This biography of a living person relies too much on references to primary sources .(September 2010) |
Joseph Lorenzo Jr. Welbon (born May 9, 1963), known by the stage name Joe Smooth, is an American house music producer and DJ who gained international acclaim during the early 1980s. [1] By the new millennium he held the reputation of working with acts like Destiny's Child, Ludacris, New Order, Whitney Houston, and many others across genres. He is often credited as essential to the creation of house music as a genre, with co-production of the Chip E "Jack Trax" ep, and became an influence to major groups like Daft Punk, who often played Joe Smooth's music during early live shows.
Joe Smooth has earned gold and platinum record awards for his work. In 2015 he started his own record label, Indie Art Music, focusing on producing music in all genres and all areas of the music industry. In 2023 the label merged with the Atlantic Traxx Group run by legendary industry music manager and A&R Michael Hague to form IAM TRAXX which will continue the original label's ethics of releasing quality dance and electronic music of all genres from both major and upcoming artists worldwide.
Joe Smooth is a self-taught musician and started creating original music at the age of 12. During his teenage years, he began to make a name for himself as a DJ in the underground Chicago music scene. He is credited as essential to the creation of house music as a genre and the support of the culture surrounding it. During his 20s he became an essential DJ for Smart Bar from 1983 to 1985 at which point he became main dj and musical director at Limelight and Charlie Club in Chicago. In 1990 Joe Smooth opened the second iteration of The Warehouse with partners Julian Jumpin Perez and Rocky Jones of DJ International.
Joe Smooth gained international acclaim with the release of his late 1980s tracks "Promised Land" (featuring Anthony Thomas), "They Want to be Free," (featuring Joe Smooth on vocals) a song commissioned by CNN and Nelson Mandela's support team to be played in the background of his televised release from prison." [1] He is best known for "Promised Land," which is considered one of the top house recrds of all time and spoke of how humans, as brothers and sisters, should unite in love and thrive in paradise. Joe Smooth's song has been covered several times and is still played today. Originally released in 1987, it peaked at No. 56 in the UK Singles Chart in February 1989, following the Top 40 success of a cover version by The Style Council. [2] An album of the same title became available in 1988, and a music video was produced for the single. A follow-up album, Rejoice, was released in 1990, which featured the hit single "They Want to be Free."
Joe Smooth helped influence a decade of house and dance music elements in mainstream pop throughout the 1990s.
By the new millennium he was approached to work with many pop, R&B, and other genre icons such as Destiny's Child, Whitney Houston, and Cisqo.
In October 2004, "Promised Land" appeared in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas . Within the game, the song could be heard playing on the fictional House Music radio station SF-UR.
He later launched his own record label Indie Art Music. The label works with notable producers and artists from all over the globe including George Clinton amongst others. Indie Art Music set out with the goal of creating mainstream music in all genres with the ability to distribute, market, publish, and produce all within one single company. While the focus is on mainstream areas of the industry, Indie Art Music developed and worked with new artists like Amy DB of Chicago, Greg Tanoose of Austin, among others. Merging in 2023 with the Atlantic Traxx Group run by legendary industry music manager and A&R Michael Hague to form IAM TRAXX the joint label continues the original label's ethics of releasing quality dance and electronic music of all genres from both major and upcoming artists worldwide. In 2023 he formed a joint partnership with Michael Hague's established Angel Artists management company (Goldie, Foxy Brown, Tyra Banks, Tyree, Mark Picchiotti, Man Parrish, Bobby 'O', Beatmasters, The Grid as well as several Oscar, Grammy and Brit award winning artists), forming artist/music management company I.A.M Management representing and working with a plethora of artists side by side with various Grammy award winning producers and artists along with an extensive list of various industry contacts of both Joe and Michael's to make sure their clients get the best out of their careers.
Joe Smooth is a musician and producer, who has worked as a remixer, producer, engineer, and writer. He has earned gold and platinum record awards for his work, work behind the scenes with Grammy award-winning artists. Notable artists he has worked with include Bros, Whitney Houston, Donnell Jones, Destiny's Child, Sisqó, Frankie Knuckles, Marshall Jefferson, A Guy Called Gerald, Lil Louis, D'Bora, Tyree Cooper, Fast Eddie, Fingers Inc., Art of Noise, Sterling Void, Pet Shop Boys, Janet Jackson, the Style Council, New Order, and Steve Hurley. He launched a record label in 2015, Indie Art Music which merged with the Atlantic Traxx Group in 2023 forming IAM Traxx, and has topped digital charts Traxsource and Beatport for song sales. As well as working as Joe Smooth, he also works as Smooth Angel with Mike Angel on productions and remixes focusing on a US and UK mix for each commission and their own releases.
House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120-130 beats per minute as a re-emergence of 1970s disco. It originated in the Black queer community in Chicago. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground club culture and evolved slowly in the early/mid 1980s as DJs began altering disco songs to give them a more mechanical beat. By early 1988, House became mainstream and supplanted the typical 80s music beat.
Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to refer to electronic music generally.
Hip house, also known as rap house or house rap, is a musical genre that mixes elements of house music and hip hop music, that originated in both London, United Kingdom and Chicago, United States in the mid to late 1980s.
Alexander Paul Coe, known professionally as Sasha, is a Welsh DJ and record producer. He is best known for his live events and electronic music as a solo artist, as well as his collaborations with British DJ John Digweed as Sasha & John Digweed. He was voted as World No. 1 DJ in 2000 in a poll conducted by DJ Magazine. He is a four-time International Dance Music Awards winner, four-time DJ Awards winner and Grammy Award nominee.
Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a playlist made up entirely of Black genres such as R&B, pop-rap, quiet storm, urban adult contemporary, hip hop, Latin music such as Latin pop, Chicano R&B and Chicano rap, and Caribbean music such as reggae and soca. Urban contemporary was developed through the characteristics of genres such as R&B and soul.
Junior Vasquez is an American DJ, record producer and remixer. He has been referred to as one of the only DJs of his time to gain international attention.
Timo Maas is a German DJ/producer and remixer. His remix of Azzido Da Bass's single "Dooms Night" helped launch his career in 2000.
Thomas Wesley Pentz, known professionally as Diplo, is an American DJ and music producer. He is a co-creator and lead member of the electronic dancehall music project Major Lazer; a member of the supergroup LSD, with Sia and Labrinth; a member of electronic duo Jack Ü, with producer and DJ Skrillex; and a member of Silk City, with Mark Ronson. He founded the record company Mad Decent in 2006, as well as the non-profit organization Heaps Decent the following year. His 2013 extended play (EP), Revolution, debuted at number 68 on the US Billboard 200. The EP's title track was later featured in a commercial for Hyundai and is featured on the WWE 2K16 soundtrack.
Victor Calderone is an American electronic music producer, DJ and remixer.
Paul Eric Bosko, also known as Rosko, is an American singer, songwriter, musician and producer. He is perhaps best known as a recording artist for his 2005 single "Love Is A Drug" which reached number 1 on the U.S. Billboard Dance Chart, and was produced by John Creamer & Stephane K. He is also known for his collaborations with Grammy Award-Nominated Electronic/Dance artist Nadia Ali, which include their 2006 duet "Something To Lose" for Ultra Records, and the song "Promises" on Ali's 2009 solo album "Embers."
Contemporary R&B is a popular music genre that combines rhythm and blues with elements of pop, soul, funk, hip hop, and electronic music.
Barry Harris is a Canadian record producer, DJ, remixer, singer and songwriter. He created the recording act he named Kon Kan in early 1988 which had worldwide success with "I Beg Your Pardon". The song, initially issued on the now defunct Toronto-based indie label Revolving Records, was quickly discovered and signed by Atlantic Records' A&R rep, Marc Nathan.
Nu-disco is a 21st-century dance music genre associated with a renewed interest in the late 1970s disco, synthesizer-heavy 1980s European dance music styles, and early 1990s electronic dance music. The genre was popular in the early 2000s, and experienced a mild resurgence in the 2010s.
This article includes an overview of the famous events and trends in popular music in the 1980s.
Alternative dance is a musical genre that mixes alternative rock with electronic dance music. Although largely confined to the British Isles, it has gained American and worldwide exposure through acts such as New Order in the 1980s and the Prodigy and in the 1990s.
Eric Kupper is an American keyboardist, arranger, songwriter, remix artist, DJ, and record producer of French descent.
Tommy Asher Danvers, better known by his stage name TommyD, is a British producer, songwriter, arranger, DJ, and multi-instrumentalist and co-founder of NFT marketplace, Token||Traxx. He is best known for his work with artists such as Right Said Fred, Catatonia, KT Tunstall, Corinne Bailey Rae, and Graffiti6. He has also worked with Kylie Minogue, Janet Jackson, Noel Gallagher, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Kanye West, Jay Z, Beyoncé, Adele, Emeli Sandé, and fun.
Hannah Leah Mancini, also known as Stella Mercury or simply Hannah, is an American singer and songwriter who works and lives in Slovenia. She has been heavily involved in dance, nu disco and electronic scenes there and worked with artists and producers in these genres. Hannah's first music industry experiences had her on multiple soundtracks for Disney films and the opportunity to collaborate with Grammy winning producer, Larry Klein. She also performed at Radio City Music Hall, Universal Amphitheatre and on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Since the mid-2000s, a counterculture has taken place where numerous netlabels, online labels that release their music for free, located in Japan have been formed and garnered a huge amount of publicity which, according to writer Patrick St. Michel, has shaped how popular Japanese music is produced. Japan's netlabel phenomenon was the first time in the history of the nation's music industry where underground musicians could produce their works however they wanted to and have their music noticed by the public; this is an aspect that was previously absent at a time when major labels in the country followed a conservative method where they managed how artists would produce their music. Starting in the 2010s, the netlabel scene has crossed over to the mainstream music landscape and all across the world, with netlabel producers transitioning into working for bigger labels and western producers like Cashmere Cat and Ryan Hemsworth being influenced by the music of Japanese netlabels.
Tyree Cooper, also known simply as Tyree, is an American house music producer from Chicago, Illinois. He is best known for the hip house track "Turn Up the Bass", which peaked at No. 12 on the UK Singles Chart in 1989.