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The Rolling Stones

Background information
Origin London, England
Genres Rock, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, blues
Years active 1962-present
Labels Decca, London, Rolling Stones, Virgin, ABKCO, Interscope, Polydor

Website
http://www.RollingStones.com

USA Fashion & Music News
Rolling Stones Biography & Pictures
http://thefireboys.blogspot.com/2010/03/rolling-stones-photos-biography.html

Members
Mick Jagger
Keith Richards
Ronnie Wood
Charlie Watts
Former members
Brian Jones
Ian Stewart
Dick Taylor
Mick Taylor
Bill Wyman

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in 1962 in London when guitarist and harmonica player Brian Jones and pianist Ian Stewart were joined by vocalist Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards. Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early lineup. Stewart, deemed unsuitable as a teen idol, was removed from the official lineup in 1963 but continued as the band's road manager and occasional keyboardist until his death in 1985. After signing to Decca Records in 1963, the spelling of their name changed from "the Rollin' Stones" to "the Rolling Stones."

In 1963 Jagger and Richards formed a songwriting partnership and eventually took over leadership of the band as Jones became increasingly troubled and erratic. After recording mainly covers of American blues and R&B songs, every studio record since the 1966 album Aftermath has featured mainly Jagger/Richards songs. Mick Taylor replaced Jones shortly before Jones's death in 1969. Taylor quit in 1974, and was replaced in 1975 by Faces guitarist Ronnie Wood, who has remained with the band ever since. Wyman left the Rolling Stones in 1992, and Darryl Jones, who is not an official band member, has been the primary bassist since 1994.

First popular in the UK, The Rolling Stones toured the US repeatedly during the early 1960s "British Invasion". The Rolling Stones have released 22 studio albums in the UK (24 in the US), eight concert albums (nine in the US) and numerous compilations; and have album sales estimated at more than 200 million worldwide. Sticky Fingers (1971) began a string of eight consecutive studio albums reaching number one in the United States. Their latest album, A Bigger Bang, was released in 2005. In 1989 The Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2004 they ranked number 4 in Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked The Rolling Stones at number ten on "The Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists", making them as the second most successful group in the history of Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Contents
1 History
1.1 Early history
1.2 1962-64
1.3 1965-69
1.4 1970-74
1.5 1975-82
1.6 1983-91
1.7 1992-2004
1.8 Since 2005
2 Musical evolution
2.1 Infusion of American blues
2.2 Early songwriting
3 Band members
3.1 Line-ups
4 Discography
5 Concert tours
6 Official videography


==History==
==Early history==
In the early 1950s Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were classmates at Wentworth Primary School in Dartford, Kent. They met again in 1960 while Richards was attending Sidcup Art College. Richards recalled, "I was still going to school, and he was going up to the London School of Economics... So I get on this train one morning, and there's Jagger and under his arm he has four or five albums... He's got Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters". With mutual friend Dick Taylor (later of Pretty Things), they formed the band Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys. Stones founders Brian Jones and pianist Ian Stewart were active in the nascent London R&B scene fostered by Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner. Jagger and Richards met Jones while he was playing slide guitar sitting in with Korner's Blues Incorporated. Korner also had hired Jagger periodically and frequently future Stones drummer Charlie Watts. Richards credits Stewart with instigating and finding a space for rehearsals. The early rehearsals included Stewart, Jones, Jagger and Richards, as well as guitarist Geoff Bradford and vocalist Brian Knight. The latter two objected to the Chuck Berry material that Jagger and Richards favoured, and ended their involvement with the as-yet-unnamed band. In June 1962 the lineup was: Jagger, Richards, Stewart, Jones, Taylor, and drummer Tony Chapman. Taylor then left the group. According to Richards, Jones christened the band in a "panic" while phoning Jazz News to place an advertisement. When asked what the band's name was, Jones glanced at a Muddy Waters LP lying on the floor; one of the tracks was "Rollin' Stone".

1962-64
On 12 July 1962 the group played their first formal gig at the Marquee Club, billed as "The Rollin' Stones". The line-up was Jagger, Richards, Jones, Stewart on piano, Taylor on bass and Tony Chapman on drums. Jones and Stewart intended to play primarily Chicago blues, but were agreeable the Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley numbers Jagger and Richards brought to the band. Bassist Bill Wyman joined in December and drummer Charlie Watts the following January to form the band's long-standing rhythm section.

Acting Rolling Stones' manager Giorgio Gomelsky booked them for what became an eight-month Sunday residency at The Crawdaddy Club - named after the bands' 20-minute version of Bo Diddley's "Doin' the Crawdad" which they often closed with. First located at the Station Hotel in Richmond , the Crawdaddy Club moved to the larger Richmond Athletic Association. Gomelsky paired the Rolling Stones' residency at the club with the emergence of The Beatles as key events for "Swinging London" in which the blues enjoyed an international renaissance.

In March 1963 engineer Glyn Johns arranged an agreement with The Rollling Stones and IBC Studios for the band's very first recording session. In exchange for three hours of studio time, Jones signed on the band's behalf a recording contract with IBC. The session produced a four-cut demo featuring two Bo Diddley songs, "Diddley Daddy" and "Road-Runner", as well as Muddy Waters's "I Want to be Loved" and Jimmy Reed's "Honey, What's Wrong?". Later, on the eve of signing to Decca Records, Jones feigned that he was leaving the band and paid 90 pounds cash which he was provided with to buy out the IBC contact.

Tipped off by Record Mirror journalist Peter Jones about the large and fashionable Crawdaddy audiences, former Beatles publicist, Andrew Loog Oldham, became the Rolling Stones manager in April, 1963. Oldham's age of nineteen - besides making him younger than any of the band members - made him ineligible for an agent's license. To make matters legal, in May of 1963 Oldham became co-manager of the band with veteran booker Eric Easton, as Mrs. Oldham signed the agreement for her underage son. Gomelsky had no written agreement with the band and was not consulted.

Oldham and Easton got the Rolling Stones signed to Decca by AR rep Dick Rowe who, subsequent to becoming known for rejecting the Beatles, courted the Rolling Stones based on Beatle George Harrison's solicited recommendation. Desperate to bring the Rolling Stones to Decca, Rowe signed the band through Oldham and Eastons' production company Impact Sound, after an attempt to record the band at Decca's West Hampstead studios without Oldham's involvement ended in failure. The three year Impact Sound agreement committed The Rolling Stones to Decca and gave them three times the royalty rate of an average recording act under a tape-lease agreement that gave the band artistic control of their recordings, ownership of the recording masters, which they leased to Decca, and Oldham was also allowed his choice of recording studios. All of these were favourable terms which, at the time, were unusual in England". Despite having almost no recording-studio experience, Oldham made himself the band's producer and booked the band into independent studios such as Olympic, De Lane Lea and Regent Sound.

Besides earning better royalty rates through using independent studios, the band found avoiding any major studio artistically conducive. After finding the stereo four-track facilities of Olympic to be unnerving, in late 1963 and early 1964 Oldham and the Rolling Stones settled on Regent Sound, a relatively primitive and inexpensive monophonic demo facility on Denmark Street, with egg boxes on the ceiling for sound treatment. All tracks for the first album were recorded at Regent, where noted Oldham, "The sound leaked, instrument to instrument, the right way" creating a "wall of noise" in mono that suited the band's sound. Because at Regent the band could record for extended intervals, they could create and experiment without possible interference from Decca A&R.

Recording at independent studios also let Oldham present The Rolling Stones as stars, who, unlike the Beatles, were not "mere motals...sweating in the studio for the man", as Oldham developed his media strategy to contrast The Rolling Stones as the nasty opposites of the Beatles. How The Rolling Stones were perceived was important to Oldham: he changed the spelling of the band from "the Rollin' Stones" to "the Rolling Stones" and changed the spelling of Richards last name to Richard because it "looked more pop". He also had Stewart, who did not fit Oldham's mold of "pretty, thin, long-haired boys", removed from band photos and live appearances to become the band's road manager and occasional studio pianist. To exploit the media Oldham learned to take advantage of what the band offered. According to Wyman: "Our reputation and image as the Bad Boys came later, completely accidentally. Andrew never did engineer it. He simply exploited it exhaustively." In fact, before reversing course, Oldham initially tried to make the band more presentable with identical suits, but acquiesced as the band gradually returned to wearing their own clothes for public appearances.


The Rolling Stones in the 1960s. From left: Jagger, Jones, Richards, Wyman and WattsThe Rolling Stones' first single, recorded during an unhappy session at Olympic Studios during contract negotiations as an audition of sorts, was released with the A-side(released 7 June 1963) being a cover of Chuck Berry's "Come On". Though The Rolling Stones appeared on the TV show "Thank Your Luck Stars" playing "Come On",, they disliked the song and refused to play it at live gigs. Decca also did little to promote "Come On". Oldham, aware of how unimpressive "Come On" was, still feared that if the record did poorly, Decca would neglect the band and not allow any other record company to sign them. Oldham's response was to dispatch fan club members to buy copies at record shops specifically chosen because they were polled by the charts. After the release of "Come On" the band began touring, playing their first gig outside greater London at the Outlook Club in Middlesbrough on 13 July. Later in the year Oldham and Easton booked the band on their first big UK concert tour, as a supporting act for American stars including Bo Diddley, Little Richard and The Everly Brothers. The autumn 1963 tour became a "training ground" for the young band's stagecraft.

During this tour the Rolling Stones recorded their second single, a Lennon/McCartney-penned number entitled "I Wanna Be Your Man; it reached number 12 in the UK charts. Their third single featured Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" , released in February of 1964, and reached number 3.

Oldham believed that recording songs written by "middle-aged blacks", besides giving away revenue to artists he did not represent, could also limit the band's appeal to its teenage audience. At Oldham's direction, Jagger and Richards began to co-write songs, the first batch of which he described as "soppy and imitative." Because songwriting developed slowly, songs on the band's first album The Rolling Stones, (issued in the US as England's Newest Hit Makers) were primarily covers, with only one Jagger/Richards original "Tell Me (You're Coming Back)" and two numbers credited to Nanker Phelge, the pen name for songs written by the entire group.

The Rolling Stones' first US tour, in June 1964, was, in Bill Wyman's words, "a disaster. When we arrived, we didn't have a hit record or anything going for us." When the band appeared on Dean Martin's TV variety show The Hollywood Palace, Martin mocked both their hair and their performance. During the tour recorded for two days at Chess Studios in Chicago, meeting many of their most important influences, including Muddy Waters. These sessions included what would become The Rolling Stones' first number 1 hit in the UK: their cover of Bobby and Shirley Womack's "It's All Over Now".

"The Stones" followed James Brown in the filmed theatrical release of The TAMI Show, which showcased American acts with British Invasion artists. According to Jagger in 2003, "We weren't actually following James Brown because there were hours in between the filming of each section. Nevertheless, he was still very annoyed about it..." On 25 October the band also appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan, reacting to the pandemonium the Stones caused, stated he would never book them again, though he later did book them repeatedly. Their second LP the US-only 12 X 5 was released during this tour; like their first album, it contained mainly cover tunes, augmented by Jagger/Richards and Nanker Phelge tracks.

The Rolling Stones' fifth UK single a cover of Willie Dixon's "Little Red Rooster" backed by "Off the Hook" (Nanker Phelge) was released in November 1964 and became their second number-1 hit in the UK an unprecedented achievement for a blues number. The band's US distributors (London Records) declined to release "Little Red Rooster" as a single there. In December 1964 London Records released the band's first single with Jagger/Richards originals on both sides: "Heart of Stone" backed with "What a Shame"; "Heart of Stone" went to number 19 in the US.

1965-69
The band's second UK LP - The Rolling Stones No. 2, released in January 1965 - was another number 1 on the album charts; the US version, released in February as The Rolling Stones, Now!, went to number 5. Most of the material had been recorded at Chess Studios in Chicago and RCA Studios in Los Angeles. In January/February 1965 the band also toured Australia and New Zealand for the first time, playing 34 shows for about 100,000 fans.

The first Jagger/Richards composition to reach number 1 on the UK singles charts was "The Last Time" (released in February 1965); it went to number 9 in the US. It was also later identified by Richards as the "the bridge to into thinking about writing for The Stones. It gave us a level of confidence; a pathway of how to do it." Their first international number-1 hit was "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", recorded in May 1965 during the band's third North American tour. In recording the guitar riff with the fuzzbox that drives the song, Richards had envisoned it as a scratch track to guide a horn section. Disagreeing, Oldham released "Satisfaction" without the planned horn overdubs. Issued in the US in June 1965, it spent four weeks at the top of the charts there, establishing the Stones as a worldwide premier act.

The US version of the LP Out of Our Heads (released in July 1965) also went to number 1; it included seven original songs (three Jagger/Richards numbers and four credited to Nanker Phelge). Their second international number-1 single, "Get Off of My Cloud" was released in the autumn of 1965, followed by another US-only LP: December's Children.

Aftermath (UK number 1; US 2), released in the late spring of 1966, was the first Rolling Stones album to be composed entirely of Jagger/Richards songs. On this album Jones's contributions expanded beyond guitar and harmonica. To the Middle Eastern-influenced "Paint It Black" he added sitar, to the ballad "Lady Jane" he added dulcimer, and to "Under My Thumb" he added marimbas. Aftermath was also notable for the almost 12-minute long "Goin' Home", the first extended jam on a top-selling rock & roll album.

The Stones' success on the British and American singles charts peaked during 1966. "19th Nervous Breakdown" (Feb. 1966, UK number 2, US number 2) was followed by their first trans-Atlantic number-1 hit "Paint It Black" (May 1966). "Mother's Little Helper" (June 1966) was only released as a single in the USA, where it reached number 8; it was one of the first pop songs to address the issue of prescription drug abuse. Notably, Jagger sang the lyric in his natural London accent, rather than his usual affected southern American accent.

The September 1966 single "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?" (UK number 5, US number 9) was notable in several respects: It was the first Stones recording to feature brass horns, the (now-famous) back-cover photo on the original US picture sleeve depicted the group satirically dressed in drag, and the song was accompanied by one of the first purposely-made promotional film clips (music videos), directed by Peter Whitehead.

January 1967 saw the release of Between the Buttons (UK number 3; US 2); the album was Andrew Oldham's last venture as The Rolling Stones' producer (his role as the band's manager had been taken over by Allen Klein in 1965). The US version included the double A-side single "Let's Spend the Night Together" and "Ruby Tuesday", which went to number 1 in America and number 3 in the UK. When the band went to New York to perform the numbers on The Ed Sullivan Show, they were ordered to change the lyrics of the refrain to "let's spend some time together".

Jagger, Richards and Jones began to be hounded by authorities over their recreational drug use in early 1967, after News of the World ran a three-part feature entitled "Pop Stars and Drugs: Facts That Will Shock You". The series described alleged LSD parties hosted by The Moody Blues and attended by top stars including The Who's Pete Townshend and Cream's Ginger Baker, and alleged admissions of drug use by leading pop musicians. The first article targeted Donovan (who was raided and charged soon after); the second installment (published on 5 February) targeted the Rolling Stones. A reporter who contributed to the story spent an evening at the exclusive London club Blaise's, where a member of the Stones allegedly took several Benzedrine tablets, displayed a piece of hashish and invited his companions back to his flat for a "smoke". The article claimed that this was Mick Jagger, but it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity the reporter had in fact been eavesdropping on Brian Jones. On the night the article was published Jagger appeared on the Eammon Andrews chat show and announced that he was filing a writ of libel against the paper.

A week later on Sunday 12 February, Sussex police (tipped off by the News of the World) raided a party at Keith Richards's home, Redlands. No arrests were made at the time but Jagger, Richards and their friend Robert Fraser (an art dealer) were subsequently charged with drug offences. Richards said in 2003, "When we got busted at Redlands, it suddenly made us realise that this was a whole different ball game and that was when the fun stopped. Up until then it had been as though London existed in a beautiful space where you could do anything you wanted."

In March, while awaiting the consequences of the police raid, Jagger, Richards and Jones took a short trip to Morocco, accompanied by Marianne Faithfull, Jones's girlfriend Anita Pallenberg and other friends. During this trip the stormy relations between Jones and Pallenberg deteriorated to the point that Pallenberg left Morocco with Richards. Richards said later: "That was the final nail in the coffin with me and Brian. He'd never forgive me for that and I don't blame him, but hell, shit happens." Richards and Pallenberg would remain a couple for twelve years. Despite these complications, The Rolling Stones toured Europe in March and April 1967. The tour included the band's first performances in Poland, Greece and Italy.

On 10 May 1967 the same day Jagger, Richards and Fraser were arraigned in connection with the Redlands charges Brian Jones's house was raided by police and he was arrested and charged with possession of cannabis. Three out of five Rolling Stones now faced criminal charges. Jagger and Richards were tried at the end of June. On 29 June Jagger was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for possession of four amphetamine tablets; Richards was found guilty of allowing cannabis to be smoked on his property and sentenced to one year in prison. Both Jagger and Richards were imprisoned at that point, but were released on bail the next day pending appeal. The Times ran the famous editorial entitled "Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?" in which editor William Rees-Mogg was strongly critical of the sentencing, pointing out that Jagger had been treated far more harshly for a minor first offence than "any purely anonymous young man".

While awaiting the appeal hearings, the band recorded a new single, "We Love You", as a thank-you for the loyalty shown by their fans. It began with the sound of prison doors closing, and the accompanying music video included allusions to the trial of Oscar Wilde. On 31 July, the appeals court overturned Richards's conviction, and Jagger's sentence was reduced to a conditional discharge. Brian Jones's trial took place in November 1967; in December, after appealing the original prison sentence, Jones was fined £1000, put on three years' probation and ordered to seek professional help.

December 1967 also saw the release of Their Satanic Majesties Request (UK number 3; US 2), released shortly after The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Satanic Majesties had been recorded in difficult circumstances while Jagger, Richards and Jones were dealing with their court cases. The band parted ways with producer Andrew Oldham during the sessions. The split was amicable, at least publicly, but in 2003 Jagger said: "The reason Andrew left was because he thought that we weren't concentrating and that we were being childish. It was not a great moment really - and I would have thought it wasn't a great moment for Andrew either. There were a lot of distractions and you always need someone to focus you at that point, that was Andrew's job."

Satanic Majesties thus became the first album The Rolling Stones produced on their own. It was also the first of their albums released in identical versions on both sides of the Atlantic. Its psychedelic sound was complemented by the cover art, which featured a 3D photo by Michael Cooper, who had also photographed the cover of Sgt. Pepper. Bill Wyman wrote and sang a track on the album: "In Another Land", which was also released as a single, the first on which Jagger did not sing lead vocal.

The band spent the first few months of 1968 working on material for their next album. Those sessions resulted in the song "Jumpin' Jack Flash", released as a single in May. The song and the subsequent album, Beggars Banquet (UK number 3; US 5), an eclectic mix of country and blues-inspired tunes, marked the band's return to their roots, and the beginning of their collaboration with producer Jimmy Miller. Featuring the lead single "Street Fighting Man" (which addressed the political upheavals of May 1968) and the opening track "Sympathy for the Devil", Beggars Banquet was hailed as an achievement for the Stones at the time of release. On the musical evolution between albums, Richards said, "There is a change between material on Satanic Majesties and Beggars Banquet. I'd grown sick to death of the whole Maharishi guru shit and the beads and bells. Who knows where these things come from, but I guess was a reaction to what we'd done in our time off and also that severe dose of reality. A spell in prison... will certainly give you room for thought... I was fucking pissed with being busted. So it was, 'Right we'll go and strip this thing down.' There's a lot of anger in the music from that period." Richards started using open tunings for rhythm parts (often in conjunction with a capo), most prominently an open-E or open-D tuning in 1968. Beginning in 1969, he often used 5-string open-G tuning (with the lower 6th string removed), as heard on the 1969 single "Honky Tonk Women", "Brown Sugar" (Sticky Fingers, 1971), "Tumbling Dice"(capo IV), "Happy"(capo IV) (Exile on Main St., 1972), and "Start Me Up" (Tattoo You, 1981).

The end of 1968 saw the filming of The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. It featured John Lennon, Yoko Ono, The Dirty Mac, The Who, Jethro Tull, Marianne Faithfull and Taj Mahal. The footage was shelved for twenty-eight years but was finally released officially in 1996.

By the release of Beggars Banquet, Brian Jones was increasingly troubled and was only sporadically contributing to the band. Jagger said that Jones was "not psychologically suited to this way of life". His drug use had become a hindrance, and he was unable to obtain a US visa. Richards reported that, in a June meeting with Jagger, Richards, and Watts at Jones's house, Jones admitted that he was unable to "go on the road again". According to Richards, all agreed to let Jones "...say I've left, and if I want to I can come back". His replacement was the 20-year-old guitarist Mick Taylor, of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, who started recording with the band immediately. On 3 July 1969, less than a month later, Jones drowned in the swimming pool at his Cotchford Farm home in Sussex.

1970-74

Richards on stage in 1972The Rolling Stones were scheduled to play at a free concert in London's Hyde Park two days after Brian Jones's death; they decided to proceed with the show as a tribute to Jones. The concert, their first with Mick Taylor, was performed in front of an estimated 250,000 fans. The performance was filmed by a Granada Television production team, and was shown on British television as Stones in the Park. Jagger read an excerpt from Percy Bysshe Shelley's elegy Adonais and released thousands of butterflies in memory of Jones. The show included the concert debut of "Honky Tonk Women", which the band had just released. Their stage manager Sam Cutler introduced them as "the greatest rock & roll band in the world" - a description he repeated throughout their 1969 US tour, and which has stuck to this day.


The release of Let It Bleed (UK number 1; US 3) came in December. Their last album of the sixties, Let It Bleed featured "Gimmie Shelter" (with backing vocals by female vocalist Merry Clayton), "You Can't Always Get What You Want", "Midnight Rambler", as well as a cover of Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain". Jones and Taylor are featured on two tracks each. Many of these numbers were played during the band's US tour in November 1969, their first in three years. Just after the tour the band performed at the Altamont Free Concert at the Altamont Speedway, about 60 km east of San Francisco. The biker gang Hells Angels provided security, and a fan, Meredith Hunter, was stabbed and beaten to death by the Angels. Part of the tour and the Altamont concert were documented in Albert and David Maysles' film Gimme Shelter. As a response to the growing popularity of bootleg recordings, the album Get Yer Ya-Yas Out! (UK 1; US 6) was released in 1970; it was declared by critic Lester Bangs to be the best live album ever.

At the turn of the decade the band appeared on the BBC's highly rated review of the sixties music scene Pop Go The Sixties, performing Gimme Shelter on the show, which was broadcast live on 1 January 1970. Later in 1970 the band's contracts with both Allen Klein and Decca Records ended, and amid contractual disputes with Klein, they formed their own record company, Rolling Stones Records. Sticky Fingers (UK number 1; US 1), released in March 1971, the band's first album on their own label, featured an elaborate cover design by Andy Warhol. The album contains one of their best known hits, "Brown Sugar", and the country-influenced "Wild Horses". Both were recorded at Alabama's Muscle Shoals Sound Studio during the 1969 American tour. The album continued the band's immersion into heavily blues-influenced compositions. The album is noted for its "loose, ramshackle ambience" and marked Mick Taylor's first full release with the band.


Mick Taylor, playing slide guitar on his Les Paul guitar with the Stones, 1972Following the release of Sticky Fingers, The Rolling Stones left England on the advice of financial advisors. The band moved to the South of France, where Richards rented the Villa Nellcôte and sublet rooms to band members and entourage. Using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, they held recording sessions in the basement; they completed the resulting tracks, along with material dating as far back as 1969, at Sunset Studios in Los Angeles. The resulting double album, Exile on Main St. (UK number 1; US 1), was released in May 1972. Given an A+ grade by critic Robert Christgau and disparaged by Lester Bangs who reversed his opinion within months -- Exile is now accepted as one of the Stones' best albums. The films Cocksucker Blues (never officially released) and Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones (released in 1974) document the subsequent highly publicised 1972 North American ("STP") Tour, with its retinue of jet-set hangers-on, including writer Terry Southern.

In November 1972, the band began sessions in Kingston, Jamaica, for their follow-up to Exile, Goats Head Soup (UK 1; US 1) (1973). The album spawned the worldwide hit "Angie", but proved the first in a string of commercially successful but tepidly received studio albums. The sessions for Goats Head Soup led to a number of outtakes, most notably an early version of the popular ballad "Waiting on a Friend", not released until Tattoo You eight years later.

The making of the record was interrupted by another legal battle over drugs, dating back to their stay in France; a warrant for Richards's arrest had been issued, and the other band members had to return briefly to France for questioning. This, along with Jagger's convictions on drug charges (in 1967 and 1970), complicated the band's plans for their Pacific tour in early 1973: they were denied permission to play in Japan and almost banned from Australia. This was followed by a European tour (bypassing France) in September/October 1973 - prior to which Richards had been arrested once more on drug charges, this time in England.

The band went to Musicland studios in Munich to record their next album, 1974's It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (UK 2; US 1), but Jimmy Miller, who had drug abuse issues, was no longer producer. Instead, Jagger and Richards assumed production duties and were credited as "the Glimmer Twins". Both the album and the single of the same name were hits.

Near the end of 1974, Taylor began to lose patience. The band's situation made normal functioning complicated, with band members living in different countries and legal barriers restricting where they could tour. In addition, drug use was affecting Richards's creativity and productivity, and Taylor felt some of his own creative contributions were going unrecognized. At the end of 1974, with a recording session already booked in Munich to record another album, Taylor quit The Rolling Stones. Taylor said in 1980, "I was getting a bit fed up. I wanted to broaden my scope as a guitarist and do something else... I wasn't really composing songs or writing at that time. I was just beginning to write, and that influenced my decision... There are some people who can just ride along from crest to crest; they can ride along somebody else's success. And there are some people for whom that's not enough. It really wasn't enough for me."

1975-82

Ronnie Wood (left) and Mick Jagger (right), during the 1975 Tour of the AmericasThe Stones used the recording sessions in Munich to audition replacements for Taylor. Guitarists as stylistically disparate as Humble Pie lead Peter Frampton and ex-Yardbirds virtuoso Jeff Beck were auditioned. Rory Gallagher and Shuggie Otis also dropped by the Munich sessions. American session players Wayne Perkins and Harvey Mandel also appeared on much of the next album, Black and Blue (UK 2; US 1) (1976). Yet Richards and Jagger also wanted the Stones to remain purely a British band. When Ronnie Wood auditioned, everyone agreed that he was the right choice. Wood had already recorded and played live with Richards, and had contributed to the recording and writing of the track "It's Only Rock 'n Roll". Though he had earlier declined Jagger's offer to join the Stones, because of his ties to the The Faces, Wood committed to the Stones in 1975 for their upcoming Tour of the Americas. He officially joined the band the following year, as the Faces dissolved. Unlike the other band members, however, Wood was a salaried employee and remained so until Wyman's departure nearly two decades later, when Wood finally became a full member of the Rolling Stones' partnership.

The 1975 Tour of the Americas kicked off in New York City with the band performing on a flatbed trailer being pulled down Broadway. The tour featured stage props including a giant phallus and a rope on which Jagger swung out over the audience.


Toronto's El Mocambo Club where part of Love You Live was recorded.Jagger had booked live recording sessions at the El Mocambo club in Toronto to balance a long-overdue live album, 1977's Love You Live (UK 3; US 5), the first Stones live album since 1970's Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!. Richards's addiction to heroin delayed his arrival in Toronto; the other members had already assembled, awaiting Richards, and sent him a telegram asking him where he was. On 24 February 1977, when Richards and his family flew in from London, they were temporarily detained by Canada Customs after Richards was found in possession of a burnt spoon and hash residue. Three days later, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, armed with an arrest warrant for Pallenberg, discovered "22 grams of heroin" in Richards's room. Richards was charged with importing narcotics into Canada, an offense that carried a minimum seven-year sentence. Later the Crown prosecutor conceded that Richards had procured the drugs after arrival. Despite the arrest, the band played two shows in Toronto, only to raise more controversy when Margaret Trudeau, then-wife of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, was seen partying with the band after one show. The band's two shows were not advertised to the public. Instead, the El Mocambo had been booked for the entire week by April Wine for a recording session. 1050 CHUM, a local radio station, ran a contest for free tickets to see April Wine. Contest winners who selected tickets for Friday or Saturday night were surprised to find that the Stones were playing.

On 4 March, Richards's partner Anita Pallenberg pled guilty to drug possession and incurred a fine in connection with the original airport incident. The drug case against Richards dragged on for over a year. Ultimately, Richards received a suspended sentence and was ordered to play two free concerts for the CNIB in Oshawa; both shows featured the Rolling Stones and The New Barbarians, a group that Wood had put together to promote his latest solo album, and which Richards also joined. This episode strengthened Richards's resolve to stop using heroin. It also contributed to the end of his relationship with Pallenberg, which had become strained since the death of their third child (an infant son named Tara). In addition, Pallenberg was unable to curb her heroin addiction while Keith struggled to get clean. While Richards was settling his legal and personal problems, Jagger continued his jet-set lifestyle. He was a regular at New York's Studio 54 disco club, often in the company of model Jerry Hall. His marriage to Bianca Jagger ended in 1978, although they had long been estranged.

Although The Rolling Stones remained popular through the first half of the 1970s, music critics had grown increasingly dismissive of the band's output, and record sales failed to meet expectations. By the late 70s, after punk rock became influential, many criticised the Stones as decadent, aging millionaires and their music as stagnant or irrelevant. This changed in 1978, after the band released Some Girls (UK #2; US #1), which included the hit single "Miss You", the country ballad "Far Away Eyes", "Beast of Burden", and "Shattered". In part as a response to punk, many songs were fast, basic, guitar-driven rock and roll, and the album's success re-established the Rolling Stones' immense popularity among young people. Following the US Tour 1978, the band guested on the first show of the fourth season of the TV series "Saturday Night Live". The group did not tour Europe the following year, breaking the routine of touring Europe every three years that the band had followed since 1967.

Following the success of Some Girls, the band released their next album Emotional Rescue (UK 1; US 1) in mid-1980. The recording of the album was reportedly plagued by turmoil, with Jagger and Richards' relationship reaching a new low. Richards, though still using heroin according to keyboardist Ian Mclagan, began to assert more control in the studio more than Jagger had become used to and a struggle ensued as Richards felt he was fighting for "his half of the Glimmer Twins." Emotional Rescue hit the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and the title track reached #3 in the US.

In early 1981, the group reconvened and decided to tour the US that year, leaving little time to write and record a new album, as well as rehearse for the tour. That year's resulting album, Tattoo You (UK 2; US 1) featured a number of outtakes, including lead single "Start Me Up", which reached #2 in the US and ranked #22 on Billboard's Hot 100 year-end chart. Two songs ("Waiting on a Friend" (US #13) and "Tops") featured Mick Taylor's guitar playing, while jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins played on "Slave" and dubbed a part on "Waiting on a Friend". The Rolling Stones scored one more Top Twenty hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982, the #20 hit "Hang Fire". The Stones' American Tour 1981 was their biggest, longest and most colourful production to date, with the band playing from 25 September through 19 December. It was the highest grossing tour of that year. Some shows were recorded, resulting in the 1982 live album Still Life (American Concert 1981) (UK 4; US 5), and the 1983 Hal Ashby concert film Let's Spend the Night Together, which was filmed at Sun Devil Stadium in Phoenix, Arizona and the Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands, New Jersey.

In mid-1982, to commemorate their 20th anniversary, the Stones took their American stage show to Europe. The European Tour 1982 was their first European tour in six years. The tour was essentially a carbon copy of the 1981 American tour. For the tour, the band were joined by former Allman Brothers Band piano player Chuck Leavell, who continues to play and record with the Stones. By the end of the year, the band had signed a new four-album, 28 million dollar recording deal with a new label, CBS Records.

1983-91
Before leaving Atlantic, the Stones released Undercover (UK 3; US 4) in late 1983. Despite good reviews and the Top Ten peak position of the title track, the record sold below expectations and there was no tour to support it. Subsequently the Stones' new marketer/distributor CBS Records took over distributing the Stones' Atlantic catalogue.

By this time, the Jagger/Richards split was growing. Much to the consternation of Richards, Jagger had signed a solo deal with CBS Records, and he spent much of 1984 writing songs for this first solo effort. He has also stated that he was feeling stultified within the framework of the Rolling Stones. By 1985, Jagger was spending more time on solo recordings, and much of the material on 1986's Dirty Work (UK #4; US #4) was generated by Keith Richards, with more contributions by Ron Wood than on previous Rolling Stones albums. Rumours surfaced that Jagger and Richards were rarely, if ever, in the studio at the same time, leaving Richards to keep the recording sessions moving forward.

In December 1985, the band's co-founder, pianist, road manager and long-time friend Ian Stewart died of a heart attack. The Rolling Stones played a private tribute concert for him at London's 100 Club in February 1986, two days before they were presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dirty Work was released in March 1986 to mixed reviews despite the presence of the US Top Five hit "Harlem Shuffle"; Jagger refused to tour to promote the album, stating later that several band members were in no condition to tour. Richards was infuriated when Jagger instead undertook his own solo tour which included Rolling Stones songs. He has referred to this period in his relations with Jagger as "World War III". Jagger's solo records, She's The Boss (UK 6; US 13) (1985) and Primitive Cool (UK 26; US 41) (1987), met with moderate success, although Richards disparaged both. Many believed the group would disband. In 1988, with the Rolling Stones inactive, Richards released his first solo album, Talk Is Cheap (UK 37; US 24). It was well received by fans and critics, going gold in the US.

In early 1989, the Rolling Stones, including Mick Taylor, Ronnie Wood and Ian Stewart (posthumously), were inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jagger and Richards set aside animosities and went to work on a new Rolling Stones album that would be called Steel Wheels (UK 2; US 3). Heralded as a return to form, it included the singles "Mixed Emotions" (US #5), "Rock and a Hard Place" (US #23) and "Almost Hear You Sigh". It also included "Continental Drift", which was recorded in Tangier in 1989 with The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar.

The subsequent Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tours, encompassing North America, Japan and Europe, saw the Rolling Stones touring for the first time in seven years (since Europe 1982), and it was their biggest stage production to date. Opening acts included Living Colour and Guns N' Roses; the onstage personnel included a horn section and backup singers Lisa Fischer and Bernard Fowler, both of whom continue to tour regularly with the Rolling Stones. Recordings from the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tours produced the 1991 concert album Flashpoint (UK 6; US 16), which also included two studio tracks recorded in 1991: the single "Highwire" and "Sex Drive".

These were the last Rolling Stones tours for Bill Wyman, who left the band after years of deliberation, although his retirement was not made official until December 1992. He then published Stone Alone, an autobiography based on scrapbooks and diaries he had been keeping since the band's early days. A few years later he formed Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings and began recording and touring again.

1992-2004
After the successes of the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tours, the band took a break. Charlie Watts released two jazz albums; Ronnie Wood made his fifth solo album, the first in 11 years, called Slide On This; Keith Richards released his second solo album in late 1992, Main Offender (UK 45; US 99), and did a small tour including big concerts in Spain and Argentina. Mick Jagger got good reviews and sales with his third solo album, Wandering Spirit (UK 12; US 11). The album sold more than two million copies worldwide, going gold in the US.

After Wyman's departure, the Rolling Stones' new distributor/record label, Virgin Records, remastered and repackaged the band's back catalogue from Sticky Fingers to Steel Wheels, except for the three live albums, and issued another hits compilation in 1993 entitled Jump Back (UK 16; US 30). By 1993 the Stones set upon their next studio album. Darryl Jones, former sideman of Miles Davis and Sting, was chosen by Charlie Watts as Wyman's replacement for 1994's Voodoo Lounge (UK 1; US 2). The album met strong reviews and sales, going double platinum in the US. Reviewers took note of the album's "traditionalist" sounds, which were credited to the Rolling Stones' new producer Don Was. It would go on to win the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Rock Album.

1994 also brought the accompanying Voodoo Lounge Tour, which lasted into 1995. Numbers from various concerts and rehearsals (mostly acoustic) made up Stripped (UK 9; US 9), which featured a cover of Bob Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone", as well as infrequently played songs like "Shine a Light", "Sweet Virginia" and "The Spider and the Fly".


Keith Richards in Hannover, 2006, during the A Bigger Bang TourThe Rolling Stones ended the 1990s with the album Bridges To Babylon (UK 6; US 3), released in 1997 to mixed reviews. The video of the single "Anybody Seen My Baby?" featured Angelina Jolie as guest and met steady rotation on both MTV and VH1. Sales were reasonably equivalent to those of previous records (about 1.2 million copies sold in the US), and the subsequent Bridges to Babylon Tour, which crossed Europe, North America and other destinations, proved the band to be a strong live attraction. Once again, a live album was culled from the tour, No Security (UK 67; US 34), only this time all but two songs ("Live With Me" and "The Last Time") were previously unreleased on live albums. In 1999, the Stones staged the No Security Tour in the US and continued the Bridges to Babylon tour in Europe. The No Security Tour offered a stripped-down production in contrast to the pyrotechnics and mammoth stages of other recent tours.

In late 2001, Mick Jagger released his fourth solo album, Goddess in the Doorway (UK 44; US 39) which met with mixed reviews. Jagger and Richards took part in "The Concert for New York City", performing "Salt of the Earth" and "Miss You" with a backing band.

In 2002, the band released Forty Licks (UK 2; US 2), a greatest hits double album, to mark their forty years as a band. The collection contained four new songs recorded with the latter-day core band of Jagger, Richards, Watts, Wood, Leavell and Jones. The album has sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. The same year, Q magazine named The Rolling Stones as one of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die", and the 2002-2003 Licks Tour gave people that chance. The tour included shows in small theatres, arenas and stadiums. The band headlined the Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto concert in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to help the city which they have used for rehearsals since the Steel Wheels tour recover from the 2003 SARS epidemic. The concert was attended by an estimated 490,000 people.

On 9 November 2003, the band played their first concert in Hong Kong as part of the Harbour Fest celebration, also in support of the SARS-affected economy. In November 2003, the band exclusively licensed the right to sell their new four-DVD boxed set, Four Flicks, recorded on the band's most recent world tour, to the US Best Buy chain of stores. In response, some Canadian and US music retail chains (including HMV Canada and Circuit City) pulled Rolling Stones CDs and related merchandise from their shelves and replaced them with signs explaining the situation. In 2004, a double live album of the Licks Tour, Live Licks (UK 38; US 50), was released, going gold in the US.

Since 2005

Wood and Jagger onstage with the Rolling Stones in Vienna, 2006On 26 July 2005, Jagger's birthday, the band announced the name of their new album, A Bigger Bang (UK 2; US 3), their first album in almost eight years. A Bigger Bang was released on 6 September to strong reviews, including a glowing write-up in Rolling Stone magazine. The single "Streets of Love" reached the Top 15 in UK and Europe.

The album included the most controversial song from the Stones in years, "Sweet Neo Con", a criticism of American Neoconservatism from Jagger. The song was reportedly almost dropped from the album because of objections from Richards. When asked if he was afraid of political backlash such as the Dixie Chicks had endured for criticism of American involvement in the war in Iraq, Richards responded that the album came first, and that, "I don't want to be sidetracked by some little political 'storm in a teacup'."

The subsequent A Bigger Bang Tour began in August 2005, and visited North America, South America and East Asia. In February 2006, the group played the half-time show of Super Bowl XL in Detroit, Michigan. By the end of 2005, the Bigger Bang tour set a record of $162 million in gross receipts, breaking the North American mark also set by the Stones in 1994. On 18 February 2006 the band played a free concert with a claimed 1.5 million attendance at the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro.

After performances in Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand in March/April 2006, the Rolling Stones tour took a scheduled break before proceeding to Europe; during this break Keith Richards was hospitalized in New Zealand for cranial surgery after a fall from a tree on Fiji, where he had been on holiday. The incident led to a six-week delay in launching the European leg of the tour. In June 2006 it was reported that Ronnie Wood was continuing his programme of rehabilitation for alcohol abuse, but this did not affect the rearranged European tour schedule. Two out of the 21 shows scheduled for July-September 2006 were later cancelled due to Mick Jagger's throat problems.

The Stones returned to North America for concerts in September 2006, and returned to Europe on 5 June 2007. By November 2006, the Bigger Bang tour had been declared the highest-grossing tour of all time, earning $437 million. The North American leg brought in the third-highest receipts ever ($138.5 million), trailing their own 2005 tour ($162 million) and the U2 tour of that same year ($138.9 million).

On 29 October and 1 November 2006, director Martin Scorsese filmed the Rolling Stones performing at New York City's Beacon Theatre, in front of an audience that included Bill and Hillary Clinton, released as the 2008 film Shine a Light; the film also features guest appearances by Buddy Guy, Jack White and Christina Aguilera. An accompanying soundtrack, also titled Shine a Light (UK 2; US 11), was released in April 2008. The album's debut at number 2 in the UK charts was the highest position for a Rolling Stones concert album since Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! in 1970.

On 24 March 2007, the band announced a tour of Europe called the "Bigger Bang 2007" tour. 12 June 2007 saw the release of the band's second four-disc DVD set: The Biggest Bang, a seven-hour document featuring their shows in Austin, Rio de Janeiro, Saitama, Shanghai and Buenos Aires, along with extras. On 10 June 2007, the band performed their first gig at a festival in 30 years, at the Isle of Wight Festival, to a crowd of 65,000. On 26 August 2007, they played their last concert of the A Bigger Bang Tour at the O2 Arena in London, England. On 26 September 2007, it was announced The Rolling Stones had made $437 million on the A Bigger Bang Tour to list them in the latest edition of Guinness World Records.


Charlie Watts in Hannover, 2006Mick Jagger released a compilation of his solo work called The Very Best of Mick Jagger (UK 57; US 77), including three unreleased songs, on 2 October 2007. On 12 November 2007, ABKCO released Rolled Gold+: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones, a double-CD remake of the 1975 compilation Rolled Gold; the reissue went to number 26 in the UK charts.

In a 2007 interview with Mick Jagger after nearly two years of touring, Jagger refused to say when the band is going to retire: "I'm sure the Rolling Stones will do more things, more records and more tours, we've got no plans to stop any of that really. As far as I'm concerned, I'm sure we'll continue." In March 2008 Keith Richards sparked rumours that a new Rolling Stones studio album may be forthcoming, saying during an interview following the premiere of Shine a Light, "I think we might make another album. Once we get over doing promotion on this film". Drummer Charlie Watts remarked that he got ill whenever he stopped working. In July 2008 it was announced that the Rolling Stones were leaving EMI and signing with Vivendi's Universal Music, taking with them their catalogue stretching back to Sticky Fingers. New music released by the band while under this contract will be issued through Universal's Polydor label. Universal Records will hold the US rights to the pre-1994 material, while the post-1994 material will be handled by Interscope Records (once a subsidiary of Atlantic). Coincidentally, Universal Music is also the distributor for ABKCO, owners of the band's pre-Sticky Fingers releases.

In late November 2009 rumours circulated that the Rolling Stones are planning to tour in 2010.

==Musical evolution==
The Rolling Stones are notable in modern popular music for assimilating various musical genres into their recording and performance, ultimately making the styles their very own. The band's career is marked by a continual reference and reliance on musical styles like American blues, country, folk, reggae, dance; world music exemplified by the Master Musicians of Jajouka; as well as traditional English styles that use stringed instrumentation like harps. The band cut their musical teeth by covering early rock and roll and blues songs, and have never stopped playing live or recording cover songs.

==Infusion of American blues==
Jagger and Richards shared an admiration of Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters and Little Walter, and their interest influenced Brian Jones, of whom Richards says, "He was more into T-Bone Walker and jazz-blues stuff. We'd turn him onto Chuck Berry and say, 'Look, it's all the same shit, man, and you can do it.'" Charlie Watts, a traditional jazz drummer, was also turned onto the blues after his introduction to the Stones. "Keith and Brian turned me on to Jimmy Reed and people like that. I learned that Earl Phillips was playing on those records like a jazz drummer, playing swing, with a straight four..."

Jagger, recalling when he first heard the likes of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Fats Domino and other major American R&B artists, said it "seemed the most real thing" he had heard up to that point. Similarly, Keith Richards, describing the first time he listened to Muddy Waters, said it was the "most powerful music ever heard...the most expressive."

== Early songwriting==
Despite the Rolling Stones' predilection for blues and R&B numbers on their early live setlists, the first original compositions by the band reflected a more wide-ranging interest. The first Jagger/Richards single, "Tell Me (You're Coming Back)," is called by critic Richie Unterberger a "pop/rock ballad... When began to write songs, they were usually not derived from the blues, but were often surprisingly fey, slow, Mersey-type pop numbers." "As Tears Go By," the ballad originally written for Marianne Faithfull, was one of the first songs written by Jagger and Richards and also one of many written by the duo for other artists. Jagger said of the song, "It's a relatively mature song considering the rest of the output at the time. And we didn't think of it, because the Rolling Stones were a butch blues group." The Stones did later record a version which became a top five hit in the US.

On the early experience, Richards said, "The amazing thing is that although Mick and I thought these songs were really puerile and kindergarten-time, every one that got put out made a decent showing in the charts. That gave us extraordinary confidence to carry on, because at the beginning songwriting was something we were going to do in order to say to Andrew , 'Well, at least we gave it a try...'" Jagger said, "We were very pop-orientated. We didn't sit around listening to Muddy Waters; we listened to everything. In some ways it's easy to write to order... Keith and I got into the groove of writing those kind of tunes; they were done in ten minutes. I think we thought it was a bit of a laugh, and it turned out to be something of an apprenticeship for us."

The writing of the single "The Last Time," The Rolling Stones' first major single, proved a turning point. Richards called it "a bridge into thinking about writing for the Stones. It gave us a level of confidence; a pathway of how to do it." The song was based on a traditional gospel song popularised by The Staples Singers, but the Rolling Stones' number features a distinctive guitar riff (played on stage by Brian Jones).

==Band members==


== Line-ups==
1962 Mick Jagger lead vocals, harmonica, percussion
Brian Jones guitars, backing vocals, harmonica, percussion
Keith Richards guitars, backing vocals
Ian Stewart piano, percussion
with

Mick Avory drums
Tony Chapman drums
Ricky Fenson bass
Carlo Little drums
Dick Taylor bass
Bill Wyman bass

January April 1963 Mick Jagger lead vocals, harmonica, percussion
Brian Jones guitars, backing vocals, harmonica, percussion
Keith Richards guitars, backing vocals
Ian Stewart piano, percussion
Charlie Watts drums
Bill Wyman bass, backing vocals

May 1963 May 1969 Mick Jagger lead vocals, harmonica, percussion
Brian Jones guitars, backing vocals, harmonica, percussion, tamboura, sitar, dulcimer, keyboards, autoharp, brass, woodwinds, theremin
Keith Richards guitars, vocals, bass, keyboards, percussion
Charlie Watts drums, percussion
Bill Wyman bass, vocals, percussion, keyboards

May 1969 December 1974 Mick Jagger lead vocals, harmonica, keyboards, percussion, guitar
Keith Richards guitars, vocals, bass, keyboards
Mick Taylor guitars, bass, synthesizer, percussion, backing vocals
Charlie Watts drums, percussion
Bill Wyman bass, synthesizer

December 1974 May 1975 Mick Jagger - lead vocals, harmonica, keyboards, percussion, guitar
Keith Richards guitars, vocals, bass, keyboards
Charlie Watts drums, percussion
Bill Wyman bass, synthesizer

May 1975 December 1992 Mick Jagger lead vocals, harmonica, keyboards, guitar
Keith Richards guitars, vocals, bass, keyboards, percussion
Charlie Watts drums, percussion
Ronnie Wood guitars, backing vocals, bass, drums, percussion
Bill Wyman bass, synthesizer

1993–present Mick Jagger lead vocals, harmonica, percussion, guitar, bass, keyboards
Keith Richards guitars, vocals, bass, keyboards
Charlie Watts drums, percussion
Ronnie Wood guitars, backing vocals, bass
with

Darryl Jones bass


==Discography==
Further information: The Rolling Stones discography
In a career that has spanned nearly half a century, the band has released over 90 singles, more than two dozen studio albums, and numerous compilation and live albums. Ten of their studio albums are among Rolling Stone magazine's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, with their 1972 double album Exile on Main St. placing seventh.

==Concert tours==
Further information: Rolling Stones concerts
== Official videography==
Officially released films featuring the Rolling Stones are listed with their original release dates. (The formats mentioned are the most recent versions officially available, not necessarily the original release formats.)

1966: Charlie Is My Darling, directed by Peter Whitehead) (released on DVD in 2009 without the Rolling Stones' music)
1968: One Plus One (also titled Sympathy for the Devil), directed by Jean-Luc Godard (DVD)
1969: Stones in the Park (DVD)
1970: Gimme Shelter, directed by Albert and David Maysles (DVD/Blu-ray Disc)
1974: Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones, directed by Rolin Binzer
1982: Rocks Off and Let's Spend the Night Together, both directed by Hal Ashby (DVD)
1984: Video Rewind (VHS)
1989: 25x5 - The Continuing Adventures of the Rolling Stones (VHS)
1992: Stones at the Max, directed by Julien Temple (DVD)
1995: The Rolling Stones: Voodoo Lounge Live (DVD)
1996: The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg (filmed in 1968) (DVD)
1998: Bridges to Babylon Tour '97-98 (DVD)
2003: Four Flicks (DVD)
2007: The Biggest Bang (DVD/Blu-ray Disc)
2008: Shine a Light, directed by Martin Scorsese, released to theaters in standard and IMAX presentations (DVD/Blu-ray Disc)
2009: Stones at the Max Remastered Edition, directed by Julien Temple (DVD/Blu-ray Disc)

Top Model & Supermodel

Top Model & Supermodel, a set on Flickr.

Top Model & Supermodel

Supermodels : Get To Know The Victoria´s Secret Fashion Show Models at VS All Access
http://thefireboys.blogspot.com/p/supermodels-get-to-know-victorias.html

The term supermodel (also spelled super-model, super model refers to a highly-paid fashion model who usually has a worldwide reputation and often a background in haute couture and commercial modeling. The term became prominent in the popular culture of the 1980s. Supermodels usually work for top fashion designers and labels. They have multi-million dollar contracts, endorsements and campaigns. They have branded themselves as household names and worldwide recognition is associated with their modeling careers. They have been on the covers of various magazines. Claudia Schiffer stated, "In order to become a supermodel one must be on all the covers all over the world at the same time so that people can recognise the girls."

Contents
1 History
1.1 Origins of term and first supermodel
1.2 1960s-1970s
1.3 1980s
1.4 1990s
1.5 2000s and present day
2 Criticism
3 See also
4 References


History

Origins of term and first supermodel


Lisa Fonssagrives


Cheryl Tiegs
An early use of the term "supermodel" appeared in 1891 in an interview with artist Henry Stacy Marks for The Strand Magazine, in which Marks told journalist Harry How, "A good many models are addicted to drink, and, after sitting a while, will suddenly go to sleep. Then I have had what I call the 'super' model. You know the sort of man; he goes in for theatrical effect;..." On October 6, 1942, a writer named Judith Cass had used the term "supermodel" for her article in the Chicago Tribune, which headlined "Super Models are Signed for Fashion Show". Later in 1943, an agent named Clyde Matthew Dessner used the term in a "how-to" book about modeling entitled So You Want to Be a Model! According to Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women by Michael Gross, Gross claimed the term "supermodel" was first used by Dessner. In 1947, anthropologist Harold Sterling Gladwin wrote "supermodel" in his book Men Out of Asia. In 1949, the magazine Hearst's International Combined with Cosmopolitan referred to Anita Colby, the highest paid model at the time, as a "supermodel": "She's been super model, super movie saleswoman, and top brass at Selznick and Paramount." On October 18, 1959, Vancouver's Chinatown News described Susan Chew as a "supermodel".
The term "supermodel" had been used several times in the media in the 1960s and 1970s. In May 1967, the Salisbury Daily Times referred to Twiggy as a supermodel; the February 1968 article of Glamour magazine listed all 19 "supermodels"; the Chicago Daily Defender wrote "New York Designer Turns Super Model" in January 1970; The Washington Post and Mansfield News Journal used the term in 1971; and in 1974 both the Chicago Tribune and The Advocate also used the term "supermodel" in their articles. American Vogue used the term "supermodel" on the cover page to describe Margaux Hemingway in the September 1, 1975 edition. Jet also described Beverly Johnson as a "supermodel" in the December 22, 1977 edition.
In 1979, model Janice Dickinson claimed to have coined the term "supermodel" as a compound of Superman and model. During an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Dickinson stated that her agent Monique Pilar of Elite Model Management asked her, "Janice, who do you think you are, Superman?" She replied, "No... I'm a supermodel, honey, and you will refer to me as a supermodel and you will start a supermodel division." Dickinson also claims to be the first supermodel.
Lisa Fonssagrives is widely considered the world's first supermodel. She was in most of the major fashion magazines and general interest magazines from the 1930s to the 1950s, including Town & Country, Life, Vogue, the original Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, and Time. Dorian Leigh has also been called the world's first supermodel, as well as Gia Carangi and Jean Shrimpton.

1960s-1970s
In February 1968, an article in Glamour described 19 models as "supermodels," of whom were: Cheryl Tiegs, Verushka, Lisa Palmer, Peggy Moffitt, Susan Murray, Twiggy, Susan Harnett, Marisa Berenson, Gretchen Harris, Heide Wiedeck, Irish Bianchi, Hiroko Matsumoto, Anne DeZagher, Kathie Carpenter, Jean Shrimpton, Jean Patchett, Benedetta Barzini, Claudia Duxbury, and Agneta Friedberg.
In the 1970s, some models became more prominent as their names became more recognizable to the general public. Sports Illustrated editor Jule Campbell abandoned then-current modeling trends for its fledgling Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue by photographing "bigger and healthier" California models and printing their names by their photos, thus turning many of them into household names and establishing the issue as a cornerstone of supermodel status.
In 1975, Margaux Hemingway landed a then-unprecedented million-dollar contract as the face of Fabergé's Babe perfume and the same year appeared on the cover of Time magazine, labelled one of the "New Beauties," giving further name recognition to fashion models.
Lauren Hutton became the first model to receive a huge contract from a cosmetics company and appeared on cover of Vogue 25 times. Iman is considered to have been the first supermodel of color.
Donyale Luna became the first African American model to appear in Vogue, Naomi Sims, who is sometimes regarded as the first black supermodel, became the first African American to feature on the cover of Ladies' Home Journal in 1968. The first African American model to be on the cover of American Vogue was Beverly Johnson in 1974.

1980s


Christie Brinkley
In the early 1980s, Inès de la Fressange was the first model to sign an exclusive modeling contract with an haute couture fashion house, Chanel. During the early 1980s, fashion designers began advertising on television and billboards. Catwalk regulars like Gia Carangi, Cheryl Tiegs, Carol Alt, Christie Brinkley, Kim Alexis, Paulina Porizkova, Brooke Shields, Heather Locklear, and Elle Macpherson began to endorse products with their names, as well as their faces, through the marketing of brands such as the beverage Diet Pepsi to the extension of car title Ford Trucks. As the models began to embrace old-style glamour, they were starting to replace film stars as symbols of luxury and wealth. In this regard, supermodels were viewed not so much as individuals but as images.

1990s


Naomi Campbell
By the 1990s, the supermodel became increasingly prominent in the media. The title became tantamount to superstar, to signify a supermodel's fame having risen simply from "personality." Supermodels did talk shows, were cited in gossip columns, partied at the trendiest nightspots, landed movie roles, inspired franchises, dated or married film stars, and earned themselves millions. Fame empowered them to take charge of their careers, to market themselves, and to command higher fees.
When Linda Evangelista mentioned to Vogue that "we don’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day," she may have been playfully pretending the role of an up-scale union representative, but the 1990 comment became the most notorious quote in modeling history. The defining year and turning point for models, fashion, and popular culture was 1990 when the combined power, beauty and influence of 5 women created such an impression on the world that a new word was coined especially for them: supermodel. 1990 began with a January British Vogue cover presenting five of the top modeling stars of the era hand-picked and photographed by Peter Lindbergh. The now famous cover created such a stir, pop star George Michael cast the same five models in his music video for his international hit song, "Freedom! '90." The five models were Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, and Tatjana Patitz. In 1990, their status as top models ended and a new era for the supermodel began. Each attained world-wide fame and fortune, sharing covers of all the international editions of Vogue, walking the catwalks for the world's top designers, and becoming known by their first names alone.
In 1991, Christy Turlington signed a contract with Maybelline that paid her $800,000 for twelve days' work each year. Four years later, Claudia Schiffer reportedly earned $12 million for her various modeling assignments. Authorities ranging from Karl Lagerfeld to Time had declared the supermodels more glamorous than movie stars.
As the 1990s progressed, the supermodels were joined by Claudia Schiffer and then Kate Moss. They were the most heavily in demand, collectively dominating magazine covers, fashion runways, editorial pages, and both print and broadcast advertising. Excluding Moss, they are known as the "original supermodels".
In the late 1990s, actresses, pop singers, and other entertainment celebrities began gradually replacing models on fashion magazine covers and ad campaigns. The pendulum of limelight left many models in anonymity. A popular "conspiracy theory" explaining the supermodel's disappearance is that designers and fashion editors grew weary of the "I won't get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day" attitude and made sure no small group of models would ever again have the power of the Big Six.
Charles Gandee, associate editor at Vogue, has said that high prices and poor attitudes contributed less to the decline of the supermodel. As clothes became less flashy, designers turned to models who were less glamorous, so they wouldn't overpower the clothing. Whereas many supermodels of the previous era were American-born, their accents making for an easier transition to stardom, the majority of models began coming from non-English speaking countries and cultures, making the crossover to mainstream spokesperson and cover star difficult. However, the term continued to be applied to notable models such as Laetitia Casta, Eva Herzigová, Carla Bruni, Tatiana Sorokko, Nadja Auermann, Helena Christensen, Patricia Velásquez, Adriana Karembeu, and Milla Jovovich.

2000s and present day


Chanel Iman
Emerging in the late 1990s, Gisele Bündchen became the first in a wave of Brazilian models to gain popularity in the industry and with the public. With numerous covers of Vogue under her belt, including an issue that dubbed her the "Return of the Sexy Model," Bündchen was credited with ending the "heroin chic" era of models. Following in her footsteps by signing contracts with Victoria's Secret, fellow Brazilians Adriana Lima and Alessandra Ambrosio rose to prominence; however, this "new trinity" were unable to cross over into the world of TV, movies and talk shows as easily as their predecessors due to their foreign accents. Several seasons later, they were followed by Eastern Europeans barely into their teens, pale, and "bordering on anorexic. They were too young to become movie stars or date celebrities; too skeletal to bag Victoria's Secret contracts; and a lack of English didn't bode well for a broad media career". The opportunities for super-stardom were waning in the modeling world, and models like Heidi Klum and Tyra Banks took to television with reality shows like Project Runway and America's Next Top Model, respectively, to not only remain relevant but establish themselves as media moguls.
Contrary to the fashion industry's celebrity trend of the previous decade, lingerie retailer Victoria's Secret continues to groom and launch young talents into supermodel status, awarding their high-profile "Angels" multi-year, multi-million-dollar contracts. In addition to Klum, Banks, Bündchen, Lima, and Ambrosio, these models have included Karolína Kurková, Miranda Kerr, Izabel Goulart, Selita Ebanks, and Marisa Miller. Although some, such as Claudia Schiffer, argued that Bündchen is the only model who comes close to earning the supermodel title,
American Vogue dubbed ten models (Doutzen Kroes, Agyness Deyn, Hilary Rhoda, Raquel Zimmermann, Coco Rocha, Lily Donaldson, Chanel Iman, Sasha Pivovarova, Caroline Trentini, and Jessica Stam) as the new crop of supermodels in their May 2007 cover story, while the likes of Christie Brinkley, Christy Turlington, and Linda Evangelista returned to reclaim prominent contracts from celebrities and younger models.

Criticism

Criticism of the supermodel as an industry has been frequent inside and outside the fashion press, from complaints that women desiring this status become unhealthily thin to charges of racism, where the "supermodel" has generally to conform to a Northern European standard of beauty. According to fashion writer Guy Trebay of The New York Times, in 2007, the "android" look is popular, a vacant stare and thin body serving, according to some fashion industry conventions, to set off the couture. This was not always the case. In the 1970s, black, heavier and "ethnic" models predominated the runways but social changes since that time have made the power players in the fashion industry flee suggestions of "otherness".
The popular media often applies the term loosely to some who fall short of supermodel status. Geraldine Maillet, the celebrated French writer and former model, relates with humour and cynicism the rise and decline of the supermodels in her book Presque Top Model.

See also

Sex symbol
Superstar
Body image
Physical attractiveness
Self image

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On runways, racial diversity is out Author: Guy Trebay, International Herald Tribune, 23 October 2007.

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Rihanna Griffith 

Born Rihanna Jade Griffith
April 16, 1985 (1985-04-16) (age 24)
Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation actress, model, artist
Years active 1998-2005
Rihanna Jade Griffith (born April 16, 1985) is an Australian actress, artist and model.

==Life and career==
Griffith was born in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, Australia. She began modeling as a child, doing runway work and catalogue ads, and progressed from there to television commercials. Rihanna also briefly attended Avondale Seventh Day Adventist High School from 1997-2000.

From there, she got her first guest-starring role on the Australian medical drama Children's Hospital, and won her first film role, as Mercia in the 1998 film 15 Amore. Shortly thereafter, she won ModelQuest98's Grand Final for the 12-to-15 division, and was cast as "Jack" in the science fiction film Pitch Black.

Rihanna continued to act throughout her teenage years, balancing her career with schooling. She starred in Desperately Seeking Brandi, a short film that was broadcast on the Nike website to coincide with the 2000 Sydney Olympic games. Her costars in the film were Brandi Chastain and Oliver Ackland. That same year, she was also a guest-star on the Australian comedy TV series Backberner.

In 2001, she starred in the short film Search by director Hannah Hilliard. In 2002, she did a three-month guest-star stint on the popular Australian soap opera Home & Away and then guest-starred on an episode of the crime drama White Collar Blue. 2003 saw her appearing in a music video by rocker Ben Lee, called "Running With Scissors," directed by Nash Edgerton.

In 2004 she reprised her role as "Jack" from Pitch Black in the anime The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury. She also auditioned to play the role in the feature film sequel to Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick. Her casting was backed by producer and star Vin Diesel, but Rihanna was told she had to "toughen up" for the role. Despite enlisting the aid of a kick-boxing trainer, she had only three weeks to prepare, and the role eventually went to Alexa Davalos.

2004 also saw Rihanna embark upon her art career in earnest, with two major solo gallery showings. Her first, Chrysalis, was held at the Tighes Hill Gallery in Newcastle, Australia in January 2004. Her second, A Month in Kaos, was held at the Surry Hills Cafe 249 art gallery in Sydney, Australia in May, 2004. Rihanna also acted in another short film, A Whole New You, and guest-starred in an episode of the hit Australian medical drama All Saints. As the year came to a close, Rihanna portrayed Barbarella in print and television ads promoting the Flickerfest film festival.

In 2005, Rihanna held her third art exhibition, a collaboration with her brother, poet Damien Griffith, called Sibling Revelry. In conjunction with the art show, they released a limited-edition book of their work, pairing her paintings with his poems. Rihanna also contributed to a Wearable Art Festival, and will launch a line of clothing later in 2005. She is working on her second book, a children's book, for release in late 2005, and portrayed the starring role of Clare Newell in a short film, Wrong Answer, which will be continued in the psychological thriller called Volunteer, to be directed by JD Cohen.

== Portfolio==
Year Work Format Role Status
2006 Volunteer Motion Picture Clare Newell Pre-production
2005 Wrong Answer Short Film Clare Newell Winner of Judges' Choice: Short Film, Audience Choice: Short Film and Best of Fest at the 2005 Frankly Film Fest
2005 Sibling Revelry Art exhibit painter Completed
2004 Flickerfest Advertising campaign Barbarella Completed
2004 All Saints TV show Cindy Single episode guest appearance (completed)
2004 A Whole New You Short film Receptionist Completed
2004 The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury Anime DVD Jack/Jackie Completed
2004 A Month in Kaos Art exhibit painter Completed
2004 Chrysalis Art exhibit painter Completed
2003 Running With Scissors Music video Waitress Completed
2002 White Collar Blue TV show Lilly Derwent Single episode guest appearance (completed)
2002 Home & Away TV show Aimee Cooper Recurring guest role (completed)
2001 Search Short film May Completed
2000 Backberner TV show Kristi Taylor Single episode guest appearance (completed)
2000 Desperately Seeking Brandi Short film (internet webcast) Bea Completed
2000 Pitch Black Motion Picture Jack/Jackie Completed
1999 15 Amore Motion Picture Mercia Completed
1998 Children's Hospital TV show Kelly Single episode guest appearance

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Katy Perry Biography

Birth name Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson
Born October 25, 1984 (1984-10-25) (age 26)
Santa Barbara, California,
United States
Genres Pop, pop rock, dance-pop, electropop
Occupations Singer-songwriter, musician, actress
Instruments Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active 2001–present
Labels Red Hill (2001)
Island (2003–2004)
Columbia (2004–2006)
Capitol (2007–present)

Website: http://www.katyperry.com

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), better known by the stage name Katy Perry, is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actress. Born in Santa Barbara, California, and raised by Christian pastor parents; Perry grew up listening to only gospel music and sang in her local church as a child. After earning a GED during her freshman year of high school, she began to pursue a music career. She released a self-titled gospel album in 2001 as Katy Hudson which was deemed unsuccessful due to the closing of its record label that year. She later recorded an album with production team The Matrix and completed the majority of a solo album from 2004–2005, neither of which was released.

After signing with Capitol Music Group in 2007, her fourth record label in seven years, she adopted the stage name Katy Perry and released her first Internet single, "Ur So Gay", that November, which garnered attention but failed to chart. She rose to fame with the release of her second single "I Kissed a Girl" in 2008, which went on to top international charts. Perry's first mainstream studio album, One of the Boys, followed later that year and subsequently became the thirty-third best selling album worldwide of 2008. It was accredited platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America while "I Kissed a Girl" and her second single "Hot n Cold" both received multi-platinum certifications. Perry was ranked the ninety-seventh Artist of the 2000–10 decade by Billboard. She became known for wearing unconventional style of dress, often combining bold colors and vintage fashion. Her sophomore album, Teenage Dream, was released in August 2010 and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. The album included the hit singles "California Gurls" and "Teenage Dream"; both of which topped the charts on the Billboard Hot 100 and several other countries.

Perry had a long relationship with Travie McCoy; she married Russell Brand on October 23, 2010.

Contents
1 Early life
2 Recording career
2.1 2001–07: Career beginnings
2.2 2008–09: One of the Boys and MTV Unplugged
2.3 2010–present: The X Factor, Teenage Dream, film debut, and marriage
3 Music and themes
4 Style and image
5 Personal life
6 Discography
7 Filmography


Early life
Katy Perry was born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson in Santa Barbara, California. She is of English, German and Portuguese descent and is second child of two pastors, she has an older sister and younger brother. Her Evangelical mother, Mary Hudson (née Perry), grew up in Southern California and had "a tempestuous first marriage in Zimbabwe." Her father, Keith Hudson, was a West Coast scenester in the 1960s. Perry's maternal aunt and uncle were screenwriter Eleanor Perry and director Frank Perry, through whom she is also related to Charles M. Schwab, the founder of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation.

Perry was incorporated into her parents' ministry; she sang in their church from ages 9 to 17. She grew up listening to gospel music and was not allowed to listen to what her mother called secular music. Perry attended Christian schools and camps. As a child, Perry learned how to dance in a recreation building in Santa Barbara. She was taught by seasoned dancers and began with swing, Lindy Hop, and jitterbug. She took her GED after her freshman year at Dos Pueblos High School and decided to leave school to pursue a career in music. Perry initially started singing "because I was at that point in my childhood where I was copycatting my sister and everything she did." Her sister practiced with cassette tapes, and Perry took the tapes herself when her sister was not around. She rehearsed the songs and performed them for her parents, who suggested she should take voice lessons. She grabbed the opportunity and began taking lessons at age nine to 16. She enrolled in at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and studied Italian opera for a short time.

Recording career
2001–07: Career beginnings

Katy Perry performing on her guitar. She learned how to play the instrument when she was just starting her record career.At the age of 15, Perry's singing in church attracted the attention of rock veterans from Nashville, Tennessee, who brought her there to polish her writing skills. In Nashville, Perry started recording demos and was taught by country music veterans on how to craft songs and play guitar. Perry signed to the Christian music label Red Hill, under which she recorded her first album at the age of 15. Performing as Katy Hudson, she released the self-titled Gospel-rock album in 2001. The album was unsuccessful, however, after the label ceased operations at the end of 2001. She later changed her surname to Perry, her mother's maiden name, because "Katy Hudson" was too close to film actress Kate Hudson. At the age of 17, Perry left her home for Los Angeles, where she worked with Glen Ballard on an album for record label Island. The album was due for release in 2005, but Billboard reported it also went nowhere. Perry was dropped by Island Def Jam Music Group. Some of Perry and Ballard's collaborations included "Box", "Diamonds" and "Long Shot", were posted on her official MySpace page. "Simple", one of the songs she recorded with Ballard, was released on the soundtrack to the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

Perry signed to Columbia Records in 2004. However, the label was not amenable with her vision, not putting her in the "driver's seat". Instead, one of Columbia's ideas was to pair Perry with the record production team The Matrix, who was working on an album, to serve as its female vocalist. Although the album was later shelved, she caught the attention of the music press: Her burgeoning music career led to her being named "The Next Big Thing" in October 2004 by Blender magazine. With no album project ongoing, Perry began recording her own. Eighty percent completed, however, Columbia decided not to finish it and dropped her off the label.

While waiting to find another label, she worked in an independent A&R company called Taxi Music. In 2006, Perry was featured in the tail-end of the video to P.O.D.'s single "Goodbye for Now". She made a cameo appearance in Carbon Leaf's video, "Learn to Fly", and in Gym Class Heroes' video, "Cupid's Chokehold", playing the eventual love interest of lead singer Travie McCoy.

Prior to being dropped by Columbia, its then publicity executive Angelica Cob-Baehler recommended Perry to Capitol A&R Chris Anokute while at the 2006 Grammy Awards. Keen to hear more, Anokute was sent a DVD, featuring a video of "Simple", and a three-song demo. It was after hearing the demo of "Waking Up in Vegas" that Anokute became convinced of Perry's star talent. He showed the demo to his boss Jason Flom, then head of Capitol Music Group, telling him, "I've found the next Avril Lavigne meets Alanis Morissette." Flom proved to be less enthusiastic, however; he wasn't convinced the demos were good enough and was wary about an artist that had already been dropped by two major labels. Anokute refused to give up and eventually his persistence together with that of new Virgin employee, Cob-Baehler, paid off. Perry was signed to Capitol Music in early 2007.

2008–09: One of the Boys and MTV Unplugged

Katy Perry performing on the 2008 Vans Warped TourMain article: One of the Boys (Katy Perry album)
After signing to Capitol Records, Perry began recording tracks for her official mainstream debut album, One of the Boys, and establishing her image was one of the immediate concerns of her management. A campaign was started in November 2007 with the release of the video to "Ur So Gay", aimed at introducing her to the music market. A digital EP led by "Ur So Gay" was later released to create online buzz and press story. This was a successful move that resulted in bringing Perry to the attention of Madonna, who mentioned her on KISS FM and KRQ's JohnJay & Rich morning show in Arizona. On March 10, 2008, she appeared as herself on the ABC Family television series, Wildfire, on the episode "Life's Too Short".

While the buzz over Perry was building, she went on the next step of promoting the album, undertaking a two-month tour of radio stations. The album's official lead single, "I Kissed a Girl", was released on May 6, 2008. Perry's A&R, Chris Anokute, told HitQuarters how, despite being himself convinced it was a "career record", the song and its controversial theme met with strong resistance at the label, "People said, 'This is never going to get played on the radio. How do we sell this? How’s this going to be played in the bible belt?'" Anokute said that he needed the support of one of the label's radio promoters to convince people to believe in the record otherwise Perry would have likely been dropped again. Capitol's SVP of Promotions Dennis Reese saw the vision and helped Anokute push the single on national radio. The first station to pick it up and take a chance was The River in Nashville. After playing it for three days they were innundated with enthusiastic calls.

With the song climbing atop the charts, Perry embarked on the annual Warped Tour music festival, which her management used to "establish her as a credible performer and make sure she wasn't seen as just a one-hit wonder." The single was a commercial success, peaking at number one for seven weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. It has since become a major worldwide hit, topping charts in 30 countries, including Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. On June 12, 2008, Perry appeared as herself on the daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless, posing for the cover to the June 2008 issue of the fictional magazine Restless Style.


Katy Perry performs live in Berlin, September 2008.One of the Boys was released on June 17, 2008 to mixed critical reviews. The album has reached number nine on the Billboard 200, and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Perry released her second single, "Hot n Cold", which became her second top three single in dozens of countries around the world, including the United States where it reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as topping the charts in Germany, Canada, and Denmark. After Perry wrapped up her appearance at the Warped Tour, she went on tours in Europe. She later launched her first headlining tour, the Hello Katy Tour, in January 2009. "I Kissed a Girl" earned Perry a nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 2009 Grammy Awards. Perry was nominated in five categories at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, including Best New Artist and Best Female Video, but lost to Britney Spears. She won Best New Act at the 2008 MTV Europe Music Awards, which she co-hosted, and Best International Female Artist at the 2009 BRIT Awards. On February 9, 2009, both "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot n Cold" were certified three-time platinum by Recording Industry Association of America for individual digital sales of over three million.

The Matrix's self-titled debut album, which features Perry, was later released via the team's label, Let's Hear It, during Perry's solo tour. When the release date was scheduled, "I Kissed a Girl" had been charting well. Matrix member Lauren Christy spoke to Perry about the decision, but she wanted to hold the release until the fourth single of One of the Boys had been dispatched. Despite their communication, The Matrix was released on January 27, 2009, via iTunes Store.

In December 2008, Perry apologized to British singer Lily Allen for remarks in which she called herself a "skinnier version" of her, saying she meant it as a joke. Allen retaliated and told a British radio station that she "happened to know for a fact that she Perry was an American version" of her because their record company needed "to find something controversial and 'kooky'" like her.


Katy Perry performing at the 2009 Life Ball in Vienna On May 16, 2009, Perry performed at the opening ceremony of the annual Life Ball in Vienna, Austria. In June 2009, lawyers acting for Katy Perry opposed the recent trademark of Australian fashion designer Katie Perry who uses her own name to market loungewear. Some media outlets reported this as a lawsuit, which Katy Perry has denied on her blog. Katie Perry the designer reports on her blog that at a hearing with IP Australia on 10 July 2009, the singer's lawyers withdrew their opposition to the trademark.

During the summer of 2009 Perry filmed a cameo appearance for Get Him to the Greek, her scene, in which she kisses her future fiancé Russell Brand was cut, and does not appear in the final film. Discussing the issue with MTV, Perry hypothesized there may have been some fear that seeing the two make out would have taken viewers out of the experience.

In 2009, Perry was featured on two singles: a remix of Colorado-based band 3OH!3's song "Starstrukk" in August (the idea for the collaboration came after Perry's tour that featured 3OH!3 as the supporting act). The song was released over iTunes on September 8, 2009; and "If We Ever Meet Again", the fourth single off Timbaland's album Shock Value II in December.

In October 2009, MTV Unplugged revealed that Perry was one of the artists to perform for them, and that she would be releasing a live album of the performance, including two new tracks, "Brick by Brick" and Fountains of Wayne cover "Hackensack". The album was released on November 17, and includes both a CD and a DVD.

2010–present: The X Factor, Teenage Dream, film debut, and marriage
Main article: Teenage Dream (Katy Perry album)
Perry appeared as a guest judge alongside Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole and Louis Walsh during the Dublin audition stage of the seventh series of the British television show The X Factor on June 28, 2010 (later televised on August 28). She was one of the many celebrities chosen to fulfil the role of judge whilst Dannii Minogue was on maternity leave. She later returned to the show on October 17 to perform "Firework".


Perry promoting "California Gurls" at the 2010 MuchMusic Video Awards.Perry's second mainstream studio album was titled Teenage Dream and was released in August 2010. The first single from the album was titled "California Gurls". The single peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the fastest rising single from a Capitol Records artist since Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe" in 1967. The cover art for Teenage Dream is a painting by Will Cotton in which depicts Perry lying naked on clouds of cotton candy; resembling the shots of Perry in the video for "California Gurls". The booklet of the physical edition of the album, in keeping with the theme of cotton candy, has a cotton candy scent. The album's second single "Teenage Dream" was released in July 2010. "Firework" is the album's third single.


Perry at Dos Pueblos High School Katy Perry appeared at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. She was nominated for two awards and presented the award of "Best Male Video" with Nicki Minaj to Eminem. On September 14, she returned to her old high school, Dos Pueblos High School, where she performed a short set for the school's students.

Perry performed the song "Hot n Cold" with Elmo from Sesame Street, which was originally to appear on the forty-first-season premiere of the educational children's program on September 27, 2010. However, four days before the scheduled airing, Sesame Workshop announced,

"In light of the feedback we've received on the Katy Perry music video ... we have decided we will not air the segment on the television broadcast of Sesame Street, which is aimed at preschoolers. Katy Perry fans will still be able to view the video on YouTube."
The main reason was that parents complained about what appeared to be a great amount of cleavage shown by her dress. However, it was revealed that Perry was, in fact, wearing a flesh-colored mesh that went all the way to her neck.

Perry has announced her own fragrance to be released in autumn of this year, named "Purr". It will come in a cat-shaped bottle, and will be available through Nordstrom stores.

On October 23rd 2010, Perry was married to Comedian Russell Brand.Brand, 35, proposed to Perry, 25, in India outside the Taj Mahal, December 2010. Katy and Russell's traditional Indian ceremony was held at the ultra-exclusive Arman-I-Khas resort, close to the Ranthambore Safari Park in rural Rajasthan.It's thought around 80 guests flew out to India for Russell and Katy's special ceremony, to which only the pair's closest friends and family were invited. On October 21st, Russell's mum Barbera was spotted making her way through Mumbai Airport, meanwhile Russell's dad was banned from the wedding due to the fact he Divorced his mum when he was a child. Later in the day Katy's parents also touched down.With a guest list that reads like a who's who of Hollywood, we're sure Russell and Katy's nuptials were a suitably glittering affair. Jonathan Ross, David Walliams and P.Diddy were all thought to be in attendance out in India, but there was one noticeable absence, pop star Rihanna, who organised the hen party, and was tipped to be Katy's maid of honour, didn't make the big day 'due to work commitments'. Although Russell and Katy asked not to be given gifts by guests (instead they asked for money which will be donated to charity) it didn't stop them lavishing special presents on each other. Russ spent thousands on a treat for the new Mrs Perry, buying Machli, a female Bengal Tiger living at the Ranthambore reserve. He's also said to have given his bride a glittering ruby, said to possess 'protective powers'. Katy splashed out on a baby elephant, also at the reserve for her new husband.

Perry is set to make her film debut in the upcoming 2011 film The Smurfs, as Smurfette, alongside Neil Patrick Harris, Jonathan Winters, Alan Cumming, and George Lopez.

Music and themes

Katy Perry performing in August 2008 Perry has a contralto vocal range. Among Perry's musical influences are Alanis Morissette, pop rockers Cyndi Lauper, Pat Benatar, Joan Jett, Shirley Manson, and Freddie Mercury, the late frontman of the British band Queen. Growing up listening to gospel music, Perry had few references when she began recording songs. Asked by the producer with whom she would like to collaborate, Perry had no idea. That night, she went with her mother to a hotel. Inside, she turned on VH1 and saw producer Glen Ballard talking about Morissette; Ballard produced Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, the album that had a "huge influence" on Perry. She told her initial collaborator that she had decided to work with Ballard. The producer arranged a meeting for her and Ballard in Los Angeles. Perry presented him a song, and a day later she was called. Ballard developed Perry for a few years.

Perry described her music by saying, "Someone kind of penned it for me the other day, and I've been using it ever since." According to her, she has "changed a lot between the ages of 15 to 23." Her first album dwells on Gospel music. She related that her perspective in music was "a bit enclosed and very strict", and everything she did was church-related. Her second album, One of the Boys, is described as "secular" and "rock," and reflects a departure from her religious musical roots. Perry expects to record more pop songs for her next album.

Perry is artistically involved in her projects, especially in the writing process. Since she could play guitar, she would start writing songs at home and present it to her producers. Perry is mostly inspired by specific moments of her life. She said it is easy for her to write songs about heartbreak. Most of the themes in One of the Boys deal with heartbreak, teen adventure, and "puking into toilets".
Perry's mother reportedly told British tabloid Daily Mail that she dislikes her daughter's music, calling it "shameful and disgusting". Perry said her mother was misquoted and told MTV that it was false information. Her songs "Ur So Gay" and "I Kissed a Girl" have received negative reactions from both religious and gay sectors. The songs have been respectively labeled as being homophobic and promoting homosexuality, as well as "lezploitational". MTV mentioned criticism suggesting that Perry is using "bi-curiosity" as a way to sell records. Perry responded to the controversy surrounding "Ur So Gay": "It's not a negative connotation. It's not, 'you're so gay,' like, 'you're so lame,' but the fact of the matter is that this boy should've been gay. I totally understand how it could be misconstrued or whatever ... It wasn't stereotyping anyone in particular, I was talking about ex-boyfriends."

Style and image

Katy Perry singing Perry is known for her unconventional style of dress. It is often humorous, bright in color, and reminiscent of different decades, and she frequently uses fruit-shaped accessories, mainly watermelon, as part of her outfits. Having learned dancing at an early age, she fancied about having her own style. Perry's transformation into an artist began with fashion, inspired by American film actress Dominique Swain's portrayal in 1997 film adaptation of the novel Lolita. She defines her fashion style as "a bit of a concoction of different things". Johnny Wujek, Perry's stylist, described her style, upon meeting her for the first time, as "very colorful and vintage". Her fashion has caught the attention of designers, who were giving her nearly as much attention as fans of her music.

In June 2008, a publicity photo that showed Perry posing with a switchblade was criticized. The picture was defended as only an effort to give Perry a "sexy, harder edge". The criticism leveled at her was mocked by Perry who subsequently posed with a spoon instead.

Personal life
Perry dated Gym Class Heroes frontman Travie McCoy, whom she met in a recording studio in New York, on and off for several years. After more than a year of friendship and casual dating, they became serious with their relationship right before they embarked on the 2008 Warped Tour. Perry and McCoy broke up in December 2008. The two began dating again in early 2009 and broke up again a few months later.

Perry first met British comedian Russell Brand in the summer of 2008 when Perry filmed a cameo for Brand's film Get Him to the Greek. Perry and Brand began dating after meeting again in September 2009 at the MTV Video Music Awards, where Brand, as host, remarked, "Katy Perry didn't win an award and she's staying at the same hotel as me, so she's gonna need a shoulder to cry on. So in a way, I'm the real winner tonight." The couple became engaged in December 2009 when Brand proposed to Perry while vacationing in India. In a July 2010 YouTube interview, Perry said Brand would be a "perfect" father. Perry has stated that she plans to take dual British citizenship when she marries Brand. "One of the first things I'll do is apply for dual citizenship. I'm not too sure if I have to take a test as I've not had time to look into it. But England is like my second home". Perry and Brand married on October 23, 2010 near the Ranthambhore tiger sanctuary in Rajasthan, India, the same location where Brand had proposed. They were married in a traditional Hindu ceremony.

Discography
Main article: Katy Perry discography
Katy Hudson (2001)
One of the Boys (2008)
Teenage Dream (2010)
Filmography
Television
Year Title Role Notes
2008 The Young and the Restless Herself Episode 8914
Wildfire Herself "Life's Too Short" (Season 4, episode 8)
2010 American Idol Guest Judge Season 9, episode 5
The X Factor Series 7, episode 2
Sesame Street Herself Online special (deleted from televised episode)
Film
Year Title Role Notes
2011 The Smurfs Smurfette Voice


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FREE VIDEO - "Born This Way" Lady Gaga

FREE VIDEO - "Born This Way" Lady Gaga :

Billboard Hot 100 - Year 2012

Lady Gaga Biography


Birth name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta
Born March 28, 1986 (1986-03-28) (age 24)
Origin Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Genres Pop, dance, electronica
Occupations Singer, songwriter, musician, dancer
Instruments Vocals, piano, synthesizer, keytar
Years active 2006-present
Labels Interscope, Streamline, Kon Live, Cherrytree, Def Jam
Website http://www.ladygaga.com

Lady Gaga (born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta; March 28, 1986) is an American recording artist. She had enrolled at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts to study music, but left the college and began performing in the rock music scene of New York City's Lower East Side. She soon signed with Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records, upon its establishment in 2007. During her early time at Interscope, she worked as a songwriter for fellow label artists and captured the attention of Akon, who recognized her vocal abilities, and got her signed to his own label, Kon Live Distribution.

Her debut album, The Fame, was released on August 19, 2008. In addition to receiving generally positive reviews, it reached number one in Canada, Austria, Germany and Ireland, and topped the Billboard Top Electronic Albums chart. Its first two singles, "Just Dance" and "Poker Face", co-written and co-produced with RedOne, became international number-one hits, topping the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States as well as the charts of other countries. The album later earned a total of six Grammy Award nominations and won awards for Best Electronic/Dance Album and Best Dance Recording. In early 2009 she embarked on her first headlining tour, The Fame Ball Tour. By the fourth quarter of the year, she had released her second studio album The Fame Monster, with the global chart-topping lead single "Bad Romance", as well as having embarked on her second headlining tour of the year, The Monster Ball Tour.

Lady Gaga is inspired by glam rock musicians such as David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, as well as pop music artists such as Madonna and Michael Jackson. She has also stated fashion is a source of inspiration for her songwriting and performances. In December, 2009 Lady Gaga was ranked the #73rd Artist of the Decade by Billboard Magazine. As of May 2010, she had sold over 11.5 million albums and over 40 million singles worldwide. In May 2010, Time magazine included Gaga in its annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.

Contents
1 Biography
1.1 1986-2004: Early life
1.2 2005-07: Career beginnings
1.3 2008 onwards: The Fame and The Fame Monster
2 Musical style and influences
2.1 Public image
3 Discography
4 Tours
5 Awards and nominations



==Biography==
1986-2004: Early life
Stefani Germanotta was born on March 28, 1986, the eldest child of Italian American parents Joseph and Cynthia Germanotta (née Bissett), in New York City. She learned to play piano from the age of four, went on to write her first piano ballad at 13 and began performing at open mike nights by age 14. At the age of 11, Germanotta attended Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private Roman Catholic school. An avid thespian in high school musicals, Germanotta portrayed lead roles as Adelaide in Guys and Dolls and Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. She described her academic life in high school as "very dedicated, very studious, very disciplined" but also "a bit insecure" as she told in an interview, "I used to get made fun of for being either too provocative or too eccentric, so I started to tone it down. I didn’t fit in, and I felt like a freak." Acquaintances dispute that she did not fit in school. "She had a core group of friends; she was a good student. She liked boys a lot, but singing was No. 1", recalled a former high school classmate. Referring to her "expressive, free spirit", Gaga told Elle magazine "I'm left-handed!"

At age 17, Germanotta gained early admission to the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. There she studied music, and improved her songwriting skills by composing essays and analytical papers focusing on topics such as art, religion, social issues and politics. Germanotta lived in a NYU dorm on 11th Street but felt that she was more creative than some of her classmates. "Once you learn how to think about art, you can teach yourself," she said. By the second semester of her sophomore year, she withdrew from the school to focus on her musical career. Her father agreed to pay her rent for a year, on the condition that she re-enroll for Tisch, if she was unsuccessful. "I left my entire family, got the cheapest apartment I could find, and ate shit until somebody would listen," she said.

2005-07: Career beginnings
Germanotta had initially signed with Def Jam Recordings at the age of 19, after Island Def Jam Music Group Chairman and CEO L. A. Reid heard her singing down the hallway from his office. After three months, she was dropped from Def Jam, although they introduced her to songwriter and producer RedOne, whom they also managed. The first song she produced together with RedOne was "Boys Boys Boys", a mash-up inspired by Mötley Crüe's "Girls, Girls, Girls" and AC/DC's "T.N.T.". She moved into an apartment on the Lower East Side, and from there she started the Stefani Germanotta Band with some friends from NYU. They recorded an EP of their Fiona Apple-esque ballads, at a studio underneath a liquor store in New Jersey, becoming a local fixture at the downtown LES club scene. She began taking drugs soon after, while performing at burlesque shows. Her father did not understand the reason behind her drug addiction and could not look at her for several months. Music producer Rob Fusari, who helped her write some of her earlier songs, compared her vocal style to that of Freddie Mercury. Fusari helped create the moniker Gaga, after the Queen song "Radio Ga Ga". One day, Germanotta was in the process of trying to come up with a stage name, when she received a text message from Fusari that read "Lady Gaga". He explained, "Every day, when Stef came to the studio, instead of saying hello, I would start singing 'Radio Ga Ga.' That was her entrance song. Lasy Gaga was actually a glitch; I typed 'Radio Ga Ga' in a text and it did an autocorrect so somehow 'Radio' got changed to 'Lady'. She texted me back, "That's it." After that day, she was Lady Gaga. She’s like, "Don’t ever call me Stefani again."


Gaga performing at a barShe was known thereafter as Lady Gaga. Throughout 2007, Gaga collaborated with performance artist Lady Starlight, who helped create her onstage fashions. The pair began playing gigs at downtown club venues like the Mercury Lounge, The Bitter End, and the Rockwood Music Hall, with their live performance art piece known as "Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue". Billed as "The Ultimate Pop Burlesque Rockshow", their act was a low-fi tribute to 1970s variety acts. In August 2007, Gaga and Starlight were invited to play at the American Lollapalooza music festival. The show was critically acclaimed, and their performance received positive reviews. Having initially focused on avant-garde, and electronic dance music, Gaga found her musical niche when she began to incorporate pop melodies and the vintage glam rock of David Bowie and Queen into her music.

Fusari sent the songs he produced with Gaga to his friend, producer and record executive Vincent Herbert. Herbert was quick to sign her to his label Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records. She credited Herbert as the man who discovered her, adding "I really feel like we made pop history, and we're gonna keep going". Having already served as an apprentice songwriter under an internship at Famous Music Publishing, which was later acquired by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Gaga subsequently struck a music publishing deal with Sony/ATV. As a result, she was hired to write songs for Britney Spears, and labelmates New Kids on the Block, Fergie, and the Pussycat Dolls. While Gaga was writing at Interscope, singer-songwriter Akon recognized her vocal abilities, when she sang a reference vocal for one of his tracks in studio. He then convinced Interscope-Geffen-A&M Chairman and CEO Jimmy Iovine to form a joint deal, by having her also sign with his own label Kon Live Distribution, and later called her his "franchise player." Gaga continued her collaboration with RedOne, by working with him in the studio for a week on her debut album, spawning the future singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". She also joined the roster of Cherrytree Records, an Interscope imprint established by producer and songwriter Martin Kierszenbaum, after co-writing four songs with Kierszenbaum including the single "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)".

2008 onwards: The Fame and The Fame Monster
By 2008, Gaga had relocated to Los Angeles, working closely with her record label to finalize her debut album The Fame. She combined a lot of different genres on the album, "from Def Leppard drums and hand claps to metal drums on urban tracks." The Fame received positive reviews from critics; according to the music review aggregation of Metacritic, it garnered an average score of 71/100. The album peaked at number one in Austria, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland, and the top-five in Australia and the United States. Its lead single "Just Dance", topped the charts in six countries  Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States  and later received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Dance Recording. The following single, "Poker Face", was an even greater success, reaching number-one in almost all major music markets in the world, including the United Kingdom and the United States. It won the award for Best Dance Recording at the 52nd Grammy Awards, over nominations for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. The Fame was nominated for Album of the Year; it won the Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album. Although her first concert tour happened as an opening act for fellow Interscope pop group, the reformed New Kids on the Block, she ultimately headlined her own concert tour, The Fame Ball Tour, which began on March 2009.


Gaga at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.The cover of the annual 'Hot 100' issue of Rolling Stone in May 2009, featured a semi-nude Gaga wearing only strategically placed plastic bubbles. In the issue she discussed that while she was beginning her career in the New York club scene, she was romantically involved with a heavy metal drummer. She described their relationship and break-up, saying of it, "I was his Sandy, and he was my Danny of Grease, and I just broke." He later became an inspiration behind some of the songs on The Fame. She was nominated for a total of nine awards at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, winning the award for "Best New Artist", while her single "Paparazzi" won two awards for "Best Art Direction" and "Best Special Effects." In October 2009, Gaga received Billboard magazine's Rising Star of 2009 award. She attended the Human Rights Campaign's "National Dinner" on October 10, 2009, before marching in the National Equality March in Washington, D.C. In November 2009, Gaga released The Fame Monster, a collection of eight songs that dealt with the darker side of fame as experienced by her over the course of 2008-09, while travelling around the world and are expressed through a monster metaphor. Her second concert tour, The Monster Ball Tour, was announced in support of The Fame Monster and began in November 2009. "Bad Romance" was released as the first single from the album and topped the charts in eighteen countries, while reaching the top-two in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. "Speechless", a song from The Fame Monster, was performed at The 2009 Royal Variety Performance where Gaga met and sang for Queen Elizabeth II.


Gaga performing on The Monster Ball TourGaga was chosen as of one the '10 Most Fascinating People of 2009' by Barbara Walters during Walters' annual ABC News special. When interviewed by the journalist, the singer went to dismiss the claim that she is intersex as an urban legend, responding to a question on this issue by stating: "At first it was very strange and everyone sorta said, 'That's really quite a story!' But in a sense, I portray myself in a very androgynous way, and I love androgyny." On January 7, 2010, she was named chief creative officer for a line of imaging products for Polaroid, stating that she will create fashion, technology and photography products. In the wake of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Gaga donated all of her proceeds from the January 24 show of The Monster Ball (ticket sales, merchandise, etc.), and from her online store; the total amount donated was over $500,000. She also collaborated with artist Cyndi Lauper, for MAC AIDS Fund's VIVA Glam campaign, which raised over $160 million to fight against AIDS and HIV, and bring awareness about the diseases to women around the world. The second single "Telephone", which features R&B singer Beyoncé, became her fourth UK number-one single, while reaching the top three in Australia, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Canada and the United States. On March 19, 2010, Rob Fusari sued Gaga's production company Mermaid Music LLC, claiming that he was entitled to a 20% share of its earnings. Gaga's lawyer Charles Ortner described the agreement with Fusari as "unlawful" and declined to comment. In an interview with MTV United Kingdom, Gaga stated that she had begun work on her new studio album. She said that shes "already written the core of it" and that "it's certainly my best work to date." On April 16, 2010, her music videos gained over one billion viral views, becoming the first artist to reach this milestone. Later that month, Gaga was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of the year. Cyndi Lauper, who wrote the article in TIME about Gaga, called her "a performance artist" saying that "she herself is the art, she is the sculpture."

==Musical style and influences==
Gaga has been influenced by glam rock musicians such as David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, as well as pop music artists such as Madonna and Michael Jackson. The Queen song "Radio Ga Ga" inspired her stage name, "Lady Gaga". She commented: "I adored Freddie Mercury and Queen had a hit called 'Radio Gaga'. That's why I love the name Freddie was unique one of the biggest personalities in the whole of pop music." Madonna told Rolling Stone that she sees "herself in Lady Gaga." In response to the comparisons between herself and Madonna, Gaga stated: "I don't want to sound presumptuous, but I've made it my goal to revolutionise pop music. The last revolution was launched by Madonna 25 years ago." Actress and singer Grace Jones was also cited as an inspiration by her. She has often been likened to Blondie singer Debbie Harry.

Gaga's vocals have drawn frequent comparison to Madonna and Gwen Stefani, while the structure of her music is said to be reminiscent of classic 1980s pop and 1990s Europop. While reviewing her debut album The Fame, The Sunday Times asserted "in combining music, fashion, art and technology, Lady GaGa evokes Madonna, Gwen Stefani circa 'Hollaback Girl', Kylie Minogue 2001 or Grace Jones right now." Similarly, The Boston Globe critic Sarah Rodman commented that she draws "obvious inspirations from Madonna to Gwen Stefani... in her girlish but sturdy pipes and bubbly beats." Though her lyrics are said to lack intellectual stimulation, "she does manage to get you moving and grooving at an almost effortless pace." Music critic Simon Reynolds wrote that "Everything about Gaga came from electroclash, except the music, which wasn't particularly 1980s, just ruthlessly catchy noughties pop glazed with Auto-Tune and undergirded with R&B-ish beats.

Gaga has stated that she is "very into fashion" and that it is "everything" to her. She considers Donatella Versace her muse. Gaga has her own creative production team called the Haus of Gaga, which she handles personally. The team creates many of her clothes, stage props, and hairdos. Her love of fashion came from her mother, who she stated was "always very well kept and beautiful." She said that: "When I'm writing music, I'm thinking about the clothes I want to wear on stage. It's all about everything altogether performance art, pop performance art, fashion. For me, it's everything coming together and being a real story that will bring back the super-fan. I want to bring that back. I want the imagery to be so strong that fans will want to eat and taste and lick every part of us." The Global Language Monitor named 'Lady Gaga' as the Top Fashion Buzzword with her trademark 'no pants' coming in at No. 3. Entertainment Weekly put her outfits on its end of the decade "best-of" list, saying, "Whether it's a dress made of Muppets or strategically placed bubbles, Gaga's outré ensembles brought performance art into the mainstream."

==Public image==
Gaga wearing a plastic bubble dress while performing on The Fame Ball Tour.Contrary to her subsequent outré style, the New York Post described her early look as like "a refugee from Jersey Shore" with "big black hair, heavy eye makeup and tight, revealing clothes." Gaga is a natural brunette, however she bleached her hair blonde, because she was often mistaken for Amy Winehouse. She often refers to her fans as her 'little monsters' and got a tattoo with that inscription as a tribute. She has another six known tattoos, among them a peace symbol, which was inspired by the late John Lennon who she stated was her hero, and a curling German script on her left arm which quotes the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, her "favorite philosopher," commenting that his "philosophy of solitude" spoke to her:

In the deepest hour of the night, confess to yourself that you would die if you were forbidden to write. And look deep into your heart where it spreads its roots, the answer, and ask yourself, must I write?
 Rainer Maria Rilke
Toward the end of 2008, comparisons were made between the fashions of Lady Gaga and recording artist Christina Aguilera, noting similarities in their styling, hair, and make-up. Aguilera later said she was "completely unaware of Gaga" and "didn't know if it was a man or a woman." Gaga released a statement in which she welcomed the comparisons, due to the attention providing useful publicity, saying, "She's such a huge star and if anything I should send her flowers, because a lot of people in America didn't know who I was until that whole thing happened. It really put me on the map in a way." Comparisons continued into 2010 when Christina released the music video of her single "Not Myself Tonight". Critics noted similarities between the song and its accompanying music video with Gaga's video for "Bad Romance".


Gaga delivers a speech at the National Equality March, October 11, 2009.Gaga attributes much of her early success as a mainstream artist to her gay fans and is considered to be a rising gay icon. Early in her career she had difficulty getting radio airplay, and stated, "The turning point for me was the gay community. I've got so many gay fans and they're so loyal to me and they really lifted me up. They'll always stand by me and I'll always stand by them. It's not an easy thing to create a fanbase." She thanked FlyLife, a Manhattan-based LGBT marketing company with whom her label Interscope works, in the liner notes of her debut studio album, The Fame, saying, "I love you so much. You were the first heartbeat in this project, and your support and brilliance means the world to me. I will always fight for the gay community hand in hand with this incredible team." One of her first televised performances was in May 2008 at the NewNowNext Awards, an awards show aired by the LGBT television network Logo, where she sang her song "Just Dance". In June of the same year, she performed the song again at the San Francisco Pride event. After The Fame was released, she revealed that the song "Poker Face" was about her bisexuality. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she spoke about how her boyfriends tended to react to her bisexuality, saying "The fact that I’m into women, they’re all intimidated by it. It makes them uncomfortable. They’re like, 'I don’t need to have a threesome. I’m happy with just you'." When she appeared as a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in May 2009, she praised DeGeneres for being "an inspiration for women and for the gay community". She proclaimed that the October 11, 2009, National Equality March rally on the national mall was "the single most important event of her career." As she exited, she left with an exultant "Bless God and bless the gays," similar to her 2009 MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech for Best New Artist a month earlier.

==Discography==
Main article: Lady Gaga discography
The Fame (2008)
The Fame Monster (2009)
Tours
The Fame Ball Tour (2009)
The Monster Ball Tour (2009-2011)
Awards and nominations
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Lady Gaga

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