(Vocal/instrumental group, 1990–98) Named after a feminist magazine of the same name, Seattle’s Bikini Kill spearheaded the riot grrrl movement. Kathleen Hanna (vocals), Tobi Vail (drums) and Kathi Wilcox (bass) published the magazine and roped in Billy Boredom on guitar. Musically a mixture of punk and feminist lyrics, the band built up a no-compromise reputation as a live ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1979–present) Jeremy ‘Jaz’ Coleman (vocals), Geordie Walker (guitar, synthesizers), Youth (b. Martin Glover, bass, vocals) and Paul Ferguson (drums) formed one of the most alluring post-punk bands. They are now considered forefathers of American nu-punk. Their compulsive, tribal blasts on debut Killing Joke (1980) and Revelations (1982) created a legion of rabid fans and ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 2001–present) Vegas’ Killers – Brandon Flowers (vocals), Dave Keuning (guitar), Mark August Stoermer (bass) and Ronnie Vannucci Jr. (drums) – were formed from a variety of wanted adverts after Flowers was thrown out of his first band. Influenced by the mass singalongs of Oasis, the technological edge of New Order (their name even came from a fictional ...
(Vocals, b. 1970) By making music that incorporates eclectic influences from folk, hip hop, rock, electronica and studio prowess, Beck Hansen has become one of the most influential American solo artists. Early EPs, albums and singles like the classic ‘Loser’ were released on a variety of labels. When Beck signed to Geffen he retained the ...
(Vocal group, 1993–2000, 2007–08) If Bikini Kill were one extreme of Grrrl Power then The Spice Girls were the most successful. With each girl adopting a defined image – Posh Spice (Victoria Adams), Scary Spice (Melanie Brown), Baby Spice (Emma Bunton), Sporty Spice (Melanie Chisholm) and Ginger Spice (Geri Halliwell, went solo 1998) – they were unstoppable after ...
A potent though short-lived force in the early 1990s, lyrically, riot grrrl had a strong feminist agenda, whilst musically it was strongly influenced by punk rock. The spiritual roots of riot grrrl can be traced back to the all-female British punk band The Slits from the 1970s. With its origins in America, and an agenda of ‘cutting ...
Across the centuries and around the globe, many different forms of music have enjoyed mass appeal for a limited period of time. None, however, have been able to match the widespread influence of the popular music that erupted in America during the mid-1950s and, by the second half of the decade, was exerting its grip over ...
Composed: 1836 Premiered: 1836, St Petersburg Libretto by Baron Yegor Fyodorovich Rozen and others Background The years of turmoil following the death of Tsar Fyodor I in 1598 might finally be coming to an end. The revolt of the ‘False Dmitri’ in 1605 has led to Polish intervention. In 1613, after an interregnum of nearly three years, Mikhail ...
Aida, set in Ancient Egypt, was not composed to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, as has often been suggested. Nor was it commissioned by the Khedive of Egypt to mark the opening of the Cairo Opera House that same year. It happened that the French Egyptologist, Auguste Mariette, keeper of monuments to ...
Ariodante also derives from Ariosto, but it is a serious opera. Thanks to a fine text, adapted from an old Italian libretto by Antonio Salvi, Handel was able to explore potent tragic situations, such as the King of Scotland being forced to contemplate executing his much-loved daughter Ginvera. The opera is best known for ‘Scherza infida’, an ...
Composed: 1844–53 Premiered: 1861, Pest Libretto by Béni Egressy after József Katona’s play Prologue King Endre of Hungary is away at war and his wife Gertrud and her corrupt followers have taken control at court. Act I At Gertrud’s instigation, her brother Otto intends to seduce Bánk’s wife Melinda. Rebels opposed to Gertrud have sent a message to Bánk ...
Boris Godunov, the only project out of nine that Mussorgsky completed himself, has been cited as the great masterpiece of nineteenth-century Russian opera – with its thrilling crowd scenes, historic panorama and the chilling power of its principal character. Boris was unusual in having its chief male role written for a bass voice and for the ‘sung prose’ ...
‘Rustic Chivalry’ Composed: 1888 Premiered: 1890, Rome Libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci after Giovanni Verga’s play Early on Easter Day, Turiddu is heard offstage serenading Lola. The villagers start arriving for church. Santuzza stops Mamma Lucia, Turiddu’s mother, and asks where she may find him. He is supposed to have gone to another village to ...
‘The Woman Without a Shadow’ Like Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Frau ohne Schatten had a tempestuous genesis. The idea itself stemmed from the period immediately after the premiere of Der Rosenkavalier, but Hofmannsthal’s continual flood of ideas compounded by Strauss’s curmudgeonliness ensured the project stalled regularly. The start of the First World War did nothing to help, and ...
‘The Magic Flute’ The librettist of Die Zauberflöte, Emanuel Schikaneder, Mozart’s old friend and fellow freemason, drew on an eclectic variety of sources, including a French novel, Sethos, Paul Wranitzky’s magic opera Oberon (1789) and the oriental fairy tale Lulu. In the bird catcher Papageno, Schikaneder created for himself a character that could exploit ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
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