Ashlee Simpson = Flop

Ashlee Simpson is trying her best to make her singles sail, but unfortunately both tries have led to failure. Her first single "Outa my Head" showed us all that she was taking her music to a different level, but no one seems to be on that level. So here she comes trying again with her new single "Little Miss Obsessive." Each single started off okay on the radio but slowly disappeared. They always say third times a charm but it is not certain if they will even try releasing another single since not many are interested. "Little Miss Obsessive" is not so bad, it has a cool beat but still didn't make it very far. So, Dave Aude' created a little remix, hopefully this makes some what of a difference, but only time will tell. On a lighter note for Ashlee, she is extremely happy with Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy and they are soon to be wed!

Duffy

One of the reasons that i love watching VH1 is because they have music short called "You Oughta Know." In this music short VH1 introduces new music and artists. One artist that I am particularly interested in is Duffy. Duffy made her way over from the U.K. as well and has her first single here in the U.S. called "Mercy." She has a very different style of music, sounding almost like updated Motown. She is looking to revive the energy and production of the past and give it a kick of Duffy flavor. She has not made it "big" just yet, being that her album had released in the beginning of March and most people will still say "Duffy who?" when hearing her name. But I feel that VH1 truly does make an impact with their music shorts. It's a way to spread the word about new upcoming music and help new artists get on their feet. Duffy is getting there, she was premiered on New York's famous radio station Z100 just a week ago and the sound is spreading.

E=MC2

Mariah Carey is back and better then ever! She has released her new album E=MC2 on April 25th and did phenomenal with record sales. This album sold 463,000 copies making it the Mariah's biggest debut sales week ever. E=MC2 is also the highest sale of the year, surpassing the 375,000 sold of Jack Johnson's "Sleep Through the Static" which was released in February. Mariah has gotten into the best shape of her life and has done a complete 360 with her life habits. I'm glad to see that she has come back around and is using her talents to her fullest. Her first single "Touch My Body" was a hit and her next single is going to be taking it slow with "Bye Bye." This song is dedicated to her father who she lost when he passed away just a couple of years ago. She makes reference in the song how "that someone" never saw her "get back to number 1." This song means a lot to Mariah. I feel that this is going to be another song that brings much inspiration to her biggest fans, which she is known for in the past.

Across the Universe.

I have yet to write a blog about a movie but I figure this will be my first since it is one of my favorites. Across the Universe is a film that was released October 2007. It is a musical film following several characters in the time of the 1960's. Of course we have all heard of a musical film before but none of which are like this particular one. Across the Universe's songs throughout the movie are all written by the members of "The Beatles." The story fits perfectly with the 33 compositions featured in the movie. If you are a Beatles fan like my self, you will find yourself entertained from beginning to end with the music alone. It is interesting to find that every character in the movie refers to one of The Beatles songs. For example the main characters are Lucy (Lucy in the sky with diamonds), played by Evan Rachel Wood, and Jude (Hey Jude) played by Jim Sturgess. These are only 2 references out of many that you will find in the movie. It keeps you interested to see what song will play next, and to what scene of the movie it will fit into. This film will have you singing to yourself fun songs from The Beatles, and have you invisioning bits of the movie while doing so. If I had a say, I would suggest that this movie musical takes the stage and creates an even wider audience to represent a great storyline and familiar music many can enjoy.

Pretty Odd

Panic at the Disco released their new album "Pretty Odd" and I think that the album title explains it all. From what we heard on their last album "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out", I feel as though they are trying to take a different direction in how they want to sound with their music. "Pretty Odd" has so far been compared to with the sounds of The Beatles, but i wouldn't push it. PATD were inspired from the sounds of The Beatles and I feel that they were trying to bring that style of music from the 70's. What does sound most similar to the music of The Beatles is the background vocals are now sang by guitarist Ryan Ross with the lead singer Brendon Urie. The combination of the two is creating the same vibe of McCarthy and Lennon. Otherwise I would not go as far as comparing the two bands as being similar, that would only be putting down the legendary Beatles in my opinion. With a toned down album, most PATD fans are wondering how they will perform live now that their music is much more mellow. The band is known for their upbeat personalities on stage that went along with their music from their last album. I guess only time will tell.

I've Got a Secret.

Okay so when we think Beyonce we automatically think of R&B vibe right? Well later this year Beyonce is set to release a new album that she is currently in the process of working on. Unofortunatly for her one of her singles has been leaked onto the internet and what we are hearing is more of a dance/pop album. The song that has been leaked is called "Beautiful Nightmare". I am suprised to see that Beyonce is going in a new direction with her music, but at the same time excited to see what she is going to do with it. From all of her fame and success in the past I don't think that this change of pace will be a "Beautiful Nightmare" for her but more of a sweet dream. But then again, look what happened to Kelly Clarkson after she decided to change genres. Seriously, has anyone heard from her yet?? Kelly?!

On the other hand..

While I'm on the topic of the UK, I'm sure you have all heard of the new artist Leona Lewis. Well actually, she is not that 'new'. She was the winner of the third season of X Factor, which can be described as an 'American Idol' show in the UK. She released her single ' A Moment Like This' in 2006 which broke a record being downloaded 50,000 times in 30 seconds. Since then her second single, of which we all have heard of today 'Bleeding Love' was the biggest selling single in 2007 in the UK and made its way to number one on April 5Th 2008 here in the US. Surprisingly, grumpy old Simon Cowell continues to say that Lewis is the next Whitney Houston and is the nicest, most talented artist he has ever worked with. I guess he actually can be kind! I have gotten the chance to listen to her new album "Spirit" which was released April 8Th, and I am loving it! Leona is a very talented woman and I expect to be hearing a lot from her in the future. Even though I am getting sick of 'Bleeding Love' already. Not only are the over doing it playing it 1000 times a day on the radio, but I have been listening to the song since last year! Stop already and Leona please release a new single to the radio stations! Here is one of my favorite songs on the album called " Better in Time", performed live.

Estelle!

Estelle is a new artist here in the U.S! She comes from the UK and was introduced to us during new artist week. Her sophomore album "Shine" was recently released on March 31st, in the UK and will be on sale here in the United States on April 29th. Her sound is fresh and new, being that she has such a unique voice most seem to enjoy her music. She is doing extremely well over in the UK but isn’t having the same luck here just yet. Her current single here is called ‘American Boy’ featuring hip-hop icon Kanye West. On her album not only does Kanye drop in, but you can also hear from artists such as Cee-Lo and John Legend. I suggest you check her out, it’s always nice to hear a fresh new beat.

Rock on

Let's think about the newest and most popular video game around right now. What do you think it would be? If you're thinking of the typical gun war, mario party, frogger type thing, you're wrong. Music and instruments has given inspiration to the game of the year. I'm sure you've heard of these two popular games; Rock Band and Guitar Hero. These games have taken the world by storm, allowing people to feel like they are part of a live band and they are controlling an instrument, regardless of musical talent. While Guitar Hero is simply a guitar, Rock Band comes equip with a guitar, drum set and a microphone. They both give the selection of old and new school rock, where you will decide what song you want to "play" on your instrument. This allows for people to really "rock out" with their own personal band. My favorite out of the two would be Rock Band, I'm great at the guitar, and I love to play with a few friends. But what I like most about this video game is that it is getting kids more involved with instruments. Playing the guitar or the drums virtually is making kids want the real thing, which is amazing.

Give Me More Paramore!

Paramore, you may have heard of them with their most popular single "Misery Business". Paramore was formed in 2004 here in the U.S. Since the band got together, there have been many lineup changes with the members of the band. The band now consists of Hayley Williams, Josh Farro, Jeremy Davis, and Zac Farro. They have a total of 2 albums All We Know Is Falling and their newest Riot!. Paramore has really gained most of their fan base from touring and the Internet. It seems as though since MTV made Paramore their artist of the week in 2007, the band gained mass variety of airplay and finally made it "big". Well i guess MTV can be good for something because Paramore is one of my favorite bands for quite some time now and it's great to see that they are finally reached the top. Since they were artist of the week they have released one other single called "crush crush crush" and from what I hear, the new single is going to be "That's what you get". They are not you're typical rock band, expecially because there is a female singer. Hayley is incredibally unique not only as a person but as an aritist. This is what attracts me to the band, its a different kind of music and I think you should check them out. For starters, here's it the music video to the new single. If you like it go explore for some more Paramore!

American "Idols"?

Umm.. what happened to the people winning this contest becoming famous? Isn't that the deal, you become the American Idol. I'll admit to watching the first season, because it was new and I was interested. That was one of the only years that the person who won became "big". Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Jordin Sparks are the only winners who actually got something from winning American Idol (nooo it's not a coincidence they are all women lol ). Can you remember anyone else who won? Hmm....waitt... Clay Aiken! Right?! Wrong! Ruben Studdard actually won that year, beating Clay by thousands of votes. But Clay was the one to rise to the top, well at least for a little while, when Ruben slowly disappeared from the eye of entertainment as soon as the show was over. The show is not about the winner to me, it is all about the talent. Let's take Chris Daughtry for instance, America voted and he got kicked off, but weeks later his band was signed to a record label and are now in the industry making millions. In short I believe that American Idol is another b.s. reality television show and once in a while you will find talent and peoples dreams will come true. But don't get your hopes up, we all remember William Hung. Oh boy..

Say What?

Ok so you don't always have to like the words to a song in order to like it right? Hey, you can have a favorite song of ALL time, and not even know what it really means. This actually happened to me. One of my favorite songs is Wonderwall by Oasis. I'm not too sure why, I can't exactly explain that to you but it will never fail that the song will put me in a great mood every time I hear it. For the longest time I had no idea what a Wonderwall was, but I figured it had to be something good? Fortunately, one day I went Google happy and came across a website that I found very resourceful. It's called songfacts.com and it informs you of the meanings behind some of your favorite songs. Of course there are other websites just like this, but most of them are full of people saying things totally irrelevant to the song itself. Getting back to my favorite song (haha) well when I first listened to the song I right away thought it was about a relationship and being in love and his girlfriend was his "wonderwall"(la di da we are in love type of thing that everyone else sings about). Little did i know the song is actually about a best friend, or a friend that you have yet to find that is going to save you from yourself. I didn't know the song had that much meaning, so next time you hear a song and are a bit confused, try checking out it's history, it may come as a shock to you.

On the Radio

Infomercials, Pranks and a whole lot of nonsense. That is what I hear most on the radio. I love listening to new music and listening to see what else is out there but lately it's seemed pretty impossible. In the morning when I wake up the first thing I want to do is jam out and listen to some music. I turn the radio dial and all I hear is annoying Disc Jockeys talk about their life, and quite honestly I'm not interested. They might throw in a song every 20 minutes to take a breather in the morning but that's about it. The mass radio stations are all about the most popular music out there and it never fails that you can turn to 4 different stations and hear the same exact song on at the same exact time. (With you, with you, with you, with you) It's possible that I may come across a station that will play a few good songs in a row but as soon as it starts getting good, here come the 5-7 minutes of commercials ha ha, you never win. Oh, so you like Z100? Well I'm glad you can listen to the same 10 songs every hour but I can't, it gets way to annoying and results in me putting on a CD or flipping through my ipod in my car. Everything these days is so commercial, I feel as if it takes contests, interviews with big stars, or pranks to hear people freak out in order to keep an audience. As we are approaching the future the less radio is being listened to, and the more and more people are getting into satellite radio. Satellite is much easier to find something to listen to and there is always a large variety, old school and new school music all day. Satellite is taking music to the next level, playing new artists and new music so its not the same tired old played out music you hear every day. Take that radio!

I Want My MTV!

Seriously, what have our main music stations become these days? When MTV launched in August 1981 the television station was set to revolutionize the music industry forever. And it did, but as the years go on the less we see and hear music and the more we see and hear some annoying reality television shows. The most music that MTV will play is straight music videos from 4-8AM. But let's be serious now, if you have work or school at 9 in the morning are you going to be watching music videos at that time? I didn't think so. I just find it insane that MUSIC television would much rather show how fast a person will cheat on their boyfriend/girlfriend, how much money a 16 year old can get out of their parents wallets for a party, or my personal favorite so called "celebrities" looking for real love. The most that MTV will do to get music out there is play a piece of a a video in between commercials here or there. No, they can not play videos 24/7 because no one would watch. But only 4 hours out of the day? That's a little ridiculous..what happened to the love of music and helping new artists get noticed? MTV has miserably fell into the superficial mainstream society of America, Congrats!

Heart of the City

The Queen of R&B and the King of Rap share the stage as they start off their "Heart of the City" tour. Two of the biggest hip-hop stars, Mary J. Blige and Jay-Z will begin their tour in Miami on March 22 and will be ending in May. The two artists are coming together as a powerhouse; they have collectively sold over 70 million albums and received 12 Grammy awards. Since the tickets to this tour have gone on sale, they have been selling out at a very quick rate. The tour so far has 26 set dates around the North American coast. All shows in the New York area sold out in less then an hour and they so far have added a third showing at Madison Square Garden. Wonder how partnership came about? This tour is considered the peak of their long time collaboration back in 1996 that began with "Can't Knock the Hustle." When Jay-Z was asked about the tour he was quoted saying "The songs we're playing are the soundtracks to people's lives, "We've poured our hearts out many a night in the studio and look forward to going one step further on stage." With these two incredible artists I expect nothing less then an amazing performance.

Girl Power!

The Spice Girls, a 90's British girl group phenomenon. Scary, Baby, Ginger, Posh and Sporty Spice showed their "Girl Power" was nothing to mess with when they hit the charts with their first single "Wannabe" in 1996. Selling over 55 million albums, they are to this day one of the most successful girl groups of all time. After a fantastic run the girls decided to split ways in 2001, when they decided to focus on their solo careers and personal lives.
Before we all knew it on June 28, 2007 their reunion tour was announced and ready to go in December 07. When this was first announced, the tour was only consisting of an 11 date tour in select cities around the world. Soon it became a 25 date tour, with more convenient areas, so fans could really appreciate that they were back. The tour began in Vancouver Canada, and went on to places such as Los Vegas, New York, London, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Sydney, etc. and ended in Toronto.
When I heard the news that the Spice Girls were going on a reunion tour I was determined to get tickets. I grew up listening to their music and loved what they represented. I was an obsessed Spice Girl fan as a child, everything I did had to do with them. It was an amazing feeling to know that I could finally see them again 10 years later for their last tour. I had gotten floor seats at the Izod Center in the Meadowlands, where i stood alongside the stage of the show. I couldn't believe that I was actually there. They sang a mixture of their oldest songs, to their newest. They sang the songs without Ginger spice, when she had left the group. And also they had each done their own solo act, which showed that they had their own lives and gone in their own paths, while coming together as one for this tour.
This was definitely a tour to see with the amazing sets, crazy dancers and a number of costume changes kept you singing and dancing from beginning to end. When I was there singing along to the songs i once sang as a child, I realized what could bring out the kid in me, and how happy it made me. I am so glad that I got to experience this tour.

And the Grammy goes to..

This year’s 2008 Grammy awards opened up with a past and present performance of Alicia Keyes singing in a duet with Frank Sinatra on a screen behind her. I believe this set the theme of the 50th annual award ceremony. Another exciting past/ present performance that made history this year was R&B queen and princess Tina Turner and Beyonce Knowles singing a rendition of Turner’s hit “Proud Mary.” But the performance of Kanye West was what had everyone raving over at the awards. He had sang his hit song “Stronger” with the help of Daft Punk (who made their first televised appearance ever!) mixing in their glow suits. But Kanye had taken off his glowing glasses and vest to sing a touching song “Hey Mama” to his mother who passed away in 2007, which had most tearing up in the audience. As usual at the Grammy’s the awards go to most of the performers, so it was not a shock to see that whoever hit the stage to sing got up once again to grab an award. Yet, many were surprised to see that Amy Winehouse went home with some of the most important awards, including record of the year, best new artist and song of the year. She was not present at the actual award ceremony but she made her appearance via satellite all the way from London. Until next year!

Kindly Unspoken

Kate Voegele is a new young artist making her way into the limelight. She had begun by singing in her church choir in Cleveland, Ohio at age ten. With the influences of her father’s music around her entire life she had taken the next step in writing music of her own, inspired by a breakup. After recording these songs, her demos came into the hands of many record labels which opened up her career. She began performing at venues around her home town. This led to a signing of a record deal with Myspace Records in October 2006 which took her career to the next level. She has performed in spots such as Summerfest, SXSW, and consecutive Farm-Aid concerts. Kate was also picked to be a finalist in the New York Songwriter’s Circle, where she recieved first place out of over 4,000 applicants. . She has already made an appearance on the hit TV show One Tree Hill, on CW11. She sang the song "Kindly Unspoken" from her album 'Don't look away'. This is just one small step to her broadening musical vocation. A young artist such as Kate is someone I look up to as a girl who knew her dreams and reached them by the age of 19. She is very talented in all aspects musically and I think we will be seeing much more of Kate in the years to come.

Since U Been Gone..

Kelly Clarkson, everyone knows her as one of the only American Idols who ever made it big. Ruben who? She’s had many accomplishments; five top-ten U.S. singles, three number-one radio hits, and two top-five albums. She took home many awards for her singles off her album “Breakaway” from almost every award ceremony. There was no doubt about it that Kelly was making her dreams come true, and was the “American Idol”. But where did she disappear to? Already selling millions of copies of her first two albums, Kelly was expected to receive nothing but greatness for years to come. But everyone spoke too soon when she released her third album, written all by herself. Where she went wrong was not listening to Clive Davis’ advice on using the same producers as her hit album “Breakaway”. Since her artist independence and leaving Sony-BMG, she has done a complete 360. Kelly has gone from making millions to just a few hundred thousand an album! Her tour for her third album “My December” was soon cancelled due to no sales. The album was criticized and her own fans turned their backs on her due to the musical genre change she had made. She went from pop-rock to a more negative and dark side of music. I was one of the true fans who bought Kelly’s album and I loved every song on the CD, but that’s just my opinion. She wants to be her own person and make her own music and I completely respect her for that. She is a talented artist and deserves to be treated as one, not shunned because Clive Davis says so. Come back soon Kelly!

First Key..

Music. It’s all around us everywhere we go. Music is my passion and I could not think of anything else I would want to write about more. No, I don’t have the ability in me to play an instrument, I wish I did but some of us just aren’t that talented. Surprisingly though, I have a good voice and love to sing. I don’t sing in public, that all stopped when I was 14. I all of a sudden became shy of singing in front of people, but trust me that’s the only time I’m EVER shy (haha lets just say I’m the “outgoing” type). I have a very wide variety of music genres that I like to listen to. It just might be the only thing that I’m not picky about! In my blog I will be writing about anything and everything I find interesting in the music world today. My posts will be totally random based on my mood and what I might have listened to that day. Just wonder what the world would actually be like without music. It has a HUGE impact on everyone’s every day lives, and I first realized this when I was in junior high school my teacher asked the class a question. The question was: when do you find yourself listening to music? The list is never ending..

Bringing Facts to Life (Creative Nonfiction Paper)

Creative nonfiction is not something that can be given one exact definition. Yes, it is a genre of writing, but not just any genre. It has its own way of taking literary styles and methods to create a factual based story. Creative nonfiction can go by many names such as “The Art of Fact” or “Literary Journalism”. Some people are appalled by the name creative nonfiction because it is like calling other forms of nonfiction uncreative, but it is not that at all. It is just the latest and newest form of fact-based writing that is becoming of much interest to a large audience.
This is only my outlook on the new genre from what I have learned, but many people have their own ways of explaining creative nonfiction. “Creative nonfiction braids narrative telling with fictional and poetic techniques; Combines portraiture and self-reflection with reportage and critical analysis" (Steinberg). “It is based on actual events, characters, and places; it is written with a special concern for language; and it tends to be more informal and personal than other types of nonfiction writing" (Minot).
As for the record of creative nonfiction, although the genre itself has only recently been identified and taught as its own separate genre, the roots of creative nonfiction run deep into literary history. It is told to have emerged from the New Journalism movement of the 60’s and 70’s. There is a novel that is told to have been the originator of the genre itself. This novel is called In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.
I have had the opportunity to read two books this semester that are great examples of creative nonfiction. These books are All Around the Town and The Curve of Binding Energy. Personally, I was not at all interested in reading either one of these books because the topics just weren’t for me, science and old time New York history, I’ll pass. But due to the way these factual books were written, these subjects that I was not interested in before suddenly became fascinating. This is all due to the form of writing the author uses. For example, when reading a newspaper article or reading a manual, you immediately find out all the main facts. The three W’s come into play along with hard facts. But with creative nonfiction, all the important facts fall into a story line. The people become characters, the place becomes the setting and the hard facts just go into telling a true story. This makes for a factual tale that makes a dull piece of information turn into something that can be quite enjoyable.
This goes to show the main difference between journalism and creative nonfiction. Although the information is there in both forms of writing, one form is much more imaginative then the other, which intrigues readers. Creative nonfiction I feel is useful to us writing papers in college. The form of creative nonfiction is somewhat of an aid for students to write achieving papers. Just as the creative nonfiction authors grab the attention of readers with a factual story, you can also grab someone’s attention with your paper as well. The papers that are written in college do not all have to be the same informational research paper. With creative nonfiction you have that chance to take specifics and make them come to life.

How I see it. My Reaction Paper

When I took my trip to the book store to collect the books needed for my English class, the woman helping me handed me a book called “The Curve of Binding Energy”. Science equations flashed through my head and I asked her if she had handed me the wrong book, because I already picked up all of my science books. I was upset when she told me she wasn’t wrong, and it was a required book for the class. To me science is the least interesting subject out there and the fact that I had to read 300 long pages of it killed me. Just what did “The Curve of Binding Energy” have to do with my English class anyway? When the assignment was given to us to read the book over our spring break I wasn’t the happiest person in the world, but I sucked it up and began to read. Surprisingly, I became interested very quickly.The story was about a man named Theodore B. Taylor who was one of the most ingenious engineers of his time. He was technically a physicist, but ended up working at Los Alamos as a nuclear bomb designer due to failing out of Berkley in the Ph.D program. Failing out of the program in his school could have been the best thing that could have happened to Taylor, being that he began a revolution. The book continues the story of Taylor’s life and all that had to do with science. Taylor goes about warning us of just how easy it is to get the common ingredients needed to create a nuclear bomb. Plutonium is an unavoidable byproduct of a nuclear device. Once you have this ingredient, it is very simple to create an atomic bomb. I was wondering as I was reading, why was Taylor telling McPhee any information that had to do with creating a bomb? But I soon came to realize that Taylor wasn’t giving up much information at all, only things that could be found anywhere. He actually made sure to reveal just enough, but not too much information. This is something that kept me interested because I felt like I knew a small piece of a big secret that couldn’t be let out to the world. Being that Taylor was so cautious about his choice of words used in the book through interviews and other sources, we can lead on to my next subject of interest which is safeguards. This is a topic that is brought up many times in the book; how lenient the safeguard system can be with nuclear materials. This was a huge concern for Taylor. He did not care about the nuclear bombs, but the sake of the people and the worry that millions would one day get hurt because the formula would fall into the hands of the wrong person. Since Taylor’s time safeguards have definitely increased and become more efficient. I can’t believe that the fact that Uranium and Plutonium were so easy to get in that time, when people knew about its dangers. With all the fighting that Taylor did to make it well aware that safeguards are very important, I am certain that he was more then pleased when McPhee wanted to write a book about him. It was a great way to spread the word about this problem and to open the government’s eyes. Since the book was published in 1973, the government has taken many precautions in making it almost impossible for the wrong person to get their hands on these things. This makes me feel somewhat safe because in today’s day in age, security is at an all time high. What is very ironic is the fact that Taylor mentions that the World Trade Center is an easy target for these terrorist. This is a reference that was made way before the striking of the September 11th attacks. Who is to tell if the terrorists quite possibly got their idea of where to attack from this very book? I personally do not think that it was a mere coincidence, you never know, it just might be where these terrorist got the “perfect” location from. McPhee put into context everything that Taylor ever worked for. All of this information that Taylor ever wanted people to know about was published and being sold all around the country. Not only did “The Curve of Binding Energy” tell the story of a remarkably intelligent person’s life, but it also opened the eyes of the people who needed it most. The fact that people’s welfare was in danger because of something that was pushed to the side was soon a controversial topic that has had mass improvement since the publishing of this book.