Cadence: The Beginning

Cadence: The Beginning is the debut album by Antarctican singer, dancer and DJ, Cadence. The album was released on November 14, 2009 on Club Penguin Music Records. Primarily produced by Cadence's mentor DJ Crow, he also recruited Yusei, Zippy Penguin and TrillBron to assist him. The songs on the album consist of a variety of genres; from pop, dance, electro and influences of hip hop. It was recorded within 6 months in 2009 and released the following month. Three singles were released from the album that achieved commercial and critical success. Often shortened to simply The Beginning, the debut album heavily incorporates dance-pop music in its up-tempo and club-oriented songs. The Beginning performed excellently in the mainstream charts - peaking at number 1 in four and Top 10 in others. Cadence's debut album was certified Gold just a day after it entered the USA chart at number 1, becoming one of the first album of 2009 to ship over 500,000 in under a week.

Background
Recording for the album in April, and finished in October. The album consists of 11 songs - releasing three of them as singles. One of the singles features DJ Crow, and another single featured the DJ aswell but was credited as a producer. Crow was also directed the executive producer of the album; meaning that he would manage everything on the album. The rapper produced four songs on the album, and also was the one who agreed with Cadence to include hip hop elements on the album. Originally Crow disagreed because he wanted the album to be strictly pop, but could see that Cadence was passionate for hip hop and so decided to produce the majority of the album himself and include as much hip hop as needed. Crow called in producers Yusei and TrillBron to work on the album. The rapper didn't know any other producers at the time so had to contact CPM Records to prepare for more producers. Later Zippy Penguin was recruited. Only four songs were submitted by songwriters to the record label - with only one being accepted. Because of this, songwriters had to be hired and lyrics were written fresh. DJ Crow was expected to write more lyrics on the album, but Club Penguin Music Records stopped him from doing so as it was claimed that the songwriting stage had been completed. Songs were recorded at Club Penguin Studios and at DJ Crow's igloo.

Recording
The recording started on April 12, 2009 in "Club Penguin Recording Studios" (which is hidden near the Mine Shack). DJ Crow was there for the whole month and helped record and produce the tracks from then up until July 16. Then TrillBron and other producers came in and finished up on October 27. During the time they were there, Cadence revealed hefty information about recording. "I met up with Crow after he flew in from NCP, and then we went to the studio and we had a lot of fun recording - just the two of us. He is a really talented DJ and artist. I was honored to work with him." She then talked about recording and the other producers. "Recording is hard, but if you want to make the album perfect then you have to work your best. I got TrillBron in it after Crow got him to work with me. He said that he was really impressed and he said it was a joy to work with me. The same goes back to him from me. They've all been great - but for my next album I'm hoping to collaborate with more producers, writers and performers."

Music
The genre of music in the album is mostly dance-pop and electro, but some songs have elements of hip hop and R&B. 10 out of the 11 songs on the album are produced by DJ Crow, creating the familiar dance music that he is renown for as a DJ. He is also the one that brings in the hip hop and faint R&B elements. Tracks such as "To the Dancefloor", "Slay" and "Feeling to Dance" come fully into the dance category, while "Every Little Thing", "Here Me Now" and others are a combination of R&B and dance.

Singles

 * The first single is "To the Dancefloor" and released on August 8, 2009 for digital downloads, and a week later it was available for CD single. It reached number 1, and stayed at the top for 3 weeks, then slipped down to number 2 on the Antarctica Top 40, and then to number 9, where it stayed as a non-mover for 2 weeks. Then in the UnitedTerra Singles Chart, it stayed #1 for more weeks, six. Then moved down to number 3, which it stayed in the Top 10 for 4 weeks, then slowly went down in the Top 20, then slipped off.


 * The second single, "Feeling to Dance" released for CD single and digital downloads on December 18, 2009, and went to number 1 on the Antarctica Top 40, and stayed there for 2 weeks, then came out the Top 10 immediately. It went to number 1 in Club Penguin too, but stayed in the Top 10 for 6 weeks. It managed to get number 5 in UnitedTerra.


 * The last single, "Could've Been You" was released on February 16, 2010 on CD and digital download and features Cadence. It charted number 3 on the UTR Singles Chart and number 2 in the USA Singles Chart - it had managed to get a number 1 on the CP Singles Chart though. It is one of the most successful singles of the album although it had not managed a number 1 in the home country.

Commercial performance
The album debuted at number 1 on the CP Albums Chart on November 15, 2009, the day after the release of the album. It spent 4 weeks at number 1, then dropped down one place - the next week, it was at number 5, then seven, then eleven. It spent 20 weeks in the Top 40. For the Antarctican Top 40 Albums, it also went number 1, but stayed at the top for 5 weeks, then dropped out of the Top 10 within 5 more weeks. It was in the Top 40 for 30 weeks. It charted a week later on the UnitedTerra Albums Chart, and stayed number 1 for 3 weeks, and came out the Top 10 in three weeks, and stayed in the Top 40 for 12 weeks. "Cadence: The Beginning" also went number 2 on the Freezeland Albums of 100, and number 15 in Pengolia.

Critical response
Upon its release, "Cadence: The Beginning" received generally positive reviews from most music critics, based on an aggregate score of 56/100 from the Penguin Official Music Charts. Ratings similar to out-of-one-hundred include the local magazine, "MusicWeekly", gave the album 60/100. Magazines and music critics that gave the album an out-of-ten rating ranged from 4 to 8 ratings. Critics gave stars from 3 to 5 stars. Ratings were all similar to those listed, and many loved the album. Websites gave a written review, describing the details of the album and if the writer of the review liked it or not, and gave certain ratings.