Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2020 March 21

= March 21 =

There's a band playing on the radio - but who are they?
The Roxy Music song Oh Yeah says "There's a band playing on the radio, With a rhythm of rhyming guitars", but do we know who that band was and what the song? Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 03:22, 21 March 2020 (UTC)
 * It might simply be self-referential; the lyrics say: They're playing / Oh Yeah / On the radio. (Thus the band is Roxy Music) 2606:A000:1126:28D:90F8:18CC:4BE1:53E4 (talk) 07:47, 21 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Check out Guitar George. He knows all the chords. But it's strictly ryhthm he don't wanna make it...cry or sing. I'm talking sultans. They were both "Sultans of Swing"! InedibleHulk (talk) 05:38, 23 March 2020 (UTC)

Arab Digital Distribution (ADD)
It seems not much is known about Arab Digital Distribution (ADD), a defunct multichannel television provider which operated in the Middle East (apart from the fact that it was operated by the same company as Arab Radio and Television Network [ART]). When did it launch, and when did it go bust? Also, is BeIN Channels Network (launched in 2015) the successor of ADD (physical or spiritual), or is it a completely new business? JSH-alive/talk/cont/mail 15:32, 21 March 2020 (UTC)
 * According to this, it was established in 2000 (and was presumably extant as of 2010). 107.15.157.44 (talk) 17:11, 21 March 2020 (UTC)
 * That page seems to have forked data from Wikipedia. Does that mean there was an article about Arab Digital Distribution here in English Wikipedia before it was deleted? JSH-alive/talk/cont/mail 15:40, 22 March 2020 (UTC)

What's the difference...
...between a single and a promotional single (from an album)?? Georgia guy (talk) 17:17, 21 March 2020 (UTC)
 * A promotional single is a release of a song from an album meant to drive up interest in purchasing said album. How is this different from a single in general? You have to understand that the idea of singles being released from albums is not the only possible model. The original model of release for recorded music was as singles only. Albums originated as collections of previously released material, so that it was more a case of albums being collected from singles. The transition to digital music has, in some ways and to some degree, gone in a direction more like that. The idea of albums as the primary form of music release really only applies to a period from the 1960s to the 1990s. Before that, was the "singles first, album collection later" model and after that is the "release the album, but have all tracks also available for individual purchase, but only really promote a few of the songs" model. --Khajidha (talk) 17:29, 21 March 2020 (UTC)
 * There were also business models whereby many singles were not, and were never intended to, be released on albums, though some were later released on "compilation" and "greatest hits" collections, or added as "bonus tracks" to already released albums in later pressings. Some bands had several major songs that never made a studio album, The Beatles had many of their biggest hits ("Strawberry Fields Forever", "Hey Jude" as just two of many examples) that never made an official album as intended (though the first was later appended to the Magical Mystery Tour EP when it was expanded to album length, and the second was released as part of a post-break-up unauthorized album in the U.S. only).  New Order's two biggest hit songs, being "Blue Monday" and "True Faith", were not album songs (though later pressings of Power, Corruption, and Lies included "Blue Monday" as a bonus track), this mirrored New Order's predecessor Joy Division, whose biggest hit "Love Will Tear Us Apart" was a non-album single.  The Lemonheads version of "Mrs. Robinson" was released as a single-only release, but when it became a major hit, later pressings of It's a Shame About Ray had it added; the song was recorded at a different time and a different personnel than the album. This article covers some more.  -- Jayron 32 13:02, 24 March 2020 (UTC)
 * See: Promotional recording & Single (music) —107.15.157.44 (talk) 17:55, 21 March 2020 (UTC)