#according to the kings of j-pop/rock

[radio-4-is-static]

RED OUT | Kenshi Yonezu

鮮血煌めいて跳ねるスタインウェイ & サンズ 頭の中鳴り止まない砕けたバックビート 零コンマーで褪せてしまう情景 どうした地獄じゃあるまいに そんな目で見んな

///

Blood glistens, and the Steinway & Sons bounces A frenzied backbeat hammers in my head A sight that blackens in 0.1 seconds What’s with you? It’s not like this is hell Don’t give me that look

[rhapsodynew]

#classic rock news📌

Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd sold the rights to the music catalog of their songs. The deal with Sony amounted to $400 million.

The deal includes the rights to the band's name and portraits of its members, which allows Sony to sell related products (clothing, souvenirs, etc.), as well as produce films and television programs. And, of course, the rights to publish music in various formats. The copyright remained with the musicians.

This deal became another in the list of high-profile purchases of Sony Music that have already taken place, in the summer of 2024, it managed to acquire the rights to the Queen group's music catalog for $ 1.27 billion.

James Blunt

British pop-rock artist James Blunt promised on his social networks that he would change his name if the anniversary reissue of his first album Back to Bedlam (2004) again took first place in the British charts. According to the musician, fans will be able to choose a new name for him.

In 2005, 2.4 million copies of Blunt's debut album were sold. In 2009, their number reached 3 million, which made the longplay the best-selling in Britain in the 2000s. The release includes hits such as You're Beautiful and Goodbye My Lover.

Back to Bedlam will be re-released on October 11.

Tom Hamilton

Life after Aerosmith continues.

Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton said on social media that his new band Close Enemies will give their first concert on October 11 in Nashville. The band also includes drummer Tony Brock, vocalist Chasen Hampton, guitarists Peter Stroud and Trace Foster.

In his post, Hamilton wrote:

"Hi, I need to tell you something about a band called Close Enemies that I play in. We have a bunch of good songs recorded. We are going to release one of them very soon. Meanwhile, on October 11, we are performing in Nashville at an institution called the Eastside Bowl. Please come!"

Later, the bassist also added that the band rehearses a lot: "The songs sound amazing."

A book about Bon Jovi will be released for the band's 40th anniversary.

Genesis Publications and Bon Jovi have announced the book "Bon Jovi Forever". BON JOVI gave Genesis unprecedented access to their entire archive to create an exciting journey through 40 years of the band's history, during which she created 16 albums.

Jon Bon Jovi says: "I never planned what I want people to feel when listening to our songs. But when you compose, it's often the songs that are closest to you that pass the test of time and turn out to be closest to others. If the song is written from the heart, and not just 'worked out', there is a high probability that the listener will find something important in your story."

John himself and his colleagues actively participated in the work on "Bon Jovi Forever", so the publication will have the status of an official one. The exact date has not yet been announced, but it is already known that the book will be available both separately and as part of a box set, which will also include an exclusive seven-inch vinyl record.

The trailer for the documentary "Elton John: Never Too Late" has been released.

"The film follows Elton John as he looks back on his life and the amazing early days of his 50-year career on this emotionally charged, personal and inspiring journey," the synopsis says. - As he prepares for his last concert in North America, at Dodger Stadium, Elton takes us back in time to talk about the extraordinary highs and heartbreaking lows of his early years and how he overcame adversity, violence and addiction to become the icon he is today.

The documentary, directed by R. J. Cutler and David Furnish, premiered on September 6 at the Toronto Film Festival. The world premiere will take place on December 13 on Disney+.

Legendary Yes and King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford, who worked as a liaison with music for 15 years, returned to the stage as a special guest of the British jazz band Pete Roth Trio.

The band's website uses the phrase "jazz without borders". The musician is comforted that "they are creating jazz for a new worship of music that is free from the usual jazz stereotypes."

Bruford announced that he would start recording and releasing soon, on January 1, 2009. His last public concert with Earthworks took place on July 31, 2008. After retiring, Bruford earned a doctorate in music from the University of Surrey and wrote an autobiography, "Bill Bruford: The Autobiography. Yes, King Crimson, Earthworks and More”, which received many positive reviews.

With the exception of a brief participation in the Ann Bailey's Soul House cover band, Bruford's single foundation for the drum kit took place in 2023 at a concert in memory of John Wetton, who participated in the song "Let's Stick Together".

The British band The Cure

She confirmed rumors that their album "Songs Of A Lost World" will be released on November 1. The longplay will be the first for the artists since 2008.

The band also presented the first track from the release of "Alone". According to The Cure's frontman Robert Smith, the nearly seven-minute song helped him understand the focus of the entire album.

The full-length album was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales. The gloomy, minimalistic cover was created by a long-time colleague of the team, designer and photographer Andy Vella. The work depicts the 1975 sculpture Bagatelle by Slovenian Janez Pirnat.

Ozzy Osbourne named the most favorite song from his repertoire.

"I have a real weakness for the ballad Mama, I'm Coming Home. The lyrics were written by Lemmy — but I described to him exactly what I wanted to say in it, that is, I set the content," says Ozzy in an interview with Classic Rock. "But I'll tell you what, I don't really have a personal favorite. People always ask me which is my favorite album that I've made — and I don't have one! All my recordings reflect either the fun and chaos or the terrible circumstances that happened to me. Each of them is a reflection of me at that time."

The song "Mama, I'm Coming Home" was released as the second single from the album "No More Tears" in late November 1991. It was one of two collaborations with Lemmy on the album, the other being "Hellraiser".

In an interview with Classic Rock in 2013, Lemmy recalled how he came up with the lyrics of the song.

"I came up with this song," said the late Motörhead leader. "He sent me a text about what he would like to sing, and I think he gave me the title, but that's it. I'm good at it because that's how I write our songs — I come up with a title, and then I write a song based on it. Later, Ozzy and I were doing an interview in the same tent at this festival, and one guy asked: "The song Mama I'm Coming Home is the most personal thing you've written. Was she a big jerk to you?" And Ozzy just said, "He wrote it!"

The frontman of the British band Coldplay, Chris Martin, sang one of the new songs of the band in a karaoke bar in Las Vegas under the guise of another person.

Chris Martin took to the stage in a baggy suit, wig, glasses and with an inflatable balloon in his hand. In a local bar, the musician performed the song "All My Love". This track will be part of the band's upcoming album "Moon Music", which is scheduled for release on October 4. There will be a total of ten tracks in the longplay.

In August, Coldplay's "Music of the Spheres" tour became the highest-grossing rock tour of all time. Before that, the record belonged to Elton John.

Ringo Starr announced the cancellation of concerts in Philadelphia and New York due to his illness.

According to the artist's representative on social networks, Ringo caught a cold and the doctor advised him to rest. Starr played a total of 10 concerts before falling ill. His All-Starr Band now includes Steve Lukather, Colin Hay, Warren Ham, Hamish Stewart, Gregg Bissonnette and Buck Johnson.

We wish Ringo to get well and hit the drum again 🥁

[ausetkmt]

Tina Turner, Queen of Rock & Roll, Dead at 83

Legendary singer "died peacefully" Wednesday after a long illness

Tina Turner, the raspy-voiced fireball who overcame domestic abuse and industry ambivalence to emerge as one of rock and soul’s brassiest, most rousing and most inspirational performers, died Wednesdayat age of 83.

“Tina Turner, the ‘Queen of Rock’n Roll’ has died peacefully today at the age of 83 after a long illness in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland,” her family said in a statement Wednesday. “With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model.”

Starting with her performances with her ex-husband Ike, Turner injected an uninhibited, volcanic stage presence into pop. Even with choreographed backup singers — both with Ike and during her own career — Turner never seemed reigned in. Her influence on rock, R&B and soul singing and performance was also immeasurable. Her delivery influenced everyone from Mick Jagger to Mary J. Blige, and her high-energy stage presence (topped with an array of gravity-defying wigs) was passed down to Janet Jackson and Beyoncé. Turner’s message — one that resounded with generations of women — was that she could hold her own onstage against any man. 

But Turner’s other legacy was more personal and involved a far more complex man. During her time with Ike — a demanding and often drug-addled bandleader and guitarist — Turner was often beaten and humiliated. Her subsequent rebirth, starting with her massively popular, Grammy-winning 1984 makeover Private Dancer, made her a symbol of survival and renewal.

Born Anna Mae Bullock on Nov. 26, 1939, Turner grew up in Nutbush, Tennessee, a rural and unincorporated area in Haywood County chronicled in her song “Nutbush City Limits.” According to Turner, her family were “well-to-do farmers” who lived well off the business of sharecropping. Still, Turner and her older sister Ruby Aillene dealt with abandonment issues when their parents left to work elsewhere.

“My mother and father didn’t love each other, so they were always fighting,” Turner recalled in a 1986 Rolling Stone interview. Her mother first left when Tina was 10 to live in St. Louis; her father left three years later. Turner relocated to Brownsville, Tennessee, to live with her grandmother.

Editor’s picks

After high school, she began working as a nurse’s aide in hopes of entering that profession. Frequently, Turner and her sister would head to nightclubs in St. Louis and East St. Louis, where she first saw Ike Turner perform as the bandleader of Kings of Rhythm. The 18-year-old became enamored with the guitarist eight years her senior and the group’s music, and one night, the drummer passed Turner the microphone while she was in the audience. Ike then invited Tina to be the group’s guest vocalist and instructed her on voice control and performance. As “Little Ann,” she sang alongside Carlson Oliver on Ike Turner’s “Box Top,” which was her first studio recording.

In 1958, the same year that “Box Top” was released, Turner gave birth to her first child, Raymond Craig, with Raymond Hill, the Kings of Rhythm’s saxophonist. Soon after, Tina moved in with Ike to help raise the musician’s two sons after he had broken up with their mother. A sexual relationship ensued, even though Turner told RS in 1984 that she wasn’t initially attracted to him: “I liked him as a brother,” she said. “I didn’t want a relationship. But it just sort of grew on me.” Inspired by the movie serial Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, Turner changed her stage name per Ike’s request.

In 1960, Ike and Tina Turner released their debut single, “A Fool in Love.” It was an immediate success, reaching the Top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. The next year, they released another hit single, “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine,” which led to their first Grammy nomination for Best Rock and Roll Performance. The Ike and Tina Turner Revue maintained a rigorous touring schedule as part of the chitlin circuit in the early Sixties and became noted for the quality of their spectacle and diverse crowds they could reach in the South.

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“The success and the fear came almost hand in hand,” Turner told RS, specifically noting Ike’s fear of losing her following “A Fool in Love.” Ike continued to sleep with other women, and Tina was aware that his songs were often about his other sexual relationships. She refused to travel and sing his songs at one point; the first time she did so, he began beating her with his shoe stretcher. Yet she stayed with him: “I felt very loyal to Ike, and I didn’t want to hurt him,” she told RS in 1984. “I knew if I left there’d be no one to sing, so I was caught up in guilt. I mean, sometimes, after he beat me up, I’d end up feeling sorry for him. I’d be sitting there all bruised and torn and feeling sorry for him. I was just…brainwashed? Maybe I was brainwashed.” The two married in 1962 in Tijuana; it was Ike’s sixth marriage.

In 1966, the Turners partook in a now-legendary rock TV show, The TNT Show, whose musical director was producer Phil Spector. After signing the duo to his label, Spector produced what he considered his masterpiece, “River Deep — Mountain High,” putting Tina through countless vocal takes. The song wasn’t the blockbuster many assumed it would be, but it opened up other doors for Ike and Tina. In 1969, they opened for the Rolling Stones on the band’s U.S. tour, then went on to have a crossover hit with a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary” that, thanks to Tina, went from smoldering to souped-up; it won a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Group. In 1975, Tina appeared as the Acid Queen in Ken Russell’s grandiose film version of the Who’s Tommy.

Amidst it all, though, the Turners’ marriage began to unravel as Ike grew more abusive and more addicted to cocaine. She had previously attempted to leave him multiple times, and in 1968 was so desperate to part ways with her abusive husband that she attempted suicide. After what she would call “one last bit or real violence,” Tina fled — literally, to a Ramada Inn in Dallas, where the couple was playing — and asked her friend, actress Ann-Margret, for airfare to Los Angeles. Tina stayed with her Tommy co-star as Ike went looking for her; the couple would divorce in 1976.

“I didn’t even know how to get money,” she said later. “Ike didn’t think I’d be able to find a house, but I did. He sent over the kids, and money for my first rent because he thought I’d have to come back when that ran out. We slept on the floor the first night. I rented furniture. I had some Blue Chip stamps that I had the kids bring, and I got dishes.”

Turner also credited her introduction to Buddhism for giving her the strength to leave. “I never stopped praying … that was my tool,” Turner told Rolling Stone in 1986. “Psychologically, I was protecting myself, which is why I didn’t do drugs and didn’t drink. I had to stay in control. So I just kept searching, spiritually, for the answer.”

Despite her recognizable voice and musical accomplishments with her ex-husband, Turner struggled to establish herself as a solo artist. Her first solo records, starting with 1974’s pre-breakup Tina Turns the Country On!, failed to spawn any hits, and she took to the road for eight years to help pay off the debt she incurred from the canceled tour with Ike and an IRS lien. To maintain a profile in a business that seemed to want nothing more to do with her, she played cheesy lounge gigs and appeared on TV variety shows and game shows like The Hollywood Squares. In a shocking story recounted in the Tina doc, one attempt at a new record deal in the Eighties almost collapsed when a higher-up at the company referred to her with a racial epithet.

Turner’s comeback began in 1982, when Heaven 17, the British synth-pop band, recruited her for a remake of the Temptations’ “Ball of Confusion.” The song led to a new record deal for Turner with Capitol. Turner’s manager, Roger Davies, then suggested that she and Heaven 17’s Martyn Ware cut a remake of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together,” which hit the top 30 in the U.S. With that, and the support of her friend David Bowie, Turner began recording her Capitol debut, Private Dancer. Reflecting the way she and Davies wanted to integrate synthesizers and more contemporary production touches, they cut songs like “What’s Love Got to Do With It” by British songwriter Terry Brittan. Although Turner disliked the demo of the song, she later said she was urged to make it “a bit rougher, a bit more sharp around the edges.”

With that, she reclaimed the song, which spent three weeks at No. 1, became an MTV staple and rebooted Turner’s career in a way that rarely happened for Sixties veterans on her level. By refusing to sound retro and showcasing her voice in a way that hadn’t been done in at least a decade, Private Dancer introduced Turner (and her MTV-perfect wigs, stiletto heels, and fishnet stockings) to a new, younger audience. “What’s Love Got to Do with It” walked away with four Grammys (including two for Turner, for Pop Vocal Performance, Female and Rock Vocal Performance, Female). In another sign of her determination, Turner performed the song live during the telecast despite having the flu.

The triumph of Private Dancer was only the beginning of Turner’s relaunch into pop culture. . The following year, she starred as the villainous Auntie Entity alongside Mel Gibson in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (which included another hit, “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)”), partook in the all-star “We Are the World” session, and commanded the stage at Live Aid alongside Mick Jagger.. (Thanks to it all, she later wrote, she had “enough money to pay off all those debts I had.”) In 1986, her first memoir, I, Tina, cowritten with then-RS writer Kurt Loder, was published and became a best-seller. “One of the Living,” another song she cut for the Mad Max movie, won a Best Female Rock Performance Grammy in 1985.

Turner had first gone public about her troubled marriage to Ike in a People magazine interview in 1981, but I, Tina, delved deeper. The result was not just a best-selling memoir—which, arguably, set the template for other rock stars to pen theirs—but a book that gave hope to survivors of domestic abuse, and Turner herself helped ensure that domestic violence was addressed in the culture at large.

“I don’t want to depend on a man to give me money,” she told RS in 1986. “I don’t want to be afraid anymore. I used to think I had to get married to help me get the things I wanted in life. When I realized I could get those things for myself, by myself, I began to like that feeling. I feel if I can secure myself, I wouldn’t have to depend on a man; we would only share love.”

For Turner, the decade that followed served as an ongoing validation for her career. I, Tina was turned into a 1993 movie, What’s Love Got to Do with It, starring Angela Bassett in the title role and Laurence Fishburne as Ike. “I Don’t Wanna Fight,” a new song included on that film’s soundtrack, became Turner’s last top 10 hit. She went on to win additional Grammys, for “Better Be Good to Me,” a live album, and for her participation in Herbie Hancock’s 2007 Joni Mitchell tribute album, River: The Joni Letters, on which Turner sang Mitchell’s “Edith and the Kingpin.”  

In 1999, Turner released what would be her final album, Twenty Four Seven, partly produced by the same team who worked on Cher’s “Believe.” The album didn’t achieve the commercial success of the records that preceded it, but the accolades and recognition continued. In 2005, Turner, along with Tony Bennett, Robert Redford and others, was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor by then-president George W. Bush. Between 2008 and 2009, she embarked on a 50th anniversary tour. (The tour was preceded by a joint performance by Turner and Beyoncé at the 2008 Grammys, where they joined forces on “Proud Mary.”) Tina, a musical based on her life, premiered in London in 2018 and on Broadway the following year. Adrienne Warren, in the title role, won a Tony in 2020 for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical.

As Turner herself would later say, though, the ongoing retelling of her life story and time with Ike—in movies, musicals and documentaries—also came with a price. As much as her troubles inspired others, she constantly had to relive them and was always asked about Ike, even after his death in 2007. “He did get me started and he was good to me at the beginning,” she said in the Tina doc. “So I have some good thoughts. Maybe it was a good thing that I met him. That, I don’t know.” 

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In 1986, Turner met German music executive Erwin Bach; the two became a couple soon after. The couple first lived in Germany before moving to Switzerland. In recent years, she suffered a stroke three weeks after their wedding in 2013, then developed intestinal cancer. In light of possible kidney failure, Bach donated a kidney to his wife in 2017. “I wondered if anyone would think that Erwin’s living donation was transactional in some way,” she wrote in her 2018 memoir My Love Story. “Incredibly, considering how long we had been together, there were still people who wanted to believe that Erwin married me for my money and fame.”

Reflecting on how she connected to an audience, Turner said to RS in 1986, “My songs are a little bit of everybody’s lives who are watching me. You gotta sing what they can relate to. And there are some raunchy people out there. The world is not perfect. And all of that is in my performance … That’s why I prefer acting to singing, because with acting you are forgiven for playing a certain role. When you play that same role every night, people think that you are it. They don’t think you’re acting. That is the scar of what I’ve given myself with my career. And I’ve accepted that.”

[thesafaribaggirl-returns]

Since people are talking about music according to apple the last 7 artists I’ve listened to are

Damh The Bard (pagan new age music)

Michael Jackson (The king of pop)

Sonata Artica (euro power metal)

Iori Nomizu (j-rock)

Rush (pop rock)

Lisa Theriot (folk rock)

Martin Simpson (American folk)

[cleoenfaserum]

NEEDFUL THINGS, Stephen King

I happen upon one of those unexpected things that pop up into your eyesight of nonchalant browsing and on my computers search engine magically appeared, (well, lets say, metaphorically it magically appeared), STEPHEN KING with the cover of his book NEEDFUL THINGS announcing his audio-book. I had read many of his books, so you can say I am a sort of a fan. I have a thing about King, though, I consider him to be an exceptional writer, which is an understatement, however, his denouement half way through the thickness of his writings starts to fall off and as far as I am concerned, he doesn't know how to end his books and does a poor job of it at that. But I love reading books with children as protagonist and many of his books start off with it. Useful Things, as I began the audio, excellently read, took hold of me in such a manner with an 11 year old boy rambling about things of his town. The book just grasp me finding it hard to pull away.

Stephen King - Needful Things: Audiobook Part 1

981-1 link https://ok.ru/video/7726644202035 See note for the other parts.

Needful Things is a 1991 horror novel by American author Stephen King. It is the first novel King wrote after his rehabilitation from drug and alcohol addiction. It was made into a film of the same name in 1993 which was directed by Fraser C. Heston. The story focuses on a shop that sells collectibles and antiques, managed by Leland Gaunt, a new arrival to the town of Castle Rock, Maine, the setting of many King stories. Gaunt often asks customers to perform a prank or mysterious deed in exchange for the item they are drawn to. As time goes by, the many deeds and pranks lead to increasing aggression among the townspeople, as well as chaos and death. A protagonist of the book is Alan Pangborn, previously seen in Stephen King's novel The Dark Half.

According to the cover, this novel is "The Last Castle Rock Story." However, the town later serves as the setting for the short story "It Grows on You" (published in King's 1993 collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes which, according to King, serves as an epilogue to Needful Things), as well as King's 2017 novella Gwendy's Button Box (cowritten with Richard Chizmar) and his 2018 novella Elevation. Wikipedia.

Needful Things is a 1993 American horror film based on Stephen King's 1991 novel of the same name. The film was directed by Fraser C. Heston (Charlton Heston's son; this is his only film without his father in the cast), and stars Ed Harris, Max von Sydow, Bonnie Bedelia, and J. T. Walsh. The film received mixed reviews, critics praised the performances and ending, but criticized its portrayal of its story and felt it inferior to its source material. Needful Things (film) - Wikipedia

Needful Things received mixed reviews from critics. The film holds a 32% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 28 reviews, with an average rating of 4.8/10.[3] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert gave it 1.5 out of 4 stars, saying the film "only has one note, which it plays over and over, sort of a Satanic water torture. It's not funny and it's not scary and it's all sort of depressing." Janet Maslin, film and literary critic for The New York Times, gave the film a resoundingly negative review, saying that "though this is by no means the grisliest or most witless film made from one of Mr. King's horrific fantasies, it can lay claim to being the most unpleasant."

Bonnie Bedelia,  Max von Sydow Ed Harris

THE FILM IMdB 6'3

A mysterious new shop opens in a small town which always seems to stock the deepest desires of each shopper, with a price far heavier than expected.

981-2 LINK https://ok.ru/video/2804108888679

notes:

Stephen King - Needful Things Full Audiobook Part 2

981-3 link https://ok.ru/video/7726663404083

Stephen King - Needful Things: Audiobook Part 3 https://ok.ru/video/7726675397171

Stephen King - Needful Things: Audiobook Part 4 https://ok.ru/video/7726685424179

Stephen King - Needful Things: Audiobook Part 5 https://ok.ru/video/7726696892979

Stephen King - Needful Things: Audiobook Part 6 https://ok.ru/video/7726703839795

Stephen King - Needful Things: Audiobook Part 7 last part: https://ok.ru/video/7726723369523

LINK https://youtu.be/Us_KpbI7hU4 Stephen King - Wikipedia

[angelfacemjj]

Haha, no he ain't a pedo. These accusations are based off of two things: Money (from the accusers alone) and racism (from media and it's support). To understand the racism part, you need to understand the beef Michael had with the media ever since (according to my calculations based off of my head voices /j) Thriller era.

The media never wanted a black man to be the king of pop. They never wanted a person who presented a threat to the capitalist system (by constantly encouraging his fan base to make a change in the world, which would OBVIOUSLY result in anti capitalist soldiers of love) to be on top.

The press did everything, EVERYTHING, to turn the public against it, to the point they had to appeal to homophobia as an attempt, before this allegations.

And then was this bitch Evan Chandler who was a terrible dentist trying to get 20.000 dollars and boom: Pedophilia allegations for another white supremacist destruction attempt, in which Jackson wasn't able to bring into court in time because of his insurance company, until 2005.

These allegations are completely racism based, because if they weren't, Elvis Presley, who had a literal fetish on 14 year old girls, would never be considered the king of rock.

i get that micheal jackson did a lot of good in the world but he was also a pedophile? 😭 i’m no taylor fan but you can’t say that these other people aren’t “problematic” (too shallow a word i’d say)

any mj anon wants to clarify this? because i had no idea...

[epikhightrans]

Epik High - 정당방위 (In Self-defense) (feat. Woo, Nucksal & CHANGMO) (Keep reading for lyrics)

Tablo: Hey guys, I’m just– I’m going to N-New York, just for a week.  (Go ahead.) I need to write some lyrics.

It’s damn hard to live like a good person When I look around, it’s all castles or the gutter Everybody wanna beef for that bread Sandwiched between top and bottom I’m out of energy Aren’t all of your lives only worth living once you’ve drawn some blood? It’s my job to be preyed on What can I do? “Don’t want to lose in the turf war? Listen carefully to what I say” You treat me like a bitch and expect obedience? Aha! The right to know, the right to know? Thanks to that, we get tabloids breeding like rabbits and flocks of fuckery Microdust, my ass All over the hazy Seoul sky – no fire, no smoke I totally feel like Tukutz Feel like shit every second I’m awake Stop that, why do you keep starting fights and stirring shit? Leave me alone, f**ka!

Woo: Huh? Look at the window Bruh after lockdown, you’ve been talking more shit You’ll get in trouble like that Bend your back like limbo You’re the line In accordance with self-defense Listen, you lil’ kiddies commenting This world of boomers is quite different from Youtube Bow the f**k down huh You like hearing that? Huh? Would you do fuck off man Was it my way? My hard-earned money escapes me Oh wait Hate that, you just hate it right? Rest in peace King Nipsey Hussle You are just b I don’t know that

Nucksal: If I get stressed, that’s my loss Swear upfront, that’s my intro Got messy eating habits By any means, eat the whole table Hey hey h-here, change the tape  Red light everywhere, blindly pouncing on me Trying to rip my head off Yo come on, I’m Scarface Eye for a eye, I pay it all back Speak the truth or get bashed Been laughing it off, you found that funny? Gonna knock off your upper teeth Even the enemies of my enemies  All like me, you say? Haha Tell ‘em I can’t make it today Tell your mama Pick up the phone, it’s my last atonement I said leave me the f**k alone, you f**kers Mithra Jin: Everyone’s running rampant Pretending to be blind to others’ pain Only feeling relieved after prodding here and there A chronic disease suffered by the society at large Communication is always a straight drive Scoldings and lessons that no one asked for Been listening but feels like I’mma choke I rip my mask open Afraid of my dry coughs, huh? Rather than social distancing, Wanna distance myself from these pessimistic f**ks No difference between you and the virus Cuz you only leave behind pain Like leaves falling from the winter winds Just keep hitting rock bottom Like the break of dawn, I swallow even the darkness I hope to become the sun Even setting my entire body on fire CHANGMO: Frustrated, frustrated Hard– I mean, I’m frustrated Made it here by myself, expect nothing less from a street thug Even arrived beyond the position I've imagined Don’t care that no one’s on my side I’ve moved to the front yard of my enemy forces Camo Bathing Ape Tight hood on top These f**kers buying Brioni suits with mommy’s money Bash on them with my riches F**ker who forgot his hungry youth F**ker who screws around in pricey clothes F**ker in the middle like J. Cole’s hit The world says to choose one, I say f**k you I’m a hero, the f**ker to save Seoul Hero, the f**ker to transfuse money into his blood Calling yourselves rappers but fashionistas by profession, What are you f**kers? These f**kers say something scene, blah respect, b***h, cash F**k that, your stage is the magazine I’ve done everything you’ve done, except one Kissing hella ass to earn good opportunities F**kers around my age with zero personality Guess you’ve seen some stuff When you pop Dom Pérignons, I pop Lagavulins It’s Gangbuk vs Gangnam Look into it, who’s the real artist? It’s me, so f**k your artist marketing now

Tablo: I swear to God Swear I didn’t wanna have to kill again Eye for an eye Classic after classic, this is number ten Hey you f**kers Name a f**kin’ rapper we ain’t influenced It’s Epik High If I’m guilty It was all in self-defense BANG!

© epikhightrans

[1962dude420-blog]

Today we remember the passing of Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton who Died: July 25, 1984 in Los Angeles, California

Willie Mae Thornton (December 11, 1926 – July 25, 1984), better known as Big Mama Thornton, was an American rhythm-and-blues singer and songwriter. She was the first to record Leiber and Stoller's "Hound Dog", in 1952,which became her biggest hit, staying seven weeks at number one on the Billboard R&B chart in 1953 and selling almost two million copies. Thornton's other recordings included the original version of "Ball and Chain", which she wrote.

Her recording of Hound Dog, written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1952, and later recorded by Elvis Presley, reached Number 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. According to Maureen Mahon, a music professor at New York University, "the song is seen as an important beginning of rock-and-roll, especially in its use of the guitar as the key instrument".

Thornton's birth certificate states that she was born in Ariton, Alabama, but in an interview with Chris Strachwitz, she claimed Montgomery, Alabama, as her birthplace, probably because Montgomery was better known than Ariton. She was introduced to music in a Baptist church, where her father was a minister and her mother a singer. She and her six siblings began to sing at early ages. Her mother died young, and Willie Mae left school and got a job washing and cleaning spittoons in a local tavern. In 1940 she left home and, with the help of Diamond Teeth Mary, joined Sammy Green's Hot Harlem Revue and was soon billed as the "New Bessie Smith". Her musical education started in the church but continued through her observation of the rhythm-and-blues singers Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie, whom she deeply admired.

Thornton's career began to take off when she moved to Houston in 1948. "A new kind of popular blues was coming out of the clubs in Texas and Los Angeles, full of brass horns, jumpy rhythms, and wisecracking lyrics." In 1951 she signed a recording contract with Peacock Records and performed at the Apollo Theater in 1952. Also in 1952, while working with another Peacock artist Johnny Otis, she recorded "Hound Dog", the first record produced by its writers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The pair were present at the recording, with Leiber demonstrating the song in the vocal style they had envisioned; "We wanted her to growl it," Stoller said, which she did. Otis played drums, after the original drummer was unable to play an adequate part. The record sold more than half a million copies, and went to number one on the R&B chart, helping to bring in the dawn of rock 'n' roll. Although the record made Thornton a star, she saw little of the profits.

On Christmas Day 1954 in a theatre in Houston, Texas, she witnessed fellow performer Johnny Ace, also signed to Duke and Peacock record labels, accidentally shoot and kill himself while playing with a .22 pistol. Thornton continued to record for Peacock until 1957 and performed in R&B package tours with Junior Parker and Esther Phillips.

Thornton's success with "Hound Dog" was followed three years later by Elvis Presley recording his hit version of the song. His recording at first annoyed Leiber who wrote, "I have no idea what that rabbit business is all about. The song is not about a dog, it's about a man, a freeloading gigolo." But Elvis' version sold ten million copies, so today few fans know that "Hound Dog" began as "an anthem of black female power." Similarly, Thornton originally recorded her song "Ball 'n' Chain" for Bay-Tone Records in the early 1960s, "and though the label chose not to release the song... they did hold on to the copyright"—which meant that Thornton missed out on the publishing royalties when Janis Joplin recorded the song later in the decade. However, in a 1972 interview, Thornton acknowledged giving Joplin permission to record the song and receiving royalty payments from its sales.

As her career began to fade in the late 1950s and early 1960s, she left Houston and relocated to the San Francisco Bay area, "playing clubs in San Francisco and L.A. and recording for a succession of labels", notably the Berkeley-based Arhoolie Records. In 1965, she toured with the American Folk Blues Festival in Europe, where her success was notable "because very few female blues singers at that time had ever enjoyed success across the Atlantic." While in England that year, she recorded her first album for Arhoolie, Big Mama Thornton – In Europe. It featured backing by blues veterans Buddy Guy (guitar), Fred Below (drums), Eddie Boyd (keyboards), Jimmy Lee Robinson (bass), and Walter "Shakey" Horton (harmonica), except for three songs on which Fred McDowell provided acoustic slide guitar.

In 1966, Thornton recorded her second album for Arhoolie, Big Mama Thornton with the Muddy Waters Blues Band – 1966, with Muddy Waters (guitar), Sammy Lawhorn (guitar), James Cotton (harmonica), Otis Spann (piano), Luther Johnson (bass guitar), and Francis Clay (drums). She performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1966 and 1968. Her last album for Arhoolie, Ball n' Chain, was released in 1968. It was made up of tracks from her two previous albums, plus her composition "Ball and Chain" and the standard "Wade in the Water". A small combo, including her frequent guitarist Edward "Bee" Houston, provided backup for the two songs. Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company's performance of "Ball 'n' Chain" at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and the release of the song on their number one album Cheap Thrills renewed interest in Thornton's career.

By 1969, Thornton had signed with Mercury Records, which released her most successful album, Stronger Than Dirt, which reached number 198 in the Billboard Top 200 record chart. Thornton had now signed a contract with Pentagram Records and could finally fulfill one of her biggest dreams. A blues woman and the daughter of a preacher, Thornton loved the blues and what she called the "good singing" of gospel artists like the Dixie Hummingbirds and Mahalia Jackson. She had always wanted to record a gospel record, and with the album Saved (PE 10005), she achieved that longtime goal. The album includes the gospel classics "Oh, Happy Day," "Down By The Riverside," "Glory, Glory Hallelujah," "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands," "Lord Save Me," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "One More River" and "Go Down Moses".

By then, the American blues revival had come to an end. While the original blues acts like Thornton mostly played smaller venues, younger people played their versions of blues in massive arenas for big money. Since the blues had seeped into other genres of music, the blues musician no longer needed impoverishment or geography for substantiation; the style was enough. While at home the offers became fewer and smaller, things changed for good in 1972, when Thornton was asked to rejoin the American Folk Blues Festival tour. She thought of Europe as a good place for herself, and, with the lack of engagements in the United States, she agreed happily. The tour, beginning on March 2, took Thornton to Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Sweden, where it ended on March 27 in Stockholm. With her on the bill were Eddie Boyd, Big Joe Williams, Robert Pete Williams, T- Bone Walker, Paul Lenart, Hartley Severns, Edward Taylor and Vinton Johnson. As in 1965, they garnered recognition and respect from other musicians who wanted to see them.

In the 1970s, years of heavy drinking began to damage Thornton's health. She was in a serious auto accident but recovered to perform at the 1973 Newport Jazz Festival with Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson (a recording of this performance, The Blues—A Real Summit Meeting, was released by Buddha Records). Thornton's last albums were Jail and Sassy Mama for Vanguard Records in 1975. Other songs from the recording session were released in 2000 on Big Mama Swings. Jail captured her performances during mid-1970s concerts at two prisons in the northwestern United States. She was backed by a blues ensemble that featured sustained jams by George "Harmonica" Smith and included the guitarists Doug MacLeod, Bee Houston and Steve Wachsman; the drummer Todd Nelson; the saxophonist Bill Potter; the bassist Bruce Sieverson; and the pianist J. D. Nicholson. She toured extensively through the United States and Canada, played at the Juneteenth Blues Fest in Houston and shared the bill with John Lee Hooker. She performed at the San Francisco Blues Festival in 1979 and the Newport Jazz Festival in 1980. In the early 1970s, Thornton's sexual proclivities became a question among blues fans. Big Mama also performed in the "Blues Is a Woman" concert that year, alongside classic blues legend Sippie Wallace, sporting a man's three-piece suit, straw hat, and gold watch. She sat at center stage and played pieces she wanted to play, which were not on the program. Thornton took part in the Tribal Stomp at Monterey Fairgrounds, the Third Annual Sacramento Blues Festival, and the Los Angeles Bicentennial Blues with BB King and Muddy Waters. She was a guest on an ABC-TV special hosted by actor Hal Holbrook and was joined by Aretha Franklin and toured through the club scene. She was also part of the award-winning PBS television special Three Generations of the blues with Sippie Wallace and Jeannie Cheatham.

Thornton was found dead at age 57 by medical personnel in a Los Angeles boarding house on July 25, 1984. She died of heart and liver disorders due to her longstanding alcohol abuse.

[kpophours]

a very necessary guide to The Boyz

➥ basic information 

debuted on December 6, 2017 with Boy

currently consisting of 11 members (they used to be 12 members, but Hwall sadly departed from the group in October 2019 due to his ongoing ankle injury)

signed under Cre.ker Entertainment

their official fanclub name is “THEB” (aka deobi)

no official colors yet (we’re waiting, Cre.ker)

they have an official YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and vlive

they had their first win with Bloom Bloom in 2019

discography: four EPs (The First, The Start, The Only, Dreamlike), two Singles (The Sphere, Bloom Bloom), a special Single (White), one full album (Reveal), one Japanese release (Tattoo)

recently won mnet’s Road to Kingdom and should have participated in Kingdom this year, but sadly, the show has been postponed indefinitely

currently preparing for a comeback (September 2020)

... now onto the members!

➥ hyung line: Sangyeon, Jacob, Younghoon, Hyunjae 

▸ Lee Sangyeon - leader, main vocalist

born on November 4, 1996 (a Scorpio and the oldest member of tbz)

(not your typical) leader - he’s not really “the dad”, but truly more of an older brother to the others

often teases and pranks the other members and is one of the funniest members according to their “Who’s Who” video (see: video recs)

writes own songs - super talented and dedicated, a really hard worker

has a beautiful deep, soul filled voice (we’d LOVE to hear more of it @cre.ker) - check out his performance on King of Masked Singer

according to Eric, he’s the member with the best body - really likes to work out and is stacked™

he really, really loves mangos

says he’s not cute but is obviously very wrong about that

has a super cute smile and adorable laugh

looked too beautiful with pink hair (deobi will never recover)

super bad at literally any game - always, ALWAYS loses when it comes to rock-paper-scissors (would be hilarious if it weren’t so sad)

some fun facts: his mbti is ESFP-T (he doesn’t believe in those kind of tests though), he’s good at impersonating others (especially Eric), he has an older sister (who has two sons, Sangyeon is a super cute uncle to them which he recently showed in his BOYLOG - WARNING: extreme cuteness!)

▸ Jacob Bae - lead vocalist

born on May 30, 1997 (a Gemini, but he very rarely shows it)

his Korean name is Bae Joon Young

kinda the mom of the group, but his official title is the angel™ (he literally never gets angry, he doesn’t even curse! how does he do that even his older brother says they never fought while growing up)

is from Toronto and therefore ½ of Canadian and ⅓ of English line - so he’s obviously fluent in English!

really improved his dancing skills over the years and it shows (unofficial member of dance line, fight me cre.ker)

beautiful soft vocals, amazing high notes (see their Mirotic cover)

plays the guitar and composes/writes his own songs

an MC for Simply K-Pop together with Kevin

½ of the superior “MoonBae” ship (aka married to Kevin - they’re super cute together, truly just two halves of the same idiot)

used to play volleyball and basketball and is really good at both, has apparently been working out a lot recently (rip his stans)

some fun facts: his mbti is INFP-T, his family adopted a new dog and named him after him/gave him the nickname “Cobi” ("your family replaced you... with a canine” - Kevin Moon, 2020), has an older brother, is left-handed, used to be the biggest fan of cereal (literally stocked boxes of it inside his room)

▸ Kim Younghoon - vocalist, visual

born on August 8, 1997 (but the most untypical Leo ever - only shows he’s a Leo like, once a year)

tallest member and ⅓ of the so called “Bermuda line” (aka the visuals™)

an under appreciated vocalist - his performance on King of Masked Singer more than showed how amazing his voice actually is (LET HIM SING CRE.KER)

has a “cool/cold look” at first, but is actually the softest, shyest, most precious squish on this planet (and has super soft puppy eyes)

kinda bad at life - needs to be protected because he’s just so clumsy, pouts when he’s about to cry (me, immediately: *cries with him*)

sometimes just randomly zones out and dissociates for a bit

fell down the stairs and injured his collarbone (I TOLD YOU HE NEEDS TO BE PROTECTED) before their Europe Tour and the Reveal promotions and therefore didn’t participate in the choreography

loves loves loves LOVES dogs so much and (his family) has a poodle (we stan Bori in this household)

the softest™ when trying to speak English (I‘m not crying, I‘m just really allergic to his extreme cuteness)

was a model for the Seoul Fashion Week in 2017 (together with Juyeon)

some fun facts: his mbti is INFP-J (there are four (4) introverts in tbz and they all share the exact same mbti), has an older brother, appeared in I.O.I’s Whatta Man music video, was recently cast as the second lead for the drama Love Revolution (his first ever acting role! the world should look out for actor!Hoon), is a BTS fanboy (his bias is Taehyung/V)

▸ Lee Jaehyun (aka “Hyunjae”) - lead vocalist, lead dancer, visual

born on September 17, 1997 (a Virgo)

also one of the tall members and another third of the “Bermuda Line”

an amazing dancer and a great vocalist (had like, 98% of the lines in No Air, so he’s pretty much an undercover main vocal)

an allrounder

seems quiet and chill at first. DO NOT BE FOOLED!!!

he is: l o u d . a bit annoying but also very cute without trying (actually really dislikes doing aegyo). hear someone loud in the background (especially laughing)? yep. that’s him! you found him, congrats.

also very caring and soft, takes great care of the younger members (when he’s not behaving like one of the younger members himself, that is)

also nags them a lot though (at least according to Eric)

the biggest Iron Man fanboy (like, legit wrote a fan letter to Iron Man when he visited the Marvel studios in NYC he’s just so cute)

l o v e s, no, ADORES kids and dogs

also really loves fried chicken

the biggest IU fanboy! very recently covered her song When Love Passes By for their A to BOYZ cover series

MWOHASEYO (don’t ask, just watch)

some fun facts: his mbti is ENFJ-A, he has an older sister, he’s really close with Pentagon’s Kino (they had some very cute interactions during Road to Kingdom), he can spin literally any object (a very weird, random talent tbh), has very skinny legs (so... literally a skinny legend)

➥ middle aka ’98 line: Juyeon, Kevin, New, Q 

▸ Lee Juyeon - main dancer, vocalist

born on January 15, 1998 (a Capricorn)

the last third of the tall and “Bermuda line”

an amazing dancer - he trained very hard to be where he is now (went viral as “the bucket hat guy” from their Bad Guy dance practice with the 1MILLION dance studio)

has a very soft, beautiful voice needs more lines

has very sharp features and beautiful eyes - his personality is very different from his cold looks though, he’s actually very soft, caring and thoughtful

he’s very gullible and innocent (also needs to be protected), therefore often the victim of jokes - most people think he’s a bit dumb thanks to that, but he’s really not: he likes to read, watches a lot of documentaries, and is just more on the quiet side in general, he likes to think before he speaks (unlike Hyunjae for example, no shade)

also very clumsy (never leave him and Younghoon alone together, please)

booked and busy! had like, a trillion photo shoots just this year, and was also a model for the Seoul Fashion Week 2017 

very bad at taking selfies but he tries and we love him nevertheless

can speak Japanese and English, is also a really good cook

an MC for The Show (aka the “JuShow”)

some fun facts: his mbti is ENTP-T, is very flexible (especially for his height), he likes to work out, has a younger brother, was on the show Law of the Jungle (he really likes nature), biggest U-Know (TVXQ) fanboy (legit cried when he met him), likes to play basketball, has gigantic hands (20.5cm a bit excessive but okay)

▸ Kevin Moon - main vocalist

born on February 23, 1998 (a soft Pisces boy™)

his Korean name is Moon Hyung Seo

the other half of Canadian line aka MoonBae (therefore, married to Jacob)

is from Vancouver and fluent in English (⅓ of English line)

yes, he’s the living meme you probably know from all the “funny kpop videos” compilations, quotes vines on a daily basis

SO much more than just the meme-ber though, he’s extremely talented - BIG BRAIN ENERGY, his creativity legit knows NO LIMITS

has amazing drawing skills (that he often shares with deobi on Twitter) - actually designed the group’s logo tbz use for their official Twitter account

can play the piano and guitar (he’s truly just so talented and amazing - STAN KEVIN MOON Y’ALL)

HAS ONE OF THE BEST VOICES EVER AND WE’D ALL REALLY LOVE TO HEAR MORE OF IT ONE DAY, CRE.KER

can cook really well

also writes his own lyrics/songs 

an MC for Simply K-Pop together with Jacob

undercover visual (have you seen his cheekbones?! almost made me cry with his beauty when he had long wavy hair)

“I have no lips” - Kevin Moon, 2020

some fun facts: his mbti is INFP-T, has an older sister, his parents named him after watching “Home Alone” (iconic behavior right there), has a kinda embarrassing past (some of the pictures and videos… uh well, let’s just say he was born a meme legend), he participated in the show K-Pop Star before becoming a trainee 

▸ Choi Chanhee (aka “New”) - main vocalist

born on April 26, 1998 (a Taurus)

literally the prettiest human alive

legit looks like an angel (how is he not an official visual?!), but is a savage (and extremely funny, lowkey judges his members 24/7)

a bit of a drama queen but he’s so cute it’s okay

amazing vocal skills, does most of the ad-libs

looks too cute in a beret, that should be illegal

gets bullied by the other members, which is kinda fair but also a bit (too) much sometimes (#letChanheelive2020)

is a math genius, can calculate extremely big numbers inside his head and FASTER THAN AN ACTUAL CALCULATOR (this is SORCERY)

½ of the other iconic duo beside MoonBae aka “NyuKyu” (together with Changmin aka “Q”) - you heard of dumb and dumber, now get ready for New and Q!

takes the best selfies, holds the official title of Selfie King (according to the others, he takes the most selfies - according to himself, he doesn’t even take that many but just takes them in a very obvious way, so the others always notice him doing so) 

almost breaks his neck taking selfies

used to have a lot of half-time jobs before becoming a trainee

one of the members in charge of cooking (idk why, he managed to melt a spoon once)

doesn’t know how to swim (because - and I quote - ”he’s a CEO’s son”)

puts MILK FIRST, AND THEN CEREAL it’s over, he’s cancelled

some fun facts: his mbti is INFP-T, he really hates tomatoes, he has a tattoo (a cross on his left pinky), has an older brother, lowkey looks like a Volturi, dropped Younghoon’s new sunglasses TWICE which Hoon will never let him forget, he once accidentally ate a plastic fork (don’t ask)

▸ Ji Changmin (aka “Q”) - main dancer, vocalist

born on November 5, 1998 (yep, another Scorpio)

one of the best dancers in the industry (everyone can fight me on this) - went viral for his improvised dance to the Mario music

STAGE DEMON, has one of the best stage presences EVER, goes from 0 to 100 in literally no time

so cute it HURTS and takes the best boyfriend aesthetic pics (all moodboard makers thank him for this)

has dimples he likes to poke when saying “music cue (q)” (me: *cries*)

has a veeeeeeeeeeeeery long neck

can impersonate a giraffe and a pigeon

½ of NyuKyu aka dumb and dumber (WE LOVE BFFS) - they have some very iconic (cooking) vlives together

he’s very - and I say this with all my love - weird 

or, to say it more diplomatically, “unusual”: LOVES horror movies and has had Annabelle as his iPad background for the longest time now (according to himself, they apparently recently broke up though rip our favorite otp), says his favorite beverage at Starbucks are the napkins (???????), literally BEGGED Kevin to let him buy a stuffed pigeon plushie when they visited New York, says the creepy nun from The Conjuring is cute (again: ?????? *whispers* is he okay)

dolphin screams™ (you’ve been warned, turn down your volume)

got lost in New York City together with Kevin (never let them take the metro ever again, at least not... unsupervised)

has a poodle named Ghana and adores him (see this BOYLOG where he just hangs with his puppy, 10/10 recommend watching that)

some fun facts: his mbti is ESFP-T (same as Sangyeon, doesn’t believe in those kind of tests either), has two older sisters, is ambidextrous (but mostly uses his left hand), is really good at playing the piano (won a price in elementary school), his English name is James aka the most generic English name ever (no shade, no hate)

➥ maknae line: Haknyeon, Sunwoo, Eric 

▸ Ju Haknyeon - lead dancer, vocalist, rapper

born on March 12, 1999 (another Pisces!)

he is half Chinese, half Korean and lived in Hong Kong for a while

speaks some Mandarin, a bit of Cantonese and also some English

also one of the allrounders of the group (I SAID WHAT I SAID)

an AMAZING dancer! is really good at freestyling

taught himself how to b-boy

such a rich, amazing, stable voice (*bass boosted* more lines for Hak)

one of the funniest and most random members

very loud, randomly bursts into songs all the time even sings when sneezing

just generally really, really sweet and nice

before debut, he participated in the second season of mnet’s Produce 101 (was eliminated in Ep. 11 and ranked #19) - The Boyz were actually often referred to as “Juhaknyeon’s group” before/shortly after their debut

he’s a very good eater and eats A LOT (FINALLY A RELATABLE IDOL)

his family lives on Jeju Island and owns a pig farm - because of that (and because he eats a lot), one of his nicknames is “pig/piggie”

has a blindingly bright smile and is such an underrated visual

yes, you can probably drown in his beautiful, deep chocolate eyes

he and Hwall accidentally became thieves in NYC (they forgot to pay for their food, but went back later to do so so no jail time!)

some fun facts: his mbti is ENTJ-T, he’s really close with Seventeen’s Seungkwan, he has two sisters (one younger, one older), NOT a morning person AT all (relatable), really good at organizing stuff (as seen during the Battle Trip to Jakarta episodes with Hyunjae), really good and fast at peeling tangerines

▸ Kim Sunwoo - main rapper, vocalist

born on April 12, 2000 (an Aries and his fire sign nature shows)

a flawless rapper, just... truly superb. also an amazing dancer !

actually auditioned to be a vocalist (so he has amazing vocals, too), but became a rapper instead

tbz’ unofficial stuntman (as seen during Road to Kingdom), even though he’s actually really scared of heights

can play the guitar

on the other end of the “lip spectrum” - because unlike Kevin, Sunwoo has a lot of them (lemme just *smooch*)

literally one of the wittiest, most savage people on this planet (GOOGLE SEARCH: HOW TO BE SO FUNNY)

used to drink a lot of juice to keep himself healthy

is really good at soccer and used to play when he was younger

beautiful deep brown eyes that hold every star and galaxy in them 

Mr. Coconut Hair™ (really makes it work though - still, every deobi screams when we get to see his forehead (which is like, once a year if we’re lucky))

a real stage demon but in reality an actual baby™ + scaredy cat needs to be protected at all costs

had a mental breakdown when he had to eat a bug after losing rock-paper-scissors 

always yells “GO AWAY ANNA” whenever someone knocks on his door (especially if it’s New)

some fun facts: his mbti is ENTP-A, has a younger sister (who’s taller than him, he’s really salty about that), he’s really close to some of the other ‘00 liners in the industry, he understands English quite well but doesn’t really speak it, also contributes to a lot of tbz’ songs

▸ Eric Son - maknae, lead dancer, lead rapper, vocalist

born on December 22, 2000 (another Capricorn)

his Korean name is Son Young Jae 

he was born in South Korea, but grew up in Los Angeles and is therefore fluent in English (⅓ of English line)

a great dancer (knows soooo many choreographies, it’s insane)

an amazing rapper (deserves more lines!)

hyper 24/7 watching him makes me tired, where does he get all that energy from

talks fast and a lot. never shuts up. you can’t make him. he tries to tell you one (1) story, but ends up telling 10 different ones along the way.

really good a baseball and loves to watch games

super close to Juyeon and used to go to Ju’s place during holidays as his own family lives in the US (my JuRic heart)

really neat and tidy, loves to clean maybe almost a bit neurotic about it

just generally really, really cute ???

a huge GOT7 fanboy (RELATABLE)

a thot on stage, should not be left unsupervised

close friends with Stray Kids’ Felix (his best idol friend according to himself)

also close to GOT7’s Mark (they’re also really cute together)

performed CPR on a watermelon once (it sadly still died, Eric gets an A for effort though)

some fun facts: his mbti is ENFJ-A, he has an older sister (who lives in New York), does NOT look like the maknae which often confuses people, really good and fast at solving Rubix cubes

➥ former member: Hwall 

Heo Hyunjoon (aka “Hwall”) - lead dancer, lead rapper, vocalist

born March 9, 2000 (yet another Pisces!)

from Busan

such a good dancer, truly incredible

very soft rap tone 

looks a bit like a cat

is very acrobatic

has a “cool” persona, but is actually just a certified babie boy™

used to live in the Philippines for four years and can speak English

the official fashionista of tbz, some of his outfits are truly just iconic

his signature aegyo is to shoot an arrow at deobis’ hearts (Hwall actually means “bow” in Korean)

can get very clingy with some members

had to sit out during D.D.D promotions and decided to leave The Boyz in 2019 (he’s still in the music video though!)

in August 2020, it was announced that he left Cre.ker Entertainment and established his own label called Dia Note

the same month, he debuted as Hyunjun Hur with the song Baragi 

you can follow his official Instagram and YouTube

some fun facts: his mbti is ENFP, he’s still in contact with the other members (said he especially misses Juyeon and Hyunjae *sobs*), his role model is BTS’ Jimin and he actually went to the same dance academy (also knows pretty much all their choreographies/songs by heart)

➥ some videos to watch 

all their music videos of course

all their live stages/performances too

BuzzFeed’s Who’s Who

Metro UK’s Quick Questions

their Billboard interview

their Weekly Idol episode

their Idol Room episode

their Road to Kingdom performances: Sword of Victory, Danger, Reveal, Heroine, Quasi una Fantasia, Checkmate 

their dance covers: Girls Generation’s The Boys + GOT7′s Hard Carry’, TVXQ’s Mirotic, TWICE’s What is Love, EXO’s Love me Right, EXO’s Call me Baby, Super Junior’s Sorry Sorry

Q, Haknyeon and Jacob for the Idol dance cover challenge 

their Billie Eilish Bad Guy stage for KCON 2019 + the dance practice

their dance cover medley

drop the dance at KCON 2019

their performance on Immortal Songs

Q’s Mario dance

their Halloween dance practice for Bloom Bloom

their “Identity Film: Generation Z” videos which show a very different side of each member

my personal emotional support kpop video

The Boyz - The Play “Mafia game” (aka a mess™)

their A to BOYZ cover series (five members have been released so far): Jacob, Hyunjae, Sunwoo, Juyeon, Q

and if you have the time: their whole The Castle concert 

➥ their shows 

The Boyz - Summer Vacation

The Boyz in New York City

Come On! The Boyz

Come On! The Boyz School

The Boyz - Flower Snack (pre-debut)

The Boyz - The 100 (shortly after debut)

The Boyz - Otoseyo (Japanese show)

The Boyz  - The Mission

The Boyz - The Play

there are literally endless videos on YouTube - especially “The Boyz memes” / “funny The Boyz compilations” and so on, but I won’t include those here as you can easily find them on your own !

... and that’s it (for now), if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to send an ask - and please give their new comeback lots of love, they are so talented, funny, dedicated and hardworking, and truly just deserve the whole world 💞

[masterlist] | [requests] 

[thelastuniverse]

GRAMMYs Awards 2021

GENERAL FIELD

Record Of The Year: ‘EVERYTHING I WANTED’ — Billie Eilish Finneas O’Connell, producer; Rob Kinelski & Finneas O’Connell, engineers/mixers; John Greenham, mastering engineer

Album Of The Year: ‘FOLKLORE’ — Taylor Swift Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner & Taylor Swift, producers; Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner, Serban Ghenea, John Hanes, Jonathan Low & Laura Sisk, engineers/mixers; Aaron Dessner & Taylor Swift, songwriters; Randy Merrill, mastering engineer

Song Of The Year: ‘I CAN’T BREATHE’ — Dernst Emile II, H.E.R. & Tiara Thomas, songwriters (H.E.R.)

Best New Artist: Megan Thee Stallion

POP

Best Pop Solo Performance: ‘WATERMELON SUGAR’ — Harry Styles

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance: ‘RAIN ON ME’ — Lady Gaga with Ariana Grande

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album: ‘AMERICAN STANDARD’ — James Taylor

Best Pop Vocal Album: ‘FUTURE NOSTALGIA’ — Dua Lipa

DANCE/ELECTRONIC MUSIC

Best Dance Recording: ‘10%’ — Kaytranada Featuring Kali Uchis Kaytranada, producer; Neal H. Pogue, mixer

Best Dance/Electronic Album: ‘BUBBA’ — Kaytranada

CONTEMPORARY INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

Best Contemporary Instrumental Album: ‘LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL’ — Snarky Puppy

ROCK

Best Rock Performance: ‘SHAMEIKA’ — Fiona Apple

Best Metal Performance: ‘BUM-RUSH’ — Body Count

Best Rock Song: ‘STAY HIGH’ — Brittany Howard, songwriter (Brittany Howard)

Best Rock Album: ‘THE NEW ABNORMAL’ — The Strokes

ALTERNATIVE

Best Alternative Music Album: ‘FETCH THE BOLT CUTTERS’ — Fiona Apple

R&B

Best R&B Performance: ‘BLACK PARADE’ — Beyoncé

Best Traditional R&B Performance: ‘ANYTHING FOR YOU’ — Ledisi

Best R&B Song: ‘BETTER THAN I IMAGINED’ — Robert Glasper, Meshell Ndegeocello & Gabriella Wilson, songwriters (Robert Glasper Featuring H.E.R. & Meshell Ndegeocello)

Best Progressive R&B Album: ‘IT IS WHAT IT IS’ — Thundercat

Best R&B Album: ‘BIGGER LOVE’ — John Legend

RAP

Best Rap Performance: ‘SAVAGE ‘— Megan Thee Stallion Featuring Beyoncé

Best Melodic Rap Performance: ‘LOCKDOWN’ — Anderson .Paak

Best Rap Song: ‘SAVAGE’ — Beyoncé, Shawn Carter, Brittany Hazzard, Derrick Milano, Terius Nash, Megan Pete, Bobby Session Jr., Jordan Kyle Lanier Thorpe & Anthony White, songwriters (Megan Thee Stallion Featuring Beyoncé)

Best Rap Album: ‘KING’S DISEASE’ — Nas

COUNTRY

Best Country Solo Performance: ‘WHEN MY AMY PRAYS’ — Vince Gill

Best Country Duo/Group Performance: ‘10,000 HOURS’ — Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber

Best Country Song: ‘CROWDED TABLE’ — Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby & Lori McKenna, songwriters (The Highwomen)

Best Country Album: ‘WILDCARD’ — Miranda Lambert

NEW AGE

Best New Age Album: ‘MORE GUITAR STORIES’ — Jim “Kimo” West

JAZZ

Best Improvised Jazz Solo: ‘ALL BLUES’ — Chick Corea, soloist Track from: Trilogy 2 (Chick Corea, Christian McBride & Brian Blade)

Best Jazz Vocal Album: ‘SECRETS ARE THE BEST STORIES’ — Kurt Elling Featuring Danilo Pérez

Best Jazz Instrumental Album: ‘TRILOGY 2’ — Chick Corea, Christian McBride & Brian Blade

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album: ‘DATA LORDS’ — Maria Schneider Orchestra

Best Latin Jazz Album: ‘FOUR QUESTIONS’ — Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra

GOSPEL/CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC

Best Gospel Performance/Song: ‘MOVIN’ ON’ — Jonathan McReynolds & Mali Music; Darryl L. Howell, Jonathan Caleb McReynolds, Kortney Jamaal Pollard & Terrell Demetrius Wilson, songwriters

Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song: ‘THERE WAS JESUS’ — Zach Williams & Dolly Parton; Casey Beathard, Jonathan Smith & Zach Williams, songwriters

Best Gospel Album: ‘GOSPEL ACCORDING TO PJ’ — PJ Morton

Best Contemporary Christian Music Album: ‘JESUS IS KING’ — Kanye West

Best Roots Gospel Album: ‘CELEBRATING FISK! (THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY ALBUM)’ — Fisk Jubilee Singers

LATIN

Best Latin Pop or Urban Album: ‘YHLQMDLG’ — Bad Bunny

Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album: ‘LA CONQUISTA DEL ESPACIO’ —Fito Paez

Best Regional Mexican Music Album (Including Tejano): ‘UN CANTO POR MÉXICO, VOL. 1’ — Natalia Lafourcade

Best Tropical Latin Album: ‘40’ — Grupo Niche

AMERICAN ROOTS MUSIC

Best American Roots Performance: ‘I REMEMBER EVERYTHING’ — John Prine

Best American Roots Song: ‘I REMEMBER EVERYTHING’ — Pat McLaughlin & John Prine, songwriters (John Prine)

Best Americana Album: ‘WORLD ON THE GROUND’ — Sarah Jarosz

Best Bluegrass Album: ‘HOME’ — Billy Strings

Best Traditional Blues Album: ‘RAWER THAN RAW’ — Bobby Rush

Best Contemporary Blues Album: ‘HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND YET?’ —Fantastic Negrito

Best Folk Album: ‘ALL THE GOOD TIMES’ — Gillian Welch & David Rawlings

Best Regional Roots Music Album: ‘ATMOSPHERE’ — New Orleans Nightcrawlers

REGGAE

Best Reggae Album: ‘GOT TO BE TOUGH’ — Toots & The Maytals

GLOBAL MUSIC

Best Global Music Album: ‘TWICE AS TALL’ — Burna Boy

CHILDREN’S

Best Children’s Music Album: ‘ALL THE LADIES’ — Joanie Leeds

SPOKEN WORD

Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Storytelling): ‘BLOWOUT: CORRUPTED DEMOCRACY, ROGUE STATE RUSSIA, AND THE RICHEST, MOST DESTRUCTIVE INDUSTRY ON EARTH’ — Rachel Maddow

COMEDY

Best Comedy Album: ‘BLACK MITZVAH’ — Tiffany Haddish

MUSICAL THEATER

Best Musical Theater Album: ‘JAGGED LITTLE PILL’ — Kathryn Gallagher, Celia Rose Gooding, Lauren Patten & Elizabeth Stanley, principal soloists; Neal Avron, Pete Ganbarg, Tom Kitt, Michael Parker, Craig Rosen & Vivek J. Tiwary, producers (Glen Ballard, composer; Alanis Morissette, composer & lyricist) (Original Broadway Cast)

MUSIC FOR VISUAL MEDIA

Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media: ‘JOJO RABBIT’ — (Various Artists) Taika Waititi, compilation producer

Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media: ‘JOKER’ — Hildur Guðnadóttir, composer

Best Song Written For Visual Media: ‘NO TIME TO DIE [FROM NO TIME TO DIE]’ — Billie Eilish O’Connell & Finneas Baird O’Connell, songwriters (Billie Eilish)

COMPOSING/ARRANGING

Best Instrumental Composition: ‘SPUTNIK’ — Maria Schneider, composer (Maria Schneider)

Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella: ‘DONNA LEE’ — John Beasley, arranger (John Beasley)

Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals: ‘HE WON’T HOLD YOU’ —Jacob Collier, arranger (Jacob Collier Featuring Rapsody)

PACKAGE

Best Recording Package: ‘VOLS. 11 & 12’ — Doug Cunningham & Jason Noto, art directors (Desert Sessions)

Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package: ‘ODE TO JOY’ — Lawrence Azerrad & Jeff Tweedy, art directors (Wilco)

NOTES

Best Album Notes: ‘DEAD MAN’S POP’ — Bob Mehr, album notes writer (The Replacements)

HISTORICAL

Best Historical Album: ‘IT’S SUCH A GOOD FEELING: THE BEST OF MISTER ROGERS’ — Lee Lodyga & Cheryl Pawelski, compilation producers; Michael Graves, mastering engineer (Mister Rogers)

PRODUCTION, NON-CLASSICAL

Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical: ‘HYPERSPACE’ — Drew Brown, Julian Burg, Andrew Coleman, Paul Epworth, Shawn Everett, Serban Ghenea, David Greenbaum, John Hanes, Beck Hansen, Jaycen Joshua, Greg Kurstin, Mike Larson, Cole M.G.N., Alex Pasco & Matt Wiggins, engineers; Randy Merrill, mastering engineer (Beck)

Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical: ANDREW WATT

• Break My Heart (Dua Lipa) (T) • Me And My Guitar (A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie) (T) • Midnight Sky (Miley Cyrus) (S) • Old Me (5 Seconds Of Summer) (T) • Ordinary Man (Ozzy Osbourne Featuring Elton John) (T) • Take What You Want (Post Malone Featuring Ozzy Osbourne & Travis Scott) (T) • Under The Graveyard (Ozzy Osbourne) (T)

Best Remixed Recording: ‘ROSES (IMANBEK REMIX)’ — Imanbek Zeikenov, remixer (SAINt JHN)

PRODUCTION, IMMERSIVE AUDIO

Best Immersive Audio Album: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Best Immersive Audio Album Craft Committee was unable to meet. The judging of the entries in this category has been postponed until such time that we are able to meet in a way that is appropriate to judge the many formats and configurations of the entries and is safe for the committee members. The nominations for the 63rd GRAMMYs will be announced next year in addition to (and separately from) the 64th GRAMMY nominations in the category

PRODUCTION, CLASSICAL

Best Engineered Album, Classical: ‘SHOSTAKOVICH: SYMPHONY NO. 13, ‘BABI YAR’ — David Frost & Charlie Post, engineers; Silas Brown, mastering engineer (Riccardo Muti & Chicago Symphony Orchestra)

Producer Of The Year, Classical: DAVID FROST

 Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 9 (Jonathan Biss) • Gershwin: Porgy And Bess (David Robertson, Frederick Ballentine, Angel Blue, Denyce Graves, Latonia Moore, Eric Owens, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & Chorus) • Gluck: Orphée & Eurydice (Harry Bicket, Dmitry Korchak, Andriana Chuchman, Lauren Snouffer, Lyric Opera Of Chicago Orchestra & Chorus) • Holst: The Planets; The Perfect Fool (Michael Stern & Kansas City Symphony) • Muhly: Marnie (Robert Spano, Isabel Leonard, Christopher Maltman, Denyce Graves, Iestyn Davies, Janis Kelly, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & Chorus) • Schubert: Piano Sonatas, D. 845, D. 894, D. 958, D. 960 (Shai Wosner) • Shostakovich: Symphony №13, ‘Babi Yar’ (Riccardo Muti, Alexey Tikhomirov, Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus)

CLASSICAL

Best Orchestral Performance: ‘IVES: COMPLETE SYMPHONIES’ — Gustavo Dudamel, conductor (Los Angeles Philharmonic)

Best Opera Recording: ‘GERSHWIN: PORGY AND BESS’ — David Robertson, conductor; Frederick Ballentine, Angel Blue, Denyce Graves, Latonia Moore & Eric Owens; David Frost, producer (The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Chorus)

Best Choral Performance: ‘DANIELPOUR: THE PASSION OF YESHUAH’ — JoAnn Falletta, conductor; James K. Bass & Adam Luebke, chorus masters (James K. Bass, J’Nai Bridges, Timothy Fallon, Kenneth Overton, Hila Plitmann & Matthew Worth; Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus & UCLA Chamber Singers)

Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance: ‘CONTEMPORARY VOICES’ — Pacifica Quartet

Best Classical Instrumental Solo: ‘THEOFANIDIS: CONCERTO FOR VIOLA AND CHAMBER ORCHESTRA’ — Richard O’Neill; David Alan Miller, conductor (Albany Symphony)

Best Classical Solo Vocal Album: ‘SMYTH: THE PRISON’ — Sarah Brailey & Dashon Burton; James Blachly, conductor (Experiential Chorus; Experiential Orchestra)

Best Classical Compendium: ‘THOMAS, M.T.: FROM THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK & MEDITATIONS ON RILKE’— Isabel Leonard; Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor; Jack Vad, producer

Best Contemporary Classical Composition: ‘ROUSE: SYMPHONY NO. 5’ — Christopher Rouse, composer (Giancarlo Guerrero & Nashville Symphony)

MUSIC VIDEO/FILM

Best Music Video: ‘BROWN SKIN GIRL’ — Beyoncé, Blue Ivy & WizKid , Beyoncé Knowles-Carter & Jenn Nkiru, video directors; Astrid Edwards, Aya Kaida, Jean Mougin, Nathan Scherrer & Erinn Williams, video producers

Best Music Film: ‘LINDA RONSTADT: THE SOUND OF MY VOICE’ — Linda Ronstadt, Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman, video directors; Michele Farinola & James Keach, video producers

[bongaboi]

2021 Grammy Awards: The List.

New age

Best New Age Album

More Guitar Stories – Jim "Kimo" West

Songs from the Bardo – Laurie Anderson, Tenzin Choegyal & Jesse Paris Smith

Periphery – Priya Darshini

Form//Less – Superposition

Meditations – Cory Wong & Jon Batiste

Jazz

Best Improvised Jazz Solo

"All Blues" – Chick Corea, soloist

"Guinnevere" – Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah, soloist

"Pachamama" – Regina Carter, soloist

"Tomorrow is the Question" – Julian Lage, soloist

"Celia" – Gerald Clayton, soloist

"Moe Honk" – Joshua Redman, soloist

Best Jazz Vocal Album

Secrets are the Best Stories – Kurt Elling featuring Danilo Pérez

ONA – Thana Alexa

Modern Ancestors – Carmen Lundy

Holy Room: Live at Alte Oper – Somi With Frankfurt Radio Big Band

What's the Hurry – Kenny Washington

Best Jazz Instrumental Album

Trilogy 2 – Chick Corea, Christian McBride & Brian Blade

on the tender spot of every calloused moment – Ambrose Akinmusire

Waiting Game – Terri Lyne Carrington and Social Science

Happening: Live at the Village Vanguard – Gerald Clayton

RoundAgain – Redman Mehldau McBride Blade

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album

Data Lords – Maria Schneider Orchestra

Dialogues on Race – Gregg August

Monk'estra Plays John Beasley – John Beasley

The Intangible Between – Orrin Evans and The Captain Black Big Band

Songs You Like a Lot – John Hollenbeck with Theo Bleckmann, Kate McGarry, Gary Versace and The Frankfurt Radio Big Band

Best Latin Jazz Album

Four Questions – Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra

Tradiciones – Afro-Peruvian Jazz Orchestra

City of Dreams – Chico Pinheiro

Viento y Tiempo - Live at Blue Note Tokyo – Gonzalo Rubalcaba & Aymée Nuviola

Trane's Delight – Poncho Sanchez

Gospel/contemporary Christian music

Best Gospel Performance/Song

"Movin' On"

Darryl L. Howell, Jonathan Caleb McReynolds, Kortney Jamaal Pollard & Terrell Demetrius Wilson, songwriters (Jonathan McReynolds & Mali Music)

"Wonderful is Your Name"

Melvin Crispell III, songwriter (Melvin Crispell III)

"Release (Live)"

David Frazier, songwriter (Ricky Dillard featuring Tiff Joy)

"Come Together"

Lashawn Daniels, Rodney Jerkins, Lecrae Moore & Jazz Nixon, songwriters (Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins Presents: The Good News)

"Won't Let Go"

Travis Greene, songwriter (Travis Greene)

Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song

"There Was Jesus"

Casey Beathard, Jonathan Smith & Zach Williams, songwriters (Zach Williams & Dolly Parton)

"The Blessing (Live)"

Chris Brown, Cody Carnes, Kari Jobe Carnes & Steven Furtick, songwriters (Kari Jobe, Cody Carnes & Elevation Worship)

"Sunday Morning"

Denisia Andrews, Jones Terrence Antonio, Saint Bodhi, Brittany Coney, Kirk Franklin, Lasanna Harris, Shama Joseph, Stuart Lowery, Lecrae Moore & Nathanael Saint-Fleur, songwriters (Lecrae featuring Kirk Franklin)

"Holy Water"

Andrew Bergthold, Ed Cash, Franni Cash, Martin Cash & Scott Cash, songwriters (We the Kingdom)

"Famous For (I Believe)"

Chuck Butler, Krissy Nordhoff, Jordan Sapp, Alexis Slifer & Tauren Wells, songwriters (Tauren Wells featuring Jenn Johnson)

Best Gospel Album

Gospel According to PJ – PJ Morton

2econd Wind: ReadY – Anthony Brown & group therAPy

My Tribute – Myron Butler

Choirmaster – Ricky Dillard

Kierra – Kierra Sheard

Best Contemporary Christian Music Album

Jesus Is King – Kanye West

Run to The Father – Cody Carnes

All of My Best Friends – Hillsong Young & Free

Holy Water – We the Kingdom

Citizen of Heaven – Tauren Wells

Best Roots Gospel Album

Celebrating Fisk! (The 150th Anniversary Album) – Fisk Jubilee Singers

Beautiful Day – Mark Bishop

20/20 – The Crabb Family

What Christmas Really Means – The Erwins

Something Beautiful – Ernie Haase & Signature Sound

Latin

Best Latin Pop Album or Urban Album

YHLQMDLG – Bad Bunny

Por Primera Vez – Camilo

Mesa Para Dos – Kany García

Pausa – Ricky Martin

3:33 – Debi Nova

Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album

La Conquista del Espacio – Fito Páez

Aura – Bajofondo

MONSTRUO – Cami

Sobrevolando – Cultura Profética

Miss Colombia – Lido Pimienta

Best Regional Mexican Music Album (Including Tejano)

Un Canto por México, Vol. 1 – Natalia Lafourcade

Hecho en México – Alejandro Fernández

La Serenata – Lupita Infante

Bailando Sones y Huampangos con Mariachi Sol De Mexico De Jose Hernandez – Mariachi Sol De Mexico De Jose Hernandez

Ayayay! – Christian Nodal

Best Tropical Latin Album

40 – Grupo Niche

Mi Tumbao – José Alberto "El Ruiseñor"

Infinito – Edwin Bonilla

Sigo Cantando al Amor (Deluxe) – Jorge Celedon & Sergio Luis

Memorias de Navidad – Víctor Manuelle

American roots

Best American Roots Performance

"I Remember Everything" – John Prine

"Colors" – Black Pumas

"Deep in Love" – Bonny Light Horseman

"Short and Sweet" – Brittany Howard

"I'll Be Gone" – Norah Jones & Mavis Staples

Best American Roots Song

"I Remember Everything"

Pat McLaughlin & John Prine, songwriters (John Prine)

"Cabin"

Laura Rogers & Lydia Rogers, songwriters (The Secret Sisters)

"Ceiling to the Floor"

Sierra Hull & Kai Welch, songwriters (Sierra Hull)

"Hometown"

Sarah Jarosz, songwriter (Sarah Jarosz)

"Man Without a Soul"

Tom Overby & Lucinda Williams, songwriters (Lucinda Williams)

Best Americana Album

World on the Ground – Sarah Jarosz

Old Flowers – Courtney Marie Andrews

Terms of Surrender – Hiss Golden Messenger

El Dorado – Marcus King

Good Souls Better Angels – Lucinda Williams

Best Bluegrass Album

Home – Billy Strings

Man on Fire – Danny Barnes

To Live in Two Worlds, Vol. 1 – Thomm Jutz

North Carolina Songbook – Steep Canyon Rangers

The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, Vol. 1 – Various Artists

Best Traditional Blues Album

Rawer than Raw – Bobby Rush

All My Dues are Paid – Frank Bey

You Make Me Feel – Don Bryant

That's What I Heard – Robert Cray Band

Cypress Grove – Jimmy "Duck" Holmes

Best Contemporary Blues Album

Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? – Fantastic Negrito

Live at the Paramount – Ruthie Foster Big Band

The Juice – G. Love

Blackbirds – Bettye LaVette

Up and Rolling – North Mississippi Allstars

Best Folk Album

All the Good Times – Gillian Welch & David Rawlings

Bonny Light Horseman – Bonny Light Horseman

Thanks for the Dance – Leonard Cohen

Song for Our Daughter – Laura Marling

Saturn Return – The Secret Sisters

Best Regional Roots Music Album

Atmosphere – New Orleans Nightcrawlers

My Relatives 'nikso' Kowaiks – Black Lodge Singers

Cameron Dupuy and The Cajun Troubadours – Cameron Dupuy And The Cajun Troubadours

Lovely Sunrise – Nā Wai ʽEhā

A Tribute to Al Berard – Sweet Cecilia

Reggae

Best Reggae Album

Got to Be Tough – Toots and the Maytals

Upside Down 2020 – Buju Banton

Higher Place – Skip Marley

It All Comes Black to Love – Maxi Priest

One World – The Wailers

Global music

Best Global Music Album

Twice as Tall – Burna Boy

Fu Chronicles – Antibalas

Agora – Bebel Gilberto

Love Letters – Anoushka Shankar

Amadjar – Tinariwen

Children's

Best Children's Album

All the Ladies – Joanie Leeds

Be a Pain: An Album for Young (and Old) Leaders – Alastair Moock And Friends

I'm an Optimist – Dog On Fleas

Songs for Singin' – The Okee Dokee Brothers

Wild Life – Justin Roberts

Spoken word

Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Storytelling)

Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth – Rachel Maddow

Acid for the Children – A Memoir – Flea

Alex Trebek – The Answer Is... – Ken Jennings

Catch and Kill – Ronan Farrow

Charlotte's Web (E.B. White) – Meryl Streep and Full Cast

Comedy

Best Comedy Album

Black Mitzvah – Tiffany Haddish

I Love Everything – Patton Oswalt

The Pale Tourist – Jim Gaffigan

Paper Tiger – Bill Burr

23 Hours to Kill – Jerry Seinfeld

Musical theater

Best Musical Theater Album

Jagged Little Pill – Kathryn Gallagher, Celia Rose Gooding, Lauren Patten & Elizabeth Stanley, principal soloists; Neal Avron, Pete Ganbarg, Tom Kitt, Michael Parker, Craig Rosen & Vivek J. Tiwary, producers (Glen Ballard & Alanis Morissette, lyricists) (Original Broadway Cast)

Amélie – Audrey Brisson, Chris Jared, Caolan McCarthy & Jez Unwin, principal soloists; Michael Fentiman, Sean Patrick Flahaven, Barnaby Race & Nathan Tysen, producers; Nathan Tysen, lyricist; Daniel Messe, composer & lyricist (Original London Cast)

American Utopia on Broadway – David Byrne, principal soloist; David Byrne, producer (David Byrne, composer & lyricist) (Original Cast)

Little Shop of Horrors – Tammy Blanchard, Jonathan Groff & Tom Alan Robbins, principal soloists; Will Van Dyke, Michael Mayer, Alan Menken & Frank Wolf, producers (Alan Menken, composer; Howard Ashman, lyricist) (The New Off-Broadway Cast)

The Prince of Egypt – Christine Allado, Luke Brady, Alexia Khadime & Liam Tamne, principal soloists; Dominick Amendum & Stephen Schwartz, producers; Stephen Schwartz, composer & lyricist (Original Cast)

Soft Power – Francis Jue, Austin Ku, Alyse Alan Louis & Conrad Ricamora, principal soloists; Matt Stine, producer; David Henry Hwang, lyricist; Jeanine Tesori, composer & lyricist (Original Cast)

Music for visual media

Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media

Jojo Rabbit – Various artists

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood – Various artists

Bill & Ted Face the Music – Various artists

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga – Various artists

Frozen II – Various artists

Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media

Joker – Hildur Guðnadóttir, composer

Ad Astra – Max Richter, composer

Becoming – Kamasi Washington, composer

1917 – Thomas Newman, composer

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – John Williams, composer

Best Song Written for Visual Media

"No Time to Die" (from No Time to Die)

Billie Eilish O'Connell and Finneas O'Connell (Billie Eilish)

"Beautiful Ghosts" (from Cats)

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift)

"Carried Me with You" (from Onward)

Brandi Carlile, Phil Hanseroth and Tim Hanseroth (Brandi Carlile)

"Into the Unknown" (from Frozen II)

Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (Idina Menzel featuring AURORA)

"Stand Up" (from Harriet)

Joshuah Brian Campbell and Cynthia Erivo (Cynthia Erivo)

Composing/Arranging

Best Instrumental Composition

"Sputnik"

Maria Schneider, composer (Maria Schneider)

"Baby Jack"

Arturo O'Farrill, composer (Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra)

"Be Water II"

Christian Sands, composer (Christian Sands)

"Plumfield"

Alexandre Desplat, composer (Alexandre Desplat)

"Strata"

Remy Le Boeuf, composer (Remy Le Boeuf's Assembly Of Shadows featuring Anna Webber & Eric Miller)

Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella

"Donna Lee"

John Beasley, arranger (John Beasley)

"Bathroom Dance"

Hildur Guðnadóttir, arranger (Hildur Guðnadóttir)

"Honeymooners"

Remy Le Boeuf, arranger (Remy Le Boeuf's Assembly Of Shadows)

"Lift Every Voice and Sing"

Alvin Chea & Jarrett Johnson, arrangers (Jarrett Johnson Featuring Alvin Chea)

"Uranus: The Magician"

Jeremy Levy, arranger (Jeremy Levy Jazz Orchestra)

Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals

"He Won't Hold You"

Jacob Collier, arranger (Jacob Collier featuring Rapsody)

"Asas Fechadas"

John Beasley & Maria Mendes, arrangers (Maria Mendes Featuring John Beasley & Orkest Metropole)

"Desert Song"

Erin Bentlage, Sara Gazarek, Johnaye Kendrick & Amanda Taylor, arrangers (Säje)

"From This Place"

Alan Broadbent & Pat Metheny, arrangers (Pat Metheny featuring Meshell Ndegeocello)

"Slow Burn"

Talia Billig, Nic Hard & Becca Stevens, arrangers (Becca Stevens featuring Jacob Collier, Mark Lettieri, Justin Stanton, Jordan Perlson, Nic Hard, Keita Ogawa, Marcelo Woloski & Nate Werth)

Package

Best Recording Package

Vols. 11 & 12

Doug Cunningham & Jason Noto, art directors (Desert Sessions)

Everyday Life

Pilar Zeta, art director (Coldplay)

Funeral

Kyle Goen, art director (Lil Wayne)

Healer

Julian Gross & Hannah Hooper, art directors (Grouplove)

On Circles

Jordan Butcher, art director (Caspian)

Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package

Ode to Joy

Lawrence Azerrad & Jeff Tweedy, art directors (Wilco)

Flaming Pie (Collector's Edition)

Linn Wie Andersen, Simon Earith, Paul McCartney & James Musgrave, art directors (Paul McCartney)

Giants Stadium 1987, 1989, 1991

Lisa Glines & Doran Tyson, art directors (Grateful Dead)

Mode

Jeff Schulz, art director (Depeche Mode)

The Story of Ghostly International

Michael Cina & Molly Smith, art directors (Various Artists)

Notes

Best Album Notes

Dead Man's Pop

Bob Mehr, album notes writer (The Replacements)

At The Minstrel Show: Minstrel Routines From The Studio, 1894-1926

Tim Brooks, album notes writer (Various Artists)

The Bakersfield Sound: Country Music Capital Of The West, 1940-1974

Scott B. Bomar, album notes writer (Various Artists)

The Missing Link: How Gus Haenschen Got Us From Joplin To Jazz And Shaped The Music Business

Colin Hancock, album notes writer (Various Artists)

Out Of A Clear Blue Sky

David Sager, album notes writer (Nat Brusiloff)

Historical

Best Historical Album

It's Such a Good Feeling: The Best of Mister Rogers

Lee Lodyga & Cheryl Pawelski, compilation producers; Michael Graves, mastering engineer (Mister Rogers)

Celebrated, 1895–1896

Meagan Hennessey & Richard Martin, compilation producers; Richard Martin, mastering engineer (Unique Quartette)

Hittin' the Ramp: The Early Years (1936–1943)

Zev Feldman, Will Friedwald & George Klabin, compilation producers; Matthew Lutthans, mastering engineer (Nat King Cole)

1999 Super Deluxe Edition

Michael Howe, compilation producer; Bernie Grundman, mastering engineer (Prince)

Souvenir

Carolyn Agger, compilation producer; Miles Showell, mastering engineer (Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark)

Throw Down Your Heart: The Complete Africa Sessions

Béla Fleck, compilation producer; Richard Dodd, mastering engineer (Béla Fleck)

Production, non-classical

Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical

Hyperspace

Drew Brown, Andrew Coleman, Shawn Everett, Serban Ghenea, David Greenbaum, Jaycen Joshua, Beck Hansen & Mike Larson, engineers; Randy Merrill, mastering engineer (Beck)

Black Hole Rainbow

Shawn Everett & Ivan Wayman, engineers; Bob Ludwig, mastering engineer (Devon Gilfillian)

Expectations

Gary Paczosa & Mike Robinson, engineers; Paul Blakemore, mastering engineer (Katie Pruitt)

Jaime

Shawn Everett, engineer; Shawn Everett, mastering engineer (Brittany Howard)

25 Trips

Shani Gandhi & Gary Paczosa, engineers; Adam Grover, mastering engineer (Sierra Hull)

Producer of the Year, Non-Classical

Andrew Watt

"Break My Heart" (Dua Lipa)

"Me and My Guitar" (A Boogie wit da Hoodie)

"Midnight Sky" (Miley Cyrus)

"Old Me" (5 Seconds of Summer)

"Ordinary Man" (Ozzy Osbourne featuring Elton John)

"Take What You Want" (Post Malone featuring Ozzy Osbourne & Travis Scott)

"Under The Graveyard" (Ozzy Osbourne)

Jack Antonoff

"August" (Taylor Swift)

Gaslighter (The Chicks)

"Holy Terrain" (FKA Twigs featuring Future)

"Mirrorball" (Taylor Swift)

"This Is Me Trying" (Taylor Swift)

"Together" (Sia)

Dan Auerbach

Cypress Grove (Jimmy "Duck" Holmes)

El Dorado (Marcus King)

Is Thomas Callaway (CeeLo Green)

Singing for My Supper (Early James)

Solid Gold Sounds (Kendell Marvel)

Years (John Anderson)

Dave Cobb

"Backbone" (Kaleo)

The Balladeer (Lori McKenna)

Boneshaker (Airbourne)

Down Home Christmas (Oak Ridge Boys)

The Highwomen (The Highwomen)

"I Remember Everything" (John Prine)

Reunions (Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit)

"The Spark" (William Prince)

"You're Still the One" (Teddy Swims)

Flying Lotus

It Is What It Is (Thundercat)

Best Remixed Recording

"Roses (Imanbek Remix)"

Imanbek Zeikenov, remixer (SAINt JHN)

"Do You Ever (RAC Mix)"

RAC, remixer (Phil Good)

"Imaginary Friends (Morgan Page Remix)"

Morgan Page, remixer (Deadmau5)

"Praying for You (Louie Vega Main Remix)"

Louie Vega, remixer (Jasper Street Co.)

"Young & Alive (Bazzi vs. Haywyre Remix)"

Haywyre, remixer (Bazzi)

Production, immersive audio

Best Immersive Audio Album

The judging for this category was postponed.

Production, classical

Best Engineered Album, Classical

"Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13, 'Babi Yar'"

David Frost & Charlie Post, engineers; Silas Brown, mastering engineer (Riccardo Muti & Chicago Symphony Orchestra)

"Danielpour: The Passion of Yeshua"

Bernd Gottinger, engineer (JoAnn Falletta, James K. Bass, Adam Luebke, UCLA Chamber Singers, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra & Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus)

"Gershwin: Porgy and Bess"

David Frost & John Kerswell, engineers; Silas Brown, mastering engineer (David Robertson, Eric Owens, Angel Blue, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & Chorus)

"Hynes: Fields"

Kyle Pyke, engineer; Jesse Lewis & Kyle Pyke, mastering engineers (Devonté Hynes & Third Coast Percussion)

"Ives: Complete Symphonies"

Alexander Lipay & Dmitriy Lipay, engineers; Alexander Lipay & Dmitriy Lipay, mastering engineers (Gustavo Dudamel & Los Angeles Philharmonic)

Producer of the Year, Classical

David Frost

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 9 (Jonathan Biss)

Gershwin: Porgy And Bess (David Robertson, Eric Owens, Angel Blue, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & Chorus)

Gluck: Orphée & Eurydice (Harry Bicket, Dmitry Korchak, Andriana Chuchman, Lauren Snouffer, Lyric Opera Of Chicago Orchestra & Chorus)

Holst: The Planets; The Perfect Fool (Michael Stern & Kansas City Symphony)

Muhly: Marnie (Robert Spano, Isabel Leonard, Christopher Maltman, Denyce Graves, Iestyn Davies, Janis Kelly, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & Chorus)

Schubert: Piano Sonatas, D. 845, D. 894, D. 958, D. 960 (Shai Wosner)

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13, 'Babi Yar' (Riccardo Muti, Alexey Tikhomirov, Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus)

Blanton Alspaugh

Aspects Of America - Pulitzer Edition (Carlos Kalmar & Oregon Symphony)

Blessed Art Thou Among Women (Peter Jermihov, Katya Lukianov & PaTRAM Institute Singers)

Dvořák: Symphony No. 9; Copland: Billy The Kid (Gianandrea Noseda & National Symphony Orchestra)

Glass: The Fall Of The House Of Usher (Joseph Li, Nicholas Nestorak, Madison Leonard, Jonas Hacker, Ben Edquist, Matthew Adam Fleisher & Wolf Trap Opera)

Kahane: Emergency Shelter Intake Form (Alicia Hall Moran, Gabriel Kahane, Carlos Kalmar & Oregon Symphony)

Kastalsky: Requiem (Leonard Slatkin, Steven Fox, Benedict Sheehan, Charles Bruffy, Cathedral Choral Society, The Clarion Choir, The Saint Tikhon Choir, Kansas City Chorale & Orchestra Of St. Luke's)

Massenet: Thaïs (Andrew Davis, Joshua Hopkins, Andrew Staples, Erin Wall, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir & Toronto Symphony Orchestra)

Smyth: The Prison (Sarah Brailey, Dashon Burton, James Blachly & Experiential Orchestra)

Woolf, L.P.: Fire And Flood (Julian Wachner, Matt Haimovitz & Choir Of Trinity Wall Street)

Jesse Lewis

Gunn: The Ascendant (Roomful Of Teeth)

Harrison, M.: Just Constellations (Roomful Of Teeth)

Her Own Wings (Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival)

Hynes: Fields (Devonté Hynes & Third Coast Percussion)

Lang, D.: Love Fail (Beth Willer & Lorelei Ensemble)

Mazzoli: Proving Up (Christopher Rountree, Opera Omaha & International Contemporary Ensemble)

Sharlat: Spare The Rod! (NOW Ensemble)

Soul House (Hub New Music)

Wherein Lies The Good (The Westerlies)

Dmitry Lipay

Adams, J.: Must The Devil Have All The Good Tunes? (Yuja Wang, Gustavo Dudamel & Los Angeles Philharmonic)

Cipullo: The Parting (Alastair Willis, Laura Strickling, Catherine Cook, Michael Mayes & Music Of Remembrance)

Ives: Complete Symphonies (Gustavo Dudamel & Los Angeles Philharmonic)

LA Phil 100 - The Los Angeles Philharmonic Centennial Birthday Gala (Gustavo Dudamel & Los Angeles Philharmonic)

Langgaard: Prelude To Antichrist; Strauss: An Alpine Symphony (Thomas Dausgaard & Seattle Symphony Orchestra)

Nielsen: Symphony No. 1 & Symphony No. 2, 'The Four Temperaments' (Thomas Dausgaard & Seattle Symphony)

Elaine Martone

Bound For The Promised Land (Robert M. Franklin, Steven Darsey, Jessye Norman & Taylor Branch)

Dawn (Shachar Israel)

Gandolfi, Prior & Oliverio: Orchestral Works (Robert Spano & Atlanta Symphony Orchestra)

Singing In The Dead Of Night (Eighth Blackbird)

Whitacre: The Sacred Veil (Eric Whitacre, Grant Gershon & Los Angeles Master Chorale)

Classical

Best Orchestral Performance

"Ives: Complete Symphonies"

Gustavo Dudamel, conductor (Los Angeles Philharmonic)

"Aspects of America - Pulitzer Edition"

Carlos Kalmar, conductor (Oregon Symphony)

"Concurrence"

Daníel Bjarnason, conductor (Iceland Symphony Orchestra)

"Copland: Symphony No. 3"

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor (San Francisco Symphony)

"Lutosławski: Symphonies No. 2 & 3"

Hannu Lintu, conductor (Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra)

Best Opera Recording

"Gershwin: Porgy and Bess"

David Robertson, conductor; Angel Blue & Eric Owens; David Frost, producer (The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Chorus)

"Dello Joio: The Trial at Rouen"

Gil Rose, conductor; Heather Buck & Stephen Powell; Gil Rose, producer (Boston Modern Orchestra Project; Odyssey Opera Chorus)

"Floyd, C: Prince of Players"

William Boggs, conductor; Keith Phares & Kate Royal; Blanton Alspaugh, producer (Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra; Florentine Opera Chorus)

"Handel: Agrippina"

Maxim Emelyanychev, conductor; Joyce DiDonato; Daniel Zalay, producer (Il Pomo D'Oro)

"Zemlinsky: Der Zwerg"

Donald Runnicles, conductor; David Butt Philip & Elena Tsallagova; Peter Ghirardini & Erwin Stürzer, producers (Orchestra Of The Deutsche Oper Berlin; Chorus Of The Deutsche Oper Berlin)

Best Choral Performance

"Danielpour: The Passion of Yessuah"

JoAnn Falletta, conductor; James K. Bass & Adam Luebke, chorus masters (James K. Bass, J'Nai Bridges, Timothy Fallon, Kenneth Overton, Hila Plitmann & Matthew Worth; Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus & UCLA Chamber Singers)

"Carthage"

Donald Nally, conductor (The Crossing)

"Kastalski: Requiem"

Leonard Slatkin, conductor; Charles Bruffy, Steven Fox & Benedict Sheehan, chorus masters (Joseph Charles Beutel & Anna Dennis; Orchestra Of St. Luke's; Cathedral Choral Society, The Clarion Choir, Kansas City Chorale & The Saint Tikhon Choir)

"Moravec: Sanctuary Road"

Kent Tritle, conductor (Joshua Blue, Raehann Bryce-Davis, Dashon Burton, Malcolm J. Merriweather & Laquita Mitchell; Oratorio Society Of New York Orchestra; Oratorio Society Of New York Chorus)

"Once Upon a Time"

Matthew Guard, conductor (Sarah Walker; Skylark Vocal Ensemble)

Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance

"Contemporary Voices" – Pacifica Quartet

"Healing Modes" – Brooklyn Rider

"Hearne, T,: Place" – Ted Hearne, Steven Bradshaw, Sophia Byrd, Josephine Lee, Isaiah Robinson, Sol Ruiz, Ayanna Woods & Place Orchestra

"Hynes: Fields" – Devonté Hynes & Third Coast Percussion

"The Schumann Quartets" – Dover Quartet

Best Classical Instrumental Solo

"Theofanidis: Concerto for Viola and Chamber Orchestra"

Richard O'Neill; David Alan Miller, conductor (Albany Symphony)

"Adés: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra"

Kirill Gerstein; Thomas Adès, conductor (Boston Symphony Orchestra)

"Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas"

Igor Levit

"Bohemian Tales"

Augustin Hadelich; Jakub Hrůša, conductor (Charles Owen; Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks)

"Destination Rachmaninov - Arrival"

Daniil Trifonov; Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor (The Philadelphia Orchestra)

Best Classical Solo Vocal Album

"Smyth: The Prison"

Sarah Brailey & Dashon Burton; James Blachly, conductor (Experiential Chorus; Experiential Orchestra)

"American Composers at Play - William Bolcom, Ricky Ian Gordon, Lori Laitman, John Musto"

Stephen Powell (Attacca Quartet, William Bolcom, Ricky Ian Gordon, Lori Laitman, John Musto, Charles Neidich & Jason Vieaux)

"Clairières - Songs by Lili & Nadia Boulanger"

Nicholas Phan; Myra Huang, accompanist

"Farinelli"

Cecilia Bartoli; Giovanni Antonini, conductor (Il Giardino Armonico)

"A Lad's Love"

Brian Giebler; Steven McGhee, accompanist (Katie Hyun, Michael Katz, Jessica Meyer, Reginald Mobley & Ben Russell)

Best Classical Compendium

"Thomas, M.T.: From the Diary of Anne Frank & Meditations on Rilke"

Isabel Leonard; Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor; Jack Vad, producer

"Adès Conducts Adès"

Mark Stone & Christianne Stotijn; Thomas Adès, conductor; Nick Squire, producer

"Saariaho: Graal Théâtre; Circle Map, Neiges, Vers Toi Qui Es Si Loin"

Clément Mao-Takacs, conductor; Hans Kipfer, producer

"Serebrier: Symphonic Bach Variations; Laments and Hallelujahs; Flute Concerto"

José Serebrier, conductor; Jens Braun, producer

"Woolf, L.P.: Fire and Blood"

Matt Haimovitz; Julian Wachner, conductor; Blanton Alspaugh, producer

Best Contemporary Classical Composition

"Rouse: Symphony No. 5"

Christopher Rouse, composer (Giancarlo Guerrero & Nashville Symphony)

"Adès: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra"

Thomas Adès, composer (Kirill Gerstein, Thomas Adès & Boston Symphony Orchestra)

"Danielpour: The Passion of Yeshua"

Richard Danielpour, composer (JoAnn Falletta, James K. Bass, Adam Luebke, UCLA Chamber Singers, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra & Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus)

"Floyd, C.: Prince of Players"

Carlisle Floyd, composer (William Boggs, Kate Royal, Keith Phares, Florentine Opera Chorus & Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra)

"Hearne, T.: Place"

Ted Hearne, composer (Ted Hearne, Steven Bradshaw, Sophia Byrd, Josephine Lee, Isaiah Robinson, Sol Ruiz, Ayanna Woods & Place Orchestra)

Music video/film

Best Music Video

"Brown Skin Girl" – Beyoncé, Saint Jhn & Wizkid Featuring Blue Ivy Carter

Beyoncé Knowles-Carter & Jenn Nkiru, video directors; Lauren Baker, Astrid Edwards, Nathan Scherrer & Erinn Williams, video producers

"Life Is Good" – Future Featuring Drake

Julien Christian Lutz, video director; Harv Glazer, video producer

"Lockdown" – Anderson .Paak

Dave Meyers, video director; Nathan Scherrer, video producer

"Adore You" – Harry Styles

Dave Meyers, video director; Nathan Scherrer, video producer

"Goliath" – Woodkid

Yoann Lemoine, video director; Horace de Gunzbourg, video producer

Best Music Film

Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice – Linda Ronstadt

Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman, video directors; Michele Farinola & James Keach, video producers

Beastie Boys Story – Beastie Boys

Spike Jonze, video director; Amanda Adelson, Jason Baum & Spike Jonze, video producers

Black Is King – Beyoncé

Emmanuel Adjei, Blitz Bazawule, Beyoncé Knowles Carter & Kwasi Fordjour, video directors; Lauren Baker, Akin Omotoso, Nathan Scherrer, Jeremy Sullivan & Erinn Williams, video producers

We Are Freestyle Love Supreme – Freestyle Love Supreme

Andrew Fried, video director; Andrew Fried, Jill Furman, Thomas Kail, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sarina Roma, Jenny Steingart & Jon Steingart, video producers

That Little Ol' Band From Texas – ZZ Top

Sam Dunn, video director; Scot McFadyen, video producer

[shemakesmusic-uk]

After releasing their album Play With Fire last year via Suicide Squeeze Records, Californian punk trio L.A. Witch are sharing a new video for their standout track 'Motorcycle Boy'. Speaking about the video, L.A. Witch singer and guitarist Sade Sanchez said "The song is inspired by Moto Boys like Mickey Rourke, Marlon Brando, and Steve McQueen, so of course we took a lot of inspiration from our favorite biker movies like The Wild One, Rumble Fish, On any Sunday, Easy Rider, Hells Angeles '69 and The Girl on a Motorcycle. I had worked with (director) Ambar Navarro and Max on another project and loved their other work, so we wanted to work with them on this. They definitely did their homework and came up with a cool story line. I got to feature my bike that I'd been rebuilding during the pandemic. It was nice to shoot a video where you get to do two of your favorite things, riding motorcycles and play guitar."

Margo Price has shared a new music video for 'Hey Child', said to be the heart and “centerpiece�� of her acclaimed 2020 album That’s How Rumors Get Started. It’s directed by Kimberly Stuckwisch. In the moving visual, the country star confronts the demons of her past. There are scenes referencing the time she spent in jail for substance abuse, as well as others depicting her struggles with addiction and depression. Price’s vulnerability is on full display here, and she ultimately uses it to heal and find strength again. Watch it down below. According to Price, 'Hey Child' was originally written back in 2012 “not long after my husband Jeremy and I lost our son Ezra.” She continued, noting how fellow country star and album producer Sturgill Simpson helped encourage her to release it: “'Hey Child' was a song that was written back in 2012 not long after my husband Jeremy and I lost our son Ezra. We were playing shows with our rock and roll band Buffalo Clover and occupying most of the bars in East Nashville. We had begun hanging with a rowdy group of degenerate musician friends and partying harder than The Rolling Stones…The song was about how many of our talented friends were drinking and partying their talents away but after a few years had passed, we realized it was just as much about us as our friends. I had retired it when the band broke up but Sturgill Simpson resurrected it when he asked me if I would re-record it for That’s How Rumors Get Started.” [via Consequence of Sound]

NYC collective MICHELLE has today unveiled their first new single of 2021. Titled 'FYO,' the track powerfully recounts the four lead singers’ experiences growing up with mixed race identities. The track arrives alongside a music video directed by the band’s own Layla Ku and Emma Lee. Speaking on the message behind the song, Jamee Lockard from the band shares: “'FYO' is about belonging to different worlds but feeling rejected by both. Growing up as a mixed-race minority in the US, my self concept was warped by other people telling me what I am and am not, pushing and pulling me between identities. Although my feelings of cultural dissonance still ebb and flow, now I have the vocabulary, support system, and perspective to unpack that inner conflict on my own terms. We should never give others the authority to define who we are."

With her new album Homecoming set for release on April 2 via Daemon T.V., Du Blonde is sharing the video for ‘Medicated’. Featuring Garbage’s Shirley Manson, Du Blonde says of the song, “‘Medicated’ is a letter to my 27 year old self who didn’t want to live anymore, from my now medicated, functioning and content self. It might sound depressing or concerning, but really it’s quite joyful. Like ‘look at how things can be if you hang around’. Shirley and I had talked about her adding vocals to a track and when I wrote Medicated it seemed like the perfect fit. She’s been a voice of reason for me many times when i’ve been struggling and it felt really appropriate to have her. I shot the video in my childhood bedroom using a green screen Girl Ray gave me at the start of lockdown,” she continues. “The spiders are a reference to a hallucination I had in my early teens where I pulled back my bed covers to see thousands of spiders writhing around in my bed, which now I see as a result of extreme anxiety. A lot of the scenarios in the video are a celebration of the things about me that I feel people might feel shame about. There’s so much stigma around taking medication in order to ease mental health conditions, so I wanted to express my feelings on the subject which is basically ‘I take medication and i’m stoked about it because thanks to that i’m still alive’.” [via DIY]

Back with her powerful Y2K sound, Spain's Rakky Ripper channels PC Music and Rina Sawayama on brightly catchy new single 'Whatever'. The new EP Xtra Cost is released  February 19. If you are over the age of 25, odds are that you can recall a very specific kind of pop that graced our launch into the new millennium. Since coined as "Y2K", chart music of that short era was flush with R&B beats, synthetic arrangements and sickly sweet hooks. Britney was the industry’s honey-highlighted princess whilst Christina made it dirrty. It’s something that Rina Sawayama has made 2020-relevant again with the release of her debut album Sawayama, whilst PC Music and Charli XCX took it to another extreme with the redefinition of what it means to be pop. Meanwhile, over in Spain, the alt-pop scene is flourishing courtesy of artists such as Rakky Ripper and her own unique blend of Y2K-meets-hyper-pop. Already gaining Charli XCX approval when the Mercury Award nominee asked Rakky to join her onstage at her Madrid show, the Granada talent shows crossover potential with her new single 'Whatever'. Punchy beats and playful synths capture the sticky heat of pop done well whilst its fuzzy guitar gives it an alternative edge, however it’s its hook-riddled chorus and Rakky’s Spanglish lyrical mix that make 'Whatever' a standout moment. “‘Whatever’ is the pop girl in my new EP Xtra Cost,” shares Rakky of her new release. “It’s my 2021 version of Britney, *NSYNC and the Spice Girls. The new video tells the story about two people who are in love but one of them pretends not to care, so the other person is always chasing.” [via Line Of Best Fit]

Things are afoot in the FKA twigs camp. In October, the R&B star revealed that her third album had been completed during quarantine. Now, she’s back with a new song called 'Don’t Judge Me'. It's her first since dropping the masterful album MAGDALENE in 2019. In addition to a stunning performance from FKA twigs, the track features UK rapper Headie One and producer Fred again…, who’s worked with the likes of Ed Sheeran and Brian Eno. 'Don’t Judge Me' appears to be something of a companion release or sequel to 'Don’t Judge Me (Interlude)', an early 2020 collaboration that also featured all three artists. Unlike the intentional vagueness of that song, the themes on this version are a lot more direct. During her verse and the hook, twigs begs her lover to hold her and appreciate the “precious love” she sends their way with a devastating urgency. Headie One takes a different approach in his verse and goes off about racial injustice and police brutality. “Know more about my people from the streets than from my teachers/ I done a million speeches/ No justice, no peace, ’cause we in pieces/ Officer, am I allowed to breathe here?,” he raps with a conversational directness. It’s a really powerful pairing from two different yet complementary artists with voices that demand the listener’s full attention. Check it out above via a dazzling video co-directed by FKA twigs and Emmanuel Adjei, who was heavily involved in Beyonce’s Black Is King visual album. Like all of FKA twigs’ clips, this one is truly something to behold. [via Consequence of Sound]

Girl Friday have delivered a surrealistic visual for 'Earthquake,' the powerhouse lead single from Androgynous Mary, their acclaimed album of 2020 out now on Hardly Art. 'Earthquake' is one of the band's most gloriously raging moments and sees the group power through three and a half minutes of unadulterated catharsis. Girl Friday’s Vera Ellen, who directed the new video, offers this, “The greatest love story is between a song and a video. I wanted to deconstruct the creative process. How do ideas find each other? What happens when the artist lets outside forces get in the way of an idea? How is an idea affected by us, the audience and our expectations? What does an idea have to do to become it’s complete, purest, self. Beyond anything, it’s a story of fighting for true liberation. This will look different for everyone but I hope people can project their own struggle onto the story, and relish in the freedom experienced by the characters (if only for a moment)."

J-Pop girl-group, FAKY has released their first single of 2021, 'The Light' with an accompanying music video. This song was selected as a campaign song for the horror film Jukaimura (Suicide Forest Village), the most recent work by the master horror director, Takashi Shimizu, who also directed The Ju-on (The Grudge) and Inunakimura (Howling Village). This up-tempo and cheerful track was created to add another layer of eerieness and uncertainty to the hair-raising storyline and themes of the movie. 2020 was a successful year for the girl group. FAKY hopes to further their success in 2021 starting with the release of 'The Light'. “Our new single ‘The Light’ is an uplifting song with its pop melody, powerful live band sound, and motivating message to move forward towards the light” - FAKY. The music was composed by up-and-coming music producer, Maeshima Soshi (Hypnosis Mic, Hey! Say! JUMP, Rinne and Sorane). 'The Light' expresses that moment when your heart quivers, just when you are about to change, with the theme being about overcoming conflict and having “power to strike out into the world.”

Kinlaw's dark-pop quest has seen her shatter boundaries. Snapped up by Bayonet Records, her piercing, roving eye deconstructs her personal feelings, illuminating electronic structures in their stead. New album The Tipping Scale is out this month, and it expertly reflects the vagaries of winter, the spartan landscapes and the self-examination. Taken from the record, new single 'Haircut' deals with shifts in her life, with the urge to propel herself into something fresh. "I cut my hair to confuse myself," she comments. "It started as a mission to change who I was, to make a new and better version, but ended with my feeling like I no longer knew what I was mourning." A song about leaving trauma behind and embracing the possibilities of the present, 'Haircut' carries some inspired connotations for these troubled times. Kinlaw says the single offers "a question of personal power, and even speaking on this song today has been challenging because it was written when I was unsure if I had any power left. I think 'Haircut' can be a lot of things to many different people, particularly those who identify with the juxtaposition of in-depth, internal dialogue paired with everyday coping strategies. There is a sweetness to it, but also such substantial, unwavering difficulty. Today, I prefer to think of 'Haircut' as an anthem of resilience and an ode to the ways we keep going, we shapeshift, and we reinstall that there is a way to find what it is we are hoping to find." The visual leans on the intimate, opening up a window into Kinlaw's life, and her true feelings. [via Clash]

The Rhode Island born,  Los Angeles based singer, songwriter, musician and actress Emeline is known for her work with Thievery Corporation's Rob Garza as well as her solo music full of biting lyrics and catchy hooks. Her new music video for '6 Foot Deep' was filmed at the infamous Westerfeld Mansion a.k.a “House of Legends.” Icons like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin have lived there, as well as the founder of the Church of Satan. Covered in satanic etchings and scratches from his pet lions, the energy within the house added to the feel of the music video. Also previously used for the Russian Embassy, the house has featured on "Ghost Hunters" for it's haunted happenings.

The Charli XCX-crafted Nasty Cherry have returned with their first single of the year, 'Lucky'. The new track follows last year's Season 2 EP, and arrives as first taster of a new EP landing this spring. The band say of their new single, "'Lucky' is a song we wrote for each other during the pandemic where the six weeks we got to spend together felt incredibly precious and introspective. It's a reflective, sweet and spiky little song." [via Line Of Best Fit]

Griff has premiered the video for her incredible new single ‘Black Hole’. Launched as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record in the World last week, the striking new visual sees Griff examine a past relationship through a surreal, Alice in Wonderland’-esque journey from the sewing room into self-discovery (directed by duo SOB). [via With Guitars]

Poppy Ajudha has shared her new single 'Weakness' in full. The London based artist blends together jazz, soul, R&B, and a whole lot more besides, resulting in a sound that is truly her own. 'Weakness' is a song about love, and it finds Poppy capturing that nuanced dichotomy between the rush of pleasure and an innate fear of being out of control. In a note, Poppy explains that her new single is "about feeling out of control and at the mercy of someone else because of how crazy they make you feel, but also feeling bittersweet about it, because you’re a bad b*tch and you don’t have time for that ish." The songwriter steered the video, too, a self-admitted "control freak" who oversaw the neat mixture of animation and a superbly styled set. "Self-directing was really fun," she comments. "I’m a control freak so it was great to get stuck into all the facets of making a music video. Choosing the team, the makeup looks, directing the styling ideas, writing the narrative, working out how to build the set. It definitely felt like a challenge to direct, star-in and perform choreographed moves for the first time but I love to push myself and am really glad I did." [via Clash]

GG McG’s latest single, ‘Good Morning’, is her first release this year and second overall, following ‘Boom’ in 2019. The song was written on GarageBand during lockdown and was produced by Japanese Wallpaper’s Gab Strum, mixed by Konstantin Kersting and mastered by Andrei Eremin. “‘Good Morning’ is about the total, complete chaos of the past year and the feeling of waking up every morning, reading the news and being blown away by just how much worse things were than the day before,” McGauran said in a statement. [via the Music Network]

Singer HyunA dropped her seventh mini album I’m Not Cool on Thursday, singing of the ups and downs of being the “cool girl” on stage. The album’s title song 'I’m Not Cool' sings about the nice things she tells herself. “It’s really about my originality. I try to compliment myself before going onto the stage. I tell myself it’s not bad to be myself. I’ve long dreamed of this moment right now, and I feel like I’m a bird flying freely in the sky or a flower blooming in the field. I know I cannot be loved by everyone, but I become perfect with just one person’s love. The song is about these kind of every day thoughts.” Donned in exotic outfits and flashy makeup, HyunA said she “became a snake” in the song that sings “No one’s as intense as I am, like salmosa. I tried to show as much of myself as I could in the music video. I wanted to show how intense the ‘not cool’ HyunA could become when fully set,” she added. The creativity behind the title track comes from the unique minds of herself, singer and the founder of her agency P Nation Psy, and her best colleague and boyfriend Dawn. “We worked on the song while just chatting about it endlessly with each other,” HyunA said. “When Psy threw in a big catchy chunk, Dawn would creatively unfold this, adding fun elements to make it fit my style and state of mind. I personally like writing those rebellious lines. Mingling these three minds together, every day, was just so much fun.” [via The Korea Herald]

THYLA are sharing their first new music of 2021, with new single 'Breathe', a track that the band confirm will appear on their long-awaited debut album, set for release later this year. Putting 2020 firmly in the rear-view mirror, the Thyla ethos of putting one foot in front of the other serves them well as they look toward what a long-awaited debut album might sound like. As self-confessed underdogs they've developed an attitude that aims at turning the possible into the inevitable, and with the hypnotic 'Breathe' they reach for reflective, melancholy sounds to accompany what is a time of intense loneliness for many. It is a theme that has been creeping into Thyla's music for some time, and 'Breathe' sees them further explore the idea that, in a world more connected than ever, we are paradoxically more shut off as individuals. 'Breathe' shows yet again that even at their subtlest, Thyla are capable of carving out an impassioned pop world full of the intricacies of our much-missed IRL interactions. Lead singer Millie Duthie offers these thoughts on the track: "'Breathe' was written in the early hours of the morning. Eventually we chanced upon this really vibey atmospheric lick that you hear in the intro, and the whole song grew from there. The song blossomed into a slightly melancholic dream-pop bop, it’s bittersweet and has a slightly inconclusive feeling to it; imagine a film where the main character never actually gets the happy ending you’ve been so long yearning for. The result of how the instrumental sounded no doubt manifested lyrics that held the same sentiment. The song is about loneliness, estrangement from family and close friends, yet despite this, feeling a sense of inner strength about the situation. It’s like recovering from a breakup and realising you’ve come out stronger, but a reflection of the scar tissue that resulted from the trauma."

[blackkudos]

Dave Prater

David Prater Jr. (May 9, 1937 – April 9, 1988) was an American Southern soul and rhythm & blues singer and musician, who was the deeper baritone/tenor vocalist of the soul vocal duo Sam & Dave from 1961 until his death in 1988. He is a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (1992), the Grammy Hall of Fame (1999, for the song "Soul Man"), the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, and the Georgia Music Hall of Fame (1997), and he was a Grammy Award–winning (1967) and multiple Gold Record award-winning recording artist.

Biography

Sam & Dave were the most successful and critically acclaimed duo in soul music history, according to Rolling Stone magazine, and brought the sounds of the black gospel church to pop music with their string of call-and-response hit records. Primarily recorded at Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, from 1965 through 1968, these songs included "Soul Man", "Hold On, I'm Coming", "I Thank You", and other Southern soul classics. Other than Aretha Franklin, no other soul act during Sam & Dave's hitmaking Stax years (1966–1968) had more consistent R&B chart success, which included 10 consecutive top 20 singles and 3 consecutive top 10 LPs. "Soul Man" has been recognized as one of the best or most influential songs of the past 50 years by many organizations, including the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Rolling Stone Magazine, and RIAA Songs of the Century. "Soul Man" was used as the soundtrack and title for both a 1986 film and a 1997–1998 television series.

Nicknamed "Double Dynamite" for their energetic and sweaty, gospel-infused performances, Sam & Dave were also considered by critics to be one of the greatest live performing acts of the 1960s. The duo has been cited as a musical influence by numerous artists, including Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Phil Collins, and Stevie Winwood. The Blues Brothers, which helped create a major resurgence of popular interest in soul, R&B, and blues music in the 1980s, was heavily influenced by Sam & Dave; their biggest hit was their top 20 cover of "Soul Man", and their act and stage show was patterned after Sam & Dave's.

Early years (1958–1964)

The seventh of ten children, Prater was born in Ocilla, Georgia, where he grew up singing gospel music in the church choir, and was a veteran of the gospel group the Sensational Hummingbirds, in which he sang with his older brother, J. T. Prater. Dave Prater met his future partner, Sam Moore, in the King of Hearts Club in Miami in 1961, signing to Roulette Records shortly thereafter. Sam & Dave released six singles for Roulette, including two songs that Prater co-wrote with Moore. Prater was typically featured as the lead vocalist on these records, with Moore typically singing harmony and alternate verses.

Stax years (1965–1968)

They were signed in late 1964 by Jerry Wexler to Atlantic Records, with an agreement that allowed them to record in Memphis with Stax Records. Their first two singles failed to chart, but the duo's November 1965 single, "You Don't Know Like I Know," started a series of ten straight top twenty Billboard R&B hits, including "Hold On, I'm Comin'" (1966), "You Got Me Hummin'" (1966), "When Something Is Wrong with My Baby" (1967), "Soul Man" (1967), and "I Thank You" (1968). Starting with "Hold On, I'm Comin'", Moore was typically given the lead vocal (first verse and lead voice in chorus) on most of their recordings. Prater sang the tenor lead first verse on their only ballad to become a hit single, "When Something Is Wrong with My Baby", demonstrating an impressive vocal range in the upper register.

All of their biggest hits were written and produced by Isaac Hayes and David Porter, who worked as songwriters for Stax. Sam & Dave's Stax records also benefited greatly from the backing of the Stax house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, and the Stax horn section, the Mar-Keys. These highly regarded musicians co-wrote (often without credit) and contributed greatly to the recordings. Sam & Dave's Stax recordings through 1967 were engineered by Stax founder and co-owner Jim Stewart, who created the "Memphis sound" at Stax by recording sessions essentially live in a single take. The combination of all of these respected talents contributed to the unique sound and commercial success of Sam & Dave's Stax recordings.

Atlantic years, solo career, and back with Sam and Dave (1968–1981)

Stax and Atlantic severed their distribution agreement in 1968, and as a result Sam & Dave became Atlantic recording artists and were no longer able to work with Hayes, Porter and the Stax musicians. The records made by Atlantic did not have the same sound and feel as the Stax recordings, and most only placed in the lower ends of the music charts if at all. The ending of their association with the Stax record label and their frequently volatile relationship contributed to the break-up of the duo in June 1970.

After the break-up with Sam, Prater went back to their early Miami label, Alston Records, where he recorded one single, "Keep My Fingers Crossed" backed with "Love Business" (Alston A-4596), and also performed sporadically over the next year.

Sam & Dave reunited in August 1971 and performed throughout most of the decade through 1981. They enjoyed a brief resurgence in popularity due to the Blues Brothers's 1979 recording of "Soul Man". Sam & Dave also recorded "Come On, Come Over", which appeared on the debut LP of jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius. Dave also appeared in the Paul Simon movie One Trick Pony as part of Sam & Dave. Their last performance together was on December 31, 1981, at the Old Waldorf in San Francisco.

The New Sam and Dave Revue (1982–1988)

In 1982, Prater started touring with Sam Daniels. This duo was also billed as Sam & Dave. They performed together until Prater's death in 1988. Moore attempted to legally block Prater from using the group's name without his participation and permission, but was generally unsuccessful in stopping the act from performing. The Daniels–Prater incarnation of Sam & Dave played as many as 100 shows per year, including gigs in Europe, Japan and Canada.

In 1985, Prater and Daniels released a medley of Sam & Dave hits newly recorded in the Netherlands, which peaked at number 92 on the R&B chart and was credited to "Sam & Dave". Moore made the label recall the single for using the "Sam & Dave" name without permission, and the record was relabelled and reissued under the name of "The New Sam & Dave Revue".

Prater's last performance with Daniels was on April 3, 1988, at a Stax Reunion show at the Atlanta Civic Center, which also featured Isaac Hayes, Eddie Floyd, and Rufus and Carla Thomas. Six days later, on April 9, 1988, Prater died in a car crash in Sycamore, Georgia, while driving to his mother's house.

Prater summed up his thoughts on his career for Gerri Hirshey, who quoted him in her book Nowhere to Run (1984, Southbank Publishing):

I'm a workin' man. Been gettin' down so long. I don't be thinkin' about will I make it up again. Now, what's a music man like me gonna do? What's he do, 'less he entertains till he dies?

Personal life

Prater was married to Annie Belle Henderson from March 1962 to November 1969 and had five children with her. During a domestic dispute in 1968, Prater shot and injured his wife. He was not charged for the incident. On December 25, 1969, he married his second wife, Judith T. Gilbert, and remained married to her until his death. Prater was a resident of Paterson, New Jersey, from 1974 until his death in a single-car accident in Sycamore, Georgia, on April 9, 1988. He was buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Totowa, New Jersey.

[the-most-beautiful-broom]

"I love you but you need to shut up"

Ashleigh!! Sooo I had to change the wording a bit…you’ll see why when I get to it haha it just seemed to harsh. This was another first (domestic!bellarke woohoo) and I hope you like it!

No. 26: “I love you, but you need to shut up” (send me an otp prompt?)

According to the clock on her bedside table, Clarke’s head had been on the pillow for a blessed fifty-four minutes when the wailing started again. 

Clarke blinked owlishly at it, not as much in disbelief as in hazy exhaustion. She lifted her arm to her face, pressing her elbow over her eyes, giving herself a moment longer to stay horizontal. Just as she was starting to swing her legs over the side of the bed, she felt a hand settle over her shoulder, pressing her gently back into the bed. 

“Let me take this one, yeah?” 

Bellamy’s voice was gravelly with sleep, and Clarke turned her head towards his hand, her eyes seeking out her husband in the early morning light. It was too dark for her to distinguish any of his features, but she knew them by heart anyways. “You sure?” 

“Yep.” His hand lifted from her shoulder glanced along the side of her face before the sheets lifted and the bed tilted. 

Clarke knew he couldn’t see her smile, but the corners of her mouth turned up anyways as she readjusted the sheets, rolling over to watch the baby monitor next to the clock on the nightstand.

Jordan’s face was scrunched up with the effort of her screaming, but Clarke’s smile stretched fondly as she watched her daughter. She heard the bedroom door open through the camera, and Jordan’s wailing hitched when she realized someone had come to help her. Sure enough, Bellamy crossed in the front of the camera  to bend over the crib, lifting their daughter into his arms. 

Clarke snuggled deeper into the pillow, her body relaxing as Bellamy’s low voice carried through the house. She couldn’t make out any of the words, but his voice was just as soothing to her as it was to their daughter. When Jordan’s screams quieted to a steady cry, Clarke reached over to turn up the volume on the camera.

“Hey, little princess,” Bellamy was crooning, shuffling around the room slowly, “bad dream or just lonely?”

Jordan hiccupped before drawing fresh wind and going in again. Bellamy shook his head and Clarke heard him laugh lightly.

“Where’d you get these pipes, huh? I know your mom sings to you, but I promise it sounds pretty different than what you’re doing…”

Even though Jordan couldn’t form a word on her own, she seemed to understand what Bellamy way saying, and her lip puckered slightly as she opened her mouth with renewed vigor.

“I take it back, I take it back,” Bellamy said hurriedly, but to no avail.

Clarke had to reach over to turn the monitor down again, and Jordan ramped back up. The cries seemed to echo around their house, and Clarke sighed at the ceiling.

It wasn’t like she could go back to sleep.

She slipped out of the bed, heading down the hall to Jordan’s room, pausing at the doorway to smile at the picture in front of her.

Bellamy’s back was to her, his broad shoulders were hunched as he held their daughter. He was shifting between his feet, rocking her gently, and Clarke could hear his soft voice in the breaks when Jordan paused for air.

“I love you,” he said soothingly, “but you need to hush, baby girl. Your mama’s had a long night, and if we keep this up, she won’t get any sleep at all.”

Clarke pushed away from the door. “Sleep is overrated,” she said softly, slipping a hand around Bellamy’s waist and resting her head on his upper arm.

She felt him shift as he looked down at her, regretfully. “Sorry, I thought—”

“Not your fault,” Clarke interrupted, lifting a hand to the top of Jordan’s head, to play with the soft curls resting there. Jordan’s eyes darted upwards, confused by the new hand, and her wails quieted when she recognized the touch.

Bellamy made a face. “That’s not fair.”

“We can’t all be magic, Blake,” Clarke teased lightly, raising her other arm to take Jordan. Bellamy let her go reluctantly; but he stayed close. Jordan was still making whimpering sounds, and Clarke cradled her close. “Keep talking, Bell, she likes it.”

In the dim light, she still saw his arched eyebrow. “She does, or you do?”

“Yes,” Clarke said noncommittally, crossing the room to sit in the overstuffed chair in the corner. “Come on, what’s the point of a doctorate if you don’t have a story for your two favorite girls?”

Bellamy groaned. “Well how am I supposed to say no to that?”

Clarke beamed at him as he crossed the room to the chair, perching on the armrest. She leaned back into him, her head on his chest, and his arm settled around her shoulders.

“There was once a princess,” Bellamy began, his fingers squeezing Clarke’s shoulder, “She was the goddaughter of the sun, and she saved not only her city, but the neighboring island too.”

“As every princess must try to do,” Clarke supplied, looking down at her daughter, “remember that, sweetie.”

“If she’s takes after her mother at all, she’ll have no problem remembering that,” Bellamy said dryly, and Clarke laughed.

“Okay but the princess in the story…?”

“We’ll call her Ari,” Bellamy recovered, “and her father was king of a small island. Each year, to keep the gods happy, 7 boys and 7 girls from a neighboring island had to come and fight this monster. But they never won.”

“Wait a sec,” Clarke tilted her head back to squint at him, “Ari as in Ariadne? You’re leading out with the minotaur?”

“Well now you stole the punchline,” Bellamy pouted.

“Oh, by all means, go ahead,” Clarke shook her head, “I’m terribly curious how this hunger games of a myth is your soothing bedtime story.”

“Prepare to be amazed,” he grumbled, and Clarke bit her lip to hide a smile, looking down at her daughter. Jordan was still whimpering, and her eyes showed no signs of closing soon, but she was much more quiet.

“The rules were,” Bellamy continued, “that the 14 kids had to just fight. But they were kids, so they didn’t do too well.”

“As has been the case historically,” Clarke interjected helpfully.

“Until,” Bellamy said pointedly, trudging along, “Ari came along. Ari had been watching the event each year, and one year she decided enough was enough, and she had to help. So she picked a champion. A young boy, a prince, actually. But she saved him. She gave him the special tools he’d need to beat the monster, and she told him its weaknesses. She helped him beat he labyrinth, and gave him the sword to kill the monster.”

“Happy stuff, right, Jordan?” Clarke asked seriously and Bellamy muttered something about being underappreciated. Jordan cooed sweetly though, picking up the encouragement where Clarke stopped, and Bellamy seemed placated .

“Ari and her prince were tired of the island, so they ran away, to an island in the sun.”

“Hip hip,” Clarke said helpfully, and Bellamy snorted.

“Yeah, sure. All that island-saving was pretty tiring for Ari, so she took a nap.”

“Must be nice,” Clarke muttered.

“One of these days, we’ll have to try it out,” Bellamy responded in a similar tone, and Clarke heard the smile on his voice before he continued. “But guess what happened while she was sleeping, little princess?”

Clarke shifted Jordan in her arms, lifting a hand to squeeze her cheeks and raising her voice in a pantomime. “Well, Pop, I think Ari probably realized that princes are liars and cowards?”

Bellamy chuckled. “Nice, Clarke.”

“What?” she said in faux innocence, “Not my fault our daughter understands that them’s the breaks.”

He shook his head. “Well, that’s exactly what happened. Ari woke up, and her prince was gone! He’d fled the island and left her there on her own, despite everything she’d done to help him.”

“Ergo the ‘liars and cowards’ bit,” Clarke shrugged.

“Sure, Clarke,” Bellamy said amusedly, before refocusing on their daughter. “But do you think Ari stayed on the island?”

“The island couldn’t hold her, could it, sweetie?” Clarke smiled at Jordan.

“Yeah, your mom’s right. Ari didn’t need a prince for a best friend; she found a new one. A god.”

“Do you have a kid-friendly translation of Dionysus?” Clarke asked smugly.

Bellamy stuttered a few times before shrugging. “Can we just call him Dave?”

“Ari, Princess of Crete, savior of Athens…and her buddy Dave?”

“Okay, the name’s a work in progress, sorry, J.”

“She forgives you.”

Bellamy snorted. “I was really worried there… No, but she makes a new best friend. And instead of leaving her on an island, he takes her to the stars. He offers her constellations, and he takes her far away from the tiny islands. And she becomes a god, too.”

“And they fall in love,” Clarke said softly.

Jordan’s eyes were closing, and Bellamy’s hand tightened on her shoulders.

“That’s right, they did,” he said, his voice soft, too. “She makes him happier than anyone he’s ever met, mortal or divine. He sees how beautiful she is, but also how smart, and how kind. And everyone knows it, everyone knows how out of his league she is, and how enamored with her he is, but he doesn’t care.”

Clarke tipped her head back again to look up at Bellamy, to find his eyes already on her. She shook her head at him, breaking away from his gaze to look down at their daughter. “And they live happily ever after?”

“They did. Some of the only ones among the gods to do so.”

Jordan made a gurgling sound, her eyes fluttering shut. Clarke looked up at Bellamy in wonder, before slowly standing and sliding her away across the floor to the crib. When she set Jordan down on the blankets, the girl wiggled slightly, but her breathing stayed normal. Clarke let out a short breath, her hands hovering over the crib for a moment before she turned back to Bellamy. They tiptoed out of the room, wincing at the click the door made when it shut, then shuffling down the hall.

Bellamy held out his hand, palm up, and Clarke mimed slapping down at it. She stopped her fingers just above his palm to avoid the sound a high-five would make, and instead just slipped her fingers through his, squeezing lightly.

“I stand corrected,” she whispered, following him down the hall.

“Not three words I hear often,” Bellamy whispered back, pulling her in front of him to get back to the room. She let go of him as they went around their respective sides of the bed; Clarke checked the volume on the baby monitor before sliding back under the covers.

“I meant,” Clarke said, her voice a little louder now that there were two closed doors between them and Jordan, “that it was a good story, Bell.” 

“Have to use the doctorate for something right?” he mumbled and Clarke rolled her eyes, reaching for him as he crawled onto his side of the bed.

She found his upper arm, her hands tracing down it lazily until she felt his fingers. She squeezed lightly, and he squeezed back. The house was quiet and the street outside was too; they had another hour or so before the world required they wake again.

As Clarke was drifting off to sleep, a thought occurred to her. “Hey, Bell?” she asked softly, unsure if he was asleep or not.

“Yeah,” he responded, his voice thick, but not bothered.

“Sorry,” she said all the same, before turning on her side to face him. In the darkness, she could make out his profile—the line of his nose, the dip in his chin, the fine lines of his lashes—and she nestled the side of her face into the pillow, watching him. “What about Perseus?” 

His lashes blinked open and she watched a slight indent form on his forehead as he frowned at the ceiling.

“What about him?” 

“Didn’t he kill Ariadne? With Medusa’s head?” 

The furrow of his forehead erased and Clarke watched a grin stretch across his face. She had only a moment longer to enjoy his profile before Bellamy shifted, turning on his side to face her. His free hand fell down to their still-joined hands between them, and he brought her fingers up to his face. As he brushed his lips over the top of her knuckles, she could feel his smile. 

“Remind me,” he teased gently, “that no matter how hard a time you give me about mythology, you’re actually listening to every word.” 

“Every word might be an exaggeration…” she admitted, not quite wanting to concede, before she lifted the shoulder that wasn’t pressed into the bed in a half shrug. “What can I say: you’re a nerd about your ancient Greeks, and I’m a nerd about you.”  

Bellamy laughed shortly, and she felt his exhale on her fingertips, before he kissed them again. “Well, I’m a lucky man.” 

Clarke drew in a quick breath.

Almost as soon as they’d started dating, it’d been like this between the two of them: Bellamy just saying the sweetest, simplest things with the utmost sincerity, and her heart just clenching with fullness. And no matter how many times she’d counter with a like truth, he’d see it as a compliment, not that she was the lucky one. 

“So,” Clarke said, veering back to mythology. “Perseus killed Ariadne…did you lie to our daughter about happy endings?”

Bellamy chuckled, a low rumble in his chest and Clarke felt the bed shift slightly. “Come on, have a little faith.”

“I would, but it’s kind of hard to have a happily ever after when half of your whole is a stone statue, right?”

“Ah, but Princess,” Bellamy said, one of his hands releasing hers and trailing up her arm. “What kind of god would Dionysus be, if he let a thing like death stand between him and his wife?”

Clarke shivered when his hand reached her shoulder, settling there for a moment before travelling up her neck. Bellamy’s fingers wove into the hair at the base of her neck, and she leaned her head into his touch. “What happened?”

“He couldn’t do it without her,” Bellamy’s thumb slipped up to her cheek, a gentle caress to match the soothing rhythm of his words, “The god of chaos and revelry, madness and merriment, absolutely crumbled. Ariadne was his everything. And life immortal, life without consequence, life without limits, without the woman he loved? It was empty. He stormed Hades, brought her to Olympus again, and demanded that she be made a god.”

“Oh.” Clarke’s voice was small, and Bellamy chuckled again.

“He gave her a crown,” he said softly, his hand moving from her cheek to the top of her head, thumb tracing a gentle path above her eyes, “the Corona constellation, a diadem for a goddess. She’s the keeper of labyrinths, and still a hero for anyone who is lost.”

“Sounds like a heavy crown,” Clarke mused.

“Not for Ariadne.”

“Hmm.”

“Hmm,” Bellamy parroted, before dropping his hand from her forehead and rolling back onto his back. Clarke’s hand was still held in his, and he pulled her into his side as he went. She snuggled into his chest. “Sounds like a pretty perfect happy ever after, right?”

“It’s a good story,” she admitted into his tshirt.

“I’ll let Homer know you think so,” Bellamy mumbled, his eyes closing again. Clarke flicked his side lightly, smiling when his response was to pull her closer, rather than retaliate. She was more than happy with the arrangement, wrapping her own arm around his stomach.

Yes, she should’ve been asleep hour ago. Yes, Jordan would probably wake up again before the rest of the county even thought about breakfast. And yes, she’d meant it, Dionysus and Ariadne did make a pretty good story. But this—her arms around him and his around her—this was the perfect happily ever after.  

[crimsong-knight]

✶「The Knight who sings a Crimson Song | Tomokazu」♪

✶「Basic Information」♪

Name: Shibuya Tomokazu.

Name (Kanji): 士武屋 友和 「しぶや ともかず」

Birthday: July 7th, 1992.

Age: 25.

Star sygn: Cancer. 

Height: 182 cm   |   5′ 11.7′’

Weight: 64 kg   |   141 lb

Family members: Shibuya Kazuhiko (Father, 51, Businessman), Shibuya Chie, neé Kamenashi (Mother, 47, Music Teacher), Kamenashi Nokoru (Grandfather, 78, farmer).

✶「Personality Traits」♪

Personality: A cheerful, arrogant and hardworking idol, Tomokazu Shibuya may not seem like he’s a disciplined and responsible person, but in fact, he always has a plan for most of the things he does, at least, work related. He follows his agenda to the letter, and he manages to do all his activities just in time. His strong sense of duty can be a problem for him, because when he has much work to be done, he doesn’t eat nor rest properly, which causes him to collapse when he’s heavily tired. For the rest of things, he’s spontaneous and relaxed, leaving almost everything to the odds. 

He’s usually seen with a confident smile in his face and he’s never afraid to speak his mind. When he sees something he doesn’t like he’ll be willing to complain about it and when he sees something he likes, he supports it so everyone knows his position. Yet, when it comes to liking someone, this could change drastically, as he’s thoughtful, insecure and painfully afraid of rejection. He loves to be there for his friends and to cheer them up, even if he has to do foolish acts to make them smile, because he hates seeing people upset or sad, and because he wants to feel useful to everyone. He could say lots of silly jokes to no end at the moment, if the situation lets him doing it. 

However, when there are important things to do or advice to give to a friend in problems, he gets serious and gives a mature vibe when he speaks. It isn’t easy to truly upset him, however he can be a Drama King over little things. Tomokazu is a strongly emotional individual, but when people insults him, he lets it slip at the moment, altough he’ll be thinking about it for hours when he’s alone. On the other hand, when you badmouth his friends, he can get horribly enraged and he will defend them with everything he got. When he is really angry, he’s scary and harsh, to such an extent he will speak with a foul mouth, insulting and saying bad words he wouldn’t normally use.

His cheerful facade which he shows to hs fans, or his “Idol self” isn’t much different from his true personality. Nonetheless, his strong will, his self-confidence and his arrogance are part of the traits he only projects. In reality he has low self-esteem, always looking for recognition, love and acceptation. He’s constantly facing depression, worrying if he’s good enough to be in the media, if he’s talented enough to stay there, if he’s likable enough for his friends to stay with him, working himself to exhaustion to demonstrate everyone why he has a legit place in the highest orbs of the idol insdustry. This part of his personality isn’t often shown when there’s people aroundh him, he saves it for when he’s alone.

The majority of the time, when he’s free, he’s chill and just wants to have fun. Kazu loves his job and is proud of what he is now and how far he got with all his hard work and his talent.

Myers Briggs: ESFP with some ESFJ tendencys.

Strenghts: 

Observant: He’s prone to naturally notice changes in people and situations, even if they’re subtle.

Utterly Social: Tomokazu enjoys being with his friends and fans, and he loves both being the center of attention and to play attention to others.

Fast learner: He can learn lots of things by himself if he’s commited enough. Applies for everything except cooking (It will take him twice or three times more effort to learn it properly, due to some past issues).

Empathic: He’s very sensitive to other’s emotions, which is a double edged sword.

Independent: Except for cooking, he does all his activities on his own and usually doesn’t ask for help when he doesn’t know anything. He learns about it on his own.

Weaknesses:

Manipulative: To a certain extent and according the circumstances. He’ll try to always get away with it, trying not harm anyone in the process.

Dramatic: His first weakness can be related to this one. His best way to manipulate people is being a Drama King, but sometimes he just seems to be accustomed to make a storm in a teacup.

Often too needy: His seek for recognition can be translated in start searching excuses for people to praise him, so he’ll feel reassured for how much he’s valued. 

Depressive: He’s constantly reflecting on all the negative things someone said about him, or which he noticed on his own. Even so, he hadn’t reached a point of no return, because he considers himself a coward.

Insecure: He fears to be rejected, forgotten or replaced, but he doesn’t voice it up, he just leaves the apprehension crept silently through his heart.

Hobbies and interests:

Plastic arts: He can draw almost everything, from realistic art to manga style.

Read manga, watch anime and play videogames: He’s a holy trinity otaku type (?).

Food: He loves to go to new restaurants and pastry shops to try new kinds of food.

Working out: So he can maintain his weight and gain more stamina for his live shows.

Fashion: He’s informed about all the fashion trends at the moment, but his fashion style is a mix between trendy, casual and comfy.

Fun facts:

His friends nickname him “Kazu” [To difference him from the “Tomo” in Tomochika]. Haruka calls him “Kazu-kun”.

He doesn’t like to be called “prince”. He thinks “knight” suits him better and his whole idol image is about him protecting “The queen of his heart”.

His fans are called “Gemstones” or “Jewels”, it depends on his mood.

He loves chocolate and strawberries, both if they’re combined in a dessert such as ice cream. That’s why he has a rough workout routine to not gain weight.

He’s well informed about everything, because he always reads the news or searches information to know something before any of his friends.

His hair is wavy in the morning, but he uses conditioner and gets hair treatments to have it more or less straight. Moisture is his worst nightmare because his hair gets frizzy and he hates it. [It doesn’t look too different but he’s a perfectionist]

He’s a smooth talker and loves to fluster people.

He considers that Haruka making him a composition would be the best thing to happen him, in his career and in his life.

He’s really fashionable and models for a brand specialist in sportswear.

He has awful cooking skills because his mother didn’t let him enter in the kitchen when he was a child, due to an accident which had happened before. 

✶「Idol Information」♪

Seiyuu (Voice Actor): Fukuyama Jun.

Color: Crimson.

Catchprhase: "I’ll treasure you forever, my precious gemstones~”

Musical instrument: Electone. He won various contests when he was younger, including three Yamaha Music Fests. He also plays the guitar but not as well as Otoya does.

Music Genre: Usually J-rock and J-pop (In various subgenres). He can switch to ballads from time to time.

Best skill: His wide voice range, which allows him to sing in a variated set of voices, as well as numerous voice tones. In the future, this skill will be useful for his new job when he retires from being a full time idol: being a voice actor.

Second skill: Acting, but he models more frequently because he wants to improve his modeling skills.

Debut date: April 26th, 2008. (Two years prior Starish Debut)

✶「Backstory」♪

The only son of the Shibuya family. Tomokazu grown up with the pressure to exceed all the expectations of his parents. They both are (relatively) lovely people and supported Kazu since he was a child, yet, they were equally demanding in regards of his scores at school and winning contests in topics in which he was talented. In fact, he had a gift for music from an early age, so they were specially strict with him on these.

When he succeded, they showed him all their love and adoration, but everytime he failed, they rejected him and pushed him harder to achieve just the best places in anything he would be doing at the time. Due to this, Tomokazu developed a very low self-esteem, always searching for nice words to be said to him, that way he felt useful and loved because of them. He was sternly criticized by his dad everytime he couldn’t cope with what was expected from him, and his mother, softer than his dad, tried to make him “understand” they were acting as harsh as that for his own sake. This environment made him sick with nervousness every time he felt like he wouldn’t win a prize, be at the top tier in his school or even win a video game.

Because of this, his grandpa offered taking Kazu with him during his summer vacations, so the child could relax from all the burden put into his tiny shoulders. This was the escape Tomokazu needed, and his time in the countryside, picking up tomatoes and fruits with his grandpa, as well as taking care of the animals with him was the best time of his life. 

Here, he knew Haruka and befriended her, meeting the girl every summer and eventually developing a crush on her. However, when he had 11 years old, an accident in which the girl nearly drowned in a river because he insisted to play in there threw away all the relax he could experiment in his life. He did all he could to save his best friend and to take her safely home. Haruka’s grandma received the wet and terrified boy carrying her granddaughter in his back. She helped to save the girl and she also tried to reassure the redhead boy which couldn’t stop trembling and crying at the sole thought of losing his dearest friend. Haruka’s grandma didn’t blame him for what happened, but he couldn’t help feeling guilty and depressed about it.

Kazu’s grandfather offered an apology to the Nanamis, helping them as much as he could, but when Haruka finally awoke, she couldn’t remember much about Tomokazu, just vague memories which seemed to keep fading along other memories she had. That was the trigger which made Kazu take a decision. He begged his grandpa to not say anything about this to his parents (he wasn’t planning to do it, anyways, because he was truly supportive to his grandson), and he promised keep going to visit him every summer, yet he would avoid meeting with Haruka so she wouldn’t got hurt trying to figure where did she met him. Kazu was still happy visiting his grandpa, but he often showed a pained expression everytime he passed the places in which he used to play with his best friend, including her home. Until this day, he still has kept this promise and goes to visit his grandpa, even if his packed schedules just let him stay for fewer days than before.

His parents noticed something had changed in him, but only his mother started to pay more attention to his feelings than her own expectations, yet it was too late: Tomokazu was more mentally damaged than she could imagine. Kazu put all his efforts in music, the only activity he enjoyed despite their parents pressure. That alongside his mother’s support in choose a career which would make him happy in the future led him to go to Saotome Academy, and, until now he’s happy with that decision. He was sorted to the A Class, much to his parents displeasure (they wanted their son to attend S Class, but they didn’t tell him anything, maybe Kazu’s mom had something to do here), but he proved himself to be a promising idol and debuted with his composer partner a year after he started studying there, with just 15 years old.

As a solo idol, Tomokazu struggled during his first months in the media, trying to gain himself a place and a name, working hard so he could achieve only the best places, as his parents always encouraged him to. Of all his songs, the one which made him jump to stardom was REGENERATION, which won various awards that year. Since that day, his fame just kept rising and rising, being known as the Tomokazu Shibuya, TheJewel Crimson Knight. Anyways, he often felt lonely because he hadn’t bandmates, which led him to escape from time to time to Saotome Gakuen to be among the students and remember the old times. That way he met Haruka again, who (not so surprisingly) didn’t remember him at all, and the future Starish members, being more closer to Otoya and Ren. He witnessed from the distance how the group was starting to form, Haruka being the glue who tied them all. Tomokazu felt jealous of them, but he knew they could do it well if they maintained their harmony.

Slowly Tomokazu managed to keep his depresion at bay, do all his activities and hang out with his friends. He ended truly befriending the majority of the Starish boys and trying to be there for them in critical moments, such as preparing themselves to win the Utapri Award and assisting their fight for the SSS. 

✶「The future」♪

He’s planning to retire when he’s 32 or so, and he’s doing seiyuu works little by little. He wants to be a voice actor when he retires from being an idol so he can explore a more mature way to be in the media. That’s also his plan so he can settle down and start a family with the person he loves.

[oneweekoneband]

Day 1: Genre - Progressive Metal

(Alternative title: “We all rip off Meshuggah”)

Metal and its subgenres can actually get extremely technical in regards to labeling your sound. As I have mentioned before, despite whatever genre you want your band to sound like, it ultimately comes down to what requirements and sound stylistics you fall under (x). Obviously, metal isn’t as generic and as easy to label, especially when bands fall under different subgenres or decide to not label themselves, but, for the sake of brevity, we are going to once again use heuristics to see where the Devin Townsend Project falls under.

Devin Townsend is known to play under many different styles and has fallen under a lot of different subgenres over the years. However, the Devin Townsend Project has been classified as progressive metal, given for the high level of technical complexity involved in creating the music. Listen to any DTP song and you will find that that there’s a high level of complexity in not just the musical structure and the instrumental portion of the music, but also in the vocals.

The Progressive Label in Music

There are vastly different ways to define progressive music, but the best way to describe is music that subverts the genre and results in the expansion of stylistic boundaries. Unlike avant-garde music, whose highly unorthodox nature lets musicians experiment with sound convention, irregular musical structure, and stylistic integration (x), progressive music tends to embody more of a continuous move between references to genres and cultural domains. It’s not uncommon to hear various foreign influences in progressive metal, whether it is a non-native instrument, like the sitar, or a derivative of a song native to the band’s heritage and place of origin.

In art history, progressiveness fall between formalism and eclecticism, where one – formalism – analyzes and compares form and style, emphasizing the compositional elements of a painting, while the other – eclecticism – consciously uses styles from a bygone area that wouldn’t be use otherwise in the current modern period1. Progressiveness combines the two by both emphasizing the composition styles used to create the piece while also using something completely different that you otherwise wouldn’t think about using, like electronic music. Progressive music is also associated with concept albums and auteur-stars, which are seen as traditional concepts in the industry2. In this case, Devin would be considered an auteur-star, as he is regarded as one of the most well-known musicians in the industry and has complete creative control over his music and projects.

Progressive Metal – What is It?

Progressive metal can be defined as music that features complex, layered arrangements, often including several signature time changes and lengthy instrumental passages that allow the technical component of metal to shine through. The vocals used for progressive metal often feature operatic, high-register vocals, but can also feature clean ad gruffer tones, akin to those found in extreme metal (x). Progressive metal started with progressive rock in the late 1960s and early 1970s, having roots in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) movement. There was a certain pretentiousness to it that made fans and musicians of the genre want to be taken seriously. According to Covach (1997),

Among the most ardent fans of progressive rock at the time, there was the perception that these musicians were attempting to shape a new kind of classical music – a body of music that would disappear after a few weeks or months on the pop charts, but would instead be listened to (or perhaps even studied), like the music of Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms, for years to come3.

Early pioneers in progressive rock are King Crimson and Rush, which are seen as the main influences in modern progressive metal, but modern progressive metal is attributed to the “Big Three”: Queensryche, Fates Warning, and Dream Theater in the 1980s. They brought the innovative use of keyboards to progressive rock, combining elements of American heavy/power metal that became more and more progressive over the years (x). Per Covach,

Important to this chapter [of the 1980s] is the fact that with this return to the “classic” progressive-rock style comes a renewed fascination with engaging art-music practices in a rock contest; like the originators of the style, this new generation of groups is grappling again with the problems of form, harmonic and melodic language, contrapuntal textures, instrumentation, and virtuosity that were so central to progressive rock in the 1970s.4

Nowadays, modern progressive metal has not only kept elements of the progressive rock movement, but have also employed and incorporated electronic and spacey elements, which also invest heavily in rhythmical experimentation. Per Marrington (2017),

Even where metal’s traditional instruments are themselves concerned, innovative metal artist have attempted to push these particular ‘technologies’ beyond their conventional limits… The use of digital amp modeling for guitar tones, or triggered samples for drum parts, also constitute engagement with technological developments, which draw less critical comment because they relate to metal’s typical instrumental format. However, now that metal’s creation and production have been further de-centralized by digital technologies[,] there is likely to be more individual innovation than ever before where technology is concerned.5

(see here for a clarification on what progressive metal is supposed to be and how it can be classified)

Notes:

1 Cotner, J.S. (2000). "Music Theory and Progressive Rock Style Analysis". Reflections on American Music: The Twentieth Century and the New Millennium, pp. 93.

2 Reynolds, S. (2013). Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture, pp. 6-7.

3,4 Covach, John (1997). "Progressive Rock, ‘Close to the Edge,’ and the Boundaries of Style". In Covach, J & Graeme, M.B., Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis, pp. 3-31