Recently, Forbes published its list of the top-earning DJ’s.

Calvin Harris had previous job stocking groceries in a Scotland supermarket. He is now a top DJ making $66 million annually through club fees, endorsement deals and music royalties.  He’s earned more than Jay Z (56 million) and Kim Kardashian ($52 million) during the same period. Will EDM and DJ’s maintain this level of success?

Kings favorite Shannon LaBrie has released two new tracks ‘Alcohol’ and ‘War & Peace’. She’s an old soul trapped in young body. She has a classic voice that compliments her deep and personal lyrics. She is currently in the studio recording her sophomore record in Nashville. With her soon to be released album, Shannon could be close to breaking out.
shannonzodlounge@gmail.com

Monday marks Amy Winehouse’s 32nd birthday. Winehouse who died at 27, was born into a family of musicians, was talented yet a troubled singer-songwriter.

“Amy Winehouse broke into the music business when at age 16, when a classmate passed on her demo tape. She signed her first record deal as a jazz vocalist, and her music later blossomed into an eclectic mix of jazz, pop, soul and R&B. Winehouse won five Grammy Awards connected her 2006 album Back to Black, and earned acclaim for songs like the title track, “Rehab,” “Love Is a Losing Game” and “Valerie.”

She gained media attention with the single ‘Rehab’ in 2006. The song which became her signature track is her refusal to enter a rehabilitation center.

Winehouse was truly committed to her art and made a desperate attempt to be authentic.

18 years old, Will Joseph Cook created a buzz with his debut EP ‘You Jump I Run’ which caught fire with blogs and listeners. He hit #1 on Hype Machine and garnered over a million plays across Spotify and Soundcloud. The new track ‘Beach‘ comes off his sophomore EP “Proof Enough” that was released via Atlantic Records in August. All songs written and composed by Will himself, the EP was recorded in London with up and coming producer Hugh Worskett at the Biscuit Factory in Bermondsey.
rick@whiteboardproject.co.uk

Legendary artist Grace Jones criticizes new pop singers including Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, Kanye West, and Nicki Minaj in her new autobiography, ‘I’ll Never Write My Memoirs’.

She alludes that today’s pop idols are after shallow fame & money:

“I have been so copied by those people who have made fortunes, people assume I am that rich. But I did things for the excitement, the dare, the fact that it was new, not for the money, and too many times I was the first, not the beneficiary.”

She points out trend chasers:

“There’s a lot of that around at the moment: ‘Be like Sasha Fierce. Be like Miley Cyrus. Be like Rihanna. Be like Lady Gaga. Be like Rita Ora and Sia. Be like Madonna.'”
“I cannot be like them – except to the extent that they are already being like me.”

Lastly, she talks about dress & the status quo:

“They dress up as though they are challenging the status quo, but by now, wearing those clothes, pulling those faces, revealing those tattoos and breasts, singing to those fractured, spastic, melting beats – that is the status quo.
“You are not off the beaten track, pushing through the thorny undergrowth, finding treasure no one has come across before.”
“You are in the middle of the road. You are really in Vegas wearing the sparkly full-length gown singing to people who are paying to see you but are not really paying attention. If that is what you want, fine, but it’s a road to nowhere.”

Will the younger generation of artists take advice from Grace Jones? Challenge the status quo and create for the sake of creating. Don’t chase after shallow fame & money.