NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

A big part of my blog is discovering music. Sometimes that’s new indie artists with very little written except for press releases. But what I’ve found more often is that I’ve been unearthing the long-lost civilization of the 2010s, a decade I scoffed at as the nadir of music. During the pandemic, though, I started listening to new music, finding the newer songs resonating with me in ways that the 2010s didn’t. But then I started going back, re-evaluating pop, rock, and alternative in the 2010s, listening with an open mind. I realized that music was changing and that loyalty to any genre was an illusion. Alternative playlists reminded me of what would pass for pop music in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. Bedroom pop, dream pop, hip-hop, and neo-soul flooded the playlists. Now I see that as a strength rather than a weakness. SAY YOU WANT ME OUTTA YOUR LIFE. One of the tracks that showed up on an Apple Music Alternative Hits playlist was “ Youngblood ” by 5 Seconds of Summer , called 5SOS b

  After incredible success after releasing their comeback single last fall, " This Is Why " which was the title track to the   album   the band released in February last year,   Paramore   released their second single, " The News ." Both singles prepared the listener for a Paramore album unlike anything that the band had recorded before. "This Is Why" featured the self-defeating lyrics fans have come to expect from lead singer   Haley Williams   and the song had a certain Paramore catchiness, but the funky bass and classic rock guitar explored musical territory the band had not yet shared with their listeners.  A WAR RIGHT BEHIND MY EYES.  "The News," however, is a hard rock socially-conscious track, darker than most of the band's prior songs. The same day that Paramore released the single, they also released a video for the song. The video (see below) features Haley Williams hypnotized by a television, which becomes a catatonic state in the

Last month , I started listing my top albums of 2023. Today, I’m going to reveal my top two albums of last year. #2 is Miley Cyrus ’s Endless Summer Vacation . I never thought that there would be a day when Hannah Montana would claim the number two best album of the year in my taste. But Endless Summer Vacation was an incredible album. The album departs from her trip into rock music from 2020’s Plastic Hearts into country-flavored pop. I’ve talked about how the single “ Flowers ” overshadowed the album. The song serves as a thesis statement to the breakup album, but the other songs emphasize the process of breaking up and the happy memories of a relationship. The songwriting is excellent, and the instrumentation on the album is superb. Cyrus’s old-soul lullaby-like post-album addition “ Use to Be Young ” pair nicely with her smoky mezzo-soprano vocals. But the album’s charm is mostly in the songs that got minimal attention, from the summer-by-the-pool guitar track two “ Jaded ” to th

" Free Fallin' " is certainly synonymous with Tom Petty , but t oday, we'll look at a few versions of the song, but due to the Christian Rock theme of the last few days, ultimately I chose  The Almost 's  version  to be the official version for my blog. As pointed out in an excellent video by  12Tone  (see below), there is a lot of meaning packed in the musical theory of the song, ultimately illustrating that there are pros and cons to being  free.  ALL THE VAMPIRES  WALKIN' DOWN THE VALLEY MOVE WEST DOWN VENTURA BOULEVARD.   Tom Petty  released his first solo record  Full Moon Fever   in 1989. The first song recorded for the record and first track on the record is "Free Fallin'." The song is one of Petty's biggest and most recognizable tracks. It was also his last top 10 hit on the  Billboard Hot 100 . The simple ballad is partly a breakup song and partly a love song for his then home of Los Angelos. The Gainesville, Florida, native always k

While the rock music was falling out of favor in the 2010s,   All Time Low 's career continued to gain momentum. Formed in 2003 and heavily influenced by   NoFx   and   Blink -182   the band became a force in the emo phase of the   Warped Tour   scene. The band became famous for their jocular onstage banter and their mock-turned serious feud with   Metro Station . And in that jocular nature, the skinny, nerdy bandmates clad in only their   tighty-whities   appeared on MySpace's home page the week before their sophomore album   So Wrong, It's Right  dropped in 2007. I DON'T MIND IF YOU FUCK UP (RUIN) MY LIFE.  Fast forward thirteen years. I have deleted a lot of music I acquired in college if I didn't like the songs. I enjoyed laughing at  Blink- 182 videos  in middle and high school just as much as any white boy, but joke pop-punk got old when emo bands dug into deeper subjects. It turns out that All Time Low was digging a bit deeper in the 2010s, flying under my ra

Paramore 's second album  Riot!   made the pop-punk emo band of late millennial famous with the summer Alternative Rock and pop radio hit " Misery Business ," which is still arguably the band's signature hit. Usually, though, a band's signature hit is either their highest charting song or their located within the era of the band's commercial peak. However, seven years after the summer of "Misery Business," Paramore charted the highest with their 2014 final single from their eponymous record, " Ain't It Fun ." This shift from emo to more conventional pop was in line with fellow bands  Fall Out Boy  and  Panic! at the Disco  did as well. Just as the scene kids were growing up as every generation of rebellious rock 'n' roll had, "Ain't It Fun" is a song about growing up and realizing that the world isn't as easy as you once thought it was. It may not be punk-rock, but it's certainly still got some emo sentimen

When Eisley began their career, they were the indie band that had the opportunity to open for Coldplay on the North American leg of A Rush of Blood to the Head tour. Soon, the band "became too big" for RadioU and Christian rock radio. The only problem is that Eisley came up in a time when every major label was trying to suck up indie talent, but the indie talent rarely made it to radio. Hence these bands actually didn't keep their major label deals. YOU WON'T TAKE THE BREATH FROM THROAT. I'm sure there's a backstory to Eisley's second record, 2007's  Combinations, especially regarding lead singer Sherri DuPree-Bemis . My intention today is to tread respectfully with the dating dynamics that the Christian-adjacent indie scene, particularly as it relates to two up-and-coming bands in 2007: Eisley and Paramore  and how they are related. Both female-fronted bands had gained acclaim both in and out of the Christian circle. In 2007, Paramore had just rele

I would argue that since reputation , Taylor Swift has made a career based on revenge. The singer-songwriter is extremely intentional and calculated when releasing new singles and albums. Most recently, Swift released yet another deluxe edition of Midnights , this time calling it The Til Dawn Edition , featuring a new song and two remixes. When she first released Midnights in October of last year, many listeners were wondering what was different about the album. It felt like reputation but the singer was in a steady relationship with English actor Joe Alwyn , and everything was going great, right? right? KARMA IS A CAT PURRING ON MY LAP. When tabloids started reporting that Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn had split in early April this year, the pointed lyrics of Midnights started to make a little more sense. Was Swift reacting to the expectations--from others or even Alwyn-- that their relationship should end in marriage? Could the singer stay in a "1950s shit" " Lavender Ha

In 2018, Taylor Swift did the unthinkable. Country music stars had been expected to be either right-leaning or a-political. Although Swift wasn't a country music star in 2018, she was still associated with the genre. But as a resident of Tennessee, Swift came out publicly in support of two Democratic candidates in a midterm race. It took a Trump presidency and the callousness towards women's and minority issues to make Miss Americana to speak up.  SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.  On the opening night Taylor Swift's Era's tour in Scottsdale, Arizona, another band of somewhat reluctant activists opened the show, Paramore . Most of the opening acts on the Eras tour include indie rockers or singer songwriters, mostly female, feminist, and LGBTQ+ or allies. As my readers already know, Paramore is a band fronted by Haley Williams and consisting of a consistent and revolving door of male band members. Paramore's presence on the Eras tour coincides with their own headlining tou

After incredible success after releasing their comeback single last fall, " This Is Why " which would be the title track to the album the band released in February, Paramore released their second single, " The News ." Both singles prepared the listener for a Paramore album unlike anything that the band had recorded before. "This Is Why" featured the self-defeating lyrics fans have come to expect from lead singer Haley Williams and the song had a certain Paramore catchiness, but the funky bass and classic rock guitar explored musical territory the band had not yet shared with their listeners.  A WAR RIGHT BEHIND MY EYES.  "The News," however, was a hard rock socially-conscious track, darker than most of the band's prior songs. The same day that Paramore released the single, they also released a video for the song. The video (see below) features Haley Williams hypnotized by a television, which becomes a catatonic state in the video. As the s

" 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