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Robyn is one of the world’s premier indie-pop electronic divas. By combining introspective lyrics with dance friendly techno beats, Robyn proved with this album, released in 2010, that she could combine achieve both critical acclaim and dance friendly beats. Robyn became very well known in certain circles. However, Robyn has failed to make an impact on commercial radio. This is unfortunate, because listening to “Body Talk, Part 1,” it’s clear that Robyn had a talent for the ages. Robyn started out as a major pop star in her native Scandinavia, although she dirt score a couple of hits in the United States in the late Nineties. Unfortunately, her American career quickly came to a standstill. Her artistry never wavered, however, and she became a darling of critics who loved her high energy, dance friendly sound. We don’t often see an artist that is able to so closely combine commerical and artistic enterprise. The throbbing electronic beats are provided courtesy of some of the most prestigious beatmakers in Scandinavia, or the world. We believe, furthermore, that Robyn is going to continue to do great things in the coming years. If it comes to pass that Robyn achieves more widespread recognition and commercial respect, we will celebrate.

With Obscured By Clouds, Pink Floyd continued with their tradition of cinematic soundtrack music. Opening with a long atmospheric synth drone and ending with a dramatic instance of Papua New Guinean tribal chanting, in between the album shows the typical blend of Pink Floyd influences that would later become world famous. David Gilmour was already making his mark with his fantastic guitar stylings, firmly based in blues, but with a heavy Syd Barrett influence. The soothing sounds of Pink Floyd are also augmented by Roger Waters’ extremely depressive, yet strangely compelling worldview. In songs like “Free Four,” it’s clear that Waters was already establishing the sensibility that would become so clear in later works like “Dark Side Of The Moon” and “The Wall.” With his nihilistic, dark sense of humor, Waters is the defining Pied Piper of his generation. Although this album was originally the soundtrack to a film about hippies getting back to nature, just about any listener can hear the same songs and get a different sense of the album. Even Richard Wright was able to contribute a pivotal ballad with “Stay,” which set the stage for some of his accomplishments to come. “Obscured By Clouds” represents the pinnacle of post-Syd, pre-Dark Side Floyd.

Ben Harper is one artist that has been creating incredible things within his folk/blues/Afro hybrid of American soul. Although at times he reminds of a classic rocker like Jimi Hendrix or Sly Stone, more often Harper seems to tap into the ancient American sensibility that created the original blues and folk masters. Comparisons to Hughie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter are apt, as Harper has a similar instinct for combining various facets of European and African influences that informed early American music. Indeed, Harper recognizes how the most edgy, of-the-moment music will inevitably sound like any number of close influences. Although Ben Harper certainly has plenty of room to grow, it seems clear that this artist is capable of transforming himself in a million different ways. Only time will tell how Harper will morph or transform. It’s worth noting that he’s seen a few hurdles on his path to greatness. Indeed, Harper has proven to be as capable of a misstep as any other great artist. But just like Hendrix before him, he made mistakes sound cooler than most people’s non-mistakes. Harper still hasn’t proven that he’s capable oo accepting that torch, at least not yet. But who else is capable of recreating his music in so many ways?

With Dido and Aeneas, a classical tale of betrayal set in Ancient Greece, Vivaldi was finally able to establish himself as one of the world’s most innovative composers. By composing masterpieces of light and darkness, and embracing his inner composure, Vivaldi was able to create a world where everyone can feel at home. Although modern audiences mainly know Vivaldi for “The Four Seasons,” if at all, it’s gratifying to see that cetain modern productions of “Dido and Aeneas” are slowly entering the modern experimental repertoire. Quite daring, considering the fact that this opera is several hundred years old. With this opera, Vivaldi finally realized his dreams of combining Italian lyricism with French emotionalism. Although this opera has certainly been neglected over the years, we find that a whole new generation of opera lovers is constantly renewing the well of public support for this opera. In fact, we can say beyond the shadow of a doubt that this is one of the most popular operas that has been re-released after being almost totally forgotten. It appears clear that some of the best thematic materials in Vivaldi plays are borrowed from the Classical tradition. By combining the ideals of the ancients with a Baroque sensibility, Vivaldi was able to create a new kind of multi-ethnic opera.

Lately, we’ve been seeing Hip-Hop make a major resurgence in our primal consciousness. As Hip-Hop makes it’s way firmly into the mainstream, artists like Sam Sparro are experiencing popularity that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago. Less than ten years ago, the airwaves were dominated with such consistent pablum that it was virtually impossible to tell any of the artists apart. The new millennium introduced a new sense of adventurousness, and by 2010, Hip-Hop had firmly entered and inundated the mainstream of American culture. N.W.A and Dr. Dre had broken sales records in the early nineties, but the G Unit superstars proved to be massive sellers in their own right.

By combining and merging into several different types of music, hip-hop represented the basic melting pot of urban American culture. Instead of simply giving into the desires of the mainstream, hip-hop has actually subverted the mainstream into an approximation of itself. Hip-hop is the creative force and energy of our time, and we can only hope that human beings will continue to enjoy hip hop for many years to come. As hip-hop matures, we expect that more and more individuals will learn about the dynamic issues that underline Hip-Hop success.

In the early 1960’s, I was in college at Albany State. My major interests were music and biology. In music I was a contralto soloist with the choir, studying Italian arias and German lieder. The Black music I sang was of three types:
Spirituals sung by the college choir. These were arranged by such people as Nathaniel Dett and William Dawson and had major injections of European musical harmony and composition.
Rhythm’n’Blues, music done by and for Blacks in social settings. This included the music of bands at proms, juke boxes, and football game songs.
Church music; grospel was a major part of Black church music by the time I was in college. I was a soloist with the gospel choir.
Prior to the gospel choir, introduced in my church when I was twelve was many years’ experience with unaccompanied music – Black choral singing, hymns, lined out by strong song leaders with full, powerful, richly ornate congregational responses. These hymns were offset by upbeat, clapping call and response songs.
I saw people in church sing and pray until they shouted. I knew that music as a part of a cultural expression that was powerful enough to take people from their conscious selves to a place where the physical and intellectual being worked in harmony with the spirit.

Dubbed “the universal language,” and “the brandy of the damned,” music can incite an orgy, lull a baby to sleep, deepen a trance, inspire a couch potato to dance, and prompt an invalid in a nursing home to clap to a beat. Some research on the subconscious holds that musical instruments are the symbols of sex organs in dreams.

But the tunes are more than physical. Several belief systems present music as a way of elevating animalistic impulses and emotions into a spiritual experience. Music becomes a means of redemption. Orpheus, the musician of Greek mythology, used his lyre to charm the rulers of Hades into releasing his wife. And preachers use “Amazing Grace” to pull their flocks to the altar.

Shakespeare’s contemporaries touted the “music of the spheres.” In the beginning, goes the theory, the harmony of the universe was heralded by angels who stood on surrounding planets and filled the heavens with song. After tasting the forbidden fruit and getting the bum’s rush from paradise, we no longer could hear the angels. We could, however, detect them in fragments when we made music – our own little fiffs of divine harmony.

That idea explains my guitar strumming friend’s sweeping observation that “really, there’s no bad music.”

On the final, wrenching trills of “When a Man loves a Woman,” Percy Sledge waded into the adoring crowd, which surged ecstatically toward him.
The dewy 20 year old standing next to me shook his head in amazement, not at the music but at its effect. “Look at that! I have got to become a musician,” he said in the heady throes of revelation. “Look at the way everybody absolutely worships those guys. The women especially. That is it. I am getting a guitar tomorrow!”
I could almost see a cartoon light bulb bobbing over his head. He was on to something. In that instant, the young man understood what Shakespeare meant with the words, “If music be the food of love, play on.”
What is the appeal of musicians? Why did young women collapse like feverish rag dolls before The Beatles, and why did Odysseus’ sailors need to be tied down when passing the sirens? What is the narcotic magnetism that makes us want to rush the stage, to throw our arms around the band members’ shoulders and tell them we understand their pain, that, in fact, they are singing about us?
While it does not necessarily have to be shared, music is the most communal of the arts.

Since its beginning, rock music has accompanied a dizzying succession of dances, such as the twist, the frug, the monkey, the shake, and the mashed potato. In most rock dances of the 1960s, partners did not hold each other, as in earlier dances, but moved individually to the music’s powerful beat.

Most rock dances were improvisational and did not required dancers to learn a series of complicated steps. Among the best known rock dances was the twist, associated with a New York night club, the Peppermint Lounge, and popularized in 1961 through a television performance by the singer Chubby Checker. By the 1960s, many adults became influenced by the youth culture and danced to rock music at night clubs called discotheques.

During the 1970s, thousands of discotheques – mostly featuring recorded music – mushroomed around the country. Disco became the dominant dance music of the time. Many dances of the 1970s such as the hustle and its variants – often required intricate steps and turns, a throwback to earlier times. These dances frequently required partners to remain in close contact with each other. Also popular were line dances, in which many dancers performed the same choreographed movements. The late 1970s and 1980s saw the development of break dancing, a combination of dancing and gymnastics, often to rap music.