Developing Bands and Singers

In class this week we watched the movie of the U2 band filmed while they were just becoming super popular, and it made me think about music artists' rise to fame. With 7 billion people in the world, there will always be tons of talented singers and performers, but it seems to be always only a small portion of them ever make it to be famous. Throughout the year, I have noticed a trend of people not being truley appreciated and noticed until after they die, and that makes me wonder that maybe in 100 years people will look back on someone that I have never heard of and say "Wow, that is the best musician who ever lived". I think it is interesting how bands like U2 just suddenly become really popular, and I feel like I don't even see the best of the music, and only what has already been "discovered". Now it is in some ways easier and in some ways harder to discover music because we have the internet. On the plus side, it is a lot easier to find music because pretty much everything is online, but it is also harder because pretty much anyone can make/record a song and put it for people to see. I think music is extremely unpredictable, but it makes it exciting that no one ever knows who will be the next big thing.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis: Same Love

Throughout the years, Rap music has always been criticized for having no meaning, and being pointless with lyrics about strippers, money and drugs. I agree that there still is a fare share of that in current music, but its not all mindless lyrics. Macklemore is popular for his song Thrift Shop which I blogged about in the past, and although it has some sick beats, the lyrics aren't exactly "deep". Through Youtube searching I found another one of his songs called "One Love", and expecting another funny dance party song, I was blown away. The song is not short, its about 6 minutes, but its a rap song completely about gay marriage and his support of it. I thought that the lyrics were very well planned out, and were surprisingly insightful and deep while still remaining on beat. So while some rap songs are just a slur of cuss words and stripper poses, I think that more people should take after Macklemore and make music about the real issues in the world.

Paul Simon Graceland

Honestly, after listening to two days of hair metal, pretty much anything was an improvement to my ears. It's not that I didn't like hair metal, because I can't deny that after about a minute I was singing along to "Jump", but its something I feel is better in small doses. But I REALLY liked Paul Simon Graceland. I felt that he really mixed the upcoming hip hop/ poppy era with the old south roots for his music. Also, although it was a little strange to me his changes of tempo and rhyming scheme, I think it made me pay attention and perk up when he would somehow fit 20 million words into one line. I think my favorite song of the album, although I like many, was "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes". I really like how the song was brought in by a spiritual sounding acapella beat from black men. I also really like Paul's voice, because it is very smooth somehow although it is also upbeat. I like how he incorporates the beginning singers back in to form very nice harmonies. My favorite part is how the song then takes a twist and brings the beat a little jazzier, but continues to have the same smooth and silky voice. I really like his incorporation back to the older black men music, because I really enjoyed that era and want to see more of it in newer music.

Justin Timberlake

Although he has been pretty much off the music radar for the past few years, recently Justin Timberlake came out with a new album. I've only heard one song from it, called "Suit and Tie", and honestly that is all I want to hear. I know many people who like Justin Timberlake, but I have never cared for him. I think it might be because of his voice and his obnoxiously poppy lyrics. Everyone always gives Justin Bieber tons of crap for having a high voice, but at least he sings well and uses it to his advantage, but Justin Timberlake has an even higher voice but it is more raspy and he never seems to hit any of the notes that he sings. Also, to me all of his songs seem to blend into a mesh of repetitive verses and nonsense about how cool he is.  I think he is a good actor, and funny on snl, but none of his hollow pumpy songs have ever appealed to me, and I don't think one will ever.

Slick Rick La Di Da Di

Although I saw a fair share of crazy weird music videos, the one that I really liked was the Slick Rick beatboxing La Di Da Di. I don't know why, but beat boxing has always fascinated me because it amazes me the power people have with just their voice. I liked it because it was different not being able to use autotune or computer generated sounds, and just to be able to make tons of different sounds and keep a very upbeat tune the whole time. Another thing that I really liked about what we listened to in general was the record scratching. I think the skills we can do with computers is cool, but something about the art of twisting and turning the records is really cool! I would really like to see a concert or something live or even learn how to do that, because I think it is really interesting and creates a super good and different sound from just plain records.

Spanish Music

Over spring break I went to Spain, and along with the fabulosity delicious food, antique buildings and different cultures, I saw the similarities and differences of the music. Although I knew it was silly, a little bit of me was expecting to see some chacha dancers and old Spanish folk music, but that is not what I heard at all. Of course I did not get the full the experience because I was living and getting the experience of a fellow teenager and not seeing the true cultural music, but it was still very interesting.  Of course they had their own music from popular singers of Spain, but what I thought was really funny is how much American music the youth listened to. On weekends when we went out to the discos and at teen places, over half if not more of the songs that I heard were songs popular in the US maybe 1 or 2 years ago. It was very interesting because for example one of the students had a sister that was singing a song in english but she didnt even speak it. It just shows the power of music

My Travel Music

So I realized today I may or may not have internet access while in Spain, so I'm going to have to wait until after Spring Break to blog about what I heard there. So this time I'm going to blog about what I plan to listen to on the journey. One of my friends has a habit where she always has to sleep with music playing, so she wears headphones every night. I don't know if it helps the pattern of sleeping, but I have never been able to do that. Music is one of the things that I find very hard to have in the back of my mind while other things are going on. I can even mindlessly watch tv when I do my homework, but something about the changing beats and lyrics of music; I can't really multitask with it unless I block it out completely. For this reason, I will probably not listen to too much music on the plane. However the music that I do listen to needs to have a certain vibe and feel. As I am sitting on a plane and not allowed to move, I could not handle an upbeat album. My travel music is similar to my homework music (if I can even do that) which is calm, soft, and even a little on the dull side. This usually brings me to country. By country I don't really mean the honkey tonk sort of deep Texas country, just a little modernized song with a slow melody and relaxing voices. Here are some of the songs I might include for travel.