The link below is an article that describes the predictions of how the future of the fashion industry will be changing by the use of the internet. It thoroughly depicts how the computers and Internet using are going to be even more strongly based for the fashion industry. It then shows and explains the virtual world and technology's advancements!

The Future of Fashion Shopping over the Internet:
http://www.fashionme.iao.fraunhofer.de/Fashionme.pdf

Here are some interesting facts about the fashion industry and how the industry will be growing in the future!

- The fashion industry employs about 4.7 million people: 3.6 million in retail sales, 470,000 in textile production and 573,000 in apparel production.

-The entire retail industry itself is responsible for 11.6% of all U.S. employment with almost 16 million gainfully employed

- Unemployment is currently at 5.4% and the 10 year employment outlook for the entire retail industry is projected to increase at lease 11% from its current standing

- New York features over 5,000 fashion showrooms and eight dedicated fashion schools

- Apparel is about a 180 billion dollar retail market nationwide

- The retail industry is the second largest industry in the United States

- The U.S. retail industry generates around 3.8 trillion dollars in retail sales, which is approximately $11,993 per capita according to the U.S. Census Bureau

- The jobs of fashion designers are expected to rise over the next six years as much as 12%

website link: www.stylecareer.com/fashion

Here is a very interesting article that discusses how a designer started out, and how she had progressed over the years. This designer in particular discusses how the internet has changed the fashion industry and how the future of technology will be sculpting the fashion industry in a different way in which society is used to.

Article link:
http://jscms.jrn.columbia.edu/cns/2009-02-17/vaidyanathan-smartfashion.html

CBS3 News developed a video about futuristic fashion. Check it out:

"From spray-on shirts to wearable computers"

The Future of Fashion Website Link:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5419164n

In the midst of the 1950's bop era, Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks, and Annie Ross, all jazz vocalists, formed a vocalese trio . In vocalese, very accomplished singers fit lyrics to a jazz instrumental song, and might even memorize and sing notable solos from popular recordings. Their first album, Sing a Song for Basie, covered some of Count Basie's music based strongly upon the Kansas City jazz style. This was in 1957, and they continued to record until 1962. In 1966, Dave Lambert was killed in a car accident, and two years before, Annie Ross left the band. Some of their best known works are "Cloudburst" and "Shiny Stockings." Jon Hendricks undoubtedly became the most popular out of the three singers. After serving in World War II, Hendricks moved from Toledo, where he sang with Art Tatum as a teenager, to New York City and worked with Charlie Parker. After he married and had a family, he moved to London so his kids could get a better education. Al Jarreau has called him "pound for pound, the best jazz vocalist...ever." In 1985, he was best known for his part in The Manhattan Transfer release "Vocalese" and continues touring and writing to this day at age 88.

Four isn't always better than two...speakers, that is. Through the 1960's, music saw an unprecedented advancement in sound recording technology and broadcasting in FM stereo became an FCC standard. When the 1970's came around, the 8-track tape and it's associated quadraphonic sound reproduction hit the store shelves. In "quad" sound, 4 speakers will reproduce four different audio channels. Each speaker should be located in each corner of a square listening area, firing toward the center. This creates the optimum "sweet spot" for the listener. Although this sounded excellent when working correctly, technical problems smeared the reputation of this system. By the time the bugs were worked out, stereo systems sounded better than quadaphonic systems, and home theater packages won over the hearts of those who demanded the latest technology in their living room. Adding even more chaos to the quad system's failure to launch was that a standard in quad sound format came too late. You might buy a record that claims to play quadraphonically to find that it was incompatible with your system. We've come a long way from this horrible flop in audio technology!

When my parents were growing up in the 1960's, the pop music on the radio then seems so far removed in comparison to the recordings made today. Point being, the style of pop music is constantly changing. Lets take a look at what pop music was from 1900 up to present day. In the very early 20th century, ragtime piano music prevailed as a dominant sound through the 1920s. In the 1930s and 1940s swing bands and big bands stole the spotlight. During the late 1940s into the 1950s, bebop started to help phase out the popularity of a big band and favored the freedom of small group interaction. Along with more electrified instruments coming on board, the onslaught of rock music became apparent. Power chords, extremely low and loud amplified bass notes, and the electric organ and synthesizer came about to change music forever. By the time the 1960s and 1970s came around, it was hard to find someone who didn't play the guitar. To this day, guitars outsell every other instrument year after year. Pop music evolved into disco and R&B through the 70s into the 80s and got refined into a smooth jazz format. This became very popular from the late 1980s through the end of the 1990s along with a resurgence in heavy rock and electronica music. In the current decade, we've seen a return to acoustic bands now amplified with technology 20 times better than years ago. Country music also took a large share of the music industry with it as people were looking for a comfortable change to a more melodious, emotional sound.

Imagine sitting on your porch relaxing after a hard day's work on the farm. It's 3 p.m. and the blistering heat from a typical Texas summer day took its toll already. Then, a strange car arrives on your property and a well-dressed gentleman from the Library of Congress gets out and greets you. He's there because he was assigned a task to record guitar styles from all across the nation. You politely oblige and happen to know a few songs, some of which you might have written with one too many beers. He records your performance with a portable contraption set up in the trunk of the car. Your sound recording gets stored on a shellac disc and registered in Washington D.C. The United States did this to get a feel for the type of music being written in all parts of the country and preserve it for generations to come. Archiving is something uniquely human, and it applies to all forms of creativity. Before modern digital devices and communications equipment, this was the kind of town-to-town legwork that had to be done in order to assure musical record for posterity.

Although very obvious to me, you may not realize all music must occur in time. Like the steady second hand on your wristwatch that sets the pace for your daily schedule, there is a steady pulse behind most music. Take that pulse away, and dancing would almost be impossible. There would be no more bobbing your head or tapping your foot to the beat. But did you ever stop and think about which of these beats get you feeling groovy while other ones tend to lengthen or shorten time, even making it seem "uneven"? Without getting too detailed, the meter, denoted by a time signature on sheet music, is one of the most fundamental tools in composition. A simple rock song is in 4. Normally, we either count in 2, 3, or 4 when listening to familiar music. A military march would be counted in 2 and a waltz in 3. Odd meters, like 5 or 7 are used to create a more ambiguous sense of time. Typical applications of these meters include scores for Broadway musicals and movie scores, where certain scenes seem to take place in a dimension all their own. Dave Brubeck experimented with odd meter heavily, and is mostly known for his piano piece Blue Rondo a la Turk and as Paul Desmond's pianist on Take Five.

Our culture can offer the world many unique things, but the one most recognizable to anyone, anywhere in the world is American jazz. If you thought it sounds weird saying American jazz and think it should just be "jazz", you're right! It is so widely recognizable across the world. In the early times before it was respected as a formal study in music, jazz was the music of the brothels, speakeasies, and gained the reputation of accompanying anything and everything improper or illicit. The elements that gave birth to the art form, such as African polyrhythms and slave field hollers, are the known foundations for this music. Ironically, jazz worked its way up into high society gatherings rather quickly! We have come to expect live jazz to be performed everywhere from a hotel lobby by a solo pianist to an entire concert hall by artisits who have achieved cult status. From its humble beginnings, jazz has become a force to be reckoned with, gains millions of new fans every year, and will be around until life as we know it ceases to exist.

Before the radio and TV were widely popularized, it was hard to imagine an early 20th century American middle-class home without a piano. During these times, a family would gather 'round the living room, sing familiar songs, and move to the ragtime music popular from the late 1890's to late 1920's. Tin Pan Alley composers such as Cole Porter stamped out new tunes for piano rolls, used to trigger the modern player pianos of the day. In stark contrast to the current market, where only 38,000 grand pianos were sold to Americans in 2009, it wasn't uncommon to see over 100,000 pianos sold in a given year circa 1920. Then, over 300 piano manufacturers called the United States their home, but only a handful remain in business today. Since the 1970's, the major decline in piano sales is due to more used pianos flooding the market and a lost interest in the art form when the electric guitar took over the stage in rock 'n roll settings. Pianos are still sold brand new today, but for much more money and many times, less quality, than more cheaply priced, better built pianos of the early 20th century. Later, we'll investigate what certain companies have done to increase their sales volume in an increasingly tougher market.