Sign of the Times

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Sign
of the
Times

2006 2007

May 2008

According to the NPD MusicWatch survey, the Apple iTunes Store overtook Wal-Mart as the largest music retailer in the U.S. in January-February 2008. Quite a feat for something that's only been around for five years. Other industry sources peg Apple's market share at 19 percent, Wal-Mart (in-store plus online) at 15 percent, and another big box chain, Best Buy, at 13 percent.

April 2008

Icelandic singer Bjork chanted "Tibet" several times during the song 'Declare Independence' at her first - some say her last - concert in mainland China in early March. Add this incident to others marring the run-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics, which China had hoped would mark its grand entry onto the world stage. Later in March, there were fatalities as China moved to quell revolts in Tibet and pro-Tibetan protesters were arrested at the Olympic torch-lighting ceremony in Greece.

February 2008

'Musicogenic epilepsy' - who knew? Canadian Stacey Gayle collapsed at a barbecue after hearing the music of Jamaican hip-hop artist Sean Paul. She was suffering ten seizures a day despite medication and had to quit her church choir and her job at a bank. She remembered a previous seizure involving Paul's music and went back to her doctors. She played Paul's song 'Temperature' for them on her iPod and three seizures quickly followed. In the first of two brain surgeries at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, doctors inserted more than 100 electrodes in the brain to identify which parts were firing her seizures. The electrodes were later removed along with the suspect brain tissue. The operations were facilitated by the latest in image guidance techniques and an operating microscope. Gayle has reportedly been seizure-free since then.

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