"Another song that has a lot of great memories associated with my daughters and car rides to tennis tournaments."
It's funny - I have heard this song a million times, but I didn't recognize it until they sang I've been waiting alllllll dayyyyy for you to call me baaaaaabyyyyyy. I don't know what that means. Either I'm completely checked out while I listen to the radio, or this song's only shining moment is the chorus.
Now that I'm focusing on it, though, there are golden moments galore, from the rap sections to the bubbles of personality in the random cheerios - both of which are very Wannabe-esque.
I'm not adding this to any favs lists, but it's a lot of fun. It reminds me of other unbelievably catchy pop songs that are amazing for blasting on car rides, like Katy Perry's Last Friday Night (listen to the first two notes of the song) and Miley's Party in the USA.
Plus, I like this woman's voice, and it amuses me that the song is obnoxiously upbeat while bearing the title Brokenhearted.
Overview: Genre:
Pop Favorite Lyrics: Business in the front, party in the back Maybe I was wrong, was the outfit really wack? Verdict:
Weird in a good way
It reminds me of, like, after you finally get to know someone and they start letting their true self come out. This song talks to me the way my friends would talk to me.
"Sorta sage advice. Tugs on me heartstrings a little."
Real talk about the "sage advice." It was hard to pick a favorite line from this song because Joel is out there dropping T bombs all over the place.
You better cool it off before you burn it out.
Slow down, you're doing fine. You can't be everything you wanna be before your time. Don't you know that only fools are satisfied? Dream on, but don't imagine they'll all come true.
This is a guy who's got it all figured out.
But, okay, it wasn't always like that. Joel actually wrote this song about a time when he went to visit his estranged father 15 years after he took off to Austria when Joel was 8 years old (x).
The song's not about his father, though.
When Joel went to visit his dad in Vienna, they watched an elderly woman, maybe 90 years old, outside sweeping the sidewalk. Joel commented that it was sad for such an old lady to be put to work like that. His father replied, "No, it isn't. She's being useful...she's happy...she's not just sitting at home wasting away, and she's got dignity" (x).
So Joel wrote this song, really, about the "observation that you have your whole life to live" (x). Contrary to U.S. pop culture, life doesn't end at 30 or 40 years old:
We treat old people in this country pretty badly. We put them in rest homes, we kinda kick them under the rug and make believe they don't exist. They [the people in Vienna] don't feel like that. In a lot of these older places in the world, they value their older people and their older people feel they can still be a part of the community and I thought, "This is a terrific idea - that old people are useful - and that means I don't have to worry so much about getting old because I can still have a use in this world in my old age." I thought, "Vienna waits for you..." - Billy Joel (source)
I like that the song is in Joel's classic style. There's a little percussion and a hint of harmonica, but the track is largely based upon smooth and steady vocals over a piano. It's a sleek and sophisticated combination that lends an extra level of authority to the excellent advice.
It's some seriously easy listening, and I mean that in the best way.
I can't help but believe this guy has his life perfectly together. Somehow, I'm not put off by the way he kind of talks down to the listener because I want him to tell me what to do. Teach me your ways.
The song was used, quite appropriately, in the soundtrack for 13 Going On 30, and there's a good cover by Miss Ariana Grande that you can listen to here. (It's an old video, so she hadn't reached her full potential yet, but it's still pretty good.)
Overview: Genre:
Pop Rock
Favorite Lyrics: You can get what you want, or you can just get old. Verdict:
another hit from the piano man himself
Turn On Closed Captions for English Lyrics Run by BTS
Recommended by bridges
"Kim told me to recommend you a song and I sort of remember us having a conversation about them."
BTS, or Bangtan Boys, is an enormously popular South Korean boy band made up of seven guys. And I thought three was a crowd!
Apparently all seven members are included in the "the musical and lyrical composition" of their songs, and they all "play an active role in producing their music" (x). If that's true, I'm impressed.
I wouldn't say K-Pop is quite mainstream in the U.S. - at least, it hasn't made its way into the Billboard Hot 100 or saturated the airwaves. That said, it's certainly growing in popularity. BTS is known, in fact, for having an international fan base (x).
Last June, the groups third EP The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1 made it onto Fuse's list of the "Top 27 Albums of 2015 So Far" (x), which shows that the genre is making it in the US.
Actually, my friend tweeted at me a few weeks ago asking who BTS was because she heard that they were really popular among high schoolers. She was super surprised to hear that it was South Korean boy band, but let me tell you, K-Pop really picking up speed over here.
I guess it's considered "K-Pop" because it's upbeat and Korean, but this track draws from some hip hop and R&B influences if you listen closely.
There's certainly some bona fide rapping in this song, but I also dig the talk-singing in the last parts of the verses. It's like they have a melody going but the vocalist isn't completely committed to singing it so they're just rapping with more varied intonations.
When they're actually singing, the melody is unbelievably catchy, though. Like, yo, I'm going to be humming that chorus under my breath for the next several years.
Run run run!
Overview: Genre:
K-Pop Verdict:
Self-explanatory...in that this is going right onto my jogging playlist
I was stuck in one of those YouTube binge-ing sessions, where you just click-through your "Up Next" and Related Videos for several hours, when I came across this song.
Vance Joy opened for Taylor Swift when I saw her on the 1989 Tour, and I remember being really excited even though this was the only one of his songs that I knew. It's, like, that good.
A little history from the man himself: "Around the time I wrote the song I met this girl. I asked her what she did and she was like 'I'm a magician's assistant.' I didn't really know where to go from there. I bet she never gets tired of laying that line on people." (source) Just as I never get tired of hearing that line. Or any line in this song. Like the beginning. I was scared of dentists and the dark. I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations. That's probably the most endearing opening of any song ever. Those lines set up the sweet but dorky vibe really well...but nowhere does it come through quite as well as in the bridge, where this kid is tripping all over his simple question: I just wanna - I just wanna know... If you're gonna - if you're gonna stay... How precious. If you're not rooting for him, then I don't even believe you. But no matter how cute it is, the love story isn't what had me playing this song on repeat for a month back in 2014. I kept it spinning because that sound is infectious. The track is led by a delicate but warm ukulele, which works perfectly. I feel like the ukulele is a popular choice for covers, but it's underused overall. I want to hear more ukulele on the radio. It's such a bubbly instrument. Joy sounds great on top of it, too, especially during those oh oh ohs where there's a textured harmony that kind of puts a lump in my throat. As for the title, Joy says:
I think at first you write these words without really thinking if they make sense or not. In my mind it's the ocean, but my whole awareness of that word existing is staying at a motel called Riptide. That's why it was in my head since it's not the most commonly used expression. And for that reason, the word has a special significance and a special memory for me. (source)
Good times. Overview: Genre:
Indie Pop Favorite Lyrics: I wanna be y our left-hand man. Verdict:
okay but there's no way you'll be singing the words wrong
P.S. How about that music video? It's interesting that they went for a 100% literal approach, but then they decided to purposefully apply incorrect lyrics...? Okay.
Another music duo, Snakehips were fresh off a collaboration with Tinashe and Chance the Rapper when they moved on to feature ZAYN in this soulful electronic track.
Billboard calls the vocals "moody," which I think is kind of unfair (x).
Technically, "moody" means "giving an impression of melancholy or mystery," which this song does. But in practice, the term brings to mind images of a teenager sulking in their bedroom, pouting alone in the darkness.
This song is more than that. Yes, there's a sense that the singer is brooding, but there's also a genuine warmth in the way ZAYN caresses each word and a mature sultriness in R&B style.
CapitalFM called it "smoky and sexy," which I like better (x).
There needs to be a neologism that's synonymous with ZAYN's particular brand of smoky sexiness. Like Tyra's "smize."
Even without the cover art, I would have been imagining raindrops on a window with city lights sparkling, just beyond.
I mean, the track begins with a second of nothing but the sound of rain, which is self-explanatory. Then, there's that synth hopping from ear to ear, which tells you the streetlights are probably out-of-focus. And finally, ZAYN's vocals are crystal clear in front of the hazy dreamscape of instrumentals behind him.
It's some high class city life. That guy who seems like he has it all, but he's actually got his own problems, you know?
I don't know.
Anyway, sound is cool.
Overview: Genre:
R&B Favorite Lyrics: Venus in Converse, you put a spell on me. Verdict:
gotta go listen to the original
Take a look at Mike Post's resume, and you'll see that he's something like the John Williams of television theme music.
Since he was twenty four, Post has been writing theme music for which he has garnered various prestigious awards, including multiple Grammys and Emmys. His and Stephen Geyer's theme for The Greatest American Hero reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, which really just doesn't happen for television theme songs (x).
While the Law & Order theme never made it onto the radio or into Billboard charts, it certainly made its way into our hearts.
Post composed for the show not only the opening theme but also the dramatic noise that plays between scene changes. It has been called the "ominous chung CHUNG," "The Dick Wolf Cash Register sound," or, by Post himself, "The Clang" (x).
Funny story about that sound effect: it's created from a mixture of almost 12 sounds, including a judge's gavel, a jail door slamming, and - I kid you not - 500 Japanese monks crossing a hardwood floor (x). Mike Post, ladies and gentlemen.
The theme song itself is a little simpler in its composition, using only electric piano, guitar, and clarinet.
Both have become synonymous with the show and franchise. Which, you know. #ThemeSongGoals
Overview: Genre:
Instrumental Verdict:
sets the tone
I haven't been able to get this song out of my head for the past week, so now you can all join me.
This song is special for a couple reasons. First of all, it marks the first time that one of The Chainsmokers has sung in their own song (it's Andrew Taggart). I'd heard of them before, but I didn't realize that they're actually a DJ duo, so they're usually on the production side (x).
Also, this track skyrocketed up the charts to become the first #1 for both The Chainsmokers and Halsey, in both the U.S.A. and Australia. Cheers.
The track was inspired by Blink-182's I Miss You, and the lyrics speak to that when Halsey name-drops the band during her verse (x).
I love this beat, and the melody is so, so catchy. Plus - and I'm noticing a trend with this - I really enjoy the minimalist ~aesthetic~ depicted in the lyrics. Is it not every millennial's pipe dream to take off, move to the city with nothing but the clothes on your back and a broke down car? And, of course, to never get older?
I mean, most of us wouldn't even want to make that a reality, but it's like...the place we go when we're staring out the window of a college classroom.
Overview: Genre:
Electropop Favorite Lyrics: Hey, tell your friends it was nice to meet them But I hope I never see them again. This is my lyric soul mate. Verdict:
kind of reminds me of Cold Water but it's still doing its own thing and I dig it
