Research into artists and bands

1. Artist/Band Research (Similar Genre)
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (born 5 May 1988 in West
Norwood, South London), known professionally as Adele, is an English singer. Adele has
described her musical style as "heartbroken soul." She is the first recipient of the BRIT
Awards Critics' Choice, which was given to artists who, at the time, had yet to release an
album.
Adele debuted at number one with her Mercury Prize-nominated debut album 19 on the UK
album chart; the album has since been certified platinum with sales of more than 500,000
copies in the UK and over 2.2 million worldwide. After the album peaked at number fifty-
four on the Billboard 200 chart on 8 July, 2008 (and number thirty-six on the magazine's
"Top Heatseekers" chart) Adele performed before 17 million television viewers on Saturday
Night Live, propelling her album from number forty-six to number eleven on the official
chart.
In 2009, Adele won two Grammy Awards, Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal
Performance for the single "Chasing Pavements". The week after the Grammy Awards aired,
the album finally peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200.Meanwhile, and her single
"Chasing Pavements" reached number twenty one on the Billboard Hot 100.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown sent a thank you letter to Adele that stated "With the
troubles that the country's in financially, you're a light at the end of the tunnel.
Adele wrote her first record, "Hometown Glory" when she was 16 years old.She then signed
to independent music label XL Recordings, which in January 2008 released her second single
Chasing Pavements. The song was co written with songwriter Eg White who provided the
orchestration.White won the 2009 Ivor Novello Award for "Songwriter of the Year" in part
for his work on Chasing Pavements.
During her teenage years she recorded a demo and gave it to her friend, Lyndon. He
eventually put it on MySpace and it became very successful there. Adele got a record deal
through MySpace. When she got a phone call, she could not believe it was real because the
only record company she knew was Virgin Records.
The Killers are an American Grammy-Award
nominated and BRIT-Award winning rock band from
Las Vegas, Nevada, formed in 2002. The band consists
of Brandon Flowers (vocals, keyboards), Dave Keuning
(guitar, vocals), Mark Stoermer (bass guitar, vocals)
and Ronnie Vannucci Jr. (percussion, drums).
Part of the post-punk revival movement, The Killers
draw their influences from music styles of the 1980s.
The group's debut album, Hot Fuss (2004) brought the
band mainstream success. The Killers' second album,
Sam's Town, was released in 2006, and the
compilation album Sawdust containing B-sides, rarities, and new material, was released in
2007. Their third studio album, Day & Age, produced by Stuart Price, was released in 2008.

2. In 2001, Brandon Flowers was abandoned by his first band, a synthpop band known as Blush
Response, after he declined to move with the rest of them to Los Angeles, California. He
then met David Keuning after responding to an ad that Keuning had placed in a Vegas
newspaper which listed Oasis, The Cure, U2, and The Beatles as influences. Ronnie Vannucci
Jr. and Mark Stoermer were approached by Flowers and Keuning with an offer to join "The
Killers", a name which comes from the bass drum of a fictional band in the music video for
the New Order song "Crystal".
The Killers discography
Date of Release Title Label
June 7, 2004 Hot Fuss Island Records, Universal, Lizard King
October 3, 2006 Sam's Town Island Records, Vertigo
November 9, 2007 Sawdust Island Records, Vertigo
November 24, 2008 Day & Age Island Records, Vertigo
Franz Ferdinand are a Scottish rock band that formed in
Glasgow, Scotland, in 2002. The band is composed of Alex
Kapranos (lead vocals and guitar), Bob Hardy (bass guitar),
Nick McCarthy (rhythm guitar, keyboards and backing vocals)
and Paul Thomson (drums, percussion and backing vocals).
The band first experienced chart success when their second
single "Take Me Out" reached #3 in the UK Charts, followed
by their debut album Franz Ferdinand which debuted on the
UK album chart at #3. The band went on to win the 2004
Mercury Music Prize and two BRIT Awards in 2005 for Best
British Group and Best British Rock Act. NME named Franz
Ferdinand as their Album of the Year. From the album, three
top-ten singles were released, "Take Me Out", "The Dark of
the Matinée" and "This Fire". The band has also received several Grammy Award
nominations.
The band is named after the Austrian Archduke of the same name, whose assassination was
a factor in the outbreak of First World War. The band chose the name after watching the
racehorse The Archduke race.
Formation and early years: 2002-2003

3. The members of Franz Ferdinand played in various bands during the 1990s including The
Karelia, Yummy Fur, 10p Invaders and Embryo. Alex Kapranos and Paul Thomson played
together in Yummy Fur and subsequently teamed up to write songs. Around the same time,
Kapranos taught his friend Bob Hardy how to play bass after buying a bass guitar from a
friend. Kapranos met co-guitarist Nick McCarthy, who had returned to Scotland after
studying jazz bass in Germany, in 2001. Franz Ferdinand's long time sound engineer is
Michael Parker.
In May 2003, the band signed to Laurence Bell's independent record label Domino Records.
The band had recorded an EP which they intended to release themselves; however, it was
instead released by Domino as Darts of Pleasure in the latter part of 2003. The cover art was
designed by Thomson. It reached #43 in the UK chart. The band won the "Phillip Hall Radar
Award" at the NME Awards of 2004, announced in November 2003.
Arctic Monkeys - Arctic Monkeys are an English indie rock
band from High Green, a suburb of Sheffield. Formed in 2002,
the band currently consists of Alex Turner (lead vocals, guitar),
Jamie Cook (guitar), Nick O'Malley (bass guitar, backing vocals)
and Matt Helders (drums, backing vocals).
Arctic Monkeys achieved chart success with their second
single, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor", which
reached number one in the UK Singles Chart. Their debut
album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, released in January 2006, became
the fastest-selling debut album in British music history, surpassing Oasis's Definitely Maybe
and remains the fastest-selling debut album for a band. It received critical acclaim, winning
both the 2006 Mercury Prize and the 2007 BRIT Award for Best British Album. It was also
nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album, but lost to Gnarls
Barkley's St. Elsewhere. The band's second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, was released
on 23 April 2007, sold over 225,000 copies in its first week, and was nominated for the 2007
Mercury Prize. The group also picked up the award for Best British Album and Best British
Group at the 2008 BRIT Awards. Their third album, Humbug, was released on 24 August
2009.
Arctic Monkeys were heralded as one of the first acts to come to the public attention via the
Internet (fan-based sites rather than from the band), with commentators suggesting they
represented the possibility of a change in the way in which new bands are promoted and
marketed. The band eventually signed to the independent record label Domino Records.
Formation and early years
In 2001, neighbours Alex Turner and Jamie Cook received guitars as Christmas presents, and
after teaching themselves to play, the pair formed a band with Turner's schoolmates Andy
Nicholson and Matt Helders. Nicholson already played bass guitar, so Helders ended up
playing drums — "that was all that were left, they all had guitars so I bought a kit after a bit."
According to an interview with Blender magazine, Turner was not the original singer of the
band, but instead, Glyn Jones, another attendee of Stocksbridge High School, used to be the
frontman.
Although reports suggested they named themselves after Helders' uncle's (or even father's)
band, Helders later admitted that "so many people asking us that in the UK, so we just

4. started making stories up", and that he just didn't have the heart to tell the original reporter
he'd been lying
Alicia Keys - Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), better
known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American recording
artist, musician and actress. She was raised by a single mother in
the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age
seven, Keys began to play classical music on the piano. She
attended Professional Performing Arts School and graduated at 16
as valedictorian. She later attended Columbia University before
dropping out to pursue her music career. Keys released her debut
album with J Records, having had previous record deals first with
Columbia and then Arista Records.
Keys' debut album, Songs in A Minor, was a commercial success, selling over 12 million
copies worldwide. She became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001.
The album earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002, including Best New Artist and Song of
the Year for "Fallin'". Her second studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was released in 2003
and was also another success worldwide, selling eight million copies. The album garnered
her additional four Grammy Awards in 2005. Later that year, she released her first live
album, Unplugged, which debuted at number one in the United States. She became the first
female to have an MTV Unplugged album to debut at number one and the highest since
Nirvana in 1994.
Keys made guest appearances in several television series in the following years. She made
her film debut in Smokin' Aces and went on to appear in The Nanny Diaries in 2007. Her third
studio album, ‘As I Am’, was released in the same year and sold six million copies worldwide,
earning Keys an additional three Grammy Awards. The following year, she appeared in The
Secret Life of Bees, which earned her a nomination at the NAACP Image Awards. She
released her fourth album, The Element of Freedom, on December 15, 2009. Throughout her
career, Keys has won numerous awards and has sold over 30 million albums worldwide,
establishing herself as one of the best-selling artists of her time.
Prince - Prince Rogers Nelson (born June 7, 1958) is an
American singer, songwriter, musician and actor. He is also
known under the mononym Prince and the unpronounceable
symbol, which he used between 1993 and 2000. This name
change invoked controversy and many referred to him as the
artist formerly known as Prince during that period.
According to Robert Larsen in his book History of Rock and Roll,
Prince is "one of the most talented and commercially successful
pop musicians of the last twenty years" producing ten Platinum
albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince
founded his own recording studio and label, writing, self-
producing and playing most or all of the instruments on his recordings. In additon, Prince has
been a "talent promoter" for the careers of Sheila E, Carmen Electra, The Time and Vanity 6.

5. Prince has reprortedly written more than one thousand songs.[citation needed] Most of
those songs have been released under his own name but some have been released under
pseudonyms and pen names, while others have been recorded and released by other artists.
Prince reportedly also has hundreds of unreleased songs in his "vault". He has won seven
Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award. He was inducted into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame the first year he was eligible in 2004. In that same year Rolling Stone
ranked Prince #28 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Prince's music has been influenced by R&B, soul, funk, rock, blues, New Wave, psychedelia,
folk, jazz and hip hop. His artistic influences include Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Sly & the
Family Stone, Curtis Mayfield, Parliament-Funkadelic, Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana, Joni
Mitchell, The Beatles, Duke Ellington, Led Zeppelin and Miles Davis.[citation needed] Prince
pioneered the "Minneapolis sound" a hybrid mixture of funk, rock, pop, R&B and New Wave
that influenced other musicians