history

Iconic moments in music history.

Music Genealogy . Top Story - March 2021.
Spectrum City is a music genealogy project that attempts to trace the ancestral influences of modern popular music. Music follows the same Darwinian principles as life. Natural selection ensures successful mutations are replicated and thrive, whereas sonically flawed mutations become extinct after a few generations.
By Ricky Chopra5 years ago in Beat
Joe Meek And The Day The Music Died, Among Other Things
I've been a fan of Joe Meek's work for a long time, but it wasn't until the early 2010s that I really had a feel for his extraordinary sound design. I'd been on tour, and I was sitting alone with my gear in an empty shopping mall in Cleveland, Ohio, prior to it being open for business. People were allowed to inhabit the mall at all hours, due to the fact that there was a 24 hour casino connected to the food court area, but I didn't see a single soul for some time. It is unknown to me why soul music and doo-wop was flooding the mall with intercom fuzz, like a more stylized and intentional elevator music to nowhere, but a bit louder than one would expect. I don't know if one of the employees tuned into an odd radio station, or if this slightly less generic subliminal feel-good method was standard fair.
By Arvo Zylo5 years ago in Beat
Against All Odds
Black History Month is here again, and it opens many conversations on just how America has fared in stamping out racism from its society. A year ago today, Ahmaud Aubrey, while jogging through Brunswick, Ga.-area neighborhood, was chased and gunned down by a white man named Travis
By Queenie Reigns5 years ago in Beat
What are words for?
There has been and always will be different opinions, views on music. World War II hits like Don Ray’s “Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar” never created the level of controversy, like the 60’s hit “Louie, Louie”, a song about a Jamaican sailor, would make its mark in music history, become of the most recorded songs in music history, incite the anger of parents, cross paths with a future President of the United States, and become the center point in a 21 month federal investigation.
By Paul Herrera5 years ago in Beat
The Original Trailblazers
As someone who considers myself a lifelong student of American history, I've been ashamed to admit, even to myself - and especially in the last year - that I've been largely ignorant of how whitewashed my education has been. A glaring example of the gaping holes in my education is the fact that I had never even heard of Juneteenth until last year. Why had I not taken it upon myself sooner to learn all I could about Black history, a very significant part of American history?
By Jennifer Miller5 years ago in Beat
a song to remember
As a white girl that grew up in a middle-class family, I was so far removed from understanding what it meant to be anything but that. I had always understood the sexism in life, the fact that I would be the one that stepped out of a man’s way or that a man wanting to touch the small of my back or arm was just a formality. I had known it, I had seen it, I had known that women’s rights were still very new to this nation, and I was lucky enough to get to go to school. I was lucky enough to even have a chance that even fifty years ago, women didn’t have. I knew all of this and more at a young age as I cried to my dad when I heard about Malala being shot by the Taliban for going to school, “daddy why can’t other girls go to school?”. I was seven. It was then I was exposed to racism. An idea that I couldn’t even fathom.
By Jazzy 5 years ago in Beat
I'm Beginning to See the Light
When I was about sixteen years old I was trying to work up the courage to sing. I was extremely self-conscious about my voice and felt like I had absolutely no talent. However, I eventually made the decision to see my high school music teacher and discuss the possibility of voice lessons. When I started practicing with her, my voice sounded small and weak, due to fear of performing in front of others. Overtime, I slowly began to grow more comfortable. And that is when I was introduced to Ella Fitzgerald, the “First Lady of Song.”
By Brandon Vermeer5 years ago in Beat
Tina Turner, formerly known as Anna Mae Bullock
I admire her accomplishments as well as her strength, as she faced many hard challenges throughout her life. As I continued to read about her life, I found some similarities to the things I had experienced in my life. Because of these similarities, I felt I could really relate to her.
By Lori Douglas5 years ago in Beat
History of Amazing Grace, part 1
On February 23, 1807, the British parliament passing a bill banning the nation’s slave trade. In these two articles, we’ll explore the lives of two men and one song that played a large role in that effort.
By Bill Petro5 years ago in Beat
Queens of Soul.
I think I am a black woman in a white woman’s skin.When I was growing up my friends were all listening to the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. I admit they were good bands,but they did not move my soul. On the other hand, I was a big Motown fan.Four tops, Temptations, Supremes you name them. my favourite song was and still is summertime.Always when we would have parties , family and friends would ask me to sing summertime.I even won a competion singing Birth of the blues.
By Kathleen Merry5 years ago in Beat
Beyoncé: A Woman Celebrating All Black Women in Music
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, and don’t forget the accent on the ‘E’. When I need a dose of confidence walking into a meeting or a first date; I imagine that Crazy in Love is playing in my head, and I strut to it; it works every time.
By Summer5 years ago in Beat
No Louis without Lil.
“The second wife of Louis Armstrong”. That is the most prominent and popular tag line used in search results when you look up Lil Hardin-Armstrong— but that’s not quite the story I’ve gathered. The most interesting thing I’ve found about Lil’s story is that there’s really two major accounts of it: what you believe about Lil depends on where you got your information from. Some really did just see her as one of the women who married Louis Armstrong, lots have never even heard of her, and the others know that reducing her to the title of “second wife” is nothing short of offensive. I fall into that last category. What better month than Black History Month to get some of the real history straight, and clear up how yet another Black woman’s influence is being slept on?
By Hannah B5 years ago in Beat