A music video or song video is a short video or film that accompanies a piece of music or song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos date back much further, they came into prominence in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 80s, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip" or "film clip".

Music videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action. Many music videos do not interpret images from the song's lyrics, making it less literal than expected.

History and development

In 1894, sheet music publishers Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern hired electrician George Thomas and various performers to promote sales of their song "The Little Lost Child". Thomas projected a series of still images on a screen simultaneous to live performances. This would become a popular form of entertainment known as the illustrated song, the first step toward music video.

Another early form of music video were one-song films called "promotional clips" made in the 1940s for the Panoram visual jukebox. These were short films of musical selections, usually just a band on a movie-set bandstand, made for playing. Thousands of "soundies" were made, mostly of jazz musicians, but also of torch singers, comedians, and dancers. Before the soundie, even dramatic movies typically had a musical interval, but the soundie put the music in the forefront; virtually all known jazz performers appeared in soundie shorts. The Panoram jukebox with eight three-minute soundies were popular in taverns and night spots, but the fad faded during World War II.

Musical films were another important precursor to music video, and several well-known music videos have imitated the style of classic Hollywood musicals from the 1930s to the 1950s. One of the best-known examples is Madonna's 1985 video for "Material Girl" (directed by Mary Lambert) which was closely modelled on Jack Cole's staging of "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" from the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Several of Michael Jackson's videos show the unmistakable influence of the dance sequences in classic Hollywood musicals, including the landmark "Thriller" and the Martin Scorsese-directed "Bad" which was influenced by the stylised dance "fights" in the film version of West Side Story.

In 1956, Petrushka, directed by John David Wilson for Fine Arts Films aired as a segment of the Sol Hurok Music Hour on NBC. Igor Stravinsky conducted a live orchestra for the recording of the event. In 1957, Tony Bennett was filmed walking along The Serpentine in Hyde Park, London as his recording of "Stranger in Paradise" played; this film was distributed to and played by UK and US television stations. According to the Internet Accuracy Project, disk jockey-singer J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson was the first to coin the phrase "music video", in 1959. It is no coincidence that the rise of popular music was tied with the rise of television, as the format allowed for many new stars to be exposed that previously would have been passed over by Hollywood, which normally required proven acts in order to attract an audience to the box office.

1960–1967: Visual innovation

In the late 1950s the Scopitone, a visual jukebox, was invented in France and short films were produced by many French artists, such as Serge Gainsbourg, Françoise Hardy, Jacques Brel, and Jacques Dutronc to accompany their songs. Its use spread to other countries and similar machines such as the Cinebox in Italy and Color-Sonic in the USA were patented.

One of the earliest performance clips was The Animals's 1964 hit "House Of The Rising Sun". This high-quality color clip was filmed in a studio on a specially-built set; with the group lip-synching.

The Beatles

In 1964, The Beatles starred in their first feature film A Hard Day's Night, directed by Richard Lester. Shot in black-and-white and presented as a mock documentary, it was a loosely structured musical fantasia interspersing comedic and dialogue with musical sequences. The musical sequences furnished basic templates on which countless subsequent music videos were modeled. It was the direct model for the successful US TV series The Monkees (1966–1968) which similarly consisted of film segments that were created to accompany various Monkees songs.

Film critic Roger Ebert credits Lester with constructing "a new grammar":

:" ... he influenced many other films. Today when we watch TV and see quick cutting, hand-held cameras, interviews conducted on the run with moving targets, quickly intercut snatches of dialogue, music under documentary action and all the other trademarks of the modern style, we are looking at the children of A Hard Day's Night".

The Beatles' second feature Help! (1965) was a much more lavish affair, filmed in colour in London and on international locations. It fitted the all-important musical sequences into a contrived fantasy adventure in which the group is pursued through a series of locales (including Switzerland and The Bahamas) by a band of Indian thuggee assassins bent on recovering a sacred ring which has come into Ringo's possession. The title track sequence, filmed in black-and-white, is arguably one of the prime archetypes of the modern performance-style music video, employing rhythmic cross-cutting, contrasting long shots and close-ups, and unusual shots and camera angles, such as the shot near the end of the song, in which George Harrison's left hand and the neck of his guitar are seen in sharp focus in the foreground while the completely out-of-focus figure of John Lennon sings in the background.

In 1965, The Beatles began making promotional clips (then known as "filmed inserts") for distribution and broadcast in other countries—primarily the USA—so they could promote their record releases without having to make in-person appearances. On November 23, 1965: At Twickenham Film Studios, The Beatles videotaped 10 black & white promo films, all produced by a British production company Intertel. They were "We Can Work It Out" (3 Versions), "Day Tripper" (3 Versions), "Help!" (1 Version), "Ticket To Ride" (1 Version), and "I Feel Fine" (2 Versions, neither of which were ever aired). One version each of the first two songs were aired on "Hullaballo" in the US on Jan 3 1966. Many clips were aired on "Top of the Pops" in the UK, and two were aired on "Thank Your Lucky Stars." Recent reports indicate the entire reel is circulating among collectors. "Help" and "Ticket To Ride" were re-released to accompany the CD release of the "1962-1966" or "Red" album in 1993. Composite edits of "We Can Work It Out", "Day Tripper", and "Ticket To Ride" are seen in "The Beatles Anthology," DVD set.

At the same time, The Byrds began using the same strategy to promote their singles in the United Kingdom, starting with the 1965 single "Set You Free This Time". By the time The Beatles stopped touring in late 1966, their promotional films, like their recordings, had become highly sophisticated. In May 1966 they filmed two sets of colour promotional clips for their current single "Rain" / Paperback Writer" all directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who went on to direct The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus and The Beatles final film Let It Be. The studio clips were straightforward performance films shot at Abbey Road Studios on 19 May, especially for broadcast on The Ed Sullivan Show and prefaced by a spoken introduction from Ringo.

The location clips are considerably more elaborate and use vibrant colour footage shot on location in the grounds of Chiswick House, London. Both clips are notable for their use of hand-held camera work, rhythmic editing, slow motion shots and reversed film. The "Paperback Writer" clip is more conventional, with Lennon, McCartney and Harrison lip-synching and miming playing their instruments (although Ringo is notably not 'playing'). The "Rain" clip marked a major advance in stylistic terms; it uses some colour shots common to both clips but is also intercut with monochrome reductions of the Abbey Road studio footage, making it one of the first examples of this device in music video. Most notably, apart from a few brief shots (a close-up of Lennon lip-synching and a shot of the group under a tree miming playing their instruments) the "Rain" clip virtually abandons any pretense of performance and has no obvious narrative structure.

The colour promotional clips for "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane", made in early 1967 and directed by Peter Goldman took the promotional film format to a new level. They used techniques borrowed from underground and avant garde film, including reversed film and slow motion, dramatic lighting, unusual camera angles and color filtering added in post-production. Reflecting the fact that these studio masterpieces were impossible for the group to perform live, their psychedelic mini-films illustrated the songs in an artful, impressionistic manner rather than trying to simulate an idealised performance or depict a narrative or plot.

At the end of 1967 the group released their third film, the one hour, made-for-television project Magical Mystery Tour; it was written and directed by the group and first broadcast on the BBC on Boxing Day 1967. Although poorly received at the time for lacking a narrative structure, it showed the group to be accomplished music video makers in their own right. It included elaborate edited sequences for the new songs featured in the film and the clips for "I Am The Walrus" and "Your Mother Should Know" have been screened many times on music TV shows in later years.

1967–1973: Promotional clips grow in importance

]] The monochrome 1966 clip for Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" filmed by D. A. Pennebaker was featured in Pennebaker's Dylan film documentary Don't Look Back. Eschewing any attempt to simulate performance or present a narrative, the clip shows Dylan standing in a city back alley, silently shuffling a series of large cue cards (bearing key words from the song's lyrics). Many "song films"—often referred to as "filmed inserts" at that time—were produced by UK artists so they could be screened on TV when the bands were not available to appear live. Pink Floyd were pioneers in producing promotional films for their songs including "" , directed by Anthony Stern, "Scarecrow", "Arnold Layne" and "Interstellar Overdrive", the latter directed by Peter Whitehead, who also made several pioneering clips for The Rolling Stones between 1966 and 1968. In the UK The Kinks made one of the first "plot" promo clips for a song. For their single "Dead End Street" (1966) a miniature comic movie was made. The BBC reportedly refused to air the clip because it was considered to be in "poor taste".

The Who featured in several promotional clips in this period, beginning with their 1965 clip for I Can't Explain. Their plot clip for Happy Jack (1966) shows the band acting like a gang of thieves. The promo film to Call Me Lightning (1968) tells a story of how drummer Keith Moon came to join the group: One fine day, the other three band members are having tea inside what looks like an abandoned hangar when suddenly a "bleeding box" arrives, out of which jumps a fast-running, timelapse, utterly out-of-control Moon that Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, and John Entwistle subsequently try to get a hold of in a sped-up slapstick chasing sequence to wind him down.

The Moody Blues made a promo video for their 1967 single "Nights in White Satin". Procol Harum made two promos for their 1967 hit "A Whiter Shade of Pale". One version shows band members walking among the ruins of Witley Court, footage of them performing the song onstage and documentary footage of the Vietnam war. The second version shows the band running towards camera (a device pioneered in A Hard Day's Night), followed by surrealistic sequences. The first (earlier) video included four of the five musicians on the hit single: Gary Brooker, Matthew Fisher, David Knights and Ray Royer; only the drummer was different, Bobby Harrison miming to Bill Eyden's drumming on the single. The second video included three of the five musicians on the single: substitutes were guitarist Robin Trower instead of Royer and B.J. Wilson instead of Eyden.

The Small Faces made several promotional clips in 1966–67. The B&W; promo for their 1966 single "Hey Girl" shows the band performing and clowning around aboard a tram with a group of female fans. A colour clip for their 1967 single "Get Yourself Together" has band members dressed as police. The Troggs feature in a monochrome promo clip for their 1967/68 hit "Love Is All Around", showing singer Reg Presley's love affair with a girl intercut with concert footage and psychedelic elements.

The Doors had a background in film-making and both lead singer Jim Morrison and keyboard player Ray Manzarek were studying film at UCLA when they met. The clip for their debut single "Break on Through (To the Other Side)" is a filmed performance that uses atmospheric lighting, camera work and editing. It was directed by Elektra Records producer Mark Abramson. Their 1968 anti-war single "The Unknown Soldier", combines specially filmed footage of the group—including the depiction of a mock execution by firing squad—with extensive intercutting of stock footage, including graphic footage of the carnage of the Vietnam War. It was also directed by Mark Abramson based on input from Morrison and the Doors.

Although it made little impression internationally, there was a thriving local pop scene in Australia and New Zealand in the 1960s and bands there were quick to pick up on British and American trends. By 1967 a number of bands were creating early music videos for their songs. One of the first was the pioneering clip made by The Masters Apprentices for their 1967 single "Buried And Dead", which used candid stage and studio footage of the band combined with specially filmed fantasy sequences. Another notable Australian clip from this period is the promotional clip for "The Loved One" by The Loved Ones, directed by Peter L. Lamb as part of his 1967 short film Approximately Panther.

The Rolling Stones appeared in many promotional clips for their songs in the 1960s. One of the earliest, dating from 1964, showed the band on a beach, miming to their single "Not Fade Away", but this has apparently since been lost. In 1966, Peter Whitehead directed two promo clips for their single "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?"

In 1967, Whitehead directed a plot clip colour promo clip for the Stones single "We Love You", which first aired in August 1967. This clip featured speeded-up footage of the group recording in the studio (including several shots of an extremely stoned-looking Brian Jones), intercut with a mock trial that clearly alludes to the drug prosecutions of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards underway at that time). Jagger's girlfriend Marianne Faithfull appears in the trial scenes and presents the "judge" (Richards) with what may be the infamous fur rug that had featured so prominently in the press reports of the drug bust at Richards' house in early 1967. When it is pulled back, it reveals an apparently naked Jagger with chains around his ankles. The clip concludes with scenes of the Stones in the studio intercut with footage that had previously been used in the "concert version" promo clip for "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby". The group also filmed a colour promo clip for the song "2000 Light Years From Home" (from their album Their Satanic Majesties Request) directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg.

The clip for "John, I'm Only Dancing" was made with a budget of just US$200 and filmed at the afternoon rehearsal for Bowie's Rainbow Theatre concert on 19 August 1972. It shows Bowie and band miming to the record intercut with footage of Bowie's dancers The Astronettes dancing on stage and behind a back-lit screen. The clip was turned down by the BBC, who reportedly found the homosexual overtones of the film distasteful, although Top of the Pops replaced it with footage of bikers and a dancer. The "Jean Genie" clip, produced for just US$350, was shot in one day and edited in less than two days. It intercuts footage of Bowie and band in concert with contrasting footage of the group in a photographic studio, wearing black stage outfits and standing agai`nst a white background. It also includes location footage with Bowie and Cyrinda Foxe (a MainMan employee and a friend of David and Angie Bowie) shot in San Francisco outside the famous Mars Hotel, with Fox posing provocatively in the street while Bowie lounges against the wall, smoking.

1974–1980 – Beginnings of music television

Australia

The Australian TV shows Countdown and Sounds, both of which premiered in 1974, were significant in developing and popularizing the music video genre in Australia and other countries, and in establishing the importance of music video clips as a means of promoting both emerging acts and new releases by established acts. In early 1974, former radio DJ Graham Webb launched a weekly teen-oriented TV music show which screened on Sydney's ATN-7 on Saturday mornings; this was renamed Sounds Unlimited in 1975 and later shortened simply to Sounds. In need of material for the show, Webb approached Seven newsroom staffer Russell Mulcahy and asked him to shoot film footage to accompany popular songs for which there were no purpose-made clips (e.g. Harry Nilsson's "Everybody's Talking"). Using this method, Webb and Mulcahy assembled a collection of about 25 clips for the show. The success of his early efforts encouraged Mulcahy to quit his TV job and become a full-time director, and he made clips for several popular Australian acts including Stylus, Marcia Hines, Hush and AC/DC.

After relocating to the UK in the mid-1970s, Mulcahy made successful music videos for several noted British pop acts—his early UK credits included XTC's "Making Plans For Nigel" (1979) and his landmark video for The Buggles' "Video Killed The Radio Star" (1979) which became the first music video played on MTV in 1981. Countdown was partly based on the 1960s Australian pop show Kommotion and on the BBC's Top of the Pops but unlike its British counterpart, Countdown was not restricted in its use of music videos. The program was launched in late 1974, a few months after Sounds, and initially screened in a late Saturday afternoon timeslot, but in January 1975, only a few weeks before color TV was officially launched in Australia, it moved to the prime 6 pm Sunday timeslot; thanks to the ABC's nationwide reach, it rapidly became one of the highest-rating shows on Australian TV.

As it gained popularity, Countdown talent coordinator Ian "Molly" Meldrum and producer Michael Shrimpton quickly realized that "film clips" were becoming an important new commodity in music marketing. Despite the show's minuscule budget, Countdown's original director Paul Drane was able to create several memorable music videos especially for the show, including the classic film-clips for the AC/DC hits "It's A Long Way To The Top" and "Jailbreak".

Among the first music videos were clips produced by ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith who started making short musical films for Saturday Night Live. – influenced by Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" clip, it featured only the text of the song's lyrics—the video for George Michael's "Freedom 90" (1990), in which Michael himself refused to appear, forcing director David Fincher to substitute top fashion models in his place.

In 1983, the most successful and influential music video of all time was released — the nearly 14-minute-long video for Michael Jackson's song "Thriller". The video set new standards for production, having cost US$500,000 to film. That video, along with earlier videos by Jackson for his songs "Billie Jean" and "Beat It", also was instrumental in getting music videos by African American artists played on MTV. Earlier, such videos had been rare: according to MTV, this was because it initially conceived itself as a rock-music-oriented channel, although musician Rick James was outspoken in his criticism of the cable channel, claiming in 1983 that MTV's refusal to air the music video for his song "Super Freak" and clips by other African-American performers was "blatant racism".

The Canadian music channel MuchMusic was launched in 1984. In 1984, MTV also launched the MTV Video Music Awards (later to be known as the VMA's), an annual awards event that would come to underscore MTV's importance in the music industry.

In 1985, MTV launched the channel VH1 (then known as "VH-1: Video Hits One"), featuring softer music, and meant to cater to an older demographic than MTV. MTV Europe was launched in 1987, and MTV Asia in 1991. Another important development in music videos was the launch of The Chart Show on the UK's Channel 4 in 1986. This was a program which consisted entirely of music videos (the only outlet many videos had on British TV at the time), without presenters. Instead, the videos were linked by then state of the art computer graphics. The show moved to ITV in 1989.

The video for the 1985 Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing" made pioneering use of computer animation, and helped make the song an international hit. Ironically, the song itself was a wry comment on the music-video phenomenon, sung from the point of view of an appliance deliveryman both drawn to and repelled by the outlandish images and personalities that appeared on MTV. In 1986, Peter Gabriel's song "Sledgehammer" used special effects and animation techniques developed by British studio Aardman Animation. The video for "Sledgehammer" would go on to be a phenomenal success and win nine MTV Video Music Awards.

In 1988, the MTV show Yo! MTV Raps debuted; the show helped to bring hip hop music to a mass audience for the first time.

1992–2004: Rise of the directors

In December 1992, MTV began listing directors with the artist and song credits, reflecting the fact that music videos had increasingly become an auteur's medium. Directors such as Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, Stéphane Sednaoui, Mark Romanek and Hype Williams all got their start around this time; all brought a unique vision and style to the videos they directed. Some of these directors, including, Gondry, Jonze and F. Gary Gray, went on to direct feature films. This continued a trend that had begun earlier with directors such as Lasse Hallström and David Fincher.

Two of the videos directed by Romanek in 1995 are notable for being two of the three most expensive music videos of all time: Michael and Janet Jackson's "Scream", which cost $7 million to produce, and Madonna's "Bedtime Story", which cost $5 million. "Scream" remains the most expensive video of all time. During this period, MTV launched channels around the world to show music videos produced in each local market: MTV Latin America in 1993, MTV India in 1996, and MTV Mandarin in 1997, among others. MTV2, originally called "M2" and meant to show more alternative and older music videos, debuted in 1996.

2005–present: The Internet becomes video-friendly

The earliest purveyors of music videos on the internet were members of IRC-based groups, who recorded them as they appeared on television, then digitised them, exchanging the .mpg files via IRC channels. The website iFilm, which hosted short videos, including music videos, launched in 1997. Napster, a peer-to-peer file sharing service which ran between 1999 and 2001, enabled users to share video files, including those for music videos. By the mid-2000s, MTV and many of its sister channels had largely abandoned showing music videos in favor of reality television shows, which were more popular with its audiences, and which MTV had itself helped to pioneer with the show The Real World, which premiered in 1992.

2005 saw the launch of the website YouTube, which made the viewing of online video faster and easier; Google Videos, Yahoo! Video, Facebook and MySpace's video functionality, which uses similar technology. Such websites had a profound effect on the viewing of music videos; some artists began to see success as a result of videos seen mostly or entirely online. The band OK Go may exemplify this trend, having achieved fame through the videos for two of their songs, "A Million Ways" in 2005 and "Here It Goes Again" in 2006, both of which first became well-known online. (OK Go repeated the trick with another high-concept video in 2010, for their song "This Too Shall Pass".) Artists like Soulja Boy Tell 'Em and Marié Digby also achieved some level of fame initially through videos released only online.

The 2008 video for Weezer's "Pork and Beans" also captured this trend, by including at least 20 YouTube celebrities; the single became the most successful of Weezer's career, in chart performance. In 2007, the RIAA issued cease-and-desist letters to YouTube users to prevent single users from sharing videos, which are the property of the music labels. After its merger with Google, YouTube assured the RIAA that they would find a way to pay royalties through a bulk agreement with the major record labels. This was complicated by the fact that not all labels share the same policy toward music videos: some welcome the development and upload music videos to various online outlets themselves, viewing music videos as free advertising for their artists, while other labels view music videos not as an advertisement, but as the product itself.

In 2010, Lady Gaga's music video "Bad Romance" made headlines by becoming the most-viewed video on YouTube, music-related or otherwise, with 1.3 billion views; it had over 3 billion views by the end of 2010. It in turn was beaten later in the year by the video for Justin Bieber's song "Baby", which had over 4 billion views by the end of 2010.

MTV itself now provides streams of artists' music videos, while AOL's recently launched AOL Music features a vast collection of advertising supported streaming videos. The Internet has become the primary growth income market for record company-produced music videos. At its launch, Apple's iTunes Store provided a section of free music videos in high quality compression to be watched via the iTunes application. More recently the iTunes Store has begun selling music videos for use on Apple's iPod with video playback capability.

To further signify the change in direction towards Music Video airplay, MTV officially dropped the Music Television tagline on February 8, 2010 from their logo in response to their increased commitment to non-scripted reality programming and other youth-oriented entertainment rising in prominence on their live broadcast.

VEVO is a music video website launched by several major music publishers in December 2009. The videos on VEVO are syndicated to YouTube, with Google and VEVO sharing the advertising revenue.

Official Lo-fi Internet music clips

Following the shift toward internet broadcasting and the rising popularity of user-generated video sites such as YouTube around 2006, some independent filmmakers began recording live sessions to present on the Web. Examples of this new way of creating and presenting a music video include Vincent Moon's work with The Take-Away Shows; In the Van sessions, a similar platform; and the Dutch VPRO 3VOOR12, which puts out music videos recorded in elevators and other small, guerrilla filmmaking type locations in a similar tradition called (Behind) closed doors. All of these swiftly recorded clips are made with minimal budgets and share similar aesthetics with the lo-fi music movement of the early nineties. Offering freedom from the increasingly burdensome financial requirements of high-production movie-like clips, it began as the only method for little-known indie music artists to present themselves to a wider audience, but increasingly this approach has been taken up by such major mainstream artists as R.E.M. and Tom Jones.

Other music genres

Country music

When the first country music videos were made is disputed. Sam Lovullo, the producer of the television series Hee Haw, said his show presented "what were, in reality, the first musical videos," while JMI Records made the same claim with Don Williams' 1973 song, "The Shelter of Your Eyes. In addition, a film of "Galveston", a crossover hit for country-pop performer Glen Campbell in 1969, has appeared on the video sharing service YouTube.

Country music historian Bob Millard wrote that JMI had pioneered the country music video concept by "producing a 3-minute film" to go along with Williams' song. created and founded by Glenn D. Daniels and uplinked from the Video World Productions facility in Hendersonville, Tennessee. CMT's chief competitor, The Nashville Network (TNN), premiered two days later. CMT was positioned to play country music videos 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while TNN was geared toward programming lending itself to a "country lifestyle".

A competitor network to CMT, Great American Country, or GAC, went on the air in December 1995.

Censorship

As the concept and medium of a music video is a form of artistic expression, artists have been on many occasions censored if their content is deemed offensive. What may be considered offensive will differ in countries due to censorship laws and local customs and ethics. In most cases, the record label will provide and distribute videos edited or provide both censored and uncensored videos for an artist. In some cases, it has been known for music videos to be banned in their entirety as they have been deemed far too offensive to be broadcast.

1980s

In the late 1970's and into the early 80's Jon Small Was touring with Billy Joel in Australia where they saw with in their hotel rooms rudimentary videos of local musical talent on the Australian TV Channels. Argumentively the first television version of a Musical Video was conceived in Australia. They got back to their native town of New York City and went to Home Box Office in Manhattan N.Y. to propose the idea of having a musical filler in-between the HBO movies; this filler was to provide a low cost entertainment for the dead air time between movies aired on the visionary pay TV network. The first video to be banned by MTV was Queen's 1982 hit "Body Language". Due to thinly veiled homoerotic undertones plus lots of skin and lots of sweat (but apparently not enough clothing, save that worn by the fully clothed members of Queen themselves), it was deemed unsuitable for a television audience at the time. However, the channel did air Olivia Newton-John's 1981 video for the hit song "Physical", which lavished camera time on male models working out in string bikinis who spurn her advances, ultimately pairing off to walk to the men's locker rooms holding hands, though the network ended the clip before the overt homosexual "reveal" ending in some airings. The video for "Girls on Film" by Duran Duran, which featured topless women mud wrestling and other depictions of sexual fetishes, was banned by the BBC.

MTV did air the video, albeit in a heavily edited form. Laura Branigan initially protested an MTV request to edit her "Self Control" video in 1984, but relented when the network refused to air the William Friedkin-directed clip, featuring the singer lured through an increasingly debauched, if increasingly stylized, series of nightclubs by a masked man who ultimately takes her to bed. In 1989, Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time" video (where the singer performs the song in an extremely revealing body suit surrounded by a ship full of cheering sailors) was restricted to late-night broadcasts on MTV. The Sex Pistols' video for "God Save the Queen" was banned by the BBC for calling the United Kingdom a fascist regime. Mötley Crüe's video for "Girls, Girls, Girls" was banned by MTV for having completely nude women dancing around the members of the band in a strip club. Mötley Crüe did make another version of the video that was accepted by MTV.

In 1983, Entertainment Tonight ran a segment on censorship and "Rock Video Violence." The episode explored the impact of MTV rock video violence on the youth of the early 1980s. Excerpts from the music videos of Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, Kiss, Kansas, Billy Idol, Def Leppard, Pat Benatar and The Rolling Stones were shown. Dr. Thomas Radecki of the National Coalition on TV Violence was interviewed accusing the fledgling rock video business of excessive violence. Night Tracks' producer Tom Lynch weighed in on the effects of the video violence controversy. Recording artists John Cougar Mellencamp, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of Kiss, along with directors Dominic Orlando and Julien Temple, provided a defense of their work. The episode's conclusion was that the controversy will continue to grow. Some artists have used censorship as a publicity tool. In the 1980s, the show Top of the Pops was censorious in its approach to video content, so some acts made videos that they knew would be censored, using the resulting public controversy to promote their release. Examples of this tactic were Duran Duran's aforementioned "Girls on Film" and Frankie Goes to Hollywood with "Relax", directed by Bernard Rose.

1990s

In 1991, the dance segment of Michael Jackson's "Black or White" was cut because it showed Michael Jackson "inappropriately" touching himself in it. Michael Jackson's most controversial video, "They Don't Care About Us" was banned from MTV, VH1, and BBC because of the alleged anti-Semitic message in the song and the visuals in the background of the "Prison Version" of the video. Also in 1991, emerging country music superstar Garth Brooks found himself at the center of controversy when his video for "The Thunder Rolls" was banned by both The Nashville Network (TNN) and Country Music Television (CMT). The video dealt with the issue of domestic violence in stark visual terms, and featured a heavily-costumed Brooks portraying an abusive husband. Although both Brooks and director Bud Schaetzle publicly denied that the video was crafted specifically to foster debate, its banning shed light on Nashville's conservative programming practices and brought attention to Brooks' developing sense of showmanship. In the wake of the video's critical acclamation, and with public support generated by nationwide "viewing parties" organized by supportive radio stations, TNN and CMT reluctantly began airing it. "The Thunder Rolls" went on to win the Video of the Year Award from the Country Music Association, and was named by both MTV and CMT as one of the "100 Greatest Music Videos Ever Made."

Madonna is the artist most associated with music video censorship. The controversy surrounding her marketing of sexuality began with the video for "Lucky Star", and amplified over time due to clips such as "Like a Virgin". Outcry occurred over the subject matter discussed in "Papa Don't Preach". "Like a Prayer" courted heavy criticism due to its religious, sexual, and racially-oriented imagery. In 1990, Madonna's music video for the song "Justify My Love" was banned by MTV due to its depiction of sadomasochism, homosexuality, cross-dressing, and group sex which generated a media firestorm. The debate over the banning of "Justify My Love" by the Canadian music video network MuchMusic led to the launching in 1991 of Too Much 4 Much, a series of occasional, late-night specials (still being aired in the early 2000s) in which videos officially banned by MuchMusic were broadcast, followed by panel discussion regarding why they were removed.

In 1992, The Shamen's video for the song "Ebeneezer Goode" was banned by the BBC due to its perceived subliminal endorsement of the recreational drug Ecstasy. Prodigy's 1997 video for "Smack My Bitch Up" was banned in some countries due to depictions of drug use and nudity. The Prodigy's video for "Firestarter" was banned by the BBC because of its references to arson.

2000s

In 2000, the music video for "Rock DJ" by Robbie Williams caused controversy due to the graphic nature of the video which featured Robbie Williams appearing naked and peeling off his skin to reveal flesh. The video was censored in the UK and was only once broadcast uncensored at 2:00 AM. The video was banned in Dominican Republic due to allegations of satanism. Björk's 2001 song, "Pagan Poetry", was banned from MTV for depictions of sexual intercourse, fellatio, and body piercings. Her next single, "Cocoon", was also banned by MTV as it featured a nude Björk. Madonna's video for "Erotica" was aired only three times (each time after midnight) due to its sexual depictions of sadomasochism. More recently, Madonna's "What It Feels Like for a Girl" was banned in 2001 due to its graphic depiction of violence. She also pulled her "American Life" video because of its controversial military imagery that seemed inappropriate once the War in Iraq began; subsequently, a new video was made for the song.

In 2002, the video for "All The Things She Said" by Russian duo t.A.T.u. caused controversy as it featured the young girls, Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova, embracing and eventually kissing. UK TV presenters Richard and Judy campaigned to have the video banned claiming it pandered to pedophiles with the use of school uniforms and young girls kissing, although the campaign failed. Capitalizing on the controversy, the kiss was choreographed into their live performances. Top of the Pops aired the girls' performance with the kiss replaced by audience footage. NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno cut away from the girls' kiss to shots of the band. Throughout their promotional tour, t.A.T.u. protested by appearing in shirts reading "censored".

As of 2005, the Egyptian state censorship committee has banned at least 20 music videos which featured sexual connotations due to Muslim moral viewpoints. In 2004, many family groups and politicians lobbied for the banning of the Eric Prydz video "Call on Me" for containing women dancing in an sexually suggestive way, however, the video was not banned. At some point in the past, the video for "(s)AINT" by Marilyn Manson was banned by that artist's label due to its violence and sexual content. In 2008, Justice's video for their song "Stress" was boycotted by several major music television channels due to allegations of racism and violence; the video depicts several youths committing various crimes throughout the streets of Paris, with the youths mainly being of North African descent.

2010s

In 2010, Lady Gaga's video "Telephone" was banned by MTV. MTV had banned the video claiming that the content could not be shown within their programming, but soon began showing the video frequently on European MTV programming. Lady Gaga's previous videos have also attracted criticism for their sexually suggestive content; the video for "LoveGame" was refused play on the Australian video music program Video Hits, however, other Australian programs aired the video uncensored.

Ciara's video for "Ride" was banned by BET, with the network citing that the video was too sexually charged. The video was also subsequently banned by all UK television channels.

Unofficial music videos

Unofficial, fan-made music videos ("bootleg" tapes) are typically made by synchronizing existing footage from other sources, such as television series or movies, with the song. The first known fan video, or songvid, was created by Kandy Fong in 1975 using still images from Star Trek loaded into a slide carousel and played in conjunction with a song. Fan videos made using videocassette recorders soon followed. With the advent of easy distribution over the internet and cheap video-editing software, fan-created videos began to gain wider notice in the late 1990s.

Such videos are sometimes known as OPV, Original Promotional Videos (or sometimes Other People's Videos). In the case of anime music videos, the source material is drawn from Japanese anime or from American animation series. Since neither the music nor the film footage is typically licensed, distributing these videos is usually copyright infringement on both counts. A well-known example of an unofficial video include one made for Danger Mouse's illegal mash-up of the Jay-Z track "Encore" with music sampled from The Beatles' White Album, in which concert footage of The Beatles is remixed with footage of Jay-Z and rap dancers. In 2007, a new form of lip sync-based music video called lip dub became popular in which a group of people are filmed lip singing in a seemingly random spot then dubbing over it in post editing with the original audio of the song. These videos have the feeling of being spontaneous and authentic and are spread virally through mass participatory video sites like YouTube.

Music video stations

Here are some music video stations from around the world:

4 Music

40 TV

Alt TV

Audiotube

AUX.tv

BET

*

C4

Channel O

Channel [V]

Channel [U]

CMC-TV

CMC

CMT

Fly Music

Fuse TV

Gospel Music Channel

GAC

IMF

Indy's Music Channel

Juice TV

Kerrang! TV (rock)

Scuzz

MAD (Music All Day)

MCM

MuchMore

MuchMusic

MusiquePlus

Music 24

myx

NME TV

PMC

Q TV

Spirit

TMF

Tempo TV

The Box

The Tube

theCoolTV

TVU

Vevo

VH1

VIVA

Worship

Music video shows

ABC Rocks (ABC)

106 & Park (BET)

(ITV1 1998-2007)

Top Of The Pops (BBC 1964-2006)

(Logo)

Countdown (Australian ABC)

Friday Night Videos (NBC)

Headbanger's Ball (MTV2)

''Kidsongs

Loaded (Fuse)

Los 10+ Pedidos (MTV Latin America)

Night Tracks (TBS)

Pop 4 (TG4)

Rage (Australian ABC)

Schoolhouse Rock (ABC)

(syndication)

Soundwaves (Syndicated)

Video Hits Australia (Network Ten)

Video Hits Canada (CBC Television)

TRL (MTV)

Power Fuse (Fuse)

MuchOnDemand (MuchMusic)

MusiquePlus

Music Station (TV Asahi)

New York Hot Tracks (syndicated)

UVTV - Underground Video Television (UVTV – Underground Video Television)

Worlds Best Videos (IMF – International Music Feed)

VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown (VH1)

See also

List of most expensive music videos

Music video director

MTV Video Music Awards

Concert video design

One shot (music video)

Hitz Music

Video art

Video clip

Footnotes

References

Banks, Jack (1996) Monopoly Television: Mtv's Quest to Control the Music Westview Press ISBN 0-8133-1820-3

Clarke, Donald (1995) The Rise and Fall of Popular Music St. Martin's Pressy ISBN 0-312-11573-3

Denisoff, R. Serge (1991) Inside MTV New Brunswick: Transaction publishers ISBN 0-88738-864-7

Durant, Alan (1984). Cited in Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-15275-9.

Frith, Simon, Andrew Goodwin & Lawrence Grossberg (1993) Sound & Vision. The music video reader London: Routledge ISBN 0-415-09431-3

Goodwin, Andrew (1992) Dancing in the Distraction Factory : Music Television and Popular Culture University of Minnesota Press ISBN 0-8166-2063-6

Kaplan, E. Ann (1987) Rocking Around the Clock. Music Television, Postmodernism, and Consumer Culture London & New York: Routledge ISBN 0-415-03005-6

Kleiler, David (1997) You Stand There: Making Music Video Three Rivers Press ISBN 0-609-80036-1

Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-15275-9.

Shore, Michael (1984) The Rolling Stone book of rock video New York: Quill ISBN 0-688-03916-2

G.Turner, Video Clips and Popular Music, in Australian Journal of Cultural Studies 1/1,1983, 107–110

Vernallis, Carol (2004) Experiencing Music Video: Aesthetics and Cultural Context Columbia University Press ISBN 0-231-11798-1

Altrogge, Michael: Tönende Bilder: interdisziplinäre Studie zu Musik und Bildern in Videoclips und ihrer Bedeutung für Jugendliche. Band 1: Das Feld und die Theorie. Berlin: Vistas 2001

Altrogge, Michael: Tönende Bilder. Das Material: Die Musikvideos. Bd 2. Berlin: Vistas 2001

Altrogge, Michael: Tönende Bilder: interdisziplinäre Studie zu Musik und Bildern in Videoclips und ihrer Bedeutung für Jugendliche. Band 3: Die Rezeption: Strukturen der Wahrnehmung. Berlin: Vistas 2001

Bühler, Gerhard (2002): Postmoderne auf dem Bildschirm – auf der Leinwand. Musikvideos, Werbespots und David Lynchs Wild at Heart.

C.Hausheer/A.Schönholzer (Hrsg.), Visueller Sound. Musikvideos zwischen Avantgarde und Populärkultur, Luzern 1994

Helms, Dietrich; Thomas Phleps (Hrsg.): Clipped Differences. Geschlechterrepräsentation im Musikvideo. Bielefeld: Transcript 2003

Keazor, Henry / Wübbena, Thorsten: Video Thrills The Radio Star. Musikvideos: Geschichte, Themen, Analysen. Bielefeld: 2007 (Revised Edition), ISBN 3-89942-728-9

Keazor, Henry; Wübbena, Thorsten: Rewind, Play, Fast Forward. The Past, Present and Future of the Music Video. Bielefeld 2010; ISBN 978-3-8376-1185-4

Kirsch, Arlett: Musik im Fernsehen. Eine auditive Darstellungsform in einem audiovisuellen Medium. Berlin: Wiku 2002

Kurp, Matthias / Huschild, Claudia & Wiese, Klemens (2002): Musikfernsehen in Deutschland. Politische, soziologische und medienökonomische Aspekte

Neumann-Braun, Klaus / Schmidt, Axel / Mai, Manfred (2003): Popvisionen. Links in die Zukunft

Neumann-Braun, Klaus / Mikos, Lothar: Videoclips und Musikfernsehen. Eine problemorientierte Kommentierung der aktuellen Forschungsliteratur; Berlin: Vistas 2006

Quandt, Thorsten (1997). Musikvideos im Alltag Jugendlicher. Umfeldanalyse und qualitative Rezeptionsstudie. Deutscher Universitätsverlag

Category:Experimental film Category:Home video supplements Category:Single types Category:Advertising Category:Self-censorship Category:Visual music Category:Popular music

Name	Miley Cyrus
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Destiny Hope Cyrus
Born	November 23, 1992
Origin	Nashville, Tennessee,United States pop rock, teen pop, country pop, electropop, dance pop
Occupation	Actress, author, entrepreneur, fashion designer, singer, songwriter, musician, dancer
Years active	2001–present
Label	Hollywood, Fascination (UK), Avex (Japan)
Associated acts	Jonas Brothers, Billy Ray Cyrus
Url

Miley Ray Cyrus (born Destiny Hope Cyrus; November 23, 1992) is an American actress and pop singer. She achieved wide fame for her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana. Cyrus recorded music for the soundtracks, Hannah Montana (2006) and Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus (2007), released by Walt Disney Records. With the success of the Hannah Montana franchise she established herself as a teen idol. In 2007, Cyrus signed to Hollywood Records to pursue a solo career. She went on the Best of Both Worlds Tour the same year, in which she performed as both herself and in character as Hannah Montana. The tour was eventually turned into a high-grossing concert film entitled (2008). In July 2008, Cyrus released her first solo album, Breakout (2008), which was commercially successful.

She began her foray into film by providing the voice of "Penny" in the animated film Bolt (2008). Cyrus earned a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for her performance of Bolts theme song, "I Thought I Lost You". She also reprised her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana in (2009). The introduced her to new audiences within country and adult contemporary markets.

She began to cultivate an adult image in 2009 with the release of The Time of Our Lives (2009), an extended play which presented a more mainstream pop sound, and by filming The Last Song (2010), a coming-of-age drama film. The former included Cyrus's best-selling single, "Party in the U.S.A." (2009). A studio album titled Can't Be Tamed was released in 2010 and presents a new dance-pop sound. The music video and lyrics of the album's lead single, "Can't Be Tamed", portrays a more sexualized image for the entertainer. Cyrus ranked number thirteen on Forbes 2010 Celebrity 100.

Early life

Cyrus was born on November 23, 1992 in Nashville, Tennessee to Leticia "Tish" (née Finley) and country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. Her parents named her Destiny Hope because they believed that she would accomplish great things with her life. They gave her the nickname "Smiley", which was later shortened to "Miley", because she smiled so often as a baby. Cyrus suffers from a mild heart condition causing tachycardia which, though not dangerous, is often bothersome.

Against the wishes of her father's record company, Cyrus's parents secretly married a month after Cyrus's birth on December 28, 1992. She has a half-brother, Christopher Cody, Billy Ray's son from a brief relationship, born the same year as Miley; he grew up with his mother in South Carolina. Tish and Billy Ray had two more children, Braison and Noah. Cyrus's godmother is entertainer Dolly Parton. Cyrus was very close to her paternal grandfather, Democratic politician Ronald Ray Cyrus. Cyrus has paid her grandfather several tributes since his death in 2006, including eventually changing her middle name to "Ray". According to Cyrus's father, "A lot of people say Miley changed her name to Miley Ray because of Billy Ray, but that's not true. She did that in honor of my dad, because the two of them just loved each other to pieces." and attended Heritage Elementary School. She was raised Christian and was baptized in a Southern Baptist church prior to moving to Hollywood in 2005. She attended church regularly while growing up and wore a purity ring. Cyrus would not seriously consider acting until she was eight. Several of Cyrus's siblings also eventually entered the entertainment business: Trace became a vocalist and guitarist for the electronic pop band Metro Station, Noah became an actress, and Brandi became a guitarist.

Career

2001–05: Early work

In 2001, when Cyrus was eight, she and her family moved to Toronto, Canada while her father filmed the television series Doc. Cyrus said watching her father film the show inspired her to pursue acting. After Billy Ray took her to see a 2001 Mirvish production of Mamma Mia! at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Cyrus grabbed his arm and told him, "This is what I want to do, daddy. I want to be an actress." She began taking singing and acting classes at the Armstrong Acting Studio in Toronto. In her first role, Cyrus played a girl named Kylie on Doc. After sending in a new tape and flying to Hollywood for further auditions, However, her persistence and ability to sing in addition to act led the show's producers to invite her back for further auditions. Cyrus eventually received the lead, renamed "Miley Stewart" after herself, at the age of twelve.

As Cyrus's career took off, Tish Cyrus made several critical decisions regarding her daughter's representation. She signed Cyrus with Mitchell Gossett, director of the youth division at Cunningham Escott Slevin Doherty. Gossett, who specializes in creating child stars, had arranged for Cyrus's auditions for Hannah Montana and is credited with "discovering" her. For Cyrus's music career, Tish followed the advice of Dolly Parton, Cyrus's godmother and a singer herself, and signed Cyrus with Jason Morey of Morey Management Group. "Dolly said the Moreys are people you can trust around your daughter," Tish Cyrus recalls, "and she said they have good morals, which is not always the case in this business." Tish also recruited Billy Ray's business manager to manage her daughter's finances. Tish herself continues to co-manage or produce many of Cyrus's career decisions. and studied with a private tutor on the set of her television show.

2006–07: Hannah Montana and Meet Miley Cyrus

.]] Hannah Montana became an instant hit and propelled Cyrus to teen idol status, according to The Daily Telegraph. The series premiered on March 26, 2006 to the largest audience ever for a Disney Channel show and soon became one of the highest-rated series on basic cable, elevating Cyrus's wealth and fame along with it. Time magazine reports that Cyrus's "phenom[enal]" success is due partially to her talent and partially to "Disney learning to use its vast, multimedia holdings" and market Cyrus and Hannah Montana appropriately. Cyrus eventually became the first artist to have deals in television, film, consumer products, and music within The Walt Disney Company. "The Best of Both Worlds" is credited to "Hannah Montana", the pop star Cyrus portrays on the series by the same name. As with other songs credited to Montana, Cyrus typically dressed as the character when performing the song live. Cyrus's first release under her own name was a cover of James Baskett's "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", released on April 4, 2006 on the fourth edition of DisneyMania. Dressed as Hannah Montana, Cyrus opened for The Cheetah Girls on twenty dates of their The Party's Just Begun Tour, beginning on September 15, 2006. On October 24 of same year, Walt Disney Records released the first Hannah Montana soundtrack. Of the nine tracks on the soundtrack performed by Cyrus, eight were credited to "Hannah Montana" and one, a duet with her father titled "I Learned from You", was credited to Cyrus as herself. The album peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart.

The second season of Hannah Montana premiered on April 23, 2007, and ran until October 12, 2008. Cyrus signed a four-album deal with Disney-owned Hollywood Records and, on June 26, 2007, released a double-disc album. The first disc was the soundtrack to the second season of Hannah Montana, while the second, titled Meet Miley Cyrus, was Cyrus's debut album credited to her own name. The double-disc album peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 and was later certified three times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Meet Miley Cyrus generated "See You Again", Cyrus's first single to be released under her own name and her first top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100. In Fall 2007, Cyrus launched her first tour, the Best of Both Worlds Tour, to promote Meet Miley Cyrus and the Hannah Montana soundtracks. With the Jonas Brothers, Aly & AJ, and Everlife as her opening acts, Cyrus toured from October 17, 2007 to January 31, 2008 with stops in the U.S. and Canada. Tickets sold out in minutes and were scalped for up to $2,500 and an average of $214, well above their $26–$65 face value. A Ticketmaster official commented, "Hell hath no fury like the parent of a child throwing a tantrum. People who have been in this business for a long time are watching what's happening, and they say there hasn't been a demand of this level or intensity since The Beatles or Elvis."

2008–09: Breakout, transitions and film career launch

After the end of the Best of Both Worlds Tour in January 2008, Walt Disney Pictures released , a 3D concert film of the tour, on February 1, 2008 for what was expected to be a one-week run. The film earned $29 million at the box-office and an average of $42,000 per theater, twice the expected total, convincing Disney executives to extend the release for an indefinite run. "We don't want to turn away kids from the theaters who couldn't get into the concerts," said Chuck Viane, Disney's chief of distribution. The was released by Walt Disney Records/Hollywood Records on March 11, 2008 and peaked at number three on the Billboard 200.

On July 22, 2008, Cyrus released her second studio album under her own name, entitled Breakout. Cyrus said Breakout was inspired by "what's been going on in my life in the past year." Cyrus co-wrote eight out of twelve songs on the album. The album debuted at #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and its lead single, "7 Things", peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. She hosted the 2008 CMT Music Awards with her father in April and the 2008 Teen Choice Awards by herself in August. Cyrus provided the voice of Penny in the 2008 computer-animated film Bolt, which was released on November 21, 2008 to critical acclaim. Cyrus also co-wrote and recorded the song "I Thought I Lost You" as a duet with John Travolta for the film, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. In September 2009, she participated in the charity single "Just Stand Up!" in support of the anti-cancer campaign Stand Up to Cancer and in the City of Hope Benefit Concert in support of cancer research and training programs. She also became involved in Disney's Friends for Change, an environmentalist group, for which she recorded the charity single "Send It On" along with several other Disney Channel stars.

Cyrus had already begun transitioning to a more grown-up image in late 2008, when her representatives negotiated a deal for novelist Nicholas Sparks to write the screenplay and novel basis for a film that would serve as a star vehicle for Cyrus by introducing her to audiences older than the young fans she had gained through Hannah Montana. Sparks and co-writer Jeff Van Wie developed The Last Song. In March 2009, Cyrus published Miles To Go, a memoir co-written by Hilary Liftin chronicling her life through age sixteen. Cyrus starred as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana in , released April 10, 2009. Both the film and its soundtrack, which contained twelve songs performed by Cyrus, achieved commercial success. The soundtrack's lead single, "The Climb", became a Top 40 hit in twelve countries and introduced Cyrus to listeners outside her typical teen pop audience. Cyrus had considered ending Hannah Montana after its third season, which finished production on June 5, 2009, but Disney retained and exercised its option for a fourth season.

Production on The Last Song lasted from June 15, 2009 to August 18, 2009. In between, Cyrus launched the third Hannah Montana soundtrack, recorded the extended play The Time of Our Lives, and released the EP's lead single, "Party in the U.S.A." Cyrus said The Time of Our Lives "is a transitioning album. [...] really to introduce people to what I want my next record to sound like and with time I will be able to do that a little more." "Party in the U.S.A." debuted at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 for her best-ever ranking on the chart. The Time of Our Lives was released in conjunction with a clothing line co-designed by Cyrus and Max Azria for Walmart.

From September 14, 2009 to December 29, 2010, Cyrus toured on her Wonder World Tour to promote Breakout and The Time of Our Lives. On December 7, 2009, Cyrus performed for Queen Elizabeth II and numerous other members of the British Royal Family at the Royal Variety Performance in Blackpool, North West England.

2010–present: Can't Be Tamed and focus on film career

Production on the fourth and final season of Hannah Montana began on January 18, 2010. In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Cyrus appeared on the charity singles "" and "Everybody Hurts". Her third studio album, Can't Be Tamed, was released on June 21, 2010. The album's first single is the title track, "Can't Be Tamed". The single was released for sale on May 18, 2010 and entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number eight. Cyrus's costumes and dances while promoting Can't Be Tamed were also considerably more provocative than previous performances, arousing media criticism. After releasing the album, Cyrus intends to take a break from the music industry in order to focus on her film career. She commented, "I've not taken, like, acting lessons or anything, but it doesn't mean I don't need to because I'm sure I do [...] I'm probably going to go book an acting coach." Cyrus has also decided to opt out of college for the same reason, saying "I'm a firm believer that you can go back at any age you want, because my Grandma went back to college at 62 [...] For right now, I really want to focus on my career. I've worked hard to get to where I am now, and I want to enjoy it while it lasts."

Cyrus starred in The Last Song, which was released on March 31, 2010, and received generally poor reviews, as did Cyrus's performance. Nonetheless, the film was commercially successful, grossing more than $88 million at the worldwide box office. According to box-office analyst Exhibitor Relations, the film marked "a successful transition to adult roles for Miley Cyrus."

The fourth and final season of Hannah Montana began airing on Disney Channel on July 11, 2010 and is scheduled to end in 2011.

As of December 2010, Cyrus is set to star in two more films, and So Undercover. In LOL, a remake of a 2008 French teen comedy, Cyrus plays "a daughter who is involved with all the wrong kids, doing drugs, failing school, but [...whose] mother has her on this perfect pedestal" and says "[She] just fell in love with the story." Miley's character loses her virginity, smokes cannabis, gets wasted and kisses two girlfriends on the lips. She will also star in So Undercover, an action comedy film. Cyrus will play the part of "a tough, street-smart private eye hired by the FBI to go undercover in a college sorority." She will learn street fighting for the role. Parade magazine reported she was the richest teenage celebrity and that her franchise would be worth approximately $1 billion by the end of the year. With Cyrus's increased success came increased media attention. In a May 2008 interview with The Los Angeles Times, Francois Navarre, the proprietor of the X17 photo agency, said Cyrus's market value had picked up considerably after the Vanity Fair photo controversy: "She's started to sell more. [...] It used to be $300, and now it's $2,000 for a picture." Estimates for a picture of the then-15 year old's first kiss ranged from $30,000 to $150,000.

Cyrus celebrated her 16th birthday at Disneyland with a charity fundraiser for Youth Service America, a youth volunteer service organization.

At the end of 2009, Billboard magazine ranked Cyrus the fourth best-selling female artist and the fifth best-selling singer overall. Forbes ranked her #29 on the Celebrity 100 and reported she had earned a total of $25 million.

On October 8, 2009, Cyrus deleted her account on the social networking site Twitter, citing a desire for more privacy. She also told Parade magazine, "I deleted my Twitter account because I said on there that I believed in gay marriage because everyone should have the right to love each other, and I got such hate mail about my being a bad person." Cyrus was very popular on the site: her account was watched by approximately 2 million Twitter users in addition to the general public at the time of deletion.

On October 26, 2010, less than a month before Cyrus's eighteenth birthday, her father Billy Ray Cyrus filed for divorce from her mother in Tennessee, citing irreconcilable differences. In a statement made to People the next day announcing the split, the couple said, "As you can imagine, this is a very difficult time for our family... We are trying to work through some personal matters. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers."

Controversies

In December 2007, a brief controversy emerged when photos Cyrus had posted on her private MySpace account, depicting her and a female friend sharing a piece of licorice, were spread across the internet. "For me, I was like, That's two girls—it's not a big deal. But they got spread around. Like someone copied and pasted and said, Omigod, look at this, and blah blah blah," said Cyrus.

In April 2008, several provocative images of Cyrus in her underwear and swimsuit were leaked onto the web by a teenager who hacked Cyrus's Gmail account. Cyrus described the images as "silly, inappropriate shots" and stated, "I am going to make mistakes and I am not perfect. I never intended for any of this to happen and I am truly sorry if I have disappointed anyone." On April 25, 2008, the televised entertainment program Entertainment Tonight reported that Cyrus, then 15, had posed topless for a photoshoot taken by photographer Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair. On April 29, 2008, The New York Times clarified that though the pictures left an impression that she was bare-breasted, Cyrus was wrapped in a bedsheet and was actually not topless. Some parents expressed outrage at the nature of the photograph, which a Disney spokesperson described as "a situation [that] was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines." Gary Marsh, president of entertainment for Disney Channel Worldwide, was quoted by Portfolio magazine to have said, “For Miley Cyrus to be a 'good girl' is now a business decision for her. Parents have invested in her a godliness. If she violates that trust, she won't get it back."

In May 2008, Gossett, Cyrus's longtime acting agent, left Cunningham Escott Slevin Doherty for United Talent Agency, partially with the hope of "giving Cyrus the major-agency backing that would support a widening career", according to The Hollywood Reporter. About a year later in June 2009, Cyrus left both Gossett and UTA, which had recently negotiated her deals for The Last Song and the fourth season of Hannah Montana, and joined the Creative Artists Agency, which had already represented her for music. Nikki Finke, who broke the news, reported, "Is this fair to UTA? Of course not. But I hear the decision was made by Miley's mother Trish Cyrus".

Cyrus's performance of "Party in the U.S.A." at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards incited a media uproar, with some viewers criticizing Cyrus's provocative outfit and inclusion of a brief pole dance as inappropriate for her age, then sixteen, and for her young fans. Conversely, Newsday reported that her sexualization "has been coming for some time." Cyrus was also criticized that year for dating Gaston, five years her senior, and for a photo displaying Cyrus and friends making "slant-eyed" expressions, which the Organization of Chinese Americans claimed was offensive to the Asian community. Cyrus apologized for the photo on her website, defending her actions and saying, "In NO way was I making fun of any ethnicity! I was simply making a goofy face."

Later in 2010, TMZ released a video of Cyrus, then 16, giving Adam Shankman, producer of The Last Song, a lap dance at the film's wrap party. Cyrus's father defended her actions, saying Miley was just "having fun" and that "it's what people her age do". Later that year in December, TMZ released a video of Cyrus, which took place five days after her 18th birthday at her Los Angeles home, in which she is seen smoking from a bong. She claimed she was smoking the psychoactive plant salvia divinorum, although this has not been confirmed by anybody but Cyrus herself. Salvia is legal in the state of California, and Cyrus was of legal age at the time the video was shot. Cyrus's father expressed his sadness regarding the matter on Twitter, saying, "Sorry guys. I had no idea. Just saw this stuff for the first time myself. Im so sad. There is much beyond my control right now".

Relationships

Cyrus told Seventeen magazine that she and Nick Jonas had dated for two years and "were in love", but were "fighting a lot" by the end. In February 2008, Cyrus and her friend opened a YouTube account and began posting videos of what they called The Miley and Mandy Show. The show, described as a "YouTube hit," is said to be filmed for fun by Cyrus and Jiroux and to be entirely their work, with Cyrus and Jiroux editing the footage together.

In June 2009, Cyrus ended her nine month relationship with model Justin Gaston shortly before flying to Georgia to film The Last Song. While filming later that month, Cyrus began dating her co-star in The Last Song, Australian actor Liam Hemsworth. She later called him her "first serious boyfriend". In August 2010, it was confirmed that her relationship with Hemsworth had ended. Cyrus and Hemsworth were seen together a month later, and were reportedly back together. It was announced in early November that the couple had split again.

Filmography

{| class="wikitable sortable" |+ Films ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | 2003 | Big Fish | Young Ruthie | |- | 2007 | High School Musical 2 | Girl at pool | Disney Channel Original Movie |- | 2008 | | Herself | 3D Concert film |- | 2008 | Bolt | Penny (voice) | |- | 2009 | | Miley Stewart / Hannah Montana | |- | 2010 | | Veronica "Ronnie" Miller | |- | 2010 | Sex and the City 2 | Herself | Cameo |- | 2011 | | Lola | Remake of French film |- | 2011 | Justin Bieber: Never Say Never | Herself | Cameo |- | 2011 | So Undercover | Molly | Filming |}

{| class="wikitable sortable" |+ Television ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | 2001–2003 | Doc | Kylie | Recurring role |- | 2006– 2011 | Hannah Montana | Miley Stewart / Hannah Montana | Lead role |- | 2006 | The Suite Life of Zack & Cody | Miley Stewart / Hannah Montana | "That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana" (Season 2, Episode 20) |- | 2007 | | Celebrity Star (voice) | "Frog Prince" (Season 2, Episode 5) |- | 2007–2008 | | Yata (voice) | Recurring role |- | 2009 | | Miley Stewart / Hannah Montana | "Double-Crossed" (Season 1, Episode 21) |}

Discography

Albums

Meet Miley Cyrus (2007)

Breakout (2008)

Can't Be Tamed (2010)

EP's

The Time Of Our Lives (2009)

Live Albums

Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert (2008)

iTunes live from London (2009)

Hannah Montana Albums

Hannah Montana (2006)

Hannah Montana 2 (2007)

(2009)

Hannah Montana 3 (2009)

Hannah Montana Forever (2010)

Tours

Best of Both Worlds Tour (2007–08)

Wonder World Tour (2009)

Awards and nominations

List of awards and nominations received by Miley Cyrus

References

Further reading

External links

}} |- |- |- |- |- |- Category:1992 births Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Actors from Tennessee Category:American child actors Category:American child singers Category:American Christians Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American pop singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American television actors Category:American voice actors Category:Bubblegum pop Category:Fascination Records artists Category:Hollywood Records artists Category:Living people Category:Miley Cyrus

Category:Musicians from Tennessee Category:People from Franklin, Tennessee Category:People from Nashville, Tennessee Category:Southern Baptists

Name	Tim McGraw
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Samuel Timothy McGraw
Born	May 01, 1967
Origin	Delhi, Louisiana, U.S.
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano
Genre	Country
Occupation	Musician, actor
Years active	1992–present
Label	Curb Records
Associated acts	Faith HillThe Dancehall DoctorsNellyTaylor SwiftDef LeppardMindy McCready
Url

Samuel Timothy "Tim" McGraw (born May 1, 1967) is an American country singer and actor. Many of McGraw's albums and singles have topped the country music charts, leading him to achieve total album sales in excess of 40 million units. He is married to country singer Faith Hill and is the son of former baseball player Tug McGraw. His trademark hit songs include "Indian Outlaw", "Don't Take the Girl", "I Like It, I Love It", "Something Like That", "It's Your Love" (featuring his wife, Faith Hill), and "Live Like You Were Dying".

McGraw had eleven consecutive albums debut at Number One on the Billboard albums charts. Twenty-one singles hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country 100 chart. Three singles became the No. 1 country song of the year ("It's Your Love", "Just To See You Smile", and "Live Like You Were Dying"). He has won 3 Grammys, 14 Academy of Country Music awards, 11 Country Music Association (CMA) awards, 10 American Music Awards, and 3 People's Choice Awards. His Soul2Soul II Tour with Faith Hill is the highest grossing tour in country music history, and one of the top five among all genres of music.

McGraw has ventured into acting, with supporting roles in The Blind Side (with Sandra Bullock), Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, and Four Christmases (with Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon), and a lead role in Flicka (2006). He was a minority owner of the Arena Football League's Nashville Kats. Taylor Swift's debut single, "Tim McGraw", refers to him and his song, "Can't Tell Me Nothin.

In honor of his Italian-American heritage, McGraw was honored by the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) in 2004, receiving the NIAF Special Achievement Award in Music during the Foundation's 29th Anniversary Gala.

Early life

McGraw was born Samuel Timothy McGraw in Delhi, Louisiana, a town in Richland Parish, to a waitress, Elizabeth "Betty" Ann (née D'Agostino), and Frank Edwin "Tug" McGraw Jr., who later became a relief pitcher for the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies. McGraw is of Italian and Irish descent on his mother's side, and of Scots-Irish descent on his father's side.

, Louisiana, welcome sign notes that McGraw once resided there.]]

Reared by his mother in Start, also in Richland Parish, east of Monroe, McGraw grew up believing his stepfather, Horace Smith, was his birth father. From the time of his mother's marriage until the time he met his biological father, his last name was Smith. At age eleven, McGraw discovered his birth certificate while searching his mother's closet to find pictures for a school project. After his discovery, his mother revealed that his biological father was Tug McGraw, and took Tim to meet him for the first time. and became a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. During his college period, he learned to play guitar, and would frequently perform and sing for tips, although he claims that his roommates often hid the guitar because he was so bad.

His mother, Betty, returned to Jacksonville, Florida in 1987, and Tim followed. He attended Florida Community College at Jacksonville for one term, and occasionally sat in with local bands.

Not a Moment Too Soon

His second album, Not a Moment Too Soon, was much more successful, becoming the best-selling country album in 1994. The first single, "Indian Outlaw", caused considerable controversy, as critics argued that it presented Native Americans in a patronizing way. but the controversy helped spur sales, and the song became McGraw's first top-ten country single (getting as high as No. 8), and reaching No. 15 on the pop chart.

The second single from the album, "Don't Take the Girl", became McGraw's first No. 1 country hit, and "helped cement his image as a ruggedly good-looking guy with a sensitive side".

All I Want

All I Want, released in 1995, continued his run of success, debuting at No. 1 on the country charts. The album sold over 2 million copies and reached the top 5 on the Billboard 200. "I Like It, I Love It" reached No. 1 on the country charts as the lead-off single, while "She Never Lets It Go to Her Heart" also went to No. 1 in 1996. "Can't Be Really Gone", "All I Want Is a Life", and "Maybe We Should Just Sleep on It" were all top 5 hits.

Everywhere

McGraw's next album, 1997's Everywhere, again topped the country charts and reached No. 2 on the album charts, selling 4 million copies.

Set This Circus Down

McGraw's next album, Set This Circus Down, was released in April 2001, and spawned four number-one country hits: "Grown Men Don't Cry", "Angry All the Time" (with Faith Hill), "The Cowboy in Me", and "Unbroken". He provided harmony vocals for the Jo Dee Messina song "Bring On the Rain", which he also produced. The song topped the country charts. McGraw chose to use his own touring band, in order to recognize their part in his success, and to capture some of the feel of a real band.

The album debuted at No. 2 on the country albums charts, with the single "Real Good Man" reaching No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart. "She's My Kind of Rain" reached No. 2 in 2003, and "Red Ragtop" reached the top 5. The album also featured a cover version of Elton John's early 1970s classic "Tiny Dancer", as well as appearances by Kim Carnes on "Comfort Me" (a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks) and Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles on "Illegal".

Live Like You Were Dying

2004's Live Like You Were Dying continued McGraw's record of commercial success. The title track, dedicated to his father Tug McGraw, who died of a brain tumor earlier in the year, was a soaring ode to living life fully and in the moment, while the second single "Back When" was a paean to an easy nostalgia. Live Like You Were Dying spent seven non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on Billboard (10 weeks on Radio & Records), and went on to become the biggest hit single of the year. It also became one the most awarded songs/records by winning ACM Single and Song of the Year, CMA Single and Song of the Year, and a Grammy.

In late 2004, his unlikely duet with hip-hop artist Nelly on "Over and Over", a soft ballad of lost love, became a crossover hit, spending 10 weeks atop the Top 40 chart. "Over and Over" brought McGraw a success he had never previously experienced on contemporary hit radio or rap radio, and brought both artists success neither had previously experienced in the hot adult contemporary market. The song also spent a week at the top of the UK single charts, and was McGraw's first visit to the UK hit countdown.

Throughout the 2005 NFL season, McGraw sang an alternate version of "I Like It, I Love It" every week during the season. The alternate lyrics, which changed each week, would make reference to plays during Sunday's games, and the song would be played alongside video highlights during halftime on Monday Night Football. Later in the year, McGraw became a minority owner of the Arena Football League's Nashville Kats when majority owner Bud Adams (owner of the NFL's Tennessee Titans) was awarded the expansion franchise.

Let It Go

In April 2006, McGraw and Hill began their 73-concert 55-city Soul2Soul II Tour, again to strong commercial acceptance. The tour grossed nearly $89 million and sold almost 1.1 million tickets, making it the top grossing tour in the history of country music. It was named "Major Tour of the Year" by the prestigious Pollstar Magazine, beating out such heavyweights as Madonna and the Rolling Stones. In a special gesture, the couple donated all of the profits from their performance in New Orleans to Hurricane Katrina relief.

Tim, along with Kenny Chesney, contributed to a version of Tracy Lawrence's song "Find Out Who Your Friends Are", which can be found on Lawrence's album For the Love. Although the official single version features only Lawrence's vocals, many stations have opted to play the version with McGraw and Chesney instead.

McGraw released his eleventh album, Let It Go, on March 27, 2007. The album's debut single, "Last Dollar (Fly Away)", reached No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart, marking Tim's first No. 1 single since "Back When" in late 2004. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart and No. 1 on the Billboard Country Album chart, marking his fourth No. 1 top 200 album and ninth No. 1 country album. His daughters can be heard singing the chorus during the last few seconds of the song on the video.

During the Academy of Country Music awards show on May 21, 2007, McGraw performed a song titled "If You're Reading This", which he co-wrote with The Warren Brothers. Several radio stations began to play the live recording of the song; as a result, it entered the Hot Country Songs chart at No. 35.

McGraw also produced the debut album of country music duo Halfway to Hazard. The duo's first single, "Daisy", peaked at No. 39 on the country charts in the summer of 2007.

In the summer of 2007, McGraw and Hill toured together once again in the Soul2Soul 2007 tour.

In the January 18, 2008 edition of the USA Today newspaper, McGraw was stated to be featured on the Def Leppard album Songs from the Sparkle Lounge, having also co-written the first single, "Nine Lives", with Def Leppard band members Joe Elliott, Phil Collen, and Rick Savage. The unusual pairing goes back to 2006 when McGraw joined Def Leppard onstage for the song "Pour Some Sugar On Me", and then collaborated on the song "Nine Lives" afterward. The album was released on April 25, 2008.

In May 2008, he hit the road with the Live Your Voice tour. The mainly-outdoor arena concert tour was his first solo outing in nearly three years. Also in May 2008, he debuted a new song off of his follow-up to Let It Go at the Stagecoach Music Festival in Indio, California.

In July 2008, Tim McGraw's sixth single, and the title track of his album, "Let It Go", was released to country radio. Following that, a seventh single, "Nothin' to Die For", entered the Country charts at No. 57 in late December. Tim McGraw released his third greatest-hits package, Greatest Hits 3 on October 7, 2008. The album features 12 tracks. Tim was set to debut a new song on the 2009 ACM Awards, but then cancelled his performance; he was replaced by Blake Shelton, who sang "She Wouldn't Be Gone".

Southern Voice

Tim's twelfth studio album, Southern Voice, was released October 20, 2009, and lead by the single "It's A Business Doing Pleasure With You", which was shipped to radio outlets in late June 2009. Southern Voice was argued to be Tim's last album for Curb Records, following the dispute over releasing his third Greatest Hits collection back in October 2008 without his permission. Tim did not approve of the release. On November 30, 2010, Curb Records released his fourth greatest hits compilation, Number One Hits.

On November 10, 2010, Tim McGraw presented at the 44th Annual Country Music Awards.

2010s

On January 2, 2011, Tim McGraw announced plans for his Emotional Traffic Tour featuring opening acts Luke Bryan and The Band Perry.

Acting

McGraw's first acting appearance came in a 1995 episode of The Jeff Foxworthy Show, where he played Foxworthy's rival.

In 2004, McGraw played a sheriff in Rick Schroder's independent release Black Cloud. Later in the same year, McGraw received critical acclaim as the overbearing father of a running back in the major studio Texas high school football drama Friday Night Lights. The Dallas Observer said the role was "played with unexpected ferocity by country singer Tim McGraw". The movie went on to gross over $60 million dollars worldwide at the box office, and sold millions in the DVD market. Most recently, it was named one of the Top 50 High School Movies of All Time (No. 37) by Entertainment Weekly.

McGraw's first lead role was in the 2006 film Flicka, which was released in theatres October 20, 2006. In the remake of the classic book "My Friend Flicka", McGraw played the father, Rob, costarring with Alison Lohman and Maria Bello. The family-friendly movie debuted in the top 10 list and has grossed over $25 million at the box office. McGraw again achieved critical acclaim for his acting.

Shortly before Flicka opened, McGraw received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His star is located at 6901 Hollywood Blvd. near stars in the sidewalk honoring Julie Andrews, William Shatner, and the late Greta Garbo. One of his Flicka co-stars, Alison Lohman, attended the ceremony that included comments from Billy Bob Thornton, McGraw's co-star in the film Friday Night Lights.

In addition to acting in Flicka, McGraw served as executive producer of the soundtrack album, which was released by his record label, StyleSonic Records, in association with Curb Records and Fox 2000 films. It featured the closing credit song "My Little Girl", one of the first two songs that McGraw recorded that he also co-wrote (the other being "I've Got Friends That Do", both of which were included on Greatest Hits Vol. 2). The song was nominated by the Broadcast Film Critics for "Best Song" in a film, and the movie was nominated in the category "Best Family Film (Live Action)". The movie proved to be another huge success in the DVD market, and has sold over a million copies, debuting at No. 3 on the DVD sales chart.

Charitable efforts

As his success has grown, McGraw has become increasingly interested in giving back to the community. When McGraw first reached fame in 1994, he established his annual Swampstock event. It began as a charity softball game to raise money for hometown little league programs; the event now includes a celebrity softball game and a multi-artist concert that attracts over 11,000 fans per year. The combined events have funded new Little League parks and equipment, and have established college scholarship funds for students in the northeast Louisiana area.

From 1996 to 1999, McGraw hosted an annual New Year's Eve concert in Nashville with special guests including Jeff Foxworthy, the Dixie Chicks, and Martina McBride. The 1997 show raised over $100,000 for the Country Music Foundation Hall of Fame and Museum. Beginning in 1999, McGraw would pick select cities on each tour, and the night before he was scheduled to perform, would choose a local club and host a quickly-organized show. This tour-within-a-tour became known as "The Bread and Water Tour", and all proceeds from the show would go to a charity from that community. Later in the year, the couple established the Neighbor's Keeper Foundation, which provides funding for community charities to assist with basic humanitarian services, in the event of a natural disaster, or for desperate personal circumstances.

McGraw is also a member of the American Red Cross National Celebrity Cabinet, to which various celebrities donate their time, skills, and fame, to help the Red Cross highlight important initiatives and response efforts.

McGraw has helped out with charity events held by Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre. The has featured McGraw (and at other times Faith Hill) performing concerts during dinners and auctions that benefit children with disabilities in Wisconsin and Mississippi. One instance is recorded on Favre's official website.

On July 12, 2007, it was made public that McGraw and his wife Faith Hill, while in Grand Rapids, Michigan for a performance, donated $5000 to Kailey Kozminski, 3-year-old daughter of Officer Robert Kozminski, a Grand Rapids police officer who was killed on July 8, 2007 while responding to a domestic disturbance.

In June 2010, Tim McGraw, along with his wife Faith Hill organized Nashville Rising, a benefit concert aimed to raise $2 million for The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee in response to the flood in early May that killed 22 people and caused $2 billion in damage.

Politics

McGraw, a Democrat, has stated that he would like to run for public office in the future, possibly for Senate or Governor of Tennessee, his (adopted) home state.

Discography

Studio albums

Tim McGraw (1993)

Not a Moment Too Soon (1994)

All I Want (1995)

Everywhere (1997)

A Place in the Sun (1999)

Set This Circus Down (2001)

Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors (2002)

Live Like You Were Dying (2004)

Let It Go (2007)

Southern Voice (2009)

Compilation albums

Greatest Hits (2000)

(2006)

(2008)

Collector's Edition (2008)

Greatest Hits 3 (2008)

Limited Edition: Greatest Hits: Volumes 1, 2 & 3 (2008)

Number One Hits (2010)

Filmography

{| border="2" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin:1em 1em 1em 0; background:#f9f9f9; border:1px #aaa solid; border-collapse:collapse; font-size:90%;" |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! colspan="4" style="background: LightSteelBlue;" | Film |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! Year ! Film ! Role ! Notes |- | rowspan="2"| 2004 | Black Cloud | Sheriff Cliff Powers | |- | Friday Night Lights | Charles Billingsley | Nominated - MTV Movie Award - Best Male Breakthrough Performance |- | 2006 | Flicka | Rob McLaughlin | Nominated - Critics Choice Award for Best Song: "My Little Girl" |- | 2007 | The Kingdom | Aaron Jackson | |- | 2008 | Four Christmases | Dallas | |- | 2009 | The Blind Side | Sean Tuohy | |- | rowspan="2"|2010 | Country Strong | James Canter | |- | Dirty Girl | Danny | |- |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! colspan="4" style="background: LightSteelBlue;" | Television |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! Year ! Film ! Role ! Notes |- | 1997 | The Jeff Foxworthy Show | Lionel | one episode; "Feud for Thought" |- |}

Awards

Further reading

Brown, Jim; Sparrow, Susan. Faith Hill & Tim McGraw: Soul 2 Soul. Quarry Music Books, 2002. ISBN 1550822934

Gray, Scott. Perfect Harmony: the Faith Hill & Tim McGraw Story. 1st ed. Ballantine Books, 1999. ISBN 0345434129

McGraw, Tim. Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors: This is Ours. Atria Books, 2002. ISBN 074346706X

Nichols, Tim, and Craig Wiseman. Live Like You Were Dying. Rutledge Hill P, 2004. ISBN 1401602126

Trimble, Betty "McMom". A Mother's Story. D'Agostino/Dahlhauser/Ditmore Pub, 1996. ISBN 1886371326

References

External links

Tim McGraw at Country Music Television

Category:1967 births Category:American country singers Category:American male singers Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of Italian descent Category:Curb Records artists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Living people Category:American film actors Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:American musicians of Italian descent Category:People from Richland Parish, Louisiana Category:People from Nashville, Tennessee Category:University of Louisiana at Monroe alumni Category:Arena Football League executives Category:Musicians from Louisiana Category:Actors from Louisiana Category:Musicians from Tennessee Category:Actors from Tennessee

Name	The Cataracs
Background	group_or_band
Origin	Berkeley, California, United States
Genre	Hip hop, rap, indie pop, electro hop
Years active	2003–present
Label	Universal
Associated acts	Dev, The Pack, Far East Movement, Glasses Malone, New Boyz
Url
Current members	Cyrano (2003–present)Campa (2003–present)

The Cataracs is an American hip hop indie-pop duo formed in Berkeley, California, consisting of David “Campa” Benjamin Singer-Vine, a songwriter and vocalist and Niles “Cyrano” Hollowell-Dhar, a songwriter, vocalist, and producer. The duo started out as an independent group, during their years at Berkeley High School. The two were first signed to the label Indie-Pop. They describe their music as "an everyday man's take on pop music." They are currently based in Los Angeles, California.

Biography

Early days

The duo met in their sophomore year while attending Berkeley High School. Singer-Vine was featured in a rap CD that was being passed around campus. When Dhar eventually heard the CD, he subsequently created a response. However, the “diss” response brought the two together and they soon became friends . In 2003, the two joined together to create what is now The Cataracs (named after Snoop Dogg's song “What's my name Pt. 2” after the phrase “Who smoke ‘til your eyes get cataracts”) . In the summer of 2006, they released their first album, Technohop Vol. 1. In August 2006, the group joined with The Pack to make the single “Blueberry Afghani”. The song soon became a hit and was chosen as a “Download of the Week” by 106 KMEL and many music sites such as The Fader, UK’s Hip Hop Connection and XLR8R praised it. Dhar went on to attend San Francisco State University in San Francisco, California and Singer-Vine attended Columbia College Chicago, in Chicago, Illinois. But in order to pursue their dreams and career in music, they both decided that they would have to leave school. The duo then packed their bags and moved to Los Angeles, CA, where they began working on their music full-stream, creating songs like "Club Love" and “Baby Baby", the latter which went on to be featured on the hit reality series Keeping Up with the Kardashians in early 2010. By 2007, they released their second album, Technohop Vol. 2, and in 2008 they released their third album The 13th Grade.

Rise to fame

In their new stage, they discovered Manteca, California native, Dev, a singer who posted much of her work on MySpace. Dhar asked if she would like to sing for them, which led to the song "2Nite." The Cataracs, along with Dev, signed to the Indie-Pop Label, which also features musicians such as Bobby Brackins, Maddy and Allyson Santa Cruz CA, and The Pack. They were later signed to a major label, Universal Records.. Through Universal, they began producing music for artists such as Far East Movement and Glasses Malone. As artist, The Cataracs received a lot of recognition through their 2010 single "Club Love", which received a lot of air play at clubs and on many different radio stations. Despite such accomplishments, the Cataracs have had their most mainstream success with the song "Like a G6" which was written by Singer-Vine/Dhar and produced by Dhar . The song peaked at #1 on the iTunes top 100 songs in the USA and also went on to peak at #1 on the Billboard charts. The chorus for the song is sampled from lyrics in the song "Booty Bounce" by Dev, which they also produced. They were featured on two of Shwayze's songs on his 2010 mixtape Love Stoned. The duo also produced songs for albums such as The Pack new album, Wolfpack Party, which hit the iTunes Hip-Hop charts at number 9. In early December 2010, a collaboration with Snoop Dogg, the inspiration behind the group's name, had leaked and is rumored to become Snoop Dogg's second single for his upcoming album Doggumentary Music.

Discography

Albums

September 18, 2006: Technohop Vol. 1

April 11, 2007: Technohop Vol. 2

January 1, 2008: The 13th Grade

October 8, 2008: Lingerie

June 1, 2009: Songs we Sung in Showers

Mixtapes

2008: Kids - Presented by DJ Eleven

2009: Yeah Buddy! Mixed by DJ Excel

2009: Stimulating Package Mixtape

2010: DJ Greg Street X The Cataracs - I Thought They Were Black

As featured artist

Music videos

References

Category:2000s music groups Category:2010s music groups Category:Electronic music duos Category:Musical groups established in 2003

Name	Rube Goldberg
Birth name	Reuben Lucius Goldberg
Birth date	July 04, 1883
Birth place	San Francisco, California, United States
Death date	December 07, 1970
Resting place	Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York
Known for	Rube Goldberg machines
Occupation	Cartoonist, inventor

Reuben Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970) was a Jewish American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor. Goldberg is best known for a series of popular cartoons he created depicting complex devices that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways – now known as Rube Goldberg machines. Goldberg received many honors in his lifetime including a Pulitzer Prize for his political cartooning in 1948 and the Banshees' Silver Lady Award 1959.

Goldberg was a founding member and the first president of the National Cartoonists Society, and is the namesake of the Reuben Award which the organization awards to the Cartoonist of the Year. He is the inspiration for various international competitions, known as Rube Goldberg contests, which challenge participants to make a complex machine to perform a simple task.

Family

Goldberg married Irma Seeman in 1916. They lived at 88 Central Park West in New York City and had two sons named Thomas and George. Goldberg did not share a surname with his children because of the amount of hate mail he received during World War II from the political nature of his cartoons. He ordered his sons to change their names from Goldberg for safety reasons. Both of his sons chose the last name of George, wanting to keep a sense of family cohesiveness. Thomas and George's children now run a company called RGI (Rube Goldberg Incorporated) to maintain the Goldberg name. John George (Thomas's son) is assisted by his cousin Jennifer George (George's daughter) and John's son Joshua George to keep the family name alive. Reuben died in 1970 at the age of 87, while his widow, Irma, died 20 years later at the age of 95.

Career

Goldberg's father was a San Francisco police and fire commissioner, who encouraged the young Reuben to pursue a career in engineering. Rube graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1904 with a College of Mining degree

Predating Goldberg, the corresponding term in the U.K. was, and still is, "Heath Robinson", after the English illustrator with an equal devotion to odd machinery.

Goldberg's work was commemorated posthumously in 1995 with the inclusion of Rube Goldberg's Inventions, depicting Professor Butts' "Self-Operating Napkin" in the Comic Strip Classics series of U.S. postage stamps.

Film and television

Goldberg wrote a feature film featuring his machines and sculptures called Soup to Nuts which was released in 1930 and starred Ted Healy and The Three Stooges.

In the 1962 John Wayne movie "Hatari," an invention to catch monkeys by character Pockets, played by Red Buttons, is described as a "Rube Goldberg."

Various other films and cartoons have included highly complex machines that perform simple tasks. Among these are Flåklypa Grand Prix, Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Wallace and Gromit, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, The Way Things Go, Edward Scissorhands, Back to the Future, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, The Goonies, Gremlins, the Saw film series, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Cat from Outer Space, Malcolm, Family Guy, and Waiting...

Also in the Final Destination film series the characters often die in Rube Goldberg-esque ways. In the film The Great Mouse Detective, the villain Ratigan attempts to kill the film's heroes, Basil of Baker Street and David Q. Dawson, with a Rube Goldberg style device. The classic video in this genre was done by the artist duo Peter Fischli & David Weiss in 1987 with their 30 minute video "Der Lauf der Dinge" or "The Way Things Go".

Honda produced a video in 2003 called "The Cog" using many of the same principles that Fischli and Weiss had done in 1987.

During the 7th season (Airdate: 12-12-99) of the classic TV series 'The X-Files', an episode aired titled 'The Goldberg Variation'. The episode, written by Jeffrey Bell and directed by Thomas J. Wright, intertwined characters FBI agents Mulder and Scully (David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson), a simple apartment super, Henry Weems (Willie Garson) and an ailing young boy, Ritchie Lupone (Shia LaBeouf) in a real-life Goldberg device.

The 2010 music video "This Too Shall Pass - RGM Version" by the rock band OK Go features a machine that, after four minutes of kinetic activity, shoots the band members in the face with paint. "RGM" presumably stands for Rube Goldberg Machine.

Games

The popular 1963 board game Mouse Trap, as well as its sequels Crazy Clock (1964), and Fish Bait (1965) are based on Rube Goldberg machines. Some examples of Goldberg-inspired videogames are Incredibots, LittleBigPlanet, the 1990s-era series of The Incredible Machine games, and Crazy Machines. It is also possible to construct a Rube Goldberg Machine by using Garrys Mod, a game mod for Half Life 2 and other computer video games that use the Source game engine by Valve.

See also

Chain reaction

Deathtrap

Domino effect

Heath Robinson, British cartoonist with similar cartoon inventions

Jean Tinguely, Swiss artist who created Rube Goldberg-like sculptures

Mickey One

PythagoraSwitch

Rube Goldberg Machine Contest

Steampunk

Storm P., Danish contemporary artist who drew "inventions" similar to Rube Goldberg's

Roland Emett

Chindōgu

References

External links

Toonopedia entry

Smithsonian Archives of American Art: Oral History Interview, 1970

Annual National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest

NCS Awards

Rube Goldberg in 'Creative Contraptions'

IMDB biography

Rube Goldberg Honda Commercial, "Cog", at Snopes.com

Guide to the Rube Goldberg Papers at The Bancroft Library

10 Viral Rube Goldberg clips at Salon.com

Category:1883 births Category:1970 deaths Category:American cartoonists Category:American comic strip cartoonists Category:American engineers Category:American humorists Category:American journalists Category:People from New York City Category:People from San Francisco, California Category:Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning winners Category:Reuben Award winners Category:American Jews

Name	Paris Hilton
Caption	Paris Hilton promoting her cell-phone video game "Jewel Jam" at the E3 Video Game Convention
Birth name	Paris Whitney Hilton
Birth date	February 17, 1981
Birth place	New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Socialite, model, actress, singer, songwriter, fashion designer
Years active	1993, 2000–present
Website	Official site
Hair	Blonde
Eyes	blue contact lenses, naturally brown
Height
Parents	Richard Howard HiltonKathy Hilton
Siblings	Nicky Hilton, Barron Hilton, and Conrad

Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American socialite, heiress, media personality, model, singer, author, fashion designer and actress. She is a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton (founder of Hilton Hotels). Hilton is known for her controversial appearance in a sex tape in 2003, and appearance on the television series The Simple Life alongside fellow socialite and childhood best friend Nicole Richie. She is also known for her 2004 tongue-in-cheek autobiography, several minor film roles (most notably her role in the horror film House of Wax in 2005), her 2006 music album Paris, and her work in modeling.

As a result of several legal incidents, Hilton served a widely publicized sentence in a Los Angeles County jail in 2007. She is an example of the modern phenomenon of the 'celebutante', the celebrity who rises to fame not because of their talent or work but because of their wealth and controversial lifestyle.

Early life

Hilton was born in New York City, New York, to Kathy (née Avanzino), a socialite and actress, and Richard Hilton, a businessman. She is the oldest of four children: she has one sister, Nicholai Olivia "Nicky" Hilton (b. 1983) and two brothers, Barron Nicholas Hilton II (b. 1989) and Conrad Hughes Hilton III (b. 1994). Hilton is of Norwegian, German, English, Irish, and Italian ancestry. She is a niece of two child stars of the 1970s, Kim and Kyle Richards.

Hilton moved between several exclusive homes in her youth, including a suite in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, Beverly Hills, and the Hamptons. As a child she was good friends with other socialites, including Nicole Richie and Kim Kardashian. She attended her freshman year of high school at the Marywood-Palm Valley School in Rancho Mirage, California followed by a short time at Convent of the Sacred Heart (which she attended with Lady Gaga) and the Dwight School in New York for her sophomore and junior years. She was then transferred to the Canterbury Boarding School, in New Milford, Connecticut where she was a member of the ice hockey team. In February 1999, she was expelled for violating school rules and later earned her GED.

In December 2007, Hilton's grandfather Barron Hilton pledged 97 percent of his estate to a charitable organization founded by his father, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. An immediate pledge of $1.2 billion was made, with a further $1.1 billion due after his death. He cited his father's actions as the motivation for his pledge. According to reports, the potential inheritance of his grandchildren is sharply diminished.

Career

2001–present: As a model

Hilton began modeling as a child, initially at charity events. She has appeared in several magazines, including the April 2004 issue of Maxim. She also made an uncredited appearance in the Brüno segment in the "Law and Order" episode of the HBO series of Da Ali G Show.

2003–present: As an actress

Hilton has made cameo appearances in several films, notably Zoolander, Wonderland, and The Cat In The Hat. Hilton co-starred with her friend Nicole Richie in the Fox reality series The Simple Life, which premiered on December 2, 2003. The Simple Life ran for three seasons on Fox. The show was cancelled by Fox after a dispute between Hilton and Richie, but it was subsequently aired by E! Entertainment Television for the fourth and fifth seasons. Despite talks of a sixth season, the series finished its run at the end of the fifth season. In March 2008, it was reported that Hilton would star in a new MTV reality series tentatively titled Paris Hilton's My New BFF, about her looking for a new best friend. The series premiered on September 30, 2008.

She landed minor and supporting roles in the feature films Nine Lives, Raising Helen, The Hillz, and House of Wax. Her role as Paige Edwards in House of Wax won the Teen Choice Award for "Best Scream" and earned her a nomination for "Choice Breakout Performance  – Female". (It also won her the 2005 Razzie for "Worst Supporting Actress" at the 2005 Golden Raspberry Awards.) She also earned a nomination for "Best Frightened Performance" at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards. She landed her first lead roles in 2006 with the straight-to-DVD releases National Lampoon's Pledge This! and Bottoms Up. She plays the Hottie in the box office bomb romantic comedy The Hottie and the Nottie, released in 2008. She also had a minor cameo appearance as herself in An American Carol.

More recently, Hilton plays Amber Sweet, the surgery- and painkiller-addicted daughter of a biotech magnate in the goth/rock musical Repo! The Genetic Opera. Critics have responded positively to her performance in the film, in which she sings and acts. In an interview Repo! director Darren Lynn Bousman revealed that he had originally refused to audition Hilton for the role of Amber Sweet. "I broke down," says Bousman, "and I met with her, and immediately she charmed everyone in the room." In the same interview, Bousman also revealed that Hilton was so keen to get the part that she had the script smuggled in to her during her much publicized stint in a Los Angeles jail, and used her time inside to work on her role.

Hilton has also guest-starred in episodes of the popular TV-show The O.C., The George Lopez Show, Las Vegas, American Dreams, Dogg After Dark, and Veronica Mars. Furthermore, she appeared in several music videos, including "" by John Oates and "Just Lose It" by Eminem. Planning is underway for an eponymous cartoon series following the animated life of Hilton, her sister Nicky, and her dog Tinkerbell, which began filming in September 2007. In April 2008, she guest starred on the My Name is Earl episode "I Won't Die with a Little Help from My Friends". On January 29, 2009, Paris Hilton's British Best Friend, began airing on ITV2 in England. The second season of Paris Hilton's My New BFF premiered on June 2, 2009. In June 2009, Hilton shot "Paris Hilton's Dubai BFF". Runner-up of the British series Kat McKenzie died on July 3, 2009 of a suspected overdose.

Hilton guest-starred in the fifth episode of Supernatural's fifth season. "Paris Hilton is playing a demonic creature that takes the form of... Paris Hilton," creator and executive producer Eric Kripke said in a statement. "It'll be a fun, irreverent episode and we here at Supernatural are thrilled that Paris agreed to do it."

Hilton guest-starred in an episode of I Get That a Lot in 2010, on CBS, as a petrol service-station attendant.

On October 1, 2010 the television station Oxygen gives the go-ahead to a new reality show that will star Paris Hilton, the show will follow Hilton in her everyday life the show has yet to get a name.

2004–present: As a singer

Hilton founded Heiress Records, a sub-label of Warner Bros. Records, in 2004 and released her self-titled debut album, Paris, under that label on August 22, 2006. Although the album reached number six on the Billboard 200 for a week, its total sales volume has been low – but the first single "Stars Are Blind" was a top ten hit in 17 countries. Allmusic commented that the album was "more fun than anything released by Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson, and a lot fresher, too." As a whole, critical reception was mixed. Paris Hilton can also be heard singing on the soundtrack to the musical Repo! The Genetic Opera. In an interview, the director, Darren Lynn Bousman, praised her vocal skills. When talking about Paris' vocal audition process for the role, Bouseman said, "We gave her some music and said, 'You have one day to come back and perform this.' She came back the next day, memorized everything, was pitch-perfect, I mean she was awesome."

On July 16, 2007, Hilton confirmed that she was working on a new album with producer Scott Storch. In a recent interview with MTV, Hilton decided that her second album is going to be a dance album. She stated that she "loves Bob Sinclar" and wants to create dance-music vibe. Hilton has installed a professional recording studio in her house to work on the album. On September 30, 2008, Hilton premiered her song "My BFF" on KIIS-FM with host Ryan Seacrest. It is the first single from her as yet untitled second studio album and the theme song of her show Paris Hilton's My New BFF.

For her second studio album, she has confirmed six tracks: "Jailhouse Baby", "Platinum Blonde", "Crave" and "My BFF", "Paris For President", and "Girl Tax", "My BFF" and "Paris For President" were released in 2008 as the first two singles. In November 2008, Hilton talked with Entertainment Weekly backstage at the American Music Awards and she told them that she has finished her second album, and "wrote all the songs". The album is featuring production by Mike Green who worked with the bands Paramore and The Matches. In December 2008, she was looking for a label to release her album, she told Entertainment Weekly. "I'm not sure which label I'm doing it with," she said. "I'm figuring it out right now." Later that month she stated her intention to release her album under her own record label Heiress Records.

Hilton confirmed in a magazine interview that the album is complete.

2004–06: As an author

In the autumn of 2004, Hilton released an autobiographical book, , co-written by Merle Ginsberg, which includes full color photographs of her and her advice on life as an heiress. Hilton reportedly received a $100,000 advance payment for this book. Some in the media panned the writing as amateurish, and the book was parodied by Robert Mundell on The Late Show with David Letterman. The book became a New York Times bestseller. Hilton followed it up with a designer diary, also with Ginsberg, called .

In September 2009, Hilton's quote: "Dress cute wherever you go, life is too short to blend in" has been added to The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.

Celebrity status

She denied proclaiming herself as the "iconic blonde of the decade" such as Diana, Princess of Wales, and Marilyn Monroe in the May 2007 issue of Harper's Bazaar. She appeared in the 2007 Guinness World Records as the world's "Most Overrated Celebrity". In a poll conducted by the Associated Press and AOL, Hilton was voted the second "Worst Celebrity Role Model of 2006", behind Britney Spears. Critics suggest that Hilton epitomizes the title of famous for being famous; echoing that sentiment, the Associated Press conducted what they called an experiment in February 2007, trying not to report on Hilton for a whole week.

2008 parody Presidential campaign

On August 6, 2008 Hilton appeared in a 1 minute 50 second long video online, "Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad", directed by Adam McKay and posted on the Funny or Die website. The video featured Hilton in a parody advertisement, and was made in response to a television campaign advert "Celeb", by the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign. In Celeb, McCain briefly compared his rival Barack Obama to that of celebrities such as Hilton and Britney Spears, going on to question his readiness to lead and criticize his energy policy.

In what The Washington Post opined "might just be her best acting role yet," Hilton appears in the video wearing a leopard print swimsuit. She starts out by suggesting that her personal mention by McCain means that she must now be a candidate in the presidential race, and goes on to mock McCain, and critique the expected qualities and lifestyle of a celebrity in comparison to that of a US president. In a 30 second segment, in the style of an academic speaker, Paris compares and contrasts the policies of McCain and Obama for solving the US energy crisis, and goes on to propose a 'compromise solution' combining elements of both.

The video received 7 million views in two days garnering worldwide press coverage, and drew both written and verbal media response from both campaigns. The merits and drawbacks of the 'Paris compromise solution' with regard to energy policy, as well as its contrast to the adversarial political campaigns, generated multiple comments from US political commentators, as well as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Michael Burgess.

Continuing the spoof campaign, in October Hilton featured in a second parody video posted on Funny or Die, the 2 minute 20 second long "Paris Hilton Gets Presidential with Martin Sheen", alongside Hollywood actor Martin Sheen, with his son, actor Charlie Sheen, appearing in a cameo role. Hilton, heavily made up and in a green evening dress, interviews Martin Sheen in a kitchen, discussing various political issues, seeking his advice from his days playing a fictional President on The West Wing.

Products and endorsements

Hilton helped design a collection of purses for Japanese label Samantha Thavasa, and also a jewelry line for Amazon.com.

In 2004, Hilton was involved in the creation of a perfume line by Parlux Fragrances. Originally set to be a small release, high demand led to a wider release before December 2004. The launch was followed by a 47 percent increase in sales of Parlux products, predominantly due to sales of the Hilton-branded perfume. After the success of Hilton's perfume, Parlux Fragrances released several more perfumes with her name, including fragrances for men. Hilton launched a new fragrance in October 2007, called Can Can. This is her fourth women's fragrance after Paris Hilton, Just Me, and Heiress. During the month of November 2008, Hilton released her fifth fragrance for women called, Fairy Dust. In July 2009, her sixth fragrance for women Siren was launched.

In January 2007, Hilton released the DreamCatchers line of hair extensions in partnership with Hair Tech International. In early August 2007, Hilton signed a licensing agreement with Antebi for a signature footwear line, "Paris Hilton Footwear", featuring stilettos, platforms, flats, wedges, and a sports collection, expected to reach stores in 2008. In mid August 2007, Hilton launched a line of tops, dresses, coats, and jeans at Kitson boutique in Los Angeles.

In 2005, Hilton lent her name to a chain of nightclubs owned by Fred Khalilian and known as Club Paris. This association ended in January 2007 after she had failed to attend several scheduled promotional appearances.

In December 2007, Hilton posed nude, covered in gold paint, to promote "Rich Prosecco", a canned version of an Italian sparkling wine. She also traveled to Germany to promote the drink, appearing in various print ads for the product.

In February 2010, Hilton participated in an advertising campaign for the launch of the Brazilian beer Devassa Bem Loura, whose slogan in English roughly translates to "very blonde bitch". As part of the campaign, Hilton joined the brewery's float in the carnival of Rio de Janeiro. Despite the buzz caused by Paris in Rio de Janeiro, Devassa beer had captured just 0.2% of the market at the end of 2010

Personal life

Hilton was engaged to fashion model Jason Shaw from mid-2002 to early 2003. In 2003–2004 she had a relationship with singer Nick Carter. Later she was engaged to Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis, from May 29, 2005 to November 2005. Thereafter, she began dating another Greek shipping heir, Stavros Niarchos III, before breaking up in May 2006. In early 2008, she was spotted with Good Charlotte guitarist Benji Madden and in May, Hilton announced her intention to marry Madden during an interview with television talk-show host David Letterman. The two broke up in November 2008, and "remain very good friends". She began dating The Hills star Doug Reinhardt in February 2009; Hilton has also referred to her intention to marry Reinhardt, saying "He's gonna be my husband." The couple broke up in June 2009, only to get back together again in August of the same year. On April 13, 2010, Hilton reportedly split from Reinhardt because she was worried he was just using her to further his career. Shortly after splitting from Reinhardt, Hilton started dating Cy Waits, entrepreneur and co-owner of Tryst Nightclub and XS Nightclub in Las Vegas.

Hilton told Live with Regis and Kelly: "One-night stands are not for me. I think it's gross when you just give it up. Guys want you more, if you don't just hand it to them on a platter."

Hilton loves small dogs, and lives with a Yorkshire Terrier and a female Chihuahua named Tinkerbell among many other pets. Paris Hilton is frequently seen carrying Tinkerbell (dubbed an "accessory dog") at social events and functions, and in all five seasons of television reality show The Simple Life. In 2004, Tinkerbell "authored" a memoir, The Tinkerbell Hilton Diaries. On August 12, 2004, Tinkerbell went missing after Hilton's apartment was burgled, and a $5,000 reward was offered for her safe return. She was found six days later. By December 1, 2004, Tinkerbell was again spotted with Paris Hilton at various events. Hilton has also purchased a male Chihuahua on July 25, 2007 from Pets of Bel Air in Los Angeles. Hilton's love for man's best friend led her to create an apparel line for dogs called Little Lily by Paris Hilton, with some of the proceeds going to benefit animal rescue. "I have 17 dogs and I like to dress them, so I started designing this clothing line and it's really cute, like dresses and jeans — everything you can imagine for humans, but for dogs," she said in an interview during Super Bowl XLII festivities. Hilton's love for her dogs led to the rumor that she wanted to be frozen with them at the Cryonics Institute, but Hilton denied the rumor on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

A homemade sex video of Hilton and then-boyfriend Rick Salomon was leaked on the Internet in 2003, later released as the DVD 1 Night in Paris despite attempted legal action. It appeared a week prior to the premiere of The Simple Life.

On January 22, 2007, Hilton's private life was thrust into the media spotlight with the launch of ParisExposed.com, a website that features images of personal documents, video, and other material allegedly obtained when the contents of a storage locker rented by Hilton was auctioned off due to lack of a $208 payment. The website began charging online access to this material and received 1.2 million visitors in just over 40 hours. Among the contents were medications, diaries, photographs, contracts and love letters, as well as a video of her shot by Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild. On February 3, 2007 Hilton obtained a temporary injunction against ParisExposed.com, closing down the website.

On February 5, 2007, CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 discussed footage obtained from the ParisExposed.com website which features Hilton using the ethnic slurs "niggers", "chink", "Jappy" and the derogatory term "faggot".

Hilton was burglarized at least five times by the Bling Ring. In most cases they were only after cash and clothes. However, during their final burglary of her home, a participant usually not present as a member of the group stole around $2 million in jewelry from her, carrying it out in one of her Louis Vuitton bags. It was only after this theft that she informed police of having been burglarized.

DUI arrest, driving violations, and jail time

In September 2006, Hilton was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol with a blood alcohol content of 0.08%, the level at which it is illegal to drive in California. Hilton's driving license was subsequently suspended in November 2006, Her punishment was 36 months' probation and fines of about $1,500. On January 15, 2007, Hilton was pulled over for driving with a suspended license and signed a document acknowledging that she was not permitted to drive. On February 27, 2007 Hilton was caught driving 70 mph in a 35 mph zone, again with a suspended license. She also did not have her headlights on even though it was after dark. Prosecutors in the office of the Los Angeles City Attorney charged that those actions, along with the failure to enroll in a court-ordered alcohol education program, constituted a violation of the terms of her probation.

On May 4, 2007 Hilton was sentenced by Judge Michael T. Sauer to 45 days in jail for violating her probation. Initially, Hilton planned to appeal the sentence, and supported an online petition asking California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for a pardon. The petition was created and organized on May 5, 2007 by Joshua Morales. In response, various opponents started a counter-petition to maintain the sentence. Both petitions attracted tens of thousands of signatures. Hilton later switched lawyers and dropped her plans to appeal.

Hilton was required to begin her jail term on June 5, 2007, and checked herself into the Century Regional Detention Facility, an all-female jail in Lynwood, California after attending the 2007 MTV Movie Awards on June 3, 2007. However Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca signed orders on June 7, reassigning Hilton to 40 days of home confinement with an electronic monitoring device due to an unspecified medical condition. Baca commented on the release saying, "My message to those who don't like celebrities is that punishing celebrities more than the average American is not justice," contesting that under normal circumstances, Hilton would not have served any time in jail, and he added that "The special treatment, in a sense, appears to be because of her celebrity status ... She got more time in jail". On the same day that Hilton was released from jail, Judge Michael Sauer summoned her to reappear in court the following morning (June 8) as the sentencing statement had explicitly said she would serve time in jail with "No work furlough. No work release. No electronic monitoring." At the hearing he declined to be briefed by Hilton's attorney in private chambers on the nature of her condition and sent her back to jail to serve out her original 45-day sentence. Upon hearing the sentence, Hilton shouted, "It's not right!" and started screaming, requesting to hug her mother who was present in the courtroom. Concern about Hilton's condition led to her being moved to the medical wing of the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, and she was moved back to the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood on June 13.

While in jail, Hilton was influenced by the clergyman minister Marty Angelo: Hilton referred to starting a "new beginning" during her interview with talk show host Larry King on June 28, 2007, two days after being released from jail, and quoted from Angelo's autobiography, entitled Once Life Matters: A New Beginning. On June 9, 2007, Marty Angelo petitioned Sauer, asking to serve out the remainder of Hilton's jail sentence if the judge would release her to an alternative treatment program, but the petition was turned down.

On July 17, 2010, Hilton was detained and released after being caught in possession of cannabis at Figari airport, Corsica.

On August 28, 2010 she was arrested on suspicion of cocaine possession in Las Vegas. Initially her defence claimed that the handbag containing 0.8g of cocaine was not hers as "This purse in question was a high street brand – and by no means up to her high fashion standards.". Later she claimed some of the personal items (like cash and credit cards) from the bag acknowledging it was hers.

In order to avoid being convicted on felony, Paris Hilton pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors on September 17, 2010. Under the terms of the plea bargain, she was sentenced to one year probation, 200 hours community service, $2,000 fine and ordered to complete a drug abuse program. Clark County District Attorney David Roger said that: "If she is arrested for anything besides a minor traffic violation she will spend a year in jail. There will be no discussion. The court will have no discretion." Narita officials questioned Hilton "for hours" and Paris and her sister were forced to sleep over at the airport-hotel. | ABC Family Film |}

Discography

Paris (2006)

Bibliography

, 2004, ISBN 0-7432-6664-1

, 2005, ISBN 0-7432-8714-2

References

External links

Category:1981 births Category:Living people Category:21st-century actors Category:21st-century women writers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Actors from California Category:Actors from New York City Category:Actors from Los Angeles, California Category:American businesspeople Category:American dance musicians Category:American female models Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American memoirists Category:American pop singers Category:American socialites Category:American vegetarians Category:American women in business Category:American people of Norwegian descent Category:American actors of German descent Category:American musicians of German descent Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:American musicians of Italian descent Category:Participants in American reality television series Category:People convicted of alcohol-related driving offenses Category:People from the Greater Los Angeles Area Category:People from New York City Category:Prisoners and detainees of California Category:Warner Bros. Records artists

Name	Ludacris
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Christopher Brian Bridges
Born	September 11, 1977Champaign, Illinois, U.S.
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Instrument	Vocals
Genre	Hip hop
Occupation	Rapper, actor, songwriter
Years active	1998–present
Label	Disturbing tha Peace, Def Jam, Def Jam South
Associated acts	Shawnna
Url	ludacris.defjam.com

Christopher Brian Bridges (born September 11, 1977), He is of African American and Native American descent. Bridges wrote his first rap song at age nine when moving to Atlanta and joined an amateur rap group three years later. He attended Banneker High School in Atlanta, Georgia. From 1998 to 1999, he studied music management at Georgia State University. In Feb. 2007, Bridges lost his father to cancer. Ludacris has a daughter named Karma with an Atlanta attorney named Christine White.

Music career

Radio DJ, Timbaland collaboration

Ludacris collaborated with Timbaland on the track "Phat Rabbit" from his album . Is it later included on Ludacris's debut LP album Back for the First Time.

Back for the First Time (2000)

Ludacris released his major label debut, Back for the First Time, in October 2000. This album was actually a modified re-release of the album Incognegro, made in 1998. It was produced with the help of the underground producer Sessy Melia, whom he dated for a short while. The album reached as high as #4 on the U.S. Billboard 200, and was a major success. Ludacris made his mark on the industry with singles such as "Southern Hospitality" and "What's Your Fantasy", along with his first ever single the "Phat Rabbit", from two years prior. Guest appearances included 4-Ize, I-20, Shawnna, Pastor Troy, Timbaland, Trina, Foxy Brown, UGK, and others. Ludacris stated in an interview on MTV's hip hop program Direct Effect that he came up with his stage name based on his "split personality" that he considered "ridiculous" and "ludicrous".

Word of Mouf (2001)

Ludacris promptly completed his next album, Word of Mouf, and released it at the end of 2001. The video for the lead single, "Rollout (My Business)", was nominated for a 2002 VMA, and Ludacris performed it live at the awards' pre-show. He released singles "Saturday (Oooh Oooh)" with Sleepy Brown, "Move Bitch" with Mystikal and I-20, and "Area Codes" with Nate Dogg.

Chicken-n-Beer (2003)

During the spring of 2003, Ludacris returned to the music scene after a brief hiatus with a new single, "Act a Fool", from the 2 Fast 2 Furious soundtrack. At around the same time, he released the lead single from his album Chicken-n-Beer, called "P-Poppin" (short for "Pussy Poppin'"). Neither of his new singles were as well received by either the urban or pop audiences as his previous songs had been, and both music videos received only limited airplay. Chicken-N-Beer opened strongly, but without a popular single, the album fell quickly. Guest appearances include Playaz Circle, Chingy, Snoop Dogg, 8Ball & MJG, Lil' Flip, I-20, Lil Fate, and Shawnna.

In the fall of 2003, Ludacris rebounded with his next single, "Stand Up", which appeared on both Chicken-n-Beer as well as the soundtrack for the teen hip hop/dance movie, You Got Served. Produced by Kanye West, "Stand Up" went on to become one of Ludacris' biggest mainstream hits to date, hitting the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 garnering heavy airplay on mainstream pop, rhythmic, and urban radio stations, as well as on MTV, MTV2, and BET. Ludacris was sued by a New Jersey group called I.O.F. who claimed that "Stand Up" used a hook from one of their songs, but in June 2006, a jury found that the song did not violate copyrights. "I hope the plaintiffs enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame," Ludacris said after the verdict.

The album's next single, "Splash Waterfalls", was released in early 2004. A huge pop hit (despite its steamy video and explicit, adult-oriented lyrical content and themes), it subsequently became a success at urban radio and BET, and is the only time he has produced two consecutive top 10 singles from a solo album, except for Release Therapy (an unedited version of the video could only be viewed on BET's Uncut program). It was Ludacris' most sexual video yet, an R&B; remix that featured Raphael Saadiq and sampled Tony! Toni! Tone!'s "Whatever You Want". Ludacris received his first Grammy Award with Usher and Lil Jon for their hit single "Yeah!". Ludacris next released "Blow It Out", which was accompanied by a low-budget music video.

The Red Light District (2004)

Chris Bridges took a more mature approach to his fourth album, The Red Light District. Sohail Khalid helped produce this album with various artists such as T.I., Lil Flip and Bun B. Ludacris openly boasted that he may be the only rapper able to keep the Def Jam label afloat on the opening track. Ludacris filmed and recorded the single "Get Back" in which he was featured as a muscle-bound hulk who was being annoyed by the media and warned critics to leave him alone. He first appeared on Saturday Night Live as a special guest performing with musical guest Sum 41 on a season 30 episode hosted by Paul Giamatti. He then recorded "Get Back" with Sum 41 to make a rock crossover single. The follow-up single was the Austin Powers-inspired "Number One Spot". It was produced by New York City's Hot 97 personality DJ Green Lantern. It used the Quincy Jones sample of "Soul Bossa Nova" and sped it up to the tempo of Ludacris' rap flow. Featured artists on the album include Nas, DJ Quik, DMX, Trick Daddy, Sleepy Brown, and Disturbing tha Peace newcomers Bobby Valentino, Dolla Boi, and Small World. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard charts.

Release Therapy (2006)

In an issue of XXL, Ludacris was placed in the number nine spot for the most anticipated albums of 2006, for Release Therapy. The album Release Therapy was released on September 26, 2006. Ludacris formatted the CD to have two sides: a Release side and a Therapy side on a single CD. Guest appearances include Pharrell Williams, R. Kelly, Young Jeezy, Mary J. Blige, Field Mob, Bobby Valentino, Pimp C, C-Murder, and Beanie Sigel. The first single, "Money Maker", which features Pharrell Williams, was released to U.S. radio outlets on July 17, 2006. "Money Maker" reached number one on the BET program 106 & Park. It then went to become the rapper's second number one single after 6 years. His second single, "Grew Up a Screw Up", featuring Young Jeezy, dispels rumors that the two are or ever were in a dispute. His third single, "Runaway Love", soon peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot Rap Tracks and won Best Collaboration in the 2007 BET Awards. His album then reached number one on the Billboard 200 album charts with sales of 309,000 in its first week. With the release of this album, Ludacris marked a change in style in his career with his musical style. The new album itself features a departure of the lighthearted mood of his previous albums, and introduces a darker side. A change of hair accompanied this as he cut off his trademark braids for a more conventional "fade" cut. To promote the album, Ludacris returned to Saturday Night Live (as both host and musical guest) on November 18, 2006.

Theater of the Mind (2008)

The Preview, a mixtape to preview the album was released on July 28, 2008. Theater of the Mind, released on November 24, 2008, and in April 2008, the single "Let's Stay Together" appeared on xxlmag.com; supposedly from the new album ("Let's Stay Together" was expected to but was released as a bonus track on the CD). A song with Small World called "Pinky Shinin" was expected to be on the album, but it was dropped. In an interview with Complex Magazine he stated that Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, T.I., Plies, Common, T-Pain, Jay-Z, Nas and The Game will be on the album; The Game is featured in a track with Willy Northpole titled "Call Up the Homies". T.I. was on the album on a track called "Wish You Would" squashing the long feud between them. The album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 with 213,493 sold first week. The album was released the same day as Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak, which took the number one spot. His first single "What Them Girls Like", featuring Chris Brown and Sean Garrett, peaked at #33 on the Billboard 100. His second single, "One More Drink", featuring T-Pain, peaked at #24 on the Billboard 100. The third official single is "Nasty Girl", featuring Plies. He confirmed a "sequel" titled Ludaversal due to be released in 2011.

Battle of the Sexes (2010)

Ludacris' seventh studio album was released on March 9, 2010, with his first promotional single for the album being "Everybody Drunk" which features Lil Scrappy, originally featuring Shawnna. The first concept idea of the album was to have Ludacris and Shawnna battle it out on the album back–to–back, but this was later axed upon Shawnna's depature from Disturbing tha Peace, ending her contract on Ludacris' label and joining T-Pain's Nappy Boy Entertainment label. The first official single released from Battle of the Sexes was "How Low", which was released on December 8, 2009. The follow–up single was "My Chick Bad", released on February 23, 2010. The third single is "Sex Room", peaking at #69 on the Billboard 100. Ludacris’s Battle of the Sexes entered the chart at No. 1, with 137,000 sales in the first week. The album is currently certified gold.

Ludaversal (2011)

On August 15, 2010, Ludacris tweeted that he is currently back in the studio with The Neptunes working on Ludaversal, his "sequel" album to Theater of the Mind.

Ventures

After the success of Back for the First Time, Ludacris started his own foundation. The Ludacris Foundation, started by Ludacris and Disturbing tha Peace CEO Chaka Zulu, is an organization that helps middle and high school students motivate themselves in creative arts.

In 2007 Matt Apfel, a reality TV producer, had an idea for a show about mashups between fans and rock stars. He sat down with Ludacris and Zulu and discovered that they wanted to do something similar. Out of this partnership, they started a new media distribution company called wemix.com. Recently, WeMix.com announced a partnership with PhoneZoo to launch an innovative content distribution platform for new artists. Recently, Ludacris has landed a new fragrance deal with TAG Body Spray. His own packaging of the spray is called Get Yours.

In January 2009, Ludacris collaborated with Norwegian cognac house Birkedal Hartmann to create Conjure cognac. Ludacris and Birkedal Hartmann's blender, Philippe B. Tiffon, selected a blend of ugni blanc grapes from various regions in Cognac including Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne and Borderie. Conjure is a blend of forty eaux-de-vie and is aged in oak barrels that are up to fifty years old. The bottle is decorated with female silhouettes.

Controversy

T.I.

Tensions began when T.I. saw Disturbing tha Peace rapper I-20's video in which a man wearing a shirt with the words "Trap House," was being beaten. T.I. believed the man's shirt actually said "Trap Muzik," perhaps interpreting this to be a reference to his album of the same name. Later, former G-Unit artist Young Buck asked these two fellow Southern rappers to appear on his new record on the track "Stomp". T.I. recorded a verse, which contained a line that Young Buck considered to be a subliminal insult towards Ludacris "Me gettin' beat down?/That's ludicrous/". Young Buck spoke to Ludacris about his interpretation of the event. Ludacris then later recorded a verse that can be found on the album. T.I's record company wanted Ludacris to change his verse before they sanctioned it but Ludacris refused and T.I. was therefore replaced by Game on the album version.

On June 24, 2007 at the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood, California, T.I. was involved in a physical altercation. During a luncheon held by Kevin Liles of Warner Music Group (parent company of T.I.'s label, Atlantic Records), the MC got into a fight with Ludacris' manager Chaka Zulu. According to witnesses, T.I. punched Zulu in the face and choked him and a small, brief melee ensued.

T.I. was awarded honors for Best Hip-Hop Artist at the BET Awards, and took the opportunity to apologize for his scuffle with Disturbing tha Peace executive Chaka Zulu earlier in the week. While accepting his award, he expressed regret over the situation. "They say it's a fine line between brilliance and insanity," he said, in an apparent reference to his troublesome alter ego, T.I.P. During the broadcast, cameras showed his onetime rival Ludacris smiling in the audience.

The two rappers have resolved their disagreement and have collaborated on two songs: "Wish You Would" off Ludacris's sixth studio album, Theater of the Mind, and "On Top of the World" off T.I.'s sixth studio album, Paper Trail. The original version of the latter had Kanye West.

Bill O'Reilly

On August 27, 2002, political pundit Bill O'Reilly called for all Americans to boycott Pepsi products, saying that Ludacris' lyrics glamorize a "life of guns, violence, drugs and disrespect of women". The next day, O'Reilly reported that Pepsi had fired Ludacris.

2008 presidential election

The song "Politics As Usual" from Ludacris' mixtape has stirred controversy due to lyrics in the song criticizing: Reverend Jesse Jackson "Now Jesse talkin’ slick and apologizin’ for what?/ If you said it then you meant it", (in reference to Jackson stating that he would "like to cut Obama's nuts off"); John McCain "McCain don’t belong in any chair unless he’s paralyzed"; President George W. Bush "Yeah I said it, 'cuz Bush is mentally handicapped/ Ball up all of his speeches and throw 'em just like candy wraps / 'Cuz what you talkin' I hear nothin' even relevant / you the worst of all 43 presidents"; Hillary Clinton "Hillary hated on you, so that bitch is irrelevant", in reference to Hillary's campaign comments against Obama.

Discography

; Studio albums

Back for the First Time (2000)

Word of Mouf (2001)

Chicken-n-Beer (2003)

The Red Light District (2004)

Release Therapy (2006)

Theater of the Mind (2008)

Battle of the Sexes (2010)

Ludaversal (2011)

Filmography

See also

List of artists who reached number one in the United States

List of awards and nominations received by Ludacris

References

External links

Official Def Jam Site

The Ludacris Foundation

Ludacris at Twitter

Ludacris at MTV

Interview w/ ARTISTdirect.com

Category:1977 births Category:African American actors Category:African American rappers Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:American people of Native American descent Category:Def Jam Recordings artists Category:Georgia State University alumni Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Living people Category:Native American actors Category:Native American musicians Category:Native American rappers Category:Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:People from Champaign, Illinois Category:People from Oak Park, Illinois Category:Rappers from Atlanta, Georgia

Name	Lady Gaga
Img alt	Portrait of a young, pale-skinned Caucasian female with blond hair
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta
Born	March 28, 1986New York City, U.S.
Instrument	Vocals, piano, synthesizer, keytar
Genre	Pop, dance
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, performance artist, record producer, dancer, businesswoman
Years active	2005–present
Label	Def Jam, Cherrytree, Streamline, Kon Live, Interscope
Url

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American pop singer-songwriter. She began performing in the rock music scene of New York City's Lower East Side in 2003 and enrolled at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She soon signed with Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records. During her early time at Interscope, she worked as a songwriter for fellow label artists and captured the attention of Akon, who recognized her vocal abilities, and signed her to his own label, Kon Live Distribution.

Gaga came to prominence following the release of her debut studio album The Fame (2008), which was a commercial success and achieved international popularity with the singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". The album reached number one on the record charts of six countries, accomplished positions within the top-ten worldwide, and topped the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart while simultaneously peaking at number two on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States. Achieving similar worldwide success, the follow-up EP The Fame Monster (2009), produced a further two global chart-topping singles "Bad Romance" and "Telephone" and allowed her to embark on a second global headlining concert tour, The Monster Ball Tour, just months after having finished her first, The Fame Ball Tour. Her second studio album, Born This Way, is scheduled for release in 2011.

Inspired by glam rock artists like David Bowie and Queen, as well as pop singers such as Madonna and Michael Jackson, Gaga is well-recognized for her outré sense of style as a recording artist, in fashion, in performance and in her music videos. Her contributions to the music industry have garnered her numerous achievements including two Grammy Awards, amongst twelve nominations; two Guinness World Records; and the estimated sale of fifteen million albums and fifty-one million singles worldwide. Billboard named her as the Artist of the Year in 2010 and ranked her as the 73rd Artist of the 2000s decade. Gaga has been included in Time magazine's annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world as well as Forbes' list of the 100 Most Powerful and Influential celebrities in the world. Forbes also placed her at number seven on their annual list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women.

Life and career

1986–2004: Early life

Lady Gaga was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in New York City on March 28, 1986, the eldest child of Joseph Germanotta, an internet entrepreneur, and Cynthia (née Bissett). She learned to play piano from the age of four, went on to write her first piano ballad at 13 and began performing at open mike nights by age 14. Gaga was raised a Roman Catholic. At the age of 11, Gaga attended Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private all-girls Roman Catholic school on Manhattan's Upper East Side, but has stressed that she does not come from a wealthy background, saying that her parents "both came from lower-class families, so we've worked for everything – my mother worked eight to eight out of the house, in telecommunications, and so did my father."

An avid thespian in high school musicals, Gaga portrayed lead roles as Adelaide in Guys and Dolls and Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. She described her academic life in high school as "very dedicated, very studious, very disciplined" but also "a bit insecure" as she told in an interview, "I used to get made fun of for being either too provocative or too eccentric, so I started to tone it down. I didn’t fit in, and I felt like a freak." Acquaintances dispute that she did not fit in school. "She had a core group of friends; she was a good student. She liked boys a lot, but singing was No. 1," recalled a former high school classmate. Referring to her "expressive, free spirit", Gaga told Elle magazine "I'm left-handed!"

At age 17, Gaga gained early admission to the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and lived in a NYU dorm on 11th Street. There she studied music and improved her songwriting skills by composing essays and analytical papers focusing on topics such as art, religion, social issues and politics. Gaga felt that she was more creative than some of her classmates. "Once you learn how to think about art, you can teach yourself," she said. By the second semester of her sophomore year, she withdrew from the school to focus on her musical career. Her father agreed to pay her rent for a year, on the condition that she re-enroll for Tisch if she was unsuccessful. "I left my entire family, got the cheapest apartment I could find, and ate shit until somebody would listen," she said. Shortly after, her former management company introduced her to songwriter and producer RedOne, whom they also managed. The first song she produced with RedOne was "Boys Boys Boys", She also started the Stefani Germanotta Band with some friends from NYU. They recorded an extended play of their ballads at a studio underneath a liquor store in New Jersey, becoming a local fixture at the downtown Lower East Side club scene. Music producer Rob Fusari, who helped her write some of her earlier songs, compared some of her vocal harmonies to that of Freddie Mercury. He explained,

She was known thereafter as Lady Gaga. The pair began playing gigs at downtown club venues like the Mercury Lounge, The Bitter End, and the Rockwood Music Hall, with their live performance art piece known as "Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue." Billed as "The Ultimate Pop Burlesque Rockshow", their act was a low-fi tribute to 1970s variety acts. In August 2007, Gaga and Starlight were invited to play at the American Lollapalooza music festival. The show was critically acclaimed, and their performance received positive reviews.

Fusari sent the songs he produced with Gaga to his friend, producer and record executive Vincent Herbert. Herbert was quick to sign her to his label Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records, upon its establishment in 2007. She credited Herbert as the man who discovered her, adding "I really feel like we made pop history, and we're gonna keep going." While Gaga was writing at Interscope, singer-songwriter Akon recognized her vocal abilities when she sang a reference vocal for one of his tracks in studio. He then convinced Interscope-Geffen-A&M; Chairman and CEO Jimmy Iovine to form a joint deal by having her also sign with his own label Kon Live Distribution Gaga continued her collaboration with RedOne in the recording studio for a week on her debut album The album peaked at number one in United Kingdom, Canada, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Ireland, and the top-five in Australia, the United States and fifteen other countries. Worldwide, The Fame has sold over fourteen million copies. Its lead single "Just Dance" topped the charts in six countries – Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States – and later received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Dance Recording. The following single "Poker Face" was an even greater success, reaching number-one in almost all major music markets in the world, including the United Kingdom and the United States. It won the award for Best Dance Recording at the 52nd Grammy Awards, over nominations for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. The Fame was nominated for Album of the Year; it won the Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album. Although her first concert tour happened as an opening act for fellow Interscope pop group, the reformed New Kids on the Block, she ultimately headlined her own worldwide concert tour, The Fame Ball Tour, which was critically appreciated and began in March 2009; culminating in September of that year. The cover of the annual "Hot 100" issue of Rolling Stone in May 2009 featured a semi-nude Gaga wearing only strategically placed plastic bubbles. She was nominated for a total of nine awards at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, winning the award for Best New Artist, while her single "Paparazzi" won two awards for Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects. In October, Gaga received Billboard magazine's Rising Star of 2009 award. She attended the Human Rights Campaign's "National Dinner" the same month, before marching in the National Equality March for the equal protection of LGBT people in all matters governed by US civil law in Washington, D.C.

|alt= Profile of a young blond woman. Her hair falls in waves up to her shoulders. She wears a purple leotard with visible sequins attached. Ample bosom, arm and leg are visible.]] Written over the course of 2008–09, The Fame Monster, a collection of eight songs, was released in November 2009. Each song, dealing with the darker side of fame from personal experience while she travelled the world, is expressed through a monster metaphor. Its first single "Bad Romance" topped the charts in eighteen countries, while reaching the top-two in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. In the US, Gaga became the first artist in digital history to have three singles (along with "Just Dance" and "Poker Face") to pass the four million mark in digital sales. The song received a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance while its accompanying music video was nominated for Best Short Form Music Video. The album's second single "Telephone", which features singer Beyoncé, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals and became Gaga's fourth UK number-one single while its accompanying music video, although controversial, was met mostly positive reception from contemporary critics: praising her for "the musicality and showmanship of Michael Jackson and the powerful sexuality and provocative instincts of Madonna." Her following single "Alejandro" paired Gaga with fashion photographer Steven Klein for a music video similarly as controversial – critics complimented its idea and dark nature, but the Catholic League attacked Gaga for her use of blasphemy. Despite the controversy surrounding her music videos, they have made Gaga one of the first artists to gain over one billion viral views on video-sharing website YouTube. Musically, The Fame Monster has also received abundant success. Equating to the amount of Grammy nominations her debut received, The Fame Monster garnered a total of six – among them Best Pop Vocal Album and her second-consecutive nomination for Album of the Year. The success of the album allowed Gaga to embark on her second headlining worldwide concert tour, The Monster Ball Tour, just weeks after the release of The Fame Monster and months after having finished her first. Upon finishing in May 2011, the critically acclaimed and commercially accomplished concert tour will have ran for over one and a half years. Additionally, Gaga has performed other songs from the album at international events like the 2009 Royal Variety Performance where she sang "Speechless", a power ballad, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II; the 52nd Grammy Awards where her opening performance consisted of the song "Poker Face" and a piano duet of "Speechless" in a medley of "Your Song" with Elton John; and the 2010 BRIT Awards where a performance of an acoustic rendition of "Telephone" followed by "Dance in the Dark" dedicated to the late fashion designer and close friend, Alexander McQueen, supplemented her hat-trick win at the awards ceremony.

Barbara Walters chose Gaga as one the "10 Most Fascinating People of 2009" for her annual ABC News special. When interviewed by the journalist, Gaga dismissed the claim that she is intersex as an urban legend. Responding to a question on this issue, she stated, "At first it was very strange and everyone sorta said, 'That's really quite a story!' But in a sense, I portray myself in a very androgynous way, and I love androgyny." Excited about bringing back Polaroid and "combining it with the digital era", Gaga was named Chief Creative Officer for a line of imaging products for the international optic company in January 2010 with the intent of creating fashion, technology and photography products. Her production team, Mermaid Music LLC, was sued in March by Rob Fusari; claiming that he was entitled to a 20% share of its earnings. Gaga's lawyer, Charles Ortner, described the agreement with Fusari as "unlawful" and declined to comment, however, five months later, the New York Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit. In April, Gaga was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of the year. While giving an interview to The Times, Gaga hinted at having Systemic lupus erythematosus, commonly referred to as lupus, which is a connective tissue disease. She later confirmed with Larry King that she does not have lupus but "the results were borderline positive".

2010–present: Born This Way

Gaga's second studio album and third major release Born This Way, whose title was announced during her acceptance speech for Video of the Year at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, will be released on May 23, 2011. Its arrival will follow the release of its lead single on February 13, 2011. These dates were tweeted by Gaga at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day, 2011. Described as "a marriage of electronic music with major [...] metal or rock 'n' roll, pop, anthemic style melodies with really sledge-hammering dance beats", Born This Way will be Gaga's third release in three years. She stated, "It came so quickly. I've been working on [the album] for months, and I feel very strongly that it's finished right now. Some artists take years. I don't. I write music every day." With two tracks already confirmed by Gaga – one she has been performing during The Monster Ball Tour, she has referred to the album as "the greatest" of the decade about "what keeps us up at night and what makes us afraid." Likening Born This Way to "bad kids going to church" that are "having fun on a high level", Gaga characterized her new music as "something so much deeper than a wig or lipstick or a fucking meat dress" and upon hearing it, Akon remarked that she will take music to the "next level."

Lending her vocal talent elsewhere, Gaga also paired with Elton John to record an original duet for the soundtrack to the forthcoming animated Disney feature film Gnomeo and Juliet. The song, titled "Hello, Hello", is scheduled for release in February 2011.

Musical style and influences

Gaga has been influenced by glam rock artists such as David Bowie and Queen, as well as pop music artists such as Madonna, Britney Spears and Michael Jackson. The Queen song "Radio Ga Ga" inspired her stage name, "Lady Gaga". She commented: "I adored Freddie Mercury and Queen had a hit called 'Radio Gaga'. That's why I love the name [...] Freddie was unique – one of the biggest personalities in the whole of pop music."

Gaga's vocals have drawn frequent comparison to those of Madonna and Gwen Stefani, while the structure of her music is said to echo classic 1980s pop and 1990s Europop. While reviewing her debut album The Fame, The Sunday Times asserted "in combining music, fashion, art and technology, Lady GaGa evokes Madonna, Gwen Stefani circa 'Hollaback Girl', Kylie Minogue 2001 or Grace Jones right now." Similarly, The Boston Globe critic Sarah Rodman commented that she draws "obvious inspirations from Madonna to Gwen Stefani... in [her] girlish but sturdy pipes and bubbly beats." Though her lyrics are said to lack intellectual stimulation, "[she] does manage to get you moving and grooving at an almost effortless pace." Music critic Simon Reynolds wrote that "Everything about Gaga came from electroclash, except the music, which wasn't particularly 1980s, just ruthlessly catchy naughties pop glazed with Auto-Tune and undergirded with R&B;-ish beats.

Gaga has identified fashion as a major influence. Her love of fashion came from her mother, who she stated was "always very well kept and beautiful." Entertainment Weekly put her outfits on its end of the decade "best-of" list, saying, "Whether it's a dress made of Muppets or strategically placed bubbles, Gaga's outré ensembles brought performance art into the mainstream."

Critical reception of Gaga's music, fashion sense and persona are mixed. Her status as a role model, trailblazer and fashion icon is by turns affirmed and denied. Gaga's albums have received mostly positive reviews, Her role as a self-esteem booster for her fans is also lauded, as is her role in breathing life into the fashion industry. Her performances are described as "highly entertaining and innovative"; in particular, the blood-spurting performance of "Paparazzi" at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards was described as "eye-popping" by MTV. She continued the "blood soaked" theme in The Monster Ball Tour, in which she wore a revealing leather corset and is "attacked" by a performer dressed in black who gnaws on her throat, causing "blood" to spurt down her chest, after which she lies "dying" in a pool of blood. Her performances of that scene in Manchester, England triggered protests from family groups and fans in the aftermath of a local tragedy, in which a taxi driver had murdered 12 people. "What happened in Bradford is very fresh in people's minds and given all the violence which happened in Cumbria just hours earlier, it was insensitive," said Lynn Costello of Mothers Against Violence. Chris Rock later defended her flamboyant, provocative behavior. "Well, she's Lady Gaga," he said. "She's not 'Lady Behave Yourself.' Do you want great behavior from a person named Gaga? Is this what you were expecting?" She later returned to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards wearing a dress which was supplemented by boots, a purse and a hat—each fabricated from the flesh of a dead animal. The dress, named Time magazine's Fashion Statement of 2010 and more widely known as the "meat dress", was made by Argentinian designer Franc Fernandez and received divided opinions—evoking the attention of worldwide media but invoking the fury of animal rights organization PETA. Gaga, however, later denied any intention of causing disrespect to any person or organization and wished for the dress to be interpreted as a statement of human rights with focus upon those in the LGBT community.

Gaga's treatment of her fans as "Little Monsters" has inspired criticism, due to the highly commercial nature of her music and image. Camille Paglia wrote a cover story "Lady Gaga and the death of sex" on September 12, 2010, in The Sunday Times in which she asserts that Gaga "is more an identity thief than an erotic taboo breaker, a mainstream manufactured product who claims to be singing for the freaks, the rebellious and the dispossessed when she is none of those."

Public image

Contrary to her outré style, the New York Post described her early look as like "a refugee from Jersey Shore" with "big black hair, heavy eye makeup and tight, revealing clothes." She has another six known tattoos, among them a peace symbol, which was inspired by John Lennon whom she stated was her hero, Towards the end of 2008, comparisons were made between the fashions of Gaga and fellow recording artist Christina Aguilera that noted similarities in their styling, hair, and make-up. Comparisons continued into 2010 when Aguilera released the music video of her single "Not Myself Tonight". Critics noted similarities between the song and its accompanying music video with Gaga's video for "Bad Romance". There have also been similar comparisons made between Gaga's style and that of fashion icon Dale Bozzio from the band Missing Persons. Some have considered their respective images to be strikingly parallel although fans of Missing Persons note that Bozzio had pioneered the look more than thirty years earlier.

Gaga's influence on modern culture and society has provoked the University of South Carolina into offering a full-time course titled "Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame" in the objective of unravelling "the sociologically relevant dimensions of the fame of Lady Gaga with respect to her music, videos, fashion, and other artistic endeavors".

Philanthropy

Besides her career in music, Gaga has enhanced her repertoire as a philanthropist who has contributed to various charities and humanitarianism works.

Although declining an invitation to record a benefit song, Gaga held a concert of The Monster Ball Tour following the 2010 Haiti earthquake and dedicated it to the country’s reconstruction relief fund. This concert, held at the Radio City Music Hall, New York, on January 24, 2010, donated any received revenue to the relief fund while, in addition, all profits from sales of products on Gaga’s official online store on that same day were donated. Gaga announced that an estimated total of $500,000 was collected for the fund.

Gaga also contributes in the fight against HIV and AIDS with the focus upon educating young women about the risks of the disease. In collaboration with Cyndi Lauper, Gaga joined forces with MAC Cosmetics to launch a line of lipstick under their supplementary cosmetic line, Viva Glam. Titled Viva Glam Gaga and Viva Glam Cyndi for each contributor respectively, all net proceeds of the lipstick line were donated to the cosmetic company’s campaign to prevent HIV and AIDS worldwide. In a press release, Gaga declared, "I don't want Viva Glam to be just a lipstick you buy to help a cause. I want it to be a reminder when you go out at night to put a condom in your purse right next to your lipstick."

, October 11, 2009|alt=A blond woman speaking on a kiosk. She wears a white shirt and black glasses. Behind her, the balcony of a building is visible.]] Gaga attributes much of her early success as a mainstream artist to her gay fans and is considered to be a rising gay icon. Early in her career she had difficulty getting radio airplay, and stated, "The turning point for me was the gay community. I've got so many gay fans and they're so loyal to me and they really lifted me up. They'll always stand by me and I'll always stand by them. It's not an easy thing to create a fanbase." She thanked FlyLife, a Manhattan-based LGBT marketing company with whom her label Interscope works, in the liner notes of The Fame, saying, "I love you so much. You were the first heartbeat in this project, and your support and brilliance means the world to me. I will always fight for the gay community hand in hand with this incredible team." One of her first televised performances was in May 2008 at the NewNowNext Awards, an awards show aired by the LGBT television network Logo, where she sang her song "Just Dance". In June of the same year, she performed the song again at the San Francisco Pride event.

After The Fame was released, she revealed that the song "Poker Face" was about her bisexuality. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she spoke about how her boyfriends tended to react to her bisexuality, saying "The fact that I'm into women, they're all intimidated by it. It makes them uncomfortable. They're like, 'I don't need to have a threesome. I'm happy with just you'." She proclaimed that the October 11, 2009, National Equality March rally on the national mall was "the single most important event of her career." As she exited, she left with an exultant "Bless God and bless the gays," At the rally, she performed a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" declaring that "I'm not going to [play] one of my songs tonight because tonight is not about me, it's about you." She changed the original lyrics of the song to reflect the death of Matthew Shepard, a college student murdered because of his sexuality. In September 2010, she spoke at a rally in favor of repealing the US military's Don't ask, don't tell policy, which prohibits lesbian, gay and bisexual people from serving openly, and released an online video urging her fans to contact their Senators in an effort to get the policy overturned. Editors of The Advocate commented that she had become the "fierce advocate" for gays and lesbians that future president Barack Obama had promised to be during his campaign.

Discography

The Fame (2008)

The Fame Monster (2009)

Born This Way (2011)

Tours

The Fame Ball Tour (2009)

The Monster Ball Tour (2009–11)

Awards and nominations

See also

Honorific nicknames in popular music

List of best-selling music artists

References

Further reading

External links

Year in Gaga: A Provocative 2010 — slideshow by Life magazine

Category:1986 births Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:American Roman Catholics Category:American dance musicians Category:American electronic musicians Category:American female pop singers Category:American musicians of Italian descent Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Bisexual musicians Category:BRIT Award winners Category:English-language singers Category:Feminist artists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Interscope Records artists Category:Keytarists Category:LGBT musicians from the United States Category:LGBT rights activists from the United States Category:Living people Category:New York University alumni Category:Singers from New York Category:Sony/ATV Music Publishing artists Category:Wonky Pop acts

Name	Justin Bieber
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Justin Drew Bieber
Born	March 01, 1994
Origin	Stratford, Ontario, Canada
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano, percussion,
Genre	Pop, R&B; ( , born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian pop-R&B; singer. Bieber was discovered in 2008 by Scooter Braun, who happened to come across Bieber's videos on YouTube and later became his manager. Braun arranged for him to meet with Usher in Atlanta, Georgia, and Bieber was soon signed to Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG), a joint venture between Braun and Usher, and then to a recording contract with Island Records offered by L.A. Reid. His first full studio release, My World 2.0, was released on March 23, 2010 and has since received similar success; it debuted at number one and within the top ten of several countries and was certified platinum in the United States. It was preceded by the worldwide top-ten single, "Baby," in January 2010.
Name	Bieber, Justin
Short description	Canadian singer
Date of birth	March 1, 1994
Place of birth	Stratford, Ontario, Canada

Category:1994 births Category:Living people Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Canadian child singers Category:Canadian dance musicians Category:Canadian expatriate musicians in the United States Category:Canadian Internet personalities Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian pop singers Category:Canadian rhythm and blues singers Category:Hip hop singers Category:Island Records artists Category:Musicians from Atlanta, Georgia Category:Musicians from Ontario Category:People from Stratford, Ontario Category:Canadian people of German descent

Name	Bruno Mars
Born	October 08, 1985 Honolulu, Hawaii
Origin	Los Angeles, California,
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Peter Gene Hernandez
Instrument	Vocals, drums, guitar, keyboard, bass
Voice type	Falsetto
Genre	Pop, alternative hip hop, soul, rock, R&B;
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, record producer
Years active	2007–present
Label	Atlantic, Elektra
Associated acts	The Smeezingtons, B.o.B, Cee Lo Green, Travie McCoy
Url

Peter Gene Hernandez (born October 8, 1985), better known by his stage name Bruno Mars, is an American singer-songwriter and music producer. Raised in Honolulu, Hawaii by a family of musicians, Mars began making music at a young age. After performing in various musical venues in his hometown throughout his childhood, he decided to pursue a musical career. Mars began producing songs for other artists, joining production team The Smeezingtons.

He became recognized as a solo artist after lending his vocals and co-writing the hooks for the songs "Nothin' on You" by B.o.B, and "Billionaire" by Travie McCoy. He also co-wrote the hits "Right Round" by Flo Rida featuring Kesha, "Wavin' Flag" by K'naan, and "Fuck You!" by Cee Lo Green. In October 2010, he released his debut album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans. Anchored by the singles "Just the Way You Are" and "Grenade", the album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200. He has been nominated for seven Grammys at the 53rd Grammy Awards, which will be held on February 13, 2011.

Life and career

1985–2008: Early life and beginnings

Mars was born Peter Gene Hernandez and raised in the Waikiki neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii by parents Pete and Bernadette "Bernie" Hernandez, of Puerto Rican and Filipino descent. His mother emigrated to Hawaii from the Philippines as a child and his father moved to the island from Brooklyn, New York. The two met when performing in a show where his mother was a hula dancer and his father played percussion. Mars was one of six children and came from a musical family who exposed him to a diverse mix of reggae, rock, hip hop, and R&B.; From a young age, he was impersonating and performing songs by artists such as Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, The Isley Brothers, and The Temptations. He later reflected on the influence Elvis had on his music, saying "I watch the best. I'm a big fan of Elvis. I'm a big fan of 1950s Elvis when he would go on stage and scare people because he was a force and girls would go nuts! You can say the same thing for Prince or The Police. It's just guys who know that people are here to see a show, so I watch those guys and I love studying them because I'm a fan." In 2010 he also acknowledged his Hawaiian roots and musical family as an influence, saying "Growing up in Hawaii made me the man I am. I used to do a lot of shows in Hawaii with my father's band. Everybody in my family sings, everyone plays instruments. My uncle's an incredible guitar player, my dad's an incredible percussionist, my brother's a great drummer, he actually plays in our band. I've just been surrounded by it." In 2003, shortly after graduating from President Theodore Roosevelt High School at the age of seventeen, Mars moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue a musical career.

In 2006, Mars was introduced to his future manager at Atlantic Records, Aaron Bay-Schuck, by his new songwriting partner Philip Lawrence. After hearing him play a couple of songs on the guitar, Bay-Schuck wanted to sign him immediately, but it took about three years for Atlantic records to finally sign Mars to the label. He also co-wrote the Sugababes' hit song "Get Sexy" and provided backing vocals on their album Sweet 7. His first musical appearance as a singer was in Far East Movement's second studio album Animal, featured on the track "3D". He was also featured on pastor and hip hop artist Jaeson Ma's debut single "Love" in August 2009. He reached prominence as a solo artist after being featured on and co-writing B.o.B's "Nothin' on You" and Travie McCoy's "Billionaire"; both songs peaked within the top ten of many charts worldwide. He said of them, "I think those songs weren't meant to be full-sung songs. If I'd sung all of "Nothin' on You", it might've sounded like some '90s R&B;." Following this success, Mars released his debut extended play (EP), titled It's Better If You Don't Understand, on May 11, 2010. The EP peaked at the ninety-ninth position on the Billboard 200 and produced one single: "The Other Side", featuring rappers Cee Lo Green and B.o.B. Mars collaborated with Cee Lo Green once more in August 2010 by co-writing his single "Fuck You!". He performed a medley of "Nothin' on You" and "Airplanes" with B.o.B and Hayley Williams at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010.

Mars' debut album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans, was released digitally on October 4, and saw its physical release on October 5, 2010. The lead single, "Just the Way You Are", was released on July 19, 2010, and has reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The music video was released on September 8, 2010. Two songs from the album, "Liquor Store Blues" featuring Damian Marley and "Grenade" were released to the iTunes Store as promotional singles. He opened for Maroon 5 on the fall leg of the Hands All Over Tour starting October 6, 2010. Mars will co-headline with Travie McCoy on a European tour starting October 18, 2010. The album also received generally positive reviews from critics. Entertainment Weekly Leah Greenblatt praised Mars for his "instant-access melodies" and "sly snatches of dance-floor swagger", but noted weaknesses in songs deviant from his conventional pop and soul genres.

On September 19, 2010, Mars was arrested in Las Vegas for possession of cocaine. When talking to a police officer, Mars reportedly stated that what he did was "foolish" and that "he has never used drugs before". The court date, postponed for the second time until February 4, 2011, could see Mars face up to four years in prison and a $50,000 fine for possession of an alleged 2.6g of the drug.

Musical style

Although Mars has been referenced as "soft" because of his light falsetto voice, his co-producer says, "What people don't know is there's a darker underbelly to Bruno Mars." Mars himself says, "I blame that on me singing to girls back in high school." Jon Caramanica of The New York Times called him "one of the most versatile and accessible singers in pop, with a light, soul-influenced voice that’s an easy fit in a range of styles, a universal donor."

Mars also claims that his work with other artists influenced his musical style, saying that "'Nothing on You' had a Motown vibe, 'Billionaire' was a reggae acoustic guitar-driven song, though one of my favorites is the Cee-Lo song [Fuck You!]. I don't think anyone else could've sung that song. And there's 'Just the Way You Are.' If you know my story, you know I love all different genres of music." He cites doo-wop as a major influence on his music, referring to the genre as "just straightforward love songs — so charming and simple and romantic." |Best Collaboration | |- |Video of the Year | |- |rowspan="3"|BET Hip Hop Awards |Best Hip Hop Video | |- |Reese's Perfect Combo Award | |- |Verizon People's Champ Award | |- |MTV Video Music Awards |Best Pop Video | |- |MTV2 Sucker Free Summit Awards |Instant Classic | |- |Soul Train Music Awards |Song of the Year | |- |Teen Choice Awards''' |Best Single | |- |rowspan="8" align="center"|2011 |rowspan="7"|Grammy Awards |Best Rap Song | |- |Best Rap/Sung Collaboration | |- |rowspan="2"|Record of the Year | |- |rowspan="2"|"Fuck You!" | |- |Song of the Year | |- |"Just the Way You Are" |Best Male Pop Vocal Performance | |- |The Smeezingtons |Producer of the Year, Non-Classical | |- |Himself |NAACP Image Awards |Outstanding New Artist | |}

References

External links

Official website

Category:1985 births Category:Living people Category:American male singers Category:American musicians of Filipino descent Category:American singers of Puerto Rican descent Category:Elektra Records artists Category:Musicians from Los Angeles, California Category:People from Honolulu, Hawaii