When I was in high school, a close friend of mine introduced me to the hilarious and often ridiculous wonder that is Ezra Koenig’s twitter. I initially dismissed his posted jokes as self-indulgent banter with a worshipping fan base. But, admittedly, I was intrigued, and started listening to Vampire Weekend. I got almost immediately hooked, and rapidly transformed into a person who listened to their self-titled album and Contra every day after school.
March 25, 2015 was a tumultuous time in music history—it was the day Zayn Malik left One Direction.
Whether you’ve been a One Directioner since the inception of the band, a casual listener, indifferent towards the group, or a staunch opponent of all things good in life, you probably remember the uproar on the Internet in reaction to the news that Zayn was headed in a different direction. Fans lamented the loss of one of the more favored members, and worried about the future of One Direction. How could the group of boys who had been through the X-Factor, four albums, and world tours suddenly be splitting apart? How could the band possibly go on without arguably one of their strongest singers?
Credit: Taylor Swift and VEVO
The haters really are going to hate.
Taylor Swift has now found herself in a legal battle over her hit song of off her album 1989, “Shake It Off”. According to the BBC, Swift is being sued by American R&B singer Jesse Graham to the tune of $42 million. Additionally, Graham is suing for his name to be added as a co-writer on the song. He claims that the phrases “haters gone hate” and “playas gone play” are both copyrighted by him.
“And if you’re looking for someone to write your break-up songs about / Baby I’m perfect,” sings Niall Horan of One Direction, all but confirming that “Perfect,” 1D’s latest single in which the not-so-subtle lyrics appear, was written in regard to Harry Styles’s and Taylor Swift’s 2012 relationship.
Photo courtesy of Carolyn Sloss
Just this past Saturday, the biopic I Saw the Light was presented at the Belcourt Theatre. The movie follows the life of famed country music star Hank Williams from his marriage to his first wife Audrey through his untimely death in the back of his car on his way to perform in Canton, OH. Given the iconic status Hank Williams occupies in the realm of country music it is no surprise that I Saw the Light was screened here, in the home of country.
In a twitter blur, the world became aware of an approaching collaborative album between Future and Drake, two rappers who have been collectively running this year. Now, it’s important to note the considerable difference in each rapper’s dominance this year. Future has put in a decidedly inhuman season of being literally the best rapper today whose not named Jeffrey Williams. Seriously if you don’t know by now, you need to listen to the canon (56 Nights, DS2, Beast Mode, Monster). Drake has also been doing well in his own lane, releasing an album (IYRTITL), questionably silencing ghostwriter allegations, and a few songs and remixes here and there. I’m going to come clean though, I haven’t paid much attention to Drake of late, simply because Future and Young Thug exist. But, regardless, Drake, well he’s out here.
Just kidding, technically it’s not fall until Wednesday. It’s pretty darn close though.
So here’s the deal: in October of last year Taylor Swift released her most recent album, 1989. It was a runaway success, selling the greatest number of albums in its first week since The Eminem Show released in 2002 according to MTV. Swift has since gone on an incredibly successful tour which will be swinging by Nashville on the 25th. I’d remind all Taylor Swift fans to buy tickets, but let’s face it-at this point they’re over $200 and you probably should have picked them up months ago. However, I’m not here to write about Swift’s upcoming show. Instead, I want to talk about the recent 1989 cover craze.
Winners of WRVU’s 2014 Album of the Year Contest, rap duo Run the Jewels has been no stranger to critical acclaim since the release of Run the Jewels 2 last year. Killer Mike and El-P have not dropped any new material since then, but are set to release a remix album sometime in September. Meow the Jewels, the idiosyncratic remix of Run the Jewels 2 fans have been waiting months to listen to, will feature the duo rapping their lyrics over cat noises. Just this week, Run the Jewels gave a little sneak-peak into the album with “Oh My Darling Don’t Meow”, a play on “Oh My Darling Don’t Cry”.
“TIDAL for all.” That’s the slogan for Jay Z’s new high-fidelity music streaming service, Tidal. But with a $19.99 a month service fee, it probably isn’t for everyone, especially those…
Since the dawn of the digital age, the music industry has succumb to a new form of shoplifting – online piracy. While pirating music is not a new concept along with the Internet, downloading music without paying for it is occurring at a much greater magnitude than the pre-internet days. As an Economics major, I wonder how much this phenomenon affects the music industry. So I ask the question: Should you really be torrenting?
Just last week, pop star Taylor Swift bought up two new websites: TaylorSwift.porn and TaylorSwift.adult. I doubt it will surprise many of you to hear that neither of these sites will be utilized for their implied purpose. Instead, this is another instance of “domain squatting”, where an individual purchases a domain name either with the intent to profit off of a large amount of ads placed on a legitimate-sounding domain, or in this instance to prevent others from having the domain title. With Swift’s high degree of visibility, it was probably a good PR move. Not all celebrities have been that lucky, however.
As many of you may already be aware, a landmark decision was made this past Tuesday when artists Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams lost a lawsuit to the estate of Marvin Gaye regarding copyright infringement. According to the verdict of the case, the hit song “Blurred Lines” was too similar to Marvin Gaye’s 1977 hit “Got to Give it Up”. Thicke and Williams have been told to pay $7.3 million dollars in damages to Gaye’s estate. Right now, their lawyers have gone on the record to say that they are appealing this decision. Their appeal will be predominately based on the fact that jurors were instructed by the judge to only compare the sheet music between the two songs, a comparison that Thicke and William’s legal team believes does not encompass the true feel of both songs.
Here’s a mashup of the two songs in case you need some reference for comparison:
Like my colleague Brandon Bout, I made sure to catch a live show over Spring Break. For me, the destination was London and the band was electro-pop trio Years & Years.
I had heard of the group from a fellow Lightning 100 intern in December. She had spent time working in Britain and assured me that they were on the verge of blowing up across the pond. Her promise was confirmed when I learned that Years & Years had won the BBC’s prestigious Sound of 2015 poll–an award won in previous years by such acts as Sam Smith, Adele, and Ellie Goulding. So when I saw that the band would be playing in the British capital during my stay there, I convinced my traveling companions that we needed to go to the concert.
A recent article on Pitchfork was published with the bold title “Britpop is Dead: Why Blur’s Comeback Isn’t One.” Blur was once a popular Britpop band, from, you guessed it, Great Britain. As Britpop raged on in the early 1990s, it has steadily declined, but apparently is making a comeback. Using the article as a reference, I intend to examine what the state, or lack thereof, of Britpop really is.
You may be wondering, what kind of a name is Moon Hooch? Well, they are a trio of extremely talented musicians straight out of Brooklyn that specializes in something one could call “jazz fusion.” The genre right now is still just hitting the mainstream, but I wanted to put the spotlight on this group that I think, or at least hope, will make it big time.
Walking into class this afternoon, my professor proceeded to explain that today she was feeling more left shark than right shark. If you don’t understand the reference yet, get excited because a lot of strange and awesome (music) things happened this Super Bowl that we are going to get to discuss.
If you’re reading this from quite possibly anywhere in the United States, I am going to assume that you are aware of the major sporting event that occurred just this past Sunday. For those of you who are unaware though, Super Bowl XLIX was this Sunday, and as always, it was quite the event. To be completely honest, I did not watch the entire game but I did manage to glean a couple of important facts from it. First, apparently there was some kind of upset towards the end of the game. I’m not really all that concerned with it. Secondly, apparently Nationwide killed a kid in their commercial. That’s also not something I’m going to go into here. Instead, I figured why not talk a little more about the important parts of the Super Bowl?
If you have heard a Death Grips song before, you may have described the experience as shocking, unnerving, electrifying, or just plain weird.
While the group (supposedly) disbanded on July 2, 2014, they have been quite active on social media and have actually come out with an album since then. So, what are they really up to?
With the Grammy’s less than two weeks away, there is lots of speculation surrounded who will win. I’m here to tell you who (in my humble opinion) should be taking home those golden statues on February 8th.
Record of the Year
Nominees: Fancy (Iggy Azalea feat. Charlie XCX), Chandelier (Sia), Stay With Me (Sam Smith), Shake It Off (Taylor Swift), All About that Bass (Meghan Trainor)
My Pick: Chandelier
In terms of overall song quality, Chandelier is the song that encompasses the best lyrics, music, and overall performance by Sia. It also seems like Sia is a bit overdue for some recognition – she’s been making music (really really good music) longer than any of the other nominees in the category, especially considering 3 out of the 5 nominees are newcomers. Overall, Chandelier takes the cake for me.
Album of the Year
Nominees: Morning Phase (Beck), Beyoncé (Beyoncé), X (Ed Sheeran), In the Lonely Hour (Sam Smith), Girl (Pharrell Williams)
My Pick: Beyoncé
With it’s incredibly successful surprise release, Beyoncé’s self-titled was undoubtedly one of (if not the most) buzzed about albums of the year. Not to mention Beyoncé managed to do what few artists do anymore – focus on creating songs that work together as a cohesive album, not just a few hit singles. If this is the direction music is headed, I’m all for it.
Over the past month, Modest Mouse has released two singles off of their highly anticipated upcoming album, Strangers to Ourselves. It has been nearly eight years since the release of their last album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, which was either Modest Mouse’s best album or worse album depending on who you ask. Naturally, there was a lot of excitement and anxiety over the direction Modest Mouse would take with this next album, which warrants us to take a closer look at the releases.
I’m sure by now you’ve all heard the news: Taylor Swift has removed all of her music from Spotify. As in, everything. Not just 1989. The only track you can find that even features Swift is “Safe and Sound,” her collaboration with The Civil Wars. Go now and listen while you still can, before we have all been forsaken by the great blond goddess of our musical age.
Earlier this week, another one of WRVU’s staff writers talked about Concert Do’s and Don’t’s. One of the suggest modes of concert etiquette was “Don’t experience the concert through the lens of your camera.” I feel like this has become a hot topic among my friends and me throughout the past few years; increasingly so as apps like Snapchat and Instagram have become more and more popular. So I’m here to talk about what I think, what the good people of the Internet think, and what artists think about smartphones at concerts.
