Blues

Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of the blue tones. It emerged in African-American communities of the United States from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads.

It's 12-bar, bent-note melody is the anthem of a race, bonding itself together with cries of shared self victimization. Bad luck and trouble are always present in the Blues, and always the result of others, pressing upon unfortunate and down trodden poor souls, yearning to be free from life's' troubles. Relentless rhythms repeat the chants of sorrow, and the pity of a lost soul many times over.

Blues musical styles, forms (12-bar blues), melodies, and the blues scale have influenced many other genres of music, such as rock and roll, jazz, and popular music. Prominent jazz, folk or rock performers, such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan and the White Stripes have performed significant blues recordings.
•The blues scale is often used in popular songs like Harold Arlen's "Blues in the Night", blues balla like "Since I Fell for You" and "Please Send Me Someone to Love", and even in orchestral works such as George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and "Concerto in F".
The blues scale is ubiquitous in modern popular music and informs many modal frames, especially the ladder of thirds used in rock music. Blues forms are used in the theme to the televised Batman, teen idol Fabian's hit, "Turn Me Loose", country music star Jimmie Rodgers' music, and guitarist/vocalist Tracy Chapman's hit "Give Me One Reason".
•As with nearly all forms of popular music a genre of dance grew from the music. Like the music it was a blend of African esthetics with a Western European framework. There are as many types of blues dance as there are styles of Blues music, and they each maintain at their core the same defining elements of Blues music translated into three dimensional movement.


•By the beginning of the 1960s, genres influenced by African American music such asrock and roll and soul were part of mainstream popular music. White performers had brought African-American music to new audiences, both within the US and abroad. In the UK, bands emulated US blues legends, and UK blues-rock-based bands had an influential role throughout the 1960s.
•Blues performers such as John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters continued to perform to enthusiastic audiences, inspiring new artists steeped in traditional blues, such as New York-born Taj Mahal. John Lee Hooker blended his blues style with rock elements and playing with younger white musicians, creating a musical style that can be heard on the 1971 album Endless Boogie. B. B. King's virtuoso guitar technique earned him the eponymous title "king of the blues". In contrast to the Chicago style, King's band used strong brass support from a saxophone, trumpet, and trombone, instead of using slide guitar or harp.

•Since the early 1970's, The Texas rock-blues style emerged which used guitars in both solo and rhythm roles. In contrast with the West Side blues, the Texas style is strongly influenced by the British rock-blues movement. Major artists of the Texas style are Johnny Winter, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and ZZ Top. These artists all began their musical journey in the 1970's, but they wouldn't achieve major international success until the next decade.

In the 1980s and 1990s, blues publications such as Living Blues and Blues Revue began to be distributed, major cities began forming blues societies, outdoor blues festivals became more common, and more nightclubs and venues for blues emerged.

The blues influenced later American and Western popular music, as it became the roots of jazz, bluegrass, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, heavy metal music, hip-hop, and reggae, country music, pop music, and other popular music Like forms.

Blues has been accused of being the "devil's music" and of inciting violence and other poor behavior. In the early 20th century, the blues was considered disreputable, especially as white audiences began listening to the blues during the 1920s. In the early twentieth century, W.C. Handy was the first to popularize blues-influenced music among non-black Americans.
•During the blues revival of the 1960s and '70s, acoustic blues artist Taj mahal and legendary Texas bluesman Lightnin' Hopkins wrote and performed music that figured prominently in the popularly and critically acclaimed film Sounder (1972). The film earned Mahal a Grammy nomination for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture and a BAFTA nomination. Almost 30 years later, Mahal wrote blues for, and performed a banjo composition, claw-hammer style, in, the 2001 movie release "Song Catcher," which focused on the story of the preservation of the roots music of Appalachia.
•In 2003, Martin Scorsessmade significant efforts to promote the blues to a larger audience. He asked several famous directors such as Clint Eastwood and Wim winders to participate in a series of documentary films for PBS called The Blues. He also participated in the rendition of compilations of major blues artists in a series of high-quality CDs.
•Grammy-winning blues guitarist and vocalist Keb' Mo' performed his blues rendition of "America, the Beautiful" in 2006 to close out the final season of the popular television series "The West Wing."

Music

K-pop

K-pop is an abbreviation for Korean popular music, specifically from South Korea. There are many artists and groups, most notably Shinhwa, BoA, Rain, TVXQ and Super Junior that have branched out of Korea and have become popular in Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South East Asia. The popularity of K-pop is often considered a part of the rise of the Korean Wave, or "Hallyu'', in the region.

The emergence of the group Seo Taiji and Boys in 1992 marked a turning point for Korean popular music, as the group incorporated elements of American popular musical genres of rap, rock, and techno into its music. The tremendous success of Seo Taiji and Boys in Korea and other experimental groups set the trend for the present generation of K-pop groups and artists. Following Seo Taiji and Boys, dance-oriented acts were dominant in the Korean popular music scene of the early 90s including the legendary hip hop duo Deux. By the mid-90s, teen idol groups, which are now often considered "legendary groups" due to their strong popularity during their era, such as Baby V.O.X., Fin.K.L., g.o.d, H.O.T., Shinhwa, Sechs Kies, and S.E.S. were very popular, having strong fanbases and high-selling albums. Starting with the break-up of H.O.T., most of these groups have disbanded, It is often stated that at this stage Korean music became slightly better than noise. Although some have continued their success in the following decade; new groups have since taken their place.

Currently, in the 2000s, pop groups are still very popular, although there has been the emergence of Korean R&B and Hip-Hop. Artists such as MC Mong, 1TYM, Rain , Big Bang and Epik High have proven successful. Underground artists such as Drunken Tiger, Tasa, and Dynamic Duo have also helped Hip-Hop making its way into the mainstream. Recently, rock music has become noticed by the public, with acts like the Yoon Do-Hyun Band and Seo Taiji gaining national recognition. In addition, there are also some very popular techno/dance artists such as Lee Jung Hyun and Kim Hyun Jung, who both have had very long careers while remaining firmly entrenched in their genre of music. Just as well, ballads and R&B have remained popular, as singers like Baek Ji Young and KCM, in addition to SG Wannabe, have continued their success for many years.

There are also many artists who have had international success as well. BoA has become the highest-selling international artist from Korea, due to her strength in the J-pop market; this was in part due to Lee Soo Man's adaptation of the Blue Ocean Strategy. Since then, artists such as Rain have also released albums outside of Korea, becoming well-known throughout Eastern Asia. Rain has also had his international RAINY DAY 2005 Tour, having tour dates at Madison Square Garden, the first Korean star to do so. He also plans to make a U.S. debut. Skull, a Korean reggae artist from YG Entertainment is working on his U.S. debut and was even listed on the Billboard charts. Se7en who is also from YG Entertainment and Min from JYP Entertainment both hope to enter the English-language music market in 2008. They are not the first Asians to do so; Utada Hikaru and CoCo Lee have released English-language albums before. However, there has yet to be an Asian artist breaking the mainstream American music industry successfully.

K-pop is similar to English pop music, with R&B, dance, and hip-hop being very popular genres in the 2000s. However, unlike English pop music, which had most of its boy bands and girl groups either break up or informally disband, bubblegum pop is still very popular in South Korea. Groups such as Shinhwa, TVXQ, and Super Junior continue to be top sellers in K-pop, and artists like Ahyoomee and LPG have released novelty songs, to varying degress of success. However, the 2000s has seen the rise of R&B vocal groups, with SG Wannabe and Big Mama having success with their first albums. In addition, trot music has made a comeback in mainstream K-pop as well, mostly due to the success of Jang Yoon Jung. Ballads are also very popular, as 2006 has seen the release of ballad singles by non-ballad artists, including Shinhwa and Baek Ji Young. 2007 was marked with the release of numerous girl and boy band, though only a few would manage to top the charts. Despite new bands debuting, physical sales for CDs have become increasingly low, due to the stagnation of the K-pop industry. The highest selling album of 2007 did not even reach the 200,000 mark with only 190,998 copies sold. It is notable, however, that as physical record sales continue to decrease, digital sales are growing proportionately at a rapid rate.

J-pop

J POP

The full abbreviation of J-pop is Japanese pop. It refers to Japanese popular musicians, and coined by the Japanese media.
J-pop can be traced to jazz music. Jazz music introduced many types of musical instruments. It also added an element of "fun" to the Japanese music scene. As a result "Ongaku Kissa" became a very popular venue for live jazz music.

During World War II, the performance of jazz music was temporarily halted. Boogie-woogie, Mambo, Blues, and Country music were performed by Japanese musicians for the American troops. And Shizuko Kasagi's "Tokyo Boogie-Woogie" (1948), Chiemi Eri's "Tennessee Waltz" (1951), Hibari Misora's "Omatsuri Mambo", and Izumi Yukimura's "Omoide no Waltz" these songs became popular. 1952 was declared the "Year of the Jazz Boom" but the genre itself demanded a high level of technical proficiency and was difficult to play. Many amateur Japanese musicians turned to country music, which was far easier to learn and perform. This in turn led to a proliferation of country-based music.

In 1956, the rock-and-roll craze began thanks to a country music group known as Kosaka Kazuya and the Wagon Masters and their rendition of Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel. The rock-and-roll movement would reach its peak in 1959 with the release of a movie featuring performances by a number of Japanese rock-and-roll bands. Some performers attempted to merge traditional Japanese pop music with rock-and-roll. One of few musicians to be successful in this effort was Kyu Sakamoto with the song "Ue wo Muite Arukō" known in other parts of the world as "Sukiyaki". The song was the first Japanese song to reach in the United States in its native language in America and also to receive a "Gold Record" for selling one million copies. Other performers learned to play the music and translate the lyrics of popular American songs, resulting in the birth of "cover pop." However, the popularity of these acts faded as radio and television gave every household the opportunity to watch the original musicians perform. The concept of karaoke and its subsequent popularity can arguably be attributed to the cover pop phenomenon.

From the early 1970s to the mid-1980s, the emphasis shifted from simple songs with a single guitar accompaniment to more complex musical arrangements known as New Music. Instead of social messages, the songs focused on more personal messages, such as love. Takuro Yoshida and Yosui Inoue are two notable New Music artists.
In the 1980s, the term City Pop was used to describe a type of popular music that had a big city theme. Tokyo in particular inspired many songs of this form. It is difficult to draw a distinction between City Pop and New Music and many songs fall under both categories. Wasei Pop quickly became a common word to describe both City Pop and New Music. By the 1990s, J-pop became the common term to describe most popular songs. Rockers like Eikichi Yazawa, a singer who remained popular for decades with a rabidly loyal fan following, loosely fell into this category, along with more mainstream female pop idols such as the "Dance Queens" Yoko Oginome and her successor, singer/songwriter Chisato Moritaka. Hikaru Genji, the highly influential rollerskating boy band, also became popular during this time, with some of its members growing up to fame on their own. In 1980, Eikichi Yazawa, seeking worldwide success, signed a contract with the Warner Pioneer record company and moved to the West Coast of the United States. He recorded the albums "Yazawa," "It's Just Rock n' Roll," and "Flash in Japan," all of which were released worldwide, but were not very commercially successful. Mega-idol Seiko Matsuda, extremely popular through the 1980s, saw a bit more success with English-only songs released on her 1991 album "Eternal", and was hounded by U.S. tabloids for having a relationship with then red-hot Donnie Wahlberg of New Kids on the Block, who sang the duet "The Right Combination" with Seiko Matsuda. Seiko used to hold the record for most consecutive number 1 singles for a female artist in Japan(currently 25). That record was recently shattered by the singer Ayumi Hamasaki. Along with Seiko Matsuda, the latter 1980s were dominated by idol singers such as Miho Nakayama, Akina Nakamori, Chisato Moritaka, Minako Honda and Shizuka Kudo.

The late 1980s, saw the emergence of Chage and Aska, a male singer/songwriter duo consisting of Chage and Ryo Aska. They released a string of consecutive hits throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Their "Asian Tour II / Mission Impossible" tour was the single largest concert tour ever put on by a Japanese group – the tickets for all 61 concerts in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan sold out on the first day. However, with the advent of the Japanese dance-pop music pioneered by Namie Amuro and Tetsuya Komuro in the mid- to late-1990s, the popularity of rock groups like Chage & Aska has declined. This period also saw the rise of the female duo Wink. Wink debuted in 1988, surpassing the popularity of the then most popular female duo, BaBe. Also the Famous J-POP IDOL CoCo made there debut hit with the 1989 single for the hit anime series.

In the early 1990s, the music scene can be split up into different parts. 1990-1993 was dominated by the Being artists, B'z, and the Southern All Stars. 1994-1997 was dominated by the TK family. 1996 is known as a year where the Okinawan Actors School became dominant, with Namie Amuro, MAX and Speed leading the charge. Every Little Thing lso rose to success in the late 90's after their debut album sold over 2,000,000 copies. 1997 saw the introduction of Morning Musume.

Bangladeshi Music

Bangladesh is traditionally very rich in it's musical heritage. People of Bangladesh love music very much. Most of the people couldn't pass a day without listening music.
Most of the music are basically on classical music, and classical music is the basement of all music. There is not a single music without classical music.
The music of Bangladesh can be broadly categorized among the following genres: Rabindra sangit, Nazrul geeti, Classical song, Folk, Baul, Lalon, Adhunik, Modern ( Pop, Rock, Mainstream rock, Underground rock).

Classical
Classical music is the "column of a building". without classical music one can not sing a single song. It is based on rags and it is fully on "Sargams".
Some of the most talented classical musicians of the sub-continent come from Bangladesh including Ustad Allauddin Khan.

Rabindra sangeet

Rabindranath Tagore is the main origin of Rabindra sangit. It is one of the best-known genres of Bangla music outside Bengal. Rabindra sangeet itself is broadly classified into few sub-genres:
puja porjai (prayer songs), prem porjai (love songs), bichitra porjai (variety songs), swadesh porjai (patriotic songs)
Tagore composed most of the songs himself. In rabindra sangit all of them are based on rags.On the other hand some songs are fundamental creation of Tagore. He has composed some songs based on European music also. In 1878 he composed a music drama "Balmikiprotiva". After this he composed another musical drama "Kalmrigoya". Both of them are based on western music. Tagore used ragaas while composing any songs as such anyone can identify them as rabindra sangeet. That is the most interesting and common in Rabindranath's song.

Rabindra sangeet is most important thing in bengali culture and almost 90% people of Bangladesh love Rabindra sangit. All the times, if there are any cultural program in bengali or bengali culture, there has Rabindra sangit all the time. These songs have also been used in several movies, both in Bengali and non-Bengali cinema. The national anthems of both Bangladesh and India are Rabindra sangeets; these are "Amar Shonar Bangla" it's mean Oh My Precious Bengal, the melody is based on a folk tune by Gogon Harkara and "Jana Gana Mana", means Ruler of the Minds of All People, written in an older form of Bangla, closer to Sanskrit, that can be readily re-interpreted in almost all Indian languages.
In Bangladesh, until recently, Rabindra sangeet has practically been synonymous with two names and they are, Rezwana Chowdhury Banya and Sadi Mohammad. For all these causes Rabindra sangit is most popular in Bangladesh.

Nazrul Geeti

Nazrul geeti, literally meaning "music of Nazrul", are the works of Kazi Nazrul Islam, national poet of Bangladesh and like Rabindra sangit, Nazrul geeti is also most popular in Bangladesh. The most famous Nazrul geeti is Karar Oi Louho Kopat (Prison-doors of Steel) and has been used several movies - especially those made during the pre-independence period of Bangladesh.
Nazrul Islam also incorporated influences from Western India. He played an active role in carrying out a fusion between Western Indian ghazals and traditional Bengali classical music.
Nazrul Islam born in Bangladesh and from his childhood he wrote songs. Bangladeshi singer and composer, Firoza Begum, played a very big role in popularising Nazrul geeti in both Bangladesh and West Bengal. Sohorab Hossain, Shabnam Mushtari also played a crucial role in making Nazrul geeti mainstream.

Folk music can clearly be distinguished and classified into several sub-genres:
Baul, Bhandari, Bhatiali, Bhawaiya, Gajir geet, Gombhira, Hason Raja, Jaari, Jatra, Kirtan, Pala, Kobi gaan, Lalon, Mursiya, Shaari, Upojatiyo, Letto.Of these several groups, Baul song is best known and was further enriched by works of Lalon.

Pop music

Pop music initially started with the so-called band music. And as the name suggests, the music was heavily influenced by Western Music. Some of the best known bands of the pop era were:
L.R.B: Nagor Baul
Miles: The early contributors to pop music also included the following singers: Azam Khan, Amani Latiff, Happy Akhand, Lucky Akhand . Mostly the tenage people are very much addicted about the pop music. Pop music of Bangladesh had an assorted history. Artists of the "Adhunik Gaan" and folk genre also contributed to the pop music from time to time. Mehreen is a noted name in this regard for having revived pop and new generation fusion music.

Rock music

In Bangladesh, Bangla rock was started by Azam Khan, Miles and LRB. Hassan and James, contributed in popularizing rock music. However, hard-rock did not begin until arrival of bands like Rockstrata, and later Warfaze among many others in the early 90s.
Bangladeshi rock scene has evolved into two distinct categories. They are, Mainstream and Underground.

Fashion

Banglar mela: Bangladesh is now very developed in fashion house. There are so many fashion houses in Bangladesh, Banglar mela is one of them. And it is a very renowned fashion house in Bangladesh. The name of this fashion house shows that, they are in Bangladeshi tradition by name and also they wants to show the Bangladeshi fashion.

Banglar mela was established in May,2001, and now within 7 years they came into one of the top posision in fashion. Their first shop was in Banani and the second one is in Mirpur. They are mainly in cloth showroom in handloom. They use the local and traditional fabrics, and they wants to prove that it is possible to create panoramic designs of cloths by using them. They promot the cloths into the market with a reasonable price. In some cases the price of some cloths are expensive, because the handicrafts are basically expensive.

Besides of their business they also done the social activity for the people of Bangladesh, because Bangladesh is a poor country, and there has many kinds of problems and so that Banglar mela maintain their social responsibility and awarness as worthy citizens of the country.

From the very beginning of this organization, they have involved mentally retarded persons and given them the opportunity to do work, helped them to change their view of life. And even the products made by them are also sold in Banglar Mela.

They awarded the "Banglar Mela Award" to Shree Kushnath Das, a weaver from Chapainawabgang for his achievement in improving the quality of silk fabric. In 2008 "Banglar Mela Award” awarded Shree Arun Guha, for his continuous effort for keeping the ‘Khadi’ trend breathing. In their every anniversary Banglar mela tries to awarded or gifted a person who are improve the quality of any handycrafts or something else in the market then the others.

In all the showrooms of Banglar mela, there are various kinds of fotua, shirt, panjabi, short panjabi for the male. And for the female there are sarees which are very beautiful, shalwer kamiz, fotua, metalic ornaments, and also chury, ear rings and so on. For the users of house hold there are wallmates, and various kinds of bed sheets, bed covers, and other handicrafts. And also for the children, there are various designs and colorful dresses.

The main catagory of this fashion house is they are basically in Bangladeshi culture, all the things there are Bangladeshi, and this attracts everyones most, and for all of the people it is the perfect shopping atmosphere and quality in Bangladesh.