Early Hip Hop

In the past class we listened to Early forms of hip hop. I really enjoyed this because I did not know that much about early hip hop. The songs were much longer than today's rap, because of how big the records were. They could fit around six minutes of recording on to each one, so each song would be about that long. At that time, the music video concept was becoming pretty large, and we watched some of Run DMC's music videos. First of all, the audience was different and the clothes they wore were different. They were wearing jump suits so that they could dance or do moves in more easily, preferred to the Hair Metal clothes. I liked learning about early hip hop a lot.

Hair Metal

Today in class, we listened and watched hair metal videos. Before the class, I had already thought that this type of music was annoying, and by the end of the class I had my hands over my hears because of the noise. I personally did not like it at all. When you listen to song after song after song, it all starts to sound like loud, annoying noise. To make matters worse, all the videos were almost mere images of each other. The members of the bands also had extremely long hair, really tight clothing, sometimes had face paint, and did dance moves that males should not be able to do. The songs had meaningless lyrics and the chorus was played close to five times each song, so that people would remember the lyrics. Out of all the music we've listened to this year, this was probably my least favorite. Here is a video: 

Eli Young Band

The Eli Young Band makes country music. They were just at Rodeo Austin. They make some great songs like "Say Goodnight", "Crazy Girl", and "Even if it Breaks Your Heart". They have five albums, four of which came out in 2008. Their most popular album is "Life At Best"which came out in 2011, it has their three most popular songs. The album was their 'big break' so to say, because it's what has made them popular. Unfortunately I had already made plans to go out of town when they were at the rodeo. Here is "Even if it Breaks Your Heart"

Thriller

In the past class, we listened to "Thriller" by Michael Jackson. It sold 225 million copies within the first two years and had three #1's on the Top 200. I thought the album was pretty good, but I'm not a huge fan of the way it sounded. I didn't dislike any songs of the album. I thought "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" was good, I liked the ending more than the rest of the song. I liked the sound of "The Girl is Mine", but I didn't like the lyrics, I thought they were cheasy. I like the 3 song power punch of "Thriller", "Beat It", and "Billie Jean". They are all pretty iconic songs of his, and they all have pretty good sound. I also likes "PYT" I thought it had good sound and rhythm. Overall, the album was pretty good, and it has 3 of Michael Jackson's best songs ever.

Elvis Castello

In class we listened to Elvis Castello's "My Aim is True". I personally liked it. I thought it was good, because I liked the sound much more than the type of punk sound we've been listenenkng to more recently. I thought he still got the kind of message that other bands have gotten across, even though it didn't sound like the other. I thought the lyrics were good too. He threw some punches, if someone could do that, through his lyrics. Overall, I liked the album.

Funk and Disco

In class we listened to some funk song. Mr. A made a good point, that there really is no such thing as a good funk album, because it is all released in Singles. Funk is also music primarily intended to make people dance, because it is mostly just music with a good or bad beat and sound with very few lyrics. It doesn't have any texture to it either. When I say texture, I mean that there is no deep message to any songs. These types of songs make a ton of money because it makes people want to dance and it makes people happy, and it can just be background music. I personally don't like disco/funk because it can be really annoying. Some of it can be good, but for me, the majority of it is annoying.