(Vocals, b. 1980) Born Alicia Cook in New York, Keys has that most rare of talents – a vocal range matched by a musical ability. She has played piano from the age of seven and retains classical ambitions to this day. Her 2001 debut Songs In A Minor contained her first US No. 1, modern soul epic ‘Fallin’’, ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 2002–present) After fans posted early demos of theirs online and created a Myspace profile for them (before the band themselves were even aware of the site’s existence), Sheffield’s Arctic Monkeys – Alex Turner (vocals), Jamie Turner (guitar), Matt Helders (drums) and Andy Nicholson (bass) – saw their wryly accurate take on northern English life consumed by the public. ...
(Vocals, b. 1979) New York native Kelis Rogers has somehow retained her position at the forefront of chart R&B for over seven years – from the sharp burst of debut single ‘Caught Out There’ through to the exquisitely provocative ‘Milkshake’ and ‘Trick Me’ from 2003’s aptly named Tasty. Other notable appearances include the risqué 1999 collaboration with Ol’ Dirty Bastard ...
(Vocals, b. 1978) Usher Raymond IV, often called the ‘prince of pop’ after his 2004 Confessions album sold 1.1 million copies in the first week, is the perfect blend of pop and R&B. A singer since the age of 13, Usher made his name via singles such as ‘You Make Me Wanna’ (1997), which topped charts ...
While more and more of the mainstream is occupied by heavily manufactured and stylized rock, pop and R&B acts, the emergence of less-demonstrative artists – often from a self-financing small-scale independent background – represents a quiet form of rebellion from the pop norm. The success of mavericks such as Björk and Sinéad O’Connor in the 1990s continues to foster ...
Adele was just three years old when she attended her first live gig with her mother: a Cure concert in London’s Finsbury Park. It was the same year her father, a Welsh plumber, left her mother, practically severing all ties with his daughter in the process. After that first gig, the tot took to the music straight ...
April Tax Exile In France Spiralling finances had been threatening to catch up with the group for years, and with band members owing a six-figure tax debt each, they were advised to become exiles. So, bit-by-bit, they moved their families to France. Keith set himself up in the Nellcote villa – allegedly stealing electricity from the nearby ...
The impact of rap on the rock market was everywhere to be seen in the first years of the new millennium. White artists, black artists and rock bands attempting to incorporate the style made this area the biggest musical melting pot since the 1950s. The means by which music was accessed switched from CD to downloading from the internet, ...
May Barrett Tribute Concert The all-star tribute to Syd Barrett held at The Barbican on 10 May 2007 seemed to be a perfect opportunity for Pink Floyd to ‘shine on’ themselves in tribute to their original leading light. Sadly, although Gilmour, Wright and Mason played the right card in closing the show with ‘Arnold Layne’, joker in the pack ...
The very name, ‘Classical Era’, speaks for itself: it proclaims a period that is regarded as ‘Standard, first-class, of allowed excellence’, with manifestations that are ‘simple, harmonious, proportioned, finished’, to quote a dictionary definition. The period from 1750 to roughly 1820 is widely recognized as one of exceptional achievement in music – it is the ...
Western classical music since the seventeenth century, because it placed great emphasis on harmonic subtlety and tensions between keys, had been less interested in melodic flexibility (a maximum of 12 notes to the octave, while Indian music uses 22) and in rhythm (regular division into bars, normally of two, three, four or six beats; Indian ...
Gamelan is an orchestral tradition in Java and Bali, where every instrument – various gongs and drums – is a member of the percussion family. The tradition emphasizes respect for the instruments and cooperation between the players. In 1887, the Paris Conservatoire acquired a gamelan. In 1889, Debussy went to the Paris Exhibition, where he heard the ...
The literary movement known as Sturm und Drang (‘Storm and Stress’) takes its name from a play of 1776 by Maximilian Klinger, about the American Revolution. Confined to the German-speaking lands, although it had parallels elsewhere, it contradicted (or reacted to) much current ‘enlightened’ thinking by emphasizing the emotional, the passionate, the irrational, the terrifying. ...
In pre-Schoenberg tonal music, the ear finds its way around a composition by recognizing even quite disguised repetitions and variants and by sensing tensions between keys. Neither of these is possible in a piece of strict serial music. With a bit of practice, the ear can recognize the inversion of a phrase but not very readily a pattern of ...
Sonata form was the most important principle of musical structure during the classical period, and has remained so up to the present day. It applies most often to a single movement, part of a sonata, symphony or quartet, but an independent movement, such as an overture, may also be in sonata form. Its principles affect ...
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An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...
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Classical, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and more. Flame Tree has been making encyclopaedias and guides about music for over 20 years. Now Flame Tree Pro brings together a huge canon of carefully curated information on genres, styles, artists and instruments. It's a perfect tool for study, and entertaining too, a great companion to our music books.
David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.