Class Reflection Week Ten

In class while listening to Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band It made me think and I liked having to follow and anylize each person's verses and alter egos.  I liked the wildness of the album and the new things the Beatles incorporated into it. I also favored the wackiness from the album that pulled it apart from everything else they made.
One album that relates that is kind of whack and crazy is.. I know overdose on Eminem similarities. but his album Relapse was crazy and showed his insanity and habits of drugs which set it apart from his other music.

http://www.last.fm/music/Eminem/Relapse

Alter Egos in Music

In class when we discussed how for the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Paul Mccartny gave each band member an alter ego to use throughout each song. I thought that this made the album super interesting and helped the album flow with a playful tone. Some Artists that I can think of who have alter egos are prince and probably the most recognizable is Eminem.

Here is a song that displays Eminem's alter egos through a story told in the perspective of a supposed fan but it may also be taken as Eminem talking to himself and pointing out his own flaws.

Great Duos In Rap

One aspect that makes rap different than any other genre is the fact that many rappers can join forces on one track to make it the best as possible. Many times when one rapper features another they start to feature each other in many songs of the future.

Top 3 duos and their songs
Kendrick Lamar and Drake

Kanye west and Jay - Z

Wiz Khalifa and Big Sean

Class Reflection Week Nine

When listening to the heavy metal the other day in class I found it to be extremely annoying and it contained to much extraneous noise. I think that i could probably do without the genre and I think that having so many different variations of that genre is unnecessary. Although it made me think about the different variations of other genres that I like and I was thinking about if I liked that or not. And even for my favorite genres I don't find the other variations necessary. I like keeping the base genre alive.

Country should be known as Country
Hip Hop/ Rap should be left as one genre
Rock and its genres should be put together as one
and so forth...

John Mayer

Someone who has been on my list of good artists for a while now is John Mayer and like we have said in class I think he is an artist who has changed his style and it hasn't affected the way his records have sold.

From Room For Squares to Born and Raised John Mayer's 5 studio albums have been a mix of alternative to bluesy country. Here is a song from each album in order so you can see for yourself.

Room For Squares
"No Such Thing"

Heavier Things
"Clarity"

Continuum
"Dreaming With A Broken Heart"

Battle Studies
"Who Says"

Born And Raised
"The Age Of Worry"

Class Reflection Week Eight

Pet Sounds

The Good:
Listening to the album "Pet Sounds" gave me new opinions about the beach boys. Before I had always associated the beach boys with laid back style and happy tones and lyrics which made me not take them as seriously as i should have. When I heard the first song I was super happy to know that such a famous song came from such a sophisticated album. My new opinion formed after hearing all of the great lyrics and the way that they were able to change their sound and improve to sophisticated grown ups. I liked the way that the album flowed and the way they experimented with new styles of playing and new instruments to revolutionize the music industry.

The Bad:
Once I realized that there was a whole different side to the Beach Boys that no one had told me about before, It made me miss the stereotypes that the Beach Boys have displayed and while listening to the album I almost got bored with some of the more relaxed and complex music.

Overall I respect the album and am probably going to download it. Something that a lot of the songs reminded me of were a few of these songs by arcade fire. The tempo mostly and the mood of the music is very similar.

Class Reflection Week Seven

When we watched the Beatles "help" in class I was shocked that the video was so random but at the same time I was also shocked at the graphics and the color in the video. I thought it was very entertaining. Just a little hard to follow.

The ending scene reminded me of this album art from Kanye and a little bit from his music video "power". The native theme and the colors are kind of similar.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

Ben Hagerty, formally known as Macklemore, a young white rapper who I think he has come a long way as an artist. From being on the cover of XXL in 2012 he has come out with a number of quality mix tapes and EPs. When it came time for an album he turned to his pal and 5 star producer Ryan Lewis. This duo has grown on me and has become one of my favorite combinations to listen to. With Ryan lewis's high quality beats and Macklemore's passion for rapping and his ability to make a statement these two give me something amazing to listen to. It's surprising they haven't formed a group yet. The new album is called "The Heist".


The most impressive song on the album and also one of the songs that was around before the album came out is called "same love". Macklemore uses this song to give his opinion on marriage rights, something that is a very heated topic now a days. The bravery of choosing this as a base topic makes the song more interesting to listen to. Also this is a great music video with really good actors and scenes that fit the music.

Another song that is pretty lively thanks to Ryan Lewis's beats is the song "White Walls" it also features Schoolboy Q and a girl named Hollis who gave the chorus a pop feel which made it one of my favorites.

My third favorite would probably be a song called "Wing$". It is a song 100 percent about sweet kicks that Macklemore remembers having when he was younger. I felt that it told a cool story about something that usually doesn't make a huge difference but for him it made his childhood.

Kendrick Lamar Compton

Compton is a song that will be on Kendrick Lamar's new album "Good Kid m.A.A.d City". He once again features Dr. Dre after he previously featured him on his first iTunes hit. I think once Kendrick releases his debut album lots of people will notice him and give him the respect he deserves. I like the west coast style rap and in the song Kendrick uses a interesting piano feature that gives the song alot of depth.

Here you Go

Class Reflection Week Six

The album "Help" by the Beatles was, I think my favorite album we have listened to so far. It brought back the most memories because it had a lot of songs i was really familiar with and I really like the order that the album is in, something we talked about in class. I think it is unfortunate that this element has changed in the album industry. When listening to an album I listen to the whole thing in order at least once, something that is not common now a days and I think all of the artists are shoving their music to the front of the album, the music that people will love the most. 

This got me thinking about how it isn't as common to push all of the popular music to the front in rap because in rap albums are used to tell stories and give a series of events and in a story the main event happens in the middle and at the end. 

It is common for there to be an intro or a song that starts a mood or a theme and believe it or not an outro may even be present. 

Here are some recent rap albums that present this pattern. 

Here are the first and last songs from Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor II

First and last for stoned immaculate by curren$y

These songs are neutral and don't really draw my attention and i think it is good that rap artists can still trust their listeners.