Blog Playlist (1) - [Sam Sparro]

As you should all know, festival season is quickly approaching. Lovebox is one of the biggest festivals around for dance, electro-pop acts and so on. This year, headliners include Snoop Dogg, Jessie J, Groove Armada, Beth Ditto, Example, Katy B, The Wombats, Robyn, the gracious Scissor Sisters, just to mention a few. Leading up to the festival being held over July the 15^th, 16^th and 17^th at Victoria park, I’ve decided to make my own little blog playlist.

Every Monday (also known as Music Monday) I will be posting up a blog about an artist and some of their best dance tracks. At the end of it I will post up a poll asking which one was your favourite. Also if you have any suggestions of artists and their best tracks you would like me to include, just send me a tweet @Groovervibes. If you don’t have twitter, you can find me on Facebook -“Groov’Tronic” or just simply comment on my blog.

This week’s artist is Sam Sparro.

Although his career has seemed to have died down since his huge success in 2008 with the track Black and Gold, he was able to bring forward many elements to make a fantastic track.

Black and Gold was and still is very catchy with a deep, smooth bass on it’s own at the beginning which then progresses throughout the song and builds it to a sweet melody where Sparro then enters his soulful, silky deep vocals. Picking up somewhat of a pace, the whole arrangement becomes quite hypnotic.  Lyrically speaking, the song is about what the meaning of life is? This is something that everyone has thought about at some point in their lives, “If vision is the only validation, then most of my life isn’t real”.

The video was pretty slick too, limousines, suits, bow ties, canes and top hats in a parking lot with a lot of lights and synchronized dance sets.

Realistically his best release, Black and Gold wasn’t the only track blasting in the clubs of London. 21^st Century Life was the next best thing, which had so much more colours and more of a Prince/Jackson-esque dance beat that you could easily groove to, unlike Black and Gold, but we always seemed to have found a way to move to it.

Cottonmouth was his technically his first single released in 2007 about smoking weed then getting really thirsty. It’s not very popular, but it’s got a really fun beat you can easily bounce to and the video’s got a sense of humour. Here’s the video… Get down and Boogie!

Adele most powerful person in British music ~ and so she should be!

23 year old Chasing Pavements singer Adele has topped the Music Power 100 list as the most powerful person in British music... hurray! She also beat Simon Cowel!

How does it all work? Well, the list is decided by a panel from the music industry and they focus mainly of the industry figures and the team behind the artist's success. Looking at Adele's success, she has been number one in 15 different countries with her album '21' and has sold a wopping six million copies of the album in thee time where album sales are really declining. So no matter what, fans are still buying her album.

Why is Adele so popular? She has an amazing voice, so soulful and old fashioned, yet she's at such a young age. She's all about the music too. There's no gimmicks, no selling of sexuality, nothing crazy, just pure talent. She is truely an amazing, beautiful artist and deserves to be where she is today. She makes the Brits proud!

You can find out more about the top 100, including the full list here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/may/27/music-power-100-full-list-adele

Team Adele!

London 2012 Olympics music festival in Hackney

It's been announced that BBC radio 1 will be holding their free music festival in Hackney, east London, running up to the 2012 Olympics.

Though tickets have not gone on sale yet, it will be held on the 23rd and 24th June 2012 at Hackeny Marshes. Starting off the line up, Hackney's own Leona Lewis has been confirmed to perform, and Plan B who also grew up in east London.

The 2012 Olympics has brought so may people together and is a great opportunity to bring people together with music. East London will be the hottest part of London come 2012, it's only right that they hold they event there. It won't just be a music festival, it's a cultural celebration. It's also an opportunity to display the new young talent that London has. We are creative Britian after all. It's going to be a busy summer next year for sure. This is only one of the music events confirmed, expect many more to be confirmed soon.

This year's big weekend was held in Carlisle where Lady Gaga and the Foo Fighters performed.

A race to the top, who's your favourite?

Beyonce has recently announced the release date for her upcoming album 4. Released in the UK on the 27th June in the UK and the 28th for the US, Beyonce seems to be trying to grab her crown back, since the famous, heard everywhere track Single Ladies.

From what it seems, Beyonce, Rihanna and Lady Gaga all seem to be running for who can be the most controversial when it comes to music videos.

Lady Gaga can be said to be setting the bar with her original, creative, yet mostly weird, but entertaining music videos, however, this is Gaga. We don't know her as anything else. Rihanna on the other hand used to be the little girl from Barbados, now she's made music videos that won't be shown on TV until after wastershed and banned from many websites. As a huge idol to a lot of young women, she doesn't seem to be setting a great example. Beyonce on the otherhand is at the end of the chain, trying to climb back up. Her new video is just a reminder of how far she's come and how far she's willing to go to stay in the game.

Being versatile and current is the key to surviving the music industry. Sticking with one genre will only take an artist so far. All these artitsts mentioned here have come out of their comfort zone at some point and have all been on top. Unfortunatly for them, Gaga is like her own genre. She's been in the buisness for only 3 years and she's knocked Oprah off the top spot for the Forbes's most powerful celebrity list.

Beyonce has had a taste of Gaga, teaming up with her a couple of times, so maybe she's taken a few pointers from her experience.

Who's your favourite and why? who should be on top?

No Country for UK

Country music is a very beautiful genre. It contains so much compassion and is a genre many artists have had their hand at trying. Country music is not just about lyrics and intruments, it's about telling a story through song. It's quite a religious genre too.

Country has disappeared from Britain. A few years ago, just before digital came in, there was a country music channel available. The CMA (country music awards) used to it's slot on BBC one or two every year. Now it can't be seen any where really. Scotland seem to still be into country, with many country radio stations available.

One of country's most loved artists, Keith Urban, has recently been awarded a star on the Nashville Walk of Fame. It was only posted in the Daily Mail because he's married to Nicole Kidman, a very talented actress. Keith Urban takes country music to the level where it's considered as country rock.

Taylor Swift has been played quite a lot in the UK, however, her music can come under the pop category and I believe this is one reason why she is played. She doesn't release the real, raw type of country music. She's also young, appealing to the younger audience and has dated quite a few well known celebrities, so she will always be known for the gossip factor. However, her fam has died down in the UK. She was quite popular around two years back.

Lady Antebellum last year showed some sort of hope for country music slowly creeping back into the UK. Releasing their hit "Need You Now" in the UK and playing a few gigs really opened the door for country music to begin it's journey back into our lives. However again, after all the hype, it's now died down. They have released a new single in the US so let's see if it will make it way back.

The UK's television screens and radio stations are full of artists like Rihanna, Beyonce, Eminem, N-Dubz and so on who are all the same genre. There is barely any diversity. The main genres hanging around are RnB, pop and dance. There's barely any rock with only about four channels showing it (MTV Rocks doesn't count as they show Eminem and Plan B, which doesn't make sense) and no country at all. The UK are lacking diversity. Country is just one of them and an important one because of it's popularity in the US.

There are amazing country artists out there, and not just the old fashioned ones like Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash, but there are those now modernising the genre like Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts. Rascal Flatts even sang a song with Justin Bieber. Country is music that brings people together, it should be shared around the world.
   

Youtube top 100 music chart has arrived!

Youtube announced the creation of their own music charts at youtube.com/music which features the top 100 music videos based on popularity.
This is the best thing Youtube has done in a long time. This means not only commercial and professional artists will have their videos in the top 100, amateurs will also get the chance too. Amateurs will have the chance to get their work known by a wider audience. Finally, the world is embracing the term/era "Creative Britain" but in a universal way.

Youtube has always been known as the user generated website that has made a lot of people famous, whether it's something really small and silly or something huge and talented. Justin Bieber is just one example. Now we have Bieber fever! There's also the most recent Rebbeca Black. Youtube has always been a great way for musicians to get their talent out there universally. Everyone uses Youtube, the world is online, it's proven.

New artists have a great market, especially those who are different to what is already out there. Those who say there isn't anything else that can be done are wrong. Take Lady Gaga for example. She's come so far, getting knocked down by big names and now, she's a mega superstar gaining the first billion views on Youtube, a household name, and not just as a sex icon. People appreciate her as an artist because that is exactly what she is, an artist, she is the perfect definition of what an artist is.

I'm looking forward to watching this new Youtube top 100 grow over the next few months, and if it works (I have no doubt) over the next few years. I can already see the amount of new artists, producers and so on we will discover. Forget reality tv shows like the X Factor who want those who audition to be a commodity and not an artist. Youtube has now landed themselves right in the middle of the whole "for money or for art" debate. Either way, it's a win win situation.

Music Matters Campaign

In March, the campaign for “Music Matters” launched. It’s an important campaign because more than an anti-piracy campaign. It’s about reminding listeners about its value and educating those who consume music on how to identify and get music from legitimate sources such as website.

Ever since digital music was invented, it’s always been difficult protecting the work of artists, songwriters, musicians, producers and so on. Illegally downloading music has increased over the last decade and it’s in a sense destroying the music industry, not just in sales but it’s taking away the art of it all.

Music takes a lot of time, effort, creativity and money to make, it’s no just paying the bills, so it’s unfair when the artists and musicians etc don’t get anything back from putting their all in.

This is a great campaign and I think everyone should know about it. It’s not just a little online campaign; artists like Cee Lo Green, Ellie Goulding, Elbow, Kate Bush and others are backing the campaign, stating why music matters.

Music matters because it’s a part of life; it’s a part of who I am. It helps with every emotion a person can have. Without music, I wouldn’t be where I am now. Music isn’t just a gift; we can’t escape it. It’s a way of life.

Read more about the campaign and spread the word…

http://www.whymusicmatters.org/

How do you know?

A lot of people have asked me “how did you know you wanted to be a music producer? It’s not so much of me wanting to be something. Music production found me.
I’d always been interested in the Keyboard and Synthesizer. These were and still are two important elements to creating music. When I was about 17 years old, I had a 4-track and with this, I did a lot of experimentation with what I could do with it. I guess you could say this was my first step in knowing this was the career path that was right for me.

A music producer doesn’t just listen to a track. He/she should be able to identify and distinguish all the different sounds in a song. All the instruments in a track are doing so many different things to create that one sound. This is something that interested me a lot. I was naturally able to listen to a song and concentrate on each element, pick out all the different beats and rhythms involved. Music must be analysed.
Timbaland is someone who has influenced me a lot and I admire the work that he’s done. Through the music he produces, you can hear that he’s put a lot into making each element of a song perfect and creatively makes it work for every genre. Although he is very commercial, he still brings that sense of “new music” in everything he does, and he isn’t afraid of taking risks. He’s not confined to one style. He doesn’t reproduce music. He creates it. This is exactly the attitude a music producer should always have in mind. This is the road that I take. Music that is new, creative and beautiful is what music should be. As a music producer, like Timbaland, indulging in different genres of music is a plus.

Composing music + sound engineering = music producer and it’s
through this I knew.