For my last article of the year, I’ve decided to compile a list of some of the songs from my yesteryear that really hit me hard and had an impact on my musical taste.  If you haven’t heard some of them, give them a listen and you just might find your next favorite genre or band.

Although WRVU takes pride in supporting local artists and showing love to less popular musicians, we aren’t living under a rock. 2014 had its fair share of compelling hits on mainstream radio, and we are going to highlight 9 of  those songs here. Our criteria is simple: each song needed to spend at least one week on The Billboard Hot 100 to be eligible for this list. We present them to you in no particular order.

“Man of the Year” – ScHoolboy Q

Schoolboy Q’s flow and a sample of Chromatics’ “Cherry” makes “Man of the Year” an easy and enjoyable listen.

Gracing his wrist, “The River Is Everywhere,” a quote from the piece “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse rests on Andrew McMahon’s lower arm as a reminder that wherever you go there is always going to be a piece of you. Since the release of his latest venture as Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, this daily reminder could not be any more relevant. The long awaited debut of a solo album came under the moniker Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness following a short solo EP, The Pop Underground, in 2013, nearly 8 years with Jack’s Mannequin and 3 full length albums recorded with high school band, Something Corporate.

When talking about weird, avant-garde musicians, Frank Zappa’s name is usually thrown around.  I say “thrown around” because I feel like not many people who know his name really known much about his music.  Too many times I’ve heard someone say something like, “Oh, Zappa?  Yeah, his music is kind of weird, I’m not really a fan.”  There’s some truth to this statement; his music is, generally speaking, weird, but I feel as though many people don’t understand the spread of genres that Zappa incorporated into his own music.  Truthfully, I think that there’s at least one Zappa album for almost everyone.

If you’ve been in Urban Outfitters recently, odds are you’ve seen some vinyl records. These dinosaurs of the music world have been making a comeback in slightly more hipster circles for a while, hence their appearance in one of the most hipster clothing stores of them all. These records aren’t just the oldies that your parents listened to either. In fact, new albums are still being released as vinyl records as well as in more contemporary formats. So in honor of this resurgence, I hereby present to you a history of music formats, from vinyl to MP3.

It’s that time in the semester.  Things are starting to get crazy.  Those projects are piling up.  Finals are just over the horizon.  Right now you’re probably halfway through an intense study session, your study playlist is exhausted, and you find yourself checking WRVU for your emerging music needs.

Luckily for you, I have some great artists to bolster the ranks of your depleted library as you take on the end of the semester.  As a general rule, these artists don’t feature many lyrics in their songs as I generally find lyrics to be distracting from my work.  If you can get into the studying zone while listening to music with prominent lyrics, then I envy you.