Focus

WILL - Focus - May 02, 2013

Record Sales Continue to Climb in US, Illinois

“Vinyl sounds warmer….it’s about the experience….I like the crackle….” Do you enjoy listening to music on a turntable? We’ll talk about music in the 21st century and if vinyl’s “comeback” really means anything to the future of the music industry.

a stack of records

According to Nielsen Soundscan, a company that tracks the sale of music in the US, vinyl sales are up by 35% over the same time last year; nearly two million vinyl albums have sold so far in 2013. Nielsen says their data shows that vinyl sales started climbing in 2007 and have kept on going ever since. Interesting considering music hasn’t been released solely on vinyl albums for decades... This hour on Focus, we’ll talk about the resurgence of records and record stores and will talk about what makes old-fashioned records so appealing in an era largely defined by digital culture. 

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WILL - Focus - April 26, 2013

Coming up on Focus: Boston Marathon Media Coverage, Record Resurgence and Biking to Work

Do you bike to work? Do you like listening to music on vinyl? Is the media doing a good job of reporting on the Boston Marathon bombing case?  Find out more about what’s coming up next week on Focus and join our conversation.

records

Coming up next week on Focus, we’ll talk about cycling and how strong biking communities and cultures are fostered, why records are coming back and if they’ll stick around. We’ll also talk about nanotechnology and the exciting possibilities for the future.


WILL - Focus - November 09, 2012 ~ Comment (0)

The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience

In the 1930s and 1940s, the Library of Congress commissioned audio recordings of amateur singers and songwriters throughout the United States. These have come to be called "field recordings," and the recordists travelled the country in search of them. Musician, recording artist, and writer Stephen Wade tells the story of thirteen of these recordings made across the United States between 1934 and 1942 in locations reaching from Southern Appalachia to the Mississippi Delta and the Great Plains. Working 18 years on this project, Wade travelled the country, seeking out the original artists, their families or friends present at the recordings and interviewed more than 200 people for the book. Most of the original artists were amateur singers or musicians who were being recorded for the first and only time; many of their famililes were not even aware that the recordings were made. And yet many of the songs have enjoyed long afterlives, influencing musicians and featuring in films. 

Stephen Wade is a musician and writer whose latest album is Banjo Diary: Lessons from Tradition, out on Smithsonian Folkways Records.

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WILL - Focus - November 09, 2010 ~ Comment (0)

The Baseball Music Project

With Dave Winfield (Executive with the San Diego Padres; Athlete, formerly with the New York Yankees, and five other teams; Member of the Baseball Hall of Fame; Writer; Host and Narrator of "The Baseball Music Project", Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 11/12 7:30 PM), and , and Scott Schwartz, Ph.D. (Archivist for Music and Fine Arts and Associate Professor, University Library, University of Illinois)

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Categories: Entertainment, Music, Sports

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