Monday, March 30, 2009

Guest Blog By My Girlfriend

I've been busy and haven't been able to write so here is my girlfriend's blog post:

I was a very good singer in my school. But once I finished my high school, I couldn’t manage to get into any band easily as most of them were into heavy rock music or something similar. This didn’t give me a chance to get into any of the bands which I knew in my area. I did keep on checking numerous bands in other localities too. But most bands didn’t require a female vocalist and those who did already had one in their band. I felt very disappointed when my efforts didn’t get me any positive results.

My friends advised me to try something else. I did take up a part-time job at a music store but I still had a faint desire to be a lead vocalist. Then a middle-aged man dropped in at our shop to buy some CD’s. He was discussing with his assistant about the problem faced by his band as their female vocalist had moved off to another city. He was the manager of the band. I asked him to give me a minute and told him about my singing skills. He seemed skeptical at my attempts but called me the next day to the hotel where the band was practicing. When I sang some songs which were requested by them, everything fell into place. I was accepted with open arms by the other members. I finally fulfilled my dream. It pays to be patient in the music field.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

UB 40

Very rarely do most bands last for more than a couple of years nowadays. UB40 was one of those rare bands which have managed to survive successfully right from the time it was started in 1978. It is considered to be one of the most powerful reggae acts in the history of music. They first managed to get popularity in UK, it was then followed by the same in the US in 1983 after their album Labour of love was released and appreciated over there.

Even now, it still exists as a band, only their lead singer Ali Campbell has left the band as he had some management issues with the band. Ali Campbell has been an integral part of UB40 and has created many hits down the years with UB40. He left the band in February 2008. Another member followed him out of the band – that was the band’s keyboard player Michael Virtue. The two new members of UB40 are Duncan Campbell (vocalist) and Tony Mullings (keyboard). Duncan is the brother of Ali Campbell. The band’s latest album - Twentyfourseven, is the final work of Ali’s collaboration with UB40.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Reggae

Reggae is an interesting genre of music which has originated from Jamaica. It now enjoys popularity all over the world. Some of the sub genres of Reggae include Dub, Dancehall and Roots Reggae. Ragga is a sub genre of Dancehall. Roots reggae is a form of reggae which is used to mostly praise God. On the other hand, Dub makes regular use of recorded material which is then remixed to create a Dub form of music.

Although Reggae is considered to be a simple genre of music, nonetheless it gives a nice soothing, rhythmic effect to all its listeners. This is one of the main reasons for its popularity. The early Reggae songs used to concentrate on various themes like sex, society and other important issues.

One of the artists who gained a large amount of popularity in the early days was Bob Marley. His band was called – the Wailers. The Wailers which included Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh were the other early pioneers of the early Reggae form. UB40 is today considered to be the topmost band, which plays popular Reggae songs. Thus Reggae in any form can be a refreshing source of music, which needs to be appreciated by every true music lover.