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Entertainment > Musicians & Bands Band reviews: XTC: 1 of 3
The true success stories of contemporary music are attributable not only to musical talent but to business savvy and a substantial amount of good luck. Numerous factors come into play when gauging the creative and commercial success of a band, and several artists who have seemingly had everything going for them artistically ... More..
Society & Lifestyle > African-American Issues Comparing the legacy of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X: 6 of 13
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X represented two sides to the civil rights struggles of the 1960's. King's message of non-violence and integration and Malcolm X's message of separatism "by any means necessary" were mutually exclusive: black Americans essentially had to choose one or the other. However, they were uni... More..
Entertainment > Music Genres, Trends & Scenes The history of music: Music and society in the 60s: 3 of 6
The duty of popular music has always been to act as a mirror reflecting its audience. Nowhere was this more evident than in the 1960s, when the Baby Boomers came of age and gave rise to an explosion of youth-oriented music that reflected their dissatisfaction with cultural norms. This musical revolution led to the creation o... More..
Entertainment > Musicians & Bands Band reviews: The Monkees: 2 of 4
Given the force with which The Beatles exploded in America, it was fairly inevitable that a flurry of entrepreneurs would attempt to replicate the success of the Fab Four. Starting in 1964, the marketplace became cluttered with sub-par attempts to jump on the Beatle bandwagon: record companies pressed countless records from ... More..
Entertainment > Album Reviews Album reviews: SMiLE, by Brian Wilson: 2 of 4
The myth of Brian Wilson's Smile has grown so large that it is almost impossible to review it with an objective eye. The album, devised in 1967 as a "teenage symphony to God" that would establish the Beach Boys as a serious band above their surf-rock roots, was left unfinished after Wilson received little support from his ba... More..
Entertainment > Music Production & Engineering Loudness wars: The downfall of dynamic range: 1 of 2
In the movie "This Is Spinal Tap," the lead guitarist of the titular fictional band, Nigel Tufnel (played by Christopher Guest), shows off his customized Marshall amplifier. The main difference between Nigel's amplifier and stock Marshalls is that all of his level controls (volume, equalization, gain, etc.) go to 11 instead ... More..
Entertainment > Movie Analysis Movie analysis: Brazil: 1 of 2
Terry Gilliam's 1985 film Brazil opens with a subtitle which places the events as taking place "sometime in the 20th century." Unlike George Orwell's 1984 (a dystopian novel set in the future with which Brazil is often compared), Brazil is imbued from the start with an ambiguity as to whether its world represents the past, t... More..
Entertainment > Musicians & Bands Musician reviews: Daniel Johnston: 1 of 1
This story starts like all stories about music should: with a song. I was a junior in high school sitting in my school's computer lab and listening to an Internet radio station. The lack of Clear Channel restrictions on Internet radio stations is something of a blessing and a curse; you occasionally hear gems that would neve... More..
Entertainment > Musicians & Bands Musicians: Arthur Alexander: 1 of 1
The history of popular music is filled with what are sometimes unkindly referred to as footnotes - artists that, because of bad business decisions, bad timing, or just bad luck, never got the recognition or fame that their talent deserved. One of the first artists to fall into this unfortunate category is Arthur Alexander, a... More..
Entertainment > Musicians & Bands Are aging rock superstars like Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones timeless or too old to perform on stage anymore?: 85 of 151
In genres like blues or classical, an artist's age adds to their respectability - the older the artist, the more experience or insight they have acquired and the more respect they earn. But because rock music's roots are in young people rejecting the norms of the previous generation, rock artists that continue performing int... More..