My pick.
… Black Eyed Peas was ranked 12th at the Billboard’s Decade-End Chart Artist of the Decade. They were ranked 7th in Hot 100 Artists of the Decade.
Click PLAY or watch Boom Boom Pow on YouTube.
The best selling band, as ranked by Billboard, of the last decade was Alberta’s Nickelback.
… Was this the worst decade for popular music? Worse than the 1980s?
Leave a comment if you’ve a different favourite over the last 10yrs.
Another terrific rendition of the Leonard Cohen classic.
Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris on the American Hope For Haiti telethon.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Alicia Keys – Send Me An Angel – was pretty incredible, too.
It was a classy move not identifying the STARS on that charity TV broadcast. Kudos.
Some old dinosaurs are so out of the music scene that they’ve never even heard of Duffy.
… Rockferry was the best selling album in the United Kingdom in 2008. “Mercy” was the third best selling single for the year …
Music video – Duffy performing Mercy.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Click PLAY or watch Gary Brolsma on YouTube.
34 million views
A few months ago he led the half-time show at a Michigan State football game. 75,000 people loved it.
Click through to see that video.
The future is people creating online content for their friends. Kids will be addicted to Facebook. And find commercial TV boring.
Rockin’ linked to this heartwarming children’s version of a modern classic pop song.
The PS22 Chorus is a kids choir of 60 kids from a new york city public elementary school. They are slowly but surely taking over the world…..
This choir has been viewed more than 13 million times.
Click PLAY or watch Landslide on YouTube.
Click PLAY to watch the Dixie Chicks cover on YouTube.
And, of course, the original vocalist, Stevie Nicks acoustic version.
Improv Everywhere (often IE) is a comedic performance art group based in New York City, formed in 2001 by Charlie Todd. Its slogan is “We Cause Scenes.”
The group carries out pranks, which they call “missions” in public places. The stated goal of these missions is to cause scenes of “chaos and joy.” Some of the group’s missions use hundreds of performers and are similar to flash mobs, while other missions utilize only a handful of performers. Improv Everywhere has stated that they do not identify their work with the term flash mob, in part because their site was created two years prior to the flash mob trend. …
Click PLAY or watch a sample “mission”, Frozen Grand Central, on YouTube.
Another sample …
Click PLAY or watch I Love Lunch! The Musical on YouTube.
Improv Everywhere’s videos have been viewed over 78 million times on YouTube and their channel is the 64th most subscribed on the site.
I’ve subscribed to their blog. This is the kind of troupe I would join!
They’ve even got a book out now: Causing a Scene: Extraordinary Pranks in Ordinary Places with Improv Everywhere
I first heard of them on This American Life.
Growing up in Western Canada, a Country and Western mecca, I’ve always avoided and denied Country music.
I lost my girl. I lost my truck. I lost my dog.
Country music has some wonderful talent (Shania Twain jumps to mind) … but I still see it as the preserve of dumb white people. Simple minded closet racists all endorse both kinds of music, Country and Western.
But times are changing …
… While album sales of most musical genres have declined, country music experienced one of its best years in 2006, when, during the first six months, U.S. sales of country albums increased by 17.7 percent to 36 million. …
… I keep hearing about this guy named Brad Paisley. One of my favourite critics calls his most recent album – American Saturday Night – the best of the year.
The second radio single is “Welcome to the Future” which Paisley said is his favorite song on the album.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I love it. Paisley played it at the White House for President Barack Obama. In fact, he was inspired to write this song by Obama.
Finally a Country star who can sing about big, modern issues. Technology. Racism. People who aren’t descended from Hillbillies.
This song could be covered by U2 or the Black Eyed Peas.
Paisley has signed to join a new hour-long drama TV series called Nashville. If that show is a hit, he’ll have crossed over to yet another huge market.
As Ron and Kate often urge, perhaps it’s time I give Country Music open minded consideration.
Hip Hop and neo punk are in decline.
How many Beyonce clones can I listen to?
I think I’m going to Katmandu,
That’s really, really where I’m going to.
If i ever get out of here,
That’s what I’m gonna do.
K-k-k-k-k-Katmandu …Bob Seeger – lyrics
People often ask me, “What’s your favourite travel destination?”
Usually I reply, Nepal. As a hiker Nepal is nirvana. And their blend of Tibetan Buddhism, Hinduism and Tourism makes a rich Chai.
Downside?
Perhaps 60hrs in transit. IF I’m lucky.
Guitarist Joe Satriani claimed the band copied his instrumental If I Could Fly for their own track Viva La Vida, but an out-of-court-settlement now seems to have been reached …
Brian had me listen to the two tracks.
YIKES.
Coldplay had to have stolen the song.
… judge Dean D Pregerson dismissed the case and ruled that each party would “bear [their] own cost” for the litigation. The stipulation, er, “upon stipulation” suggests that the parties came to an out-of-court settlement – most likely that Coldplay paid Satriani off.
Although there is no evidence that Chris Martin and Coldplay directly copied Satriani’s song, court precedents make copyright infringement cases very sticky. George Harrison was famously found to have “subconsciously plagiarised” the Chiffons’ He’s So Fine for his track, My Sweet Lord.
Neither Coldplay nor Satriani have commented on the end of the proceedings. …
Andrew from Creative Guitar Studio posted a little video that has been seen almost 900,000 times.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (9min)
This is awesome.
It’s the flash mob that took over Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. Watch 21,000 of Oprah’s biggest fans perform one of the biggest dances in the world to the BlackEyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling.” …
Click PLAY or watch it on Dailymotion. (dance starts at 2min 10sec)
One of the world’s biggest continuously successful bands, BlackEyed Peas are easy to criticize:
… Rolling Stone notes that since 2003, when the group “hired a blond bombshell named Stacy ‘Fergie’ Ferguson and gave up their pursuit of backpack-rapper cred, they have made a kind of spiritual practice of recording dumb songs — a total aesthetic commitment that extends from their garish wardrobes to their United Colors of Benetton worldview.” …
Founder will.i.am started as a hard core rapper with the legendary Eazy-E. … He’s got no rap cred, now. Yet has evolved into some sort of hiphop Bono, very active in social issues.
Yes their songs are cheesy. Yes their songs are commercial. … Yes their songs are really, really catchy.
Yes I love BlackEyed Peas.
(via Gymnastics Coaching)
