Sade goes on tour for the first time in a decade

Its been a long time since we heard anything for Sade. This iconic group has been around since the 80's. For those who don't know much about the band here is a little summary.

They are an English R&B band that formed in 1983. The band's music features elements of R&B, soul, jazz, funk and soft rock. Sade won a Grammy for Best New Artist. Sade's US certified sales so far stands at 23.5 million units and has sold more than 50 million units worldwide to date.

The band returned to the stage for the first time in a decade with a concert in Nice, France, receiving a warm welcome from thousands of loyal fans. The tour arrives in the U.S. this June with John Legend as the opening act. The band's new 28-track two-disc collection, The Ultimate Collection, is set to drop May 2 in the UK and May 3 in the US. -Wesley

50 Cent Releases Twitter App Theme

In one of our classes we discussed a phone application known as UberSocial. Currently the UberSocial app is for blackberries and iPhones. This is a relatively common Twitter app that allows users to easily send and receive tweets, keep up-to-date without having to follow specific Tweeters, and post media on Facebook. Recently, famous actor and rapper 50 Cent released his own customized theme for UberSocial known as Uber50. His theme for UberSocial will include a variety of features such as custom icons and colors, access to G-Units Twitterlist and a media portal for the latest G-Unit news and videos.

50 Cent stated that "Twitter has become an important way for me to communicate with my fans and for my fans to communicate with each other. We're all big users of UberSocial on the BlackBerry and already use many of their current themes to customize the look of the app, so it was a natural for me to work with UberMedia to develop a special theme. I think my fans are going to love sending and reading their tweets with my new theme." (Billboard.com) From music albums to movies, video games, clothing companies, and now onto social networking, 50 Cent has made his name known in nearly every industry.
- Jason D

 

     Electronic music encompasses a lot of different styles of music; the most famous forms being Dubstep, Trance, Techno and House. However, Minimal, has become increasingly popular in the Electronic Music Scene. Minimal is a sub-genre of Techno identifiable by its subtle changes and repetition. Multiple layers and a simplification of sound are used to form the bass line and the "groove". Like most electronic music, Minimal must be played loud. Each song is built upon layers of sounds and samples that are easy to miss if an ample sound system to play clearly is not available. Minimal is meant to be played in "Sets" typically lasting anywhere from one hour to a whole night of playing. Songs as mixed into each other through the use of tempo change, layering, and adding beats or tones based on the speed of the song. The effect you get is one long song with many changes to the groove and bass line.

     I had the chance to go to Miami during the Winter Music Conference this year and partook in the biggest Minimal music festivals and parties. One of the Biggest parties as well as having the biggest names in Minimal music attending was Sunday School, split over two and a half days. The first twelve hours of the party was dedicated to the Label MINUS, the biggest signer of minimalist DJ's, which is also run by Richie Hawtin a legend in the DJing community. The second day began the 36 hour dance till you drop marathon. Loco Dice, Seth Troxler, Guy Gerber and Luciano all respected DJ's who've traveled the world playing their music.

Lady Gaga falls off piano during concert (VIDEO)

Lady Gaga and her crazy high heels took a big spill during a live performance in Houston. Being the profesional that she is, she didn't miss a beat. In this video, Lady Gaga has one stiletto-heeled boot on the piano's keys and another on the piano bench when the bench topples over. The singer falls, landing on her butt and then rolling under the piano LMAO!

If there is one person in the music industry I would love to see fall on there behinds its Ms.Gaga. Her high heels and fashion are so over the top its ridiculous. Take a look at this clip, I guarantee your get a good laugh. Leave your thoughts and comment in the comment section. -Wesley 

Who is Brett Dennen? To be honest, I couldn't tell you. Staying up late one night, I saw this clip on television and instantly thought it was amazing. Simple chord progression and a very intimate performance is what makes the music that much better. Acoustic sets are hardly seen anymore, but his music is acoustic by nature, which makes me question why I've never heard of him before.

However, I do know why I haven't heard of Brett Dennen before. He isn't marketable. You won't find him on magazine covers, or in advertisements for proactive. But then, what does that really say about the music industry?  Music definitely has mass appeal but it seems we associate music and marketability more than we think. For example, think back to the last time you were watching TV. Commercials use jingles in order to make their product more memorable. The candy Kit-Kat uses such a jingle and in turn there are very few people I know of who could not recite it's lyrics. Money makes the world go around and I'm no one to argue over the fact, it's just refreshing to find a musician who strays from the "I'm trying to sell you something" attitude. It's strange to think of his music as innocent, but Dennen is untainted by all the negative aspects of the music industry.

Alejandro

Kaskade at Pacha this Saturday!!

For those of you with no plans this Saturday or perhaps looking for better plans (you know who you are, Applebees on a Saturday wasn’t your idea of an awesome night), Pacha NYC is definitely the place to be. Pacha is a global chain of night clubs across the world including London, Madrid, Moscow, and of course New York City. Every weekend at Pacha there is a different event, but this Saturday is special. Kaskade will be performing there all night. He is one of the same artists who played at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami two weeks ago. Ryan Raddon, known by his stage name Kaskade, is an American DJ who has only become more and more popular in recent years. After teaming up with Deadmau5 his single made one of the top ten hits on Billboard's Hot Dance Airplay Chart, eventually climbing to the top as the number one hit song. His most recent album is dance.love. He has proved himself as an amazing DJ and his performances are a must for just about anyone. 

Unfortunately the event this Saturday at Pacha NYC is a 21 and over event. However there may still be hope for those of you who are underage. The doors open at 10pm for 21+ attendees, but at 3am around the time when the after party starts, I believe they admit those who are 19 and older. It might be a little late but parties at Pacha don’t even start till 1-2am, so you won’t be missing much. Just to give some of you a little preview as to what to expect, watch the video below. You won’t be disappointed this weekend. :)

Kaskade Commercial 

-Jason D

Enrique Iglesias Pulls Out Of Britney Spears Tour

Britney Spears announced that she would be hitting the road this summer to go on tour with Enrique Iglesias. Enrique Iglesias has now backed out of the tour. People have suggested that Iglesias didn't want to be perceived as an oping act. But according to his sources, he claims that he is completing his own European tour. Now the question becomes who will replace Enrique? rumors point to Jersey Shores DJ Pauly D, Joe Jonas, or Nicki Minaj. I think DJ Pauly D fits in well, but hes just a DJ, how much of a show can he put on? Who do you think would be a good replacement???

Ultra Music Festival and Electric Zoo of 2011

As some of you may know, the Ultra Music Festival of 2011 was held last weekend from Friday, March 25th through Sunday, March 27^th. It was held in Downtown Miami at Bicentennial Park. This is the first year were the festival was 3 days long. The festival has been held annually since 1999 and was a one day festival until 2005. From 2006-2010 it was a 2 day festival and usually sold out to over 100,000 people, this year the festival sold 150,000 tickets. About 50 artists performed throughout the weekend including DJ Tiesto, Deadmau5, CarlCox, David Guetta, Kaskade, and Afrojack. The festival ended around 12am each night but the party continued well into the night at the official UMF after-parties, which lasted until 5am. It was definitely the place to be last weekend but for those who missed out and are looking for another similar opportunity before the end of the year, there is New York's Electronic Music Festival known as Electric Zoo. This festival is also a 3 day event held at Randall's Island Park in New York City, so it is much more convenient for those who don't want to worry about flying to Miami. Tickets go on sale soon and sell out fast, so keep your eye on the date because you're not going to want to miss this!
-Jason D

The XX

Dark, emotive, and hypnotic, all words that aptly describe the full range of The XX's style. This four piece band consisting of Romy Madley Croft (vocals, lead guitar), Oliver Sim (vocals, bass guitar), and Jamie Smith, known as Jaime XX(beats, MPC sampler), and Second guitarist and keyboardist Baria Qureshi, hails out of London mixing R&B and classic 80's guitar riffs. Their debut album "XX" won the Barclaycard Mercury Prize, awarded to the best album from the UK and Ireland, in 2010. It also reached #9 on Rolling Stones albums of the year list for the same year.

What caught my attention about this band was their significant use of bass guitar. I'm a fan of any band that can effectively use the bass guitar to link both the beat of the song (Whether it be actual drums or a sampling device) to the lead guitar. Their songs have a quality which makes you sit back and take in each note from each instrument. Vocals are often done in harmony and done quite well. Croft and Sim play off each others voices and bring you a sound equalized in highs and lows. 

-Alejandro

Dubstep...Oh yea!

For this week, I decided to talk a little bit about a genre of music most people aren’t familiar with and some that have never heard of it at all. A very interesting form a music known as dubstep as emerged in recent years. The first dubstep songs have been released around 2000, originating from parts of London. For those who have never listened to dubstep, it is basically a form of electronic dance music that consists of slow, but hard hitting beats and heavy bass lines, sometimes using songs that already exist. Dubstep is different than what most people are used to listening and I wouldn’t be surprised if a whole lot of people aren’t too fond of it. It definitely isn’t something you can just start playing and fall in love with…at least not for the majority of us. It is hard to explain what dubstep even is, hence the picture above, but it is something I would recommend listening to at least once. However, keep in mind that one dubstep song can sound COMPLETELY different than another. So if one song doesn’t sound too appealing try listening to another song. Some can be very hard and extreme where as others are softer and more mellow. It also depends on the artist or DJ creating the music, some are very skilled at what they do where as others have no clue. Typing in “dubstep” on Youtube might not be the best way to find some good songs but do some searching; you might find something that catches your…ear? To give you a place to start, listen to some of the songs by UKFDubstep, they have a good variety of songs with a lot of diversity in each one. Everyone should try expanding to different types of music once in awhile, why not now?
-Jason D

Here is a link to a good mellow sample of dubstep.

This link is to a song that is a bit harder than the first.

Here is one for a quick laugh but still a pretty good beat.

Intro to Music

My name is Alejandro Perez and the blog you are reading will be focusing on bringing new Artists and bands into the spotlight. I hope everyone finds a new genre or maybe a particular artists they find interesting. We chose to not necessarily focus on one type of music, instead every post will contain something new and different, hopefully catching every niche possible. My musical taste ranges from Electronica to Rock to just about anything out there. Hopefully, as you read this blog you will find something that tickles your fancy. Music is interesting to me because no matter how far back into history you search, every ancient civilization had some form of music. Regardless of said civilizations location in relation to each other, whether they openly traded or not, musical instruments and music has been found throughout the world.

Whats up everyone, my name is Wesley and this is the first blog I have ever be apart of. I will try and blog about news revolving around the music industry. I mostly into Rap and House music but I enjoy a little bit of everything. I look forward to blogging and hope you all enjoy the blog!

Hey welcome to our MusicToday2011 blog

Hello everybody, I'm Jason and this is actually the first post of the first blog I have ever made. I always wanted to start a blog but never really had an idea of what I would even talk about. If you haven't realized yet though I picked a topic along with my blogger team. We decided that we all love music and want to share some of the cool and interesting things we come across everyday relating to our favorite bands, DJ's, and other musical artists. I myself listen to just about anything when it comes to music. Whether its rock, rap, techno, or house music, I have a little bit of everything on my iPod. However, until now I never attempted to follow bands and artists as far as news and their backgrounds. Typically a friend would just give me a CD or send me a couple songs that "I needed to listen to". This was usually the way I learned about all the music that I currently listen to. Of course everybody doesn't listen to the same music but I still hope to have fun with this blog and share the fun things I know and learn about music.