Musician
A canon: George Clinton - Serge Gainsbourg - Kraftwerk - Larry Levan - Lee Perry - Fela Kuti - Arthur Russell - Neil Young
An A-Z of music people
Bands: Beatles - Clash - Cramps - ESG - Kraftwerk - Liquid Liquid - Ramones - Rolling Stones - Sex Pistols - Sonic Youth - Talking Heads - Stooges [Jun 2005]
Individuals A - Patrick Adams - Masami Akita - Steve Albini - Tony Allen - George Antheil - Juan Atkins - Roy Ayers - B - Afrika Bambaataa - LLoyd Barnes - Josephine Baker - Joe Bataan - Jorge Ben - Chris Blackwell - Dennis Bovell - David Bowie - Glenn Branca - Johannes Brahms - James Brown - Donald Byrd - C - John Cage - Terry Callier - Candido - Manu Chao - Rhys Chatham - Joe Claussell - Ornette Coleman - Bootsy Collins - Stanley Cowell - Patrick Cowley - George Clinton - Carl Craig D - Miles Davis - Claude Debussy - Manu Dibango - Sir Coxsone Dodd - Nick Drake - Sly Dunbar - E - Electrifying Mojo - Brian Eno - F- Bernard Fowler - Grandmaster Flash - Jordan Fields - G - Alain Goraguer - Francis Grasso - Serge Gainsbourg - Rudy Van Gelder - H - Herbie Hancock - Martin Hannet - Larry Heard - Jimi Hendrix - Kool Herc - Bernard Herrmann - Loleatta Holloway - J - Grace Jones - K - Frankie Knuckles - Fela Kuti - L - Patti Labelle - Bill Laswell - Larry Levan - John Lydon - M - David Mancuso - Bob Marley - Derrick May - Malcolm McLaren - Wim Mertens - Jeff Mills - Jackie Mittoo - Moodymann - Moondog - Ennio Morricone - Marc Moulin - Tom Moulton - Giorgio Moroder - N - Milton Nascimiento - Michael Nyman - O - Olatunji - Yoko Ono - John Oswald - Genesis P-Orridge - P - Augustus Pablo - Richard Pinhas - Theo Parrish Lee Perry - Elvis Presley - R - Duke Reid - Minnie Riperton - Sylvia Robinson - Arthur Russell - Luigi Russolo - S - Ryuichi Sakamoto - Pharoah Sanders - Kevin Saunderson - Pierre Schaeffer - Scientist - Arnold Schoenberg - Tee Scott - Adrian Sherwood - DJ Spooky - Karlheinz Stockhausen - Richard Strauss - Igor Stravinsky - Sun Ra - Sylvester - T - Leon Thomas - Linval Thompson - King Tubby - Edgar Varèse - V - Boris Vian - W - Tony Wilson - Doug Wimbish - Paul Winley - Stevie Wonder - Robert Wyatt - Z - Frank Zappa - Peter Zummo [Jun 2005]
Definition
A musician is a person who plays or composes music. Musicians can be classified by how they make music:
- A singer (also called a vocalist) uses his or her voice.
- An instrumentalist plays a musical instrument.
- Composers and songwriters make up music and write it down.
- A conductor coordinates a musical ensemble.
The concept of the musician and the status of the musician in society is culture-specific. Think, for instance, about your own concepts relating to "the heavy metalist", "the folk musician", "the DJ", "the sarangi player", "the female drummer", and so on.
It may also be relevant to mention the songs produced by some animals, including birds. Although many would surely debate whether birds are musicians, their ability to produce variations on the characteristic song of their species is a subject deserving more research (though relating less to music and more to animal communication). The freestyle chatter of even common birds, although lacking the complexity of methods employed by human beings, must be regarded as having some relation to the origins of music. Human beings did not begin producing music by banging away on a keyboard, nor are they the only creatures which respond to (or produce) rhythm and melody. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musician [Feb 2005]