NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Teenage Dream was Katy Perry 's marriage album. Perry, along with her songwriting team of Max Martin , Dr. Luke , Et. al. wrote the songs as the singer was dating British comedian Russell Brand . Perry and Brand were married less than two months after the release of Teenage Dream in a Hindu wedding ceremony in India . But Perry's teenage dream soon became a nightmare, with the couple separating 14 months after the marriage, Brand calling off the marriage via text message.  I USED TO BITE MY TONGUE AND HOLD MY BREATH. The documentary film Part of Me shows a heartbreaking scene in which Perry has just found out that her marriage is over. Not even one album cycle had passed, and Perry's marriage had dissolved. The single " Part of Me " was released on Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection expanding  the album cycle until she released Prism in October of 2013. But Prism isn't a morose break up album. Starting with the anthemic " Roar ," an arguably

Today we're going to talk about some repressed memories and the cringy music of my preteen years. Out of teenage rebellion, I started listening to a Contemporary Christian Radio station out of Greenville South Carolina around 1999 called HIS Radio  and around this time my family also got the SKY Angel satellite system which gave us Praise TV, showing all the CCM music videos from the late '80s to the day as long as they weren't too hard.   YET WE BUILD WALLS BETWEEN OUR BROTHERS AND OURSELVES. The timeline is a little fuzzy, and rather than doing a well-researched post, I thought I'd examine an artifact from my past. Kind of like how K-pop today separates the boys from the girls, so did the '90s with boybands and girl groups. So did CCM. If you liked Spice Girls , why not try Point of Grace ? If you liked The Backstreet Boys , obviously you would love 4Him . But then there was Avalon , a revolutionary co-ed group--and the alternative version of Avalon, Raze , a sto

The first single from Ariana Grande 's second record, My Everything ,  in 2014, " Problem " established Grande as a pop power force. Grande certainly has talent. While appearing in the Nickelodeon teen show Victorious , Grande uploaded covers to her YouTube channel , which landed her a deal with Republic Records in 2011. Her debut record, Yours Truly , was released in 2013 and featured a few modest-charting hits. Listeners could feel a similarity with Mariah Carey from Yours Truly, and for some reason, Republic Records went bigger with Grande's follow up, My Everything, the next year. EVEN THOUGH I HATE YA, I WANNA LOVE YA. Rock bands typically have one producer for an entire record. The goal is to produce a cohesive record that is to be enjoyed in one play. Pop records used to be produced like this, and sometimes indie and major pop albums still are. But in order to get a hit, record labels often turn to multiple hitmakers to diversify a pop record. Ariana Grande&

Survivor formed in 1978 when the lead singer and guitarist of the band The Ides of March, Jim Peterick , joined with bassist and guitarist of a jazz-rock fusion band called Chase , Dennis Keith Johnson and Gary Smith , guitarist Frankie Sullivan, and c0-vocalist/keyboardist Dave Bickler. The Chicago-based band played local gigs including at a local pizzeria called My Pi and released their self-titled debut record on Atlantic Records in 1980. JUST A MAN AND HIS WILL TO SURVIVE. Survivor scored a minor hit on their second record, Premonition   with the song “ Poor Man’s Son .” The band had begun to hone their sound by replacing the jazz-based drummer and bassist, Johnson and Smith, relegating Peterick to backing vocals and focusing Bickler as the lead singer of the band. The band's 1981 hit may have faded into obscurity along with the band but actor/writer/producer Sylvester Stallone approached the band to write an anthemic disco-based rock song to be the theme of the actor's

Bananarama formed in 1980 when childhood friends Sara Dallin and Keren Woodword moved from Bristol to London and met Siobhan Fahey . Dallin and Woodword lived in the WYCA and were out of money until Sex Pistols ’ drummer Paul Cook offered them a place to live above the band's old rehearsal room. Bananarama took their name from the Roxie Music song " Pyjamarama ." The trio were fans of the punk rock and post-punk scene in London and ultimately became a New Wave hit making machine lasting from 1982 with their breakthrough hit as a featured artist on Fun Boy Three 's " It Ain't What You Do" (It's How You Do It) to the early '90s. IT’S TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT. Bananarama   were on the pop side of New Wave along with some of their friends in the music industry  Wham! and Duran Duran . In 2020, the remaining members of Bananarama, Sara Dallin and Keren Woodword wrote a book about their experience throughout their almost fifty years of friendship a

Until June 's self-titled debut record is still available on streaming services. The band released the record in 2006 on the Christian record label Flicker Records , then distributed by Sony Music . Six years later, the band released their follow-up, Young & Foolish on Madison Line Records . Then in 2014, the band ceased all activity, but never declared a break-up. Currently, Young & Foolish is unavailable on streaming services. IF YOU FALL FROM ME, WOULD YOU LOSE CONTROL?  "Summer Lover" certainly isn't the first song about wanting more than a summer fling. Songs about falling in love while on vacation as you slip away from the friends or family you are there with only to be excited by someone new and interesting and unavailable in your current life situation make us sweat those tepid summer evenings away. The speaker of the song wants more than just a vacation, there's also more to it. In this very short song, there's  a vague spiritual urgency fo

  Trapt 's breakthrough single " Headstrong " from their major label self-titled debut record had appeal to many musical genres. The song was massive, reaching number 1 on the rock and alternative charts, number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 4 on the mainstream top 40, or the pop radio chart. This was a unique time when a scream in a rock song didn't necessarily disqualify it from hitting pop radio. But the band was never able to repeat the success of their debut record.   I'VE BEEN FOOLED BY ALL THE ILLUSIONS IN MY HEAD. Trapt's followup record, Someone in Control was released in September 2005. The band’s debut album’s success helped their sophomore record debut at #14 on the Billboard 200 album charts. But lack of a major single and poor reviews plagued the album’s success. Two of the singles the band released chatted on rock radio. “ Stand Up ” even reached number three on mainstream rock. Today’s song, “ Waiting ,” though, only reached #20. A