Portal:Music

The Music Portal

Grooved side of the Voyager Golden Record launched along the Voyager probes to space, which feature music from around the world

Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all human societies. Definitions of music vary widely in substance and approach. While scholars agree that music is defined by a small number of specific elements, there is no consensus as to what these necessary elements are. Music is often characterized as a highly versatile medium for expressing human creativity. Diverse activities are involved in the creation of music, and are often divided into categories of composition, improvisation, and performance. Music may be performed using a wide variety of musical instruments, including the human voice. It can also be composed, sequenced, or otherwise produced to be indirectly played mechanically or electronically, such as via a music box, barrel organ, or digital audio workstation software on a computer.

Music often plays a key role in social events and religious ceremony. The techniques of making music are often transmitted as part of a cultural tradition. Music is played in public and private contexts, highlighted at events such as festivals and concerts for various different types of ensembles. Music is used in the production of other media, such as in soundtracks to films, TV shows, operas, and video games.

Listening to music is a common means of entertainment. The culture surrounding music extends into areas of academic study, journalism, philosophy, psychology, and therapy. The music industry includes songwriters, performers, sound engineers, producers, tour organizers, distributors of instruments, accessories, and publishers of sheet music and recordings. Technology facilitating the recording and reproduction of music has historically included sheet music, microphones, phonographs, and tape machines, with playback of digital musics being a common use for MP3 players, CD players, and smartphones. (Full article...)

General images -

The following are images from various music-related articles on Wikipedia.

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  An audience watching a concert (from Music industry)
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  J. S. Bach (from History of music)
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  The portable Discman CD player, which was released in 1984 and precipitated the displacement of LPs (from Album era)
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  Two musicians of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25–220 CE), Shanghai Museum (from History of music)
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  A young couple listening to music on an iPod Mini, 2006 (from Album era)
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  The Bull Headed Lyre of Ur, found in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, is the best known of the ancient Lyres of Ur (from History of music)
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  The Japanese boy band Arashi, who had the world's best-selling album (5x20 All the Best!!) in 2019 (from Album era)
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  Alleluia nativitas by Perotin from the Codex Guelf.1099 (from History of music)
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  The monumental Bianzhong of Marquis Yi of Zeng, c. 5th century BCE, from Hubei (from History of music)
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  Beyoncé (2016) popularized the surprise-album strategy of the 2010s. (from Album era)
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  An HMV record shop in Wakefield, England closing its operation in 2013 (from Album era)
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  Drawing of the tablet with the Hymn to Nikkal (c. 1400 BCE), the oldest of the Hurrian songs (from History of music)
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  Taylor Swift, a longtime adherent to album-era rollouts, surprise-released her albums instead in 2020. (from Album era)
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  An LP record on a phonograph (from Album era)
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  Notation indicating differing pitch, dynamics, articulation, and instrumentation (from Elements of music)
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  Guillaume Du Fay (left), with Gilles Binchois (right) in a c. 1440 Illuminated manuscript copy of Martin le Franc's Le champion des dames (from History of music)
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  A musician in a recording studio (from Music industry)
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  A live musical performance at Cologne Pride, 2013 (from Music industry)
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  The Rolling Stones in 1967 (from Album era)
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  As LPs fell out of favor to CDs, hip hop producers repurposed them as sampling sources, contributing to the development of record collecting. (from Album era)
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  Circular definition of "musicality" (from Elements of music)
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  Platinum records by Elvis Presley, Prince, Madonna, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Bruce Springsteen, at Julien's Auctions (from Album era)
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  Clara and Robert Schumann (from History of music)
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  Sheet music for part of the Missa Papae Marcelli by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (from History of music)
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  Pink Floyd (1973) performing The Dark Side of the Moon, a leading commercial success of the LP era (from Album era)
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  Kanye West (2007) emerged during the decade as an important hip-hop producer and album artist. (from Album era)
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  Stevie Wonder, among the era's innovative artists (from Album era)
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  A smartphone displaying playlists on Spotify, 2010. The streaming service became a dominant and redefining platform for music consumption through the decade. (from Album era)
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  A young man browsing through a record store in Bonn, West Germany, June 1988 (from Album era)
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  c. 379 CE Bas relief of Sassanid women playing the chang in Taq-e Bostan, Iran (from History of music)
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  Frances Densmore at the Smithsonian Institution in 1916 where she was recording Blackfoot chief Mountain Chief for the Bureau of American Ethnology. In this picture, Mountain Chief is listening to a recording. (from Music industry)
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  A radio broadcasting system from 1906 (from Music industry)
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  A Rhodes College student listening to the 1969 Yes LP on campus, c. 1970 (from Album era)
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  A studio engineer working with an audio mixer in a recording studio (from Music industry)
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  The Beatles (1964) have been credited by music historians for heralding the album era. (from Album era)
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  The logo for Apple Inc.'s online iTunes store, which sells digital files of songs and musical pieces–along with a range of other content, such as digital files of TV shows and movies (from Music industry)
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  Musicians working in a recording studio (from Music industry)
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  An example of mechanically printed sheet music (from Music industry)
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  US vinyl sales in units, 1995–2020; while album sales overall declined, those in the vinyl format rose toward the end of the 2010s. (from Album era)
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  Terracotta statue of a Parthian lute player (from History of music)
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  Frank Sinatra (c. 1955), an early pop album artist (from Album era)

Featured articles -

Featured articles are displayed here, which represent some of the best content on English Wikipedia.

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  Fauré in 1907

  
  The French composer Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924) wrote in many genres, including songs, chamber music, orchestral pieces, and choral works. His compositions for piano, written between the 1860s and the 1920s, include some of his best-known works.
  
  Fauré's major sets of piano works are thirteen nocturnes, thirteen barcarolles, six impromptus, and four valses-caprices. These sets were composed during several decades in his long career, and display the change in his style from uncomplicated youthful charm to a final enigmatic, but sometimes fiery introspection, by way of a turbulent period in his middle years. His other notable piano pieces, including shorter works, or collections composed or published as a set, are Romances sans paroles, Ballade in F♯ major, Mazurka in B♭ major, Thème et variations in C♯ minor, and Huit pièces brèves. For piano duet, Fauré composed the Dolly Suite and, together with his friend and former pupil André Messager, an exuberant parody of Wagner in the short suite Souvenirs de Bayreuth. (Full article...)
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  Lukather performing in 2017

  
  Steven Lee "Luke" Lukather (born October 21, 1957) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, best known as the sole continuous founding member of the rock band Toto. His reputation as a skilled guitarist led to a steady flow of session work beginning in the 1970s that has since established him as a prolific session musician, recording guitar tracks for more than 1,500 albums spanning a broad array of artists and genres. He has also contributed to albums and hit singles as a songwriter, arranger and producer. Notably, Lukather played guitar on Boz Scaggs' albums Down Two Then Left (1977) and Middle Man (1980), and was a prominent contributor to several studio albums by Michael Jackson, including Thriller (1982). Lukather has released nine solo albums, the latest of which, Bridges, was released in June 2023.
  
  Influenced by blues-rock guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page, and such jazz fusion players as Al Di Meola and John McLaughlin, Lukather is known for a "melodic and intense" playing style. He is also recognized for his efficiency in the studio, often recording tracks in one take using minimal sound processing. While he once used many guitar effects in the studio and on stage, he now frequently disparages such practice, and instead advocates cleaner tones and minimal studio processing. Lukather plays primarily a signature electric guitar manufactured by Ernie Ball Music Man bearing his nickname, Luke. He also plays Yamaha and Ovation Adamas series acoustic–electric guitars. (Full article...)
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  Here Is Mariah Carey, also known as Mariah Carey or This Is Mariah Carey, is the third video album by American singer Mariah Carey. It presents Carey performing live at Proctor's Theatre in Schenectady, New York, in July 1993, and also includes non-concert footage. Carey performs ten songs during the video; four are from her third studio album Music Box (1993), which Columbia Records commissioned Here Is Mariah Carey to promote. She is sporadically accompanied by a band, choir, dancers, and string musicians. In creating the stage for the performance, production designers sought inspiration from works by Boris Aronson and Josep Maria Jujol. Lawrence Jordan, who collaborated with Carey on previous occasions, directed the hour-long video.
  
  Approximately 4,500 people attended tapings at Proctor's Theater, and 19 million watched it on television network NBC during its original broadcast on November 25, 1993. Columbia Music Video released it on VHS five days later to generally positive reviews from critics. Although they complimented Carey's voice, many felt the non-concert scenes were redundant. Here Is Mariah Carey peaked at number four on the United States video album chart published by Billboard. Earning a Platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America, it was one of the best-selling video albums of 1994 and 1995 in that country. The video also spent six weeks at number one on the Official Charts Company's music videos chart in the United Kingdom. (Full article...)
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  Doolittle, the second studio album by the American alternative rock band Pixies, was released on April 17, 1989, on 4AD records. The album was an instant critical success and became the band's breakthrough album. Doolittle was especially well received in Europe, where the British music weeklies Melody Maker and Sounds named it their album of the year. Pixies' main songwriter and lead vocalist Black Francis wrote the idiosyncratic lyrics, which allude to surrealist imagery, biblical violence, and descriptions of torture and death.
  
  The album is praised for its "quiet/loud" dynamic, which was achieved through subdued verses that are founded on Kim Deal's bass patterns and David Lovering's drums. The peaks in tone and volume were achieved through the addition of distorted guitars by Francis and Joey Santiago. This technique influenced the development of early-1990s grunge music; Kurt Cobain said Doolittle was one of his favorite records and that its songs heavily influenced Nirvana's song "Smells Like Teen Spirit". (Full article...)
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  "No" (stylized in all caps) is a song by American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor from her second major-label studio album, Thank You (2016). Ricky Reed produced the song and wrote it with Trainor and Jacob Kasher Hindlin; Epic Records released it as the album's lead single on March 4, 2016. A dance-pop song inspired by 1990s pop music and R&B, "No" has lyrics about sexual consent and empowerment, encouraging women to reject unwanted advances from men.
  
  Music critics praised "No" as a showcase of Trainor's confident and mature side and deemed it an improvement from her earlier songs. In the United States, the song reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified 2× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. It also reached the top 10 in Australia, Canada, Austria, Israel, Latvia, South Africa, and Scotland, attaining multi-platinum certifications in the former two and Poland. (Full article...)
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  Smetana, c. 1878

  

  
  
  Bedřich Smetana (/ˌbɛdərʒɪx ˈsmɛtənə/ BED-ər-zhikh SMET-ə-nə; Czech: [ˈbɛdr̝ɪx ˈsmɛtana] ; 2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his people's aspirations to a cultural and political "revival". He has been regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. Internationally he is best known for his 1866 opera The Bartered Bride and for the symphonic cycle Má vlast ("My Fatherland"), which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer's native Bohemia. It contains the famous symphonic poem "Vltava", also popularly known by its German name "Die Moldau" (in English, "The Moldau").
  
  Smetana was naturally gifted as a composer, and gave his first public performance at the age of six. After conventional schooling, he studied music under Josef Proksch in Prague. His first nationalistic music was written during the 1848 Prague uprising, in which he briefly participated. After failing to establish his career in Prague, he left for Sweden, where he set up as a teacher and choirmaster in Gothenburg, and began to write large-scale orchestral works. (Full article...)
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  Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) is the fourth studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on November 11, 2000, by Nothing and Interscope Records. A rock opera concept album, it is the final installment of a triptych that also included Antichrist Superstar (1996), and marked a return to the industrial metal style of the band's earlier work, after the glam rock-influenced production of Mechanical Animals (1998). After its release, the band's eponymous vocalist said that the overarching story within the trilogy is presented in reverse chronological order: Holy Wood, therefore, begins the narrative.
  
  In the aftermath of the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999, national news media reported that the perpetrators were wearing the band's T-shirts during the rampage, and had been influenced by their music, both of which were untrue. As their first release after the massacre, the record was Manson's rebuttal to the accusations leveled against him and the group, and was described by the vocalist as a "declaration of war". It was written in the singer's former home in the Hollywood Hills and recorded in several undisclosed locations, including Death Valley and Laurel Canyon. His ambitions for Holy Wood initially included an eponymous film exploring its backstory—a project which has since been abandoned and was modified into the as-yet-unreleased Holy Wood novel. (Full article...)
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  Reign in Blood is the third studio album by American thrash metal band Slayer, released on October 07, 1986, by Def Jam Recordings. The album was the band's first collaboration with producer Rick Rubin, whose input helped the band's sound evolve. The release date of the album was delayed because of concerns regarding the lyrical subject matter of the opening track "Angel of Death", which refers to Josef Mengele and describes acts such as human experimentation that he committed at the Auschwitz concentration camp. The band's members stated that they did not condone Nazism and were merely interested in the subject.
  
  Reign in Blood was well received by both critics and fans, and was responsible for bringing Slayer to the attention of a mainstream metal audience. Today, it is often mentioned among the greatest heavy metal records ever. In their 2017 listing of the 100 Greatest Metal albums of all time, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Reign in Blood at #6. Alongside Anthrax's Among the Living, Megadeth's Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?, and Metallica's Master of Puppets, Reign in Blood helped define the sound of the emerging US thrash metal scene in the mid-1980s, and has remained influential since. The album was Slayer's first to enter the US Billboard 200, peaking at number 94, and was certified Gold on November 20, 1992. In 2013, NME ranked it at number 287 in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. (Full article...)
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  Boulez in 1968

  
  
  Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (French: [pjɛʁ lwi ʒozεf bulɛz]; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music.
  
  Born in Montbrison, in the Loire department of France, the son of an engineer, Boulez studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Olivier Messiaen, and privately with Andrée Vaurabourg and René Leibowitz. He began his professional career in the late 1940s as music director of the Renaud-Barrault theatre company in Paris. He was a leading figure in avant-garde music, playing an important role in the development of integral serialism in the 1950s, controlled chance music in the 1960s and the electronic transformation of instrumental music in real time from the 1970s onwards. His tendency to revise earlier compositions meant that his body of work was relatively small, but it included pieces considered landmarks of twentieth-century music, such as Le Marteau sans maître, Pli selon pli and Répons. His uncompromising commitment to modernism and the trenchant, polemical tone in which he expressed his views on music led some to criticise him as a dogmatist. (Full article...)
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  Song of Innocence is the debut album by American composer and producer David Axelrod. It was released in October 1968 by Capitol Records. In an effort to capitalize on the experimental climate of popular music at the time, Axelrod composed the album as a suite-like tone poem interpreting Songs of Innocence, a 1789 illustrated collection of poems by William Blake. Recording took place at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles with an orchestra and studio musicians from the Wrecking Crew collective, including keyboardist and conductor Don Randi, guitarist Al Casey, bassist Carol Kaye, and drummer Earl Palmer.
  
  An instrumental jazz fusion record, Song of Innocence incorporates elements of classical, rock, funk, pop, and theatre music. Axelrod arranged the music for bass, drums, and string instruments, composing in a rock idiom with tempos centered on such rhythms played by Palmer. He used contrast in his orchestral compositions, interspersing their euphoric psychedelic R&B structures with dramatic, harrowing arrangements to reflect the supernatural themes found in Blake's poems. The resulting music's reverent, psychedelic overtones have been interpreted as evoking the poet's themes of innocence and spirituality. (Full article...)
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  "Water Under the Bridge" is a song by English singer Adele from her third studio album 25 (2015). Adele wrote the song with its producer, Greg Kurstin. Columbia Records released the track as the album's fourth single on 14 November 2016. A mid-tempo pop, soul and soft rock song, "Water Under the Bridge" incorporates influences of 1980s music, R&B, and a gospel choir over guitars and snare drums. Inspired by her relationship with charity founder Simon Konecki, who Adele dated for seven years and married in 2018, the song speaks of forgiveness and details the crucial point in a courtship of determining whether one's partner is willing to put in the work to make it succeed.
  
  Music critics praised Adele's vocal performance, though some thought it was too loud and criticised some of the production choices. It reached number one in Israel and the top 10 in Poland, Belgium, and Iceland and gained Platinum or higher certifications in Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. Adele performed it for her NBC special Adele Live in New York City and on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and included it on the set list of her concert tour Adele Live 2016 and her residency Weekends with Adele. In 2021, a mashup of it and Megan Thee Stallion's performance of "Body" at the American Music Awards of 2020 became a trend on TikTok. (Full article...)
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  "I Don't Wanna Cry" is a song recorded by American singer Mariah Carey for her first album Mariah Carey (1990). Written by Carey and producer Narada Michael Walden, Columbia Records released it as the album's fourth single in March 1991. A Latin soul–influenced pop ballad, the torch song describes the end of romance. It features drums, guitars, digital synthesizers, and a classic song structure with highly delineated section roles. Modulations occur between these segments that emphasize the singer's emotions. Varying from whispering to belting, Carey's vocal range spans more than two octaves.
  
  Critics viewed "I Don't Wanna Cry" as a standout track from Mariah Carey and complimented the dynamic between Carey's vocals and Walden's production. The song received high airplay across American adult contemporary, urban contemporary, and contemporary hit radio stations. It became Carey's fourth consecutive number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, making her the second act to have their first four entries reach number one. The Recording Industry Association of America certified it Gold. Internationally, "I Don't Wanna Cry" reached the top ten on sales and airplay charts in Canada and the top twenty in New Zealand. (Full article...)
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  Kyla in 2018

  
  Melanie Hernandez Calumpad (born January 5, 1981), known professionally as Kyla, is a Filipino singer, actress, and television personality. Known for her vocal range and melismatic singing style, she has been credited with helping to redefine R&B and soul music in the Philippines. Her sound became a catalyst in the growth and popularity of the music genres, making her a prominent pop culture figure. She has been cited by media outlets as the country's "Queen of R&B".
  
  Kyla started performing in singing competitions as a child, and first gained recognition as a runner-up in the talent competition show Metropop Star Search in 1997. She signed with EMI Philippines and released her debut album Way to Your Heart (2000), supported by the single "Hanggang Ngayon", which won the International Viewer's Choice Award for Southeast Asia at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards. Kyla began songwriting for her eponymous second album, which contained elements of soul and R&B. Kyla's I Will Be There (2003) featured English boy band Blue, and Not Your Ordinary Girl (2004) and Beautiful Days (2006) included tracks written by American singer-songwriter Keith Martin. Her succeeding releases were the cover albums Heartfelt (2007), and Heart 2 Heart (2009). Her next album, Private Affair (2010), featured the lead single "Don't Tie Me Down". After signing a new contract with Star Music in 2015, she released her ninth album The Queen of R&B (2018). Kyla's first seven records are all platinum-certified by the Philippine Association of the Record Industry. (Full article...)
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  Title is the debut EP by American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor. Kevin Kadish produced all of its songs and wrote them with Trainor. The two conceived the EP shortly after Trainor signed with Epic Records in 2014. The label released it on September 9, 2014, and replaced it with a pre-order for Trainor's 2015 debut major-label studio album of the same name the following month.
  
  Musically, Title comprises songs inspired by 1950s doo wop that lie between modern R&B and melodic pop. The EP has a lyrical theme of commitment and staying true to oneself, which Trainor hoped would empower women. It includes Trainor's debut single, "All About That Bass", which was released on June 30, 2014, and reached No. 1 in 58 countries with worldwide sales of 11 million units. (Full article...)
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  Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (/boʊlt/; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was a British conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was conductor of the City of Birmingham Orchestra in 1924. When the British Broadcasting Corporation appointed him director of music in 1930, he established the BBC Symphony Orchestra and became its chief conductor. The orchestra set standards of excellence that were rivalled in Britain only by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), founded two years later.
  
  Forced to leave the BBC in 1950 on reaching retirement age, Boult became principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The orchestra had declined from its peak of the 1930s, but under his guidance its fortunes were revived. He retired as its chief conductor in 1957, and later accepted the post of president. Although in the latter part of his career he worked with several other orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and his former orchestra, the BBC Symphony, it was the LPO with which he was primarily associated, conducting it in concerts and recordings until 1978, in what was widely called his "Indian summer". (Full article...)

Selected pictures

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  Jules Massenet

  Photograph credit: Eugène Pirou; restored by Adam Cuerden

  Jules Massenet (12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era, best known for his operas. Between 1867 and his death, he wrote more than forty stage works in a wide variety of styles, from opéra comique to grand depictions of classical myths, romantic comedies and lyric dramas, as well as oratorios, cantatas and ballets. Massenet had a good sense of the theatre and of what would succeed with the Parisian public. Despite some miscalculations, he produced a series of successes that made him the leading opera composer in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By the time of his death, he was regarded as old-fashioned; his works, however, began to be favourably reassessed during the mid-20th century, and many have since been staged and recorded. This photograph of Massenet was taken by French photographer Eugène Pirou in 1875.
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  Hayley Williams

  Photograph: Sven-Sebastian Sajak

  Hayley Williams (born December 27, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and businesswoman. She serves as the lead vocalist, primary songwriter and occasional keyboardist of the rock band Paramore. Born in Meridian, Mississippi, Williams moved to Franklin, Tennessee, at the age of fifteen after her parents divorced. In 2004, she formed Paramore alongside Josh Farro, Zac Farro, and Jeremy Davis. The band currently consists of Williams, Farro and Taylor York. They have released five studio albums: All We Know Is Falling (2005), Riot! (2007), Brand New Eyes (2009), Paramore (2013) and After Laughter (2017).
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  Billy Strayhorn

  Photograph credit: William P. Gottlieb; restored by Adam Cuerden

  Billy Strayhorn (November 29, 1915 – May 31, 1967) was an American jazz composer, pianist, lyricist, and arranger, best remembered for his long-time collaboration with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington that lasted nearly three decades. Though classical music was Strayhorn's first love, his ambition to become a classical composer went unrealized because of the harsh reality of a black man trying to make his way in the world of classical music, which at that time was almost completely white. He was introduced to the music of pianists like Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson at age 19, and the artistic influence of these musicians guided him into the realm of jazz, where he remained for the rest of his life. This photograph of Strayhorn was taken by William P. Gottlieb in the 1940s.
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  Ane Brun

  Photo: Benoît Derrier; edit: Keraunoscopia

  Ane Brun (b. 1976) is a Norwegian songwriter, guitarist and vocalist. She has recorded eight albums, starting in 2003 with Spending Time with Morgan.
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  Aida

  Drawing credit: Philippe Chaperon; restored by Adam Cuerden

  Aida is a grand opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its premiere there on 24 December 1871, in a performance conducted by Giovanni Bottesini. Today, the work holds a central place in the operatic canon, receiving performances every year around the world; at New York's Metropolitan Opera alone, Aida has been sung more than 1,100 times since 1886.
  
  This picture is the set design for Act 1, Scene 2, of the opera's 1871 premiere, depicting the portico of the Temple of Vulcan, designed by Philippe Chaperon. The drawing is in the collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
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  Oceana (singer)

  Photo: ChrisHamburg

  Oceana (born 1982) is a German singer of German/Martiniquen descent. She is shown here performing at the Radio Hamburg Top 820.
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  Lina Rafn

  Photo: Jepsen

  Lina Rafn (b. 1976) is a Danish singer, songwriter and producer active with the band Infernal. She had previously been a VJ on the show The Voice TV Danmark.
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  Les Troyens

  Illustration credit: Antoine Barbizet; restored by Adam Cuerden

  Les Troyens (The Trojans) is a French grand opera in five acts by Hector Berlioz, with a libretto written by the composer himself based on Virgil's Aeneid. The score was composed between 1856 and 1858, but Berlioz did not live long enough to see the work performed in its entirety. The first two acts were performed separately under the title La Prise de Troie. This picture shows the cover of the first-edition vocal score for La Prise de Troie, published in 1863.
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  Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

  Photograph credit: unknown; restored by Adam Cuerden

  Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (15 August 1875 – 1 September 1912) was an English composer and conductor. His greatest success was his cantata Hiawatha's Wedding Feast. This set the epic poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to music, and was widely performed by choral groups in England and the United States. Composers were not well paid; the work sold hundreds of thousands of copies, but he had sold the music outright for the sum of 15 guineas, so did not benefit directly. He learned to retain his rights and earned royalties for other compositions after achieving wide renown, but always struggled financially. This photograph of Coleridge-Taylor was taken around 1905.
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  Mike Dirnt

  Photograph: Sven-Sebastian Sajak

  Mike Dirnt (b. 1972) is an American musician, songwriter and composer. He is best known as the co-founder, bassist, backing and occasional lead vocalist of American punk rock band Green Day. He has played in several other bands, including The Frustrators.
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  Hera Hjartardóttir

  Photo: Kyle Cassidy

  Hera is an Icelandic singer-songwriter who emigrated to New Zealand as a teenager. She is known for her facial art, which is "inspired by moko and also by Celtic warrior paint" and intended to represent both her Icelandic and New Zealand heritage. In 2002 she was named Best Female Singer at the Icelandic Music Awards.
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  Ludwig van Beethoven

  Photo: W. J. Mayer; Restoration: Lise Broer

  A bust of the German composer and pianist Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), made from his death mask. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time. Born in Bonn, of the Electorate of Cologne and a part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in present-day Germany, he moved to Vienna in his early twenties and settled there, studying with Joseph Haydn and quickly gaining a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. His hearing began to deteriorate in the late 1790s, yet he continued to compose, conduct, and perform, even after becoming completely deaf.
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  Nina Sublatti

  Photograph: Ailura

  Nina Sublatti (b. 1995) is a Georgian singer, songwriter, and model. Having previously won the 2013 Georgian edition of Idol, she achieved international attention when she represented her country in Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with her song "Warrior". She has since served as a judge on X Factor Georgia and Idols.
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  Le mage

  Poster credit: Alfredo Leonardo Edel; restored by Adam Cuerden

  Le mage is an opera in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Jean Richepin. First performed at the Paris Opera in 1891, it has rarely been performed since its premiere run of 31 performances, and is one of Massenet's least-known operas. A rare complete concert performance took place at the Massenet Festival in Saint-Étienne in 2012. This poster by Alfredo Edel was produced for the opera's premiere on 16 March 1891.
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  Nelly Martyl

  Photograph credit: Jean Reutlinger; restored by Adam Cuerden

  Nelly Martyl (1884–1953) was a French opera singer. She sang in the premieres of several operas, including Leborne's La Catalane (1907), Erlanger's La Sorcière (1912), and Massenet's Amadis (1922). Martyl joined the Red Cross as a nurse during the First World War, and served at the Battle of Verdun in 1916, where she was known as la fée de Verdun (the Fairy of Verdun), and at the Second Battle of the Aisne in 1917. She continued as a nurse after the war to help with the 1918 epidemic of Spanish flu. She was awarded the Croix de Guerre with the carte du combattant (signifying service under particular hazard) in 1920.

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Today's Birthdays

Birthdays in Music: November 7

• Jan Allan, Swedish trumpeter, turns 90.
• Johnny Rivers, American singer, songwriter and guitarist, turns 82.
• Joni Mitchell, Canadian singer-songwriter, turns 81.
• Nick Gilder, Brit vocalist with Canadian glam rock act, Sweeney Todd, turns 73.
• John Benitez, (a.k.a. Jellybean Benitez), turns 67.
• Liam Ó Maonlaí, Irish multi-instrumentalist with Hothouse Flowers, turns 60.
• Sharleen Spiteri, Scottish singer and songwriter for Texas, turns 57.

• David Guetta, French house music DJ and producer, turns 57.
• Greg Tribbett, American musician with Mudvayne, turns 56.
• Hélène Grimaud, French pianist, turns 55.
• Neil Hannon, Irish musician with The Divine Comedy, turns 54.
• Robin Finck, American musician, turns 53.
• Rob Caggiano, American guitarist from Boiler Room (band), Anthrax (American band), and Volbeat, turns 48.
• Jon Peter Lewis, American singer, turns 45.

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