Music of Detroit

Detroit, Michigan is a major center in the United States for the creation and performance of music, and is the birthplace of the musical subgenres known as “The Motown Sound" and Techno.

The Metro Detroit area has a rich musical history spanning the past century, beginning with the revival of the world-renowned Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1918. The major genres represented in Detroit music include Classical, Blues, Jazz, Gospel, R&B, Rock and roll, Pop, Punk, Soul, Electronica and Hip-hop. The Greater Detroit area has been the birthplace and/or primary venue for numerous Platinum-selling artists, whose total album sales, according to one estimate, had surpassed 40 million units by the year 2000. The success of Detroit-based Hip-hop artists quadrupled that figure in the first decade of the 2000s.

Historical background

The Detroit area's diverse population includes residents of European, Middle Eastern, Latino, Asian and African descent, with each group adding its rich musical traditions. The African-American population in particular contributed greatly to the musical legacy of Detroit in almost all genres. During the 1930s and 40s, the near-east side neighborhoods known as Black Bottom and Paradise Valley became a major entertainment district, drawing nationally known blues singers, big bands, and jazz artists - such as Duke Ellington, Billy Eckstine, Pearl Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald, and Count Basie.

Rock City

Coordinates: 34°58′26″N 85°20′55″W / 34.97389°N 85.34861°W / 34.97389; -85.34861

Rock City is on Lookout Mountain in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, located near Ruby Falls. It is well known for the many barn advertisements throughout the Southeast and Midwest United States that have the slogan "See Rock City" painted on roofs and sides. Clark Byers painted over 900 barn roofs in nineteen states for Rock City from 1935 to 1969.

Rock City claims that it is possible to see seven states from Lover's Leap, a point in Rock City, but this has not been proven.

Events and shows

In 2006 Rock City began having daily bird shows for its visitors. The bird shows focus on birds of prey. The shows are included with paid admission to the gardens. Now, however, the birds of prey shows are Thursdays through Sundays, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, at 11am, 1pm, and 3pm, with an additional show at 4:30 pm on Saturdays.

Every Autumn, Rock City creates a maze using crops of corn in the valley below the gardens. The maze can be seen from the Lovers Leap lookout point. From the gardens, you can view imagery and designs that have been cut out within the maze.

Detroit Rock City

"Detroit Rock City" is a song by the American hard rock group Kiss featured on their 1976 album, Destroyer. The song was written by Paul Stanley and Bob Ezrin and is about a real Kiss fan who was killed in a car accident on his way to a Kiss concert.

Song information

The song, recorded and released as a single in 1976, was the third single from Kiss's album Destroyer and was planned to be their last in support of the album. As a single, it did poorly in sales and radio play (other than in Detroit), and failed to chart in the U.S. even though it would prove to be a fan favorite. It came as a surprise that the B-side "Beth", a ballad written and sung by drummer Peter Criss, wound up catching on in different markets in the United States, so the single was reissued with "Beth" as the A-side and "Detroit Rock City" as the B-side.

During the Love Gun/Alive II tour, Stanley changed the lyric, "I know I'm gonna die, why?" to "I know I'm gonna die, and I don't care!" The song was #6 on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs and is featured on the album Heavy Metal – The First 20 Years. "Detroit Rock City" was based on an earlier song that Kiss performed only in concert called "Acrobat".

The Voice

The Voice may refer to:

Music

Albums

Songs

Radio and television

Detroit

Detroit (/dᵻˈtrɔɪt/) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan, the fourth-largest city in the Midwest and the largest city on the United States–Canada border. It is the seat of Wayne County, the most populous county in the state. Detroit's metropolitan area, known as Metro Detroit, is home to 5.3 million people, making it the fourteenth-most populous metropolitan area in the United States and the second-largest in the Midwestern United States (behind Chicago). It is a major port on the Detroit River, a strait that connects the Great Lakes system to the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The City of Detroit anchors the second-largest economic region in the Midwest, behind Chicago, and the thirteenth-largest in the United States.

Detroit is the center of a three-county urban area (population 3,734,090, area of 1,337 square miles (3,460 km²), a 2010 United States Census) six-county metropolitan statistical area (2010 Census population of 4,296,250, area of 3,913 square miles [10,130 km²]), and a nine-county Combined Statistical Area (2010 Census population of 5,218,852, area of 5,814 square miles [15,060 km²]). The Detroit–Windsor area, a commercial link straddling the Canada–U.S. border, has a total population of about 5,700,000. The Detroit metropolitan region holds roughly one-half of Michigan's population.