Independent Music Promotion on the Web: 3 Steps to Success

Let's face it, the wildfire spread of web-based portals designed to introduce independent music to the world has created a bewildering array of opportunities and costs. So where do they all balance out? When does the cost of signing up to yet another music promotion service yield results? What results are we looking for anyway?

The key is to make your web promotion targeted, systematic and rich.

What is the main drive for independent artists promote their music on the web? The fundamental incentive for web promotion is the opportunity to get your music heard by people who might otherwise never know that you exist! If people know you exist they can become fans and repeat-listeners. Which of those fans buy CD's and downloads? Targeted listeners.

The most important goal of web promotion is to attract targeted listeners.

Any independent artist who says they use the web to sell their music has missed the primary target - attracting targeted listeners. Attracting targeted listeners should be every independent artist's first priority. Remember, you don't sell your music - listeners BUY your music. It's a buyers market. The more targeted listeners you have, the more sales you make - provided you are systematic in getting your targeted listeners.

The best way to get targeted listeners is to be systematic.

Many artists tend to approach their web promotion thinking that since they have a website and have signed up to a couple of artist showcase sites, that the listeners will just come pouring in. Yes you have managed to target some potential listeners, but you still have to shout, "Hey, over here...you'll like the sound of this!" A systematic approach to getting listeners to hear your music will attract and maintain their interest. But remember to make sure you have the content ready for the listener to enjoy.

Sites rich in content will retain your targeted listener.

In the independent artist's case, the rich content is the music. This may seem like old news, but look at the amount of independent artist websites that give the visitor loads of info about the band but very little (or hidden) ear candy. Music should be the first thing a visitor gets. At the very least they need an obvious link to where they can listen to your music. And not just one or two tracks but a variety of your music. Independent artists have to remember they have not had the radio exposure to model the presentation of their music after more well established acts. Listeners need to be convinced they like your independent music before they will buy it.

So the question is how to make your web promotion targeted, systematic and rich?

Tips for Targeting.

The best targeted listeners on the web will be those that make it to your website. Find a way to know who they are. Setup a newsletter and make it easy to sign up to it. People interested enough to want to receive news about you are your hardcore web fans, keep them happy.

The next best group of targeted listeners are those that hear your music on other sites. Try to pick sites that allow listeners to link to your site. If they like your music they might click on that link to visit your site. You can then find out where these visitors are coming from. Find a good web statistics package that lets you know which sites your visitors are being referred from. Take note of those sites and focus your efforts with them accordingly.

When choosing sites on which to promote your music, check to see if they offer any individual stats relating to your music. Like how many track plays or page views you and your music receive on their site. This way you can check in periodically and monitor your performance with these sites.

Systematic Steps.

The key to being systematic is organization. Keep a note of all the sites you use to promote your music, a brief description of what they do and how much it costs. Try to get into the practice of monitoring all of them regularly. Take note of which sites are getting better results than others and focus your efforts accordingly. You might pay for minimal promotion on one website, while another gets you loads of listeners for free. Naturally you'll want to put more effort into updating the sites that are getting better results.

Provide a link on your website and newsletters to all of the sites you use to promote your music. Remember your website visitors are your hardcore web fans and are the most likely to check out and spread the word about your spot on other websites. So encourage them to visit your profile on other websites. At the very least it raises your stats on those websites - making your music look more popular!

Try to create a ring of sites that link to each other though the content you supply. For example, you might have your music on your own website and two other showcase sites - Site A and Site B. Your site should without a doubt link with Site A and Site B. Site A should link with your site and Site B, Site B should link with your site and Site A and so on. What if these sites don't allow you to setup links to other sites? Put a web address in the areas where they do allow you to supply content. Like biogs or descriptions.

The ultimate aim of linking all your sites is to provide your listeners with a variety of access points to your music, as well as access to the different ways various sites may deliver your music. Remember to link to your specific page on the site and not just the site itself. Your site linked with a site that play your tracks on Internet radio, linked with a site that sells your downloads, linked with a site that sells your CD's provides for a powerful combination of exposure.

Be Rich

Without money! That is the challenge that most independent artists face. The conventional approach to selling music is that it should not be too readily available to listen to, should the incentive for listeners to actually buy albums be undermined. This has persuaded independent artists that they should limit web listeners to low-quality snippets of streaming audio.

Independent artists have to remember they don't have the resources and finances to support the "shotgun approach" of spraying their music across radio and music television. Big artists have big companies behind them that need to recoup the costs of mass media exposure, and therefore try to limit the extent to which listeners can sample their music on the web. Listeners have already heard the music and are trying to find a copy of their own.

Conversely, listeners haven't had a chance to listen to independent artist through conventional media. Therefore independent artists can't assume that people will buy their music off of a website if they don't get a chance to really listen to it. If people have already heard an artist's music, and like it, the value they pay for is in owning a copy they can play whenever they like. If people have not already heard an artist's music, the value is in being able to sample as much of the music as possible.

So being rich is providing your listeners with as much of your music as they want to listen to before they buy it. Now you don't have to make all your tracks available for free download, but you can provide good quality, full-length streams that impress the listener and enhance your sound. Not tight-fisted snippets that lose the listener because they are lo-fi and over before they attract the listener's interest.

Being rich is also making your music available in a variety of formats for different audiences. Telling fans that your music can be heard via Internet radio, on-demand streams, mp3 downloads and mail order CD means you can appeal to listeners who prefer more than one type of media. You can also use your web promotion to go beyond simply plays and sales - consider licensing.

Licensing your music for use with television, film, advertising, websites, video games and other multimedia will open up your listening audience, provide revenue and introduce a degree of professionalism to your career that attracts the notice of industry reps and A&R. Adding this depth to your web promotion helps to enrich the presentation of your music and retain targeted listeners.

So remember: a) maximise your targeted listeners, b) be systematic in obtaining them, and c) retain them by making sure your own site and other sites are rich in content.

Nick Hooper has helped to create Tunetrader, an online platform for the promotion of independent music at [http://www.tunetrader.com]

Win Friends & Influence People Through Music -- Is It Possible?

The idea that studying music improves the social development of a child is not a new one, but at last there is incontrovertible evidence from a study conducted out of the University of Toronto.

The study, published in the August issue of Psychological Science was led by Dr. E. Glenn Schellenberg, and examined the effect of extra-curricular activities on the intellectual and social development of six-year-old children. A group of 144 children were recruited through an ad in a local newspaper and assigned randomly to one of four activities: piano lessons, voice lessons, drama lessons, or no lessons.

Two types of music lessons were offered in order to be able to generalize the results, while the groups receiving drama lessons or no lessons were considered control groups in order to test the effect of music lessons over other art lessons requiring similar skill sets and nothing at all. The activities were provided for one year.

The participating children were given IQ tests before and after the lessons. The results of this study revealed that increases in IQ from pre- to post-test were larger in the music groups than in the two others. Generally these increases occurred across IQ subtests, index scores, and academic achievement.

While music teachers across the country greeted the new research enthusiastically, in fact, many other studies have previously shown a correlation between music study and academic achievement.

In 1997, well known music researchers Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw and their team at the University of California (Irvine) reported that music training is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children's abstract reasoning skills, the skills necessary for learning math and science. A group led by the same two scientists had earlier showed that after eight months of piano lessons, preschoolers showed a 46 percent boost in their spatial reasoning IQ.

The March 1999 issue of Neurological Research published a report by another group of researchers, also at the University of California (Irvine), who found that second-grade students given four months of piano keyboard training, as well as time playing newly designed computer software, scored 27% higher on proportional math and fractions tests than other children.

Students with coursework and experience in music performance and music appreciation scored higher on the SAT, according to a Profile of Program Test Takers released by the Princeton, NJ, College Entrance Examination Board in 2001. This report stated that students in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math, and students in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on the math, than did students with no arts participation.

Another part of this same study shows that longer music study means higher SAT scores. For example, students participating in the arts for two years averaged 29 points higher on the verbal portion and 18 points higher on the math portion of the SAT than students with no coursework or experience in the arts. Students with four or more years in the arts scored 57 points higher and 39 points higher on the verbal and math portions respectively than students with no arts coursework.

Another study also found support for a relationship between math achievement and participation in instrumental music instruction. The researchers found that students who participated in instrumental music instruction in high school took on the average 2.9 more advanced math courses then did students who did not participate.

In fact, various studies over the last 10 years suggest teaching kids music can heighten their aptitude for math, reading, and engineering. (One explanation for improved ability in mathematics is that music theory is based on mathematical truths. Rhythms are divided into fractions - half notes, quarter notes and eighth notes. Scales have eight tones, and the steps between them follow an equation.)

A McGill University study in 1998 found that pattern recognition and mental representation scores improved significantly for students given piano instruction over a three-year period. The researchers also found that self-esteem and musical skills measures improved for the students given piano instruction.

And data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 revealed music participants received more academic honors and awards than non-music students, and that the percentage of music participants receiving As, As/Bs, and Bs was higher than the percentage of non- participants receiving those grades.

In 1994, a report entitled "The Case For Music Study In Schools" was printed in Phi Delta Kappan, the professional print journal for education. It included details of research conducted by physician and biologist Lewis Thomas, who studied the undergraduate majors of medical school applicants. Thomas found that 66 percent of music majors who applied to medical school were admitted, the highest percentage of any group.

The same report asserted that the very best engineers and technical designers in the Silicon Valley industry were, almost without exception, practicing musicians.

The world's top academic countries also place a high value on music education. In a study of the ability of fourteen year-old science students in seventeen countries, the top three countries were Hungary, the Netherlands, and Japan. All three include music throughout the curriculum from kindergarten through high school.

St. Augustine Bronx elementary school, about to fail in 1984, implemented an intensive music program, and today 90 percent of the school's students are reading at or above grade level. And a ten-year study at UCLA tracked more than 25,000 students, and showed that music making improves test scores. Regardless of socio-economic background, music-making students get higher marks in standardized tests than those who had no music involvement. The test scores studied were not only standardized tests, such as the SAT, but also in reading proficiency exams.

Music training helps under-achievers as well, according to research published in Nature magazine in May 1996. In Rhode Island, researchers studied eight public school first grade classes. Half of the classes became "test arts" groups, receiving ongoing music and visual arts training. In kindergarten, this group had lagged behind in scholastic performance. After seven months, the students were given a standardized test. The "test arts" group had caught up to their fellow students in reading and surpassed their classmates in math by 22 percent. In the second year of the project, the arts students widened this margin even further. Students were also evaluated on attitude and behavior. Classroom teachers noted improvement in these areas also.

In 2005, it appears the pace of scientific research into music making has never been greater. The most recent evidence from the University of Toronto confirms what many other researchers have already detected - that music boosts brainpower, academic achievement,socialization skills, and emotional health.

It's logical, when you think about it. People who learn to play an instruments are in groups -- bands, choirs, orchestras, combos, worship teams, etc. And working and making music with others is bound to help relateabilty with people and foster close bonds with fellow musicians.

So it appears that learning to play music, whether guitar, piano, or some other instrument, actually does contribute to your ability to "win friends and influence people."

Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music books and products such as DVD's, CD's, musical games for kids, chord charts, musical software, and piano lesson instructional courses for adults. He holds an advanced degree from Southern Oregon University and was the founder of Piano University in Southern Oregon. He can be reached at http://www.pianolessonsbyvideo.com He is the author of the popular free 101-week e-mail newsletter titled "Amazing Secrets Of Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions" with over 55,000 current subscribers. Those interested may obtain a free two-year subscription by going to http://www.playpiano.com/

Legal Music Downloads

On July 28, 2004, French Internet access providers and music copyright owners signed a joint national charter aimed at cracking down on illegal downloads and expanding the amount of legal music tracks available online (AFP). This is the latest in a series of moves taken across the world to combat music piracy as production labels see more and more of their profits being lost to illegal downloads of music files.

The music industry has been saying the same thing for several years now: peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks are exponentially distributing pirated music across the world through the Internet, and this constitutes a copyright infringement. In English, this means that the fact that I downloaded a Tori Amos track through Kazaa yesterday and am listening to it right now makes me a criminal. So far, so good. Quite true as well.

But the real problem is not that people do not want to pay for music. Often I sample new music off the Internet before buying the CDs. Chances are that if I like most of the album, I'm going to buy it. On the surface this is what radio stations do when they play music. The difference, however, is that it has become insanely easy for me to acquire almost-as-good-as-original quality mp3s of any track that I want to listen to, and even if I don't pay a dime, no one is there to catch me.

The principle of accountability has vanished. When one sees that there are two ways to acquire the same product, but by sacrificing a 'little' bit of quality you can get it for free without being penalized for it, what would most rational people do? P2P networks have made finding music off the Internet ridiculously easy, and most of us tend to 'forget' our social responsibility when it comes to such 'trivial' matters. To contribute to this, copy-protection techniques used on CDs by major production houses are always a step behind the latest cracking algorithms, and steps taken to prevent 'ripping' of CDs and DVDs have proven fruitless so far.

Enter music downloads of the legal kind. Disregarding the small number of 'free' legal music available for promotional purposes, more and more artists and labels have begun to provide a pay-per-download music service. In essence, you can purchase individual tracks or complete albums through a secure online transaction and then download your 'purchase' and, with variable limits to personal use, pretty much do whatever you want to do with it (Several providers digitally encode the files to prevent them from being played on other computers, or to be burned onto CD-Rs)

This is both a move to encourage free-riders such as me to start acquiring 'legal' music and an economic adjustment to the digital music revolution. Developing technologies are changing the way people perceive and use music. The advent of iPod and other mp3 players has meant that more and more people are becoming accustomed to carrying around their complete music collections with the latest players offering space for around 10,000 songs. This holds frightening possibilities for record companies. There is a very real concern within the industry that the CD format is fast going out of style, and as technology evolves, consumer demands for the best 'medium' will change as well. Till a few years ago audio CDs offered unparalleled music quality, a factor record companies used to encourage people to 'buy instead of steal (download)'. However, today's high-quality digital formats mean that audio quality is comparable, and in some cases equal to, CDs. Some experts are even starting to predict that within a decade CDs will become history as digital music will evolve to a point where we will be have access to our entire music collection (hopefully paid for) wherever we want it: in our car, at work, anywhere in the house, even on the beach. Matched with promises (and the reality) of audio quality, this is a serious threat to traditional business.

Thus, providing legal music online is a means of the industry trying to position itself to take advantage of the rising trend of portable music collections. A quick glance across major online music stores tells us exactly so. While offering free-riders affordable music (allowing them to purchase only the tracks they like instead of forcing them to buy the complete album) to ensure that they do not turn to music piracy, sites like eMusic and Apple's iTunes are backing the new trend. iTunes, Apple's online music store, has the added distinction of being supported by perhaps the best mp3 player in the business, the iPod. In this combination, Apple has found a very secure marketing brand and ensured that it takes full advantage of this cross between technology and music.

Legal music downloads appear to be the perfect answer to stopping music piracy, at least the downloading kind. Therefore there is no surprise when one sees major record labels pushing to expand such services. However, recent developments tend to make us question what the overall agenda really is. After a period of consolidation of the digital music market in the last two years, albums available for download online are being priced higher than they would normally be in retail stores. It used to be that you could download a song for $0.99 and a complete album for $9.99, but now stores are setting higher prices, with tracks going for $1.50 or even $2.49 and $11.50 albums being sold for $12.50 and $13.00 online. What is going on?

In positioning themselves to take advantage of changing market forces, the music industry has also hit upon another major factor in determining sales: consumer behavior. Legal music downloads offer people like me the comfort of never having to waste time in retail stores looking for my favorite track from high-school days or wondering when the latest album of Nickelback would hit the shelves. Instead, all the hassles are removed with everything easily searchable, previewable and downloadable from the comfort of my computer chair (and this baby is very, very, comfortable). Consumers may not be usually rational, but they are always looking to save the effort when it comes to making any sort of purchases. Online stores (or is it the major recording labels? Who knows...) are now cashing into this very aspect of human psychology and are beginning to charge extra for a service they are portraying now as a privilege. Having already consolidated their core target market, the time has now come to increase revenues.

Would this drive people back towards music piracy? Highly unlikely. People are not evil, or criminal, by nature. Appeals to their better nature usually work, and that is the strategy adopted by agencies like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) who are actively involved in putting a stop to illegal music sharing. Media campaigns encouraging music lovers to pay a dollar or two for tracks instead of 'committing a crime' by downloading them for free are actually working as slowly but surely, more and more people flock to online music stores. And with existing customers sticking to this more 'comfortable' way of buying music, the industry is finally starting to win back ground it lost due to music piracy.

For more information about this topic please visit http://www.Every.ca

admin@every.ca

Mike Ber is the owner of the Canadian Domain Name Portal called http://www.Every.ca. He is also a contributing author to Canadian Computer Magazine [http://www.computermagazine.ca] and http://www.Developer.ca website.

Massage Magic - Music & Touch

What Massage Therapists Do!

Have you ever thought what massage therapists actually do? Ideally, they provide a safe, warm and comfortable environment. There are soft clean linens, warm aromatic oils, background music, their knowledge of how the body works, warm hands and a sincerely caring touch that guides you into relaxation of those tired and stressed muscles.

Why Do We Need Massage?

It is difficult to imagine the overwhelming scope of what just living day to day can do to our health and well being when we make the trained reactive acceptance to be in stress. We have been educated to deal with negative stressful events in many ways, but our first inclination is to react. Research indicates that the negative health effects of stress may be due to what has been called Accumulated Emotionally Reactive Stress Syndrome (AERSS). This means that the more emotionally negative issues that we are faced with and react too, the more we retain and accumulate stress in our physiology. Stress has been linked to a growing number of illnesses. Attached to all negative events there remains a direct connection to the emotions that either occurred at the moment of the event or shortly thereafter. Each emotional event can present us with an opportunity to make a choice of how we perceive that event. When we react we begin our walk down the path to being stressed. When under stress, we may exhibit a variety of indications that we are under stress, such as anger, frustration, increased anxiety, physical discomfort, higher blood pressure, shallow or hesitant breathing, insomnia, depression and much more. The important thing to remember is that our society has been raised in an environment that bombards us with things that have negative tastes, smells, images, sounds, music, violence, corruption and news etc. All of these touch us emotionally and place our physiology into a sympathetic nervous reactive state. Our Fight and Flight reactions release the stress hormones and the body goes into a defensive posture. Blood goes to the extremities and muscles tense up and as long as we retain the emotion connected to that which initiated the stress, our muscles will remain tensed up and our immune system's ability will begin to decline. We might choose to do things that we normally would not do, such as make attempts to hide or escape from the cause of our stress. On the other hand we could choose to do things that lead to a happier outcome, such as listening to uplifting music, accepting the situation as an opportunity to learn and even receiving regular massages. According to internationally known trauma recovery therapist, David Bercili, "the body is a living organism designed to resolve even the tragic of life's experiences". What if we accepted the root cause of our stress as an opportunity to learn and revise our method of dealing with it?

Can Massage Really Help?

Research from a large number of sources compiled over the last 50 years indicates that receiving a massage on a regular basis can assist in the release of the physically retained symptoms of stress. There are many styles or application techniques of massage. Some, like Sports Massage, are specifically designed to deal with physical trauma. Others provide for a very spiritual outcome and some are very emotionally relaxing. The important thing to remember is that from birth to death we all crave touch. Sincere and unconditionally given touch promotes and enhances our general sense of well-being. It returns our bodies to a natural state wherein the Spirit / Mind / Body connection can begin the process of healing from within.

The Power of Music

There are a large number of studies that indicate that music has power. Music has been used as a background element in massage since massage was performed on the participants of the first Olympic games. You may wonder why music is being used more and more in the medical and mental health community. The answer is, "because music has a direct impact on our emotional state and our emotional state has an impact on our physical state. It has the power to initiate changes in behavioral patterns. It can manipulate the way we express our patriotism, Love, joy, sadness or anger. It can soothe or excite us. Today most Massage Therapists play some sort of relaxing music while giving a massage. Many of our nations hospitals and nursing homes retain the services of Certified Music Therapists. Doctors often play music in the operating room during surgery. It has the power to calm and inspire us at the same time or create a negative effect on our emotions. Research has shown that Music/Sounds that expresses fear, anger, violence and profound sadness negatively effect our stress levels, our learning abilities and then our sense of health and well being experience a decline. On the opposite side of the spectrum, music that is enjoyed, joyful and uplifting has the opposite effect. That brings us to a question. Is it the vibrational qualities in music that interacts with the our emotional vibrations that gives us the opportunity to experience some level of emotional healing which will facilitate an improvement in our general health and well being?

The Vibration of Music & Our Health

Like everything else in the universe, we are in vibration. Within our bodies the movement of fluids, the bio-electrical-chemical impulses from our brains activate movement internal and externally. Hence, we are always in a state of vibration. We create musical vibration by exerting a force that is applied to an instrument designed by nature or man to produce a sound that when arranged a certain way creates music. Be it a stick hitting a hide drum or the stroking the strings of a harp, the sounds of music are simply vibrations traveling through air and contacting our bodies. Most of us have been to concerts or been stuck in traffic beside a car with what seems like a 100 speakers. We literally feel the vibrations of the music that is blasting out at us. Our car and even the ground vibrate. It can be very annoying and that is a negative emotion which can trigger a stressful reaction. What if those vibrations were coming from music that we enjoyed listening to and it was also uplifting? Uplifting usually means different things to different people. There are many factors that can determine what is uplifting. When the subject is musical preferences in our modern society, our entire individual cultural history, which would include our patriotic persuasion, age, religious beliefs, geographic location, parental and peer influences can have a huge impact on what we see as uplifting. What remains is the simple fact that a variety of studies show that uplifting musical vibrations trigger a parasympathetic response in the nervous system and music that is not uplifting can trigger a sympathetic reaction in the nervous system. Many of us would not even shop the way we do without the influence of the background music we hear in the super market or mall. Have you ever noticed that many commercial advertisements have a piece of music that is usually geared towards giving us a feeling of just how "happy or healthier" we would be if we bought that product. It is our natural desire to be emotionally happy and healthy. This "positive emotional input" facilitates the activation of our desire to be happy and healthy and the result is that we may buy the product or service. Our physiology wants be well and to receive relief from the ravages of Accumulated Emotionally Reactive Stress Syndrome (AERSS). Listening too or feeling the vibrations of carefully selected music can enhance the ability of the immune system's energy to facilitate better health and well being.

The Magical Combination - Musical Vibration & Touch

Although usually played in the background, music provides us with a wonderfully joyful method of providing massage. Just listening to it lifts us up emotionally and therefore physically. Imagine what it would be like to actually feel the vibrations of music during a massage! We would become totally immersed in it as we willingly surrender to the power that will allow us to begin the healing process from within. This process can be initiated by combining of the vibrations of Music, which is provided by utilizing the Acoustical Touch System (ATS) (Patent Pending) and the synchronistic application of a massage technique that is called Vibrational Attunement Massage(TM) (VAM). The ATS transmits the vibrations of the music through the massage furnishing and applies it directly to the physiology. This induction of music that is uplifting and enjoyed by the recipient creates a strong desire to enter a deep state of relaxation while retaining the ability to be aware. Depending on the musical selection, which could be very active or very sublime, the recipient could express great joy or fall asleep. It has been noted that drooling and smiling are common responses when playing lively music. After the music begins to send out the vibrations, the Massage Therapist who has been certified and trained to utilize VAM begins to apply the synchronistic touch in concert with the music. In a way the recipient becomes the orchestra and the therapist becomes the conductor. The exchange of energy actually benefits each of them. The recipient goes into a state of deep relaxation and the therapist uses less energy during the session. Both are happy and re-energized at the end of the session and the therapist, because they used less energy to perform the work, are really ready for the next recipient. When one works within music there is a very different perspective. Most who have received only 15 minutes of VAM have used only one phrase to describe the session, "WOW that was amazing".

©Dustin Fox 2005 All Rights Reserved

Dustin is a Professional Member of the ABMP, graduate of the School of Holistic Management, inventor of the Acoustical Touch System and innovator of the Vibrational Attunement Massage technique. For information about VAM Certification and Training seminars or the Acoustical Touch System, contact Dustin at: Cell: 800-304-9197 or E-Mail: amt@wispwest.net

Jammin' with Your Kids: The Wonderful World of Music

Does music need to be "dumbed-down" for kids? The answer became quite clear to me and my husband as we observed how our own child responded to complex melodies and varied musical styles in the first months of her life.

When I embarked on the recording of my children's music CD ("Wake Up & Go To Sleep", Artsong Music) shortly after my daughter was born, it didn't occur to me to create a happy little watered down collection of songs made just for young listeners. The songs simply evolved as the experiential narrative of a new mom.

My husband, jazz guitarist and composer Pat Kelley, arranged and produced the CD bringing his rich diverse musical experience into play and giving the CD a broad stylistic range. Our daughter Katie seemed delighted by the whole project, which took four years to complete. She even contributed song writing and vocal performances.

It was only later, when the CD was released and people began to listen, that we discovered how much parents were moved by it. We have received many thanks for creating music that is a pleasure to listen to alone and with children.

Children have a more innate ability to absorb music than most adults. At a young age they have minds that are open to everything rather than filled with influences telling them what they should and should not like. Our daughter feels joy listening to Mozart, Hawaiian music, The Beatles, or Glenn Miller. Music only requires an open mind to find enjoyment in its beauty.

The earliest experience of music is in a child's first cry. Crying has tone and is the earliest sound that expresses emotion. For many infants, the next experience of music is the intimate songs a mother sings as she rocks and soothes her baby to sleep. Indeed this is a mother's own sound language that is completely unique to her and her baby. These may be some of the most meaningful and bonding moments of the mother/infant relationship.

But where do you go from here? If you begin to expose babies to myriad musical styles, you can witness early responses. Even in the early weeks of life, a baby will respond to complex classical works. Our daughter at three weeks old reacted to a Rachmaninoff piano concerto, eyes searching, facial changes pronounced. Clearly these sounds had a dramatic and positive effect. After having been very active kicking and fussing, she became still, seemingly enthralled in the music.

By exposing kids to a variety of musical styles, they begin to develop their response to what moves them to sing and dance, or be calmed, and even what turns them off. Critical listening can start early. And by exposing them to varied music they will develop the ability to appreciate many different styles. Your kids are completely open and ready to absorb anything new. There is no reason to limit what they hear just because you might think they are too young to understand it. Great music does not require understanding to be enjoyed and absorbed on the most organic level.

Sometimes music helps children express what they aren't able to articulate. In the earliest days, it is often simply the sheer joy of singing and using the voice that enables a child to begin to develop a love of music. Singing just feels good, both emotionally and physically to a child. Dancing or moving to music is a natural expression of rhythm, which is part of life. Encourage your children to sing and dance and they will be more free and expressive.

As you explore the world of children's music, also introduce the music you like to your kids. This can be a time for both of you to explore new musical styles such as jazz, classical, bluegrass, blues, funk, and a variety of world and ethnic music. If you aren't sure what to buy, visit your local library. Most libraries have a very good section of CDs in a broad range of styles. Ask the librarian for suggestions. Try checking out a different style CD each week. Of course you can browse the Internet and visit your favorite on-line music stores. Many sites offer downloadable music samples.

Music is at the heart of a child's spirit. In our CD "Wake Up & Go To Sleep" we celebrate that spirit and the preciousness of childhood. We make music for fun and for interaction. Music should inspire little souls to think outside the box!

As your children develop a musical vocabulary, let them take you along for the ride.

Attend outdoor concerts where kids can dance and run around to the music. Many venues offer free concerts in the summer, in a variety of styles. Get Jammin' with your kids. It's a blast!

Let music fill your children's hearts with joy, and in return it will do the same for you.

Music for Cross Cultural Accelerated Learning

The Search for the Right Music

Ever since Georgi Lozonav, the noted Bulgarian physicist and accelerated learning pioneer, conducted his ground breaking studies about the impact of music on learning, trainers around the globe have been trying to find the perfect musical formula to help them connect participants and produce desired results.

When Executive Oasis International formed a strategic alliance with Kuala Lumpur based FIK International to offer seminars throughout Asia, we wanted to ensure that our approach would be relevant to the various cultures in which we would be working. We weren't sure what to expect. Acceptance was a lot easier than we anticipated. Asian audiences responded enthusiastically to accelerated learning with its emphasis on session starters, energizers, colourful visuals, and in-depth practice. Along the way, there were a number of pleasant surprises and unexpected discoveries about the importance of music in training. For the first time, we will reveal a couple of these secrets to you.

Asian Memories: My Musical Journey

In Januray, 2000, I got off the plane at KLIA, loaded my accelerated learning paraphanalia onto a cart and wheeled it out to meet FIK's Mr. T. Saravanan. I immediately realized that I'd be right at home. You see I am Jamaican. The windshield of the car in which Sam Selvaj was waiting for us had a HUGE Bob Marley and the Wailers sticker.

On the way to the hotel we even passed a club called Marleys with a statue of Bob Marley in the front yard. These were the first clues that it was important for us to include some reggae on our accelerated learning playlist. (Little did I know that, 2 years later, I would be chatting with Malaysian Rastafarians selling Bob Marley tee shirts at the night market and sipping sodas until 2 am on the patio of the Reggae Club along Penang's fashionable Batu Ferringghi.) More discoveries lay ahead.

At our first session, attended by 65 delegates at Kuala Lumpur's Regent Hotel, we realized that tucked away in our boxes, we had packed the perfect ingredient to "spice up" our training. We'll give you a hint. It was music by a particular artist. (Before we were introduced to this music, we had experimented with some royalty free music, produced by a training company. While it was well received in the US, reception from our audiences in Canada had been lukewarm. So, we searched until we found music to which Canadian audiences responded enthusiastically.)

Music by this artist, would also make a valuable contribution to our warm reception in Asia. From Bangkok to Bombay (Mumbai) from Kuching to Kuala Lumpur, the results were the same. In fact, 7 trips and over 1000 participants later, this music has continued to generate excitement wherever we have conducted sessions in Asia. The artist is Ron Korb.

Music by Ron Korb: Ideal for Accelerated Learning

Whether we are in Toronto, Singapore or Penang, participants in our sessions always BEG us for more of Ron Korb's music. Music is a universal language. The right music can greatly enhance your training sessions. It can create a warm and inviting environment and build participant enthusiasm. The key is to find the right music and add it carefully to the accelerated learning mix.

A Toronto based and internationally acclaimed, Japanese-Canadian flute virtuoso, composer and music producer, Ron Korb has released 9 CDs including "Japanese Mysteries", "Flute Traveller", and "Celtic Heartland" the newly released "Ron Korb Live" CD and DVD. Ron's music transcends boundaries, representing world music at its best. A tapestry of Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Celtic, and Caribbean influences, blended seamlessly together with jazz, Ron has created a truly original sound. Ron has performed on dozens of CDs, TV shows, movie soundtracks (including Being Julia).

Ron has travelled around the globe studying and collecting over 100 indigenous flutes. In Japan, Ron studied the bamboo flute and Gagaku court music. An award-winning song writer, major artists (including Hong Kong's Alan Tam, Stephanie Lai and Yvonne Lau) have had hits with Ron's music. Ron and his band regularly tour Asia, North America and Europe.

Preparing to use Music for Accelerated Learning

Based on our experience, here are a few tips for trainers and speakers seeking to ensure that their sessions are well received by multi-cultural audiences both at home and abroad. The first should be obvious:

1. Use music,

Music can cross cultural boundaries and linguistic barriers.

2. Always provide a participant profile or learning styles survey for the meeting planner to distribute and collect from participants prior to your session.

Include questions about musical preferences on this survey. Season to Taste: Catering to Diverse Learning Styles from the Spice of the Month Accelerarted Learning ezine describes how to gauge musical and other participant preferences.

3. Let the seminar organizer, client or meeting planner know that you plan to use music during your session. Provide them with direction about obtaining the appropriate license for legal use of music.

Musical Moments: Music for Accelerated Learning goes into detail about how to legally use copyrighted music and how to obtain royalty free music.

4. Create a musical score for your training or presentation and integrate music into various aspects of your sessions.

There are many opportunities for using music during training. Ron Korb's repertoire includes selections for every phase of training, for example:

PURPOSE SELECTION CD

GUIDED IMAGERY Flute Traveller Flute Traveller

BREAKS The Great East Temple Japanese Mysteries

STRECHING Caravan Ron Korb Live

ENERGIZER Genji Ron Korb Live

5. If your audience is conservative, modify the manner in which you use music during your training sessions.

For example, during the early stages of your seminar, confine your use of music to breaks.

Check out Conservative Corner: Accelerated Learning for Analytical Learners in the Spice of the Month Accelerated Learning Ezine for details.

6. Before you play, a selection of music, briefly identify the composer, the artist and the title of the selection.

7. Involve your audience.

Even if it's just a 1 day session, you can give the group a chance to select their favourite selections towards the end of the day. We sometimes give the opportunity to select the music for the next break as a reward for a mildly competitive exercise or trivia questions.

8. Add a personal touch to your training by sharing your own culture with participants through your musical selections.

For example, drawing on my Jamaican heritage, I have reggae breaks. I have taught delegates as far way as Kuching (Malaysian Borneo) to dance. Draw on music from your own cultural heritage, incorporate it into you presentations and seminars and it will help you cross cultures as you travel around the globe.

© 2005 Executive Oasis International - All Rights Reserved

Reprint Rights: Ezine publishers may reprint this article, as long as the following information is included:

- the summary about the author and her company (see below)

- all links are active

- all key words above the links below are included as part of the active link when you publish it on your site

This permission does NOT extend to trainers, speakers or consultants with competitive services or companies that want to place articles on their intranet. Contact us directly for permission.

Anne Thornley-Brown is the President and founder of Executive Oasis International and their sister company The Training Oasis, Inc., accelerated learning and team building experts and publishers of the Spice of the Month Accelerated Learning Ezine. Through a strategic alliance with Kuala Lumpur based FIK International, Anne has toured Asia 7 times and offered seminars to over 1000 executives, managers and HR professionals in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and India. Petronas, Malaysian Airlines, Digi, Mobil/Exxon, and Dell Computers are among the organizations that have sent delegates to her sessions in Asia.

For more accelerated learning tips, check out: Spice of the Month Accelerated Learning Ezine - http://www.thetrainingoasis.com/ezine.html

For More Information about Ron Korb and his music: Ron Korb, Flutist and Composer, Jazz and World Music (Celtic, Latin, Japanese Music) - http://www.ronkorb.com

FIK International, Seminars and Conferences in Asia - http://www.fikintl.com

Whitney Houston's hometown remembers her fondly

NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - The New Hope Baptist Church, where pop star Whitney Houston first sang and family and friends will gather on Saturday to pay her a final tribute, sits in a hardscrabble corner of Newark, New Jersey. Its well-maintained red-brick facade seems at odds with the dusty parking lot and derelict housing projects around it.

But to hear the gospel choir sing on Sundays, which once featured teenager Houston and her mom Cissy, was to be briefly transported to a faraway, trouble-free world, its patrons say.

"You ain't never heard anything so beautiful in your whole life," Adgelean Thomas, 75, said on Friday after looking at some of the flowers, balloons and other tributes left in Houston's memory at one corner of the church.

Houston died late last week at age 48 in a Beverly Hills hotel room on the eve of the music industry's Grammy Awards. She was found underwater and unconscious in the room's bathtub, but a cause of death has yet to be determined pending toxicology tests that could take weeks.

The shocking news of her demise led to an outpouring of grief by family, friends and fans, and earlier this week, her body was returned to Newark from Los Angeles for Saturday's memorial service and burial.

Stephannie Miller, 54, was a little older than Houston when she first joined the New Hope choir as a teenager, but she knew from the start her own voice could not compete with Houston, who would go on to claim pop superstar status with hits such as "I Will Always Love You."

Miller said that, on special occasions, Charles Thomas, then the church's pastor, would ask Houston to lead the choir in one of his favorite songs: "He Would Not Come Down From the Cross."

"She would do the solo," recalled Miller, who now lives in South Carolina. "Every time she hit that special note the church would be knocked out, the spirit was so heavy, so strong."

POLITE, DOWN-TO-EARTH KID

Besides her exceptional voice and looks that would earn her teenage modeling gigs in New York City, Houston was remembered as a polite, down-to-earth kid.

"She was not a teenager that hung out. She was very conservative," Miller said, adding that the Houston family was fairly low-key and private.

The old, Houston family home is situated in East Orange, New Jersey, a quiet suburb outside Newark that became a magnet for a wave of middle-class families, including the Houstons, who left the city in the wake of 1967's six-day riots.

The white clapboard house is one of the smaller properties along the street, with a small front yard and no sign that its most celebrated resident ever lived there.

"It was a good city then, the cleanest city in the country," said William Nicholas, who has worked at a diner only a short walk from the Houston home for more than 50 years. He said the Houston family frequently ate there during the 1970s and 1980s.

"It was always a neighborhood that was family oriented and very safe," Diamond Walker, 37, said outside Houston's old elementary school, now a performing arts school known as the Whitney E. Houston Academy, a short walk down a tree-lined street past neat clapboard houses and handsome stone churches.

Although Walker was a neighbor of Houston for awhile, they only met after she was cast as a dancer for one of Houston's music videos. She went on to perform with Houston on several other occasions, she said.

"She was very down to earth," Walker said about Houston. "If she slept in a hotel, she made sure her dancers slept in the same hotel she was in. She made sure everyone was fed. She never made herself seem separate."

The Houstons left their East Orange home in 1986, according to Lewis Hogans, whose family moved into the property afterward and has lived there since.

Not long before that, Williams, Houston's former choir-mate, recalls watching television and seeing the debut music video from a then young, unknown singer.

"Oh my god," she remembers screaming out to her husband, "that's Whitney!"

(Reporting By Bob Tourtellotte)

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Whitney Houston's hometown remembers her fondly

NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - The New Hope Baptist Church, where pop star Whitney Houston first sang and family and friends will gather on Saturday to pay her a final tribute, sits in a hardscrabble corner of Newark, New Jersey. Its well-maintained red-brick facade seems at odds with the dusty parking lot and derelict housing projects around it.

But to hear the gospel choir sing on Sundays, which once featured teenager Houston and her mom Cissy, was to be briefly transported to a faraway, trouble-free world, its patrons say.

"You ain't never heard anything so beautiful in your whole life," Adgelean Thomas, 75, said on Friday after looking at some of the flowers, balloons and other tributes left in Houston's memory at one corner of the church.

Houston died late last week at age 48 in a Beverly Hills hotel room on the eve of the music industry's Grammy Awards. She was found underwater and unconscious in the room's bathtub, but a cause of death has yet to be determined pending toxicology tests that could take weeks.

The shocking news of her demise led to an outpouring of grief by family, friends and fans, and earlier this week, her body was returned to Newark from Los Angeles for Saturday's memorial service and burial.

Stephannie Miller, 54, was a little older than Houston when she first joined the New Hope choir as a teenager, but she knew from the start her own voice could not compete with Houston, who would go on to claim pop superstar status with hits such as "I Will Always Love You."

Miller said that, on special occasions, Charles Thomas, then the church's pastor, would ask Houston to lead the choir in one of his favorite songs: "He Would Not Come Down From the Cross."

"She would do the solo," recalled Miller, who now lives in South Carolina. "Every time she hit that special note the church would be knocked out, the spirit was so heavy, so strong."

POLITE, DOWN-TO-EARTH KID

Besides her exceptional voice and looks that would earn her teenage modeling gigs in New York City, Houston was remembered as a polite, down-to-earth kid.

"She was not a teenager that hung out. She was very conservative," Miller said, adding that the Houston family was fairly low-key and private.

The old, Houston family home is situated in East Orange, New Jersey, a quiet suburb outside Newark that became a magnet for a wave of middle-class families, including the Houstons, who left the city in the wake of 1967's six-day riots.

The white clapboard house is one of the smaller properties along the street, with a small front yard and no sign that its most celebrated resident ever lived there.

"It was a good city then, the cleanest city in the country," said William Nicholas, who has worked at a diner only a short walk from the Houston home for more than 50 years. He said the Houston family frequently ate there during the 1970s and 1980s.

"It was always a neighborhood that was family oriented and very safe," Diamond Walker, 37, said outside Houston's old elementary school, now a performing arts school known as the Whitney E. Houston Academy, a short walk down a tree-lined street past neat clapboard houses and handsome stone churches.

Although Walker was a neighbor of Houston for awhile, they only met after she was cast as a dancer for one of Houston's music videos. She went on to perform with Houston on several other occasions, she said.

"She was very down to earth," Walker said about Houston. "If she slept in a hotel, she made sure her dancers slept in the same hotel she was in. She made sure everyone was fed. She never made herself seem separate."

The Houstons left their East Orange home in 1986, according to Lewis Hogans, whose family moved into the property afterward and has lived there since.

Not long before that, Williams, Houston's former choir-mate, recalls watching television and seeing the debut music video from a then young, unknown singer.

"Oh my god," she remembers screaming out to her husband, "that's Whitney!"

(Reporting By Bob Tourtellotte)

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Whitney Houston open casket photo on tabloid cover

Billed as Hollywood's biggest night, the Academy Awards telecast was also TV's biggest show last week, helping crown ABC as overall prime-time winner.

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Whitney Houston songs race up music charts

LOS ANGELES/LONDON (Reuters) - Late singer Whitney Houston's re-entered music charts on Wednesday with a greatest hits album that raced into the top 10 of the U.S. Billboard 200, selling 101,000 copies in just 24 hours after the singer's sudden death this past weekend.

"Whitney: The Greatest Hits," which includes songs such as "Saving All My Love for You" and "My Love is Your Love," hit No. 6 on the album chart, selling 91,000 digital copies and 10,000 physical copies, based on Nielsen SoundScan sales weekly data that is finalized on Sunday evening.

Houston, 48, died on Saturday in a Beverly Hills hotel on the eve of the Grammy Awards. Her body was discovered underwater in her room's bathtub, and while speculation has centered on a possible overdose given her past problems with drinking and drugs, authorities have yet to determine a cause of death.

"There's certainly going to be a resurgence in Whitney music. We'll hear it on the radio a lot and that will lead to people listening to it on (online music streaming application) Spotify and downloading it on iTunes," said Bill Werde, editorial director of music publication Billboard, to Reuters.

Dramatic sales also followed the deaths of Michael Jackson in Los Angeles and Amy Winehouse in London. According to music magazine Billboard, more than 35 million Jackson albums were sold worldwide after he died in June 2009.

"It's sad when people discover an artist this way, but it is what happens when an artist dies," said Werde.

As fans of Houston rushed to rediscover the singer's music, single digital track sales of the artist's music rose to more than 887,000 song downloads in 24 hours.

The biggest selling digital song was Houston's signature ballad "I Will Always Love You" with more than 195,000 copies downloaded, fueled by Jennifer Hudson's emotional rendition of the song in tribute to Houston at Sunday's Grammy awards.

The song also was played more than 2100 times on U.S. terrestrial radio stations between Saturday and Sunday.

In the U.K., five of Houston's songs made it into the Top 40 by Wednesday, led by "I Will Always Love You" at No. 10. Since midnight on Saturday, 82,000 Houston singles and more than 37,000 albums had been sold in Britain by mid-week.

Britain's Official Charts Company reported a total of 27 Houston tracks were in the Top 200 as fans snapped up her music after her death on Saturday.

Earlier this week Houston's record label Sony Music Entertainment apologized after a price hike "mistake" on two of the singer's albums on iTunes just hours after her death. The price increase occurred on the UK iTunes, where Houston's "The Ultimate Collection" album jumped from 4.99 GBP to 7.99 GBP.

"Whitney Houston product was mistakenly mispriced on the UK iTunes store on Sunday," said a statement issued by Sony to the New York Times. "When discovered, the mistake was immediately corrected. We apologize for any offense caused."

The sales surge in Houston's music is likely to continue through the week, ahead of the singer's funeral on Saturday.

Her greatest hits compilation may knock Adele's "21" from the top spot on the Billboard 200 album chart next week, after the British singer, who swept the Grammys on Sunday with six awards, notched her 20th week at No. 1 on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White and Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Bob Tourtellotte)

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Whitney Houston's clothes, earrings up for auction

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Whitney Houston has barely been dead a week, and already several of her belongings -- including a pair of earrings and a vest that she wore in the 1992 movie "The Bodyguard" -- will go on the auction block next month.

The items, which celebrity auctioneer Darren Julien obtained following the singer's February 11 death, will be included in the Hollywood Legends auction, which will be held at Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills on March 31 and April 1.

Also among the Houston items that will go on the auction block: Several dresses, including a floor-length, black velvet dress owned by the singer and valued at $1,000-$2,000. (The vest and faux-pearl earrings that Houston wore in her breakthrough film "The Bodyguard" are valued at $400-600 and $600-$800, respectively.

The Hollywood Legends auction will also include memorabilia such as Charlie Chaplin's cane, the jacket that Clark Gable wore in "Gone With the Wind," and the staff that Charlton Heston used in the 1956 epic "The Ten Commandments."

Houston died at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills on February 11, prior to Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammys party. The singer was found submerged in her bathtub by a member of her personal staff, and emergency responders were unable to revive her. Houston was 48.

The singer was buried in at the Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, N.J. -- next to her father, who died in 2003 -- on Sunday. On Saturday, an invitation-only funeral service for Houston at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, N.J. -- which Houston attended and sang at as a child -- included tributes from Kevin Costner, Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, Houston's producer Clive Davis and others.

A cause of death has not yet been announced, pending the results of a toxicology test.

(Editing By Zorianna Kit)

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Whitney Houston laid to rest in New Jersey

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Whitney Houston was laid to rest on Sunday in a private burial before family and close friends near her birthplace in Newark, New Jersey, more than a week after her sudden death shocked the world.

The pop star, whose powerful voice fueled her rise to fame in the mid-1980s with self-titled albums that made her a global pop star, died in a Beverly Hills hotel room last week. She was found underwater in a bathtub, but an exact cause of death has yet to be determined.

Dozens of fans lined the edge of street barriers as the procession carrying Houston's body drove by under tight security from a funeral home in Newark, New Jersey to the Forest Lawn cemetery in nearby Westfield where Houston's body was buried next to her father.

"It was emotional," Teresa Giannetta, 35, who lives in Westfield and showed up with her daughter, Julia, 8, said after the hearse went by. Like many fans, Giannetta said she grew up listening to Houston's music and likened the singer to "the voice of my childhood."

"It's bittersweet to have her buried so close to home for us," she said.

Houston was laid to rest in her burial site after stars, family and friends mourned her in a spirited Baptist funeral service at her hometown church on Saturday. The New Hope Baptist Church in Newark was where Houston honed her wide vocal range as a young choral singer with her mother Cissy Houston, a backup singer for Aretha Franklin.

She recorded stirring love songs and vibrant dance tunes during a 30-year career that peaked with her 1992 signature hit "I Will Always Love You" and paved the way for a generation of singers such as Mariah Carey.

But Houston suffered a turbulent personal life and volatile marriage to singer Bobby Brown, and she admitted to heavy use of cocaine, marijuana, alcohol and prescription pills. Officials have said prescription drugs were found in the hotel room where she died, but they have not yet linked her death to drug use.

"People judge her for the last few years. You cannot do that. She gave 30 years of her wonderful, beautiful voice and shared with us. And you have to love that. You have to respect that," said Donna Wesolowki, 48, of New Jersey, who had watched Sunday's procession.

Houston's family decided against a public memorial service, as was done for pop star Michael Jackson after his 2009 death, but agreed to allow Saturday's four-hour tribute in the church to be broadcast live by television networks.

(Additional reporting By Christine Kearney; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Michael Rapaport picks favorite music docs

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Michael Rapaport clearly loves music. It's evident in every moment of his documentary, "Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest," the actor's directing debut about the influential hip-hop group. The film includes the rift that divided the Tribe as well as the tensions that linger today, but a deep admiration for the music itself shines through.

So with the Grammy Awards on Sunday, where "Beats, Rhymes & Life" is nominated for best long form music video, we asked Rapaport to take over the Five Most space to pick his favorite music documentaries. (The film, which came out theatrically last summer, also won top documentary honors from the Producers Guild of America this year.) But since he's so enthusiastic — and was so nice to join us this week — we let him pick six, in order of preference and in his own words:

— "Gimme Shelter" (1970): The Rolling Stones in their prime. Directed by the Maysles Brothers, this is musically incredible. You get to see the Stones being rock stars that don't exist anymore, and just as important, you see them as vulnerable and as stunned as the audience who witness the shocking events at the overbooked and underplanned Northern California concert that goes really, really wrong. Look for the cameo by a Hells Angels dude wearing a wolf mask.

— "Soul Power" (2008): The concert film that was the backdrop for Muhammad Ali's "Rumble in the Jungle" against George Foreman. James Brown, Bill Withers, The Spinners and many more perform in the African heat. The sweat pouring off everybody involved should've gotten its own listing in the credit sequence. Ali is so excited when all of the musicians are listed, he's enjoying the show as much as the fans are. I really can't push or recommend this film harder. It's my favorite straight-up concert film.

— "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" (2002): I wasn't a fan nor had I ever heard of Wilco before watching this film and I love it. The cinematography — shot in black-and-white film by director Sam Jones, who's best-known as a photographer — is so lush and so beautiful, you can literally watch this film on mute and you will enjoy it. The real-time story and conflict that takes place between Wilco and the record label and themselves was a big inspiration in making my film "Beats, Rhymes & Life." Watching the construction of their album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" right before your eyes will make any viewer a fan of the band.

— "Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser" (1988): This is my favorite jazz film. Watching Thelonious Monk spin around on stage in the opening performance is a scene I will always remember seeing for the first time. Every moment of this film is shot in deep black and white and jazzy color. Thelonious Monk has so much style and is such a unique personality. Hearing his son walk you through his dad's mental breakdown is devastating at times. Watching Monk in the studio recording take after take live is like eating the best sushi meal of your life. And I have a secret to reveal: I'd bet my house that Monk's funky and at times hard-to-understand dialect was the inspiration for Benecio Del Toro's character in "The Usual Suspects."

— "Style Wars" (1984): This may not be considered a straight music doc, but for me it's the ultimate hip-hop film. It's shot in the 1970s in NYC and articulates all four elements of hip-hop: MCing, DJing, graffiti and B-Boying during the culture's youth, straight from the Boogie Down Bronx. Everything about this film is perfect and it also inspired me on "Beats, Rhymes & Life" as it takes on a real-time story line while walking you through the history of hip-hop during its purest time.

— "Buena Vista Social Club" (1999): This is a beautiful film about Ry Cooder's making of the album. He rediscovers and actually forms a crew of 50-, 60- and some 70-year-old Cuban jazz artists and they made the Grammy Award-winning classic album. Watching these artists go from complete obscurity to performing in New York City at Carnegie Hall to this day reminds me to always be humble and never take any success for granted.

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Think of any other examples? Share them with AP Movie Critic Christy Lemire through Twitter: http://twitter.com/christylemire.

And share them with Michael Rapaport through Twitter: https://twitter.com/(hash)!/MichaelRapaport

"Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest" on Twitter: https://twitter.com/(hash)!/ATCQmovie

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How low can you go? Record label launches bass hunt

LONDON (Reuters) - The Decca music label is looking for a singer who can go where no other singer is believed to have gone before -- a low "E," which is nearly three octaves below a middle "C" on the piano.

Paul Mealor, the composer behind the surprise British Christmas chart hit "Wherever You Are" sung by The Military Wives choir, has written a composition called "De Profundis (Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.)"

It features a low E which is six semitones lower than the "B Flat" from Rachmaninov's "Vespers."

"My setting of De Profundis calls for a rich and powerful voice; a voice that can not only touch the heart with its sincerity and truth, but also make every fabric of the human body resonate as it plunges into the very lowest parts of the vocal spectrum," Mealor said in a statement.

The search for the bass will be conducted through trade magazines on the Internet.

According to Guinness World Records, the lowest known note produced by a human voice is a low "F Sharp" achieved by American Roger Menees in 2010.

Singers have been invited to send in demo tapes or upload recordings of their voice to the website www.howlowwillyougo.com.

Voices will be judged by Mealor and Grammy-award nominated producer Anna Barry, an authority on Russian choral and vocal music which is one of the composer's main inspirations.

The record is set for international release in the spring.

Mealor rose to prominence after being selected to compose new music for the 2011 royal wedding of Britain's Prince William to Kate Middleton, now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge -- one of the biggest public events in recent years.

This is his first choral work since then.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Country music disappears from Grammy spotlight

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Lady Antebellum landed an unexpected knockout of Eminem and took the night with five Grammys last year, including record and song of the year for "Need You Now." Taylor Swift and Zac Brown Band broke through in the general categories the year before.

Yet this year only one country nominee made the cut in the prestigious all-genre categories: new artist entry The Band Perry.

Some might suggest a country snub, but Jason Aldean, a first-time nominee who's up for three awards, including country album of the year, doesn't see this year's deficit as out of the ordinary. That the focus is on the likes of Adele, Bruno Mars and Rihanna is not surprising to him, even though he and Swift had two of the year's top-selling albums.

"All those artists are great and having a killer year, so it's hard to argue with what they're doing," Aldean said. "But I think it's something country music has fought for years and years. I don't think it's anything new. I don't think at least from my perspective it's something that I'd be shocked about. It's the way it always is. It's not going to change. It's just how it goes."

Aldean proves himself an astute student of country music history with that statement. The genre's ascendance in the last half of the last decade at the Grammys is an aberration, a statistical oddity based on the overwhelming crossover success of a handful of songs and artists who dominated pop music at the time of their wins.

Mainstream country has scored just 13 general-category trophies since the first Grammys in 1958. Just three of those came before 2000.

Lady A's win in the record of the year category in 2010 was just the second by a country artist. The Dixie Chicks, fresh from the band's excommunication by country radio after remarks about President George W. Bush, won three general category awards at the 2007 Grammys.

Aldean notes all those winners have something in common: crossover success. Especially Swift and Lady A.

"(Swift) was just as big in the pop world as she was in the country world," Aldean said. "That was just one of those you can't really deny. As an awards show you almost look stupid if she's not there. And I think Lady A last year, without a doubt they had one of the biggest songs, if not the biggest song, of the year. ... They had a huge year, a huge record. It's kind of hard to deny that."

Members of Lady A, up for country album of the year, said it didn't really matter in what categories their nominations fell. Hillary Scott, Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley are just happy to be back and able to spend time with good friends like Aldean, country song of the year nominee Dave Barnes, Eric Church and others.

"We'd be lying if we said we wouldn't be disappointed after such an incredible year there last year if we didn't get invited back to the party," Kelley said.

"It's fun to be able to support our friends in the industry, as well," Scott said. "There are a lot of our really close friends in the business who will be there that we can celebrate with and just enjoy the night."

Gary LeVox, lead singer for Rascal Flatts, thinks that's the right attitude to have. Rascal Flatts landed one of those coveted all-genre song of the year nominations for "Bless the Broken Road," but over time he's learned not to take it too seriously. It's in no way an exact science, after all.

"I know some Grammy voters that are actually friends of mine that only listen to country music, but they vote on categories in the rock world," LeVox said. "They don't know anything about the rock world and they'll tell you, 'I don't know. I've just heard of Maroon 5 so I just voted for that.' And those are my friends. I think some of that happens."

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AP writer Caitlin R. King in Nashville contributed to this report.

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Online:

http://www.grammy.com

___

For the latest country music news from The Associated Press, follow: http://www.twitter.com/AP_Country.

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Got protest? Music mogul Simmons mad over milk

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Music mogul Russell Simmons wants New York's governor to pull the plug on milk from cows.

The hip-hop impresario writes in a letter to Andrew Cuomo (KWOH'-moh) that milk should no longer be the state's official beverage.

Simmons, a vegan who has taken on several animal rights causes with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, says milk from cows is less healthy than milk from rice, almonds or soy.

He tells The Associated Press he knows dairy is big business in New York but says other industries could spring up in its place.

Simmons and Cuomo go way back. They're both from Queens, and they worked together a decade ago to help soften New York's strict drug laws.

Cuomo spokesman Matt Wing said the governor's office would not comment.

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Newcomers and returns that can lead to surprises of Grammy

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Adele may be a bet sure to clean up at the Grammy Awards on Sunday, but if music fans think that it means a night of few surprises, they should ask Justin Bieber.

Canadian teen idol leaves the Grammys altogether last year after losing the best new artist award to jazz bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding - the first jazz artist to win the coveted prize.

New artist of the Sunday race is also diverse and may have even dropping jaws, but this will not be the only show in the largest exhibition of price of the music industry that will attract the attention of millions of fans watching on television.

Singer Adele gives his first major performance since throat surgery. Katy Perry appears in a key event for the first time since its split with ex-husband, Russell Brand, and then, there are R & B singers - and former lovers - Chris Brown and Rihanna, which is both to.

Still, among the races, the new artist category present among the most fascinating game of the night candidate. Rappers, Nicki Minaj and j. Cole, The Band Perry country music group, rock band Bon Iver and producer of dance electronica Skrillex are competing for the title in a category that is often the most difficult to predict.

Minaj, 29 years old, is the most successful commercial law in five after his No.1 "Pink Friday" album, and a sign of popularity, it appears the largest TV scene in the world at half-time show of Super Bowl week last with Madonna.

But surprise entries for Bon Iver and disc jockey Skrillex - first dance electronica act to get a blink of eye in the revelation category - were torn apart by the experts.

"Last year, Grammy voters pulled a fast one," said Bill Werde, publishing Director of music for Billboard magazine.

"Everyone expects the name of Justin Bieber was called and they announced the name of Esperanza Spalding.". "If the jaw - its great it will be if Skrillex walked on stage to accept the price of the best new not Nicki Minaj, that I think that many people would say is the front runner," said Werde.

Skrillex, 24, has an impressive head of total five Grammy nods this year, including two for his album of dance "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites".

Good Iver, by Justin Vernon, has four nominations, including two in the categories folder and the song of the year for "Holocene".

And not rely on The Band Perry - three brothers and sisters, whose single "if I Die Young" was a cross-over hit the country and pop radio last year and helped win the trio eight awards for various groups of country music.

"Everyone thinks Nicki Minaj has a good chance of winning or j. Cole or The Band Perry, but rap is still very well at the Grammys," said Lyndsey Parker, editor of Yahoo! Music.

Minaj has also three other shots at home take a Grammy Sunday, including best performance rap for his song "Moment 4 Life" with Drake

A NIGHT OF FIRST

Grammy show performances can make or break an artist, and several big names are returns of sorts on Sunday.

Adele, 23, for six awards, will perform live in public in his first major performance since undergoing surgery for throat in November 2011.

Katy Perry, which has used excerpts from his marriage for his work on the 2011 Grammys, is in the show Sunday with two nods for its unique success "Firework". But it is likely to make the headlines for his first big public release since her English actor husband that Russell Brand filed for divorce in December.

"I think that loan of Katy to go out and show everyone, she is not a victim and that it runs on the show," said Bonnie McKee, songwriter of hits of Perry "California Gurls", "Teenage Dream" and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F)."

"Of course, it must be recognized (the divorce), but it with a wink and a smile." "The show must go on," said McKee.

Emblematic of the 1960s Group The Beach Boys will use the Grammy spotlight to their first show for more than 20 years before a new album and tour later this year.

And rocker Bruce Springsteen will take the stage with his E Street Band for the first time without saxophonist Clarence "Big Man" Clemons, died of a stroke last June.

The greatest return can be to rapper Chris Brown, whose career was derailed about three years earlier on the night before the Grammys, after he was arrested for beating his companion, Rihanna.

Brown has spent recent years since the incident of 2009 to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of fans and times, with three nods Grammy and Rihanna, who has four, will perform on Sunday evening, although on the separate steps.

"There certainly poorly his career during this weekend of Grammy." "There is always talk about his redemption... but I do not think it has repaired enough," said Parker.

Rihanna, appointed to the coveted album of the year honor for "Loud", will perform with Coldplay on the main stage, while Brown joins Foo Fighters, David Guetta, Deadmau5 and Lil Wayne in a dance music special on a stage outside the room of the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

"The Grammys know that would get an interest...".I would hate (Brown and Rihanna) emphasis on the Grammys on other artists, but it is going to get much attention, said Parker.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant)

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Review: Paul McCartney "Kisses" a Valentine's day treat

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - it is a new album of Diana Krall, even if it has Paul McCartney song and his name on the cover. It is a good thing. All rights, it is a highly reductive way of describing McCartney fine new album of old standards, "Kisses on the bottom."

But it is clear that Macca gives lot of creative control to Krall, played the piano on each track, except one, which is credited for rhythm arrangements and his producer of long date Tommy LiPuma, not to mention frequent collaborators of Krall as orchestrator Johnny Mandel.

Funny that, 20 years after its last major collaboration with a major pop artist, Elvis Costello - a successful but short-lived situation where you felt perhaps mutual stubbornness eventually received their - it could be taken with Mrs. Costello and apparently McCartney surrender himself to his artistic sensitivity.

It is almost to say that McCartney has no deep knowledge where the affinity for the pre-rock retro represented here, written by Frank Loesser, Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. It is said that he wanted to do an album melodies of his family types to sing around the Christmas period in days of pre-Elvis pre-fab. And, perhaps, he felt sufficient time has now elapsed since Ringo Starr had the same idea with his first solo album, "Sentimental Journey", in 1970. (Okay, probably not really a matter of concern.)

As painful as standards of Rod Stewart albums, how much is pleasant to McCartney. He is not speaking in a language completely, foreign, on the one hand, and to the choice of song was not chosen by the kind of standards for commercial optimization of mannequins that Stewart used at every turn exhausting obvious. And if you know Krall and LiPuma, you know that arrangements not fighting anyone on the head more are the song selections.

About half of the songs are performed jazz quartet-style, or something close, and about half add orchestration of to sentence Mark Mandel. Intolerant syrup does need step fear: a light touch prevails throughout. That applies to McCartney song, too, which is surprisingly retained - residents too, sometimes.

A young Macca have perhaps added many frills "l dooby", but it sounds as if he felt so much deference to the serious jazzbos side (which also include guitarists John and Bucky Pizzarelli and bassist Christian McBride) that he felt the need to retain freshness. Even on a song like "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the" Positive, which naturally lends itself to a bit of embellishment vocal twee, singer fairly straight plays.

There is certainly lively, however, from the opening "" I will sit right and write me a letter "-a song had it been organized differently, could also have gone on s McCartney other album covers, the focusing on rockabilly"Run Devil Run", since it bridged the era of rock Elvis Presley Sun Sessions." in the "

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Dierks Bentley new album brings country fans "Home"

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) - If the single "Home" is the cornerstone of Dierks Bentley's latest album of the same name, then the song "Thinking of You" is the CD's hearth because the fire within it warms both body and soul.

Bentley wrote the song for his 3-year-old daughter, Evie, who sings on the track of the new album that went on sale on Tuesday.

"I'm not someone to put their kid on their album," Bentley, the father of two daughters, told Reuters in an interview. "I got this email on my birthday when I was out on the road and it was Evie singing that song back to me. It just about broke my heart. It was the best and worst birthday present ever.

"It's so real and honest and I just couldn't take it off the track once I heard it. You know in country music there are sad songs about drinking and love gone wrong but there's another whole level of sad when you're missing your daughter. That's a whole range of emotion there I'd never felt before."

The 36-year-old Bentley's passion shows through whether he is singing about his daughter or a relationship ready to leap to the next level, or delivering fun-loving tunes like the new album's first single, "Am I The Only One?"

The singer's ninth album follows his highly successful offering "Up on the Ridge" that landed Bentley three Grammy nominations last year, including for Best Country Album. All told, Bentley has had eight No. 1 singles, including "Feel That Fire" and "Sideways."

He said "Up on the Ridge" gave him a chance to stretch out.

"My fans allowed me to experiment and do things a little different, and I still think the record opened the landscape creatively for me," Bentley said.

"With 'Home' I was trying to make a country record that was really representative of me, what I do in country music that is unique. There are certain things I'm known for, like the party songs and the fun songs, and there are songs on this record that are in the same vein, like 'Tip it on Back' and 'Come a Little Closer.' Then there is new ground for me, like 'Thinking of You' and 'When You Gonna Come Around.'"

The lyrics on the title tune can be interpreted in many ways, which is what the Arizona-born singer wanted.

COMING HOME

"Home for me can be coming back to Nashville after I've been on the road. But for soldiers it's seeing that shore for the first time after a year or more in a foreign country," he said.

"People who hear it will interpret it according to what is going on in their life at the moment. Some of the most touching stories I hear are from the soldiers who come up to me and talk about what it's like to be flying back to the States and seeing that piece of land for the first time."

Written with Dan Wilson and Brett Beavers, Bentley gave substantial credit to his co-writers.

As Bentley tells it, the three were working on a lyric when he was called away by his wife asking for help starting her car. When he returned, Wilson and Beavers had stopped working on the other song and come up with a melody for the verse of "Home," intending it to be about America or a place everyone calls home.

"When I'm on tour and hanging out with people I see that there is a lot more in common among us than we might think. So we thought we could write a song about that and that it might be a really interesting take on a patriotic song," Bentley said.

The album's first single, "Am I The Only One," about a guy ready to head out on a Friday night who cannot find any of his buddies to party with him, might be more typical for Bentley. But his duet with Karen Fairchild of the band Little Big Town on "When You Gonna Come Around," broke new ground.

The sexy tune pairs Bentley's rough edge with Fairchild's sultry vocals to convey the message that this is a relationship ready for the next step.

"I love Karen's voice," Bentley said. "Little Big Town is one of the most talented bands out there today. I saw her at a party in Nashville and asked if she'd come sing on this song and she said yes. A couple days later she came in and it turned out perfect."

Bentley is touring in the United States, then embarks on tours of Canada in late February and Australia in March. He resumes his "Country & Cold Cans" tour at Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre on April 13.

(Reporting By Vernell Hackett; Editing by Andrew Stern and Bob Tourtellotte)

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Rep says Lana Del Rey did not have a tour to postpone

LOS ANGELES, Feb 7 (TheWrap.com) - Lana Del Rey has not postponed her spring tour -- because she didn't even have one planned, says a representative for the "Video Games" singer.

The rep shot down a New York Post report that said the singer had postponed a 30-date tour due to the overwhelmingly negative reaction to her performance on "Saturday Night Live" last month.

There was never any tour in place to cancel or delay, spokesman Matt Hanks told TheWrap.

"Lana told MTV several weeks ago that she plans to tour in October," Hanks said. "There has never been a spring tour announced or cancelled."

Del Rey will continue to perform in support of her recently released album "Born to Die," he added.

The singer, who appeared on "Late Show With David Letterman" late last week, will appear at Amoeba Records in Los Angeles on Tuesday, and at the San Francisco Amoeba store on Thursday. The representative adds that Del Rey has "been extremely active in Europe" in promoting the album.

Citing sources, the Post claimed that Del Rey and her manager had pulled the plug on the road jaunt after her much-maligned "SNL" appearance, and decided to push the dates back in order to let the furor over her performance die down.

Del Rey's performance of her single "Video Games" on "SNL" drew widespread derision, with everyone from actresses Juliette Lewis and Eliza Dushku to NBC news anchor Brian Williams slamming her appearance. Many thought the performance was a skit by "SNL" player Kristen Wiig. (It wasn't, but Wiig spoofed the singer during a segment on "SNL"'s Weekend Update on Saturday.)

Del Rey defended herself in a subsequent interview with Rolling Stone, telling the magazine, "I actually felt good about it. I thought I looked beautiful and sang fine."

(Editing By Zorianna Kit)

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Adele beats 7 new albums to keep top spot on chart

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - British singer Adele stood her ground atop the Billboard album chart with "21" on Wednesday despite seven new entries vying for No. 1 this week, including stiff competition from country music singer Tim McGraw.

"21," which has sold more than 6 million copies in the United States since its release in February 2011, notched its 18th week in the top spot of the Billboard 200 chart.

Adele, who has been resting her voice after vocal cord surgery last November, said she will be making her live comeback at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on February 12.

Country music star McGraw's 11th studio album, "Emotional Traffic" debuted at No. 2, scoring the singer his 14th top 10 album in the Billboard 200 chart and 13th No. 1 in the Billboard Country Albums chart.

New albums from rock band "Lamb of God," singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson, "American Idol" alumnus Kellie Pickler, Christian music singer Kari Jobe and soul singer Seal dotted the top 10, along with the "2012 Grammy Nominees" and "Kidz Bop 21" compilation and Drake's "Take Care."

After a couple of weeks in early January that saw low unit sales figures, the chart was rejuvenated this week across the top 10. Still, "21" was the only album to cross the 100,000 copies mark, partially driven by a re-issued deluxe edition released last week in Target retail stores.

Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You") took the top spot on the Digital Songs chart, followed by Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain" holding steady at No. 2 and last week's chart-topper, David Guetta's "Turn Me On" featuring Nicki Minaj, falling to No. 3 this week.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Jamie Lynn Spears Talks Country Music Career & Hurtful Teen Pregnancy Press: 'I Did The Best I Could'

The unexpected pregnancy of Jamie Lynn Spears shocked fans of the then-16-year-old Nickelodeon star in 2007.

Now almost 21, Jamie is speaking out about her struggles as a teen mom and the painful press that came along with her very public pregnancy.

PLAY IT NOW: Dish Of Salt: Bristol Palin Talks Teen Pregnancy & Guest Starring On ‘The Secret Life Of The American Teenager’

"I had to make a decision that I could sleep with every night. I did feel responsible for the young girls and the mothers who I probably confused and let down. I apologize for that," Jamie told Glamour magazine in an interview for their latest issue, of deciding to keep her baby. "But I wasn't trying to glamorize teen pregnancy. I hated when [the tabloids] said that. Everybody is dealt a hand of cards. It was my choice to play them the way I played them. But the hateful comments hurt."

Jamie, who split from daughter Maddie's father Casey Aldridge in 2010, said watching the tabloids having a heyday with sister Britney Spears' tribulations made her decide to move out of Los Angeles to escape stressful scrutiny.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Jamie Lynn Spears

"I just wanted to get away from it as much as I could, to just go away and be a mom and figure out what I wanted, and to earn a sense of respect back for myself," she told the mag. "Move to a town in the middle of nowhere and just raise my child. All I could be was a good mother. If anybody had anything to say after that, there was nothing I could do."

Jamie also opened up about the difficulties of being a teen mom.

"There were so many times -- especially when Maddie would get sick -- when I would cry to myself and think, 'I really don't know what to do,'" she said. "It takes bravery to be a young mom, and it does take bravery to let the world watch."

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Former Child Stars

Now an aspiring country singer, Jamie Lynn resides in Nashville, Tenn., with Maddie, 3, and finds music a helpful outlet to express everything she's gone through in the last five years.

"I was a kid who did a kid show. Then I went away and raised my child, and the world has never met me as an adult," she said. "This is the first time anybody is really meeting me as a grown woman and grown mother making a decision about what to do with my life... My music will speak for itself."

VIEW THE PHOTOS: A Look Back: Britney Spears’ Early Years

For the full interview with Jamie Lynn, head over to Glamour.

Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Grammys to feature first dance music segment

Grammy show producer Ken Ehrlich had considered putting dancing/electronica music into the ceremony in the past, but could never quite figure out how to incorporate the high-energy club feel in front of a sometimes staid audience.

He thinks he's figured it out this year. For the first time, the Grammy show will put the spotlight on the genre with a segment featuring Grammy nominees Deadmau5, the Foo Fighters, Chris Brown, David Guetta and Lil Wayne, all performing in a tent space amid 1,000 fans.

"We decided to go all out this year," Ehrlich said of the performance taking place outside the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where Sunday's ceremony will be held. "All we're going to try and do next week is to try and put the home audience in the middle of it. ... It is more than just sitting there and watching it."

Dance music did not receive its own category until 2003 with the best dance recording/dance field, and the music had not been featured with its own segment in the show.

"I don't know that I figured out a way to do it that felt right until now," Ehrlich said in an interview Monday. "My feeling about dance is it's such an immersive experience for the participant, that to put it on stage ... where the audience is not a part of it ... I don't know, honestly, until we came up with the idea of doing it this way, I don't know if it ever would have worked."

Ehrlich calls the performance the "most ambitious number that we've ever done outside the Staples Center." It will feature at least four cameras from audience level as Deadmau5 (pronounced dead mouse) and the Foo Fighters perform his remixed version of the band's song "Rope," which netted him one of his Grammy nominations, and as Brown and Lil Wayne perform with Guetta.

Ehrlich said the performance reflects the popularity of dance music over the past few years.

"As much as a recorded medium that it is, and the fact that it's selling a lot of CDs and downloads, it's really a live experience," he said. "It is more than just sitting there and watching it."

Other performers on the show include Adele, Bruce Springsteen, Chris Brown, Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift for what Ehrlich boasted would be a "pretty amazing show."

"What I try and do when we're building this show is to think about the audience first. ... What can I do that's going to keep an audience for 3 1/2 hours watching the Grammy Awards?" he said. "I do try and look for how broad I can make it and still assume that people are going to tune in and stay with it."

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Online:

http://www.grammy.com

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Nekesa Mumbi Moody, the AP's music writer, reported from New York. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi.

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