🔗 Mysterious store spotted in your ZIPcode | 03/17/23

𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑎𝑟𝑒, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒'𝑠𝑎 𝑚𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑦𝑏𝑒 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒... [Golden Gate Marketers]( Golden Gate Marketers is dedicated to providing readers like you with unique opportunities. The message below from one of our business associates is one we believe you should take a serious look at. [--------------][--------------] Dear Reader, Chances are, there's a mysterious store maybe just around the block from where you are You might have walked or driven past it and not even realized it. It's a store that is, for all intents and purposes, empty. Though employees might be racing in and out, customers aren't allowed inside. These "dark stores" are cropping up in virtually every city and small town across the U.S. and are the beating pulse of a rapidly developing economic trend called "[EoD]( Every major tech company – Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and even Walmart – is going "all in" on this trend. Britney is "the most influential pop star of her generation", with artists like Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey and Charli XCX namechecking her, writes Nick Levine. Is 2022 the year to re-evaluate the singer? T The ongoing emancipation of Britney Spears has been one of 2022's defining pop culture events, and the singer is still causing headlines. Spears is a superstar who inspires a unique kind of devotion: her fans are so loyal that they started a social movement, #FreeBritney, to focus global attention on the conservatorship that denied the artist agency over her personal and business affairs for more than 13 years. The restrictive legal arrangement – described by Spears as "abusive" but imposed amid concerns for her mental health – was terminated in November 2021, allowing her to control her own life and career again. In June of this year, she married her partner of six years, Sam Asghari; then in August she returned to the charts with Hold Me Closer, a slick collaboration with Elton John that blends together elements from his classic songs Tiny Dancer, Don't Go Breaking My Heart and The One. It peaked at number six in the US and three in the UK, becoming her highest-charting single in both markets for a decade. More like this: - How a 90s ballad captivated the world - How pop stars react when war breaks out - The unsung legends of house music If Hold Me Closer feels like a measured comeback – it's a high-profile duet with an instantly familiar chorus – it's also a stirring one. Even if it doesn't signal a long-term return to recording and touring for Spears, who at this point owes nothing to anyone but herself, it presents a welcome opportunity to reassess her musical legacy. Spears hasn't always been given her dues: a particularly cruel review of her blockbuster second album, 2000's Oops!... I Did It Again, dismissed her as a "true cipher, a dress-up doll programmed to satisfy as many different fans and fantasies as possible". But 24 years after she broke through with ...Baby One More Time, an iconic debut single that defined a new golden age of teen-pop, it's no exaggeration to call Spears the most influential pop artist of her generation. Initially dismissed as a 'dress-up doll', Spears has proven herself as a singer, performer – and one of the most influential pop stars of her generation (Credit: Alamy) Initially dismissed as a 'dress-up doll', Spears has proven herself as a singer, performer – and one of the most influential pop stars of her generation (Credit: Alamy) She has been hailed as an inspiration by everyone from Lady Gaga, who in 2009 described her as "the most provocative performer of my time", to Lana Del Rey. "There is something about Britney that compelled me," Del Rey said in 2012, "the way she sings and just the way she looks." More recently, the highly acclaimed Japanese-British singer-songwriter Rina Sawayama said Spears was the first artist she fell in love with. She recalled watching her music videos as a child and thinking: "I want her as an older sister". Spears' videos could be high-concept affairs where she played a lonely Hollywood actress (Lucky) or a vampish flight attendant (Toxic), but with 2000 single Stronger, she showed she could hold our full attention with nothing but her dance moves and simple props like a chair and a cane. Swedish singer-songwriter Tove Styrke is equally effusive when asked how Spears has influenced her as a musician. "Oh my, how hasn't she?" she tells BBC Culture. "She has inspired a maybe delusional strive for pop stardom [in me], wanting to be a pop princess with a pure heart. Her voice, her dancing, her blonde hair… all of it has been influential." No fear Spears is also a long-time LGBTQ icon who has influenced the contemporary drag scene with her high-octane dance routines. Jonbers Blonde, a Northern Irish drag performer who was a finalist on the latest series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK, says she was particularly fascinated by two audacious performances Spears gave at the MTV Video Music Awards. In 2000, Spears delivered an inventive medley of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction and Oops!... I Did It Again that really showed off her commanding stage presence and precision-tooled dance moves. Then the following year, she sang I'm A Slave 4 U with a live python draped over her shoulders. "I think it was the fearlessness that she portrayed in those MTV performances that inspired me," Blonde says. "Doing drag, you need to be fearless – even to leave the house in drag is brave – and that's something that Britney definitely is." Spears gave an iconic performance at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, singing I'm a Slave 4 U while draped in a Burmese python (Credit: Getty Images) Spears gave an iconic performance at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, singing I'm a Slave 4 U while draped in a Burmese python (Credit: Getty Images) So why, given all this praise from performers who've followed in her wake, is Spears still slightly underrated? Partly it's a result of what we might call her "origin story". As a child growing up in Kentwood, Louisiana, a small town in the US Bible Belt, Spears displayed a preternatural flair for performance. "I was in my own world. I found out what I'm supposed to do at an early age," she recalled in a 1999 Rolling Stone cover story. At 12, having already appeared on the talent show Star Search and in several TV adverts, Spears was cast in The Mickey Mouse Club, a wholesome Disney variety show on which she sang and danced with fellow future A-listers Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Ryan Gosling. But when she launched her music career in 1998, four years after the show was axed, the "Mouseketeer" tag seemed to cling a little more closely to Spears than it did to her peers. It could be argued that Spears' rise in the late 1990s was so meteoric that the media of the time had trouble processing it. Written and produced by Max Martin, the Swedish songwriting genius who has now penned more Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers than anyone bar John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Spears' irresistible 1998 debut single ...Baby One More Time wasn't just a hit but a pop culture phenomenon. Helped by a memorable music video in which Spears chose to wear a schoolgirl outfit – a look often interpreted as suggestive, but which also reflected her age – it became one of the best-selling singles of all time. Her debut album, also called ...Baby One More Time, ended up selling 26 million copies worldwide after spawning further huge hits with Sometimes and (You Drive Me) Crazy. "When ...Baby One More Time came out, the market, particularly in America, was saturated by boy bands," notes Alim Kheraj, a music, culture and LGBTQ journalist. "I don't think since Madonna had there been a female artist that had really skyrocketed in pop that way." Ultimately the delivery, the timbre and the performance of the song is all Britney. She is in control of the song – Alim Kheraj By 1999, Spears was already successful enough to embark on the Baby One More Time Tour, a 56-date criss-cross of North America, but her popularity came laced with a certain amount of disdain. Because she was so young and didn't write any of the songs on her debut album, it was all too easy to dismiss and dehumanise her as a mere "pop puppet". "I don't doubt that, initially, Max Martin had a large role to play in how ...Baby One More Time sounded," Kheraj counters, "but ultimately the delivery, the timbre and the performance of the song is all Britney. She is in control of the song." For Kheraj, this minimisation of Spears' creative input was intensified by a toxic combination of sexism and classism. "From the off, Britney was dubbed 'stupid' and 'trailer trash' by the media," he says. Sometimes this snobbery was a little more thinly veiled, complete with patronising misogyny: Rolling Stone's review of her debut album said that Baby One More Time [the song] had succeeded in "effectively transforming this ex-Mouseketeer born in a tiny Louisiana town into a growling jailbait dynamo". After starting as a teen star, Spears honed her vocal technique and wrote more of her songs, inspiring artists such as Lady Gaga and Charli XCX (Credit: Getty Images) After starting as a teen star, Spears honed her vocal technique and wrote more of her songs, inspiring artists such as Lady Gaga and Charli XCX (Credit: Getty Images) Because she broke through in the late 1990s, at the tail end of an era dominated by powerhouse vocalists like Celine Dion and Mariah Carey, Spears' distinctive singing voice was often woefully undervalued. Kheraj points to her more mature third album, 2001's Britney, which saw her embrace R&B on I'm A Slave 4 U and soft rock on I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman, as the point at which she really honed her vocal style. "She pushes her voice into more whispery textures, playing with the different sounds that she's able to create in order to elevate a song," Kheraj says, comparing her to Kylie Minogue and Janet Jackson in this respect. "Though in my opinion," he adds, "Spears' ability to be an actress with her own voice, taking on different tones, timbres and vibrations, is second to none." This assessment of Spears' vocal technique is echoed by Andrew Watt, a producer who worked with her on this year's Elton John duet Hold Me Closer. "She's unbelievable at layering her voice and doubling, which is one of the hardest things to do," he told The Guardian in August, adding: "She's so good at knowing when she got the right take. She took complete control." Finding her voice The smart money is pouring in from major money managers (T. Rowe Price, SoftBank, and Tiger Global) and billionaires (Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos). [In fact, this could be the biggest trend to happen to the retail economy since Amazon.]( Regards, Whitney Tilson Founder, Empire Financial Research P.S. Those who get in now on this rapidly growing trend stand to benefit the most. If you missed investing in Amazon in the late '90s, [make sure you don't miss investing in EoD](. nspired by Fleetwood Mac, Taylor Jenkins Reid's novel about a hedonistic 70s band is now a TV show. The best thing? A fictional group has become a great real one, writes Laura Martin. T They say if you can remember the 60s then you weren't really there, but arguably, that adage is even more fitting for the 70s. From the glamorous debauchery of disco in Studio 54 to the anarchic fever of punk, hedonistic excess hit new heights. Given that, older music fans might think they've simply forgotten about the best-selling band of that hazy decade, Daisy Jones & The Six. With the group's seminal album, Aurora, now available internationally, and with an accompanying bio-series about why the group broke up currently running on Amazon Prime Video, you could be wondering: who are they, again? More like this: – 11 TV shows to watch this March – The anthemic power of Edge of Seventeen – Why 1971 was an extraordinary year in film In fact, the band has never existed. It is a fantastical figment of the imagination of author Taylor Jenkins Reid in her novel Daisy Jones & The Six. The book – published in 2019 – tells the origin story of the fictional band, and its members: the titular frontwoman Daisy Jones, co-lead singer Billy and his lead guitarist brother Graham Dunne, keyboardist Karen, rhythm guitarist Eddie and drummer Warren (as well as Billy's wife, Camila) against the backdrop of LA in the 70s. It covers the in-band love affairs and bitter rivalries that ensued, the high-living, pleasure-seeking and addiction – and, of course, the creation of their music, which documented all their drama. Daisy Jones & The Six tells the story of a 70s chart-topping band riven by inter-group love affairs, rivalries and addiction (Credit: Amazon Prime Video) Daisy Jones & The Six tells the story of a 70s chart-topping band riven by inter-group love affairs, rivalries and addiction (Credit: Amazon Prime Video) The novel, like the fictional band, became an instant sensation. The it-book of 2019, it has sold more than one million copies worldwide, spent nine weeks on the New York Times bestseller chart, and been a hit on BookTok. It has captured the imagination of readers, among other things, for its escapist qualities, as they are happily transported back to a time of rock 'n' roll excess, played out in sun-kissed, bohemian 70s California. Now, the new 10-part small-screen adaptation, which premiered its first three episodes a couple of weeks ago and has been rolling out further episodes weekly, may prove similarly alluring to Amazon Prime viewers; from the opening beats, it is captivating. If reading the book made you feel like you were there, the TV series draws fans even further into the action, bringing viewers along for the wild ride of the band's genesis, and keeping them hooked until the fateful last gig when the group implodes. The book's power Among those who consider the book a personal favourite are author and host of the You're Booked podcast, Daisy Buchanan. "I was lucky enough to read an early copy – and even before it came out, I could feel the buzz," she tells BBC Culture. "I read it from cover to cover on a train journey, and I was completely captivated. You know something's great when you're so consumed by the reading experience that you don't want to pick up your phone. "The story is filled with sharp, clear, compelling voices – not just Daisy's. I love Karen, the band member whose personal turmoil – and love story – is brewing quietly in the background. I think the secret to great storytelling is writing characters that readers want to spend time with. Taylor Jenkins Reid makes you want to spend every spare second hanging out with the band." What sets the novel apart from other music-themed novels – like Roddy Doyle's The Commitments or Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell, for example – is its format. Told in an unusual oral history style, it blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction. Made up of mock interviews with the different band members and their associates, it immerses the reader fully in its made-up history, as well as adding narrative tension by having the band's "true" story disputed by the different characters. As the fictional author of the oral history declares at the beginning of the novel: "It should be noted that, on matters both big and small, sometimes accounts of the same event differ. The truth often lies, unclaimed, in the middle." I'm really proud of what Daisy Jones & The Six has to say about women in rock, and how they make their way in the world – Taylor Jenkins Reid "There's a real feeling of urgency, [the testimonies] a cross between gossip and confession," says Buchanan, explaining what made many people race through the book so hungrily. As Reese Witherspoon, who made the novel part of her book club, then successfully bid to make the TV adaptation via her production company, Hello Sunshine, said at the time of its release: "I devoured Daisy Jones & The Six in a day, falling head over heels for it. Daisy and the band captured my heart." For the author, Jenkins Reid, it was her sixth novel, following up her 2017 work The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (which is currently also being adapted for TV by Netflix). She has got a few ideas as to what made Daisy Jones & the Six such a soaraway success: "It's always hard for me to conjecture about what I might have done right, but I think I'm always trying to tell stories that are really compelling to me in two different ways," she tells BBC Culture. "One, that they have something to say: and I'm really proud of what this book – and what this TV adaptation – has to say about women in rock, and how they make their way in the world. The other thing that's important to me is to be fun. I want to make stories that are fun to read." The Fleetwood Mac connection When it came to wild-living musical inspiration, Jenkins Reid needed to look no further than Fleetwood Mac as a starting point. Fleetwood Mac were one of the bestselling acts of the 70s, and the eventful history around the making of their 1977 iconic album, Rumours, is well-documented. At the point of going into the recording studio, two couples in the band – Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham and Christine and John McVie – had split up and were having affairs with other people, fuelling the heart-breaking or angry emotions that the musicians channelled into songs about their ex-partners. The torrid drama around Fleetwood Mac, particularly during the making of their 1977 album Rumours, is a clear inspiration for Daisy Jones & The Six (Credit: Alamy) The torrid drama around Fleetwood Mac, particularly during the making of their 1977 album Rumours, is a clear inspiration for Daisy Jones & The Six (Credit: Alamy) Jenkins Reid has explained in the past that the first kernel of the idea for Daisy Jones came from her memory of watching footage of Stevie Nicks performing the song Landslide, from their 1975 album Fleetwood Mac, while Buckingham watched on intently. "It looked so much like two people in love. And yet, we'll never truly know what lived between them," she said. "I wanted to write a story about that, about how the lines between real life and performance can get blurred, about how singing about old wounds might keep them fresh." Of course, the story of Fleetwood Mac can't be told without mentioning their drug habits. Par for the course in the LA music scene in the industry at that time was the use of cocaine and other illegal substances – Mick Fleetwood once claimed the amount of cocaine he'd snorted in this era would stretch to a line seven miles long, while Stevie Nicks has spoken extensively about her own drug addiction, which escalated as the band rose to global success. The character of Daisy Jones is obviously strongly indebted to the frontwoman of Fleetwood Mac; from her wild-child behaviour to her cosmic sensibility, and ethereal, tasselled and floaty stagewear. Readers follow Daisy's journey from recreational substance abuse to dangerous addiction – something which bonds her with her married bandmate, Billy, also an addict struggling with sobriety, with whom she engages in a tormented, emotional love affair. Meanwhile, the character of Karen, the straight-talking, effortlessly cool British keyboard player in the band, is almost a double for the late Christine McVie. This enmeshing of a fictional band with the much-loved Fleetwood Mac – of whom there has never been a definitive biopic – is another key factor in the appeal of the book, and now the TV series, says Buchanan. "It's a very good cultural crossover. I know a lot of women who really love Fleetwood Mac, possibly because – unlike so much of the music of the era – there actually are women in Fleetwood Mac. I love Daisy and Karen like I love Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie." [Golden Gate Marketers] {EMAIL}, You are getting this email as a result of your earlier interest in Financial Education, shown on a sign-up form on our websites[.]( If you feel like this email from Golden Gate Marketers was sent to you mistakenly, please [unsubscribe here](. The easiest way to stay up to date with the investing world is by [whitelisting us](. 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