NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

I've been ruminating on the Barbie movie for a year and a half now. I didn’t write about it after I watched it last August, though several of the film’s themes have sat with me, and I think it’s time to look back at this film as a deciding moment in America’s culture war that has culminated in the re-election of Donald Trump in November. Greta Gerwig ’s allegory, Barbie, is the antithesis of the America in the Republican future just a little over a month away. To be clear, neither Barbieland nor the real-world Venice Beach is utopian. Barbieland is matriarchal until Ken ( Ryan Gosling ) teaches the other Kens about patriarchy. The film shows a world of smart Barbies, doctors, lawyers, judges, astronauts, scientists —and Ken dolls who “beach” as a profession, waiting for a Barbie to give them attention. Margot Robbie as the archetypal blonde Barbie feels dissatisfied with living in a place where “Every day is the best day ever, and every night is girls' night, from now until f...

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...

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...

  Did you have a good brat summer? This has been another incredible year for women in pop music, from Ariana Grande to Sabrina Carpenter , as women have dominated the pop charts. The competition for a number 1 album has been fierce with so many strong releases by Dua Lipa , Billie Eilish , and Chappell Roan so far failing to reach the summit of Billboard ’s 200 Albums Chart.  Besides the K-pop idol groups Twice and Stray Kids ; country singers Morgan Wallen and the late Toby Keith ; and rappers 21 Savage , ¥$ ( Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign ), Future and Metro Boomin , Eminem , and Post Malone ; female pop singers held the number one spot for 22 weeks so far this year. Only Taylor Swift , Ariana Grande, Beyoncé , and Sabrina Carpenter have occupied the top spot as female pop acts.  SHOCK YOU LIKE DEFIBRILLATORS. Of the 22 weeks that the female pop superstars spent atop Billboard’ s 200 Albums Chart, Taylor Swift has claimed 17 of those weeks, and her latest album...

  Before his record-setting 333 (and counting) Billboard Hot 100 entries and his record-tying number 13 #1 hits--tied with Michael Jackson --, Drake released his 2016 album Views . First, he scored a number 2 hit in 2015 with “ Hotline Bling ” before the album was released, and then he reached the top position on the chart with the single “ One Dance .” Drake released his first mixtape in 2006, but his 2009 single “ Best I Ever Had ” from his third mixtape was the breakout event for the Canadian rapper. Perceptions about Drake may have changed over the years, particularly earlier this year when he and Kendrick Lamar were involved in a nasty highly-publicized feud. “Hotline Bling” harkens back to a time when the perception of the Canadian rapper was mostly positive, even if the lyrics to the song have been criticized as sexist. EVER SINCE I LEFT THE CITY… The summer vacation sounds of “Hotline Bling” partly come from the song’s sample of Timmy Thomas ’s " Why Can't We Live T...

  Last month TWS kicked off 여름방학 (summer vacation) with the lead single to their second mini album Summer Beat!   Peaking at # 125 on Korea’s Gaon chart “ hey! hey! ” wasn’t a successful single to follow “ Plot Twist ,” their number 2 hit. But Pledis Entertainment ’s conceptual optimistic teen boy band may not have me interested in the daily life of the boys in the band,” I’d certainly like to find out what composers of the song were listening to inspire the pop-punk guitar riff that appears throughout the song, especially noticeable at the beginning. I’m not sure what made this song flop in Korea--maybe the guitar, maybe the overly optimistic sound in dark times--but I think that “hey! hey!” deserves another taste. On the surface, it seems like a fizzy throw-away track, but I think more is going on. I WANT TO CRY OUT OUR DREAM FROM THE WORLD’S PEAK. Opening with a ten-second guitar riff sets “hey! hey!” immediately in the past--or maybe a future when guitar music has actual...