3. Biography
Black Box was an Italian house music group, who were popular in the
1980s and early 1990s.
written and produced by the Italian production team Groove Groove Melody
The band of three was made of a DJ, a classically trained clarinet teacher
and an amazing keyboarder.
Together, Daniele Davoli, Valerio Semplici and Mirko Limoni teamed
up with the French Caribbean Model, Katrin Quinol who was the
‘supposed’ lead singer and also on the cover of all albums
4. Katrin Quinol infact was just a pretty face and image for the band to
use on the cover of albums. She mimed most of the songs and did
some dancing.
This shows how the band wanted to be seen by the audience. Using a
young, attractive woman the target audience could relate, meaning it
was played everywhere.
The actual singer for the band was Martha Wash, who is famous for
‘ghost singing’ many songs
Vs.
5. History
In 1990s Martha Wash was hired as the vocals of the band and told the music
was for club consumption and not mass- released.
Their album ‘Dreamland’ was released in May 1990
The first single was ‘Ride on Time’ which was in Top 10 in many countries
and No. 1 in the UK – it even became UKs best- selling single in 1989.
The song heavily sampled ‘Love Sensation’ by Loleatta Holloway and this
brought up questions about who the real vocalist was – it eventually made it
onto the album
In live perfomances Katrin lip-synced the vocals and in the videos
When this went out Martha Wash went uncredited and sued Black Box,
RCA Records.
6. History
This lead to legal recognition of vocalists who perform songs
for other artists.
Wash received full vocal credit upon the single release of
"Strike It Up", but the music video still featured Katrin
Quinol lip-synching the lyrics.
After the major hit various minor hits followed in the UK.
In america they are best known for their album are their
tracks are still played on rhythmic radio and in clubs
7. ‘Dreamland’ earned gold disc in both the UK and the USA
and achieved double-platinum status in Australia, where it
spent eight weeks at No. 1 during early 1991
The band would have sold this to a wide audience,
worldwide.
This album was a hit for there single Ride On By which
boosted sales and increased there fan base. After this there
album sales went down. And they were only seen in the top
10 a few times afterwards
8. Discography
Studio albums
Peak chart positions
U
A A C F G N N S S Certifications
Year Album details N S U U
U U A R E L O W R (sales threshold)
Z W K S
S T N A R D R I &
E
B
Dreamland
•Released: May 8, 1990 •AUS: 2× Platinum
1990 1 14 18 35 36 63 4 8 15 9 14 56 16 •CAN: 2× Platinum [16]
•Label: RCA •UK: Gold [17]
•Formats: CD, LP, cassette •US: Gold [18]
Positive Vibration
•Released: August 23, 1995
1995 — — — — — — — — — — — — —
•Label: Clubstitute
•Formats: CD
"—" denotes releases that did not chart
9. Record Label
RCA – Radio Corporation Of America
RCA is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music
Entertainment
It was founded in 1901 by Emile Berliner and Eldridge R.
Johnson in New York.
It produces different genres of music including, pop, Rock,
R&B and Country music
10. Influences
The band formed at the beginning of a new era of musical
taste, electronic dance music
This happened in 1980s and originated in America
By the mid-1990s, house music had been infused in
mainstream pop and dance music worldwide
Techniques with synthesisers and mixing were experimented
with by DJS worldwide
11. Representation of genre
I think Black Box show that they are a ‘house band’ from their beat
and style of music.
They are a second generation who expand on the ‘original house
music’ that first appeared in the 1980s, they experiment with the
vocals and blend together beats with this to create their own style.
The use of their ‘branding icon’ Katrin shows their awareness of
their brand image
They use Katrin purely as an ‘icon’ for their music, this makes them
recognisable to the audience and easily relatable to the dance, house
music scene
12. Attitude/ image
As a band they are upbeat and suited to the lively club scene
Their music encourages dancing and having a good time which
suggests they are easy going and aimed at young people.
Their image comes from the ‘dancing girl’ Katrin who represents a
young, care free, energetic female – many that would be on the
dance scene – she supports the music and the image the band are
trying to get across, without
13. Dreamland Analysis
Background: The
colours red and
The blue lighting black used give a
used on Katrin is
similar to the
bold feel – they
lights that would are used behind
be used in clubs Katrin and could
and dance symbolise,
scenes this
relates to the passion, lust,
music danger. This lures
in the customer
Katrin picture being The font used is
used in the centre simple and
of the album shows subtle. They use
she is the main
a contrasting
selling point to the
audience – she is colours to make
instantly the writing stand
recognisable out
14. Selling patterns
This shows what the customers also bought – all these bands are
house, electronic and from the 1980s – 90s era.
