NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Amala Ratana Zandile Dlamini was b orn to a Jewish mother and a Zulu father, who, according to him returned to South Africa in hopes of his family following him, but according to Dlamini, a.k.a Doja Cat , he abandoned his family. Doja Cat produced music on Soundcloud at the beginning of her career. In 2019, her single " Say So ," today's representative song topped the Billboard Hot 100 . What the hell is a doja cat? I thought. I certainly was getting too old to keep up with pop music. Turns out, three years later, "Say So," is hella catchy. And with an interesting Wikipedia page full of lived experience, I wonder if there's a little treasure in a discography that, to me, originally just sounded like music for cats in heat. Time will tell. YOU AIN'T COMIN' OUT YOUR SHELL. We're entering another playlist-heavy month, and to kick it off, I'm sharing my AppleMusic playlist I created several years ago about cats. Why cats? It was kind of a gift

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming contain's M83 's biggest hit, " Midnight City ." Everything on Hurry Up, is calculated to give listeners, including M83's sole member Anthony Gonzalez, the maximum amount of nostalgia. After a song-length, mood-setting intro, "Midnight City" builds on a riff for three minutes before climaxing in a saxophone solo, unheard in most music since 1988.* Track three, "Reunion," builds on layers of guitars and harmonies by one singer. This guitar-based M83 is a bit rare in their catalogue, as most of M83 is programing in synthesizers with touches of guitar here and there. But a guitar-based track is no-less nostalgic. It's that '80s chord progression heard in New Wave rockers and glam hair metal that sounded so cool to a young Gonzalez, listening to music in his bedroom growing up that bleeds into this song. The lyrics beg for a reunion with a loved one who has gone away.  A NEVER-ENDING DANCE. For today's post

In 2017, Seattle-born Korean rapper Jay Park started his own label, H1ghr, signing several up-in-coming acts in Korean Hip Hop. In the past, Korean rappers either released music independently or signed to the mostly K-pop idol labels, receiving considerably less promotion than the top-selling acts. However, in recent years, Korean Hip Hop has exploded because of reality shows like Show Me the Money and High School Rapper. In 2015, a young Kwon Min-suk, better known as Sik-K, participated in the fourth season of Show Me the Money , under the guidance of Jay Park. The next year, in 2016, Sik-K released his debut record Flip  on H1ghr. WE DO PARENTHESIS WITH WEIRD EXCUSES.   Late '10s Korean hip hop is really well produced, and it tends to follow American hip hop trends. I'm not particularly knowledgable about Hip Hop, but I've found it fascinating ever since the advent of melodic rapping, thanks partially to autotune. Slate's Hit Parade episode about Destiny's Child&

I decided to do something a little different today. I'm going to present my first playlist within a playlist: 2021+. When my friend Stephen Barry  chooses his top songs of a given year, he gives two years of wiggle room for the records he missed. My format is not like Mr Barry and his Orchestra , but I thought that it would be interesting to make a playlist of the best songs I blogged about about last year that fit within a two year time frame. I'm going to stick to one entry per artist as usual and leave links for the posts. Today's song, "Counterfeit" by Wolves at the Gate, comes from a 2019 album, so it barely makes the list. First, I will post the Spotify playlist: The songs listed on this playlist: 1. " Cold Air " by Acceptance. The lead single from 2020's Wild, Free  is a song about a community torn apart by prejudice. Also check out " Wasted Nights " and " Dark Age. " 2. " Counterfeit " by Wolves at the Gate fro

A song and an artist with layers makes a blog entry more interesting. I spent the day while cleaning and house hunting getting to know a fascinating artist and listening to his genre-bending works; however, it all hinged on one song, his first hit, the song of the day. These days, I spend much more time talking about what I found out about the song, and link my readers to articles and podcasts for further information. Today, though, what initially struck me about this song was my memory with it, and I think that is the topic that is worth the majority of the discussion. But I will give my reader some homework, podcasts that tell the story of the artist, the songwriters, and the legacy of today’s song. I’ll throw a few factoids in along the way. THE RADIO REMINDS ME OF MY HOME FAR AWAY. On certain occasions songwriter Bill Danoff listened to a bluegrass radio station based out of West Virginia. When he needed a state to name in his breakthrough hit,his home state of Massachusetts didn

An album set in a fictional universe, the EXO -planet boys came back with their fifth studio album in 2018, Don't Mess Up My Tempo .   The 2018 was the Korean/Chinese boy band's most successful record in the United States, reaching number 23 on Billboard's Hot 200 album sales chart.  Closing the album is the R&B track " Oasis ." The music was composed by a young American-Lebanese songwriter named Andrew Bazzi , or just Bazzi . The groove of the 808 bass loops, staccato instruments, and the EXO boys' smooth vocals make "Oasis" an infectious track. I'M ON THE ROAD.   The young songwriter Bazzi has written for Nelly, Camila Cabello, and Lil' Wayne. So far, his biggest hit, 2017's "Mine" became famous as a SnapChat filter. Before this hit, though, he promoted his music through Vine. Besides "Oasis," Bazzi wrote "Oh La La La," which also appears on Don't Mess Up My Tempo as well as a track on the band'