Music
Learn the Music Business.com:Community of music professional that learn, grown, and strive to be successful
Learn the Music Business.com was created to be the premiere one-stop knowledge source for comprehensive music industry information direct form celebrities and experts. This membership base site affiliated program that is provided by The Maxx Corp and offers affiliates pay referral marketing programs for the music industry. The site will be launched this summer 2011 to help artists learn about the music business and connect with the right people via an interactive internet based platform.
This site as a board of advisors that range from Ernie Pannacoli, McLyte, Terry Moorer, Bob Baldwin,Jill Greenleigh, Eunice Vicks Rhea,Kim Tumey,Jean Baylor,Dasha Ware,Johnny Patterson,and Toy. A portion of the money from Learn the Music Business.com goes to the support the mission of “The Lisa Left Eye Foundation” a nonprofit in Atlanta GA.
I had the pleasure of sitting in on various interviews in the music industry from photographer's,stylist's,recording artist's , entertainment lawyers, mangers, and makeup artist's.However, all of these talented individuals came together to give advice and their experience to help aspiring young artist in the music business. One of the the guy 's behind this notable site is Terry Moorer and the first female rappers McLyte. Terry as over 20 years in the music business, Mr. Moorer has worked with MTV, Queen Latifah, NBA Entertainment, Billboard magazine, First Priority Music, MC Lyte, and Virgin Records. For more information about Terry go to http://www.themaxxcorp.com/
Here is the interview with Terry Moorer! May 5,2011.
Laurieann Gibson Discusses History With Lady Gaga
Dancer-choreographer Laurieann Gibson has towed the line between provocative and offensive with longtime friend and client Lady GaGa since the bizarre pop star hit the scene a few years ago.On the other hand, Gibson now reveals, she almost walked away from co-directing Gaga’s latest “Judas” video due to its heavy religious themes.
“It went through several changes and late-night debates because at one point, there were two completely different views and I was like, ‘Listen, I don’t want lightning to strike me! I believe in the gospel and I’m not going there,” said Gibson in an interview with hollywoodreporter.com.
Gibson, who’s the creative director for Gaga, explains that working to create the envelope-pushing video was awe-inspiring and the soon-to-be released version of “Judas” is a happy medium between artistic expression and tasteful vision.
“… it was amazing because to have that conversation about salvation, peace and the search for the truth in a room of non-believers and believers, to me, that was saying God is active in a big way,” explained Gibson. “We don’t touch on things that we have no right touching upon, but the inspiration and the soul and idea that out of your oppression, your darkness, your Judas, you can come into the marvelous light …”
Gibson originally began working with Gaga before she signed with Interscope Records, acting as a mentor for the controversial singer.
“In the beginning, it was just me teaching her,” said Gibson. “I listened to the music and the lyrics, where she breathes and I showed her how to use the microphone, how to look out into the crowd, how to stay in the zone. These are things she had to learn, but she was so fearless.”
What do you think of Gibson’s work with Gaga and her comments on the “Judas” video?
Video of the Day: Snoop Dogg Feat. Willie Nelson “Superman”
Mechanical Animal: Lady Gaga's Insane Album Cover Is the Best Part of 'Born This Way'
Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild" is very closely associated with the motorcycle road movie Easy Rider. That's the primary clue we're working with today in our investigation into why Lady Gaga decided to make her Born This Way album cover a strange mix of a calendar hanging in a mechanic's office crossed with the snarling jaguar on the cover of Roxy Music's For Your Pleasure. (Unless she's payinghomage to Judas Priest, repping for the small segment of the population that emerged from the birth canal with handlebars, or making a really bold statement about other pop stars being mechanical.)
Evidently some of Gaga's fans don't care for the cover, but it's our favorite part of Born This Way yet by a long shot. Little Monsters are so upset, there's actually a theory circulating that Gaga is betraying her fans three times (and we thought Kanye West had a Jesus Complex!), and that the cover she tweeted is a fake.
Here are their primary complaints:
It Looks Like it Cost $2 and a Photoshop Intern to Make: "Love you Gaga-always will but this album cover is just........cheap looking," tweeted Cristink3. "Gaga I really love u but this cover is awful, very mediocre and unprofessional...I'm in shock. Please do not dissapoint your fans," added Iotiprego.
It Lacks a Certain... Je Ne Sais Quoi: "wait, is this serious? with all due respect, i expected something ... classier?" complainedCglink. "I think this looks like random fan ar," Alan_PB wrote.
It Doesn't Seem to Relate to the Music: "Gaga I'm so disappointed ! I love u but this cover is not pop, rock or even 70's metal. It sucks. :S," sniffed Thisislordl. "No graphic designer in their right mind would approve of such an atrocious font, and not only that, It has an awful metallic- looking bevel and emboss! It is terrible," wrote bleakc.
Gaga tweeted the artwork with a note that referenced a "highway unicorn" and implored fans to "'get your hot rods ready to rumble." Make of that what you will. But the good news is plenty of people are making something out of that ludicrously incredible album cover, like Rolling Stone did when Adam Lambert released his similarly wackadoo For Your Entertainment artwork. Gawker put together a small gallery of great Born This Way parodies, and we highly recommend you check that out (Jessica Simpson meets the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile!).
Coachella 2011 Friday: The Festival Kicks Off, Cee Lo Mouths Off, Dance Music Blasts Off
Coachella--and, for all intents and purposes, the entire summer concert season--kicked off Friday in California's Indio desert, and the three-day mega musical festival was a sold-out affair despite the current recession and ongoing whiny complaints about this year's "weak" lineup. (Um, hello: Kanye West, Duran Duran, the Strokes, the comeback of Britpoppers Suede, recent Album of the Year Grammy champs Arcade Fire, and many more? How is that "weak"?) Really, the festival offered everything any self-respecting fan of music (or just fun) could want: carnival rides, art installations, abundant (some might say over-abundant) sunshine, cute girls in gold lamé American Apparel bikinis, bacon-wrapped hot dogs, and of course, more hipster bands than you could shake a disco-stick at.
But it wasn't all good vibes on Coachella's first day, unfortunately. Surprisingly, a dark cloud fell over the festival in the form of the usually jolly Cee Lo Green, whose set gave his hit "F*** You" a whole new, quite literal meaning. He hit the stage a full half-hour past his advertised set time, and when he finally showed up, he was shockingly unapologetic, mumbling something about how he'd "just landed" and quipping, "It ain't my fault; they should have given me another set time!" Cee Lo had a point--a star of his caliber probably should have gone on later than 4:30pm--but his incessant bitter griping about his set being trimmed to four songs in 20 minutes (due to his tardiness), and constant swearing, won him few fans.
An angry Cee Lo demanded that the audience flip Coachella the bird, and a few spectators obliged, although most disgruntled punters didn't seem to be on Cee's side. Cee Lo and his foxy all-girl backing band managed to get through an instrumental of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man," Gnarls Barkley's "Smiley Faces" and "Crazy," and his aforementioned profanity-laden smash hit, before the plug was sadly pulled on him right before he was about to belt out Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'." Yes, it was a shame that no one got to witness that, but Cee Lo's reaction--brattily pouting and storming offstage in a huff--was unprofessional. Sure, he only had 20 minutes, but he could have used those minutes more productively.
Meanwhile, across the field, rising L.A. freak-folker Ariel Pink was suffering an even more major meltdown in the Gobi Tent, spending most of his set with his back to the audience while chain-smoking and refusing to sing, then leaving the stage 15 minutes into his show, saying, "I'm sorry, I know you hate me now." Were Coachella's artists just going crazy from the heat? Coachella was beginning to seem more like Altamont or Woodstock '99, with all this negative energy wafting around.
Luckily, things quickly improved when comeback queen Lauryn Hill--or Ms. Lauryn Hill, if you're nasty, since that's how she's billing herself nowadays--took the main stage. Yes, Ms. Hill was late by 15 minutes, but after the Cee Lo incident, that didn't seem so egregious. If there were any artist who would have been expected to undergo a breakdown at Coachella it was Lauryn, since she seemed to unravel personally and professionally after her 1998 Grammy breakthroughThe Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill and critically derided MTV Unplugged follow-up. But Lauryn was, astoundingly, very much on her game this fine afternoon.
Looking like R&B royalty as she emerged in a Boy George bowler hat and gold rope chain the thickness of a garden hose, flanked by a sprawling horn section and an in-the-pocket backing band, her experience and professionalism was apparent when she conducted her soundcheck during her first number (due to Cee Lo running overtime before her). Her voice sounded stunning on old-school Fugees hits "Fu-Gee-La" and "Ready Or Not" and her solo signature song "That Thing," and while some fans complained about the liberties she took with the tunes (she performed them with drastically different musical arrangements), there was no denying that she commanded the stage like a star. It was nice to have Ms. Hill back.
Back on the R&B/hip-hop scene, one of Coachella's most hotly tipped bands was Odd Future--or OFWGKTA (Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All), as they are sometimes tongue-twistingly known--who were still riding the crazy wave of hype stemming from their recent star-making "Jimmy Fallon" performance. The L.A. alternative hip-hop collective wreaked havoc in the chaotic Sahara (dance) tent, the likes of which probably had not been seen since Madonna's appearance generated total dance-tent madness at Coachella 2006. Also going on late, Odd Future stirred up a huge amount of salivating anticipation among the many lookie-looks crammed into the tent, but they never quite delivered on their promise, since they basically just shouted various curse words over canned beats for 35 minutes. (Hey, at least Cee Lo's curse-word song was catchy!) "I got too hyped and I busted this," OFWGKTA leader Tyler told the crowd, referring to his laptop, but his statement took on double meaning after such an overhyped, disappointing performance.
But despite Tyler's laptop bust-up and his rap posse's overall letdown of a set, or Cee Lo's big F-you, in the end it was still dance-party music that ruled Coachella on day one. The party got started with a rather odd double-booking: Northern Cali dance-punks !!! (Chk Chk Chk) on the second stage, and extremely similar (as in similarly Gang Of Four-ish) Southern Cali dance-punks Moving Units on the adjacent main stage. (Who planned this? Probably the same geniuses who booked Wire and Big Audio Dynamite to play at the same time on Saturday.) Anyway, Chk Chk Chk won this battle of the bands with their sunny attitude, copious amounts of cowbell, and chanty monkey/jungle noises, but lamentably, their sound bled over the Moving Units' many times, creating an unintentional and at times unlistenable mashup. Worst. Dance-Punk. Remix. Ever.
Luckily, amazing New York new-wavers Cold Cave didn't have to compete for the attention of Coachella's dance-punk scenesters. Their gig in the Mojave Tent was packed, and rightfully so: They were one of Friday's best bands, and their new album Cherish The Light Years is in fact one of 2011's best releases. Cold Cave seemed a little out of place, almost like vampires exposed to the sun, playing an afternoon set in the California desert; with their dark-disco sound, head-to-toe black leathers, and colorless complexions, these moody synth stylists would've been more at home playing on a gray, rainy day at Britain's Glastonbury Festival. But they still made a massive impression, with keyboardist/bassist Jennifer Clavin coming across as the coolest, sultriest rock blonde this side of the Raveonettes' Sharin Foo, and the band ending their set with an eardrum-liquefying cacophony of metal-machine-music noise not heard at Coachella since My Bloody Valentine played in 2009. It was a testament to Cold Cave's appeal that this white noise test didn't scare very many concertgoers away.
Another dance-rock act impressing at Coachella was Brooklyn's the Drums, whose sharp, snappy, Smiths-y jangle-pop made for sweet sunny-afternoon entertainment. Blonde-bowlcutted frontboy Jonathan Pierce, a fantastic rising song-Smith (heh), completely rocked the Mojave stage as he crooned "one sad pop song to another" yet managed to sound effervescent throughout. There's little doubt that the Drums will be considered one of the big breakouts of Coachella '11.
M.I.A.-associated Brooklyn pop experimentalists Sleigh Bells (former Poison The Well member Derek Miller and former teen singer Alexis Krauss) were also nothing less than stunning, their metallic set bursting with shouty cheerleaders-on-PCP choruses, lo-fi distortion, tape hiss, punchy and crunchy guitars, cheapo sound effects, pummeling hard-rock drumbeats, and plenty of noize, noize, noise. And Alexis, with her wild-eyed stage demeanor and blood-curdling horror-queen scream, proved her teen-pop days were far, far behind her. Sleigh Bells slayed, basically, and their set was one of the most fun, ferocious party-rawk gigs of the day. They truly played the Mojave Tent like it was a stadium, especially when they--like Cee Lo earlier in the day--cranked out a bit of "Iron Man."
Later, Kele Okereke, frontman for Bloc Party and now a solo artist, strutted onto the Gobi stage to Gary Numan theme music, which was a total statement of intent. Eschewing the guitar-posturing of his old on-hiatus, indier-than-thou band, Kele totally cut loose onstage in a welcome way that he never had before, and his galvanizing single "Tenderoni" turned the entire Gobi Tent into a rave. For once, a show by the Bloc Party singer felt like an actual block party, as Kele boogied with joyful abandon and the audience gleefully followed suit.
Australian synth act Cut Copy, whose shiny new disc Zonoscope is another one of this year's best albums, also delivered. Coachella revelers had a dance fever, and there was only one cure: MORE COWBELL! And Cut Copy banged so much cowbell, even Christopher Walken would have approved. And if Cut Copy's new single "Take Me Over" doesn't become THE anthem of summer 2011, then I'll personally put on a pair of gold-plated diapers. They were that good.
Crystal Castles drew one of the biggest dance-music crowds of the day, their second-stage set providing the ideal perfect antidote to Kings Of Leon's hoary, hairy dude-rock over on the main stage. There's a reason that Alice Glass, lead singer for the face-meltingly freaky Toronto techno terrorists, came in at #1 on NME magazine's "Cool List" in 2008, and during her Coachella set she proved she deserves to win that title every year. The fearsome frontwoman gave a totally unhinged performance, her mental-patient eyes bugging out like Marty Feldman's and her mic cord coiled noose-like around her pale porcelain neck. It seemed like every awestruck girl in the crowd wanted to be Alice--this writer included. Alice managed to out-cool even Sleigh Bells' Alexis.
However, the ultimate dance party was thrown by the hostess with the mostess, Swedish teen-star-turned-electro-goddess Robyn, who hit the stage sheathed in Lycra like an '80s aerobic instructor and exhibited the energy to match. To quote one of her songs, her style was the bomb diddy bomb de deng de deng diggy diggy, and her sweaty Mojave Tent set truly brought the platinum-white desert heat.
Meanwhile, Interpol, with their sublime brand of subtle menace, also intrigued, as they played in silhouette with their artsy black-and-white films screening behind them, casting long shadows onto the field.
And finally, Friday's main stage lineup wrapped up with recent Best Alternative Album Grammy-winners the Black Keys (who celebrated drummer Patrick Carney's birthday onstage), and beardy festival veterans Kings Of Leon. Neither were exactly mind-blowing or headline-making, but they were nothing if not consistent, delivering their usual blustery big-stage fare for the masses. And sometimes at a massive music festival, when you've got a beer in one hand and bacon-wrapped hot dog in the other, that's all you really need.
