Tag: year end music reflections

  • Rock May Be Dead—Here’s How Pop Music Gave My Sound New Life

    Rock May Be Dead—Here’s How Pop Music Gave My Sound New Life

    Trendy music is always a topic on year-end lists.

    Goodbye To A Lousy 2016

    Looking back on a year that for a lot of us was probably not our greatest glory is a hard thing to do. I think the one thing that got a lot of people down had to be the deaths of a lot of entertainment icons. Musicians, actors, and creative types that many, if not all, of us are familiar with. Its sad to see icons pass away.

    Sizzling Trendy Music

    While I didn’t really grow up thinking about pop music, I have come to embrace it pretty hard in the last year. But it doesn’t mean I wasn’t aware of many of the popular musicians who passed away this past year. The main reason for the embrace isn’t to be chasing trendy music, but rather to spread out and create more interesting music. Rock feels like a dead subject – especially when most rock isn’t being overly adventurous in sonic terms. Pop music on the other hand is ingesting so many different vibes that it becomes really hard to ignore.

    Fantastic Spotify

    Spotify encapsulates the beauty of finding out what is trendy music. Streaming music and especially Spotify makes it incredibly easy to listen to more music than you can shake a stick at. For me it means taking time to listen to what is topping the charts. This in turn gives me the ability to tear apart the instrumentation and the concepts that led to the creation of the song. That in turns improves my writing, my arrangements, and my production skills.

    trendy music

    An Inspired Past

    While I don’t spend a ton of time dwelling on the past, I did spend time appreciating the music of many who passed away this year. Part of what has stood out is the timelessness of the music created by artists like Prince, George Michael, David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Leonard Cohen, and producer Sir George Martin. That’s an incredible list of people who redefined the music industry in decades long before I started playing an instrument.

    Impact With The Now

    Newer music like Daya, Shawn Mendes, The Weeknd, Alessia Cara, Bieber (yes, I’m putting him in this list), and DNCE shows how I can incorporate a variety of styles and make them something new. Looking forward into 2017 I’ve got a line of singles I’m excited to get released. Every song is different from each other. There’s even some that are a serious departure from my normal concept of releasing music. Think someone like DJ Snake or Calvin Harris, more trendy music and I’m looking to keep people on their toes.

    Demolish Your New Year’s Eve

    So on this final day of 2016 I want to wish you a fond farewell to a poor year of entertainment deaths and welcome you to an exciting year of new music. Wherever you end up partying tonight, I hope you’ll have a seriously mind-blowing time. I also want to see you survive any experience you use to ring in the new year.

    See you on the flip side with new music to play for you!

    Happy New Year!

  • The Truth About Holiday Burnout and How Artists Can Reclaim the Season

    The Truth About Holiday Burnout and How Artists Can Reclaim the Season

    He’s making a list checking it twice, that’s the phrase many people learn throughout then known planet of earth.

    making-a-list

    That time of year when people are generally supposed do things to relax, be merry and happy. The ultimate in humor is that many people do the exact opposite thing. Many are ignoring their better judgement and running around getting extravagant gifts, being stressed out and sometimes down right rude to others.

    What Do You Do

    You know what’s real odd? How does one approach wishing people greetings based on their religious or non-religious background. Do you stick to your own views? Do you try some politically correct thing? Ask their religious background and use that? What does one do?

    Christmas

    See, as an atheist who has a childhood linked to a religion that dealt with Christmas, I’m most accustomed to that and I’m fine with it.

    In that sense, I technically enjoy the idea of Christmas. I doubt it would matter much to me if it were Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, or any other religion’s concept. The reason I stick with it is to cause less issues with the immediate family. Plus its a familiarity thing.

    Whatever your preferred religious background is, know that I wish you that address.

    Year End List Checking

    The big thing a lot of publications do is list checking, or rather year end lists. Top 10 this. Top 20 that. Best of the Year this. Worst of the year that. So many lists. I’ll admit there have been times when I pay attention to them. Not any more. Not this year. Too many crazy things have happened from a celebrity death list to insane politics that I’ve pretty much checked out of the whole list checking thing.

    This time around I’m hanging with family, watching movies and keeping a low profile. I’m taking a break from recording. I’m not concentrating on anything other than spending a bit of time with family, friends and loved ones.

    Gifts

    It goes without saying that nearly everyone on this planet loves to get gifts. True reality is that most people are not natural born gift givers. Maybe this is what list checking was meant for – to make a list so that its easier to purchase gifts for others.

    Personally, I fall in the camp of not being really good at giving gifts. Though I do think I made some much better strides this year. At least this is what I’m being told by family already based on gifts I’ve given so far.

    Movies

    One thing I’ll be doing is watching a lot of movies and munching on popcorn. Mostly holiday themed classics like, Its A Wonderful Life, Love Actually, Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, etc. But I’ll also be watching some movies like Passengers, Rogue One (Star Wars), Collateral Beauty, and La La Land.

    What are your holiday movie plans?

    In Closing

    Whatever you do this Christmas, be happy. Enjoy the company of others and know you are loved.

    Oh, and give me a special gift of adding my Christmas song “Christmas Brought Me You” to your favorite holiday playlist.

    Merry Christmas!