Two things immediately sprang into my mind when I saw the headline flash where The Dream was stating in this interview that his take from the Rihanna track “Umbrella” was $15 million. My first reaction was really? Followed closely by a really?

Listen, the money in the music has always been with the writers and publishers contrary to what some idiot posted in the you tube comment section where he or she so eloquently stated that the performers of music have always made more than the writers. Not on this planet. I’m not privy to any information regarding The Dream’s publishing deal whether he’s self-published, co-publishes, has an admin deal or what. But what I do know is that he isn’t the only writer on the track. Now again without knowing the details of what the splits are between the co-writers I still can’t really say how much went where to whom etc., etc., (more…)

Spurred on by a number of British New Wave acts like The Police, Elvis Costello, The Pretenders, Squeeze, and Gary Numan in the late 1970′s, the Second British Musical Invasion was solidified a few years later when our Artist of the Month Duran Duran ruled the video and airwaves. In 1983, Duran Duran along with groups like Eurythmics, Culture Club, A Flock of Seagulls and on and on were able to capture a 30% share of record sales. No small feat and the influence that this phenomenon had on music was not only felt during the height on the “invasion” during the mid-80′s but throughout the decade and beyond.

Many have written about the influence that this musical “invasion” had on Pop music but I’ve often thought about the influence that it had on other genres, R&B and Hip Hop in general. It was and continues to be an interesting phenomenon in the sense that you have a number of these acts from the UK citing Soul, R&B and Funk as primary musical influences and in turn their musical output influencing the contemporary equivalent of those genres during this era and beyond.

Let’s examine a more complete(not necessarily exhaustive) list of groups with significant presence during this time period.

ABC
Adam and the Ants
After The Fire
The Alarm

Bananarama
Belouis Some
Bow Wow Wow
Big Country

Culture Club
The Cure

Dead or Alive
Def Leppard
Depeche Mode
Dexys Midnight Runners
Thomas Dolby
Duran Duran
(more…)

This is a new segment where we give props and pounds to a member of the GFM Family who puts us on to some great new music that we weren’t hip to. Special shout out to Derric Friday for hitting us up on the FB Page and giving us the good word about Swedish Trio Dirty Loops.

The word around GFM Headquarters (and I’m paraphrasing a bit) is that these cats have made covers of songs that were otherwise un-listenable [when performed by the original artist] listenable, actually down right funky to be exact. That’s a testament to what these guys are putting down. (more…)

With a sound and energy that radiates uniqueness,Esnavi (pronounced es-nah-V) is positioning herself as a voice to keep your ear out for. On the strength of strength of her album entitled Exit E produced and co-written with Michel Kunz, the project has created a groundswell of support and even garnered Esnavi a nomination for New Artist of the Year(2010) from The Soul Tracks Awards. (more…)

Over here in the GFM sphere we are continually diggin the output from Anais Aida one listen and we’ll hope that you’ll agree that this is a sound that you want to get more acquainted with. Enjoy!

A couple of weeks ago, I had the fun opportunity to DJ a Minneapolis /Prince inspired spin with our Facebook and Twitter friends. In the midst of my groove, I came across a Rihanna video that was downright pitiful. Now, I don’t have a problem with Rihanna f**king up her own thing in “her” own lane but when that “rockstar” mentality gets to yo’ head where you actually think you can pull off Sheila E’s The Glamorous Life with the drum solo, I wonder whether she’s really recovered from that Chris Brown situation. So to set the record straight and to educate the young so you don’t falsely believe this song begins and ends at Rihanna, here is Rihanna and Sheila’s LIVE performance going toe to toe. You tell me who did it better…….and to think, people actually paid $100 -$200 a pop to see Rihanna do this. Ain’t dat some foolery for yo’ azz!!! :)
(more…)

Permalink

So I wanted to post this track from Kelly Rowland just to gauge what folks feel really makes music “grown”. (more…)

You can rest assured that here at GFM we don’t need a special day or an excuse to pay homage to the great music of the past. In fact, whether it’s here or on Facebook, we constantly throw it back (as it were). (more…)