Yeah, I will be that person to write about The Lion King. Here’s some background information if you either managed not to see this film or you’ve gotten so old, that you’ve forgotten about it. The Lion King came out in June 24, 1994, it surprisingly came out again in November 18, 1994. The movie is about a pride of lions that are under the rule of Mufasa who heirs a son named Simba. Simba after witnessing his father’s death was then manipulated, by his power hungry uncle, Scar to run away. After a few years of living with a meerkat and a warthog he is found by an old childhood friend, who then becomes his lover, Nala; and she convinces Simba to return and take throne on Pride Rock as rightful ruler. Simba faces his uncle in a fiery war and after defeating him, banishes Scar from the pride lands.
So now that you’re all caught up time for the song, the joyous song that many pet lovers celebrate to. The song that nobody really knows how to say the Zulu words, and seems to be generational repetitiveness of butchery, the song that starts the whole movie off, The Circle of Life. Now there are two versions of the song, both of which are equally amazing, the other more pop version of the song is sang by Elton John himself, he takes away the African language and switches some words around, but who can complain he wrote it after all. The Circle of Life was written by Elton John and Tim Rice, the version that is played in the movie is sang by Lebo M and Carmen Twillie.
Before delving into the Zulu language, lets talk about the all over song, the song consists of two main sounds, being vocals and percussion, there is at one point where some sort of wind instrument is being played. The song starts softly and stays that way with a consistent beat and calm singing, up until a minute and thirty seconds in, then the crescendo erupts.
As previously stated the song starts off in an African language called Zulu, the words being:
Here comes a lion, father Oh yes it’s a lion A lion We’re going to conquer A lion A lion and a leopard come to this open place”
Its hard to tell who speaks the words, I personally assume it has to be a creature in the crowd. Anyway, I found the incorporation of the language to be beautiful, I personally believe that inclusions of other cultures with your own can help make the world a wonderful place, one of harmony.
The overall song is quite self explanatory, talking about the circle of life and all, but I will note that the chorus is the big take away, the part everyone in unison can sing with no falter:
“It’s the circle of life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the circle
The circle of life”
So till we all find our place, I hope you enjoyed todays blog and live happily.
EDM has become more popular with these few upcoming generations. Made popular by DJs like DeadMau5, Daft Punk, Zedd and Skrillex they helped EDM hit the charts. Today I’ll be profiling Marshmello a new uprising DJ that has made a name of himself in a matter of a two years.
Marshmello like DeadMau5 and Daft Punk wears a mask, keeping his identity a mystery. His character, literally a marshmallow. He wears all white with a white bucket looking mask that consist of two X’s as eye and a smile.
Marshmello always created tracks, but started releasing music in 2016. With his single Alone, with the most hits on Spotify, coming out with over 140 million plays. Marshmello began to gain attention in 2015 by Skrillex, after he had remixed, Where Are U Now, a song Skrillex worked on with Diplo and Justin Bieber. After that Skrillex immediately, booked Marshmello to open for him in the New York Pier of Fear.
Since his debut with Skrillex, Marshmello has collaborated with many other artists, such as Anne-Marie in the song Friends, Selena Gomez in Wolves, Migos in Danger, Logic in Everyday, and so much more.
As previously stated before, like Deadmau5 and Daft Punk, Marshmello wears a mask and has his identity hidden. Though it has been assumed that Forbes has uncovered his identity, being that he is Chris Comstock, who’s other alias is known as Dotcom. In the Forbes article they make the connections with the managing company both artists use which is Red Light Management, also having the same manager Moe Shalizi. That could just be a coincidence but there are other things in the article that can be convincing that Marshmello is Chris Comstock. But that doesn’t really matter because, both Shalizi and lawyers for Marshmallow decline to release or comment on his identity.
Marshmello repeatedly announces that his identity will not be revealed by himself, and it seems he wouldn’t want it to be discovered by journalists. This can be known by in a video interview he did wit KIISFM, and also a tweet saying:
“I don’t take my helmet off because I don’t want or need fame. I’m genuinely trying to create something positive for people to connect with.”
And for the fans, I doubt they even care, who Marshmello is, all they know is he makes great music, and that is all they need, speaking as a fan of course.
Marshmello is the uprising DJ that no one should miss out on, if other artists can see the talent he has then there is no reason everyone else can’t.
Although many musicians hope to find fame and fortune through their art, there is also a number of people who simply use their love and passion for music to help them navigate their way through life. Falling in this category is Nic Torres, an 18-year-old musician from New Jersey.
Born in the City that Never Sleeps–Manhattan, New York–Nic entered the world and almost immediately delved into her passion for music.
“I started singing since around the age of four,” explained Nic. “I started learning how to play the violin when I was seven or eight.”
Although an interest in singing and playing the violin might seem like regular hobbies for a child to pick up on, for Nic, it was almost as though it were a predestined love laid out before her by her father.
“My dad taught me guitar and I learned piano because my dad bought me one, so I taught myself,” Nic elaborated.
Her father enjoyed music, as well, playing both the guitar and bass. His interest was passed along to his daughter.
Since her toddler years, Nic has loved to sing and even performed in front of an audience at an early age. One of her earliest memories of her singing is of her at five years old.
“[I was] five years old in church, singing Jesus Loves Me for a talent show and then after I was done singing, I said–in an Elvis voice–‘thank you, thank you, thank you very much.'”
Her spunky personality as a child was influenced by her love of Elvis Presley and “oldies songs,” as she describes it. Along with Elvis, Nic also enjoys listening to The Archie’s, The Temptations, Johnny Cash, Frank Valentine, The Four Seasons, and Michael Jackson.
Nic’s musical performances in church didn’t stop after that talent show ended. In fact, music was what drew her to develop a deeper relationship with God and strengthen her faith.
Growing up in a pentecostal Assemblies of God church, Nic was surrounded by music being an important part of how one serves the Lord. The worship portion of Sunday services stood out to Nic.
“I felt a calling to lead worship,” she said. Nic soon answered the call and became a youth worship leader at 14 years old. Her voice–being able to sing as both a soprano and alto–allowed the church congregation to ease into a holy worship. Many who were in the worship services that Nic led often felt as though her voice was able to usher in the Holy Spirit and claimed it was a gift.
Along with leading worship, Nic also likes to write her own music. In her early teen years, she often wrote her own song lyrics and coupled it with music she created on the piano. Lately, however, she has been faced with an unwelcome obstacle.
“Writers block. When I get it, I stop doing a lot of artist things,” she explained, referring to her other artistic endeavors, such as drawing in addition to playing music. However, she hopes that when inspiration strikes she will be able to start up again.
Although her love of music was very strong in her younger years, as Nic got older, she did not feel compelled to pursue it professionally.
“I didn’t wanna be broke,” Nic claimed. “I’m just kidding! I found a greater passion: helping people and science and a fascination of the brain.”
Currently, Nic is in her first year of college, studying biology and psychology, hoping to one day become a neurosurgeon. However, her love for music will always remain a constant in her life, being one of the main things that makes her genuinely happy.
Coming out in the mid 1950’s the genre of Rock and Roll had featured in the United States. Being a combination of “black culture and white spending power” the sounds we all know and love had come to form. The hard-driving, blues rhythmic of rock and roll was notably claimed by Alan Freed, he was amongst the few to say their music on the radio was rock and roll. But lets be real, we all know who was the face of rock and roll, none other than The King himself, Elvis Presley.
Now Rock and roll always had a sense of sexuality, and Presley the handsome young man he was sure had some of that sense in his music. But it wasn’t merely his devilish looks and seductivemusic that helped rock and roll become what it is, it was that he was the merger for both black and white people to go past their, problems and issues, and just rock out and listen to music. It also helped black singers fit with “rockabilly” performers, who were generally white. The unique merger also went off to appeal to one great audience, American teenagers, because let’s face it parents and adults didn’t really listen to music then, like really, really listened.
As Rock and Roll began to hit the big screen, being played in movies; that had key characters that marked defiance, it started becoming something new for these teenagers. It started to become a s symbol of rebellion, and defiance. With this newfound attitude, many parents, and religious folk began calling it the “devils music”.
Needing to find a way to amend the backlash to what Rock and Roll gotten, the music industry chose to have less risqué versions of previous songs re-recorded but they were done so by different artists. This led to a change of Rock and Roll, because by now it was closer to the end of the 50’s and Presley was in the army and other artists either died or changed their genres. The once was feeling of rock and roll changed into something different, the music seemed more planned and more thought out. Now it is more considerably known as just Rock, and not so much with the roll.
To listen to some tunes click HERE to see the Spotify playlist with many popular songs from the beginning of rock and roll. (feel free to add some songs too)
Picture this: you’re in a bar by yourself having your favorite drink, trying to escape all your worries. Then, in walks the piano man, sitting on his bench, taking all of your troubles away.
On today’s agenda, I’ll be talking about Billy Joel’s Piano Man. Even if one claims they’ve never heard a song by Billy Joel, you’re sure to enlighten them that they have by simply playing the opening tune of this song. It’s popular harmonica riff cannot be forgotten and it is recognized by many people, whether they are intense music fans or simply just casual listeners.
Before diving into the nitty gritty of the song, let’s take a few moments to establish some background info about it first. Piano Man was released on November 2, 1973. While spending six months in hiding due to an inescapable record contract, Billy Joel had been earning his living wage through playing piano at a bar. Finally, after all was settled with his unwanted contract, Billy Joel signed with Columbia Records, where he soon after produced PianoMan.
As previously mentioned, one of the most prominent aspects of this song is the harmonica riff that plays as soon as that song starts. Billy Joel uses a diatonic harmonica when performing this song. The diatonic is also known as the “blues” harmonica and is made up of ten holes that can produce sound by blowing or drawing air into the holes.
When one listens to the harmonica riff on its own without any other instruments in the song being played, it sounds lonely. This feeling of loneliness is not originally felt in the song due to the accompaniment of the others instruments. However, on its own, the true bluesy nature of the harmonica is emphasized, causing the listener to share Billy Joel’s sentiments. It’s possible that Billy Joel chose to play harmonica in this song in order to highlight his own feelings at the time he was working as a piano man in a bar. Instead of making music like he had wanted to, he was caught in the middle of musical politics, forcing him to put his artistic endeavors to a halt.
Since listening to the song with only the harmonica playing is not the usual way a person would hear the song, it comes off as strange and some might say it even feels wrong. However, without the harmonica, the song would be incomplete, as I discovered when listening to a version where the harmonica tune is converted into piano. The piano cover causes the song to feel more upbeat and takes away the slight sense of melancholy that we picked up on with the harmonica.
The harmonica plays an important role throughout the song. Had it not been included, the song would feel incomplete. It has a special quality being that it supports the other instruments throughout the song, allowing it to carry the song while also managing to not remain in the spotlight the entire time.
YouTube Live performance of: Linkin Park and Friends: Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington.
The world entered a state of shock on July 20, 2017 when news broke that Linkin Park lead singer Chester Bennington had died from an apparent suicide.
Music lovers all across the world began to mourn his death and even casual listeners shared their grief as one of the US’s most popular alternative rock bands suffered an unanticipated blow. Bennington’s death hit the music scene especially hard, following the death of musician Chris Cornell of Soundgarden–and one of Bennington’s close friends–which occurred just two months prior. Many have speculated that it was Cornell’s death that caused Bennington to suffer from depression, leading him to take his own life.
In response to his death, Linkin Park chose to cancel their North American tour. However, three months later, they held a concert in honor of Bennington, called “Linkin Park and Friends: Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington.” Held in the Hollywood Bowl, but was streamed on youtube live, for everyone to see worldwide.
The tribute opens with Mike Shinoda, co-founder of Linkin Park, at the keyboard playing a medley of the band’s songs Robot Boy, The Messenger, and Iridescent.
(Opening number from 2:00-7:40)
By starting the tribute with Robot Boy, the audience is welcomed with a sense of comfort and belonging. The melody of the song reflects the meaning behind the lyrics:
“And you’re sure you’ve hurt in a way that no one will ever know. But someday the weight of the world will give you the strength to go.”
Although Shinoda doesn’t recite the lyrics, the message behind the words is still carried in the music since the audience understands the meaning behind the song. Shinoda then starts playing The Messenger:
“when life leaves us blind, love keeps us kind”
The lyrics resonates with the audience due to the relevance of the words; the world was left blinded and taken off guard by Bennington’s untimely death, but with the love of one another, they can continue to find a life worth living. This message of hope is continued on when Shinoda begins to sing Iridescent, with the lyrics saying:
“Remember all the sadness and frustration and let it go.”
The concert continues with many more of Linkin Park’s hits along with appearances by other bands and artists, such as Blink-182, members of Avenged Sevenfold, Steve Aoki, Ilsey Juber, and more.
However, the one song that stands out the most among the others on the setlist is One More Light from their recent album that goes by the same name.
The lyrics state:
“Just ‘cause you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. If they say, who cares if one more light goes out in a sky of a million stars? It flickers, flickers. Who cares when someone’s time runs out if a moment is all we are? We’re quicker, quicker. Who cares if one more light goes out? Well, I do.”
The song’s lyrics supported the concert’s hope to raise awareness regarding depression and suicide.
After a rendition of one of the band’s most popular songs, In the End, with Bennington’s vocals being sung by the audience, Talinda, Bennington’s wife, entered the stage and shared a moving speech. In her speech, Talinda declared that it was time to give mental health the same importance that physical health is given, partnering with a foundation entitled ChangeDirection.org which raises awareness regarding mental health issues and addiction, two battles that Talinda watched her husband face in his lifetime.
The tribute ends with the chorus of Bleed It Out, with all performers on the stage. The song soon shifts back to the chorus of The Messenger, repeating the words that Shinoda sang at the beginning of the concert:
“When life leaves us blind, love keeps us kind”
Leaving the audience with the message of hope and love that welcomed them.
The Icelandic band called Of Monsters And Men was created after, female lead singer, Nanna Bryndis wanted to change her solo career around. In an interview with Independent Philly she explains how they grouped up:
“I used to play solo for a while and called myself Songbird. I got my friend Brynjar to help me out and play guitar on some shows. The Raggi followed and was playing glockenspiel and melodica and singing. Then before Músiktilraunir, a music competition in Iceland, we were like, Ok let’s become a proper band and that’s when Arnar joined. Then before Iceland Airwaves festival 2010 we added Kiddi Palli and Árni because we wanted to make our sound bigger for that show, and they stuck around, so now we are six family members. Party of six!”
After the group came to be, they went off to Musiktilraunir, which is a sort of battle of the bands in Iceland. They won the battle in 2010 and soon after they got a record deal and created their first album.
The band’s first album My Head Is An Animal, was only released in Iceland in 2011. Of Monsters And Men where able to release their album worldwide in 2012, via Universal Records. The genre of their music is much like Mumford and Sons, very folk-pop like.
The album sets with a total of twelve tracks, all of which that the songs go to the length of four minutes or more. which is not bad but with many songs it can feel like a drag, especially when there is more than one slow tempo songs. Such songs being Slow and Steady, From Finner (which is drum heavy with a good rhythm),Love Love Love, Sloom, andYellow Lights(which has a beautiful crescendo however it does not help with the overall slowness of the song). That is five out of the twelve tracks, unless you are into these slow melodies that album will feel like a long trip
The more upbeat tracks consist of Mountain Sound and Little Talks. Which were the most circulated songs in the U.S.
Then you have the songs that are difficult to describe, because they’re slow but fast altogether, so I leave it to the audience what they think they’re considered. Personally King And Lionheart, Six Weeks, Your Bones and Lakehouseis the bands uniqueness of sound added to the bunch.
Even though the album is very lengthy it can overall be extremely soothing. With the different instruments and duet singing it makes up a beautiful mix of sounds together.
Nate Feuerstein, better known as NF, has been in the rap and hip-hop game for a little over four years. Starting in 2014, with his EP called NF, to just last year in 2017 with his album Perception hitting number one on the charts of the Billboard 200.
The first track of the album is Intro III. Like his past two Intros this one has a story/ confessional feel to it. However, Intro III is different than the others; it is not in the consciousness of NF, but in fact seems more like a bottled up emotion. NF’s character is not in the Intro until the end. Assuming that it is an emotion I would gather that it is fear, based off of information from the lyrics:
“You had me scared for a second, I though we were diggin’ my grave
We did, what, you don’t like bein’ afraid?
It’s a dose of your own medicine
What, you don’t like how it tastes?
My therapist told me don’t bury my issues, but I’ma be honest, man I’m feelin’ great!”
Outcast is exactly how it sounds, non-comformitive, and different. With relation to the album itself it is the track with a greater flow of rap and less choruses. Outside of the album, Outcast resembles NF’s way of rapping, being different and unalike the other top rappers out there. He points this out in his lyric:
“Yeah, I guess I don’t fit the mold of rap
‘Cause I’m respectin’ women
“I heard your record, I was laughin at it”
Maybe they would like me more if I got a little graphic with it
Nah, I don’t wanna blend in with you little rappin’ idiots, I’d rather be the outcast
I ain’t never puttin’ out trash”
In an interview with Lifefm, NF describes why he’s different than other rappers:
“It said in the song it just like didn’t do it for me it…when you’re younger you just kind of do what you see other people do just because it’s a natural thing to do…I’m really into hip-hop so I would just do what I watched other people do and talk about what I saw other people do yeah it just didn’t do it for me man I wanted to be different and music became something different for me personally.” (mentioned at 02:11 of video)
NF may not conform to other rappers but many of his own songs match each other with same qualities. Green Lights, Dreams, and Destiny these three tracks are all about going after your dreams and fulfilling them and your destiny. They are all good songs and have different perspectives–from having the dream, to knowing it is your destiny, then to finally just pushing through and eventually you will have your street full of green lights to blow through. Personally a good flow to the songs is to listen to them as Dreams, Destiny, Green Lights.
With having dreams it takes hard work to really making it. 10 Feet Downand Remember This are the two songs remind you to work hard but to also remind you that there will be sacrifices. Both bring up the metaphor of a cup and that if you want something you have to fill it up.
Let’s go on and talk about track six of the album, which is a banger, but don’t be deceived because it is not about good vibes. Let You Down is relatable on many levels, because let’s be honest now, we all have let somebody down in our lives. Also on Spotify this is the top played song in Perception showing currently with a total amount of over 273 million plays.
“Let you down is about like a lot of different things for me it’s like some things some present things that are going on in my life some things that happened in my past.”
Who ever said bangers needed to be all hyped up, anyway? The realness and rawness in this track has the W in my book.
NF has been very open about himself in all his albums, but very little is known about his family, to the exception of his mother’s overdose that he raps about in a previous album. In My Life there is slight insight to a sibling of his:
“You say, “Mom was always proud” and played the videos of us as kids, I get it”
There is a lot of hardships in this song, NF talks about their sibling being an alcoholic, and smoker, and how they never really fixed issues.
Now while the song seems repetitive with the chorus, and the constant snare tapping, it still is deep and emotional.
Every great album has that one song, the song that is alright but just doesn’t really cut it. You’re Special is that song. Don’t get me wrong it is very sweet–possibly should be considered a ballad–and it is a song to his girlfriend Bridgette Doremus. In all honesty, the slow repetition is the song’s downfall. Perhaps if there were more instruments it could’ve been more successful. Being the least played song on the album, Spotify shows it has a total of just 3 million plays, it does not compare to Let You Down.
But let’s give it to the couple because NF’s lyric turned to reality:
“She got me thinking’ maybe i’ma have to put a ring on it, girl”
On the topic of love, this bring us to track ten, If You Want Love. Coming second to most played on the album on Spotify it ranks with over 12 million plays.
The song could also be considered a ballad, like You’re Special, due to the slowness of it. Arguably, it is more successful because there is a deeper meaning that everyone, fans, not fans, can relate to. That meaning is that love is a big thing that is always changing. And with love it is usually better to change with it than to hold onto the past of it, because it is always more harmful holding on.
NF has had past failed relationships, who hasn’t? Lie and 3 A.M. are about those failed times. From a liar to someone who hurt him. Nothing like a song to help release that past.
From the beginning of his career NF has said he will keep his music real and honest, also known as being a hundred (which came from his previous songs Realand Therapy Session). With his songs Knowand One Hundred that’s what he does. In Know he’s being honest talking about his accomplishments and he’s being honest in his chorus:
“I wanna know what it’s like to be happy
I wanna know what it’s like to wake up in the morning and feel like it’s real when I’m laughin’ (yeah!)
I wanna know what it’s like to sit down with my friends and feel like they might understand me (woo!)
I wanna know that the people around me care less about Grammys and more about family”
NF wants to know these things, and wants to know if other top celebrities who are Grammy winners keep it real. With One Hundred it is straight to the point, he said he will keep it a hundred and that is what he is doing,
There is nothing more stronger than a great ending, Outro depicts that. It starts of saying how dedicated he is to his music and then it goes to a more internal personal struggle that he doesn’t know how his fans will react to future music. Towards the end of the song, he realizes that he does not care to impress others with his music. Instead, it is revealed that he started his movement to create music for those who needed it, not for attention from those who don’t. NF delivers all the time.
So now that you’re all caught up time for the song, the joyous song that many pet lovers celebrate to. The song that nobody really knows how to say the Zulu words, and seems to be generational repetitiveness of butchery, the song that starts the whole movie off, The Circle of Life. Now there are two versions of the song, both of which are equally amazing, the other more pop version of the song is sang by Elton John himself, he takes away the African language and switches some words around, but who can complain he wrote it after all. The Circle of Life was written by Elton John and Tim Rice, the version that is played in the movie is sang by Lebo M and Carmen Twillie.
Cliffs 