Archive for category Mainstream
Presenting the very talented and beautiful Alicia Keys
Posted by Kim in Foreign, Mainstream, Music, Music Videos on December 16th, 2009
I am no authority but I knew the moment I heard Alicia Keys‘ first hit that hers was a voice and talent that would fill our ears and minds for the years to come. Owe it only to Clive Davis, legendary music executive also known for the discovery of legendary artists like Lou Reed and Whitney Houston (to name a few), to be the person who would single out from the bunch one of the best female talents to emerge in the last decade. Keys, who was 17 and just came out of high school by the time she single-handedly composed, arranged and performed the song Fallin’, had conquered the Billboards with her singles from the album Songs in A Minor. From then on, she was quickly thrust into the music elite especially after her (eventual) victory at the Grammys. An accomplished pianist and an excellent singer, distinguishable by her soaring and occasionally vulnerable vibratos, her career took on both pop fanfare and critical acclaim.
She was certainly the most talented solo soul act that came out since, dare I say, Aretha Franklin. The reason I brought up the comparison is because of Franklin herself, who at one point refused to perform with Alicia Keys at a MusiCares event in Los Angeles because she had apprehensions at the prospect of being upstaged by Alicia Keys and co-performer Mary J. Blige. Why the diva, Aretha should be worried is indeed a mystery, but she must have her reasons. And they may seem evident to you once you’ve seen Alicia Keys perform.
Her latest single “Empire State of Mind” which features Jay-Z was used as an anthem for this year’s New York Yankees victory. When stripped of all its mainstream hype, the song is actually a poignant recollection of Key’s domicile, New York, that makes one wonder what her memories must have been. Although it gets cheesy toward the end, the emotion is still there and is especially crystallized in this stripped down version of the song:
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Alicia Keys - Empire State Of Mind Pt. 2 (Broken Down) [Download] [Lyrics]
Indie music culture in Davao
Posted by Kim in Davao, Indie, Local, Mainstream, Music, The "South" on December 1st, 2009
Gig logos courtesy of tunogtimog.tk
At late, I’ve been sort of a drifter in the so-called local music “scene”, partly because having to go to all the gigs and listening to the same people and the same songs over and over can eventually grow tiring, (not to mention being coaxed in to yet another drinking session, which I have already outgrown) even though it’s totally hip to support the local music scene. A part of me still thinks that showing up to these things is helpful in mobilizing gigs, and as a result you’ve got a healthy music sub/culture. (Note: In fact, this was exactly what Paolo Castillo and the early Kaibans have envisioned. Making music gigs a habit in order for musicians to habitually create and play music.)
Years later I realized that in Davao, the music culture has met some difficulty in departing from the “gig” machinery. On one hand, you have got to admire how the locals have finally warmed up to the idea of recording their original music, also home recording at that. However, recording became an alibi to go out and support yet another gig. I know I’ll divide the discussion on this but I daresay that music distribution hasn’t outgrown selling CDs to friends (even giving them away for free – as alternative interpretations of “indie” permit). And so it comes as no surprise that you have a handful of very talented musicians and even music producers that have a day job. Unless you’re the likes of Noel Cabangon, Gauss Obenza, Bayang Barrios, Popong Landero…you know…the MTS people.
In a “scene” where music is appreciated but not necessarily “sold” (not to be confused with “sold out” as that requires a more complex qualification), being a musician is just not a career option around these parts. And so Davao has made it possible to have a music scene without a music industry. Because the latter for me is manifested by the proliferation of artists who have records people go out of their way to buy in order to listen to. When artists have a listener-ship with demand high enough to “inspire” more music, then tautologically, you’ve got yourself a market. But unlike this ideal scenario you notice that in Mindanao, the artist is lax on the business side of music. Which is fine but it’s symptomatic of obscurantism and a low appreciation of independent music. Independent music is a musical process or genre that is, more often than not, commercially relaxed or devoid of formulaic musicality that the only way to give it artistic justice is for it to be appreciated by as wide an audience as possible.
Faux pas at the VMAs and an outburst on the US Open
Posted by Kim in Events, Foreign, Mainstream, Media, Music, Music Videos on September 14th, 2009
The title pretty much says it: the legendary temper of some bigshot Americans.
The MTV Video Music Awards 2009 is probably the weirdest to date. Supposedly, the highlight of the show was the much-awaited tribute to the late Micheal Jackson by his sister Janet and the queen Madonna herself. But there have been numerous scores that really eclipsed the opening number in memory of Jackson. For one, you get a very interesting medieval rendering from Lady GaGa which shocked audiences (as usual) and then another asshole stunt from (the guy who I thought was scratched off the guest list after the last fiasco), Kanye West took place. Again, acting like a complete hillbilly, he grabs the mic from Taylor Swift as the 19-year-old accepts her Best Female video award to tell audiences that Beyonce’s video was the best of that year. Of course, Beyonce looks shellshocked by this unexpected turn of events and West is booed off the stage, the works.
Kanye the douche
Way to crush a teenager’s self-esteem. West was reportedly scolded by Swift’s mother to which he later apologized on his blog.
In other news, the US Open semifinals concluded with an ugly unsportsmanlike display from Serena Williams, a disruption that caused her a crucial point to the game.
Here’s the report that ran on Yahoo Sports news:
Reimagining Michael Jackson
Posted by Kim in Dailies, Foreign, Mainstream, Music on July 5th, 2009
Dangerous album cover
In the summer of 1995, I snuck into my uncle’s room with keys to his bottom drawer containing his most precious special edition tape of Michael Jackson’s ”Dangerous” album. The album is said to be the last plateau of Jackson’s music career before it went downhill relative to the high standards he himself set with previously historic sales. I played the tape every morning while I stayed at my grandmother’s house that whole summer. Every morning the first song I’d play would be “Black and White” which my uncle told me was my generations version of Stevie Wonder’s “Ebony and Ivory”. I never understood it until much later, upon hearing Stevie’s song throughout my life.
Every legend or celebrity we tend to render some respect to are often intertwined to a personal memory that we could connect with their creations. It shows that some mementos are created not only by people we personally know, but who leave a mark through their art or performance.
RIP Michael Jackson.
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Interview with The Dawn
Posted by Kim in Dailies, Events, Mainstream, Movies, Music, Music Videos on May 13th, 2009
(L-R) Me, Jett Pangan, JB Leonor, Kenneth Ilagan (Truefaith), Ricci Gurango (Hungry Young Poets, Mojofly)
New wave has got to be my unconscious genre. I was born in the late eighties, so most of the music I remember from my earliest living memory is a combination of new wave radio hits and clumsily spurned grunge.
Growing up, I never knew The Dawn but when I did my homework prior to my interview I immediately recognised their songs. Most probably, the only reason I would ever get the chance to hear their music is if someone older than myself had been picking the tunes on the radio and I just happened to be in the same room at that time. The night before the interview, I sent everyone on my phonebook ages 30 up to see if any of them knew the band. I get an urgent reply from my lawyer, our veterenarian, an engineer, so on. People of considerable stature. This is the generation the band sung to. And so as someone who was barely born at the cusp of their prime, my Filipino music history was enriched and had a brush up last friday with The Dawn.
Unfortunately, my record of the said interview was of such poor quality I wouldn’t dare upload it to grate your ears. Instead, I wrote a transcript of the higlights of the interview that fans might appreciate. Viola.
Long gone the days of Urban to the new Hip-hop tripe
Posted by Kim in Dailies, Foreign, Mainstream, Movies on October 6th, 2008
The movie The Wackness starring Josh Peck and Ben Kingsley was so nostalgic. It might be a classic Sundance bleeding heart movie, but you could easily forgive the theme when you listen to the music featured on the film. It was the music of 1994 – such a great year for music, championing in that time are greats like A tribe called Quest and even The Smashing Pumpkins who really shook the scene with the release of Siamese Dream, which was in my opinion the best album they released.
But let’s talk about the state of Hip-hop now. The truth is, I’m a snob when it comes to mainstream Top 40 Rap, Hip-hop and RnB, if you could call it that. It all began when these Hip-hop artists wanted to sound more like SoSoDef. Suddenly, Hip-hop wasn’t soul music anymore, or talked about the harsh realities of racism and ghetto violence. It wasn’t the music that we used to call in the 90’s as Urban. The tripe you hear from Hip-hop these days are about grinding, girls on the side, car upgrades and partying. Not that these wouldn’t count for realities, but where’s the depth?
I knew that the death of Tupac changed the face of hip-hop. Kanye West is trying to revive part of the glory that belonged to that great era of Urban, but he doesn’t have the exquisite rhyme of old school artists nor enough humility to really overcome the insipidness of the mainstream that riddles his exposure. We can’t identify deep issues from the likes of new hip-hop artists like Eminem or Nelly or T-Pain.
The groups who managed to resist the trend of materialism that is evident in most Hip-hop music have disappeared in the background of the multimedia spectacularism, simply because they choose not to. If you’re attentive enough, you realise that music pundits harp about them, appealing to everyone’s music sensibility. But strangely, there’s just not enough promotion: most of the MTV generation just doesn’t buy in to that kind of music anymore. The mainstream music entices its lot with people’s vanity and hype not their intelligence.
The Roots are one of those artists who have stood their ground. In 2002, they released an album entitled Phrenology. Phrenology is the pseudo science of assessing the figure of someone’s head to determine their intelligence – an idea which used to justify racism.
Peace out.
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Le Grammy Whammy: Lessons from Hancock to the Winehouse generation
A couple of nights ago I caught on to the 50th anniversary of the Grammy Awards, and amidst jeers on Kanye West who is, as usual, perpetually pompous (sneered at the organizers for playing the music on him while he was still making his speech), it was meant to be a respectable event. The Grammy Awards made an effort to recognize just about everyone worth mentioning from over the 50 years it has been going on. But the formalities got a little off-set when you have the guy from Arrested Development hosting and making awkward jokes at the same time, and…wait, did I mention Kanye West? Read the rest of this entry »
Evil, evil MTV!
Okay, Kanye West rants publicly, and unabashedly “WHY DID I LOSE?!” at the recently held MTV Video Music Awards. I’m sure some of you have heard of it. He rats about why a black guy can’t win (And offhandedly mentions indignantly that Black Eyed Peas – which includes a black guy – won over him the previous year). And why did you let Britney Spears do that horrendous performance? Let me (Kanye) do the opening for once! Why let an awkward post-pregnancy physique show on TV? I topped the charts, yo!
Read the rest of this entry »
ALAVET!
Posted by Kim in Dailies, Foreign, Mainstream, Music, Music Videos on April 24th, 2007
Here’s a video of Alanis Morisette’s cover of The Black Eyed Peas‘ song “My humps”. I’m shunning comments about how much a lot of people dislike this song. I just think it’s ridiculously brilliant. It’s a parody of how insipid songs, videos and pop culture can get. And the touch that Alanis put in to it just underscored feminist undertones. ALAVET!
Mood music
Posted by Kim in Mainstream, Music, Playlists on September 6th, 2006
I’m really in the mood for thinking of someone. Yes, this blogger has a “heart” after all.
Reviewing:
1.) Coldplay – Sparks
2.) Damien Rice – The Blower’s daughter
3.) Blur – Out of time
4.) Julie Delpy – Ocean apart
5.) Broken Social Scene – Lover’s spit
***
If you’re ready for this, kids, my music reflects a lot about my “emotional ressonances”. A friend of mine argues that emoting over music is redundant because music is already feeling. The way I see it, it’s hard to deliniate the two, but we ought to realize that a song cannot be a song without the meaning or sentiments that a person can attach to it. So this entails that a person is separate from the song and whatever was meant by either is something that’s unique from each other. In the end, the meanings might converge. Feelings are never redundant, they’re more often than not, refreshed in us through songs. It makes more sense that way.
Does it?
Currently reading Germain Greer’s Sex and Destiny. Western context though, but Greer pulls it off with her wit and superb analysis.
www.kim.southisms.com
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