Dubbed the 'ultimate playground for music lovers', Pop Golf features a course of nine pop-themed holes each paired with an incredible sound system for the ultimate music experience.
Each hole is completely unique, designed to feel like you're stepping right into a music video, with themes including Drake's Hotline Bling and retro 80s boomboxes.
The whole venue is doused in colour with flashing neon lights, funky retro-pop decor and a candy coloured bar. Its playful and fun design, coupled with the promise of pop bangers while you golf, is what its creators say sets it apart from other crazy golf courses.
Pop Golf has a 'music-first ethos', pairing each hole with curated playlists from industry experts showcasing the biggest and best new tracks for pop music fans.
Its sound system and cutting edge audio technology, which includes a Martin Audio sound system "set to blow minds, not ears" is integral to the experience, says Pop Gold owner Allan Saud.
He said: "Our mission with Pop Golf was to create a rich experience that tells a story. This is not just another standard crazy golf course, this is a celebration of music.
"From the design to the innovative and sustainable drinks menu, to the team behind it and the brands we're partnering with, pop music has led the way.
"We want our guests to rock up to Pop Golf, have an awesome time and leave feeling that music has the power to change the world!"
Pop Golf looks to be an entirely immersive experience: an audio-visual spectacle coupled with pop culture photo opportunities, Instagrammable gameplay and top-tier cocktails, beers, snacks and soft drinks.
The 50 greatest music videos of all time | Yardbarker
On August 1st of 1981, a new network premiered on cable called MTV, and "Music Television" soon exploded as an incredible new way for listeners to engage with artists. While music performance clips existed well before 1981, MTV itself rewrote how artists presented and marketed themselves visually. Some labels viewed it as just another form of product, while some artists starting using it as a whole new means of expressing themselves.
Longer and weirder than you remember, the actual clip for Michael Jackson's legendary single "Billie Jean" has quite a bit of story. In a city street, Jackson is trying to meet up with hot press item Billie Jean just as a paparazzo is trying to get a compromising photo of him. Thankfully, MJ outsmarts him with his magical ability to light up everything he touches: lampposts, bedsheets, and even concrete tiles. Jackson walking across those light-up squares is a memorable, lasting image, and, amazingly, MTV didn't want to play it. For all the great moments that MTV provided the world as a platform, their first few years were largely dominated by white artists. When the CBS Records president discovered that MTV was refusing to play it, he threatened to pull their entire roster off the channel and go public with such obvious, racist bias. MTV relented, and what do you know: "Billie Jean" helped turn Jackson into one of the biggest pop stars of all time. Helmed by Steve Barron (one of the first music video directing titans), "Billie Jean" is a star-making clip as there ever has been.
Often rivaling "Thriller" in the conversation of what truly is the greatest music video of all time, Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" is nothing short of a visual tour de force. Featuring a who's-who of generation-defining animators (the Brothers Quay, Nick Park of Aardman Animations) and directed by Stephen R. Johnson, this truly nutty stop-animation adventure was achieved by having Gabriel lay under a sheet of glass for 16 hours as teams of designers worked on getting every frame right. Exploding with color and style, the visual component of "Sledgehammer" completely rewrote the public perception of Gabriel, who was often viewed as the art-rock weirdo in Genesis who took that weirdness with him when he went solo. Now, seeing his wacky faces and various animated poses recast him as an oddball pop star, "Sledgehammer" soon becoming his only U.S. chart-topper. Winning nine out of the ten MTV Video Music Awards it was nominated for, "Sledgehammer" still hits like its namesake with total creative force.
As the art of the music video evolved, some artists leaned a bit too far into the medium, trying to make mini-movies with their narrative clips. Others, meanwhile, arguably prioritized wild visuals and clever concepts over quality songs. Yet even prior to the MTV era, musicians always had the power to break through on little more than their raw performance ability. Even with the heavy expectations coming from a pop music family, Janet Jackson proved to be working on a performance level all her own. While clips like "The Pleasure Principle" and "Miss You Much" showed how well she worked both solo and with group choreography, the military precision that graces "Rhythm Nation" is a feat unto itself. Directed by Dominic Sena and shot in crisp black & white, Janet and her expert team of dancers take over what appears to be a steam factory to deliver legendary moves with astonishing uniformity. From the poses to the costuming to the ballroom-inspired dance break, Jackson proved that in order to make a lasting impact on viewers' eyes, sometimes all you need is a clear concept and some of the best dance moves ever filmed.
As MTV was reaching its first decade of existence, the music video format had already evolved countless times over, up to the point where labels were budgeting for videos, and some new acts were dismissed as "MTV bands," thinking of their visuals before their sonics. With such colorful excess, "Nothing Compares 2 U" served as a sharp contrast to all of the noise, as the relatively unknown Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor became an instant superstar with nothing more than the power of her face and voice. Shot by John Maybury, O'Connor's cover of one of Prince's finest B-sides gets an appropriately dramatic visual treatment, as shots of her walking around Paris parks are juxtaposed against her face looking directly at the camera against a black backdrop. She sells every emotion of Prince's dramatic ballad up to the very end when actual tears roll out of her eyes. A clip with no camera tricks, no caveats, and nothing else going on felt like a bold, rebellious move as MTV closed in on its first decade of existence, and for that reason, "Nothing" stood out all the more. Such a simple and effective delivery helped turn the song into a global #1, even netting the Video Music Award for Video of the Year in the process. This concept has been imitated several times over, but rarely has it ever been bettered.
Shot for a little under $50,000, Samuel Bayer's clip for Nirvana's first major-label single is pretty simple: what appears to be a high school assembly devolves into a moshpit from hell, complete with fire pits and glad-happy janitors swaying to the chaos. With gratuitous amounts of slow-mo and a hazy, washed-out color palette, what "Smells Like Teen Spirit" captures best is less an optical representation of the song and more of the attitude of an entire generation. The spandex-clad stars of hair metal meant nothing to a disaffected generation of youngsters, so seeing dudes in button-down shirts, Kurt Cobain in his striped sweatshirt and unkempt hair, and Krist Novoselic rocking out in blue jeans and bare feet let these kids feel like they were being represented for once. This was a band that looked authentic, and when coupled with a rock number as catchy as "Teen Spirit", the song became a disruptive force, instantly making the entire hair metal industry look like a joke. Much like the song itself, the video became instantly iconic, with the band and extras' fashion all becoming the new go-to in the newly rising grunge movement. Even the guitar Cobain played in the video hangs up at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, Washington. No one expected "Smells Like Teen Spirit" to become a generation-defining hit, but in seeing the music video, it's easy to see what set Nirvana apart from every other band that came before them.
When it comes to forming the Great Hall of Music Video Directors, there are a few guaranteed names that'll be there: Diane Martel, Michel Gondry, Mark Romanek, Sophie Muller, Hype Williams, Melina Matsoukas, Chris Milk, etc. Yet before becoming the Oscar-winning oddball that he is, Spike Jonze made his name by directing some of the most inventive clips of all time, several of which appear on this list. "Sabotage", the thrilling hard-rock single by the Beastie Boys, already feels like the soundtrack to an action movie, so leave it up to Jonze to turn it into a three-minute intro to a '70s cop show, with all of the Beasties donning fake mustaches to play ridiculous caricatures. There's action, there are dummies being thrown off of bridges, there's one guy tackling another into a swimming pool: all the top-notch clichés delivered here with manic comic energy. Immensely appealing, the Beastie Boys never played to one single audience, but more critically, their buy-in to every wacky video concept is what ultimately elevated the comic value of "Sabotage" to masterclass levels. Listen all'a'y'all: it's "Sabotage".
Oftentimes, music videos with clever concepts do a lot of heavy lifting in turning a regular recording artist into a true blue superstar. Yet sometimes, a music video's cleverness may very well outlive a band's legacy. While the Pharcyde will always have a place in rap history for their 1993 hit "Passin' Me By", the Spike Jonze-helmed clip for 1995's "Drop" is a stunner. In this joyously fun backward-motion promo, the quartet of MCs managed to convincingly spit their verses backward as they jump great heights, roll up a flight of stairs, and send water flying back into the sky. While the shot-in-reverse concept is somewhat of a staple at this point, the sheer level of visual inventiveness on display here is what elevates it to greatness status, to say nothing of the fact that a linguist helped the band learn how to enunciate all their complex lines backward so it looked like they were rapping in time in the final product. Endlessly rewatchable, The Pharcyde's "Drop" was the kind of video that showed how rap groups didn't have to adhere to one particular genre aesthetic to get their work across. As gangster rap exploded in 1993 and lingered in the years that followed, The Pharcyde used their inventive clip to cut out their own lane and stand out from the pack.
Of all of the artists on this list, the Shibuya-Kei alternative pop group Cibo Matto is, without question, the least known. Yet that doesn't take away from the jaw-dropping brilliance of the Michel Gondry-helmed promo for their single "Sugar Water". Featuring members Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda waking up and going about their day, this remarkable split-screen clip has been timed out to the very second, with one side going forwards in time and the other side going backward, the two narratives meeting up halfway through the continuous take. One-half eye-candy, one-half "how the hell did they do it?", "Sugar Water" signified Michel Gondry's singularly offbeat style, as matching up moments where one member is showering while the other is pouring sugar over themselves (which makes sugar water, you see) or having a cat reverse jump into a mailbox in one timeline only to pop out of another in perfect unison is the kind of overthought miracle that could only come from an intense amount of planning and envelopment. A unique visual complement to Cibo Matto's already-obtuse brand of dance-pop, few other music video clips this decade are as daring or as satisfying as "Sugar Water".
'Second Line' by Dawn Richard Review: Anything but Traditional - WSJ
Concord Acquires 145,000 Song Catalog From Downtown Music
Downtown Music Holdings has sold its publishing library of 145,000 songs, including tracks by Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Jay-Z and more, to Concord Music Group.
It’s the latest example of the sale of a large music catalog as the industry has seen a flurry of sales for record multiples. But instead of an artist directly selling their own music library to a private group, another company is now getting out of the music ownership business entirely at a point when the market could be nearing its peak. After the sale, Downtown will now focus exclusively on music services, including publishing administration and its label services division, DashGo.
The catalog purchase includes songs such as “Green Onions,” “Dancing In the Streets,” “Runaway,” “Home Sweet Home,” “Change the World,” “Moves Like Jagger,” “Halo,” “Stay With Me” and “Shallow” from “A Star Is Born.”
Some of the artists’ work included in the deal includes songs by Adele, Aretha Franklin, Beyoncé, Blake Shelton, Bruno Mars, Carrie Underwood, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Grateful Dead, Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Maroon 5, Marvin Gaye, Mary J. Blige, Mos Def, Mötley Crüe, New Order, Rage Against the Machine, Ray Charles, Santigold, Sam Smith, Stevie Wonder, and The 1975, among many others. It also includes hits by K-Pop and J-Pop artists, 30 years of French pop music staples and a repertoire spanning some two dozen languages.
Downtown will retain its complete roster of publishing administration clients, including the estate of George Gershwin, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Miles Davis, John Prine, Wu-Tang Clan, Ryan Tedder/OneRepublic and others. And proceeds from the deal will be invested back into Downtown.
“Concord is an excellent home for this extraordinary catalog that we’ve had the unique privilege to build over the past 14 years. Not only does Concord recognize the value of these works, but this transaction further demonstrates the true strength of the modern independent music sector,” Downtown founder and CEO Justin Kalifowitz said in a statement.
The Raine Group acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Downtown on the transaction, with legal counsel from Wilson Chu, Joanna Lin, and Thaddeus Chase, Jr. of McDermott Will & Emery LLP, and Jeff Biederman and Beau Stapleton of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP. Concord and its affiliates were advised by Steve Sessa and Chris Sheaffer of Reed Smith and Rob Sherman of DLA Piper. Lisbeth R. Barron and the team at Barron International Group, LLC acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Concord on the transaction.
From Nirvana to Guns N' Roses, how 1991 changed music forever | KCRW
"It was astonishing how it was so picked up so rapidly and became the mainstream success it was," KCRW music critic Eric J. Lawrence says of Nirvana's 1991 album "Nevermind." Photo by Polly Herzeleid Valo.
In 1991, radio stations nationwide didn't know it yet, but they were shuffling through records that would go on to define the hard rock sound of the decade. College radio stations pushed these albums, looking to buck pop music trends in favor of something grungier.
Bands like Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Metallica released albums that still remain some of the most influential rock records of all time.
Press Play looks at some of the era's iconic albums with KCRW music critic Eric J. Lawrence, who was the music director at UCLA's radio station in 1991.
Eric J. Lawrence: "At the time, there was sort of a distinction. This was in an era when they call it 'college rock' as opposed to 'alternative rock.' And for college rock, most record labels had a college department and they would actually have a specific representative that would send out copies to all of the college radio stations across the country.
And we would simply gather all of these records and listen to them all and make decisions about the records that we thought were going to be of greatest interest to be played at the station. Most stations had a ... format that followed more in the lines of kind of commercial radio, versus a completely freeform radio like KCRW has. And that was just using this as a laboratory. If any of us were interested in getting into commercial radio, this was the way it was done."
Metallica's hit from 1991 was "Enter Sandman." Tell us why that song and album took off and basically defined the era.
"They had released a number of records prior to that, that were a little more influenced by punk rock. Their previous record '...And Justice for All' was the first one that really made inroads on American commercial charts. So everybody was highly anticipating this record. And when it finally came out, in the summer of 1991, people were ready for it to really explode and bring a new Renaissance for that style of heavy metal music."
Pearl Jam released its debut album "Ten" in 1991 and went on to become a mega band. What was it about that album that was their turning point?
Quiz: Match the cheesy pop lyric to the band/artist in 90 seconds
Whether you wear your knowledge of these cheesy lyrics as a badge of honour is up to you – but take our quiz to find out exactly how well-versed you are in terrible pop lyrics.
"They say I'm really sexy / The boys they wanna sex me / They always standin' next to me / Always dancin' next to me / Tryin' a feel my hump hump"
"Kickin' in the front seat, sittin' in the back seat / Gotta make my mind up, which seat can I take?"
"You look at me and I got you in mind / I come on over see what I could find / No appetite for delusion / I could've win what I'm losin' / You're saying yes when it is no, no, no, no"
"He wanted her, she'd never tell / Secretly she wanted him as well / But all of her friends stuck up their nose / They had a problem with his baggy clothes"
"We found weekend jobs / When we got paid, we'd buy cheap spirits and drink them straight / Me and my friends have not thrown up in so long"
"Banged on the dashboard, just chipped a nail / Lean out the window, it's when I go / Driving so fast 'bout to piss on myself"
"Hop in the Lambo', I'm on my way / Drew House slippers on with a smile on my face / I'm elated that you are my lady"
Siena Liggins Premieres Visual Album "Ms. Out Tonight" - PAPER
There are no pop stars that look or sound like Siena Liggins — and she's well-aware of that. Rather than let a homogenous music industry hinder her through, the Detroit-born and Atlanta-based artist is using this to fuel her work. Ms. Out Tonight , her ambitious 12-track visual album out today, is Liggins' official entrance as a queer woman of color with a strong point of view. "It's beyond time to disrupt the norms," she tells PAPER , "and there's room in the pop space for all of us.
Below, PAPER premieres Siena Liggins' debut, Ms. Out Tonight , and learns more about how she's "opening up" her own space in contemporary music rather than just "filling" one that already exists.
I'm so grateful that I have friends like Maddie Ivey to call when I get a crazy idea like building my pre-teen self's dream bedroom or eating chicken nuggets while wearing a banana suit. I had the idea to do a visual album shortly after choosing the tracklist as I was struggling to choose a single. Imagine my excitement when I asked Maddie how she liked the idea of a visual album, and she jumped to creative direct and style. The two of us along with Erini Sadek , who produced the visual, were a great team of women who really bossed up for the one time.
They're always close to me in a lot of scenes and they represent one of the things I believe to be flawed with the industry's approach to women in pop music. In a world that seems to be catching on to the importance of representation, sure there are young, bold, off-center folks looking for themselves in the pop music space. And even more specifically, dark skin, queer, androgynous, fluid. If you watch closely, you see Barbie stuck with voodoo pins; another scene she's in a bubblegum pop machine and again when I've collected her in mason jars. Hopefully as you listen and watch along, you think about the contrasts and similarities between all the girls in pop that we represent and why there's a need for us both.
I see myself opening up space rather than filling any. How that space continues to grow and open up is really dependent on the other incredible artists who are working and dreaming and fighting alongside me and whoever comes after us. I just want that space to be one that isn't homogenous and is filled with love.
Dolly Parton's Response to People Who Said She Abandoned Her Country Roots for Pop
After Dolly Parton left The Porter Wagoner Show , she started making some serious career moves, including setting her sights on Hollywood. At the time, the Queen of Country received some backlash from her Nashville contemporaries. They felt she was selling out and abandoning her country roots for the razzle and dazzle of Hollywood. Parton didn’t agree.
By the time Parton actually left The Porter Wagoner Show , she’d been wanting to for some time. But Wagoner didn’t want her to leave, citing that he was responsible for her career. Parton had been antsy to break out on her own. She didn’t come to Nashville to be somebody’s “girl singer.” When she left in 1974, she got to work right away on making her dreams come true.
“From 1974 through 1977, she performed concerts with her own group, the Traveling Family Band. At various times, this act included her siblings Randy, Freida, Floyd, and Rachel Parton,” wrote the book’s co-author (along with Parton) Robert K. Oermann. “After that, she formed another band to accompany her on the road, Gypsy Fever.”
In 1976, Parton became the first-ever female country music artist to have her own TV program. It was a variety show called Dolly and it ran for two seasons.
Until 1977, Wagoner continued to produce Parton’s records (an agreement they came to when she left the show). She finally broke that tie by producing her own album that year.
The next year, 1978, Parton was named the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year. She was the second female artist to be awarded the honor (the first was Loretta Lynn in 1972).
“Next, she took aim at the pop music hit parade and hired Los Angeles managers to guide her career,” wrote Oermann. “This ruffled feathers in Nashville. People in the country industry accused her of abandoning both country music and the community that created it.”
But Parton was unbothered. She responded by saying: “I’m not leaving country music, I’m taking it with me.”
“During the late 1970s, she attracted the attention of the mainstream show-biz world,” he wrote. “Her wits and her glitz made her a huge favorite on the national TV talk-show circuit. Print interviews were equally charmed, and she began appearing in the pages of Rolling Stone, Time, People , and Good Housekeeping , as well as on the cover of Playboy .”
CROOKSTON ORCHESTRA TEACHER HOPES TO START A FUN, NEW ANNUAL EVENT - KROX
Crookston Orchestra Instructor Haley Ellis is hoping to start an annual Orchestra Summer Pops Concert featuring current or former Pirate musicians. She is currently looking for musicians to put on a concert this June.
Ellis said she wants to bring alumni of all ages and the community together. "I've been here for a couple of years now, and I've had some great kids come through," said Ellis. "I kind of miss them, to be honest. I've wanted to be able to do something to bring the community together a little bit and bring some of our alumni back. This is going to be a summer pops concert with the orchestra inviting the alumni back. This is not just the alumni of the past couple of years. If you are a grandma and you play viola, come on down. I'm open for everyone."
Ellis said even those who haven't played for a while are welcome to join. "We will have a week of practices, so if you haven't played in a couple of years that's okay," said Ellis. "I have music for all levels. It's going to be a very lowkey event where you play what you can. If it's been a while and you're like – I can play some things but not everything – that's alright, you play what you can. I'd love to bring the community together with this event and make it an annual thing where people can come back once a year."
There will be a variety of music that should appeal to all ages. "I have rehearsals scheduled the week of June 5 from 5-7 p.m.," said Ellis. "So, if anyone is working, they can come after work for practices. Then, that Saturday put on a concert. It's a pops concert, so we're doing a lot of movie music and pop music, both old and new. So, I think even some of our more aged alumni would still enjoy some of the music. We can put on some really chill music out in front of the school. It's a pops concert with popcorn so, you know, that's fun, and just bring the community together a little bit."
Registration is available online. "I have a form on the music website that anyone who is interested can fill out," said Ellis. "I'm asking that these be filled out by May 7, a month before practices start so that I can get music out to people. If you go to the music website – crookstonmusic.org/pop-strings – and there is a form asking for your name, what instrument you play. If you need to borrow an instrument, mostly cellos and bases, I do have some of those. If you've played those instruments and need to borrow one, you can do that. It has all the dates and times of that week listed as well."
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