Abbey Road

Abbey Road is one of the most badass Beatles albums for sure. Just the album cover is already awesome within itself, and the music matches it.  My favorites on the album are "Come Together," "Something," "I want you (She's so Heavy)," "Here comes the sun," and "Oh! Darling." They do some really funny stuff in this album, for example, the last song should have been "The End" which would have made logical sense but they made a mistake and had a 23 second song last, and kept it. They also had songs like 'Octopuses Garden" and "Mean Mr.Mustard" which were just absurd, and the song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" sounded like such a happy tune. That was until you realized it was about an axe murderer bashing peoples heads in. And that "Here Comes the Sun" and "Sun King" were very similar with extremely closely related lyrics. I thought that all these things they did were funny, and it adds to the album when there's a sense of humor involved. And on top of that the songs were groovy and awesome like always.

White Album

I thought the White Album was way too long and all over the place. It had some great songs like "Blackbird," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps,""Dear Prudence," but then again all of the Beatles albums have great songs on them. But the experimentation level of this album is off chart, I think maybe as much or more than Sgt Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band, which I like. But many of the songs on that album were just not my type, and the album bored me because of its length. If it was shorter than I would like it more.

Led Zepplin

Led Zepplin is totally awesome. Maybe not in songwriting but they're amazing musicians, especially Jimmy Page, who is probably my favorite guitarist. I just never realized how nerdy and stupid the lyrics were. I didn't expect them to be all that great but seriously? Mordor and Gollum? It's really nerdy but I really like it, because I don't put off the appearance of being a nerd either, but I pretty much am. In that way, Led Zepplin connects to me and they're a band that knows how to rock hard. And the thing about the plane was amazing. I'm still wondering how they got a fireplace in their if all of the air recycles itself. But yeah, Led Zepplin is a very talented band, maybe not at songwriting, but their skill makes up for it ten times over

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Now I'm probably going to be barraged and hated for saying this but I do not like the Red Hot Chili Peppers at all. Their first album is the only one I can tolerate because of the funky bass riffs, which are the only thing good about the Red Hot Chili Peppers in my opinion. But other than that, all of their songs are monotone and boring. The singer is really what kills it for me. He sings the same note throughout every single one of his songs because he has no singing talent. If the band had a real singer, maybe I would like them, but listening to the same note of the same boring voice in every song is just annoying. I do like Flea though, he is a tremendous bassist with some real talent, he really should stay in a real band like Atoms for Peace and get away from the Red Hot Chili Peppers at all possible costs.

Might Get Loud

The movie Might Get Loud was pretty good, mostly cause it had my favorite guitarist in it, Jimmy Page. But I also like Jack White in the White Stripes, he's pretty talented seeing how he can make a world famous band with only himself and a drummer. But the other guitarist from U2 I don't really care for, I don't like the band he's in or been impressed with any of his guitar skills, and he definitely shouldn't be compared to, or even put side by side with Jimmy Page. But the movie was alright, I don't really know what to say about it besides that I liked that Jimmy Page was in it.

Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd is my favorite 70's band and in my top 10 for sure. They love to play the same chords/notes for extended amounts of time, and let them kinda just ring out until they fade. This used to bore me, but then now I just know that I have to be in a certain chill mood to love Pink Floyd. I have to be on the border of sleepy and content, and have to not really be thinking about much. I can't be stressed out I just have to let my mind relax, and that is when Pink Floyd sounds amazing. I love the acoustics and the long vibes that they let ring out, it just puts me in a really relaxed and chill mood. They can also rock out, which is great as well, because it's not the same things they do over and over, they have good variation. I used to not like Pink Floyd but now I think they are up there near the Beatles.

Magical Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery Tour has a phenomenal second half of the album, and those 6 songs alone make the album one of my favorite Beatles albums. It has Strawberry fields, which is probably one of my favorite of their songs ever. That song alone has literally inspired me to start songwriting. Also, this album has I am the Walrus, Penny Lane, Hello Goodbye, and All You Need is Love, which are incredibly phenomenal songs as well. At this point, the Beatles has to be one of my favorite bands, and the more I listen to them, the more I am inspired.  I'm glad that they split up Sgt Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour because if they would have made a monster album with all of the best songs of each on one, that would cause Brian Wilson to go absolutely insane along with the rest of the world.

Sgt Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band

The Beatles album Sgt Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band I think had some really great songs, but also some really weird instrumental stuff that isn't really defined, but just a bunch of different notes thrown together in random order. I liked about half of the songs on the album, and I think it is one of my least favorite Beatles albums as a whole so far. I think the Beatles were just taking a lot of drugs and making sounds that would just make the listeners trip out, especially if they were intoxicated like the Beatles were in the making this album. It was definitely one of there most psychedelic albums, and you can kind of tell just by looking at the album cover. But this album is very experimental, which I really like a lot, because I hate bands that do the same crap over and over and over and over,  and at least the Beatles are changing everything up and making it interesting. If the Beatles always were stuck in the early period doing songs like "I wanna hold you hand," "And I love her," "Love me do," and "P.S I love you," I would absolutely get sick of it, and not have much respect for the Beatles. I like variation in music, and Sgt Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band shows a lot of it, making me truly appreciate the Beatles.

The Beach Boys

I think that The Beach Boys have a really smooth harmony, and it makes me feel pretty good when I hear them. Most of their songs sound pretty happy and very similar to a lot of Beatles songs. Their album pet sounds especially, sounded like the Beatles. This is because, Brian Wilson even says this in the video, that Rubber Soul blew his mind, he instantly felt competitive with The Beatles, and he made Pet Sounds, which was directly inspired by Rubber Soul. Pet Sounds in turn inspired Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band. The Beatles and The Beach Boys were very similar, and inspired each other constantly, all the while being very competitive with one another. In the video it also says that The Beatles were hooked on pet sounds, and they thought it was one of the best albums they've ever heard. But one thing that contradicts what I learned in class (nobody bought Pet Sounds) is that it also says that Pet Sounds was very popular, in fact it made #10 and was thought of as a classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz4rHCRNy_U

Free Will vs Destiny

I believe that Free Will and Destiny are mutually exclusive possibilities, and nobody can really know the answer as to how/why we are here. Though I lean more toward life being complete free will, some things in your life you cannot control, such as your parents, your ethnicity, your gender, where you live, etc. and because of this I don't think everyone has equal opportunities to fully accomplish what they are completely potential of. I think if someone has the potential genius to become the best astro-physicist in the world and come up with many answers to the universe, but they are born into extremely low poverty like in India or Sudan, they cannot reach their full potential no matter how much free will they have. They just happened to be born at an awful background which they couldn't control, and therefor couldn't focus on education and becoming so successful. So though I think life is fully free will, I think there are different limits for different people as to what they can do with their life. I believe that everything is based on probability, and until something actually happens, all of the possible outcomes are happening at once. I am also open to the theory of a multiverse(infinite parallel universes), and to the theory that we don't even exist. Our life is based on perception, not reality, so it's possible that everything we experience and see is merely an illusion.

Jimmy Page

Jimmy Page, lead guitarist for the band Led Zepplin, is probably one of my idols. He is definitely one of the top 10 guitarists of all time, and is up there with Jimmi Hendrix. The reason he is my favorite guitarists though is because there is practically nothing he can't do on the guitar, he knows it better than the back of his hand, and can rock out like nobody I've ever heard. The reason I like him more than Jimmi Hendrix, given that I love Jimmi Hendrix's music, is because of the style of music he plays. Jimmi Hendrix is more of a Blues and Soul/Rock kind of guitarist, while Jimmy Page is primarily hard rock and more metal. His guitar style goes perfectly with Robert Plant's voice and that's probably he's my favorite. He just has the a better vibe and unison with the band than any other guitarist I've heard. I'm still trying to get somewhere near Jimmy Page level sometime in my life, because he is a god.

Help-The Movie

The Beatles movie Help is quite subtle and very goofy. I don't know why they came up with the Idea of some middle easterners trying to capture and kill Ringo for his ring they must use for preforming sacrifices. It would seem more serious when Ringo found out he had to die but he was so nonchalant about it and said "I've only got a few more hours to live" in such a easy going manner. This whole plot and acting was just really cheesy and silly, but the music they played from their album help was fantastic, I think it is one of their better albums they have made. But the movie was okay, had some quite absurd parts in it like when the icehole was created and a swimmer popped out asking for directions, and when they were in the forest and John looked like he had Ringo on a leash. Overall the movie was entertaining, and it was in bright color which was surprising for a movie that came out in 1965.

80's Hair Metal

The whole 1980's decade was not the best time for music. Things were going great in the 70's with awesome bands like Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath,  Deep Purble, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Queen, The Who, Rush, and many other great rock bands coming out and rocking the whole world. But something horrifying happened. Rock went from revamping music and being awesome, to a bunch of dudes trying to look like chicks and singing bad, thoughtless songs about (99.5% of the time) sex. Some of these hair metal bands that destroyed rock and roll for a decade include Motley Crue, Poison, Def Leppard, Cinderella, KISS, Ratt, W.A.S.P, Skid Row, Duran Duran, and Great White. I do not like these bands because a lot of them are extremely cheesy with techno pop mixed with rock (which are polar opposites and should never be blended ever). They also all look like Chicks, which is a huge turnoff, and don't have any real deep meaning to their songs besides sex. Some Hair Bands that I can deal with are the Scorpions, occasionally Gun's and Roses, Van Halen, and Iron Maiden, because their songs actually sound like rock and a lot of the time have deeper meanings to their songs.

Make Up Blog

I already play the guitar, drums, bass, keyboard, and if i wanted to I could sing, but the most intriguing instrument to me that I want to learn how to play the most is the Banjo. Playing the guitar is great and all, but so many people play guitar and I want to play something somewhat unique. Banjo is a lot like guitar and I think I could pick it up quick, and not everyone in the whole world plays the banjo like how everyone plays the guitar. I also like the sound of it. It has a more raspy vibe to it than guitar, and I think it just sounds fantastic if it is being fingerpicked at incredible speeds. I think the next instrument I'll try to learn is going to be the banjo because it is less common than guitar, can sound just as good, and requires a different technique than guitar which I would like to learn to help me become a better fingerpicker.

Bob Dylan

I used to not like Bob Dylan because it used to be that I've only heard his newer music, when he was already old, and it just didn't appeal to me. But now, I think Bob Dylan is a good and bad at the same time. The goods are that he is an amazing song writer, with some of the best messages in his lyrics that I've ever seen, and in some of his songs you can hear that he's a great musician as well by the way he plays his guitar and banjo. But the bads are that he doesn't have the best voice, a lot of his songs are not in my taste in music (folky blues kind of stuff), and his harmonica is the most loud and obnoxious thing in the face of humanity. But his voice wasn't really a turn off to me, he still sounded good until he started playing his harmonica, which is definitely the biggest turn off to me. I think Bob Dyaln is a great musician with incredible amounts of musical talent, his voice is tolerable but not the best, but there are some songs that he writes that sound like a dying cat. And not to mention his Christmas album where I think he just played a joke on everyone. I'm pretty sure he made it sound like crap on purpose just to see who would buy it just because he's Bob freaking Dylan.

The Who

The Who are definitely a lot better than the Rolling Stones and have a lot more variation in music than most bands I've heard. The later stuff of The Who I think is better than the older stuff, but what I like is that the older and newer music sound almost nothing alike. Whereas, the Rolling Stones and many other bands, sound the same throughout their whole music career. I also think The Who has a great bassist, I don't hear many bassists that can groove as well as their bassist. And the Drummer is really dumb, but is entertaining. I mean who else would put TNT in their drum kit during a concert and not tell anyone. Immature and destructive to his band members, cause one of them lost hearing in one ear, but none the less entertaining. The Who's variety of sounds, stage presence, and good music make them a band that I would certainly listen to quite a bit

Make Up Blog

Recently I've been listening to a lot of Drum and Bass type music. Pendulum is my favorite and some of their songs can be classified as dubstep, but most of their stuff is drum and bass. I've also been listening to Lamb, Ratatat, and of course Glitch Mob. I usually can't stand dubstep or anything like it, but these bands are a few acceptions that dont sound like wub-wub garbage, but actually sound like music and not a computer in overload. I like Pendulum a lot because unlike a lot of drum and bass/dubstep bands, they actually use instruments and don't overdo the techno computer sounds. Like, most drum and bass bands use the computer to play the actual bass line and drums itself which totally kills the purpose of drum and bass music. In Pendulum, they play the actual drums and bass, and the drummer goes at such incredible speeds it's hard to believe it is not a computer looping it the whole way through. Not only that, but they play a wide range of instruments throughout their songs, with very limited techno sounds, which I really like, cause it's authentic and it sounds good.

Rolling Stones

Ok so I've never actually liked The Rolling Stones or listened to their music, but before this class I always thought of them as good musicians (because they're so famous) but just thought they weren't in my taste of music. Well now after taking this class and listening to two albums nearly the whole way through I can confirm that they suck worse than I thought and barely have any musical talent if any. I mean their whole first two albums were 90% covers which were worse than the originals, and the few songs they did write were even worse than the covers. They were complete garbage, lyrically, vocally, and instrumentally. First off, Mick Jagger is not a good singer. His voice sounds like Bob Dylan playing the harmonica and the lyrics he writes are so simple. And to match his voice, a raunchy sounding guitar that is sometimes off tune is there to back him up. I mean how on earth did these guys turn into one of "the greatest" most famous rock bands of all time? Like seriously? I can write better music than those "professionals." Listening to the Rolling Stones legitimately pissed me off.

What is Rock?

Rock is a very broad genre of music, has very many different branches, and is very hard to describe verbally. I can't really describe all of rock together but I can break it up into several branches and define it. Well first there is Rock and Roll, which is like Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and Elvis, which is kind of the earlier sound of rock, which usually sounds quite crisp and clean, not really using distortion guitar and there's a lot of focus on singing. Then it moves to Led Zepplin, Black Sabbath, and eventually Metallica which is metal. Metal can be defined by having really loud and fast distortion guitar, as well as loud singing and heavy drum beats. It is usually quite fast and sounds kind of angry sometimes, like in thrash metal. There is also grunge, which can be described as sort of like metal but softer, and it uses non distortion guitar more often. Grunge also often goes off key/making off sounds on purpose to bring out a completely different, sometimes disturbing, emotion. Now there is all other sorts of rock I have not mentioned, and I cant possibly define the broad umbrella of Rock in just a paragraph but I can say that Rock is partly defined by the instruments (mostly guitar, bass, drums, vocals) the attitudes of rebellion (just how the music sounds gives a feeling of fighting or rebelling) and lyrics (which is usually a focus on sex, partying, love, rebelling, and many other things).

The Beatles Movie

That Beatles movie we recently watched in class that focused on the early lives of the band members and how The Beatles became The Beatles was very interesting. I like how Paul and John were in the same class together and lived not more than a few blocks away from each other, yet they were both some of the greatest musicians and influential people in the world that lived and studied in the same area. They didn't even really know each other well at first, but when they got older John joined a band and Paul went to one of his concerts and really liked it, which is what really started off The Beatles. If Paul would have been doing something else that day, or have come to the same area after John's band had already finished, there would be no Beatles. Also you can tell that The Beatles were quite immature and funny when they were young (as a lot of people are) because Paul got involved in setting a condom on fire after pinning it to a wall of a club, and John Lennon is just John Lennon, he's always kind of a sarcastic joker. I don't know something about the movie was just interesting. I guess it was just seeing how the greatest rock band of all time came to be and how they were a lot like me and my friends when they were young, all sarcastic jokers and what not. Maybe I should start a rock band.

Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys are a band I discovered not too long ago and at first I took them as a joke because of their band name. Like I honestly thought that they didn't do serious music and just made songs that were parodies like Lonely Island. But once I actually figured out who they are and first heard their song "Do I wanna know?" I instantly thought they were the bomb. I listened to their first two albums "Whatever people say I am, that's what I'm not" and "Favorite Worst Nightmare" the full way through and needless to say there wasn't one song I did not like. They sound a lot like the Black Keys and they are one of my favorite alternative rock bands.  Now I am not a huge fan of a lot of indie rock, the Arctic Monkeys can truly make it sound great because of their singer's voice, lyrics, and interesting blues/rock guitar/bass lines in the back that usually remain constant but set up a perfect beat and melody for the vocals. I'm glad the Arctic Monkeys were on the ACL lineup this year because otherwise I probably would of always thought they were a joke.

Silvertide

A fairly new and really good rock band really caught my attention. They're called Silvertide and they sound like a combination of AC/DC, Soundgarden, Led Zepplin, and Aerosmith. I mean, there's nothing really original about them compared to these bands beside the foul language (which was usually censored back in the 70's ) and if you heard them at first you would probably think that they were just a band from the 70's. But probably the reason I like them is because they have an amazing solo guitarist who can play as fast as lighting, and a singer who looks just like Layne Staley (even they're not nearly as good as Alice in Chains). And also, I like a lot of 70's rock, and I haven't really listened to it for a good long while, so at first hearing the band sounded great like all the other bands I previously mentioned. Now I know they don't have a lot of originality but they sound like a really good 70's band, and I just like it.

LCD Sound System

I thought that both the Movie "Shut Up and Play the Hits" and the band LCD Sound System were both not at all entertaining.  The Movie was just clips of the band, and quotes that were extremely boring and didn't really have any inspirational value or true meaning to music itself. The reporter that asked the main questions gave dead give-away answers to his questions such as "Is playing concerts more a musical experience, a cultural experience, or 50/50?" Anybody would have answered 50/50 (or most musicians) because the answer that makes your band look better would obviously be the 50/50 answer. And the movie was just really boring, they had no plot beside a crappy old person trying to rock out but didn't know what he was doing. The band was just so unoriginal, and almost every sound they made was just a bad knock off of the band Shit Robot. If you listen to Shit Robot you can obviously hear the same thing lcd sound system tried to copy. And I don't even like Shit Robot. Im glad that "rock" band finally quit because they were old guys that didn't know how to rock or put anything new on the table musically. I kept almost falling asleep during that whole movie but it was too loud.

Make Up Blog

Though I really dont like the line up of either the fun fun fun fest or ACL, I think I would rather go to ACL.  Most of the bands in ACL are not in my taste, such as Fidlar, Shovels and Rope, Whiskey Shivers, Bobby Jealousy, My Jealousy, and many many more, because either 1) They're too boring and quiet 2) Their studio sound is okay but when I hear them live they have a horrible, wretched vibe that hurts my ears (Cough cough Fidlar) 3) They're not my style of music, such as country, or pop 4) I don't know why I just don't like them. But there are a couple bands that I would definitely go see at ACL that would make it kinda worth it, such as Muse, Kings of Leon, Phoenix, ARCTIC MONKEYS,  Portugal the Man, and Depeche Mode. I like these bands because they are my style of music, sound great live, or have a unique twist to music that sounds great. I like the Arctic Monkeys the most because they remind me of one of my favorite bands The Black Keys. In the fun fun fun fest on the other hand, I don't like almost all of the bands that I've looked at on their website, because most are either really loud and obnoxious heavy metal bands such as Misfits, Slayer, and The Impossibles, or they're rap which I cannot stand now a days, such as Snoop Dog/Lion, M.I.A. (which is like a rap-techno mix), Fat Tony, and Antwon, or bands that just aren't entertaining live, like Title Flight, The Impossibles, The Locust and many more. If I'm spending well over $100 to go to a music festival, I wan't too see at least a few bands I like, rather than just one or two, and that's why I would prefer to go to ACL.

The type of Music that surrounds me

Being born in the mid to late 1990's, I am in a gap between two different music generations, where I am greatly exposed to a lot of 90's rock and rap, such as Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tupac, etc. and exposed to a lot of 21st century pop, rap, modern rock, dubstep, and absolutely horrible music, like Brittany Spears, Taylor Swift, Kanye West, Justin Bieber, Skrillex,  Lil Wayne, One Direction, and a lot of other crap. I mean, I don't listen to that music, but it's impossible to escape from it because it's always around me all the time. And not all the music in the 21st century sucks, I'd say there's almost or just as much good music recently as there is crappy music, but there sure is a lot of crappy music. Having growing up in this time frame I've been exposed to extreme amounts of some of the best music that was inspired by the 90's, and some of the worst filth that corporations come up with such as Boy Bands. And Rappers currently only talk about how much money they have, how many drugs they do, and how many "bitches" they get, and can't even rhyme two different words. This is some of the worst, most degrading crap I've ever heard, but in the 90's rap was actually good and they had meaning to their lyrics. I don't know how rap is going so downhill like that.

Hard Days Night

The movie "A Hard Days Night" by Richard Lester, according to time magazine, is one of the best and most influential movies of all time, that inspired numerous spy films, The Monkees' television show and pop music videos.  I really don't know how it was THAT inspiring or great, other than the fact that it was about the Beatles and everyone went crazy for the Beatles. I mean, the Beatles weren't actors, so the acting wasn't near the best, the filmmaking was pretty good especially for the time period, but the reason I think it was so inspiring and so influential is because the Beatles music was some of the most inspiring and influential of all time, not because the film was great. I mean yeah, it was funny and witty at times, but it wasn't THAT great, though it was entertaining. I'm sure that if I grew up in the 60's I would've thought that the acting was amazing, the filmmaking was extraordinary, the humor was absolutely hilarious, and probably that the movie was the best I've ever seen. But the fact that I'm living in America in the 21st century probably negates a lot of what was fantastic about that movie.

Music vs Age

I remember when I thought the lead singer from Smashing Pumpkins sounded like a dying hyena caught in a really loud high pitched blender, but now they have got to be one of my favorite bands. Then I wondered to myself, "How could this possibly happen? How could one of my least favorite bands turn into one of my favorite bands of all time?" My guess is that music sounds different to you as you grow older. Some music you used to really like sounds like fart noises, and music that used to sound like fart noises turned into something you really like. This probably has to do with our maturity and maybe how our ears change and hear different frequencies. They must have something to do with how music sounds to us. Many girls I know absolutely adored the Jonas Brothers and High School Musical when they were 12, but now I hear them say, "How could I possibly have liked that crap?" I just hope that when I'm older I'll still like Nirvana, The Beatles, Smashing Pumpkins, Run DMC, and everything else I like, but I'm sure that some of my favorite music will change.

Stereotypes

People from all around the world are generally thought of a certain way just based on where they are from, what they look like, and what their culture is like. Texans are thought of as dumb, redneck, cowboys that want everything to be big, and are behind technologically (ride horses to school). New Yorkers are thought of as pretentious, rich, cocaine-snorting jerks. Japanese are thought of as Dolphin-murdering, people without souls, that are extremely good at math. Germans are thought of as mean, nasty schnitzel-eaters. French are snail-eating cowards. Middle-Easterners are all terrorists. Polish are just... Polish, nobody takes them seriously (same with Canadians). But the fact is that, yes there are people like this in these areas, but there are people like this everywhere, not just in a specific place. The world is so diverse and so are the people, so there is no possible way that all people of a specific race/country can all the the same. There are pretentious, cocaine heads in texas that eat snails. There are terrorist cowards in Poland. There are Japanese that are terrible at math and have souls. The point is that people are people everywhere, and everyone is different in some way. Sure stereotypes got here because they are true, but there are so many cases in which they are not even close.

"27 Club"

As you know, many of the best rock star legends died quite young, and the most common age of death was 27 years old. Some of these who died at this age are Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Layne Staley, Peter Ham, Gary Thain, and Kurt Cobain. Their untimely deaths have often been connected with uneasy lives and psychological issues, with a lot of physical neglect in between, usually due to alcohol or drug abuse, or both. Probably 90% of rockstars up to the 90's had problems with drugs, and even bigger problems when they stopped taking them. I also read that peoples personality stopped changing much after they hit 30, so it seems, then, that getting old is a major threat to our creative enterprises, especially if you are a rock star. Most people become more conforming, more adjusted, more boring, less creative. So that's why I think most rock stars die at age 27, because they're in the middle ground of being young, rebellious, and hardcore into drugs to cope with their troubled lives, yet being creative geniuses, and being old boring, non-creative geniuses. This probably troubles the rock star inside immensely, and they can't find what to do with their life, so they just end it. 

The Beatles

The Beatles were undoubtedly one of the most popular and influential bands of all time. You can hear their style in so many bands after them that were inspired by them, such as Oasis, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, The Byrds, Radiohead, The Verve, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, The Beach Boys, Green Day, R.E.M, Deep Purple, U2, The Rolling Stones, Soundgarden, Queen, and pretty much every boy band to ever have existed. And because they were so powerful; so inspirational to almost all of my favorite bands, I think they are one of the greatest bands to have ever existed. Even though many of their songs aren't the greatest, quite repetitive, and always somewhere in every song they say "I love you," who knows how music from the 70's to today would be different (Ignore the 80's). It certainly wouldn't be nearly as good (Once again ignore the 80's). Without The Beatles, music as we know it would be drastically different, and not in a good way. Therefore I love The Beatles and think they are one of the greatest, if not the greatest, bands of all time. Also I like hippies and they inspired them too.

Glitch Mob

Now, I am not a huge fan of dub-step, but some of it is unavoidably fantastic that I just have to listen to it constantly. The Glitch Mob, if you haven't heard of them, gave me hope in dub-step again, because recently I've been listening to the new dub-step these days and it all sounds like pure unadulterated shit to me. Like if you've ever seen the south park where the adults are listening to the new "tween wave" bands that all the kids are listening to, all the adults hear are farting and shitting sounds. This is EXACTLY what i hear to some of these dub-step songs, just a drum beat, and someone taking a steamy wet crap with some obnoxiously loud bass. But not long ago I discovered the Glitch Mob, and I was blown away. I now have faith in dub-step even though a lot of it is shit. The Glitch Mob is so great because they don't do overkill on all those electronic "wub wub" crap. They actually have a very enticing tone to them that even gets addicting. I don't know how to describe it that well because it's mostly electronic but here are some of their songs. And Mr.A, if you haven't already heard these I strongly recommend you do, it's the bomb.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbAUwi4D3Ew
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-k_Eg7zXuc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejXSiMa9M4c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17PM-UMVud8      .....for animus vox i'd say skip to about 1:20 is where it starts getting interesting.

Elvis

Elvis was probably one of the inspirational musicians of all time and definitely the most inspirational artists to rock and roll. Before his time, there was really nothing, which John Lennon even says himself. All the music before him in America, personally, I believe kind of sucked. It just all sounds the same to me, with the same rhythm, same style of singing, same everything, and it gets old really quick (which is ironic because it is old). So yeah, old music gets old fast. But Elvis comes along, and shows the world something they've never been exposed to, rock and roll. That is why I love Elvis, but don't like his music. I love him because he was the founding father of my favorite kind of music, and all rock bands if you go far back enough, were inspired by him. Now his music, not so much. It's just a really early form of rock, so it still kinda sounded similar to the music before him. I've just been exposed to so many better versions of rock that his just doesn't sound so great to me. But I'm sure if I grew up in the 40's and 50's he would be one of my favorite artists, because I would have never seen anything of the likes of him. So, this is why I don't like his music because I've heard so much better rock than him, but I love Elvis because he is at the root of all of my favorite music.

Grunge

Own Topic-Grunge

Grunge is my favorite genre of rock, and the reason is because of its uniqueness and mysteriousness, of which perfectly advocates my mood, no matter what mood i am in. Grunge has a very distinct sound, that can sometimes be unsettling or nerve-wracking. Many grunge songs are about discomfort with ones self, being a misfit, being ugly, or having something go very wrong, which is why it appeals to people who feel that they're different from everyone else or are in a bad situation. This doesn't apply for all, of course, it's just a common theme with grunge, due to the intense sounds. Nirvana is one of the most popular grunge bands, because of the revolutionary way his chords were arranged together, giving a tone of mysteriousness that is very different from all other genres. 

Swing

Class Topic-Swing

During the 1940's and some of the 50's people from all age groups, ethnicities, gender, and many parts of the world all listened to the same music, swing. This is probably the only time in history that this phenomenon occurred, and thankfully, the last. The reason this most likely occurred was because swing is a very upbeat, happy, and optimistic sounding genre, which was very important because the world was going through a very tough point in history. We just came out of the great depression, and were fighting in a war that affected nearly everybody, almost every single family was in some way touched by the war, so we needed some happy tunes to help us cope. But personally, i think that all swing sounds the same, and therefore, think it is a lousy genre of music. I could maybe tolerate a song now and then, but not much more, it all sounds the exact same to me, with the same beat, rhythm, and crappy trumpet melody in the background of someones crappy voice. I don't know how everyone back then liked it.

History of Rock and Roll blogs

Music's History in Me

Music has always occurred naturally within me. Ever since I was very young, I would always remember all the lyrics of my favorite songs, so I could have them permanently in my head, and it didn't take me long at all to remember them, they just naturally stuck if I liked them. When I grew older, at about age 12-13, I experimented with learning the drums, and they provided me a way to blow off steam whenever I was angry, upset, or just had a lot of energy. I naturally had good rhythm and feel for the drum set. Then freshman year, I started learning the guitar. This also came to me relatively easy at first, and I accelerated with it and now I can learn almost any song I want (that's not insanely hard like eruption) and recently began to improvise. Guitar provides me an escape to stress and is one of my favorite hobbies now a days. The music I am MOST into would have to be 90's alternative and grunge, such as Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Smashing Pumpkins, and bands like that, which is the type of stuff I usually learn on guitar. Something about the vibe of grunge affiliates perfectly with any mood I am in and I can never get tired of it, even if I'm listening to the same songs over and over.