lyrics never cease to amaze me. reasons…

1.) You can find them to apply to any situation.
You’re happy, sad, pissed off, pumped, melancholy…no matter what the situation, you can always find lyrics and songs that can describe the way you feel. Not only can you find a song to describe the way you feel, you can also find one to help you feel better or different. The emotion that singers/bands/songwriters can capture with a couple chords and well phrased words is…amazing! Many people have trouble communicating exactly the way they feel and music and lyrics can sometimes help us out with that.

2.) You will always remember them!
I’m always thinking of ways to remember things that I’ll need for a test and many years ago I discovered that if I took a fact that I needed to remember and swapped it out with lyrics to a song that I knew, I would be able to recall it later. I’m serious! In middle school or something like that I had a test over explorers and conquistadors and I was trying to remember them and the song “Butterfly” by Crazy Town was popular at the time. So I made up my own lyrics “Gama with me to Africa and Southwest India” to replace “Come my lady you’re my butterfly, sugar, baby” and I remembered it! I still remember it and that was like nine years ago! I mean…this is some in depth science I’m sure…but how is it that we can remember the lyrics to sooo many different songs? I think they should start making musical soundtracks that go along with textbooks…anyone else think that’s a good idea?

I think there are two kinds of music listeners. Those who listen to music for the notes and the talent of the musicians and those who listen to music for lyrics. Of course they’re both important but I know that some people can’t stand to listen to bands/musicians who “can’t play the guitar” or whatever. Haa, and I know there are people who don’t like hard rock despite those rockin’ guitar solos and power chords because they can’t connect with the lyrics or what they’re trying to say.

I think i’m more of a lyric listener. I can appreciate a good guitar solo but I like songs I can connect with. That I can sing and feel like I could have come up with the words myself if I tried hard enough.

What do you guys think?

I like lyrics because they always surprise you. You think you know the words only to discover you’ve been singing “douche” instead of “duce”. (ya I bet you didn’t know that the Boss man was the one who wrote that song didja?) It’s fun to look at them and find the special something, a play of words you might not have noticed that really strike you.

So the next time you hear a good song…look up the lyrics…and see what you can find.

Do you ever feel self-conscious about the music you listen to?

I always take my ipod in with me to work and we play it in the back and of course have the occasional dance parties…but sometimes I worry about what people will think of some of the music I listen to. Well maybe that’s not exactly right. Okay, take this for example. The songs were shuffling and The Offspring’s song “Your gonna go far, kid” started playing on and I was just about to say how much I loved that song when another girl said that the song sucked.

Then I was just like “awww man”.

Now when I look back I don’t really know why I was so bummed. I mean, I can’t expect people to like all the same songs that I do I guess. Maybe I just take it personally because I do think of music as a way of expression.

Back to my endless quest for new music…

I found a new band that I just wanted to share with everyone. I don’t know much about them just that I like a few of their songs so for your enjoyment…The Classic Crime

Let me know what you think.

And this brings me to another topic. I have a friend who seems to think that most of the music I listen to is Emo. I, however, disagree with this so I just wanted to know how other people defined Emo music.

Until next time….LYRICS!

I recently decided that if I could be on MTV’s “Made”, I would want to be made into a rapper. It might sound a little ridiculous but I have so much respect for how they make words work together with a good beat as well.

I’m not a fan of degrading women (and I’m definitely not saying that all of them do) or anything like that, but I can’t help but try and rap along when a song comes on. A couple of times I’ve actually looked up the lyrics so I could look cool by knowing all the words. There is just something about the flow of words and the alliteration and how they try to make words that don’t rhyme sound the same.

One of my favorite artists is Kanye West. He had to work really hard to get in the business because many people didn’t think he had the street cred in order to create good music, but I’m glad they decided to give him a chance. One of the main reasons why I like his music so much is because he sings about different subjects than everyone else. He isn’t afraid to be different.

Hip-Hop and R&B are great because you can really move to them. I constantly have mini dance parties in my car while I’m driving anytime one of those songs comes on. One of my favorites right now is “Dangerous” by Kardinall Official…it has such a good beat! I’m listening to it now and dancing in my chair! I absolutely LOVE music that you just can’t help but move when you listen to it.

Is it because these genres usually have a really strong bass beat? Why do we like to dance to them? There has to be a reason why clubs always play these songs.

The other night I was watching the new show “Life on Mars” and the main character, who somehow goes back in time from 2008 to sometime in the 70s, gets kidnapped by the Black Panthers I believe. Anyways, while they have him, in order to try to get on their good side he tries to rap and the only song that comes to his mind is “Ice, Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice. What was so great about it though was that the guys who were holding him hostage loved it! That made me start thinking that if it hadn’t been Vanilla Ice who sang that song, would it be as much of a joke as it is?

How important is appearance when it comes to Hip-Hope and R&B? Just a thought…

this is something that i’m curious about. everytime i’m filling out my interests on things like facebook or whatever, i always put music and think to myself “well duh who doesn’t like music?” but when i really think about it, there are a lot of people where music doesn’t have a significant place in their lives.

take my mom for example…
yes she has an ipod shuffle but she only uses it when she works out and just has a random assortment of music from the 60s. when she’s driving, half the time she doesn’t even listen to anything at all let alone music. i can’t drive my car without listening to music!! i think that if i asked her what her favorite band or song was she wouldn’t have an answer.

how can someone not have music in their lives?! does it skip generations? i feel like almost everything in our lives right now revolves around music with ipods, cellphones, television. has music not always been so important?

i guess it baffles me so much because for me, music is a way of expression. we all like to be individuals and music helps us achieve that. there isn’t really anyone telling us what music we can and cannot listen to anymore and we’re free to listen to whatever we want. most of us our pretty proud of the music we listen to and it kind of becomes a sense of self.

does this mean that people who don’t really listen to music are missing a part of themselves? i don’t know…but i’m positive that if i didn’t have music in my life i would feel like i’m missing something.

how do other people feel about this? why is music so important? what does it do for us that makes us need it constantly? keep that on the backburners for awhile because i’ll think i’ll talk about this a little more in depth next week.

until then!

There is nothing I enjoy more than going on roadtrips. They are the perfect time to feel like you actually have a soundtrack for your life. Driving down the road, the breeze on your face…you feel like you can do anything and go anywhere. At least I do…

So I’m working on creating a really good roadtrip playlist. You have to have a little bit of everything because the mood changes throughout the day and you need different beats to keep you going. I’m just going to list a few that I like and we’ll go from there…

Something Corporate-”I Woke Up in a Car”
This song is a good one to start out with. The song itself is about going on a roadtrip so it makes sense to have it in the mix. Just by listening to it I can see the world passing by.

The Offspring-”You’re Gonna go Far, Kid”
So I might just be adding this one because I’ve been obsessed with it ever since I downloaded it about two weeks ago, but, it’s still a good song. It has a really good beat, is catchy, and is also a good one to start your trip off with.

Creedence Clearwater Revival-”Fortunate Son”
This one…is a CLASSIC! Of course when you hear it it’s going to remind you of the 60s, even though you weren’t alive then, but you just get that vibe from it. Just listen to it and you’ll see why I added it to the list.

Dixie’s Midnight Runners-”Come on Eileen”
A great one to listen to when you’re driving through a town. All you do is put it on and then imagine that everyone else around is listening to it to. It’s so much fun and makes me laugh everytime.

Okay well I could go on with this forever, so for now I’m going to just stick with these. Feel free to tell me what songs you listen to on your roadtrips!!

Ohhh guilty pleasures, all of us have them especially when it comes to music. 

Everyone has at least a few artists in their shuffle that they wouldn’t admit to liking for various reasons. It could be that you’re a farm boy from Texas but you love blasting “Fergalicious” while riding in your diesel truck. Maybe you’re the homecoming queen and your #1 most played in iTunes is Lamb of God…?

Who knows? But can we all agree that there is nothing better than listening to songs that really get us going?

Okay, I’ll admit mine. I LOVE Britney Spears. Maybe it’s just because I’m a 90s child but I really do love breaking out my imaginary microphone whenever “Oops…I did it Again” comes on. Sure she has some issues but, like Michael Jackson, that doesn’t mean she hasn’t made some good music right?

There is music that just defines certain generations and even though we grow up and our tastes mature, we can’t help but listen to the music of our childhood! So for everyone else who remembers eyeballing their crush at the skating palace while “Truly Madly Deeply” was playing…I understand why that song touches a special place in your heart.

So what are the guilty pleasures of other generations? We’ve got the 90s covered so let’s see what everyone else has to offer. Don’t be shy, just let it all out.

This is something I’m sure almost everyone does unless the only music you listen to is what plays on 97.9…

You have this band that you’ve loved and listened to from the very beginning, nobody else knows their music like you do. Then they make that one catchy song that radio stations pick up on and all of the sudden everybody is listening to your band saying they love them when really the only song they even know is the one playing over and over again on the radio!

I know some people who only listen to bands that aren’t popular or no one has ever heard of just so that scenario doesn’t happen to them. Does anyone else get this territorial about their music?

I have to admit that I enjoy having a few favorite artists that not a lot of other people listen to but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to share them with others. Cartel is a band that I love and even though they’ve been around for awhile and have had some pretty popular songs, the mainstream hasn’t really picked up on them yet. So for now, I get to keep them to myself.

Last week I felt like one of those people who jump on the band wagon. I was searching for music on iTunes and came across Matt Nathanson and liked a few songs so I looked him up on Myspace and saw that he was playing at the Newport on Sept. 29th and decided to go. I honestly felt guilty that I had only been listening to this guy for a week when I’m sure many people there had been listening to him for awhile. It was a great concert though and I’m glad I went even though I felt like I was intruding.

This is just a topic that I’m interested in and I want to see what other people think about it.

Coming up next….guilty pleasures.

So you’re driving down the road and a song comes on and you think “man, this song sounds exactly like how i feel right now” or you are walking to class on a crisp fall day and your favorite song pops into your head…

Well that, my friends, is what this blog is about, the songs that define our lives. I’m writing to talk about music, lyrics and to see what everyone else is listening to.

Music to me is like an endless expedition, constantly searching to find new artists or a new sound, something that will get me interested again. So my hope is that someone will read this and share their musical journey with me as well!

And I don’t care what genre it is…country, rap, alternative, heavy metal…whatever! I like to keep my options open and while I do have my favorites, I can rock out to almost anything.

So…until next time! Bonus points to those who can figure out which song the lyrics are from…

“she’s music to my eyes and she lives in paradise, but something isn’t right
she thinks she’s going blind, but it’s just dark outside”

…and no googling you cheaters!