Tag Archives: iTunes

Personal Experience, Phillip's Opinion, PHILS-osophy

Music On Your Sleeve

I think one of the hardest things to do is to show someone the contents of your iTunes library.  Music is so personal and intimate that it’s really like showing a stranger the contents of your heart.  I get nervous anytime someone wants to see my phone to see what music I have on it because I don’t want someone to judge me or be like “ew, you listen to that person?”  I’m tired of people making assumptions about me because of the music I listen to.

I’ve been having a problem with my iTunes syncing with my phone recently, so I scheduled a genius bar appointment for tomorrow and I’m a bit nervous.  I mean, I’ve done it before, and the people at the Apple Store are generally friendly.  I just don’t like people scrolling through my iTunes.  Which is really odd because I tweet, write, and blog about my music taste all the time.  Like, I don’t mind trending #PhillipsSongOfTheDay and creating Spotify playlists for random people around the world to listen to, but I can’t deal with a Apple genius accessing my iTunes to help me.  In all probability they’re too busy to actually judge my music preference.  Even if they did, the chances I’ll ever run into them again or them remembering me are so slim.

But I think this emphasizes this change the Internet has put on my generation: we’re more aware and self-conscious about our interactions in person, but when we’re online we pull out all the stops.  It’s a blessing and a curse, really.  For me, I’ve been able to open up about my musical taste and share my knowledge online because I don’t get to see my reader’s reactions.  I sort of did when I had the comments activated, but some people were rather ruthless.  Just because I didn’t know the person, they felt no shame in writing rather horrible things about me for what I objectively wrote about. It’s odd that the Internet can do such a thing as opening us up as a society and connecting us, but yet making us anonymous enough to tear each other down.  It’s like the Internet is a big window blind, and while sunlight my peak through and permeate the room, we’re shielded from ever truly experiencing the physical nature of a person.

I guess what I need to do the next time someone wants to make fun of me for liking the music I do is to remember the fact I have a musical preference.  I know who I am and I know what I like.  And I will never apologize for who I am.

#PhillipRadio, Music, Phillip's Opinion

“Stay” – Playlist

Do you know how many songs there are entitled “Stay?”  A lot.  There’s that Rihanna song, the Lisa Loeb one, and the Grammy Award Winning one by Sugarland.  I decided to make another playlist, but with all songs titled “Stay.”

 

My favorite is Lisa Loeb‘s version (it also was a #PhillipsSongOfTheDay).  That song to me is rather refreshing; she’s admitting she was wrong, and is pleading with her loved one to come back.  There is a rawness in that song that conveys a relative deep level of hurt that I really connect with.  A close second  to Lisa Loeb’s “Stay,” is “Stay” by Sugarland.  The guitar in that song is phenomenal, and Jennifer Nettles is an incredible songwriter (she won many awards for writing that song, including the Grammy for Best Country Song), but I find Nettle’s vocals rather…um…harsh.  I mean, Jennifer Nettles is an incredible vocalist and has an intense passion for making music, but I feel like “Stay” by Sugarland is supposed to be a softer than the way she actually delivered it.

I bring up this playlist of all songs named “Stay” because I think it emphasizes exactly what not to do as a songwriter: give your song a common title.  If you search iTunes or Spotify for “Stay,” there are hundreds of songs, a lot of them are covers.  As a musician, you want to stand out (from a business perspective).  Why would you give a song a name that a hundred other songs are named?

One counterargument would be that, as a songwriter, you don’t write to the name of the song.  You tell the story the way it needs to be told, and the name just kind of stands out in the lyrics (at least that’s how I do it).  However, there is a way around this.  For example, on her latest album Red, Taylor Swift had a song that clearly should be named “Stay.”  Instead of falling into that trap, she named the song “Stay Stay Stay,” a very unique and original title.  Another thing the songwriter could do is give the song a title that does not come from the lyrics.  Lorde is a big fan of doing this; the phrase “400 Lux” does not appear once in the song “400 Lux,” and the phrase “buzzcut season” appears once in “Buzzcut Season,” like how “ribs” appears once in “Ribs.”  I’m not telling other songwriters how to write their songs, but my opinion is that you want to give your song its own identity that people want to listen to that song as opposed to any other song.  If I have a song “Stay,” then why would you listen to me over Rihanna?  We’re both clearly demanding our loved one to stay, regardless of the situation.

 

#PhillipsSongOfTheDay, Music

But First, Let Me Take a #Selfie

This is perhaps one of the dumbest songs ever, but I have to name “#Selfie” by the Chainsmokers as #PhillipsSongOfTheDay for the sheer fact it brightened my day and made me laugh/smile for like an hour.

For the past week, I’ve been reading tweets from people complaining about this song, how stupid it is, and how people can’t believe it’s being played on radio (I believe more than one person commented that they “couldn’t believe what the world was coming to” from the fact that “that selfie song is on the radio”).  Today, I noticed “#Selfie” was number six on iTunes top singles, and decided to take a listen to the preview.  The electronic/dubstep/club music was kind of predicable and redundant, although electronic/club music like that is supposed to be structured that way (I took a music industry course in school that focused on each genre of music and it’s construction…so believe me, I know…).  But then it got into the girl talking:

“Can you guys help me pick a filter?
I don’t know if I should go with XX Pro or Valencia
I wanna look tan
What should my caption be?
I want it to be clever
How about ‘Livin’ with my bitches, #LIVE’
I only got ten likes in the last five minutes
Do you think I should take it down?
LET ME TAKE ANOTHER SELFIE”

This casually got me to want to hear the whole song, so I strolled over to youtube to watch/listen to the music video:

Right off the bat, I would agree with the tweets and reviews on iTunes that this is a pretty darn stupid song.  But, you have to hand it to the Chainsmokers, it’s actually a pretty clever song too.  I kind of think this song captures an aspect of my generation quite well.  I believe this song is a form of satire making fun of today’s youth for being shallow, scattered, and obsessed with taking selfies.  Consider lines like:

“Sooo… like what do you think?
Did you think that girl was pretty?
How did that girl even get in here?
Did you see her?
She’s so short and that dress is so tacky
Who wears cheetah?
It’s not even summer, why does the DJ keep on playing Summertime Sadness?
After we go to the bathroom, can we go smoke a cigarette?
I really need one
But first, 
LET ME TAKE A SELFIE”

and

“Oh my god, Jason just texted me
Should I go home with him?
I guess I took a good selfie”

This narrator cares nothing more than her looks, being considered cool, and getting approval from “Jason.”  And this is not the only outlet mocking this aspect of my generation.  Twitter accounts like Tweet Like A Girl (@TweetLikeAGirl), Common White Girl (@commonwhitegirl), and Anti-Joke Apple (@antijokeapple) have been popping up, tweeting in the same spirit of “#Selfie,” overall pointing out the flaws of our generation.  For example, Anti-Joke Apple made this tweet:

 

I personally have witnessed a conversation like the above tweet between two girls. This and the song “#Selfie” makes one just roll their eyes and think “how stupid,” but it’s also a signal to consider why these comments are being made.  This would suggest that perhaps these tweets and this song are meant as a warning to force us to start reconsidering our priorities.  Are we going to be a “common white girl” and only care about our selfies, or are we going to do something worth our while in the world?  People cast this song off as a stupid song with no meaning, but on the contrary, there is a deeper meaning behind the rubbish.  I’m not suggesting this song is Grammy worthy (although, you never know…I mean, “Get Lucky” won so many Grammys that it did not deserve, so who am I to judge), but I am saying this song does come with a message worth noting.  If not, it’s worth a listen to get you laughing…the line, “I guess I took a good selfie” at the end always makes me smirk.

#PhillipsSongOfTheDay, Music

Tennis Court

The song stuck in my head and on repeat today? “Tennis Court” by Lorde, from Pure Heroine.  As such, this song is, for it’s second time, #PhillipsSongOfTheDay.

This song, like many of Lorde’s other songs, stood out to me upon first listen, but I’m still not entirely sure what it’s about.  I did find this interview with Lorde with VH1 describing the song:

 

Based on this video and further reflection of the lyrics, I personally take the song as being about growing up and trying to find your path in life.  For Lorde, she’s gained a lot of fame and attention for her music, so she has to factor that into her life plan.  For me, I’m not entirely sure what the heck I’m doing next week, let alone in life.  I know what I want to do, but who knows if that will work out.  I think this songs has resonated with me so much because of lyrics like:

“Don’t you think that it’s boring how people talk
Making smart with their words again, well I’m bored
Because I’m doing this for the thrill of it, killin’ it
Never not chasing a million things I want
And I am only as young as the minute is full of it
Getting pumped up on the little bright things I bought
But I know they’ll never own me”

“Baby be the class clown
I’ll be the beauty queen in tears
It’s a new art form showing people how little we care
We’re so happy, even when we’re smilin’ out of fear
Let’s go down to the tennis court, and talk it up like yeah (yeah)”

“I fall apart with all my heart”

“Tennis Court” also has been stuck in my head because, yet again, Joel Little has done a phenomenal job producing the song.  Strong points include the modified “yeah” throughout out the song (e.g. the “yeah” after the lyric “let’s go down to the tennis court and talk it up like yeah”), the swirling synths and beats during the chorus, and Lorde’s overall vocal delivery.  My one criticism of the song would weird/random synth that goes off around 0:05, and continues throughout the song, take a listen:

The best way I can describe the sound is that it’s kind of like that sound the scanner makes at the checkout counter at the grocery store (right?!).  Like I said, I first thought it was random and weird, it stood out like a sour thumb.  But, now, I think it adds to the beat and rhythm of the song, especially after the second chorus around the bridge (2:07-2:33).  I personally would not have thought to have added that to the production of the song, but it’s not horrible.

Random fact, my iTunes is playing the song "Paper Aeroplane" by KT Tunstall after "Tennis Court," it makes a kind of delightful transition…the accordion of "Paper Aeroplane" contrasts nicely from the synths of "Tennis Court"

#PhillipsSongOfTheDay, Films, Music, Phillip's Opinion

The Most Beautiful 12 Seconds of My Life

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Last week, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Let it Go,” from Frozen.  When I saw Idina Mezel perform the song live during the Academy Awards, I was taken with her incredible vocal ability and the power of the song.  And naturally I had the chorus of “let it go, let it go” stuck in my head.  I then decided to download the song, and what a good decision that was.  “Let it Go” performed by Idina Menzel is #PhillipsSongOfTheDay.

After downloading “Let it Go” from iTunes and it started playing, I got shivers from the opening music.  The piano is just beautiful.  So beautiful that I actually put a loop on it just to listen to that piano.  It’s just…ah, take a listen:

These twelve seconds suck you into listening to the rest of the song, which isn’t a bad thing.  I know what you guys may be thinking right now, “Phillip, really?  A disney show tune?  You need to man up, dude.”  Well, I think this song is pretty catchy, but more important, it’s empowering.  It doesn’t matter if you male/female, masculine/feminine, young/old, these lyrics emphasize that you can get through any struggle and all your problems/mistakes in the past are just that, the past.  For example:

“Let it go, let it go
Can’t hold it back anymore
Let it go, let it go
Turn away and slam the door

I don’t care
What they’re going to say
Let the storm rage on,
The cold never bothered me anyway

It’s funny how some distance
Makes everything seem small
And the fears that once controlled me
Can’t get to me at all

It’s time to see what I can do
To test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me
I’m free

Let it go, let it go
I am one with the wind and sky
Let it go, let it go
You’ll never see me cry

Here I stand
And here I’ll stay
Let the storm rage on”

“I’m never going back,
The past is in the past”

Perhaps I just enjoy songs whose narrators overcome some obstacle or hold a high level of confidence, but I find this song truly inspiring and uplifting.  Even after a stressful week of midterms and craziness, it feels good just to get lost in such a song that makes you realize that everything will be alright, things will work out….eventually…

Side Note: If you get a chance to look up Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez's acceptance speech after winning their Oscar, I would totally suggest it, it was so adorable!  They rhymed/sang their speech and dedicated it to their daughters (they're married!).  I just thought their speech was one of the highlights of the Oscars… I tried to find a clip of that and a clip of Idina Menzel performing at the Oscars, but YouTube is taking down such clips down so fast that even if I found one, it'd be gone by tomorrow...

Music, Phillip's Opinion, StoryTime

I KNEW IT!!!!!

In my last post I argued that “Glory and Gore” should be Lorde’s new single from Pure Heroine and I have two important updates.

First, the song, when I wrote about it, was number 40 on iTunes, now it’s number 23!:

"Glory and Gore" at number 23, as of 2/27/14

“Glory and Gore” at number 23, as of 2/27/14

 

Second, “Glory and Gore” is actually going to be the next single from Pure Heroine!!!  Not to gloat, but I KNEW IT!!!

"Glory and Gore" will impact radio March 11th (keep your ears peeled).

“Glory and Gore” will impact radio March 11th (keep your ears peeled).

 

Perhaps when I was writing about this, Republic and Lava Records knew/was keeping track of the success of “Glory and Gore,” just as I was.  

When I was driving home from school today, I was actually planning on writing a post entitled “The Real Reason for the Failure of the Music Industry,” in which I would shame Republic and Lava Records for not taking “Glory and Gore”‘s recent success and growing it.  In all fairness, I read in multiple sources that Lorde’s next single was intended to be “No Better,” a left over track that is on the extended version of Pure Heroine.  

Listen to “No Better” here (could be her next single for the summer…it’s totally a summer song):

While I adore “No Better” and certainly believe it will be a #PhillipsSongOfTheDay in the near future and should be a single eventually, I was going to write that it doesn’t make sense to undercut the success of “Glory and Gore,” success which was garnered from the fans and the promotional use (see my post Lorde’s New Single for more details).  Like, there would be no ROMI (Return On Marketing Investment…learned about that today in class…) by choosing a different single that had less promotion than “Glory and Gore.”

What I’m suggesting may seem like common sense, and rather foolish that a record company would pull such a stunt of releasing a song as a single when a different song had more attention.  BUT IT HAS HAPPENED.  Let’s not forget Taylor Swift’s album Speak Now and her song “Sparks Fly.”  This song happened to be a huge fan favorite.  Swift played this song at one or two of her shows (apparently she wrote it for Fearless and played it at the live show to test it with an audience, but decided to scrap it for a different song), and a very rough live version could be downloaded online or listened to on youtube, such as:

Really rough quality, probably because it was recorded from a cellphone or cheap camera.  Regardless, us Swifties found this and loved it.  After much demand, Swift obliged her fans and put the studio version on Speak Now (insert tears of joy…our hard work paid off).  Once Speak Now was released, “Sparks Fly” rocketed to #1 on the iTunes Top Singles.  And what song did Big Machine Records release as her next single? “Back to December.”  I mean, it wasn’t a bad decision, given the fact the song was released as a promotional single weeks before as part of the “Count Down to Speak Now” campaign and had some exposure.  But still, I personally felt that anticipation grew for the release of “Sparks Fly,” and such anticipation could have be used to impact radio.  And I think Big Machine did know of this anticipation and knew it was radio friendly, given the fact that they released it practically a year later as a single. While “Sparks Fly” did manage to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs, it only went to #17 on the Billboard Hot 100.  I fear if it was released in the first week of November 2010 like “Back to December” was, it could have broken through the top 10 (it would have also made for a better pop radio version than “Back to December”); the fact that they waited so long to release as a single I think hurt it’s chart and commercial performance.  And let’s not forget “Back to December” only went to #3 on the Hot Country Songs and #18 on the Hot 100…so, there…

But, back to Lorde and “Glory and Gore:”  Republic and Lava Records are off the hook…for now…

 

P.S. I admire Big Machine Records for the fact that their business model puts music before business; they work with their artists and see their artists as partners, not employees (cough, cough….why they are one of the most successful independent labels…cough, cough….).


 

	

	
	




	
	

				

			Music, Phillip's Opinion
		

		
Lorde’s New Single.

		

			 		

	


		

		
“Glory and Gore” should be next single from Pure Heroine.  While “Team” is currently burning up radio here in the US, it is starting to fall on the iTunes top selling singles and the Billboard Hot 100, an indication that the single’s life is coming to an end.  While it is still in the bottom of the top ten in both iTunes and Billboard, it is time to think ahead.


“Glory and Gore,” while being a fan favorite, has started to gain traction with a wider audience.  I think perhaps it’s because it was used in a promotional campaign for the History Channel’s show Vikings:




I’m not entirely sure if that’s the only reason for it’s popularity (I don’t know if “Glory and Gore” was used in any other ads or promotions…I’m good, but not that good), but it has gone to number 40 on the iTunes Top 100:


"Glory and Gore" is currently #40 on iTunes, as of 2/25/14
“Glory and Gore” is currently #40 on iTunes, as of 2/25/14


The only other Lorde songs on the iTunes Top 100 are “Team” and “Royals,” her two hit singles.  Yesterday “Glory and Gore” was at number 41, so it’s position has been rising on it’s own accord (i.e. without any radio airplay or live performance promotion).  Given the fact that the History Channel, while a brilliant network, probably doesn’t serve a lot of viewers within Lorde’s target market (i.e. teens and college kids (although I know a lot of kids my age love the History Channel, so maybe it’s wrong to assume only older men watch the History Channel…)), if “Glory and Gore” is given the promotions within the given target then Lorde may have herself another Top 10 hit.


I also base this on the fact the song is one of the catchiest and more listened to songs on Pure Heroine.  With her usual dark and mystical vocals, “Glory and Gore” charms the listener within the first five seconds.  More specifically, during the chorus, Lorde and producer Joel Little added a background vocalized “oh, oh” which really draws the listener in.  Even her imagery within her lyrics of “gladiators,” “battles,” and “saviors” evokes this kind of brave fighter attitude that my generation espouses.  Don’t believe me this song is worth a listen?  Just listen to the clip in the Vikings commercial in the above YouTube clip and you’ll be listening to “Glory and Gore” on repeat!


***UPDATE***


“Glory and Gore” is now #28 on iTunes (cough, cough):


"Glory and Gore" is now #28 on iTunes Top 200, 2/26/14
“Glory and Gore” is now #28 on iTunes Top 200, 2/26/14


 


 


Quick poll for my fellow Lorde-ites: