Music Monday

Well the Grammy’s have come and gone…  and UN 4 tunately so haz Mrs. Whitney Houston. Goodbye “Auntie” we will MISS u!!!

What bout’ chu?

R u still here?

Still ‘listening’? still reading? And if so to WHAT?
Music has Soooooo many styles, tastes, varieties, genres, types, kinds, beats and rhythms…  Which or what makes Ur heart beat or thump?
We here @ Music Monday want 2 know!!

What moves U? and WAI? oops, we mean WHY does 1 particular type or beat or guitar riff make U froth at mouth, make Ur pulse race, give U goose bumps… simply put What Makes Ur Heart Smile??

Evn when We r dead, still ROCKin’!!

We can’t help OURselves, we R completely ADDICTED 2 music, and we R NOT ashamed of it. Being around it, listening to it, moving or BEING moved by it, THAT is WHERE or WEAR we want/need 2 b.

What about U?  How do U consume Urs? Online? Live? Disc? Vinyl?  oooh  vinyl!!  Has a better format been invented? PROVE it!!

http://www.pcworld.com/article/187911/the_best_free_music_apps_for_your_smartphone.html

Best place to DOWNload FREE music is…???

Headphones, Earbuds.. Which BRAND iz best!?!?

1. Skull Candy and iGo seem to be the best bang for your buck right now.
2. The Souls are rated better over Beats….

We got sum NEW bands on TAP 4 u guyz[and GALZ o course!] More on them NEXT week!

Anybody PIF this week, or past week?  PIF!??! Whatz that u say?

1st we gotta give Y’all a lil’ history…  sry gotta take u bak a lil’ B 4 we ROLL full STEAM ahead!!  STRAP in!!

Last year I made the CHOICE to stay at home with my son. I will get n 2 the reasons, just n just a bit… 4 NOW..

Let’s just say, I & WAI Gear Unlimited LOVE music!! It is like medicine, religion, and exercise all thrown in to 1.  Funny thing is,  U just nevr kno which ‘prescription’ is going to heal/mend or CURE which ailment.

Getting bak 2 WAI Gear…

I have held many jobs and positions in my short time on our planet, but never Business Owner. Ages ago, back when the internet was more UNcharted, then the clearly mapped and directed tool it is today. My friend and I were in computer class<website design>, and I told her about the Who Am I, and WAI Gear Unlimited, meaning/goal/purpose. For me> It was, and is personal.[don't worry I won't bore ya with all the boring details], but let’s just say after REPEATEDLY facing the same issue/challenge/learning point> I decided I’d had enuf, of people who were NOT me, trying 2 tell me, who me/I SHOULD be[parents of course get a 'bye' on this one] That question of Who Am? And it’s ANSWER[which changes from time 2 time], I feel, BELONG 2 me, no one else. So.. I became the president and founder of WAI Gear Unlimited. We are a new and small clothing company or clothing line, that believes in who u R!!!  R u  ready to represent a lifestyle? The question of Who I Am, has an answer that is always changing, and I work very hard trying to define it and also live up to its definition everyday!!!

WAI Gear Unlimited.         Live life on your terms.                 Ur life unleashed.

Now… bak 2 music!!

Music Monday’s … Input from WAI Gear Unlimited

YouMeMusicMondayWhY..?? u know… WAI not?!? 

We had talked about doing it. We have been introduced and are currently o, and working with reverbnation

U can find actually HEAR[not just read] WAI Gear Unliimited’s tastes, likes, jamz, opinions, and even contribute and get IN on the conversation and participate.

 

 

Requests for us to LIST and LISTEN to you are yours are ENCOURAGED!! Any music, can potentially have ANY effect on the listener. We enjoy that type of arena. Open communication, flowing back n forth between the participants, in and effort for mutual understanding , if not appreciation.

BTW we did look n w the ‘Official Channels’ for Music Mondayz[We know about Wikepedia too!] But basically it comes down to being interested in music, and making that information available on a certain day of the week[Monday] We checked with Rolling Stone and Cream Magazines, n still couldn’t find anything more substantial. So here we are. We like Music, and have access to those in the biz, around the biz, and hopefully we will continue to have access to you!!! We son’t be talking about B and Jz baby, or where whoever i wa who went to THATplace etc… We will focus on the Mussic, the artist, how they got there[musically speakin' What it means to them, what they want to mean to you[besides customers] Will attempt to DIG n 2 or behind the bandz. And we have calendars so oyou can expect to HEAR from us n da future[which is getting nearer and nearer with every passing sewcond.

Anyways we haven’t worked out all the details, but please DO expect to hear MORE from us on this, and WE REALLY TRULY want to hear from you!!

Music is MANY things 2 many people, interaction between the artist and their audience is is expected, the audience interaction between each other has is own flavor!!

It’s going 2 very, VERY interesting to see, watch, and develop how this is going to play out keep all the interested parties, INTERESTED.

Whatz ur angle? U wanna critique and artist? The industry? Disagree or agree with our point of view? Of just simply think you could do all of it, way, way better then itz currently being done.

 

So
n staying TRUE 2 content... We @ WAI...[Lol! "we at wai" say THAT 10 times over, we at WAI, we at WAI, ... Well it sounds funny 2 us!!! N E
wayz... 4 today's Music Monday we bring you.... JAZZ!!! Jazz - Definition[s] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J… or http://www.thefreedictionary.c… BUT…. We prefer 2 VISUALIZE, yes… LOOK if you will and PICTURE… inhaling THICK clouds of NONtoxic, VERYaddictive, NONcancer-causing, thick clouds of smoke being inhaled N 2 u HEART & SOUL[yes n THAT order] filling them BOTH with LOVE, Giggles, Peace, and Sassiness ALL at the SAME
time!!!

Jazzed – The feeling U get from listening 2/or talking about JAZZ music, something cool or super interesting, being around
someone or being PART of somthing cool, super interesting, or super fun
Jazz – Good name for a cat or dog[if they have the RIGHT personality]  or maybe a kid… nah scratch that last part, maybe a GOOD NIC name for
a kid[Jasmine, etc] unless their middle name is Jeff & the Fresh Prince… FEEL me???

 

The term “rock and roll” now has at least two different meanings, both in common usage. The American Heritage Dictionary[8] and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary[9] both define rock and roll as synonymous with rock music. Encyclopædia Britannica, on the other hand, regards it as the music that originated in the mid-1950s and later developed “into the more encompassing international style known as rock music.”[10] For the purpose of differentiation, this article uses the second definition, while the broader musical genre is discussed in the rock music article.

 

THIS Musical Monday WE bring u SOUL!!! Yeah BABY!!! Can u DIGG it!!?? <get down, get down> http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CEcQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FSoul_music&ei=u6MmT9_zC-LMiQLnooClBw&usg=AFQjCNE8Yp3SOczC0O2h4FP1OOcTnWSdRQ

 

Soul – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org

A soul – in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions – is the incorporeal essence of a person, living thing or object.[1] Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects (such as rivers)…

BTW what do y’all think of the NEW Kia ‘Soul’ commercials!??!

Kia Cars, SUVs, Crossovers, Minivans, & Future Vehicles | Kia Motors America

www.kia.com

Official U.S. site for Kia Motors, featuring information on new models, local dealers, search inventory, and special offers. Find out more about the fine selection of cars, SUVs, crossovers, and minivans at Kia.com.

R E S P E CTSEXual HEALing!!SOUL II SOULB White… We love ya, we MISS ya!!GODfather of Soul!!!They \”say\” It\’s only Rock n Roll… but I don\’t think their doin\’ it justice!!

This is a LOT 4 u 2 absorb n swallow n ONLY 1 reading, so… We suggest COME bak 4 more, and we will BREAK U Off!!!

 

Summer 2011 had its hits and misses, especially in the music scene. Let’s take a moment to review my top 5 tracks and why they were summertime hot.

(1) Katy Perry has struck again with her summer release “Last Friday Night (t.g.i.f)”. It might not have been the best choice for a club hit. But house parties all over the world were blaring this and chanting strongly “T.G.I.F” with sincerity. The video was comical and in my opinion a crossover of ugly duckling meets Cinderella. I mean seriously – from nottie to hottie and after midnight back into what she started as. Katy Perry made my Friday nights a lot of fun.

(2) Jason Derulo – “Don’t Wanna Go Home”. I bet when people heard the hook from the “Banana Boat Song” they were looking confused until the beat came in and then this smash hit made you dance. It was on the last song of the night list in the club. And when the clubs in Valdosta close at 3 a.m everyone shared the same sentiments as Derulo. It made you wish that the endless night portrayal in “Little Bad Girl” by David Guetta was true. 

(3) With that mentioned I might as well tell the world how awesome that music video for “Little Bad Girl” was, and so was the song. It was another summer hit. The song featured Ludacris and Taio Cruz and was an instant hit in clubs and house parties alike. With an amazing beat and awesome lyrics how can you not the like the song?

(4) David Guetta feat. Nicki Minaj and Flo Rida with “Where Them Girls At”. As usual any song that Nicki Minaj touches seems to take off, and with good reason: her wordplay is unparalleled and amazing. Flo Rida lends his fast rapping skills on this pulsing beat and this track definitely brought the girls out of hiding.

(5) Slowing things down and taking over the music charts, “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele seemed to take off instantly. This track might well make it into the fall. Her powerful vocals and amazing beat had girls and a few guys belting the words to the song every time it played.

Image courtesy of Capitol Records.

It seems that the 85 year old Tony Bennett is unstoppable. After he released his duet album in 2000 everyone, including Sony, was surprised that it sold well over three million copies.

Nielsen from SoundScan has said that he was almost strangled by Sony Columbia to do another album. Together with a group of very talented singers in their own right it has finally happened. The artists include a wide range of musicians on the 17 track album that has just been released. The artists include Lady Gaga and Aretha Franklin. There are also fantastic and unheard of combinations on the album that include Andrea Bocelli, Natalie Cole, Willie Nelson and even the famous and talented Michael Buble.

When Tony was asked about the reason he decided to do a duet with an unlikely star such as Lady Gaga he said: “She is the most talented artist I have ever met and she will be as famous as Elvis”.

It seems that this new Duets II album that was released on 20 September is set to sell at least another three million copies which makes one think that Tony Bennett will just continue forever.

Image: Mukki

I appreciate good entertainment in the form of tasteful music like any avid music listener. I regularly try not to ask questions so that things that aren’t the way I feel are assumed. The type of music I listen to I feel the same way about as well. Before I categorize anything I listen to I hear it out to see if it’s my style.

Every time I go to the club – definitely when the moon’s blue of course – it’s the reaction that people get from the songs that make them popular. Depending on the type of music at times depicts the size and type of crowd it draws. Thus, genres – but a Billboard best is best regardless of genre.

For the last couple of years music has meta-morphed into more of a demographic questionnaire than anything else. But times are changing. Music is almost border-less, with R&B artists like Chris Brown being able to cross over into Pop with seeming ease. Given he’s a professional the feat is still admirable.

One of the reasons I think the 2011 summer was owned by up-tempo music, Chris Brown’s “Yeah 3X” being one of them, is music is back to being artist-driven versus a demographic census. People are back to dancing with a passion. The majority of the songs that do well with consumers are up-tempo. I’d like to believe it’s more than just the tempo that has people dancing. My theory is that music is back to the ingredient, a rekindled flame. Even the things that compliment music such as articles or blogs all dance in a unique way of being liberated from dullness. The artists are viewed as human instead of a product…creating a product that allows for pure talent and determining why we all were dancing at some point this summer. So here’s to a summer of dance and music finding its smile.

Image c/o: YouTube

This year the Bonnaroo Festival celebrated its tenth year in existence. Reminiscent of Woodstock, the festival is held on a farm in Manchester, Tennessee. It is a festival of music and arts held each year since 2001, and lasts four days.

This year this very well organized festival hosted many artists and musicians over a number of stages with great stage sets. People again came in buses, cars and some even flew in. It had an element for everyone, including food trucks, contests, comedy, car pools and much more. These are just some of the elements which makes this festival stand out from the rest.

It was was no different this year with a number of artists as part of their performances. The artists who are and have been included are often from a wide variety of genres, and that is how it was done this year as well. This year, though, rap and bluegrass ruled the roost. The rap artist Eminem was quite a popular drawing card.

You do not only attend this festival for the music, because there are many crafts people and artists selling their wares as well. There are also a number of policies to make this festival a superb event to attend. It provides for the safety and enjoyment of everyone.

The 2011 Bonnaroo Festival has come and gone, but planning for the 2012 festival is already on its way. If you have missed out on 2011, make sure you book your place early as this is a festival which has “sold out” written all over it.

Images: www.bonnaroo.com
www.mtv.com

Full disclosure: I am not a Lady Gaga fan. I don’t dislike her, but I don’t get the hype around her either. To me, she’s more of a media icon than a musician. But she sells records and I can’t be mad at her for that. Gaga’s album “Born This Way”, the long-awaited follow-up to the ridiculously popular “The Fame”, was released late last month and sold over 1.1 million copies in its first week of release.

That is a staggering number of records. Albums haven’t moved in that high a volume since the heady days of Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys in the late 90s. Of course, Gaga’s record sales were tremendously helped by a promotion on Amazon.com that offered the entire album for 99 cents for a whole day. The large number of sales crashed Amazon’s servers and caused the site to quickly outsell traditional music retailers.

So, “Born This Way” is selling like crazy, but is it any good? Reviews of the album have been pretty good, but many reviewers say the album is inconsistent with no real theme. Not that that really matters to most young listeners, anyway. The Guardian’s Kitty Empire gave “Born This Way” three stars out of five, praising Gaga’s fun dance tempos but disdaining the lyrics of some tracks, which she says are shallow. “Gaga’s urge to liberate everyone from all yokes sometimes merely produces songs about doing things to your hair to spite your parents”, Empire writes.

Entertainment Weekly’s Adam Markowitz was also underwhelmed by the album’s overall message, comparing Gaga to an “earnest dance-party evangelist” who preaches on “fanatically inspirational” tracks. Despite the tepid lyrics, Markowitz liked the sound of the album, giving it a B+ rating.

Image c/o: Domain Barnyard

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlGWRPnp0ok[/youtube]Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All is a collective freak hip-hop group made up of ten different young artists. The group doesn’t really have a designated frontman, but the core is made up of Earl Sweatshirt, Tyler the Creator, Left Brain, Hodgy Beats, and Mike G.

Their overall image is one of thrash and raw rap, similar to the vibe that Onyx gave off in the early 90s, but their message is a lot harder. Mostly known on the underground mixtape circuit, Odd Future has released several independent singles but no full-length albums as yet.

Looks like that will change soon, though. The supergroup signed a record deal with Sony Records’ RED Distribution in late April, but the group will maintain creative control over when an album will be released. So there will be an Odd Future record, but it’s up to them when it will be recorded.

Right now, the group’s main focus is Tyler the Creator’s debut album, “Goblin”, which was just released this month. His lead single “Yonkers” has received critical acclaim and is helping to put both Tyler and Odd Future on the map.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk4DqeFp5hU[/youtube]I’m telling my age here, but I don’t like a lot of this new hip-hop stuff. What passes for rap now is fake thugs who are kind of rap-singing. The late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes of TLC called this new genre “hip-pop” and it’s pretty much taken over the rap world. Well, maybe this new kid Tyler the Creator will do something about that.

Tyler, originally of the group Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, has just released his first solo single “Yonkers.” I would have dropped that video in at the top of this post, but it’s way too graphic. Suffice it to say that the content is explicit and the video’s images are disturbing, but not in the misogynistic, sex-crazed way that’s come to define modern rap.

Tyler swears profusely in his lyrics, which I don’t care for. He also spends some of the video eating a live cockroach and then throwing it up on film, which I really didn’t care for. But the track is hot and his unwillingness to conform to the popular get-rich-quick standard for rappers is refreshing, even if you don’t like what he’s saying. You can check out his debut album “Goblin”, which was released a couple of weeks ago, to find out for yourself.

Tyler’s honesty and alternative approach has some comparing his group’s sound to the ground-breaking Wu Tang Clan. I don’t know if I’d go that far, but this kid is definitely going somewhere. We’re just not sure exactly where yet.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4GJVOMjCC4[/youtube]  I’ve been a little out of touch with new music for a while. I’m under 30, but even I can tell that a lot of “popular” artists are repackaged versions of previous musicians. *cough* Lady Gaga *cough* But this guy Miguel is pretty good for a post-millenium artist. He kind of resembles a cross between Usher and Pharrell, but his music is less pop and more soul. Miguel released his first album last year entitled “All I Want is You.” His first single was viagra album’s title track.

Until he began performing on his own, Miguel was pretty much unknown on the major music circuit, but he’s been making waves in the industry for a while. He wrote a few tracks for Usher and it’s obvious when you see him perform that he’s studied from the same sultry soul singing school that Usher attended. When asked about his musical influences, though, Miguel said that his biggest influences are 70′s pop icons.

“Prince and The Time and Mazerati, that whole slew that came from Paisley Park is a huge influence.” He went on to note a few frontmen from other genres as muses, including Freddie Mercury (Queen) and Anthony Kiedis (Red Hot Chili Peppers). So far, this eclectic formula seems to be working for Miguel. His single “Sure Thing” (shown above) reached number one on the Billboard R&B Charts for the week of May 28, 2011.