NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

For the third year, The Weeknd 's " Blinding Lights " makes my playlist, although last year the song was represented by Sam Tsui with production by Kurt Hugo Schneider . I find the cultural discussions around the song fascinating: how a song from 2019 predicted the loneliness and isolation of the world, the greater concept in the record After Hours  complete with thematic story-telling music videos and conceptual live performances leading up to and during the release of the record. "Blinding Lights" was the omni-present hit in 2020 that worked whether you were a drug or sex addict, a celebrity dealing with the dark side of the industry, or none of those things. A lot has been said about this synth pop track a lot better than I can prepare in an evening, so I'll leave you with a podcast that talks about it pretty well. And for the rest of the post today, I'm going to leave you with a Spotify Edition of my Pseudo '80s Hits from last year. Kids make ...

Linkin Park 's fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns underperformed compared to the band's massive first three albums. The album produced two singles, " The Catalyst " and today's song, " Waiting for the End ," but ultimately listeners didn't like the album as most of the songs were not catchy. I always want to dig deeper into this album and its themes, but today, I wanted to introduce my AAPI Heritage Playlist, so I chose the most pop-oriented song on A Thousand Suns. If you want more information on the music theory behind this album, I'll link to The Discographers ,  an excellent podcast that explores the discography of Linkin Park in one of their seasons.  MY MOUTH KEPT MOVING AND MY MIND WENT DEAD.   May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United States, and I wanted to make a playlist that recognized some of the amazing talent by AAPI musicians. As with my other lists, I realize that making lists like this can be pr...

When I made my Under the Covers, Vol. 1 playlist last week, I knew that I would be making Volume 2 soon after. However, I didn't think it would be exactly one week later. Because of my rule of one song per artist, I couldn't simply add today's cover of The Weeknd 's " Blinding Lights " to Volume 1. However, if I followed the same rules for last week's playlist, covers only featured on my blog, I'd only have two songs in the playlist. So, I opened it up to covers of songs featured in the playlist. I made this playlist with YouTube because some of the songs aren't available on streaming services. I'm sure that I missed some. I had to add a few to last week's playlist I had overlooked. Here's volume 2: 1. " Blinding Lights " (The Weeknd cover) by Kurt Hugo Schneider & Sam Tsui 2. " True Faith " ( New Order cover ) by Anberlin 3. "Love Me Like You Do" (Ellie Goulding cover) by Boyce Avenue 4. "Eas...

Sam Tsui may not be a household name like other some former YouTube stars, but he has put in the work. Time took notice of Tsui back in 2009 , when the young singer posted videos on his childhood friend Kurt Schneider's channel. He went on to form his own YouTube channel in 2011. Also in 2011, Tsui graduated from Yale, majoring in Greek Classics. Tsui had participated in promotional video titled " That's Why I Toured Yale,"  prompting Tom Hanks to mention Sam by name as he gave the commencement speech at Tsui's graduation. In Tsui's musical career, he has performed for the cast of Glee and   performed with Kurt Schneider on The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Ellen Degeneres Show. He released his first album of original songs, Make It Up,  in 2013, crowdfunding the record. "Impatience" comes from Tsui's second album, Trust, released in 2018. "Impatience" was the second single from the album, released on November 21, 2017.  NEVER THOUGHT I WA...

  The Internet has launched many music careers, particularly over the last twenty years. Plug in the DSL and log on to the MySpace page, check MP3.com , visit the band's Pure Volume account, see the latest video on YouTube , watch the singer get big on TikTok , and maybe get featured on a Podcast--it's a brave new world only limited by Comcast (and certain regions of North Carolina where they refuse to lay the cable). While platforms have come and gone, YouTube has been a consistent place where singers have gotten their start. Justin Bieber, Charlie Puth , and  Rebecca Black  are some of the big-name acts that started out as YouTube stars. However, sometime in college, I started going down the rabbit hole of YouTube cover artists, starting with Tyler Ward . However, one cover has another in the sidebar, and you have to click on it. What does an acoustic version of " Like a G6 " sound like anyway? SO TIRED OF TEARS . I can now say that I love many kinds of music. W...