Throwback Thursday: Christmas Edition

Today is Throwback Thursday and 'tis the season of holiday bliss. The smell of eggnog, cookies, and maxed out credit cards fill the winter air. As we are all hustling to get the last bit of gifts before the clock strikes Christmas morn let's not forget to be selfless, compassionate, and thankful for the blessings bestowed upon us. I hope you all have a fantastic holiday season and I hope you enjoy these holiday throwbacks. 

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas - Perry Como and the Fontaine Sisters (1951)

A classic Christmas ditty from legendary singer Perry Como with featuring vocals from singing trio the Fontaine Sisters. It definitely a great tune to start off the joyous holiday season as you observe adorned trees, wreathes, and other holiday decor.

The Animaniacs - Noel (1996)

I just recently came across this. Using the melody from another Christmas song "The First Noel", this is one of the punniest Christmas songs out there coming from the classic Spielberg-produced 1990s cartoon The Animaniacs. It's random, it's spectacular, it's animated.

The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) - Nat King Cole (first recorded in 1946)

If people were to list their favorite Christmas songs of all time, I imagine most of them would have some version of the song above. This is one of the versions of the very first recording of this song by the legendary Nat King Cole. 

Josh Groban - O Holy Night (2002)

Josh Groban's breathtaking rendition of this song was performed live at Rockefeller Center when he was just 21. Being one of my favorite Christmas songs of all time, this song definitely reminds listeners the joyous event of Jesus's birth and the wondrous season we celebrate to this day honoring such an occasion.

~L~

50 Songwriting Ideas #2

Write a song about...

1. Learning a new hobby

2. Being pressured to like something everyone else likes

3. Trying a food that you believed you would not like but actually do

4. A sarcastic or dry-humored love story

5. Being guilty until proven innocent

6. The heat breaking down during a blizzard night

7. Not keeping up with everyone in an exercise class

8. A millionaire winning the lottery

9. Witnessing a robbery/mugging

10. An real or made-up urban legend

Write a song that takes place...

11. On the last day of winter break

12. While waiting for a doctor's appointment

13. During a graduation ceremony

14. During a chess match

15. While walking on the streets of a high-crime neighborhood

16. During an awards show

17. On St. Patrick's Day

18. In a school cafeteria

19. During the last few minutes of a championship sports event

20. During a job interview/audition

Write a song from the point of view of...

21. An old toy of a child growing up

22. The ring during a marriage proposal

23. A gadget that is being replaced by an updated one

24. A jar that collects loose change around the house

25. An unused household appliance 

26. An unpaid extra in an action movie

27. A background singer of a world famous singer

28. A minority in a homogenous population

29. The publicist/assistant of a misbehaving rock star

30. A friend of the most unpopular person in school

Write a song in which the lyrics...

31. All rhyme with the same word

32. Are a series of haikus

33. Use a profane word in the chorus or hook

34. Contain numbers

35. Are a list of verbs

36. Lists many different cities and/or countries in the world

37. Contain traditional marriage vows

38. Mentions a historical fact, event, or figure

39. Contain nonsense or made-up words

40. Contain yodeling, screaming, animal calling, or baby talk

Write a song inspired by or dedicated to...

41. A very clumsy person 

42. A tattoo artist

43. A mortician

44. A neighborhood spy

45. A circus performer

46. A child who likes to play dress up

47. A good person who is pressured to be bad

48. A college graduate working minimum wage part-time job(s)

49. A person you have yet to forgive

50. A great singer/actor who has stage fright

Check Out 50 Songwriting Ideas #1

Brief Thoughts on the 2012 Grammy Nods

On November 30th, the 54th Annual Grammy nominations were announced live with many of the nominees present, announcing, or performing. There were definitely expected predictions and surprises throughout many of the main categories. While some artists have many nominations to be joyous about, others were completely shut out. By keeping this post brief, I will just be giving my brief thoughts a few of the main categories of the 2012 Grammy nominations.

Album of the Year
21, Adele
Wasting Light, Foo Fighters
Born This Way, Lady Gaga
Doo-Wops & Hooligans, Bruno Mars
Loud, Rihanna

I am definitely surprised that four pop albums are up for this award with no hip-hop or country album. I expected Kanye West (who garnered the most nods this year) was not nominated for "Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" which many considered to be his critical best. I was also surprised that Tony Bennett's "Duets" album was not nominated for this album as well. I was surprised "Loud" was nominated instead; but with six successful singles in which three hit #1, I guess it shouldn't be much of a surprise after all. It was a solid pop record, just like the others.

Record of the Year
Rolling In the Deep, Adele
Holocene, Bon Iver
Grenade, Bruno Mars
The Cave, Mumford & Sons
Firework, Katy Perry

Song of the year (goes to writer)
All of the Lights (performed by Kanye West, Rihanna, Kid Cudi and Fergie)
The Cave (performed by Mumford & Sons)
Grenade (performed by Bruno Mars)
Holocene (performed by Bon Iver)
Rolling In the Deep (performed by Adele)

Most of these nods were not a surprise to me ("Firework", "Grenade", "Rolling..."). However, I was surprised that one of Lady Gaga's hits off of "Born This Way" wasn't nominated for either of these awards, though she was nominated throughout the pop category as well as "Album of the Year."

Best New Artist
The Band Perry
Bon Iver
J. Cole
Nicki Minaj
Skrillex

With this being my favorite category at the Grammys, I definitely am very interested to see who takes home this prize. I expected Nicki and Bon Iver (although their not particularly new) to be nominated. I was definitely happy to see J. Cole up there but I was really surprised to see Skrillex. Understandably, this is the first year that an electronic music artist has been nominated for this award. Artists like indie pop band Foster the People and British singer Jessie J were expected nominees from many sources, but were not nominated for the honor.

In some other categories I was surprised Britney Spears, who had numerous successful pop hits this year, was not nominated for a grammy. 16-time Grammy winner Beyonce, who is normally a Grammy favorite, was only nominated for two Grammys (for "Party" in Best Rap/Sung Collab and "I Am...World Tour" for Best Long Form Music Video). I was surprised her album "4" was shut out of the R&B categories.

In a tally, Kanye West leads the pack with 7 nominations followed by Adele, Bruno Mars and Foo Fighters with 6. Lil Wayne and New Artist nominee Skrillex also earned 5 nods in their respective categories. It'll definitely be an interesting night to see if there are any surprise wins out of these nominations. I will be posting my own predictions for many of the other categories a few weeks before the Grammy's are set to air on the 12th of February. Stay tuned for that.


~L~

For a full list of the 54th Annual Grammy Nominees visit: http://www.grammy.com/nominees

Throwback Thursday: 1997 Edition

So I bet you wanna know why I am making an edition of Throwback Thursday dedicated to the year of 1997. Well, I'ma tell you anyway. I am a huge fan of the 90s: television, movies, music, heck even the crazy fashion (not really). I loved how much this decade has contributed to my childhood and I am very thankful to have experienced it even at such a young age. And 1997 I felt was a pretty good year, no? Here are some hits from that year that you may or may not remember.

Robyn - Do You Know (What It Takes)

Before there was Britney, Christina, and for sure Gaga, there was Robyn. She was one of the first young blonde pop singers to emerge in the 90s pop era. Native of Sweden, Robyn is still on her grind and, in my opinion, seriously underrated in the US. Here is one of her earliest hits.

Fiona Apple - Criminal

I have always been a fan of this song, even though my mom would not let me watch the video when I was 9 lol. For such a tiny little angsty 19 year-old, she packs a lotta soul in those vocal cords. And I love the incorporation of the flute. Here is Fiona's biggest charted hit "Criminal" which peaked at #21 on Billboard.

Total featuring Missy Elliot and Timbaland - What About Us

This was one of those songs that took me quite a while to track down. I didn't actually re-discover it until college when I first heard it in the late 90s. Timbaland and Missy Elliot were the two of the biggest influences in urban music back in the day and are still making serious moves. Unfortunately many r&b groups male and female don't make as many moves anymore. I guess mainstream labels are more concerned with solo superstars. But still, I miss the r&b girl groups. SWV, En Vogue, Mokenstef, Total: where are you at???

Will Smith featuring Coko from SWV - Men In Black

Speaking of SWV, the amazing Coko lends her soulful vocals to this Will Smith throwback which sampled "Forget Me Nots" from Patrice Rushen. "Men in Black" the title theme song of the movie with the same name, also comes with a dance at the bridge. And you have no idea how long it took me to do the "take a walk with me" part when i was a kid.

~L~

The Music Tourist Updates

Hello my fellow tourists and such,

I hope all of you are as excited for the new changes to this blog. I have been planning a makeover for it since I took a break from it. These changes are intended to bring a little more structure to this blog. But before I can get into that, I would like to give you guys a brief explanation to my absence...

Well back in August, I announced that I would try to post everyday in September. I planned it all out, for every day. But then graduate school started really picking up and I found myself getting further behind preparing my posts. So I saved them in a queue. But then I forgot about it and it started posting unfinished posts through October. Once I realized this I corrected it. I intended to post again for my blog's one year anniversary on November 2nd but that never ended up happening. With a series of graduate school assignments, searching for employment and the next steps in my life, some tragic events including me being in a car accident and in physical therapy since October, understandably The Music Tourist had been put on the back burner. 

Which brings me to my next point. I am setting aside my prospects for being a professional musician right now. That does not mean that I will stop writing. I will definitely keep writing music when it comes to me, but I will not be focusing on it within my short term goals. I am focusing on working odd jobs to pay the necessities until I can get to a limit of comfort and profit. I am also deciding whether or not I will actually continue with graduate school. I do enjoy it but I am not sure if it is right for me right now. I do not wish to accumulate more loans than I have to and not just stay in grad school because I have such limited options right now. I do need to work. However, whenever the opportunity comes, I may be moving out of the state (maybe in a couple of years) to live closer to a music industry capital. I will definitely update whenever that happens.

But for now the only updates are coming from this blog. Here I am stating five points of change for The Music Tourist.

1. I will post on the TTSS from now on. 
What the heck does that mean? That means if the day of the week starts with a "T" or "S," expect a new post from me. That's right; every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday (unless I state otherwise in advance), will be a new post. I will definitely try my hardest to stick with this. Instead of just posting on random days, I want the readers to expect posts on these days. The time frame to expect these posts will be in the afternoon or early evening. I may sporadicly post in the morning or at later night, but I will intend to post in the afternoon/evening.

2. The previous theme days will be killed off. 
Yep, so there will be no more (official) "New" Music Mondays, Word Up Wednesdays, Foto Fridays since I'm not posting on MWF. Pretty much every previous theme day will no longer be, except Throwback Thursday will stay as is. It will still post four throwback videos (at least five years old for the most part) of a certain theme and provide my ever amazing commentary :)

3. Tuesdays are now "Tourist Tuesdays."
I'm not killing off Testimony Tuesdays because I have nothing good to say lol. I'm making Tuesdays about music tourism specifically. I will include interviews, reviews, concerts (if any), and new explorations of music. So it's like "New" Music Monday and Spotlight Sundays have been pushed to Tuesday.

4. Saturdays are music news days. 
Basically I will choose five random music stories/articles/subjects of this past week and either report them, summarize them, or comment on them. I will be calling this day "The Five Spot" and will start in January.

5. Sundays are reserved for everything else. 
With my natural inclination to be random, that is what this day is for. Kinda. Basically this day is for the posts that wouldn't necessarily fit into the other days. 

So that's it. That wasn't too much change. I hope these updates make this blog a little more informative, insightful, and structured as well as random, fun, and entertaining. I'm excited to see how these updates really move along this blog. And of course if something exciting happens to progress my career or whatever, I will make that known. 

Click here for an outline of what to expect for the rest of the year! (i.e. December)

~L~

P.S. I will be incorporating and applying a new design for this site for this rest of the day, in case you see some weird things going on today. 

Updates Tomorrow

Yeah I know. Sorry. I had to work and I had a migraine all day. Updates tomorrow I promise ;)


~L~

The Music Tourist is Returning!!!

Hey all,

As you can see, my posts have been extremely scarce lately. And by scarce I mean nonexistent. I am soeey for the extensive delay. I have had quite a shaky few months and had some thinking and reflecting to do. But "The Music Tourist" is back from hiatus!

So usually after I do one of these breaks I do a big update for my blog. This is true. I have been planning some awesome stuff for this blog and will really be trying to commit to a regular schedule for updated posts. I will be organizing it a lot more so this blog will be more consistent. I will provide what those updates entail as well as a short explanation for my sabbatical, if you will.

I am fully appreciative of the regular readers and passerbys observing this little blog of mine up to this point. If you liked what I have contributed before, I think you'll appreciate the new changes. If not so much, hopefully you'll appreciate the updates and provide ways to make your Music Tourist reading experience more worthwhile, fulfilling, and just plain awesome. Stay tuned tomorrow afternoon for a new schedule, content explanation, and possibly a new layout.

Stay tuned!