Archive for February, 2010
Slipknot and Nickelback are premier heavy metal bands hailing from United States and Canada respectively. Both have dedicated fan following, release albums periodically and give live performances in world stages. It seems that these bands have turned rock music on its head with varied themes and music styles.
Nickelback has produced six studio albums, one compilation album, twenty-two single songs and seven video albums till now. Although initially the band was country based, they are well known now in different countries including United States and Canada. With such unique songs under its belt, Nickelback has transcended all borders, including political and mental. Initially, it was the youth that got attracted to Nickelback songs, but people from other age groups are also found to be increasingly appreciative to this style of heavy music.
Nickelback discography dates back to the initial album, Curb, released in 1996. The second album, The State came four years later, in 2000. The next three albums were Silver Side Up, The long road and All the Right Reasons released in 2001, 2003 and 2005 respectively. The songs are well admired and have a cult following too. The next one, titled Dark Horse, is in the pipeline and may come out at the fag end of the year 2008. Consisting of eleven tracks, the album is all set to create a flutter, not only in the minds of the avid heavy metal fan, but in the music track industry too.
Slipknot also ranks high up in terms of popularity and exclusivity. The nine member band formed in Iowa plays the heavy metal genre with their own twists and turns. Visually also the band is totally distinctive with every member of the band wearing different masks during live performances and recordings. The debut album, Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat immediately garnered attention, not only because of the songs, but for the title too.
The key musical influences on the band are the death metal, black metal, heavy metal and the nu metal. Its primary influences are Black Sabbath, Slayer, Judas Priest, Beastie Boys etc. They band has also been profoundly influenced by other bands like Head of David, Goldfish, Neurosis and Jungle music. Slipknot is ranked as the path breakers on American new wave heavy metal. The live shows given by the band are well known for the energy flow.
Slipknot music has a unique flow, sometimes in the extreme, and sometimes, a little subdued. Vocal styles range from rapping, singing and growling. However, the later day songs have more melodic singing, but the themes still continue to be aggressive. Darkness, disaffection, anger, psychosis and nihilism are the most preferred themes followed by Slipknot.
Bands like Slipknot and Nickelback are not bubbles formed on the surface of the sea of music. The uniqueness of their themes and unmatchable energy beckons the energetic youth to follow them.
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New indie bands surface everyday. Its hard to distinguish one from the other. But, once in a while a unique original sound grabs your attention and makes you take notice. Such is Spotty Dogg, a revolutionary rock band loaded with individual talent, delivering music with a rare, crisp freshness. Spotty Dogg hails from the Scottish Highlands where they have their own studio and they write, compose, and produce all their own music.
Individually talented, each band member contributes to the Spotty Dogg’s new generation of music. Band members Alan Greer – keys/synths, Jamie Fraser – vocals, Gary Lee McKinney – guitar, Fraser Graig – drums, and Rikki MaClaren – bass bring personal experiences to the lyrics of each song and passionately delivered in the quality tracks that are influenced by the spirit of such greats as Ultravox, Bon Jovi, and Pink Floyd. Spotty Dogg has no fixed genre and vary from soft rock to power pop.
Outside of a great sound and original material I am drawn to how personal Spotty Dogg band members are with their fans and the ease in how they interact. If you’re like me and tired of every band sounding just like the rest and you are drawn to quality and perfection as well as ultimate entertainment then I highly suggest checking out Spotty Dogg rock band and seeing for yourself how uniquely refreshing and addicting their music is. Check them out and listen and see for your self at http://www.myspace.com/spottydoggmusic .
Their new CD Push To Perfection just recently was released and it is loaded with fresh new/original music with a quality sound that makes listening a pleasure.
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Hi,
My name is Steve Morgan, and I have been a Music Artist and in the Business since 1967,
have been in verios bands of different genres like, rock, blues, jazz/swing, country…
I have had a small recording studio for the past 12 years, and have been active in it, since about a year ago.
I have been working on this free website, MusicPlaces.com, dedicated to helping independent music artists
promote them selfs, and sell their music on the internet, with a Music
Artist and Listener Community.
The site offers FREE accounts to all Music Artists and Listeners.
Artist
accounts feature a Main Artist Profile Page with a portable flash player that each artist and fans can
use to post music on other sites getting even more exposure than most other sites give, also other site features
like mp3 song hosting, video hosting, guest book, photo gallery, digitel music store,
an artist promo kit in pdf format, Internet radio stations,and so much more!!
There are so many ways to promote your music on the internet for free, and this is one of the
best resources for independent music artists and listeners that love Indie Music!
Now, I would like to help artists get the most out of internet self promotion by giving you some sound
advice about how to get started.
First, there are many free music artist sites that you can get free artist accounts on.
Join as many of these as you can, still being able to moniter each of your accounts at least 2 times a month,
keeping active and puting fresh content up as much as possable.
I would think that 5 or 6 of these would be some work, especialy if you are giging and work a day jab too!
Try to choose sites that have been around for more than 2 or 3 years, as they are probably more established
on the internet and have more traffic and listeners giving free exposure to your page.
Try keeping your user names (artist name) on all of these sites the same, as this will only help with search engine results
when searching for your name or band name in a search engine.
Try being as active on all sites as you have time for, as this will get your name out there, and people on the internet will soon
know who you and your music are!
Choose one of these sites to be your home site, and link to it from all of your other sites.
Usualy when selecting a home site for your music, select the site with the most features for free first!
Making sure that the site you choose is the fastest loading and works the best.
Most of these music sites that you sign up with have forums these days.
Be as active in as many of them that you can, make a link to your home page as your forum signature, if they let you.
Search engine spiders spider forums every day and the more posts you post, the more links you will have in google.
The more links you have, kinking to your home page in google, the higher google will rank your home page.
Sites with portable players that you can put on other sites that play your songs are a great resource for getting exposure
on places in the internet that wont host your mp3 songs.
MusicPlaces.com has a great portable player that will play your songs on sites that let you past code into them
like myspace, tagworld, and other places that let you use html, including forums, blogs, guest books…
If you sell your music, most sites these days have a Digital
Store.
Put your music for sale on as many of these places that you can.
Even if you dont sell anything, your songs and merchandise will be spidered by the search
engines and you will get more exposure!
Have a good email address that works, and check it often, answering any enquiries and fan messages.
It takes some time to get real popular as far as google is concerned
but, time will pay you with good results!
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MySpace is an excellent tool for spreading the word about your band. Using the built in media player on your profile page, you can offer samplings of your bands musical recordings and even make them available for sharing with other MySpace users as add on’s to their own play lists.
By creating top quality recordings, you can insure that your band sounds professional. Do this by using the best possible recording equipment available to you and then using audio editing software to clean up the mix before you post it to your MySpace page. By creating this professional sound, you will enhance the quality of your recordings and the number of people listening to your music.
In addition to quality recordings, adding eye catching content to your bands profile on MySpace is important. It has been proven that profiles with pictures receive a greater response on social networking sites and MySpace is no exception. Use a picture of your band or your bands logo for your MySpace profile picture and you will find hundreds of new fans streaming to your profile page very quickly. These increased profile visits will also create an increase in how often your music is played though the media player and shared with your fan’s play lists.
Once you have acquired a fan base, don’t let the relationship go stale. As in any relationship, communication is important so post new bulletins and content often. Even if the current news is just a gig playing for beer at the local bar, put the information on your MySpace profile and send a bulletin to all of your fans. Then, have someone take pictures of the performance and post them as soon as possible afterwards to let everyone see how great your band is.
Add new music whenever you get the chance. Uploading content, including music, to MySpace is a very simple process so there is no reason why you shouldn’t be posting fresh content after every performance. When your band records a new song, get it uploaded and put into your play lists as soon as possible. Why? Because your fans are waiting to hear it for one thing but there is another important reason as well… A fan that likes your songs enough to put them in their play lists, probably likes your songs enough to want the CD too. Keep your play lists fresh and your CD sales will increase as well.
Finally, be active. Don’t just sit back and wait for fans to play your music. Instead go out and grab them by the ears and say “Listen to this!”. Do this by promoting your band online and in the real world. Get some business cards and put your Myspace profile or band website on them and hand them out to everyone who will take one. Go on Twitter every time you add a new song to your MySpace music player and promote it shamelessly. Ask people for their opinion on your sound in a chat room, forum or bulletin board and point them to your MySpace profile.
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It is sometimes difficult to realize that music, despite its nebulous distinction as “one of the arts,” is actually regarded as a commodity and is bought, exploited, distributed and sold in much the same way as other commodities. Upon this fact is based the music industry which embraces hundreds of publishing firms, thousands of professional songwriters, wholesalers, dealers, orchestras, radio performers, recording companies and music associations, and which impinges upon the allied fields of motion pictures, drama and radio.
Just what is involved in the “publishing” of a song? Let us follow a song from its manuscript stage to ultimate publication and exploitation. To simplify the procedure, let us assume that this song has been written by a professional songwriter.
The first step, in this case, is an audition before the professional manager of the publishing firm. If the songwriter is a competent pianist, he will perform the number himself. If this shouldn’t be the case, he will either ask a friend or the firm’s piano player to perform the piece.
The professional manager may suggest a few changes either in the melody or lyric. After these revisions have been made (occasionally, the publisher may have one of his own arrangers “doctor up the tune”) the song is accepted for publication and a standard royalty contract is signed by the publisher and songwriter. The publisher then has a few “scratch” orchestrations (handwritten) made by his arranging staff and turns these orchestrations to the song-plugger whose contacts are best able to handle the initial promotion of the number.
The song-plugger may be asked to contact a bandleader and a radio singer for the initial plugs. The bandleader may be contacted during rehearsal, or between performances. The plug may be requested in any number of ways, depending upon the song-plugger’s methods, the attitude of the bandleader, etc. However, a possible procedure would be for the song-plugger to approach the bandleader on a friendly basis, discuss “shop” for awhile, and casually introduce the fact that he has a brand new number which is just suited to the style and instrumentation of the band.
After building up the reputation and previous successes of the songwriter, the song-plugger may be able to persuade the bandleader to try out the number in rehearsal. Here, again, changes may be suggested. After these have been effected and, always assuming that the number has actual merit, the bandleader may consent to perform the number. For this purpose, he may have his own arranger make a new orchestration conforming to the particular style of the orchestra, or he might request the publisher to have a special arrangement made.
After the number has been performed, the song-plugger will try to get further plugs from the same bandleader and will also approach other top-flight bandleaders for plugs. The publisher does not have to concern himself with the smaller and lesser-known bands, for if the number is performed successfully by the topflight bands, the smaller bands will follow suit and jump on the “band-wagon.”
The radio star is approached in much the same manner, although in this case a special vocal arrangement may have to be made.
By using different performers, and concentrating on constant plugging, the publisher soon builds up a demand for his song. Actual printing is then started, although this at first is restricted to a small quantity. As the song gains in popularity more and more plugs are obtained without the intervention of the song-plugger. Radio performances, band performances, and recordings are made to meet the public demand.
Dealers begin ordering quantities of sheet music from their jobbers and printing goes into full swing. When the song is finally “on its own,” the song-plugger’s activities slow down and he begins to concentrate upon another new number of his publisher’s. However, when the popularity of the song begins to fade and the sales start to drop, the song-plugger resumes plugging the song in an effort to keep it alive as long as possible.
This is the usual route taken by a song to become well-known and possibly a “hit.” Now that you know what happens, it is time to launch your own!
