Finding new music

Recently, I've gone through a period where I've lacked finding new music that I enjoy. Admittedly, I haven't looked too hard but I've never had to look hard before. My music usually comes from friends, my dad, brother or sister. I think I've just been listening to the music I've had all along and accepted it. I have been using music as a way to help me do homework and not much else recently. When I don't have much homework I listen to much more music and enjoy it. I find new music and add it to my collection. It could be at a result of my limited genres that I enjoy. I admit that I may be closed minded to certain types of music. Hopefully things will change when I get past some of the difficult school times.

LCD Soundsystem

I had only heard the name of this band until we listened to it in class. I only think they're okay, really. I only have one real point to make. If you're looking at music from their era, there are much more exciting artists to consider. I listened to LCD Soundsystem and almost fell asleep. To me, it sounds like a guy singing to an electronic beat. It isn't bad but I personally don't love it. If I were asked which bands I would listen to alternatively, I name bands such as Death Cab for Cutie, the early works of The Strokes, The Shins, and many other bands that I love. This is, of course, my opinion. I find much more excitement from listening to these bands. I really appreciate their music a lot. While watching the documentary for Soundsystem, I asked myself why the crowd was cheering at certain points because I wasn't impressed. I know this is biased, but it's my honest opinion.

Pop

To me, pop music is mostly what is played on the popular radio stations. The stations play songs that are popular which is enough for me to label most of them pop. I asked my mom what she listened to growing up and what most people enjoyed. She told me that she always loved "Hair Bands". I didn't ever know that she liked hair metal too much but I'm glad she did. My dad loved The Beatles, of course, and he also has listened to Bob Dylan a whole lot. Pop music when they were growing up was nothing like it is today. Then, many people listened to rock on the radio and everyone loved The Beatles. Today, it would be pretty hard for me to find a song on 96.7 that I truly enjoyed. The few times that I listen to it, it's just for background noise while I'm driving. It isn't that I can't tolerate pop at all. I just really don't like it and it's hard for me to believe that so many people to. That being said, I don't want to be too cynical. I accept that it's the popular genre and I quietly enjoy my own music while trying to not let it affect me. I will never try to tell someone that their music is bad and mine is good. I find that completely wrong and pretty stupid, as you can't expect everyone's opinions to mirror each others.

So many rappers become popular and fade out within a few months or a year. I probably couldn't name a third of all the rappers or hip-hop groups on the radio today. Sometimes it feels like they come and go in a cycle. Either way, I'd much rather hear someone say that they love Justin Bieber than say that they "don't really like music". To me, that's a closed minded thing to say. It may be rare, but everyone should enjoy music, no matter what the genre is.

Wilco

Wilco is an interesting group. I had never heard of them once before yesterday in class. I'm glad I did though because I've found them to be quite enjoyable. Watching the documentary and seeing them playing in the studio was interesting to me because you could really see how the recording process works. I've been listening to the whole album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot", and have yet to find a song that isn't a low energy sound. I'm not complaining because I've basically discovered that it's just the way they sound and I do enjoy it. I don't think that I would sit down and intensely listen to a whole album of theirs. Instead, this music feels, to me, like perfect background music for passive listening. I can listen to it at a normal volume while doing something else and appreciate it. I will probably only listen to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot because it seems to be one of the middle albums they released. I want to hear the median of their albums and I may listen to another some other time. There is a video on YouTube that has the entire album on it and it's pretty awesome. You can just hit play and listen, appreciate, and not worry about changing songs. It's a fun listen and to me, it sounds like it could be a tranquil feeling overall, but a little bit of sadness at the same time. It varies from song to song. As I continue to listen, a few of the later songs sound a bit more high energy. Here's the video and I highly recommend checking it out.

Foster the People

I never expected to like Foster the People. The first song that most people heard was, of course, Pumped Up Kicks. I thought the track was really only okay the first time I heard it. It kept playing on the radio constantly for multiple weeks and, like other songs on the radio, it's got stuck in my head and I started to enjoy it a little bit. Kind of forgot about it after it disappeared from the radio. I then heard the song Helena Beat, which changed this mentality. It's probably not a song that everyone will like, but I sure do. The first time I heard it, I thought it was actually a woman singing, until I saw a live video of the song. I really enjoy the song but you judge for yourself:

Nirvana

I've been interested with Kurt Cobain as a person and a musician for quite a while. It was probably about a year ago when I watched videos of people interviewing Kurt Cobain in order to learn more about him. I really liked Nirvana a lot at the time and I wanted to learn more about him. I basically learned that he and the rest of the band were really funny people and were interesting to watch. I personally believe that Kurt Cobain could have gone on to do many great things as a musician. If you look at Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic's success, it's almost hard to think that Cobain wouldn't have done really well. I guess that he eventually killed himself as a result of too much fame, which he hated. Somebody told me that he never wanted his music to become mainstream or part of the modern society. I suppose that I can understand this, but I would never do anything as dramatic as he did if I felt the same way. I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit Emily Carr earlier and just listened to the general feel of the song. I sort of came to the conclusion that it is a relatively simple song but the band players with so much intensity and enthusiasm, that you can't help but enjoy it a lot. I personally enjoy the band a lot and am kind of sad that they were only able to release three albums for Cobain's death.

Entertainment

While trying to decide what to blog about, I decided to go check out some more Phoenix songs. I found one in particular that I loved. They released this song as a preview to their new album that should come out within the next few weeks. This song gives me a lot of hope for the album. Once it comes out, I'm definitely going to have to check it out. I really do like this song and it gave me a whole new look on Phoenix's sound and style. It's almost as if they took a more pop feeling song and threw Thomas Mars, their singer, into it. The result is really great. I never thought that I'd hear Phoenix release a song like this, honestly. Here it is:

The music video for it is really random and sort of strange. However, I don't have anything bad to say about it. I've actually been getting into songs like this recently, and with Phoenix's release of this one, the trend will continue. Personally, I'm really excited for this album and I think that everyone should give this song a shot and maybe check out the rest of the album once it's released.

Rattle and Hum

I think I was around 12 when I first heard U2's Vertigo. At first, I didn't think much of it besides that it was a nice high energy song. I had, of course, hear Beautiful Day and Sunday Bloody Sunday. Basically, I only knew the newer U2. It wasn't until a few years ago that my dad told me that the band started in the mid '70's. I was pretty surprised to hear that the band had so much history. After watching Rattle and Hum in class, I discovered that their sound used to be immensely different than it is now. That being said, you can definitely hear very strong similarities in their music through time. Some songs really do have very similar styles.

Beautiful Day

With or Without You

If you listen to the two songs, it almost seems as if they could have been released on the same album. When you compare the whole album Rattle and Hum to a newer song like Vertigo, you start to notice the obvious changes to their sound that have developed over time. I really do enjoy listening to musicians over time and hearing how much they have changed in sound and style.