Big In 2011

Hey,


So as 2010 draws to a close I thought I'd bring you a guide to 2011. A prediction of a few artists that I think will be big next year. 


So here it goes.....

Yasmin - First up is 21 year old Yasmin. She is a  DJ and singer-songwriter from London who started her music career aged 19 as a hip-hop DJ. Yasmin runs her own club night, called Bad Intentions, in the captital and is signed to Ministry of Sound. 
Her first single ‘On My Own’ will be released on 31 January 2011, with her debut album, as yet untitled, to follow later in 2011. Check out the link below to hear the title track.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsNBQJEofQM



Afrojack - This guy has been around for quite a while. This is dutch producer Afrojack, real name Nick van de Wall. 
 From age 11 Afrojack has been producing songs and finally gained recognition in 2006 with 'in your face' which got to no.3 in the dutch dance charts. He boasts a famous group of mates with the likes of Laidback luke, Sindey samson and Fedde Le Grand championing his music for a few years now. He has recently had a song in the charts with Eva Simons called 'take over control' and after being the person behind the now masive 'the time' by the Black Eyed Peas, he is sure to continue this success in the charts perhaps working with other big names. 


New track Replica: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgVmZTv95Ao


Afojack the Dj - Set @ WMC Miami: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpqjrMnVrKI


Jakwob - This is a very exciting Dubstep producer Jakwob who like Afrojack, started making music from an early age. He began as a multi-instrumentalist and has been involved in many groups from his teenage years onwards, beginning in jazz but moving on to death metal and folk. Both his original work and remixes combine elements of dub step, electro, ghetto-tech and break-beat. In 2009, he shot to fame after appreciation in the blog world for his bootleg of Ellie Goulding's 'Starry Eyed'. 

Jakwob released his debut single 'Here With Me' on his own label, Boom Ting Recordings in September this year. On November 8th, 2010 Jakwob signed to Mercury Records and is due to release his first album in 2011. Check out 'here with me' below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3bE0pOyG3g


Jessie J - Do it like a dude remix: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_FvP8YnO_k

Wretch 32 - I was almost going to leave this guy out as everyone seems to be jumping on the bandwagon with naming this artist in their 'artists to watch' lists. The truth is he has been around for a while and worked with the likes of Doneo so it seems slightly strange to say he is brand new. But never the less his new song 'traktor' is going to be huge. Taking inspiration from Major Lazer's 'Hold the line', traktor is a sure fire floor filler for the new year. Incorporating a big bass-line with a catchy chorus, Wretch 32 could find himself being dubbed the Tinie Tempah of 2011. 
 I do think however that it is a grower it doesn't have that instant impact on the dancefloor which I have found at the moment when I play it. Other Dj's have said similar so give it a chance. Here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpf6CWqQXx8

So there is just a few people I think could be hitting new heights in 2011. I hope you like the following artists and you investigate more and grab a few tracks for your music collection.

Look out for a new Mix coming from me and some hopefully good news involving work in 2011.

Have a great xmas and new year!!!

Tom

'Its still pop, it's just the BPM'S have sped up and the baselines are dirty'

 Its amazing how the charts have changed in the past 6 months, especially with what's happened to so called 'pop' music.

Growing up I was always under the impression that pop music was easy to distinguish. It was your Take Thats, Steps and Spice Girls that were considered the bread and butter of pop music and it was fair to say they dominated the charts.
 They were played all over the Radio, music stores were seeing the CD albums fly of the shelves and they were the songs you eagerly anticipated to come on at the school disco.....

It seems now that the stereotypical pop star is a thing of the past....

Don't get me wrong there are still boy bands and love songs with cheesy lyrics but if you take a look at the top 10 you'll see it is influenced by genres that were considered 'underground' and only a handful of the population liked a few years ago.

Here is the current top 10 from Sundays chart....

1. JLS - Love you more
2. Ellie Goulding - Your Song
3. Rihanna - Only Girl (in the world)
4. Katy Perry - Firework
5. Far East Movement - Like A G6
6. The Black Eyed Peas - The Time (the dirty bit)
7. Alexis Jordan - Happiness
8. McFly - Shine A Light
9. West Life - Safe
10. Bruno Mars - Just the way your are (amazing)

So yeah there are a handful of these songs that you would expect to see from various boy bands but half of the top ten in the country are considered 'dance' tracks, all of which are very popular in the clubs too. 

Again you could argue that dance music has influenced the charts for over a decade now and especially in the 90's with the likes of Robin S, Faithless and N Trance gracing our ears that the charts haven't changed that much. But consider now that Drum n Bass, Grime, Dance hall and more recently Dub Step have featured in the top 10. 

 This is proof that as music consumers, we are much more open to new sounds and cross genres

I don't think you can sum-up pop music by defining it as boy/girl bands  that only sing about love stories any more. Pop music means 'popular music' and we have to accept that it has evolved. 

What I personally like about the chart is how unpredictable it is. I hear a lot of new music and I can never fully predict which song is going to be popular.

  I never thought what is a guaranteed floor-filler in clubland would reach the top spot of the charts when the only lyric on it features some bloke saying the name of famous American Diva?

 Also I didn't think in a million years that Katy B - On A Mission (or Benga - Man On A Mission for those who can't get over the fact it is now considered commercial!) was and still is such a popular tune considering I have been told in the past that Dubstep was just noise!

Im excited what the charts will bring in the next months and hope its a case of - more of the same please!!

Tom.

I'm in Manchester bitch!

Hi all,

I havnt managed to blog for a while but it's been a bit of a crazy week!
So firstly it was my birthday and this year I celebrated it in style!
Myself, my girlfriend, my brother and his girlfriend all went up to Manchester for something called the warehouse project. For those of you that aren't familiar with this, it is quite self explanatory. Basically it's a big warehouse with some big speakers, about 2 thousand ravers and some of the worlds best dj's and yes it was as amazing as it sounds. The line up included French house producer and dj who's recent release was 'I was drunk' Riva Starr, the don of dance music Pete Tong and Dutch dj and producer chuckie who is most famous for being behind the massive floorfiller 'let the bass kick'.

For me I thought Tongy was a little bit of a disappointment, I get that he is famous for his steely exterior when he djs but he actually looked tired and did not connect with his tracks he was playing as much as I thought. The big surprise of the night was how good chuckie was. Yes he used a lot of sfx and he looks as if he should be in a rap video, but he was insane! I will be posting a video up which sees him drop a classic daft punk beat. I would highly recommend that if you get the chance that you check him out.

First Chapter

Hey,

So this is the first ever blog from my self. So a quick bio for those of you who don't know me...

So I am 23 (24 on Friday but lets not dwell on that) and from Gloucester who now lives in Cardiff after spending three years here as a student.
 My dream is to be a radio presenter/professional DJ or work in the industry in some shape or form.
 My heroes are Chris Moyles, Pete Tong and Annie Mac.

I currently work In a call centre (yeah I know, living the dream!) which is interesting....

I set this up to express my views on certain subjects and to document my progress from where I am now to hopefully fulfilling my dreams sometime in the future.

This is the start of the next chapter in my life......

Speak soon

Tom