Portal:Record production

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The Record Production Portal

Noted audio engineer Roger Nichols at a vintage Neve recording console

P:RECORD

This portal is focused on music production within the era of written records through sound recordings, digital downloads, and beyond. Its scope includes articles that document the considerations and mechanisms used by, and consistent with, the purview of the production element. As an art form, music predates transcription and simultaneously transcends descriptive limitations. As an industry, music has demonstrated consistent viability over time. The record producer conjoins these potential, and serves as a broker to bridge the demand (spawned by their aspirations) with supply and satisfaction. The results are measurable and attributable, derived from effort and skillful application of craft, to a manifestation of the art in its melodic form. (Read more)

The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, represent and supply music creators. Among the many individuals and organizations that operate in the industry are: the songwriters and composers who write songs and musical compositions; the singers, musicians, conductors, and bandleaders who perform the music; the record labels, music publishers, recording studios, music producers, audio engineers, retail and digital music stores, and performance rights organizations who create and sell recorded music and sheet music; and the booking agents, promoters, music venues, road crew, and audio engineers who help organize and sell concerts. (Read more)

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Featured articles are displayed here, which represent some of the best content on English Wikipedia.

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Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (/boʊlt/; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was a British conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was conductor of the City of Birmingham Orchestra in 1924. When the British Broadcasting Corporation appointed him director of music in 1930, he established the BBC Symphony Orchestra and became its chief conductor. The orchestra set standards of excellence that were rivalled in Britain only by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), founded two years later.

Forced to leave the BBC in 1950 on reaching retirement age, Boult became principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The orchestra had declined from its peak of the 1930s, but under his guidance its fortunes were revived. He retired as its chief conductor in 1957, and later accepted the post of president. Although in the latter part of his career he worked with several other orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and his former orchestra, the BBC Symphony, it was the LPO with which he was primarily associated, conducting it in concerts and recordings until 1978, in what was widely called his "Indian summer". (Full article...)
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"Déjà Vu" is a song by American singer-songwriter Beyoncé, featuring rapper Jay-Z. It was produced by Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, 808-Ray and Beyoncé for her second solo album, B'Day (2006). "Déjà Vu" is an R&B song, which incorporates elements of 1970s funk and soul music. Its music is largely based on live instrumentation, including bass guitar, hi-hat and horns, except the Roland TR-808 drum machine, which is a non-live instrument. The song's title and lyrics refer to a woman being constantly reminded of a past lover.

"Déjà Vu" was released as the album's lead single to US radio stations on June 24, 2006. The song received generally mixed critical reviews. Many critics noted the similarities of "Déjà Vu" with Beyoncé's own 2003 song "Crazy in Love". Critics commended the assertiveness and the sensuality with which Beyoncé sings the lyrics and compared her vocal delivery to that of Tina Turner in the late 1980s. "Déjà Vu" and its Freemasons club remix version received three nominations at the 2007 Grammy Awards. It was recognized as the Best Song of 2006 at the Music of Black Origin (MOBO) Awards. (Full article...)
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Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced short, fast-paced songs with hard-edged melodies and singing styles with stripped-down instrumentation. Lyricism in punk typically revolves around anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian themes. Punk embraces a DIY ethic; many bands self-produce recordings and distribute them through independent labels.

The term "punk rock" was previously used by American rock critics in the early 1970s to describe the mid-1960s garage bands. Certain late 1960s and early 1970s Detroit acts, such as MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges, and other bands from elsewhere created out-of-the-mainstream music that became highly influential on what was to come. Glam rock in the UK and the New York Dolls from New York have also been cited as key influences. Between 1974 and 1976, when the genre that became known as punk was developing, prominent acts included Television, Patti Smith, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and the Ramones in New York City; the Saints in Brisbane; the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and the Damned in London, and the Buzzcocks in Manchester. By late 1976, punk had become a major cultural phenomenon in the UK. It gave rise to a punk subculture that expressed youthful rebellion through distinctive styles of clothing, such as T-shirts with deliberately offensive graphics, leather jackets, studded or spiked bands and jewelry, safety pins, and bondage and S&M clothes. (Full article...)
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Mayer performing in 2019

John Clayton Mayer (/ˈmeɪ.ər/ MAY-ər; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but he left for Atlanta in 1997 with fellow guitarist Clay Cook, with whom he formed the short-lived rock duo Lo-Fi Masters. After their split, Mayer continued to play at local clubs, refining his skills and gaining a minor following. He performed at the 2000 South by Southwest festival, and was subsequently signed by Aware Records, an imprint of Columbia Records through which he released his debut extended play (EP), Inside Wants Out (1999). His first two studio albums—Room for Squares (2001) and Heavier Things (2003)—were both met with critical and commercial success; the former spawned the single "Your Body Is a Wonderland", which won Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards, while the latter peaked atop the Billboard 200.

By 2005, Mayer had moved away from the acoustic music that characterized his early records, and further delved into the blues and rock music which had originally influenced him. Forming the John Mayer Trio, he released the live album Try! (2005) and his third studio album, Continuum (2006). Both were met with positive critical reception, while the latter was nominated for Album of the Year, and won both Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for its single "Waiting on the World to Change" at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards. It was followed by Battle Studies (2009), which marked his return to pop. (Full article...)
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The Symphony No. 3, Op. 36, also known as the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (Polish: Symfonia pieśni żałosnych), is a symphony in three movements composed by Henryk Górecki in Katowice, Poland, between October and December 1976. The work is indicative of the transition between Górecki's earlier dissonant style and his later more tonal style and "represented a stylistic breakthrough: austerely plaintive, emotionally direct and steeped in medieval modes". It was premièred on 4 April 1977, at the Royan International Festival, with Stefania Woytowicz as soprano and Ernest Bour as conductor.

A solo soprano sings Polish texts in each of the three movements. The first is a 15th-century Polish lament of Mary, mother of Jesus; the second a message written on the wall of a Gestapo cell during World War II; and the third a Silesian folk song of a mother searching for her son killed by the Germans in the Silesian uprisings. The first and third movements are written from the perspective of a parent who has lost a child, and the second movement from that of a child separated from a parent. The dominant themes of the symphony are motherhood, despair and suffering. (Full article...)
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Atticus Ross (left) and Trent Reznor (right) performing in October 2018

Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN, stylized as NIИ, is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent collaborator, Atticus Ross. Reznor was previously the only permanent member of the band until Reznor made Ross an official member in 2016. The band's debut album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989), was released via TVT Records. After disagreeing with TVT about how to promote the album, the band signed with Interscope Records and released the EP Broken (1992). The following albums, The Downward Spiral (1994) and The Fragile (1999), were released to critical acclaim and commercial success.

Following a hiatus, Nine Inch Nails resumed touring in 2005 and released its fourth album With Teeth (2005). Following the release of the next album Year Zero (2007), the band left Interscope after a feud. Nine Inch Nails continued touring and independently released Ghosts I–IV (2008) and The Slip (2008) before a second hiatus. Their eighth album, Hesitation Marks (2013), was followed by a trilogy which consisted of the EPs Not the Actual Events (2016) and Add Violence (2017) and their ninth album Bad Witch (2018). In 2020, Nine Inch Nails simultaneously released two further installments in the Ghosts series: Ghosts V: Together and Ghosts VI: Locusts. The band announced a number of new projects in 2024 through their multimedia company With Teeth. (Full article...)
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"One Tree Hill" is a song by Irish rock band U2 and the ninth track on their 1987 album The Joshua Tree. In March 1988, it was released as the fourth single from the album in New Zealand and Australia, while "In God's Country" was released as the fourth single in North America. "One Tree Hill" charted at number one on the New Zealand Singles Chart and was the country's second-most-successful hit of 1988.

The track was written in memory of Greg Carroll, a New Zealander the band first met in Auckland during the Unforgettable Fire Tour in 1984. He became very close friends with lead singer Bono and later served as a roadie for the group. Carroll was killed in July 1986 in a motorcycle accident in Dublin. After Carroll's tangi (funeral) in New Zealand, Bono wrote the lyrics to "One Tree Hill" in his memory. The lyrics reflect Bono's thoughts at the tangi and during his first night in New Zealand when Carroll took him up Auckland's One Tree Hill. They also pay homage to Chilean singer-songwriter and activist Víctor Jara. Musically, the song was developed in a jam session with producer Brian Eno. The vocals were recorded in a single take, as Bono felt incapable of singing them a second time. (Full article...)
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Backmasking is a recording technique in which a message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward. It is a deliberate process, whereas a message found through phonetic reversal may be unintentional.

Artists have used backmasking for artistic, comedic and satiric effect, on both analogue and digital recordings. It has also been used to censor words or phrases for "clean" releases of explicit songs. (Full article...)
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Segundo Romance (English: Second Romance) is the tenth studio album by Mexican singer Luis Miguel, released on 30 August 1994 through WEA Latina. Like Luis Miguel's 1991 album Romance, Segundo Romance comprises cover versions of boleros (Latin ballads) written between 1934 and 1993. It was produced by Luis Miguel with Juan Carlos Calderón, Kiko Cibrian and Armando Manzanero and recorded in early 1994 at the Record Plant in Los Angeles.

Luis Miguel promoted the album with tours in the United States and Latin America from August to December 1994. Four singles were released: "El Día Que Me Quieras", "La Media Vuelta", "Todo y Nada", and "Delirio". The former two reached the top of the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart in the United States. (Full article...)
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The Ecstatic is the fourth studio album by American rapper Mos Def, released on June 9, 2009, by the independent record label Downtown Records. After venturing further away from hip hop with an acting career and two poorly received albums, Mos Def signed a recording contract with Downtown and recorded The Ecstatic primarily at the Record Plant in Los Angeles. He worked with producers such as Preservation, Mr. Flash, Oh No, and Madlib, with the latter two reusing instrumentals they had produced on Stones Throw Records. The work of Stones Throw rapper MF DOOM was also cited by Mos Def as an influence, while singer Georgia Anne Muldrow, formerly of the record label, performed as one of the album's few guest vocalists, along with rappers Slick Rick and Talib Kweli.

Described by music journalists as a conscious and alternative hip hop record, The Ecstatic features an eccentric, internationalist quality. Mos Def's raps about global politics, love, war, spirituality, and social conditions are informed by the zeitgeist of the late 2000s, Black internationalism, and Pan-Islamic ideas, incorporating many Islamic references throughout the album. Its loosely structured, lightly reverbed songs use unconventional time signatures and samples taken from a variety of international musical styles, including Afrobeat, soul, Eurodance, jazz, reggae, Latin, and Middle Eastern music. Mos Def titled the album after one of his favorite novels, Victor LaValle's The Ecstatic (2002), believing its titular phrase evoked his singular musical vision. For the album's front cover, a still from Charles Burnett's 1978 film Killer of Sheep was reproduced in a red tint. (Full article...)
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No Depression is the first studio album by alternative country band Uncle Tupelo, released in June 1990. After its formation in the late 1980s, Uncle Tupelo recorded the Not Forever, Just for Now demo tape, which received a positive review by the College Media Journal in 1989. The review led to the band's signing with what would become Rockville Records later that year. The album was recorded with producers Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie at Fort Apache Studios, on a budget of US$3,500.

No Depression was critically acclaimed and sold well for an independent release. Selling over 15,000 copies within a year of its release, the album's success inspired the roots music magazine No Depression. The record is considered one of the most important alternative country albums, and its title is often used as a synonym for the alternative country genre after being popularized by No Depression magazine. After regaining the rights to the album through a lawsuit, Uncle Tupelo released a remastered version in 2003 through Legacy Records, expanded to include six bonus tracks. (Full article...)
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Remain in Light is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Talking Heads, released on October 8, 1980, by Sire Records. The band's third and final album to be produced by Brian Eno, Remain in Light was recorded at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas and Sigma Sound Studios in New York in July and August 1980.

After the release of Fear of Music in 1979, Talking Heads and Eno sought to dispel notions of the band as a mere vehicle for frontman and songwriter David Byrne. Drawing influence from Nigerian Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti, they blended African polyrhythms and funk with electronics, recording instrumental tracks as a series of looping grooves. Session musicians included the guitarist Adrian Belew, the singer Nona Hendryx, and the trumpeter Jon Hassell. (Full article...)

More featured articles

Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

... that until the release of the documentary Predator: The Secret Scandal of J-Pop, sexual abuse claims involving record producer Johnny Kitagawa went widely unreported in Japanese media?
... that one critic interpreted a SZA song as being about her fears about the growing influence of AI in the music industry?
... that Light Vessel 95 is now a recording studio?
... that to promote the Buffalo Club, Rising Tide Records sent packages of plastic buffalo to music industry executives in Nashville?
... that when Divine's song "Lately" topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1998, it became the first number-one single for the performers, the songwriters, the producers, and the record labels?
... that according to Billboard magazine, Laufey created a blueprint for jazz music in the modern music industry and helped push it back into the mainstream?

Born this day

Birthdays in Music: December 15

Eddie Palmieri, American arranger and pianist, turns 88.

Cindy Birdsong, American R&B vocalist with The Supremes, turns 85.

Doug Phelps, American lead vocalist for The Kentucky Headhunters, turns 84.

Dave Clark, Brit drummer and vocalist of Dave Clark Five fame, turns 85.

Carmine Appice, American drummer with Vanilla Fudge, turns 78.

Harry Ray, American soul music vocalist with The Moments, turns 78.

Don Johnson, American singer and actor of Miami Vice, turns 75.

Bruce Gertz, American bassist, turns 72.

Paul Simonon, Brit bassist with The Clash, turns 69.

Nick Beggs, Brit bassist with Kajagoogoo, turns 63.

Mark Jansen, Dutch guitarist with Epica, turns 46.

Edele Lynch, Irish songwriter and vocalist of B*Witched fame, turns 45.

Najoua Belyzel, French pop rock and electronic music vocalist, turns 43.

Alina Eremia, Romanian singer, turns 31.

Toshinori Kondo (Record production, 1948–October 17, 2020), Japanese avant-garde jazz-style trumpeter, would have turned 76 this year.

Jerry Wallace (Record production, 1938–May 05, 2008), American singer, would have turned 86 this year.

Dannie Richmond (Record production, 1935 –March 15, 1988), American drummer, would have turned 89 this year.

Curtis Fuller (Record production, 1934–May 08, 2021), American trombonist, would have turned 90 this year.

Barry Harris (Record production, 1929–December 08, 2021), American Bebop pianist, would have turned 95 this year.

Ernest Ashworth (Record production, 1928–March 02, 2009), American country music singer, would have turned 96 this year.

Gene Quill (Record production, 1927 –December 08, 1988), American alto saxophonist, would have turned 97 this year.

Jimmy Nottingham (Record production, 1925 –November 14, 1978), American big band trumpeter, would have turned 99 this year.

Billy Butler (Record production, 1925 –March 20, 1991), American soul-jazz and blues guitarist, would have turned 99 this year.

Alan Freed (Record production, 1922 –January 20, 1965), (a.k.a. Moondog) American DJ, would have turned 102 this year.

Jerome Richardson (Record production, 1920 –June 23, 2000), American multi-instrumentalist, would have turned 104 this year.

Max Yasgur (Record production, 1919 –February 08, 1973), American dairy farmer and host of 1969's Woodstock Festival, would have turned 105 this year.

Buddy Cole (Record production, 1916 –November 05, 1964), American jazz pianist and bandleader, would have turned 108 this year.

Stan Kenton (Record production, 1911 –August 25, 1979), American bandleader and pianist, would have turned 113 this year.

John H. Hammond (Record production, 1910 –July 10, 1987), American music critic and record producer, would have turned 114 this year.

Ed Allen (Record production, 1897 –January 25, 1974), American cornetist, would have turned 127 this year.

List of musical events • Anniversaries • More birthdays...

Selected albums - load new batch

These are all Good articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

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Matangi is the fourth studio album by British recording artist M.I.A. It was released on 1 November 2013 through N.E.E.T. Recordings and Interscope. M.I.A.'s longtime collaborator Switch primarily handled Matangi's production; Hit-Boy, Doc McKinney, Danja, Surkin, and The Partysquad provided additional contributions. The album was recorded in various locations around the world and featured uncredited input from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Its title is a variant of M.I.A.'s real first name and references the Hindu goddess Matangi. The lyrics feature themes related to Hinduism, including reincarnation and karma, and the music blends Western and Eastern styles.

The album was initially scheduled to be released in December 2012 but it was delayed multiple times; in August 2013, M.I.A. threatened to leak the album herself if the label did not finalise a release date. The lead single, "Bad Girls", was released nearly two years before the album. "Bring the Noize", "Come Walk with Me", and "Y.A.L.A." were also made available as singles prior to Matangi's release and "Double Bubble Trouble" and "Sexodus" were released subsequently. (Full article...)
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Graveyard Mountain Home is the third studio album released under the name Chroma Key by American keyboardist Kevin Moore. It was released on November 8, 2004 by InsideOut Music. Moore originally started work on the album in 2003, planning to release a less electronica-influenced album than previous Chroma Key albums, but put it aside to work on the first OSI album. He then moved to Istanbul, Turkey, where he wrote Ghost Book, the soundtrack to the film Okul. Enjoying the experience of writing music to film, Moore scrapped his previous plans for the third Chroma Key album, instead writing an album as an alternate soundtrack to an already-existing film.

Moore found the social guidance film Age 13 in the Prelinger Archives, which served as his main inspiration. He slowed the film down to half its original playback speed to allow a full album to be written around the twenty-five-minute film. With complete creative control over the album, Moore was free to experiment, sometimes writing music "not necessarily to always match the images on the screen, but to sometimes play against it." The deluxe edition of the album contains the film in its full length, played at half speed, with the album as a soundtrack in place of the original audio. (Full article...)
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Doggystyle is the debut studio album by American rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg. It was released on November 23, 1993, by Death Row and Interscope Records. The album was recorded and produced following Snoop Doggy Dogg's appearances on Dr. Dre's debut solo album The Chronic (1992), to which Snoop contributed significantly. The West Coast style in hip-hop that he developed from Dre's first album continued on Doggystyle. Critics have praised Snoop Dogg for the lyrical "realism" that he delivers on the album and for his distinctive vocal flow.

Despite some mixed criticism of the album initially upon its release, Doggystyle earned recognition from many music critics as one of the most significant albums of the 1990s, as well as one of the most important hip-hop albums ever released. Much like The Chronic, the distinctive sounds of Doggystyle helped introduce the hip-hop subgenre of G-funk to a mainstream audience, bringing forward West Coast hip-hop as a dominant force in the early-mid 1990s. (Full article...)
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Join Hands is the second studio album by the English rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, released on 7 September 1979 by Polydor Records. Upon its release, it was praised by the British press, including Melody Maker, Sounds, NME and Record Mirror.

Join Hands took the topic of the First World War as its inspiration. Musically, it is darker than the band's debut album The Scream: it sounds more claustrophobic and more haunting. It was the last album with the band's first recorded line-up, as guitarist John McKay and drummer Kenny Morris quit the group after a disagreement at the beginning of the British Join Hands tour, on the day of the album's release. (Full article...)
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Godflesh is the debut EP by English industrial metal band Godflesh. It was originally released in 1988 through Swordfish Records and later saw several reissues on Earache Records with two additional songs. An unexpected underground success, the eponymous EP made it onto the UK Indie Chart and peaked at position 20. Though not supported by any singles or music videos at the time, a fan-made video for "Avalanche Master Song" has since been made official by the band.

Godflesh was recorded and produced over two months in Birmingham by frontman Justin Broadrick and bassist G. C. Green, both of whom had played together in an early version of the band known as Fall of Because. Despite often being overshadowed by the critical success of Godflesh's first full-length studio album, 1989's Streetcleaner, the EP was one of the first industrial metal releases and helped define the genre's sound with programmed drum beats, heavy metal guitar and unusual emphasis on bass. Its and the band's title strive to reconcile the potentially deep and meaningful impact music has on people with its harsher, more physical side. (Full article...)
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So Wrong, It's Right is the second studio album and major label debut by American rock band All Time Low. Following an unsuccessful showcase for Fueled by Ramen, Hopeless Records signed All Time Low in March 2006. They released an EP, Put Up or Shut Up, through the label in July of that year. After amassing 12 songs by January 2007, the band demoed some of them for Paul Leavitt. The group began recording So Wrong, It's Right in April at SOMD Studios in Beltsville, Maryland with producers Leavitt and Matt Squire. The band wrote five additional songs while in the studio. Following an acoustic tour in June, the band participated in Warped Tour, and "Dear Maria, Count Me In" was made available for streaming. After premiering a music video for "Six Feet Under the Stars", So Wrong, It's Right was released on September 25. The band spent the next three months supporting Boys Like Girls on their US tour.

In early 2008, a music video was released for "Dear Maria, Count Me In", which was followed by an appearance at the Soundwave festival in Australia in February and March. The group participated in the Alternative Press Tour, and appeared at The Bamboozle and Give it a Name festivals, between March and May. "Dear Maria, Count Me In" was released to radio around this time. In July, the band went on a headlining US tour, before taking part in Warped Tour. A deluxe edition of the album followed at the end of July, featuring acoustic versions of songs and music videos. In early August, a music video was premiered for "Poppin' Champagne" on MTV's FNMTV. Later in the month, the band took part in the mtvU Video Music Awards Tour performing at several Six Flags locations, before embarking on a US tour in October and November. "Poppin' Champagne" was released as a single in December featuring two different versions of the track. (Full article...)
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The Video Collection 93:99 is the third music video compilation by American singer-songwriter Madonna. Released by Warner Music Vision, Warner Reprise Video and Warner Bros. Records on November 9, 1999, it contained music videos for singles released between 1993 and 1999. Originally, the collection was titled The Video Collection 92–99, and had included the 1992 video "Erotica", but it was omitted due to its sexually explicit content; instead the 1998 song "The Power of Good-Bye" was added. The videos in the collection were selected personally by Madonna, who felt the 14 videos to be her best work.

After its release, the collection was critically appreciated, with one group of reviewers noting the artistic capabilities of Madonna while the others noting her ability to re-invent her image from one video to another. It reached a peak of eight on Billboard's Top Music Video sales chart. In 2008, was certified platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipment of 100,000 copies across United States. A box set titled The Ultimate Collection was released in 2000, which contained The Video Collection 93:99 and The Immaculate Collection compilations. (Full article...)
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Bang! Pow! Boom! is the eleventh studio album by the American hip hop group Insane Clown Posse. Released on September 1, 2009 by Psychopathic Records, it was the group's second album with producer Mike E. Clark since his return to Psychopathic Records, and the first album to focus on the Dark Carnival since the conclusion of the group's original "Joker's Cards" series. The character is the first of a set of six new Joker's Cards.

The album's title refers to a character within the Dark Carnival described as a large, continuing explosion that clears evil souls from the carnival grounds. Bang! Pow! Boom! peaked at number four in the Billboard Top 200. Critics praised Clark's production and the return to the Dark Carnival concept. In 2010, Psychopathic Records released a "Nuclear Edition" of the album, which featured previously unreleased material. The music video for the song "Miracles", produced for the reissue became popular and was the subject of a Saturday Night Live parody which was praised by the group. It is the group's 26th overall release. (Full article...)
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Yield is the fifth studio album by American rock band Pearl Jam, released on February 3, 1998. Following a short promotional tour for its previous album, No Code (1996), Pearl Jam recorded Yield throughout 1997 at Studio Litho and Studio X in Seattle, Washington. The album was hailed as a return to the band's early, straightforward rock sound, and marked a more collaborative effort from the band as opposed to relying heavily on frontman Eddie Vedder to compose the song lyrics from the past four studio albums.

Yield received positive reviews and debuted at number two on the Billboard 200. While like No Code, the album soon began dropping down the charts, Yield eventually outsold its predecessor. The band did more promotion for the album compared to No Code, including a return to full-scale touring and the release of a music video for the song "Do the Evolution". The record has been certified platinum by the RIAA in the United States. The album is Pearl Jam's last release with drummer Jack Irons, who left the band during the album's promotional tour. He was replaced with Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron. (Full article...)
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Something/Anything? is the third album by American musician Todd Rundgren, released in February 1972. It was Rundgren's first album released under his own name, following two records credited to the quasi-group project Runt, and was also his first double album. It was recorded in late 1971 in Los Angeles, New York City and Bearsville Studios, Woodstock. The album is divided into four sections focused on different stylistic themes; the first three parts were recorded in the studio with Rundgren playing all instruments and singing all vocals in addition to producing. The final quarter contained a number of tracks recorded live in the studio without any overdubs, save for a short snippet of archive recordings from the 1960s.

Rundgren had become confident enough at other instruments beyond his standard guitar and keyboards that he had tackled in earlier releases, and this, coupled with a general dissatisfaction with other studio musicians, led him to temporarily relocate to Los Angeles in an attempt to record an entire album single-handedly. After Rundgren created significantly more material than would fit on a standard LP, an earthquake struck Los Angeles. He decided to head back to New York for some live sessions, with the help of Moogy Klingman, to lighten the mood. The final sessions were in Bearsville, where the remainder of the recording and mixing took place, and this created enough material for a double album. (Full article...)
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Band of Gypsys is a live album by Jimi Hendrix and the first without his original group, the Jimi Hendrix Experience. It was recorded on January 1, 1970, at the Fillmore East in New York City with R&B musicians Billy Cox on bass and Buddy Miles on drums, a grouping frequently referred to as the Band of Gypsys. The album mixes funk and R&B elements with Hendrix's psychedelic rock guitar and wah pedal-based jamming, an approach which later became the basis of funk rock. It contains previously unreleased songs and was the last full-length Hendrix album released before his death six months later.

After his appearance at Woodstock with an interim group that included Cox, Hendrix began developing new songs and recording demos. When Miles became involved, he and Cox agreed to record a live album with Hendrix to be used to settle a contract dispute with a former manager. The new material signaled a new funk-influenced direction for Hendrix featuring more humanistic lyrical themes. The two songs written and sung by Miles bear the stylings of soul music. The anti-riot and anti-war "Machine Gun" draws on Hendrix's earlier blues aspirations, but incorporates new approaches to guitar improvisation and tonal effects. (Full article...)
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Like Crazy is a 2011 American romantic drama film directed by Drake Doremus and starring Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones, and Jennifer Lawrence. Written by Doremus and Ben York Jones, the film tells the story of Anna (Felicity Jones), a British exchange student who falls in love with an American student, Jacob (Anton Yelchin), only to be separated from him when she is denied reentry into the United States after staying in the country longer than her student visa allows.

Doremus based the storyline of the film partly on his own long-distance relationship with a woman living in London while he lived in Los Angeles. Rather than writing a traditional screenplay, he and Ben York Jones compiled a 50-page outline of the film from which the actors improvised almost all of the dialogue. Filming took place over four weeks in Los Angeles and London with a budget of $250,000. (Full article...)

More selected albums

General images - load new batch

The following are images from various record production-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Engineers and producers watch a trumpet player from a window in the control room during a recording session. (from Recording studio)
Image 2Control room at the Tec de Monterrey, Mexico City Campus (from Recording studio)
Image 3Home studio setup (from Recording studio)
Image 4Scully 280 eight-track recorder at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music (from Multitrack recording)
Image 5A selection of instruments at a music studio, including a grand piano (from Recording studio)
Image 6Mixing desk with twenty inputs and eight outputs (from Multitrack recording)
Image 7Neve VR60, a multitrack mixing console. Above the console are a range of studio monitor speakers. (from Recording studio)
Image 8The Siemens Studio for Electronic Music c. 1956. (from Recording studio)
Image 9Hip hop producer and rapper RZA in a music studio with two collaborators. Pictured in the foreground is a synthesizer keyboard and a number of vinyl records; both of these items are key tools that producers and DJs use to create hip hop beats. (from Hip hop production)
Image 10The studio at Ridge Radio in Caterham, England (from Recording studio)
Image 11Donna Summer wearing headphones during a recording session in 1977 (from Recording studio)
Image 12The TEAC 2340, a popular early (1973) home multitrack recorder, four tracks on ¼ inch tape (from Multitrack recording)
Image 13The TASCAM 85 16B analog tape multitrack recorder can record 16 tracks of audio on 1-inch (2.54cm) magnetic tape. Professional analog units of 24 tracks on 2-inch tape were common, with specialty tape heads providing 16 or even 8 tracks on the same tape width, for greater fidelity. (from Multitrack recording)
Image 14Danny Knicely records with Furnace Mountain Band in Virginia (2012) (from Recording studio)
Image 15Korg D888 eight-track digital recorder (from Multitrack recording)
Image 16Digital audio interface for the Pro Tools computer-based hard disk multitrack recording system. Digital audio quality is measured in data resolution per channel. (from Multitrack recording)

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Featured lists have been determined by the Wikipedia community to be the best lists on English Wikipedia.

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Randy Travis spent four weeks at number one in 1988.

Hot Country Songs is a chart that ranks the top-performing country music songs in the United States, published by Billboard magazine. In 1988, 49 different songs topped the chart, then published under the title Hot Country Singles, in 53 issues of the magazine, based on playlists submitted by country music radio stations and sales reports submitted by stores.

Only four songs spent more than a single week at number one in 1988: "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses" by Kathy Mattea, "I Told You So" by Randy Travis, "I'll Leave This World Loving You" by Ricky Van Shelton and "When You Say Nothing at All" by Keith Whitley. Travis and Shelton each scored two other number ones during the year to give them a total of four weeks in the top spot. This figure was matched by Rosanne Cash, who achieved three solo number ones and one in collaboration with her then-husband Rodney Crowell, making her the only artist to take four different songs to number one in 1988. Highway 101, Restless Heart, George Strait and Tanya Tucker each topped the chart with three different songs. (Full article...)
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Having been active since the 1960s, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band achieved its first number one single in 1984.

Hot Country Songs is a chart that ranks the top-performing country music songs in the United States, published by Billboard magazine. In 1984, 50 different singles topped the chart, then published under the title Hot Country Singles, in 52 issues of the magazine, based on playlists submitted by country music radio stations and sales reports submitted by stores.

Six acts tied for the most number ones in 1984, with three each: bands Alabama and Exile and soloists Earl Thomas Conley, Merle Haggard, Ricky Skaggs and George Strait. One of the only two songs to spend more than a single week at number one was a collaboration between Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson. Iglesias had been successful in his native Spain and other Latin markets since the late 1960s, but his 1984 album 1100 Bel Air Place was his United States breakthrough. The album featured duets with American singers from a range of genres, and the first single to be taken from it, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", paired Iglesias with veteran country singer Nelson. The song was a top 10 hit on the all-genres Billboard Hot 100 but went all the way to number one on the country chart. The only other multi-week chart-topper in 1984 was "Why Not Me" by mother-daughter duo The Judds, which ended the year at number one. (Full article...)
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Hank Snow had lengthy runs at the top of all three charts with "I'm Movin' On".

In 1950, Billboard magazine published three charts covering the best-performing country music songs in the United States: Most-Played Juke Box (Country & Western) Records, Best-Selling Retail Folk (Country & Western) Records and Country & Western Records Most Played By Folk Disk Jockeys. The juke box chart was compiled based on a "weekly survey among a selected group of jukebox operators whose locations require country and western records", the best sellers chart based on a "survey among a selected group of retail stores, the majority of whose customers purchase country and western records", and the jockeys chart based on a "weekly survey among a select list of over 400 disk jockeys specializing in country and western tunes". All three charts are considered part of the lineage of the current Hot Country Songs chart, which was first published in 1958.

In the first issue of Billboard of 1950, Christmas songs were at number one on two charts, with "Blue Christmas" by Ernest Tubb in the top spot on the juke box chart and Gene Autry's recording of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" atop the jockeys chart. The number one on the best sellers chart was "Slipping Around" by Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely, which had held the top spot since the previous October. The longest-running number one of 1950 on all three charts was "I'm Movin' On" by Canadian singer Hank Snow, which spent 14 weeks in the top spot on the juke box chart, 18 on the best sellers listing, and 17 on the jockeys chart. The song would spend three further weeks at number one on the best sellers chart in 1951, tying the record set in 1948 by Eddy Arnold's "I'll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms)" for the highest number of weeks spent at number one on any one of Billboard's country singles charts. Red Foley spent the highest total number of weeks at number one on both the juke box and best sellers charts in 1950, topping each for 19 weeks. He also had the highest number of individual chart-toppers on each of the two listings, with four and three respectively. On the jockeys chart, Hank Williams was the only artist with more than one number one hit, and he also spent the most weeks at number one, totalling 19 weeks in the top spot with his three chart-toppers. (Full article...)
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Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, the composer of the French national anthem "La Marseillaise", sings it for the first time. The anthem is one of the earliest to be adopted by a modern state, in 1795.

Most nation states have an anthem, defined as "a song, as of praise, devotion, or patriotism"; most anthems are either marches or hymns in style. A song or hymn can become a national anthem under the state's constitution, by a law enacted by its legislature, or simply by tradition. A royal anthem is a patriotic song similar to a national anthem, but it specifically praises or prays for a monarch or royal dynasty. Such anthems are usually performed at public appearances by the monarch or during other events of royal importance. Some states use their royal anthem as the national anthem, such as the state anthem of Jordan.

There are multiple claimants to the position of oldest national anthem. Among the national anthems, the first to be composed was the Dutch national anthem, the "Wilhelmus", which was written between 1568 and 1572. This has both Dutch and English language versions and is unusual in being an acrostic in both languages. The Japanese anthem, "Kimigayo", employs the oldest lyrics of any national anthem, taking its words from the "Kokin Wakashū", which was first published in 905, yet these words were not set to music until 1880. The first anthem to be officially adopted as such was the Spanish anthem "La Marcha Real", in 1770; its origins remain unclear; it is suggested that it has 16th century Venetian origins, or even that it was composed by king Frederick the Great himself; it is also one of the few national anthems that has never had official lyrics. Anthems became increasingly popular among European states in the 18th century. For example, the British national anthem "God Save the King" was first performed in 1745. The French anthem "La Marseillaise" was written half a century later in 1792, and adopted in 1795. (Full article...)
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Zac Brown Band reached number one for the first time in December 2008.

Hot Country Songs is a chart that ranks the top-performing country music songs in the United States, published by Billboard magazine. In 2008, 26 different songs topped the chart in 52 issues of the magazine, based on weekly airplay data from country music radio stations compiled by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems.

At the start of the year the number one was "Our Song" by Taylor Swift, which had risen to the top in the issue dated December 22, 2007. It remained at the top of the chart until the issue dated February 2, when it was replaced by "Letter to Me" by Brad Paisley. Both Swift and Paisley had three songs at number one in 2008. Paisley reached the top with "Letter to Me", "I'm Still a Guy" and "Waitin' on a Woman" and Swift with "Our Song", "Should've Said No" and "Love Story". Carrie Underwood also had three chart-toppers in 2008 with "All-American Girl", "Last Name" and "Just a Dream". Paisley and Swift tied for the most weeks at number one by an artist in the year, each spending eight weeks at the top. The last number one of the year was "Roll with Me", the final number one single by Montgomery Gentry. (Full article...)
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The band Alabama had four number ones in 1985.

Hot Country Songs is a chart that ranks the top-performing country music songs in the United States, published by Billboard magazine. In 1985, 51 different songs topped the chart, then published under the title Hot Country Singles, in 52 issues of the magazine, based on playlists submitted by country music radio stations and sales reports submitted by stores. Only "Lost in the Fifties Tonight (In the Still of the Night)" by Ronnie Milsap managed a second week at the top of the chart.

Alabama, one of the most successful bands in country music history, had the highest number of chart-toppers by a single act in 1985, with four: "(There's A) Fire in the Night", "There's No Way", "40 Hour Week (For a Livin')" and "Can't Keep a Good Man Down". When the group achieved its third number one of the year in August, Billboard regarded it as Alabama's seventeenth consecutive Hot Country number one, breaking the record for consecutive chart-toppers previously held by Sonny James. Alabama had released a Christmas single in late 1982 which only peaked at number 35, but the magazine disregarded this for the purposes of the band's number one streak, stating "only a Scrooge would count that against them". The band would eventually extend its streak of consecutive number ones to 21 before its popularity began to wane in the 1990s. Earl Thomas Conley, Exile, the Judds and the Oak Ridge Boys each had three number ones in 1985. Additionally Willie Nelson achieved one solo number one, one in collaboration with Ray Charles, and one as a member of the supergroup the Highwaymen, in which he was joined by Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson. (Full article...)
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Will Young had the best-selling single of the 2000s in the UK, "Evergreen"/"Anything Is Possible".

The UK Singles Chart is a music chart compiled by the Official Charts Company that calculates the best-selling singles of the week in the United Kingdom. Since 2005, the chart has been based on the sales of both physical and digital singles, originally on the condition that the single was available in both formats. In 2007, the rules were changed so that legal downloads of all songs, irrespective of whether a physical copy was available, were eligible to chart.

Between 2000 and 2009, ten singles that reached the top of the singles chart sold more than 1 million copies in the United Kingdom. At the end of the decade, a retrospective chart was compiled by the Official Charts Company to determine the best-selling single of this ten-year period. The title was won by Will Young, the winner of the televised talent competition Pop Idol in 2001, with his double A-side single "Evergreen"/"Anything Is Possible", released in 2002. The single sold just under 1.8 million copies and saw Young finish ahead of fellow Pop Idol finalist Gareth Gates, whose debut single "Unchained Melody" sold 1.34 million copies. Young's single included sales of 1,108,269 copies in its first week, at the time a first-week total that had been bettered only by Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997". The X Factor winners Alexandra Burke (5th), and Shayne Ward (8th) and the band formed on Popstars in 2001, Hear'Say (9th), also reached the top ten. Kylie Minogue, Shaggy and Tony Christie were the other solo artists who made the top ten of best-selling singles; Christie's best-seller was a charity single recorded for Comic Relief in 2005. Children's television character Bob the Builder's "Can We Fix It?", voiced by Neil Morrissey, and Band Aid 20's cover of "Do They Know It's Christmas" made up the rest of the top ten singles. (Full article...)
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Pee Wee King ended the year at number one on all three charts.

In 1951 Billboard magazine published three charts covering the best-performing country music songs in the United States: Most-Played Juke Box (Country & Western) Records, Best-Selling Retail Folk (Country & Western) Records and Country & Western Records Most Played By Folk Disk Jockeys. The juke box chart was compiled based on a "weekly survey among a selected group of jukebox operators whose locations require country and western records", the best sellers chart based on a "survey among a selected group of retail stores, the majority of whose customers purchase country and western records", and the jockeys chart based on a "weekly survey among a select list of over 400 disk jockeys specializing in country and western tunes". The juke box chart would be discontinued in 1957 and the other two charts merged in 1958 to form a multimetric chart, which has been published weekly since that date and since 2005 has been entitled Hot Country Songs.

In the first issue of Billboard of 1951, each chart had a different number one, although two were by the same artist. Lefty Frizzell was atop both the juke box and jockeys charts, with "If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time" and "I Love You a Thousand Ways" respectively, while the best sellers chart was headed by Hank Snow with "The Golden Rocket". During the year, each of the three charts had a song spend more than ten consecutive weeks at number one: Frizzell had an unbroken run of eleven weeks in the top spot of the best sellers chart with "Always Late (with Your Kisses)" and had a similar run at number one on the jockeys chart with "I Want to Be with You Always". The longest run at number one on any of the charts, however, was the fourteen consecutive weeks which Tennessee Ernie spent atop the juke box chart with "Shotgun Boogie". Frizzell reached number one for the first time in late 1950 and achieved five chart-toppers within 18 months, but soon afterwards his chart performance began to decline, his career suffering in part due to issues in his personal life. He was the only artist with four number-one country songs in 1951; Snow and Eddy Arnold each had three. Hank Williams had two number ones on the jockeys chart, but none on either of the other two charts. (Full article...)
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"All My Life" by Lil Durk & J. Cole is the most recent recipient

The Grammy Award for Best Melodic Rap Performance (awarded as Best Rap/Sung Collaboration until 2017, and Best Rap/Sung Performance from 2018 to 2020) is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality songs on which rappers and singers collaborate. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".

The name and definition of the category were changed in June 2020, with immediate effect, to represent the inclusivity of the growing hybrid performance trends within the rap genre. According to the Recording Academy, "This category is intended to recognize solo and collaborative performances containing elements of rap and melody over modern production. This performance requires a strong and clear presence of melody combined with rap cadence, and is inclusive of dialects, lyrics or performance elements from non-rap genres including R&B, rock, country, electronic or more. The production may include traditional elements of rap or elements characteristic of the aforementioned non-rap genres." (Full article...)
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The Latin Grammy Hall of Fame is a hall of fame established by the Latin Recording Academy to recognize "early recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance that were released more than 25 years ago". LARAS is also the same organization that distributes the Latin Grammy Awards. The albums and songs are picked by a panel of recording-arts professionals, such as musicologists and historians, and selected from all major categories of Latin music.

The first inductions were made in 2001 to honor 17 recordings. These included Santana's cover of Tito Puente's "Oye Como Va", Javier Solís's rendition of "Sabor a Mí" and the 1948 performance of Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez by Regino Sainz de la Maza and the Orquesta Nacional de España. The inductions have each occurred six years apart from one another. (Full article...)