user: [Q]: Read the following paragraph and extract the answer for the question: What was the full name of President of A&M Records at the time Thriller was released?  Blender described Jackson as the "late 20th century's preeminent pop icon", while The New York Times gave the opinion that he was a "musical phenomenon" and that "in the world of pop music, there is Michael Jackson and there is everybody else". Jackson changed the way the industry functioned: both as an artistic persona and as a financial, profitable entity. His attorney John Branca observed that Jackson achieved the highest royalty rate in the music industry to that point: approximately $2 (US$4.82 in 2018 dollars) for each album sold. As a result, Jackson earned record-breaking profits from compact disc sales and from the sale of copies of the documentary, The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller, produced by Jackson and John Landis. Funded by MTV, the film sold over 350,000 copies in its first few months. In a market then driven by singles, Thriller raised the significance of albums, yet its multiple hit singles changed perceived notions as to the number of successful singles that could be taken from an individual album. The era saw the arrival of novelties like the Michael Jackson doll, that appeared in stores in May 1984 at a price of $12 (US$29 in 2018 dollars). Thriller retains a position in American culture; biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli explains, "At some point, Thriller stopped selling like a leisure item—like a magazine, a toy, tickets to a hit movie—and started selling like a household staple".At the time of the album's release, a press statement from Gil Friesen, the then President of A&M Records, read that, "The whole industry has a stake in this success". Time magazine speculated that "the fallout from Thriller has given the [music] business its best years since the heady days of 1978, when it had an estimated total domestic revenue of $4.1 billion". Time summed up Thriller's impact as a "restoration of confidence" for an industry bordering on "the ruins of punk and the chic regions of synthesizer pop". The publication described Jackson's influence at that point as, "Star of records, radio,...
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[A]: Gil Friesen


[Q]: Read the following paragraph and extract the answer for the question: Who said that the release proved that the genre "wasn't dead, just sleeping"?  Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said that releasing the Spanish-language Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 after the success of the English-language Laundry Service was a "sharp move", complimenting the album for demonstrating that Shakira "can not only return to her roots, but expand upon them". He described "La Tortura" as a "natural for American radio", and felt that the parent album generated anticipation for the upcoming Oral Fixation, Vol. 2. Writing for PopMatters, Matt Cibula praised the album for its musical departure from Laundry Service, applauding the integration of subtle samples across several songs as "great nods to the sounds of the 1980s". Dave Simpson of The Guardian compared Shakira to a "Latin American Madonna", describing her vocals as reminiscent of "Cher and Hazel O'Connor, produced by Julio Iglesias".Jon Pareles of The New York Times found Shakira's "smart or ambitious" image to be uncharacteristic of a sex symbol. He praised the versatility of her multilingual lyrics and her experimentation in a number of genres, citing the "multiplicity" in "the arrangements, in the mixed emotions of the lyrics, [and] in Shakira's mercurial voice". Writing for Paste, Mark Kemp complimented Shakira for dispelling notions she is "the Latin Britney, the female Ricky Martin [and] the pretty pop tart who sings in Spanish and sounds like Alanis"; he compared the mix of musical elements in Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 to a Pop-Tart with a "rich and nutritious filling". Tom Townsend of Yahoo! Music called her "the greatest pop star we have", comparing her "consuming artistry" to that of Madonna and Prince. He credited the album for inspiring a revival of pop music, saying that the release proved that the genre "wasn't dead, just sleeping".Shakira's international success was solidified with Fijación Oral, Vol. 1's strong commercial performance. After it debuted at number 4 on the US Billboard 200 and became the highest-debuting full-length Spanish album in the country, her label Epic Records called her "the biggest female...
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[A]: Tom Townsend


[Q]: Read the following paragraph and extract the answer for the question: What is the last name of the person who left the property to Dom Pedro?  Queluz's architecture is representative of the final extravagant period of Portuguese culture that followed the discovery of Brazilian gold in 1690. From the beginning of the 18th century many foreign artists and architects were employed in Portugal to satisfy the needs of the newly enriched aristocracy; they brought with them classical ideas of architecture which derived from the Renaissance. In its design, Queluz is a revolt against the earlier, heavier, Italian-influenced Baroque which preceded the Rococo style throughout Europe.Comparisons with the far larger and more Baroque Versailles are unwarranted: Versailles is referred to as having "an aura of majesty" and it was built and dedicated to exhibit in stone "all the glories of France," whereas the far smaller palace at Queluz has been described as "exquisite rather than magnificent" and looking like "a very expensive birthday cake". In its frivolity, the architecture of Queluz reflects the lifestyle led by the Portuguese royal family at the time of building: during the reign of Dom Pedro's brother, Joseph I, when Portugal was in practice governed by a valido or favourite, the Marquis of Pombal. Pombal encouraged the royal family to while away their days in the country and leave affairs of state to him. Thus the extravagant, almost whimsical architecture of Queluz, set apart from the capital city, exactly represents the politics and social events of Portugal during this era, and the carefree and flamboyant lives led by its occupants. Queluz's role as a haven for those without responsibility was, however, to be short-lived. On the accession to the throne of Dom Pedro's wife Maria in 1777, Pombal was dismissed, and Dom Pedro and Maria ruled jointly in his place, using the partially completed Rococo palace at Queluz as a retreat from affairs of state in much the same way as Frederick the Great used Europe's other famed Rococo palace, Sanssouci. The site chosen for this summer retreat was in a secluded hollow. It had originally been owned by the Marquis of...
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[A]:

assistant: João IV