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The Sounds of Our Lives (formerly General Music Discussion)


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It came across my Twitter feed today that they are now making Funko "Pop"s of at least 1 of the singers (I think the lead singer) of My Chemical Romance, the group you asked about in this thread the other day--they're the same singer, in 2-3 different versions due to special makeup &/or costuming worn during the song depicted by the figure. So I'm sharing the link to an article which talks about & shows pictures of the figures.

http://www.altpress.com/news/entry/funko_pop_rocks_launching_my_chemical_romance_figures

 

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As for the taking your daughter to see Barry Manilow twice thing--there's absolutely NO shame in seeing him more than once. As you can maybe tell by my screen name, I'm a fan (BIG fan). I've seen him WAY more than twice; even beyond single (& double) digits. My 2 best friends (who I met through being a fan of his) & I did a meet & greet with him (the same night, but individually), when he was doing a Las Vegas Headliner Residency (a la Celine Dion) in 1 of the resorts there, 8 years & almost 2 months ago. He's 1 of the nicest guys you could ever meet; we got to talk to him for a few minutes each & got pics & autographs, & other stuff, & I got a kiss on my right cheek... Which I DID NOT ask for.

 

Sorry for the late reply ... I just bookmarked the page ... my daughter has more than a few of those bobble heads (is what I call them, didn't know they were called funko) and so as soon as the one for MCR comes available, it is mine I tell you, thanks for the heads up!

 

And she and her best friend make a trip to Hot Topix once a month (it's an hour away) ... she always comes home with either a MCR, Fall Out Boy or Panic in the Disco t-shirt.  Yeah, she is hooked.

 

Awww, how lucky!  Barry up close and personal.  He is amazing ... 

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Rock band Disturbed have put out a cover of "Sounds of Silence" that I just have no words for.

 

 

Took a listen because...hey, why not? Know "Disturbed" because of "Down With The Sickness" even if I'm not and never was a fan. Very intense take, but...solid. Kind of surprised me, considering.

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Does that count as it having gone double platinum?

 

Nope. Definitely not.

 

SoundScan has specific rules against stuff like that so it isn't going to count that as albums sold (if an individual buys more than 8 copies of a CD at a time, it only counts as one album sold because they don't want people manipulating the charts). There has also been a recent debate involving Rihanna's new ANTI album. She's brokering a deal with Samsung for exclusive rights to the album which they will give away to their customers for free (price tag: $25M). She wanted the giveaway to count as sales because she sold her album Samsung (each user who downloaded would count as a sale) and Billboard said - nope! They would only count it if Samsung agreed to allow their users to download any album they wanted (they could encourage you to download ANTI, but not require it) and then each download of whatever album would count. Obviously, Samsung would have to pay for those non-Rihanna albums and Rihanna still wanted her $25M, so the deal is kind of on hold for now.

 

Even the RIAA which certifies albums won't count it because 2M albums were shipped. Plus,  $2M only equals about 200K albums if you pay $10 per album and that isn't even going to get you certified Gold (500K).

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I have to laugh at the lyrics for the new Bieber song, "Love Yourself".  I think the word "love" is a euphemism for another four letter word.  But my favorite line from any song in a long time is "My mama don't like you and she likes everyone".

 

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Today marks the 30th anniversary of Ricky Nelson's death in a tragic plane crash. He was on his way to a New Year's Eve concert in Dallas. This is a favorite song of mine.

 

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Written for the Broadway bound play Waitress (which Bareilles wrong the entire score for), this is probably the most beautiful song I've heard in many years. Keep in mind this song is from the point of view of the main character of the play, not of Sarah Bareilles herself, so if you're thinking "when was Sarah Bareilles abused" the answer is... we don't really have to assume she ever was.

 

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I'm at an impasse with Bieber. I've never been a fan, but I feel like he's either a more interesting celebrity than musician, or a better musician than celebrity. On one hand, I feel like he keeps repurposing "Where R U Now" like Marge and that pink Chanel suit. His last three singles all have the same melancholic, island vibe. It was incidental on the Jack U song, but now it seems volitional. It was nice to hear him emotive and vulnerable, like underneath all the pop star slap lies a sweet kid who lost his way.

And even as a celebrity, he seems like a moody, mopey recovering alcoholic. Like a rich kid who went off to college, hit the sauce too hard and started hanging with the wrong crowd, and then went to rehab and got on methadone. Now he's back in school and doesn't drink or smoke weed anymore, but any sense of fun or charisma he had is gone. He's got the douchey tattoos and floppy hair and the hipster fashion sense and vaguely spiritual redemption-by-God thing. He stil comes off basic, but I don't know if his sad sack EDM is more interesting than he is or vice Versace.

Maybe he's just altogether boring now.

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I've never been a Bieber fan, but when he peed in the kitchen of a restaurant he went from jerky kid with too much money & power that I don't care about, to real douchey asshole who will never be redeemed IMO. Now I actively hate him instead of just ignoring him. 

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I recently heard

while I was in a store, and I actually like it. Ariana's in the pocket when she recalls 90s Mariah, but she never connects to the song. She's like if you have the ingredients for an ice cream sundae but nothing to put it in. Either the song is good but her mumbly, indecipherable cadence ruins it, or I actually like her voice on the song but the song sucks. A major part of that is because she's a pretty, technically proficient singer with meager ability to entertain. Sort of like a Top 24 chick on American Idol or a girl who has a bunch of followers on her YouTube channel.
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I didn't see an "Unpopular Opinions" thread for Music, so I'll put this here:  I don't hate Taylor Swift.  I'm not a big fan of hers or anything, but I think she's alright and she seems to care about her fans.  I like some of her songs and not others.  She's not a genius songwriter and only a decent singer, but she doesn't appear to be the Anti-Christ that some critics try to make her out to be.

 

Katy Perry, on the other hand, seems to have a knack for writing popular songs which make me want to vomit, can't sing worth two cents, and appears to be one of the skeeviest celebrities on the planet.  Okay, so she's no Justin Beiber but still, when you make Russell Brand look better in comparison . . .

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I don't think it's possible to say liking/disliking Taylor Swift and/or Katy Perry is unpopular. Those sides are so equally divided I can only say they are "polarizing." Maybe Taylor more than Katy, but still.

 

Maybe we do need a UO thread for Music, though. 

 

I guess if I were to state a UO here, it's that I think Katy CAN sing, but she's better if she doesn't hit too many higher notes. If she stays within a reasonable middle range, she's fine. She and country singer Kacey Musgraves did a cover of Dolly Parton's "Here You Come Again" and both sounded great. 

 

And Taylor's album tracks are generally a LOT better than her big singles, I wish more people knew that. Her singing voice live can pretty bad, though. Not always, but when it is...yeesh. 

Edited by UYI
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don't think it's possible to say liking/disliking Taylor Swift and/or Katy Perry is unpopular. Those sides are so equally divided I can only say they are "polarizing." Maybe Taylor more than Katy, but still.

 

Maybe it's just the websites I frequent, but most commenters tend to be pretty scathing about Taylor Swift.

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I didn't see an "Unpopular Opinions" thread for Music, so I'll put this here:  I don't hate Taylor Swift.  I'm not a big fan of hers or anything, but I think she's alright and she seems to care about her fans.  I like some of her songs and not others.  She's not a genius songwriter and only a decent singer, but she doesn't appear to be the Anti-Christ that some critics try to make her out to be.

 

Katy Perry, on the other hand, seems to have a knack for writing popular songs which make me want to vomit, can't sing worth two cents, and appears to be one of the skeeviest celebrities on the planet.  Okay, so she's no Justin Beiber but still, when you make Russell Brand look better in comparison . . .

I'm not a big fan of Taylor Swift or her music either either, but she writes her own songs, plays her own instruments ( a few of them), & doesn't use her booty or boobs to sell her music, so I certainly don't hate her. 

 

Katy Perry also writes music & plays her own instruments, but never, ever, EVER puts her boobs away. IMO, this puts her way lower than Taylor Swift.

Edited by GaT
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I didn't see an "Unpopular Opinions" thread for Music, so I'll put this here:  I don't hate Taylor Swift.  I'm not a big fan of hers or anything, but I think she's alright and she seems to care about her fans.  I like some of her songs and not others.  She's not a genius songwriter and only a decent singer, but she doesn't appear to be the Anti-Christ that some critics try to make her out to be.

 

Katy Perry, on the other hand, seems to have a knack for writing popular songs which make me want to vomit, can't sing worth two cents, and appears to be one of the skeeviest celebrities on the planet.  Okay, so she's no Justin Beiber but still, when you make Russell Brand look better in comparison . . .

 

In my opinion, there's a reason Taylor writes the kind of songs she does. Say what you will about Katy's music, because it isn't great either, but I always get the feeling that Taylor has lived You Belong With Me, where she's half-stalking some guy and waiting for him to drop into her lap, and dissing the shit out of his girlfriend while she's doing it. I don't think she's the devil or anything, but given my druthers I'd rather deal with Perry's borderline skeeviness than Swift's potential to be a Mean Girl.

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I'm not a big fan of Taylor Swift or her music either either, but she writes her own songs, plays her own instruments ( a few of them), & doesn't use her booty or boobs to sell her music, so I certainly don't hate her. 

 

Nope, but she promotes elitism and has one helluva clique happening with the people she surrounds herself with.  She also promotes playing the victim whenever she releases a song all about how mean someone was to her.  And she can't seem to do anything without the press corp in tow to snap 89871 pictures of it and promote what a fabulous human being she is.  

If I had a daughter and she liked Taylor Swift, I'd have an issue with that.  She's not someone any young girl should be idolizing.  IMO

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Nope, but she promotes elitism and has one helluva clique happening with the people she surrounds herself with.  She also promotes playing the victim whenever she releases a song all about how mean someone was to her.  And she can't seem to do anything without the press corp in tow to snap 89871 pictures of it and promote what a fabulous human being she is.  

If I had a daughter and she liked Taylor Swift, I'd have an issue with that.  She's not someone any young girl should be idolizing.  IMO

Maybe young girls (and boys for that matter) shouldn't be idolizing pop stars at all.

 

Edited so that I could apologize for introducing the Taylor Swift flamewars to what has seemed an otherwise calm board.  I'll move along now.

Edited by proserpina65
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Multiple sources report Lady Gaga will be performing The Star-Spangled Banner (The National Anthem), with Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin signing it for the hearing-impaired, at Super Bowl 50 this coming Sunday, February 7th, airing on CBS.

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Maybe young girls (and boys for that matter) shouldn't be idolizing pop stars at all.

 

I think it is different now with all the celebrity reporting that happens, social media, etc...pop stars and rock idols used to be creatures from a distant planet - you read about them in music magazines and caught glimpses of them on tv (in the pre-MTV days - yes, I am that old).  My parents had no idea who or what I listened to - it just fell under a huge gray classification of "rock" and all rock-n-rollers were freaks who did drugs.  They didn't have brands and were generally not used in advertising*.

 

Now, whether I want to or not, I have an awareness of the younger musicians.  Time to go yell at those kids to get off my lawn.

 

* The only exception I can think of was a series of Bulova Watch print ads from the early 80s that had some musicians wearing their watch with the tag line "One great face deserves another".  The one I remember (but can't find) had Roger Daltry in it, although I want to say there was a Johnny Cash one too.

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I overheard my daughters talking the other day, complaining that all Katy Perry and Taylor Swift sing about is boys and can't they find something else to write about.  I loved it.

 

Of course, there does seem to be a finite number of topics and sex/ove/break-up is probably the #1, followed by drugs.

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Maybe young girls (and boys for that matter) shouldn't be idolizing pop stars at all.

 

Edited so that I could apologize for introducing the Taylor Swift flamewars to what has seemed an otherwise calm board.  I'll move along now.

 

I think Taylor stands out here because, unlike almost every other female pop star who almost always says they don't want to be seen as a role model (Britney Spears comes to mind here), even if they have large pre-teen/teen girl fanbases, Taylor has said, from the very beginning of her career, that she not only wants to be seen as a role model, she feels she has a responsibility to be a role model. I can see her wanting to avoid the burnout/breakdown/criticism Britney got, for example, but by trying so hard to be seen as better than every other pop star, it makes her come off as having this smug sense of superiority, which I think is unfair to other female pop stars, who may be perfectly nice human beings (and yes, I'm counting Katy Perry here--she seems really nice to me, and some of the hate towards her, I think, gets to the point that it makes me uncomfortable), but don't actively try to present themselves as this great role model, even if they are doing something like Miley Cyrus, who created an entire charity dedicated to homeless youth, specifically those in the LGBTQ community. Being a role model shouldn't always be about the clothes you wear or how much sex you have. 

 

And I say this as someone who actually LIKES a lot of her songs.

 

YMMV, of course. I might write more about this in the Taylor thread here. If you haven't seen it yet, feel free to check it out. Hell, maybe I should create a Katy thread. :)

I'm not a big fan of Taylor Swift or her music either either, but she writes her own songs, plays her own instruments ( a few of them), & doesn't use her booty or boobs to sell her music, so I certainly don't hate her. 

 

Katy Perry also writes music & plays her own instruments, but never, ever, EVER puts her boobs away. IMO, this puts her way lower than Taylor Swift.

 

Well, with her body type, Taylor is better known for her legs, anyway (I'm NOT body shaming, I'm joking! I'm her age and I WISH I could be that tall and thin like her a LOT sometimes. *cries* I am blonde and blue-eyed like her, though.),

 

As a fellow big breasted chick, I sympathize with Katy (although hers are bigger than mine...bitch. LOL.). Maybe she plays it up a bit too much, but when you have big boobs, it's HARD to find clothes where people won't say you're showing too much. You really can't win a lot of the time.

Edited by UYI
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As a fellow big breasted chick, I sympathize with Katy (although hers are bigger than mine...bitch. LOL.). Maybe she plays it up a bit too much, but when you have big boobs, it's HARD to find clothes where people won't say you're showing too much. You really can't win a lot of the time.

I'm a member of the big boob club myself, so I don't expect her to hide them, but she doesn't have to have massive amounts of cleavage always showing. Everything she wears pushes them up, out, & forward, you see them before you see her. 

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I overheard my daughters talking the other day, complaining that all Katy Perry and Taylor Swift sing about is boys and can't they find something else to write about.  I loved it.

 

They should just stop listening to pop songs because Pop is most often all about relationships. Drake's "Hotline Bling", Bieber's "Sorry", "Love Yourself" and "What do You Mean", The Weeknds "I Can't Feel My Face", OMI's "Cheerleader", Shawn's "Stitches", and Charlie's "One Call Away" all about the opposite sex. Adele's songs are all addressed to boyfriends. Sam Smith is all about relationships too. It's just not Katy and Taylor.

 

Some Rock (e.g. twenty one pilots "Stressed Out"), AAA and Rap have subjects other than relationships, but those formats are dominated by males. Country often has songs about trucks, beer and doing things with your friends, but again, females are thin on the ground on the Country dial.

 

At least Taylor's "Bad Blood" isn't about boys. It's about how much she hates Katy Perry for stealing her back-up dancers (for the record, Katy denies that she did that and claims the back-up dancers told Taylor in advance that they would be joining Katy's tour once it started).

Edited by kili
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I overheard my daughters talking the other day, complaining that all Katy Perry and Taylor Swift sing about is boys and can't they find something else to write about.  I loved it.

 

Of course, there does seem to be a finite number of topics and sex/ove/break-up is probably the #1, followed by drugs.

That's one of the things that drove me to listen to the college stations back in the day. I'd rather listen to songs about manic depression, the Falklands War, disastrous chemical spills, and draft-dodging mountains than listen to yet another dumb love song.

 

 

Note - The songs I had in mind when making up that list:

 

"Manic Depression" - Alien Sex Fiend

"Sheep Farming in the Falklands" - Crass

"Union Carbide" - The Revolting Cocks

"Billy the Mountain" - Frank Zappa

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That's one of the things that drove me to listen to the college stations back in the day. I'd rather listen to songs about manic depression, the Falklands War, disastrous chemical spills, and draft-dodging mountains than listen to yet another dumb love song.

 

 

Back in the day, I always said I learned English Lit by listening to Iron Maiden, Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.

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I recently heard

while I was in a store, and I actually like it. Ariana's in the pocket when she recalls 90s Mariah, but she never connects to the song. She's like if you have the ingredients for an ice cream sundae but nothing to put it in. Either the song is good but her mumbly, indecipherable cadence ruins it, or I actually like her voice on the song but the song sucks. A major part of that is because she's a pretty, technically proficient singer with meager ability to entertain. Sort of like a Top 24 chick on American Idol or a girl who has a bunch of followers on her YouTube channel.

 

I think the problem is that she doesn't seem to have much of a soul or personality, and back in '14, when she was the new, pretty face with a nice voice we wanted to get to know her, and then realized how vapid she was, and her career kind of plateaued after that.

 

It's kind of frustrating because she DOES have a good voice somewhere there, but she doesn't have the charisma to entertain.

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It's kind of frustrating because she DOES have a good voice somewhere there, but she doesn't have the charisma to entertain.

I can't stand Ariana Grande, & the high range notes she hits make me think of dog whistles. I also think part of the problem is that she's another Scooter Braun (now formerly apparently) brat, the female equivalent of Justin Bieber. Her insistence of only being photographed from her left side, her ponytail, those thigh high boots she always wears, her demands to be carried just override any kind of talent she may have. 

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Southern Indiana may soon be able to drive on John Mellencamp Way, which may soon be the name of the section of I-65 in Indiana between Austin and his birthplace of Seymour (in Jackson County--he has lived in Bloomington, which is a little over an hour away in Monroe County--GO HOOSIERS!--for over 30 years now). A well deserved honor for my favorite solo artist, I hope it passes. :)

 

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/behind-closed-doors/2016/02/12/should-new-john-mellencamp-way-have-pink-houses/80255030/?hootPostID=7d61f8ea4c140da141f5ce64d13d33c4

Edited by UYI
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I can't stand Ariana Grande, & the high range notes she hits make me think of dog whistles. I also think part of the problem is that she's another Scooter Braun (now formerly apparently) brat, the female equivalent of Justin Bieber. Her insistence of only being photographed from her left side, her ponytail, those thigh high boots she always wears, her demands to be carried just override any kind of talent she may have. 

 

I was rooting for her because I really enjoyed Victorious, but yeah, she's just a whiny, entitled rich brat, similar to her brother. That her career has basically cratered after her seemingly headed to the stratosphere back in 2013-2014 really makes me glad. She doesn't seem to get that you can't pull the diva attitude when you've only got a handful of hit songs without any real album successes.

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How....

 

How does one become $53 million in debt?

 

How....

On the Today show this morning they speculated that it had something to do with his clothing line losing money.  It was also suggested that the debt story might not be true and he's lost his fucking mind and needs help.  Frankly, I think it's the latter.

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(edited)

I was flipping through the channels last night late when I ran across a show called "Suits" (which I have never heard of) as it was ending, & this song "Way Down We Go" by Kaleo was playing. Seriously awesome. It is now my new musical obsession. I've never heard of them/him (I don't know if "Kaleo" is the band, or the guy who is singing) but I love this guy's voice & the song is great.

 

The actual song starts at around 1:10 if you don't want to watch the beginning stuff.

Edited by GaT
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