NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  “ Attention ” was the lead single from Charlie Puth ’s sophomore album, Voicenotes . It’s a mid-tempo track that features Puth’s auto-tuned vocals punctuated by a smooth electric guitar. Compared to Puth’s debut record, Nine Track Mind , Voicenotes received much more critical praise. While “Attention” peaked at number 5 on Billboard ’s Hot 100 chart , Puth has yet to replicate the magic of his 12-non-consecutive-week hit of “ See You Again ” as a featured artist on Wiz Khalifa ’s track commissioned for Furious 7 as a tribute to the late Paul Walker .  YOU’VE BEEN GOIN’ ROUND EVERY PARTY IN LA. I thought it was about time to start a working playlist for songs about Los Angeles. It’s the first in my Cities playlist series. The playlist will feature songs and artists connected with the city. It’s not an exhaustive playlist, yet. Note that songs about Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and surrounding areas are also fair game. So, let’s take a long weekend trip into the City of Angels! Check out

  Lana Del Rey returned this earlier year with the latest installment of her " Carol King Era" of songwriting in Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd?    This new era of the Del Rey persona created by Lizzy Grant feels like a slow progression away from pop hooks, and maybe where this started was with Del Rey’s second album, Ultraviolence . But Del Rey’s real critical acclaim arrived with Norman Fucking Rockwell , the album that both ended pop Lana and started the ‘70s-styled singer-songwriter that she followed up with Chemtrails Over the Country Club , Blue Banisters , and Did you know .   GIVE PEACE A CHANCE. Lana Del Rey’s fan base is strong, quick to interpret ever line that the singer writes in the blogosphere. Not only do fans read into her released songs, they also track down her unreleased demos and leak them online. Usually Del Rey pays no attention when one of her unreleased songs is leaked; however, when a sped-up version of “ Say Yes to Heaven

Berlin 's 1986 light-rock hit " Take My Breath Away " in its somewhat cheesy ascending scaled-note chorus speaks to the common human experience of falling in love with someone. The old aphorism, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away," speaks to the times when life surprises us so much that if the shock of the good surprise were to kill us, we would have died happy. In other words, I may feel "so happy that I could die." These moments are breathtaking, like seeing a Van Gogh in person, seeing  a beautiful woman, or experiencing a new life.   Perhaps this is what  The Weeknd  intended for his lead single from Dawn FM ,  " Take My Breath ," but in typical  Weeknd  fashion, the video and the lyrics hint at a darker side of those breathtaking moments. YOU'RE OFFERING YOURSELF TO ME LIKE SACRIFICE.  Since   Beauty Behind the Madness   brought The Weeknd to the forefront of popular m

A few years ago, I remember (shamefully) having a conversation with my students as to why K-pop would never fully make it in America and my argument had to do with how American radio stations rarely played music in a foreign language. But K-pop proved me wrong, albeit, it didn’t hurt that BTS sang some of their major hits in English. But just as BTS was ascending to international fame, a legal barrier threatened the band.  AN UNENDING HISTORY. Last October, BTS announced that they were taking a break from releasing new music together, which promptly caused Hybe Corporation 's stock, the band's record label, to plummet. Each member of BTS would release solo records, and they would reconvene in 2025 to assess future projects as a group; however, Hybe Corporation's chairman Bang Si-hyuk (방시혁) expressed some doubts about the timeline as a renegotiated contract hadn't been discussed. The reason for this musical break had to do with South Korean law. All able-bodied males m

Nathan Feuerstein is one of the most successful Christian hip-hop artists today. Born and raised in a tiny town in central Michigan, Nate, better known by his moniker, NF , had a hard home life as a child. After his parents divorced, he was raised by his mother until he and one of his sisters were abused by his mother's boyfriend. After that, he returned to live with his father. NF channeled his struggles with anxiety and mental health in his music. DEAR GOD, PLEASE HEAR ME OUT. Last month, NF released his fifth studio album, Hope , and the single " Happy " is still making waves on Spotify playlists. While NF does not claim to be a Christian Rapper but rather a hip-hop artist who happens to be a Christian, his music is played on both secular and Christian radio, especially due to his clean (though often brutally honest) lyrics. Currently, NF has amassed over 18 million monthly streams on Spotify, making him a highly successful artist, especially for a Christian artist. A

The 2014 film  Boyhood   was a highly acclaimed film that has an incredible  Rotten Tomatoes  score, yet nobody talks about it anymore. The film was shot over 12 years from 2001 to 2013 using the same actors and feels like a piece of turn-of-the-century Americana, a kind of early 2000s rendering of a Norman Rockwell painting of the imperfect white, working-class American family. The film not only explores boyhood and coming of age, but also parenthood and the complications of raising a family while trying to better oneself as well as the struggles of co-parenting through a divorce. The events and pop culture throughout the years are woven into human themes. The soundtrack for the film is a combination of famed indie artists of the early '00s and popular music of the time. Seamlessly joining the soundtrack was virtually unknown folk-rock band  Family of the Year , with their song " Hero ." I DON'T WANT TO BE YOUR HERO . "Hero" appears in the movie toward the

I was talking with my Gen X coworker earlier this year about music, and somehow Jonas Brothers came up. He asked me, as a defender of pop, if the band of brothers had ever made a good album. I thought about the question. Of course, I can’t consider the teeny-bopper music from the band’s early days. But I  could say that Nick Jonas ’ latest record Spaceman was a masterfully produced album by Greg Kurstin blending ‘80s and ‘90s R&B with contemporary electronic pop. I thought that the DNCE record was fun. I thought that “ Sucker ” was a great Ryan Tedder production and showed potential for where the Jonas Brothers could go, although Happiness Begins was a bit of a disappointment. But no, I couldn’t say that I liked any Jonas Brothers album. ROCK FOR ME TO STAND ON. But that all changed when Jonas Brothers released The Album last Friday. But being able to call this album great comes with years of breaking down some of my musical biases and hang-ups. The first is a discussion abo