there's this.
...and my current favorite:
oh, and how could i forget...
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Sunday, March 30, 2008
for your listening (and viewing) pleasure.
I like this song and video. It has nothing to do with politics or society or any of the stuff this blog is about, I just wanted to post it. Huzzah!
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
"i HATE rap and r&b music"
Do you ever hear people say that? How often do you think it's because they're secretly racist?
Just something to ponder.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
destiny
So I was up way too late one work night when I saw the video I'm posting below and thought it was so sweet. I told myself I'd remember the name and group so I could watch it later and maybe download it onto my iPod. Of course I forgot and just spent like an hour trying to find this crap on the internet. anyway, watch the video and then I'll come back at you w/some words and such.
So after watching it I was like.. what's the big deal? Why did I want to find this so bad and why did I feel so connected to it? I mean, after all it's just another 'emo' chill out song. And didn't we have enough of that in the 90's between Enya and Dido? But then I paid a little more attention to the video itself and realized that it speaks so much to my feelings in this city sometimes. Not necessarily the romantic voyeurism, but the at times irrational sense of isolation. I know that if you live here, you've probably felt sad about dealing with something you had going on, and wandered the streets, looking at everybody go to wherever they're going with the people they're with and thought "why do I feel lonely right now?" I mean, there are so many things and so many people constantly surrounding us that we have no real right to feel lonely or unoccupied or disconnected. Or maybe it's just me..
Anyway I was thinking about this, and just wondered if anybody else ever felt this way, and if this was just a NYC thing, or a big city thing.. or hell, just a angst-y 20-something thing. Lemme know your thoughts.
Also, enjoy the video. :)
So after watching it I was like.. what's the big deal? Why did I want to find this so bad and why did I feel so connected to it? I mean, after all it's just another 'emo' chill out song. And didn't we have enough of that in the 90's between Enya and Dido? But then I paid a little more attention to the video itself and realized that it speaks so much to my feelings in this city sometimes. Not necessarily the romantic voyeurism, but the at times irrational sense of isolation. I know that if you live here, you've probably felt sad about dealing with something you had going on, and wandered the streets, looking at everybody go to wherever they're going with the people they're with and thought "why do I feel lonely right now?" I mean, there are so many things and so many people constantly surrounding us that we have no real right to feel lonely or unoccupied or disconnected. Or maybe it's just me..
Anyway I was thinking about this, and just wondered if anybody else ever felt this way, and if this was just a NYC thing, or a big city thing.. or hell, just a angst-y 20-something thing. Lemme know your thoughts.
Also, enjoy the video. :)
Saturday, July 7, 2007
good apology
so i was listening to B96 today in the car (that's chicago radio, for those of you unfortunate enough to live somewhere other than chicago) and of course that "sorry" song by akon came on about 5 million times during my 2 minute drive. actually i'm not gonna lie, the song is kind of catchy. but anyways it got me thinking. because i mean it's a rude-ass song, and its kind of a bitch move by akon, but also does he have a point?
now let's get one thing straight first: i think akon is completely out of his mind. my point here is not to defend akon, but just to wonder this: if you applied the message of his song to a sane person, would it be deep?
this seems like a good place to put in some important youtube clips for those who haven't been following the wonderful world of akon. the first is "sorry" playing over a slideshow and then later over the video of akon um...doing something...to that girl who turned out to be like 14, and the second is a clip of akon throwing a kid. the second one is really just for fun. it doesn't relate to this post.
anyways, so i was listening to the lyrics of the song and it got me thinking: the basic message is "i'm not sorry," which is, ironically, the most subtle part of the song. the actual lyrics are in no way subtle. particularly the last few verses:
---------------
I'm sorry for the hand that she was dealt
And for the embarrassment that she felt
She's just a little young girl trying to have fun
But daddy should of never let her out that young
I'm sorry for Club Zen getting shut down
I hope they manage better next time around
How was I to know she was underage
In a 21 and older club they say
Why doesn't anybody want to take blame
Verizon backed out, disgracing my name
I'm just a singer trying to entertain
Because I love my fans, I'll take that blame
Even though the blame's on you
Even though the blame's on you
Even though the blame's on you
I'll take that blame from you
---------------
so here's the thing: yeah, akon is crazy, and yeah this song is sulky as hell, but he kind of has a point, doesn't he? its his fault he acted a fool, but its also verizon's fault for having a contract with a crazy person, its the club's fault for letting in underage people, and again, for hiring a crazy person, etc etc. except its not really that girl's fault or her dad's fault. i'm pretty sure you're allowed to go to a club without expecting to get stage-humped by akon. but that's a sidenote. point is, our society definitely does have a "blame" problem. and usually the person taking the blame for whatever it is that's happened this week is A person, and is only one small part of the problem. i'll give akon the benefit of the doubt and assume that's what he meant with this song. i think that despite himself, akon has come up with a fairly interesting criticism of our society. think about it.
now let's get one thing straight first: i think akon is completely out of his mind. my point here is not to defend akon, but just to wonder this: if you applied the message of his song to a sane person, would it be deep?
this seems like a good place to put in some important youtube clips for those who haven't been following the wonderful world of akon. the first is "sorry" playing over a slideshow and then later over the video of akon um...doing something...to that girl who turned out to be like 14, and the second is a clip of akon throwing a kid. the second one is really just for fun. it doesn't relate to this post.
anyways, so i was listening to the lyrics of the song and it got me thinking: the basic message is "i'm not sorry," which is, ironically, the most subtle part of the song. the actual lyrics are in no way subtle. particularly the last few verses:
---------------
I'm sorry for the hand that she was dealt
And for the embarrassment that she felt
She's just a little young girl trying to have fun
But daddy should of never let her out that young
I'm sorry for Club Zen getting shut down
I hope they manage better next time around
How was I to know she was underage
In a 21 and older club they say
Why doesn't anybody want to take blame
Verizon backed out, disgracing my name
I'm just a singer trying to entertain
Because I love my fans, I'll take that blame
Even though the blame's on you
Even though the blame's on you
Even though the blame's on you
I'll take that blame from you
---------------
so here's the thing: yeah, akon is crazy, and yeah this song is sulky as hell, but he kind of has a point, doesn't he? its his fault he acted a fool, but its also verizon's fault for having a contract with a crazy person, its the club's fault for letting in underage people, and again, for hiring a crazy person, etc etc. except its not really that girl's fault or her dad's fault. i'm pretty sure you're allowed to go to a club without expecting to get stage-humped by akon. but that's a sidenote. point is, our society definitely does have a "blame" problem. and usually the person taking the blame for whatever it is that's happened this week is A person, and is only one small part of the problem. i'll give akon the benefit of the doubt and assume that's what he meant with this song. i think that despite himself, akon has come up with a fairly interesting criticism of our society. think about it.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
i'm not a g but i move like they move, with a head full of smarts...
That, if you didn't know, is a line from one of my favorite Little Brother songs Lovin' It off their The Minstrel Show cd. Just some context for you. Want to listen to it? Here you go!
Anyway, I just wanted to ramble at length a little bit about the development of my own personal music tastes, and just some thoughts I've had about hip hop as a genre and even as a movement. I will admit that I didn't have much respect for MCs in the past- especially around the time I started developing a taste for music and popular culture (around high school) because, though the tracks were always danceable, I just didn't feel like the artists themselves were really saying anything that I wanted to hear. I couldn't relate. I could sit and chill with Rob Thomas as he and MB20 cranked out tunes about the anxiety of getting older and starting a new life or the thrill and simultaneous terror that comes with finding someone to love. The Backstreet Boys represented everything about youth to me and even Blink 182 made me laugh about the awkwardness that is adolescence and young adulthood. But Juvenile? Puff Daddy? Foxy Brown? As much as I knew I should have been close to them, should have supported, defended and enjoyed their music I couldn't. Even though there were people like Nas, Outkast and countless other underground/not as mainstream artists that I didn't know about, they weren't the ones really in the forefront, they weren't the ones that I, as a young girl living in Central Ohio, could really have exposure to.
And then Ludacris came along.
Okay, so yeah, maybe he isn't the long ago foreseen prophet of hip hop, but you have to admit dude is nice on the mic. The summer that Southern Hospitality came out I began to actually see rap for the amazing and diverse genre that it is. It's like when you grow up next to some gangly looking kid who you're pretty sure has never even seen a noxema (yeah, throwback to the 90's!) commercial let alone ever been acquainted with their product. But then you graduate high school, and you see him in that cap and gown, smiling, coming into the man that he really is and has always been and you notice that his skin is more clear, his shoulders are more broad, and his smile is captivating- and you fall in love. Well yeah, it wasn't all of that at once for me, but he definitely opened the door. What hooked me on Luda wasn't necessarily what he was saying, but the wit that he used and the clever way that he laced his lines together (hand-me-down socks then hand-me-down rocks? Come on, y'all know that is hilarious and hot).
So I got into mainstream rap and started to like artists not just for the tracks that their producers created but for the lyrical skill that they employed. Ludacris remained my favorite, but then I started to be a little more impressed with Fabolous, a little bit of Li'l Wayne and Jay-Z. And it was cool, it was real cool. I found that rap had a pretty warm home and it invited me in to stay a while, so I did. Rap became my connection to the world, whenever an MC called out the midwest they were calling out my city, my home, my name. But for some reason I just couldn't fight the feeling that something was just slightly amiss.
It's pretty obvious that Black people, and in my case Black Americans, are a small, very marginalized and often invisible community in the racially stratified society that makes up the U.S.A. But here were these MCs, these men and sometimes women who were placed at the forefront of popular culture- they transcended the barriers that keep so many Black people hidden and became visible and vocal. But damn, the messages that some of them were putting out there weren't always so hot, you know? Even though they try to escape it, however much they scream "I am not a role model!" it can't be denied that the nature of their status in American society makes their success a double-edged sword; they can have all the things that they probably never thought could possibly be available to them, but being forced into the limelight makes them a part of a very small amount of representations of Black people. And they need to do a good job, right?
Yeah, so therein lies the rub. And again, that all-consuming blackness. Just when you think you may have escaped it, there it is, smothering everything you touch and coating all of your accomplishments with its pain, its joy and the implications that those things have for you and your people.
After I started realizing this it was just like.. well damn. How can I enjoy this track now that I know that it creates a negative image of Black people, of me? How can I dance to a song that, on the surface level subjugates Black women? Having these questions made me angry, but they also made me thoughtful. I began to do more research on hip hop- its beginnings, its founders, all that stuff. I had to figure out where it went wrong (and shit, if it was wrong) and why...
Okay, so this is really long. I'm going to finish it later on today or tomorrow since it got so rambly. But until then I'll leave you with a few songs/videos that I particularly enjoy from the kind of hip hop that I began to enjoy and will talk about in my next blog post...
This video is hilarious..
So yeah, I'll be back soon!
Anyway, I just wanted to ramble at length a little bit about the development of my own personal music tastes, and just some thoughts I've had about hip hop as a genre and even as a movement. I will admit that I didn't have much respect for MCs in the past- especially around the time I started developing a taste for music and popular culture (around high school) because, though the tracks were always danceable, I just didn't feel like the artists themselves were really saying anything that I wanted to hear. I couldn't relate. I could sit and chill with Rob Thomas as he and MB20 cranked out tunes about the anxiety of getting older and starting a new life or the thrill and simultaneous terror that comes with finding someone to love. The Backstreet Boys represented everything about youth to me and even Blink 182 made me laugh about the awkwardness that is adolescence and young adulthood. But Juvenile? Puff Daddy? Foxy Brown? As much as I knew I should have been close to them, should have supported, defended and enjoyed their music I couldn't. Even though there were people like Nas, Outkast and countless other underground/not as mainstream artists that I didn't know about, they weren't the ones really in the forefront, they weren't the ones that I, as a young girl living in Central Ohio, could really have exposure to.
And then Ludacris came along.
Okay, so yeah, maybe he isn't the long ago foreseen prophet of hip hop, but you have to admit dude is nice on the mic. The summer that Southern Hospitality came out I began to actually see rap for the amazing and diverse genre that it is. It's like when you grow up next to some gangly looking kid who you're pretty sure has never even seen a noxema (yeah, throwback to the 90's!) commercial let alone ever been acquainted with their product. But then you graduate high school, and you see him in that cap and gown, smiling, coming into the man that he really is and has always been and you notice that his skin is more clear, his shoulders are more broad, and his smile is captivating- and you fall in love. Well yeah, it wasn't all of that at once for me, but he definitely opened the door. What hooked me on Luda wasn't necessarily what he was saying, but the wit that he used and the clever way that he laced his lines together (hand-me-down socks then hand-me-down rocks? Come on, y'all know that is hilarious and hot).
So I got into mainstream rap and started to like artists not just for the tracks that their producers created but for the lyrical skill that they employed. Ludacris remained my favorite, but then I started to be a little more impressed with Fabolous, a little bit of Li'l Wayne and Jay-Z. And it was cool, it was real cool. I found that rap had a pretty warm home and it invited me in to stay a while, so I did. Rap became my connection to the world, whenever an MC called out the midwest they were calling out my city, my home, my name. But for some reason I just couldn't fight the feeling that something was just slightly amiss.
It's pretty obvious that Black people, and in my case Black Americans, are a small, very marginalized and often invisible community in the racially stratified society that makes up the U.S.A. But here were these MCs, these men and sometimes women who were placed at the forefront of popular culture- they transcended the barriers that keep so many Black people hidden and became visible and vocal. But damn, the messages that some of them were putting out there weren't always so hot, you know? Even though they try to escape it, however much they scream "I am not a role model!" it can't be denied that the nature of their status in American society makes their success a double-edged sword; they can have all the things that they probably never thought could possibly be available to them, but being forced into the limelight makes them a part of a very small amount of representations of Black people. And they need to do a good job, right?
Yeah, so therein lies the rub. And again, that all-consuming blackness. Just when you think you may have escaped it, there it is, smothering everything you touch and coating all of your accomplishments with its pain, its joy and the implications that those things have for you and your people.
After I started realizing this it was just like.. well damn. How can I enjoy this track now that I know that it creates a negative image of Black people, of me? How can I dance to a song that, on the surface level subjugates Black women? Having these questions made me angry, but they also made me thoughtful. I began to do more research on hip hop- its beginnings, its founders, all that stuff. I had to figure out where it went wrong (and shit, if it was wrong) and why...
Okay, so this is really long. I'm going to finish it later on today or tomorrow since it got so rambly. But until then I'll leave you with a few songs/videos that I particularly enjoy from the kind of hip hop that I began to enjoy and will talk about in my next blog post...
This video is hilarious..
So yeah, I'll be back soon!
Monday, May 28, 2007
i'm frazzled
Ok y'all, so I'm really super sorry that it's taken me forever and a freaking day to have something to write in here- and yes, that is going to have to continue (for now). I finally finished my finals and as I look back on my college career and start to realize that yes, it's over and no, I don't have to take anymore finals or write anymore papers I'm also realizing that yes- my brain is a bit fried and it's getting a little more difficult for me to write.
Since it's 4am (and I really need to start focusing on doing this whole "adult" schedule thing) I'm not going to write much (I'll save that for tomorrow) but I will say that today I spent a good chunk of the day watching 90's videos on youtube with Tiff (don't judge, please) and wanted to share some that I thought were particularly "meta."
So.. here goes!
Madonna - Don't Tell Me
Foo Fighters - Learn to Fly
(p.s. I just noticed that the little cheesy elevator-esque music in the beginning is totally "Everlong.." hilarious. I freaking love the Foo Fighters)
And just for fun..
K, that's it for now. I'll be back tomorrow. ;)
Since it's 4am (and I really need to start focusing on doing this whole "adult" schedule thing) I'm not going to write much (I'll save that for tomorrow) but I will say that today I spent a good chunk of the day watching 90's videos on youtube with Tiff (don't judge, please) and wanted to share some that I thought were particularly "meta."
So.. here goes!
Madonna - Don't Tell Me
Foo Fighters - Learn to Fly
(p.s. I just noticed that the little cheesy elevator-esque music in the beginning is totally "Everlong.." hilarious. I freaking love the Foo Fighters)
And just for fun..
K, that's it for now. I'll be back tomorrow. ;)
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