The music fans all over the world are so different in styles and genres, that we can define completely different social groups formed by their music addiction (and in some cases the large mens clothing that they wear no matter how small they are). It has always been an influential factor, however, music in the late 20th and 21st centuries has become much more than that -nawadays many people just live according to the music they listen to, clubs they are visiting and fellows they are meeting.

An extremely successful, trance music has become one of the distinctive genres in music industry that has brought a massive change in people’s lifestyle. It has influenced other industries like clothing, design, technology and even architecture. Inevitably it has become a social factor, a public fenomenon and a personal addiction to many young people especially since they are the moving force of the genre.

Originally, the trance music has decended from the electric music genre several decades ago when, after the unofficial unification of Germany, many young music performer started experimenting and in the beggining of the 90s there was already an established trance movement among the music producers. With DJs like Sasha, Tiesto and Paul Van Dyk, the trance music started gradually growing and attracting more and more fans around the globe. Performances spread the idea of the trend and people started defining it as trance -since the dance and the sound merge in a condition of complete harmony and this is how the name of the genre was formed.

Now this is, along with house music, a distinctive aspect in the music industry. Fashion designers develop special products for the trance fans and a whole new culture with distinctive features is recognizable. Technology aims to achieve higher sound quality and clubs are being designed and structured not only fot better accustics, but for amazing light shows that go well with the rhytm. This is how trance music became a social factor and a personal addiction to many young people all over the world, gathering thousand and thousands of them at the hot spots for electronic and house music around the world.

Forget spending the summer in a property in Antalya, because there is no bigger and more wanted event in the world of house music in Bulgaria than the Solar Summer Festival in Cacao Beach, situated in the famous resort Sunny Beach. It attracts thousands of fans and is famous for the stars taking part in the event - from famous DJs and top performers to one of the most skilled dancers in the world.

The event has started in the middle of July, and its culmination will be the Armin Van Buren Night on the 13th of August. There the famous DJ will present some of his best tracks (”In and Out of Love”, “Sound of Goodbye”and others) as well as some of the best tracks played in the mixes of “A State Of Trance”. Journalists and organizers are still being silent about the number of people that are expected to visit the main event but some unofficial sources claim that the number of tickets already sold is almost 10,000. The famous club situated on the beach has a capacity of almost 9,000 people which means that the music fans are really eager to see the peak performance of this year fest.

Other performers would be FatBoy Slim, Martin Van Tenten, Balthazar and Sandy Rivera which promises another portion of amazing house and trance music. It is arguable how many more people would visit the events -it is a policy of the club to surprise the public after each event with the announcement of the number of visitors that have watched the show. It is a marketing strategy and according to many, quite successful one.

With the great performers to take part, the extraordinary atmosphere of the club and high quality servicing, the Summer Festival is an expected and quite famous event in the world of house and trance and definitely the highlight of the Bulgarian summer in Sunny Beach.

After the show Bret fell out of the lime light for a while. Last year he decided to jump on the Apprentice bus and competed for Donald Trump’s approval. He ended up winning against Cindy Lauper, Sharron Osbourne, and Holly Peete. With all of this focus on television it made many wonder if he was ever going to perform again. Did he even still have it in him. On the American Idol finally he did. He performed with one of the former contestants and sung his signature song Every Rose Has Its Thorn. He was known for singing it when he was with Poison but on this night he was just with the contestant.

He wore his bandana and cowboy hat and sounded amazing. His voice is so captivating and makes women’s hearts just melt. He can still hold every tune and note. Not one moment did anyone take their eyes off of him. His voice is one of the most unique voices ever. When you hear it you instantly know who is singing. Hopefully he will go back to solely singing and come out with a new album. The world is ready for some more Bret Michaels and can’t wait to see and hear him again.

Since forming in 1976, the band had dabbled in a variety of different styles; the most notable of these had been Punk Rock and Goth. But with ‘Peepshow’ they wowed their fans by creating something entirely unique…

At the time, the British charts were taken up with a good deal of Dance, Acid House and Pop. The decade was drawing to a close and musicians were desperately trying to come up with new ideas and styles for the nineties. It seemed that the Avant-Garde/Alternative scene was also going through some changes and Siouxsie’s group were to be one of those at the forefront.

Instruments such as the accordion and cello had never been seen as ‘cool’ by Alternative rockers, so when Siouxsie and the Banshees included these on ‘Peepshow’ some fans became concerned. But their worries were soon swept away with the release of the first single, ‘Peek-a-Boo’. This was like the Gothic answer to House music and it received rave reviews from critics; Melody Maker described it as ‘quite the most astounding record of 1988’.

Two other great singles were to follow, ‘The Killing Jar’ and ‘The Last Beat of my Heart’. But the rest of the album’s tracks were just as good as the chart entries. None of the record’s ten songs wavered in terms of quality, but ‘Ornaments of Gold’ and ‘Carousel’ really did stand out as particularly impressive tracks.

‘Peepshow’ was an altogether dark and brooding blend of Pop with some truly disturbing imagery. It was certainly a new sound for the band, but the unmistakably sexy voice of Siouxsie and the distinctive Banshees guitars still made it instantly recognisable. The group had experimented with new styles once again and had emerged from the studio with a winner.

I am all for culture and crossover when it comes to art and music. It is great to have some musical experimentation going on; and without it no new styles would ever be born. Until today, I thought that one of the best Classical/Dance examples was probably DJ Tiesto’s version of Albinoni’s ‘Adagio for Strings’. However, that was before I stumbled across this major cultural contender…

You wouldn’t think a couple of Korean break-dancers, a record scratcher and a beatbox guy could do anything very much with Pachelbel’s Canon, would you? Well, you might just be surprised. Check out this awesome dance video and see if your bottom jaw can maintain its original position!

Don’t you just love the way they have interpreted the original piece? This really is impressive stuff and the best thing about it all is that it will inspire a lot of the hip-hop kids to check out some Classical vibes.

These dancers are totally amazing; can you imagine how strong these guys must be? If I could choose a skill, then break-dancing would probably be very high on my list (the ability to dance at all would be an added bonus!).

A lot of young people dismiss Classical music as being crusty, uncool and irrelevant. This is a terrible shame, but stuff like this is helping to change all of that. There have also been a number of interesting projects with Classical and Heavy Metal over the years, such as Metallica’s ‘S and M’ and their support group/buddies Apocalyptica.

Frank Zappa is odd. That’s an understatement. You can’t help but listen to his music and wonder how it ever got produced. Not because people wouldn’t listen to his stuff—because you have to hear it to believe it—but because it is so–Loose. Untamed and confused to the point of no-control, Zappa’s music is never less than a wandering tangle of lyrics, weird musical instruments and bizarre humour. In other words it’s impressive. In a paradise of over-produced pop-hits, Zappa’s musical garden is the over-grown rampaging stuff of drug-induced nightmares. Ones that shift and tumble and explode. Even Zappa doesn’t seem to know what’s going to happen next–

He really doesn’t know and he also really doesn’t care. And the best thing about Zappa is that he’s honest about his music and his practice. Interviews conducted with the man show a real musician: someone with enough daring to constantly risk breaking new ground–or breaking his own reputation in the process. Books which have anything to do with Zappa also possess a unique quality; it’s something you just don’t find in today’s age of manufactured bands and pop princesses.

But what makes Zappa’s work so interesting and unique is its variety. And you could be forgiven for thinking that there is only so much weird stuff you can do, without it eventually becoming similar to something else. But the man proved again and again that he was the master of weird. If you can get over the initial period of total bewilderment that comes when you first start listening to this rare form of music (usually lasting around a month) you’ll find something in it that can’t be found anywhere else. For that the man with the mustache should be commended. Had Zappa not come along and broken all the rules, music just wouldn’t have been the same.

Finally, I need to have a little bit of a gloat. I have just bought the greatest brooks running shoes that I have ever owned. London Marathon, here I come!

I love Muse. They’re a great, innovative band that have been producing incredible music for a long time, that and the CD packaging stands above the rest of the bands in their league. But I’m sure that even the most defensive Muse fan will admit that the band have recently changed. Much of their new material has very little in common with their old stuff, the songs that put them where they are today. And so the inevitable question: should they have stuck with the tried-and-tested formula, or should a band of that caliber be allowed to do precisely what they want?

Well, personally I think a bit of both. If a band remains the same year after year then naturally that isn’t good. But equally, is it fair to the fans to suddenly take a hiatus away from what they expect? Obviously some fans will love Muse so much that they can do nothing wrong, but my concern is that by veering too far away, the band is alienating an entirely new audience. Which is a sad thing for any band.

And Muse have changed more than just their approach to writing songs. They’ve started adding new backing-vocals to the tracks, and this, in turn, has completely altered the dynamic. I wouldn’t mind this ordinarily, but clearly this new dynamic is a sign of something. Which makes me wonder if Muse have much more to give. Of course, that’s a harsh and unfair question in a way. Any band who serve as long as Muse shouldn’t have to answer to anyone.

This changing direction thing doesn’t need to be negative, of course, but there are too many examples of this going drastically wrong. Look at Robbie Williams for example. He was at the top of his game just a couple of years ago—if that’s a game you like, that is—and now where is he? If the same theory is applied to Muse then maybe, like Robbie, they should re-think their direction.

Few bands stay around long enough to produce as much consistently good work as the Foo Fighters; fewer still, as is to be reasonably expected, are lead by a front-man with as much experience / drive / musical talent as Dave Grohl.

Listing Grohl’s musical abilities would be a thoroughly pointless exercise. Listing his lack of musical abilities would also be tedious: the guy can play pretty much anything he puts his mind to, and has done so sporadically for the last twenty five years or more, most notably in super-group Nirvana, alongside Kurt Cobain, but also alongside a number of other established bands such as Tenacious D and Queens Of The Stone Age to name but two. Unlike many bands, Foo Fighters have never suffered to any great extent from Grohl’s love for jumping in and out of projects. And maybe that’s their key? Maybe that’s the secret to keeping it fresh, wanting to go on and on.

When I hear the words Foo Fighters I hear passion, force, and raw aggression solidified; album after album the band produce the goods with their unfailing and indefatigable style of music that could so easily blend into that of another band, but somehow remains standout and unique.

I love the Foo Fighters because they stick to their guns. Instead of chopping and changing from one style to another, at the core of every song is the same velocity and heart; it couldn’t be any other band and you know that for every beat and every screaming lyric.

Attributing the bands success entirely to Grohl would be easy and very unfair; while he is, undoubtedly, the underpinning of every one of their albums, without them Foo Fighters would surely fall flat. But what do you expect of a band that know each other so well?

By the way, I just checked out this new Enigin blog and there is a bit about the enigin scam on it. It intrigues me that people think this way, if an industry is trying to help curb the carbon footprint or o something that is not actually tactile, people are so quick to say it is a scam, anyway, decide for yourself, it is a great blog to read.

If you took apart and re-assembled everything Ian Mackaye—lead singer of legendary Washington D.C. hardcore bands Minor Threat, Fugazi and Embrace—had ever done under a different band name with another lead singer, something which would take you a very, very long time, that version of Ian Mackaye might be all the makings of a house-hold Indy-rock hero; but Fugazi, the main-stay of Mackaye’s illustrious career, were anything but a house-hold name, even though they commanded a generation of music, steering clear of the commercial routes which even Hardcore bands had succumbed to.

Fugazi, with its deeply D.I.Y. sensibility, was a labor of love which attracted as much attention for its powerfully unique music as for the band’s strict approach to everything from ticket sales to the selling of band merchandize. Looking for a Fugazi shirt on the net? You’re wasting your time. Mackaye believed—and still believes, adamantly—that the money which flowed through band merchandize sales was the very corruption which all D.I.Y. music should steer well away from. It all began with Dischord—Mackaye’s own label; what started as a small venture, a way to get his music out to the world, quickly grew into one of the most respected record labels in the world.

Fugazi’s music is genuinely hard to describe; it is at times erratic / jerky / smooth / teetering on romantic, and then, out of nowhere, extremely violent—a combination which somehow effortlessly drifts from element to element, as if orchestrated for the sole intention of causing mass confusion. Then you grasp where things are heading, and it changes again just as you get there. All this happens every time you hear a Fugazi song for the very first time. If there’s one thing the band can do it is re-invent: old songs rarely remain the same. There’s a freedom to the groups dynamic that convinces you that every band member’s brain is inter-connected with the next.

I was a complete insomniac last night and decided to go skulking round the world wide web for something to keep me preoccupied, turns out the Heroes Forum is not only a remarkable way to waste time but also fairly amusing!

LCD Sound-System should not work. That’s it, really. They cram tens of instruments into every track, let tracks wander and stumble around for minutes on end as if drunk out of their blissfull little minds, and then suddenly stop playing completely without warning, breaking into a new and odd beat, totally different from the last, but equally bizarre. But they do work. Don’t ask how. Not being able to work out how they do it is one of the beautiful things about listening to their music.

The ongoing project of record label DFA co-founder James Murphy, LCD is some kind of ‘Dance-Punk’–if we have to classify, which feels uncomfortable–that spends most of its time poking fun at the rest of the music world and laughing in the face of a life time of musical convention.

The first time I heard LCD I switched them off. Seriously, off they went! They did my head in. I couldn’t make sense of the music and then my friend said, “what are you doing? You’re a fool!” So I said, “not listening to this is what I’m doing. Or am I mistaken?” My friend looked at me smugly, like a boy might who’d just dug a hole on the beach and covered it with a lethal scattering of twigs, leaves and sand. He turned it back on and, as I sighed, said, “See?” And the rest is history. From that moment on, I was hooked for life.

Since then I’ve discovered that I wasn’t alone, though my friend has never stopped reminding me of that fateful day. So now when someone turns their nose up at easily one of the world’s greatest bands I smile and ask them if they’d like to reconsider. Usually they do so without me having to switch the CD on—that’s how much I love this band: I suppose I just can’t help but keep the smile off my face.

So, if memory serves correctly, it is my birthday soon and in case you are pondering what to buy me (that means you Carolyn) I have been looking at that dvd set for Last Of The Summer Wine, just in case you couldn’t think of anything…