September Playlist

Hello!

September was not meant to have three music posts going up (the last one will publish on Monday!) but since stopping my main ‘Music Monday’ series, I had room to fill and I guess I took advantage of it. Thankfully, they are all different and have a large selection of music for everyone to enjoy!

For today, we are getting into the monthly playlist, plus a special dedication for an artist that sent me a message late in August for my services, so before I give you the top songs, I thought you should look into my thoughts on what I thought about Rad Luck’s song “Too Lit”.

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Rad Luck is an independent hip hop artist from North Carolina. Apparently he’s released several songs and mixtapes since early 2019, and what I really like about him is that everything he does, he does it himself. Nowadays, everybody is doing this, but I still appericate the passion, people are doing things without the help of record companies. Although, most artists still want to be a part of a famous label and blow up into a mega star, but there is no ganuertee that once you get there, how much power you will able to release what you want, so even though this way is time-consuming, at least you have creative control on everything you put out there for your growing fanbase.

Anyways, I actually liked the song. I didn’t love it exactly, but I thought the beat was good and totally gave me this vibe of everything that screams “summer” and though we are nearing the end of the season, everyone is trying their best to keep it in their lives right now, as part of a good aspect to this interesting year! The video itself is very trippy, which adds another part to the “good times” flare throughout the entire song.

Please before continuing with the rest of my post, listen to his track and check it out for yourself. I’d like to see what your thoughts are on it too! You can find Rad Luck on Instagram and Twitter.

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Okay, now we’re back to our regular scheduled post.

I think this monthly playlist is short compared to the others, but I think I know why. Since I was busy with my other posts and their playlists, I just forgot to add songs that I’ve enjoyed listening to throughout the month. I’ve tried my best to pick through the songs I could remember and continued to add more newer tracks afterwards. Here is my Top 20 songs that I just loved so much that I thought you should check out as well!

Exhale by Plumb
Master Passion Greed by Nightwish
Tears Don’t Fall by Bullet For My Valentine
Bad Guy by Conquer Divide
Barefoot In The Park by James Blake featuring Rosalia
I Hope by Gabby Barrett featuring Charlie Puth
I Did It by Raja Kumari
Goddess by Krewella x NERVO featuring Raja Kumari
Getting Over It by COUNTERFEIT
The Diary Of Jane by Freya Catherine
Blood Diamond by VERIDIA
All Around Me by Flyleaf
The Bleeding by Five Finger Death Punch
Good In Goodbye by Madison Beer
Whore by Violet Orlandi
Six Feet Under by Oshins featuring Leslie Powell
Brand New Thing by Zayde Wolf
Giant by ZZ Ward
Another Level by Oh The Larceny
Aerials by Halocene featuring Violet Orlandi and Lauren Babic

If you are on Spotify and want to keep taps on the other songs I listen throughout the day (and sometimes night!) you can click here to be directed to the playlist in general.

What were you listening to?

Music Monday | Dr. Dre

Howdy!

Last month I announced that I was going to do another series on my blog. It would replace my normal summer Tune Tuesday posts since I am no longer publishing anything on those days, instead I would switch it to Monday.

The theme would be based off of what inspired to want to become a record producer after I graduated from high school ten years ago, but I would also include people who I look to nowadays. Every month, I will post a banner that will have two people I will focus my attention on, and hopefully that’ll keep you excited for the next one.

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I have always had a love/hate relationship with hip hop music. There are words that I don’t really enjoy hearing all the time, such as “bitch,” and the “n” word that you will never find me using ever! I also don’t like the way women and the breed pit bulls are being laid out whether in a rhyme or the music video. They allow each part to be stereotyped, even themselves as musicians. Whenever people listen to rap music, the audience automatically assumes the person spitting a line, is a gangbanger, has abused women, over uses alochol and drugs, etc. Something about the world of music affected me in both a positive and negative way that I still wanted to be the disabled and female version of Dr. Dre.

Since I was born in the early 90’s, and my mom was both a lover of rap and rock music, there was a lot of sounds jamming in our household. My dad worked construction, so he was gone through most of the day and would get home late, so while we spent time with mom, she would play various cassettes and CDs of music. When we were home sick, I really relished in the environment. Since my sister and I were introduced to the genre at a fairly young age, we weren’t shown the violent side of the genre, I actually didn’t know anything about it until I was in my teens and then everything I heard as a child made more sense to me.

Although I don’t remember if my mom had any of Dr. Dre’s albums when we were kids, I still knew why he was so important to the music world. To be perfectly honest, I’ve always felt I don’t have to listen to older music if I highly respect and understand what each person did for their genre. Dr. Dre was no different. I knew he was at the heart of the rap world, but I didn’t really see it first hand until I hit my second phase of listening to that kind of music in 2003.

I don’t remember how I was introduced to 50 Cent’s music. I feel like Eminem had something to do with it, and at this time, Dr. Dre was producing music for Eminem and they were both working with 50 Cent to release him to the masses, so they were a formable force to be reckoned with, almost like a Holy Trinity, together they could release anything and everybody would love it.

The music video for 50 Cent’s hit “In Da Club” is showing you how they molded him into this person; they influeced him into this giant act to entertain people from around the world. It was incrediable! In a way, that is what a music producer is suppose to do, is make you into this beast, give you the confidence in yourself to be able to make greant music. I feel there’s a lot of trust going into this, because they direct you into the right lane, they become your mentor and inspire you to release your demons, passions, easily, and because of this everything you say can be taken in a certain way, whether that is a good or bad thing is debatable. They believe in you and see your true purpose and I think that’s what makes Dr. Dre a legend.

I use to have dreams and write songs throughout my time in school about the possibility of working with my favorite rappers of the time. Since I was highly obsessed with 50’s group G Unit as a teen, they appeared quite a bit but once I decided on what I’d like to study in college and after I was accepted into the school, sadly those dreams became less and less, and I wonder if I should have read into that change a little more. My ability to write songs officially vanished in 2008, which I find interesting because I always think that this was the last year rap music felt new and exciting. Of course, this is only my opinion and considering I made the choice to give the genre another try after a six year hiatus, I can’t say for sure it was a great idea on my part.

Which side of Dr. Dre do you like the best, his rap career (whether with N.W.A. or solo) or are you more interested who he works with and the beats he creates?

Music Video Review: “No” by Meghan Trainor

I have been loving Meghan Trainor’s new single!!

I told you last week that I would do a review of my thoughts of both the song and of course, music video! I’ll start off with the actual song. I only had to hear it once, that was it! After that first time I did have to rewind my TV to hear it again because I thought it was the best damn thing I heard all day long! I think it sounds a bit old school pop, like early 00’s Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera! That record static in the intro makes it like Christina’s Back To Basics era, but the whole thing is so catchy and gives you those happy vibes from start to the end. I seriously can’t get enough!

The music video had a similar vibe especially when you first play it and it has a futuristic theme, at first it made me think of Britney Spears’ video for “Hold It Against Me” but you see Meghan and these other women dance together. Meghan did a lot of sexy dancing in this video! …I am loving the red hair by the way! As much as I love dancing in music videos, I didn’t think the moves were very sharp. I think I might be watching too munch DWTS because I sound like Len Goodman! I mean, it wasn’t bad. I felt some of the arm gestures weren’t “attacked” enough, it was very loose and maybe that’s what she wanted who knows!

Do you like Meghan Trainor’s new single? 

 

Music Video Review: “The Black” by Asking Alexandria

Asking Alexandria used to be one of those bands where you had to force me to listen to back in the day. The band as a whole scared the shit out of me! You have to understand when everybody in my class was going through their emo phase in middle school, I wasn’t even close to being ready. I only had one black shirt in my closet and it came from the church I was attending! Bands like AA and Bring Me The Horizon were NOT my thing. It seemed ironic that I actually got into both at the end of my five year rock phase last year.

Anyways, Asking Alexandria has a new a song, music video, and lead vocalist. That’s another thing I figured would happen. A band I’d get interested in has to replace their long time singer with another. I actually never heard that they had found a replacement after Danny left the group, I only heard after the release of “I Won’t Give In” and I was intrigued! I still think that was one of the best songs of 2015! Denis Stof is like the perfect replacement, I know I can’t really say that, but he’s really good! He’s not going to sound exactly like Danny, but I think both of them as singers are very alike. Danny managed to have beautiful vocals with aggressive yells in songs. He can do both, on an album and live on stage. I think that’s what every fan is mostly worried about when it comes time to replace them. Can they be as good or even better than the original singer? Denis has nothing to worry about, let me say!

Now that’s done, we can move on to the actual music video! I’ve been seeing the different tracks popping up on both my Facebook and Twitter and then advertise for the album title track came up on YouTube and I was like, “what the hell?” and I love the intro very much. It’s got a very metalcore but electric sound to it, even as a whole it’s not like the other AA songs I’ve listened to! I love the darker almost demonic voice that Denis makes, not the low one but the high pitched one. It’s very sexy! You can tell I’ve done lost my fucking mind! The chorus of it is really interesting, the way their (Denis and Ben’s voices” cut in and out. It’s all good, but after Ben’s beautiful part, the whole song just kind of loses my interest. So that’s the only part that really stinks about it. I did enjoy the music video mostly being in black and white. I just don’t understand the concept for it of course!

Asking Alexandria’s new album “The Black” comes out on March 26th!

Are you an Asking Alexandria fan? What do you think Denis Stoff taking over? Are you excited for their album?

Music Video Review: “Suckerpunch” by Delain

Dutch symphonic metal band Delain has released a new music video to go with their first single off their EP called Lunar Prelude. The single is called “Suckerpunch” and I have to say, I’ve been listening to the band since late 2012 and I always look forward to the new things from the band, but I think it was all routine! Because I am seriously stoked for the EP and the album to be released later this year!

When I heard “Suckerpunch” for the first time I realized it had a different sound than to their other songs on previous albums. I think of Delain as a good band, but could get better with evolution meaning their music could grow, become more like Nightwish and Epica. They seem to have a more mature sound with this song than maybe “We Are The Others” and “April Rain” where they had more of a mellow symphonic rock sound. I have to say, I love both of those songs but I was really impressed with this song! I still feel like the keys have that alternative edge, but the overall sound is more powerful especially with the roaring of background vocalists and orchestra. The band really outdid themselves with this song!

If you’ve been living underneath a rock but are still able to listen to Delain’s music, you might not know that the lineup has changed some in the last year. Don’t worry, it’s still Charlotte, Martjin, Otto, and Timo. The group has added both Ruben Israel on drums and Merel Bechtold on guitar. I knew about Merel becoming a new member of the group but not Ruben, so when I watched the music video, I was like, “oh, there’s a new drummer!” Anyways, the music video was sort of dull I guess you would say, but then again it’s not boring! I didn’t necessarily understand the concept of it. The one thing I actually liked was the shots of all the members of the group performing the song as they would live in front of a huge crowd. The flames shooting up in the air is a good heavy metal element. Kind of like the extreme handbanging throughout the whole thing! You need it or it’s technically not a metal song or video. Or that’s what some people might think or say about it!

Delain’s new EP releases February 19th!

Are you a Delain fan? What do you think of their single “Suckerpunch” and its music video?