Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Airplanes, they seem to be the best place to hear and see what other people are thinking. As you sit in the middle sit crammed next to two total strangers you hear the music blasting into the ears of the people next to you. On the right you have a ten year old girl who's disney pop Hannah Montana songs are singing morals like "Nobody's Perfect" at her. on the left you have the young man who is listening to a rap song by Eminem that he seems to be mouthing the words to but you can't understand a single on of them. Next, you pop your ear phones in and turn on your crooners playlist on your ipod starting with Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon". Hearing all this racket the girl behind you turns on her Taylor Swift, prompting her neighbors to turn on their MGMT and Mozart respectively. Now, both of those two rows of people are happy, so the question is which of these is good music? I find that often times people trash each other's music, they say that it's crap music, that it's not music, parent's tell kids to turn off the garbage. But didn't their parents tell them that their music was garbage too? If you really think about it, all music is good music, yet the choice is yours on weather or not to appreciate it.

When You Are a Disney Star

Many young stars start their careers on disney channel. They all start acting in new shows on the station. Soon, however they are also singing. Most of the disney channel stars have at least one album out. So I wonder, how can all of these actors and actresses sing? I get astonished by the same thing on the show Glee. When stars are guests on the show, they often sing. And so I've become curious, do most actors and actresses learn to sing? Do they do this because they want to be singers or so they can have more acting oppertunities? Or do they learn to sing at all. When it's a digital recording, how can you possibly know how it really sounded?

Man vs. Machine

Now- a- days technology has a huge impact on music and the way it’s made. Many artists are not just singers, they’re technological mix masters. Some artists that do this are T-pain and Timbaland. This can provide for a cool new futuristic sound, however some skeptics argue that this synthetic sign hides the artist’s lack of singing talent. I however, think that even if singing isn’t their particular skill music certainly is. This artists sure have a way with technologically creating sounds. So this is the question I pose to you: Is computer generated music any less artistic than that which is naturally produced by voice?

Ridin' Solo

Breakups, sometimes they're just inevitable. Nothing lasts forever, and unfortunately this rule can apply to your favorite bands too. Groups ranging in genre and time period from the Beatles to *NSYNC have done it. The question I would like to pose is what happens to everyone afterword? There are often the one or two people who emerge as big stars in their post band career such as Justin Timberlake from the previously mentioned example. But what I always wondered about was those members you seem to have never heard from again. Think about JC Chasez from *NSYNC, he had a solo career as a singer but was outshined by Justin Timberlake. Press on his new songs was diminished after Justin Timberlake went through his Super Bowl scandal. Also, he apparently attempted to get a seat on a Russian space shuttle, and was very close, however his sponsor dropped out and he could not acquire the seat. This all may seem inferior to two Grammys, a number one single, deals with McDonalds, several movie roles and more, but if you think about it, who really got the upper hand? On the one side, Justin got a very successful singing career, but JC, due to his less successful singing career, had the time to pursue his other dreams. So I ask you, who would you rather be if you wildly successful band broke up?  The one who continues to be a star or the one who gets a chance to start over?

 

"Stereo Types"

Up and coming rapper Sam Adams is breaking the glass ceiling of music stereotypes.  The 22- year –old rapper Sam Adams isn’t from the background you would expect of a rapper. As a kid he went to private schools and eventually boarding school. He attended Trinity College and played on the soccer team there. He surprised everyone with his good rap music and even better sales numbers.  Via facebook and youtube (where his “I hate college (remix)” video has over one million views) he gained a large fan following. Now, all the major record labels are after him and he’s traveling and touring to perform all over the country, but his main goal is to keep a cool head. He says, “I’m not going to lose my head or get conceited. I’m still the same dude I always was in Cambridge.”

Sources:

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/features/x427971820/Cambridge-born-rapper-Sam-Adams-drinks-up-limelight-with-top-hit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Adams_Wisner

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Healing Melody

            A couple of months ago in my July edition of Vogue I read about a remarkable woman named Melody Gardot. Melody Gardot was hit by a car at the age of 19 while biking across a Philadelphia street. She wound up with many broken bones, short and long term memory loss, and light sensitivity, among other effects. Melody had turned into “A bit of a vegetable (Zuel, Bernard (02-05-2009). "Melody Gardot should not be playing music". Brisbane Times. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/articles/2009/05/01/1240982395719.html?page=2. Retrieved 2009-08-09.)” Melody had to deal with physical pain, emotional pain, and just learning how to do everyday activities. In order to do this Melody came up with her own kind of therapy, music. Music has been said to help brain damaged people, and it certainly helped Melody. Melody started with humming and gradually moved on to singing and composing, which she still does to this day as a professional recording artist.  Melody’s condition has drastically improved since she began writing and performing music as therapy. She still carries a cane and must wear dark shaded glasses at all times, but she is out living her life and touring the world to share her music with others. Not only did she help to heal herself with her music, but she also has a great musical talent. Her voice is smooth and sophisticated and her compositions are extraordinarily beautiful. Her music is as soothing to the listener as it is to her pain. She is very much a story worth telling, and a talent worth listening to. Look up her and her music at http://www.melodygardot.com/ and http://www.myspace.com/melody

 

sources: Vogue, July 2010; melodygardot.com; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melody_gardot 

photos courtesy of Melody Gardot's flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/melodygardot