Category Archives: Bands

Worldwide Boy Bands

Big Four: A Cantopop musical group formed by Andy Hui, Dicky Cheung, William So, and Edmond Leung. They released their first self-titled single in 2009; the song topped most of Hong Kong’s music charts. Their next single, “Unable to Help” in 2010, which also topped charts and received consistent airplay for many weeks. Big Four held their first concert, The Big Four Concert, for five days in the Hong Kong Coliseum from March 11 to 15.

Blazin’ Squad: A UK pop-rap vocal band. Heavily influenced by the UK garage scene, they enjoyed significant success in the UK, achieving six consecutive top ten hits, including a UK number-one single, “Crossroads”, a cover version of the Bone Thugs-n-Harmony original. Mus, Kenzie, Marcel & Lee reunited in 2009, and their latest single, ‘Let’s Start Again’, was released on 15 June 2009. They recently turned on the Banbury Christmas Lights.

Posted in Bands | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Music History : Musical memories: The Beatles

These things are always subjective, but people are wrong to say modern rock and pop music can’t cut it. There’s still good music being made, but still no group comes close to matching The Beatles.

Firstly, The Beatles made music which will surely last as long as the popular song itself. Secondly, like Elvis Presley, The Beatles made a cultural impact which transcended their music. Finally, they were great entertainers – and their comic turns in the movies ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ and ‘Help!’ shouldn’t be underestimated. Even in a golden decade of creativity like the 1960s, which was often described as a second renaissance, The Beatles are remembered by most as the main creative force of that decade. Everything seemed to revolve around them, and bounce off them.

Posted in Bands, Celebrities, Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Music : Biography: Dolly Parton

Any trip to eastern Tennessee is not complete without a study of its most famous resident: Dolly Parton. After all, who knows the area better than its biggest fan? Dolly sings about Tennessee, helps Tennessee and embodies Tennessee—so check out some of her favorite spots and get a real understanding of this special place.

Start your tour in the Great Smoky Mountains. Dolly was born here, in Sevierville, and was raised in a one-room cabin in nearby Locust Ridge. Stop by Pigeon Forge, Tennessee’s Dollywood, where you can walk around a replica of the cabin the Partons shared. There were 14 of them in there!

No town is more proud of Dolly than Sevierville—most of the residents claim to know her personally! Visit Sevier County High to see where Dolly played in the band. Even before she had graduated, she was performing at Knoxville’s WIKV Radio and WBIR-TV stations.

Posted in Bands, Celebrities, Music, Music History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Celebrity : A look at Lady Ga Ga’s rise to fame

Is it just a phenomenon, Lady Gaga’s rise to fame? Or, perhaps, could it be a plan, masterminded years before her arrival here on planet Earth? Is it possible, that built within Gaga’s 5’1″ frame, is an alien technology meant to take over our unsuspecting world, from the youngest of humans to the oldest? Why should I even suspect such a far out plan? Maybe, because, I, a 54-year-old grandmother, is completely gaga over Gaga too! But that’s not what makes me suspect something more diabolical is going on.

Flawless rhythm isn’t expected at the early age of six months, but swaying before me in perfect tune to, Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah…gaga ooh la la, while sitting in his baby walker, glued to a video of Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance,’ is my baby grandson, swaying in a trance like rhythm, released from Lady Gaga’s vice like grip only by her climatic finish. The control of his tiny little body was then returned to it’s formal baby like moves. I wondered, as he repeated her name over and over…”gaga, gaga, gaga,” what is really going on?

Posted in Bands, Celebrities, Music, Music History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Aging rock band reunions: Weren’t they bad enough the first time around?

To those who were born during the Great Depression, the onset of rock and roll music must have been as horrible to them as rap and hip-hop is today for Baby Boomers. If an individual from this aforementioned era was raised on the sounds of artists such as Frank Sinatra, Benny Goodman, and Perry Como, then it stands to reason that rock and roll could be regarded as horrible.When disco became the rage at Studio 54 in the mid-1970′s and synthesized New Wave bands arrived a few years later, those who embraced the hard rock of the late 1960′s and early 1970′s likewise hated it.

Posted in Bands, Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Music Band : The legacy of Black Sabbath

by Wayne K. Wilkins

Black Sabbath are one of the most popular and influential bands in the history of the epic heavy metal genre of music. From their eponymous self-titled debut, “Black Sabbath” on the eve of Friday February 13th 1970, Black Sabbath were standing on the heels of success. Following the grizzly and brutal “Manson Family Murders” in the August of 1969 that bought the peace and love era of the 1960′s to a gruesome end; a band by the name of Black Sabbath emerged basing their songs on darkness, evil and the devil. This was the sound that would become submerged in history and legacy over the course of the next 40 years, all thanks to the legacy that this one band created upon their formation in the year of 1968.

Posted in Bands, Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment