NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Creation Festival is the largest Christian music live event in the United States. Starting in 1979 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the festival’s franchise expanded to include a version for the East Coast and the West Coast, as well as the Sonshine and Icthus Festivals. Creation Festival has featured the biggest names in CCM and Christian Rock. In 2008, the Creation Fest franchise took to the road in a tour headlined by Kutless , Thousand Foot Krutch , and Pillar . Several up-and-coming bands opened or were part of the pre-show. A new band from Boise, Idaho, Esterlyn , were party of that show. Their debut album Lamps represented on stage with several vintage lamps situated around the band’s amps and gear. The band played with a young energy you’d expect from a group of band dudes-turned worship leaders-turned national touring musicians on their first tour. RESTORING ME, GUIDING ME, CLEANSING ME.  I didn’t go to many concerts when I was at Missionary College, partly because Chattan

In April 2012, five months before they released their second album, The Peace of Wild Things , Paper Route performed a concert in an art studio, which was filmed and aired as the third episode of Brigham Young University Television's music show, Audio Files . The show only lasted for two seasons, but the first episode featured then up-and-coming band Imagine Dragons .  Paper Route performed songs from their first album Absence , but also indulged listeners' expectation by performing several songs from their upcoming album and shared stories about the songs and the recording process. WE WELCOME YOU THIS EVENING.  The entire performance used to be up on the show's now defunct website, but now we can only watch " Wish " and " Tamed ," on YouTube, the latter being a short eerie duet with singer-songwriter Cacie Dalager , lead singer of the indie band Now, Now , and harpist Timbre . I don't remember all of the songs Paper Route performed on the show; how

Austra-South African YouTuber-turned pop star and actor  Troye Sivan  creates a kind of infectious electro-pop that brilliantly celebrates love, acceptance, and sexuality. From my vantage point in South Korea, I saw the rise of Sivan's career. With his debut album,  Blue Neighbourhoods ,  Sivan could be heard everywhere in 2016 and not only was his music making an impact, him and fellow LGBT+ singer  Sam Smith  were starting conversations around sexual orientation that would have been considered taboo even five years before. My middle school students, in their free time at school, would often play Sivan's music videos. " Wild ," " Fools ," and " Youth " depict a teenage secret relationship between two boys. Being a teacher at a Christian school and working in a conservative country where it  was illegal for teachers to talk about LGBT+ issues at the time,    undoubtedly these middle school students were trying to press some buttons. Still, with som

Trying to unclutter today as it was Korean presidential elections, which is a holiday, I listened to folklore again as I played with my adult Legos, assembling two wardrobes and a desk. This was sparked by hearing " exile ," when I watched music cynic Todd in the Shadows ' only positive list of the year, his " Top Ten Best Songs of 2020 ." Even the most cynical of critics--Todd in the Shadows being one of the most cynical along with A Dose of Buckley --praised folklore .  YOU NEVER GAVE A WARNING SIGN. Taylor Swift 's 2019 album Lover helped the 29-year-old singer shake off her reputation from both self-indulgent lyrics and overly processed EDM tracks. Lover was the logical follow-up to her critically acclaimed 1989 , but something about the Taylor Swift formula was getting stale. Lover ended the feud between Swift and Katy Perry and Swift began tackling controversial subjects from LGBTQ+ rights to sexism. Lover, however, was in classic Swift fashion song

I really hate to keep pushing reposts, but right now my life is in boxes, and I'm slowly unpacking them. No this isn't purely metaphor. I moved and then school started and there hasn't been much time to dig into the stories behind my songs. So today, I'll share a dusty old memory I shared last year.  Buried under twenty years of dust in my parents garage lies an old Yamaha keyboard. It was my dad's Christmas present to my mom in the mid-90s. This model came with 100 recorded instruments, 100 styles of drum beats, everything from foxtrot to metal, and 25 or so recorded songs. It was a pretty typical family keyboard, but it kept me entertained for  years . Although I started playing guitar at the age of 12, I had spent a long time messing around on that keyboard trying to make music. I loved playing the keyboard but hated how fake the instruments sounded. Strings, brass, woodwinds--all sounded like the vegetarian version served at camp meeting tasted. Still, that keyb

In 1954, when the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, Chief Justice Earl Warren declared that American schools be integrated "with all deliberate speed." What does that mean? I think that if you are trying to speed something up, being deliberate about it, you press your foot on the execrator and the car gains speed. You go as fast as you can go, looking out for cops and and pedestrians, but your intention is to go quickly to your destination. Apparently, I'm wrong. Chief Justice Warren's meaning was that the change be gradual as not to stir the anger of the states. Don't let change happen too quickly. WHAT BROUGHT YOU HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?   Now is this even related to  Mae 's song? The lyrics without considering the quote by Chief Justice Warren, made me think about the band's dreams. Perhaps internal band strife with management, particularly as they are almost making it. In fact, in an earlier season of  Labele

Around 2007 Internet bloggers started sharing a song by an edgy new pop star called " Ur So Gay ," a song in which Katy Perry complains about her metrosexual, emo boyfriend who is more feminine than she wants in a man. The song was one of many cringe-worthy homophobic, sexist, or otherwise problematic songs that could exist only in the noughties, the UK pronunciation for the time period of 2000-2009. I think that it's apropos when talking about this era of music. While "Ur So Gay" never impacted radio, other head-scratching lines littered Perry's major label debut One of the Boys .    YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND LIKE A GIRL CHANGES CLOTHES. Katy Perry broke through with the single " I Kissed a Girl ." After the 2004 Super Bowl incident involving Janet Jackson 's wardrobe malfunction, the Bush-era FCC heavily censored the television and radio waves. While there were edgy hits from that time, "shock pop" seemed to abound at the end of George