post twenty.

I think lyrics are the most important thing in a song to me. I've mentioned it before in old posts, but lyrics really do make or break a song for me. The lyrics are like an ice cream sundae while the melody is just the sprinkles on top. If a song is "catchy", it's because people are hearing the melody. One of the catchiest songs out there is Call Me Maybe, in my opinion, because the melody is bouncy. But the lyrics are this: "Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but here's my number, so call me maybe." Those aren't very deep lyrics, so while this is called a good song by people, it really isn't. Just because a song is catchy doesn't mean it's good, in my opinion. The plague was catchy, but that didn't exactly make it a good thing.
Songs are written, most of the time, from the heart of the author, they want you to feel what they're feeling, they want their songs to connect to you emotionally. (Usually). I mean, I'd rather listen to Within You Without You by the Beatles than listen to Love Me Do, purely because Love Me Do literally has 17 different words, while Within You Without You probably has some of the most meaningful lyrics I've ever heard.
I think that's why Little Things by One Direction, a song that I mentioned in an earlier post, spoke to me so much. It's like the writer (Ed Sheeran) looked into my brain and picked out what I was thinking and made it into a song, and that's why it connected to me so much. Songs are about relatability and content, and I think a good melody is only an extra added bonus.

post nineteen.

In class, we listened to Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band all the way through. Fantastic album in my opinion, but also saddening. You can hear how Paul is starting to take over the group, because he has many songs on the album. Ringo has one song that he didn't even fully write, and George has one that is pushed aside because it's different. Personally, I love that song, because the lyrics are so deep, something I'll write about in the next post. "We were talking about the space between us all and the people who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion." Probably one of the best lyrics I've ever heard.
Also, you can hear John's decline slowly happening through the album. He has four songs on the entire thing, while two of them are absolutely GENIUS (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and A Day in the Life), it seems like he just didn't really have time for the album, like other things were more important, and they were. Heroin was more important to him, other drugs too, at this point.
But, Sgt Pepper's is a great album, and I applaud the Beatles on that for making yet another album that will go down in history.

post eighteen.

There are certain songs that you can tap into that just hit home. People don't understand why sometimes, but they do. There are few songs that make me cry, but some, when I hear them, just get under my skin and I feel it. That's what you're supposed to do with music, right? Feel what the artist is feeling? Well, I do.
This is going to sound stupid, but One Direction's new single came out today, and it's called Little Things. I thought it was going to be pop-sounding and catchy, like most of their other songs, but it wasn't. It was a ballad, a beautiful ballad, with no autotune, no editing, just the raw sound of the guitar playing and their voices. It was perfect. It addresses someone who's insecure about who they are, and they're singing to them. The song basically says "don't worry about your weight, don't worry about the things you don't like about yourself, because you're perfect to me." An example of a lyric is this: "I know you've never loved the crinkles by your eyes when you smile, you've never loved your stomach or your thighs, the dimples in your back at the bottom of your spine, but I'll love them endlessly."
It honestly hit home so hard, it felt like Ed Sheeran (who wrote the song, also a very good artist, go check him out) wrote the song straight to me, addressing my insecurities. And people write One Direction off as a stupid, untalented band, but if everyone could please take a listen to this song, you'll realize how it could easily hit home. Don't laugh and turn your head because it's One Direction. Give it a chance. The lyrics are perfect, I'll type them below.
"Your hand fits in mine like it's made just for me, but bear this in mind, it was meant to be. And I'm joining up the dots with the freckles on your cheeks, and it all makes sense to me.
I know you've never loved the crinkles by your eyes when you smile, you've never loved your stomach or your thighs, the dimples in your back at the bottom of your spine, but I'll love them endlessly.
I won't let these little things slip out of my mouth, but if I do, it's you, oh it's you they add up to. I'm in love with you, and all these little things.
You can't go to bed without a cup of tea, and maybe that's the reason that you talk in your sleep, and all those conversations are the secrets that I keep, though it makes no sense to me.
I know you've never loved the sound of your voice on tape, you never want to know how much you weigh, you still have to squeeze into your jeans, but you're perfect to me.
I won't let these little things slip out of my mouth, but if it's true, it's you, it's you they add up to. I'm in love with you and all these little things.
You'll never love yourself half as much as I love you, you'll never treat yourself right darlin', but I want you to. If I let you know I'm here for you, maybe you'll love yourself like I love you.
I'll just let these little things slip out of my mouth, because it's you, oh it's you, it's you they add up to, and I'm in love with you, and all these little things."
If that's not fantastic writing by Ed Sheeran, and the boys sing it so well, I don't know what is. Because it hit home really hard for me, and it made me cry. So please, look it up on Youtube and give it a chance. You never know.
Anyway, songs can hit close to home, I know my best friend cries every time she hears "Breakeven" by The Script. I won't understand it, it sounds like a fairly happy song to me, but for some reason she taps into it emotionally, and has a different emotional reaction to it than I do. It's different for everyone, and that's what I find so beautiful about music.

post seventeen.

In class, we talked about misogyny in music and culture. We listened to the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar" and "Stupid Girl", which blatantly degraded females (and in the case of the former, African-American girls) and somehow received little to no censorship, while songs like Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds by The Beatles, not at all about drugs, were banned from the radio. Mr. A said it's because the Stones were "the bad boys" of rock 'n roll, so it was somehow acceptable for them to sing these degrading lyrics about women. Personally, I don't think it has anything to do with that, I think it's just the fact that women weren't respected in the sixties, so no one really cared about the subject matter.
Women are degraded in many ways even now, for example, I brought up the restaurant Hooters, where the uniform is a tanktop that is very tight and low cut, and shorts that go maybe a few inches down the wearer's thighs. People don't go there for the food, let's be honest, they go there to ogle the women that are there in desperate hopes of making money, selling their bodies out to be stared out by middle aged men. Personally, I think that's degrading towards women, but it doesn't really matter what I think, because it's still out there and people think that's acceptable.

post sixteen.

Here's my other late post.
One of the things I think are really amazing are a capella pieces, and the fact that people can make such great music with just their voices astounds me. Observe this college group (UCLA Scattertones) covering a song from Mulan.

Honestly that sounds just as good as the real one in my opinion. People can make things sound so great if you combine the voices together the right way. Here's an example of another good one, performed on Glee, and when you put it together in your head that these are just voices and not instruments, it blows you away. 

So, I think that acapella music is beautiful. It's kind of going away from rock 'n roll and the purpose of the class for a second, but that's just my opinion on a type of music that really astounds me and makes me love music that much more.

post fifteen.

This post is a little bit late. Oh well.
I'd like to talk about the difference between listening to an album all the way through and listening to just part of a song before changing it. When you're really in the mood for an artist, maybe listening to a full album is the way to go. If you're feeling upbeat, and want to listen to The Beatles, maybe Please Please Me is the way to go. But if you're feeling distracted, and just want to listen to one part of a song, I understand wanting to change it in between. Sometimes sitting still and listening to a whole album can be frustrating, because there are songs coming up that you want to listen to, and you don't want to sit and wait for it to come on.
So there is obviously logic behind both, listening to the full album helps you get more into the music, get a better feel for it, while listening to one song can just satisfy the fact that maybe you're in the mood for more than one artist and not just one.

post fourteen.

There's a lot of mixed emotions flying around my head.
I mean, I'm a teenager, of course it's going to happen.
But I feel like I can feel truly happy when I'm playing my guitar, or my piano, or singing, or any of the other instruments I have. Music is the only true thing I have a connection with. Maybe this is too personal to be sharing on a blog for a high school music class.
But, as short as this blog entry is, it's just for me to get this one thing out:
I don't see how some people don't have a strong connection with music. It's the only thing that makes sense anymore, in my opinion. A lot of people say "eh, music's cool, but it's not really too interesting to me", and I really don't understand how the one thing that keeps me, and I'm sure a lot of other people, sane, is written off as unimportant to others.

post thirteen.

Some songs/artists just need to be left alone.
For example, we listened to Piece of My Heart in class today. We listened to the Janis version, which was so full of raw emotion and feelings. She meant what she was singing, she was ANGRY.
Then we listened to the Faith Hill version. Just alone, it's hard to imitate Janis's emotions and it's hard to put the same feeling into the song, but when you add a cheesy 90s music video and a soft, country voice, it's almost laughable. The song should be left alone, because no one can sing it like Janis.

Another example is Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit". I've never been a big fan of Nirvana, but I think that song should go untouched. It's too good to try to be imitated. Observe the version above by Miley Cyrus.
Covers are great in some cases, for example, The Byrds did a fantastic cover of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man". The Beatles did plenty of covers, and they were all good. Some songs, however, should remain untouched in my opinion, because they just have too much emotion that can't be imitated.

post twelve.

I honestly think it's kind of hard to listen to another band and evaluate them on the same day once you've been listening to The Beatles.
When you think about the question that was posed in class about either finishing Help!, or listening to more Rolling Stones, the answer was a unanimous Beatles. The Beatles are very easy to listen to and they appeal to any kind of audience, as displayed by the millions of fans all over the world. For example, they are my favourite band, and I'm 16. They are Mr. A's favourite band, and he's not a day over 30. They're my mom's favourite band, and she's 55. They appeal to all ages, which is why I think they're so popular among the class.
I also admire the people who choose to share their opinion if they don't like The Beatles. I think that sometimes people feel overwhelmed by the positive reception, so they don't want to say "I don't think The Beatles are all that great." Points go to anyone who shares their opinion, for me. Good or bad, sharing your opinion is always good to do, especially when it comes to music because there's so many different forms of it.

post eleven.

I've seen a lot of people who are turned off to The Beatles after they hear their stuff from Revolver on. When their looks started changing, when they moved away from pop and started moving towards more complex things. I'm not trying to dictate what a "true fan" is, but it disappoints me when I see stuff like this. The Beatles are the most important band in the world to me, they have so much to offer, and their talent, musicianship, and chemistry (up until about 1968) are remarkable, to say the least.
In Help!, you start noticing their transformation more and more. Their hair is getting longer, the humour is different, their music is changing, even the nature of the film is different, to say the least. The Beatles were introduced to marijuana, which played a big part in their music. In Girl, you can literally hear them inhaling marijuana smoke. Got To Get You Into My Life, one of their bigger hits on Revolver, is written about marijuana.
So, while drug use isn't something I condone, it really changed and affected The Beatles as a group, and altered their music as well, for the better in my opinion. (For the most part, I've got a few things to say about Revolution 9.)