Apple 500

Who would have thought that 3 guys in a garage would form a company that would change the way we live? April 1, 1976, marked the founding of Apple Inc, which Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne would use to launch the sale of the Apple I computer. Apple grew competitive in the computer industry, but declined for a decade after Steve Jobs' departure in 1985. Jobs resigned after a long power struggle with CEO John Sculley. From 1986 to 1997, Apple saw its reputation decline under the leadership of three different CEOs (Sculley, Michael Spindler and Gil Amelio). In late 1997 Amelio chose to buy the company NeXT Inc. which Steve Jobs founded in 1985 after his departure. This acquisition brought Jobs back to Apple as an advisor. The board of directors eventually removed Amelio and Jobs became CEO thus reclaiming the company he co-founded. 1998 marked a new beginning for Apple with Jobs promoting English designer Jonathan Ive as Senior Vice President of Industrial Design. Ive transformed the face of Apple computers into what is now known as the iMac. Following the iMac came their line of laptop computers called MacBooks. Apple revolutionized the way the world listens to music single handedly making CD-ROM practically obsolete with the iPod. At the turn of twenty-first century as cell phones became more common in the public, Ive took innovation further combing the iPod with the cell phone for the iPhone. 37 years after its inception, and 27 years since the beginning of its decline, Apple finds joins elite company as the #6 company in the top 10 of the Fortune 500. Almost two years since Jobs passed away it's clear he left his beloved company in good hands.

Apple Cracks Top 10 of Fortune 500

For The Love of Money

June 25, 2009, the King of Pop died of cardiac arrest at age 50 in Los Angeles, CA. The nation along with the entire world morned his passing and celebrated his life. From September to November 2011 Jackson's personal doctor, Conrad Murray was on trial and was sentenced to 4 years in prison on a charge of involuntary manslaughter. Murray lucked out with serving a smaller sentence due to overcrowding in California prisons. Amid the controversy surrounding the true cause of Jackson's death, his family turned attention to AEG Live. AEG Live is the concert promotion company that was in charge of Jackson's "This is It Tour" as well as paying for his doctor (Murray). The Jacksons suspected foul play on the part of AEG Live accusing them of giving priority to their profits from his tour instead of his health and safety. AEG denied hiring Dr. Murray and claimed Jackson chose and paid for his service on his own.  The trial of wrongful death against AEG revealed that they asked the Jackson estate to repay them $300,000 in doctor's fees just three weeks after Michael's death. Other evidence shows that they had an option to hire another doctor for $40,000 a month, who wanted the job as long as Jackson was clear of any drug abuse. Instead, they hired Murray who initially demanded $5 million but settled for $1.5 million at $150,000 a month. The central issue of the trial is determining whether AEG knowingly pushed for Jackson to receive any medication he asked for in order to be ready for his tour. AEG was allegedly aware of Jackson's declining health, but they were focused on money. This trial is certainly about to shed light on the dark side of the music industry.

AEG Execs Face Questioning

Still Kind of Blue

On this day 87 years ago one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century was born. On May 26, 1926, Cleota Mae Davis gave birth to Miles Dewey Davis in Alton, Illinois. At age 13 Davis learned to play the trumpet under the guidance of Elwood Buchanan, a family friend. Buchanan encouraged Davis to play trumpet differently than the style popularized by Louis Armstrong. As his trumpeting skills grew at age 17 he got a chance to play trumpet in a band with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. At 18 Davis headed to New York to attend the Julliard School of Music. While at Julliard he teamed up with Charlie Parker to play at nightclubs in Harlem. After recording numerous times he consulted his father and dropped out of school to be a musician full-time. Davis formed a band of his own and recorded songs which would eventually be featured on the album Birth of the Cool in 1957. In the 1950s Davis fought a long battle with addiction to heroin that ended in the assembly of one of the greatest jazz bands ever. The Davis sextet consisted of himself, pianist Bill Evans, drummer Jimmy Cobb, bassist Paul Chambers, and saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian Adderley. In 1959 Davis released what many consider to be his magnum opus with the critically acclaimed Kind of Blue. In this masterpiece Miles Davis' sound is almost entire modal jazz as opposed to his previous style of bebop jazz. It received perfect reviews from critics all across the board and as of 2008 it has sold over 4 millions copies giving it 4x platinum certification. After the release of this album Davis' career sky-rocketed and he went on to win 7 Grammy awards before his passing in 1991.

Kind of Blue 50th Anniversary Edition

2013: Year of the Movie

The year 2013 meant a couple things to me: One, it meant the end of my undergraduate career and two, it meant the world was not destroyed by cataclysmic events on December 21, 2012.  After going to see the last blockbuster of 2012, The Hobbit, nothing could have prepared me for the previews of movies to come in 2013. For the first time ever, I sat through movie trailers and I wanted to see every single movie. The first teaser showed the Man of Steel. Director Christopher Nolan did such an incredible job with the Dark Knight trilogy that he joined director Zack Snyder's team as a producer. The film is set to release on June 14, 2013. Next in line was The Lone Ranger. When the trailer first started it opened up with Johnny Depp in costume leading many to believe this would be another "Pirates of the Caribbean" film. We later found out that the TLR's director, Gore Verbinski, directed the "Pirates" films. Depp's character in this film is a quirky Native American whose tendencies remind us of his role as Captain Jack Sparrow. It was a great marketing strategy to lure the audience in with a new but similar character.  The following trailer was none other than The Great Gatsby. After reading the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 10th grade, my wish came true the story had new film adaption. With an actor like Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role, this movie's appeal only grew. The next few trailers which followed Gatsby showed an onslaught of movies set to release in the month of May. Iron Man 3 on May 3 (which picks up where The Avengers left off), The Great Gatsby on May 10, Star Trek: Into Darkness on May 17, Fast and Furious 6 and The Hangover Part III on May 24, and Post-Apocalyptic Earth film starring Will and Jaden Smith, After Earth on May 31. June and July will carry on the momentum with Man of Steel (June 14) , World War Z (June 21) and The Wolverine (July 26).  

Rotten Tomatoes TOP 100 Films of 2013

Globalization

Globalization is defined by merriam-webster's dictionary as "the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets". It is defined by wikipedia as the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture. Music is the world's most universal form of communication. If you listen to songs in different languages you might not understand what the lyrics mean, but you can understand the emotion behind it. Now take music and combine it with images and you'll have ideas for anyone with eyes and ears to adopt. Japan is known for its ancient traditions as well as its modern technological empire and perhaps its most popular export, anime. Anime started in Japan at the beginning of the 20th century when Japanese filmmakers experimented with animation techniques that were being explored in the West. In the 1970's Japan's anime grew to look differently than its western counterparts and then became mainstream in Japan by the 1980s. The popularity of anime in the U.S. in the late 90's and early 2000's came from shows that were adaptions of anime novels called "Manga". Fans could read ahead in the storyline while waiting for the release of the english version of the anime. For more impatient fans there were released Japanese versions with sub-titles. Along with other popular exports from Toyotas and Hondas to Nintendo and PlayStation, Japan had left its mark of western culture. However globalization is not a one way street and western culture has crept its way to the land of the rising sun. Hip-Hop culture has taken Japan by storm prompting some of the younger generation to take on the fashion and music originating in the South Bronx.

History of Japanese Anime

Buffalo Soldier

68 years ago Cedella Booker gave birth to Robert Nesta Marley. 18 years later Bob Marley and his friends formed the Wailing Wailers. 9 years after that they sign a contract with Island Records. Marley and the Wailers sold over 20 million records throughout their career. Their union was brought to a tragic end 32 years ago with Bob Marley's death May 11 1981. He death was caused by a skin cancer known as melanoma. Marley's music was posthumously released after his death in the form of an album named Confrontation. Today marks the 30th anniversary of the album's release May 23 1983. The album contains 10 songs compiled from unreleased material. The most famous of these songs is "Buffalo Soldier". The song was Marley's homage to the U.S. Cavalry's African-American regiment who fought in the Indian Wars in the late 1800's. He felt that his life's journey was relative to their fight for survival. The album's cover depicts Marley's version of the tale of St. George and the Dragon. The dragon is meant to represent "Babylon"(corruption), which Marley is slaying with his music. Though he died at the age of 36, his legacy lived on through his friends and his children. Marley had 11 children, 3 of which followed in their father's footsteps and gained notoriety. Those three are Ziggy, Stephen and Damien Marley. All have inherited their father's love for music and for Rastafari and taken their family to the status of royalty in Jamaica. Reggae is one of my favorite genres. The way it sounds and the messages it preaches can bring people of any race, gender or creed together. That was the mission of the late Bob Marley. That's the message of the surviving Wailers and of Marley's sons, and that's a message worth spreading.

MTV :This Day In Music We Remember Bob Marley

Not A Real Job?

When I finally decided that music would be my life's work, I was very careful about who I shared that information with. There were two reasons for that: One because I hadn't planned it out in detail , and two because people don't really see working in the music industry as an obtainable career. When I first brought the idea to my mother, her reply was something along the lines of "There's no guaranteed money in that". She was right. The life of a musician is tough when you're trying to make it on your own and trying make ends meet because you get paid according to how many shows or "gigs" you do. I gave this a great deal of thought and I came up with phase one of what I knew would develop into a master plan. I figured since I'm talented in the area of composing, why not combine that with honing skills in songwriting and production. More recently after doing a bit of research I decided that it would be better to try and build an entertainment company from the ground up instead of trying to get discovered by a major label. Major labels have a music monopoly going and the only music they are endorsing is the materialistic, decadent side of rap music. I think fans are getting fed up and up and coming artists are starting to push the genre in another direction. Now that I am a college graduate I can focus on a career in music but it's going to require a lot of hard work and dedication. I searched the web to look up the salaries for different occupations in the music industry and i found a career guide from Berkeley College of Music in Boston, MA. An A&R representative makes between $25,000 and $85,000 a year. They are responsible for scouting talent and trying to sign the prospect to the label they work for. An audio engineer makes between 25,000 and 150,000 a year. They are responsible for helping with planning how an artist's project should sound. A Record Producer makes between 25,000 and 1,000,000 a year. They are responsible for assisting an artist with all details of a project. 

These were just three of the many jobs in the industry that aren't your typical 9 to 5s. My advice to anyone with a passion in music is to aim high. You never know, people may aspire to be you someday. 

Berkley Salary Guide