Taylor Swift

Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 14 to pursue a career in country music. She signed to independent label Big Machine Records and became the youngest songwriter ever hired by Sony/ATV Music Publishing. She released herself-titled debut album in 2006. The record spawned five singles: "Tim McGraw", "Picture to Burn", "Teardrops on My Guitar", "Our Song" and "Should've Said No". Swift wrote three of the album's songs alone, including two singles, and co-wrote the remaining eight. As part of the album's promotion, Swift opened on tour for Rascal Flatts, George Strait, Brad Paisley, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. She received a Best New Artist nomination at the 50th Grammy Awards.

In 2008, Swift released her second album, Fearless, which became a crossover commercial success. Five singles were released: "Love Story", "White Horse", "You Belong with Me", "Fifteen" and "Fearless". Swift wrote seven of the album's songs alone, including two singles, and co-wrote the remaining six. The record won four Grammy Awards, with Swift becoming the youngest ever Album of the Year winner. Fearless also received Album of the Year plaudits at the American Music Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards and Country Music Association Awards, making it the most awarded album in country music history. Swift conducted a 105-date Fearless world tour in support of the album. Billboard named her Artist of the Year in 2009.

In 2010, Swift released her third album, Speak Now, which sold over one million copies in its first week. Written and composed entirely by Swift, the record spawned six singles—"Mine", "Back to December", "Mean", "The Story of Us", "Sparks Fly" and "Ours". "Mean" was awardedBest Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance at the 54th Grammy Awards. The 111-date Speak Now World Tour was attended by over 1.7 million fans and has become one of thehighest-grossing concert tours of all time. In 2011, Billboard named Swift Woman of the Year. She is currently recording her fourth album, due for release in the fall of 2012.

Swift's work has earned her numerous accolades, including six Grammy Awards, ten AMAs, seven CMAs, six ACMs and 13 BMI Awards. She has sold over 20 million albums and 41.8 million digital tracks worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Swift has endorsement deals with Target, CoverGirl, Sony, Elizabeth Arden, Walmart and American Greetings. She is considered by Forbes to be one of the wealthiest recording artists working today. In addition to her music career, Swift has appeared as an actress in the crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2009), the romantic comedy Valentine's Day (2010) and the animated film The Lorax (2012).
- Wikipedia

Maroon 5

 Maroon 5 is an American band from Los Angeles, California. While they were in high school, lead vocalist and guitarist Adam Levine, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, bass guitaristMickey Madden, and drummer Ryan Dusick formed a garage band called Kara's Flowers and released one album in 1997. After a brief period they re-formed with guitarist James Valentine, and pursued a new direction as Maroon 5. The following year they released their debut albumSongs About Jane, which contained four hit singles: "Harder to Breathe", "This Love", "She Will Be Loved" and "Sunday Morning"; it also enjoyed major chart success, going gold, platinum, and triple platinum in many countries around the world.

In support of Songs About Jane, Maroon 5 toured extensively throughout 2003–2005, during which time two live albums were released. The band won the Grammy Award for Best New Artistin 2005. Dusick left the band in September 2006, citing injuries sustained by constant touring, and was replaced by Matt Flynn. Maroon 5's second studio album It Won't Be Soon Before Longwas released in 2007, with the singles "Makes Me Wonder", which was their first single to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, "Won't Go Home Without You" and "Wake Up Call". The band performed live in two tours between June and November 2007. During that time a compilation of previously unreleased songs, The B-Side Collection, were released.

Two more live albums and a remix album were issued in 2008. Maroon 5's third studio albumHands All Over was released in the United States on September 21, 2010. Since debuting in 2002, the band has sold over 10 million albums in the United States.

Maroon 5's biggest hit yet is "Moves Like Jagger" featuring pop superstar Christina Aguilera, selling over 7 million copies worldwide as of November 2011, therefore establishing itself among the best-selling singles of all time.

On March 26, 2012, Maroon 5 announced their fourth studio album, Overexposed, will be released on June 26, 2012.

 The four original members of Maroon 5 have known each other since attending Brentwood School in Los Angeles. While attending Brentwood School, Adam Levine and Jesse Carmichael joined up with Mickey Madden and Ryan Dusick to form Kara's Flowers, agarage/grunge band. The name was taken from a girl that the band had a "collective crush" on.The band played its first gig at Whisky a Go Go on September 16, 1995. While they were playing a beach party in Malibu, indie producer Tommy Allen heard them play and offered to manage them and record a complete record with his partner, songwriter John DeNicola (Dirty Dancing). While shopping for a deal for the band, Bob Cavallo's management team heard the record Allen and DeNicola produced, which eventually led to their deal with Reprise Records and producer Rob Cavallo.^[10] Very early on, their sound was what Carmichael called "Fugazi [the sound] meets Sesame Street [the lyrics]". However, by the release of The Fourth World in 1996, they had morphed into band with a style reminiscent of 1960s Britpop.Despite high expectations from the band and record company, the album failed to catch on and their lead single, "Soap Disco", was a failure. According to Levine, the failure of the album was "a huge disappointment" that nearly led them to break up in 1998. The album sold around 5,000 copies and they were dropped after only six months.

When the two returned in 2000, they brought those influences with them. Sam Farrar (bassist of the band Phantom Planet, which is currently on hiatus, and former roommate of Levine and Valentine) says that the Aaliyah song "Are You That Somebody?" affected the band and influenced the song "Not Coming Home." Producer Tim Sommer signed them to a demo deal with MCA records and produced three tracks with them in Los Angeles in the middle of 2000 with Mark Dearnly engineering. Against Sommer's advice, MCA declined to pick up the band, and these tracks were never released. Jordan Feldstein, a friend of Levine's family and a junior agent at ICM, stopped by one of the band's rehearsals and was so surprised by what he heard that he quit his job in order to manage the band full time.The band put together a demo that was rejected by several labels, before falling into the hands of Octone Records executives James Diener, Ben Berkman and David Boxenbaum. While looking for talent for the new Octone label, Berkman was given a bunch of demos by the brother of a former colleague at Columbia Records and the song that caught his attention was "a genius song called 'Sunday Morning'".Berkman was surprised the song was credited to Kara's Flowers because they sounded completely different from the band he had heard while at Warner Brothers.

Berkman encouraged Diener and Boxenbaum to fly out to L.A. to watch a showcase gig at the Viper Room for the four-piece Kara's Flowers. After watching Levine onstage, they were convinced. Berkman told HitQuarters he believed what the band needed was a "fifth member to play the guitar and free up the singer, so he could be the star I perceived him to be." Octone immediately insisted that the band change its name to break with its pop-rock past. Also, the label began looking for a full-time guitarist to enable Levine to focus on performing as the frontman. James Valentine (from the L.A. band Square) was recruited for the job. On his joining the band, Valentine commented: "I became friends with them and we sort of started jamming together, it was very much like I was cheating on my band, we were having sort of an affair and I eventually quit my other band to join up with them."  Even still, the only songs of their repertoire that showcased the band's new direction were "Sunday Morning" and the soon-to-be-written "She Will Be Loved"—neither of which the label approved of as a first single. The band toured for a full year before entering the studio with producer Matt Wallace. Levine's frustration with Berkman's demands for a lead single inspired him to write just that—a song called "Harder to Breathe". The reason for being named "Maroon 5" is a secret that only the band and Billy Joel know. - Wikipedia

Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson is an American folk rock singer-songwriter, surfer and musician known for his work in the soft rock and acoustic  genres. In 2001, he achieved commercial success after the release of his debut album, Brushfire Fairytales. He has since released four more albums, a number of EPs and surfing movies/soundtracks. He is also known for organizing an annual event, the Kōkua Festival. Notable songs from Johnson's repertoire include "Upside Down"; "Flake"; "Sitting, Waiting, Wishing"; "If I had Eyes"; "You and Your Heart"; "Taylor"; "Banana Pancakes" and the widely-popular fan favorite, "Better Together".Jack Johnson's big break was writing and contributing vocals for the song "Rodeo Clowns" which was featured on G. Love's 1999 album 'Philidelphonic'. The song would later become the first single off the album.

In addition to his later success as a musician, Johnson is also an accomplished filmmaker. Johnson directed the surf films Thicker Than Water (2000) and The September Sessions (2002), in which he also starred. Both movie soundtracks were also products of Johnson. Johnson also starred in the 2004 surf film A Brokedown Melody.

Johnson released a four track demo that caught the attention of Ben Harper's producer, J. P. Plunier, who worked with Johnson on his debut album Brushfire Fairytales in early 2001 with Harper and his Weissenborn lap steel guitar making a guest appearance. Brushfire Fairytales was released on February 1, 2001.

Johnson went back into the studio with Adam Topol (drums, percussion) and Merlo Podlewski (bass), who played on Brushfire Fairytales, and Mario Caldato Jr on production duties, to record his second full-length album On and On. It was the first album to be recorded at Johnson's Mango Tree Studio in Johnson's home town of   North Shore, Oahu, and the first to be released through The Moonshine Conspiracy Records. On and On was released on May 6, 2003.

On July 22, 2000, Johnson married his college sweetheart Kim. They have three children, two boys and a girl. Johnson lives on the North Shore of the island of Oahu in Hawaii. In an interview with Johnson, Ann Donahue from Billboard described Johnson's family life by saying “There is often trouble in balancing the life of an artist, environmentalist, and family man, but Johnson seems to have the niche for such a challenge. This time around, he's found a pace that agrees with him…bringing his family along so he can spend mornings with them sightseeing.” Both Johnson and his wife refuse to talk about or release any intimate information concerning their children. --Wikipedia.com