More of my 200-word sorta-bios.<\/p>\n
A Flock of Seagulls<\/b>
\nThe enduring visual image of A Flock of Seagulls is one featuring Mike Score\u2019s distinctive hairstyle, a swept-forward do reminiscent of a cockatoo. Positioned behind a futuristic synthesizer, Score fronted the band on MTV hits like \u201cI Ran,\u201d \u201cSpace Age Love Song\u201d and \u201cWishing (If I Had a Photograph of You).\u201d The Liverpool quartet (not that<\/i> one) also won a Grammy Award for one of their instrumental tracks, 1983\u2019s \u201cD.N.A.\u201d Beyond the unique look of the group, A Flock of Seagulls helped usher in new wave as a commercial and cultural force. The group\u2019s self-titled debut album rose to the number one spot on the Australian charts, reaching the Top Ten in the UK and U.S. AFOS combined rock muscle, New Romantic visual style and forward-looking synthesizer textures. By the middle of the decade, the band broke up, but by \u201898 they had reformed and resumed touring. 2024\u2019s Some Dreams<\/i> introduced a clutch of new songs.<\/p>\n
Regina Spektor<\/b>
\nEven by the standards of pop music, Regina Spektor has a most unusual back story. A childhood \u00e9migr\u00e9 fleeing persecution in post-Soviet Russia, Spektor settled with her parents in New York City when she was nine. Her classical piano studies continued at a conservatory, and she self-released her debut album, 11:11<\/i> at age 21. Six years later, she had earned prominent billing at the 2007 Bonnaroo Festival, playing in front of a massive audience. With eight studio albums and two live discs to her name, Spektor is now firmly established as a popular singer-songwriter. She has performed at the White House, supports a number of charities (including HIAS, the organization that helped her family settle in the U.S. in 1989) and ventured into film work with a cover of the Beatles\u2019 \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps\u201d for Kubo and the Two Strings<\/i>. Spektor\u2019s most recent studio offering is 2022\u2019s Home, Before and After<\/i>. That record charted in five countries, and like most everything in her body of work, it was received warmly by critics. Her catalog has recently been reissued on limited-edition vinyl.<\/p>\n
Buena Vista Social Orchestra<\/b>
\nWhat little knowledge Americans have regarding the culture of Cuba is quite limited, filtered through a U.S. government hostile to that country\u2019s leadership and an influential and ultra-conservative south Florida diaspora that\u2019s even more virulently opposed to it. As such, the rich musical culture of Cuba is less celebrated than it deserves to be. Thanks to the efforts of a team including American guitarist Ry Cooder, the 1996 album Buena Vista Social Club<\/i> broke through some of those barriers, introducing audiences in the U.S. and beyond to the country\u2019s musical styles of bolero, son and danz\u00f3n. For his trouble, Cooder was tried and fined for having violated the Trading With the Enemy Act, but the runaway popularity of the album led to widespread interest in Cuban music and culture. The BVSC album and related projects have global sales of more than 50 million units. Today, some 30 years after the album\u2019s release, a stage musical is playing to enthusiastic audiences on Broadway, and \u2013 under the direction of band leader and trombonist Jes\u00fas \u201cAguaje\u201d Ramos \u2013 the Buena Vista Social Orchestra brings that music to live audiences across the Americas.<\/p>\n
Cyndi Lauper<\/b>
\nCyndi Lauper burst colorfully onto the pop music scene with her aptly-titled 1983 debut album, She\u2019s So Unusual<\/i>. With her brightly colored hair, irrepressibly sassy attitude hook-filled pop music, Lauper cut a memorable figure on MTV, then in its ascendancy. Lauper may have seemed custom-made for the visual medium of the video music channel, but she stood apart from the then-current crop of pop tarts thanks to her genuine and formidable musical chops. Behind her thick and unapologetic Brooklyn accent, Lauper was a seasoned songwriter and experienced live performer. She\u2019s So Unusual<\/i> shattered records, giving Lauper four hit singles. 1986\u2019s True Colors<\/i> was another smash, and Lauper sustained her creative momentum even when the hits stopped coming. Her 2003 jazz standards album At Last<\/i> reminded anyone who might have missed it that she\u2019s a remarkably versatile talent. 2016\u2019s Detour<\/i> found her tackling country and western. Her current Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour comes full circle, celebrating her debut single and signaling an end to her touring days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More of my 200-word sorta-bios. A Flock of Seagulls The enduring visual image of A Flock of Seagulls is one featuring Mike Score\u2019s distinctive hairstyle, a swept-forward do reminiscent of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28414,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29849"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29851,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29849\/revisions\/29851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}