Thursday 8 December 2011

Top 10 Rock Drummer ^_^

Drums are the foundation of rock music. They are the structure. If music moves you, it is likely because of the quality of percussion. That said, here are the 10 best at their trade:
1. Neil Peart
Virtuoso raised the bar and continues to raise it. He's the reason Rush vaulted to superstar status after just a few albums. Peart is so gifted, so versatile, so talented that he has no peer. It's not even honorable to refer to The Professor as a drummer; he's a percussionist. "La Villa Strangiato" says it all.
2. Ian Paice
Best hard rock drummer ever. Just listen to Deep Purple "Made in Japan" and you'll have no questions. He never stops, never slows down. It's full speed ahead for one of the fastest drummers to ever sit at a drum kit. Just another slave for the mule.
3. John Bonham
Talk about versatility and inventiveness. Equally comfortable playing with his bare hands as he is with the sticks. It takes a special drummer to keep pace with the madness that was Led Zeppelin. Think he commands respect? When he died, that was the end of Led Zeppelin. No auditions.
4. Bill Bruford
Backbone of Yes and King Crimson. Monumentally precise with his approach, showing a unique ability to drive prog rock to new heights. Listen to songs like "Long Distance Runaround" and "Heart of the Sunrise" and it's easy to see why he's so high on the list.
5. Terry Bozzio
Anyone who can keep time for Frank Zappa deserves heavy praise. Bozzio played on 10 Zappa albums before anchoring UK and Missing Persons. His quickness, ability to shift timing and versatility are reasons he's one of the best live performers of his trade.
6. Keith Moon
Others are technically more sound, but Moon was a huge reason for The Who's success ("Who Are You," Moon's last album before his death in 1978, is arguably the last great Who album). Moon's signature album is "Quadrophenia," where he never slows down. Even on the quieter songs, he's pounding away relentlessly. Ah, bollocks.
7. Carl Palmer
Three-piece bands bring individual talent to the forefront and this is a guy who can flat-out play. His haunting, spacey and often frenetic drumming made ELP one of the most relevant bands of the early '70s. Epics like "Pictures at an Exhibition" and "Endless Enigma" showcase his talent.
8. Don Brewer
One of rock's best live drummers, Brewer helped Grand Funk Railroad win America's hearts as one of the most influential American bands. Brewer played a simple kit, showing he was more about substance than style. "TNUC" is one of hard rock's classic drum solos.
9. Nick Mason
While Roger Waters and David Gilmour got most of the attention, it was the consistent, subtle percussion of Mason that helped Pink Floyd achieve rock 'n' roll super-stardom. Songs like "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" and "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" highlight his ability to set a mood through rhythm.
10. Mike Annis
This Boston-based drummer carved his path with bands like Hell Toupee, Mindgrinder and the Weeds, refusing to convert to the "boom-chink" mentality Top 40 radio demands. One of the early adopters of rototoms, Annis' versatility led him to several musical genres, most recently zydeco.


Original From Steel Kaleidoscopes

Sunday 4 December 2011

Why people love Music? ^_^

People love music for much the same reason they're drawn to sex, drugs, gambling and delicious food, according to new research. When you listen to tunes that move you, the study found, your brain releases dopamine, a chemical involved in both motivation and addiction.
Even just anticipating the sounds of a composition like Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" or Phish's "You Enjoy Myself" can get the feel-good chemical flowing, found the study, which was the first to make a concrete link between dopamine release and musical pleasure.
The findings offer a biological explanation for why music has been such a major part of major emotional events in cultures around the world since the beginning of human history. Through music, the study also offers new insights into how the human pleasure system works.
"You're following these tunes and anticipating what's going to come next and whether it's going to confirm or surprise you, and all of these little cognitive nuances are what's giving you this amazing pleasure," said Valorie Salimpoor, a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal. "The reinforcement or reward happens almost entirely because of dopamine."


Original From Ultimate Sharks

Saturday 19 November 2011

Best rock guitarist ever

Best rock guitarist ever  Jimi HendrixJimi HendrixThe Jimi Hendrix Experience, Band of Gypsys48.52 (=)
Best rock guitarist ever  Jimmy PageJimmy PageLed Zeppelin; The Yardbirds38.58 (=)
Best rock guitarist ever  Eric ClaptonEric ClaptonThe Yardbirds; Cream; Derek and the Dominoes; Blind Faith; Solo30.13 (=)
4.Best rock guitarist ever  Eddie Van HalenEddie Van HalenVan Halen23.58 (=)
5.Best rock guitarist ever  David GilmourDavid GilmourPink Floyd18.00 (+ 1)
6.Best rock guitarist ever  Saul SlashSaul SlashGuns N' Roses, Slash's Snakepit, Velvet Revolver16.88 (- 1)
7.Best rock guitarist ever  Carlos SantanaCarlos SantanaSantana15.48 (=)
8.Best rock guitarist ever  Brian MayBrian MayQueen12.55 (=)
9.Best rock guitarist ever  Angus YoungAngus YoungAC/DC11.87 (+ 1)
10.Best rock guitarist ever  Stevie Ray VaughanStevie Ray VaughanStevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble11.53 (- 1)
11.Best rock guitarist ever  Kirk HammettKirk HammettMetallica9.12 (=)
12.Best rock guitarist ever  Joe SatrianiJoe SatrianiJoe Satriani8.56 (=)
13.Best rock guitarist ever  Steve VaiSteve VaiDavid Lee Roth; Whitesnake7.90 (=)
14.Best rock guitarist ever  Mark KnopflerMark KnopflerDire Straits7.16 (=)
15.Best rock guitarist ever  Jeff BeckJeff BeckThe Yardbirds; Jeff Beck Group6.97 (=)
16.Best rock guitarist ever  George HarrisonGeorge HarrisonThe Beatles5.94 (=)
17.Best rock guitarist ever  Ritchie BlackmoreRitchie BlackmoreDeep Purple; Rainbow5.84 (=)
18.Best rock guitarist ever  Tony IommiTony IommiBlack Sabbath5.38 (=)
19.Best rock guitarist ever  Pete TownshendPete TownshendThe Who4.86 (+ 1)
20.Best rock guitarist ever  The EdgeThe EdgeU24.75 (- 1)
21.Best rock guitarist ever  Duane AllmanDuane AllmanAllman Brothers Band4.51 (+ 1)
22.Best rock guitarist ever  Keith RichardsKeith RichardsRolling Stones4.43 (+ 2)
23.Best rock guitarist ever  John PetrucciJohn PetrucciDream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment4.41 (- 2)
24.Best rock guitarist ever  Randy RhoadsRandy RhoadsOzzy Osbourne, Quiet Riot4.25 (- 1)
25.Best rock guitarist ever  Tom MorelloTom MorelloRage Against the Machine; Audioslave3.92 (=)








Original From Rankopedia

What others says about Music..

He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.
Albert Einstein


If music be the food of love, play on.
William Shakespeare


The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.
William Shakespeare


Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.
Maya Angelou


Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.
Ronald Reagan


It is piracy, not overt online music stores, which is our main competitor.
Steve Jobs


If one plays good music, people don't listen and if one plays bad music people don't talk.
Oscar Wilde


Without music, life would be a mistake.
Friedrich Nietzsche


In music the passions enjoy themselves.
Friedrich Nietzsche


Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it.
John Lennon




Original From Brainy Quote

Friday 11 November 2011

Music History

The Middle Ages

After the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, Western Europe entered a time known as "The Dark Ages" — a period when invading hordes of Vandals, Huns, and Visigoths overran Europe. These years were marked by constant warfare, the absence of a Holy Roman Emperor, and the virtual disappearance of urban life. Over the next next nine centuries, the newly emerging Christian Church came to dominate Europe, administering justice, instigating "Holy" Crusades against the East, establishing Universities, and generally dictating the destiny of music, art, and literature. It was during this time that Pope Gregory I is generally believed to have collected and codified the music known as Gregorian Chant, which was the approved music of the Church. Much later, the University at Notre Dame in Paris saw the creation of a new kind of music called organum. Secular music was performed throughout Europe by the troubadours and trouvères of France. And it was during these "Middle Ages" that Western culture saw the appearance of the first great name in music, Guillaume de Machaut.


The Renainssance

Generally considered to be from ca.1420 to 1600, was a time of great cultural awakening and a flowering of the arts, letters, and sciences throughout Europe. With the rise of humanism, sacred music began for the first time to break free of the confines of the Church, and a school of composers trained in the Netherlands mastered the art of polyphony in their settings of sacred music. One of the early masters of the Flemish style was Josquin des Prez. These polyphonic traditions reached their culmination in the unsurpassed works of Giovanni da Palestrina.

Of course, secular music thrived during this period, and instrumental and dance music was performed in abundance, if not always written down. It was left for others to collect and notate the wide variety of irrepressible instrumental music of the period. The late Renaissance also saw in England the flourishing of the English madrigal, the best known of which were composed by such masters as John Dowland, William Byrd, Thomas Morley and others.



The Baroque Age

Named after the popular ornate architectural style of the time, the Baroque period (ca.1600 to 1750)saw composers beginning to rebel against the styles that were prevalent during the High Renaissance. This was a time when the many monarchies of Europe vied in outdoing each other in pride, pomp and pageantry. Many monarchs employed composers at their courts, where they were little more than servants expected to churn out music for any desired occasions. The greatest composer of the period, Johann Sebastian Bach, was such a servant. Yet the best composers of the time were able to break new musical ground, and in so doing succeeded in creating an entirely new style of music.



It was during the early part of the seventeenth century that the genre of opera was first created by a group of composers in Florence, Italy, and the earliest operatic masterpieces were composed byClaudio Monteverdi. The instrumental concerto became a staple of the Baroque era, and found its strongest exponent in the works of the Venetian composer Antonio VivaldiHarpsichord music achieved new heights, due to the works of such masters as Domenico Scarlatti and others. Dances became formalized into instrumental suites and were composed by virtually all composers of the era. But vocal and choral music still reigned supreme during this age, and culminated in the operas and oratoriosof German-born composer George Frideric Handel.



The Classical Period

From roughly 1750 to 1820, artists, architechts, and musicians moved away from the heavily ornamented styles of the Baroque and the Rococo, and instead embraced a clean, uncluttered style they thought reminiscent of Classical Greece. The newly established aristocracies were replacing monarchs and the church as patrons of the arts, and were demanding an impersonal, but tuneful and elegant music. Dances such as the minuet and the gavotte were provided in the forms of entertainingserenades and divertimenti.

At this time the Austrian capital of Vienna became the musical center of Europe, and works of the period are often referred to as being in the Viennese style. Composers came from all over Europe to train in and around Vienna, and gradually they developed and formalized the standard musical forms that were to predominate European musical culture for the next several decades. A reform of the extravagance of Baroque opera was undertaken by Christoph von Gluck. Johann Stamitz contributed greatly to the growth of the orchestra and developed the idea of the orchestral symphony. The Classical period reached its majestic culmination with the masterful symphoniessonatas, and string quartets by the three great composers of the Viennese school: Franz Joseph HaydnWolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven. During the same period, the first voice of the burgeoning Romantic musical ethic can be found in the music of Viennese composer Franz Schubert.


The Romantic Era

As the many socio-political revolutions of the late eighteenth-century established new social orders and new ways of life and thought, so composers of the period broke new musical ground by adding a new emotional depth to the prevailing classical forms. Throughout the remainder of the nineteenth-century (from ca. 1820 to 1900), artists of all kinds became intent in expressing their subjective, personal emotions. "Romanticism" derives its name from the romances of medieval times -- long poems telling stories of heroes and chivalry, of distant lands and far away places, and often of unattainable love. The romantic artists are the first in history to give to themselves the name by which they are identified.

The earliest Romantic composers were all born within a few years of each other in the early years of the nineteenth century. These include the great German masters Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann ; the Polish poet of the piano Frédéric Chopin; the French genius Hector Berlioz ; and the greatest pianistic showman in history, the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt.

During the nineteenth century, composers from non-Germanic countries began looking for ways in which they might express the musical soul of their homelands. Many of these Nationalist composers turned to indigenous history and legends as plots for their operas, and to the popular folk melodies and dance rhythms of their homelands as inspiration for their symphonies and instrumental music. Others developed a highly personal harmonic language and melodic style which distinguishes their music from that of the Austro-Germanic traditions.

The continued modification and enhancement of existing instruments, plus the invention of new ones, led to the further expansion of the symphony orchestra throughout the century. Taking advantage of these new sounds and new instrumental combinations, the late Romantic composers of the second half of the nineteenth-century created richer and ever larger symphonies, ballets, and concertos. Two of the giants of this period are the German-bornJohannes Brahms and the great Russian melodist Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.


The Twentieth Century

By the turn of the century and for the next few decades, artists of all nationalities were searching for exciting and different modes of expression. Composers such as Arnold Schoenberg explored unusual and unorthodox harmonies and tonal schemes. French composer Claude Debussy was fascinated by Eastern music and the whole-tone scale, and created a style of music named after the movement in French painting called Impressionism. Hungarian composer Béla Bartók continued in the traditions of the still strong Nationalist movement and fused the music of Hungarian peasants with twentieth century forms. Avant-garde composers such asEdgard Varèse explored the manipulation of rhythms rather than the usual melodic/harmonic schemes. The tried-and-true genre of the symphony, albeit somewhat modified by this time, attracted such masters as Gustav Mahler and Dmitri Shostakovich, while Igor Stravinsky gave full rein to his manipulation of kaleidoscopic rhythms and instrumental colors throughout his extremely long and varied career.

While many composers throughout the twentieth-century experimented in new ways with traditional instruments (such as the "prepared piano" used by American composer John Cage), many of the twentieth-century’s greatest composers, such as Italian opera composerGiacomo Puccini and the Russian pianist/composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, remained true to the traditional forms of music history. In addition to new and eclectic styles of musical trends, the twentieth century boasts numerous composers whose harmonic and melodic styles an average listener can still easily appreciate and enjoy.








Original From Special Collection