Music

From leg irons to tap dancing

David Watson, 83, took up tap dancing in his 40s, and has danced ever since.

He took up it up by chance, after accompanying a friend from work to a dance class in Melbourne.

The ex-architecture lecturer recalled the very first lesson on a "lousy" floor located above a porn shop in Swanston Street.

"I used to have to hide my face as I walked in," Mr Watson laughed.

George Clinton, the singer, songwriter and mastermind behind legendary bands Parliament and Funkadelic, still gets funky around the world and is currently performing his epic catalog of music before sold-out audiences in the US.

"We're here. We ain't going nowhere. We are a movement," Clinton said when CNN caught up with the Grammy-winner at New York's BB King Blues Club.

The acclaimed composer and songwriter is the hidden face behind some of Disney's most iconic musicals, including Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and Aladdin.

His body of work has earned him eight Oscars and 16 Golden Globes, and he's not done yet.

Mr Menken is currently in Australia for the premiere of the stage musical of Aladdin and will head home soon to work on the upcoming live action film version of the story.

So how does he create a Disney song? And what is the process for bringing a fledgling idea all the way to the big screen?

The 17-year-old sibling of Miley Cyrus dropped a new single on Friday morning, and the internet is a buzz about the rising star.

"If you're awake and haven't listened to Stay Together by Noah Cyrus, why r u even up #YourWelcome," tweeted one fan.

"Can't stop singing along to #StayTogether by @noahcyrus," wrote another.

If you're not yet familiar with the youngest Cyrus, here's a bit more about the songstress.

"I played him a few songs after the album was finished," Harry told the Radio 1 Breakfast Show.

"He didn't say that he didn't like any but he did like one song that isn't on the album."

Ignoring the advice of one of the most successful singer-songwriters might not be a good idea, but Harry says he still decided to leave it off the album.

"He [Ed] is really good - he's one of the most talented dudes I know," he said.

At least that's what it feels like as the former One Direction member debuted his new song, "Sign of the Times" Friday and the Internet commenced to freak out.

This is standard practice, by the way, for anything having to do with the former members of One Direction.

The long, slow-paced jam. which clocks in just under six minutes, quickly lit up Twitter as fans shared their love of it.

"Everyone needs to bow down to Harry Styles today because he's the king and his new song is legendary," one person tweeted.

A new exhibition showcasing the history and the culture of the instrument aims to change that.

A career as an instrumentalist has taken William Barton from "the soundscapes of the Australian bushland" to Carnegie Stadium, the Beijing Olympics, and even a private concert for Queen Sofia of Spain.

Now it's taken him to Adelaide's Town Hall, where he's collaborating with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, as part of the world-first exhibition on the didjeridu, The Sound of Australia.

But no symphony orchestra in the world would be financially viable on its own.

That's the startling truth uncovered by Robert Flanagan, a professor of economics at Stanford University and the author of The Perilous Life of Symphony Orchestras.

"They all run an operating deficit, in the sense that the money they earn from concerts, records and so forth does not cover their expenses," he told The Money.

There are many reasons for this, but chief among them is that the expense of running an orchestra is enormous and virtually impossible to bring down.

PNG has strict laws against pornography and strong censorship of sexually related content in movies and television.

But rapper Tati Mangi has pushed the boundaries of what's acceptable with a video clip that's got the whole country talking.

Who knew women's backsides could cause such a fuss?

Tati Mangi probably did, but he released a video clip for his song Bootilicious featuring young PNG women dancing in bikinis anyway.

The 10-time Grammy winner tweeted that he was about to get off the Eurostar from Paris.

Within 20 minutes his post had drawn a big crowd who got to hear an eight-minute performance, including Ordinary People.

Afterwards Legend didn't have time for fan selfies as he was escorted away to an unknown location.

This is the tweet that got things started.

Newspaper reporters and other media weren't far behind.

His PR team were ready and poised.

And fans who got down there in time were pretty pleased.