Aaron Badgley | |
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Born | [1] Oshawa, Ontario, Canada [2] | August 29, 1964
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Language | English |
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Years active | 1978–present |
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Aaron Badgley (born August 29, 1964) [1] is a Canadian music journalist, music critic, radio host, podcaster, author, and biographer. [2] [3] [4] As a music critic and journalist, he has written for All-Music Guide, The Fulcrum , The Spill Magazine, Lexicon Magazine, Immersive Audio Album, WA12Radio, the Anderson Collegiate Vocational Institute student newspaper, and several Beatles fan magazines, including Strawberry Fields Forever, Beatlefan, and Good Day Sunshine Magazine. [2] [5] [6] [7]
He worked as a writer, producer, and production manager for several radio stations in Ontario's Durham Region, including CKAR-FM and CKQT-FM (both in Oshawa), and CHOO-FM (in Ajax). [3] [4] [8] His first radio show was broadcast on CKCC-FM, Centennial College's campus radio station (in Scarborough), and he later hosted another show, The Meltdown Pot, on University of Ottawa's campus radio station, CFUO-FM (in Ottawa). [2] For CKAR, CKQT, and CHOO, he produced such shows as Durham Top 40, The Inside Track, The Rod Hunter Show, The Scottish Review, Continental Breakfast, Canadian Sunrise, and Canada Country, and also produced commercials. [2] [9] [10] Badgley's Beatles radio program, Beatles Universe, was broadcast for four years on CKGE-FM (in Oshawa), [11] and was later syndicated across North America. [2] [5] He then hosted the online radio show Backwards Traveler for two years on PerturbRadio. [12] [13] [14] His current Canadian music-focused show, Here Today, is broadcast from Guelph's CFRU-FM. [15] [9]
Badgley has co-hosted several radio programs and podcasts with Tony Stuart, including The Stueytunes Show (RedCircle Podcast), [16] The Way-Back Music Machine Podcast (RedCircle Podcast), [17] The Way-Back Music Machine Radio Hour (Bombshell Radio / syndicated to CJNU-FM in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Rideau Lakes Radio in Westport, Ontario), Before My Time (Spotify Podcast), [18] From Memphis to Merseyside (Bombshell Radio / syndicated to CHBB-FM in Norris Point, Newfoundland, CFAJ-AM in St. Catharines, Ontario, and Rideau Lakes Radio), [19] and 8 Days This Week (Bombshell Radio / syndicated to CJNU-FM, CFAJ-AM, and Rideau Lakes Radio). [15] [20]
His contributions to All-Music Guide have appeared in four books co-published by All Media Guide and Backbeat Books: All Music Guide: The Definitive Guide to Popular Music (2001), All Music Guide to Electronica: The Definitive Guide to Electronic Music (2001), All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul (2002), and All Music Guide to Country: The Definitive Guide to Country Music (2003); [2] as well as in the liner notes of Splinter's Harder to Live reissue on Grey Scale (2017) [21] and Big Country's Driving to Damascus box set reissue on Cherry Red Records (2023). [22] Badgley's biography of George Harrison's record label Dark Horse Records, Dark Horse Records: The Story of George Harrison's Post-Beatles Record Label, was published in 2023 by Sonicbond Publishing. [23] [24] [25] In promotion of this book, he was an invited guest at both 2024 events of The Fest for Beatles Fans (in New York City in March and in Chicago in August), [2] [26] [15] as well as Toronto's The Word on the Street festival in September. [27] [9] In 2024, the book was selected for preservation into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's Library and Archives. [9] Badgley is currently writing a book about Ringo Starr, [28] [26] as well as the biography of Canadian progressive rock band Klaatu. [26] [9]
George Harrison was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian culture and helped broaden the scope of popular music through his incorporation of Indian instrumentation and Hindu-aligned spirituality in the Beatles' work.
Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard rock music was produced by the Kinks, the Who, the Rolling Stones, Cream, Vanilla Fudge, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In the late 1960s, bands such as Blue Cheer, the Jeff Beck Group, Iron Butterfly, Led Zeppelin, Golden Earring, Steppenwolf, and Deep Purple also produced hard rock.
Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop, English and American folk music. It typically combines elements of folk and rock music together, it arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers such as Bob Dylan and the Byrds—several of whose members had earlier played in folk ensembles—attempted to blend the sounds of rock with their pre-existing folk repertoire, adopting the use of electric instrumentation and drums in a way previously discouraged in the U.S. folk community. The term "folk rock" was initially used in the U.S. music press in June 1965 to describe the Byrds' music.
Electric blues is blues music distinguished by the use of electric amplification for musical instruments. The guitar was the first instrument to be popularly amplified and used by early pioneers T-Bone Walker in the late 1930s and John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters in the 1940s. Their styles developed into West Coast blues, Detroit blues, and post-World War II Chicago blues, which differed from earlier, predominantly acoustic-style blues. By the early 1950s, Little Walter was a featured soloist on blues harmonica using a small hand-held microphone fed into a guitar amplifier. Although it took a little longer, the electric bass guitar gradually replaced the stand-up bass by the early 1960s. Electric organs and especially keyboards later became widely used in electric blues.
John Bush Shinn III was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Nicknamed the "Country Caruso", Bush was best known for his distinctive voice and for writing the song "Whiskey River", a top 10 hit for himself which also became the signature song of fellow country artist Willie Nelson. He was especially popular in his native Texas.
Roots rock is a genre of rock music that looks back to rock's origins in folk, blues and country music. It is seen as responses to the perceived excesses of the dominant psychedelic and the developing progressive rock. Because roots music (Americana) is often used to mean folk and world musical forms, roots rock is sometimes used in a broad sense to describe any rock music that incorporates elements of this music.
Dark Horse Records is a record label founded by former Beatle George Harrison in 1974. The label's formation coincided with the winding down of the Beatles' Apple Records and allowed Harrison to continue supporting other artists' projects while maintaining his solo career. The initial signings were Indian musician Ravi Shankar and Splinter, the latter of whom provided the label with its only significant commercial success until Harrison himself signed with Dark Horse in 1976. The label was distributed internationally by A&M Records for the first two years of its operation. Following a highly publicised split with A&M, Harrison and Dark Horse formed a long-term partnership with Warner Bros. Records that lasted until the expiration of his contract in 1994.
Cloud Nine is the eleventh studio album by the English rock musician George Harrison. The album was recorded and released in 1987 after Harrison had taken a five-year hiatus from his career as a solo artist. The hit single "Got My Mind Set on You" from this album re-established Harrison as a critically acclaimed and commercially significant recording artist. Cloud Nine was Harrison's final solo studio album to be released during his lifetime; his next album Brainwashed was released in 2002, almost a year after his death.
"Let's Go Trippin'" is an instrumental by Dick Dale and The Del-Tones. It is often regarded as the first surf rock instrumental and is credited for launching the surf music craze. First played in public in 1960 at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa Peninsula, Newport Beach, California, it reached number 4 on the Los Angeles station KFWB, and later peaked at number 60 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Ringo is the third studio album by English musician Ringo Starr, released in 1973 on Apple Records. It peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified platinum by the RIAA. In Canada, it reached No. 1 on the RPM national albums chart.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes.
Hugh Alan Cornwell is an English musician, singer-songwriter and writer, best known for being the lead vocalist and lead guitarist for the punk rock and new wave band the Stranglers from 1974 to 1990. Since leaving the Stranglers, Cornwell has recorded a further ten solo studio albums and continues to record and perform live.
Rock Bottom is the second solo album by former Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt. It was released on 26 July 1974 by Virgin Records. The album was produced by Pink Floyd's drummer Nick Mason, and was recorded following a 1973 accident which left Wyatt a paraplegic. He enlisted musicians including Ivor Cutler, Hugh Hopper, Richard Sinclair, Laurie Allan, Mike Oldfield and Fred Frith in the recording.
Psychedelic pop is pop music that contains musical characteristics associated with psychedelic music. Developing in the mid-to-late 1960s, elements included "trippy" features such as fuzz guitars, tape manipulation, backwards recording, sitars, and Beach Boys-style harmonies, wedded to melodic songs with tight song structures. The style lasted into the early 1970s. It has seen revivals in subsequent decades by neo-psychedelic artists.
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. With a line-up comprising John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, they are commonly regarded as the most influential band of all time. Between 1964 and 1970, they appeared in five major motion pictures, beginning with A Hard Day's Night (1964) and ending with Let It Be (1970). From late 1965 to 1969, the group also appeared in several promotional films for their singles, which have been credited with anticipating music videos and the rise of MTV in the 1980s.
"The Cisco Kid" is a song performed by War, and written by Thomas Allen, Harold Brown, Morris "BB" Dickerson, Charles Miller, Howard Scott, Lee Oskar and Lonnie Jordan, all members of War at the time. It is the first song on their 1972 album The World Is a Ghetto, and is the group's highest-charting song on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number two.
Post-Britpop is an alternative rock subgenre and is the period in the late 1990s and early 2000s, following Britpop, when the media were identifying a "new generation" or "second wave" of guitar bands influenced by acts like Oasis and Blur, but with less overt British concerns in their lyrics and making more use of American rock and indie influences, as well as experimental music. Bands in the post-Britpop era that had been established acts, but gained greater prominence after the decline of Britpop, such as Radiohead and the Verve, and new acts such as Travis, Keane, Snow Patrol, Stereophonics, Feeder, and particularly Coldplay, achieved much wider international success than most of the Britpop groups that had preceded them, and were some of the most commercially successful acts of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The Fest for Beatles Fans is a twice-annual, three-day festival that honors the lasting legacy of the Beatles. The festival takes place in the New York metropolitan area, ordinarily in March or April, and in Chicago, Illinois, each August. Running Friday through Sunday, the Fest features special guests, live concerts, exhibits, art contests, a Beatles marketplace, a sound-alike contest, a Battle of the Beatles Bands, and more.
Psychedelic rock is a notable music genre in Australia and New Zealand.
Village of the Damned is a soundtrack by John Carpenter and Dave Davies for the 1995 film of the same name. It was released in 1995 through Varèse Sarabande.