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Bob Marley Remembrance in Meskal Square
Last Sunday saw the 60th anniversary of the birth of the legendary Bob Marley. Appropriately, thousands of Rastafarians, bedecked in red, gold and green, gathered in Meskal square, Addis Abbaba in Ethiopia, to salute their spiritual fellow traveller...
Enhanced Healing Through Music
Music has always been a very important part of our lives, from childhood to our being an adult. As a part of our experience, music can have both a physiological and psychological affect upon us as human beings. In addition to the influence that...
Exposing New Hip Hop Music Through Mixtapes
Hip Hop
Mixtapes are an excellent source of exposure for many up and
coming artists. in some cases they can make the difference
between super-stardom and obscurity. Good Mixtapes have the ability to shift the
scale towards the artist's...
Next Up and Coming Guitarist in a Long Line of Famous Van Zant Musicians Launches Munch Music - Classic Rock Themed Digital Recording Facility
Next Up and Coming Guitarist in a Long Line of Famous Van Zant Musicians Launches Munch Music - Classic Rock Themed Digital Recording Facility
“Live Your Rock & Roll Dream” at Munch Music – CD recording, music lessons and live performance...
Would Chopin Have Passed A Music Quiz?
Q. My children are very interested in playing music. Is there such a thing as a music quiz for kids?
A. Sure there's such a thing as a music quiz, and you can find one right inside of your head. Just reach up there, pull it out, and put it down...
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Paul McCartney at The Superbowl
Paul's show at the Superbowl was an historic event for a number of reasons. We were all watching a living legend in action, a star from the 1960's up there on stage acting like a teenager entertaining teenagers in 2005, and the audience reacted on the most fundamental level. Now I've seen a lot of shows by many rock legends, including Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Grateful Dead, and many others, and I have to say that Paul's Superbowl show was the best short rock and roll show in history.
To begin with, I did not fail to notice his choice of songs. He began his show with "Baby You Can Drive My Car", a driving piece of simple rock and roll, and then followed up with two more simple Beatles songs. Of course, Paul can afford the best musicians to back him up, and I also did not fail to notice that these expert players stayed true to The Beatles tracks and played them note for note like the records. Each song was one that Paul wrote, and they were all straight ahead, simple rock and roll. I also thought it was significant that he chose "Get Back", and that at the end of the song he asked the audience, "Do you want to Get Back?" The audience roared their approval. Now what do you think they all want to get back to?
The significance of what he did proves a concept that's occurred to me recently. I believe that the cycle of creativity in music is just about over. If you examine human history, creative bursts never remain in any one genre indefinitely. Ever since the early 1990's when Van Halen, Alanis Morrisette and Jewel hit the charts big time, there haven't been any more rock acts that are capable of sustaining their success in the recording studio. On account of this and the phenomenon of free MP3 downloading, most record companies are losing money. The old formula of having the record company put up well in excess of $150,000 to promote a new act simply doesn't work any more. In order for a record company to recoup their initial investment in recording time and promotion, it's absolutely necessary to have an act that can write and record more than one hit record, and that's the missing key. There are no more acts who can do that, and the record companies are painfully aware of this.
After Paul finished his three Beatles songs, he performed one Wings song - Live and Let Die. I think he chose that one because it has great dynamics which lent itself naturally to the impressive light show that accompanied the song. But then Paul chose to end his show with "Hey Jude", which is certainly one of the definitive Beatles songs. In terms of the dynamics of his entire show, it was a natural choice for an ending.
I also could not fail to miss that whenever the camera panned out over the audience, all I could see were young people in the teenager to early 20's age group. I would have expected to see old hippies from Paul's generation, but there were none that I could see. Of course, the audience adored Paul and did the usual arm waving thing and massive lighter thing in the dark, and that means nothing because audiences do the exact same thing for famous acts with no talent. But the point I'm making here is that the young people are definitely turning back to real rock and roll, Paul is one of the originals, and the audience was fully aware and
appreciative. There are at least three reasons why young people are turning back to rock and roll:
1. Forgive me for saying this, but Hip Hop and House "music" is beginning to bore them. There simply isn't enough variety in the genre, and everything the artists have to say lyrically has been said, said, and said again.
2. The body of rock and roll music that was created between the 1950's and 1990's is staggering in its size and variety. It dwarfs all other genres except for classical music, and because of it's depth, it's not boring.
3. Rock and roll music can be defined as sexual energy expressed in sound. I don't think the young people are aware of what is happening, but they are "coming of age", and what that means is they are experiencing their own powerful sexual energy for the first time in their lives. Simply put, they are connecting sublimally with the very music which embodies that energy. No other form of music has ever done that so well, and that's why so many adults and religious fanatics have called it "The Devil's music." I couldn't disagree with those misguided people more. I won't argue about it. All I will say on that subject is that ALL creativity comes directly from God, who is the creative force itself.
So in conclusion, Paul's performance at the Superbowl represents the sports world's biggest show honoring one of the greatest and most talented rock stars ever. As an historic event, it signals the beginning of a massive return to what was the most creative time in musical history, including the classical Bach, Mozart and Beethoven era because although the music was very complex, it just doesn't have the breadth of style that rock and roll has. I'm talking about doo wop music, country rock, rhythm and blues, soul music, top 40 rock, the British invasion, reggae rock, balads, political songs, sex songs, love songs, comedy rock, and the list goes on. Jazz is certainly high on the list of creative musical forms, but again, it just hasn't got the breadth and depth. The Recording Industry Association of America, who has the correct statistics, lists The Beatles as the best selling artists of all time with 166.5 million albums sold in the USA alone, Elvis is second with 117.5 million, and Led Zep is third with 106 million. I think it's very significant that those statistics are becoming geometrically times greater than the number of albums that they sold during their performance lifetimes. What has happened and is happening is that the young people of today are discovering them in droves because they are coming of age sexually and they recognize and connect with the most powerful musical example of that sexual power.
Considering that Paul is known as being the most popular songwriter in history, Paul was typically humble too. After he finished playing, he shouted to the audience, "You were great ! Thank you Superbowl". Now THAT is a true rock star in action.
About the Author
Peter Cross is a singer/songwriter/producer who was among the first to put music on the internet in downloadable format in 1996. To this day, he is one of the only musicians who has created and designed his own music web site in html, and at 104 pages filled with entertaining content, it's one of the largest. Check it out at: http://www.starcrost.com
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| Yahoo! Music - Internet Radio, Music Videos, Artists, Music News ... |
| Visitors may create a personal Internet radio station with Lauchcast and listen to music based on their own and other listener's tastes. |
| music.yahoo.com |
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| All Music Guide |
| Comprehensive guide to recordings in every genre. Cross-indexed source of reviews, essays, and ratings; all available online, on in-store kiosks, ... |
| www.allmusic.com |
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| MTV - Music Videos, Shows, Celebrity News, Movies, Games, and Photos |
| MTV is the ultimate destination for music and pop culture. We have the latest music videos, band info, entertainment news, photos, album previews, ... |
| www.mtv.com |
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| Music Videos, Songs, Internet Radio, Free Music Downloads - AOL Music |
| Offers music news, artist bios, discographies, photo galleries, downloads and videos. Covers multiple music genres. |
| music.aol.com |
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| MSN - Music: Home |
| http://music.msn.com/music/newthisweek;new this week;Gwen Stefani's "The ... Mary J. Blige takes home most honors at Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas ... |
| music.msn.com |
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| Free MP3 music downloads - Free Music Downloads - MP3 Downloads ... |
| Download.com Music is your source for legal and free MP3 downloads. Download MP3s from thousands of artists. |
| music.download.com |
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| MySpace |
| Progressive / Alternative / Indie. MySpace Music Video Fresh Pick: Bloodlined Calligraphy (Last Goodbye). Rock the Bells Hip Hop USA Tour (Nov 11-Dec 22) ... |
| www.myspace.com |
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| College Music Society |
| It is a consortium of colleges, conservatories, universities, and independent musicians and scholars. Dedicated to gathering, considering, and disseminating ... |
| www.music.org |
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| Apple - iPod + iTunes |
| Complete line of flash memory and hard drive-based music, video, and media content players. Includes technical specifications, video clips, interactive demo ... |
| www.apple.com |
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| Music - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Music theory, within this realm, is studied with the pre-supposition that music is ... Amateur musicians compose and perform music for their own pleasure, ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| Worldwide Internet Music Resources |
| Categorized links to musicians and ensembles, composers, research sources by musical topic, the business of music, and performance-related subjects ... |
| www.music.indiana.edu |
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| BBC - Music |
| Vote in 6 Music's roundup of the best singles of 2006! ... The Man In Black - a true American icon, and one of the giants of country music. ... |
| www.bbc.co.uk |
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| Pandora Internet Radio - Find New Music, Listen to Free Web Radio |
| Pandora is the music discovery service that helps you find new music based on your old and current favorites. Create custom internet radio stations, ... |
| www.pandora.com |
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| Yahoo! Music UK - Free Music Videos, Internet Radio, Music Charts ... |
| The latest official UK music charts, talent and music industry news and special areas. Includes chart commentary and music news round up. |
| uk.launch.yahoo.com |
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| Napster |
| Add Music to Your IM, Email and Web Pages ... To see the terms for our Music Store and Subscription Service, click HERE. © 2003-2006, Napster, LLC. ... |
| www.napster.com |
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| Read About Music News, Billboard Charts, Music Videos & Ringtones ... |
| Billboard.com is the music entertainment industry source for music news, information, and the popular Billboard Music Charts. |
| www.billboard.com |
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| Lycos Music - Music Home |
| Comprehensive search engine by Lycos. Site also has news, reviews and information on players, encoders and rippers. |
| music.lycos.com |
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| Welcome - Music India OnLine |
| Has a large collection of music and songs classified by type, language and region. All downloads are streamed through RealAudio. |
| www.musicindiaonline.com |
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| calendarlive.com - MUSIC |
| Concerts, album reviews, pop, jazz and classical music news from the Los Angeles Times. |
| www.calendarlive.com |
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| CLASSICAL MUSIC ARCHIVES - CLASSICAL MUSIC |
| Contains thousands of classical music files in MIDI format as well as live recordings. New contributions are solicited. A search engine is included. |
| www.classicalarchives.com |
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