(Vocal/instrumental group, 2002–09) Bloc Party – Kele Okereke (vocals), Matt Tong (drums), Russell Lissack (guitar) and Gordon Moakes (bass) – achieved massive critical acclaim for their debut, Silent Alarm (2005). The record managed to appeal to a cross section of music lovers (Okereke even guested on a Chemical Brothers’ track), but is largely remembered for its stop-start guitar anthems ...
Nels Cline (b. 1956) was born in Los Angeles. He first came to prominence in the 1980s playing jazz, often with his identical twin brother, drummer Alex Cline. Cline has worked with many notable musicians in alternative rock, including Mike Watt, Thurston Moore and Wilco, of which he became a full-time member in 2004. Cline appears ...
(Guitar, vocals, b. 1949) An interpreter of classic country blues, Block took guitar lessons from Rev. Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt and Son House before moving to California and working on the folk-blues coffeehouse circuit. She recorded for small labels before signing with Rounder Records and debuting with 1982’s High Heeled Blues. She is featured in the ...
1880–1959 Swiss-American composer Bloch studied in Belgium and Germany, and his early works are in a rich late-Romantic style that owes much to Richard Strauss; this stage culminated in his powerful opera Macbeth (1909). In the following years, he sought a language that would reflect his Jewish faith in music of fervent solemnity with Eastern colouring: the symphony with ...
(Vocal group, 1986–94) Manufactured by producer Maurice Starr, this white vocal group of Donnie Wahlberg, Jordan Knight, Jon Knight, Danny Wood and Joey McIntyre were one of the most successful American teen bands. Formed in 1986 they hit their peak between 1988 and 1990, scoring hit single after hit single with safe pop/rap/ballad numbers. There ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1992–2005, 2009–present) Kings of the snotty, toilet-humoured nu-punk genre, Blink-182 – Travis Barker (drums), Tom DeLonge (vocals) and Mark Hoppus (bass) – formed while at school, recording in their then-drummer Scott Raynor’s bedroom. Since then, they have grown older but not matured, with 2001’s ‘Rock Show’ a fine example of the band’s ...
In 1859, at a conference of musicians in Leipzig, the representatives of a musical ‘party of progress’ under the leadership of Liszt gave itself the name New German School in conscious opposition to Brahms and his followers, who were still committed to composing in the spirit of the classical style. During his sojourn in Weimar (1848–61), Liszt had ...
This unlikely opera house was the first avant-garde public arena and was funded by the Prussian Ministry of Culture. Built in 1844 by entrepreneur Josef Kroll, the theatre, with its large stage and fine acoustics, became the centrepiece for new music and production values that embraced modernity. When Otto Klemperer was appointed musical director, he approached the ...
Computer music can be defined as music that is generated by, or composed and produced by means of, a computer. The idea that computers might have a role to play in the production of music actually goes back a lot further than one might think. As early as 1843, Lady Ada Lovelace suggested in a published article that ...
Like the synthesizer, the sampler has had a huge influence on the course of electronic music. A sampler is an instrument that can record, store and replay brief sections of audio – ‘samples’. In many ways, the Mellotron might be regarded as the earliest example of a sampling instrument. However, the sampler really came into its own ...
After the devastation wrought in Europe by World War II, the urgent task of rebuilding the continent’s war-torn urban fabric demanded radical solutions. These were found in the centralized urban planning advocated before the war by architects such as Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Writing in 1953, the composer Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928–2007) created an explicit analogy ...
Dancing is as old as time, and its one constant is music that you can do it to. And while not all music is designed for dancing, some revolutionary dance music has been produced since records began. Some of it is intentionally disposable, but it is surprising just how much of the dance music made in the last ...
Like so many of black America’s most enduring musical genres, hip hop was born out of invention. When, as the 1970s came to a close, a combination of disco and big record company involvement had diluted funk and soul to the extent that it had become boring to go out to a club on a Saturday night, something rumbled out of New ...
The Modern Age was characterized by rapid and radical change and political turmoil. By 1918 the Russian tsar, the Habsburg emperor and the German kaiser had lost their thrones. The two Russian revolutions of 1917 resulted in a Communist government led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was fragmented to allow self-determination to the newly formed countries of Czechoslovakia ...
The opera house and, more specifically, opera audiences, were among the last to be receptive to the new musical language that developed during the twentieth century. Slow, as well as reluctant to vary their traditional musical tastes, perceptions and expectations, many viewed the opera house with nostalgia; as a symbol of the establishment, holding ...
AUTHORITATIVE
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.