Monday, March 31, 2008

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!

Sunday, March 30, 2008

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.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

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!

Monday, March 10, 2008

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!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

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.