Wednesday, February 29, 2012

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)


View the original article here

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)


View the original article here

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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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

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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Monday, February 20, 2012

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.

___

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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Sunday, February 19, 2012

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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Saturday, February 18, 2012

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


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The Fray display "Scars" with confidence on new album

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Of all the people impacted over the years by the lovable Muppets -- singing frog Kermit, sassy Miss Piggy and their friends -- perhaps the most unlikely is rock band, The Fray.

Following the success of their second album, 2009's self-titled "The Fray," the four members were on the verge of breaking up. Then, lead singer/pianist Isaac Slade and bassist Joe King were put together in one room in Las Vegas to record a cover of the classic Muppets song "Mahna Mahna" for the "Muppets: The Green Album" record released in August 2011.

"Something happened between the Muppets, the drunkenness and Las Vegas, and Joe and I maybe both remembered at the same time that we actually enjoy doing this," Slade told Reuters.

With the release of their third album, "Scars and Stories" on Tuesday, The Fray have finally moved past their internal differences and found new confidence that allowed them to lay bare their emotional wounds with pride.

The band -- comprised of Slade, King, guitarist Dave Welsh and drummer Ben Wysocki -- don't put on flashy concerts or wear elaborate costumes. They simply play music and sing lyrics with heart, and those songs have earned them fans worldwide.

"I don't have Lady Gaga's persona, I don't have Bono's sunglasses, I'm a bald 30-year-old man standing on stage singing songs about my life and I'm starting to be comfortable with that," said Slade.

The Denver, Colorado band shot to fame with their debut album "How to Save a Life" in 2005, earning two Grammy nominations for hit singles "Over My Head (Cable Car)" and "How to Save a Life," which are examples of The Fray's trademark piano-driven ballads of melancholia fused with hope.

Their self-titled 2009 album met with similar success and earned the group two more Grammy nominations, but with fame came internal pressures and friction that threatened their longevity.

"All four of us were on our own trajectories and radically different places in regular life," said Slade.

HEALED WOUNDS, NEW MUSIC

With a little help from the perpetually upbeat Muppets, the band rediscovered the reasons they were together and went to work on "Scars and Stories," a record Slade described as "extroverted" when compared to the first two "introverted and introspective" albums.

"The second record was wounds, they were still bleeding," he explained. "With scars, they're permanent and they often remind us of the worst times of our life, but they're healed."

Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, "Scars and Stories" features The Fray's piano-rock ballads but adds new energy and hints of Southern rock. The band worked with Grammy-winning music producer Brendan O'Brien to create a sound as close as possible to the band's live shows.

The lead single, "Heartbeat," is an uptempo ode to love, with Slade belting lyrics such as "You gotta love somebody, love them all the same." Themes of loss, hope and freedom underlie tracks such as "48 To Go," a diary of a California roadtrip.

The single "Run For Your Life" holds the most significance for Slade, who said the album was incomplete without it.

"We had most of the record done but it felt like we had one song missing," said Slade about "Run For Your Life." "It feels different from the other songs, it feels really fresh, it feels like the song the record needed."

Whether the fans flock to the third album awaits weekly sales data, but Slade said critical and commercial validation is no longer a pressing concern for the band.

"I would love for everybody to connect to these songs as much as we do, but I don't need their response. I know this is the best record we've made and if we get smaller after this and fade off into our 40s and 50s, that's fine, because I know this is a real record and it's who we are," said Slade.

And he added that each song brings its own special reward. "How to Save a Life," for one, has become an anthem for some fans. On a recent tour stop in Chicago, Slade said one told him their music stopped her from killing herself and saved her life.

"I know what we do is real and it matters. Hearing that girl tell me her story was my paycheck," said Slade.

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


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Kanye West plans d'un film dans le golfe Persique

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Kanye West takes his talents to the Middle East.

According to a report by the New York Observer, rapper multi-platine - named for seven awards at the upcoming Grammy Awards ceremony - speaks with three different municipalities Arab to use in his next film-slash-music video.

The nominees lucky are Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha, the Qatar, whose West will choose to use its geographic muse.

There is a year and a half the native of Chicago conducted a short 35-minute film entitled "Runaway", based on the songs from his latest album, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy." This film is similar in its ambitions, which, as always, are grandiose. Afraid that you forget, the last time with a half woman, half-phoenix.

However, the locale - Persian Gulf - is quite a transition from the background of wooded "Runaway."

West elected would have this region because he fell in love with her during a visit last year and he wanted to flex her creative muscles of thousands of kilometres from home.

The linguist enigmatic and producer always seems to look for the next great challenge, if it was his auto-Tune would be album "" Heartbreak and Heartbreak "or the recent artistic-turned-altruistic project granted for hours on Twitter."

After having already won several Grammy Awards, staged impressive performances, recorded and part on tour with Jay - Z and on, why not add filmmaker and Ambassador of the United States recovery?

How flakes of the West and bravado glam will play in the Persian Gulf? We will notify you as soon as its representatives get in touch.

(Editing by Chris Michaud)


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Country star Merle Haggard repeat again after illness

(Reuters) - legend of music Country Merle Haggard is repeated with his group of long date, The Strangers, and prepares to return to the road after having been ousted by a bout of pneumonia and other conditions.

Haggard, 74, was hospitalized on 17 January, after illness requires him to cancel a show in times of just the Georgia before taking the stage. Doctors treating for double pneumonia in a hospital in Macon more later discovered a number of other conditions.

"I feel good and ready to go back on the bus," Haggard said Wednesday in a statement released by his publicist based in Los Angeles Tresa Redburn.

"Thanks to all for their powerful prayers that led to my speedy recovery." "I am repeats with the Group and look forward to Playin'TV ' and sing again," said Haggard.

His first show will be February 28 at the Fox Theatre in Tucson, Arizona. The dates of January he had to postpone his illness will be composed in April, Redburn said.

Even after physicians had his thinning pneumonia, singer remained in the hospital for several days to recover after eight polyps were removed from his colon and for the treatment of ulcers of the stomach and diverticulitis in his esophagus, which all have been discovered by the medical staff of Macon, three said Redburn.

Upon his release, Haggard credited Macon medical team for probably saving my life."

Known for songs such as "Mama tried", "Okie from Muskogee" and "the Fightine side of Me, the members of the Country Music Hall of Fame was released from the hospital in Macon on 26 January and stole home in Northern California to continue convalescence.".

With influences ranging from Lefty Frizzell to Bob Wills to Jimmie Rodgers, Haggard is an architect of so-called "Bakersfield Sound." country music

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston)


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Shines Spotlight on Adele Grammy

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - the Grammy Awards in recent years have targeted young audiences even though the former acts won the key to the surprise of some music fans, but the honours of Sunday shines its spotlight on Adele, whose popularity crosses all age limits.

Singer British soulful, whose album "21" resulted in massive hits such as "Rolling in the deep" and topped the charts for 19 weeks, entering great price of the industry of music with six nominations, second only to rapper Kanye West with seven.

But all the ears will be settled to Adele, 23, who is scheduled to give a Grammy performance which is his first since undergoing surgery of the gorge towards the end of last year. And everyone, young and old, wants to know if the interpreter of top-sale of 2011 has recovered.

"My eight year old Adele daughter sings songs and 75-year-old grandmother my friend sings Adele songs," said Nic Harcourt, former host of KCRW, who is among those to British singer on the map of U.S. music.

Voice of Adele is a breath of fresh air in 2011 for an industry struggling. "21" album sold more copies in a year than any other Act since "Confessions" Usher in 2004. Total current U.S. sales is about 6.3 million copies.

Over the past years, the Grammys have often seen relative newcomers top categories such as album of the year faced the veteran acts, only to see the older artists to win, shocking the industry focused on youth. Herbie Hancock 2007 jazz album, "River: The Joni letters," was one of the surprises of the latter.

This will not happen at the ceremony on Sunday in Los Angeles. Competition for the album of the year are Adele with "21", Lady Gaga for "Born This Way," Rihanna with "Loud", Bruno March for "Doo-Wops & Hooligans" and the Foo Fighters for "Wasting Light."

Indeed, many of the major categories are dominated by young stars of pop as Adele, Gaga, Katy Perry and Rihanna. Traditional rockers are in large part, with the exception of legend, Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen, who are both set to perform at the show on Sunday in Los Angeles.

ADELE, WITHOUT MAKING POP

But in an ironic twist, Adele won celebrity precisely because it involves as many groups of spectators with its expressive ballads such as "Someone like you" as the sound as a survival in an industry dominated by electronic music.

"She had a little substance more and is not just a pop confectionery.". "With a classical sound, Grammy veteran voters are supporting her, while it also reaches young people, no problem", said Bob Merlis, President of the advertising of the MFH.

Adele singles were played on several radio formats, helping to sell albums for consumers more older as well as younger fans who tend to buy music online.

David Bakula, senior vice president, analytic Nielsen Entertainment Adele "exceeded the limits of a simple pop artist, which involves a host of younger, more focused on the singles." said Katy Perry is a good example of a star which sells tons of singles, but not tons of albums. ?

In addition, seven nods Kanye West of the Crown back critical and commercial for the controversial 34-year old rapper who made a voluntary break to perform in 2009.

West has recorded its best competitor of rap "My beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" album in Hawaii after withdrawing from the scene of public music following severe criticism on his 2009 explosion involving country starlet Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Already a 14-time Grammy winner, it is named for the song of the year for "all of the Lights" and best performance rap with Jay - Z for "Otis".

The best new artist category reflects an eclectic mix of artists, the rapper Nicki Minaj and rapper j. Cole, to the sensations of countries The Band Perry, House and artist electropop Skrillex and American folk group Bon Iver.

Singer of "Rhinestone Cowboy" Glen Campbell, 75, currently on a

farewell tour after having announced it early stage of Alzheimer's disease, will receive a lifetime achievement award, and will perform with The Band Perry and Blake Shelton.

Other performers will include veteran crooner Tony Bennett, who is appointed for his Duet "Body and soul" with the late Amy Winehouse - Alicia Keys, Taylor Swift, Coldplay, Jason Aldean, Kelly Clarkson and Chris Brown.

Bonnie Raitt happens after "Finally" singer Etta James, who died in January at the age of 73 years, and rapper and actor of "NCIS: Los Angeles" LL Cool J will be the first official host of the ceremony of the Grammy Awards in seven years.

The winners are determined by some 13,000 members of the Recording Academy, but only a handful of trophies in 78 categories is distributed on the dissemination of the live on Sunday.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant and Bob Tourtellotte)


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Friday, February 17, 2012

Madonna: Super Bowl show a "dream" come true

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Pop superstar Madonna said it was a dream come true to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday and conceded she was feeling pressure at the idea of singing in front of the huge live television audience.

Last year's Super Bowl attracted 111 million U.S. viewers - the largest for a single TV broadcast in the United States.

"This is a Midwesterner girl's dream to be performing at the Super Bowl halftime show," said Madonna, who was born in Bay City, Michigan.

"In over 25 years of performing that I've done, I have never worked so hard or been so scrupulous or detail-oriented or freaked out as much as I have ... trying to make the most major show at this Super Bowl," she added.

Asked if she felt the pressure of the massive audience, Madonna, who has performed at stadiums around the world on her global tours, replied simply "Yes, I do."

Madonna, whose biggest global live TV performance was likely Live Aid in 1985, said she would sing three "old songs" and her new single "Give Me All Your Luvin'" during the show.

The 53-year-old Material Girl said she would dedicate her performance to her father.

"I was raised in the Midwest, and he is the personification of Midwestern values, he gave me the work ethic that I have, so if I am a hardworking girl who never stops it's because of him.

"Also, I am sure of all the things I have ever done in my life this will be the thing he is most excited about," she said.

The halftime show has increasingly featured high-profile pop acts, a far cry from the first Super Bowl in 1967 when college marching bands entertained the crowd.

Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, U2, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, The Black Eyed Peas and Janet Jackson are among recent performers.

Jackson's appearance in 2004 was the most controversial as she made headlines worldwide with her infamous "wardrobe malfunction." Justin Timberlake, who was performing with Jackson, grabbed her costume and tugged at it, exposing her breast's nipple to millions of TV viewers.

Madonna said all efforts had been made to ensure there would not be a similar episode in her show.

"Great attention to detail has been paid to my wardrobe, there will be no wardrobe malfunction - I promise," she said.

Asked which quarterback she would choose if both called her for a date on Saturday night, the entertainer picked the New York Giants' Eli Manning over the New England Patriots' Tom Brady. Why Eli? Because of the New York connection, she said.

A question about Victor Cruz, the salsa-dancing wide receiver from the New York Giants, got her doing some salsa moves for reporters who packed the room. "He's inspired me," she said.

(Reporting by Susan Guyett and Simon Evans; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Bob Tourtellotte)


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Lana Del Rey has last laugh with high first Billboard

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - after weeks of media hype and ridicule, singer of Lana Del Rey had the last laugh Wednesday marking the debut more high of the week on the Billboard 200 album chart with his new record "Born To Die".

New York native Del Rey, who had Internet buzz especially after a volatile performance on sketch show "Saturday Night Live" U.S. last month, sold 76,000 copies of his album in its first week.

It was second only to the British singer Adele, who continues his reign for the week of 19 to no. 1 with "21."

In the wake of Del Rey a veteran singer Leonard Cohen, who has sold 41,000 copies of his 12th studio album, "Old ideas", a collection of songs recalling some prior and works the best-known Cohen as "Hallelujah".

Del Rey and new high entries of Cohen, they could not take first place Adele. It sold 121,000 copies of "21" in the week of his official return from throat surgery at the ceremony of the Grammy Awards Sunday.

The only other new entry in the top ten albums was singer of gospel, Fred Hammond, who have entered in table no. 8 with "God, love & Romance", while the party rockers LMFAO returned in the ranking with "Sorry for party rocking" at number 9 and ""Talk that Talk"Rihanna has jumped to the card to complete the top 10."

Battle of graph of next week will be seen if veteran rockers Van Halen can fall Adele first place with their new album, "A different kind of truth."

(Reports of Piya Sinha-Roy;) (Editing by Jill Serjeant)


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Madonna dazzles with slick Super Bowl halftime show

(Reuters) - Pop superstar Madonna dazzled football fans and more than 100 million television viewers on Sunday when she performed during a glittery, spectacular Super Bowl halftime show.

Madonna, the first female Super Bowl halftime headliner since the notorious Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" of 2004, was carried, Cleopatra-style, into Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Stadium by a cadre of muscled gladiators.

Wearing Egyptian regalia, complete with headdress, and spiked black boots, the pop superstar launched into her seminal hit "Vogue," with lighting and other visual effects contributed by the Canadian performing troupe Cirque du Soleil.

Next came "Music," which included LMFAO, followed by a cheerleader-themed "Give Me All Your Luvin'," from Madonna's latest CD. Madonna was joined by Nicky Minaj and M.I.A., with the latter preferring a fleeting obscene one-fingered gesture on-camera.

In a nod to the sport whose fans she was entertaining, the Material Girl performed much of her act on, or in front of, bleachers, with high school marching bands and drumlines augmenting the show, which lasted about 10 minutes.

After a mini-medley of her hits "Open Your Heart" and "Express Yourself," Madonna closed her act decked out in a Gospel-goth black gown, performing "Like a Prayer" with Cee Lo Green before dropping out of sight in a puff of smoke.

Madonna was not the only pop superstar to grace the high-profile Super Bowl on Sunday, one of U.S. television's most-watched programs: Kelly Clarkson performed the national anthem.

Last year's Super Bowl attracted 111 million U.S. viewers, the largest for a single TV broadcast in the United States.

The halftime show has increasingly featured high-profile pop acts, a far cry from the first Super Bowl in 1967 when college marching bands entertained the crowd.

Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, U2, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, The Black Eyed Peas and Janet Jackson have been among recent performers.

Jackson's 2004 appearance made headlines worldwide with her infamous "wardrobe malfunction," during which fellow performer Justin Timberlake tugged at her costume, exposing her nipple to millions of TV viewers.

Madonna had promised that all efforts were being made to ensure her show would not be marked by a similar episode.

"Great attention to detail has been paid to my wardrobe. There will be no wardrobe malfunction - I promise," she said.

Madonna, who was born in Bay City, Michigan, told reporters last week her appearance was "a Midwesterner girl's dream, to be performing at the Super Bowl halftime show."

"In over 25 years of performing that I've done, I have never worked so hard or been so scrupulous or detail-oriented or freaked out as much as I have."

(Editing by Stacey Joyce)


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Why Music Education Is Changing


I believe that music education as we know it is changing profoundly. The change has already begun, and it is already causing bewilderment and frustration for a great many music teachers. But it is also creating tremendous new opportunities for thousands of music teachers and students who are enjoying their work more than ever. In this article I will try to explain what I think is happening, and give you some ideas about how to position yourself to enjoy these changes rather than become a victim of them.

You might wonder if I am talking about changes related to the Internet, computers or music software. But this change has nothing to do with technology. It has to do with the needs and desires of today's music student, which are almost entirely different from the needs that our music education system was designed to satisfy. To understand what I mean by this, we need to go all the way back to the European origins of our most basic ideas about what it means to "teach music."

For centuries the primary goal of classical music education was to produce orchestra performers capable of reading a piece of sheet music and correctly playing the composer's ideas. This is no small task. It requires both a formidable control over one's instrument and also a very high level of skill at reading complicated musical phrases on a written page. It also requires great sensitivity and expressive power, since without these the music would sound dull and lifeless.

This curious breed of musician unites several personality traits that are highly contradictory. He must have the precision control of a world-class athlete in order to execute the very fine motor skills involved in playing his instrument. But he must also have the extreme mental agility required to read and instantly decipher impossibly complex rhythms coded into symbols on a page. He must be sensitive enough to feel and express the beauty in every line that he plays, but he must be detached enough to play whatever music is handed to him without complaining.

This is the context in which our music education system evolved. The goal was to produce a kind of super-performing robot-person that could play any piece of music on demand and make it sound heavenly. The "customer" of this process was what we might generalize as the "wealthy audience" who wanted to be entertained. Music conservatories prepared young music students to entertain and delight wealthy audiences with their skills, so that they might earn a professional salary.

This "old paradigm" of music study is defined by a very clear set of attitudes. Musicians play for others. A musician's purpose is to delight audiences and impress other musicians. His success can be measured by the number of gigs he gets, the salary he earns and also the respect and fame he enjoys among other musicians. And every one of these attitudes is so thoroughly ingrained in our culture that we continue to teach music this way today even though it no longer makes any sense whatsoever.

The new paradigm: musician as person

Our entire world has changed. For the vast majority of young music students, earning a salary is the farthest thing from their minds. Today's music student is not a humble employee hoping to sell his services to wealthy audiences for money. People study music today because they want to fill a void in their lives. They are drawn to music by its beauty and by its promise of self-discovery through creative expression.

In other words, the "wealthy audience" is no longer the customer of our music education system. There is a new customer in town, and that customer is the student himself (and, wonderfully, more and more often it is the student herself.) Today's music students are thinking, feeling human beings who want to grow, to create and to experience life for themselves. To put it simply, we are moving away from the old paradigm of "musician as performer" toward a new paradigm of "musician as person."

In the old paradigm of musician as performer, the dominant theme was competition. People made a great deal of fuss over which children seemed to show "musical talent" and which ones didn't. If music didn't come especially easy to a child, then there was no point in making the investment in music lessons. And if a child did show potential, he would immediately begin a military-style course of study to develop this ability into something that society would value. Musical ability, in this paradigm, is essentially a commodity to be sold on the open market. If there were no audience, there would be no reason to study music at all.

And to be sure, there are still people today living in the old paradigm. They live in a world of perfectionism, competition and hostility. When they play music, they are incapable of noticing anything but their own technical defects. When they listen to the music of others, they are busy evaluating the technical performance instead of receiving the beauty. They are generally angry people. Angry that there are not enough gigs, not enough students, not enough love and respect for all their hard work.

But there is a new generation of young people who are discovering the thrill of playing music for themselves. They are discovering that there is a paradise to which music can transport them. They don't particularly care whether they play well or badly, because they have found something more interesting than their ego. They have found the bliss of being lost in a moment, meditating on a sound, a note, a musical phrase, a gesture of the hands. It is this experience that has captivated them, and what they want from music education is to deepen this experience. These are the students of the new paradigm.

It's easy to tell whether a person's thinking is rooted in the old paradigm or the new one. Take a look at some "old paradigm" questions. Have you heard any of these lately?

- Does my child have "musical talent?"

- Are my students playing at the appropriate level?

- Can I still learn music at my age?

- How can I get my students to practice more?

- Am I a good violinist?

Now look at these "new paradigm" questions, and notice how the person asking the question is coming from a completely different place:

- Would practicing music enrich my child's life?

- Are my students growing and becoming stronger people?

- Would I like to discover music at my age?

- How can I help my students to make the most of their lives?

- Am I allowing myself to enjoy the violin fully?

For the uninitiated, this new paradigm thinking seems to turn music into a self-indulgent hobby. If there is no spirit of competition or comparison with others, then how will we preserve values like discipline, hard work and the quest for excellence?

But that is a question that we will have to leave for another article, because I think there are many interesting things that we could say about it. For now, just let me assure you that this new paradigm has nothing to do with laziness or lack of seriousness on the part of the student. When young people discover the magic of music, they can easily practice so many hours that they run the risk of injury. What we need to understand and embrace is what motivates today's music student.

How you can thrive in the new paradigm

Right now, millions of young people are genuinely excited about learning music as an opportunity for enjoyment and personal growth. They see music as a way to "develop their creative side" and to connect with a part of themselves that they can only access through the arts. They expect their music teachers to empower them to write their own songs, to improvise freely and to express their musical imagination.

For many music teachers, this itself can be a cause for worry because many times we haven't the slightest idea how to help our students achieve these goals. For most of us, our own musical training was rooted in the old paradigm of reading sheet music, mastering our instrument and occasionally memorizing some abstract rules about music theory. So how are we supposed to help our students achieve a creative freedom that we ourselves have never tasted?

But don't worry. There's no reason to panic. Your students don't expect you to be perfect or to know everything. It's perfectly fine for both teacher and student to have a question about something, and to seek the answer together. Most students just want to feel that their teacher listens to them, respects them and sincerely wants to help them achieve their goals. You have many, many gifts that are tremendously valuable to your students. You just need to think about how to reframe your wisdom in terms that relate to the student's enrichment as a person, rather than trying to simply teach musical ability for its own sake, detached from any spiritual relevance.

And you can also take advantage of this moment to expand your own horizons, both as a music teacher and as a person. There are many excellent resources available today that make it easier than ever to deepen your own understanding of music. My own course in musical improvisation is open to absolutely everyone and you can find it at http://www.ImproviseForReal.com. But there are plenty of other books, videos, online courses and private instructors out there that can help you to discover and enjoy the creative arts of composition and improvisation. These experiences can be fun, thrilling and deeply satisfying. And they will also help you as a teacher, because they will give you the resources to help your students to realize their own dreams.




I personally believe that we are witnessing all around us the birth of a new musical culture that is here to stay, perhaps for centuries. Musical ability for its own sake is losing its power to attract and motivate students. More and more, we will see music students interested primarily in their own liberation as human beings. In my opinion this is a beautiful evolution, and it is a very exciting time to be a music teacher.

David Reed is the author of "Improvise for Real" and the founder of http://www.ImproviseForReal.com, the world's first online music school dedicated exclusively to the art of musical improvisation.




Lady Gaga gets in biz social media with Web site

LOS ANGELES, February 9 (TheWrap.com) - Lady Gaga: singer. Singer-songwriter. Pioneer in costume meat. General curiosity. And now, the tycoon of the social media in training.

"Born This Way" singer has launched a new site of social media, LittleMonsters.com, for fans to meet, share information and, no doubt, "rave" on the iluminada is Gaga. (The site is his nickname, the nickname that the singer gave his fans).

The site is currently in beta and version available to members on an invitation only basis. However, some early reports, including that of CNN, assimilate the site to Pinterest mobile app, which allows users to "pin" sites and points of interest.

Matt Michelsen, CEO and cofounder bottom of basket, which created LittleMonsters .com - told Mashable that LittleMonsters.com will be "nite around interests, affinities and movements of people."

"Backplane is to bring together communities and community of Gaga precisely to the community that we use to learn more about proper functionality," added the Michelsen. "We believe that we can really change the world."

The "Judas" belter - born Stefani Germanotta, is already a huge presence in the world of social media, with 19 million followers of Twitter and more than a billion YouTube views.

It remains to be seen if she will appreciate this popularity even as a site owner, but it you have many opportunities to promote his new business on the road: the singer announced Wednesday that it begins a new tour, dubbed the born this way ball, beginning April 27. The tour will start at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea and spreads around the world in 2013.

(Editing by Zorianna Kit)


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Madonna says she never planned "Wild" performance at Super Bowl

LOS ANGELES, Feb 5 (TheWrap.com) - Sorry, Joe Francis; Madonna won't give you a chance to rake in a Super Bowl payday.

On Friday, David R. Houston, attorney for "Girls Gone Wild" mogul Francis, sent Madonna a letter threatening legal action if she performs her new song of the same name at the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday. The letter was obtained by TMZ.

Houston told the singer, "our misappropriation of my clients' trademark will not be tolerated" and accused her of trying to take a "free ride" on "the valuable consumer goodwill and brand recognition of my clients' trademark." ("Girls Gone Wild?" Goodwill?)

Noting that Francis is "ready and willing to pursue legal action," Houston is demanding that Madonna "negotiate an immediate licensing agreement for use of the Trademark" and pay Francis' attorney's fees in the matter.

Oh, and he also insisted that the Material Mom promise not to "perform or market the song at the Super Bowl this Sunday."

As it turns out, Francis could have given his lawyer the day off, because Madge doesn't plan to perform the song -- and never did.

"The song will not be performed at Super Bowl halftime show," Madonna's publicist told TheWrap. "It was never a possibility. She has confirmed she will be performing her new single and three of her gems from the past."

Her new single, "Give Me All Your Luvin'," was released Friday.

"Girls Gone Wild" is on Madonna's upcoming album "MDNA," which is scheduled for a March 26 release but went on presale at iTunes on Friday.

In the letter, Houston said that his "research" indicated that Madonna would be performing the song at the Super Bowl.

Perhaps now Francis can get back to what he really should be outraged about in Madonna's halftime show -- the singer's vow that there won't be any wardrobe malfunctions this year.


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