Sales Crowd

By Patrick Omari

 Rock music is generally based on the sounds of an electric guitar and rhythm section. However, some of the best rock bands rely heavily on the charisma, style and voice of their frontman. The frontman will traditionally just sing vocals, although some have played instruments such as the guitar or moog synthesiser.

The perfect frontmen must be captivating and demand the audience’s attention with outrageous or intriguing behaviour. An example of this would be the Sex Pistol’s Johnny Rotten who would provoke the audience with aggressive language and threatening behaviour. This style of frontman worked wonderfully in punk rock but wouldn’t be as successful in rock.

One of the most successful frontmen in music history is The Rolling Stones’ main man, Dartford’s very own Mick Jagger. Jagger relied heavily on attitude, pomposity and rebelliousness and would often be contrasted with the clean-living Beatles, this was the early 1960s.

Jagger would strut across the stage with microphone stand in his hand, this distinctive would be copied and imitated for decades to come. Mick Jagger’s colourful private life only added to his reputation as a great frontman, as stories added to the rebel-image that had been created.

If the role of the frontman is to epitomise the band’s style, direction and attitude then Rage Against The Machine’s Zack de la Rocha is one of the very best. Rage AGainst The Machine produce politically-aggressive rap-rock with Rocha as the key spokesman. He personifies their beliefs and is the perfect voice for their outspoken views.

The best frontmen in history, not just music, would be David Lee Roth and Freddie Mercury. David Lee Roth is the frontman and lead singer of sensational rock band Van Halen. With guitars and tight trousers, Van Halen took the rock world by storm in the 1970s and 80s.

Roth was a flamboyant and charismatic frontman, perfect for the glam, colourful music that Van Halen were playing. Unfortunately, band members fell out with Roth about his behaviour and caricaturish persona, leading to him leaving in 1985. Roth recently rejoined the band as they took part in a massively successful universal world tour of North America.

Freddie Mercury fronted the overtly camp British rock band Queen until his death in 1991. Mercury possessed a powerful voice, capable of reaching notes that others couldn’t as well as an ability to demand attention. He performed with such enthusiasm and vigour, evoking similar emotions from the audience.

Mercury was perfection in the arena-filling pomp rock of Queen, but he rarely reached the dizzying heights of superstardom of Chad Kroeger. Kroeger is the bearded frontman of rock gods Nickelback. This post-grunge band, have taken all the best bits from Nirvana and added pop sensibilities to produce music that will live on for eternity.

Kroeger’s voice is a rasping, angelic growl that tugs on the heart strings while simultaneously making you weep with excitement. How You Remind Me and Rock Star are two of the best songs ever written but the recordings are nothing compared to the buzz and anticipation that Kroeger creates at live gigs. He is the best.

Patrick is an expert Research and Travel consultant. His current interest is in Luton airport hotels, Hilton Heathrow and Heathrow parking.

Internet Music Enjoys Explosive Growth
By Lou Kertesz

 The creation of the original Napster and subsequent file sharing networks like Kazaa and technologies like bit torrent trained an entire generation of Internet users that getting music from the Internet was both easy and fun.

The recording industry subsequently tried its very best to keep the consumer locked into the old business model of having you buy a CDs with 20 songs on it when you only really wanted one of them.

That business model is dying a slow death and now even the major music studios have begun to embrace Internet music as a distribution vehicle.

So, the genie is out of the bottle so to speak. Internet music is here to stay. The public has discovered the power and convenience of Internet music.

The reason for this shift is obvious Internet music is where the money is going. For sure, concerts are still big and likely always will be. But Internet music is rapidly becoming the delivery vehicle of choice for many consumers.
Consider the following facts:

* Recently, Accustream iMedia Research pointed to a 26.1 % increase in total listening hours in 2007 to 4.85 billion hours . thats a whole lot of Internet music.
* Such numbers are naturally drawing more advertiser interest with Clear Channel and Citadel Broadcasting having the most visibility.
* Internet radio billings topped $80 million in 2007, according to the group, almost triple the sales of $26.9 million in 2006. Now thats some real Internet music.
* The Internet radio industry is also spinning video-based advertisements which yielded an additional $12-15 million in 2007.
* Can you dig it? Video on Internet radio. I guess those Internet music / radio station owners discovered that since most people who listen to Internet radio do so at their computer which of course has a monitor those Internet music lovers have ears and eyes.
* AOL-owned Shoutcast grabbed the most attention last year, with 48.4 percent of total listening hours, according to the ranking.
* Other top-ranked destinations included Clear Channel Online, Yahoo Music, AOL Radio Networks and Pandora
* Worldwide revenues from downloads, subscription services and CDs that were bought on the internet are expected to reach $10.7 billion in 2010 from $1.5 billion in 2005 according to In-Stat.
* The numbers show that the Internet has evolved into a key distribution channel for legal music sales.

A consumer survey by In-Stat found nearly half of the respondents had downloaded Internet music, with 64 % saying they had paid for their internet music.

I think what the music industry has discovered is that given convenience and reasonable pricing per song people will pay for internet music.

by Lou Kertesz http://www.Audio-Streaming-Software.com

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