Earth, Wind & Fire is an American band that has spanned the musical genres of R&B, soul, funk, jazz, disco, pop, rock, dance, Latin, and Afro pop. They have been described as one of the most innovative and commercially successful acts of all time. Rolling Stone called them "innovative, precise yet sensual, calculated yet galvanizing" and declared that the band "changed the sound of black pop". VH1 has also described EWF as "one of the greatest bands" ever.
Garth Richard Nix is an Australian writer who specialises in children's and young adult fantasy novels, notably the Old Kingdom, Seventh Tower and Keys to the Kingdom series. He has frequently been asked if his name is a pseudonym, to which he has responded, "I guess people ask me because it sounds like the perfect name for a writer of fantasy. However, it is my real name."
Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged in Northern England in the late 1960s from the British mod scene, based on a particular style of black American soul music, especially from the mid-1960s, with a heavy beat and fast tempo.
Girls Aloud were an English-Irish pop girl group, which was created through the ITV talent show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002. The group comprised singers Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh. The group achieved a string of twenty consecutive top ten singles in the United Kingdom, including four number ones. They also achieved seven certified albums, of which two reached number one. They have been nominated for five Brit Awards, winning the 2009 Best Single for "The Promise".
Raw was a comics anthology edited by Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly and published by Mouly from 1980 to 1991. It was a flagship publication of the 1980s alternative comics movement, serving as a more intellectual counterpoint to Robert Crumb's visceral Weirdo, which followed squarely in the underground tradition of Zap and Arcade. Along with the more genre-oriented Heavy Metal it was also one of the main venues for European comics in the United States in its day.
Jody Vanessa Watley is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and artist whose music crosses genres including pop, R&B, jazz, dance, and electronic soul. In 1987, she won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist and has been nominated for three Grammy awards.
"The Pleasure Principle" is a song by American singer-songwriter Janet Jackson, recorded for her third studio album, Control (1986). It was written by and produced by Monte Moir, and was released as the sixth single from the album on May 12, 1987 by A&M Records. "The Pleasure Principle" is an "independent woman" anthem about love gone wrong built around a dance beat. The photo for the single cover was shot by fashion photographer David LaChapelle.
"(I Know) I'm Losing You" is a 1966 hit single recorded by The Temptations for the Gordy (Motown) label and produced by Norman Whitfield.
"Bad" is a song by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was released by Epic Records on September 7, 1987 as the second single from Jackson's third major-label and seventh studio album of the same name. The song was written and composed by Jackson, and produced by Quincy Jones and Jackson. Jackson stated that the song was influenced by a real-life story he had read about, of a young man who tried to escape poverty by attending private school but ended up being killed when he returned home.
"Respect" is a song written and originally released by American recording artist Otis Redding in 1965. The song became a 1967 hit and signature song for R&B singer Aretha Franklin. The music in the two versions is significantly different, and through a few changes in the lyrics, the stories told by the songs have a different flavor. Redding's version is a plea from a desperate man, who will give his woman anything she wants. He won't care if she does him wrong, as long as he gets his due respect when he brings money home. However, Franklin's version is a declaration from a strong, confident woman, who knows that she has everything her man wants. She never does him wrong, and demands his "respect". Franklin's version adds the "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" chorus and the backup singers' refrain of "Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me...".
"Underground" is a song written and recorded by David Bowie for the soundtrack of the film Labyrinth. It reached No. 21 in the UK Singles Chart.
Al Sarrantonio is an American horror and science fiction writer, editor and publisher who has authored more than 50 books and 90 short stories. He has also edited numerous anthologies and has been called "brilliant" and "a master anthologist" by Booklist.
Quilts of the Underground Railroad describes a controversial belief that quilts were used to communicate information to African slaves about how to escape to freedom via the Underground Railroad. It has been disputed by a number of historians.
8 Million Stories is the first studio album by American hip hop duo Soul Position. It was released on Fat Beats Records under license from Rhymesayers Entertainment on October 7, 2003. It peaked at number 91 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
Michael Raymond Donald Ashley is a British bibliographer, author and editor of science fiction, mystery, and fantasy.
Richard Eugene "Grass" Green was an African American cartoonist notable for being the first black participant in both the 1960s fan art movement and the 1970s underground comics movement. In the 1960s, Green's Harvey Kurtzman-like zany, action-packed, humorous comics parodies appeared in numerous fanzines. His "outrageous" 1970s and 1980s underground work used searing humor to expose America's racism and bigotry.
"Keep On Walkin'" is a 1992 song by the musician CeCe Peniston, recorded for her debut album release Finally on A&M Records.
"The Greatest Love of All" is a song written by Michael Masser, who composed the music, and Linda Creed, who wrote the lyrics. It was originally recorded in 1977 by George Benson, who made the song a substantial hit, peaking at number two on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart that year, the first R&B chart top-ten hit for Arista Records. The song was written and recorded to be the main theme of the 1977 film The Greatest, a biopic of the boxer Muhammad Ali. Eight years after Benson's original recording, the song became even more well known for a version by Whitney Houston, whose 1985 cover eventually topped the charts, peaking at number one in the United States, Australia, Canada and on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs in early 1986.
Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman, published in 1959. Kurtzman aimed it at an adult audience, in contrast to his earlier work for adolescents in periodicals such as Mad. The social satire in the book's four stories targets Peter Gunn-style private-detective shows, Westerns such as Gunsmoke, capitalist avarice in the publishing industry, Freudian pop psychology, and lynch-hungry yokels in the South. Kurtzman's character Goodman Beaver makes his first appearance in one of the stories.
