Why does it seem that everyone, girls especially like guys who can sing really high. I don't have a really high voice, my highest note is a "G" above middle "C". There are kids at my school who can hit high "C"s without even blinking. Think of all of your favorite guy singers on the radio. If they don't sing at least an "A" I would be surprised. In a world where everone sings high, the higher the better is truely the way of the world. To show this, here are some examples.
Michael Jackson. He may be gone but there is no diputing that his voice was the highest that most people have ever heard. I wonder why.....
My personal favorite of the idol contestants. He can sing higher than these songs would normally ever require you to. So he rewrote them to be even higher than normal.
Ryan Toby is amazing. Just listen to that note at 2:30. That's all I have to say.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
The Movies' Composer
Can you guess what the movies Jaws, Star Wars, ET, Schindler's List, Superman, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Home Alone, Jurassic Park, and Saving Private Ryan have in common? If you guessed the composer of their music you are brilliant and correct. John Williams is one of the greatest composers of movie music ever. These and countless other scores have won him hundreds of awards and recognitions. He writes moving music with a unique style that is all his own. I hope you enjoy his music as much as I do.
This is a medley of some of his most famous works. They fit nicely together.
This song is one of the most moving pieces ever. you could almost cry every time you here it from the beauty, passion, and emotion of the piece.
This song oozes magic and fits perfectly to Harry Potter. John Williams only wrote the music to the first three movies.
This song doesn't need pictures for you to guess the whole story line. Again very emotional.
This is a medley of some of his most famous works. They fit nicely together.
This song is one of the most moving pieces ever. you could almost cry every time you here it from the beauty, passion, and emotion of the piece.
This song oozes magic and fits perfectly to Harry Potter. John Williams only wrote the music to the first three movies.
This song doesn't need pictures for you to guess the whole story line. Again very emotional.
The Cartoon
Phineas and Ferb is a decently good kids cartoon on Disney channel. The best part of this show is the music. The story line is about two step brothers who are spending their summer building outrageous contraptions to do impossible tasks. Some of the shows are actually good and they aren't all about the same subject. My favorite one is when they get their parents favorite band back together for their anniversary. The music was awesome.
The first member is the lead singer and guitarist. He is always on board with the reunion because he says rock is his life. He tells the boys why he cares so much about music and says he will join.
The second member is the bassist and the fashion conscious one in the group. He isn't sure he wants to because he feels the bassist is never given enough credit. The boys convince him by saying that the band needs his style.
The final member is the drummer. He ended up as a librarian because he thought he lost his rhythm. The boys show him he hasn't and he joins again.
The performance is great and everyone is happy just like every other Disney ending. The band sounds great even though they haven't practiced in years and Phineas and Ferb's parents are all happy. I really do feel that the show has great music and if you get you should check it out. Comment on what you think so I know if I am alone in my opinion.
The first member is the lead singer and guitarist. He is always on board with the reunion because he says rock is his life. He tells the boys why he cares so much about music and says he will join.
The second member is the bassist and the fashion conscious one in the group. He isn't sure he wants to because he feels the bassist is never given enough credit. The boys convince him by saying that the band needs his style.
The final member is the drummer. He ended up as a librarian because he thought he lost his rhythm. The boys show him he hasn't and he joins again.
The performance is great and everyone is happy just like every other Disney ending. The band sounds great even though they haven't practiced in years and Phineas and Ferb's parents are all happy. I really do feel that the show has great music and if you get you should check it out. Comment on what you think so I know if I am alone in my opinion.
The Perfect Station
I am a very eclectic music listener. I love most types of music even if I don't like every song. That is a problem when I want to listen to the radio. How do you choose a station when you will only hear one type of music? The answer came to me in an online radio called pandora.com. Pandora asks you to give it a song or an artist's name. The station then looks at every song it has and picks songs by the same artist or in the same style. You can make multiple stations to have different types of music availible. By doing that you can switch from one type of music to another with one click. Not only that, but you can tell the site which songs it plays that you don't like and which you do. It figures out which songs are similar to each when it decides what to play after that so you eventually only hear songs that you will like. can this site do any wrong? It tells you about each artist, album, song, and the lyrics so you can sing along. You can buy the songs that you like, you can post your station on facebook, twitter, etc. it is hard to find anything I don't like. I only wish you could replay songs but it is still a radio station even though it is awsome. I highly suggest it to everyone, especially music fans.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
The Contests
As I look back at 2009 and the past decade, I see that we have made a lot of great music and we will be remembered for that even though I don't know for what genera most. But I already commented on that in my other post The Era of Musical Varience. What I want to talk about more is how people are being brought into entertainment by all types of media and who weren't originally famous or important.
The obvious starting point is American Idol. Starting with Kelly Clackson in the first season and continuing with Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Hicks, Jordin Sparks, David Cook, and Kris Allen, stars have been born from this show. The people who have won were nobodies and most are now stars on the radio. Some who haven't won became famous too like Clay Aiken, Chris Daughtry, and Adam Lambert. This was the show that set the precedent for the three judge panel: one nice, one mean, and one who is truthful, and mixed genders. American Idol was the show that started fulfilling peoples performing dreams.
The other show was America's got talent. This show was created by the makers of American Idol but was made to focus on all types of talents as opposed to only singing. However, all of the four winners; Bianca Ryan, Terry Fator, Neil E. Boyd, and Kevin Skinner; are singers, making it more of a singing show. No one however is really big off of this show, or at least not the way the people off American Idol are. Terry Fator is the most famous but it is for his Las Vegas show. The others either haven't done much or aren't good anymore.
The next way was by the internet. People were discovered on YouTube and became huge internet sensations. One of the biggest was Fred. Fred, also known as Lucas Cruikshank, started as just another kid posting videos on YouTube. He talks with a high squeaky voice and pretnds to be about half his age. He has now broken away from the internet and guest starred on iCarly and Hannah Montana, popular kids tv shows.
The internet has been used to show those who are amazing in other countries to us. Susan Boyle is the perfect example. She is a brilliant singer from Britain's Got Talent who showed the world how great she was via YouTube. In a day, everyone knew who she was and was completely in love. She is putting out a Christmas album and she has only been around for about six months!
We can create stars faster than ever and, one could argue, better. With the enhanced mediums through which we can listen to music, we have more access to these stars and we listen to more of them. The many opportunities to become famous make the statement "anyone can be a star" completely true. So who is going to be a star next?
The obvious starting point is American Idol. Starting with Kelly Clackson in the first season and continuing with Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Hicks, Jordin Sparks, David Cook, and Kris Allen, stars have been born from this show. The people who have won were nobodies and most are now stars on the radio. Some who haven't won became famous too like Clay Aiken, Chris Daughtry, and Adam Lambert. This was the show that set the precedent for the three judge panel: one nice, one mean, and one who is truthful, and mixed genders. American Idol was the show that started fulfilling peoples performing dreams.
The other show was America's got talent. This show was created by the makers of American Idol but was made to focus on all types of talents as opposed to only singing. However, all of the four winners; Bianca Ryan, Terry Fator, Neil E. Boyd, and Kevin Skinner; are singers, making it more of a singing show. No one however is really big off of this show, or at least not the way the people off American Idol are. Terry Fator is the most famous but it is for his Las Vegas show. The others either haven't done much or aren't good anymore.
The next way was by the internet. People were discovered on YouTube and became huge internet sensations. One of the biggest was Fred. Fred, also known as Lucas Cruikshank, started as just another kid posting videos on YouTube. He talks with a high squeaky voice and pretnds to be about half his age. He has now broken away from the internet and guest starred on iCarly and Hannah Montana, popular kids tv shows.
The internet has been used to show those who are amazing in other countries to us. Susan Boyle is the perfect example. She is a brilliant singer from Britain's Got Talent who showed the world how great she was via YouTube. In a day, everyone knew who she was and was completely in love. She is putting out a Christmas album and she has only been around for about six months!
We can create stars faster than ever and, one could argue, better. With the enhanced mediums through which we can listen to music, we have more access to these stars and we listen to more of them. The many opportunities to become famous make the statement "anyone can be a star" completely true. So who is going to be a star next?
The Ability to Talk
I was thinking about what an adult I know recently said and it made me wonder if they were right or not. This person said,
"When I was at the sales conference, my friends and I talked about how crucial
communication is for sales. We realized that in about five or ten years, when
the next generation takes over sales jobs, the companies will fall apart because
they don't have communication skills anymore. You can't use facebook to sell
advertising."And you know what? They are right. With more and more easier forms of communication, people just don't sit down and talk.
Think about how much time you spend on Facebook, Twitter, txting, or other virtual forms of communication. For most of you, it probably quite a bit. The average teen, acording to this site and this site and many others, spends over 30 hours on the computer doing non-school related work. That is a lot of time and it is time that could have been spent talking to friends personally instead of while you are sitting at a computer, typing in a chat bar. The man who said you can't sell things on Facebook is right. Are you more likly to spent thousands of dollars in your companies advertising money while you sit at a computer not even able to hear or see the person you are giving it to or if you are eating at a fancy resturant, a man in a suit comes and firmly shakes your hand, you make small talk and enjoy the meal all while he explains his idea on how to promote your buisness and make you money? Almost everyone would choose the last one and it's clear why. People like personal meetings but they don't like to work at setting those types of meetings up. We would choose the first choice because we are lazy and feel more comfortable not talking to people even though we enjoy doing so when someone else does the work. So, do I think that advertising will disappear and buisnesses will fail because of it? No. I believe that, since we enjoy face to face conversation naturally, there will always be someone who knows how to talk to people and can sell advertising.
Friday, December 11, 2009
The Hill
My school just got done with three consecutive snow days due to about a foot or more of snow we got over two days. I must admit that I didn't do much homework, (I probably should have as we are now back and teachers could expect it to be done), but what I did do was go sledding. There are several nice hills around my house and I love to sled but given the sore muscles I have now I wonder if it is worth the results to go sledding.
Sledding is a strange activity in the first place. You start at the top of the hill and prepare to go down. You are bundled up so much that you end up sweating in the negative temperatures of the Iowa winter. You sit or lay down on your sled depending on what type you have and figure out the path the you will take down (you will almost never go on that path but you try to figure it out anyway). You propel yourself down some way and you feel the rush of the wind in your face as you smoothly glide across the frozen ground. If you're lucky, your sled will slowly stop and you can climb off but usually you will roll into the snow and be covered in the frozen white mess.
The next step is the crazy part. Standing at the bottom of the hill, you begin the long trek towards the top again, a journey that will take much longer than it took you to get down and be much more tiring. You trudge through the snow, dragging your sled behind you and you realize how smart the invention of the ski lift was. As you mount the top of the hill you feel this sense of accomplishment and relief to be done with this horrible journey. That is when all sense leaves you and you decide to go sliding down once more, starting the cycle all over again.
So what is it that makes sledding fun? Maybe it is the adreneline rush from going down fast and with no control. That's my only guess but even though I don't know for sure why I like sledding I do know this: once I get started, I never want to stop.
Merry Christmas and comment if you figure out what makes sledding fun please.
pcture from google images at this site
Sunday, December 6, 2009
The Christmas Songs
These are some of my favorite Christmas songs. Hope you enjoy them. Merry Christmas.
The Truth About the Holidays
Merry Christmas. Happy Chanukah. Happy Kwanzaa. Merry Christmachanukwanzakuh. These are all was people greet each other for the holidays and all except that the latter are quite common. People have turned more to saying "Happy Holidays" because that is truly a universal saying for this time of year. "This Time of Year" has a new meaning now then it did in the past. In this post, I will address some of the major differences I have noticed in my years of life and whether they are good or bad.
The first thing is how extended the holiday time has become. A Local radio station in my town, 104.5 KDAT, has been playing Christmas music since November 1! I love Christmas music but two months is slightly excessive. It is worse because I don't think the station has much more than five days worth of music so by about day six the station is going down hill and by the end of the two months... *phew*... you never want to hear a Christmas song again. Another way is the advertisements and decorations that stores put out. I remember going into stores this year and seeing Santa and vampire statues out at the same time. Why must we advertise a Christmas sale beginning in October before we have stopped celebrating Halloween? The deals keep getting better until Christmas too so it isn't just one big sale that continues on and on.
The sales are pointless because I feel that in these hard economic times people don't want to think about Christmas for months. In my blog post about Halloween I explained that I feel like holidays are fading into the background and people don't care. I think this is shown in the fact that people aren't spending as much as they used to on gifts for their kids. Or at least they are not getting what they used to for that money because of the recession so they definitely are not buying more than they usually do. some holidays are fading away more than Christmas. I haven't heard much about Kwanzaa in years. Granted it wasn't a huge holiday before this but I used to at least see some recognition of it. Also, thanksgiving is being less extravagant to the point where it seems Black Friday is more celebrated than the holiday that makes it "the day after thanksgiving." Why do we do this to holidays that were only meant to bring us together? Christmas is expensive so it is more understandable that it would be easy to make it an understated holiday because people around the world have less money than usual. However, thanksgiving is not a gift giving holiday. The most expensive thing is the dinner and we should be happy that it brings family members that we haven't seen in a long time together in one spot more than we are worried about the cost of a turkey. And when it comes to Christmas, we seem to be loosing sight of what the holiday is truly about. I am not one to quote the bible or talk about religion on my blog but Christmas is about celebrating Jesus Christ's birthday. Whether or not you are christian, he was a person and most religions believe he did some pretty amazing things when he was alive. If we focus on that, it would be easier to not give as much for gifts and still be happy.
The issue is that kids want more every year than they did the last year and they want more expensive gifts too. I was recently at a third grade field trip and all the kids were asked what they wanted for Christmas. Answers like a DSi or an iPod or a computer were popular and one kid even said they wanted a motorcycle. The sad part is that most of those kids will actually get those gifts and I don't even have most of those things. Even parents that have very little money spend what they do have on Christmas presents for their kids because we can't deny kids what they want for some reason. If we could learn to get kids what they need and what is reasonable for them to have then we would have less trouble with our neglect of Christmas because of financial reasons.
One of the things that has bothered me is that Merry Christmas seems to be dying with the holiday. Because I go to a public school, the teachers can't say anything about religion. I used to go on a Christmas break from school when I was younger. Being that Christmas is a religious holiday, however, we can no longer go on a Christmas Break; it has to be either a Holiday Break or a Winter Break because those are non-religious terms. I disagree with this though. This isn't my bias because I am Christian, this is me saying that I would go on a Chanukah Break if that was when we got out or that was the main religion of the area but neither of those is true. America was founded by Christians and consiquently there are more Christians in this country. I don't think that saying Christmas Break is disrespectful to other religions or a way of trying to convert people to Christianity. It is clearly no coincidence that we get out on December 22 from school; It is three days before Christmas. If we got out from the beginning to the end of Chanukah then we would call it Chanukah Break. In our attempt to be fair to all religions because they all happen during this time we have created a general neutrality toward how we address them. If we could all learn to accept all religions we could all be happy saying our respective holiday greetings to others and not have to worry what they would think.
The first thing is how extended the holiday time has become. A Local radio station in my town, 104.5 KDAT, has been playing Christmas music since November 1! I love Christmas music but two months is slightly excessive. It is worse because I don't think the station has much more than five days worth of music so by about day six the station is going down hill and by the end of the two months... *phew*... you never want to hear a Christmas song again. Another way is the advertisements and decorations that stores put out. I remember going into stores this year and seeing Santa and vampire statues out at the same time. Why must we advertise a Christmas sale beginning in October before we have stopped celebrating Halloween? The deals keep getting better until Christmas too so it isn't just one big sale that continues on and on.
The sales are pointless because I feel that in these hard economic times people don't want to think about Christmas for months. In my blog post about Halloween I explained that I feel like holidays are fading into the background and people don't care. I think this is shown in the fact that people aren't spending as much as they used to on gifts for their kids. Or at least they are not getting what they used to for that money because of the recession so they definitely are not buying more than they usually do. some holidays are fading away more than Christmas. I haven't heard much about Kwanzaa in years. Granted it wasn't a huge holiday before this but I used to at least see some recognition of it. Also, thanksgiving is being less extravagant to the point where it seems Black Friday is more celebrated than the holiday that makes it "the day after thanksgiving." Why do we do this to holidays that were only meant to bring us together? Christmas is expensive so it is more understandable that it would be easy to make it an understated holiday because people around the world have less money than usual. However, thanksgiving is not a gift giving holiday. The most expensive thing is the dinner and we should be happy that it brings family members that we haven't seen in a long time together in one spot more than we are worried about the cost of a turkey. And when it comes to Christmas, we seem to be loosing sight of what the holiday is truly about. I am not one to quote the bible or talk about religion on my blog but Christmas is about celebrating Jesus Christ's birthday. Whether or not you are christian, he was a person and most religions believe he did some pretty amazing things when he was alive. If we focus on that, it would be easier to not give as much for gifts and still be happy.
The issue is that kids want more every year than they did the last year and they want more expensive gifts too. I was recently at a third grade field trip and all the kids were asked what they wanted for Christmas. Answers like a DSi or an iPod or a computer were popular and one kid even said they wanted a motorcycle. The sad part is that most of those kids will actually get those gifts and I don't even have most of those things. Even parents that have very little money spend what they do have on Christmas presents for their kids because we can't deny kids what they want for some reason. If we could learn to get kids what they need and what is reasonable for them to have then we would have less trouble with our neglect of Christmas because of financial reasons.
One of the things that has bothered me is that Merry Christmas seems to be dying with the holiday. Because I go to a public school, the teachers can't say anything about religion. I used to go on a Christmas break from school when I was younger. Being that Christmas is a religious holiday, however, we can no longer go on a Christmas Break; it has to be either a Holiday Break or a Winter Break because those are non-religious terms. I disagree with this though. This isn't my bias because I am Christian, this is me saying that I would go on a Chanukah Break if that was when we got out or that was the main religion of the area but neither of those is true. America was founded by Christians and consiquently there are more Christians in this country. I don't think that saying Christmas Break is disrespectful to other religions or a way of trying to convert people to Christianity. It is clearly no coincidence that we get out on December 22 from school; It is three days before Christmas. If we got out from the beginning to the end of Chanukah then we would call it Chanukah Break. In our attempt to be fair to all religions because they all happen during this time we have created a general neutrality toward how we address them. If we could all learn to accept all religions we could all be happy saying our respective holiday greetings to others and not have to worry what they would think.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
The Video that won't Stay Linked
In September, I watched Fame and posted videos relating to it. You can see that here. However, looking at this post is almost pointless because one of the videos I have posted six different times and it refused to stay available. It always exists for a while and then it disappears from YouTube saying that there was a copyright problem and the video had been removed. This makes me wonder: What do you have to do to put a video on the Internet and not interfere with copyright laws? I love having all the videos we do on YouTube, but most of them aren't probably legal or shouldn't be. I don't think that videos should be posted of people's music or anything else because it denies the creator the money they would have gotten had people been forced to buy them off something like iTunes. As an aspiring musician I understand why the artist that made "Hold your Dream" in Fame would want the video removed so they can make money off the sale of it, but why haven't any of the other videos that are on YouTube been deleted? If we are going to have a rule and only partially enforce it, what is the point of having the rule? There are some videos that can't be embedded and that makes since; if the video can't be taken to another sight then it can be more selectively observed. But the video I posted was perfectly fine to embed; it simply disappeared from YouTube after I did. I feel that YouTube should make a more consistent rule on what can and can't be put on its sight because of copyright laws. It would be more fair to artists and those of us embedding videos.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
