Alex North

Alex North (December 4, 1910 – September 8, 1991) was an American composer best known for his many film scores, including A Streetcar Named Desire (one of the first jazz-based film scores), Viva Zapata!, Spartacus, Cleopatra, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. He was the first composer to receive an Honorary Academy Award.

Early life

North was born Isadore Soifer in Chester, Pennsylvania to Russian Jewish parents.

Career

North managed to integrate his modernism into typical film music leitmotif structure, rich with themes. One of these became the famous song, "Unchained Melody". Nominated for fifteen Oscars but unsuccessful each time, North is one of only two film composers to receive the Lifetime Achievement Academy Award, the other being Ennio Morricone. North's frequent collaborator as orchestrator was the avant-garde composer Henry Brant. He won the 1968 Golden Globe award for his music to The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968).

His best-known film scores include A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, Viva Zapata!, The Rainmaker, Spartacus, The Misfits, Cleopatra, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Dragonslayer and Under the Volcano. His music for The Wonderful Country makes use of Mexican and American motifs.

Adam and the Ants

Adam and the Ants were an English new wave band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The group, which lasted from 1977 to 1982, existed in two incarnations, both fronted by Adam Ant. The first, founded in May 1977, achieved considerable cult popularity during the transition from the punk rock era to the post-punk and new wave era and were noted for their high camp and overtly sexualised stage performances and songs. The final line-up of this first incarnation – Dave Barbarossa, Matthew Ashman and Leigh Gorman – left the band in January 1980 at the suggestion of then-de facto manager Malcolm McLaren, to form the instrumentalist personnel of the controversial Bow Wow Wow.

The second incarnation of Adam and the Ants featured guitarist Marco Pirroni and drummer-producer Chris Hughes and was noted for its use of Burundi drums. It lasted from February 1980 to March 1982 and achieved major commercial success in the UK and abroad.

History

Formation

Prior to Adam and the Ants, Adam Ant (born Stuart Leslie Goddard) played bass in pub rock group Bazooka Joe, now primarily known as the band that headlined when Sex Pistols played their first concert on 6 November 1975 at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. After witnessing this, Adam quit the band with the intention of forming his own, inspired by Sex Pistols.

Boyce Avenue

Boyce Avenue is an American rock band formed in Sarasota, Florida, by Alejandro Luis Manzano and his brothers Daniel Enrique Manzano, Fabian Rafael Manzano. The band is named after a combination of two streets the brothers lived on as children. As of August 9, 2011, they are no longer signed to Universal Republic and have started their own independent record label called 3 Peace Records. Boyce Avenue releases original music as well as covers of contemporary and classic songs on YouTube. Boyce Avenue has also collaborated with other YouTube artists such as Hannah Trigwell, Kina Grannis, Tiffany Alvord, Megan Nicole, Alex Goot, Megan & Liz, David Choi, Tyler Ward, Savannah Outen, Cobus Potgieter and DeStorm Power as well as The X Factor season two finalists Fifth Harmony, Beatrice Miller, Diamond White and Carly Rose Sonenclar.

Boyce Avenue frequently tours in the United States, Canada, the European Union, Australia, and Southeast Asia.

Biography

Daniel was born on October 4, 1980. Fabian was born on July 1, 1984. Alejandro was born on October 4, 1986. The three attended Pine View High School. Fabian and Daniel played basketball through it while Alejandro sang in the choir and was named Mr. Pine View.

Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, east London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. The band's discography has grown to thirty-eight albums, including sixteen studio albums, eleven live albums, four EPs, and seven compilations.

Pioneers of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Iron Maiden achieved initial success during the early 1980s. After several line-up changes, the band went on to release a series of UK and US platinum and gold albums, including 1982's The Number of the Beast, 1983's Piece of Mind, 1984's Powerslave, 1985's live release Live After Death, 1986's Somewhere in Time and 1988's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Since the return of lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith in 1999, the band have undergone a resurgence in popularity, with their 2010 studio offering, The Final Frontier, peaking at No. 1 in 28 different countries and receiving widespread critical acclaim. Their sixteenth studio album, The Book of Souls, was released on 4 September 2015.

Porter Robinson

Porter Weston Robinson (born July 15, 1992) is an American electronic music producer and DJ from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Robinson has registered multiple number one singles across different electronic genres. His debut album, Worlds, was released on August 12, 2014. On March 20, 2015, he was named MTVu Artist of the Year.

Biography

Robinson began producing at the age of 12, achieving international notice by the time he was 18. His early influences include video gaming music, in particular, Dance Dance Revolution. He is a major fan of anime and Japanese culture, and incorporates these elements into his music.

Viewed as one of America's forefront electronic producers, he has been named 7th in the Billboard 21 under 21 list, 1st in InTheMix's 25 under 25 list, and 5th in DJ Times' 2013 ranking for America's Best DJ. Three of Robinson's records reached number one on Beatport's overall chart before the time he was 21.

He currently lives in his hometown of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.