Andrew Belle

Chicago-based singer/songwriter Andrew Belle worked tirelessly leading up to the 2010 release of his debut album The Ladder, doing performances and songwriting work in his field to the point that he was recognized with a John Lennon Songwriting award in 2009, a year before he even had an album out. While The Ladder leaned on the influence of indie folk contemporaries like Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes, its 2013 follow-up, Black Bear, went in a more dreamy and electronic direction, with Belle citing M83 and Beach House as key influences on the album. By his second album, Belle was splitting his time between Chicago and Nashville, Tennessee, going so far as to participate in the Ten Out of Tenn tour, a show based around Tennessee artists.

Music in Schools

This is an article I found on why music is beneficial in schools. I hope you guys find it very informational as I did.



Whether your child is the next Beyonce or more likely to sing her solos in the shower, she is bound to benefit from some form of music education. Research shows that learning the do-re-mis can help children excel in ways beyond the basic ABCs.

More Than Just Music
Research has found that learning music facilitates learning other subjects and enhances skills that children inevitably use in other areas. “A music-rich experience for children of singing, listening and moving is really bringing a very serious benefit to children as they progress into more formal learning,” says Mary Luehrisen, executive director of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation, a not-for-profit association that promotes the benefits of making music.

Making music involves more than the voice or fingers playing an instrument; a child learning about music has to tap into multiple skill sets, often simultaneously. For instance, people use their ears and eyes, as well as large and small muscles, says Kenneth Guilmartin, cofounder of Music Together, an early childhood music development program for infants through kindergarteners that involves parents or caregivers in the classes.

“Music learning supports all learning. Not that Mozart makes you smarter, but it’s a very integrating, stimulating pastime or activity,” Guilmartin says.

Language Development
“When you look at children ages two to nine, one of the breakthroughs in that area is music’s benefit for language development, which is so important at that stage,” says Luehrisen. While children come into the world ready to decode sounds and words, music education helps enhance those natural abilities. “Growing up in a musically rich environment is often advantageous for children’s language development,” she says. But Luehrisen adds that those inborn capacities need to be “reinforced, practiced, celebrated,” which can be done at home or in a more formal music education setting.

According to the Children’s Music Workshop, the effect of music education on language development can be seen in the brain. “Recent studies have clearly indicated that musical training physically develops the part of the left side of the brain known to be involved with processing language, and can actually wire the brain’s circuits in specific ways. Linking familiar songs to new information can also help imprint information on young minds,” the group claims.

This relationship between music and language development is also socially advantageous to young children. “The development of language over time tends to enhance parts of the brain that help process music,” says Dr. Kyle Pruett, clinical professor of child psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and a practicing musician. “Language competence is at the root of social competence. Musical experience strengthens the capacity to be verbally competent.”

Increased IQ
A study by E. Glenn Schellenberg at the University of Toronto at Mississauga, as published in a 2004 issue of Psychological Science, found a small increase in the IQs of six-year-olds who were given weekly voice and piano lessons. Schellenberg provided nine months of piano and voice lessons to a dozen six-year-olds, drama lessons (to see if exposure to arts in general versus just music had an effect) to a second group of six-year-olds, and no lessons to a third group. The children’s IQs were tested before entering the first grade, then again before entering the second grade.

Surprisingly, the children who were given music lessons over the school year tested on average three IQ points higher than the other groups. The drama group didn’t have the same increase in IQ, but did experience increased social behavior benefits not seen in the music-only group.

The Brain Works Harder
Research indicates the brain of a musician, even a young one, works differently than that of a nonmusician. “There’s some good neuroscience research that children involved in music have larger growth of neural activity than people not in music training. When you’re a musician and you’re playing an instrument, you have to be using more of your brain,” says Dr. Eric Rasmussen, chair of the Early Childhood Music Department at the Peabody Preparatory of The Johns Hopkins University, where he teaches a specialized music curriculum for children aged two months to nine years.

In fact, a study led by Ellen Winner, professor of psychology at Boston College, and Gottfried Schlaug, professor of neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, found changes in the brain images of children who underwent 15 months of weekly music instruction and practice. The students in the study who received music instruction had improved sound discrimination and fine motor tasks, and brain imaging showed changes to the networks in the brain associated with those abilities, according to the Dana Foundation, a private philanthropic organization that supports brain research.

Spatial-Temporal Skills
Research has also found a causal link between music and spatial intelligence, which means that understanding music can help children visualize various elements that should go together, like they would do when solving a math problem.

“We have some pretty good data that music instruction does reliably improve spatial-temporal skills in children over time,” explains Pruett, who helped found the Performing Arts Medicine Association. These skills come into play in solving multistep problems one would encounter in architecture, engineering, math, art, gaming, and especially working with computers.

Improved Test Scores
A study published in 2007 by Christopher Johnson, professor of music education and music therapy at the University of Kansas, revealed that students in elementary schools with superior music education programs scored around 22 percent higher in English and 20 percent higher in math scores on standardized tests, compared to schools with low-quality music programs, regardless of socioeconomic disparities among the schools or school districts. Johnson compares the concentration that music training requires to the focus needed to perform well on a standardized test.

Aside from test score results, Johnson’s study highlights the positive effects that a quality music education can have on a young child’s success. Luehrisen explains this psychological phenomenon in two sentences: “Schools that have rigorous programs and high-quality music and arts teachers probably have high-quality teachers in other areas. If you have an environment where there are a lot of people doing creative, smart, great things, joyful things, even people who aren’t doing that have a tendency to go up and do better.”

And it doesn’t end there: along with better performance results on concentration-based tasks, music training can help with basic memory recall. “Formal training in music is also associated with other cognitive strengths such as verbal recall proficiency,” Pruett says. “People who have had formal musical training tend to be pretty good at remembering verbal information stored in memory.”

Being Musical
Music can improve your child’ abilities in learning and other nonmusic tasks, but it’s important to understand that music does not make one smarter. As Pruett explains, the many intrinsic benefits to music education include being disciplined, learning a skill, being part of the music world, managing performance, being part of something you can be proud of, and even struggling with a less than perfect teacher.

“It’s important not to oversell how smart music can make you,” Pruett says. “Music makes your kid interesting and happy, and smart will come later. It enriches his or her appetite for things that bring you pleasure and for the friends you meet.”
While parents may hope that enrolling their child in a music program will make her a better student, the primary reasons to provide your child with a musical education should be to help them become more musical, to appreciate all aspects of music, and to respect the process of learning an instrument or learning to sing, which is valuable on its own merit.

“There is a massive benefit from being musical that we don’t understand, but it’s individual. Music is for music’s sake,” Rasmussen says. “The benefit of music education for me is about being musical. It gives you have a better understanding of yourself. The horizons are higher when you are involved in music,” he adds. “Your understanding of art and the world, and how you can think and express yourself, are enhanced.”Source

The British Invasion: From The Beatles to One Direction

With the recent emergence of a multitude of British artists like One Direction, Adele, Jessie J, Rita Ora, and Icona Pop (literally, just to name a few), many music-lovers are left wondering why Americans have been taking such an interest in British artists lately. Well, some might be surprised that this is not the first time Americans have taken a massive liking to the Brits. Take a journey through the Timeline of British Invasions and brush up on your music history.

Before “Directioners” existed, there was once a little thing called Beatlemania that trumped any mass hysteria within the music world.

18 November 1963 – The Hunter-Brinkley Report aired a 2-minute segment on mania surrounding a British boy-band residing in the United Kingdom. Four days later, Mike Wallace of CBS Morning News aired a story on the Beatles.

10 December 1963 – Walter Cronkite of CBS Evening News ran a report about the Beatles phenomenon taking place in the United Kingdom, thus propelling them into the arms of American fans

17 December 1963- After numerous phone calls days prior, DJ Carroll James allowed 15-year-old Marsha Albert of Silver Springs, Maryland, to introduced “I Want To Hold Your Hand” by the Beatles on WWDC radio station.

26 December 1963 – After months of not taking the Beatles seriously and pushing back their record release, Capitol Records started hand delivering their new record to radio stations weeks ahead of schedule. Keep in mind, no one expected their record to even break #75 on the Billboard charts. America’s love for the Beatles was instantaneous – especially in New York City.

18 January 1964 – “I Want To Hold Your Hand” entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart at #45, thus starting the British invasion of the American music industry

1 February 1964 – “I Want To Hold Your Hand” reached the #1 spot on Billboard Hot 100 and remained there for seven weeks. The single became the Beatles’ best-selling single worldwide.

7 February 1964 – The CBS Evening News ran a story about the Beatles’ United States arrival in which the correspondent was quoted saying, “The British Invasion this time goes by the code name Beatlemania.”

8 February 1964 – Dusty Springfield became the second British artist to reach the Billboard Hot 100 with his song “I Only Want to Be With You.”

9 February 1964 – The Beatles made their first American television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Nielsen ratings estimated that 40-45 percent (75 million viewers) of US television viewers that night saw their appearance on the TV show.

1964 – 1966 – In this time period, other British acts like Peter and Gordon, The Rolling Stones, and Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders would go on to have one or more number one singles in the United States.

8 May 1965 – half of the 26 Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers belonged to British acts.

1967 – The emergence of a relatively homogeneous worldwide “rock” music style about 1967 marked the end of the “invasion.” Artists like The Who would later cross the pond and become popular in the United States.



Second Wave of British Invasion: “MTV Era”

After years of developing a new sound unfamiliar to Americans, the Brits made their second swim across the pond, making a splash not only on the radio, but on our television screens as well.

3 July 1982 – The Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” started a 3-weel reign on top of the Billboard 100 charts thanks to MTV’s airplay. As described by the Village Voice, “‘['Don't You Want Me' was] pretty unmistakably the moment the Second British Invasion, spurred by MTV, kicked off.”

September 1982 – MTV arrives in the media capitals of New York City and Los Angeles and leads to widespread positive publicity for the new “video era.”

Fall 1982 – A Flock of Seagulls’ single “I Ran (So Far Away)” reached the Billboard Top Ten.

Early 1983 – 30% of the record sales in the United States were from British acts.

18 July 1983 – 18 of the top 40 singles in the United States were by British artists. This record surpassed the previous record of 14 set during the First Wave British Invasion in 1965.

April 1984 – 40 of the top 100 singles in the United States were by acts of British originan.

25 May 1985 – At the height of the 2nd British Invasion, the British Commonwealth claimed 8 consecutive Hot 100 #1 hits.

August 1986 – Bon Jovi’s third album, Slippery When Wet, spent 8 non-consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 charts, thus pushing British artists off the chart and marking the end of the 2nd Wave British Invasion.



Third Wave of British Invasion: “The New Millenium”

After the late 90s success pop British girl-group the Spice Girls, American music executives started snatching up UK artists that would eventually become cross-over music sensations in smaller US markets. However, none of these artists were able to maintain a consistent position within the top 40.
Following the success and then breakup of the Spice Girls in 2000, British (and Irish) acts that arrived in the United States included:
B*Witched (B*Witched, Awake and Breathe – 1998-2000)
S Club 7 (5 Studio Albums, 2000 – 2002)
Samantha Mumba (Gotta Tell You – 2000-2002)
BB Mak (Sooner or Later, Into Your Head – 200-2003)



Fourth Wave of British Invasion?

In January 2011, Adele released her sophomore album 21. Not only did it debut at #1, but it debuted at #1 in at least 7 countries and has since gone diamond in the United States, selling over 26 million copies worldwide. Following her success, Americans are now left wondering if we are in the midst of a fourth wave of invasion by the British.

Here are a list of accomplishments in the United States by British artists.

12 February 2012 – Adele takes home five trophies from the Annual Grammy Award including: Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Short Form Music Video.

22 February 2012 – Adele’s 21 debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales reaching 352,000 copies. It later became the fastest selling album since NYSNC’s 2001 album No Strings Attached, selling 10 million copies in 92 weeks.

20 March 2012 – One Direction makes history and inducted into the Guiness Book of World Records for becoming the first U.K. artists to ever debut at #1 on the Billboard 200, selling close to 180,000 records in the first week.

7 September 2012 – “Lights” by Ellie Goulding was certified triple platinum by the RIAA, having sold 3.1 million copies in the US as of January 2013.

22 September 2011 – Calvin Harris produced “We Found Love” for Rihanna’s Talk That Talk album. It peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained there for ten-consecutive weeks.

25 September 2012 – Mumford & Sons released their sophomore album, Babel. It became the second-biggest selling debut in 2012 in the United States.

20 January 2013 – The Saturdays’ new reality television series premiers on the E! Network.

21 January 2013 – Rita Ora appears as herself on the CW series 90210 to perform two of her songs from her debut album.

February 2013 – Cher Lloyd’s single “Want You Back” has sold around 2,000,000 copies, being certified double-platinum in the United States.

13 March 2013 – Ed Sheeran opens for Taylor Swift on her sold out RED Tour in Omaha, Nebraska.

24 May 2013 – Rita Ora appears in Fast & Furious 6 as herself.

28 May 2013 – Little Mix’s debut album DNA entered the Top Albums Chart on the iTunes countdown at No. 2.

2 June 2013 – The Wanted’s new reality television series — The Wanted Life — premiers on the E! Network.


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Behind the Camera's: Steven Spielberg

Born on December 18, 1946, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Steven Spielberg was an amateur filmmaker as a child. He went on to become the enormously successful and Academy Award-winning director of such films as Schindler's List, The Color Purple, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, and Saving Private Ryan. In 1994, he co-founded the studio Dreamworks SKG, which was purchased by Paramount Pictures in 2005.

Along with his three Academy Award wins, Spielberg has received many other honors during his distinguished career. He received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1986. In 2004, Spielberg received the Directors Guild of America Lifetimes Achievement Award and the French Legion of Honor in recognition of his work. He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2005.

Getting Closer to Disclosure

Disclosure are Guy and Howard Lawrence, siblings from Surrey, England who debuted in 2010, when they uploaded early material to MySpace. Surprised by the amount of streams and positive response, they linked with the Moshi Moshi label, which released the scruffy and rather noisy dubstep tracks "Offline Dexterity" and "Street Light Chronicle" as a single in August 2010. In 2011, the hyperactive bass of "Carnival" led a five-track EP of the same title, released for free and also trimmed to two tracks for its retail release via Transparent. The same year, they were sought for their first remixes: Jess Mills' "Live for What I'd Die For" and Emeli Sandé's "Daddy." They broke through in 2012, as their sound became cleaner, more reminiscent of U.K. garage, and more pop-oriented through collaborations with vocalists. A remix of Jessie Ware's "Running," released on PMR -- the Island-affiliated label to which they signed -- was something of a warning flare. November 2011's "Latch," featuring Sam Smith, peaked at number 11 in the U.K. and was quickly followed by February 2013's "White Noise," a collaboration with AlunaGeorge that reached number two. Eliza Doolittle contributed to the following "You & Me," which became Disclosure's third consecutive Top 20 hit. In the U.S., where the duo signed to Interscope's boutique sublabel Cherrytree, a brief EP titled The Singles, consisting of those three hits and a remix by Hudson Mohawke, was released in advance of the June 2013 album Settle.

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