My Life, Your Entertainment

There are certain idols that surpass their time and transcend into something more, into legends. This occurs once every now and then, and for the most part the singers that were idols in their time still are today.  Some create more than just music, putting messages into their songs, and fighting for their rights and freedom, standing up for what they believe in. When you’re a legend like Bob Marley, you will be sure never to be forgotten.

Robert Nesta Marley originally known as Bob Marley was born February 6, 1945, in St. Ann, Jamaica. In the late 50’s Bob and his mother went to the big city; Trentchtown. In the city Bob soon started taking music classes in his school, and sooner outside of it as well finding a passion for music. When Bob was 16, he soon started to follow his dream of becoming a musician as for young Jamaicans; music was an escape from the harshness of everyday life. In 1962, Bob recorded his first two singles called ‘Judge Not’ and ‘One Cup of Coffee’. In 1963 Bob Marley, Bunny Livingstone and Peter Tosh and some others joined together to form a band. They originally called themselves ‘The Teenagers’ but later on changed the names several times, finally settling with the name ‘The Wailers’. Together they recorded two songs called ‘I’m Still Waiting’ and ‘It Hurts to be Alone’, not becoming major hits as the one’s to come. The band soon came up with two other songs called; ‘One Love’ and ‘Simmer Down’, which became extremely popular.  This soon followed up by, ‘Soul Rebel’, ‘400 Years’, ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ and ‘I Shot the Sheriff’, which made The Wailers one of the top, bands in Jamaica In 1974. After an outstanding career together, The Wailers broke up with each of the three band members wanting to pursue solo careers.

After the split, Bob Marley still pursued his career making single hits famous worldwide! In 1975 he had his first international hit ‘No Woman, No Cry’, soon followed up by his album ‘Rastaman Vibration’ in 1976, which became a Billboard chart topper for four weeks. In 1977 Bob was diagnosed with cancer having sustained an injury on his right toe that never healed. Bob refused to amputate it with surgery, as it was against the Rastafarian faith. His faith in his religion meant that; he had to keep his body ‘whole’ and also that he should not register a will as it would symbolize the acceptance of death as inevitable, thus giving a total disregard for the concept of everlasting life. The cancer soon spread to his lungs, liver, stomach and brain, although he still continued to play in concerts also recording albums such as; ‘Survival’ in 1979 and ‘Uprising’ in 1980. Unfortunately Bob Marley died on the 11th of May 1981 in Miami, Florida, aged 36. He lived a short life, although he lived more than most people would live in a full lifetime. “In this bright future you can’t forget your past.” His final words to his son Ziggy were ‘Money can’t buy life’. His final wish was to be buried with his guitar, a soccer ball, a marijuana bud, a ring given to him by the Prince Asfa Wossen of Ethiopia and a Bible.

After Bob’s death, his fame grew tremendously, not only for his amazing lifetime achievements; he received a list of rewards not only during his lifetime, but also after his death. Some of the awards were the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001, another one for the Best Music Video, and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals Long Form and the induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and into the Walk of Fame.  Bob Marley will always be a legend, he’s known all around the world, for his concerts, his peace tributes and of course hi music. “Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don’t complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don’t bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake Up and Live!” – Bob Marley

\’Could You Be Loved\’

Well as you know, Doha Qatar is a small country, so not much goes on around here… But when there are two famous artists coming to Doha to perform, everyone is sure to buy a ticket. About two weeks ago, Enrique Iglesias came here. He performed on a Wednesday night (school night) and still half of Doha went. It was a big success; about 5,000 people from all ages went and enjoyed listening to his first time ever concert in Qatar at Education City! Many T-shirts, hats, posters and key chains were sold, so now it won’t be a surprise if you see someone walking around with a T-shit, or hat on here. Although I could not make it, some of my friends did, taking pictures and recording him, showing me after.

This will not be the only big hit in Doha, but Akon is coming as well. He is performing next Friday at the intercontinental beach… and I’m going! Although we have a week left until the concert I am so excited, but I have to keep focused on school. I am sure it is going to be an amazing concert, as many people are going to enjoy the show. Although 5,000 people does sound like a lot of people to attend a concert, on December 31st, 1994 in Rio de Janeiro at a Rob Stewart concert 3.5 million people attended it, having one of the biggest crowds ever, even on a New Years Eve night. Although I’m sure everyone knows what a concert is, the exact definition is: a public musical performance in which a number of singers or instrumentalists, or both, participate. Sometimes the money raised with the concessions and tickets are sent to a charity helping out for a good cause, often bringing more people. They usually don’t last more than a couple hours, or a whole night, but when it comes to a rock festival they can last up to several days! A rock festival, or a rock fest, is a large-scale outdoor rock music concert, featuring multiple acts, often spread out over several days.

In general, concerts are usually held in big open lots, like stadiums, and beaches. Other concerts like operas or orchestras are held in auditoriums, or big ballrooms, of course depending on the number of people coming. You can always watch a concert on T.V, or the computer but it’s never as exciting as when you see it live! Screaming with all the fans in the crowd letting out all your excitement is an intense feeling, as it is usually a once in a lifetime experience to see the performer performing from your own eyes.

Where did it all begin? Who knows? The first music beats heard were countless years ago, it probably all started with the early settlers, for example the Native Americans, singing songs around the fire and beating their drums. But what happens when you want to listen to a song over and over again, without having to either sing it over and over again yourself, or have someone sing it for you? Well many years after the Native American’s singing their songs around their camp fires the earliest method of recording and reproducing sound was on a phonograph cylinder. Known as records they were greatly popular during the years through 1888–1915. The phonographs were shaped as cylinders, and had audio recording imprinted on the outside layer which could be reproduced when the cylinder was played on a mechanical phonograph. The device ended in 1929, as the competing disc-shaped gramophone entered the market and soon became the best seller. The gramophone was mostly used for commercial music reproduction for most of the 20th century. After the two big sellers, of the phonograph and the gramophone smaller items were made like the cassettes and eight tracks. They were popular from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, being used in cassette players and soon in cars. Now people could start listening to it in their own ears with earphones, and not have anyone else listen to it with them. It became a popular thing to run with and still is, as it keeps you occupied and motivated. Over the years the “gadgets” became smaller and thinner, leading to a CD. Compact Disc: A small optical disk on which data such as music, text, or graphic images is digitally encoded. The CD started selling off the market in October 1982, and still is. Many artists nowadays sell thousands and maybe even millions of disks’ for an album they have created. After the CD was created, music was much more transportable. People started playing it in CD players, taking it everywhere from boats, to camps, and maybe even out camping in the desert. You could and still can insert the disc into your computer, and listen to it from there. Although The CD was a huge hit, the standards have improved and iPod’s and MP 3’s were created. Although the MP 3 was launched about 10 years before the iPod did, in 1991, the iPod was soon a greater success than it ever was. The iPod was launched October 23, 2001, having made many types of them; iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, iPod Classic and the current best seller iPod Touch. As of September 2008^[update], more than 173,000,000 iPods had been sold worldwide, making it the best-selling digital audio player series in history. Music put on the iPod’s is bought on iTunes, which has sold more than 5 billion songs since it opened in April, 2003. Music has always found a way to be heard, from big boom boxes, to little iPod shuffles, and earphones, you can take it with you anywhere nowadays always brightening up your day.

This is a iTouch commercial, showing some things that it can do;

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1,000 songs in your pocket.

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Music makes you loose control;

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(2001-10-23)

For some people music is a very big influence, they dress up and act like the music they listen to. They spike their hair, dye it, put on make-up, and wear certain type of clothing just to show people what kind of music there into. For whatever you’re into there’s a style of music for you that fit’s you best. Some people get introduced to or come along a certain type of music and it completely changes their life, the way they dress, act, speak, dance and maybe even walk. Usually people’s friends or colleagues are the influencers on them. If one person likes something, they’ll most likely show it to their friends and get them interested in it. If you’re a person who likes rap, and your friend doesn’t think it’s bad, but doesn’t listen to it too often, or doesn’t have as many song’s as you do. Give her some tunes, and you’ll have some more things in common and to talk about. As for clothing, like back in the 60’s when bands like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and people like Elvis Presley were famous, people would follow their style and wear the clothes they wore including sunglasses like aviators, circular sunglasses, Cateye Sunglasses and so on. And also the hippie years from 1960-1966 were full of bright color, tie-dye, peace and love which spread around to be the fashion back then to suite the string music. Back then they didn’t have the modern day technology to edit the music, or add certain tunes to it. They absolutely didn’t have any techno for which they use DJ sets, and modern keyboards. They sung the music, played guitars, and electric guitars, and everyone loved it. Music changes by the day, there are new songs that are very popular, and old ones that are soon not talked about, but there sure are some classic songs that will never grow old. Music changes with the generations, brining many new brands, and then idols and then finally with idols comes the fashion and style, making the last new things old and the new things modern.

The definition of music is: an art form whose medium is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. But for me music is very different. It comes in my day to, day life, either listening to it on the bus to school, on the plane, in a car, while doing homework, while sketching for art or just listening to it when I need to relax. There are many different types of music like, rap, R&B, pop, techno/dance, soul, country, classical, rock, scream or jazz, so depending on my mood ill probably listen to a specific one. When I’m all hyped up, excited to be going somewhere, or I just need to wake myself up, ill usually just listen to techno/dance, but other times when I have a lot on my mind and I need to listen to some music that can relax me ill usually play some soul, or R&B. Music can usually take the stress away from me when I’ve had a bad or long day, seeming like I’m blocking the rest of the world out. It can help me catch my train of thought as it helps me think better, and usually faster. Music is played all around the world, from football games, to parks, restaurants, theaters or clubs, it’s there to sooth the atmosphere, to keep you occupied or interested in what is happening. Music can be what you want it to be, either just reading aloud a poem, singing, hitting drums, or playing in a band, music is different for everyone as everyone has a different taste. For example if you are a quiet person, and you like things still you might like to listen to some “soothing” music like jazz, but if you’re a loud person, wanting to take out your anger scream is definitely the way to go. There are many different types of music in the world, from bouncing balls, to screaming out your feelings, everyone has their own taste in music, with what they can close their eyes to and feel comfortable with.