NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  Some of the best musicians work in Nashville. Country music is famous for some of the best musicianship, and whenever a rock band or pop act wants some of the cleanest tones, they’ll record in Nashville. There’s certainly a community in Nashville that seems to be extending far outside Country music, but at the core is an ill-defined genre that is more of an identity. Unpacking that identity in a post-George Floyd America, though, is tricky. There are at least two popular models Country music is taking: 1) protect the status quo and 2)inclusion and diversity. The first model is rarely overtly racist or trans/homophobic, but when an n- word slip up happens the status-quo warriors are quick to defend themselves with arguments “This is just the way we talk.” This is often met with pushback from the second camp. THE PAINT COULD PEEL; THE GLASS COULD SHATTER. Maren Morris is an artist firmly in the second camp. Much like pop stars Kacey Musgraves and early Taylor Swift , Morris has flirt

  Harry Styles made his film debut in Christopher Nolan ’s 2017 World War II film, Dunkirk . It was a small role as a soldier, but it wasn’t the last time Styles would touch the silver screen. Last year, Harry starred in two films, the romantic thriller Don’t Worry Darling and the gay romantic historical fiction My Policeman based on the novel by Bethan Roberts . In Don’t Worry Darling, Styles starred as a lead actor, his character Jack married to Florence Plough ’s Alice. The film was directed by Olivia Wilde , who also appears as a main character, Bunny. The film reviewed poorly, with a 38% on Rotten Tomatoes . DARLING, IS IT COOL IF I’M STUBBORN WHEN IT COMES TO THIS? While the Austin Chronicle may have called Don’t Worry Darling “a swing and a miss,” the film generated a lot of media attention due to Shia LaBeouf's firing from the role of Jack, for which Harry Styles took the role; alleged screaming matches director/actress Olivia Wilde and lead actress Florence Plough; an

  Every song on Charlie Puth ’s third record, Charlie , deals with heartbreak and rejection. “ Smells Like Me ” is no exception. The idea of the song, Puth revealed on Twitter, that the song is “about when you think of the person you were with for so long having sex with someone new but with they’re wearing clothes that smell like you still while they….” It’s a song about passive aggressive revenge, a hope that even though the romance is over, the two are still biologically linked for a time. The speaker of the song hopes that the scent he left on his former lover distracts her, though she’s moved on. Rather than pontificate on this theme more, I’d like to introduce my Heartbreak Mix to Apple Music. These break up songs might hit just right during one of those wrong times. Cheer up!

Yesterday, we took a deep dive into where Kesha is as a musical artist by looking at a mature work in her discography. When Wikipedia introduces Kesha Rose Serbert, she is said to be an American Singer-Songwriter, a term that signals to significant factors: 1) the singer writes songs and thus has a greater opportunity to monetize the song and 2) the singer is actually an artist, which is more important for music snob conversations. It grafts the wheat from the tares, the Lady Gaga s from the Britney Spears . But recently, I’ve been rethinking this argument, mainly because it doesn’t account for the sexism in the industry. Moreover, I’ve really started to think about how unfair my opinion has been formed about Britney Spears, particularly after watching the documentary Britney vs. Spears .  A TASTE OF YOUR POISON PARADISE. I happened to go through puberty around the time of Max Martin ’s first era of teen pop. MTV was filled with the late ‘90s sounds of boy bands, pop rock, a few Spani

Earlier this year, Kesha released her fifth studio album, Gag Order . The album was intentionally written and produced for a less commercial appeal compared to the mega hits from the singer’s early career. Gag Order was released a month before the out-of-court settlement to the 2014 case Kesha v. Dr. Luke ; the counter lawsuit had paused the singer’s career for five years. Kesha claimed that the hit-maker Łukas’s Sebastian Gottwald, better known as Dr. Luke, had sexually and emotionally abused the singer as well as held her in an exploitative recording contract. Dr. Luke claimed that Kesha had violated her contract. The allegations against Dr. Luke have caused some polarization in pop music as many artists, particularly female artists, have refused to work with the writer/producer , while he continues work producing artists who either evade the questions, defend the producer, or even claim that they are unaware of the accusations.   LAST NIGHT I TALKED TO GOD. Kesha’s fifth album Ga

TOMORROW X TOGETHER , or TXT called by their fans, were the first group from Korea to headline Lollapalooza. The group has been one of the biggest K-Pop boy bands since their debut in 2019. Signed to Big Hit Entertainment , home of BTS and the first boy band signed to the label since the Bangtan Boys, TXT debuted five years after their label mates. While the lyrics of today's song, " Lo$er=Lo🩷er " touch on the bleak state of Millennials and Gen. Z, especially due to financial status, TOMORROW X TOGETHER's music is born out of optimism. The band's motto as it appears on their website is: "Come together   under one dream in hopes of building a better tomorrow."  

If I could describe the music of this year in one word, I would say that the music of 2023 has been derivative. To some extent, music is always derivative and we could argue that there has been nothing in music since [pick a date].  But a year of derivative music isn’t necessarily a bad year in music. The music from quarantine in 2020 until last year drew on familiarity and nostalgia. Maybe this year familiarity has peaked with the shameless credited interpolation. KINDA MISS USIN’ MY BODY. I discussed the shameless interpolations of David Guetta with “ I’m Good” (Blue) and “ Baby Don’t Hurt Me ” and Jason Derulo ’s “ When Love Sucks ” earlier this year. I talked about how both of those artists' uses of the original material felt like they were forcing nostalgia onto their listeners rather than letting it happen organically. But today, we’re looking at Troye Sivan ’s “ Got Me Started ,” the second single from last week’s Something to Give Each Other . The song borrows the hook fr