It's been a hard days night

One of the things you say a lot, or at least I seem to notice a lot, is for us to acknowledge the events as they were taking place. So for instance the Beatles in the 60s, like I said in one of my previous blogs, it's incredible to me that 4 guys in their 20s were able to pull off such an amazing movement. The movie that we watched in class was really cool to me because it showed me a bit of historical context that the Beatles lived through. I personally thought the movie was really funny, I like the sarcasm and the small jokes. John Lennon was my favorite, as I thought he was the funniest, although George was quite funny too. George's humor was a bit drier though

Kendrick Lamar

So in class the other day, when we were talking about rap and hip hop, you mentioned that you did not like Kendrick Lamar because you said "Kendrick Lamar doesn't tell a story." I have to strongly disagree with you there. Kendrick Lamar's album "good kid, M.A.A.D. City" tells a story, the story of his childhood in California. Kendrick Lamar is in fact a good lyricist, although two of his most popular songs "MAAD City" and "Swimming Pools" are very repetitive and offer very little insight. A song that I would suggest to you is A.D.H.D by Kendrick, it isn't his most intellectually ingenious song but it his lyrics do offer a fair amount of lyrical creativity. I didn't have an opportunity to tell you that in class but you might want to check it out. Another artist that I've started to like is Chance the Rapper. My favorite song of his is "favorite song," but since you look for wit and creativity in rap music I wouldn't use that song as an indicator of how good an artist he is. I'm just starting out listening to him so I can't name any songs off the too of my head. He has great instrumentals and what a lot of people call a "nice flow." His songs are not only catchy but artistically brilliant, in my opinion.

I don't even know what I'm doing anymore

Unlike yourself Mr. A, I prefer to listen to music in my car. So anyway, long trip back from Pearsall, Texas, where my Dad, a few of his friends, and I, were dove hunting. I'm driving as you can imagine, might as well make the 17 year old the designated driver right. But being the all time DD gives me DJ rights to the car, makes thinks more bearable. Bad news is, the auxiliary cord that I use to play music through is in my car and not my dads, leaving us stuck on a 2 hour car ride listening to the radio. My usual go-to stations are BOB FM, solely because they don't beat the you-know-what out of songs, and 101X, because I like alternative rock. More bad news. 101X is only heavy metal after 10 PM, leaving me with BOB FM, and a few other classic rock stations. It turns out i liked about 95% of what I heard on the radio during that car ride, which is sad because I liked the classic rock more than the 50 year olds that I was taxiing around. From the likes of ZZ Top, Boston, Foreigner(especially), Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and a few one hit wonders mixed in (Stix, Kansas), I liked it all. It's also sad because I used to give Blake Allen and incredible amount of crap because he really really likes this stuff. Now I understand. I'm still trying to figure out my taste in music, this discovery was like 19 steps sideways. Attached is my favorite song of the night, an all-time classic

DUBSTEP

Wubbbbbb wub wub wubbbwubbwub. I know dubstep isn't really music. I won't argue that it is because it really isn't. Really, it sounds like Transformers getting it on. But I have to say it sounds kind of cool. In case you haven't realized this yet, I really like bass. And what better way is there of finding music, or whatever you call it, consistently heavy in bass, than dubstep. As an athlete, music does in fact play a special role in my life. But unlike most others, it's mainly motivational. I'll play some music when I go on a run, or before I go play a basketball game, to get me motivated an hyped, get the blood flowing a little bit. That's why so often the things I look most for in music are the instrumentals. A song can be absolute crap, but if has some heavy bass and a nice beat, I can dig that. That fact is solely the reason I like listening to dubstep; it gets me pumped and "in the zone." some of my favorite DJs include Avicii (the new stuff), Knife Party, and Excision. The thing I really like about Knife Party is they infuse a lot of reggae into their music, which adds another dimension to what comes out of the speakers.

What if... The Beatles existed TODAY

I come home from school; after I get something to eat, see if anything's on TV, screw around for 15 more minutes downstairs, I finally drag my feet up the incredibly challenging flight of about 10 stairs. I sit on my comfy bed, open up my Mac, and go to my favorite procrastination station second to Reddit, Youtube. So I go there. First thing that comes up, this absolute crap Miley Cyrus song. After I listen to this crap Miley Cyrus song I research a little bit about this crap Miley Cyrus song. After I scroll through some more crap about how great Miley is, I find this statistic that kind of freaks me out. This crap Miley Cyrus song, "Wrecking Ball," had the most views in a 24 hour span in the history of YouTube. After I let this startling statistic sink in for a while I think to myself , "is this the crap that really, gets our society going, so to speak." And yes. Yes is the very sad answer that I have for you. That brought me to my next thought. Sparked by the documentary we watched in class, and the shear fascination I have for what The Beatles were able to do to the world. It really blows me away how this group of very normal, funny, and of course talented, guys, were able to shake an entire world. And that next thought was, could guys like this really make THAT much of an impact on the world we live in today. I mean of course they're nothing short of incredible musicians, but like I said, they're NORMAL. And with the vast resources that we have today, the vast opinions and fascinations of different cultures with different musical taste, I think it really would be impossible. The Beatles were so effective because of the broad range of people who enjoyed they're music. They were human, as in not everybody loved them. But I can assure you that there were not a lot of people who disliked them. Black people, white people, Asian people, boys girls, children, adults, old people, EVERYBODY, listened to them. It really brought people together, so as music often does. But in this quickly evolving world I don't think there is anything, not even The Beatles, that can bring us together again.

The Beatles

To continue on what I was saying about my mom and the Beatles this morning... So when I told my mom about your fascination for the Beatles she was e ratio for me to tell you the story about her and the Beatles. So she was in third grade when they toured Australia, I have no idea what year it was, but anyway. So she started it off by saying that the day the Beatles came it was like a national holiday. Nobody went to school. Absolutely nobody. The Beatles were due to arrive to Sydney at 1 PM that day and they were to perform at 7 PM. Somehow, an act of God maybe, my grandmother got tickets for the show. 7 rolls around and my mom goes to the concert. From her story she couldn't hear a thing, which is similar to what you said about why the Beatles stopped touring. But fortunately she was one of the 2/3 that don't Pee their pants

My Spotify Journey Continues

So I think I've got this Spotify thing down now. Well probably not actually. I still haven't quite figured out WHAT I want to listen to. I know what kind of music I'm feeling up for at that moment, like maybe it's dubstep, rap, oldies, indie; but I still don't particularly know who I listen to and more importantly what song to listen to. But anyway, Spotify offers this really awesome thing, radio, helps me out a lot. So I type in what I what to listen to, we'll use the other day as an example, I wanted to listen to some indie. I type in "indie" into the little thing that says "create new radio station" and bam, amazing. The first song to come up was "Down River" by The Temper Trap. I really enjoyed the song so I took the next logical step, I made a "The Temper Trap" radio station. The bands, the songs, the similar genres that I have discovered on that radio station since then have been amazing, I even heard some Portugal, The Man on there. Although my musical involvement is still quite broad, I'm getting there.