The Harlem Shake

The Harlem Shake is a song by Baaur that has become viral. At first I thought it was super cool and wanted to try it sooo bad. But..it was kind of dissapointing when I actually was a part of one. It's become SO popular that I don't think it's that cool anymore and gets kind of annoying because you know what's going to happen. There's someone dancing, the beat drops, and then a crowd dances really freaking randomly. The only really funny ones to me are the ones that are SUPER random and you can tell what most people are doing, otherwise it's kind of the same thing over and over again. At Anderson, our video had too many people in it and it was pretty bad quality so you can't see most of the weird stuff people were doing. But there are versions like the Army version or the Portland Version. There's also an underwater one. Crazy, but check it out.

Swimming Harlem Shake

Army Harlem Shake

Portland Harlem Shake

Stevie Wonder

In class, some people got super bored and tired of Stevie Wonder, but I was loving every bit of it. He just had such a cool and funky sound, but at the same time he could change to a song that would be inspired by Pau l McCartney or John Lennon, and I loved the mix of those two styles. Another thing I thought was super weird was the the song "Wild Wild West" by Will Smith was actually using samples from Stevie Wonder's "I wish". I had never heard Stevie Wonder's song but I am in love with "Wild Wild West" so it was pretty awesome to hear where it came from. As for the rest of his albums, I mostly like the songs that are more Beatlesey and not as much funk but then again when some funk came on I was getting super into it. Especially "Superstition" because I actually knew that song and just was finally starting to appreciate it. My favorite songs by Stevie Wonder were "You and I", "Big Brother", and "I Wish". But my absolute favorite is "I Believe". I don't know what it is about that song but I am seriously in love with it and it made me love Stevie Wonder like a thousand times more. It's the perfect mix but then he adds his classic funk at the end and ties off the song perfectly. So I really enjoyed Stevie Wonder a bunch.

I Wish

"Wild Wild West"

You and I

Big Brother

I believe

AWOLNATION

So we all know this band as the group that has the song "Sail". And duh I love that song, but I never actually looked at any of the other songs that this band has made. When I did, I was so pleasantly surprised! Their songs are awesome. You would think after listening to "Sail", that they just had one kind of sound (or at least that's what I thought), but that's completely wrong. I think that they have a lot of variety in their songs which is cool. I listened to their top tracks on spotify and was just blown away because I really do like their other songs better than sail. Their album, Megalithic Symphony, rocks if you listen to the whole thing. My favorite songs are "Wake Up" (AWESOME), "Sail" (DUH), and "Not Your Fault". The only thing that I don't like about this band, is that because there is so much variety, some of the songs are a little too heavy for me and I don't like them. For example, "Burn it Down", which is one of their top songs, is way too heavy for me. But, overall I really like this album and this band.

"Wake Up"





 

"Sail"

 

"Not Your Fault"



Bobby Womack

So, I was trying to look up Bobby Womack to see which album that we listened to because I wanted to find out the name. But..I found out that this dude has SO MANY ALBUMS. Like it would take an eternity to listen to all of them. It was kinda crazy. On his bio on spotify I saw that it took him a long time to really become famous and real popular so he definitely earned his spot at the top. And then once he did get popular, he kept on going and on some one his recent album covers he's real old and I think it's awesome that he is still making music and doing what he loves and rockin it. So I looked at the albums in the 70's but then also listened to his top tracks on Spotify and my favorite is "California Dreamin'" because his voice sounds awesome the whole time and he adds in some horns in the background which I think sounds really cool. But, that song is from 2008. My favorite one from the 70's would have to be "Thing Called Love" or "Sweet Caroline" (of course). In the 70's he sounds a bit more raspy with his voice which I do kind of like to be honest because it adds some character, but then at the same time his voice later is so beautiful, so either way I like it.

"California Dreamin'"

"Sweet Caroline"

Matisyahu

This is  a band that I saw under the "What's New" Tab in Spotify. That is where I find a lot of the new music that I like, because it makes suggestions based off of what you normally listen to, so that when you listen to it, they make it almost impossible for you not to like that music. It says in the related artists for this group people like Bob Marley, which I agree with completely, but I also do think that the raggae/hip hop is mixed a little bit with other things like, I think they sound a little bit like Of Monsters and Men in a couple of their songs, but maybe that's just me. But anyways the new album that was on Spotify, was a live version of some songs. I was so surprised because I didn't even realize that the songs were live until after I was finished listening and saw that on the album name. It was crazy because they sounded super good live and basically how you would normally sound on an album. All of their songs are pretty original and incorporate things that are new. Also if you listen to the lyrics, those are pretty deep and made me like the songs more, which is weird because I'm not normally a person who pays attention to lyrics. The songs that I really like are "Crossroads", "Sunshine", and "One Day" (which is a kind of popular song, and the only song I knew before).

"Crossroads"

 

"Sunshine"



 

"One Day"



McCartney and Lennon solo albums

I really liked McCartney and Lennon's solo albums. On John Lennon's I heard his softer side. It was more orchestral and less intense than you think it would be. McCartney's was kind of the opposite where it was pretty heavy and not at all what you expected. It was less orchestral and more heavy rock. It was like the too artists had switched their style. That's why I like just the plain Beatles better because it was a mix of their two personalities. The mesh of their two styles were what made the Beatles so great, plus George and ringo's input. All of that just created a perfect balance. Separated the Beatles, I think have too much of one style, whether it was one of their own styles or using someone else's. Thats what I didn't like about these solo albums. But, overall if I had to choose the album that I liked the best it would be John Lennon's which is totally weird because I have ALWAYS liked Paul McCartney so much better than the rest of the Beatles. But I just thought that his album was so not him. Paul's style has always been my favorite and because John used Paul's style, I liked his better. My favorite tracks on John's album were "How?" and "Imagine". There were some songs that I did like on Paul's too. And my favorite ones were "Dear Boy" and "Uncle Albert".

"How"

 

"Imagine"

"Dear Boy"

 

"Uncle Albert"