Category Archives: #PhillipRadio

#PhillipRadio, Music

My Summer Playlist

I joined Apple Music almost a year ago after studying it extensively in my classes, and I have to say it greatly improved my listening experience by helping me find new music.  I personally will always prefer to buy physical CDs (and, sometimes, vinyl) because I like being able to hold the album in my hand and actually own the music.  If I buy a physical album, I will have it in fifty years to play for my grandchildren.  If I stream that same album, who knows if I can play it in a year.

Anyway, Apple convinced me to join their ranks partly because I’ve been an Apple user from birth, but as a musician, I applaud the business model they adopted to fairly compensate musicians – a model that some other services have not followed (looking at you, Spotify).

Also, Apple’s goal when moving into streaming services has been to focus on the experience provided to users, which is why they focus a lot on playlist curation and tailoring searches for users.  Because of this functionality, I’ve really been able to explore new music and genres, which really has grown my own personal playlists, particularly my biking playlists (which is perfect as summer approaches).

For example, this afternoon was a particularly gorgeous Spring day, so I decided to take a “power” walk during my break at work, and was scrolling through the below playlist, curated by Apple to give you choices of pop music meant to motivate you to work out.


I wouldn’t say I agree with all the choices, but I will say playlists like these have helped me discover new artists and new songs, so I’m a happy little clam.

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Biking/Work Out Playlist

I may have mentioned a couple times this past summer, like every summer, that I’ve been biking a lot.  There’s a great bike path right down the street from me, so it’s great to blare the music and peddle my problems away.  Usually I create a playlist each year, and then add or remove songs throughout the year.

I created a Spotify Playlist of some of the music I listen to while biking/working out in case you’re looking for some new beats or a song to change up your playlist.

NOTE: There’s no particular order because I just hit “shuffle” before I start biking.

 

Here’s other songs that I usually listen to, but couldn’t find on Spotify:

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Songs Written by Sia

Sia has become one of my favorite songwriters and I greatly admire her bold style.  I read an article a while back that stated that she only released her latest album 1000 Forms of Fear to release her from her publishing contract so that she focus on writing songs for other artists (I’m not sure how accurate that article is, so take it with a  grain of salt), probably because she has become really in demand.  Indeed, I saw an ad for Kelly Clarkson’s album Piece By Piece state “Songs written by Sia!” which is the first time I ever saw a songwriter be advertised for an album.

Anyway, the magical thing about Sia’s songs is that even if she’s not performing the song, it sounds like she wrote it, she just has that powerful style.  I found this long list of her songwriting credits (you can peruse here) and was not surprised that some of the songs were on there.  For instance, “Diamonds” by Rihanna, “Cannonball” by Lea Michele, and “Invincible” by Kelly Clarkson, are among the many songs that just sounded like Sia wrote them.  I must admit I have two Sia-related wishes: 1. She releases an album of the demos she recorded of these songs (I’m dying to hear her sing “Diamonds”) and 2. She write a song with Taylor Swift.

I’ve included a Spotify playlist of songs Sia wrote but others performed.

I also just want to clarify when I refer to her "writing a song," I'm referring to her being part of the writing process, which includes writing songs by herself or co-writing them with a talented team of people.  After I wrote this, I realized that I hadn't given credit to the other songwriters and producers she worked with, so the above are a list of songs she either wrote or co-wrote.
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Songs Written By Meghan Trainor

Meghan Trainor got her start by writing songs at a young age.  I read that when she left school, she had decided to focus a career in songwriting and publishing, not thinking she could fit the stereotypical role of a pop star.  Then when L.A. Reid, a major music executive, heard the demo of “All About That Bass,” and quickly signed her.

Still, Trainor has written many songs and sold them to different artists.  Some are well known, like the fact she wrote for Fifth Harmony and Rascal Flatts.  Others, it took some digging to find.  So, I created a playlist of songs that Meghan Trainor wrote or cowrote for other artists.  Someone of them you can prominently hear the ukelele and picture Trainor singing them (and I think they’d sound better if she sang them).  Others, I’m not so sure she wrote (like the dance song “Replay”), but according to her music publishing company’s website, she wrote them…

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SUNSHINE FEVER

I apologize for the lack of updates over the week, it’s finally warm and beautiful here in New England and I’ve been using any excuse to stay outside in the sun.  Soaking it up while I can.  Therefore, I’ve decided to post a playlist of songs I think embody this beautiful weather.

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Hide & Seek

It’s been a while since I posted a playlist, and I’m not entirely sure anyone has actually listened to any of them besides myself, but I thought it be fun to post what kind of stuff I’ve been listening to lately.  When I started tweeting out #PhillipsSongOfTheDay with a song title (it’s been a while, forgive me), I started keeping keeping a list of those songs (which you can peruse here).  It’s been interesting to see how my taste in music/listening patterns have changed over time; it seemed to reflect what I was going through in life.  Recently, I’ve been getting into alternative and some indie rock music (which is something I never thought I’d get into).  I mean, the playlist below doesn’t really portray that because there are still some big pop numbers in there, but I think it does show my slow transition into the alternative taste.

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Apple Picking Playlist

Whenever my family and I do something and take a road trip, I always make a cd with different songs.  Since we’re going apple picking tomorrow, I made this playlist for our ride, so I thought I’d share…especially because it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged…this semester is legit killing me (#stressed).  Normally I put upbeat/happy songs and a wide range of genres on the playlists for my family so there’s something for everyone, but I think I kind of dropped the ball on this one.  Oh well. I’m an artist.

If you’re wondering why I randomly added “Ew!,” the Jimmy Fallon skit/song, my family like Jimmy Fallon…so it was meant as a joke…although I do think the song is actually quite good because of will.i.am’s production.  Plus, Jimmy Fallon rapping as a teenage girl is hilarious.