Tag: music

Unabashed Taylor Praise

Jeannie Marie Leave a comment

Okay, so, Taylor Swift. I talked about her in a previous post but honestly I’m not ashamed I’m talking about her again. Why? Because she deserves it. And she’s been making me proud since 1989 dropped.

So I guess first is the album. I’m actually really happy with the way it turned out. I’m especially happy with the longer tracklist of this album, making it definitely worth the wait and a lot more accessible. Not a big fan of the opening track “Welcome to New York”, or you don’t really wanna “Shake It Off”? Well, good news for you, there’s 17 more for you to choose from. I haven’t listened to it enough to give a definite ruling on it yet, but I’m satisfied at the moment, though I’ll always maintain Red is her best record to date.

But really though, I have to admit, half the reason I’m satisfied as much as I am is because of “Blank Space.”

You’ve heard of “Blank Space,” right? Because it’s pretty dang good. Like…really good.

First, there’s the song. It’s midtempo, which is a rarity for casual Swift fans, but hardcore ones will know how well she can pull off a midtempo track (think “State of Grace,” “Tell Me Why,” “Long Live,” etc.). And “Blank Space” is no exception. Her lyrics are also on point as usual, being easy enough to remember to constitute a good pop hook, but also clever enough to surpass one-hit wonder status.

And not just the lyrics are clever, but the whole premise. It’s a dark-humor parody of herself, which actually doesn’t surprise me coming from Taylor – she’s not stupid and she does know everything people say about her – and she’s using her favorite medium to get back at everyone in a really clever and tasteful way.

But man, them lyrics.

Screaming, crying, perfect storms
I can make all the tables turn
Rose garden filled with thorns

I like this verse especially because of the rose garden image, which goes perfectly to my next point, which is the video.

This video guys. This video is it. And it’s why I’m not ashamed to talk about her after one post about her. Because she deserves it.

Now, okay, maybe she doesn’t deserve all the credit since she didn’t actually direct the video. But its no secret that she’s heavily involved in her creative process. And even if she didn’t have any say in how this video went, she wrote the song. The song is a parody of herself. But it also applies to every girl like Taylor, every girl who gets beaten down and ridiculed for being “boy-crazy” or “too clingy” or “too emotional” or any of the thousand ridiculous things girls get ridiculed for.

So, the video. In case you’ve been living under a pile of homework (which, okay, I’ll admit, is very plausible), a quick synopsis: boy comes to Mansion di Taylor, Taylor’s chilling with her cat when ding dong, she meets boy and smiles creepily, boy and Taylor do that dating thing in this abandoned castle thing. Boy texts some other girl, Taylor gets jealous and a little violent, cries a lot if her mascara is any indication, stands on a horse at some point, and scares away the boy because of her “emotions.”

Why I love this video is because the parody goes even further than a parody – it becomes a satire, akin to Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal.” Taylor isn’t just making fun of her haters, she’s doing exactly what they say she does and exaggerates it to show how ridiculous it is.

Which leads me back to rose garden filled with thorns. Okay, I’m gonna show off my English major skills a bit here and talk about why this line is so brilliant, especially in context of the video. So, if a girl’s a rose, right, she’s pretty, she smells nice, delicate, yada yada stereotypes. But then she has thorns…but she’s not supposed to. She’s supposed to be pretty, perfect. Pretty, perfect things aren’t supposed to have bad things like thorns. But roses are made with thorns…there’s no way to make a rose without thorns, unless you cut them off. They can’ come thornless. So it’s ridiculous to expect a rose to come without thorns.

Now, if you get the metaphor and go WAIT BUT I’M A GIRL AND I’M NOT EMOTIONAL I’M COOL WHATEVER HAHA I DON’T GET EMOTIONAL DON’T STEREOTYPE ME please don’t jump down my throat. I’m not saying all girls identify with this problem, or all girls are like Taylor. You don’t have to be emotional if you’re a girl, just like you don’t have to be emotionless if you’re a boy. But for those of us that are on the emotional side of the spectrum and do get criticized for it, well, this song comes as a much needed relief.

Because calling girls crazy for having emotions, for being normally jealous and sad and possibly even angry…well that’s not cool. And Taylor got it right.

Now, besides all that, I loved this video because of how absolutely gorgeous it is. From her outfits to the setting, the video is so artsy without being like “oh this is artsy because art.” I mean, there is that apple part that I get but not really, but other than that, it’s treated like a piece of art, with the colors and the set and saturation and I love that. Overall, it’s well made, and quality in music videos is something I’ve actually forgotten over the years, since Internet killed the Video Star.

So, there you go. My praise-rant on Taylor’s awesome video/song combo. You go for that 2-1 punch, Tay. I’m proud of you. You’ve grown and gotten complex and you tell those haters. And after, go Shake it Off. You deserve it.

Wake Up, Mr. West

Erika Bell Leave a comment

So has anyone noticed the undeniable transformation of Kanye West’s music? Of course you have, what am I saying. To be quite honest, I don’t really know many of Kanye’s new songs from his recent album or follow any of his musical partnerships at the moment. From the few songs that I have listened to, however, coupled with the insane media coverage and his elevated fame and fortune as his family becomes the First Family of Fashion, it is very apparent that he has evolved as an artist. Yet, if I may give my opinion, I would say that it isn’t in a good way.

It hit me like a ton of bricks as I was walking down the street with my music playlist on shuffle. On came the loud yell of a man saying “Wake up, Mr. West, Mr. West, Mr. West…” followed by Kanye’s crisp voice as he flows his way into the start of the song. I hadn’t listened to “Heard ‘Em Say” by Kanye West and Adam Levine in a long time, but the ease that the melody of the song brought to my long walk, the power in the words that made up the song, and the way that Adam Levine’s harmony flowed over the hard beat, made me ecstatic that it came across my ears again. Then, by some mighty force of nature, another Kanye song started as “Heard ‘Em Say” faded from my ears. This time it was “All Falls Down”.  A song that I adored when I first heard it back in 2004. Great melody, great rhymes, great music.

Given all of this greatness that entered my ears on that walk, I became aware of what everyone has been saying about Kanye West’s music. It’s nothing like it used to be. His rhythm, his words, his message, his relatability, in my opinion, has been lost in a mass of his media-influenced life. Now I’m not saying that it is impossible for people to change up what they are passionate about, how they do their craft, and how they project that to the people that appreciate it. However, I would like to say that there was something exceptionally enticing, artistic, poetic, real, and everlasting about Kanye’s music circa early 2000’s. Of course a lot has changed in his life and in the music-age among us, where certain sounds and styles are more popular than the sounds from back then. But isn’t there a way to mesh today with yesterday, Kanye?

The collaborative way in which he mixed old-school R&B artists and tracks with his poetry and rhymes that targeted repressed cultural issues was game-changing. If he were to do that again, it would still be game-changing, considering the lack thereof of rap artists that broach controversial topics in way that’s inviting and fun to the ear.

I think that it is sometimes hard to accept that music has changed from what we’ve remembered it to be when we were young and barely knew what the words meant, to now where we crave beats and words that connect with us. I do enjoy some of Kanye’s latest work like Blood on the Leaves and a few of his verses on other collaborations. I just wish that he was able to connect with whatever greatness that made his old music so unforgettable. Whatever it was, it helped him create true art.

Will The Taylor Swift Fans Please Stand Up?

Jeannie Marie Leave a comment

What am I dancing to right now?

Good question reader! I don’t mind telling you at all.

Or do I?

Well, to be honest…

No, you don’t really want to know.

I know all the words though!

Oops. I wasn’t supposed to tell you that.

Okay okay fine. *Deep breath* I can do this. I’m…right now…I’m listening…well…right now I’m listening to Taylor Swift.

*Dramatic Pause*

DON’T PANIC. IT’S OKAY. I PROMISE. EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OKAY. NOTHING IS WRONG WITH ME LISTENING TO TAYLOR SWIFT.

Really. There isn’t one thing that’s wrong with that. But why is it that I feel like it’s some big secret that I have to keep so I can retain the right to my cool kid card? Why do I feel like if I tell the guys that live 3 doors down that I like Taylor Swift that they’ll never speak to me again?

Why should they care?

These are the questions I asked when I read Vanity Fair’s article this week in preparation for Taylor Swift’s album release (which, just so you know, came out on Monday).

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t been too excited about this album. I’ve seen it on my news feed on Facebook (because of course I liked Taylor on FB, duh), and I know all about the pre-releases of songs and such. But I haven’t really been “pumped.” I’ll probably have to blame this on her abandonment of her country roots. But honestly, after I got over the shock of “Shake It Off” being very non-country, I really, really loved it. So I don’t know what happened.

But now I have to back up. Truthfully, I’ve had a long history with TSwizzle. Cut to middle school, when her first few singles started trickling on the radio. My cousin was in high school at the time and probably knew all the words to the songs on her first album (though she’d never admit it to me), so I got the exposure there, and of course, wanting to be like her, decided that I liked me some TSwift too. And from there, things just escalated. I own I think 3 out of the 5 albums now she’s made? Yeah? And I’ve listened to every one of them. Multiple times. I got to see her when she came to Houston, and I danced to the songs and screamed until my ears rang. Taylor was where it was at.

But then, suddenly, she wasn’t. I never stopped liking her, but then my friends started talking about how shallow she was. How she only talked about her (ex)boyfriends.

So then I guess I bought into the lie. But thinking about it now, some of my best memories have come from Taylor Swift songs.

Listening to “State of Grace” on repeat. Screaming “Our Song” in the bathroom after a competition. That time I was in the car with two 22 year olds who just decided that they should turn down the windows and blast “22” on State Street. While we were stuck in traffic.

And seriously, why should anyone make me feel bad for liking Taylor Swift’s music? Does she torture kittens in her spare time? Is there some sort of mafia affiliation I don’t know about?

No. She doesn’t. And I will seriously punch anyone who tries to tell me that all of her songs are about her ex-boyfriends. Who cares? As TSwift herself pointed out, Ed Sheeran writes about his ex-girlfriends. Bruno Mars too. People have been writing about love and loss for years now. That’s practically all that’s ever on the radio. And yet TSwift gets the dump for that? How is that even fair?

And if I’m being perfectly honest, Red is one of my favorite albums. Period. Do I like all of the songs on it? No. But do I think some of the songs are so much better than anyone ever expected from Taylor? Yes.

So really, the hate on people who like Taylor Swift needs to stop. Do you like her music? If you answered no, that’s perfectly fine. If you answered yes, that’s perfectly fine.

Seriously. It’s just music.

And might I add…it’s pretty good music.

It’s music that I like.

Cuz I like Taylor Swift.

I said it. Deal with it.

That Time I Danced Thriller

Jeannie Marie Leave a comment

So I was in a talent show. I know, shocking, right? I actually participated in art this time! I mean, that’s a very loose definition of art, but I did it, so that’s all that matters, right?

Here’s the skinny (seriously, why don’t people talk like this anymore, it’s so freaking cool): I’m in InterVarsity Undergrad, or IVU, a club/Christian group on campus. Our leader/staff worker/patron of silliness Jess was speaking at the weekly meeting of Asian InterVarsity, or AIV, one of IV’s chapters on campus, so naturally IVU had to attend. I mean, it wasn’t mandatory or anything, but you get the idea.

I don’t know if there’s any history behind it or anything, but AIV typically has a post-AIV thing that they do each week, and of course the week Jess was speaking they were having a talent show.

Now, I vaguely knew about this but I didn’t really know until my good friend Stefany emailed me (and everyone else in IVU) and informed us that AIV really really really wanted us to participate. The email was sent out Wednesday night. Thursday night IVU met for our weekly meeting. Friday night was the talent show.

As you can probably already tell, our “talent” was not very talent-y…and that’s being nice.

But I mean, we had a plan of action, so that counts for something, right? We were gonna use our talent of silliness as our actual talent, and by that I mean we were going to wing it the whole way.

We decided on opening with a game of “Raptor Tag,” which seems pretty self explanatory but I’ll explain anyways. You go around, hopping around like a raptor and with your arms close to your chest because “I have a big head and little arms!!!“ You try to tag other peoples’ arms without extending yours because you;re a raptor obviously, and when you lose both arms you’re out. It’s kinda like ninja meets tag meets playing raptor. In any case, we were gonna start with a mock game of that to confuse our audience. And then, once we’re all dead, Dean would give a raptor-y cry of victory, and as the beginning notes of “Thriller” sounded over the speakers he’d raise us from the dead, raptor zombies here to change the world and get funky.

This, in theory, sounds wonderful – we were gonna learn an easy, 20-30 second dance to “Thriller” and it was going to be flawless.

We had about an hour Thursday night and Friday night to learn and practice our dance. So I’m sure you can predict how utterly flawless we all were.

In reality, I was a beat ahead of everyone else, forgot the moves and couldn’t shimmy to save my life.

But the thing was, it didn’t matter. I was giggling, next to me my friend Hannah was red-faced and smiling, and the whole auditorium in front of us whooped and cheered when they heard the first beats of the iconic song. They didn’t care that we were off beat and could never live up to the perfection of Michael Jackson’s dancing, just like we didn’t care that the slam poetry section ended up being “We’re All In This Together.”

Usually, I don’t try to make grand statements about Art in my blog posts, but tonight, I’d like to try. That night, I realized something. Art is about community, about ideas being exchanged between people in a creative way. And that talent show I was in was all about community. By the end of the night, when I complimented Zander on his terrific HSM dancing, he graciously accepted and said to me and my friends “You guys should come more often.” That invitation, that acceptance of us even though we were outsiders, made me feel as though I had just built a community of my own. It made me feel that art, in it’s silliest, wildest, least choreographed, most unpredictable form, brought us together that night to soulfully sing “We’re All In This Together.”

Because we are. We really, really are.

The Staying Power

Jeannie Marie Leave a comment

This week, one of my favorite bands released a music video. Well, not really a music video. It was a filmed performance of a song at one of their concerts from their last tour which, sadly, I was unable to attend. And just a few days ago, this video made big news.

Why, you may ask? Because it was Panic! At The Disco singing Bohemian Rhapsody.

Now I will be the first to say that my mom raised me right when it comes to music. Even though I pretty much missed the whole “Backstreet Boys” craze thing of the 90s (but hey, I still know almost every word to “I Want It That Way” so I’m not a total loser, right?), my mom raised me on The Eagles, The Beatles, The Four Tops, Duran Duran, Steppenwolf…the list goes on. When I was 8 I could probably sing every word to “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and “A Hard Day’s Night”, and at the time I didn’t think this was a big deal; I didn’t know why my mom would make me listen to these old bands when all my friends were singing Christina Aguilera at me. But as I got older, I realized that my eternal love for classics was a really, really good thing.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with our current pop music. Believe me, I will be the first to admit that I’m that one girl screaming SHAKE IT OFF, JUST SHAKE IT OFF in her room while she’s changing her sheets (but only when my roommate isn’t around, of course). Last year Katy Perry’s “Roar” was my ultimate anthem. Pop music is vital to a country’s culture; it defines how the country feels at the moment, whether it be eternally sick of I’m so happyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, or falling in love with Sia’s latest brilliance (â”Chandeliers” is seriously gorgeous). People can connect instantly by just mentioning a song they heard on the radio an hour ago.

But then where does that leave Panic! At The Disco? And where did Queen come from, and how did they get so popular? I think one of my favorite conversations revolving around music, especially when you make friends with people who like classic rock, is the “who will stay” conversation.

Starting around the 50s and 60s, brilliant artists emerged who decided to do things with music that had never been done before. Elvis swung his hips and Bob Dylan started a movement, and we remember those artists for their contribution to the art of music, even if we don’t listen to them. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t recognize an Aerosmith song, or has never heard of Led Zepplin. But it’s a lot harder now to find artists who are breaking boundaries like these guys did because…well, these guys paved the way.

And the fact is, bands just aren’t popular anymore. Sure, you can lash out at me with about a dozen bands who put music on the radio consistently, but the majority of artists creating music are solo, which starkly contrasts with how it was from 1964 onwards.

So here you have Panic! At The Disco, a marginally popular but by no means explosive alt-pop band, covering Queen’s classic anthem? eulogy? I don’t even know how to classify the epic-ness that is “Bohemian Rhapsody”, but as I watched I seriously doubted if Brenden had the chops to perform such a heavily revered piece of art. I was pleasantly surprised that I did in fact enjoy it, but it made me wonder if my children will like Panic! At The Disco like I liked Queen. Of course, they’ll listen to it – even though I do admit to being a lover of pop I spend more time in the indie realm of music, and that’s where my children will be.

But when I introduce Death Cab for Cutie to them, will they instead be talking about that one Australian girl who tried to rap? I don’t know the answer to most of the questions I’ve asked, but I hope that the artists who work hard, who pour their blood and sweat and tears and soul into crafting lyrical and musical art, that they’ll be the ones that will be remembered – whether they come from a pop background or whether they hardly make the Billboard Top 100.

Right now, a song called “All About That Bass” is number one on the Top 100 chart. So I wonder – in ten years, will I be laughing at someone who covers it, or will I be clapping?

Special shoutout to the Billboard Top 100 for helping with some of the research…I mean really, how would I know that “All About That Bass” is number one right now?

Khalil Fong and the Lost Art of the Music Video

Jeannie Marie 14 Comments

khalil1_js

Throughout my time as a blogger for Arts at Michigan, I’ve talked about music in various ways – through concerts, through single releases, and through innovative lyrics that I find fascinating.

However, I have shied away from the topic of the music video, mostly because, to me, the issue is complex. I really enjoy music videos – I think they can add an interesting component to a song, and I often think of music video scenarios when I listen to songs that don’t have music videos.

But unfortunately, due to an overwhelming number of bad music videos throughout the years, I rarely ever seek out a music video to watch. If something comes up on my radar, through Facebook or some other social media, then sure, if it’s an artist I like, I’ll check it out. But honestly, I don’t like many music videos that I see anymore. I think they can provide a great opportunity to make something great and artistic, and yet most artists (or rather their companies) squander that gift.

But even though I don’t watch many American music videos, I enjoy watching kpop (read: Korean pop) music videos. In that genre, music videos are considered one of the most important aspects of that artists work, and thus many companies spend much time and effort into creating something that is visually appealing and entertaining, and while they aren’t all gems, a lot of them do come out being pretty good, in a way that I haven’t seen in American music videos in a long time. Because of this, though, I’ve watched more music videos this year than I have in the past.

Which brings me to the main point of this whole spiel, which is Khalil Fong.

A friend of mine showed me Khalil Fong a little while back early in the fall semester. She told me that he has an amazing voice and I should listen to him. She also told me that he sings in Mandarin. So alright, I already listen to Korean music, why not Mandarin? So I listened.

Instantly I was blown away by this man’s voice. With a perfect blend of pop, R&B, and jazz, Khalil creates a genre that is almost his own. No matter what he sings out of the three, whether it be a slow ballad with a full violin section, or an upbeat dance tune with a vintage-40s feel, his voice matches it perfectly.

Now, as a college student, I must say I’m very busy, and very bad about keeping up with artists. So when my Spotify told me that Khalil had a new song out, I didn’t listen right away even though I dearly love his music. But this weekend I took the time to listen to his new single 危險世界, which translates to “Dangerous World.” At first, my plan was to listen to a lot of different music that I’ve missed throughout the semester that has been collecting dust on my Spotify playlist. But I couldn’t listen to anything else after I heard – and saw – “Dangerous World.”

First off, this song. While it strays a bit from his pop/ballad roots (most of his songs are slow, easy going love songs), this single is pure gold. It has a distinct, 80s era Michael Jackson feel, but instead of making the song feel retro, vintage, or a copy, he adds in a futuristic, contemporary element that makes it feel like this song is the dangerous world. I honestly have been listening to nothing but this song for the past four days. It has an addictive bass and downbeat that always makes me want to dance, and every time he sings no no no no no, almost going into falsetto, interrupting the pre-chorus and launching straight into the next verse, I feel a small chill run down my spine. The song ends with an elaborately constructed breakdown, which feels like a reinvented dubstep beat until you hear the beautiful violins playing over the random noises and resounding bass. Overall, this song is amazing and I don’t care if you don’t understand him, you need to listen to it.

But the song isn’t it. Khalil also directed the music video, an elaborate 8 minute masterpiece involving gas masks, flying trains, revolutions, an elaborate kung fu sequence worthy of Jackie Chan, and an incredible blend of traditional Chinese dress and steampunk fashion. After finishing the video, I was left wondering what in the world I just watched, and wanted more. I’ve now watched the video multiple times, even though I already know the “surprise” at the end (which I won’t spoil for you). And thus, I’ve come to question what makes me love it so much.

khalil3_js

Is it the cinematography? The compelling story that I don’t quite understand? Is it the myriad of scenes that create convincing and interesting settings for me to watch? I don’t know the answer, but I do know that I want to share this video with anyone who is willing to watch it, and hopefully they’ll like it just as much as I do.

Khalil’s full album Dangerous World will be out April 11. You can pre-order it on iTunes here, which automatically comes with three songs, Dangerous World, Xiao Fang, and Lights Up, his single sung entirely in English.

Also if you watch the video and are extremely confused and would like to discuss theories please comment and I will share my ridiculous and by no means correct theory on what the music video’s plot is.