Catch up post #2. I haven't decided if I'll get them all done tonight or not.
It seems like there are a lot of trends happening right now in the music and movie industries. I've thought about it before, but never had enough observations or examples to write a full-fledged post on. We got to talking about the music trends on the way back today, so that's why I decided to try to point them out.
Being so close to Chicago, we usually get the newest songs released on the radio, and a lot of our generation is interested in listening to R&B, hip-hop, and pop. It seems like lately in the hip-hop world that it's a good idea to collaborate with someone. Not just anyone, but with someone from the pop world. The hits that I hear hourly, sometimes twice or three times, are "Airplanes" by B.o.B. featuring Haley Williams from Paramore, "Love the Way You Lie" by Eminem featuring Rihanna, and earlier "Break Your Heart" by Taio Cruz featuring Ludacris.
I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones that are the forerunners for some of the other singles that are coming out. Enrique Iglesias just released a single where he collaborated with Pitbull. Most of these collaborations are with people you wouldn't really expect to get together and record something. Granted, Timbaland has been on a lot of peoples' tracks, but usually it's a small part. I guess he was the one who originally started the idea for this generation's collaborations trend.
Lately we've also been getting back to throwing your hands up in the air. "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz has people throwing their hands up in the air and saying "ayo." DJ Khaled sings about how every time he "goes up in a building everybody's hands go up and they stay there/ Up down up down up down" in "All I Do is Win." In "DJ Got Us Falling In Love" by Usher he sings about "Hands up, and suddenly we all got our hands up." I don't know why throwing hands up is suddenly coming back. We used to laugh at people who danced with their hands up only all the time. Maybe it's because of the fist pump popularized by Jersey Shore.
Those are just the songs. I've been noticing a growing trend in movies as well. It seems like about 90% of the things that are being released in theaters are either remakes or based on books. They've been talking about remaking a lot of movies lately; the Halloween movies, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Fame, Alice in Wonderland, The Karate Kid, just from the last two years. The Last Airbender is a remake, as well.
There have been so many book to movie releases now: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Eragon, The Lovely Bones, Dear John, Twilight, Ramona and Beezus, Angels and Demons, and Eat, Pray, Love, just to name a few from the past few years. There are a few that I don't mind seeing on the big screen; in fact, there are a few times when I'm interested in reading the book based on the trailer, and sometimes even the movie itself.
But the point of this is that it seems like Hollywood doesn't really seem to have a lot of new material to produce, and I'd like to hear about new movies coming out that have new ideas. It feels like at least once a month there is a movie that's either based on a book or a remake for the past year, at the very least. That's when I noticed the growing trend. But I guess we've finally produced so many movies that there's no new ideas.
As I was writing "Love the Way You Lie" and "Airplanes" came on the radio. I don't really have much to say about the musical trend there, because it seems like a lot of people are liking these collaborations. Personally, I like the idea because it brings in a whole new group of listeners. I like the way the rap sounds against the singing, and the two different voices when they overlap. I like mixing two different genres, especially when there are powerful lyrics, or music that you wouldn't normally associate with rap.
I could do with a little less throwing hands up, though.
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Do You Remember (27/90)
Helped out a friend with some issues, watched some TV, danced some more. No calls from jobs still.
There really hasn't been much of a theme with my thoughts today, but I've been trying to listen to different songs, mainly ones that have memories attached to them. Lately I've had the radio on when I'm in my room at night, and every time a certain song came on I had to change the station. Because of the memories associated with it.
There's usually a song that defines a relationship. Well, Dave and I had a few. "Fallin' for You" by Colbie Caillat and "Down" by Jay Sean. And every time these songs would come on, I would have to change the station. If I were across the room I would literally run to change the station when I heard the first few notes. There were a lot of memories with these two songs.
On one of the last days of school, I went to waste my meal plan, and "Fallin' for You" came on. I couldn't change the station this time. I had to endure it. And the memories from the beginning came back. Not the ones that I had been dwelling on. They were good memories, of course. But not as strong as the ones I had been going over in my head when something else reminded me of him. And I realized why - that song was for the beginning of our relationship. We already knew we had fallen hard for each other by October even, and things just continued to grow from there.
But "Down" has a completely different significance to me. When I heard it at the end of the summer, I thought it was just another song talking about girls dancing and wanting to have sex with them. But on our first date, he had the song stuck in his head, and was singing it. Somehow it became the defining song of our relationship. I never got sick of hearing it. And then at the Valentine's Dance we went to, they played both of our songs.
We somehow came up with a dance. It wasn't really a ballroom type of dance. It was indescribable. I guess we were so in sync with each other at that point that we choreographed a dance on the spot, and it flowed. We both agree that it was amazing how well it worked and how we thought it would've been fun to watch us perform it. And that's the strongest memory of that song.
The song's still getting airtime on the three radio stations I listen to, and I've always changed the station. But for over a week now, it's just been habit. I don't get a scared, tight feeling in my chest when I hear the first few notes. So today I listened to it. And it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I don't think I actually let myself relive anything of our relationship when I listened to it. I just had brief moments in time, nothing was focused.
Memories are a funny thing. Certain things are easily recalled, and certain others you can't for the life of you remember. It's getting harder to remember certain moments in time of our relationship. I guess that's what happens when you don't desperately try to keep the memories close. And somehow I can still remember how it felt to dance with him, and how he laughed at something he found hilarious. I can't remember, for instance, much about what we did for Valentine's Day. I know we went to see the movie, but that's about it.
And yet I can remember back to when I was three, sitting in a pew at my parents' wedding. I was bored, in a white dress, and rooting around in the pews. I pulled out a piece of Double Bubble gum, still in the wrapper. It obviously amused me, because I decided to chew it. I remember it was really hard. This is the earliest memory I have, and I don't really remember much else from my childhood.
The thing that seems to trigger some memories between then and middle school are songs. Give me a Disney song, and I can remember things my family did while singing them, the first time I saw the movie, and random other things. Give me something from Radio Disney, and I can probably still sing all the lyrics. Give me some jazz pieces, and I'll remember car rides with my dad.
No other medium gives me as strong memories as music does. Certain movies I can remember some things about the settings, but if there's no music that's accompanying my memories, it's a lot harder to remember. Even if I'm talking with the person I was there with. I wonder why music is such an important factor in my memories.
Maybe it's because music's always been a big part of my life? But that's for another time.
There really hasn't been much of a theme with my thoughts today, but I've been trying to listen to different songs, mainly ones that have memories attached to them. Lately I've had the radio on when I'm in my room at night, and every time a certain song came on I had to change the station. Because of the memories associated with it.
There's usually a song that defines a relationship. Well, Dave and I had a few. "Fallin' for You" by Colbie Caillat and "Down" by Jay Sean. And every time these songs would come on, I would have to change the station. If I were across the room I would literally run to change the station when I heard the first few notes. There were a lot of memories with these two songs.
On one of the last days of school, I went to waste my meal plan, and "Fallin' for You" came on. I couldn't change the station this time. I had to endure it. And the memories from the beginning came back. Not the ones that I had been dwelling on. They were good memories, of course. But not as strong as the ones I had been going over in my head when something else reminded me of him. And I realized why - that song was for the beginning of our relationship. We already knew we had fallen hard for each other by October even, and things just continued to grow from there.
But "Down" has a completely different significance to me. When I heard it at the end of the summer, I thought it was just another song talking about girls dancing and wanting to have sex with them. But on our first date, he had the song stuck in his head, and was singing it. Somehow it became the defining song of our relationship. I never got sick of hearing it. And then at the Valentine's Dance we went to, they played both of our songs.
We somehow came up with a dance. It wasn't really a ballroom type of dance. It was indescribable. I guess we were so in sync with each other at that point that we choreographed a dance on the spot, and it flowed. We both agree that it was amazing how well it worked and how we thought it would've been fun to watch us perform it. And that's the strongest memory of that song.
The song's still getting airtime on the three radio stations I listen to, and I've always changed the station. But for over a week now, it's just been habit. I don't get a scared, tight feeling in my chest when I hear the first few notes. So today I listened to it. And it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I don't think I actually let myself relive anything of our relationship when I listened to it. I just had brief moments in time, nothing was focused.
Memories are a funny thing. Certain things are easily recalled, and certain others you can't for the life of you remember. It's getting harder to remember certain moments in time of our relationship. I guess that's what happens when you don't desperately try to keep the memories close. And somehow I can still remember how it felt to dance with him, and how he laughed at something he found hilarious. I can't remember, for instance, much about what we did for Valentine's Day. I know we went to see the movie, but that's about it.
And yet I can remember back to when I was three, sitting in a pew at my parents' wedding. I was bored, in a white dress, and rooting around in the pews. I pulled out a piece of Double Bubble gum, still in the wrapper. It obviously amused me, because I decided to chew it. I remember it was really hard. This is the earliest memory I have, and I don't really remember much else from my childhood.
The thing that seems to trigger some memories between then and middle school are songs. Give me a Disney song, and I can remember things my family did while singing them, the first time I saw the movie, and random other things. Give me something from Radio Disney, and I can probably still sing all the lyrics. Give me some jazz pieces, and I'll remember car rides with my dad.
No other medium gives me as strong memories as music does. Certain movies I can remember some things about the settings, but if there's no music that's accompanying my memories, it's a lot harder to remember. Even if I'm talking with the person I was there with. I wonder why music is such an important factor in my memories.
Maybe it's because music's always been a big part of my life? But that's for another time.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Thank You for the Music (13.90)
Summer blogging is hard, because I hardly do anything. Like today, I watched TV again. All day. And wrote a letter. But the letter was a stupid thing to write, and even stupider to send. So we're not going to discuss that.
But what I did watch today was, you guessed it, more concerts. I love Palladia. So many concerts of people I actually like and would want to go see, all in HD. But today's musical interest was on Fuse, and it was an interview with Lady Gaga. I like Lady Gaga. She's fun to listen to, and her music makes me want to dance. I love her music videos. They're always so intricate and always tell a story. And her fashion sense is amazing. Not something I could pull off, but I admire her.
No, this isn't another role model post (though she may be #2). This is about her interview. The interviewer was asking her questions that I could tell she didn't want to be asked, or answer. But she's a polite young woman, and answered them. And I found out some more interesting things about her that either I never took the time to wonder about, or just never noticed.
Like how much thought she puts into her lyrics. "The Fame Monster," the re-release of "The Fame" plus eight new songs, is all about her overcoming individual monsters she's had to face. "The Fame" was her actual fame monster, and "Bad Romance" is exactly the monster it sounds like it would be. She also faces the addiction monster in "So Happy I Could Die," and now I'm planning on dedicating a good hour to looking up her lyrics, listening to the songs more intently, and finally watching all her music videos.
From her responses to the interviewer and her dedication to her fans, I have seen that she is a force to be reckoned with. She's an intelligent young woman who I can't see stopping any time soon. And I'm glad. We need someone new and quirky to break up the monotony of the radio. There's too much hip-hop and bubble gum pop that sounds the same. Since I've been home I've already heard all the new songs that have been on rotation at least 5 times a day. And I'm pretty sure I've heard all the new releases since December in less than a week.
The music's getting to sound too much the same. People like Lady Gaga and Pink are getting their names out there, and getting radio time. I think Lady Gaga has seven singles out that are still being constantly played on the radio, after releasing her first on April 8, 2008. She's been around for two years and has two albums out. She's finishing up her tour right now, and I'm sure she's already got songs written for her third.
I can't wait for that third album. Mainly because I'm sick of hearing the same songs on the radio.
But what I did watch today was, you guessed it, more concerts. I love Palladia. So many concerts of people I actually like and would want to go see, all in HD. But today's musical interest was on Fuse, and it was an interview with Lady Gaga. I like Lady Gaga. She's fun to listen to, and her music makes me want to dance. I love her music videos. They're always so intricate and always tell a story. And her fashion sense is amazing. Not something I could pull off, but I admire her.
No, this isn't another role model post (though she may be #2). This is about her interview. The interviewer was asking her questions that I could tell she didn't want to be asked, or answer. But she's a polite young woman, and answered them. And I found out some more interesting things about her that either I never took the time to wonder about, or just never noticed.
Like how much thought she puts into her lyrics. "The Fame Monster," the re-release of "The Fame" plus eight new songs, is all about her overcoming individual monsters she's had to face. "The Fame" was her actual fame monster, and "Bad Romance" is exactly the monster it sounds like it would be. She also faces the addiction monster in "So Happy I Could Die," and now I'm planning on dedicating a good hour to looking up her lyrics, listening to the songs more intently, and finally watching all her music videos.
From her responses to the interviewer and her dedication to her fans, I have seen that she is a force to be reckoned with. She's an intelligent young woman who I can't see stopping any time soon. And I'm glad. We need someone new and quirky to break up the monotony of the radio. There's too much hip-hop and bubble gum pop that sounds the same. Since I've been home I've already heard all the new songs that have been on rotation at least 5 times a day. And I'm pretty sure I've heard all the new releases since December in less than a week.
The music's getting to sound too much the same. People like Lady Gaga and Pink are getting their names out there, and getting radio time. I think Lady Gaga has seven singles out that are still being constantly played on the radio, after releasing her first on April 8, 2008. She's been around for two years and has two albums out. She's finishing up her tour right now, and I'm sure she's already got songs written for her third.
I can't wait for that third album. Mainly because I'm sick of hearing the same songs on the radio.
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