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

I've written a bit this year about how I'm a Coldplay apologist. I believe that the London-based band is very good at what they do. Though so many artists accomplish their sound, both musically and lyrically, better, there's something uplifting about a new Coldplay album. Earlier this year, I talked about the band's first single from their ninth studio record,  Music of the Spheres, " Higher Power ." The album was released on October 15 this year, but after "Higher Power" the band released the promotional single, the 10:17 track "Coloratura," which was praised by critics for its composition and production, and the second radio single "My Universe" featuring the South Korean boy band, BTS. The song shot straight to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the second Coldplay single to top the Hot 100, the first being "Viva la Vida." I JUST WANT TO PUT YOU FIRST .  The reviews for Music of the Spheres  were quite low. M

The third Thursday of every November, barring no situations like a pandemic delaying the start of the school year or an earthquake in a major city the day before the exam, South Korea holds its once-a-year College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) or 수능. Much of a Korean student's academic future rests on the score he or she receives on the test. Unlike American SATs or ACTs, failure to get a good score means either waiting another year to take the exam or settling with a lower-tier college. The subjects covered on the CSAT are Korean language, Mathematics, English, and Korean History. There are YouTube videos in which graduates from top universities around the world ( in this video US college graduates ) attempt to solve the questions on the CSAT. Korea is a country that places so much importance on students' scholastic abilities, but it comes at a cost--both financial and emotional.  IS THIS REALLY TRUE? Several dramas and films have looked at the economic inequality in the wor

I regret to admit that a few years ago I told my students that BTS probably would never enjoy mainstream success in America. Sure, the signs were all there: the Spotify numbers, the growing fervor for diverse cultures in the pop scene, a growing media interest in Korean culture--movies were featuring more scenes in Seoul, and Asian actors were getting more and more leading roles. "However," I assured my middle school students, "American radio listeners aren't very tolerant of foreign languages." A song like " Despacito " got huge because of its featuring Justin Bieber  on the remix . However, when I made those regrettable comments, I was thinking about the America that I knew. I was thinking about the time in college I was a faithful reader of Billboard's charts, before you had to pay a monthly fee to read them. I was thinking of a time when radio airplay was the majority of an artist's success. And with BTS's Billboard success--two #1 Ho

In 2012, a Korean rapper taught everyone around the world about K pop by talking about the wealth in a particular neighborhood in Seoul. That rapper was Psy and that neighborhood was Gangnam. However, Korean Hip Hop has not been the bread and butter of the K-pop industry. Sure, hip-hop certainly is featured in the K-pop that gets popular. While BTS has rappers, they fit into the genre of teen pop music. Korean Hip Hop; however, teaches you all the bad words in Korean and will often contain some English profanity too. These days it's especially popular among high school and college-aged boys. WHEN YOU FEEL ME TWICE. Korean Hip Hop dates back to the late '80s when the government loosened its censorship laws. In early Korean Hip Hop, artists often talked about daily life and Korean virtues. It was not widely performed at first. DJs produced music and the scene was quite underground. But in the mid-90s Hip Hop emerged in Hongdae, one of Korea's most hopping college towns in Seo

Ten years ago, Deas Vail released their self-titled album , and with the exception of a Christmas EP, For Shepherds & Kings ,  and a B-sides album, this has been their last full-length project. Composed of husband and wife Wesley and Laura Blaylock and three other musicians, Deas Vail is Latin and Old French, meaning "humble servant of God." As a lighter indie rock band they gained momentum in the Christian Rock and Warped Tour scenes before stopping touring and ultimately disappearing from the scene. Their final, self-titled album is a beautiful collection of songs, produced by Relient K guitarist and self-proclaimed minimalist, Matt Hoopes . Minimalism seems to be a consideration as there is nothing particularly florid in the album or packaging, from the lyrics that don't stick out at first, to the cover art, to the subdued tones throughout the album. Listening to  Deas Vail reminds me that it's not the grand days that make a lifetime great, but the cumulat

K-pop listeners have watched the once teen star IU grow up. Debuting at the age of 15, the star is turning 30 this year. The soprano singer has been called Korea's little sister, and her (mostly) squeaky clean image has propelled her to lasting success in Korea's music scene. Flowers and spring are no unfamiliar topic to this singer, and her sweet, yet powerful voice is perfect for a spring day. My first exposure to the singer was her song " The Meaning of You " (너의 의미)  and her feature on HIGH4 's " Not Spring, Love, or Cherry Blossoms " (봄 사랑 벚꽃 말고) and she's constantly played in Korea whenever the mood calls for easy listening. IT'S LIKE THE FALLING PETALS, OUR IVORY COLORED SPRING CLIMAX. Choosing this song marks the end of a week of dreary album covers. IU's Lilac album is a pretty spring album. And it's no secret I'm a sucker for a good saxophone part in a pop song. Growing up in central New York, I always considered lilacs t

This album, though... I can listen to it from start to finish without skipping a track. This feels like a confession. At some point I'll probably make a case for " Call Me Maybe ," which I still haven't gotten sick of, but for today, let's enjoy this banger, the first track on Carly Rae Jepsen's finest album. Starting with an almost kazoo-sounding saxophone riff--though not strange at all--which plays under the vocals when Carly cuts to the chorus. Somehow I happened to find this album while riding on a bus one weekend exploring something new. This was in 2016 when I lived on campus of my school, so every weekend for my sanity I had to go on an adventure. This meant lots of time on the rural-to-city bus. I listened to a lot of music while on the bus and waiting to transfer. At this point I spent quite a few weekends looking for something new whether it was coffee houses, interesting restaurants, different areas of town, new places to watch the flowers bloom o