NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

On the first season of labeled , Aaron Marsh talked about his writing process for Copeland 's debut album, Beneath Medicine Tree . In early 2019, he returned to the podcast to talk about the band’s latest album, Blushing . If most listeners casually picked up the two records, forgivably, they'd assume that they were listening to different bands. Beneath is a guitar-driven product of late '90s/early '00 emo rock. The album has mostly an optimistic tone. Blushing is a dark electronic-influenced album with darker lyrics. Marsh told Labeled host  Matt Carter that rather than writing lyrics that are easily pinned to real people, like his ex girlfriend Paula (in the song " When Paula Sparks ") he doesn't "want to write songs about [his] private life." He says, instead, "I want to write poetic songs about my private life." The band's fourth album, You Are My Sunshine , does just that. Listeners don't know the deep sense of loss, i

Born in the U.S.A. was Bruce Springsteen 's biggest album. Seven of the twelve tracks shot to the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. It made the 35-year-old once uncool-thus-commercially-unviable frontman of the E Street Band a pop star. A excellent two-part series by Slate ' s Hit Parade  analyzes what made this album a hit in the summer of 1984. It was Springsteen retaining hits, rather than giving away his potential number ones to fellow pop artists. It was Reagan's America fueled with patriotic conservatives who only read the title and didn't listen to the verses. It was disenfranchised Vietnam veterans who came home to hard economical times. It was Springsteen listening to his producers, realizing that rockabilly can have synthesizers from time to time. And there was certainly some sex appeal. Perhaps Springsteen's ass in his tight, straight-leg Levi's is the most famous album cover posterior, pre-hip hop.  I'VE GOT A BAD DESIRE. " I'm on Fire &

The 1989 anthem " The Best " with its electric guitars and keyboard production is one of Tina Turner's most recognizable songs. Born in 1939, the rock 'n' roll legend would turn 50 with the song's release, yet she still could rock a mini skirt. The song was first a minor hit the prior year for Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler , whose musical career in the U.S. had declined. Tina Turner brought new life into the song, adding a bridge and a saxophone solo by Edgar Winter . The simple music video draws a subliminal comparison to Turner's energy with the horse she ends up riding. Today Turner has just signed a deal with BMG for $50 Million for her entire catalogue as well as her name, image, and likeness. The 81-year-old singer has survived abuse, drugs, cancer, and other health scares in recent years. Earlier this year, HBO released a documentary titled Tina , as a "farewell to fans." Today her catchy 1989 hit ended the news program I listen to every morn

There was a video I watched that made the case that Britney Spears created the arc of the former teenage pop star. The sweet-to sexy-to diva (minus the conservatorship) has been followed by both female and male stars. We can see a little Britney in Ariana Grande, Lindsey Lohan, Selena Gomez. You could argue that  Justin Bieber or (minus the sexy) Disney stars like Shia LaBeouf might fit into that arc. At 18 years of age, Shawn Mendes was one of the biggest teen stars. His second album, Illuminate, became his second album to top the Billboard Hot 100. Yet, as of 2021, the 23-year old star has yet to pull a Britney. In 2016, Brendan Dazen in an article  for Her Campus  describes Mendes as "A naïve 18 year old who happens to look an Abercrombie model." The author notes that when Mendes turned 18, he became a sex symbol, striking provocative poses in magazines and filming shirtless music videos, but unlike Grande and Spears, Mendes' lyrics aren't overtly sexual. Mendes b

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

A group of friends from Lowell, Massachusetts, formed the metalcore band Operation Guillotine while they were in high school. With the addition of singer Lyndsey Gunnulfsen , stage name Lynn Gunn, the group grew into Paris, later Pvris --spelling changed for copyright purposes. The band's first EP was described as post hardcore. But by the time the band released their first album, they had begun to incorporate pop elements including electronics. In 2019 the band worked with Paper Route 's JT Daly  to produce their EP Hallucinations , their major label debut on Warner/Reprise Records. The band incorporated more elements of EDM into their sound. Three songs from Hallucinations made it onto the band's third studio album, Use Me. Two days prior to the release of the album, the two remaining members of Pvris ousted their guitarist for sexual misconduct allegations. With only Gunn and bassist Brian Macdonald left in the group, Pvris seems like a pop group that incorporates rock

  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." We can say that these moments are breath-taking, like when you see a Van Gogh in person, see a beautiful woman, or experience new life.   Perhaps this is what The Weeknd intended for his latest single "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 musi