title: Drum kit

text: As with all musical instruments, the best protection is provided by a combination of a hard-shelled case with padding such as foam next to the drums and cymbals.


title: Drum kit

text: Microphones ("mics") are used with drums to pick up the sound of the drums and cymbals for a sound recording and/or to pick up the sound of the drum kit so that it can be amplified through a PA system or sound reinforcement system. While most drummers use microphones and amplification in live shows in the 2010s, so that the sound engineer can adjust and balance the levels of the drums and cymbals, some bands that play in quieter genres of music and that play in small venues such as coffeehouses play acoustically, without mics or PA amplification. Small jazz groups such as jazz quartets or organ trios that are playing in a small bar will often just use acoustic drums. Of course if the same small jazz groups play on the mainstage of a big jazz festival, the drums will be miked so that they can be adjusted in the sound system mix. A middle-ground approach is used by some bands that play in small venues; they do not mic every drum and cymbal, but rather mic only the instruments that the sound engineer wants to be able to control in the mix, such as the bass drum and the snare.


title: Drum kit

text: In miking a drum kit, dynamic microphones, which can handle high sound-pressure levels, are usually used to close-mic drums, which is the predominant way to mic drums for live shows. Condenser microphones are used for overheads and room mics, an approach which is more common with sound recording applications. Close miking of drums may be done using stands or by mounting the microphones on the rims of the drums, or even using microphones built into the drum itself, which eliminates the need for stands for these microphones, reducing both clutter and set-up time, as well as isolating them.


title: Drum kit

text: In some styles of music, drummers use electronic effects on drums, such as individual noise gates that mute the attached microphone when the signal is below a threshold volume. This allows the sound engineer to use a higher overall volume for the drum kit by reducing the number of "active" mics which could produce unwanted feedback at any one time. When a drum kit is entirely miked and amplified through the sound reinforcement system, the drummer or the sound engineer can add other electronic effects to the drum sound, such as reverb or digital delay.


title: Drum kit

text: Some drummers arrive at the venue with their drum kit and use the mics and mic stands provided by the venue's sound engineer. Other drummers bring their all of their own mics, or selected mics (e.g., a good quality bass drum mic and a good mic for the snare) to ensure that they have good quality mics for each show. In bars and nightclubs, the microphones supplied by the venue can sometimes be in substandard condition, due to the heavy use they experience.


title: Drum kit

text: Drummers using electronic drums, drum machines, or hybrid acoustic-electric kits (which blend traditional acoustic drums and cymbals with electronic pads) typically use a monitor speaker, keyboard amplifier or even a small PA system to hear the electronic drum sounds. Even a drummer playing entirely acoustic drums may use a monitor speaker to hear her drums, especially if she is playing in a loud rock or metal band, where there is substantial onstage volume from huge, powerful guitar stacks. Since the drum kit uses the deep bass drum, drummers are often given a large speaker cabinet with a 15" subwoofer to help them monitor their bass drum sound (along with a full-range monitor speaker to hear the rest of their kit). Some sound engineers and drummers prefer to use an electronic vibration system, colloquially known as a "butt shaker" or "throne thumper" to monitor the bass drum, because this lowers the stage volume. With a "butt shaker", the "thump" of each bass drum strike causes a vibration in the drum stool; this way the drummer "feels" their beat on the posterior, rather than hears it.


title: Drum kit

text: A number of accessories are designed for the bass drum (also called "kick drum"). Ported tubes for the bass drum are available to take advantage of the bass reflex speaker design, in which a tuned port (a hole and a carefully measured tube) are put in a speaker enclosure to improve the bass response at the lowest frequencies. Bass drumhead patches are available, which protect the drumhead from the impact of the felt beater. Bass drum pillows are fabric bags with filling or stuffing that can be used to alter the tone or resonance of the bass drum. A less expensive alternative to using a specialized bass drum pillow is to use an old sleeping bag.


title: Drum kit

text: Some drummers wear special drummer's gloves to improve their grip on the sticks when they play. Drumming gloves often have a textured grip surface made of a synthetic or rubber material and mesh or vents on the parts of the glove not used to hold sticks, to ventilate perspiration.


title: Drum kit

text: In some styles or settings, such as country music clubs or churches, small venues, or when a live recording is being made, the drummer may use a transparent Perspex or Plexiglas "drum screen" (also known as a "drum shield") to dampen the onstage volume of the drums. A screen that completely surrounds the drum kit is known as a "drum booth". In live sound applications, drum shields are used so that the audio engineer can have more control over the volume of drums that the audience hears through the PA system mix or to reduce the overall volume of the drums, as a way to reduce the overall volume of the band in the venue. In some recording studios, foam and fabric baffles are used in addition to or in place of clear panels. The drawback with foam/cloth baffle panels is that the drummer cannot see other performers, the record producer or the audio engineer well.


title: Drum kit

text: Drummers often bring a carpet, mats or rugs to venues to prevent the bass drum and hi-hat stand from "crawling" (moving away) on a slippery surface from the drum head striking the bass drum. The carpet also reduces short reverberation (which is generally but not always an advantage), and helps to prevent damage to the flooring or floor coverings. In shows where multiple drummers will bring their kits onstage over the night, it is common for drummers to mark the location of their stands and pedals with tape, to allow for quicker positioning of a kits in a drummer's accustomed position. Bass drums and hi-hat stands commonly have retractable spikes to help them to grip surfaces such as carpet, or stay stationary (on hard surfaces) with rubber feet.


title: Drum kit

text: Drummers use a variety of accessories when practicing. Metronomes and beat counters are used to develop a sense of a steady pulse. Drum muffling pads may be used to lessen the volume of drums during practicing. A practice pad, held on the lap, on a leg, or mounted on a stand, is used for near-silent practice with drumsticks. A set of practice pads mounted to simulate an entire drum kit is known as a practice kit. In the 2010s, these have largely been superseded by electronic drums, which can be listened to with headphones for quiet practice and kits with non-sounding mesh heads.


title: Drum kit

text: Drummers use a drum key for tuning their drums and adjusting some drum hardware. Besides the basic type of drum key (a T-handled wrench) there are various tuning wrenches and tools. Basic drum keys are divided in three types which allows tuning of three types of tuning screws on drums: square (most used), slotted and hexagonal. Ratchet-type wrenches allow high-tension drums to be tuned easily. Spin keys (utilizing a ball joint) allow rapid head changing. Torque-wrench type keys are available, graphically revealing the torque at each lug. Also, tension gauges, or meters, which are set on the head, aid drummers to achieve a consistent tuning. Drummers can tune drums "by ear" or, in the 2010s, use a digital drum tuner, which "measures tympanic pressure" on the drumhead to provide accurate tuning.


title: Drum kit

text: Drum kit music is either written down in music notation (called "drum parts"), learned and played by ear, improvised, or some combination of some or all three of these methods. Professional session musician drummers and big band drummers are often required to read drum parts. Drum parts are most commonly written on a standard five-line staff. In 2016, a special "percussion clef" is used, while previously the bass clef was used. However, even if the bass or no clef is used, each line and space is assigned an instrument of the kit, rather than to a pitch. In jazz, traditional music, folk music, rock music, and pop music, drummers are expected to be able to learn songs by ear (from a recording or from another musician who is playing or singing the song) and improvise. The degree of improvisation differs in different styles. Jazz and jazz fusion drummers may have lengthy improvised solos in every song. In rock music and blues, there are also drum solos in some songs, although they tend to be shorter than those in jazz. Drummers in all popular music and traditional music styles are expected to be able to improvise accompaniment parts to songs, once they are told the genre or style (e.g., shuffle, ballad, blues).


title: Drum kit

text: On early recording media (until 1925) such as wax cylinders and discs carved with an engraving needle, sound balancing meant that musicians had to be moved back in the room. Drums were often put far from the horn (part of the mechanical transducer) to reduce sound distortion.


title: Drum kit

text: In the 2020s, drum parts in many popular music styles are often recorded apart from the other instruments and singers, using multitrack recording techniques. Once the drums are recorded, the other instruments (rhythm guitar, piano, etc.) and then vocals are added. To ensure that the drum tempo is consistent in this type of recording, the drummer usually plays along with a click track (a type of digital metronome) in headphones. As such, the ability to play accurately along with a click track has become an important skill for professional drummers.


title: Alt-J

text: Alt-J (stylised as alt-J, real name Δ) are an English indie rock band formed in 2007 in Leeds. Their lineup includes Joe Newman (guitar/lead vocals), Thom Sonny Green (drums), Gus Unger-Hamilton (keyboards/vocals), and formerly Gwilym Sainsbury (guitar/bass).


title: Alt-J

text: Their debut album "An Awesome Wave" was released in May 2012 in Europe, and in September 2012 in the United States, and won the 2012 British Mercury Prize. Sainsbury left the band in early 2014. Their second album, "This Is All Yours", was released on 22 September 2014 and went straight to number one in the United Kingdom. In February 2022 the band released their fourth studio album "The Dream".


title: Alt-J

text: The band's actual name is the triangle-shaped symbol Δ (the capital Greek letter delta). The band often makes references to triangles (for example, the song "Tesselate" mentions "triangles are my favourite shape", and they make triangle symbols with their fingers during concerts), which they say is just due to it being a visually appealing shape.


title: Alt-J

text: The cover art of the band's debut album "An Awesome Wave" shows an overhead view of the largest river delta in the world, where the Ganges River meets the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh.


title: Alt-J

text: Alt-J were previously known as "Daljit Dhaliwal" and then "Films", but were later forced to change to "alt-J" because an American band called "The Films" already existed.


title: Alt-J

text: alt-J (∆) were formed when Gwilym (Gwil) Sainsbury (guitar/bass), Joe Newman (guitar/lead vocals), Augustus (Gus) Unger-Hamilton (keyboards/vocals) and Thomas Stuart (Thom Sonny) Green (drums) met at Leeds University in 2007. Unger-Hamilton (younger brother of Ferdy, head of A&R for Polydor Records) studied English, the other three Fine Art. According to Newman, "I basically went to art school to start a band."


title: Alt-J

text: In their second year of studies, Newman showed Sainsbury some of his own songs and the pair began recording on GarageBand in their hall rooms with Sainsbury acting as producer. The band's sound arose from living in student halls, where noise had to be kept to a minimum, so that they were unable to use bass guitars or bass drums.


title: Alt-J

text: After graduating, the band moved to Cambridge where they spent several months working on their music before signing a deal with Infectious Music in December 2011. Their self-titled 4-track demo EP, "∆", was recorded with producer Charlie Andrew in London and featured the tracks "Breezeblocks", "Hand-Made", "Matilda", and "Tessellate". A 7" single containing "Bloodflood" and "Tessellate" was released by Loud and Quiet in October 2011. Their first 2012 release for Infectious Music was the triangle-shaped 10" "Matilda"/"Fitzpleasure". It was followed by "Breezeblocks" which preceded their first album. "An Awesome Wave" was also produced by Charlie Andrew and compiled at Iguana Studios, Brixton, where the band recorded tracks during the studio's spare time. Their debut album was released on 28 May 2012 in the UK, Europe, and Australia, and on 18 September 2012 in North America via Canvasback Music. The album received some favourable reviews and was described as a "captivating blend of insatiable grooves and profound poignancy". It received a score of 4.8/10 on Pitchfork.


title: Alt-J

text: alt-J supported Wild Beasts in April 2012 and played a minor headlining tour around the United Kingdom and Ireland in October of that year. The band have featured regularly on summer festivals, including Latitude, Bestival, Reading and Leeds, T in the Park, Green Man, Pukkelpop, and Lowlands. They also did concert tour in the United States in December 2012 and performed at the Laneway Festival tour in Australia. In November 2012 the band were announced as the winners of the Mercury Prize for their album. Besides the prize-money, the band saw an increase in their profile resulting in An Awesome Wave reaching 13 in the UK album chart. The band would later describe the event as "life-changing, there was a sense of [being] imposters, that the band had somehow got this far without not being a real band, we’re just guys from Leeds who muddled through it and magicked a Mercury award".


title: Alt-J

text: On 11 January 2014, the band announced that Sainsbury had decided to leave the group, and that they remained friends. In early June 2014, alt-J announced a 2014 tour to take place in North America over October and November. The 23-day tour started in Vancouver, B.C. on 14 October and ended in Washington, D.C. on 19 November. On 9 June 2014, they announced their second album "This Is All Yours", that was released on 22 September 2014. This Is All Yours went straight to Number 1 on the UK's Official Albums Chart. alt-J headlined the September 2015 edition of Boston Calling Music Festival. It received a score of 4.0/10 from Pitchfork. As a replacement for Sainsbury, Cameron Knight became a supporting member for alt-J's live shows.


title: Alt-J

text: On 3 March 2017 alt-J began teasing their third studio album on their social media accounts with an audio clip captioned "00110011 01110111 01110111" (Binary code for "3ww"). Stereogum reported later that day that the band's third album would be titled "Relaxer" and was scheduled for release on 2 June 2017. On 6 March 2017 alt-J released "3WW," which features lead singer Ellie Rowsell of Wolf Alice, as a digital single and announced dates for the "Relaxer" Tour in support of the album. Three weeks later, on 29 March, they released "In Cold Blood," the second single from "Relaxer". In anticipation of their third album, the band released an online video game, whose soundtrack was their single "3WW," as well as announcing in May 2017 that they would be playing a five-date UK tour at seaside venues, starting on 4 September 2017.


title: Alt-J

text: On 24 May 2017 alt-J released "Adeline," the third single from "Relaxer". The album was released shortly afterwards, on 2 June 2017. "Deadcrush," the fourth single from the album, was released on 12 July and was featured as a soundtrack in the "FIFA 18" game. Fifth single "Pleader" arrived on 15 September 2017. Several tracks from "Relaxer" have since been remixed by a diverse array of artists.


title: Alt-J

text: On 28 September 2018 an alternative version of "Relaxer" was released. The album, titled "Reduxer," is a "rap heavy do-over" of the previous year's record.


title: Alt-J

text: On 16 September 2021, the band announced their first single since 2018, titled "U&ME", would be released 22 September 2021. The single's release coincided with the announcement of their fourth album, "The Dream", which was released 11 February 2022.


title: Alt-J

text: In February 2013 the band announced they would be composing the soundtrack for Toby Jones' new film "Leave to Remain".


title: Alt-J

text: Their song "Every Other Freckle" was featured on the Netflix show "Lovesick", in the season 1 episode "Cressida", in 2014.


title: Alt-J

text: The song "Hunger of the Pine" is used to begin and end the first season of "Unreal" released in 2015.


title: Alt-J

text: The band's song "Fitzpleasure" was featured in the main trailer for the video game "Battleborn" released in 2016.


title: Alt-J

text: In 2018, their songs "Tessellate" and "In Cold Blood" are the opening and ending respectively of the anime "Ingress", based on the AR game created for Niantic: "Ingress".


title: Alt-J

text: In 2019, their songs "Breezeblocks" and "In Cold Blood" were featured on the Netflix series "Daybreak", episodes 5 and 10 respectively.


title: Alt-J

text: Alt-J has been noted for their post-modern lyrics in their songs that highlight historic events and pop-culture subjects. The song "Taro" is written in reference to Gerda Taro and her role as a war photographer during the Spanish Civil War as well as her relationship to Robert Capa. The song describes the details of Capa's death ("A violent wrench grips mass / Rips light, tears limbs like rags") and imagines Taro's complementary emotions. The visuals in a fan made music video by YouTube user David Dean Burkhart are taken from Godfrey Reggio's experimental film "Powaqqatsi".


title: Alt-J

text: "Matilda" is a reference to Natalie Portman's character in the film "". "Fitzpleasure" is the retelling of Hubert Selby Jr.'s short story "Tralala," published in "Last Exit to Brooklyn." The story follows a prostitute named Tralala who dies after being gang-raped and raped with a broom, as in the lyrics "dead in the middle / of a c-o-double-m-o-n" and "in your snatch fits pleasure / broom shaped pleasure."


title: Alt-J

text: In 2012, alt-J's debut album won the British Mercury Prize. alt-J were also nominated for three Brit Awards (British Breakthrough Act, British Album of the Year and British Group of the Year). "An Awesome Wave" was announced as BBC Radio 6 Music Album of the Year 2012. Three of the tracks from this album gained entry into the Australian 2012 Triple J Hottest 100, with "Something Good" at number 81, "Tessellate" at number 64, and "Breezeblocks" coming third overall. In 2013, "An Awesome Wave" won Album of the year at the Ivor Novello Awards. "This Is All Yours" received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Alternative Music Album at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, and for IMPALA's European Independent Album of the Year Award.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: Kevin-Prince Boateng (; born 6 March 1987), also known as Prince, is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder or forward for club Hertha BSC. Born in Germany, he represented the Ghana national team.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: Coming through the youth system, Boateng began his career at Hertha BSC, before joining Tottenham Hotspur in England. After a short loan spell with Borussia Dortmund, Boateng moved to Portsmouth. In 2010 he joined Serie A side AC Milan, winning both the league and Supercoppa Italiana titles in his first season. Boateng left Milan after three seasons, returning to Germany joining Schalke 04. In January 2016 he returned to Milan, remaining for six months, before moving to Spanish club Las Palmas. Boateng made his third return to Germany in 2017, playing for Eintracht Frankfurt, before joining Italian side Sassuolo. After a short loan to Barcelona, with whom he won a La Liga title, he moved back to Italy, joining Fiorentina. In January 2020 he was sent on a six-month loan to Turkish side Beşiktaş, and in September 2020 he moved to Monza.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: Born in Germany, Boateng represented his country of birth internationally at youth level; he opted to represent Ghana at senior level 15 times between 2010 and 2014—scoring two goals—and represented them at the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: Boateng started his club career with the club Reinickendorfer Füchse in early 1994 at age six prior to signing for Hertha BSC on 1 July 1994 at the age of seven, first playing for them to 31 July 2007 when he was 20 years old.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: After emerging from the Hertha feeder teams, Boateng played for Hertha BSC II for two seasons. He was promoted to the Hertha first team squad in the 2005–06 season.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: Boateng made his first team debut in a 2–0 win against Eintracht Frankfurt in the second round of the 2005–06 Bundesliga season on 13 August 2005 at the Olympic Stadium, being brought on at the beginning of the second half.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: Boateng was awarded the "Fritz Walter Bronze Medal Award" in the Under-18 category in 2005. Boateng started his first Bundesliga match in a 2–2 draw against Borussia Mönchengladbach in the 14th round of the Bundesliga season.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: Boateng signed a four-year contract with Tottenham Hotspur in July 2007 for a reported £5.4 million, securing him ahead of UEFA Cup holders Sevilla. His success at the club was limited, and he was loaned to Borussia Dortmund in January 2009 for the remainder of the season.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: He made ten Bundesliga appearances during his loan, but was forced to miss the final two matches of the season for a suspension of four matches imposed by the German Football Association (DFB) following a tough challenge and "no-nonsense flying kick" to the head of VfL Wolfsburg's Makoto Hasebe.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: Dortmund were eager to sign Boateng permanently at the end of the season, but financial constraints prevented them from doing so.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: English Premier League club Portsmouth signed Boateng on a three-year contract in August 2009 for a reported fee of around £4 million. On 12 September 2009, he scored his first goal for the club against Bolton Wanderers, and was named Portsmouth's joint Player of the Month. He finished his only season at the club with three goals in 22 Premier League games as they were relegated amidst financial disarray.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: In May 2010, Portsmouth played Chelsea in the FA Cup Final, which Chelsea won 1–0. Boateng had his penalty for Portsmouth saved in the 54th minute, four minutes before Didier Drogba scored Chelsea's winning goal. During the match, Boateng fouled Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack, injuring Ballack's ankle and ruling him out of the impending 2010 World Cup. Boateng claimed that Ballack slapped him in the face prior to this, and that he apologised to Ballack personally for the tackle which left him injured.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: Boateng called the German media and the German national team players hypocrites for backing Ballack whilst ignoring his slap on the pitch. Boateng also criticised Joachim Löw for protecting Ballack after he slapped striker Lukas Podolski in a German national football team training match the previous year.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: On 17 August 2010, Boateng transferred to Italian Serie A club Genoa on a three-year contract for €5.75 million, (a reported €5.7 million plus the transfer of Anthony Vanden Borre, despite the latter deal falling-through) and then immediately joined AC Milan on loan. The deal later became a co-ownership deal in the same transfer window for €5.25 million. Milan signed Boateng permanently from Genoa in June 2011 for €7 million on a four-year contract due to expire in June 2015.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: On 23 October 2011, Boateng came on as a half-time substitute against Lecce and scored three goals in 14 minutes. Milan had been 3–0 down at half-time, but went on to win the game 4–3. Boateng is only the second player in the history of Serie A to score a hat-trick after coming on as a substitute. The hat-trick was the fastest in Serie A since David Trezeguet scored a ten-minute hat-trick for Juventus in 2001.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: On 3 January 2013, Milan was playing Italian Lega Pro 2 side Pro Patria in a mid-season friendly when Boateng and several other Milan players were the targets of racist chanting from a section of the Pro Patria crowd. Boateng reacted by kicking the ball into the stands before leaving the pitch, and was followed off by his teammates. The match was subsequently abandoned. His decision to walk off the pitch was later backed by various players and commentators.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: On 20 February, Boateng scored the opening goal for Milan against Barcelona in the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg, which Milan went on to win 2–0. In August 2013, he was quoted as saying he had changed his style since signing for Milan, from playing primarily as a defensive midfielder to adopting the role of "trequartista".


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: On 30 August 2013, Milan announced that Boateng had been transferred to German Bundesliga club Schalke 04 for a €10 million transfer fee on a four-year contract due to expire in June 2017.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: Boateng made his debut for Schalke 04 in a 2–0 victory against Bayer Leverkusen. On 14 September 2013, he scored the winning goal for Schalke 04 in a 1–0 win over Mainz 05. On 30 October 2013, Boateng was voted the Schalke 04 player of the month for October 2013 by fans. On 9 November 2013, Boateng scored two goals against Werder Bremen; Schalke 04 won the match 3–1. Boateng scored seven Bundesliga goals over the season as Schalke finished in third place.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: On 11 May 2015, Boateng, alongside Sidney Sam and Marco Höger, was suspended indefinitely from the club in the aftermath of a defeat against 1. FC Köln as a result of poor behaviour which claimed to have led to the club's poor domestic performances.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: As Schalke 04 terminated his contract in December 2015, Boateng re-joined Milan on 5 January 2016 on a free transfer and signed a six-month contract. He was training with Milan since his suspension in September 2015. He made his official return debut on 9 January 2016, playing 36 minutes against Roma in a 1–1 draw and scored his first goal in his first match back at the San Siro six days later against Fiorentina in a 2–0 win.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: On 25 May 2016, club owner Silvio Berlusconi announced Boateng's departure, along with those of Alex, Philippe Mexès and Mario Balotelli.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: On 2 August 2016, Spanish La Liga club Las Palmas announced that they had reached an agreement with Boateng for his signature following his release from Milan. He made his debut on 22 August 2016 in a 4–2 away win against Valencia at the Mestalla Stadium. On 24 October Boateng scored a goal against Villarreal which was regarded by some pundits as one of the best goals of La Liga that year.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: On 16 August 2017, Las Palmas announced that Boateng had cancelled his contract by the club by mutual consent, citing "irreversible personal reasons" for the decision.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: On 18 August 2017, Boateng completed his move to Eintracht Frankfurt on a three-year deal, where he won the DFB-Pokal.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: Boateng joined Spanish La Liga club Barcelona on 21 January 2019 on loan until the end of the 2018–19 season, with the club holding an option to sign him permanently for an €8 million transfer fee. He had joined the Catalan side to serve as a backup for Luis Suárez after Munir El Haddadi was sold to Sevilla. The transfer made him the first Ghanaian ever to represent the club. He made his club debut on 23 January, in a 2–0 away defeat to Sevilla in the first leg of the Copa del Rey quarter-finals.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: On 30 July 2019, Boateng signed with ACF Fiorentina. He made his debut for the club on 24 August in the opening game of the 2019–20 Serie A season, coming on as a substitute in the second half and scoring a goal in an eventual 4–3 home loss to Napoli.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: On 31 January 2020, Boateng joined Turkish Süper Lig club Beşiktaş on loan for the remainder of the 2019–20 season.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: On 28 September 2020, Boateng moved to newly promoted Serie B side Monza on a one-year contract, with the option to extend for a further year. He scored his first goal on 24 October 2020, converting a penalty in a 1–2 defeat to Chievo at home. On 15 December 2020, Boateng scored two headed goals in a league game against Virtus Entella, helping Monza win 5–0.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: Boateng holds a German passport, previously playing for the Germany national youth team. His long-distance goal for the under-19 team in a 2005 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship match against Greece – which Germany won 3–0 – was voted Goal of the Month by viewers of a German "Das Erste" TV sports show.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: In 2007, "Berliner Morgenpost" reported that then Germany under-21 coach Dieter Eilts would no longer select him and other team players due to a curfew that had been broken in the team's camp during the June 2007 Toulon Tournament in France. In February 2009, Boateng was called up to the Germany U21 team by new coach Horst Hrubesch for the international match against the Republic of Ireland in Cork. Hrubesch selected Boateng in the preliminary U21 squad for the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship in Sweden in June 2009.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: In June 2009, Boateng told the German authorities that he was no longer interested in representing Germany.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: Boateng received a Ghanaian passport and switched his allegiance to Ghana in May 2010; he has said that he feels more Ghanaian. He began his senior international football career by attending training with the national side, "The Black Stars," that same month at the Accra Sports Stadium in Greater Accra prior the 2010 World Cup. Boateng made his debut in a 1–0 victory over Latvia in June 2010.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: In 2006, the Ghana Football Association had been in contact with Boateng on him representing the Ghana ahead of the 2006 World Cup. But the process under which FIFA had to decide on his eligibility would be long, as Boateng was past the age under the old FIFA rules where old youth internationals could switch allegiance. FIFA's decision to reverse the rules in 2009 had given Boateng the green light to switch his allegiance, and time appeared to be running out when his clearance to represent the "Black Stars" had still not arrived at the beginning of May 2010.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: Boateng was selected as part of the Ghana squad for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa by head coach Milovan Rajevac, to fill in for the injured Michael Essien alongside defensive midfielder Anthony Annan. On 23 June, he was selected to start in Ghana's game against Germany, whose team included his brother Jérôme Boateng. Ghana held Germany to a 60th-minute lone goal and 1–0 win. It was the first time that two brothers played on opposite teams at the World Cup. Boateng picked up the ball from the half-way line, dribbled it "rapidly bamboozling" his opponents before scoring with a left-footed shot from outside the penalty area in the fourth minute of a 2–1 win over the United States in the round-of-16 in Rustenburg's Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace on 26 June.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: In November 2011, Boateng announced his international retirement, citing fatigue from travel at the age of 24 years, thus missing the chance to contest the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. In September 2012, Marseille's Ghanaian striker and close friend André Ayew revealed that Boateng was considering reversing his decision to retire, but he did not play in the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations either.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: On 1 October 2013, Boateng was selected for Ghana's 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification play-offs against Egypt. On 4 November 2013, he came on as a 79th-minute substitute in the second leg and scored Ghana's only goal in the 89th minute as the Black Stars secured qualification for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: On 2 June 2014, Boateng was named in Ghana's squad for the World Cup finals. In the team's opening match, he came on as a second-half substitute against the United States in a 2–1 defeat. He was then selected to start against Germany in a 2–2 draw, playing against his brother again.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: On 26 June, Boateng was sent home and suspended from the Ghana squad for disciplinary reasons, only hours before the final group match against Portugal, after he was alleged to have verbally abused former manager James Kwesi Appiah during a team meeting. Boateng was sent home along with midfielder Sulley Muntari. On 29 June, Boateng had hit back at the Ghana Football Association, describing the "Black Stars"' organisation during the tournament as "amateurish".


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: Boateng is a quick, dynamic, physically strong and well-rounded midfielder, known for his aggression, eye for goal, long-range shooting ability, flair, footspeed, ball-juggling tricks, and dribbling skills. A versatile and tenacious player, his game has a particular dependence on "sheer strength, power and energy." He can produce the work rate, ball retrieval and attacking willingness of the box-to-box midfielder. He combines technical skill with speed of action which makes him more dangerous. A 2014 profile on FIFA's official website described Boateng as being "blessed with strength, speed, killer instinct in front of goal, and an uncommon flamboyance in the attacking third."


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: Boateng has been utilised in many midfield positions throughout his career, but usually plays either in the centre in a box-to-box role, or as an attacking midfielder or forward; he has also been deployed as a false-attacking midfielder, as a second striker, or even as a winger on occasion during his time with Milan. With Las Palmas and Sassuolo, he was also deployed in a more advanced, central attacking role, essentially positioned as a lone striker, but effectively functioning as a false-9, due to his ability to drop deep, link-up with midfielders, and create space for his other attacking teammates with his movement off the ball. In addition to his playing ability, Boateng is known for his acrobatic goal celebrations, and often celebrates scoring goals with a backflip. His former Hertha BSC teammate Niko Kovač has also praised Boateng for his leadership, stating: "Kevin gives the team a sense of stability, both mentally and physically," also describing him as a "warrior."


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: Boateng was born in Berlin. His mother, Christine Rahn, is German and his father is from Ghana. He is the older, paternal half-brother of fellow professional footballer Jérôme Boateng. He is divorced from his first wife Jenny. He became engaged to Italian model Melissa Satta in 2011, and the pair have a child, Maddox Prince, born 15 April 2014. The couple were wed on 25 June 2016 in Porto Cervo, Sardinia. Their marriage ended in December 2020 after a separation. Boateng says he speaks Turkish, German, English and Italian, and understands French and Arabic. Boateng is the nephew of Yaw Boateng Gyan who is the former National Organizer of the NDC.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: Boateng has a tattoo of the map of Ghana and the country's name on his arm. Across his ribs, he has the Chinese words for clan, health, love, success and trust, and he has other tattoos on his upper body.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: In February 2013, Boateng was appointed as the first global ambassador for the FIFA anti-discrimination taskforce, to work alongside FIFA Vice-president Jeffrey Webb at FIFA headquarters. In March, Boateng presented FIFA President Sepp Blatter with his first phase of solutions to ending global racism in football, as requested by Blatter. In March 2013, Boateng was named as the United Nations (UN) ambassador for anti-racism. He delivered his first speech in that role accompanied by UN human rights chief Navi Pillay at the United Nations Office at Geneva.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: Boateng is a keen singer and dancer, and has said that his singing and dancing idol is Michael Jackson. He enjoys choreography, and singing. As such, Boateng performed a dance routine involving Michael Jackson's trademarked "Moonwalk" for a packed-out San Siro of 88,000 spectators upon Milan celebrating their 18th "Scudetto", and sang an a cappella live on beIN Sports television to celebrate their eighth birthday.


title: Kevin-Prince Boateng

text: In August 2018, he released a rap song under the alias "PRIN$$ Boateng" named "King" on the World Star Hip Hop channel. Boateng released his second single, "Bella Vita", in July 2019.


title: Pulse (2001 film)

text: The plot centers on ghosts invading the world of the living via the Internet. It features two parallel story lines.


title: Pulse (2001 film)

text: Michi Kudo (Kumiko Asō) has recently moved to Tokyo and begun working at a shop that sells plants. Her co-workers include Junko Sasano, Toshio Yabe, and Taguchi, who has been missing for several days while working on a computer disk for the shop's sales. Michi goes to Taguchi's apartment and finds him distracted and aloof; during their conversation, he casually makes a noose, goes into another room, and hangs himself. Michi and her friends inspect the disk he left behind and discover it contains an image of Taguchi staring into his own computer monitor, on which Taguchi staring into his monitor can be seen - creating an endless series of images. In the other monitor on his desk, they discover a ghostly face staring out into Taguchi's room.


title: Pulse (2001 film)

text: Yabe receives a phone call and hears a distorted voice saying "help me." Upon checking his phone, he sees the same image found on Taguchi's disk. He goes to Taguchi's apartment and sees a black stain on the wall where he hanged himself, as well as a paper with "how to make a forbidden room" (akazu no heya no tsukurikata) written on it. He notices a door sealed with red tape and enters it, where he encounters a ghost. Yabe becomes depressed and tells Michi that he saw something horrible in "the forbidden room."


title: Pulse (2001 film)

text: Michi receives a call like the one Yabe got. She goes check on Yabe and finds a black stain on the wall like the one in Taguchi's apartment. She panics when she realizes Junko has unsealed and entered a "forbidden room." Inside, she witnesses Junko being cornered by a ghost, and rescues her. Junko becomes catatonic from the encounter. She later steps toward the wall and becomes a black stain, which then dissolves and scatters as Michi tries in vain to stop it. Worried, Michi goes to check on her mother, who lives outside Tokyo.


title: Pulse (2001 film)

text: Ryosuke Kawashima, a university economics student, has recently signed up to a new internet service provider. His computer accesses a website by itself, showing him disturbing images of people alone in dark rooms exhibiting bizarre behavior. That night, Ryosuke wakes up to find his computer on again with the disturbing images displaying and frantically unplugs it. The next day he goes to the university computer lab looking for answers and meets Harue Karasawa (Koyuki), a post-graduate computer science student, who suggests he either bookmark the page or screen capture the images for her to examine. Ryosuke attempts to do so, but finds that his computer will not follow his commands. Instead, a video plays of a man with his head in a plastic bag sitting in a room with the words "HELP ME" written all over the walls.


title: Pulse (2001 film)

text: A graduate student who Harue is working with explains to Ryosuke his theory that the souls of the dead have begun to invade the physical world. Harue confides her lifelong feelings of isolation to Ryosuke, then begins acting strangely, suggesting that ghosts would want to trap humans in their own loneliness rather than kill them. Ryosuke tries to escape with her to a faraway place on the train. However, their train stops, and Harue, seized by a desire to return home, runs away. Upon returning to her apartment, she witnesses the man with the plastic bag shoot himself on her computer. Harue then presses the "enter" key and sees a video of herself in the present moment on the screen. As she embraces the invisible figure watching her, Harue happily says that she is "not alone". When Ryosuke makes it to her apartment, she has vanished.


title: Pulse (2001 film)

text: As people begin vanishing in great numbers, evacuations of Tokyo begin, and a full-scale invasion of the Kanto region by the ghosts is underway. Ryosuke meets Michi in her broken-down car, and after helping her repair it, she goes with him to search for Harue. They find Harue in an abandoned factory, where she shoots herself. When Ryosuke and Michi's car runs out of gas, Ryosuke enters the warehouse to search for fuel. He drops the gas cap, which rolls through the open doorway of a "forbidden room." When he goes to retrieve it, the door locks behind him and he encounters a ghost who insists that it is "real" and tells him that "death was eternal loneliness". Although he tries to resist the ghost's influence, Ryosuke loses the will to live, and Michi drags him to safety. They drive through a deserted, ravaged Tokyo, encountering apocalyptic scenery as well as a U.S. Army cargo plane that crashes from the sky. After locating a small motorboat, the pair are found and brought aboard a ship departing from Tokyo, crewed by a small group of survivors who tell them that similar events are happening worldwide.


title: Pulse (2001 film)

text: Returning to the first scene of the film, Michi and the captain of the ship talk on the lower deck. As the ship heads for Latin America, the captain encourages Michi, telling her that she is doing the right thing by continuing to live. She returns to her room on the ship, where she sees Ryosuke sitting against the wall with his eyes closed. He fades into a shadow as Michi declares that she has found happiness, being alone with her last friend in the world.


title: Pulse (2001 film)

text: Distant Horizon purchased worldwide distribution rights to the film from Daiei. The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard category at the Cannes Film Festival.


title: Pulse (2001 film)

text: The film was released on DVD by Magnolia Home Entertainment on February 21, 2006. Arrow Video has announced a Blu-ray release of the film for December 2016.


title: Pulse (2001 film)

text: The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 74% based on 54 reviews, and a rating average of 6.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A sinister spine-tingling techno-thriller whose artistry lies in the power of suggestion rather than a barrage of blood and guts or horror shop special effects."


title: Pulse (2001 film)

text: AllMovie praised the film, writing "The first 30 minutes of "Kairo" is perhaps some of the most unnerving, frightening sequences to come down the pike in a long time." Anita Gates of "The New York Times" wrote, "There are very few moments in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's fiercely original, thrillingly creepy horror movie that don't evoke a dreamlike dread of the truly unknown." Slant Magazine gave the film four stars out of four, writing "Kurosawa's movies have a genuinely unnerving effect on the viewer because they deal with the kind of loneliness that exists in an overcrowded world. [...] "Pulse" is his strongest elucidation of this theme, treating the World Wide Web as a literal snare forging sinewy connections between strangers where the ultimate destination is chaos." "The Guardian" called it "an incredibly creepy horror film" that, in the same way as "Ring", "finds chills in the most dingy and mundane of locales; skillful deployment of grisly little moments and disturbing, cryptic imagery produce the requisite mood of dread and gloom." Film Threat wrote, "What's worse than a horror film that frightens you sleepless is one that disturbs you to depression." "The Washington Post" commented, ""Pulse" is best enjoyed if it's not questioned too closely. It lives visually in a way it cannot live intellectually".


title: Pulse (2001 film)

text: "Entertainment Weekly" was critical of the film, writing "Watching "Pulse" [...] you could almost die of anticipation", commenting that "nothing in the two snail-paced hours [...] makes close to a shred of sense". "The Seattle Times" criticized the film's storyline and length, writing "While it's rattling your nerves, "Pulse" leaves your brain wanting more", and "The Village Voice" called the film "at least half an hour too long".


title: Pulse (2001 film)

text: In 2012, Jaime N Christley of "Slant" magazine listed the film as one of the greatest of all time. In the early 2010s, "Time Out" conducted a poll with several authors, directors, actors and critics who have worked within the horror genre to vote for their top horror films. The film was ranked as number 65 on the 2020 version of the same list.


title: Pulse (2001 film)

text: The scene where Yabe encounters a ghost for the first time has received attention for being particularly scary without using jump scares or loud sound effects; Scott Tobias, writing for "The AV Club", described it as "arguably the signature sequence in all of J-horror."


title: Lauren Alaina

text: Lauren Alaina Kristine Suddeth (born November 8, 1994) is an American singer and songwriter from Rossville, Georgia. She was the runner-up on the tenth season of "American Idol." Her debut studio album, "Wildflower," was released on October 11, 2011. Her second album, "Road Less Traveled," was released January 27, 2017. Alaina later achieved her first No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart with the album's title track. Her second No. 1 came later that year when she simultaneously topped five "Billboard" charts with her friend and former classmate Kane Brown on their duet "What Ifs". She was on the twenty-eighth season of "Dancing with the Stars" and placed fourth with her partner Gleb Savchenko. Alaina's third studio album, "Sitting Pretty on Top of the World," was released on September 3, 2021. In December 2021, Alaina was invited by Trisha Yearwood to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry. She was inducted by Yearwood during the Opry performance on February 12, 2022.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: Alaina was born on November 8, 1994, to Kristy and J. J. Suddeth of Rossville, Georgia. Her father works as a process technician in Chattanooga, Tennessee.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: Alaina started to sing at the age of 3. Her first public performances followed with a kids choir and an annual vacation spot that offered karaoke. She sang in church, restaurants, family holiday gatherings and anywhere within a 30-mile radius of where she lived.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: At age 8, Alaina entered the talent competition of the Southern Stars Pageant and won. The next year she was selected to perform on the Kids talent stage at Chattanooga's Riverbend Festival. She performed on that stage annually until age 12, when she won the competition that allowed her to perform on the festival's big stage. She traveled to Orlando, Florida, when she was ten to compete in the American Model and Talent Competition. She won the event, beating out 1,500 kids. Alaina sang with the Georgia Country Gospel Music Association's children's group. At age 12, Alaina made her first of many trips to Nashville. She performed at local bars on Broadway, such as Tootsie's. In 2009, Alaina was the first winner of the WinniSTAR youth talent contest at Lake Winnepesaukah amusement park. In addition to performing, Alaina wrote several songs including "Leaving" and "Set Me Free".


title: Lauren Alaina

text: Alaina was inspired to sing by her cousin, Holly Witherow, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Prior to "Idol", Alaina worked at CiCi's Pizza. She attended Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, where she was a cheerleader.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: Alaina auditioned for the tenth season of "American Idol" in Nashville, Tennessee. From early on, Alaina was a judge favorite. After her audition, "Idol" judge Steven Tyler stated, "We found the one." May 14, 2011, was proclaimed "Lauren Alaina Day" in her hometown of Rossville, Georgia. During the season finale, Alaina sang "Before He Cheats" with her idol, Carrie Underwood. On May 25, 2011, Alaina was declared the runner-up.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: Following "Idol", Alaina was signed to Interscope Records, Mercury Nashville and 19 Recordings. Alaina released her single "Like My Mother Does". The song entered the "Billboard" Hot Country Songs chart at number 49 and the Hot 100 chart at number 20 and sold 121,000 copies in its first week. "Like My Mother Does" peaked at number 36 on the Hot Country Songs chart.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: Following the conclusion of Season 10, Alaina appeared and performed on several talk shows such as "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", "Live with Regis and Kelly" and "The Today Show". On June 8, 2011, Alaina and McCreery presented at the CMT Music Awards. In addition, Alaina made her Grand Ole Opry debut on June 10. She performed with Martina McBride at LP Field during the CMA Music Festival. The following summer, Alaina toured with the American Idols Live! Tour 2011, which began in West Valley City, Utah on July 6, 2011 and ended in Manila, Philippines on September 21, 2011.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: On October 11, 2011, Alaina released her debut album "Wildflower", which debuted at number five on the US "Billboard" 200 chart, number two on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, and sold 69,000 copies the first week. The album was the best-selling digital album by a debut country female. The lead single "Georgia Peaches" reached number 28 on the "Billboard" Hot Country Songs chart.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: To promote her album, Alaina made numerous television and radio appearances. She performed her single "Georgia Peaches" on "Good Morning America", "Live with Regis and Kelly" and "The Ellen DeGeneres Show". On October 22, 2011, Alaina performed at "Opry Goes Pink", a benefit concert at the Grand Ole Opry for "Women for the Cure". On November 10, 2011, Alaina performed "My Grown Up Christmas List" on "CMA Country Christmas". In addition, Alaina performed for Barack Obama and Michelle Obama in the PBS special "In Performance at the White House" on November 21. She sang the National Anthem at the Thanksgiving Day game between the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers. On New Year's Eve, Alaina performed her single "Georgia Peaches" on "American Country New Year's Eve Live".


title: Lauren Alaina

text: Alaina served as an opening act for Jason Aldean's "My Kinda Party Tour" from January 20, 2012 to May 19, 2012. In addition to the "My Kinda Party Tour", Alaina opened for Sugarland's "In the Hands of the Fans Tour" for a number of selected dates, beginning on April 5, 2012 and concluding on September 1, 2012. On March 8, 2012, Alaina performed "Georgia Peaches" on the eleventh season of "American Idol". On March 26, 2012, Alaina performed her single "Georgia Peaches" on "The Today Show". On June 16, 2012, Alaina headlined the final show of Riverbend, a music festival in her hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: In July 2012, "Eighteen Inches" became Alaina's third single off her album, "Wildflower". The single was sent to country radio on July 16. "Eighteen Inches" hit number 37 on the "Billboard" Hot Country Songs list. In support of the song, Alaina embarked on an 18-city tour. Proceeds from each show benefited various local charities, including the Special Olympics. The Inch-By-Inch tour kicked off on September 21, 2012, and wrapped up November 12, 2012.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: In January 2013, Alaina started recording her second album. On May 7, 2013, Alaina released the single "Barefoot and Buckwild", which charted at thirty-four on the "Billboard" Hot Country Songs chart. She performed the song on the twelfth season of "American Idol" on May 9, 2013. In May 2013, Alaina also released a track titled "Antarctica: One World, One Family". The track serves as the theme song for the SeaWorld attraction . On December 10, 2013, Alaina released her cover of "My Grown Up Christmas List". On September 18, 2015, Alaina released the single "Next Boyfriend". "Next Boyfriend" was added to radio stations on September 28. It reached number 39 on the "Billboard" Hot Country Songs chart. An "EP" followed on October 2, 2015. A track on the EP, "History" was used for ESPN College Football coverage.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: Throughout 2016, Alaina opened for several shows on Alan Jackson's Still Keepin' It Country Tour. On November 18, 2016, Alaina released her cover of "O Holy Night".


title: Lauren Alaina

text: Alaina released the single "Road Less Traveled", which she co-wrote with Meghan Trainor and Jesse Frasure, on July 11, 2016. Alaina performed the track on "The Today Show" on September 8, 2016 and on "Harry" on February 7, 2017. In April 2017, "Road Less Traveled" reached number one on the "Billboard" Country Airplay chart.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: On January 27, 2017, Alaina released her second album "Road Less Traveled". Tracks for Alaina's album include "Same Day Different Bottle", "Doin' Fine", "My Kinda People", "Pretty", "Crashin' the Boys Club" and "Queen of Hearts", as well as four tracks from her self-titled EP. Alaina describes "Road Less Traveled" as "very different" from her debut album. In addition, self acceptance and love is a big theme on the album. "We are all different and that's what makes us all beautiful. The album will reflect that further. It will have some fun songs and sad songs – a little bit of what my life has been like over the past few years", Alaina says. Alaina performed "Doin' Fine" on "Good Morning America" on January 31, 2017.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: In February and March 2017, Alaina toured with Martina McBride on her Love Unleashed Tour. Throughout June and July 2017, Alaina appeared on Luke Bryan's "Huntin', Fishin' and Lovin' Every Day Tour" for a number of selected dates. In May 2017, Alaina contributed guest vocals to the song "Are You Happy Now" from Rascal Flatts' tenth studio album, "Back to Us".


title: Lauren Alaina

text: Alaina's third single from "Road Less Traveled", "Doin' Fine", was released May 22, 2017. The song peaked at number 27 on the "Billboard" Country Airplay chart, making it her second-highest charting single. Alaina became the only female to top both country charts in 2017 after "Road Less Traveled" topped the Country Airplay chart and "What Ifs" topped the Hot Country chart. This also made her one of the only three women to top either country chart in 2017.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: Alaina performed "Doin' Fine" and "What Ifs" at the 2018 ACM Awards where she won the award for New Female Vocalist of the Year. At the 2018 CMT Music Awards, Alaina and Brown won the award for "Best Collaborative Video" for "What Ifs" and were among the top five vote getters for "Video of the Year" for the same song.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: Alaina released the single, "Ladies in the '90s," on October 5, 2018. The song was released to country radio on October 15. The single reached No. 40 on the "Billboard" Country Airplay.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: Alaina was nominated for New Artist of the Year at the 51st Annual Country Music Association Awards in 2017 and 52nd Annual Country Music Association Awards in 2018.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: Throughout 2018 and 2019, Alaina toured with artists such as Alan Jackson, Cole Swindell, Jason Aldean, and Blake Shelton. She headlined numerous major music festivals such as Stagecoach Festival.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: Alaina released the single, "Getting Good," on September 27, 2019. The song was released to country radio on October 7. "The Other Side" was released as a promotional single on October 22 and was danced to in a "Dancing with the Stars" episode in memory of her stepfather. On March 6, 2020, she released the "Getting Good" EP including those two tracks and Ladies in the '90s. On September 4, 2020, she released the EP "Getting Over Him". Alaina's first single from the EP, "Getting Over Him," featuring Jon Pardi was released on February 23, 2021. Alaina released her third studio album, "Sitting Pretty on Top of the World", on September 3, 2021.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: In March 2021, Alaina revealed that she had tested positive for COVID-19. On December 18, 2021, Alaina was asked to become an official member of The Grand Ole Opry.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: In September and October 2016, Alaina filmed her very first movie "The Road Less Traveled", which took place in Knoxville, Tennessee. The film was released on June 6, 2017. It then premiered on CMT on November 10, 2017.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: In August 2019, Alaina was announced as one of the celebrities to compete on season 28 of "Dancing with the Stars". She made it to the finals and finished in fourth place.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: She was a contestant on "Beyond the Edge", a CBS survival competition series that premiered in March 2022. She tore her ligament, ending her time on the show, later admitting that her exit was the right call.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: Alaina's parents divorced in 2013. Her father is a recovering alcoholic and has been sober since October 2013. Both her parents remarried.


title: Lauren Alaina

text: Throughout her teen years, Alaina struggled with bulimia. She said in a 2016 "Rolling Stone" interview, "I had an eating disorder for like four years, and I was just lost" and "I found myself in these last few years, through music and family and good people around me."


title: Lauren Alaina

text: In 2012, Alaina began dating Alexander Hopkins. In July 2018, the couple announced that they had become engaged. In January 2019, they announced that they had split after six years. She was in a relationship with comedian John Crist from May to September 2019. In November 2022, she announced her engagement to Cam Arnold.


title: World-systems theory

text: World-systems theory (also known as world-systems analysis or the world-systems perspective) is a multidisciplinary approach to world history and social change which emphasizes the world-system (and not nation states) as the primary (but not exclusive) unit of social analysis.


title: World-systems theory

text: "World-system" refers to the inter-regional and transnational division of labor, which divides the world into core countries, semi-periphery countries, and the periphery countries. Core countries focus on higher-skill, capital-intensive production, and the rest of the world focuses on low-skill, labor-intensive production and extraction of raw materials. This constantly reinforces the dominance of the core countries. Nonetheless, the system has dynamic characteristics, in part as a result of revolutions in transport technology, and individual states can gain or lose their core (semi-periphery, periphery) status over time. This structure is unified by the division of labour. It is a world-economy rooted in a capitalist economy. For a time, certain countries become the world hegemon; during the last few centuries, as the world-system has extended geographically and intensified economically, this status has passed from the Netherlands, to the United Kingdom and (most recently) to the United States.


title: World-systems theory

text: Components of the world-systems analysis are "longue durée" by Fernand Braudel, "development of underdevelopment" by Gunder Frank, and the single-society assumption. "Longue durée" is the concept of the gradual change through the day-to-day activities by which social systems are continually reproduced. "Development of underdevelopment" described that the economic processes in the periphery are the opposite of the development in the core. Poorer countries are impoverished to enable a few countries to get richer. Lastly, the single-society assumption opposes the multiple-society assumption and includes looking at the world as a whole.


title: World-systems theory

text: World-systems theory has been examined by many political theorists and sociologists to explain the reasons for the rise and fall of states, income inequality, social unrest, and imperialism.


title: World-systems theory

text: Immanuel Wallerstein has developed the best-known version of world-systems analysis, beginning in the 1970s. Wallerstein traces the rise of the capitalist world-economy from the "long" 16th century (c. 1450–1640). The rise of capitalism, in his view, was an accidental outcome of the protracted crisis of feudalism (c. 1290–1450). Europe (the West) used its advantages and gained control over most of the world economy and presided over the development and spread of industrialization and capitalist economy, indirectly resulting in unequal development.


title: World-systems theory

text: Though other commentators refer to Wallerstein's project as world-systems "theory", he consistently rejects that term. For Wallerstein, world-systems analysis is a mode of analysis that aims to transcend the structures of knowledge inherited from the 19th century, especially the definition of capitalism, the divisions within the social sciences, and those between the social sciences and history. For Wallerstein, then, world-systems analysis is a "knowledge movement" that seeks to discern the "totality of what has been paraded under the labels of the... human sciences and indeed well beyond". "We must invent a new language," Wallerstein insists, to transcend the illusions of the "three supposedly distinctive arenas" of society, economy and politics. The trinitarian structure of knowledge is grounded in another, even grander, modernist architecture, the distinction of biophysical worlds (including those within bodies) from social ones: "One question, therefore, is whether we will be able to justify something called social science in the twenty-first century as a separate sphere of knowledge." Many other scholars have contributed significant work in this "knowledge movement".


title: World-systems theory

text: World-systems theory traces emerged in the 1970s. Its roots can be found in sociology, but it has developed into a highly interdisciplinary field.


title: World-systems theory

text: World-systems theory was aiming to replace modernization theory, which Wallerstein criticised for three reasons:


title: World-systems theory

text: There are three major predecessors of world-systems theory: the Annales school, the Marxist tradition, and dependency theory. The Annales School tradition (represented most notably by Fernand Braudel) influenced Wallerstein to focus on long-term processes and geo-ecological regions as units of analysis. Marxism added a stress on social conflict, a focus on the capital accumulation process and competitive class struggles, a focus on a relevant totality, the transitory nature of social forms and a dialectical sense of motion through conflict and contradiction.


title: World-systems theory

text: World-systems theory was also significantly influenced by dependency theory, a neo-Marxist explanation of development processes.


title: World-systems theory

text: Other influences on the world-systems theory come from scholars such as Karl Polanyi, Nikolai Kondratiev and Joseph Schumpeter (particularly their research on business cycles and the concepts of three basic modes of economic organization: reciprocal, redistributive, and market modes, which Wallerstein reframed into a discussion of mini systems, world empires, and world economies).


title: World-systems theory

text: Wallerstein sees the development of the capitalist world economy as detrimental to a large proportion of the world's population. Wallerstein views the period since the 1970s as an "age of transition" that will give way to a future world system (or world systems) whose configuration cannot be determined in advance.


title: World-systems theory

text: World-systems thinkers include Oliver Cox, Samir Amin, Giovanni Arrighi, Andre Gunder Frank, and Immanuel Wallerstein, with major contributions by Christopher Chase-Dunn, Beverly Silver, Volker Bornschier, Janet Abu Lughod, Thomas D. Hall, Li Minqi, Kunibert Raffer, Theotonio dos Santos, Dale Tomich, Jason W. Moore and others. In sociology, a primary alternative perspective is World Polity Theory, as formulated by John W. Meyer.


title: World-systems theory

text: World-systems analysis builds upon but also differs fundamentally from dependency theory. While accepting world inequality, the world market and imperialism as fundamental features of historical capitalism, Wallerstein broke with orthodox dependency theory's central proposition. For Wallerstein, core countries do not exploit poor countries for two basic reasons.


title: World-systems theory

text: Firstly, core capitalists exploit workers in all zones of the capitalist world economy (not just the periphery) and therefore, the crucial redistribution between core and periphery is surplus value, not "wealth" or "resources" abstractly conceived. Secondly, core states do not exploit poor states, as dependency theory proposes, because capitalism is organised around an inter-regional and transnational division of labor rather than an international division of labour.


title: World-systems theory

text: During the Industrial Revolution, for example, English capitalists exploited slaves (unfree workers) in the cotton zones of the American South, a peripheral region within a semiperipheral country, United States.


title: World-systems theory

text: From a largely Weberian perspective, Fernando Henrique Cardoso described the main tenets of dependency theory as follows:


title: World-systems theory

text: Dependency and world system theory propose that the poverty and backwardness of poor countries are caused by their peripheral position in the international division of labor. Since the capitalist world system evolved, the distinction between the central and the peripheral states has grown and diverged. In recognizing a tripartite pattern in division of labor, world-systems analysis criticized dependency theory with its bimodal system of only cores and peripheries.


title: World-systems theory

text: The best-known version of the world-systems approach was developed by Immanuel Wallerstein. Wallerstein notes that world-systems analysis calls for a unidisciplinary historical social science and contends that the modern disciplines, products of the 19th century, are deeply flawed because they are not separate logics, as is manifest for example in the "de facto" overlap of analysis among scholars of the disciplines. Wallerstein offers several definitions of a world-system, defining it in 1974 briefly:


title: World-systems theory

text: Wallerstein characterizes the world system as a set of mechanisms, which redistributes surplus value from the "periphery" to the "core". In his terminology, the "core" is the developed, industrialized part of the world, and the "periphery" is the "underdeveloped", typically raw materials-exporting, poor part of the world; the "market" being the means by which the "core" exploits the "periphery".


title: World-systems theory

text: Apart from them, Wallerstein defines four temporal features of the world system. "Cyclical rhythms" represent the short-term fluctuation of economy, and "secular trends" mean deeper long run tendencies, such as general economic growth or decline. The term "contradiction" means a general controversy in the system, usually concerning some short term versus long term tradeoffs. For example, the problem of underconsumption, wherein the driving down of wages increases the profit for capitalists in the short term, but in the long term, the decreasing of wages may have a crucially harmful effect by reducing the demand for the product. The last temporal feature is the "crisis": a crisis occurs if a constellation of circumstances brings about the end of the system.


title: World-systems theory

text: In Wallerstein's view, there have been three kinds of historical systems across human history: "mini-systems" or what anthropologists call bands, tribes, and small chiefdoms, and two types of world-systems, one that is politically unified and the other is not (single state world empires and multi-polity world economies). World-systems are larger, and are ethnically diverse. The modern world-system, a capitalist world-economy, is unique in being the first and only world-system, which emerged around 1450 to 1550, to have geographically expanded across the entire planet, by about 1900. It is defined, as a world-economy, in having many political units tied together as an interstate system and through its division of labor based on capitalist enterprises.


title: World-systems theory

text: World-Systems Theory can be useful in understanding world history and the core countries' motives for imperialization and other involvements like the US aid following natural disasters in developing Central American countries or imposing regimes on other core states. With the interstate system as a system constant, the relative economic power of the three tiers points to the internal inequalities that are on the rise in states that appear to be developing. Some argue that this theory, though, ignores local efforts of innovation that have nothing to do with the global economy, such as the labor patterns implemented in Caribbean sugar plantations. Other modern global topics can be easily traced back to the world-systems theory.


title: World-systems theory

text: As global talk about climate change and the future of industrial corporations, the world systems theory can help to explain the creation of the G-77 group, a coalition of 77 peripheral and semi-peripheral states wanting a seat at the global climate discussion table. The group was formed in 1964, but it now has more than 130 members who advocate for multilateral decision making. Since its creation, G-77 members have collaborated with two main aims: 1) decreasing their vulnerability based on the relative size of economic influence, and 2) improving outcomes for national development. World-systems theory has also been utilized to trace CO emissions’ damage to the ozone layer. The levels of world economic entrance and involvement can affect the damage a country does to the earth. In general, scientists can make assumptions about a country's CO emissions based on GDP. Higher exporting countries, countries with debt, and countries with social structure turmoil land in the upper-periphery tier. Though more research must be done in the arena, scientists can call core, semi-periphery, and periphery labels as indicators for CO intensity.


title: World-systems theory

text: In a health realm, studies have shown the effect of less industrialized countries’, the periphery's, acceptance of packaged foods and beverages that are loaded with sugars and preservatives. While core states benefit from dumping large amounts of processed, fatty foods into poorer states, there has been a recorded increase in obesity and related chronic conditions such as diabetes and chronic heart disease. While some aspects of the modernization theory have been found to improve the global obesity crisis, a world systems theory approach identifies holes in the progress.


title: World-systems theory

text: Knowledge economy and finance now dominate the industry in core states while manufacturing has shifted to semi-periphery and periphery ones. Technology has become a defining factor in the placement of states into core or semi-periphery versus periphery. Wallerstein's theory leaves room for poor countries to move into better economic development, but he also admits that there will always be a need for periphery countries as long as there are core states who derive resources from them. As a final mark of modernity, Wallerstein admits that advocates are the heart of this world-system: “Exploitation and the refusal to accept exploitation as either inevitable or just constitute the continuing antinomy of the modern era”.


title: World-systems theory

text: Some questions are more specific to certain subfields; for example, Marxists would concern themselves whether world-systems theory is a useful or unhelpful development of Marxist theories.


title: World-systems theory

text: World-systems analysis argues that capitalism, as a historical system, has always integrated a variety of labor forms within a functioning division of labor (world economy). Countries do not have economies but are part of the world economy. Far from being separate societies or worlds, the world economy manifests a tripartite division of labor, with core, semiperipheral and peripheral zones. In the core zones, businesses, with the support of states they operate within, monopolise the most profitable activities of the division of labor.


title: World-systems theory

text: There are many ways to attribute a specific country to the core, semi-periphery, or periphery. Using an empirically based sharp formal definition of "domination" in a two-country relationship, Piana in 2004 defined the "core" as made up of "free countries" dominating others without being dominated, the "semi-periphery" as the countries that are dominated (usually, but not necessarily, by core countries) but at the same time dominating others (usually in the periphery) and "periphery" as the countries dominated. Based on 1998 data, the full list of countries in the three regions, together with a discussion of methodology, can be found.


title: World-systems theory

text: The late 18th and early 19th centuries marked a great turning point in the development of capitalism in that capitalists achieved state society power in the key states, which furthered the industrial revolution marking the rise of capitalism. World-systems analysis contends that capitalism as a historical system formed earlier and that countries do not "develop" in stages, but the system does, and events have a different meaning as a phase in the development of historical capitalism, the emergence of the three ideologies of the national developmental mythology (the idea that countries can develop through stages if they pursue the right set of policies): conservatism, liberalism, and radicalism.


title: World-systems theory

text: Proponents of world-systems analysis see the world stratification system the same way Karl Marx viewed class (ownership versus nonownership of the means of production) and Max Weber viewed class (which, in addition to ownership, stressed occupational skill level in the production process). The core states primarily own and control the major means of production in the world and perform the higher-level production tasks. The periphery nations own very little of the world's means of production (even when they are located in periphery states) and provide less-skilled labour. Like a class system with a states, class positions in the world economy result in an unequal distribution of rewards or resources. The core states receive the greatest share of surplus production, and periphery states receive the smallest share. Furthermore, core states are usually able to purchase raw materials and other goods from non-core states at low prices and demand higher prices for their exports to non-core states. Chirot (1986) lists the five most important benefits coming to core states from their domination of the periphery:


title: World-systems theory

text: According to Wallerstein, the unique qualities of the modern world system include its capitalistic nature, its truly global nature, and the fact that it is a world economy that has not become politically unified into a world empire.


title: World-systems theory

text: Throughout the history of the modern world system, a group of core states has competed for access to the world's resources, economic dominance, and hegemony over periphery states. Occasionally, one core state possessed clear dominance over the others. According to Immanuel Wallerstein, a core state is dominant over all the others when it has a lead in three forms of economic dominance:


title: World-systems theory

text: Military dominance is also likely once a state has reached this point. However, it has been posited that throughout the modern world system, no state has been able to use its military to gain economic dominance. Each of the past dominant states became dominant with fairly small levels of military spending and began to lose economic dominance with military expansion later on. Historically, cores were located in northwestern Europe (England, France, Netherlands) but later appeared in other parts of the world such as the United States, Canada, and Australia.


title: World-systems theory

text: Historically, peripheries were found outside Europe, such as in Latin America and today in sub-Saharan Africa.


title: World-systems theory

text: Semi-peripheral states are those that are midway between the core and periphery. Thus, they have to keep themselves from falling into the category of peripheral states and at the same time, they strive to join the category of core states. Therefore, they tend to apply protectionist policies most aggressively among the three categories of states. They tend to be countries moving towards industrialization and more diversified economies. These regions often have relatively developed and diversified economies but are not dominant in international trade. They tend to export more to peripheral states and import more from core states in trade. According to some scholars, such as Chirot, they are not as subject to outside manipulation as peripheral societies; but according to others (Barfield), they have "periperial-like" relations to the core. While in the sphere of influence of some cores, semiperipheries also tend to exert their own control over some peripheries. Further, semi-peripheries act as buffers between cores and peripheries and thus "...partially deflect the political pressures which groups primarily located in peripheral areas might otherwise direct against core-states" and stabilise the world system.


title: World-systems theory

text: Semi-peripheries can come into existence from developing peripheries and declining cores. Historically, two examples of semiperipheral states would be Spain and Portugal, which fell from their early core positions but still managed to retain influence in Latin America. Those countries imported silver and gold from their American colonies but then had to use it to pay for manufactured goods from core countries such as England and France. In the 20th century, states like the "settler colonies" of Australia, Canada and New Zealand had a semiperipheral status. In the 21st century, states like Brazil, Russia, India, Israel, China, South Korea and South Africa (BRICS) are usually considered semiperipheral.


title: World-systems theory

text: Between the core, periphery and semi-periphery countries lies a system of interconnected state relationships, or the interstate system. The interstate system arose either as a concomitant process or as a consequence of the development of the capitalist world-system over the course of the “long” 16th century as states began to recognize each other's sovereignty and form agreements and rules between themselves.


title: World-systems theory

text: Wallerstein wrote that there were no concrete rules about what exactly constitutes an individual state as various indicators of statehood (sovereignty, power, market control etc.) could range from total to nil. There were also no clear rules about which group controlled the state, as various groups located inside, outside, and across the states’ frontiers could seek to increase or decrease state power in order to better profit from a world-economy. Nonetheless, the “relative power continuum of stronger and weaker states has remained relatively unchanged over 400-odd years” implying that while there is no universal state system, an interstate system had developed out of the sum of state actions, which existed to reinforce certain rules and preconditions of statehood. These rules included maintaining consistent relations of production, and regulating the flow of capital, commodities and labor across borders to maintain the price structures of the global market. If weak states attempt to rewrite these rules as they prefer them, strong states will typically intervene to rectify the situation.


title: World-systems theory

text: The ideology of the interstate system is sovereign equality, and while the system generally presents a set of constraints on the power of individual states, within the system states are “neither sovereign nor equal.” Not only do strong states impose their will on weak states, strong states also impose limitations upon other strong states, and tend to seek strengthened international rules, since enforcing consequences for broken rules can be highly beneficial and confer comparative advantages.


title: World-systems theory

text: External areas are those that maintain socially necessary divisions of labor independent of the capitalist world economy.


title: World-systems theory

text: Before the 16th century, Europe was dominated by feudal economies. European economies grew from mid-12th to 14th century but from 14th to mid 15th century, they suffered from a major crisis. Wallerstein explains this crisis as caused by the following:


title: World-systems theory

text: As a response to the failure of the feudal system, European society embraced the capitalist system. Europeans were motivated to develop technology to explore and trade around the world, using their superior military to take control of the trade routes. Europeans exploited their initial small advantages, which led to an accelerating process of accumulation of wealth and power in Europe.


title: World-systems theory

text: Wallerstein notes that never before had an economic system encompassed that much of the world, with trade links crossing so many political boundaries. In the past, geographically large economic systems existed but were mostly limited to spheres of domination of large empires (such as the Roman Empire); development of capitalism enabled the world economy to extend beyond individual states. International division of labor was crucial in deciding what relationships exists between different regions, their labor conditions and political systems. For classification and comparison purposes, Wallerstein introduced the categories of core, semi-periphery, periphery, and external countries. Cores monopolized the capital-intensive production, and the rest of the world could provide only workforce and raw resources. The resulting inequality reinforced existing unequal development.


title: World-systems theory

text: According to Wallerstein there have only been three periods in which a core state dominated in the modern world-system, with each lasting less than one hundred years. In the initial centuries of the rise of European dominance, Northwestern Europe constituted the core, Mediterranean Europe the semiperiphery, and Eastern Europe and the Western hemisphere (and parts of Asia) the periphery. Around 1450, Spain and Portugal took the early lead when conditions became right for a capitalist world-economy. They led the way in establishing overseas colonies. However, Portugal and Spain lost their lead, primarily by becoming overextended with empire-building. It became too expensive to dominate and protect so many colonial territories around the world.


title: World-systems theory

text: The first state to gain clear dominance was the Netherlands in the 17th century, after its revolution led to a new financial system that many historians consider revolutionary. An impressive shipbuilding industry also contributed to their economic dominance through more exports to other countries. Eventually, other countries began to copy the financial methods and efficient production created by the Dutch. After the Dutch gained their dominant status, the standard of living rose, pushing up production costs.


title: World-systems theory

text: Dutch bankers began to go outside of the country seeking profitable investments, and the flow of capital moved, especially to England. By the end of the 17th century, conflict among core states increased as a result of the economic decline of the Dutch. Dutch financial investment helped England gain productivity and trade dominance, and Dutch military support helped England to defeat France, the other country competing for dominance at the time.


title: World-systems theory

text: In the 19th century, Britain replaced the Netherlands as the hegemon. As a result of the new British dominance, the world system became relatively stable again during the 19th century. The British began to expand globally, with many colonies in the New World, Africa, and Asia. The colonial system began to place a strain on the British military and, along with other factors, led to an economic decline. Again there was a great deal of core conflict after the British lost their clear dominance. This time it was Germany, and later Italy and Japan that provided the new threat.


title: World-systems theory

text: Industrialization was another ongoing process during British dominance, resulting in the diminishing importance of the agricultural sector. In the 18th century, Britain was Europe's leading industrial and agricultural producer; by 1900, only 10% of England's population was working in the agricultural sector.


title: World-systems theory

text: By 1900, the modern world system appeared very different from that of a century earlier in that most of the periphery societies had already been colonised by one of the older core states. In 1800, the old European core claimed 35% of the world's territory, but by 1914, it claimed 85% of the world's territory, with the Scramble for Africa closing out the imperial era. If a core state wanted periphery areas to exploit as had done the Dutch and British, these periphery areas had to be taken from another core state, which the US did by way of the Spanish–American War, and Germany, and then Japan and Italy, attempted to do in the leadup to World War II. The modern world system was thus geographically global, and even the most remote regions of the world had all been integrated into the global economy.


title: World-systems theory

text: As countries vied for core status, so did the United States. The American Civil War led to more power for the Northern industrial elites, who were now better able to pressure the government for policies helping industrial expansion. Like the Dutch bankers, British bankers were putting more investment toward the United States. The US had a small military budget compared to other industrial states at the time.


title: World-systems theory

text: The US began to take the place of the British as a new dominant state after World War I. With Japan and Europe in ruins after World War II, the US was able to dominate the modern world system more than any other country in history, while the USSR and to a lesser extent China were viewed as primary threats. At its height, US economic reach accounted for over half of the world's industrial production, owned two thirds of the gold reserves in the world and supplied one third of the world's exports.


title: World-systems theory

text: However, since the end of the Cold War, the future of US hegemony has been questioned by some scholars, as its hegemonic position has been in decline for a few decades. By the end of the 20th century, the core of the wealthy industrialized countries was composed of Western Europe, the United States, Japan and a rather limited selection of other countries. The semiperiphery was typically composed of independent states that had not achieved Western levels of influence, while poor former colonies of the West formed most of the periphery.


title: World-systems theory

text: World-systems theory has attracted criticisms from its rivals; notably for being too focused on economy and not enough on culture and for being too core-centric and state-centric. William I. Robinson has criticized world-systems theory for its nation-state centrism, state-structuralist approach, and its inability to conceptualize the rise of globalization. Robinson suggests that world-systems theory doesn't account for emerging transnational social forces and the relationships forged between them and global institutions serving their interests. These forces operate on a global, rather than state system and cannot be understood by Wallerstein's nation-centered approach.


title: World-systems theory

text: According to Wallerstein himself, critique of the world-systems approach comes from four directions: the positivists, the orthodox Marxists, the state autonomists, and the culturalists. The positivists criticise the approach as too prone to generalization, lacking quantitative data and failing to put forth a falsifiable proposition. Orthodox Marxists find the world-systems approach deviating too far from orthodox Marxist principles, such as by not giving enough weight to the concept of social class. The state autonomists criticize the theory for blurring the boundaries between state and businesses. Further, the positivists and the state autonomists argue that state should be the central unit of analysis. Finally, the culturalists argue that world-systems theory puts too much importance on the economy and not enough on the culture. In Wallerstein's own words:


title: World-systems theory

text: One of the fundamental conceptual problems of the world-system theory is that the assumptions that define its actual conceptual units are social systems. The assumptions, which define them, need to be examined as well as how they are related to each other and how one changes into another. The essential argument of the world-system theory is that in the 16th century a capitalist world economy developed, which could be described as a world system. The following is a theoretical critique concerned with the basic claims of world-system theory:


title: World-systems theory

text: "There are today no socialist systems in the world-economy any more than there are feudal systems because there is only one world system. It is a world-economy and it is by definition capitalist in form."


title: World-systems theory

text: Robert Brenner has pointed out that the prioritization of the world market means the neglect of local class structures and class struggles:


title: World-systems theory

text: "They fail to take into account either the way in which these class structures themselves emerge as the outcome of class struggles whose results are incomprehensible in terms merely of market forces."


title: World-systems theory

text: Another criticism is that of reductionism made by Theda Skocpol: she believes the interstate system is far from being a simple superstructure of the capitalist world economy:


title: World-systems theory

text: "The international states system as a transnational structure of military competition was not originally created by capitalism. Throughout modern world history, it represents an analytically autonomous level [... of] world capitalism, but [is] not reducible to it."


title: World-systems theory

text: A concept that we can perceive as critique and mostly as renewal is the concept of coloniality (Anibal Quijano, 2000, Nepantla, Coloniality of power, eurocentrism and Latin America). Issued from the think tank of the group "modernity/coloniality" () in Latin America, it re-uses the concept of world working division and core/periphery system in its system of coloniality. But criticizing the "core-centric" origin of World-system and its only economical development, "coloniality" allows further conception of how power still processes in a colonial way over worldwide populations (Ramon Grosfogel, "the epistemic decolonial turn" 2007): "by 'colonial situations' I mean the cultural, political, sexual, spiritual, epistemic and economic oppression/exploitation of subordinate racialized/ethnic groups by dominant racialized/ethnic groups with or without the existence of colonial administration". Coloniality covers, so far, several fields such as coloniality of gender (Maria Lugones), coloniality of "being" (Maldonado Torres), coloniality of knowledge (Walter Mignolo) and Coloniality of power (Anibal Quijano).


title: World-systems theory

text: New developments in world systems research include studies on the cyclical processes. More specifically, it refers to the cycle of leading industries or products (ones that are new and have an important share of the overall world market for commodities), which is equal to dissolution of quasi-monopolies or other forms of partial monopolies achieved by core states. Such forms of partial monopolies are achievable through ownership of leading industries or products, which require technological capabilities, patents, restrictions on imports and/or exports, government subsidies, etc. Such capabilities are most often found in core states, which accumulate capital through achieving such quasi-monopolies with leading industries or products.


title: World-systems theory

text: As capital is accumulated, employment and wage also increase, creating a sense of prosperity. This leads to increased production, and sometimes even overproduction, causing price competition to arise. To lower production costs, production processes of the leading industries or products are relocated to semi-peripheral states. When competition increases and quasi-monopolies cease to exist, their owners, often core states, move on to other new leading industries or products, and the cycle continues.


title: World-systems theory

text: Other new developments include the consequences of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the roles of gender and the culture, studies of slavery and incorporation of new regions into the world system and the precapitalist world systems. Arguably, the greatest source of renewal in world-systems analysis since 2000 has been the synthesis of world-system and environmental approaches. Key figures in the "greening" of world-systems analysis include Minqi Li, Jason W. Moore, Andreas Malm, Stephen Bunker, Alf Hornborg, and Richard York.


title: World-systems theory

text: Wallerstein traces the origin of today's world-system to the "long 16th century" (a period that began with the discovery of the Americas by Western European sailors and ended with the English Revolution of 1640). And, according to Wallerstein, globalization, or the becoming of the world's system, is a process coterminous with the spread and development of capitalism over the past 500 years.


title: World-systems theory

text: Janet Abu Lughod argues that a pre-modern world system extensive across Eurasia existed in the 13th century prior to the formation of the modern world-system identified by Wallerstein. Janet Abu Lughod contends that the Mongol Empire played an important role in stitching together the Chinese, Indian, Muslim and European regions in the 13th century, before the rise of the modern world system. In debates, Wallerstein contends that Lughod's system was not a "world-system" because it did not entail integrated production networks, but it was instead a vast trading network.


title: World-systems theory

text: Andre Gunder Frank goes further and claims that a global world system that includes Asia, Europe and Africa has existed since the 4th millennium BCE. The centre of this system was in Asia, specifically China. Andrey Korotayev goes even further than Frank and dates the beginning of the world system formation to the 10th millennium BCE and connects it with the start of the Neolithic Revolution in the Middle East. According to him, the centre of this system was originally in Western Asia.


title: World-systems theory

text: Wallerstein's theories are recognized throughout the world. In the United States, one of the hubs of world-systems research was the Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems and Civilizations, at Binghamton University, which closed in 2020. Among the most important related periodicals are the "Journal of World-Systems Research", published by the American Sociological Association's Section on the Political Economy of the World System (PEWS), and the "Review", which was published the Braudel Center.


title: Polygyny

text: Polygyny (; from Neoclassical Greek πολυγυνία (); ) is the most common and accepted form of polygamy around the world, entailing the marriage of a man with several women.


title: Polygyny

text: Polygyny is more widespread in Africa than in any other continent. Some scholars see the slave trade's impact on the male-to-female sex ratio as a key factor in the emergence and fortification of polygynous practices in regions of Africa.