Archive for August, 2008
Friday, August 29th, 2008
You can now buy rock music easily. We are not referring to buying physical CDs of course. Anyone can now download and buy rock music from online services. Nowadays, the web has opened many doors for music fanatics to get all genres of music conveniently.
Even though there is a camp of diehard CD fans, it is an undisputed fact that to buy rock music online is where the future is. Have you ever find yourself in a situation where you only like 1 song in a CD but is forced to buy the entire album? I am sure many of us have at one point of time been in such a dilemma. It can be costly isn’t it? Buying songs online means that you can just purchase the exact song you want.
There are many websites online that offers such download services. Simply do a search using Google, Yahoo or MSN and you probably will land yourself on tons of results and sites to choose from.
If you do not find the idea of buying music online as a new one, then you surely must have heard of that racket of buying songs for 99 cents a piece not too long ago. This service did garner much popularity; however, the same degree of popularity just does not exist today. With the advent of MP3s and such, this option no longer holds well with music fans all over the world. This brings us to latest racket in purchasing rock music, which are the paid membership sites.
These are the websites that allow you to download rock music to your heart’s content. However, you would have to pay a monthly membership fee to have unlimited access to their vast collection of music files. Best of all, this is a legal service, so you won’t have to worry about violating any music infringement policies anymore.
Yet, we understand that some would rather still opt for the free download sites. However, you need to know that many users have complained about the risk of exposing their MP3 players and computers to damage from corrupted files, viruses and malware. These are the perils when you download rock music from them.
As such, it is always advisable to purchase rock music from paid membership services.
What’s more, these paid membership sites are legally affiliated with major record labels all over the world. Thus, when you buy rock music from them, you are still giving the rock musicians the money that they deserve to get from you.
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Tuesday, August 26th, 2008
On this thirteenth birthday, an English boy - an illegitimate son of a soldier - picked up his first acoustic guitar from his grandparents.
Despite his love for blues music, he found learning to play so challenging he almost gave up. He practised for many long hours, hanging on to learn chords and trying to imitate and mimic the sounds and tone of his blues guitar idols like Big Bill Broonzy by listening to them on his tape machine.
Finding that the study of stained glass design at England’s Kingston College of Art wasn’t right for him, he busked around Kingston, Richmond and London’s West End before joining his first band at age 17 - the Roosters - an R&B outfit, in 1963. From there, Eric Clapton went on to a stunning musical career as an incredibly talented guitar player, singer and songwriter.
His versatility is remarkable, with hits in genres from Delta blues (’Me & Mr Johnson’), pop (’Change the world’) and reggae (’I shot the sheriff’). Nicknamed ‘Slowhand’ for his string-bending blues riffs, Clapton is known as one of the most successful musicians of the 20th century. Do you know that Eric was ‘christened’ Slowhand by the manager of The Yardbirds because when he broke a string [only had 1 telecaster] he took his time replacing it on stage …and let everone wait…including the audience.
With his love of the instrument demonstrated in his amazing collection of about 750 guitars, Eric Clapton is hailed as one of the greatest blues guitarists of all time. How is your musical journey progressing?
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Friday, August 22nd, 2008
Her parents are Andrea and Scott Swift. Her brother is Austin Swift. She has written over 200 songs.Her song ‘Mary’s Song (Oh My, My, My)’ was written based on her next door neighbor’s relationship. She never actually dated the boy named Cory in her song ‘Stay Beautiful’.
Her song ‘Tied Together with a Smile’ is about one of her best friends, who was absolutely beautiful. All the girls wanted to be her, all the guys wanted to be with her and then Taylor was shocked to find out that she had an eating disorder. Her song ‘The Outside’ was one of the first song she wrote (she was twelve) and she felt like a complete outcast a school. She wrote the song ‘A Place in this World’ when she was thirteen and had just moved to Nashville. She said that she knew where she wanted to be she just didn’t know how to get there, and through the album, she had found that place.
When Taylor gets bored she likes to conduct random baking experiments in her kitchen. When Taylor is in Tennessee she likes to drive by her ex boyfriends houses.
Taylor’s Favorite Things
Color: White. I know, boring (but, now, think a flowing white cotton skirt blowing in the wind) Food: Cheesecake - yum. Holiday: Christmas Hobby: Driving FAST. Place: Anyplace around a creek. Season: Summer Thing to do: Write songs Thing to write about: LOVE of course! Guitar: Taylor Guitars Artists: Miranda Lambert and Tim McGraw Song: “Can’t Tell Me Nothin’” by Tim McGraw Quality in other people : Honesty and sarcasm Movie: “Love Actually”
Taylor Swift was nominated in the Best New Artist category at the 50th Grammy Awards. Unfortunately, she lost to Amy Winehouse. In 2007 Taylor Swift toured with Brad Paisley. In 2007 she won CMT’s “Breakthrough Video of the Year” for her video “Tim McGraw” and was nominated for ACM’s “Top New Female Vocalist”.
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Friday, August 22nd, 2008
Seventeen year-old Taylor Swift is the only female artist in Country music history to write or co-write every song on a Platinum selling debut.
Taylor has enjoyed a near meteoric rise to stardom in recent months. One year ago, she was riding around in a rental car visiting radio stations, promoting her first single, “Tim McGraw.” By May of this year, she had just been awarded the fan-voted CMT Music Award for Breakthrough Video, and provided one of those “awww” moments during the ACM Awards show, when she serenaded Tim McGraw with his namesake song, then introduced herself to him, “Hi, I’m Taylor.”
Other highlights of Taylor’s debut year have included:
Tours with Rascal Flatts, George Strait and Kenny Chesney. She is currently on tour with Brad Paisley and will join Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s Soul2Soul 2007 tour for several dates next month.
Taylor continues to sell in excess of 30,000 albums a week–every week, outselling many of the genre’s superstars. Taylor Swift debuted on the Billboard sales chart at #3 in October of last year, and has been one of Country’s Top 10 sellers for 26 weeks. The CD was RIAA certified Gold in just 13 weeks, and is now Platinum (sales of over 1,000,000 units).
Taylor was named one of AOL’s Best New Artists of the Year, was chosen by the Los Angeles Times as “One to Watch in 2007,” was nominated by the Academy of Country Music for Best New Female Vocalist, and was honored as a breakthrough artist by Music Row magazine with their prestigious Critic’s Pick award.
Taylor’s debut single “Tim McGraw” hit the Top 5 of the country radio charts, reaching over 30 million listeners a week. The song has sold more than 500,000 digital downloads and has been certified Digital Gold, one of only eleven country singles to ever reach this milestone. Her current single, “Teardrops on My Guitar,” is rapidly approaching country’s Top 10, this week reaching #12 with a bullet.
The videos for both of Taylor’s singles have received massive airplay on both CMT and GAC, and both clips have topped the country video charts. She is currently the only country artist with a video in the Top 25 on the Yahoo music chart.
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Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
The hillbilly music of the south is a genre of music that is beginning to grow at an immense rate throughout the United States. Originating in Bristol Tennessee, country music is a type of music that integrates the blues, jazz and originally some “hillbilly folk” with a bit of swing, and just recently some pop has been added to the sound. The lyrics represent the “faithfully charted vicissitudes of the working-class life; as Charlie Rich put it, “life’s little ups and downs”. The music is nearly 73 years old, and is just now starting to touch people.
In 1927, a man by the name of Ralph Peer signed Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, who would later set the sound for country music. Jimmie Rodgers was born in Mississippi and his favorite type of music to sing was “nigger blues”, which is what he brought to the country industry.
African American musicians wound up having a huge impact on the country music sound. Mainly because on one side there was the “colored section” and the “white trash” section. Because of how close the two communities were, the songs that each would sing would influence the other (Scherman, 1994). A lot of the African American sound can be heard through jazz and blues. Many of the early country artists were “hillbillies”, singing their folk music. However, country music is NOT folk music.
When Gene Autry went to Hollywood in 1934 and became “the movies first singing cowboy” the image of the cowboy stuck with the “hillbilly sound” (Scherman, 1994). Gene Autry’s biggest rival was Roy Rogers. Roy Rogers starred in over 100 movies and headed his own television show (Walker, 1997). Roy Rogers was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988.
It was only a few years later when he was on top of the charts once again (Walker 1997). In 1934, Rogers formed the Sons of the Pioneers, an early country western band (Walker 1997).
With the help of Bob Wills, western swing was born. “The style was a blend of big band, blues, dixieland, and jazz among others” (Walker, 1997). Originating in Texas and Oklahoma in the 1930’s (Walker, 1997). Bob Wills famous “falsetto cry” of “Ah-hahh” was adopted by the WWII American pilots, whenever the pilots would celebrate a hit. During this time, Southern California became America’s western swing capital (Scherman, 1994).
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Thursday, August 7th, 2008
Music fans are always keen to know which are the coolest places to download rock music videos. With MP3 player sales skyrocketing and more generous built-in disk spaces, many are not satisfied with the number of music videos they can get from mainstream sites. There are dozens of websites that offer free downloads while others offer them for a fee. Which are the better ones? Read on and we will know.
Artist Direct is one of the mainstream music video stores where you can find quality video and audio downloads. This is a giant today considering its heavy patronage. Every month, more than 10 million visitors visit them, resulting in well over 270 million page views which is no mean feat at all.
The reason why fans like Artist Direct is simple. They offer a huge range of genres and subgenres. This is like a parent site or online music “encyclopaedia”.
Popular genres and subgenres under the Rock Music category includes Folk Rock, Glam Rock, Garage Rock, Hair Metal, Progressive Rock, Soft Rock, Speed Metal, Southern Rock and so on are available there.
While this is a good choice, Artist Direct does charge a fee for its visitors to download rock music videos from their site.
Another site that makes a great stop to download rock music videos is SectionZ. This can easily become the premier site for downloading music videos for any rock music aficionado. Aside from the impressive features of downloading rock music videos, the website also offers social networking services for its members and visitors.
Whether you are a fan or rock musician, there is a platform for music sharing, discussion on bands, albums and anything related to music. This is fast becoming the gathering hotspot of rock music aficionados. It is also a hotbed for aspiring rock musicians who are starting out.
The third option is to use paid or free services. Free services offer free music but they are notorious for poor security and slow transfer speeds. The paid services on the other hand offer the download service for a flat fee. Once the payment is made, you can download rock music videos as well as songs and music files of all other genres. These are excellent choices for the music fan of this age who wants choices, a wide selection and an easy on the pocket source of music.
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Sunday, August 3rd, 2008
There’s old country. There’s new country. Then there are the Dixie Chicks.
Natalie Maines, Martie Seidel and Emily Robison have taken the Texas-bred sound of a fiddle, banjo, dobro and crystal-clear vocal harmonies into whole new territory. They are the rare act that comes along a few times in a generation that is destined to shake things up, rewrite the rules and become the new musical trendsetters.
The public has certainly noticed. The Dixie Chicks’ first Monument album Wide Open Spaces has become the biggest selling album ever by a country duo or group - racking up some 6 million sales by the time their second album, Fly, was completed. The tremendous sales only demonstrates that while the Dixie Chicks have established themselves as a true country music act, they have also won over audiences outside the country genre. In a music field routinely known for selling to the conservative 30 and over crowd, more than 60% of the Dixie Chicks sales have been to consumers under the age of 25. Their concert audience is as likely to be comprised of entire rows of young women in their early teens and twenties as it is to include middle age couples and entire families complete with pre-teen girls dressed like their musical idols and singing every Dixie Chicks’ song word for word.
The press has certainly noticed. Publications from Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly and People to Harper’s Bazaar, In Style, Seventeen and TV Guide have documented how the Dixie Chicks are bending the music world to their will and making country music more ‘hip’ than ever. With the wrap-up of 1998, numerous national publications named them the “Breakout Act of the Year” and recognized Wide Open Spaces as one of the “Best Of” albums of the year. USA Today credited the Chicks with single-handedly returning the banjo to country radio and Rolling Stone summed it up when they called them “the badass queenpins of country.” At a time when much of the press on country music has lamented the ’sameness’ of the sound and the artists, no less than the Los Angeles Times conceded that “the Dixie Chicks are the perfect antidote.”
The music industry has certainly noticed. The Dixie Chicks’ fellow musicians and industry peers, in particular, have overwhelmingly acknowledged their contribution. In a year’s time, they have been honored with two Grammy Awards (Best Country Album and Best Country Vocal Performance Duo/Group), two Country Music Association Awards (Group of the Year and the Horizon Award), plus three Academy of Country Music Awards (including Album of the Year), one American Music Award and two TNN Music Awards. On Nashville’s Music Row, where the unspoken business strategy often seems to be “if we can make it work once, we can beat it to death,” the music industry has obviously been taking notes. It’s likely not a coincidence that almost every record label in Nashville has signed a female trio since the Dixie Chicks exploded on to the scene. But clearly what makes this act work is not just that they are a female trio. The difference is this: There simply is no other act in any musical format that sounds like the Dixie Chicks.
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