In my upcoming rock/pop discussion class, participants will be selecting, listening and discussing songs based on themes. I have some of the themes already, and I thought hearing song suggestions, or even theme suggestions, from others would be fun.
Here’s one theme I had in mind that I wanted feedback on:
Continue reading “Themes For My Song Class”How many can you name? (Exclude songs from musicals or Disney animated films.) Here are some off the top of my head:
Continue reading “Pop Hits from Celebrities”I’m currently moderating a group that will be listening to and discussing songs from the Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 all-time greatest songs (2021 edition), with participants choosing one song per week from the list. I’m going to use this thread to comment on the songs.
What are you listening to in 2023?
As I see the best of the year lists popping up, I once again think about another approach I wish critics would employ–namely, instead of identifying the best works relative to other works within a given year, identify the works in a given year that compare favorably with the all-time great works. One drawback here is that none of the works may meet this criterion. For me, I don’t see this as a drawback. Here’s the reason why (and this will explain my overall mindset with regard to this topic).
Continue reading “An Alternate Approach to Best of the Year Lists”
Barnes and Noble is doing so well financially that they plan to open thirty new stores in 2023. That caught my attention, and I think it’s great news. Why is the store thriving? That’s the question music critic, Ted Gioia, tries to answer in this post. I agree with some of the reasons he cites (e.g., appointing a better CEO who decentralized decision making), but I’m dissatisfied with the overarching reason he offers–namely, that the new CEO loves books.
In this thread, I’ll explain the reason I feel this way, as well as offer an alternate explanation that seems more compelling. (In spite of this slight disagreement, I recommend reading his post.) OK, let’s begin.
Continue reading “How Was Barnes and Noble Able to Turn Things Around?”I was recently asked this question, and I had a hard time answering it. In reality, I don’t think there’s an answer–that is, I didn’t have <i>one</i> favorite song. Indeed, I don’t have one all-time favorite song. It seems like an impossible question to answer.
And yet, I wanted to try and answer this, so the best song I could come up, within a relatively short time, was Toto’s “Africa.” Really, I think I could probably think of a better song to mention, but I was pressed for time.
But I’m not pressed for time now, so I want to see if I can find a better pick–i.e., a pick that comes closer to my favorite song–or, one of my very favorites–during the intermediate years.
What’s you favorite song during intermediate school years?
I don’t some exercise classes for elderly participants, and I need to find medium-tempo-ed music with a catchy/lively groove. I’ve been looking but finding music like this is really difficult. I’ll try to give some examples later.
I’ve been listening to Kalapana’s first album, and while I looking at their discography on Apple Music, I noticed a lot of albums I never really listened to. I don’t think I realized they had so many especially in the late 70s and early 80s. In this thread, I plan to go through their discography, although I don’t know if I’ll make it all the way through.
Music critic Ted Gioia had some ideas on the ways blockchain and NFTs can impact music–positively for both musicians and fans. I’m not comfortable with my knowledge of blockchain or NFTs, but based on what I know, Gioia’s speculations does generate some enthusiasm. I say more on this later, but I should also say that I have a heavy-dose of skepticism, with regard to a new financial model that will actually compensate musicians fairly. My cynical sense is that the corporations (and historically, the people with money) will ultimately find ways to exploit the artists. (A handful of individual artists may prosper, but many will not, including great artists who were ahead of their time.)