Rapture (Blondie song)

"Rapture" is a song by the American pop rock band Blondie from their fifth studio album, Autoamerican (1980).

In January 1981, "Rapture" was released as the second and final single from the album. The song reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it stayed for two weeks. It was the first No. 1 song in the U.S. to feature rap. The song peaked at No. 4 in Australia and No. 5 in the United Kingdom.

History

"Rapture" is a combination of disco, funk, and hip hop with the rap section forming an extended coda. The song title "Rapture" served to indicate this element. While it was not the first single featuring rapping to be commercially successful, it was the first to top the charts. Its lyrics were especially notable for namechecking hip-hop pioneers Fab Five Freddy and Grandmaster Flash.

Music video

The music video made its U.S. television debut on Solid Gold on January 31, 1981, and became the first rap video ever broadcast on MTV. Set in the East Village section of Manhattan, the "Man from Mars" or "voodoo god" (dancer William Barnes in the white suit and top hat) is the introductory and central figure. Barnes also choreographed the piece. The final shot is a one-take scene of Debbie Harry dancing along the street, passing by graffiti artists, Uncle Sam, a Native American and a goat. Fab Five Freddy and graffiti artists Lee Quinones and Jean-Michel Basquiat make cameo appearances. Basquiat was hired when Grandmaster Flash did not show for the filming. The UK 7" version of the song is used in the video.

Rapture (composition)

Rapture is an orchestral composition in one movement by the American composer Christopher Rouse. The work was commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and was completed January 9, 2000. It is dedicated to then Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra music director Mariss Jansons and premiered in May 2000.

Composition

Rapture is markedly more tonal than Rouse's earlier compositions. In the program notes to the score, Rouse commented, "With the exception of my Christmas work, Karolju, this is the most unabashedly tonal music I have composed. I wished to depict a progression to an ever more blinding ecstasy, but the entire work inhabits a world devoid of darkness -- hence the almost complete lack of sustained dissonance." The piece is also built around "gradually increasing tempi" gains speed over the course of its roughly 11 minutes.

Despite the religious title of the work, Rouse did not intend Rapture to be sacred music. He further commented, "...the piece is not connected to any specific religious source. Rather, I used the word 'rapture' to convey a sense of spiritual bliss, religious or otherwise."

Rapture (iiO song)

"Rapture" (sometimes referenced as "Rapture (Taste So Sweet)") is a song by American recording duo iiO. It was chosen as the lead single from their debut studio album, Poetica (2005). The song was written by both the members; Nadia Ali and Markus Moser, while production was handled just by Moser. The song was released on October 29, 2001 by Universal Records. Musically, the song is a dance-oriented song, which was very popular around the early 2000s. The song also incorporates musical genres of dance-pop, electronica, disco, house, and trance music.

With the song winning positive reviews from music critics, citing it as catchy and one of the best songs of the year, the song was a commercial success. The song charted inside the top ten in countries including Romania, United Kingdom, United States, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Ireland. It managed to chart inside the top fifty on the US Billboard Hot 100. A music video was also shot, showing the group in a futuristic city with visual lighting.

Hope (Ukrainian political party)

The People's Action Party "Hope" (Ukrainian: Партія Народної Дії «НАДІЯ») was founded on 18 March 2005, and has a presence in 27 regions and 525 districts of Ukraine. It is headed by Sergei Selifontiev, who created the "light parliamentary movement" in contrast to what he felt was a shady parliament of the day. On the day of its inception, 1,200,000 citizens of Ukraine joined the party.

References

Up (R.E.M. album)

Up is the eleventh studio album by the American alternative rock band R.E.M. It was the band's first album without original drummer Bill Berry, who left the group amicably in October 1997 to pursue his own interests. In his place, R.E.M. used session drummers and drum machines.

Details

Up saw R.E.M. move into electronic music-influenced territory after delivering New Adventures in Hi-Fi in 1996. Ending a 10-year relationship with co-producer Scott Litt, the band engaged the production assistance of Pat McCarthy, who was assisted on most tracks by engineer Nigel Godrich, Radiohead's producer. The single "Daysleeper" became a Top 10 UK hit, and "Lotus", The Beach Boys-influenced "At My Most Beautiful" and "Suspicion" were also released as singles.

"There are certain things I set out to do," Michael Stipe noted. "Rough ideas that I wanted to play around with. One of them was the religious-spiritual versus science-technology-modern-age. There are several songs on the record that, to me, address that. I don't know how other people are going to take them. It's taking off a little bit from 'Undertow' and 'New Test Leper', with the freedom of 'E-Bow the Letter' and 'Country Feedback' – songs that just come out. What I really wanted was more of that automatic, unconscious stuff… greatly inspired by Patti Smith and various others… Bert Downs said the record's about people falling down and getting back up again. He said there's a lot of that imagery. I'm like, 'Really?'"

Hope (2013 film)

Hope (Hangul: 소원; RR: So-won), also known as Wish, is a 2013 South Korean film directed by Lee Joon-ik, starring Sol Kyung-gu, Uhm Ji-won and Lee Re. It won Best Film at the 34th Blue Dragon Film Awards.

The film is based on a true story, the infamous Nayoung Case in 2008, in which an 8-year-old girl called "Na-young" in the Korean press, was raped and beaten by a drunk 57-year-old man in a public toilet. The court sentenced the man to only 12 years in prison, which caused outrage in the country due to the terrible brutality of the crime and the man's history of physical and sexual violence.

Plot

On her way to school, a young girl named So-won (which literally means "wish" or "hope" in Korean) gets sexually assaulted by a drunk older male stranger. As a result, she suffers multiple internal injuries and has to undergo a major surgery, but her emotional wounds are equally difficult to heal. Their happy family shattered, her parents Dong-hoon and Mi-hee go through feelings of pain and rage. From the trauma of that day, So-won refuses to see or talk to her father, so Dong-hoon hides beneath the costume of his daughter's favorite cartoon character and becomes a "guardian angel" at her side. Thanks to the love of those around her, So-won's condition gradually improves. At the sight of So-won slowly finding stability and laughter, her family also begins to change and enters a new phase in their lives, trying to find hope in the midst of their sorrow and despair.