1885–1945 American composer Like Gershwin, Kern began his career as a song-plugger (playing new songs to potential customers in a publisher’s showroom) and then gained invaluable experience writing additional or replacement numbers for musicals imported to the US from Europe. In 1915, he formed a partnership with the writer Guy Bolton (soon joined by P. G. Wodehouse as lyricist). ...
(Vocals, guitar, songwriter, b. 1964) With 14 gold albums to his name, Kernaghan is the biggest-selling country artist in Australia. He first visited Nashville in 1986, played at Fan Fair, and met producer Garth Porter, resulting in his 1992 double-platinum debut album, The Outback Club. He has recorded with the late Australian legend ...
This section encompasses styles that were, at least initially, designed to work in tandem with other forms of expression, deepening or enhancing their impact. The scores of musical theatre are woven into stories played out by the characters on stage. A film soundtrack is composed to interlock with the action on a cinema screen, while cabaret songs ...
(D’me’-tre Ka-ba-lef-ske) 1904–87 Russian composer A rather late developer, Kabalevsky made a career as a pianist before beginning composition studies in his twenties. His style is conservative but, especially in his opera Colas Breugnon (1938) and in music for his own instrument (three concertos, three sonatas, numerous preludes and fugues), freshly and often catchily melodious. Recommended Recording: ...
From the eclectic musical melting pot of ragtime, Gilbert & Sullivan, early jazz, Viennese operetta, blackface minstrel shows and authentic Deep-South blues emerged the Broadway show tune. ‘Show’ and ‘tune’, of course, are the essential indicators of musical style. The music created for Broadway musicals – and, subsequently, for the musical form whatever its ...
Bass Drum The dominant feature of every military band is its big bass drum. Throughout the history of percussion instruments, this drum has been the mainstay of time-keeping, whether it is used for a marching army or in a late-twentieth century heavy metal band. Early versions of the bass drum (it was certainly known in Asia around 3500 BC) ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1963–67) Harmonica player and singer Butterfield conditioned his band – Jerome Arnold (bass), Elvin Bishop and Mike Bloomfield (guitars), Sam Lay (drums, vocals) and Mark Naftalin (keyboards) – in black Chicago clubs. They backed Dylan’s electric debut at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival and helped to usher blues into the psychedelic era, with the groundbreaking East-West ...
Like the USA itself, country music in California was built upon migrant forces, in relation to both musicians and audiences. Unlike Nashville, whose growth was mainly dependent upon local musicians, the Golden State scarcely produced any homegrown talent but, rather, was dependent upon the influx of migrant workers from other states. The greater number of ...
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David Bowie
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