NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

In 2007, despite being toward the end of the second Bush term and being in the middle of a war and high gas prices, the world felt more optimistic than today. It was a simpler time when you thought you could trust the summer blockbuster. But then we learned 1) Michael Bay is obsessed with close up details that disorient the audience. 2) While Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox ’s performances were comedically entertaining, neither actor could carry the weight of a 2 hour 24-minute film, and coupled with Bay’s action sequences felt ten times as long.  3) that not every movie based on a nostalgic toy produces a fond memory. While the American public loved Transformers , Hollywood was entering its “exploit the sequel” phase, bombarding us with the same formula two years later. GIVE ME REASON TO PROVE ME WRONG. Meanwhile, in 2007, Linkin Park had not released an album since their 2003 critically acclaimed sophomore album Meteora . The lead single from their third album, Minutes to Midnight ...

Sawyer is an Indie Pop duet of singers Kel Taylor and Emma Harvey. Based in Nashville, the duo has music on Spotify from 2015. The group’s most-streamed song, 2019’s “ Emotional Girls ,” is at 2.6 million, and the group only has around 83,000 monthly listeners. Their second most streamed song is a cover of the Temper Trap’s “Sweet Disposition.” In June, Sawyer released a four-song EP containing three previously released songs and one new song, the title track of Big Deal . Today’s song “ Support Group ” has been featured on several Spotify discover music playlists. The song employs memorable songwriting. The metaphor in the first verse is quite funny, almost country-style songwriting. The mental image of “gassing up” the listener’s ego, then lighting a fire, standing by the fire “keeping [the speaker’s] hands warm” even “makin’ a damn s’more.” The song imagines starting a support group composed of former lovers of the man the group is singing about, Josh Tucker Must Die style. Today...

There might be one song that defines the ‘90s and reshaped music and the rock star for Generation X and future generations of music listeners. That song, of course, was the lead single from the 1991 sophomore record by Nirvana , Nevermind . “ Smells Like Teen Spirit ,” Nirvana, and Nevermind didn’t invent Grunge. Alice in Chains , arguably, brought the sound mainstream before Nirvana did. The song “ Man in the Box ,” a hopeless rocker when the sounds of hair rockers were much more optimistic and hedonistic, reached number 18 on Billboard’s Modern Rock tracks.  But Alice in Chains didn’t lead the revolution, nor did Nirvana’s other contemporaries Soundgarden or Pearl Jam .   HERE WE ARE NOW, ENTERTAIN US. Just as how F. Scott Fitzgerald set out to write a satire of the trivial lives and parties of the New York upper crust and subsequently gave literature and history the most condensed account of what the “Jazz Age” was in The Great Gatsby , Nirvana wrote “Smells Like Teen Spir...

In 2003, one of the biggest Christian Rock albums wasn’t actually sold in Christian book stores. It was by a band with occasional profanity in their lyrics and often criticized Bush-era American politics. While not every member of the band Thrice is a Christian, lead singer Dustin Kensrue became more and more vocal about his faith throughout the years of the band, heavily alluding to the Bible and C. S. Lewis in the band’s lyrics. I STUDIED SAINTS AND SCHOLARS BOTH AND NO PERFECT PLAN UNFURLS. Thrice’s second record, The Artist in the Ambulance , is often called the band’s best record by their avid fans. The album merges the band’s post-hardcore sound from their debut record, The Illusion of Safety, and more ambient sounds that the band would explore throughout their career. The band’s second record has influenced a number of bands from Bring Me the Horizon to Pierce the Veil . The record was the band’s first release on a major record label, Island Records .  With a major label,...

Eric Nam released his first English mini album, Before We Begin on January 18, 2019. The Atlanta-born, Seoul-based singer-songwriter was beginning a new phase in his career. Prior to Before We Begin, Nam had been busy as an entertainer in South Korea, starting with finishing in the top 5 of a Korean singing competition show and debuted his first single “ Ooh, Ooh ” in 2014. Nam has talked extensively about his experience as a first-generation Korean American who was not fluent in his parents’ language, yet became a pop star singing in Korean. Learning Korean on the fly, he was featured frequently on Korean television both promoting his music and later interviewing celebrities who came to Korea for press tours.   THE GRASS IS GREEN, BUT I WISH IT WAS GREENER. Eric Nam’s dream was to be a pop star in America, yet with almost no Asians on the pop charts from his youth in the ‘90s and the ‘00s to his young adulthood in the ‘10s, he felt he couldn’t achieve his dream so he went to sch...

Nineteen years ago, Hoobastank killed rock music when they released their only ballad, " The Reason ." The song rose to number 2 on Billboard's Hot 100 and is the only song remembered by the band, despite the group having several Alternative radio hits. The band formed in 1994 and played local gigs with Incubus and Linkin Park before those bands were popular. Like Incubus and Linkin Park, Hoobastank were known for an eclectic hard rock sound--something listeners of their 2004 hit probably wouldn't get if all they knew was their biggest song. And no, it wasn't the band that ruined rock music, but it was certainly an indicator of the changing of times when music A&R pressured rock bands to follow the Hoobastank model. IT'S SOMETHING I MUST LIVE WITH EVERY DAY. Howard Benson produced Hoobastank's sophomore record, The Reason . We've talked about Benson as a rock producer of bands like P.O.D. , Mae , and The Starting Line . While Hoobastank's ...

Anberlin's second single from  New Surrender,  originally titled "Bitter Sweet Memory" treads familiar territory for the band: the emo break-up song. Their major label debut refined, perhaps over-produced, the sound that they had been curating since their sophomore record  Never Take Friendship Personal. " Breaking" was overshadowed by the sleeper success of "Feel Good Drag," which at the time, was the longest a single had ever taken to top the Alternative Radio charts. Aside from hearing it on Christian radio and a McDonald's, I never heard "Breaking" on Alternative radio. The music video for the song was also canceled, and the label went on to promote the non-album track, a cover of New Order's "True Faith" as the band's follow up. "True Faith," also didn't do well on the radio, but the band would score another top 5 hit with "Impossible." YOU MAKE BREAKING HEARTS LOOK SO EASY. In 2010 I decide...