NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Tomorrow I will be changing formats. This is the beginning of the end of The NewYears DayProject as I have started to focus my writing time in a different direction. I will still make playlists and write about songs from time to time. However, I feel like my blog has stagnated and gotten away from my main purpose: enjoying music and exploring how it connects to my life. I will keep posting on this platform until I decide on another. I'm getting a little fed up with how Blogger is stuck in 2014 and the HTML formatting has not been fun. Ultimately, I am starting this new adventure out of envy. I envy the talent of writing and I want to pursue it. Ultimately, I have come to a crossroads: either I continue to pursue research-based "Song a Day" posts which are very time-consuming or I focus on my creative writing. I may settle back on a research-based approach in a different format. But ultimately, I realized that I wasn't writing very well. All of my posts are so quickly ...

Coming back with an album three-and-a-half years after her 2020 album Positions , Ariana Grande  released Eternal Sunshine in March of this year. When she released the album’s first single, “ Yes, And? ,” the song debuted at number one on Billboard’ s Hot 100 in January, becoming one of the first new pop songs of the year. Her next single, “ We Can’t Be Friends ” (Wait for Your Love) also debuted at number 1, and the album also topped Billboard ’s 200 Album Charts. Grande had promised that she wouldn’t enter the studio until after she had finished filming her role as Glinda in Wicked . The film had wrapped production and the film premiered a teaser trailer during the Super Bowl in February with a November release date. Was Ariana Grande set to be the artist of the year?  THE BOY IS DIVINE. In hindsight, with solid releases from Billie Eilish , Sabrina Carpenter , and Charli xcx , Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine risks being overlooked because of its early release date. Gra...

East West  was a Christian hard rock band that released two albums in the early 2000s. The most successful single from their debut album  The Light in Guinevere's Garden   was the guitar ballad " She Cries ," in which the band didn't scream the lyrics. East West's two releases are between two very important releases in Hard Christian Rock:  P.O.D. 's  Satellite  and  Underoath 's  They're Only Chasing Safety . The band's follow up,  Hope in Anguish  was produced much better than  TLiGG.  The grungy sounds of slow songs and the gut-punching screams of the heavy songs met the drums, effects petals, and truly depressing lyrics--dealing with addiction, child abuse, and the music business. Four of the songs--three of the non-screaming tracks--made their way to Christian Rock radio. East West was a band that showed that they could write a hit and have a heavy album.  I COULD NEVER REALLY FIND THE ANSWERS.  Three years ...

The Seoul Jazz Festival is an annual music event held in Seoul, South Korea, that celebrates jazz and other related genres, such as blues, soul, funk, and R&B. Since its inception in 2007, the festival has grown into one of the country's premier music events, attracting both local and international artists. It usually takes place in late spring, typically in May, and is hosted at scenic venues like Olympic Park, which provides a relaxed outdoor setting for music lovers. The festival features a diverse lineup of musicians, ranging from jazz legends to contemporary artists across various genres, offering a fusion of styles that appeal to a broad audience. Besides jazz, the Seoul Jazz Festival often includes performances by indie, pop, and crossover artists, making it accessible to a wider range of music fans. This year, Lauv headlined the festival for 2 of the 3 nights.  THERE’S A UNIVERSE WHERE WE BOTH GET HURT. For his first headlining set on Friday, May 31, Lauv performe...

After “ Lunch ” and an afternoon in the park observing “ Birds of a Feather ,” it’s time to spend the rest of the afternoon settled into a small café.  The entertainment is provided by a girl singing a song that sounds much older than her years. The song vaguely seems like a popular European jazz song from the 1940s. Perhaps it was a hit on a regional radio station. The young singer croons of a breakup. But then you black out and awaken in a discotheque. It’s the same day but several hours later. People are dancing. You notice on stage the singer looks familiar. She’s the same girl from earlier at the café. But her hair is different. She’s wearing a wig? But she doesn’t sound cool like before. She sounds empowered with her electronic voice and angry . You have just experienced one of the weirdest moments in pop music in 2024. Billie Eilish ’s “ L’AMOUR DE MA VIE .” FELT SORRY FOR YOU WHEN I LOOKED INTO YOUR EYES. Many of the songs on Billie Eilish’s HIT ME HARD AND SOFT are rumore...

In high school,  Kim Sung-kyu , the future leader of the boy band  Infinite , had to hide his vocal practice from his parents. In high school, he sang with some of his friends in a rock band. When he graduated he left his hometown of Jeonju in hopes of having a career in music in Seoul. After failing an audition for  SM Entertainment , he tried out for the label  Woolim Entertainment . He hoped to be a rock singer like his future label mate,  Nell . On the day of his audition, though, he was suffering from appendicitis. Determined to make it as a singer, he sang through the pain and went to the hospital after the audition finished. Rather than cultivating Kim's rock talents, the record label placed him as the leader of their first boy band, Infinite. Throughout the group's tenure, they would flirt with rock music; however, it wasn't until Sung-Kyu's debut EP,  Another Me ,  that he would be able to make the kind of music he envisioned.  WHENEVER T...

A few years ago, YouTuber Nick Canovas, or  Mic the Snare , made a  video about the characteristics of meme songs  and why some songs go viral. Not all meme songs are created equal. Some annoyingly catchy songs get stuck in enough heads to become a hit. These are so bad that they’re  almost  good. Then there are old songs that become renewed for the  TikTok  generation. These songs had a solid presence before taking off on social media. Some of these songs are laughable in a modern context—the swanky sax solo from “ Careless Whisper ,”  Rick Astley ’s shoulder dance when he sings “ Never Gonna Give You Up .” But some meme songs are what music critics still call legitimately good.  A-ha ’s “ Take On Me ,”  Simon & Garfunkel ’s “ The Sound of Silence ,” and today’s song can be legitimately enjoyed  with  an extra dose of irony once it has soundtracked a meme. YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO CUT ME OFF . In the spring and summer of 20...

  I remember writing about Dua Lipa ’s collaboration with Elton John   " Cold, Cold Heart " several years ago At the time, I was barely familiar with the singer and found her to be unoriginal. The songs “ New Rules ” and “ Levitating ” were inescapable but I never listened to them voluntarily. They just happened to litter the gym stereo and the streets outside the phone stores in the shopping areas. As I’ve become more fluent in pop music over the last ten years, I still argue that the late ‘10s were the nadir of the genre, maybe the music industry in general. I realize that I’m often wrong about new artists and that a bad first impression can be undone with maturity. And sometimes, I was wrong about those early hits and they weren’t as cringey as I thought. I’ve been laying the criticism pretty thick. To be fair, these days when pop music isn't light and airy, it can get rather dark. I COME AND I GO. Dua Lipa released her third studio album this year, Radical Optimism ...

Earlier this year, I talked about an episode of Girls5eva in which the fictional girl group flew to Orlando to play for a morally compromising concert for a billionaire’s birthday party. This happens in the real world frequently and it’s not without backlash. Whether it’s a sensitive political affiliation like Elton John playing for one of Rush Limbaugh's weddings to performing from authoritarian leaders like Mariah Carey , Beyoncé , Usher , and Nelly Furtado performing for the Gaddafi family in 2011 to corrupt presidents or Russian oligarchs, less wealthy fans have certainly taken issue with some of these controversial patrons.  THE PASSION’S SO COMPLETE, IT’S NEVER ENDING. There is a growing list of recording artists threatening to sue or in the process of suing Donald Trump’s campaign for unauthorized use of their song at his rallies, from Céline Dion to The White Stripes . In contrast the Democratic Party’s playlist is extensive with many pop, rock, and hip-hop stars even...