November Playlist

Hello!

I bet you didn’t expect me to be back so soon.

Today is the last day of November, for anyone participating in both NaNoWriMo and Nonfiction November, you should be proud of what you were able to accomplish in the last 30 days! I didn’t join NaNo this year because I’m not in that headspace to write anything for that long, and I doubt I have made any changes in reading the two books I got for this month. It happens… and I’m okay with it!

We are itching closer to Christmas and finally, to the new year: 2021. It seems so crazy how fast this year has went, despite the COVID mess that has taken over 2020! I bring this up because I have always felt November is a weird time for music. We are obsessed with Halloween-y songs and then we are quick to switch to Christmas carols at midnight.

I have to say, I have been doing very well at ignoring the festive commercials on TV and online, and I will be very happy when I can finally watch Christmas movies without being judged by my parents! I have a total of eight films in our DVR at the moment, so I can get my fill and enjoy everything that comes with this time of the year! As far as music goes though, I allow myself to listen to my favorite Christmas songs early, mainly because they tend to remind me of my papaw and so, it is just better for me to cave in now instead of feeling bad about it later.

This year, I am working on my “Ultimate Christmas” playlist on Spotify and will hopefully be speaking about it soon. I will hold off on that for a week or two, until I feel it is ready.

For my November playlist though, I have collected a lot of music that is selected in my “Discover Weekly” every Monday. I am always excited to see what type of music will be unleashed from the moment I hit play, and sometimes they create their own aesthetic but sometimes they reflect whatever genre I’ve focused on that past week and it is always a fun surprise at the start of another week.

Here are my Top 25 for the month!

Talk To Me by Apocalyptica featuring Lzzy Hale
Gravity by Sara Bareilles
Share That Love by Lukas Graham featuring G-Eazy
My Spring Your Fall by Falconsheild
Scars To Your Beautiful by Oceans featuring Anna Murphy
Goddess by Xana
Royals by Lorde
Remember by Leah
You’re Not From Here by Lara Fabian
Eugene by Arlo Parks
Cielo a un Diablo by Maluma
Teeth by Dirty D’Shire
Drew Barrymore by Bryce Vine
Que Color by Major Lazer featuring J Balvin & El Alfa
Ordinary Day by The Animal In Me
The Purge by Within Temptation
Dream On Me (Stripped) by Ella Henderson
Peer Pressure by James Bay
Lullabies by Yuna
Grip by Seeb
If I Could Turn Back Time by Cher
Betty by Chase Holfelder
Numb by Carlie Hanson
Cold by Crossfade

What I truly love about this list, is its diversity! You have hard rock, pop, and reggaetón like it is supposed to fit together. I continue to surprise myself on the amount of music I am willing to listen to everyday. The sad part about it is, there’s sadly not a lot of people like me, who are brave enough to be interested in shuffling their music out in the open and enjoy sharing in hopes we create even more fans for these artists and bands, new and old, and honestly the longer I go about this, I tend to enjoy it even more and I think that’s why I still want to do these playlists too.

Before I go, I wanted to let you know that I was able to post a new album review this month. Well, technically, it was an update to an older post I did in 2018, and I was recently told by the artist, that she really loved it, so that makes me really happy! Anyways, here it is, in case you haven’t seen it yet. Oh, and speaking of links, here is the Spotify playlist for November too! 🙂

SIGN from Above by RAIGN

What were you listening to this month? Name one track that you think I should check out below!

Music Monday | Timbaland

Last month I started this new series; essincally talking about the two people who were at the heart of my decision of wanting to go off to college for Audio Recoedings ten years ago. The first was Dr. Dre and I discussed my love for him and the influences between him, Eminem and 50 Cent that made me want to explore the world of hip hop when I was a teenager. A week later, I talked about Rick Rubin and how much I respected him for not sticking to one genre, he experiments with various genres and musicans. The work he has done with Linkin Park really struck a cord with me because it made me realize that it was perfectly fine to love all kinds of music.

This time we really start at square one. I know I should have started it out this way, but in a way both people were the beginning although there were many years between them. I was introduced to rap music when I was like four or five years old, so early 90’s so for the next couple of months I will take you through the other music producers that have kept me entertained and inspired throughout my life.

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As you can see above in the banner, May is going to be about Timbaland and Missy Elloitt. So, we are moving on to the later part of the 1990’s and easily into the early 2000’s.

Timbaland is a very unique indivdiual. He has been able to be around for a lot of the ups and downs in the music insturdy. He has worked with a lot of various people, some of them have put him at the forefront of their music for a time. He and Missy Elloitt have worked together for a very long time. He has written and produced a lot of her music. He has even been featured in her wacky music videos too! These two had a great time in the late 90’s with R&B artist Aaliyah. They quickly became the dynamic thrio in a way, because they just dominated the charts. Unfortunately, when she died in 2002, of course it was sad. It still makes me upset everytime they make a comment about her on her birthday or anniversary of her death.

As you go into the 2000’s though, you see him working with newly solo boy band member Justin Timberlake on his first record “Justified” and honestly, I don’t think it mattered that he was the favorite of N’Sync, I just think that the two of them worked so well together was insane! In 2005, they came to work with Nelly Furtado and those next three years were really interesting because almost every track that was released I was totally into, and it was just like a steady stream and I kept falling into it everytime. However, I don’t think nothing could have prepared us for the introduction of OneRepublic in 2008. Once the song “Apologize” came out we were all gone. I know I wanted more and thankfully, we didn’t have to wait that long until the band released their second track “Stop and Stare” a few months later.

By 2009, I wasn’t really watching what was going on with Timbaland. Although, when Justin Timberlake released his second album, I took notice because I hoped that they teamed up again, which they did and everything was awesome, I started growing out of both pop and R&B, as this was the time I was officially introduced to Linkin Park and I immediately went rock bottom. However, I recently found out that a song I have been enjoying lately that was remixed by Timbaland. I’m pretty sure you have heard of it. The original track has Dolly Parton, which is awesome too, but I love Of King & Country’s version of “Only God Knows” with Echosmith is amazing! I think it’s a interesting track because with both singers and their styles, it allows the song to be played in two different radio airways: country and pop.

I am curious to see how farther Timbaland can push the boundaries in music. How many other collabrations he can create with new and older acts. It will be interesting if he can get back to leading the charts in R&B and/or pop again like he has done in the past. It’ll be fun to see what else he has up his sleeves in the next year, I mean think about this, summer is quickly appoarching so he could surprise us all with a new track that could be your new anthem. You never know these days, but you know I’ll be keeping my ears and eyes open to the music.

Are you a fan of Timbaland’s music? What decade do you think he hit his peak? Which team do you side with as being the best too?

August Playlist

Howdy!

I told myself that if I didn’t get anything done this week that I would at least this post ready instead, but I have been feeling great in my legs that I actually left this one for last!

This past month has had a lot of music, both new and old favorites. I even dedicated a full week to just reggaeton music. I actually figured out something pretty interesting (well I thought it was interesting!) while in the mist of this mini adventure.

If you.don’t know by now, I love a large amount of different music, but what I’ve found in the last six years or so, is that I don’t really categorize it by genres, more like where the artist is based out of, they’re nationality. I slowly started to remember why I went that way and it happened when I wasn’t listening to as much rap music I always thought I was, but something kind of drastic occurred at the end of 2008 that I just decided to separate myself from the genre entirely. However, a part of me didn’t want to leave completely because I grew up listening to the genre as a child.

In the meantime, I found reggaeton and I used the fact that none of the artists I listened spoke in English to fall deeper into the genre and began to appreciate the beat thus would help me later in life for creating a bigger love of all genres whether or not I can understand the languages or not. This summer I have been even more interested into the music I’ve been hearing coming out of Mexico, Puerto Rico and Colombia. Maybe I’ll even highlight some of my favorites in the annual Summer Playlist coming in a couple of weeks.

For now, you get a mixture of the Top 20 songs I listened this August. Hope you enjoy them!

My Turn Now by Hidden Citizens
Bad Bitch by Bebe Rexha featuring Ty Dolla $ign
Mother’s Daughter by Miley Cyrus
Heavy Is The Weight by Memphis May Fire featuring Andy Mineo
The Fall by Banks
Say My Name by David Guetta featuring Bebe Rexha & J Balvin
Banana by Anitta featuring Becky G
If U Seek Amy by Britney Spears
The Violence by Asking Alexandria
True Friends by Bring Me The Horizon
Loco Contigo by DJ Snake featuring J Balvin & Tyga
Queen Of Mean by Sarah Jeffrey
China by Anuel AA feat. Ozuna, Daddy Yankee, J Balvin & Karol G
What A Girl Wants by Christina Aguilera
What’s My Name by China Anne McClain
Don’t Call Me Up by Mabel
Move Shake Hide by Marmozets
Crawl Back In by Dead By Sunrise
Runaway by Sebastien Yatra featuring Jonas Brothers, Natti Natasha & Daddy Yankee
Kill This Love by Blackpink

I am really missing my Spotify mostly because I miss doing my music reviews on here. I used to have good size amount of stuff to talk about in a month and now I feel like I am scraping the bottom of the barrel. I have thought about opening my blog back up to artists and bands again, because at least that would keep me active on here but I don’t know if it would help me out as much either.

If you’re an artist or band with new music out on YouTube and would like some free promotion, please let me know and maybe you can be featured on my blog! You can contact me at: gotmeghan.blog@gmail.com with your information. Let’s work something out that helps both of us out a little. 🙂

What were you listening in the month of August? Any favorites?

December Playlist

So this is the last playlist of 2017!

Now you’re probably wondering why I’ve decided to publish this on Christmas? Well, in order to achieve my three blog posts a week routine, I needed a starter and since the holiday does land a Monday I thought, why not? I also thought about how sometimes people start their Christmases so early that they casually stroll on the web to check on their socials and whatnot, so that was my other reason for this too.

Mama by Jonas Blue
Falling Down by Duran Duran ft. Justin Timberlake
Stay In The Dark by The Band Perry
Wolves by Selena Gomez and Masrhmello
I Did Something Bad by Taylor Swift
Kiwi by Harry Styles
Thumbs by Sabrina Carpenter
We Runnin by Tommee Profitt and Beacon Light
Carol Of The Bells by Lindsey Stirling
Ding Dong Merrily On High by Celtic Woman

If you haven’t had enough of Christmas music, I’ve listed every Christmas song that I’ve listened to, my favorites of the three reviews I did and the movies I’ve watched in the past month at the top of the actual Spotify playlist. I’ve been on a nostalgic kick lately so I’ve included a lot of hip hop songs from the early 2000’s in it as well. Hope you all enjoy it! I will not stop putting music on there after tomorrow, so you’ll have to come back next week to see what else I’ve put in it!

Since this will be my final playlist of the year, I decided to put all of the monthly playlists I’ve done throughout the year at the bottom, plus the wedding playlist since I just added that instead of doing a whole “July” playlist and I also put the annual summer on there too! I’m also going to attempt to update my Review tab at the top, as I haven’t added anything since probably June or maybe even a little earlier than that.

January | February | March | April | May | June | August | September | October | November | Wedding Playlist | Summer 2017

Music | Best Of 2015

Hey guys!

It’s Tuesday, which is normally one of my music days of the week! 2015 was full of a lot of music for me. I always feel like I consume a lot of music but I definitely feel it all more starting like the 26th of December. I start to really think about the songs and artists I’ve listened to in the year. After getting out of the rock scene and transitioning into my mini pop phase I tend to go into after every five years is up. I’m not kidding, it happens everytime I get out of a genre. I was hooked to One Direction for seven months before the end of January came and then I found my next phase: EDM.

In my previous music related posts, I’ve explained that I’ve always been into dance music. I liked trance growing up and then dubstep after Blondie suggested I listened to Skrillex in 2011. Now I’ve been really committed to learning more genres in the electric dance world like moombahton and trap music, but it seems like I’ll be going at this a slow pace as those are the only two that I’ve really enjoyed lately. I still don’t like a lot of house music, it’s too boring for me! I started off my year listening to Dillon Francis, Alesso, Krewella, Yellow Claw, Jack Ü (which gave way to Diplo), Major Lazer, and Flosstradamus. In all honestly, there was more but this is all I could think of at the moment.

What’s really funny is that I thought I’d only listen to EDM for only a short time, maybe a few months as I was only listening to find a song that was basically fading from my memory. That came back to bite me in the butt, as I couldn’t tear myself away from anything Diplo – I didn’t know he produced Madonna’s album when I first heard it. It was already on my radar before that started so lay off me! When I first heard “Living For Love” I was actually listening to Prince’s single “This Could B Us” and because I am my mother’s daughter I ended up liking both of them at the same time.  I didn’t think I’d ever fall in love with a Madonna album as much as I have with “Rebel Heart” and I’m still trying to convert my mom but she has decided to take this time to listen to more rock music as I’m not as interested with it right now.

Whenever I get into a different music scene, I tend to want to everything and almost anything in that scene. I mean, the skull obsession I have is definitely from listening to too much heavy metal on full blast! However, I’m not into the crazy lifestyle of ravers. I’d rather go rock concerts any day and I find this shocking because I love a lot of bass but I don’t ever want to go to an EDM festival. The ones I’ve managed to find on YouTube is good enough for me! My neck and hips have been hurting me like they would if I sat in my chair with a bunch of crazies, at least this way I don’t have to worry about running over anybody’s feet in the process!

I tried to count all of the albums and EPs that I’ve listened to this year and I think it was like 32 altogether! After I got down counting them I thought to myself and went “no wonder my brain feels like it’s about to explode!” I listened to more EPs than I had thought I would. When they switched days of new releases to Friday, I’ve had to be a little bit more patient as I really liked it better when everything came out on a Tuesday. It was the day after Monday (we all hate Mondays!) and it just made me happy to be able to have new music to hear all week long. Now that it switched to Friday, I saw the positive in the fact that Friday’s are considered “paydays” but I don’t like the wait clearly.

My favorite EPs were:

“Holy Water” by Laurel
“Mine” by Phoebe Ryan
“Francesco Yates” by Francesco Yates
“This Mixtape Is Fire” by Dillon Francis
“Up In Flames” by Ruelle.

As far as favorite albums go:

“Run” by Alison Wonderland
“Skrillex and Diplo Presents Jack Ü” by Jack Ü
“Into The Sun” by Bassnectar
“Peace Is The Mission” by Major Lazer
“Take It Like A Man” by Butcher Babies
“Revival” by Selena Gomez
“Club Life Vol. 4” by Tiesto
“Chapter One” by Ella Henderson
“General Admission” by Machine Gun Kelly
“Get Weird” by Little Mix
“Malviolence” by New Years Day
“Stereotypes” by Black Violin

I did a lot of different reviews this year that I’ve been very proud of lately! If you would like to read any of those, they have their own page on here! Just click “Reviews” under the “Music” tab at top! I’m hoping to continue to do more of those in 2016 and I’m slowly getting arrangements to do my annual summer travels for helping you to discover new music that you may not have heard before. I have a two pages of my daily planner of countries and artists/bands to focus on! I’m actually excited about it! Of course, those will start up in May 2016!

What did you listen to in 2015? What genre were you just stuck on? What album was your favorite?