Ron Howard Is Directing The Beatles Official Documentary
Ron Howard is no stranger to music documentaries, especially with last week's release of the Jay Z documentary, Made in America. It's somewhat fitting, then, that the storied actor/director/producer would turn his sights from one of the most influential rappers to the most influential band in history, The Beatles. With full support from Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, and Olivia Harrison, Howard will be directing the official documentary on The Fab Four. The currently untitled documentary will feature 12 to 20 songs from The Beatles' catalog, fan-submitted videos, and more; the doc will also take a look at the band's history and their impact on culture. No date has been set, but a 2015 release is targeted.
In a statement released by Howard, the director had this to say about the project:
I am excited and honored to be working with Apple and the White Horse team on this astounding story of these four young men who stormed the world in 1964. Their impact on popular culture and the human experience cannot be exaggerated.
Considering how huge The Beatles still are these days (hey Shawn and Blake!), it was only a matter of time before an "official" documentary on the band was produced. Thankfully, it's in the very capable hands of Ron Howard, so the film's quality should be very high and treated with utmost respect. Now, it's only a matter of time before an official documentary on The Monkees is released...
[via /Film]
The Beatles named most pirated artists in the world
The Beatles revolutionized both rock and roll and pop. The face of the music landscape today wouldn't be what it is without the English band paving the way for every musician to ever write a song over the past half century. It comes as no surprise, then, that The Beatles have been named the most pirated artists on list compiled by MUSO, one of the leading anti-piracy monitoring companies. MUSO reported that exactly 186,876 illegal Beatles files have been removed from the internet. With an average of roughly 1,000 downloads per file, that totals about 190 million illegal downloads a year. Of course, while The Beatles are immensely popular, a reason for such a large number of illegal Beatles' songs is because of their relatively late inclusion to iTunes. It was only three years ago when EMI, The Beatles' record label, entered an agreement with Apple to bring the band's entire catalog to the popular music service.
The full list of Top 10 illegally-downloaded artists is below. I'm not surprised by the majority of the names, but Fleetwood Mac is at second? REALLY?
1. The Beatles (187,687 uploaded files)
2. Fleetwood Mac (72,984 uploaded files)
3. Bob Marley (60,024 uploaded files)
4. Led Zeppelin (59,011 uploaded files)
5. Cliff Richard (56,576 uploaded files)
6. Stevie Wonder (45,496 uploaded files)
7. Jimi Hendrix (44,093 uploaded files)
8. Elvis Presley (40,794 uploaded files)
9. ABBA (35,193 uploaded files)
10. The Rolling Stones (34,444 uploaded files)
[via NME]
The Beatles: Early Days
At just the age of 18, photographer Mike Mitchell was able to photograph The Beatles at a time when they were about to cement their status as stars on the Ed Sullivan Show. It was two days before that performance where he snapped the following photos, and as he stated, "It was like the birth of my generation." These photos were shot at a performance in 1964 and were taken without a flash capturing some great black and white photos of the group. The photos that Mitchell took that day will be part of a larger exhibit at the Annual DFA Photography Invitational at David Anthony Fine Art, which will open starting August 2. Check out some the great shots that Mitchell took that night of The Beatles in the early years before they blew up to be rock icons.
Photos by Mike Mitchell
[Via Huffington Post]
