name derives from the French Jeu-trompe meaning toy-trumpet. But theories that the name is a corruption of jaws or jeu are described by the OED as baseless, the OED says that, More or less satisfactory reasons may be conjectured, e. g
11.
Classical music
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Classical music is art music produced or rooted in the traditions of Western music, including both liturgical and secular music. The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common-practice period, Western staff notation is used by composers to indicate to the performer the pitches, tempo, meter and rhythms for a piece of music. This can leave less room for such as improvisation and ad libitum ornamentation. The term classical music did not appear until the early 19th century, the earliest reference to classical music recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is from about 1836. This score typically determines details of rhythm, pitch, and, the written quality of the music has enabled a high level of complexity within them, J. S. The use of written notation also preserves a record of the works, Musical notation enables 2000s-era performers to sing a choral work from the 1300s Renaissance era or a 1700s Baroque concerto with many of the features of the music being reproduced. That said, the score does not provide complete and exact instructions on how to perform a historical work, even if the tempo is written with an Italian instruction, we do not know exactly how fast the piece should be played. Bach was particularly noted for his complex improvisations, during the Classical era, the composer-performer Mozart was noted for his ability to improvise melodies in different styles. During the Classical era, some virtuoso soloists would improvise the cadenza sections of a concerto, during the Romantic era, Beethoven would improvise at the piano. The instruments currently used in most classical music were largely invented before the mid-19th century and they consist of the instruments found in an orchestra or in a concert band, together with several other solo instruments. The symphony orchestra is the most widely known medium for music and includes members of the string, woodwind, brass. The concert band consists of members of the woodwind, brass and it generally has a larger variety and number of woodwind and brass instruments than the orchestra but does not have a string section. However, many bands use a double bass. Many of the used to perform medieval music still exist. Medieval instruments included the flute, the recorder and plucked string instruments like the lute. As well, early versions of the organ, fiddle, Medieval instruments in Europe had most commonly been used singly, often self accompanied with a drone note, or occasionally in parts. From at least as early as the 13th century through the 15th century there was a division of instruments into haut, during the earlier medieval period, the vocal music from the liturgical genre, predominantly Gregorian chant, was monophonic, using a single, unaccompanied vocal melody line. Polyphonic vocal genres, which used multiple independent vocal melodies, began to develop during the medieval era, becoming prevalent by the later 13th
12.
Madama Butterfly
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Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. The original version of the opera, in two acts, had its premiere on 17 February 1904 at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Puccini revised the opera, splitting Act II into two and making other changes. Success ensued, starting with the first performance on 28 May 1904 in Brescia, Madama Butterfly is a staple of the operatic repertoire around the world, ranked 6th by Operabase, Puccinis La bohème and Tosca rank 3rd and 5th. Puccini wrote five versions of the opera, the original two-act version, which was presented at the world premiere at La Scala on 17 February 1904, was withdrawn after the disastrous premiere. Puccini then substantially rewrote it, this time in three acts and this second version was performed on 28 May 1904 in Brescia, where it was a great success. It was this version that premiered in the United States in 1906, first in Washington, D. C. in October. In 1906, Puccini wrote a version, which was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In 1907, Puccini made several changes in the orchestral and vocal scores, and this became the fourth version, which was performed in Paris. In 1907, Puccini made his final revisions to the opera in a fifth version, however, the original 1904 version is occasionally performed, such as for the opening of La Scalas season on 7 December 2016, with Riccardo Chailly conducting. The first performance in New York took place on 12 November of the year at the Garden Theatre. Three years later, the first Australian performance was presented at the Theatre Royal in Sydney on 26 March 1910, between 1915 and 1920, Japans best-known opera singer Tamaki Miura won international fame for her performances as Cio-Cio-san. A memorial to this singer, along one to Puccini, can be found in the Glover Garden in the port city of Nagasaki. In 1904, a U. S. Naval officer named Pinkerton rents a house on a hill in Nagasaki, Japan, for himself and his soon-to-be wife, Butterfly. She is a 15-year-old Japanese girl whom he is marrying for convenience, since he intends to leave her once he finds a proper American wife, the wedding is to take place at the house. Butterfly had been so excited to marry an American that she had secretly converted to Christianity. Pinkerton and Butterfly sing a duet and prepare to spend their first night together. Three years later, Butterfly is still waiting for Pinkerton to return and her maid Suzuki keeps trying to convince her that he is not coming back, but Butterfly will not listen to her. Goro, the broker who arranged her marriage, keeps trying to marry her off again
13.
H.M.S. Pinafore
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Pinafore, or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, Pinafore was Gilbert and Sullivans fourth operatic collaboration and their first international sensation. The story takes place aboard the ship HMS Pinafore, the captains daughter, Josephine, is in love with a lower-class sailor, Ralph Rackstraw, although her father intends her to marry Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty. She abides by her fathers wishes at first, but Sir Josephs advocacy of the equality of humankind encourages Ralph and they declare their love for each other and eventually plan to elope. The captain discovers this plan, but, as in many of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, drawing on several of his earlier Bab Ballad poems, Gilbert imbued this plot with mirth and silliness. The operas humour focuses on love between members of different social classes and lampoons the British class system in general, Pinafore also pokes good-natured fun at patriotism, party politics, the Royal Navy, and the rise of unqualified people to positions of authority. The title of the piece comically applies the name of a garment for girls and women, pinafores extraordinary popularity in Britain, America and elsewhere was followed by the similar success of a series of Gilbert and Sullivan works, including The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. Their works, later known as the Savoy operas, dominated the stage on both sides of the Atlantic for more than a decade and continue to be performed today. The structure and style of these operas, particularly Pinafore, were copied and contributed significantly to the development of modern musical theatre. In 1875, Richard DOyly Carte, who was managing the Royalty Theatre for Selina Dolaro, brought Gilbert and Sullivan together to write their second show. With this theatre company, Carte finally had the resources, after many failed attempts, to produce a new full-length Gilbert. This next opera was The Sorcerer, which opened in November 1877 and it too was successful, running for 178 performances. Sheet music from the show well, and street musicians played the melodies. Instead of writing a piece for production by a proprietor, as was usual in Victorian theatres, Gilbert, Sullivan. They were therefore able to choose their own cast of performers and they then tailored their work to the particular abilities of these performers. For until then no living soul had seen upon the stage such weird, eccentric, conjured into existence a hitherto unknown comic world of sheer delight. The success of The Sorcerer paved the way for another collaboration by Gilbert, Carte agreed on terms for a new opera with the Comedy Opera Company, and Gilbert began work on H. M. S. Pinafore before the end of 1877, Gilberts father had been a naval surgeon, and the nautical theme of the opera appealed to him
14.
Thomas Edison
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Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman, who has been described as Americas greatest inventor. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Edison was an inventor, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France. Edisons inventions contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications and these included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures. His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his career as a telegraph operator. Edison developed a system of generation and distribution to homes, businesses. His first power station was on Pearl Street in Manhattan, New York, Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. and Nancy Matthews Elliott. His father, the son of a Loyalist refugee, had moved as a boy with the family from Nova Scotia, settling in southwestern Ontario, in a known as Shewsbury, later Vienna. Samuel Jr. eventually fled Ontario because he took part in the unsuccessful Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837 and his father, Samuel Sr. had earlier fought in the War of 1812 as captain of the First Middlesex Regiment. By contrast, Samuel Jr. s struggle found him on the losing side, once across the border, he found his way to Milan, Ohio. His patrilineal family line was Dutch by way of New Jersey and his mother taught him at home. Much of his education came from reading R. G, parkers School of Natural Philosophy and The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Edison developed hearing problems at an early age, the cause of his deafness has been attributed to a bout of scarlet fever during childhood and recurring untreated middle-ear infections. In his later years, he modified the story to say the injury occurred when the conductor, in helping him onto a moving train, Edisons family moved to Port Huron, Michigan, after the railroad bypassed Milan in 1854 and business declined. Edison sold candy and newspapers on trains running from Port Huron to Detroit and he briefly worked as a telegraph operator in 1863 for the Grand Trunk Railway at Stratford, Ontario railway at age 16. He was held responsible for a near collision and he also studied qualitative analysis and conducted chemical experiments on the train until he left the job. Edison obtained the right to sell newspapers on the road, and, with the aid of four assistants, he set in type and printed the Grand Trunk Herald
15.
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
16.
Grey Gull Records
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Grey Gull Records was a record company and label founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1919. The company was started by Theodore Lyman Shaw, a member of a wealthy and prominent family from Wellesley, Theodore Lyman Shaw was involved in a number of business projects, including the Marcus Lucius Quinn School of Music in Dorchester. He also operated an advertising business, according to the Massachusetts Department of Corporation and Taxation, Grey Gull was officially incorporated on 31 December 1919 and dissolved on 31 March 1934. The original location of Grey Gull Records was 295 Huntington Avenue in Boston but city directories show that by 1923 the companys offices were in South Boston, at 135 Dorchester Avenue. Their small grooves were to be played with a needle or stylus, most offered more than one selection per side. They were quickly phased out by 1920, to be replaced by the more common lateral-cut records, the lateral discs bore catalog numbers prefixed with L and initially sold for the same high price. These records were recorded in Boston, where the company and Mr. Shaw were located, a practice continued in 1926. A New York Times mention on 24 April 1926, p.31 said Grey Gull had leased offices on the floor of 20 East 42nd Street in Manhattan. An announcement of the move also appeared in the trade publication Talking Machine World on 15 July 1926, by 1922, Grey Gull records were priced at 55 cents each. Shaw placed a series of ads, publicizing this price. Shaw introduced a method of selling records that would become standard in the music industry, the racks are mentioned in some of the ads Shaw placed, and Grey Gull Records became associated with them. A good example of Shaws strategy of placing the racks in a variety of locations can be seen in an ad for Ruths Drug Store in Elyria. The druggist, Dr. Robert J. Ruth, offered to demonstrate the records to those who came into his store, with the drop in price came a drop in quality. Grey Gull had also introduced its Radiex Records label, and it too offered low-priced records.35, Grey Gull used primarily their own recordings during 1922 and 1923, although some were leased from other companies such as Plaza, Emerson Records, and the New York Recording Laboratories. Some sides emanate from unknown sources, including one which is probably from Black Swan Records, from late 1923 until early 1926, Grey Gull seems to have used material recorded by Emerson, carrying control numbers in a 3xxx series instead of Emersons own 4xxxx numbers. At the same time, Grey Gull began the practice of using B sides credited to house composers, further, Grey Gull was still using some out-sourced sides, which bore control numbers with a letter prefix indicating the source company. Around 1924, Grey Gull augmented its existing catalog-number series with a 4xxx series used for standard material and this series is difficult to document. The initial issues drew from existing recordings made by companies
17.
Arthur Fields
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Arthur Fields was an American singer and songwriter. He was born Abraham Finkelstein in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but grew up mainly in Utica and he became a professional singer as a youngster. Around 1908, he toured with Guy Brothers Minstrel Show, and helped form a vaudeville act Weston, Fields and his first hit as a songwriter was On the Mississippi, which he wrote the music for with Harry Carroll and Ballard MacDonald supplied the lyrics. In 1914 he wrote the lyrics to Aba Daba Honeymoon, which was revived for the 1950 M. G. M, film Two Weeks With Love and thus got a renewed popularity which brought Fields large royalty incomes during his last two years. From 1914 onward, he recorded with bands and for many labels and had a varied career in the recording industry. In 1918, he was popular for his performance of his Hunting the Hun war song and his 1919 recordings with bandleader Ford Dabney may be the very first recordings of a white singer backed by a black band. For a period Fields also formed a trio with brothers Jack and Irving Kaufman. Fields also often appeared on records under pseudonyms, for example as Mr X. on Grey Gull Records, in 1926 he recorded with Oreste Migliaccio & His Queensland Orchestra. His last records were made in the early 1940s, hall and Fields also broadcast together as Rex Coles Mountaineers. Retiring to Florida in 1946 he also worked in radio on WKAT Miami and he suffered a stroke early in 1953 and was killed in a fire at Littlefield Nursing Home in Largo, Florida a little later the same year. Hunting the Hun Oh. org Arthur Fields cylinder recordings, from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Video on YouTube Video on YouTube
18.
Wreck of the Old 97
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The wreck inspired a famous railroad ballad, which was the focus of a convoluted copyright lawsuit but became seminal in the genre of country music. The Fast Mail had a reputation for never being late, Locomotive 1102, a ten-wheeler 4-6-0 engine built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, had rolled out of the factory in early 1903, less than a year before the wreck. On the day of the accident, Old 97 was behind schedule when it left Washington, DC, when the train arrived in Monroe the train crew was switched, and when it left Monroe, there were 17 people on board. The train personnel included Joseph A. Broady dubbed Steve by his friends, John Blair, A. C. Clapp, John Hodge sometimes known as Dodge in other documents, and James Robert Moody. When the train pulled into Lynchburg, Virginia, Wentworth Armistead, at Monroe, Broady was instructed to get the Fast Mail to Spencer,166 miles distant, on time. The scheduled running time from Monroe to Spencer was four hours, in order to make up the one hour delay, the trains average speed would have to be at least 51 mph. Broady was ordered to speed through Franklin Junction, an intermediate stop normally made during the run. The route between Monroe and Spencer ran through rolling terrain, and there were numerous danger points due to the combination of grades, signs were posted to warn engineers to watch their speed. However, in his quest to stay on time, engineer Broady rapidly descended a heavy grade that ended at the 45-foot-high Stillhouse Trestle, which spanned Stillhouse Branch. He was unable to reduce speed as he approached the curve leading into the trestle, causing the entire train to derail. The flames that erupted afterwards consumed the splintered debris of the wooden cars, the investigation that followed was greatly hampered by the fire and the few witnesses to the incident. Of the eleven men who died, nine were immediately killed, among the deceased were the conductor Blair, engineer Broady and flagman Moody. The bodies of both firemen were recovered, but they were mangled so badly they were unrecognizable, there were several survivors of the wreck who believed they stayed alive because they jumped from the train just before the fatal plunge. Among the three survivors was J. Harris Thompson of Lexington, Harris was a mail clerk who served on the Southern Railroad. W. R. Pinckney, the messenger, who also survived, went home to Charlotte, North Carolina. Two other survivors were Jennings J. Dunlap, and M. C and they did not resign, although they started in new departments. Dunlap went to work on a train ran between Washington and Charlotte, while Maupin worked at the Charlotte union station. Only a fraction of the mail had survived, including a case filled with canaries that managed to escape
19.
Ballad
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A ballad /ˈbæləd/ is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French chanson balladée or ballade, which were originally danced songs, Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of the British Isles from the later medieval period until the 19th century. They were widely used across Europe, and later in the Americas, Australia, Ballads are 13 lines with an ABABBCBC form, consisting of couplets of rhymed verse, each of 14 syllables. Many ballads were written and sold as single sheet broadsides, the form was often used by poets and composers from the 18th century onwards to produce lyrical ballads. In the later 19th century, the took on the meaning of a slow form of popular love song and is now often used for any love song. The ballad derives its name from medieval French dance songs or ballares, from which ballet is also derived, as a narrative song, their theme and function may originate from Scandinavian and Germanic traditions of storytelling that can be seen in poems such as Beowulf. Musically they were influenced by the Minnesinger, the earliest example of a recognizable ballad in form in England is Judas in a 13th-century manuscript. This means that the two words, ballad and ballet, are derived from the French language. Ballads were originally written to accompany dances, and so were composed in couplets with refrains in alternate lines and these refrains would have been sung by the dancers in time with the dance. Most northern and west European ballads are written in ballad stanzas or quatrains of alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, known as ballad meter. Usually, only the second and fourth line of a quatrain are rhymed, there is considerable variation on this pattern in almost every respect, including length, number of lines and rhyming scheme, making the strict definition of a ballad extremely difficult. Ballads usually use the dialect of the people and are heavily influenced by the region in which they originate. Scottish ballads in particular are distinctively un-English, even showing some pre-Christian influences in the inclusion of elements such as the fairies in the Scottish ballad Tam Lin. The ballads do not have any known author or correct version, instead, having passed down mainly by oral tradition since the Middle Ages. The ballads remained a tradition until the increased interest in folk songs in the 18th century led collectors such as Bishop Thomas Percy to publish volumes of popular ballads. In all traditions most ballads are narrative in nature, with a story, often concise, and rely on imagery, rather than description. Themes concerning rural laborers and their sexuality are common, and there are many ballads based on the Robin Hood legend. Another common feature of ballads is repetition, sometimes of fourth lines in succeeding stanzas, as a refrain, sometimes of third and fourth lines of a stanza and sometimes of entire stanzas
20.
Danville, Virginia
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Danville is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 43,055 and it is bounded by Pittsylvania County, Virginia and Caswell County, North Carolina. It hosts the Danville Braves baseball club of the Appalachian League, Danville is the principal city of the Danville, Virginia Micropolitan Statistical Area. Numerous Native American tribes had lived in part of the Piedmont region since prehistoric times. During the colonial period, the area was inhabited by Siouan language-speaking tribes, in 1728, English colonist William Byrd headed an expedition sent to determine the true boundary between Virginia and North Carolina. The river along which he camped was named the Dan, for Byrd, supposing himself to be in the land of plenty, the first European-American settlement developed in 1792 downstream from Byrds campsite, at a spot along the river shallow enough to allow fording. It was named Wynnes Falls, after the first settler, the village had a social reason for its origin, growing from the meetings of pioneering Revolutionary War veterans, who gathered annually to fish and talk over old times. The village was renamed Danville by act of the Virginia Legislature on November 23,1793, a charter for the town was drawn up February 17,1830, but by the time of its issue, the population had exceeded the pre-arranged boundaries. This necessitated a new charter, which was issued in 1833, in that year, James Lanier was elected the first mayor, assisted by a council of twelve fit and able men. By the mid-19th century, William T. Sutherlin, a planter and entrepreneur, was the first to apply power to run a tobacco press. Several railroads reached Danville including the Richmond and Danville Railroad, the Atlantic and Danville Railway, enabling the export of Danvilles manufacturing, due to the falls on the river, the area was prime for industrial development based on water power. On July 22,1882, six of Danvilles citizens founded the Riverside Cotton Mills, in its day it was known nationally as Dan River Inc. the largest single-unit textile mill in the world. The mill is now closed, since the late 20th century, many of Dan Rivers buildings have been torn down and the bricks sold. The White Mill, considered historically and architecturally significant, is being renovated in the early 21st century as an apartment complex, on September 9,1882, Danville mayor John H. Johnston shot and killed John E. Hatcher, his chief of police. Hatcher had demanded an apology for a statement Johnston had made regarding unaccounted fine money, Johnston was charged with murder, but he was acquitted at trial, as the Southern culture of honor was still strong. A dramatic train wreck occurred in Danville, on September 27,1903, Old 97, the Southern Railways crack express mail train, was running behind schedule. Its engineer gave her full throttle, but the speed of the train caused it to jump the tracks on a trestle crossing the valley of the Dan. The engine and five cars plunged into the ravine below, killing nine, the locomotive and its engineer, Joseph A. Broadey, were memorialized in song
21.
Victor Talking Machine Company
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The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American flagship record company headquartered in Camden, New Jersey. The company was founded by Eldridge R. Johnson, who had previously made gramophones to play Emile Berliners disc records, Victor Talking Machine Co. was incorporated officially in 1901 shortly before agreeing to allow Columbia Records use of its disc record patent. Victor had acquired the Pan-American rights to use the trademark of the fox terrier Nipper listening to a gramophone when Berliner. Barraud noticed that whenever he played a recorded by his brother. Barrauds original depicts Nipper staring intently into the horn of an Edison-Bell while both sit on a wooden surface. The London branch was managed by an American, William Barry Owen, Barraud paid a visit with a photograph of the painting and asked to borrow a horn. Owen gave Barraud an entire gramophone and asked him to paint it into the picture, the original painting still shows the contours of the Edison-Bell phonograph beneath the paint of the gramophone when viewed in the correct light. Only 13 originally commissioned His Masters Voice paintings were commissioned by the company, in 1915, the His Masters Voice logo was rendered in immense circular leaded-glass windows in the tower of the Victrola factory building. The tower remains today with replica windows installed during Radio Corporation of Americas ownership of the plant in its later years, today, one of the original windows is located at the Smithsonian museum in Washington, D. C. There are different accounts as to how the Victor name came about, a second account is that Johnson emerged as the Victor from the lengthy and costly patent litigations involving Berliner and Frank Seamans Zonophone. A third story is that Johnsons partner, Leon Douglass, derived the word from his wifes name Victoria, finally, a fourth story is that Johnson took the name from the popular Victor bicycle, which he had admired for its superior engineering. Of these four accounts the first two are the most generally accepted, perhaps coincidentally, the first use of the Victor title on a letterhead, on March 28,1901, was only nine weeks after the death of British Queen Victoria. Before 1925, recording was done by the purely mechanical. No microphone was involved and there was no means of amplification, the recording machine was essentially an exposed-horn acoustical record player functioning in reverse. The sound-vibrated center of the diaphragm was linked to a stylus that was guided across the surface of a very thick wax disc. The wax was too soft to be played back even once without seriously damaging it, although test recordings were sometimes made, although sound quality was gradually improved by a series of small refinements, the process was inherently insensitive. From the start, Victor innovated manufacturing processes and soon rose to preeminence by recording famous performers, in 1903, it instituted a three-step mother-stamper process to produce more stampers and records than previously possible. These new celebrity recordings bore red labels, and were marketed as Red Seal records, for many years these records were single-sided, only in 1923 did Victor begin offering Red Seals in double-sided form
22.
Music recording sales certification
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Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies. The threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory, almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories, which are named after precious materials. The number of sales or shipments required for these awards depends upon the population of the territory in which the recording is released, typically, they are awarded only to international releases and are awarded individually for each country in which the album is sold. Different sales levels, some perhaps 10 times lower than others, the original gold record awards were presented to artists by their own record companies to publicize their sales achievements. The first of these was awarded by RCA Victor to Glenn Miller and His Orchestra in February 1942, another example of a company award is the gold record awarded to Elvis Presley in 1956 for one million units sold of his single Dont Be Cruel. The first gold record for an LP was awarded by RCA Victor to Harry Belafonte in 1957 for the album Calypso and these sales were restricted to U. S. -based record companies and did not include exports to other countries. For albums in 1968, this would mean shipping approximately 250,000 units, the platinum certification was introduced in 1976 for the sale of one million units, album or single, with the gold certification redefined to mean sales of 500,000 units, album or single. No album was certified platinum prior to this year, for instance, the recording by Van Cliburn of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto from 1958 would eventually be awarded a platinum citation, but this would not happen until two decades after its release. In 1999, the certification was introduced for sales of ten million units. On 14 March 1958, the RIAA certified its first gold record, soundtrack was certified as the first gold album four months later. In 1976, RIAA introduced the platinum certification, first awarded to Johnnie Taylors single, Disco Lady, as music sales increased with the introduction of compact discs, the RIAA created the Multi-Platinum award in 1984. Diamond awards, honoring those artists whose sales of singles or albums reached 10,000,000 copies, were introduced in 1999 and this became much less common once the majority of retail sales became paid digital downloads and digital streaming. In most countries certifications no longer apply solely to physical media, in June 2006, the RIAA also certified the ringtone downloads of songs. Streaming from on-demand services such as Rhapsody and Spotify has been included into existing digital certification in the U. S since 2013, in the U. S. and Germany video streaming services like YouTube, VEVO, and Yahoo. Music also began to be counted towards the certification, in both cases using the formula of 100 streams being equivalent to one download, other countries, such as Denmark and Spain, maintain separate awards for digital download singles and streaming. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry was founded in 1996, and grants the IFPI Platinum Europe Award for album sales over one million within Europe, multi-platinum Europe Awards are presented for sales in subsequent multiples of one million. Eligibility is unaffected by time, and is not restricted to European-based artists, IMPALA sales awards were launched in 2005 as the first sales awards recognising that success on a pan-European basis begins well before sales reach one million. The award levels are Silver, Double Silver, Gold, Double Gold, Diamond, Platinum, below are certification thresholds for the United States and United Kingdom
23.
Recording Industry Association of America
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The Recording Industry Association of America is a continental North and South American trade organization that represents the recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors, which the RIAA says create, the RIAA headquarters is in Washington, D. C. The RIAA was formed in 1952 and its original mission was to administer recording copyright fees and problems, work with trade unions, and do research relating to the record industry and government regulations. Early RIAA standards included the RIAA equalization curve, the format of the record groove and the dimensions of 33 1/3 rpm,45 rpm. Since 2001, the RIAA has spent $2 to $6 million each year on lobbying in the United States, the RIAA also participates in the collective rights management of sound recordings, and it is responsible for certifying Gold and Platinum albums and singles in the United States. Cary Sherman has been the RIAAs chairman and CEO since 2011, Sherman joined the RIAA as its general counsel in 1997 and became president of the board of directors in 2001, serving in that position until being made chairman and CEO. Mitch Glazier has been the RIAAs senior executive vice president since 2011 and he served as executive vice president for public policy and industry relations from 2000 to 2011. The past RIAA chairman and CEO is Mitch Bainwol, who served from 2003 to 2011 and he left in 2011 to become president and CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. The board of directors consists of 26 members of the board, the RIAA operates an award program for albums that sell a large number of copies. The program originally began in 1958, with a Gold Award for singles, the criterion was changed in 1975 to the number of copies sold, with albums selling 500,000 copies awarded the Gold Award. In 1976, a Platinum Award was added for one million sales, the awards are open to both RIAA members and non-members. Since 2000, the RIAA also operates a program for Latin music sales. Currently, a Disco De Oro is awarded for 30,000 units, the RIAA defines Latin music as a type of release with 51% or more of its content recorded in Spanish. In 2006, digital ringtones were added to branch of certification. In the same year, the RIAA introduced the Latin Digital Award for digital recordings in Spanish and this release format includes DVD and VHS releases, and certain live albums and compilation albums. The certification criteria is different from other styles. Gold,50,000 Platinum,100,000 Multi-Platinum,200,000 copies The RIAA opposes unauthorized sharing of its music, studies conducted since the association began its campaign against peer-to-peer file-sharing have concluded that losses incurred per download range from negligible to moderate. The association has commenced high-profile lawsuits against file sharing service providers and it has also commenced a series of lawsuits against individuals suspected of file sharing, notably college students and parents of file sharing children
24.
Billboard (magazine)
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Billboard is an American entertainment media brand owned by the Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group, a division of Eldridge Industries. It publishes pieces involving news, video, opinion, reviews, events and it is also known for its music charts, including the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200, tracking the most popular singles and albums in different genres. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm, and operates several TV shows, Billboard was founded in 1894 by William Donaldson and James Hennegan as a trade publication for bill posters. Donaldson later acquired Hennegens interest in 1900 for $500, in the 1900s, it covered the entertainment industry, such as circuses, fairs and burlesque shows. It also created a service for travelling entertainers. Billboard began focusing more on the industry as the jukebox, phonograph. Many topics it covered were spun-off into different magazines, including Amusement Business in 1961 to cover outdoor entertainment so that it could focus on music. After Donaldson died in 1925, Billboard was passed down to his children and Hennegans children, until it was sold to investors in 1985. The first issue of Billboard was published in Cincinnati, Ohio, on November 1,1894 by William Donaldson, initially, it covered the advertising and bill posting industry and was called Billboard Advertising. At the time, billboards, posters and paper advertisements placed in public spaces were the means of advertising. Donaldson handled editorial and advertising, while Hennegan, who owned Hennegan Printing Co. managed magazine production, the first issues were just eight pages long. The paper had columns like The Bill Room Gossip and The Indefatigable, a department for agricultural fairs was established in 1896. The title was changed to The Billboard in 1897, after a brief departure over editorial differences, Donaldson purchased Hennegans interest in the business in 1900 for $500, to save it from bankruptcy. That May, Donaldson changed it from a monthly to a paper with a greater emphasis on breaking news. He improved editorial quality and opened new offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, London and he also re-focused the magazine on outdoor entertainment like fairs, carnivals, circuses, vaudeville and burlesque shows. A section devoted to circuses was introduced in 1900, followed by more prominent coverage of events in 1901. Billboard also covered topics including regulation, a lack of professionalism, economics and it had a stage gossip column covering the private lives of entertainers, a tent show section covering traveling shows and a sub-section called Freaks to order. According to The Seattle Times, Donaldson also published articles attacking censorship, praising productions exhibiting good taste
25.
Jimmie Rodgers (country singer)
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James Charles Jimmie Rodgers was an American country singer in the early 20th century, known most widely for his rhythmic yodeling. Among the first country music superstars and pioneers, Rodgers was also known as The Singing Brakeman, The Blue Yodeler, and The Father of Country Music. In the 1900 Census for Daleville, Lauderdale County, Mississippi, Jimmies mother, Eliza Rodgers, was listed as already having had seven children, Jimmie was next to the youngest at that time, and was probably born sixth of the total of seven children. He eventually returned home to live with his father, Aaron Rodgers, a foreman on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. Rodgers affinity for entertaining came at an age, and the lure of the road was irresistible to him. By age 13, he had organized and begun traveling shows. His father found Rodgers his first job working on the railroad as a water boy, here he was further taught to pick and strum by rail workers and hobos. As a water boy, he would have exposed to the work chants of the African American railroad workers known as gandy dancers. In 1924 at age 27, Rodgers contracted tuberculosis, the disease temporarily ended his railroad career, but at the same time gave him the chance to get back to the entertainment industry. He organized a traveling show and performed across the Southeastern United States until, once again. He returned to work as a brakeman in Miami, Florida. He relocated to Tucson, Arizona, and was employed as a switchman by the Southern Pacific Railroad and he kept the job for less than a year, and the Rodgers family settled back in Meridian in early 1927. Rodgers decided to travel to Asheville, North Carolina, later that same year, on April 18,1927, at 9,30 pm, Jimmie, and Otis Kuykendall, performed for the first time on WWNC, Ashevilles first radio station. A few months later, Rodgers recruited a group from Bristol, Tennessee, called the Tenneva Ramblers, in late July 1927, Rodgers bandmates learned that Ralph Peer, a representative of the Victor Talking Machine Company, was coming to Bristol to hold an audition for local musicians. Rodgers and the group arrived in Bristol on August 3,1927, Peer agreed to record them the next day. As the band discussed how they would be billed on the record, an argument ensued, the broke up. However, in an interview, Claude Grant of the Tenneva Ramblers gave a totally different reason for the bands breakup. Rodgers had taken some guitars on consignment and he sold them but did not pay back the music stores which supplied the guitars
26.
Carter Family
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The Carter Family was a traditional American folk music group that recorded between 1927 and 1956. Their music had a impact on bluegrass, country, Southern Gospel, pop. They were the first vocal group to become music stars. Their recordings of such as Wabash Cannonball, Can the Circle Be Unbroken, Wildwood Flower, Keep On the Sunny Side. The original group consisted of Alvin Pleasant A. P. Delaney Carter, his wife Sara Dougherty Carter, Maybelle was married to A. P. s brother Ezra Carter, and was also Saras first cousin. All three were born and raised in southwestern Virginia, where they were immersed in the harmonies of mountain gospel music. Maybelles distinctive guitar playing became a hallmark of the group. The Carter Family made their first recordings on August 1,1927, a. P. had persuaded Sara and Maybelle the day before to make the journey from Maces Spring, Virginia, to Bristol, Tennessee, to audition for record producer Ralph Peer. Peer was seeking new talents for the relatively embryonic recording industry, the initial sessions are part of what are now called the Bristol Sessions. The band received $50 for each song recorded, plus half a cent royalty on every copy sold of each song for which they had registered a copyright. On November 4,1927, the Victor Talking Machine Company released a double-sided 78 rpm record of the group performing Wandering Boy, on December 2,1928, Victor released The Storms Are on the Ocean / Single Girl, Married Girl, which became very popular. By the end of 1930 they had sold 300,000 records in the United States. Realizing that he would benefit financially with each new song he collected and copyrighted, A. P. traveled around the southwestern Virginia area in search of new songs, in the early 1930s, he befriended Lesley Esley Riddle, a black guitar player from Kingsport, Tennessee. Lesley accompanied A. P. on his song-collecting trips, in June 1931, the Carters did a recording session in Benton, Kentucky, along with Jimmie Rodgers. In 1933, Maybelle met the Speer family at a fair in Ceredo, West Virginia and she asked them to tour with the Carter Family. In the winter of 1938–39 the Carter Family traveled to Texas, in the fall of 1942 the Carters moved their program to WBT radio in Charlotte, North Carolina, for a one-year contract. They occupied the slot, with the program airing between 5,15 and 6,15 a. m. By 1936 A. P. and Saras marriage had dissolved, Sara married A. P. s cousin, Coy Bayes, moved to California, and the group disbanded in 1944
27.
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
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Chartered in 1964, the museum has amassed one of the world’s most extensive musical collections. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is one of the world’s largest and most active popular music research centers, through CMF, industry leaders raised money to build the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, which opened on April 1,1967. Located at the head of Music Row, the museum was erected on the site of a small Nashville city park, at this point, artifacts began to be displayed and a small library was begun in a loft above one of the museum’s galleries. At the outset, CMA staff had run the museum, but by 1972 the museum acquired its own small staff, which has steadily increased to over 150 full-time professionals. Building expansion took place in 1974,1977, and 1984 to store and display the museum’s growing collection of costumes, films, historic cars, musical instruments, and other artifacts. To become more accessible, in May 2001 the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum moved to a new,130,000 square feet facility in the heart of downtown Nashville’s arts and entertainment district. In 2014, the museum unveiled a $100 million expansion, doubling its size to 350,000 square feet of galleries, archival storage, education classrooms, retail stores, and special event space. The story is revealed through artifacts, photographs, and text panels, recorded sound, vintage video, sing Me Back Home is enhanced by numerous, rotating limited-engagement exhibits. In addition to the galleries, the museum has the 776-seat CMA Theater, the Taylor Swift Education Center, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has developed multiple platforms to make its collection accessible to a wider audience. From weekly instrument demonstrations to its flagship songwriting program for schools, Words & Music, the Country Music Hall of Fame honor was created in 1961 by the Country Music Association, the first inductees were Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, and Fred Rose. Roy Acuff, the first living artist to join the Hall of Fame, was elected in 1962, the most recent inductees are Jerry Reed, Don Schlitz and Alan Jackson. Over the Hall of Fame’s history, the number of new members inducted each year has varied from one to twelve, the election procedure is as follows, A small CMA nominating committee drafts slates of candidates from each category, categories have been defined variously over the years. Award recipients are determined through a two-stage balloting process, the first round of voting narrows each category to five candidates, the second round selects winners. The large select committee of electors that votes on Hall of Fame membership is composed of CMA members who have participated in the music industry for at least ten years. New Hall of Fame members receive special recognition in ceremonies at the Country Music Hall of Fame, today the plaques are displayed in a seventy-foot-high rotunda at the museum’s enlarged downtown Nashville facility. The museum’s archival and library storage, allows for the cultivation of the museum’s collection, hundreds of historic musical instruments, featuring Mother Maybelle Carter’s Gibson L-5, Earl Scruggs’s banjo, Bob Wills’ fiddle, and Bill Monroe’s mandolin. Oral histories, scrapbooks, correspondence, fan club newsletters, sheet music, periodicals, iconic Vehicles, Elvis Presley’s 1960 “Solid Gold” Cadillac limousine, Webb Pierce’s 1962 Pontiac Bonneville convertible, and Jerry Reed’s 1980 Pontiac Trans Am from Smokey and the Bandit II. When viewed from the air, the forms a massive bass clef
28.
Gennett Records
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Gennett was an American record company and label in Richmond, Indiana, which flourished in the 1920s. Gennett produced some of the earliest recordings of Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Bix Beiderbecke and its roster also included Jelly Roll Morton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, and Gene Autry. Gennett Records was founded in Richmond, Indiana, by the Starr Piano Company and it released its first records in October 1917. The company took its name from its top managers, Harry, Fred, earlier, the company had produced recordings under the Starr Records label. Gennett set up recording studios in New York City and later, in 1921, the sides recorded in New York are generally of about typical audio fidelity for a minor label of the time, and some masters were leased from other New York area firms. Many early religious recordings were made by Homer Rodeheaver, early shape note singers and others, Gennett issued a few early electrically recorded masters recorded in the Autograph studios of Chicago in 1925. These recordings were crude, and like many other Autograph issues are easily mistaken for acoustic masters by the casual listener. Gennett began serious electrical recording in March 1926, using a process licensed from General Electric, at this time the company also introduced an improved record biscuit which was adequate to the demands imposed by the electric recording process. The improved records were identified by a newly designed black label touting the New Electrobeam process, from 1925 to 1934, Gennett released recordings by hundreds of old-time music artists, precursors to country music, including such artists as Doc Roberts and Gene Autry. By the late 1920s, Gennett was pressing records for more than 25 labels worldwide, in 1926, Fred Gennett created Champion Records as a budget label for tunes previously released on Gennett. The Gennett Company was hit severely by the Great Depression in 1930 and it cut back on record recording and production until it was halted altogether in 1934. At this time the only product Gennett Records produced under its own name was a series of recorded sound effects for use by radio stations, in 1935 the Starr Piano Company sold some Gennett masters, and the Gennett and Champion trademarks to Decca Records. Kapp also attempted to revive the Gennett and Champion labels between 1935 and 1937 as specialists in bargain pressings of race and old-time music with but little success. The Starr record plant soldiered on under the supervision of Harry Gennett through the remainder of the decade by offering contract pressing services. For a time the Starr Piano Company was the manufacturer of Decca records. In the years remaining before World War II, Gennett did contract pressing for a number of New York-based jazz and folk music labels, including Joe Davis, Keynote and Asch. With the coming of the Second World War, the War Production Board in March 1942 declared shellac a rationed commodity, newly organized record labels were forced to purchase their shellac allocations from existing companies. Joe Davis purchased the Gennett shellac allocation, some of which he used for his own labels, brunswick Records acquired the old Gennett pressing plant for Decca
29.
The New York Times
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The New York Times is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18,1851, by The New York Times Company. The New York Times has won 119 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, the papers print version in 2013 had the second-largest circulation, behind The Wall Street Journal, and the largest circulation among the metropolitan newspapers in the US. The New York Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation, following industry trends, its weekday circulation had fallen in 2009 to fewer than one million. Nicknamed The Gray Lady, The New York Times has long been regarded within the industry as a newspaper of record. The New York Times international version, formerly the International Herald Tribune, is now called the New York Times International Edition, the papers motto, All the News Thats Fit to Print, appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. On Sunday, The New York Times is supplemented by the Sunday Review, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine and T, some other early investors of the company were Edwin B. Morgan and Edward B. We do not believe that everything in Society is either right or exactly wrong, —what is good we desire to preserve and improve, —what is evil, to exterminate. In 1852, the started a western division, The Times of California that arrived whenever a mail boat got to California. However, when local California newspapers came into prominence, the effort failed, the newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857. It dropped the hyphen in the city name in the 1890s, One of the earliest public controversies it was involved with was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials it published alone. At Newspaper Row, across from City Hall, Henry Raymond, owner and editor of The New York Times, averted the rioters with Gatling guns, in 1869, Raymond died, and George Jones took over as publisher. Tweed offered The New York Times five million dollars to not publish the story, in the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned gradually from editorially supporting Republican Party candidates to becoming more politically independent and analytical. In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in his first presidential campaign, while this move cost The New York Times readership among its more progressive and Republican readers, the paper eventually regained most of its lost ground within a few years. However, the newspaper was financially crippled by the Panic of 1893, the paper slowly acquired a reputation for even-handedness and accurate modern reporting, especially by the 1890s under the guidance of Ochs. Under Ochs guidance, continuing and expanding upon the Henry Raymond tradition, The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, in 1910, the first air delivery of The New York Times to Philadelphia began. The New York Times first trans-Atlantic delivery by air to London occurred in 1919 by dirigible, airplane Edition was sent by plane to Chicago so it could be in the hands of Republican convention delegates by evening. In the 1940s, the extended its breadth and reach. The crossword began appearing regularly in 1942, and the section in 1946
30.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
31.
University of California, Santa Barbara
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The University of California, Santa Barbara is a public research university and one of the 10 campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a 1, 022-acre site near Goleta, California, tracing its roots back to 1891 as an independent teachers college, UCSB joined the University of California system in 1944 and is the third-oldest general-education campus in the system. UCSB is one of Americas Public Ivy universities, which recognizes top public universities in the United States. The university is a doctoral university and is organized into five colleges. UCSB was ranked 37th among National Universities, 8th among U. S. public universities, the university was also ranked 48th worldwide for 2016-17 by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and 42nd worldwide by the Academic Ranking of World Universities in 2016. UC Santa Barbara is a high activity research university with twelve national research centers. UCSB was the No.3 host on the ARPAnet and was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1995, the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos compete in the Big West Conference of the NCAA Division I. The Gauchos have won NCAA national championships in soccer and mens water polo. UCSB traces its origins back to the Anna Blake School which was founded in 1891 and offered training in home economics and industrial arts. The Anna Blake School was taken over by the state in 1909 and became the Santa Barbara State Normal School, the State College system sued to stop the takeover, but the Governor did not support the suit. A state initiative was passed, however, in 1946 to stop subsequent conversions of State Colleges to University of California campuses, from 1944 to 1958 the school was known as Santa Barbara College of the University of California, before taking on its current name. When the vacated Marine Corps training station in Goleta was purchased for the growing college. Originally, the Regents envisioned a small, several thousand-student liberal arts college, chronologically, UCSB is the third general-education campus of the University of California, after Berkeley and UCLA. The original campus the Regents acquired in Santa Barbara was located on only 100 acres of largely unusable land on a seaside mesa, all of this change was done in accordance with the California Master Plan for Higher Education. In 1959, UCSB professor Douwe Stuurman hosted the English writer Aldous Huxley as the universitys first visiting professor, Huxley delivered a lectures series called The Human Situation. In the late 1960s and early 1970s UCSB became nationally known as a hotbed of anti-Vietnam War activity, a bombing at the schools faculty club in 1969 killed the caretaker, Dover Sharp. UCSBs anti-Vietnam activity impelled then Governor Ronald Reagan to impose a curfew, weapon-carrying guardsmen were a common sight on campus and in Isla Vista during this time. On May 23,2014, a killing spree occurred in Isla Vista, California, all six people killed during the rampage were students at UCSB
32.
Johnny Cash
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Johnny Cash was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, and author. He is widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century and one of the music artists of all time. Although primarily remembered as an music icon, his genre-spanning songs and sound embraced rock and roll, rockabilly, blues, folk. This crossover appeal won Cash the rare honor of multiple inductions in the Country Music, Rock and Roll and he traditionally began his concerts with the simple Hello, Im Johnny Cash, followed by his signature Folsom Prison Blues. Much of Cashs music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation and redemption and his signature songs include I Walk the Line, Folsom Prison Blues, Ring of Fire, Get Rhythm, and Man in Black. During the last stage of his career, Cash covered songs by several late 20th-century rock artists, notably Hurt by Nine Inch Nails, Cash was born on February 26,1932, in Kingsland, Arkansas, one of seven children born to Ray Cash and Carrie Cloveree. He was mostly of Scottish and English ancestry, and as an adult traced his surname to 11th-century Fife, Scotland, after meeting with the then-laird of Falkland, Fife, Cash Loch and other locations in Fife bear the name of his family. At birth, Cash was named J. R. Cash, when Cash enlisted in the United States Air Force, he was not permitted to use initials as a first name, so he changed his name to John R. Cash. In 1955, when signing with Sun Records, he took Johnny Cash as his stage name, the Cash children were, Roy, Margaret Louise, Jack, J. R. Reba, Joanne, and Tommy. Tommy Cash also became a country artist. In March 1935, when Cash was three years old, the family settled in Dyess, Arkansas and he started working in cotton fields at age five, singing along with his family while working. The family farm was flooded on at least two occasions, which inspired him to write the song Five Feet High and Rising. His familys economic and personal struggles during the Great Depression inspired many of his songs, Cash was very close to his older brother, Jack. In May 1944, Jack was pulled into a head saw in the mill where he worked and was almost cut in two. He suffered for over a week before he died on May 20,1944, Cash often spoke of the horrible guilt he felt over this incident. Jack insisted on working, as the family needed the money, on his deathbed, Jack said he had visions of Heaven and angels. Decades later, Cash spoke of looking forward to meeting his brother in Heaven, Cashs early memories were dominated by gospel music and radio. Taught guitar by his mother and a friend, Cash began playing and writing songs at the age of twelve
33.
Connie B. Gay
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Connie Barriot Gay was renowned as a founding father and major force in country music. He is credited for coining the country genre, which had previously been called hillbilly music. Gay was the president of the Country Music Association and co-founder of the Country Music Hall of Fame. The CMA established the Connie B. Gay Award to recognize outstanding service to the CMA by a member not serving on the Board of Directors, Gay was an entrepreneur who leveraged his musical insight into a profitable empire that extended his legacy into the modern era. He was responsible for discovering some of the talent that now resides in the Hall of Fame, Gay was born in Lizard Lick, North Carolina, on August 22,1914. His parents, John William Gay and Mary Etta Ferrell Gay and he was prepared to carry on the family operation after his parents retired, and most of his efforts were focused towards that end. He supplemented his income and farming knowledge through employment as an extension agent in Caswell County. However, instead of farming, Gay became a force in country music, known as a media magician. Gay graduated from North Carolina State University in 1935, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Education. He then worked a variety of including a soil surveyor, a proponent of the Rural Electrification program, even a stint as a carny. In 1938, Gay became an employee of the US government and he became a news commentator in 1941 for a recurring radio broadcast called the National Farm and Home Hour. The show was broadcast daily throughout World War II, Gay, learning media operations during those years, decided to pursue it as a vocation. In 1946 he left his government employment and ventured into the private sector, from 1946 to 1960, Connie B. Gay was a disc jockey, concert promoter, artistic talent scout/manager, owner of radio and television stations, and music executive. In 1946, Connie B. Gay persuaded Frank Blair, the manager of WARL. Gay offered to forgo a salary in exchange for a percentage of the revenue. His show, Town and Country Time, was promoted as offering a bit of town. Gay had the sense to register his programs name as a trademark. The endeavor was successful, growing to a three-hour program that was syndicated across the United States
34.
Sons of the Pioneers
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The Sons of the Pioneers are one of the United States earliest Western singing groups. Since 1933, through changes in membership, the Sons of the Pioneers have remained one of the longest-surviving country music vocal groups. He entered a singing contest on a Los Angeles radio show called Midnight Frolics. In September 1931, Canadian-born Bob Nolan answered an ad in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner that read, Yodeler for old-time act. The band was The Rocky Mountaineers, by then led by Leonard Slye, after listening to the tall, slender, tanned Nolan sing and yodel, Slye hired Nolan on the spot. Although Nolan stayed with the only a short time, he stayed in touch with Slye. Nolan was replaced by Tim Spencer, who had been working in a Safeway Stores warehouse, in the spring of 1932, Slye, Spencer, and another singer, Slumber Nichols, left the Rocky Mountaineers to form a trio, which soon failed. Throughout most of 1932, Slye and Spencer moved through a series of short-lived groups like the International Cowboys, Spencer left the O-Bar-O Cowboys and quit music for a while. Slye joined Jack LeFevre and His Texas Outlaws, who were an act on a local Los Angeles radio station. In early 1933, Slye, Nolan, and Spencer formed a group called the Pioneer Trio, the three young singers rehearsed for weeks honing their singing. While Slye continued to work with his singing group, Spencer. By early 1934, the group consisted of Leonard Slye, Bob Nolan, during that time, fiddle player Hugh Farr joined the group, adding a bass voice to the groups vocal arrangements. He also sang lead on some songs, later that year, the Pioneers Trio became the Sons of the Pioneers through a radio station announcers chance remark. Asked why hed changed their name, the said they were too young to have been pioneers. The name was received well and fit the group, who were no longer a trio and they signed a recording contract with the newly founded Decca label, and on August 8,1934, the Sons of the Pioneers made their first commercial recording. That same day, the popular crooner Bing Crosby also made his first Decca session. One of the first songs recorded by the Sons of the Pioneers during that first August session was written by Bob Nolan, Tumbling Tumbleweeds, the original title Tumbling Leaves was changed to give the song a western character. Over the next two years the group would record 32 songs for Decca and their output includes a 1937 recording of The Blue Juniata, by Marion Dix Sullivan
35.
Lefty Frizzell
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William Orville Frizzell, known as Lefty Frizzell, was an American country music singer-songwriter and honky-tonk singer. He gained prominence in 1950 after two hits, and throughout the decade was a very popular country performer. He smoothed out the edges of a honky tonk song by sounding out syllables longer. Because of this, his music become much more mainstream without losing its honky-tonk attitude, Frizzell is an influential artist in country music history. Among the artists he influenced are George Jones, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, The Everly Brothers, Keith Whitley, Merle Haggard and he laid a foundation for the many generations of country music performers that followed him. Because of this, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1982, though he started his career being influenced by other country musicians, in the 1950s Frizzell became one of country musics most well-known artists. After the death of Hank Williams in 1953, Frizzell released many songs that charted in the Top 10 of the Hot Country Songs charts and his success did not carry on into the 1960s, and after suffering from alcoholism, he died at age 47. William Orville Frizzell was born to the son of an oilman, during his childhood, his family moved to El Dorado in Union County in south Arkansas. As a child he was called Sonny, but later took the name Lefty and it is believed they called him Lefty because he had won a neighborhood fight, however it turned out that this tale was a part of a fake publicity stunt set up by his label. Frizzells largest influences included the blue yodeler Jimmie Rodgers and he began listening to Rodgers records as a boy. He began singing professionally before his teens, even earning a spot on the local radio-station KELD El Dorado, Frizzells teens were spent singing in nightclubs and radio and talent shows throughout the south. During his tour of Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, and Las Vegas, he began to draw a style of his own, shaped from artists like Rodgers, Ernest Tubb, in 1947, the 19-year old Frizzell was arrested for having sex with an underage fan. He had been married only a year, and filled with guilt, he wrote poems to his wife from his cell, after release in late 1949, he was led away from music, and back to the oil fields with his father. However, soon he was performing in nightclubs again, by 1950, he had landed a regular job at the Big Spring, Texas nightclub Ace of Clubs where he developed a dedicated fan following. During a show there, Jim Beck, owner of a recording studio, was starting to take notice of Frizzell. Beck had deals with major record producing labels and maintained connections with the many publishers. Impressed with Frizzells performance, he invited him to make a demo at the studio. However, Columbia Records producer Don Law heard the cut and liked it, after hearing Lefty in concert, he signed the singer and recorded him for the first time
36.
Marty Robbins
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Martin David Robinson, known professionally as Marty Robbins, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, multi-instrumentalist, and racing driver. Robbins was born in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix in Maricopa County and his mother was mostly of Paiute Indian heritage. Robbins was reared in a family situation. His father took odd jobs to support the family of 10 children, among his warmer memories of his childhood, Robbins recalled having listened to stories of the American West told by his maternal grandfather, Texas Bob Heckle, who was a local medicine man. Robbins left the home at 17 to serve in the United States Navy as an LCT coxswain during World War II. He was stationed in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean, to pass the time during the war, he learned to play the guitar, started writing songs, and came to love Hawaiian music. After his discharge from the military in 1947, he began to play at venues in Phoenix, then moved on to host his own show on KTYL. After Little Jimmy Dickens made a guest appearance on Robbins TV show, Robbins became known for his appearances at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1980, he appeared on the PBS music program Austin City Limits during Season 5, in addition to his recordings and performances, Robbins was an avid race car driver, competing in 35 career NASCAR Grand National races with six top-10 finishes, including the 1973 Firecracker 400. In 1967, Robbins played himself in the car racing film Hell on Wheels, Robbins was partial to Dodges prepared by NASCAR Hall-of-Famer Cotton Owens, and owned and raced Chargers and then a 1978 Dodge Magnum. He was also the driver of the 60th Indianapolis 500 Buick Century pace car in 1976 and his last race was in a Junior Johnson-built 1982 Buick Regal in the Atlanta Journal 500 on November 7,1982, a month before his death. Robbins had a history of cardiovascular disease, after his third heart attack on December 2,1982, he underwent quadruple coronary bypass surgery. He did not recover and died six days later on December 8,1982 at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville, Robbins was awarded an honorary degree by Northern Arizona University. Robbins 1957 recording of A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation sold over one million copies and his musical accomplishments include the Grammy Award for his 1959 hit and signature song El Paso, taken from his album Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs. El Paso was the first song to hit No.1 on the pop chart in the 1960s. It was followed up, successfully, by Dont Worry, which reached No.3 on the pop chart in 1961, becoming his third, El Paso was followed by one prequel and one sequel, Feleena and El Paso City. Also in 1961, Robbins wrote the words and music and recorded I Told the Brook, Robbins decided to keep it in the final version. The song reached No.1 on the chart
37.
Little Jimmy Dickens
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James Cecil Dickens, better known as Little Jimmy Dickens, was an American country music singer famous for his humorous novelty songs, his small size,411, and his rhinestone-studded outfits. He started as a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1948, before his death he was the oldest living member of the Grand Ole Opry. Born in Bolt, West Virginia, Dickens began his career in the late 1930s, performing on WJLS radio station in Beckley. He soon quit school to pursue a music career. In 1948, Dickens was heard performing on WKNX, a station in Saginaw, Michigan by Roy Acuff. Dickens signed with Columbia in September and joined the Opry in August, around this time he began using the nickname, Little Jimmy Dickens, inspired by his short stature. Dickens recorded many novelty songs for Columbia, including Country Boy, A-Sleeping at the Foot of the Bed and his song Take an Old Cold Tater inspired Hank Williams to nickname him Tater. Later, telling Jimmy he needed a hit, Williams penned Hey Good Lookin in only 20 minutes while on a plane with Dickens, Minnie Pearl, a week later Williams cut the song himself, jokingly telling Dickens, That songs too good for you. In 1950, Dickens formed the Country Boys with musicians Jabbo Arrington, Grady Martin, Bob Moore, and Thumbs Carllile. It was during this time that he discovered future Country Music Hall of Famer Marty Robbins at a Phoenix, in 1957, Dickens left the Grand Ole Opry to tour with the Philip Morris Country Music Show. In 1962, Dickens scored his first top-10 country hit since 1954 with The Violet, in 1964, Dickens became the first country artist to circle the globe while on tour, and also made numerous TV appearances, including on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. In 1965, he released his biggest hit, May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose, reaching No.1 on the country chart, in the late 1960s, Dickens left Columbia for Decca Records before moving again to United Artists in 1971. That same year, he married his wife, Mona, Dickens was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Dickens joined producers Randall Franks and Alan Autry for the In the Heat of the Night cast CD “Christmas Time’s A Comin’”, toward the end of his life, Dickens made appearances in a number of music videos by fellow country musician and West Virginia native Brad Paisley. He was also featured on several of Paisleys albums in bonus comedy tracks, along with other Opry mainstays such as George Jones and they were collectively referred to as the Kung-Pao Buckaroos. With the death of Hank Locklin in March 2009, Dickens became the oldest living member of the Grand Ole Opry at the age of 90, at the 2011 CMA Awards, Jimmy was dressed up as Justin Bieber, and made fun of Biebers then-current paternity scandal. Dickens was hospitalized after a stroke on December 25,2014 and he died of cardiac arrest on January 2,2015, at the age of 94. He is survived by his wife, Mona Dickens, who he married in 1971, after his funeral on January 8,2015 at the Grand Ole Opry House, Dickens was entombed in the Cross Mausoleum at Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Nashville
38.
The Duke of Paducah
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Benjamin Francis Ford, known professionally as The Duke of Paducah, was an American country comedian, radio host and banjo player popular from the 1940s to the 1960s. Ford was born in De Soto, Missouri, and was raised in Little Rock and he had only a third-grade education, so he joked that he came from the university of hard knocks. He enlisted in the U. S. Navy in 1918, during his Navy service he learned to play the banjo and earned his nickname Whitey Ford because of his blonde hair. After his discharge in 1922, he joined McGintys Oklahoma Cowboy Band, the group later changed its name to Otto Gray and his Oklahoma Cowboys and appeared in a few Hollywood film shorts. In 1929, Ford made his debut on WLS-AM in Chicago, in the early 1930s, while working at KWK in St. Louis, Ford took the stage name The Duke of Paducah. In 1937, he founded the Renfro Valley Barn Dance with Red Foley and John Lair More radio work followed when he became a regular on Plantation Party, from 1942–1959, Ford was a regular on the Grand Ole Opry where he became a member. He also hosted several radio shows broadcast nationally. In the mid-1950s, Ford toured with a troupe he called the Rock, on several occasions, he shared a bill with Elvis Presley. In 1958, he began hosting a morning television show, Country Junction, on WLAC-TV in Nashville. Ford ended his act with his tagline, Im goin back to the wagon, boys and he was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in February 1986. At the Country Music Hall of Fame Answers. com Traditional Country Music Radio Elvis Club Boards Radio
