This Day in Music History...

So, this blog's due Friday, but I'm gonna do it today cause this week is BUSYYYYY.
So, I decided to see what happened today that was significant in the music world.

In 1963, The Beatles kickstarted their tour in Sweden by recieving bad reviews from a local pop reviewer, who said that the "Fab Four" should be grateful to the obnoxious screams of their fans that drowned out the group's "terrible performance".  He then added that The Beatles "were of no musical importance whatsoever and that their local support group, The Phantoms, decidedly outshone them."

So, first of all, I wondered why he could ever think that. And second, I decided to muddle through the interwebs and find out just who "The Phantoms" were.  This is literally the only video I could find...so here I give you the group that "outshone" The Beatles:

But, to be honest, I don't think it's half bad ;D

Today in 1964, The Rolling Stones performed for the first time on the famous Ed Sullivan Show, playing their hits "Around and Around" and "Time is On My Side".  “I promise you they’ll never be back on our show again,” were Ed Sullivan's exact words after riots broke out in the studios during their performance.  But, they ended up returning another 5 appearances on the show. 

Then, in 1986, for the first time in the history of EVER the top three spots on the Billboard Hot 100 were occupied by female artists. Cyndi Lauper's  "True Colors" triumphed at the No.1 position, followed by Tina Turner's "Typical Male" at No.2, then Janet Jackson's "When I Think Of You" settled at No. 3.
So, kudos to these three lovely ladies.

And, in conclusion, Happy 27th Birthday to Katy Perry! 

Your arm got bitten off by a shark? you're a firework. Hailey. *

My Life...

So, I guess there's a couple of things I'm gonna blog about tonight.  One, I'm going through one of those phases where I feel like I can only listen to like, five songs. and that's it.  So right now, I'm currently obsessed with:

• Kate Nash - Paris (The second song is Doo-Wah-Doo, and it's a good song but I definitely like Paris a lot more).
• Adele - Someone Like You (Despite this song being played every thirty seconds on the radio, I LOVE IT)
• The Who - Call Me Lightning
• Blink 182 - Wendy Clear
• The Beatles - All My Loving
• OneRepublic - Good Life

So, onto the second part of my blog.  I included Good Life in my playlist because I've listened to it pretty much constantly for the past week. This past Friday was Senior Night, and it was actually, surprisingly, pretty emotional for me. Us underclassmen in band made the seniors a slideshow that showed them from their freshman year until now, and Good Life was the first song that played.  We also made them each a little plaque thing with their name on it, and everyone could sign it.  I never thought I would actually cry, but I did.  It's so weird, because these are the kids that helped me around the high school my freshman year, and made the past two years of high school as enjoyable as they were, and next year, they won't be here.

I'll always think of them as my sophomores, and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to meet all these amazing people and can call some of them my best friends. I think I speak for a bunch of people when I say, Class of 2012, you will definitely be missed <3

And in other words, before I go, I also have more sad news.  Paul McCartney is now married. Again.

Oh well. Maybe someday he'll realize we're meant to be ;]

That's all for now :]

Emily.

OK Go

I'm sure all of you have seen Here It Goes Again music video. You know, the treadmill one.  This is video that first got me into the band OK Go, and I've pretty much been obbsessed with them ever since.

Their music videos are crazy and inventive, and I could literally just look them up for hours.  Damien Kulash, the lead singer, and Tim Nordwind, the bassist, met at Interlochen Arts Camp when they were 11 years old. They kept in touch after camp because of their similar tastes in music, and often sent mix tapes to each other.  They met Andy Duncan, who was to be OK Go's first guitarist and keyboardist, in high school (He would later be replaced by Andy Ross in 2005). They met their future drummer, Dan Konopka, in college.  OK Go was officially formed in 1998.  Kulash and Nordwind's art teacher at Interlochen would always say, "OK...Go!" whenever she had them start an art project, and this was the inspiration for the band's name.

So far, OK Go has released three albums. Their first album was released in 2002 and it was self-titled.  Their second album, Oh No, was released in 2005, just before the departure of guitarist and keyboardist Andy Duncan.  Then, with Andy Ross under their wing, OK Go released their third album, Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky, in 2010.

So far, I have like their first self titled album the best. The others are good, but I just like their sound the best in their first album.

Some really good songs from their first album you should listen to are:

• Get Over It
• Don't Ask Me 
• What To Do
• 1000 Miles Per Hour

The whole album is defintely worth listening to, but those are just my favorites :]

My favorites from the album Oh No are:

• Invincible
• Here It Goes Again
• A Good Idea At The Time
• A Million Ways

A Million Ways was sort of what kicked off OK Go's popularity. People saw their simple music video online and it started sort of and "internet feud" where thousands of people posted videos of themselves doing the dance.

And just another sort of interesting side note, Kulash, who is the official lead singer in the band, does not appear to be singing in the music video for A Million Ways or Here It Goes Again, but he really is.  They had the bassist, Nordwind, lip sync over Kulash's recording for these two videos.  Nordwind does get that chance to express his vocal talent, though, in the song C-C-C-Cinnamon Lips, which appears on their first album.

And, finally, my favorite songs on the album Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky are:

• This Too Shall Pass (the band also released another music video to go along with the song. Click here!)
• All Is Not Lost
• End Love
• Last Leaf
• White Knuckles

And, when they released a remastered version of the album later on, they included several bonus tracks.  One of these songs is called Shooting the Moon, and I'm OBSESSED with it.

So, I hope you enjoy their music as much as I do! Sadly, OK Go isn't touring anytime soon, because I can only imagine how AWESOME one of their concerts would be.

That's all for now :]

~Emily