where did the name deep ellum come from

Deep Ellum developed after the Civil War as a residential and commercial neighborhood by freedmen on the east side of downtown Dallas. The area was originally called Deep Elm, but the pronunciation "Deep Ellum" by early residents led to its current and historically accepted name. Because of its proximity to the Houston and Texas Central railroad, the area was also referred to as Central Track.[1][2]

Deep Ellum, Dallas

Deep Ellum  is a neighborhood composed largely of arts and entertainment venues near downtown in East Dallas, Texas. The name is based on a corruption of the area's principal thoroughfare, Elm Street. Older alternative uses include Deep Elm and Deep Elem.

The neighborhood lies directly east of the elevated I-45/US 75 (unsigned I-345) freeway and extends to Exposition Avenue, connected to downtown by, from north to south, Pacific, Elm, Main, Commerce, and Canton streets. The neighborhood is north of Exposition Park and south of Bryan Place.

As one of Dallas' first commercial districts for African-Americans and European immigrants, Deep Ellum is one of the most historically significant neighborhoods in the city. The district boasts the city's largest collection of commercial storefronts from the early 20th century and includes many individual structures significant in their own right.[2][not in citation given]

Robert S. Munger built his first cotton gin factory, the Continental Gin Company, in a series of brick warehouses along Elm Street and Trunk Avenue in Deep Ellum in 1888. As the business grew to become the largest manufacturer of cotton-processing equipment in the United States, Munger expanded the factory by adding additional structures along Trunk and Elm in 1912 and 1914, respectively. A Dallas Landmark District, the industrial complex was converted to loft apartments in 1997.

In 1914, Henry Ford selected Deep Ellum as the site for one of his earliest automobile plants. Designed by architect John Graham, who designed many regional facilities for Ford during the early 1900s, the building was constructed as an assembly plant for the famous Ford Model T. The plant remained in this location at 2700 Canton Street until the mid-1930s; Adam Hats moved into the four-story brick and terra cotta structure in 1959. The Dallas Landmark was converted to loft apartments in 1997, giving new lifeâ€”and adding yet another layer of history to the building.

The Knights of Pythias Temple, also known as the Union Bankers Trust Building, is located at 2551 Elm Street. Opened in 1916, the building was designed by African-American architect William Sidney Pittman, the state's first black architect and the son-in-law of Booker T. Washington. In addition to serving as the state headquarters for the Knights, the temple housed some of the city's earliest offices for black doctors, dentists and lawyers and served as the social and cultural center for the African- American community until the late 1930s. The building was Pittman's largest built work.[3]

Other Dallas Landmarks within Deep Ellum include The Palace Shop at 2814 Main Street (ca. 1913) and Parks Brothers Warehouse at 2639 Elm Street (ca. 1923).

The 1990s were a high point for Deep Ellum as Dallas' liveliest entertainment district. By 1991, Deep Ellum had 57 bars and nightclubs. There were restaurants, tattoo parlors, other diverse retail shops, and an increasing amount of high-rent residential loft space.  Notable businesses of the 1990s included Deep Ellum Live (closed in 2004), Trees (closed late 2005, reopened August 2009), 2826, Club Dada (closed & reopened 2006), The Angry Dog (a restaurant, still in business), Monica's Aca y Alla (a restaurant, closed in 2012), Looker Hair Group (a salon), Galaxy Club (closed early 2007), the Green Room (closed September 2006, reopened 2010, closed 2011, reopened June 2013), and The Red Blood Club (closed & reopened 2007, and then closed again in 2008, and then reopened again in March 2014).

One notable event involves Russell Hobbs, the former owner of Theatre Gallery and the Prophet Bar, who, in early 1988, converted to Christianity, closed his two still-popular clubs, and opened The Door, a Christian oriented venue. An interesting success story involved Eduardo Greene, owner of Eduardo's Aca y Alla. In the mid-90's, Greene divorced his wife, had a highly publicized sex-change and reopened under her new name, Monica's Aca y Alla.

In 2011, the microbrewery Deep Ellum Brewing Company opened in Deep Ellum.  DEBC currently distributes its brews to bars across Texas and hosts public tours.

At one point, Deep Ellum had become such a popular attraction that the streets often were blocked off to traffic, especially on weekends. It also spawned several events like the Deep Ellum Film Festival and Deep Ellum Arts Festival.  However, weekend nights later found the streets much emptier than did the 1990s. New events such as the CODE (Culture of Deep Ellum) events, and Dallas Rock Meetup Group monthly festival, involve multi-venue, multi-band performances that help to maintain Deep Ellum's viability as a live music hotspot.

On May 2, 2001, John Battaglia murdered his daughters Faith and Liberty in his loft in Deep Ellum.[4]

For a time, Deep Ellum struggled with a perception of a high crime rate that made people reluctant to visit the area. In mid-2006, local papers had begun to report the near-demise of the neighborhood, as a large percentage of the long-time live music venues had closed that year, leaving mostly clubs oriented more towards 'hip hop' and other music, dancing and drinking, and radically altering the "feel". In 2007, several additional small and medium clubs had closed, although new live-music venues spring up without warning.

Things began turning around somewhat in 2009 and 2010, as evidenced by a slew of new bar, live music venue and restaurant openings. Some of the recent and planned openings include the re-launch of the near-legendary venue Trees, old favorites such as Club Dada and The Green Room, Tucker's Blues, The Boiler Room, Anvil Pub and La Grange (now punk rock hotspot Three Links).

The area is still somewhat in a state of transition, but on the upswing. In 2007, the City of Dallas encouraged large scale residential, multi-family dwelling construction in Deep Ellum, in hopes of making it more financially successful.[5][6]

In 2014 and 2015, the streets were repaved to add more parking and making the notoriously rough pavement much better for vehicular and foot traffic. Deep Ellum continues to maintain and grow its place as a cultural and musical center for the DFW Metroplex. Despite the decline of a decade ago, visitors can now walk down Elm Street on a weekend and witness hundreds of pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, and automobiles, with dozens of venues, restaurants, storefronts, and parking lots.[citation needed]

In 2017, the Deep Ellum Foundation established a Public Safety Program to address crime and safety concerns within the neighborhood. The addition of Dallas Police Department Supervisors and Police Officers during the areas busiest hours has lead the way in making Deep Ellum a safer place for all who work and visit in the area.

In 2018, the Foundation hired its first ever Public Safety Manager, Phillip Honoré. Mr. Honoré will collaborate with business owners, residents and city leaders to improve overall public safety in the popular entertainment and arts district. The Deep Ellum Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation which exists to enhance, improve, and market the neighborhood of Deep Ellum as a whole through public safety, marketing and promotion, business development and recruitment, and general improvement efforts for the area.

Deep Ellum's real claim to fame, however, was found in its music. By the 1920s, the neighborhood had become a hotbed for early jazz and blues musicians, hosting the likes of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, and Bessie Smith in Deep Ellum clubs like The Harlem and The Palace. From 1920 to 1950, the number of nightclubs, cafes and domino parlors in Deep Ellum jumped from 12 to 20.

In 1937, a columnist described Deep Ellum as:

...[the] one spot in the city that needs no daylight saving time because there is no bedtime...[It is] the only place recorded on earth where business, religion, hoodooism, gambling and stealing goes on at the same time without friction...Last Saturday a prophet held the best audience in this 'Madison Square Garden' in announcing that Jesus Christ would come to Dallas in person in 1939.  At the same time a pickpocket was lifting a week's wages from another guy's pocket, who stood with open mouth to hear the prophecy.[7]

At the time, you could find gun and locksmith shops, clothing stores, the Cotton Club, tattoo studios, barber-shops, pawn shops, drugstores, tea rooms, loan offices, domino halls, pool halls, and walk-up hotels.  On its sidewalks you could find pigeon droppers, reefer men, craps shooters, card sharps, and sellers of cocaine and marijuana.[7] Sometime around World War I, Lead Belly and Blind Lemon Jefferson got together and began composing folk tunes, with Dallas often in the lyrics.  In a song called "Take A Whiff on Me":

Walked up Ellum an' I come down Main,Tryin' to bum a nickel jes' to buy cocaine.Ho, Ho, baby, take a whiff on me.[7]

The most famous song about the district was recorded in 1933 under the title of “Deep Elm Blues” by the Lone Star Cowboys. The song and the lyrics were derived from the Georgia Crackers’ 1927 recording, “The Georgia Black Bottom.” The Shelton Brothers recorded “Deep Elem Blues” on Decca in 1935. Despite these earlier recordings, they claimed credit for the song. The lyrics narrate white men seeking immoral and illegal entertainment in an African American part of town.[8] The Shelton Brothers iterated the name of the district in “Deep Elem Blues, No. 2,”  “What’s the Matter with Deep Elem,” and “Deep Elm Boogie Woogie Blues.” Dick Stabile and his Orchestra, the Texas Wanderers, and the Wilburn Brothers all invoked the district’s name in separate Decca pressings.[9]

"Deep Ellum Blues" was later performed by the Grateful Dead:

When you go down on Deep Ellum,Put your money in your socks'Cause them Women on Deep EllumSho' will throw you on the rocks.

(chorus)Oh, sweet mama, your daddy's got them Deep Ellum Blues.Oh, sweet mama, your daddy's got them Deep Ellum Blues.[7]

Following World War II, the success of Deep Ellum started to fade. The ever-growing availability and use of the automobile led to the removal of the Houston and Texas Central railroad tracks—to make way for Central Expressway—and by 1956 the streetcar line had been removed. Businesses closed, residents moved to the suburbs and the music all but stopped. In 1969, a new elevation of Central Expressway truncated Deep Ellum, completely obliterating the 2400 block of Elm Street, viewed by many as the center of the neighborhood. By the 1970s, few original businesses remained.

In 1983, the Near East Side Area Planning Study, or "Deep Ellum Plan", was revealed to the public. The city planned to "downzone" Deep Ellum, meaning that building height, population, and street width were to be carefully monitored so as to help the neighborhood maintain an artistic, historic atmosphere. Artists and musicians began to move into the area, opening up new galleries and venues, attracting young creatives to the area. Over the course of the 1980s, Deep Ellum became well known as a hot-spot for the Dallas Punk Scene.[1]

According to Murray Hammond of Old 97's, punk and hardcore outfits as prolific as Dead Kennedys were playing at local galleries. With the insurgence of new nightclubs and venues, Deep Ellum began to explode as a local music spot. However, throughout the mid '80s, the neighborhood still faced serious safety issues, one of which being the overwhelming presence of skinheads, but as Deep Ellum continued to expand, the threats dwindled. By 1991, over 50 nightclubs and bars had opened in Deep Ellum, including Trees Dallas.[10]

During the 1990s, musical acts including Toadies, Erykah Badu, and Old 97's began to gain prominence as not only local successes, but national stars. Once Deep Ellum had gained traction as the heart of music in Dallas, popular touring artists such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Radiohead, The Roots, The Notorious B.I.G., and Fugazi would book shows at venues including Trees Dallas and The Bomb Factory.[10]

In addition to live music, Deep Ellum was a hotbed for graffiti.  Many of the music venues used graffiti artists to advertise music shows.

In the late 1980s, the city allowed a number of local artists to paint walls of the Good-Latimer Expressway tunnel (a major entry to the neighborhood). The wide variety of images, largely in a 'graffiti' style, had long been a popular display, leading many to conclude (incorrectly) that the city allowed graffiti in parts of Deep Ellum. The tunnel was demolished in spring 2007 to make way for the DART Green Line train.

While graffiti is popular in Deep Ellum, a large portion of the art and murals in the area are commissioned by local businesses. Some of the most recognizable art was completed by artist, and owner of Kettle Gallery, Frank Campagna along with his daughter Amber Campagna. The 42 Mural project has invited a select number of artists to paint murals throughout Deep Ellum in hopes of passing along the history and heritage of the area.[11][12]

(US 67, US 80, and US 175 have all previously passed through parts of Deep Ellum, but are now routed onto nearby freeways.)

Deep Ellum is served by the Dallas Independent School District.

Residents of Deep Ellum north of Commerce Street are zoned to Ignacio Zaragoza Elementary School, Alex W. Spence Middle School and North Dallas High School.[13] Residents south of Commerce Street are zoned to City Park Elementary School, Billy Earl Dade Middle School, and James Madison High School.[14]

Deep Ellum is also home to a free, public charter secondary school located in the midst of the entertainment district.  Uplift Luna Preparatory opened in 2010 and is considered a high performing school, according to state reports.[15]


cyclin d1 is a nuclear protein required for cell cycle progression in g1

Cyclin D1 is a protein required for progression through the G1 phase of the cell cycle.[14] During the G1 phase, it is synthesized rapidly and accumulates in the nucleus, and is degraded as the cell enters the S phase.[14] Cyclin D1 is a regulatory subunit of cyclin-dependent kinases CDK4 and CDK6. The protein dimerizes with CDK4/6 to regulate the G1/S phase transition and entry into the S-phase.

Cyclin D1

2W96, 2W99, 2W9F, 2W9Z

Cyclin-D1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the CCND1 gene.[5][6]

The CCND1 gene encodes the cyclin D1 protein. The human CCNDI gene is located on the long arm of chromosome 11 (band 11q13). It is 13,388 basepairs long, and translates into 295 amino acids.[7] Cyclin D1 is expressed in all adult human tissues with the exception of cells derived from bone marrow stem cell lines (both lymphoid and myeloid).[8][9]

Cyclin D1 is composed of the following protein domains and motifs:[10][11]

The protein encoded by this gene belongs to the highly conserved cyclin family, whose members are characterized by a dramatic periodicity in protein abundance throughout the cell cycle. Cyclins function as regulators of CDKs (Cyclin-dependent kinase). Different cyclins exhibit distinct expression and degradation patterns which contribute to the temporal coordination of each mitotic event. This cyclin forms a complex with and functions as a regulatory subunit of CDK4 or CDK6, whose activity is required for cell cycle G1/S transition. This protein has been shown to interact with tumor suppressor protein Rb and the expression of this gene is regulated positively by Rb. Mutations, amplification and overexpression of this gene, which alters cell cycle progression, are observed frequently in a variety of tumors and may contribute to tumorigenesis.[12]

Immunohistochemical staining of cyclin D1 antibodies is used to diagnose mantle cell lymphoma.

Cyclin D1 has been found to be overexpressed in breast carcinoma. Its potential use as a biomarker was suggested.[13]

The cyclin D1-CDK4 complex promotes passage through the G1 phase by inhibiting the retinoblastoma protein (pRb).[15] Cyclin D1-CDK4 inhibits pRb through phosphorylation, allowing E2F transcription factors to transcribe genes required for entry into the S phase. Inactive pRb allows cell cycle progression through the G1/S transition and allows for DNA synthesis. Cyclin D1-CDK4 also enables the activation of cyclin E-CDK2 complex by sequestering Cip/Kip family CDK inhibitory proteins p21 and p27, allowing entry into the S phase.[16]

Cyclin D1-CDK4 also associates with several transcription factors and transcriptional co-regulators.[10]

Independent of CDK, cyclin D1 binds to nuclear receptors (including estrogen receptor α, thyroid hormone receptor, PPARγ [17][18][19][20] and AR [21]) to regulate cell proliferation, growth, and differentiation. Cyclin D1 also binds to histone acetylases and histone deacetylases to regulate cell proliferation and cell differentiation genes [22][23][21][24] in the early to mid-G1 phase.

Increasing cyclin D1 levels during the G1 phase is induced by mitogenic growth factors [25] primarily through Ras mediated pathways,[26][27][28] and hormones.[22] These Ras-mediated pathways lead to the increase in transcription of cyclin D1, and inhibit its proteolysis and export from the nucleus.[29] Cyclin D1 is degraded via an ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis pathway at the end of the S-phase. Phosphorylation of cyclin D1â€™s threonine residue T286 marks the protein for export from the nucleus and proteolytic degradation.[30]

Cyclin D1 overexpression has been shown to correlate with early cancer onset and tumor progression [16] and it can lead to oncogenesis by increasing anchorage-independent growth and angiogenesis via VEGF production.[31] Cyclin D1 overexpression can also down-regulate Fas expression, leading to increased chemotherapeutic resistance and protection from apoptosis.[31]

An abundance of cyclin D1 can be caused by various types of deregulation, including:

Cyclin D1 overexpression is correlated with shorter cancer patient survival and increased metastasis.[38][39] Amplification of the CCND1 gene is present in:

Cyclin D1 overexpression is strongly correlated to ER+ breast cancer[51] and deregulation of cyclin D1 is associated with hormone therapy resistance in breast cancer.[30][52][53] Overexpression of Cyclin D1b, an isoform, is also present in breast and prostate cancers.[11]

Chromosomal translocation around the cyclin D1 gene locus is often seen in B mantle cell lymphoma. In mantle cell lymphoma, cyclin D1 is translocated to the IgH promoter[54] leading to cyclin D1 overexpression. Chromosomal translocation of the cyclin D1 gene locus is also observed in 15 â€“ 20% of multiple myelomas.[55][56]

Cyclin D1 and the mechanisms it regulates have the potential to be a therapeutic target for cancer drugs:

Cyclin D1 has been shown to interact with:


who is betagold in the gospel according to larry

After the festival Josh is at home when an older woman knocks on his door. It is Tracy Hawthorne, also known as betagold. She is surrounded by reporters wanting to get a photograph of "Larry." He is then thrown into the public eye and at first he is glad because then he can spread his anti-consumerism message to all those who do not have access to the internet. He quickly realizes that reporters do not want to know about his message; they want to know about him: his life, his family, and his friends.

The Gospel According to Larry

The Gospel According to Larry is a "coming of age" political, romantic teen novel by Janet Tashjian that explores anti-consumerism. The introduction of the book is written from a point of view that makes it seem as though Josh Swensen is real and Janet Tashjian is simply the one who edited and published it. This quality gives the book a non-fiction feel.

The Gospel According to Larry revolves around seventeen-year-old Josh Swenson, an articulate teen whose dream is to change the world. He creates his own website which he calls "The Gospel According to Larry" because Larry was the most un-biblical name he could think of. He writes articles on this site "preaching" his feelings and ideas about making the world a better place.

At first he does not get many hits until someone writes an article about him in a local newspaper and the number of hits begins to grow. That is when he decides to start photographing and posting his possessions. He was curious to see if it was possible to track down someone anywhere in the world simply by their possessions.

Josh only has 75 possessions counting all clothes, underwear, school supplies, recreational equipment, software and the keys to his step-father's house. He has a list of guidelines to keep track of how many possessions he has. If he wants a new CD, or book, or video he has to sell an old one or trade it. A notebook counts as one even though it has 70 sheets of paper in it. A pair of socks counts as one and so do shoes. He decided to start doing this after reading about Native Americans who did not want to leave a "footprint" behind. This means every purchase is a major decision and he takes it very seriously.

Not everyone is happy with his blog. A poster named betagold does not like the fact that Josh is hiding behind a screen name. She threatens to find him out, no matter what he does to hide himself. She even notices little things that he speaks of that she figures point to where he lives, such as Red Maples which grow in the New England area.

Things really take off when U2's lead singer Bono takes an interest in the site causing much more publicity. Soon after Bono decides to host a giant rock festival called Larryfest where all of the bands would play for free and all companies would sell food and drink at cost.

Josh likes to talk to his deceased mother at the makeup desk at Bloomingdale's. His mother would go there once a month to buy makeup and talk to the woman who worked there. Josh sits on a chair and talks out loud to his mother. He waits for the next voice he hears and whatever they say is his answer.

Josh gets really depressed by the fact that he cannot leave his house without being harassed by reporters and tries to talk to his mother. He is very confused and does not know where to go from there. He hears a woman say "Sometimes I could just kill myself." Immediately after that another woman says "I'm completely serious. Sometimes it's the only way." This is when he begins to consider suicide as a way out.

He ends up biking to the Sagamore Bridge because he has heard stories of how people had jumped from there. He rides home after that, pretty shaken up. The next day he gets bored and is looking up Greek and Latin roots. He puts two words together and comes up with pseudocide (Pseudo-, "false." and -cide, "killing") to pretend to kill yourself. He starts working out plans for this, not entirely considering going through with it, but it is a project. He does everything necessary for this fake suicide to occur.

On the day he decides to do it he cuts and dyes his hair and rides his bike to the Sagamore bridge, after seeing no one around throws his clothes over and tucks his pants into his bag so he is wearing shorts. He waves down a passing car and tells them he was running past and saw a kid jump. He describes himself as he looked before. They see his bike is registered. Josh is so freaked out that he throws up. He leaves and stays at a small motel as he watches the local news about how everything goes. He does not want there to be a doubt that it was a successful suicide.

Vote for Larry, was published on May 1, 2004.
Larry and the Meaning of Life, was published on September 16, 2008.

“A thrilling read, fast-paced with much fast food for thought about our consumer-oriented culture.  The voice is clear, the ending satisfying.  Teenagers will eat this one up.” Kirkus – Starred Review

“A terrific read with a credible and lovable main character.  Tashjian’s gift for portraying bright adolescents with insight and humor reaches near perfection here.” School Library Journal – Starred Review

“Tashjian does something very fresh here, which will hit teens at a visceral level. She takes the natural idealism young people feel, personalizes it in the character of Josh/Larry, and shows that idealism transformed by unintended consequences. The book's frank discussion about topics paramount to kids--celebrity worship, consumerism, and the way multinational corporations shape our lives--is immediate, insightful, and made even more vivid because it's wrapped in the mystery of Larry.” – Booklist – Starred Review


where does the black country name come from

The 14-mile (23Â km) road between Wolverhampton and Birmingham was described as "one continuous town" in 1785.[4] The first trace of "The Black Country" as an expression dates from the 1840s.[5] The name is believed to come from the soot from the heavy industries that covered the area, although the 30-foot-thick (10 metre) coal seam close to the surface is another possible origin.

Black Country

Coordinates: 52°32′N 2°2′W / 52.533°N 2.033°W / 52.533; -2.033

The Black Country is a region of the West Midlands in England, west of Birmingham,[2] and commonly refers to all or part of the four Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton.[3] During the Industrial Revolution, it became one of the most industrialised parts of Britain with coal mines, coking, iron foundries, glass factories, brickworks and steel mills producing a high level of air pollution.

Although the heavy polluting industry that gave the region its name has long since disappeared, a sense of shared history and tradition in the area has kept the term in use. In addition, the regeneration of the area by local and national government has brought official recognition to the region and has, to some extent, defined its boundary.

The Black Country has no single set of defined boundaries. Some traditionalists have tended to define it as "the area where the coal seam comes to the surface â€“ so West Bromwich, Oldbury, Blackheath, Cradley Heath, Old Hill, Bilston, Dudley, Tipton, Wednesfield and parts of Halesowen, Wednesbury and Walsall but not Wolverhampton, Stourbridge and Smethwick or what used to be known as Warley".[3] There are records from the 18th century of shallow coal mines in Wolverhampton, however.[6] Others have included areas slightly outside the coal field which were associated with heavy industry.[7][8] Today it commonly refers to the majority or all of the four Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton[3] although it is said that "no two Black Country men or women will agree on where it starts or ends".[9][10]

Official use of the name came in 1987 with the Black Country Development Corporation, an urban development corporation covering the metropolitan boroughs of Sandwell and Walsall, which was disbanded in 1998.[11] The Black Country Consortium (founded in 1999) and the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership (founded in 2011) both define the Black Country as the four metropolitan boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton,[11][12] an approximate area of 138 square miles (360Â km2).

The borders of the Black Country can be defined by using the special cultural and industrial characteristics of the area. Areas around the canals (the cut) which had mines extracting mineral resources and heavy industry refining these are included in this definition. Cultural parameters include unique or characteristic foods such as Groaty pudding, Grey Peas and Bacon, faggots, gammon or pork hocks and pork scratchings; Black Country Humour;[13] and the Black Country dialect.[14]

The Black Country Society defines the Black Country's borders as the area on the thirty foot coal seam, regardless the depth of the seam. This definition includes West Bromwich and Oldbury, which had many deep pits, and Smethwick. The thick coal that underlies Smethwick was not mined until the 1870s and Smethwick has retained more Victorian character than most West Midland areas. Sandwell Park Colliery's pit was located in Smethwick and had 'thick coal' as shown in written accounts from 1878 and coal was also heavily mined in Hamstead further east.[15] Smethwick and Dudley Port were described as "a thousand swarming hives of metallurgical industries" by Samuel Griffiths in 1872.[16] The Black Country Society excludes Wolverhampton (West Midlands conurbation) and Stourbridge geologically but includes them culturally, linguistically and in terms of heavy industry as both had iron and steel works, manufacturing industries and contributed enormously to the region. Warley is also included, despite lacking industry and canals, as housing for industrial workers in Smethwick and Oldbury was built there.

Another geological definition, the seam outcrop definition, only includes areas where the coal seam is shallow making the soil black at the surface. Some coal mining areas to the east and west of the geologically defined Black Country are therefore excluded by this definition because the coal here is too deep down and does not outcrop. The seam outcrop definition excludes areas in North Worcestershire and South Staffordshire.[citation needed]

Since the geological definitions are narrower and exclude many areas which are culturally and industrially similar to the rest of the Black Country, they are irritants to those now wishing to extend the area known as the Black Country for social or commercial reasons. This is the basis for much of the controversy over definitions.[citation needed]

The first recorded use of the term "the Black Country" may be from a toast given by a Mr Simpson, town clerk to Lichfield, addressing a Reformer's meeting on 24 November 1841, published in the Staffordshire Advertiser. He describes going into the "black country" of Staffordshire - Wolverhampton, Bilston and Tipton.[17] In published literature, the first reference dates from 1846 and occurs in the novel Colton Green: A Tale of the Black Country by the Reverend William Gresley, who was then a prebendary of Lichfield Cathedral.[18] He introduces the area as "that dismal region of mines and forges, commonly called 'the Black Country'", implying that the term was already in use.[19] Gresley's opening paragraph stated "The scene of this story lies in that part of Staffordshire to which the constant exhumation of its mineral resources has long since given the well-known name of the Black Country", implying that the original Black Country may not have included Dudley which was in Worcestershire. He also stated that the 'Black Country was twenty miles in length', which is also at odds with the'restricted coalfield' version propsed by the Black Country Society. The phrase was used again, though as a description rather than a proper noun, by the Illustrated London News in an 1849 article on the opening of the South Staffordshire Railway.[19] An 1851 guidebook to the London and North Western Railway included an entire chapter entitled "The Black Country", including an early description:[19]

In this Black Country, including West Bromwich, Dudley, Darlaston, Bilston, Wolverhampton and several minor villages, a perpetual twilight reigns during the day, and during the night fires on all sides light up the dark landscape with a fiery glow. The pleasant green of pastures is almost unknown, the streams, in which no fishes swim, are black and unwholesome; the natural dead flat is often broken by high hills of cinders and spoil from the mines; the few trees are stunted and blasted; no birds are to be seen, except a few smoky sparrows; and for miles on miles a black waste spreads around, where furnaces continually smoke, steam engines thud and hiss, and long chains clank, while blind gin horses walk their doleful round. From time to time you pass a cluster of deserted roofless cottages of dingiest brick, half swallowed up in sinking pits or inclining to every point of the compass, while the timbers point up like the ribs of a half decayed corpse. The majority of the natives of this Tartarian region are in full keeping with the scenery â€“ savages, without the grace of savages, coarsely clad in filthy garments, with no change on weekends or Sundays, they converse in a language belarded with fearful and disgusting oaths, which can scarcely be recognised as the same as that of civilized England.

This work was also the first to explicitly distinguish the area from nearby Birmingham, noting that "On certain rare holidays these people wash their faces, clothe themselves in decent garments, and, since the opening of the South Staffordshire Railway, take advantage of cheap excursion trains, go down to Birmingham to amuse themselves and make purchases".[20]

The geologist Joseph Jukes made it clear in 1858 that he felt the meaning of the term was self-explanatory to contemporary visitors, remarking that "It is commonly known in the neighbourhood as the 'Black Country', an epithet the appropriateness of which must be acknowledged by anyone who even passes through it on a railway". Jukes based his Black Country on the seat of the great iron manufacture, which for him was geographically determined by the ironstone tract of the coalfield rather than the thick seam, running from Wolverhampton to Bloxwich, to West Bromwich, to Stourbridge and back to Wolverhampton again.[19] A travelogue published in 1860 made the connection more explicit, calling the name "eminently descriptive, for blackness everywhere prevails; the ground is black, the atmosphere is black, and the underground is honeycombed by mining galleries stretching in utter blackness for many a league".[19] An alternative theory for the meaning of the name is proposed as having been caused by the darkening of the local soil due to the outcropping coal and the seam near the surface.[21]

It was however the American diplomat and travel writer Elihu Burritt who brought the term "the Black Country" into widespread common usage[22] with the third, longest and most important of the travel books he wrote about Britain for American readers, his 1868 work Walks in The Black Country and its Green Borderland.[23] Burritt had been appointed United States consul in Birmingham by Abraham Lincoln in 1864, a role that required him to report regularly on "facts bearing upon the productive capacities, industrial character and natural resources of communities embraced in their Consulate Districts" and as a result travelled widely from his home in Harborne, largely on foot, to explore the local area.[24] Burritt's association with Birmingham dated back 20 years and he was highly sympathetic to the industrial and political culture of the town as well as being a friend many of its leading citizens, so his portrait of the surrounding area was largely positive.[23] He was the author of the famous early description of the Black Country as "black by day and red by night", adding appreciatively that it "cannot be matched, for vast and varied production, by any other space of equal radius on the surface of the globe".[25] Burritt used the term to refer to a wider area than its common modern usage, however, devoting the first third of the book to Birmingham, which he described as "the capital, manufacturing centre, and growth of the Black Country", and writing "plant, in imagination, one foot of your compass at the Town Hall in Birmingham, and with the other sweep a circle of twenty miles [30Â km] radius, and you will have, 'the Black Country". However he also described a 'Black Country proper' including Wolverhampton, Dudley, and several smaller towns.[26]

Bilston-born Samuel Griffiths, in his 1876 Griffiths Guide to the Iron Trade of Great Britain, stated "The Black Country commences at Wolverhampton, extends a distance of sixteen miles to Stourbridge, eight miles to West Bromwich, penetrating the northern districts through Willenhall to Bentley, The Birchills, Walsall and Darlaston, Wednesbury, Smethwick and Dudley Port, West Bromwich and Hill Top, Brockmoor, Wordsley and Stourbridge. As the atmosphere becomes purer, we get to the higher ground of Brierley Hill, nevertheless here also, as far as the eye can reach, on all sides, tall chimneys vomit forth great clouds of smoke". He also stated that "Wolverhampton is considered to be The Capital of the Black Country", as well as "The Capital of the Iron Trade in the Black Country".

A few Black Country places such as Wolverhampton, Bilston and Wednesfield are mentioned in Anglo-Saxon charters and chronicles and the forerunners of a number of Black Country towns and villages such as Cradley, Dudley, Smethwick, and Halesowen are included in the Domesday Book of 1086.[27] At this early date, the area was mostly rural. A monastery was founded in Wolverhampton in the Anglo-Saxon period[27] and a castle and priory was built at Dudley during the period of Norman rule.[28] Another religious house, Premonstratensian Abbey of Halesowen, was founded in the early 13th century.[29] A number of Black Country villages developed into market towns and boroughs in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, notably Dudley, Walsall and Wolverhampton.[8] Coal mining was carried out for several centuries in the Black Country, starting from medieval times,[30] and metalworking was important in the Black Country area as early as the 16th century spurred on by the presence of iron ore and coal in a seam 30 feet (9 m) thick, the thickest seam in Great Britain, which outcropped in various places. Many people had an agricultural smallholding and supplemented their income by working as nailers or smiths, an example of a phenomenon known to economic historians as proto-industrialisation and by the 1620s "Within ten miles [16 km] of Dudley Castle there were 20,000 smiths of all sorts".[31]

In 1642 at the start of the Civil War, Charles I failed to capture the two arsenals of Portsmouth and Hull, which although in cities loyal to Parliament were located in counties loyal to him. As he had failed to capture the arsenals, Charles did not possess any supply of swords, pikes, guns, or shot; all these the Black Country could and did provide. From Stourbridge came shot, from Dudley cannon. Numerous small forges which then existed on every brook in the north of Worcestershire turned out successive supplies of sword blades and pike heads. It was said that among the many causes of anger Charles had against Birmingham was that one of the best sword makers of the day, Robert Porter, who manufactured swords in Digbeth, Birmingham, refused at any price to supply swords for "that man of blood" (A Puritan nickname for King Charles), or any of his adherents. As an offset to this sword-cutler and men like him in Birmingham, the Royalists had among their adherents Colonel Dud Dudley, who had invented a means of smelting iron by the use of coke, and who claimed he could turn out "all sorts of bar iron fit for making of muskets, carbines, and iron for great bolts", both more cheaply, more speedily and more excellent than could be done in any other way. His method was employed on the King's behalf.[32][33]

An important milestone in the establishment of Black Country industry came when John Wilkinson set up an iron works at Bradley near Bilston. In 1757 he started making iron there by coke-smelting rather than using charcoal.[8] His example was followed by others and iron making spread rapidly across the Black Country. Another important development of the 18th century was the construction of canals to link the Black Country mines industries to the rest of the country. Between 1768 and 1772 a canal was constructed by James Brindley starting in Birmingham through the heart of the Black Country and eventually leading to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal.[34]

By the 19th century or early 20th century, many villages had their characteristic manufacture, but earlier occupations were less concentrated. Some of these concentrations are less ancient than sometimes supposed. For example, chain making in Cradley Heath seems only to have begun in about the 1820s, and the Lye holloware industry is even more recent.

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, coal and limestone were worked only on a modest scale for local consumption, but during the Industrial Revolution by the opening of canals, such as the Birmingham Canal Navigations, Stourbridge Canal and the Dudley Canal (the Dudley Canal Line No 1 and the Dudley Tunnel) opened up the mineral wealth of the area to exploitation. Advances in the use of coke for the production in iron enabled iron production (hitherto limited by the supply of charcoal) to expand rapidly.

By Victorian times, the Black Country was one of the most heavily industrialised areas in Britain, and it became known for its pollution, particularly from iron and coal industries and their many associated smaller businesses. This led to the expansion of local railways and coal mine lines. The line running from Stourbridge to Walsall via Dudley Port and Wednesbury closed in the 1960s, but the Birmingham to Wolverhampton line via Tipton is still a major transport route.

The anchors and chains for the ill-fated liner RMS Titanic were manufactured in the Black Country in the area of Netherton. Three anchors and accompanying chains were manufactured; and the set weighed in at 100 tons. The centre anchor alone weighed 12 tons and was pulled through Netherton on its journey to the ship by 20 Shire horses.

In 1913, the Black Country was the location of arguably one of the most important strikes in British trade union history when the workers employed in the area's steel tube trade came out for two months in a successful demand for a 23 shilling minimum weekly wage for unskilled workers, giving them pay parity with their counterparts in nearby Birmingham. This action commenced on 9 May in Wednesbury, at the Old Patent tube works of John Russell & Co. Ltd., and within weeks upwards of 40,000 workers across the Black Country had joined the dispute. Notable figures in the labour movement, including a key proponent of Syndicalism, Tom Mann, visited the area to support the workers and Jack Beard and Julia Varley of the Workers' Union were active in organising the strike. During this confrontation with employers represented by the Midlands Employers' Federation, a body founded by Dudley Docker, the Asquith Government's armaments programme was jeopardised, especially its procurement of naval equipment and other industrial essentials such as steel tubing, nuts and bolts, destroyer parts, etc. This was of national significance at a time when Britain and Germany were engaged in the Anglo-German naval arms race that preceded the outbreak of the First World War. Following a ballot of the union membership, a settlement of the dispute was reached on 11 July after arbitration by government officials from the Board of Trade led by the Chief Industrial Commissioner Sir George Askwith, 1st Baron Askwith.[35] One of the important consequences of the strike was the growth of organised labour across the Black Country, which was notable because until this point the area's workforce had effectively eschewed trade unionism.

The area had earlier gained widespread notoriety for its hellish appearance. Charles Dickens's novel The Old Curiosity Shop, written in 1841, described how the area's local factory chimneys "Poured out their plague of smoke, obscured the light, and made foul the melancholy air". In 1862, Elihu Burritt, the American Consul in Birmingham, described the region as "black by day and red by night", because of the smoke and grime generated by the intense manufacturing activity and the glow from furnaces at night. Early 20th century representations of the region can be found in the Mercian novels of Francis Brett Young, most notably My Brother Jonathan (1928).

Carol Thompson the curator "The Making of Mordor" at Wolverhampton Art Gallery in the last quarter of 2014 stated that J. R. R. Tolkien's description of the grim region of Mordor "resonates strongly with contemporary accounts of the Black Country", in his famed novel The Lord of the Rings.[36] Indeed, in the Elvish Sindarin language, Mor-Dor means Dark (or Black) Land.[36] It is also claimed by one Black Country scholar (Peter Higginson) that the character of Bilbo Baggins may have been based on Tolkien's observation of Mayor Ben Bilboe of Bilston in The Black Country, who was a Communist and Labour Party member from the Lunt in Bilston. But the scholarly evidence for this is still questionable.

The 20th century saw a decline in coal mining in the Black Country, with the last colliery in the region – Baggeridge Colliery near Sedgley – closing on 2 March 1968, marking the end of an era after some 300 years of mass coal mining in the region, though a small number of open cast mines remained in use for a few years afterwards.[37]

As the heavy industry that had named the region faded away, in the 1970's a museum, called the Black Country Living Museum started to take shape on derelict land near to Dudley. Today this museum demonstrates Black Country crafts and industry from days gone by and includes many original buildings which have been transported and reconstructed at the site.

The history of industry in the Black Country is connected directly to its underlying geology. Much of the region lies upon an exposed coalfield forming the southern part of the South Staffordshire Coalfield[38] where mining has taken place since the Middle Ages.[39] There are, in fact several coal seams, some of which were given names by the miners. The top, thin coal seam is known as Broach Coal. Beneath this lies successively the Thick Coal, Heathen Coal, Stinking Coal, Bottom Coal and Singing Coal seams.[40] Other seams also exist. The Thick Coal seam was also known as the "Thirty Foot" or "Ten Yard" seam and is made up of a number of beds that have come together to form one thick seam.[41] Interspersed with the coal seams are deposits of iron ore and fireclay. The Black Country coal field is bounded on the north by the Bentley Fault, to the north of which lies the Cannock Chase Coalfield.[41] Around the exposed coalfield, separated by geological faults, lies a concealed coalfield where the coal lies at much greater depth. A mine was sunk between 1870 and 1874 over the eastern boundary of the then known coal field in Smethwick and coal was discovered at a depth of over 400 yards.[42] In the last decade of the 19th century, coal was discovered beyond the western boundary fault at Baggeridge at a depth of around 600 yards.[43]

A broken ridge runs across the Black Country in a north-westerly direction from Rowley Regis through Dudley, Wrens Nest and Sedgley, separating the Black Country into two regions. This ridge forms part of a major watershed of England with streams to the north taking water to the Tame and then via the Trent into the North Sea whilst to the south of the ridge, water flows into the Stour and thence to the Severn and the Bristol Channel.[41]

At Dudley and Wrens Nest, limestone was mined. This rock formation was formed in the Silurian period and contain many fossils. One particular fossilized creature, the trilobite Calymene blumenbachii, was so common that it became known as the "Dudley Bug" or "Dudley Locust" and was incorporated into the coat-of-arms of the County Borough of Dudley.[44]

In recent years the Black Country has seen the adoption of symbols and emblems with which to represent itself. The first of these to be registered was the Black Country tartan in 2009, designed by Philip Tibbetts from Halesowen.[45][46][47]

In 2008 the idea of a flag for the region was first raised.[48][49] After four years of campaigning a competition was successfully organised with the Black Country Living Museum.[50][51] This resulted in the adoption of the Flag of the Black Country as designed by Gracie Sheppard of Redhill School in Stourbridge and was registered with the Flag Institute in July 2012.[52]

The flag was unveiled at the museum on 14 July 2012 as part of celebration in honour of the 300th anniversary of the erection of the first Newcomen atmospheric engine.[53] Following this it was agreed by the museum and Black Country society for 14 July to be recognised as Black Country Day to celebrate the areas role in the Industrial Revolution.[54] The day was marked by Department for Communities and Local Government in 2013[55] and following calls to do more[56] in 2014 more events were planned around the region.[57]

Black Country Day takes place on 14 July each year, originally organised by Steven Edwards. Originally in March, the day was later moved to 14 July - the anniversary of the invention of the Newcomen steam engine.

The heavy industry which once dominated the Black Country has now largely gone. The 20th century saw a decline in coal mining and the industry finally came to an end in 1968 with the closure of Baggeridge Colliery near Sedgley. Clean air legislation has meant that the Black Country is no longer black. The area still maintains some manufacturing, but on a much smaller scale than historically. Chainmaking is still a viable industry in the Cradley Heath area where the majority of the chain for the Ministry of Defence and the Admiralty fleet is made in modern factories.

Much but not all of the area now suffers from high unemployment and parts of it are amongst the most economically deprived communities in the UK. This is particularly true in parts of the metropolitan boroughs of Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton. According to the Government's 2007 Index of Deprivation (ID 2007), Sandwell is the third most deprived authority in the West Midlands region, after Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent, and the 14th most deprived of the UK's 354 districts. Wolverhampton is the fourth most deprived district in the West Midlands, and the 28th most deprived nationally. Walsall is the fifth most deprived district in the West Midlands region, and the 45th most deprived in the country. Dudley fares better, but still has pockets of deprivation. Overall Dudley is the 100th most deprived district of the UK, but the second most affluent of the seven metropolitan districts of the West Midlands, with Solihull coming top.

As with many urban areas in the UK, there is also a significant ethnic minority population in parts: in Sandwell, 22.6 per cent of the population are from ethnic minorities, and in Wolverhampton the figure is 23.5 per cent. However, in Walsall 84.6 per cent of the population is described as white, while in Dudley 92 per cent of the population is white. Resistance to mass immigration in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s led to the slogan "Keep the Black Country white!".

The Black Country suffered its biggest economic blows in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when unemployment soared largely because of the closure of historic large factories including the Round Oak Steel Works at Brierley Hill and the Patent Shaft steel plant at Wednesbury. Unemployment rose drastically across the country during this period as a result of the Thatcher government's neo-liberal economic policies; later, in an implicit acknowledgement of the social problems this had caused, these areas were designated as Enterprise Zones, and some redevelopment occurred. Round Oak and the surrounding farmland was developed as the Merry Hill Shopping Centre and Waterfront commercial and leisure complex, while the Patent Shaft site was developed as an industrial estate.

Unemployment in Brierley Hill peaked at more than 25% – around double the national average at the time – during the first half of the 1980s following the closure of Round Oak Steel Works, giving it one of the worst unemployment rates of any town in Britain. The Merry Hill development between 1985 and 1990 managed to reduce the local area's unemployment dramatically, however.[58]

The Black Country Living Museum in Dudley recreates life in the Black Country in the early 20th century, and is a popular tourist attraction. On 17 February 2012 the museum's collection in its entirety was awarded Designation by Arts Council England (ACE).[59] Designation is a mark of distinction that celebrates unique collections of national and international importance.

The fouir metropolitan boroughs of the Black Country form part of the Birmingham metropolitan economy, the second largest in the United Kingdom.

In 2011, the government announced the creation of the Black Country Enterprise Zone.[60] The zone includes 5 sites in Wolverhampton and 14 in Darlaston. The i54 business park in Wolverhampton is the largest of the 19 sites; its tenants include Jaguar Land Rover. The largest site in Darlaston is that of the former IMI James Bridge Copper Works.[61]

The traditional Black Country dialect, known as "Black Country Spake" (as in "Where's our Spake Gone" a 2014-16 lottery funded project to preserve and document the dialect) preserves many archaic traits of Early Modern English and even Middle English[62] and can be very confusing for outsiders. Thee, Thy and Thou are still in use, as is the case in parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire.

"'Ow B'ist," or "Ow b'ist gooin" (How are you/ how are you going), to which typical responses would be "Bostin ah kid" (Bostin means "Bursting", and implies being filled with good, and "Ah Kid" (our kid) is a term of endearment) or "'Bay too bah," ("I be not too bad"/ I'm not too bad).

Ain't is in common use as when "I haven't seen her" becomes "I ay sid 'er."

Black Country dialect often uses "ar" where other parts of England use "yes" (this is common as far away as Yorkshire). Similarly, the local version of "you" is pronounced /ˈjaʊ/ YOW, rhyming with "now."

The local pronunciation includes "goo" (elsewhere "go") or "gewin'" is similar to that elsewhere in the Midlands. It is quite common for broad Black Country speakers to say "'agooin'" where others say "going." A woman is a "wench", a man is a "mon", a nurse is a "nuss" and home is "wom". An apple is an "opple".

Other examples are "code" for the word cold, and "goost" for the word Ghost. A Sofa becomes a "sofie", and a Fag (cigarette), a "fake". Seen becomes "Sid". Put together, "I just sid a Goost, so I bist gooin to sit on ma sofie and have a fake" (I have just seen a ghost, so I am going to sit upon my sofa and have a cigarette)

Some idioms link to local landmarks, some quite recent, such as saying a woman of loose morals is "a wench what goos up t'back a Rackhams" ("a woman who goes behind the Rackham's Department Store in Birmingham"), as this area was once connected with prostitution.

Food may be called "fittle" (after victuals or "vittles"), so "Bostin fittle" is "good food".

One participant in the "Where's our Spake Gone" project related the following: "Day say yom call oos rabbits up ere. I say We day, dey say yow say "Tah rah rabbits". Weem say Tah-Ra a bit, un to dem, it sound like weem calling dem rabbits." ("They say you call us rabbits there, I said we don't, (but) they say you say "Tah Rah Rabbits". We say "Tah Rah A bit" (Tah Rah for a little while) and to them, it sounds like we are calling them rabbits.")

The dialect has local differences, and sounds and phrases differ across the towns; often people can mishear a word or phrase and write it down wrong as in "shut charow up," which actually is "shut ya row up," so one has to be careful when hearing words and phrases.

The Black Country is notable for its small breweries and brewpubs which, unlike most in Britain, continued brewing their own beer alongside larger breweries which opened in the Industrial Revolution. Small breweries and brewpubs in the Black Country include Bathams in Brierley Hill, Holdens in Woodsetton, Sarah Hughes in Sedgley and the Old Swan Inn (Ma Pardoe's) in Netherton. They produce light and dark mild ales, as well as malt-accented bitters and seasonal strong ales.

The Black Country is home to one television station Made in Birmingham and three region wide radio stations â€“ BBC WM, Free Radio and Free Radio 80s.[63] Both Free Radio (formerly Beacon Radio) and Free Radio 80s (formerly Beacon 303, Radio WABC & Gold) have broadcast since 1976 from transmitters at Turner's Hill and Sedgley, with the studios which were previously located in Wolverhampton being moved to Oldbury and Birmingham respectively.

The area also has three other radio stations which only officially cover part of the region. Black Country Radio (born from a merger of 102.5 The Bridge and BCCR) who are based in Stourbridge, Signal 107 who broadcast from Wolverhampton and Ambur Radio who broadcast from Walsall.[64]

The Express and Star is one of the region's two daily newspapers, publishing eleven local editions from its Wolverhampton headquarters and its five district offices (for example the Dudley edition is considerably different in content from the Wolverhampton or Stafford editions). It is the biggest selling regional paper in the UK.[65] Incidentally, the Express and Star, traditionally a Black Country paper, has expanded to the point where they sell copies from vendors in Birmingham city centre.

The Black Country Mail – a local edition of the Birmingham Mail – is the region's other daily newspaper. Its regional base is in Walsall town centre.

Established in 1973, from a site in High Street, Cradley Heath, the Black Country Bugle has also contributed to the region's history. It started as a fortnightly publication, but due to its widespread appeal, now appears on a weekly basis. It is now located above the Dudley Archives and Local History Centre on Tipton Road, Dudley.


where was the welsh national anthem first performed

Glan Rhondda (Banks of the Rhondda), as it was known when it was composed, was first performed in the vestry of the original Capel Tabor, Maesteg (which later became a working men's club), in either January or February 1856, by Elizabeth John from Pontypridd, and it soon became popular in the locality.[2]

Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau

"Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" (Welsh pronunciation: [heːn wlɑːd və n̥adaɪ̯]) is the national anthem of Wales.[1] The title – taken from the first words of the song – means "Old Land of My Fathers" in Welsh, usually rendered in English as simply "Land of My Fathers". The words were written by Evan James and the tune composed by his son, James James, both residents of Pontypridd, Glamorgan, in January 1856.[1][2] The earliest written copy survives and is part of the collections of the National Library of Wales.[2]

James James, the composer, was a harpist who played his instrument in the public house which he ran, for the purpose of dancing.[2] The song was originally intended to be performed in 6/8 time, but had to be slowed down to its present tempo when it began to be sung by large crowds.

The popularity of the song increased after the Llangollen festival of 1858. Thomas Llewelyn of Aberdare won a competition for an unpublished collection of Welsh airs with a collection that included Glan Rhondda. The adjudicator of the competition, "Owain Alaw" (John Owen, 1821–83) asked for permission to include Glan Rhondda in his publication, Gems of Welsh melody (1860–64). This volume gave Glan Rhondda its more famous title, "Hen wlad fy nhadau", and was sold in large quantities and ensured the popularity of the anthem across the whole of Wales.[2]

At the Bangor Eisteddfod of 1874 "Hen Wlad fy Nhadau" gained further popularity when it was sung by Robert Rees ("Eos Morlais"), one of the leading Welsh soloists of his day.[3] It was increasingly sung at patriotic gatherings and gradually it developed into a national anthem.[2]

"Hen wlad fy nhadau" was also one of the first Welsh-language songs recorded when Madge Breese sang it on 11 March 1899, for the Gramophone Company, as part of the first recording in the Welsh language.[2][4]

In 1905, "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" became the first national anthem to be sung at the start of a sporting event.[5][6] Although crowds singing anthems during matches was commonplace, there was no precedent for the anthem to be sung before a game commenced in any sport.[n 1] The Welsh national rugby team were playing host to the first touring New Zealand team, who to that point were unbeaten. After Wales won the Triple Crown in the 1905 Home Nations Championship the match was dubbed the 'Game of the Century' by the press. The New Zealand team started every match with the Haka, and Welsh Rugby Union administrator Tom Williams, suggested that Wales player Teddy Morgan lead the crowd in the singing of the anthem as a response. After Morgan began singing, the crowd joined in,[8] and Wales became the first nation to sing a national anthem at the start of a sporting event.[9]

In 1978 as part of their album, also called "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau", Geraint Jarman a'r Cynganeddwyr recorded a version of the Welsh national anthem using electric guitars, inspired by Jimi Hendrix's rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner. Jarman's version, played by Welsh guitarist Tich Gwilym is one of the most famous modern versions of the song.[6]

Tradition has established "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" as an unofficial Welsh anthem[1] since 1905, when it was first sung by fans at rugby games, although the official anthem at the time was "God Bless the Prince of Wales". "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" slowly established itself as the more popular anthem over the next four decades, and was sung along with "God Bless the Prince of Wales" and "God Save the Queen" before sporting events until 1975, when sports officials decided that "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" should be sung alone. Like other British anthems, it has not been established as a national anthem by law, but it has been used as a national anthem at official governmental ceremonies, including the opening of the Welsh Assembly, and at receptions of the British monarchy since the 1970s.[2][6] It is recognised and used as an anthem at both national and local events in Wales.

Usually this will be the only anthem sung: only the first stanza and chorus are usually sung (and in the Welsh language). God Save the Queen, the national anthem of the United Kingdom, is sometimes played alongside "Hen Wlad fy Nhadau" during official events with a royal connection.[6]

The existence of a separate national anthem for Wales has not always been apparent to those from outside the country. In 1993 the newly appointed Secretary of State for Wales John Redwood was embarrassingly videotaped opening and closing his mouth during a communal singing of the national anthem, clearly ignorant of the words but unable to mime convincingly;[10] the pictures were frequently cited as evidence of his unsuitability for the post. According to John Major's autobiography, the first thing Redwood's successor William Hague said, on being appointed, was that he had better find someone to teach him the words. He found Ffion Jenkins, and later married her.[6]

The tune of "Hen Wlad fy Nhadau" has been used for the anthems of Cornwall (Bro Goth Agan Tasow), Brittany (Bro Gozh ma Zadoù),[10] and Y Wladfa (Gwlad Newydd y Cymry, see below).

(First stanza)

Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi,
Gwlad beirdd a chantorion, enwogion o fri;
Ei gwrol ryfelwyr, gwladgarwyr tra mad,
Dros ryddid collasant eu gwaed.

(Chorus)
Gwlad, gwlad, pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad.
Tra mÃ´r yn fur i'r bur hoff bau,
O bydded i'r hen iaith barhau.

(Second stanza)
Hen Gymru fynyddig, paradwys y bardd,
Pob dyffryn, pob clogwyn, i'm golwg sydd hardd;
Trwy deimlad gwladgarol, mor swynol yw si
Ei nentydd, afonydd, i fi.

(Chorus)

(Third stanza)
Os treisiodd y gelyn fy ngwlad tan ei droed,
Mae hen iaith y Cymry mor fyw ag erioed,
Ni luddiwyd yr awen gan erchyll law brad,
Na thelyn berseiniol fy ngwlad.

(Chorus)

The following is a fairly free translation in verse.

The land of my fathers is dear unto me,
a land where the minstrels are honoured and free,
Its warring defenders, so gallant and brave,
For freedom their life's blood they gave

Land!, Land!, Faithful I am to my land!
While seas serves as a wall
For this land so pure,
O, long may our language endure.

O land of the mountains, the bard's paradise,
Whose precipice, valleys are fair to my eyes,
Green murmuring forest, far echoing flood
Fire the fancy and quicken the blood

For tho' the fierce foeman has ravaged your realm,
The old speech of Wales he cannot o'erwhelm,
Our passionate poets to silence command,
Nor banish the harp from your strand.

A more literal translation is:

The old land of my fathers is dear to me,
Land of bards and singers, famous men of renown;
Her brave warriors, very splendid patriots,
For freedom shed their blood.

Old mountainous Wales, paradise of the bard,
Every valley, every cliff, to my look is beautiful.
Through patriotic feeling, so charming is the murmur
Of her brooks, rivers, to me.

If the enemy oppresses my land under his foot,
The old language of the Welsh is as alive as ever.
The muse is not hindered by the hideous hand of treason,
Nor [is] the melodious harp of my country.

Other translations include:

The land of my fathers is dear to me,
Old land where the minstrels are honoured and free;
Its warring defenders so gallant and brave,
For freedom their life's blood they gave.

Old land of the mountains, the Eden of bards,
Each gorge and each valley a loveliness guards;
Through love of my country, charmed voices will be
Its streams, and its rivers, to me.

Though foemen have trampled my land 'neath their feet,
The language of Cambria still knows no retreat;
The muse is not vanquished by traitor's fell hand,
Nor silenced the harp of my land.

The land of my fathers, the land of my choice,
The land in which poets and minstrels rejoice;
The land whose stern warriors were true to the core,
While bleeding for freedom of yore.

Wales! Wales! fav'rite land of Wales!
While sea her wall, may naught befall
To mar the old language of Wales.

Old mountainous Cambria, the Eden of bards,
Each hill and each valley, excite my regards;
To the ears of her patriots how charming still seems
The music that flows in her streams.

My country tho' crushed by a hostile array,
The language of Cambria lives out to this day;
The muse has eluded the traitors' foul knives,
The harp of my country survives.

The Welsh poet Dylan Thomas is often quoted as saying "The land of my fathers. My fathers can have it!" in reference to Wales. However, this is misleading, as it was a villainous character in one of Thomas' short stories that spoke this line.

Gwynfor Evans named his history of Wales Land of my fathers: 2,000 years of Welsh history. It was a translation of the Welsh original, Aros Mae.

The Â£1 coins minted in 1985, 1990, 1995 and 2000 with a Welsh emblem on the reverse, also bear the edge inscription PLEIDIOL WYF I'M GWLAD ("I am devoted to my country"), from the refrain of "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau".[11] The new Royal Badge of Wales adopted in 2008 features this motto.

A version of "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" was written by Lewis Evans, a migrant from Wales to Y Wladfa, a Welsh-speaking settlement in Patagonia, South America. The version penned by Evans is called Gwlad Newydd y Cymry (The New Country of the Welsh). Gwlad Newydd y Cymry is played to the same tune as "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau".

The lyrics to Gwlad Newydd y Cymry are as follows;

Y mae Patagonia yn annwyl i mi,
Gwlad newydd y Cymry mwyneiddlon yw hi;
Anadlu gwir ryddid a gawn yn y wlad,
O gyrhaedd gormesiaeth a brad:
Gwlad, gwlad, pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad,
Tra haul y nen uwchben ein pau,
O! bydded i'r Wladfa barhau.

Bu'r Cymry yn gorwedd dan ddirmyg yn drwch,
Wel, diolch am Wladfa i'n codi o'r llwch;
Ein heniaith a gadwn mewn urddas a bri,
Tra'r Gamwy'n ddysgleiriol ei lli:
(chorus)

'Chaiff Cymro byth mwyach ymostwng i Sais,-
Terfynodd ei orthrwm - dystawyd ei lais;
Y Wladfa fawrygwn tra'r Andes wen fawr,
A'i choryn yn'stafell y wawr:
(chorus)


who wrote work from home by fifth harmony

"Work from Home" is a song recorded by American girl group Fifth Harmony featuring singer Ty Dolla Sign.[2] The song impacted contemporary hit radio four days after its initial release on March 1, 2016 and was released as the lead single from the group's second studio album, 7/27 (2016).[3] "Work from Home" was written by Daniel Bedingfield, Joshua Coleman, Jude Demorest, Tyrone Griffin, Jr., Alexander Izquierdo, and Brian Lee[4] with production from Coleman and Dallas Koehlke. The song is primarily an R&B track that incorporates elements of trap music and tropical house beats with lyrics depicting "work" as an euphemism for sexual seduction. Many music publications included it in their lists of best songs of the year.[5][6][7][8]

Work from Home

The song debuted at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 with 88,000 downloads sold,[9] and reached number four in its thirteenth week,[10] becoming their highest charting single in the United States; it surpassed "Worth It", which peaked at number 12. "Work from Home" also became the first top-five single in the country by a girl group in ten years, following the September 2006 peak of "Buttons" by The Pussycat Dolls at number three.[11] Among national airplay charts, the song topped both the Mainstream Top 40 and Rhythmic Songs.[12][13] As of December 2016, the single has sold 1.4 million digital copies in the United States.[14] The song has achieved multi-platinum certifications in several countries, including quadruple platinum in Canada and the United States.

It was accompanied by a music video directed by Director X and filmed in a construction site of a house. It was released on February 26, 2016 on the group's Vevo channel. The video received commentary from critics over the double entendres in the visuals, which are present in the lyrics as well. The girls are seen interacting with male construction workers and performing choreographed dance routines dressed in construction gear. "Work from Home" won the award for Best Collaboration at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards and the American Music Awards, winning the group their first award in this network.[15] Its music video reached one billion views in October 2016, and became the most viewed music video of 2016.[16]

"Work from Home" was initially written by Joshua Coleman with Jude Demorest, Alexander Izquierdo, Dallas Koehlke and Brian Lee, the song also contains samples of Gotta Get thru This by Daniel Bedingfield[4]. Coleman and Koehlke also produced, performed all instruments and programming for the song. The group's vocals were produced & recorded by Victoria Monét and Andrew Bolooki at Windmark Recording Studios and The Northership, both located in California. The song was mixed by Phil Tan at the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center with assistance from Daniela Rivera. The song came for the group after their A&R Joey Arbagey played it during a meeting to discuss their sophomore album's direction; each member immediately approved of the song.[17] During an interview with Spin, Cabello explained that the group "fell in love" with the song after hearing it mostly for its "laid-back" and "chill" atmosphere that featured an "a kind of urban pocket". She explained that was the reason she and her groupmates loved the track because it "branched out in different ways" than anything they ever recorded.[17] The song's title was announced on February 24, 2016.[3] Originally titled "Work" and set to be released on January 26, 2016, the group had to re-title the song to "Work from Home" to avoid confusion with Rihanna's song of the same name, which was released a month prior.[1]

While talking about how the collaboration with Ty Dolla Sign came together, Dinah Jane told Billboard that she was "happy he agreed" to be on the track as he was one of her "favorite artists". After hearing his song, "Paranoid", she told her groupmates, "Guys, we gotta get this dude on our song," as she saw him "as a perfect fit" for this track. Jane complimented the way he "rides" the song and "brings a different feel to it".[1] Sharing similar sentiments, Cabello said that he "added [an] amazing flair" to the song. She also praised the way he played the "melody and his dissonant notes," saying that he "made his own hooky part of the bridge."[17] Featured artist Ty Dolla Sign discussed his contribution in the song during an commentary to Billboard where he revealed that he was persuaded to join the song after his 11-year-old daughter continuously played their tracks.[18] He recalls a time where he was on tour and had a lot of girls "in the hotel room". According to Ty, they usually "put on Future or something more turnt" but all of them wanted to "hear Fifth Harmony". He said that was the first time that ever happened.[19] When discussing the album's single choice, Kordei told Entertainment Weekly that the song made sense after releasing "Worth It" because they had "similar styles, but still sounded "different". She elaborates by saying that the song is "chill" and "not too much" while referring to it as "sexy" but "cool" with "something electrifying about it".[20] Nearly a month after the interview took place, the track premiered for the first time on radio on February 26, 2016 on the Elvis Duran and the Morning Show, and was released along with the pre-order of the album.[3] It was then serviced to contemporary hit radio in the United States four days later on March 1, 2016.[21]

"Work from Home" is an midtempo song with elements of trap music. Katherine St. Asaph of Pitchfork noted elements of Rnbass in its production,[22] while Meaghan Garvey from MTV found tropical house influences on its beats.[23] Discussing the song musically, Chris Martins from Billboard classified it as a "a pop-R&B confection that siphons off the a tropically tinted EDM pool."[19] According to the sheet music published by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, "Work from Home" is written in the time signature of common time, with a moderate tempo of 104–108 beats per minute. It is composed in the key of Ab major as quintet's voices span the tonal nodes of G3 to F5. "Work from Home" follows a chord progression of Fm–D♭—A♭.[24]

According with J.C Pan from The Fader, "Work from Home" uses work as a euphemism for sexual seduction, "rolling out one job-related double entendre after another".[25] In review of the album 7/27, Peter Meister from Sputnikmusic describing the song, wrote, "In the sparkling, sexy "Work from Home", R&B crooner Ty Dolla Sign harmonizes perfectly with the girls amongst brimming, elegant synths that explode and rattle with booming, gritty bass over the demanding of their lover to not go to work but instead, put the "work" at home with her.[26] Its instrumentation is complete with electro claps, strong bassline and backed-synth.[8][26]

The song has a typical verse-pre-chorus-chorus structure with a rap bridge done by Ty Dolla Sign before the third chorus and the outro. The song begins with bubbling beat[27] and finger snaps.[28] The first verse is sung by Cabello, the first pre-chorus is sung by Kordei. "I know you're always on the night shift/but I can't stand these nights alone", she sings.[26] Following is the chorus sung by Jauregui, with the word "work" repeated seven times after each line.[29] The second verse is sung by Hernandez who sings: "Let's put it into motion / Imma give you a promotion / I'll make it feel like a vacay / Turn the bed into an ocean".[30] Hansen sings the second pre-chorus. Ty Dolla Sign sings after the second chorus, and on the third and final chorus Cabello closes the song with an ad-libbed outro.[24]

Matt Collar from AllMusic described "Work from Home" as one of the "most playful tracks" from 7/27 writing that said song along with "Not That Kinda Girl" "build upon Fifth Harmony's knack for mixing juicy R&B hooks with just enough hip-hop muscle to keep things from getting too polite."[31] Maeve McDemortt from USA Today agreed, citing it as a highlight and praising its production.[32] The Boston Globe's writer Maura Johnston called it an "Afternoon Delight",[33] similarly, Brittany Spanks from Rolling Stone described it as "an "Afternoon Delight" for the smartphone generation that fluttered by on minimalist synths."[34] Carolyn Menyes of Music Times gave it a positive review, noting the "chilled out vibe" and the "chorus that cools down the song's momentum rather than pumping it up".[35]

Isabella Biedenhan of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "...slinking beats and playfully sexy lyrics about convincing your partner to skip the boardroom for the bedroom" were notable in the song.[36] The sexual nature and double entendres present in its lyrics, was another point discussed by critics. Spencer Kornhaber from The Atlantic journal noted that "Work from Home" "is typical in portraying freaky bedroom fun as glorious mostly in the bounds of a relationship."[37] Katherine St. Asaph, Pitchfork, expressed an unsatisfied critic about its recording writing that "Fifth Harmony trades in the kind of pop-cultural press-quote feminism where the group can say they are out squash gender roles and “gender-institutionalized thinking” while recording a fantasy of a stay-at-home sexter reassuring the household breadwinner that he’s the boss at home."[22]

Several critics noted the song's style is comparable with the musical style of the hip hop producer DJ Mustard.[38][39][40] In a review published by the staff of Idolator, Robbie Daw called the track worthy based on previous singles with the titular name a called it the group's "most solid single to date." In a mixed-positive review, Carl Williott initially called the track a "DJ Mustard ripoff" but complimented the group for managing to make the song "their own" with their "subtle harmonizations adding some texture", he adds. Mike Wass shared similar sentiments and called it a "sleek and sexy bop with on-trend production" and an "insidiously catchy chorus" while praising the group's musical evolution.[41] Several publications thought it was a strong contender for song of the summer.[42][43][44] However, other critics were not so positive. Christopher Bohlsen of Renowned for Sound gave a negative review, saying that while vocal melodies in the verses were "satisfying", the chorus just "doesnâ€™t sound interesting enough", calling it an "utterly standard pop song". Bohlsen gave the song a two-and-a-half out of five rating.[45]

Several sites, such as Billboard,[5] Rolling Stone,[6] Entertainment Weekly[7] and Time,[8] ranked "Work from Home" in the top ten of their respected best pop songs of the year lists. Slant[46] and NPR[47] ranked the song at number eleven on its list of best singles of the year while Stereogum[48] ranked the song at number fifteen on its year-end list with the editor praising Ty Dolla Sign's influence on the song. Aggregate news site, Inquisitr[49] ranked the song at number two in its top 10 singles list.

In the annual Village Voice's Pazz & Jop mass critics poll of the year's best in music in 2016, "Work from Home" was tied at number 36, with six other songs.[50] The Arizona Republic[51] and The Fader[52] ranked the song at 28 and 23 in their year-end lists, respectively. Fact[53] ranked it at 34 and Spin[54] ranked it at 94. In its best pop singles list, Digital Spy[55] placed the song at number seven. Elle[56] placed the song in its unranked year-end list.

"Work from Home" was ranked at number 14 on the 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time list, published by Billboard. S.J.H. dismissed the fact that the word "work" was mentioned "95 times" and added that the "repetition is part of its charm". J.H. finishes their statement saying that the group secured their biggest hit to date with "melodies that counter the blooping synths, punctuating a relatively sparse beat" and commended the equal delivery of each member, specifically Cabello, whose vocals contradict the "songâ€™s straightforward verses with acrobatic runs that bring it all home."[57]

On the week of March 7, 2016, "Work from Home" debuted at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 with 88,000 downloads sold, 10 million United States streams and 20 million radio impressions in its first week, marking the group's highest debut and equaling its best rank for "Worth It", which rose to number 12 in August 2015, twenty-three weeks after it was released.[9] The following week, the song fell four spots to number 16.[58] It would then rise three spots to number 13[59] and rise one more spot, to match its debut position for the week dated April 9, 2016.[60] The following week, the song would climb two spots to reach a peak at number 10, earning the group their first top 10 single in the United States. Subsequently, they became the first all-female group to chart in the top 10 since "When I Grow Up" by The Pussycat Dolls peaked at number nine in 2008.[11] It recorded a 6-4 jump on the Digital Songs chart selling 89,000 copies, a 34 percent increase from the previous week. The song also saw a 8-5 jump on Streaming Songs with steams of 14.4 million, a rise of 20 percent and 22-17 leap on the Radio Songs chart, retaining a 49 million audience, a 22 percent increase from the previous week.[61]

For the dated April 23, 2016, the song rose one more spot to number nine, becoming the week's highest airplay gainer retaining an 89 million audience, rising 12 percent from the previous week.[62][63] The song rose two more spots the following week, leaping from 9-7.[64] It would rise one more spot at a new position at number 6. [65] The following week, it fell one spot, after one of Prince's songs entered the top five shortly after his death. The track would rebound a 7-5 leap, earning the group their first top five entry, marking them as the first all-female group to attain this honor since The Pussycat Dolls' "Buttons" with Snoop Dogg song peaked at number three in 2006. For the week marked May 21, 2016, the track boosted an 8 percent climb at radio and a 10.5 million audience impressions and was aided in the climb with 15.9 million weekly United States streams, which were down one percent.[66] The track would fall one spot after Justin Timberlake's "Can't Stop the Feeling!" made its hot shot debut at number one. It rose one spot for the week marked June 4, 2016 at number, retaining its previous peak position. Following a performance of the track on the Billboard Music Awards, the song leaped 5-4, earning the group their highest entry and peak on the chart. For that week, it recorded a 10-7 jump on Digital Songs, selling 73,000 copies, a 26 percent increase and earned the group their first top five hit on Radio Songs, leaping 6-4 with a 105 million audience, rising 5 percent. On the Streaming Songs chart, the track stayed at number 5 with 15.8 million streams, a decrease of 2 percent.[67]

Additionally, on the chart dated May 21, 2016, "Work from Home" topped the Rhythmic Songs chart, leaping a 2-1 spot and becoming the first girl group to achieve that milestone in 15 years, since Destiny's Child crowned the list in 2001 with "Survivor".[13] On the chart dated June 4, 2016, "Work from Home" topped the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 after climbing a 4-1 position, becoming the first Pop Songs number one by a girl group in nearly 10 years since The Pussycat Dolls led for two weeks in September 2006 with "Buttons" featuring Snoop Dogg.[68] The song is also Ty Dolla Sign's second top 40 entry on the Hot 100. "Work from Home" earned the group their best-selling debut week, surpassing "Boss", which debuted with 75,000 downloads in July 2014.[69] In Canada, "Work from Home" debuted at number 18 on the Canadian Hot 100 after its first week of release.[70] On the week dated April 2, 2016, the song rose 18-14 and then rose two more spots on its third week, reaching the peak of its predecessor "Worth It". Two weeks later, the song climbed 12-8, earning the group their first top 10 entry in this market. It rose one more spot the following week and then rose from 7-5, giving Fifth Harmony their first top five entry as well. Eventually, it climbed to number four in its eleventh week.[71] It also became the group's highest-peaking single in Canada, surpassing the peak of its predecessor, which peaked at number 12 in August 2015.[72] Apart from charting in both Canada and the United States, the song entered two Mexican charts, peaking outside the top ten at number 12 and 11, respectively. As of December 2016, the single has sold 1.4 million copies in the United States.[14] In early 2017, the song was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for combined sales and streaming of four million equivalent units.

In the United Kingdom, "Work from Home" debuted at number 23 on the Official Charts Company after its first week of release.[73] The following week, it rose 12 spots to reach number 11. It would rise seven spots for a peak at number four, earning the group their second top 10 entry in this market after "Worth It" peaked number three on July 2015. For two consecutive weeks, it rose one spot, until reaching number two and peaking on the chart behind Mike Posner's "I Took a Pill in Ibiza" during its fifth week, becoming the group's highest-peaking song in Britain, surpassing its predecessor.[74] The song would stay in the top ten for eight additional weeks and in the top 40 for twelve weeks for a total of thirty-seven weeks.

Simultaneously, the song made an appearance in the charts in the Republic of Ireland, earning the group their first top five there. In the Netherlands, the single debuted at number 29 on the Dutch Top 40 after its first week of release. It climbed for the next three weeks, reaching number four in the fourth week and becoming their first top 10 single in the country. It also became the group's highest peaking single in the Netherlands, surpassing the peak of its predecessor "Worth It", which peaked at number 25 in August 2015. "Work from Home" eventually topped both the Single Top 100 and the Dutch Top 40, becoming the group's first song to top both charts in the country.

Elsewhere in Europe, the song entered the charts in Austria, where it peaked at number nine and charted for twenty-eight weeks. Similar trends followed in Denmark and Latvia, where the song also peaked at number nine. In the Belgian charts, the song peaked within the top 10 in its Flanders and Wallonia category, earning a top five in the Flanders chart. The track also peaked in the top 10 in Czech Republic, making appearances in both of the country's two main charts. In Germany and Norway, the song peaked at seven and six, respectively and charted for fifteen and twenty six weeks. "Work from Home" earned a top five in countries such as Spain and Poland, charting for 18 weeks in the Spanish charts. In its digital track component, the song peaked in the top 10 in Slovakia. It also achieved top 10 peaks in Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries of Sweden and Norway, where it also became their highest charting song in said countries. The song was certified platinum in Denmark, double platinum in countries including Belgium, Italy, Poland, Spain, quadruple platinum in Sweden and Diamond in France, where the single sold a quarter of a million copies.

In Australia, "Work from Home" debuted at number 39 on the ARIA Charts after its first week of release.[75] It climbed to number three in the fourth week, becoming their second top ten and first top five single in the country.[76][77] The song stayed in the charts for nearly thirty weeks. Since its release, the song has been certified quintuple platinum and has also become one of the best-selling songs by an all-female group there. A similar trend followed in New Zealand where the song debuted at number 21 on the Official New Zealand Music Chart after its first week of release.[78] It climbed to number two in the fifth week, becoming the group's first top-five single in the country.[79] "Work from Home" also became the group's highest peaking single in New Zealand, surpassing "Miss Movin' On", which peaked at number 27 in July 2013.[80] On April 15, 2016, it became their first number-one single in the country.[81] The single was certified double platinum, becoming the group's best-selling song, after "Worth It" was certified platinum.

The music video, directed by Director X, was released on February 26, 2016.[82] Speaking on the video's concept, X said that he wanted to incorporate the theme of "work" but "with a different approach." Initially, the setting was going to be in a "corporate office" but the idea was not executed as the group previously released "Worth It" in that same setting. Other ideas included a condominium construction set. He noted the reverse gender roles where the men are "the objects" as "opposed to the other way around" and the many interpretations of work, which he says aided in the song's success.[83]

The video earned the group their third Vevo certification, reaching over 100 million views on March 31, 2016 and becoming one of the fastest videos to reach this milestone. It became fourth most viewed music video of 2016, and the site's 25th-most-watched video. As of September 2017, the video has surpassed 1.7 billion views.[84] It won Best Collaboration on the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards, and also won in the "Song of the Year" category at the 2017 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards.

The video begins with a muscular man carrying a half-filled pack of cement. As the man walks, Camila sings while resting her arm in a shovel. Multiple workers are shown working around the area as well. As Camila makes her way towards a tractor, the verse switches to Normani, who is standing on a tractor shovel loader. Normani dances near the tractor, approaching a male worker who is sitting in the driver's seat of the vehicle.

The group is now in front of the construction house, all performing in-sync dance choreography. Some of the dance routines include mimicking the visual to a jackhammer and using a driller. Ally is seen inside the house with a hammer, as she approaches a male construction worker, turning him around by gently grabbing his shirt and flirting with him. In the next scene, Dinah is standing by a wall, and makes her way towards another male worker, opening a blueprint map, and using a tape measure. The scene then shifts to Lauren, who is handling a blow torch.

All the girls are then seen performing dance routines inside the hall of the house, with Lauren in the middle and two girls at each side of the staircase. Ty Dolla Sign appears while singing with a sledgehammer over his shoulders. He is seen for the first time together with the group, leaning against a wall, while the girls dance off-cam and perform twerking moves. The girls are now outside of the house, where night has approached, as each girl performs synchronized dance moves.

In an article published by Idolator, Robbie Daw praised the video for reversing the patronizing role men have and notes the Madonna inspired video direction, saying the group "appears to now be in full control of their collective sexuality and wielding it as they choose, rather than relying on it solely to sell records." Carl Whilliott praised the group for establishing the video as "their own", commenting on how this style of video typically suits Ty Dolla Sign. He, however, criticizes the song for not receiving as much criticism as Rihanna's song, 'Work' (2016).[85]

Rebecca H. Dolan from the site The Crimson noted that the video "brings women to the forefront of the workplace." And said that the song call something described as "neo-feminism", she wrote: "we see Fifth Harmony highlighting these concepts of ninth wave feminism, gender spheres, sexual stereotyping, etc. The whole scene takes place on a construction site—blazingly hot from the looks of it!—full of men in hard hats with bulging muscles. The women of Fifth Harmony appear on set as well. Beneath their stunningly tousled tresses, they wear construction chic leotards that are about as appropriate for manual labor, as, well, women."[86]

The group performed the song for the first time on television on February 29, 2016, on a special after-Oscars episode on Live! with Kelly and Michael. Recreating the set of the music video, they performed the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on March 24, 2016 and on Alan Carr: Chatty Man approximately two weeks later.[87] The group performed the song on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on May 10,[88][89] dancing in and around a car prop and at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards on May 22 alongside Ty Dolla Sign.[90] Other performances include the 2016 Much Music Video Awards[91] and the 2016 CMT Music Awards, where the group performed the song with country singer Cam, as a mashup with Cam's single, Mayday.

The track was covered by British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran in a radio appearance in the United Kingdom.[92] Other artists who covered the song include classical crossover group Clean Bandit with Louisa Johnson at the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge,[93] where Fifth Harmony also covered the track along with Elle King's Ex's & Oh's.[94] Clean Bandit also recorded a mash-up version of the track at the Spotify Studios in New York City.[95] Bebe Rexha gave an acoustic performance at the SiriusXM studios. When asked to comment on the reason for covering the song, Rexha said she loves the song and called it "sexy".[96]

An edited version of the single was performed at the 2017 People's Choice Awards,[97] where the group made their first appearance as a quartet following Camila Cabello's departure in late 2016. The version was altered, leaving bandmate Lauren Jauregui singing what was formerly Camila's verse, followed by the other three girls singing their verses as normal in black bondage-style outfits. They then ended their performance with a new dance break.

Credits adapted from 7/27's liner notes.[110]

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone
sales+streaming figures based on certification alone

Since May 2013 RIAA certifications for digital singles include on-demand audio and/or video song streams in addition to downloads.[201]