96 seconds. I read somewhere this is the average time folks are willing to spend reading a blog. This got me thinking about “the need-it-now and please abbreviate” culture we choose to immerse ourselves in. Hell, we couldn’t even take calling it a web log. The collective voice was shouting, “UGH! This six letter concoction is way too long. I’ll just say ‘blog’ instead and save the two extra letters for when I have more time.”

It occurred to me that Top 40 music has also felt the time pinch. Back in the 50’s, Elvis covered everything he wanted to say in an average 2 min 30 sec. Kick it off with a verse, hit ‘em with a catchy chorus, one more verse, two more choruses, outro and Elvis had left the building. Then sometime between Pink Floyd and DMB, the song length grew and grew to an absurd 4 minutes. That was fine for a while, but then folks started getting antsy. Radio stations started to feel the pinch as folks began employing the “station-preset – no whammies – give me something new and make it quick” approach to listening. Even MTV got in on the fun by doing a top-twenty video countdown in half the time by simply mentioning some of the videos. I guess they already knew which ones I was waiting to see. So today I was listening to Train’s new song, “Hey, Soul Sister.” It is a very likable Jason Mraz-esque type song that keeps you humming all day.

The only problem is I found myself wondering if it could do with maybe one less chorus at the end. I mean, I get it. That is Mr. Mister on the radio and if I could see the girl you are talking about, I would probably agree that her moves aren’t fair. I just don’t need to hear you say it a kagillion times.

Isn’t there another song on somewhere I could be listening to more efficiently? Maybe in the 96 second range?

Strong is the upcoming US release from Arrested Development. The album has already been a success internationally. Their hit “The World Is Changing” reached #9 in Japan.

Read below to find out the stories behind some of the amazing new tracks on Strong. We are honored and excited to be featuring Arrested Development on My Audio Bio. Special thanks to Speech for providing these great stories.

Purchase 3 tracks from the new album and more from AD at: http://arresteddevelopmentmusic.com

Check out stories behind their classics on the AD profile page!

Let Your Voice Be Heard (Exclusive Track above in player!)
The 90’s were golden era of Hip-Hop. You heard many points of view from Hammer, to 2Live Crew, to Public Enemy. You didn’t have to agree with everyone, but you definitely heard everyone. I don’t hear this in music right now. When I turn on popular radio in any of our cities, it’s like I hear the same person talking.  Where are the rest of the voices?

Greener
We have been environmentally conscious from the beginning of our career. On our first album we released “Children Play With Earth”, about getting kids off of video games and outside. On our Second album “United Minds” was about recycling. The Green movement has now come into play, people are respecting the use of resources more, but the rap community hasn’t really addressed this, seemed to be a missing topic.

The Green movement has been championed by white’s but not as openly adopted by the black community. This song is to get people thinking about the earth, acknowledge that African American’s are environmentally conscious, and encourage people to join the movement.

Bloody
In the 90’s Biggie, Tupac, Wutang, and many more started taking precedence. This song represents the downside of what was happening in 90’s hip-hop; the lack of intelligent thought. When you look back to the 90’s at Rwanda, at Republic of Congo, it was reminiscent of Hitler. Millions of people were massacred. What were we taking about in the Hip Hop scene? Bling, getting on private jets, thongs, money…

Chuck D said that Hip Hop is the CNN of Black people. Well, we totally let CNN go off the air. Nothing was being said to about what was happening. Instead we were promoting Crystal and clothing lines. We became voiceless to the real issues and became the voice of corporations. “Bloody” is a history lesson, let’s learn from this so history won’t repeat itself.

The World is Changing:
(From guitarist and song Co-Writer JJBoogie)
Eight years ago I wrote a song for a woman I was deeply in love with. I asked her to be my girl and sang the song for her nervously! Nanyana said yes…..and a year later we were married. Fast forward to eight years later in the studio with Arrested Development writing material for the upcoming release, I started playing a guitar riff. That chord progression was what I originally wrote for Nanyana years earlier. I never recorded the song….I actually forgot most the lyrics. Speech heard it and said “What’s that? I like it!” I told him I would have to get permission to use it from my wife. Later that night I asked her if I could use it to write too and she said “It better make us a million dollars!” and laughed.

So I taught the progression to Za, Omar and Eric and they immediately started grooving with it. Speech started humming a melody then came up with the concept of the world changing before our eyes. The rest is history! The song World Is Changing went to #9 on the Japan Pop Charts from the newly released album entitled STRONG!

Family Force 5 is My Audio Bio’s first featured artist in 2010! That’s right! A big thanks to Soul Glow Activatur, ChapStique, Crouton, Fatty, and Nadaddy the guys with FF5 for being down with the concept and putting a great profile page together. Hopefully you are rocking out to the Family boys right now on our new dynamic pop out player. If not, hit play in the main navigation!

Family Force 5 has successfully promoted themselves and developed an amazing fan base using the internet. With over a quarter million My Space Friends and and even more impressive 70,000 followers on Facebook, the guys are doing something right.

And don’t get me started on the Really Real Show, FF5’s online TV series… it is hours of hilarious ridiculous fun. One of the best is their classic meeting with the one and the only Sammy Stephens, from the viral video: Mini-mall. If you haven’t seen Mr. Stephens and his Montgomery Mall Rap or Family Force 5’s “The Really Real Show,” I guarantee you,  it is a whole new epic level of hilarious… ”We talkin’ about flea market…Montgomery…it’s just like…it’s just like a mini…MALL!” Check out the episode!

Their latest episode is also a riot. It’s based around putting together their Christmas pageant.

As far as their music goes Family Force 5 will hit you with such an original, eccentric, energetic, and eclectic compilation of genres that it will be like getting a musical punch of awesome, straight in the grill. Their amazing upbeat party lyrics and musical flare make them unlike anything else  out there. If FF5 is on, I’m nodding my head… usually ending up with me straight up solo raving in the office.

So once again, a big thanks to Family Force 5. We are honored to have them as our featured artist. We look forward to checking out your stories about Family Force 5’s music in your life!

The holidays are typically the time for guilty pleasures.  Shopping, food, parties, food, drinking, food…we all tend to celebrate and over indulge ourselves to the brim.  While our bellies are full and our hearts are happy, sometimes our ears need a little bit of a musical guilty pleasure as well.

For me, there is a little bit of nostalgia attached to my musical guilty pleasure.  It’s one of the first bands I was ever really a fan of (and by fan I really mean, fanatic). What Miley Cyrus is to the tweens of today, the Dixie Chicks were to me.  I had all the CDs, posters, went to multiple concerts, met them and got autographs and pictures.  Looking back, it was ridiculous, seriously ridiculous.  The obsession eventually wore off, but today their music is still a guilty pleasure of mine.  To this day, whenever I play “Wide Open Spaces,” I am immediately transported back to the 13 year old girl, dancing and singing in my room, dreaming of what my life would be like when I grew up.  I cannot deny that they are an incredibly talented group, musically and vocally.  I’ll always be connected to their songs in one way or another.