NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

There might be one song that defines the ‘90s and reshaped music and the rock star for Generation X and future generations of music listeners. That song, of course, was the lead single from the 1991 sophomore record by Nirvana , Nevermind . “ Smells Like Teen Spirit ,” Nirvana, and Nevermind didn’t invent Grunge. Alice in Chains , arguably, brought the sound mainstream before Nirvana did. The song “ Man in the Box ,” a hopeless rocker when the sounds of hair rockers were much more optimistic and hedonistic, reached number 18 on Billboard’s Modern Rock tracks.  But Alice in Chains didn’t lead the revolution, nor did Nirvana’s other contemporaries Soundgarden or Pearl Jam .   HERE WE ARE NOW, ENTERTAIN US. Just as how F. Scott Fitzgerald set out to write a satire of the trivial lives and parties of the New York upper crust and subsequently gave literature and history the most condensed account of what the “Jazz Age” was in The Great Gatsby , Nirvana wrote “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” whic

As the music industry changes, many vestiges from when pop music was based on radio mono-culture don’t make sense anymore. Still, every pop critic feels the need to discuss “The Song of the Summer,” a made-up title given to often a high-energy pop song that usually peaks in popularity during the summer months. Billboard started tracking the song of the summer from 2010, naming Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg ’s “ California Gurls ” for that year and retroactively dubbing a hit from each proceeding year until 1985. Later, they went back to 1975 and even listed the top tens from every summer since the chart's inception in 1958 . YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW MY NAME. “California Gurls” made sense as a song of summer. It was about sex on the beach, girls in bikinis, and all things summer. “ Call Me Maybe ,” “ Despecito ,” and “ Old Town Road ” were all listed as songs of the summer for the year they peaked in popularity. Psy ’s “ Gangnam Style ” wasn’t a contender because it didn’t chart because B

People that complain that there is no talent in music today are overlooking quite a few artists. My blog is full of talent young musicians from Betty Who to Charlie Puth who may not be the most popular musicians, but they have used classical and technical training to write and produce their own songs. Of course there are tons of other examples, but I mention both Who and Puth because, like  Laufey Lín Jónsdóttir, Icelandic singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, these artists are all alumnus of Berklee College of Music , a prestigious school that has just as many famous graduates as famous dropouts. ME AND YOU AND AWKWARD SILENCE.  Laufey Lín Jónsdóttir, better know by her first name Laufey, was born to a Chinese mother and an Icelandic father. Laufey was raised on classical and jazz music. Her mother is a classical violinist, and her grandfather, Lin Yaoji was famous a violin instructor at the Central Conservatory of Music in China from which he graduated and also studied at

" My my, hey hey / Rock 'n' Roll is here to stay" declares  Neil Young  in his 1978 song.  Rock music has had lasting presence in pop culture since the age of  Chuck Berry  and   Little Richard . Some points in the '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, and '00s the genre took the primary spots on radio charts outside of the genre. However, around the end of the '00s, Hip Hop decimated the genre. The rock bands left standing, mostly traded their axes for acoustic guitar, keyboards, EDM beats, or Trap rhythms. Much of the rock music was indistinguishable from other genres, and that trend continues into the 2020s. However, just as rock bands cross over to the pop charts, the late 2010s to 2021 is seeing pop singers experiment with rock music. From  Miley Cyrus   performing   with  Metallica  to rappers like  Post Malone  and  Machine Gun Kelly  flirting with emo, some may argue that Rock is seeing a mainstream resurgence. Enter  Olivia Rodrigo 's " goo