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Funkytown
"Funkytown" is a song by American disco-funk group Lipps Inc., written and produced by Steven Greenberg and released by Casablanca Records in March 1980 as the second single from the group's debut studio album, '' Mouth to Mouth'' (1979). The track was met with immediate commercial success, reaching number one on various record charts in different countries including Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Israel, New Zealand, Spain, West Germany and on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It quickly became the group's signature song, selling over eight million copies worldwide and becoming their most successful song. Composition and lyrics Sung by Lipps Inc.'s lead vocalist Cynthia Johnson, the tune features the narrator pining for a metaphorical place that will "keep me movin', keep me groovin' with some energy", while Lipps Inc. members were dreaming of relocating from Minneapolis to New York City. The song is in time with a key of C major. Chart performance In the United States ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cynthia Johnson
Cynthia Johnson (born April 22, 1956) is an American singer, songwriter and television personality. She is best known as the lead singer of the band Lipps Inc. with the worldwide smash hit "Funkytown". Musical career Beginnings Prior to becoming the lead singer of Lipps Inc., Johnson had become well-known locally for winning the 1976 Miss Black Minnesota, USA pageant, and for being the lead vocalist of the well-known Minneapolis band Flyte Tyme for seven years. Being also an accomplished saxophone player, Johnson utilized her saxophone talents in Flyte Tyme, and she also wrote many of their songs. Johnson also co-wrote some songs with band members Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, today a multi-Grammy Award-winning songwriting and producing team. Johnson completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, Morris in 1978, and continued to perform with Flyte Tyme for a brief time. Shortly after she left Flyte Tyme, the band evolved into The Time, a side project of Pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steven Greenberg (musician)
Steven Phillip Greenberg (born October 24, 1950) is an American musician, record producer and the owner of the independent label October Records. He is best known for his band Lipps Inc.'s 1980 hit song " Funkytown" (which was also a hit for Australian band Pseudo Echo). Career Greenberg was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. In his twenties, Greenberg was a multi-instrumentalist who played in several bands. He had been trying for some time to secure a production deal, and he drew the interest of the Casablanca label with a disco track called " Rock It," which became a hit locally. Released nationally in late 1979, "Rock It" made it into the Top 20 on the Billboard Disco Charts. Casablanca asked Greenberg for a full album, so he gathered several session players, among them guitarists David Rivkin and Tom Riopelle; keyboardist Ivan Rafowitz; synth A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Casablanca Records
Casablanca Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Republic Records. Under its founder Neil Bogart, Casablanca was most successful during the disco era of the mid to late 1970s. The label focuses on dance and electronic music under the direction of Brett Alperowitz. History Neil Bogart (originally Bogatz until adopting the name of his favorite actor Humphrey Bogart) founded Casablanca Records after departing of Buddah Records due to clashes with its owners. In 1973 Bogart enticed Warner Bros. Records into financing Casablanca. Due to Warner's ownership of all rights to the film ''Casablanca,'' Bogart's adoption of the movie's name and title look for its records label logo went without legal objection. The label's first signing was Kiss but its first single release was Bill Amesbury's "Virginia (Touch Me Like You Do)", a minor hit on the US Hot 100. "Butter Boy" by Fanny and The Hudson Brothers' "So You Are a Star" proved to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Disco
Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ community, Gay and Hispanic and Latino Americans, Latino communities. Its sound features four-on-the-floor (music), four-on-the-floor beats, syncopation, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass instrument, brass and horn (musical instrument), horns, electric pianos, synthesizers, and electric rhythm guitars. Discothèques, mostly a French invention, were imported to the United States with the opening of Le Club, a members-only restaurant and nightclub at 416 East 55th Street in Manhattan, by French expatriate Olivier Coquelin, on New Year's Eve 1960. Disco music originated from music popular with African-American culture, African Americans, Hispanic and Latino Americans#Cultural matters, Latino Americans, and Italian Americans#Influe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sound 80
Sound 80 is a recording studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States founded by engineer Tom Jung and composer/musician Herb Pilhofer in 1969. Largely involved with local artists, the studio is best known for recording portions of Bob Dylan's '' Blood on the Tracks'' in 1974 and Cat Stevens' '' Izitso'' in 1977, as well as demo tapes for Prince's first album '' For You'' in 1977. In 1978, Sound 80 made the first digital audio recording to win a Grammy Award—The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra's recording of Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring" and "Short Symphony", and Charles Ives' " Symphony No. 3". In 2020, Sound 80 was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. History Jung and Pilhofer had previously worked at the Kay Bank Studios in Minneapolis, where artists such as Dave Dudley and The Trashmen had recorded. The Sound 80 name came from advertising man Brad Morrison, who had previously named Hormel's Cure 81 ham product (supposedly while drinking Vat 69 S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minneapolis Sound
The Minneapolis sound is a subgenre of funk rock that incorporates elements of New wave music, new wave and synth-pop. Started at Sound 80 with tracks like “Funkytown” by Lipps, Inc and pioneered by Minneapolis-based musician Prince (musician), Prince and André Cymone beginning in the late 1970s, the musical style's heyday extended through the late 1980s. The style was often heard at city clubs like First Avenue (nightclub), First Avenue and was exemplified by Prince-affiliated acts, including The Time (band), the Time, Vanity 6, Apollonia 6, Sheila E., The Family (band), the Family, Wendy & Lisa, Brownmark, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Morris Day, and Jesse Johnson (musician), Jesse Johnson, and by acts neither affiliated with Prince nor native to Minneapolis, such as Flint, Michigan's Ready for the World. According to the ''Rolling Stone Album Guide'', "the Minneapolis sound... loomed over mid-'80s R&B and pop, not to mention the next two decades' worth of electro, house, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Billboard Hot 100 Number Ones Of 1980
These are the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number-one singles of 1980. The two longest running number-one singles of 1980 are " Call Me" by Blondie and "Lady" by Kenny Rogers with each single obtaining six weeks on top of the chart. Every song that went to number one for 1980 stayed on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 over 20 weeks. That year, six acts hit number one for the first time, such as Queen, Pink Floyd, Lipps Inc., Billy Joel, Christopher Cross, and Kenny Rogers. John Lennon was the fourth artist to hit number one posthumously, after his death in December 1980. The British rock band Queen was the only act to achieve multiple number-one songs during the year with "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Another One Bites the Dust". Chart history Number-one artists See also *1980 in music * List of ''Cashbox'' Top 100 number-one singles of 1980 * Lists of ''Billboard'' number-one singles * List of ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number-one singles of the 1980s References Additiona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
City Pages
''City Pages'' was an alternative newspaper serving the Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan area. It featured news, film, theatre and restaurant reviews and music criticism, available free every Wednesday. It ceased publication in 2020 due to a decline in ads and revenue related to the COVID-19 pandemic. History On August 1, 1979, publishers Tom Bartel and Kristin Henning debuted ''Sweet Potato'', a monthly newspaper focused on the Twin Cities music scene. The first issue featured pop band The Cars on the cover. In October 1980, ''Sweet Potato'' went biweekly. On December 3, 1981, the newspaper went weekly and was renamed ''City Pages''. ''City Pages'' competed for readership with the ''Twin Cities Reader'' until 1997, when Stern Publishing purchased ''City Pages'' in March and the ''Twin Cities Reader'' the following day, shuttering it immediately. Bartel and Henning left ''City Pages'' in the fall of 1997. Tom Bartel's brother Mark was named publisher after Bartel and Henning ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive with a respective county. The city is the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the United States by both population and urban area. New York is a global center of finance and commerce, culture, technology, entertainment and media, academics, and scientific output, the arts and fashion, and, as home to the headquarters of the United Nations, international diplomacy. With an estimated population in 2024 of 8,478,072 distributed over , the city is the most densely populated major city in the United States. New York City has more than double the population of Los Angeles, the nation's second-most populous city. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to create a likeness or an Analogy, analogy. Analysts group metaphors with other types of figurative language, such as antithesis, hyperbole, metonymy, and simile. According to Grammarly, "Figurative language examples include similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole, allusions, and idioms." One of the most commonly cited examples of a metaphor in English literature comes from the "All the world's a stage" monologue from ''As You Like It'': All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances And one man in his time plays many parts, His Acts being seven ages. At first, the infant... :—William Shakespeare, ''As You Like It'', 2/7 This quotation expresses a metaphor because the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Time Signature
A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates the meter of a musical movement at the bar level. In a music score the time signature appears as two stacked numerals, such as (spoken as ''four–four time''), or a time symbol, such as (spoken as ''common time''). It immediately follows the key signature (or if there is no key signature, the clef symbol). A mid-score time signature, usually immediately following a barline, indicates a change of meter. Most time signatures are either simple (the note values are grouped in pairs, like , , and ), or compound (grouped in threes, like , , and ). Less common signatures indicate complex, mixed, additive, and irrational meters. Time signature notation Most time signatures consist of two numerals, one stacked above the other: * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
C Major
C major is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and its parallel minor is C minor. The C major scale is: Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary. The C harmonic major and melodic major scales are: On the piano, the C major scale can be played by playing only the white keys starting on C. Scale degree chords The scale degree chords of C major are: * Tonic – C major * Supertonic – D minor * Mediant – E minor * Subdominant – F major * Dominant – G major * Submediant – A minor * Leading-tone – B diminished Compositions Twenty of Joseph Haydn's 106 symphonies are in C major, making it his second most-used key, second to D major. Of the 134 symphonies mistakenly attributed to Haydn that H. C. Robbins Landon lis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
