Mad Decent

Mad Decent is a Philadelphia via Los Angeles-based record label spearheaded by Diplo. The label has helped introduce Brazilian baile funk and Angolan kuduro to clubs around the world. Recently, it has embraced moombahton, a genre of electronic dance music created by DJ Dave Nada. The label is also known for its series of concerts in major cities known as Mad Decent Block Party.

History

Mad Decent was founded in 2005 by Diplo. In 2010, the label moved from Philadelphia to Los Angeles. In 2011, it announced the launch of the imprint label Jeffrees as "an outlet to curate and promote new music that errs on the side of experimental, in keeping with the label’s original mission."

The label gained more attention in 2012 and 2013, with the worldwide success of Baauer's single "Harlem Shake", which went viral on YouTube.

Since 2008, the label has created a multiple city Mad Decent Block Party tour throughout the United States. This travelling festival began at a much smaller scale with simply a rented tent, dunk tank and bbq on a Philadelphia street (Block of 12th St. and Spring Garden St.). The event is in line with the overall concept of the label showcasing global pop and dance music. The featured artists at the events has expanded from featuring Mad Decent's roster to high profile artists such as Matt and Kim and Outkast.

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. There are also cases where songs are used in tie in marketing campaigns that allow them to become more than just a song. Tie ins and merchandising could be used in toys are marketing campaigns for food and other products. Although the origins of music videos date back to musical short films that first appeared in the 1920s, they came into prominence in the 1980s when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip" or "film clip". Since the creation and increased popularity of YouTube, mainstream artists now promote new music videos by releasing trailers of short promos on the site for their upcoming song and music video. Consequentially, YouTube has been converted into a social media platform for celebrities and artists to market themselves to their fans and audiences.

Omar Souleyman

Omar Souleyman is a musician from the village of Tell Tamer near the city of Ra's al-'Ayn in the northeastern region of Syria. He started his career as a part-time wedding singer in his native al-Hasakah Governorate, and while himself a Sunni Arab, he emphasises the influence its culturally diverse milieu has had on his style: "My music is from the community I come from – the Kurdish, the Ashuris, the Arabic, they're all in this community. Even Turkish because it's so near, it's just across the border. And even Iraqi."

Career

Born in 1966, he began his career in 1994, working with a number of musicians with whom he still performs, and around five hundred studio and live albums have been released under his name. (Eighty percent of those releases are recordings made at weddings and presented to the married couple, which are later copied and sold at local kiosks.)

In October 2013 a newly recorded album Wenu Wenu was released by UK label Ribbon Music.

Collaborations and notable appearances

Block party (disambiguation)

Block Party may refer to:

Organizations

Popular culture

Other uses

See also

Steve Aoki

Steven Hiroyuki "Steve" Aoki (born November 30, 1977) is an American electro house musician, record producer, and music executive. In 2012 Pollstar designated Aoki as the highest grossing dance artist in North America from tours. He has collaborated with producers and vocalists such as will.i.am, Afrojack, LMFAO, Iggy Azalea, Lil Jon, and Laidback Luke, and is known for his remixes of artists such as Kid Cudi.

Aoki has released several Billboard-charting studio albums as well, notably Wonderland, which was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronica Album in 2013. The first part of Aoki's two-part album, Neon Future I, was released on September 30, 2014, and reached No. 1 on Dance/Electronic Albums in the United States. The second album, Neon Future II, features artists such as Snoop Lion and Rivers Cuomo, and in Belgium it reached No. 93 on the Ultratop 200 Albums chart.

The 2015 horror film The Hive features tracks from the album Neon Future by Aoki, who created the soundtrack and also serves as an executive producer. Aoki is also the central character in the upcoming documentary I'll Sleep When I'm Dead. He is the founder of the Steve Aoki Charitable Fund, which raises money for global humanitarian relief organizations.