Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Classic Music



I enjoy classical music. While I may have not been on of those children who's parents played classical music while I was sleeping (or even un-born), I somehow find a connection to it. The most relaxing moments can instantaneously come to me, once I listen to my favourites.

Beethoven, Bach, Mozart and Antonio Sallieri are just a few that I would mention that bring me joy and inspiration. I would say that I stay a little main stream even in this form of music and absolutely rate Beethoven's 5th as my favourite. I enjoy listening to such music when I need to unlock some creativity.

The way that the instruments play with the music and the raw emotions that you can connect to are a joy. It also takes me back to fond memories because of my affinity to certain old timey cartoons, that used the influence of classical music.

Untainted and pure is the only words I could use to describe this form of music and its continuous surprise to sounds different each time while sounds the same, is what continues to hold me in. I would encourage anyone to listen and be transported to different world.


Monday, April 29, 2013


With their last album produced in 2007, the French house duo Daft Punk are long overdue for a new album. Recently released is their new single "Get Lucky" from their upcoming album, Random Access Memories due later this year.

This track features a funky bass line with vocals by Pharrell Williams. This track shows that Daft Punk are remaining true to their original style that revolutionised the French house scene in the late 90's.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks that this new single is a good sign that Daft Punk's new album will be what fans have waited a long time for.

How could you remain popular?










This song "Gentleman" is the 19th K-pop single by South Korean musician Psy released on April 12, 2013 (KST).[3] It is the follow-up to his international hit single "Gangnam Style", which at the time of Gentleman's release had been viewed on YouTube over 1.5 billion times.

The first public performance of the song, with its associated dance, was unveiled at 6:30 pm on April 13 at Seoul World Cup Stadium in Seoul.A poster and Twitter message was released containing the main line of the song "I'm a mother fxxxxx gentleman"; The word was later revealed to be "father".s of April 28, 2013, the video has been watched more than 247 million times on YouTube. It has set YouTube records for most views in its first 24 hours, most views in any 24 hours,fastest music video to reach 100 million views, and fastest video to reach 200 million views. The song has reached number one on charts in three countries.

This is all the information I found. Not too sure how many people actually like this singer Psy. Personally I didn't like the songs he produced that much. The first song Gangnam Style has not brought me a good impression on him. The whole music video was not delivering the positive impact to the audience as well as "Gentleman" which is even worse.

I guess these songs are the production of diverse music industry in some sense. No matter how many debates with some certain songs, music is still playing an important role in affecting people's life.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Best Video of 2012???---Gangnam Style



When we come to most popular video of 2012, I guess every one on earth will be reminded of A Korean Guy and his song Gangnam Style.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9bZkp7q19f0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>



I was hit by this song when it becomes popular at the first place until I realize everyone was talking about this song and the dance steps in the video. I am curious about why it is so popular in a sudden.And Following is the answers I found.





 ---Reference : 9gag.com

FreakThe term above is from this article by Jonah Sachs and PSY is under this category.
Korean stars conjures the image of handsome guys and pretty girls singing and dancing to hot music. Being 34 and few would describe him as good looking, PSY is not the norm of what people perceive about Korean music or even stars in general. Apart from his age and appearance, the way he shot his MV also contribute to this factor. The outlandish dance moves and behaviors in public spaces coupled with the way he dresses completes the freak package. You don’t get to see amiddle-aged man in his mid 30’s dancing like that in a MV everyday.
Humor
Most people if not all who watches his MV will laugh at some point of watching his MV. All of the freaky moments in his MV mentioned above contributed in a good way because they are all funny. If you take the funny element out of his MV, it would alienate most people just like most alternative music do. The term Familiar fromarticle by Jonah Sachs also applies here.
Easy Dance Steps
Gangnam Style : In 4 Simple Steps by mani_pap.
Apart of being hilarious, the dance steps created by PSY is quite easy learn. It’s so easy that mani_pap was able to create a 4 step guide above that encapsulate the essence of his dance moves. This is a very important as it contributes to Community Participation. According to Kevin Alloca’s TED Talk of Why Vidoes Go Viral, this is one of the three factors why videos go viral. Kevin is YouTube Trends Manager and if anyone knows about viral videos, it has to be him. Don’t believe me? Go ahead, go search “Gangnam Style Parody” in youtube. You can find tons of videos of varying production quality from USA to Malaysia and the numbers kept increasing.

MusicIndustry watchers praised PSY for composing a electro house because this enhances his music’s acceptability in foreign countries such as US as electro music is quite popular there. A lot of people find that Gangnam Style sticks yet a lot of people aren’t aware that it is a genre that is acceptable to them. Just watch this video of teens react to see how fast the tune catches these teens. Due to its familiarity to the west, it Gangnam Style’s audience. No matter how catchy a piece of music is, unless it is accepted, it won’t stick.  
Celebrity Endorsement
This is also known as tastemakers in Kevin Alloca’s term. According to Max Fisher’s article, a tweet by American Rapper, T-Pain was retweeted 2,400 times. It doesn’t hurt too when the label that PSY belongs to YG Entertainment promoted his video on their social medias such as Facebook and Youtube. Oh, did I tell you that they happen to have popular bands like Big Bang and 2NE1 under their umbrella? A little celebrity endorsement goes a long way, this is why corporations spent so much on them in advertisements. >
Time and Technology
Should PSY’s video be released 7 years ago, he might not have achieved the astronomical success that he enjoyed today. This is because either the technology or the social adoption of the market is not ready. Without the technology to “connect” him to his audiences to the other end of the world, he might only enjoy being a local success. 
Conclusion
It is always easier to look back as we can see the dots. I’m sure PSY himself didn’t foresee his success that he is enjoying now when he was making his MV so just try your best to express yourself or your brand in this ever changing world and have fun while doing so.








BEST SONGS OF 2012



There is a website called Z100 NEW YORK , as people as it is New York's hit station. This website, every year, they came up a list with every year since 1983.

I wonder how they come up this list since "best" is always subjective. As I think, it is more  about the song itself. Being inspired, as well as being touched by the song, I would say, it is a good song.

Following is the Top 20 songs of 2012, do you think they are good enough to be the best?


20. Katy Perry - Wide Awake
19. Flo Rida -Good feeling 
18. Maroon 5- One more night
17.Ne Yo - Let me  Love you
16. Ellie Goulding - Lighs
15. Rihanna--Where have you been
14. Fun- Some nights
13. Pink- Blow me one last kiss
12. Nicki Minaj- Starships
11. One Direction- What makes you beautiful
10. Rihanna ft Calvin Harris-We found Love
9.The Wanted --Glad you Came
8. Flo Rida ft Sia-- Wild ones
7. Gotye- Somebody That I used to know
6. Kelly Clarkson --Stronger
5.Fun.ft Janelle Monae -We are young
4.Carly Rae Jepsen- Call me maybe
3. Maroon 5 ft Wiz Khalifa--Payphone
2. Demi Lovato- Give your Heart A break

And the top number 1 of 2012 will be (****drum roll)

1. David Guetta ft Sia- Titanium


As listed above, I actually think the songs of the list are really popular even until now :)

No matter whether the songs every one think are good are in the list or not, as long as they bring someone happiness, they worth to be existed.

                          

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Introduction?

Hi to anyone that might be reading this!

Although we're a bit slow off the mark, I thought it was about time to give a little intro about what our blog is about and what we will (hopefully) do with it.
So three of us (Della, Nick and May) were discussing a potential topic to blog about and were a bit stuck for ideas at first since we didn't seem to have very many common interests. Although music could be considered a pretty cliched idea, it suddenly made sense to us why it was so.
Music is something that almost everyone can understand and appreciate. Whether it's different genres or different artists, there's someone to suit everyone's tastes. Music is easy to share, love, and enjoy. It caters to everyone regardless of personal tastes.
It might turn out that the three of us have completely different tastes on music, but the fact still remains that it's something that we (and you, whoever's reading this) can enjoy. Posting music reviews and our thoughts on different things on music will hopefully introduce us and whoever else to some cool things that we might not have discovered before, or at the very least be something cool to read.

And thus, Clash of Music was born. Hopefully our thoughts are interesting. (:

P.S. Hopefully you guys don't mind me jacking the first post ><;

First post - Layout


This is how our blog will look.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Hi Nick (:

Hey Nick,

Della and May Lyn here haha.
Since you're not in the prac today, just letting you know that we were supposed to work on the blog design and stuff, so we're going to change it a bit now and if you have any issues or ideas just let us know through here or we're adding you on Facebook (hopefully it's the right profile we've added or that'd be really awkward =/)

EDIT: Actually it turns out that we need your account to change the layout =/ haha
Go to http://layoutsettingsisys100.blogspot.com.au/ and tell us if you like the layout there or if you want to change the colours or anything, then I'll update it and okay it with you and Della then send you the HTML to copy/paste into the Template thingy.