NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Pop is having an incredible year. Starting out with Sam Smith 's genre- (and gender) blending Gloria to this month's yacht-rock inspired The Album by Jonas Brothers , what I once would consider guilty pleasures I would argue now rival the musical staples of my hipster past. The year isn't even half over, and I still haven't digested many of the albums that have come out. But if the two singles, " Heaven " and " Meltdown ," Niall Horan  released before his rumored June release of The Show  have any bearing on the upcoming album, I'll be adding this to my list of albums that completely blindsided me with awesomeness.  WHEN IT ALL MELTS DOWN, I'LL BE THERE. These days, I've been listening to Spotify's curated playlists at work. "Meltdown" is a song that has been added to several of the new hits playlists, so I started hearing it quite often. I thought the song was catchy, but it initially got lost with the other tons of songs

Composed by  Kenzie , the professional name for  SM Entertainment 's songwriter Kim Yeon-jeong, the debut single " Into the New World " by what would become one of the biggest K-pop groups,  Girls' Generation , set the tone for a ten-year career of fun, bubble-gummy, uplifting songs. Composed of nine young women all born between 1989 and 1991,   Girls' Generation   has been been called "the Nation's Girl Group," in South Korea due to their popularity between 2007-2017. Beginning with a sample of   Don Henley 's 1984 classic " The Boys of Summer, " (covered last August by   The Ataris ), "Into the New World" builds on the nostalgic piano and synth sample. Rather than calling back with longing for the past, this song propels listeners forward into the future. I LEAVE BEHIND THIS WORLD'S UNENDING SADNESS.  I've been pretty critical of K-pop in the past for being a-political. I used to think that music in America was too p

In 1986, The United States was in the middle of a decades-long Cold War with the Soviet Union. While the war never heated up, there were some close battles that made the average American squeamish about the possibility of nuclear war, and some went so far as to build their own bomb shelters to help them survive nuclear fall out. But having been born in 1987, I don’t have much memory of Soviet-era rumors of war, and even post-9/11, American views on the U.S. military’s involvement with pretty much anything has been controversial. A film like Top Gun in 1986 was filled with truth, justice, the American way. TIME IS RUNNING OUT SO SPEND IT LIKE IT’S GOLD. Last summer, in the midst of a heatwave of ‘80s nostalgia, Top Gun: Maverick hit the theaters. The film was a smash hit and featured Tom Cruise reprising his role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. The film was the second-highest grossing film of 2022 and the highest grossing film of Cruise’s career. The film also featured several actors fr

  Last week fans were upset when Miley Cyrus announced that she wouldn’t go on tour for her latest record, Endless Summer Vacation . The singer hasn’t headlined an arena tour since 2014’s supporting tour for Bangerz . Cyrus told British Vogue that “singing for hundreds of thousands of people isn’t really the thing that I love. . . There’s no connection.  There’s no safety. It’s also not natural. It’s so isolating because if you’re in front of 100,000 people then you are alone.” So, as the music industry is trying to return to normal in 2023, just how many major players will throw a Miley Cyrus wrench into the Ticketmaster machine? I’M HOLDING ON LIKE A ROLLING STONE. Miley Cyrus’ eighth studio record Endless Summer Vacation has brought Miley Cyrus back to the spotlight nearly ten years after she swung into the number 1 spot on Billboard ’s Hot 100 , nude on a “ Wrecking Ball .” In fact, this year’s “ Flowers ” beat “Wrecking Ball”’s 3-week reign atop the Hot 100 chart by 5 weeks, 8 w

  “ Attention ” was the lead single from Charlie Puth ’s sophomore album, Voicenotes . It’s a mid-tempo track that features Puth’s auto-tuned vocals punctuated by a smooth electric guitar. Compared to Puth’s debut record, Nine Track Mind , Voicenotes received much more critical praise. While “Attention” peaked at number 5 on Billboard ’s Hot 100 chart , Puth has yet to replicate the magic of his 12-non-consecutive-week hit of “ See You Again ” as a featured artist on Wiz Khalifa ’s track commissioned for Furious 7 as a tribute to the late Paul Walker .  YOU’VE BEEN GOIN’ ROUND EVERY PARTY IN LA. I thought it was about time to start a working playlist for songs about Los Angeles. It’s the first in my Cities playlist series. The playlist will feature songs and artists connected with the city. It’s not an exhaustive playlist, yet. Note that songs about Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and surrounding areas are also fair game. So, let’s take a long weekend trip into the City of Angels! Check out

  Lana Del Rey returned this earlier year with the latest installment of her " Carol King Era" of songwriting in Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd?    This new era of the Del Rey persona created by Lizzy Grant feels like a slow progression away from pop hooks, and maybe where this started was with Del Rey’s second album, Ultraviolence . But Del Rey’s real critical acclaim arrived with Norman Fucking Rockwell , the album that both ended pop Lana and started the ‘70s-styled singer-songwriter that she followed up with Chemtrails Over the Country Club , Blue Banisters , and Did you know .   GIVE PEACE A CHANCE. Lana Del Rey’s fan base is strong, quick to interpret ever line that the singer writes in the blogosphere. Not only do fans read into her released songs, they also track down her unreleased demos and leak them online. Usually Del Rey pays no attention when one of her unreleased songs is leaked; however, when a sped-up version of “ Say Yes to Heaven

Berlin 's 1986 light-rock hit " Take My Breath Away " in its somewhat cheesy ascending scaled-note chorus speaks to the common human experience of falling in love with someone. The old aphorism, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away," speaks to the times when life surprises us so much that if the shock of the good surprise were to kill us, we would have died happy. In other words, I may feel "so happy that I could die." These moments are breathtaking, like seeing a Van Gogh in person, seeing  a beautiful woman, or experiencing a new life.   Perhaps this is what  The Weeknd  intended for his lead single from Dawn FM ,  " Take My Breath ," but in typical  Weeknd  fashion, the video and the lyrics hint at a darker side of those breathtaking moments. YOU'RE OFFERING YOURSELF TO ME LIKE SACRIFICE.  Since   Beauty Behind the Madness   brought The Weeknd to the forefront of popular m

A few years ago, I remember (shamefully) having a conversation with my students as to why K-pop would never fully make it in America and my argument had to do with how American radio stations rarely played music in a foreign language. But K-pop proved me wrong, albeit, it didn’t hurt that BTS sang some of their major hits in English. But just as BTS was ascending to international fame, a legal barrier threatened the band.  AN UNENDING HISTORY. Last October, BTS announced that they were taking a break from releasing new music together, which promptly caused Hybe Corporation 's stock, the band's record label, to plummet. Each member of BTS would release solo records, and they would reconvene in 2025 to assess future projects as a group; however, Hybe Corporation's chairman Bang Si-hyuk (방시혁) expressed some doubts about the timeline as a renegotiated contract hadn't been discussed. The reason for this musical break had to do with South Korean law. All able-bodied males m

Nathan Feuerstein is one of the most successful Christian hip-hop artists today. Born and raised in a tiny town in central Michigan, Nate, better known by his moniker, NF , had a hard home life as a child. After his parents divorced, he was raised by his mother until he and one of his sisters were abused by his mother's boyfriend. After that, he returned to live with his father. NF channeled his struggles with anxiety and mental health in his music. DEAR GOD, PLEASE HEAR ME OUT. Last month, NF released his fifth studio album, Hope , and the single " Happy " is still making waves on Spotify playlists. While NF does not claim to be a Christian Rapper but rather a hip-hop artist who happens to be a Christian, his music is played on both secular and Christian radio, especially due to his clean (though often brutally honest) lyrics. Currently, NF has amassed over 18 million monthly streams on Spotify, making him a highly successful artist, especially for a Christian artist. A

The 2014 film  Boyhood   was a highly acclaimed film that has an incredible  Rotten Tomatoes  score, yet nobody talks about it anymore. The film was shot over 12 years from 2001 to 2013 using the same actors and feels like a piece of turn-of-the-century Americana, a kind of early 2000s rendering of a Norman Rockwell painting of the imperfect white, working-class American family. The film not only explores boyhood and coming of age, but also parenthood and the complications of raising a family while trying to better oneself as well as the struggles of co-parenting through a divorce. The events and pop culture throughout the years are woven into human themes. The soundtrack for the film is a combination of famed indie artists of the early '00s and popular music of the time. Seamlessly joining the soundtrack was virtually unknown folk-rock band  Family of the Year , with their song " Hero ." I DON'T WANT TO BE YOUR HERO . "Hero" appears in the movie toward the

I was talking with my Gen X coworker earlier this year about music, and somehow Jonas Brothers came up. He asked me, as a defender of pop, if the band of brothers had ever made a good album. I thought about the question. Of course, I can’t consider the teeny-bopper music from the band’s early days. But I  could say that Nick Jonas ’ latest record Spaceman was a masterfully produced album by Greg Kurstin blending ‘80s and ‘90s R&B with contemporary electronic pop. I thought that the DNCE record was fun. I thought that “ Sucker ” was a great Ryan Tedder production and showed potential for where the Jonas Brothers could go, although Happiness Begins was a bit of a disappointment. But no, I couldn’t say that I liked any Jonas Brothers album. ROCK FOR ME TO STAND ON. But that all changed when Jonas Brothers released The Album last Friday. But being able to call this album great comes with years of breaking down some of my musical biases and hang-ups. The first is a discussion abo

Formed in 1992 as the house band for a series of UK youth outreach events called  The Cutting Edge ,  delirious?  became a full-time band after singer  Martin Smith  was hospitalized for several weeks after a car accident in 1995. Smith read Bill Flanagan's book  U2: At the End of the World ,  inspiring him to make the band a full-time career. The band released their second full-length studio album,  King of Fools ,  and their first under the moniker Delirious. The song " Deeper " hit the  UK pop charts , unexpectedly, peaking at number 20. The band would sign to  Sparrow Records  for their U.S. distribution, spanning several CCM and Christian Rock hits and helping to create the next generation of worship music. Delirious's music is usually worship, but they are a jam band at their core, particularly evidenced by their two follow-up records to  King of Fools,  Mezzamorphis   and  Glo .  The band writes anthems that sound like  U2 , but include electronic experimentati

Last Friday, Lauren Daigle returned with her first record since 2018’s blockbuster sophomore record, Look Up Child .  Daigle’s music has been featured in movies and television shows from Blade Runner 2049 to Grey’s Anatomy ,  which makes the singer stand out from other artists in her genre, Contemporary Christian Music, a genre she dominated with the number-one Christian song for sixty weeks for the crossover hit, “ You Say .” WE KNOW THE FUTURE’S BURNIN’ BRIGHT. Maybe like me, you spent a part of the ‘10s backsliding from your evangelical upbringing. Don’t worry, I’m not here to tell on you. You probably stopped listening to DC Talk and Michael W. Smith , and maybe became a “ Bad Christian ” with Emery , followed Michael Gungor ’s journey, or went full-out atheist like Underoath . Somewhere along the way, what was playing on Christian Radio sounded like a bad version of what was popular two years ago on the pop station, only mellower. Somewhere along the way, Hillsong and Bethel M