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!