Q is for Queen

Queen is an English rock band that consisted of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon. They rose to fame after the release of their self-titled debut in 1973. This was followed by Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack in 1974. Their fourth album, A Night at the Opera, was released in 1975, and it contained one of their biggest hit singles, Bohemian Rhapsody, which topped the UK singles chart for nine weeks.

They released their sixth album, News of the World, in 1977, and it contained two of their most recognizable hits, We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions. In 1981, the band released the album Greatest Hits, a compilation of hits from 1974 - 1981; it remains the bestselling album in UK chart history with more than 6 million copies sold.

Queen enjoyed additional success for the rest of the 80s with singles like Radio Gaga. But by the end of the decade, rumors had started to circulate that its lead singer, Freddie Mercury, was suffering from AIDS. The singer would eventually confirm those rumors in 1991, in an official statement written on his deathbed. He died barely 24 hours after the statement was released, from bronchial pneumonia brought on by his illness.

Queen remains one of the most successful rock bands of all time. Their album sales are believed to be in excess of 300 millions copies. Their biggest hit is the song Another One Bites the Dust, which was featured on their 1980 studio album, The Game. The song, which also happens to be one of my favorites, has sold more than 7 million copies.

P is for P!nk

P!nk is one of the most talented women to emerge out of the music industry in the past decade and a half. She is also one of the most successful, having sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Born in 1979 as Alecia Beth Moore, she started out as a member of a girl group called Choice. The group disbanded in 1998, and their debut album was never released, prompting P!nk to pursue a solo career.

Her debut album, Can't Take Me Home, was released in 2000. It contained the singles, There You Go, Most Girls and You Make Me Sick. It was also around this time that she did a collaboration with Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim and Mýa, recording a cover version of the popular classic, Lady Marmalade, for the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack. The song, which topped the US singles chart after its release, would earn them a Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.

For her second studio album, P!nk decided to make a shift from the R&B/urban sound of her debut to the pop/rock sound for which she is better known today. The shift proved successful, as the album, Missundaztood, remains her bestselling till date, with more than 13 million copies sold. It was released in 2001, and contained the hit singles, Get the Party Started, Don't Let Me Get Me and Just Like A Pill.

2003 saw the release of her third album, Try This, whose first single, Trouble, earned her another Grammy, this time for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. She released her fourth album, I'm Not Dead, in 2006, and her fifth, Funhouse, in 2008, the latter of which contained her second US #1 single, So What. In 2010, she released her first compilation album, Greatest Hits...So Far. The album was promoted by the single, Raise Your Glass, which marked her third #1 single in the US.

Her sixth studio album, The Truth About Love, was released in 2012. It contained the singles, Blow Me (One Last Kiss), Try, and her fourth US #1 single, Just Give Me a Reason, a collaboration with fun. lead singer, Nate Ruess. In 2014, she released a collaborative album with Dallas Green of City and Colour fame, under the moniker You+Me. The album, titled rose ave., was recorded within the span of a week.

P!nk is renowned for the theatrical nature of her recent live shows, most of which have her dangling from a wire high above her audience. She is also a supporter of the animal rights organization, PETA, as well as the LGBT community, and she typically expresses that support through her music and videos, as can be seen in the video for one of my favorite songs in her catalog, Raise Your Glass.

O is for Oasis

Oasis were a British rock band made up of brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs, Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan, and Tony McCarroll. Their debut album, Definitely Maybe, was released in 1994. It was met with rave reviews, garnering praise for its departure from the stylistic trappings of the then-dominant grunge movement. It debuted at #1 on the UK album chart, breaking the record for fastest-selling album.

Their second album, (What's The Story) Morning Glory?, was released in 1995. It contained the hit singles, Some Might Say, Roll with It, Wonderwall and Don't Look Back in Anger. The album was a bigger success than their first, although it scored comparatively weaker reviews. It remains their most successful album till date, with more than 22 million copies sold.

Their third album, Be Here Now, became the fastest-selling album in the UK in 1997, even though it didn't match the sales of their previous album. That trend would continue with their subsequent albums, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000), Heathen Chemistry (2002), Don't Believe the Truth (2005) and Dig Out Your Soul (2008), all of which debuted at #1 on the UK album chart.

The Gallagher brothers are known for their long-standing feud. This has led to either brother dropping out of numerous shows and tours, and would eventually lead to the band's dissolution in 2009. But their music continues to be recognized as some of the finest to come out of the UK. This includes one of their biggest hits, Don't Look Back in Anger, which was ranked #1 by NME on their list of 50 Most Explosive Choruses.

N is for Nirvana

Nirvana was an alternative rock band that consisted of lead singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic, and drummer Dave Grohl. They rose to fame following the unexpected success of their breakout single, Smells Like Teen Spirit. The song would propel their second album, Nevermind, to sell over 30 million copies worldwide, making them one of the most successful bands of all time.

The band was formed in 1987, and their first album, Bleach, was released independently in 1989. The album was critically acclaimed, but failed to make any impact on the charts. During this time, the band went through a number of drummers, before finally settling upon Dave Grohl in 1990. The trio set off to record a follow-up album, and Nevermind was released by their new record label in 1991.

The first single off their second album was the album opener, Smells Like Teen Spirit. The song quickly became a hit after its music video was placed on heavy rotation by MTV. It remains their most recognizable song, with more than 10 million copies sold. The album also produced three further singles, Come as You Are, Lithium and In Bloom. Its success is often credited for bringing alternative rock into the limelight.

Their third album, In Utero, was released in 1993. It produced the singles Heart-Shaped Box, All Apologies/Rape Me and Pennyroyal Tea. It carried over the band's success from their previous album, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200. But the band itself was not fated to last much longer. In 1994, following several years of living with a drug problem, lead singer Kurt Cobain was found dead in his home from what was believed to be a self-inflicted shotgun wound.

Nirvana is still considered one of the most influential rock bands of all time. Their legacy lives on in the form of their music, and the many bands they have undoubtedly inspired over the years. So in honor of that legacy, I have chosen to highlight their song, Smells Like Teen Spirit, since it was here that they went from being unknown to being considered the flagship band of an entire generation.

M is for Madonna

Madonna is beyond a reasonable doubt the undisputed Queen of Pop. This is especially true when you examine her career spanning more than three decades, and the fact that she has managed to stay relevant by not being afraid to reinvent herself in a constantly-evolving music industry. She holds the current record of most records sold by a female artist, with over 300 million till date.

Her rise to fame can be traced back to the early 80s, after leaving the band Breakfast Club to pursue a solo career. Her first major hit was the song Holiday, which was featured on her self-titled debut album. This was followed by the 1984 release of her second album, Like A Virgin, which was met with critical acclaim. Its title track would become her first #1 single in the US, topping the charts for six consecutive weeks.

Her third album, True Blue, was released in 1986. It contained the hits, Live to Tell, Open Your Heart and Papa Don't Preach, and one of my personal favorites, La Isla Bonita. Her fourth album, Like a Prayer, followed in 1989, and it sparked some level of controversy with its title track, whose video featured numerous Catholic symbolism that was condemned by the Vatican.

Having dominated the charts for most of the 80s, Madonna spent the 90s breaking new ground by exploring different musical styles. This was most apparent on her 1998 album, Ray of Light, which netted her four Grammy awards out of six nominations. It remains one of her most critically acclaimed albums, and is noted for helping make electronic music mainstream.

Madonna has such an impressive collection of hits that listening to any one of her greatest hits compilations is always a joyous occasion. So you should understand why singling out any single song of hers for praise is a daunting task. But of all her studio albums, my favorite remains her 2005 love letter to dance music, Confessions on the Dance Floor, which is why I have chosen to highlight the album's opener, Hung Up.

L is for Linkin Park

Linkin Park is a nu metal band that rose to prominence during the genre's heyday in the early 2000s. They are considered one of the decades most successful bands, having sold more than 60 million albums. Their lineup includes Mike Shinoda, Chester Bennington, Joseph Hahn, Rob Bourdon, Dave Farrell and Brad Delson.

Their first album, Hybrid Theory, was released in 2000. It contained the hit singles, In the End and Crawling, the latter of which won them a Grammy award for Best Hard Rock Performance. The album was named the bestselling album of 2001, for selling close to 5 million copies during its first year of release. It has since been certified Diamond for shipping over 10 million copies.

The band released a compilation of remixes in 2002, titled Reanimation. It featured contributions from the likes of Korn frontman, Jonathan Davis, as well as Aaron Lewis of the band, Staind. Their second studio album, Meteora, was released in 2003. It continued the success they had found with Hybrid Theory, producing the hit singles Somewhere I Belong, Faint, Breaking The Habit and Numb.

A live album, Live in Texas, was released by the band in late 2003, featuring performances of songs from their previous three albums. They also released a collaborative album, Collison Course, with rapper Jay Z, which was a mashup of preexisting songs between them. The project spawned the hit single, Numb/Encore, which earned both of them a Grammy in the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration category.

For their 2007 album, Minutes to Midnight, the band decided to drop their heavier nu metal sound in favor of a stripped down alternative rock sound, a move that would alienate a significant portion of their existing fanbase. But the album itself proved relatively successful, producing the hit single, What I've Done, which was featured on the Transformers movie soundtrack. They would go on to contribute songs to the next two Transformers sequels, even helping to score the second one.

The band has released three more albums since outgrowing their nu metal sound, A Thousand Suns (2010), Living Things (2012), and The Hunting Party (2014), and a second remix album, Recharged (2013), none of which has managed to capture the same level of success as they had with their first two studio albums. Regardless, the band continues to be recognized for their contribution to the genre, as well as the experimental nature of their recent material.

Linkin Park is perhaps best known for the creativity behind their music videos, most of which typically showcase their love for science fiction and the otherworldly. A prime example of this would be their video for Somewhere I Belong, a song that helped cement their position as one of my all-time favorite rock bands.

K is for Kanye West

Say what you will about his award-show rants and other out-of-studio theatrics, but there is no denying the fact that Kanye West is one of the most talented musicians alive today. He has amassed more than 20 Grammys in a relatively short period of time, as well as recorded some of the most iconic hip-hop songs and albums of the past decade.

Kanye West started out as a producer, gaining some recognition for his work on the critically-acclaimed Jay Z album, The Blueprint. But his breakthrough wouldn't come until 2002, when he released Through the Wire, a song that was recorded while his jaw was wired shut shortly after a car accident. The song would later feature on his debut album, The College Dropout, which was released in 2004.

The album was met with rave reviews, gaining an Album of the Year nomination at the 2005 Grammy Awards, his first of three back-to-back albums to score a nomination in that category, the other two being The Late Registration (2005) and Graduation (2007). All three albums would also earn him awards in the Best Rap Album category, with the third one producing his Daft Punk-sampling hit single, Stronger.

For his fourth studio album, 808s & Heartbreak, Mr. West decided to switch styles by swapping his raps for autotuned vocals, a decision which many argue had led to his absence in the Best Rap Album category of the following year's Grammy Awards. But the album and its experimental nature would help pave the way for his 2010 follow up, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Easily one of the greatest hip-hop albums released in years, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was named Best Album of 2010 by Time Magazine and several other publications. So it is here that I have chosen to highlight the brilliance of Kanye West, or more importantly his music. And there is no better way to do that than through his musical short film, Runaway.

The Liebster Award

It's been a while since I was nominated for any kind of blogger award, so I was a bit surprised to receive this one from Mithila Menezes, whose blog I recently discovered during the ongoing Blogging from A to Z Challenge. You should totally check her out, especially if you share a love for Harry Potter.

I've actually been nominated for this award twice before, by A Creative Exercise and Shreds & Shards, but I never got around to putting up an acceptance post for some reason. Better late than never I guess. To accept this award, recipients are required to answer 11 questions provided by the person who nominated them, as well as nominate 11 people and provide them with 11 questions of their own. And so, without further ado, here are my answers to Mithila's questions:

1. Give me one word which describes you.
Answer: Clown

2. Which is your favourite blog post till date? Provide a link to that one (A blog post that you have written)
Answer: The Origin of a Storyteller. http://www.michaelabayomi.com/2011/12/origin-of-storyteller.html

3. What is the one thing that you have to do every day?
Answer:  Check my email.

4. Which is your favourite quote?
Answer: "Don't judge a book by its cover."

5. What is the one thing that you would love to do before you die?
Answer: Take over the world. [insert evil laughter here]

6. Which do you prefer - Chocolate or cheese?
Answer: Chocolate. I never for once was a fan of cheese.

7. Give me one word in the dictionary that you would love to remove and the reason why.
Answer: OMG. Simply because it's been used to death by teenage girls.

8. If you had a choice between- love, riches, fame, intelligence, which one would you select and why?
Answer: I'd go with riches, because of all the options, it is the only one that can actually pay the bills. :P

9. If you had the opportunity to change your blog name, what would you change it to?
Answer: FlyGuy_EvilOverlord666. Just Kidding. I think I like the current name as is.

10. Name your favourite blogger till date. (A blogger whose posts you love to read)
Answer: It's a three-way tie between Alex J. Cavanaugh, S. L. Hennessy and Tony Laplume. These are the people whose posts I tend to read before anybody else's.

11. Which do you prefer: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn? Why?
Answer: Facebook. It is my all-round, go-to social hub, where I connect with friends, family, and stay up-to-date with the things that I like. Twitter is a distant second. Instagram is a bit too restrictive for my liking. I never did quite manage to get a hang of Pinterest, and I use LinkedIn solely for work-related purposes.

And there you have them, my answers to Mithila's questions. Which means this is the part where I have to nominate 11 recipients. As stipulated by the rules, the nominees should be chosen from a pool of blogs with fewer than 200 followers, since the purpose of the award is to encourage recipients to connect with more blogs, or something like that, I'm not really sure at this point. Anyhoo, here is my list of nominees:

Tony Laplume @ Scouring Monk
Keren Amaechi @ Kays Fittings
Abati Adewale @ Kyd Evolution
Edward Hall @ Empire's 5-Star 500
Ayodeji Otuyelu @ Ripped Diaries
Luana Krause @ Skating Buffalo
Brandon Ax @ Writer's Storm
Mary Okeke @ Mary Okeke Reviews
Ayden K. Morgen @ Ayden K. Morgen
David List @ Regarding Silexare
Nana Prah @ Nana Prah

Phew. It wasn't easy coming up with this awesome bunch of 11 recipients, mainly because most of the bloggers in my circle already have more than 200 followers. And since I am not in the habit of handing out awards to total strangers in the name of meeting a quota, I had to really comb through the blogs in my feed reader. Right. Moving on, the questions for my nominees are as follows:

1. What inspired you to start blogging?
2. What is your greatest accomplishment since then?
3. Have you ever been trolled on the internet before?
4. When was the last time you cried because of something you saw in a movie?
5. Do you believe in magic?
6. Who's your daddy!?
7. No, really, tell me something about your father...?
8. While we're on the topic of parents, it wouldn't hurt for you to put in a word or two about your dear, old ma...?
9. Okay, I realize that wasn't technically a question, but how is any of that my fault?
10. Would you believe it if I told you that I've ran out of questions to ask?
11. How many fingers am I holding behind my back?

And that's all for now, folks. My thanks go out to Mithila Menezes once again for nominating me for this award. Don't forget to link back to my blog, for those of you who choose to accept the award, and to notify all your nominees through their blogs. And for those of you hopping over from the A to Z Challenge participants list, they'll be more A to Z goodness tomorrow, promise.

J is for Jamiroquai

Acid Jazz was one of those musical genres that was considered mainstream in the late 80s and early 90s. Itself a fusion of jazz, funk, soul and disco, the genre was made popular by groups like the Brand New Heavies, A Tribe called Quest, and one of my personal favorites, Jamiroquai.

Jamiroquai was fronted by British singer Jay Kay, who is often considered synonymous with the entire band and their music. Their first album, Emergency on Planet Earth, was released in 1993. This was followed by The Return of the Space Cowboy in 1994. While both albums were well received in the UK, the band wouldn't gain international recognition until the release of their third album, Travelling Without Moving, in 1996.

The album is noted for producing the hit single, Virtual Insanity, which was itself noted for its music video directed by British director, Jonathan Glazer. The song would eventually earn the band their first and only Grammy Award, for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group, as well as a Video of the Year award at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards.

I is for Imagine Dragons

Imagine Dragons is an alternative rock band famous for their 2012 sleeper hit, Radioactive. The song, like their debut album, Night Visions, was produced by British hip-hop producer, Alex da Kid. It has sold more than 9 million copies, also earning them the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance in 2014.

The band is made up of lead vocalist Dan Reynolds, guitarist Wayne "Wing" Sermon, bassist Ben McKee and drummer Daniel Platzman. Their debut album was released in 2012, following a string of EPs released between 2010 and 2012. The album was a commercial success, helped by the release of three successful singles, It's Time, Radioactive and Demons.

Their second album, Smoke + Mirrors, was released in February 2015. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart with 195,000 copies sold in its first week, and it has produced three singles thus far, I Bet My Life, Gold and Shots.