Posts tagged ‘music monday’

March 12, 2012

Music Monday: Skyscraper

Confession: one of the girls in my Girl Scout troop doesn’t know my name. She keeps calling me “Miss Lovato” and I just stopped correcting her, because I’m totally fine if she gets me confused with Demi Lovato. If any of you have been following the Team Selena/Team Demi nonsense, it’s hard not to think that Selena would be the pretty clear winner of that fight. She’s dating Justin Bieber and is on the cover of Cosmpolitan. And I make no secret of it: I love Selena Gomez and listen to her music all the time.

But let’s not forget Demi! She’s been very open and honest about her eating disorder and her anger management problems and her self-harm. Life as a teen idol can be tough, but I think it’s cool that she’s talking about it. Selena Gomez is, let’s face it, pretty much a perfect human being. Demi’s not, and, well, neither are most of us.

Her comeback song, “Skyscraper,” is not my personal favorite. But it seems to speak to a lot of teens, especially ones who have been/are being bullied. (The top comment on that video right now is: “I’ve been through a lot these past months. Demi helped me. She almost saved my life. She is the reason why I didn’t kill myself. She is the reason why I’m still breathing.Thank you Demi. Thank you for everything you did. You’re an angel.”) So good for you, Demi.

February 20, 2012

Music Monday: What Time Is It

Sigh, you guys, we had some weirdly warm weather for a few weeks and then it abruptly went back to being winter. Stupid winter.

I’m trying to warm myself up with summery thoughts–like High School Musical 2, set during the extremely dramatic summer between the kids’ junior and senior year of high school. Also: this movie came out in 2007. Almost five years ago. Eek!

Still, it’s a fun summery song. With some pretty sweet dance moves. My favorite part is when they do the roller coaster wave. Also when Zac Efron slides down the hall on his tummy. Like a penguin.

February 13, 2012

Music Monday: Like Wow!

Last week I was perusing Give Me Something To Read and came across an article entitled “The Devil in Greg Dark.” I started reading it and was confused to see that it was from 2001–Give Me Something to Read usually posts recent articles. But I quickly realized that the article was really about Leslie Carter, who died a few weeks ago at the age of 25. I didn’t remember Carter’s music from my own tween years, and I learned that her full album was never released.

It’s a fascinating article, ostensibly about Gregory Dark, who produced Carter’s only music video, but also about why being a teen idol is not necessarily the best job going:

“Fourteen-year-olds are not stupid,” Craig Fanning answers calmly. “They can understand what you tell them to do. You tell Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera or Mandy Moore to do something, believe me, they do it, no questions asked, because they’re professionals. What Leslie has to learn is that this is not about her. It’s not about Leslie Carter. In fact, she has learn to void herself of Leslie Carter and become a professional.”

The whole thing is pretty awful and makes Leslie’s early retirement seem entirely reasonable.

Interestingly, the Village Voice called Leslie’s unreleased album the best bubblegum album of the entire ’97-Y2K era.

Here, for your musical enjoyment, is Leslie’s only single, “Like Wow!”

Rest in peace, Leslie 🙁

February 6, 2012

Music Monday: Mahna Mahna

Hey guys. It’s been awhile since I blogged, and the reasons are: final exams, extended travels, and laziness. I don’t really feel bad about it, though. I mean, I post at a YA blog. It’s not like I took two months off from curing cancer or something. Still, hope you didn’t miss me too much.

During my extended hiatus, I took my Girl Scout troop to see the Muppet movie. We loved it, obviously. The soundtrack is great, and we’ve been listening to it during our meetings while we do art projects and such.

And now you all have Mahna Mahna in your heads. You are welcome.

December 6, 2011

Music Tuesday: Drummer Boy

OK, there are a lot of posts I want to write, including some book reviews and all of my intense thoughts about the Breaking Dawn movie. But those are going to have to wait until I’m finished with this semester of grad school.

For now, let me just say that I have been listening to Justin Bieber’s Christmas album a lot.

First of all, his voice changed?! When did that happen?

Second of all, he has a song called “Drummer Boy” and Busta Rhymes raps in the middle of it and it’s amazing. I cannot even put into words how much enjoyment I have gotten out of this song.

I would like, if I may, to quote Busta Rhymes’s rap in its entirety:

Lemme get straight to it. Yo.
At the table with the family, havin’ dinner,
Blackberry on our hip and then it gave a little flicker.
Then I took a look to see before it activates the ringer;
Came to realize my homie Bieber hit me on the Twitter.
Then I hit him back despite I had some food up on my finger,
Sippin’ eggnog with a little sprinkle of vanilla,
Even though it’s kinda cold, pullin’ out a chinchilla,
Bieber hit me back and said, “Let’s make it hot up in the winter.”
I said, “Cool.” Ya know Imma deliver,
Let’s collaborate and make the holiday a little bigger.
Before we work I gotta get this off,
See the other family members and drop gifts off.
Then I’m headed to the studio cause ain’t nothing stopping how
You know we bout to turn it up and really get it poppin’ now.
People everywhere and all our Twitter followers,
“Merry Christmas, Kwanza, happy Hanukkah!”

GOD. THAT IS ART. What part do I like best? How Busta Rhymes’s phone apparently rings whenever he gets a tweet? How Busta Rhymes tweets at the dinner table despite having food on his finger? How Busta Rhymes wears chinchilla fur to stay warm? How Busta Rhymes wishes all of his Twitter followers warm holiday greetings?

How can I decide, it’s all so good. I’d also like to give a shout-out to my favorite part of Bieber’s rap:

It’s crazy how some people say, say they don’t care,
When there’s people on the street with no food; it’s not fair.
It’s about time for you to act merrily;
It’s about time for you to give to charity.
Rarely do people even wanna help at all,
‘Cause they warm by the fire, getting toys and their dolls.
Not thinking there’s a family out hungry and cold,
Wishin’ wishin’ that they had somebody they could hold.
So I think some of you need to act bold;
Give a can to a drive, let’s change the globe.

I actually just un-ironically love that part. It’s the complete opposite of John Mayer’s “Waiting for the World To Change,” which is probably my least favorite song of all time. Tell ’em, Bieber. Start a canned food drive! Save the world! Don’t wait for it to change! HOLLA!

November 28, 2011

Video Monday: Verbal Voguing

I’m not even going to apologize for being a bad blogger lately. You don’t own me!

Anyway, rather than post a teeny-bopper song this Monday, I thought I would instead share the ever-hilarious Louis Virtel’s thoughts on today’s collection of teen hearthrobs.

“Miley Cyrus, Kevin Jonas, Scar… all those Disney villains look the same to me.”

November 7, 2011

Music Monday: Round and Round

YOU GUYS, if this video does not make you want to immediately go out and buy a tan trenchcoat and giant sunglasses, then you must already own a tan trenchcoat and giant sunglasses.

Seriously, Selena Gomez is the coolest ever.

That is all.

October 24, 2011

Music Monday: Dinosaur

You guys, I love Ke$ha. Were you aware? She’s just so consistently hilarious and trashy. Love her. So, naturally, this summer when I found myself with a group of young children whose group was called “the dinosaurs,” my first response was to chant the first two lines of Ke$ha’s brilliant song, “Dinosaur”:

D-I-N-O-S-A you are
A dinosaur!

But then, to my horror, a 9-year-old girl said, “That’s a Ke$ha song!”

In one of my uncoolest-ever grownup moments, I blurted, “You are way too young to listen to Ke$ha!”

“No I’m not! I have her CD!”

“Well!! Ke$ha is not camp appropriate so we’re not going to sing any more of that song, okay! I just wanted to make sure everyone knew how to spell dinosaur!”

Let’s revisit those lyrics, shall we?

D-I-N-O-S-A, you are a dinosaur
D-I-N-O-S-A, you are a dinosaur
An O-L-D M-A-N, you’re just an old man
Hitting on me, what? You need a CAT scan

Old man, why are you staring at me?
Mac on me and my friends, it’s kind creepy
You should be prowling around the old folks home
Come on dude, leave us alone

At first we thought that it was kinda ill when
We saw that you were like a billion
And still out tryna make a killing
Get back to the museum

Of course! Just what every nine-year-old girl needs to be listening to. Of course, the first CD I ever bought was Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill, and I was in 6th grade. I was listening to her sing about going down on someone in a theater and I had no clue what that meant. If you had forced me to define it I probably would have guessed that Alanis was sitting on someone‘s lap. And anyway, I thought “Ironic” was a way better song. So deep, Alanis!

So, although my inner old person feels that nine-year-olds need Ke$ha the way someone of legal drinking age needs a black fly in their chardonnay, the truth is that girl probably thinks the song is about actual dinosaurs.

T-rex

D-I-N-O-S-A you are a dinosaur

Kids have been listening to music that was “inappropriate” for them since Elvis. Or earlier. I don’t know, I’m not a music historian. I’m just an avid Ke$ha fan who will one day learn how to keep her mouth shut around tween girls.

October 17, 2011

Music Monday: Tell Me Something I Don’t Know

I might have mentioned before that I love Selena Gomez. It’s true! I do. This was one of the first songs of hers that I heard. It’s featured in Another Cinderella Story and I highly recommend it for working out or just listening to it and feeling sassier.

I actually just watched that video for the first time and it is kind of weird. Selena is both a sexy maid and a sexy referee? What is happening?

However, this, the official video, is not the version of the song I first heard. This is:

Did you listen to both? Did you catch the difference? Listen to the random rapper at 1:46. In the Disney version:

Selena hit the track, like a surfer making waves

In the original version?

Selena hit the track, like Katrina making waves

(Note: on this particular video there are completely mis-transcribed lyrics on screen. Trust me. It’s “like Katrina making waves.”)

Last summer, my friends and I listened to the original version a bunch and always laughed at that line. Was there seriously a Hurricane Katrina reference in this tween pop song? Or was it supposed to be a reference to Katrina and the Waves? (Obscure, but less offensive.)

Finally, we did some research and came up with this from Wikipedia:

“Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” by Selena Gomez was released as a single on August 5, 2008 on iTunes[11] and a Radio Disney version (which removes the Hurricane Katrina reference) was released on September 9, 2008, on iTunes.

Controversial! Selena really is just like Hurricane Katrina.

October 10, 2011

Music Monday: Life’s What You Make It

Guys, somebody stole my laptop last night! To cheer myself up I am listening to mad tween pop. Join me, won’t you?

You’re so right, Ms. Montana. Life is what I make it. I shouldn’t let no small frustrations bring me down. I feel better already!