Monday, August 20, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Tatu
t.A.T.u. {or ТАТУ}is a multi-award winning Russian music duo consisting of Елена Сергеевна Катина [Yelena Sergeyevna Katina](Лена/Lena for short.) and Юля Олеговна Волкова [Yulya Olegovna Volkova] (It's sometimes spelled as "Yulia," and in America, it's "Julia").
The group was formed in 1999 by Иван Шаповалов [Ivan Shapovalov] in Moscow. t.A.T.u. are the most successful international recording act exported from Russia, with a fan base stretching all over the world. Their debut album, "200 По Встречной"[200 Po Vstrechnoĭ] was the first from a Russian act to reach gold status internationally. With the release of their debut English album, 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane, t.A.T.u. became the first act to receive an IFPI Platinum Europe Award for the same album in two languages.
Much of their early success was based on what was thought of as a lesbian image portrayed by Katina and Volkova, and the controversy that surrounded it. However, in December 2003, it became apparent in their documentary, Anatomy of t.A.T.u., that their sexuality was just part of the group's image at the time, and that they were not actually lesbians. Then in 2004, the group took a hiatus after they split from their producer and Volkova had become pregnant. They were soon back in the studio, and, in 2005, released Dangerous and Moving and ЛЮДИ ИНВАЛИДЫ[Lyudi Invalidy]. In the last year, the group has released a compilation album, negotiated out of their contract with Universal records, and announced the production of a third studio albums "Waste Management" and "Управление Отбросами," which will coincide to the release of an upcoming film titled Finding t.A.T.u.
t.A.T.u.'s image and vocals fit well into pop music, however, the group's sound varies from rock, to dance, to pop and electronica. Their first Russian album was mostly rock and dance influenced, while their first English album was heavily influenced by rock and electronica. Their English follow-up, Dangerous and Moving, was a more traditionally Euro-pop album than the first.
R.E.M
Although "R.E.M." can stand for "Rapid Eye Movement", which is a certain stage during a person's nightly sleep, it does not have this meaning when referring to the band.
Throughout the 1980s, the band worked relentlessly, releasing records every year from their debut album Murmur in 1983 through Green in 1988. Alongside this hectic recording schedule, R.E.M. toured constantly, playing both theaters and backwoods dives. Along the way, they inspired countless bands, from the legions of jangle pop groups in the mid-1980s to scores of alternative pop groups in the 1990s, who admired their slow climb to stardom and were instrumental in the rise of college radio. The band's politics, aesthetics, and hardworking ethos - largely inspired by the early punk and art rock movements of the 1970s - enabled the group to establish itself quickly as one of the pillars of the U.S.'s burgeoning alternative rock scene. Toward the mid-1990s, R.E.M. was an institution, as its influence was felt in new generations of bands.
R.E.M.'s music stands as a testament to diversity, with their catalog reflecting the changes in time and sound in American music over the length of the band's career. While their early music is full of lo-fi jangly guitars and murmured lyrics - leading to the album titled Murmur, their most recent album, Around the Sun, is more hi-fi and unlike anything done previously. Despite such shifts in album direction and the sound of each album changing substantially, fans are still able to identify an element of each song that retains the R.E.M. feel.
Discography:
Chronic Town EP(1982)
Murmur (1983)
Reckoning (1984)
Fables of the Reconstruction (1985)
Lifes Rich Pageant (1986)
Document (1987)
Green (1988)
Out of Time (1991)
Automatic for the People (1992)
Monster (1994)
New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996)
Up (1998)
Reveal (2000)
Around the Sun (2004)