(Vocal group, 1992–97, 2006–present) Named after their Walthamstow postal district, Tony Mortimer, Brian Harvey, John Hendy and Terry Coldwell were a ‘bad’ boy vocal band who took style and attitude from America. Musically they racked up an impressive number of Top 40 hits between 1992 and 1997 – mostly penned by Mortimer – ranging from dance ...
The vast Southeast Asian region includes the island republics of Indonesia and the Philippines, and the mainland states of Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. The mainland countries, particularly Vietnam, have been greatly influenced by Chinese culture and Buddhism. Indonesia has been influenced by Hinduism and Islam, and the Philippines ...
The Near East includes two of the world’s earliest civilizations – Mesopotamia and Egypt. From the few artefacts found in Mesopotamia something is known about Sumerian instruments and the circumstances in which music was played. The Egyptian musical culture shared characteristics with that of Mesopotamia; they played similar instruments and music was also closely associated with rituals and worship. Within the ...
The recent history of East Asia is one of conflict: hostilities have broken out over whether a Korean tune sounds Japanese or not. While musicians in other countries talk about crossing borders, music here has strategic uses. The communist North Korea is dominated by patriotic work songs; South Korea celebrates history; mainland Japanese musicians absorb Western influences and reinvent them ...
Southeast Asian music owes much to its neighbours. Travellers, moving south from China, mixed with traders from India and Arabia. Later arrivals added to the mix; the Philippines are Spanish-American, Vietnam is French-Chinese, and Malaysia is Arabic-Chinese-Indian-Portuguese-British. Add the latest economic invasion and it’s a wonder that any unadulterated music survives. But it does. In Indonesia, Javanese ...
The story of Middle Eastern music in the twentieth century is the story of Umm Kalthum. Until the early part of the century, the area had been divided, conquered and ruled by invaders for two millennia. Kalthum played no tangible part in the struggle for independence, but her voice united Arabs wherever Arabic is spoken. Beyond geographical boundaries ...
While the Mississippi Delta gave birth to guitar-based acoustic blues, in the area known as the Piedmont region – which stretches along the Atlantic seaboard from Virginia to Florida – a wide range of blues styles flourished, from the backwoods sound of the Appalachian foothills of Virginia to the more urbane sound of big cities such as Atlanta. The ...
Drums are an essential part of urban music, classical ensembles, sacred Sufi music, and traditional folk music throughout the Middle East. Dumbek, Tar and Riq The dumbek is a goblet drum (10–22 cm/4–9 in diameter and 22–40 cm/9–16 in long). It has a hollow pottery, wood or metal body and a goatskin or fish-skin head. There ...
Drums are widely used in traditional music in the Far East, along with a diverse range of cymbals, gongs, metallophones and untuned wooden idiophones. In much traditional music of this region, the drum is played by the director of the ensemble, who uses specific signals for the other performers. Chinese Drums Most Chinese drums (gu) are ...
From the late 1940s onwards, John Cage was a figure of major significance as a thinker, inventor and exemplar whose approach drew crucial sustenance from outside the Western tradition. A different conception of time and sound informed Cage’s music from the start, including his influential makeover of the conventional piano, which he ‘prepared’ by inserting bolts, ...
(Vocal/rap/instrumental group, 1981–present) The Beastie Boys – Michael ‘Mike D’ Diamond, Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch and Adam ‘King Ad-Rock’ Horovitz – began life as a New York hardcore punk band, but under the auspices of producer Rick Rubin became the first important white rap act. Debut Licensed To Ill (1986) was a good-time rap-metal crossover, which spawned the ...
(Vocals, b. 1955) Earle is an artist whose heartfelt songwriting and passionate vocals straddle both rock and country music. Despite several marriages and periods of drug and alcohol abuse Earle’s music was a vital part of the 1990s, especially the acoustic prisms of Train A Comin’ (1995) and El Corazon (1997). Bluegrass album Mountain (1999) recorded with the Del ...
1683–1764, French A respected theorist and composer of keyboard music, Rameau did not compose his first opera until he was 50 years old. Consistently adventurous in his operas, he equally inspired passionate admiration and hostility from Parisian audiences and was a comparably powerful figure between the 1730s and 1750s. The Wanderlust Years Rameau was born at Dijon in ...
Contemporary music whose ancestry lies in the Western classical tradition finds itself in a curious position. Nothing illustrates this better than the fact that we are not entirely sure what to call it. The label ‘classical’ seems anachronistic, especially when applied to composers who have challenged some of the fundamental assumptions of the classical tradition. ‘Concert music’ is similarly problematic ...
The history of opera is dominated by Italian and Austro-German composers. It is in Italy and Germany that we find the greatest number of opera houses. La Scala in Milan lays claim to be the most famous opera house in the world, and its opening night every season is a major event in the country’s social calendar. The theatre, ...
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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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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
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