Music

Christina's amazing vocal talents sets her apart from her peers. She is one singer who is seen in music circles as have the best long time prospects.

In August 2006 a sixty year old, bald, stocky bachelor with a face at once stern and sensitive died of diabetes. He was living on his own in his home-town - the genteel city of Cambridge, England, world widely known for its university, which, in the UK, is rivaled only by the equally venerable one in Oxford. His name was Syd Barrett.

Did Live Earth make a difference? While international media seem undecided about the lasting effects of July 7's worldwide event aimed at educating the public about climate change, individual participants are coming under scrutiny.

The story of Edith Piaf’s life, told in the movie “La Vie en Rose,” is so turbulent and full of tragedy and success that it lends itself to mythologizing, though that isn’t necessary. The verifiable facts are enough.

When Thomas Edison invented the phonograph on August 12, 1877, little did he know just how much influence his “Talking Machine” would have, not only in the music industry, but in pop culture as well. Records are a part of the music of the ages and it is up to us as individuals and retailers, not only to enjoy our favorite recordings, but to preserve them as well; thus Vinyl Record Day was born.

Considered by many of his time (and this) as one of the greatest composers who ever lived, George Frederick Handel became that through excellent beginnings. He was born to a wealthy German family in Halle in 1685. He had nine other siblings, some of which were half-siblings. His father, also named George, was 63 at the time, his mother was 34.

Throughout his career Wyclef never forgot his root. Jean is always proud of his country and is working to extend the Haitian musical industry . This famous artist is one of the people that will be happy to see his nation moving forward.

Boots Randolph, a saxophone player best known for his 1963 hit "Yakety Sax," died July 3 in Nashville, Tennessee. He was 80. He had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage June 25 and had been hospitalized in a coma.

The basis of Hip Hop is poetically using words. Hip Hop has been flipping words since day one. Emcees have mesmerized us with the gift of gab and fly vocab for years. Rappers have spit the most illest of lines and counted them as just a rhyme…but spoken words are so much more than most give them credit for.

MP3 downloads via the internet are steadily killing the vinyl market and making it increasingly difficult for your average record dealer to survive with record shops closing down at an increasing rate. But MP3 will very likely replace CD, not vinyl, with it's far superior sound and great sleeve artwork of course.

Whenever we hear the letters "Y," "M," "C," or "A," it is hard not to think of The Village People. A disco group made up of an Indian, a police officer, a construction worker, a cowboy, a military man, a biker and, on occasion, a sailor, it's fair to say that this group of people were about as original as they come.

Not sure what’s happening with me on this one, but it seems like the more I listen to it, the better Taking The Long Way gets. Taking The Long Way simply put is one of their best CDs to date.

Music piracy is at an all time high, are the monotonous, uninspired recent efforts from today's hottest HipHop artists contributing to their lack of success on the charts?

In 2007, I view the basic problems in our industry as lack of vision, intuition and willingness to follow through with new artists. If a major label signing doesn’t post huge numbers for the company’s shareholders upon it’s initial release, there is little to no chance of a follow up record. Too much money is rolled out for the first shot deal and if it doesn’t nail the bulls-eye, the money is gone for that all-important second shot. Talk about pressure…what artists do their best work under these conditions?

In 1949, a man by the name of Ahmet Ertegun, who was in charge of signing talent to Atlantic recordings, heard a song on a jukebox in a dive bar somewhere in New York City, called "Baby, let me hold your hand". Ertegun flipped out at the sound of the man singing this incredible song. The name of the singer was Ray Charles, and Ertegun had to sign him to a five-year contract and lost countless hundreds of thousands of dollars because the record never took off. He stuck by his man, though, and a few years later Ray Charles went on to sell millions of future records for Atlantic, making the record label into a very profitable venture. That same scenario will never happen again.