The Sounds of Our Lives (formerly General Music Discussion)

[Silver Raven]

Kesha had a protracted fight with her record label over her producer, whom she accused of sexually and emotionally abusing her.  The court ruled in favor of the court, but the label at least replaced the producer.  And now her new songs are out.  "Praying" is pretty much about her reaction to the producer.

 

 

And "Woman" is an anthem to being a woman. NSFW!
 

[UYI]

Mary Chapin Carpenter. Patty Loveless. Pam Tillis. Trisha Yearwood. Suzy Bogguss. Emmylou Harris. Kathy Mattea. THIS is what country music USED to look like.

[Annber03]

Ah, I remember my mom playing that song, as well as a couple of Tillis', a lot when I was a kid. I pretty much only know those few songs, but I do like them. 

Also, I found a live version of a Crowded House song that Mary Chapin Carpenter covered once, so she gets extra cool points from me for that :D. 

[Cobalt Stargazer]

On 7/28/2017 at 10:35 AM, UYI said:

Mary Chapin Carpenter. Patty Loveless. Pam Tillis. Trisha Yearwood. Suzy Bogguss. Emmylou Harris. Kathy Mattea. THIS is what country music USED to look like.

[Silver Raven]

Muslim girl heavy metal band.  Interesting.

[UYI]

40 years later.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/08/16/elvis-graceland-vigil/571756001/

[MyAimIsTrue]

I was never an Elvis fan but I remember that day like it was yesterday even though I was only 12 years old.

[WendyCR72]

8 hours ago, UYI said:

40 years later.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/08/16/elvis-graceland-vigil/571756001/

Hard to believe it has been so long. He died only about a month before my 5th birthday, so I honestly don't remember Elvis' death. (Although I grew up around his music - especially his Christmas album - as my parents liked his music.) But I do remember when John Lennon was killed a little over 3 years later.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

9 hours ago, MyAimIsTrue said:

I was never an Elvis fan but I remember that day like it was yesterday even though I was only 12 years old.

I was eight, on a family vacation in Virginia. We were coming back from the motel pool when the news came on the radio, and my mom burst into tears.

[Jac]

I wasn't born when Elvis died and I am not a huge fan my any means but it was super interesting to watch the coverage yesterday and see just how big the impact he had on culture was and continues to be. In Australia we have an Elvis festival every summer in this small rural town called Parkes in New South Wales and you can get a special intercity rail service to this event that is Elvis-themed from Sydney about seven hours away.

I think the first really big musician's death I can remember in detail was George Harrison's. Kurt Cobain died when I was 12 and I vaguely remember it but at the time my musical tastes veered distinctly toward pop and he didn't have a big cultural impact on me until a few years later. 

When George died it was about midnight, maybe later and I was browsing a soap opera forum (can't remember which one) and the news popped up in the forum. Then my mum came home from work (she is a residential care worker) and I told her and it was sort of odd because we were both giant fans of his music but we both felt a sense of relief more than anything else. 

My mum got super pissed off the next day when the Daily Telegraph made their coverage of George's death all about Paul McCartney.

Edited August 17, 2017 by Jac
Damn autocorrect

[Silver Raven]

Halsey talks about being bi-racial but looking white.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/halsey-opens-up-about-being-a-white-passing-black-woman_us_599da8f3e4b0d97c4000b33b?

[GaT]

48 minutes ago, Silver Raven said:

Halsey talks about being bi-racial but looking white.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/halsey-opens-up-about-being-a-white-passing-black-woman_us_599da8f3e4b0d97c4000b33b?

Wow, I'm one of those people who would never have guessed she was biracial. It must be really difficult for her if she identifies as black.

[DkNNy79]

She looks just like her father

[GaT]

24 minutes ago, DkNNy79 said:

She looks just like her father

Not to me she doesn't, & I'm not talking about skin color.  Maybe I can see similar eyes, but I see different face shapes, different eyebrows, different noses, & different smiles. They don't look anything alike to me.

And as a side note, I like her hair so much better in this picture than the long turquoise stuff.

[Smurf]

Regardless I think Halsey looks beautiful.

[27bored]

Me too. Funny thing is, I just came here to post, in part, about Halsey. I just saw her (mostly awful) performance with the Chainsmokers at the VMAs last year. The interesting thing to me about Halsey is that she has this uncanny ability to look totally different depending on her hair and makeup. Maybe it's because I'm not totally *into* her, but it seems like every time she changes her look, she looks like a different chick. Even if you compare the above photo with the one on her Wikipedia page, she doesn't look the same. The same goes for both of her looks in the Closer video.

While I think that anonymity makes her intriguing, Halsey miiiight need to pick a style and stick with it for a minute. I like the restless need to reinvent oneself, but that chameleon quality mixed with the fact that on wax she sounds like a slightly-less-good Ellie Goulding, makes her a shade anonymous. Not to mention "Now or Never" which is blatant "Needed Me" rip-off that her and her label should whoop Starrah's ass for, but I digress.

Speaking of Rihanna, I had an epiphany about her recently: she really was not slaying with that red hair. I mean, she only kept it for like nine months between albums, but I've seen some photos of her from the Loud-era and, nah. She looked like a sexy ass Ronald McDonald, and that's not a good look.

I've been hoping that one day this country would wake up to the greatness of P!nk. I can't say I'm too crazy about "What About Us", her latest single, though. I would've preferred something a little tougher than an It Gets Better ballad set to an understated disco beat. But that being said, I'm glad she's back. I missed her. I hope the single does well, because I like P!nk. And I'm glad she's gonna get the VMA Vanguard Award. Bold prediction: I think Christina Aguilera's gonna present the award to her. You know they had history which: okay. Let me say this. Ron Fair, Christina Aguilera's A&R guy, wanted her to sing the high part of "Lady Marmalade". I get the feeling he was probably kind of an asshole about it, but the man knew what the fuck he was doing because, you know, the song went #1, won two VMAs, and a Grammy. I love P!nk, but you know damn well Christina needed to sing that part. Now, the other part of their feud, where Christina started working with Linda Perry after P!nk brought her out of obscurity and achieved success and in some ways made the blueprint for pop-rock in the new millennium, I'm torn. On one hand, I think Pink was being kinda petty. On the other, I said during Stripped that Christina was trying to do some weird hybrid of Britney and Pink, you know, which out-singing both of them. It kinda worked, maybe, sorta? Stripped hasn't aged well, I didn't really like or pay attention to many of her performances during that era, and I was happy to see her looking fresh-faced and sounded powerful on Back to Basics, but maybe it worked in Christina's narrative? Eh. I digress. Yay P!nk's back.

[Silver Raven]

Yawn, Taylor Swift releases another song where she's the victim and everybody is mean to her.

[GaT]

2 minutes ago, 27bored said:

Me too. Funny thing is, I just came here to post, in part, about Halsey. I just saw her (mostly awful) performance with the Chainsmokers at the VMAs last year. The interesting thing to me about Halsey is that she has this uncanny ability to look totally different depending on her hair and makeup. Maybe it's because I'm not totally *into* her, but it seems like every time she changes her look, she looks like a different chick. Even if you compare the above photo with the one on her Wikipedia page, she doesn't look the same. The same goes for both of her looks in the Closer video.

I didn't even realize she was in the Closer video. I hate that song.

[Silver Raven]

14 minutes ago, GaT said:

I didn't even realize she was in the Closer video. I hate that song.

She isn't in the video.  The couple in the video are actors.

[UYI]

20 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

She isn't in the video.  The couple in the video are actors.

I think that actually IS Halsey and Andrew from the Chainsmokers in the Closer video. 

[27bored]

It's definitely Andrew, "The Pretty Chainsmoker", in the video. Maybe that's Halsey, maybe not. Like I said, the girl's a chameleon.

ETA: Is it funny/ironic that for all the accusations of being misogynists, there are several female artists who have had their biggest hits with the Chainsmokers? I'm talking about Rozes, Halsey, and Daya. And why does it seem like we don't hear from Daya anymore. I didn't like her "Sit Still Look Pretty" BS because this isn't 1999, but I think she did good work on "Don't Let Me Down". She sounded like a weird yet cool hybrid of Rihanna and Bjork.

Edited August 27, 2017 by 27bored

[GaT]

According to Wikipedia, both Andrew & Halsey are in the video

2 hours ago, 27bored said:

And why does it seem like we don't hear from Daya anymore. 

I don't know why, but I'm very happy about it.

[UYI]

12 hours ago, 27bored said:

It's definitely Andrew, "The Pretty Chainsmoker", in the video. Maybe that's Halsey, maybe not. Like I said, the girl's a chameleon.

 

It's her. There's no mistaking those eyes. (To me, anyway.) 

[27bored]

So see! That's what I'm talking about. Halsey is like Rorschach from the Watchmen, but like, a chick version.

[UYI]

1 hour ago, 27bored said:

So see! That's what I'm talking about. Halsey is like Rorschach from the Watchmen, but like, a chick version.

I think part of the problem is that in the Closer video, we see her in one scene with a short blonde haircut, and in the other she has shaggy dark hair. At least one of those scenes has her in a wig. 

[27bored]

Yeah, but even with the wig, she looks like a different chick. If you look at stills, it looks like her. But like I said, yeah.

I just wish I found Halsey more...interesting? Compelling? There's something about her that suggests that she's like a few girls I knew in high school who were exhausting and weird for no reason but they away with it because they're kinda hot. If Halsey wasn't so pretty and maybe didn't perform/take photos with her legs open so often, would we give a shit?

[janie jones]

Well I wouldn't.  I don't think I'd ever even heard of her until I came into this thread just now.

[Silver Raven]

Portugal. The Man is from Wassila, Alaska.  I wonder if they know the Palins?  :)

[27bored]

54 minutes ago, Silver Raven said:

Portugal. The Man is from Wassila, Alaska.  I wonder if they know the Palins?  :)

Wrong thread?

 

1 hour ago, janie jones said:

Well I wouldn't.  I don't think I'd ever even heard of her until I came into this thread just now.

Sure you have. She's that chick who sings that "baby pull me closer in the backseat of your Rover that I know you can't afford..." song that you couldn't escape last year. She sounds like Ellie Goulding, but not as good.

In other news: Somber Slutty Soulful Sam Smith is back. He's got a new song that's premiering on Spotify. Apparently his label took out billboards in London and LA with his face and the song title and the Spotify logo. It's a good thing they put his name on it because, uh, here's how Sam looks these days:

 

He's like right on the cusp of looking almost a little sick, don't you think?

[Bastet]

15 minutes ago, 27bored said:

Sure you have. She's that chick who sings that "baby pull me closer in the backseat of your Rover that I know you can't afford..." song that you couldn't escape last year.

I'm not the original poster, but I hadn't heard the name Halsey until this thread either, and those lyrics didn't ring a bell, so I Googled to bring up a video for the song, and, nope, never heard it.  So then I looked at her Wikipedia page, and she's been around for several years, so I don't know how I've missed hearing about her/hearing her songs, but I have, because none of them that I looked up rang a bell.  I'll have to give her a listen.

[27bored]

No shade to either one of you, but I kinda like that both of you don't recognize the second-biggest selling single of 2016. To be honest, I heard more about how bad it was than how great it was.

If you want to know something interesting about Halsey, she miscarried right before this performance. She talked about it in Rolling Stone. For all of her Millennial BS, it's hard to not respect the girl for being able to pull herself together to do a show after going through something like that.

[Silver Raven]

1 hour ago, 27bored said:

Wrong thread?

Uh, they're a music group.

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, 27bored said:

No shade to either one of you, but I kinda like that both of you don't recognize the second-biggest selling single of 2016.

No shade felt, and I own the "Um, really?" nature of my ignorance on this.  With pop culture, I'm increasingly like I am with parallel parking -- I've generally got it, and I've even been known to maneuver into a spot that looks smaller than my car, but sometimes I wind up sticking half out into a lane because I somehow missed a wide open space.  Halsey is that big, empty stretch of curb, because I got nothing.

[UYI]

I've grown to like her, which is saying something, considering some of the lines in her first big song, "New Americana", are just BAD. 

[Silver Raven]

Fine Brothers did an "Adults React" to modern music, and I was surprised that I only knew about two of the songs.  And I thought I listened to a lot of modern music.  (Of course, I don't listen to rap/hip hop, but not all of the choices were in that genre).

[janie jones]

On 9/3/2017 at 8:12 PM, 27bored said:

Sure you have. She's that chick who sings that "baby pull me closer in the backseat of your Rover that I know you can't afford..." song that you couldn't escape last year. She sounds like Ellie Goulding, but not as good.

Maybe I should have said "heard her name," because, like @Bastet, I had never heard her name before, that I could recall.  I didn't know who sang that song before I googled it to figure out what you were talking about, since I didn't recognize the lyrics.

Edited September 6, 2017 by janie jones

[WendyCR72]

I think my musical exposure quit around 2000. <Whispers> I have no clue who Ellie Goulding is, nor Portugal or Halsey, for that matter. #officiallyold

[Silver Raven]

32 minutes ago, WendyCR72 said:

I think my musical exposure quit around 2000. <Whispers> I have no clue who Ellie Goulding is, nor Portugal or Halsey, for that matter. #officiallyold

It's Portugal. The Man.  That's the name of the band.  :)

[MyAimIsTrue]

9 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

I think my musical exposure quit around 2000. <Whispers> I have no clue who Ellie Goulding is, nor Portugal or Halsey, for that matter. #officiallyold

I'm with you except mine probably quit around 1995, and I know for a fact I'm older than you!

[UYI]

I'm 28, and while there are some people here younger than me, I feel like I'm still one of the youngest posters here, and that most of the posting community skews older, so I can see how some of the more modern pop music references might go over some of your heads.

...No offense, guys. :P

Edited September 6, 2017 by UYI

[Bastet]

On 9/4/2017 at 2:28 PM, Silver Raven said:

Fine Brothers did an "Adults React" to modern music, and I was surprised that I only knew about two of the songs. 

You're ahead of me; I didn't know any of them.

[Shannon L.]

11 hours ago, MyAimIsTrue said:

21 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

I think my musical exposure quit around 2000. <Whispers> I have no clue who Ellie Goulding is, nor Portugal or Halsey, for that matter. #officiallyold

I'm with you except mine probably quit around 1995, and I know for a fact I'm older than you!

1991!  I got sick of grunge real fast, didn't like the pop music I was hearing, so changed to country.  Then an XM type of radio station started here that played all my favorites from when I was young, then I did get satellite radio and I now mostly listen to the 70s, 80s, classic rewind, and the hair metal station. 

If I hear a newer song I like, its either from tv/movies, my kids or my Zumba classes, but I more than likely couldn't tell you the name of it or who sings it  :)

[janie jones]

I stopped listening to top 40 radio in like junior high, so if major songs don't play on other stations or on my Pandora stations, I'm not going to know them or who sings them. If I hear them on TV or at a store or something, I'm not going to know who sings them. New music plays at my work, but unless I recognize the voice I'll only know who sings it if I look it up, and I only look it up (or Shazam it) if I like it. Which is why I didn't know who sang the aforementioned Halsey/Chainsmokers(?) song.

[ebk57]

I realized a long time ago that the only new music I ever heard was on Letterman's (or now Colbert's) show, or between innings at the baseball game.  I read about new music, but I rarely hear any of it.  That's one of the good things about reading here - at least I don't sound totally ignorant around the kids.

[Jac]

I went through a phase where I had very little knowledge of anything that was happening in mainstream pop/rock music that laster from the time I was about 22-33 years old. I was primarily interested in what could be classified as indie music (broadly construed) and older stuff (where my tastes are hyper broad) and even bands I liked that got some mainstream attention in the States like Death Cab for Cutie and Bright Eyes got no attention at all in Australia. In about 2015, for whatever reason I started listening to mainstream music again (along with everything else) and found that I really like a lot of current girl pop in ways I haven't since the mid 90s. I think Selena Gomez is fantastic and I like a lot of Ariana Grande too. I enjoy Beyonce and I freaking love Taylor Swift's 1989, Carly Rae Jepsen is awesome too. Other things I am really enjoying include Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, some, but not all One Direction.

[Zola]

I rarely listen to mainstream music or commercial radio. I just don't have the patience for it because it all sounds so "samey", which I realise is a massive generalisation but it just doesn't do anything for me (unless I'm at a party, half-drunk and my inhibitions are scattered all over the dance floor). 

I much prefer Indie stuff from a variety of genres both contemporary and from 20 or 30 years ago. I like trawling through my parent's album collection from the 80s and 90s and a new type of music here in the UK called "Britpop", and the likes of Pulp, Coldplay, Oasis, Stereophonics, Blur, Placebo, Moby: all pretty decent stuff despite touching the boundaries of mainstream pop.

I quite like certain off-the-wall genres these days: House, Garage, Trance, Techno, Ambient, Downtempo et al. Some of these have been around for years, but they work for me during moments where I need to focus, concentrate or "be at one"; whereas during my more wilder moments I can quite happily absorb myself into hardcore genres such as Death Metal, Hard Rock, Metal Core, Heavy Metal etc. 

But mainstream pop rarely gets a hearing in my household, although I do have a soft spot for Taylor Swift (for her music rather than all the crap that goes on off-stage)

[27bored]

On 9/4/2017 at 0:58 AM, Silver Raven said:

Uh, they're a music group.

Oooh, sorry. Those sentences didn't click for me at all. My bad.

On 9/4/2017 at 1:12 AM, Bastet said:

No shade felt, and I own the "Um, really?" nature of my ignorance on this.  With pop culture, I'm increasingly like I am with parallel parking -- I've generally got it, and I've even been known to maneuver into a spot that looks smaller than my car, but sometimes I wind up sticking half out into a lane because I somehow missed a wide open space.  Halsey is that big, empty stretch of curb, because I got nothing.

Yeah, Halsey is a big stretch of curb. To be fair, outside of "Closer" by the Chainsmokers, she isn't that well known. She had a social media following (because that's our new reality), got a record deal, and has put out two albums and an EP, but most of it has only been moderate success. She's not a great recording artist -- like I said, she sounds like a less-good Ellie Goulding -- but her claim to moderate fame as a solo artist has been that she's popular on the music festival circuit. So basically when people are walking around with dirty feet, stoned, and there's puke everywhere, that's the best time to hear Halsey!

BTW, I went and watched a little bit of one of her live concerts on YouTube, just to see what the big deal is, and -- yeah, I don't get it. To her credit, she basically sounds the exact same way live as she does on record, you know, with the breaths and whatnot. But that's also one of the bad things, since she has this weird, strangled quality to her voice that grates after about three songs. And her songs themselves...ugh. Her songs make her sound like a slightly drunk chick who smokes singing Evanescence during karaoke night.

On 9/5/2017 at 10:42 PM, WendyCR72 said:

I think my musical exposure quit around 2000. <Whispers> I have no clue who Ellie Goulding is, nor Portugal or Halsey, for that matter. #officiallyold

If you saw Fifty Shades of Grey, Ellie Goulding played during that movie. It was this song.

 

So Sam Smith's new single "Too Good At Goodbyes" is out:

 

 

Hot take! Uh, I was listening along, like, "oh boy, here's Sam singing another unflinchingly sad song". And then it's like, "oh, wow, okay. A choir." Sam's one of those people whom you can enjoy just listening to his voice. I kind of like that even though he's a great singer, many of his recordings sound like first takes. The runs and the ad-libs and key changes feel organic. Messy at times, but they add a certain emotional resonance to what he's singing. That said, sometimes the songs feel a little under-thought. Lyrically, it's like, been there heard that. This almost feels like a scrapped track for "In The Lonely Hour", but whereas many songs on that album were fairly stripped down, this sounds maybe a tad overproduced. I like that they tried to add in some rhythm and the choir backing, but it didn't come together very well. Still, I like Sam, and like I said a couple of weeks ago, we need some sad music.

Also: Kelly Clarkson -- the cutest, most likable person in the whole wide world, and yes I'm including all moms and puppies -- is back with "Love So Soft":

 

So according to Kelly, this is the first time she got to make the record she wanted to make. I believe her -- I think she played the pop music game very well throughout her Idol contract -- but if you recall her time on Idol, she did mainly soul songs (and Aretha in particular). So, there is a bit of an earnest authenticity grab here. However, how this plays is pretty much Meghan Trainor Sassy-Dumpy-White-Chick, but you know, with someone who can sing and has a more likable personality. I actually like the song -- it's a toe-tapper for sure, and the kind of song you'd want to hear in traffic -- and for as much as Kelly tends to overshoot her vocals, she shows an admirable amount of restraint.

One thing though, and I've said this before, but Kelly's voice is starting to get that reedy, hoarse quality that reminds me of Mariah Carey circa "Charmbracelet". I've said it before, but Kelly needs to lose weight. Not for aesthetics, because fortunately they never marketed her as a sex symbol, so nobody cares if she has baby weight. But being a pop star and recording albums and doing shows is taxing, and being heavy is going to affect that. And if she needs any further proof, she should read the biography by one of her influences: Aretha Franklin. In the 1970s, Aretha lost a lot of weight and got super thin. She said it was easier to sing when she was that small, but it was also hard to maintain. She needs to take better care of herself so she can continue to do what she loves and is obviously very good at.

Between Pink, Kelly Clarkson, and Sam Smith, it's nice to see the pop stars with actual talent coming out. It should make the remainder of this year much better, because 2017 has sucked pretty hard. Both in music and in general.

Edited September 8, 2017 by 27bored

[UYI]

Aw, I think Meghan Trainor's very pretty, and can sing very well. Not all of us can look like Taylor Swift (trust me, I'm a blonde haired blue eyed woman born the same year as Taylor*; it's hard not to feel ugly, too short, and worthless next to her). She's had to have vocal surgery twice. You don't have that kind of surgery unless you have a SERIOUS vocal range (although I can understand her Nantucket accent annoying some people). 

 

*Speaking of which, I wonder if Taylor ever truly realized, when she named her last album 1989, that people would know how old she is for the rest of her life. That will be a double edged sword, for sure. 

Edited September 8, 2017 by UYI

[janie jones]

10 hours ago, UYI said:

Not all of us can look like Taylor Swift (trust me, I'm a blonde haired blue eyed woman born the same year as Taylor*; it's hard not to feel ugly, too short, and worthless next to her).

FWIW, I think not looking like Taylor Swift is a good thing.  The woman looks like a rodent.

[Cranberry]

This discussion reminds me of that study that said people stop listening to new music at age 33. That annoyed me because it was pretty accurate for me, which spurred me to go out and listen to a bunch of new albums because who wants to be average and predictable?