NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  Let’s revisit last month’s discussion about The Album , the latest record from Jonas Brothers.  Referring back to the interview with Charlie Harding on the podcast Switched on Pop , Nick Jonas explained that the brothers wanted to put “something together that sounded like what coming to one of our shows is like.” Achieving this sound has the band leaning into the past rather than electronic elements or studio sound effects.  IT’S GON’ GET FIGURED OUT. Charlie Harding referred to the Jonas Brothers’ The Album ’s sound as “album-oriented, band-driven music,” which refers to the music of the ‘60s- ‘80s when many listeners preferred listening to albums over singles. My guess is that the experience of a Jonas Brothers show in the late ‘00s probably wouldn’t be focused on the musicality of the band, but rather the euphoric dopamine rush (for a certain demographic) of seeing the brothers performing. But with only Kevin strumming a guitar in the band’s recent videos, the “band sound” of

We all have to pay the bills, and musicians are certainly no exception.  Randy Torres  formerly of  Project 86  works in sound design.  Dan Koch  of  Sherwood  writes music for adverting.  Stephen Christian  is a music pastor. All of these examples, though, have kept the band separate.  The Fold  released two records on  Tooth & Nail Records , but never achieved the greatness of their label-mates, save a Grammy nomination for the packaging of their sophomore record. Though having a smaller fanbase than other Tooth & Nail bands, The Fold started partnering with brands, writing theme songs, most notably Lego's  Ninjago ,  for which they performed exclusively for seven years.  I SPENT A LONG TIME BUILDING LADDERS TO THE STARS. Today’s song comes from The Fold’s 2013 independent record,  Moving Past.   “ Live Forever ” is the album’s fourth track. The themes on the album are somewhat humanist and somewhat Christian. The subject of “Live Forever” is not about one’s eternal resti

The best music doesn't happen in isolation but rather comes out of a community movement. I would define community, when it comes to music, as a mixing of artists who bring different ideas together ideas from various genres. The result of a musical community is stronger musicianship by all those involved. Collaboration, the meeting of minds, happens naturally. Throughout the course of my blog, I've talked about various communities.  Tooth & Nail , Christian Rock, and evangelical communities are definitely the biggest themes. Tegan and Sara grew out of the Northwestern Canadian/American Indie Rock community in the late '90s, and by 2013 became pop stars.   HERE COMES THE RUSH BEFORE WE TOUCH.  Many fans may have been introduced to  Tegan and Sara  when Meredith Grey and Christina Yang danced to their early acoustic,  angry girl music in  Grey's Anatomy ' s earlier seasons.  The musical duo of Calgary-born identical  twins  Tegan  and  Sara Quin  started on the aco

Pop is having an incredible year. Starting out with Sam Smith 's genre- (and gender) blending Gloria to this month's yacht-rock inspired The Album by Jonas Brothers , what I once would consider guilty pleasures I would argue now rival the musical staples of my hipster past. The year isn't even half over, and I still haven't digested many of the albums that have come out. But if the two singles, " Heaven " and " Meltdown ," Niall Horan  released before his rumored June release of The Show  have any bearing on the upcoming album, I'll be adding this to my list of albums that completely blindsided me with awesomeness.  WHEN IT ALL MELTS DOWN, I'LL BE THERE. These days, I've been listening to Spotify's curated playlists at work. "Meltdown" is a song that has been added to several of the new hits playlists, so I started hearing it quite often. I thought the song was catchy, but it initially got lost with the other tons of songs

Composed by  Kenzie , the professional name for  SM Entertainment 's songwriter Kim Yeon-jeong, the debut single " Into the New World " by what would become one of the biggest K-pop groups,  Girls' Generation , set the tone for a ten-year career of fun, bubble-gummy, uplifting songs. Composed of nine young women all born between 1989 and 1991,   Girls' Generation   has been been called "the Nation's Girl Group," in South Korea due to their popularity between 2007-2017. Beginning with a sample of   Don Henley 's 1984 classic " The Boys of Summer, " (covered last August by   The Ataris ), "Into the New World" builds on the nostalgic piano and synth sample. Rather than calling back with longing for the past, this song propels listeners forward into the future. I LEAVE BEHIND THIS WORLD'S UNENDING SADNESS.  I've been pretty critical of K-pop in the past for being a-political. I used to think that music in America was too p

In 1986, The United States was in the middle of a decades-long Cold War with the Soviet Union. While the war never heated up, there were some close battles that made the average American squeamish about the possibility of nuclear war, and some went so far as to build their own bomb shelters to help them survive nuclear fall out. But having been born in 1987, I don’t have much memory of Soviet-era rumors of war, and even post-9/11, American views on the U.S. military’s involvement with pretty much anything has been controversial. A film like Top Gun in 1986 was filled with truth, justice, the American way. TIME IS RUNNING OUT SO SPEND IT LIKE IT’S GOLD. Last summer, in the midst of a heatwave of ‘80s nostalgia, Top Gun: Maverick hit the theaters. The film was a smash hit and featured Tom Cruise reprising his role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. The film was the second-highest grossing film of 2022 and the highest grossing film of Cruise’s career. The film also featured several actors fr

  Last week fans were upset when Miley Cyrus announced that she wouldn’t go on tour for her latest record, Endless Summer Vacation . The singer hasn’t headlined an arena tour since 2014’s supporting tour for Bangerz . Cyrus told British Vogue that “singing for hundreds of thousands of people isn’t really the thing that I love. . . There’s no connection.  There’s no safety. It’s also not natural. It’s so isolating because if you’re in front of 100,000 people then you are alone.” So, as the music industry is trying to return to normal in 2023, just how many major players will throw a Miley Cyrus wrench into the Ticketmaster machine? I’M HOLDING ON LIKE A ROLLING STONE. Miley Cyrus’ eighth studio record Endless Summer Vacation has brought Miley Cyrus back to the spotlight nearly ten years after she swung into the number 1 spot on Billboard ’s Hot 100 , nude on a “ Wrecking Ball .” In fact, this year’s “ Flowers ” beat “Wrecking Ball”’s 3-week reign atop the Hot 100 chart by 5 weeks, 8 w