This portal is focused on music production within the era of written records through sound recordings, digital downloads, and beyond. Its scope includes articles that document the considerations and mechanisms used by, and consistent with, the purview of the production element. As an art form, music predates transcription and simultaneously transcends descriptive limitations. As an industry, music has demonstrated consistent viability over time. The record producer conjoins these potential, and serves as a broker to bridge the demand (spawned by their aspirations) with supply and satisfaction. The results are measurable and attributable, derived from effort and skillful application of craft, to a manifestation of the art in its melodic form. (Read more)
Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and dancer. She is noted for her innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows. Her sound and choreography became a catalyst in the growth of MTV, enabling her to rise to prominence while breaking gender and racial barriers in the process. Lyrical content that focused on social issues and lived experiences set her reputation as a role model for youth.
Kathleen Mary FerrierCBE (22 April 1912 – 8 October 1953) was an English contralto singer who achieved an international reputation as a stage, concert and recording artist, with a repertoire extending from folksong and popular ballads to the classical works of Bach, Brahms, Mahler and Elgar. Her death from cancer, at the height of her fame, was a shock to the musical world and particularly to the general public, which was kept in ignorance of the nature of her illness until after her death.
The daughter of a Lancashire village schoolmaster, Ferrier showed early talent as a pianist, and won numerous amateur piano competitions while working as a telephonist with the General Post Office. She did not take up singing seriously until 1937, when after winning a prestigious singing competition at the Carlisle Festival she began to receive offers of professional engagements as a vocalist. Thereafter she took singing lessons, first with J. E. Hutchinson and later with Roy Henderson. Following the outbreak of the Second World War Ferrier was recruited by the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA), and in the following years sang at concerts and recitals throughout the UK. In 1942 her career was boosted when she met the conductor Malcolm Sargent, who recommended her to the influential Ibbs and Tillett concert management agency. She became a regular performer at leading London and provincial venues, and made numerous BBC radio broadcasts. (Full article...)
Image 4
"My Happiness" is a song by Australian rock band Powderfinger. It was released via record labelUniversal Music Australia in August 2000 as the first single from the band's fourth album, Odyssey Number Five. Powderfinger frontman Bernard Fanning wrote the lyrics for "My Happiness" as a reflection on the time the band spent touring to promote their work, and the loneliness that came as a result. It was inspired by his love of gospel and soul music. The rest of the band are co-credited with Fanning for composing the track. Despite its melancholy mood, "My Happiness" is considered by many to be a love song, a suggestion Fanning regards as mystifying.
"My Happiness" is Powderfinger's highest charting single; it peaked at number four on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart, number seven on the New Zealand Singles Chart, and number 23 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart—the first Powderfinger song to do so, making it their most successful single in the US. In June 2020, the song was certified 5× Platinum in Australia. It won an ARIA Award and an APRA Award and topped the Triple J Hottest 100 in 2000 as well as coming 27th in the Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time in 2009. "My Happiness" was highly praised by critics, with even negative reviews of Odyssey Number Five noting it as a highlight, especially for its catchy chorus. One of the highlights of Powderfinger's United States tour with Coldplay was a performance of "My Happiness" on the Late Show with David Letterman; they were only the fourth Australian act to appear on the show. (Full article...)
Image 5
Spiderland is the second and final studio album by the American rock band Slint. It was released by Touch and Go Records on March 27, 1991. Slint's lineup at the time of recording comprised Brian McMahan on vocals and guitar, David Pajo on guitar, Todd Brashear on bass guitar and Britt Walford on drums. Spiderland was engineered by Brian Paulson and recorded over four days in August 1990. The music and vocal melodies were composed throughout the summer of 1990, while lyrics were written in-studio.
Forming in 1986 in Louisville, Kentucky, Slint had met as teenagers playing in the Midwesternpunk scene but soon diverged sonically from their hardcore punk roots. By the time they recorded Spiderland in mid-1990, the band had developed a complex, idiosyncratic sound characterized by atypical rhythmic meters, harmonic dissonance and irregular song structures. McMahan's vocal delivery on the record alternates between spoken word, singing and shouting. The lyrics are presented in a narrative style and cover themes such as unease, social anxiety, loneliness, and despair. (Full article...)
Originally composed for the film Shrek 2, "Bam Thwok" was not selected for the final soundtrack. The song's lyrics display a surrealistic and nonsensical nature typical of the band; Deal's inspiration was a discarded child's art book she found on a New York City street. The song's central theme is "showing goodwill to everyone." (Full article...)
Shortly after independent release in June 1987, the JAMs were ordered by the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society to destroy all unsold copies of the album, following a complaint from ABBA. In response, the JAMs disposed of many copies of 1987 in unorthodox, publicised ways. They also released a version of the album titled 1987 (The JAMs 45 Edits), stripped of all unauthorised samples to leave periods of protracted silence and so little audible content that it was formally classed as a 12-inch single. (Full article...)
Image 8
Side A of the 1972 UK single release
"Layla" is a song written by Eric Clapton and Jim Gordon, originally recorded with their band Derek and the Dominos, as the thirteenth track from their only studio album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970). Its contrasting movements were composed separately by Clapton and Gordon. The piano part has also been controversially credited to Rita Coolidge, Gordon's girlfriend at the time.
The song was inspired by a love story that originated in 7th-century Arab literature and later formed the basis of The Story of Layla and Majnun by the 12th-century Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi, a copy of which Ian Dallas had given to Clapton. The book moved Clapton profoundly, because it was the tale of a young man who fell hopelessly in love with a beautiful young girl, went crazy and so could not marry her. The song was further inspired by Clapton's secret love for Pattie Boyd, the wife of his friend and fellow musician George Harrison. After Harrison and Boyd divorced, Clapton and Boyd eventually married. (Full article...)
The day after its release, the YouTube page for the song had been viewed over 200,000 times, and over a million times by February 5, 2009. The Associated Press called it a "hypnotic dance track", and United Press International noted it was "catchy", characterizing it as a "YouTube sensation". Gil Kaufman of MTV.com described the piece as "a techno-ripping, demonic dance party". Time magazine's website called the track "hilarious", and Nine News characterized it as a "raging online success". The director of Terminator SalvationMcG liked the remix and put a copy of it on his iPod, and Bale said he had heard the remix and thought "they did a good job". (Full article...)
Image 10
Melodifestivalen (Swedish pronunciation:[mɛlʊˈdîːfɛstɪˌvɑːlɛn]; lit.'the Melody Festival') is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almost every year since 1959. In the early 2000s, the competition was the most popular television program in Sweden; it is also broadcast on radio and the Internet. In 2012, the heats averaged 3.3 million viewers, and over an estimated four million people in Sweden watched the final, almost half of the Swedish population.
The festival has produced seven Eurovision winners and 26 top-five placings for Sweden in the contest. The winner of Melodifestivalen has been chosen by panels of jurors since its inception. Since 1999, the juries have been joined by a public telephone vote which has an equal influence over the outcome. The competition makes a considerable impact on the music charts in Sweden. (Full article...)
Image 11
Narayan in 1974
Ram Narayan (IPA:[raːmnaːˈɾaːjəɳ]; 25 December 1927 – 9 November 2024), often referred to with the title Pandit, was an Indian musician who popularised the bowed instrument sarangi as a solo concert instrument in Hindustani classical music and became the first internationally successful sarangi player.
Narayan was born near Udaipur and learned to play the sarangi at an early age. He studied under sarangi players and singers and, as a teenager, worked as a music teacher and travelling musician. All India Radio, Lahore, hired Narayan as an accompanist for vocalists in 1944. Narayan relocated to Delhi following the partition of India in 1947, but, wishing to go beyond accompaniment and frustrated with his supporting role, moved to Mumbai in 1949 to work in Indian cinema. (Full article...)
Reznor described Ghosts as "a soundtrack for daydreams," a sentiment echoed by critics, who compared it to the work of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp. The tracks are unnamed, identified only by their track listing and group number, and are almost entirely instrumental. Although conceived as a five-track EP, the final release consisted of four nine-track EPs, totaling 36 tracks. The album was released under a Creative Commons license (BY-NC-SA) and in a variety of differing packages and prices, including a $300 deluxe edition, without prior announcement. A YouTube-based film festival was also announced, inviting fans to visually interpret the music and post their submissions, but no mention has been made of the festival since its announcement. (Full article...)
... that voice actress Rika Hayashi brought a golf club to the recording studio for Tonbo!, a golf-themed anime series?
... that according to Billboard magazine, Laufey created a blueprint for jazz music in the modern music industry and helped push it back into the mainstream?
These are all Good articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.
Image 1
Final Fantasy VII is a role-playing video game by Square (now Square Enix) as the seventh installment in the Final Fantasy series. Released in 1997, the game sparked the release of a collection of media centered on the game entitled the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. The music of the Final Fantasy VII series includes not only the soundtrack to the original game and its associated albums, but also the soundtracks and music albums released for the other titles in the collection. The first album produced was Final Fantasy VII Original Soundtrack, a compilation of all the music in the game. It was released as a soundtrack album on four CDs by DigiCube in 1997. A selection of tracks from the album was released in the single-disc Reunion Tracks by DigiCube the same year. Piano Collections Final Fantasy VII, an album featuring piano arrangements of pieces from the soundtrack, was released in 2003 by DigiCube, and Square Enix began reprinting all three albums in 2004. To date, these are the only released albums based on the original game's soundtrack, and were solely composed by regular series composer Nobuo Uematsu; his role for the majority of subsequent albums has been filled by Masashi Hamauzu and Takeharu Ishimoto.
The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII began eight years after the release of Final Fantasy VII with the release of the animated film sequel Advent Children in 2005. The soundtracks for each of the titles in the collection are included in an album, starting with the album release of the soundtrack to Advent Children that year. The following year, Nippon Crown released a soundtrack album to correspond with the video game Dirge of Cerberus, while Square Enix launched a download-only collection of music from the multiplayer mode of the game, which was only released in Japan. After the launch of the game Crisis Core in 2007, Warner Music Japan produced the title's soundtrack. The latest album in the collection, Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII & Last Order: Final Fantasy VII Original Soundtrack, was released by Square Enix the same year as a combined soundtrack album for the game Before Crisis and the animated movie Last Order. (Full article...)
Image 2
Music Box is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey. It was released by Columbia Records on August 31, 1993. The album comprises ballads primarily written by Carey and Walter Afanasieff, with whom she had previously worked on Emotions (1991), and a few urban dance tracks. During the course of the album's development, Carey wanted to broaden her audience, choosing a more pop/R&B oriented sound. During this time frame, she experimented with different musical instruments, leading the album's sound away from her more contemporary previous two efforts.
In order to successfully take the album in a new direction, Carey and Afanasieff sought out new and innovative producers, as well as some from Carey's previous releases. Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds first began working with Carey on Music Box, where he helped produce "Never Forget You", as well as being part of the songwriting process. Additional writers and producers were Robert Clivillés and David Cole (a pair also known as C+C Music Factory) and Daryl Simmons. While the album featured a range of music producers, the bulk of the songwriting was done by Carey and her writing partner, Afanasieff. In future projects, they would continue writing material for Carey's albums, until her 1999 release Rainbow, where he is absent from the writing credits. (Full article...)
Image 3
B'Day is the second solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Beyoncé. It was released on August 31, 2006, by Columbia Records, Music World Entertainment and Sony Urban Music. Originally set to be released in 2004, B'Day was planned as a follow-up to Beyoncé's solo debut Dangerously in Love (2003). However, it was delayed to accommodate the recording of Destiny's Child's final studio album Destiny Fulfilled (2004) and Beyoncé's starring role in the 2006 film Dreamgirls. While on vacation after filming Dreamgirls, Beyoncé began contacting various producers and rented Sony Music Studios, completing the album within two weeks during April 2006. Most of the lyrical content of the album was inspired by Beyoncé's role in the film, with its musical style ranging from 1970s–1980s funk influences and balladry to urban contemporary elements such as hip hop, pop, and R&B. Live instrumentation was employed in recording most of the tracks as part of Beyoncé's vision of creating a record using live instruments.
Upon its release, B'Day received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who directed most of the acclaim towards its sonic quality and Beyoncé's vocal performance. A commercial success, the album debuted atop the US Billboard 200, selling over 541,000 copies in its first week. Among numerous additional accolades, it won Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards (2007). B'Day Anthology Video Album, which featured 13 music videos to accompany the album's tracks, was released alongside the album's Deluxe Editionreissue in April 2007. B'Day has been certified quintuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and, as of 2013, has sold over 8 million copies worldwide. (Full article...)
Critical reception of the album was generally positive. Although critics felt that it lacked a classic single and considered it a minor letdown compared to Body Talk Pt. 1, it received praise for being solid and club-ready. In Sweden, the album reached the top of the Sverigetopplistan chart. It also reached number one in Denmark and number three in Norway. In the United States, it peaked at number 41, becoming Robyn's highest position on the chart. (Full article...)
Image 5
Silicon Tare is the fourth extended play by American musician Seth Haley under his stage name Com Truise. It was released on April 1, 2016, by Ghostly International. Haley described his releases as Com Truise as parts of a sci-fi story about the world's first "synthetic astronaut", which started on his first studio album, Galactic Melt (2011), and Silicon Tare is where the astronaut makes contact with the Wave 1 colony. The EP was influenced in part by Haley moving to the West Coast.
Silicon Tare comprises five tracks and is considered by critics to be "warmer" and "faster" than previous releases. The EP was promoted with two singles and earned generally positive reviews, but received criticism for being too similar to previous releases. Commercially, it reached the fourth position on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Albums chart. (Full article...)
Image 6
Music of the Sun is the debut studio album by Barbadian singer Rihanna. It was released on August 29, 2005, by Def Jam Recordings. Prior to signing with Def Jam, Rihanna was discovered by record producer Evan Rogers in Barbados, who helped Rihanna record demo tapes to send out to several record labels. Jay-Z, the former chief executive officer (CEO) and president of Def Jam, was given Rihanna's demo by Jay Brown, his A&R at Def Jam, and invited her to audition for the label after hearing the song that would become her first single, "Pon de Replay". She auditioned for Jay-Z and L.A. Reid, the former CEO and president of record label group The Island Def Jam Music Group, and was signed on the spot to prevent her from signing with another record label.
Pleasant Dreams is the sixth studio album by the American punk rock band Ramones, released on July 20, 1981, through Sire Records. While the band members wanted Steve Lillywhite to produce, Sire chose Graham Gouldman in an attempt to gain popularity through a well-known producer. The recording process brought about many conflicts between band members, most notably the strife between Joey Ramone and Johnny Ramone, due to Johnny starting a relationship with Joey's girlfriend. There were also disputes about the overall direction of the album, with Johnny leaning towards hard rock and Joey towards pop punk. Ultimately, the album incorporated high production values and varying musical styles, straying from traditional punk rock on songs such as "We Want the Airwaves", "She's a Sensation" and "Come On Now". It is the first Ramones album not to feature any cover songs.
Despite Sire's efforts to broaden the band's appeal by enlisting Gouldman to produce, the album was not commercially successful, peaking at No. 58 on the Billboard 200 and only charting outside of the US in Sweden. The album also met with mixed critical reception. (Full article...)
Described as a loose concept album and rock opera, Ziggy Stardust focuses on Bowie's titular alter ego Ziggy Stardust, a fictional androgynous and bisexual rock star who is sent to Earth as a saviour before an impending apocalyptic disaster. In the story, Ziggy wins the hearts of fans but suffers a fall from grace after succumbing to his own ego. The character was inspired by numerous musicians, including Vince Taylor. Most of the album's concept was developed after the songs were recorded. The glam rock and proto-punk musical styles were influenced by Iggy Pop, The Velvet Underground and Marc Bolan. The lyrics explore the artificiality of rock music, political issues, drug use, sexuality and stardom. The album cover, photographed in monochrome and recoloured, was taken in London outside the home of furriers "K. West". (Full article...)
West began recording the album in August 2018, originally announcing it as Yandhi. The album missed two initial release dates in September and November 2018 under the original title, before being delayed indefinitely due to leaks. West had formed his gospel group the Sunday Service Choir in January 2019, performing gospel songs and covers of songs from West's discography. The song "Water" was performed live prior to release by the group. In August 2019, Yandhi was reannounced as Jesus Is King, but it missed two planned release dates for late September 2019 under the new title. (Full article...)
Image 11
Eternal Pyre is an EP by the thrash metal band Slayer. Released June 6, 2006 (06/06/06) through American Recordings, the EP was limited to a pressing of 1,000 (but later 5,000) copies. The album is a pre-release to the later album Christ Illusion, which, like the EP, features the song "Cult". The album was released exclusively through Hot Topic chain stores in the United States and copies were also available in Germany, Finland and Sweden on June 23, 2006. There are three tracks featured on the album, one of which is an audio track and the others are videos. The album was not well received by critics, with few critics actually reviewing the album. The album charted on four different charts, peaking number two in Finland and three in Denmark. (Full article...)
The following are images from various record production-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1Hip hop producer and rapper RZA in a music studio with two collaborators. Pictured in the foreground is a synthesizer keyboard and a number of vinyl records; both of these items are key tools that producers and DJs use to create hip hop beats. (from Hip-hop production)
Image 2Mixing desk with twenty inputs and eight outputs (from Multitrack recording)
Image 4Digital audio interface for the Pro Tools computer-based hard disk multitrack recording system. Digital audio quality is measured in data resolution per channel. (from Multitrack recording)
Image 11The TASCAM 85 16B analog tape multitrack recorder can record 16 tracks of audio on 1-inch (2.54cm) magnetic tape. Professional analog units of 24 tracks on 2-inch tape were common, with specialty tape heads providing 8, or even 16 tracks on the same tape width (8 tracks for greater fidelity). (from Multitrack recording)
Featured lists have been determined by the Wikipedia community to be the best lists on English Wikipedia.
Image 1
"3:AM" by Rapsody (pictured) featuring Erykah Badu is the most recent recipient
The Grammy Award for Best Melodic Rap Performance (awarded as Best Rap/Sung Collaboration until 2017, and Best Rap/Sung Performance from 2018 to 2020) is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality songs on which rappers and singers collaborate. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".
The name and definition of the category were changed in June 2020, with immediate effect, to represent the inclusivity of the growing hybrid performance trends within the rap genre. According to the Recording Academy, "This category is intended to recognize solo and collaborative performances containing elements of rap and melody over modern production. This performance requires a strong and clear presence of melody combined with rap cadence, and is inclusive of dialects, lyrics or performance elements from non-rap genres including R&B, rock, country, electronic or more. The production may include traditional elements of rap or elements characteristic of the aforementioned non-rap genres." (Full article...)
Four acts achieved their first number-one hit in 2009. The first was Mac McAnally, whose appearance as a guest vocalist on Kenny Chesney's cover version of his 1990 song "Down the Road" gave him his first appearance at the top of the chart in a career which stretched back to the 1970s. The group Lady Antebellum spent one week at number one in July with its first chart-topper, "I Run to You", and returned to the top with "Need You Now", which spent the last five weeks of the year at number one, the longest spell at the top by a single song. The six weeks which the trio spent at number one was the most by any act in 2009. "Need You Now" also achieved considerable crossover success, topping the Adult Contemporary and Adult Top 40 charts and reaching number 2 in Billboard's all-genre singles chart, the Hot 100. In October, both Justin Moore and Chris Young reached the top spot for the first time, with "Small Town USA" and "Gettin' You Home (The Black Dress Song)" respectively. This would be the first of five consecutive number-one hits for Young over a two-year period. (Full article...)
Robin Gibb reached number one on the Top Pops chart in 1969 with his song "Saved by the Bell", but the song did not top the BMRB chart and is therefore not regarded as an official UK number one. Top Pops is a former British weekly pop music newspaper. It was founded as a monthly publication by Woodrow Wyatt in May 1967, becoming fortnightly in November 1967. On 25 May 1968, editor Colin Bostock-Smith began compiling a singles sales chart using a telephone sample of approximately twelve W H Smith & Son stores – the first single to reach number one on the Top Pops chart was "Young Girl" by Gary Puckett & The Union Gap. The charts and paper were published weekly with effect from 22 June 1968. On 20 September 1969 the paper was rebranded Top Pops & Music Now, and subsequently became Music Now from 21 March 1970 – at this point the chart was sampling between 30 and 40 stores. From 27 February 1971 the chart was no longer published and in May 1971 the newspaper ceased publication. During the publication of the chart, 55 different singles reached number one. The only one to be knocked off number one and then regain the top spot was "Mony Mony" by Tommy James and the Shondells. The final chart-topper was "My Sweet Lord" by George Harrison.
From the advent of charts in the UK until 1969 several magazines and newspapers published their own charts, and there was no one "official" singles chart. In February 1969, however, Record Retailer and the BBC jointly commissioned the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) to compile an official chart. The Record Retailer chart is now considered by the Official Charts Company, the current compilers of the UK Singles Chart, to be the canonical source for number-one singles for the earlier part of the 1960s. Charts compiled by Top Pops had fifteen number-one singles that did not reach the top spot in the Record Retailer chart; in comparison, a total of nine Top Pops number-ones did not top the rival New Musical Express chart. Seven Top Pops number ones did not top either of the other publications' charts. Edwin Hawkins Singers' "Oh Happy Day", Robin Gibb's "Saved by the Bell", Bee Gees' "Don't Forget to Remember", and The Tremeloes' "(Call Me) Number One" all peaked at number two in both charts, Herman's Hermits' "My Sentimental Friend" and Don Fardon's "Indian Reservation" placed with one number two and one number three in each chart, and Stevie Wonder's "My Cherie Amour" reached fourth and third spot in the two charts. Fardon's "Indian Reservation," however, also made number one on the Melody Maker chart, so if that publication's number ones are factored in, Top Pops / Music Now's unique number ones total the six from 1969. (Full article...)
In the first issue of the new year, Reba McEntire reached number one with "Consider Me Gone", replacing "Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum, which had been number one since the issue dated November 28, 2009. With this release, for which the singer was credited only as Reba, McEntire gained the longest-running chart-topper of her career, and achieved the feat of having topped the chart in four different decades, having first reached number one in 1983 with "Can't Even Get the Blues". "Consider Me Gone" was one of three songs to tie for the longest run at the top of the chart in 2010, along with "Why Don't We Just Dance" by Josh Turner and "The House That Built Me" by Miranda Lambert; all three spent four weeks in the top spot. (Full article...)
Image 6
The Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (previously called Best Rhythm and Blues Solo Vocal Performance, Female) was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to female recording artists for quality R&B songs. Awards in several categories are distributed annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position."
According to the category description guide for the 52nd Grammy Awards, the award was presented to artists that performed "newly recorded solo R&B vocal performances". Solo numbers by members of an established group were not eligible for the award as "separate entries from the duo or group performances." Albums were also considered for the accolade until 1992. (Full article...)
Image 7
Richard Rodgers (left) and Lorenz Hart were responsible for a large number of 1930s standards, including "Blue Moon" (1934), "My Romance" (1935) and "My Funny Valentine" (1937).Jazz standards are musical compositions that are widely known, performed and recorded by jazz artists as part of the genre's musical repertoire. This list includes compositions written in the 1930s that are considered standards by at least one major fake book publication or reference work. Some of the tunes listed were already well known standards by the 1940s, while others were popularized later. Where appropriate, the years when the most influential recordings of a song were made are indicated in the list.
Michael Peterson achieved his first number one in December. Hot Country Songs is a chart that ranks the top-performing country music songs in the United States, published by Billboard magazine. In 1997, 23 different songs topped the chart, then published under the title Hot Country Singles & Tracks, in 52 issues of the magazine. Chart rankings were based on weekly airplay data from country music radio stations compiled by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems.
At the start of the year, the number one song was "One Way Ticket (Because I Can)" by LeAnn Rimes, which had reached the top of the chart in the issue of Billboard dated December 28, 1996. It remained at the top for one further week in 1997 before Kevin Sharp began a four-week run at the top with his debut single, a cover version of R&B singer Tony Rich's song "Nobody Knows". This would prove to be the only number-one hit for Sharp, who died in 2014 at age 43. Three other vocalists achieved their first number-one country songs in 1997. Rick Trevino spent one week in the top spot in March with "Running Out of Reasons to Run", which would also prove to be his only number one. Trace Adkins achieved the feat with "(This Ain't) No Thinkin' Thing" in April, and Michael Peterson scored his first and only chart-topper in December with "From Here to Eternity". (Full article...)
Image 9
"(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets was the first single to sell 1 million copies in the UK. The definition of a million-selling single, as regarded by the Official Charts Company (OCC), has changed in line with new technology for music consumption. Originally only physical record sales were counted since the start of the UK Singles Chart in November 1952. Digital downloads of a track were included from 2004 onwards and from 2014 onwards BPI-certified awards (Silver, Gold and Platinum) and the weekly charts include audio streaming. In 2017, the OCC included streaming in their definition of a million-seller and published a full list of the 311 songs which had achieved this. Certified awards can also include shipments (sales to trade). The OCC and Music Week regularly announce when a record becomes a million seller. (Full article...)
Image 10
The USS Density (later renamed to MV Galaxy) was the vessel used to broadcast the pirate radio station Big L.
The Fab 40 (or Fab Forty) was the playlist for the station Wonderful Radio London. Also known as Big L, Wonderful Radio London was a pirate radio station that operated from the MV Galaxy about three-and-a-half miles out from the coast of Frinton-on-Sea, Essex. It was founded by American Don Pierson with a backing of around £500,000, and first "BROADCAST" shortly before Christmas 1964. The station is credited with introducing to Britain the contemporary hit radio style seen in the United States and the Fab 40 chart is said by Music Week to have been "influential". During its tenure, it had disc jockeys such as John Peel, Tony Blackburn and Kenny Everett. Based on airplay (not physical music sales) the chart was broadcast on Sunday afternoons. The station closed on 14 August 1967 when the Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967 came into effect, with the last Fab 40 chart show presented the previous week by Tommy Vance. Later, when an official chart had been established, rival charts would factor airplay into their charts.
The Fab 40 had a significantly higher turnover of singles than the Record Retailer chart; it had 118 different singles top the chart between 23 January 1965 and 12 August 1967 (by comparison Record Retailer had 53). Additionally, only one single spent three weeks at number one – The Beatlesdouble A-side "Day Tripper" / "We Can Work It Out" – while on the Record Retailer chart, 23 singles spent at least three weeks at the top of the chart in the same period. On the Fab 40, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones each had eight number-ones and the Hollies had seven (six of which did not top the Retailer chart). (Full article...)
Featured articles - 
![Image 1 Messiaen in 1986 Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (UK: /ˈmɛsiæ̃/, US: /mɛˈsjæ̃, meɪˈsjæ̃, mɛˈsjɒ̃/; French: [ɔlivje øʒɛn pʁɔspɛʁ ʃaʁl mɛsjɑ̃]; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th century, he was also an outstanding teacher of composition and musical analysis. Messiaen entered the Conservatoire de Paris at age 11 and studied with Paul Dukas, Maurice Emmanuel, Charles-Marie Widor and Marcel Dupré, among others. He was appointed organist at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris, in 1931, a post he held for 61 years, until his death. He taught at the Schola Cantorum de Paris during the 1930s. After the fall of France in 1940, Messiaen was interned for nine months in the German prisoner of war camp Stalag VIII-A, where he composed his Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) for the four instruments available in the prison—piano, violin, cello and clarinet. The piece was first performed by Messiaen and fellow prisoners for an audience of inmates and prison guards. Soon after his release in 1941, Messiaen was appointed professor of harmony at the Paris Conservatoire. In 1966, he was appointed professor of composition there, and he held both positions until retiring in 1978. His many distinguished pupils included Iannis Xenakis, George Benjamin, Alexander Goehr, Pierre Boulez, Jacques Hétu, Tristan Murail, Karlheinz Stockhausen, György Kurtág, and Yvonne Loriod, who became his second wife. (Full article...)](/media/wikipedia/en/d/d2/Blank.png)
![Image 1 Messiaen in 1986 Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (UK: /ˈmɛsiæ̃/, US: /mɛˈsjæ̃, meɪˈsjæ̃, mɛˈsjɒ̃/; French: [ɔlivje øʒɛn pʁɔspɛʁ ʃaʁl mɛsjɑ̃]; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th century, he was also an outstanding teacher of composition and musical analysis. Messiaen entered the Conservatoire de Paris at age 11 and studied with Paul Dukas, Maurice Emmanuel, Charles-Marie Widor and Marcel Dupré, among others. He was appointed organist at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris, in 1931, a post he held for 61 years, until his death. He taught at the Schola Cantorum de Paris during the 1930s. After the fall of France in 1940, Messiaen was interned for nine months in the German prisoner of war camp Stalag VIII-A, where he composed his Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) for the four instruments available in the prison—piano, violin, cello and clarinet. The piece was first performed by Messiaen and fellow prisoners for an audience of inmates and prison guards. Soon after his release in 1941, Messiaen was appointed professor of harmony at the Paris Conservatoire. In 1966, he was appointed professor of composition there, and he held both positions until retiring in 1978. His many distinguished pupils included Iannis Xenakis, George Benjamin, Alexander Goehr, Pierre Boulez, Jacques Hétu, Tristan Murail, Karlheinz Stockhausen, György Kurtág, and Yvonne Loriod, who became his second wife. (Full article...)](/wiki/File:Blank.png?lang=en)
.jpg?lang=en)
.jpg?lang=en)
Selected albums - 
Hip hop producer and rapper RZA in a music studio with two collaborators. Pictured in the foreground is a synthesizer keyboard and a number of vinyl records; both of these items are key tools that producers and DJs use to create hip hop beats. (from Hip-hop production)
Mixing desk with twenty inputs and eight outputs (from Multitrack recording)
Control room at the Tec de Monterrey, Mexico City Campus (from Recording studio)
Digital audio interface for the Pro Tools computer-based hard disk multitrack recording system. Digital audio quality is measured in data resolution per channel. (from Multitrack recording)
Danny Knicely records with Furnace Mountain Band in Virginia (2012) (from Recording studio)
The TEAC 2340, a popular early (1973) home multitrack recorder, four tracks on ¼ inch tape (from Multitrack recording)
The studio at Ridge Radio in Caterham, England (from Recording studio)
Neve VR60, a multitrack mixing console. Above the console are a range of studio monitor speakers. (from Recording studio)
Home studio setup (from Recording studio)
Scully 280 eight-track recorder at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music (from Multitrack recording)
The TASCAM 85 16B analog tape multitrack recorder can record 16 tracks of audio on 1-inch (2.54cm) magnetic tape. Professional analog units of 24 tracks on 2-inch tape were common, with specialty tape heads providing 8, or even 16 tracks on the same tape width (8 tracks for greater fidelity). (from Multitrack recording)
A selection of instruments at a music studio, including a grand piano (from Recording studio)
Engineers and producers watch a trumpet player from a window in the control room during a recording session. (from Recording studio)
Donna Summer wearing headphones during a recording session in 1977 (from Recording studio)
Korg D888 eight-track digital recorder (from Multitrack recording).jpg?lang=en)
.jpg?lang=en)
.jpg?lang=en)
.jpg?lang=en)
.jpg?lang=en)
.jpg?lang=en)
_-_TopPop_1973_1.png?lang=en)
.jpg?lang=en)
Commons
Wikibooks
Wikidata
Wikinews
Wikiquote
Wikisource
Wikiversity
Wiktionary