Music Every day

We all spend our lives with music despite the differences in how we live.

Splendour in the grass

So the Splendour in the Grass lineup was announced this week and it simply looks amazing. Mumford and Sons, Frank Ocean, Of Monsters and Men are just a few of the main headlining acts.
The three day festival takes place annually on the east coast of Australia. It has a tradition of festival-goers camping on site for the three days enjoying the atmosphere. This year it is expected that 25,000 people will attend the festival.

Create an good environment for efficient working?

When I was younger, I enjoyed  listening to music when I was doing my study. It helped me to concentrate on my work in a more efficient way regardless of the types of music.

With aging, I found I cannot concentrate on the work I did with listening to music. I pay attention to the lyrics  of the song and the rythm. It is no more a way for my deep thinking. Instead, my thoughts are distracted by the music and the work was not done by time with music.

I am not too sure whether this happen to everyone or it just happened on me. I still find people doing great with music in the library,in the cafe ect. . It is such a pity for me not being able to enjoy music while I am working.

Justin Timberlake - Senorita

With Justin Timberlake's new album that released this year, I decided to take a trip down memory lane and listen to one of my favourite artist's first singles when he went solo after *NSync.

Revisiting this song really brought back some good memories. I've always been a fan of JT, and I think that this is definitely one of the songs that explains why. Despite being in a boy band which carries a cookie-cutter, manufactured and unoriginal stigma, Justin Timberlake broke away from that and developed his own music and brand.

Compared to his new singles, you can see how his sound really grew and matured over the years, and in my opinion, it's still worth listening to. After going back to listen to one of my favourite singles, I'm definitely even more inclined to go and purchase the 20/20 Experience and the second part coming later this year.

Society?

Sometimes I can't help but wonder if people today take music way too seriously. Adopting an acronym from a song and using it as something to live by in our daily lives; is this something that we've always done? Or this this a new phenomenon? It seems like people these days look up to celebrities, singers in this case, and take what they say a lot more to heart than they really should.

I always thought that music was for entertainment, whether the lyrics of a song were inspiring or not. I'd never thought that people would not only enjoy the music an artist puts out, but hang on their every word and adopt it as their own.

With this, however, and the rate at which music spreads these days combined with the wonders of the internet, brings forward a lot of not-so-favourable attention too.

It's interesting to see that something as simple as a song can cause such a ripple amongst people all over the world.

Is this a new thing? Have people always had this form of "celebrity worship"? Either way, people are connecting and forming their own groups just based on the kind of music they listen to or don't listen to. You can talk to people on another side of the globe and be friends with someone starting from the comments section of a YouTube video of your favourite song.

Best Video Game Soundtrack Ever?

According to CVG (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/345195/features/video-game-soundtracks-the-100-best-themes-of-all-time-part-1/), it's anything that ranges fromSonic the Hedgehog to Katamari to Bully, with Final Fantasy having more than a few mentions.

Much to my surprise, there were no mentions of three of my favourite games and soundtracks as a child that I thought would at least have one mention; Crash Bandicoot, Spyro (especially Gateway to Glimmer), and Jet Set Radio.

In my opinion, these games have some really awesome soundtracks with some great instrumentation that really suit the theme of the levels in the game. It's a bit of a shame these were left off the list, but nonetheless it's worth checking out since there are some really solid tracks listed in their top 100.

Harlem Shake

The Harlem Shake, before it became an internet phenomenon, on Youtube, was a song by Baauer. It was interesting to see the rapid rise and fall of the Harlem Shake videos. I was happy to see it not stick around as long as Gangnam style. But I will admit (shame fully) that I took part in the shooting of a Harlem Shake video , after much coercion by my friends.

Confusing at first sight, interesting in the next few and annoyed at everything after, those sum up my feelings towards this trend. But hey, if it was good enough for YouTube to create an easter egg on their site for it, it did have some sort of relevance (even if only for a brief period).

The song it self, makes me feel that I am in a club which is on steroids and as I continue to listen to the song, it makes me slightly dizzy. I can only imagine what effects this song would have in an actually club ( not being into the clubbing scene, I have not experienced this). This songs relies on beats and is meant to represent the mix of hip hop/bass. Personally, in simple words for myself, not a fan. But the phenomenon certainly made the song a little enjoyable and unmissable.    

Rocksmith - First Impressions

Rocksmith is the latest development of the guitar-controller based gameplay popularised by Guitar Hero. Rather than using a plastic controller and following "notes" on a screen by holding down 5 colourful buttons and strumming along, the player uses an actual guitar (or bass guitar) to play along with music. The game seems to be marketed at beginners interested in learning guitar as a useful tool for picking up the instrument, but at the end of the day it is game which is meant to be enjoyed by a target audience of anyone who would be interested in using a guitar as a controller in a video game.

My brother and I saw this game in JB Hi-Fi the other day and decided to pick it up and give it a go; the concept was interesting and $60 for what was provided seemed like a reasonable price. We bought the pack that included the lead/adapter (USB cable one end, standard 1/4" output jack the other), some stickers to label the fret numbers and of course the game itself. There's also a bundle that comes with an Epiphone Les Paul Junior if you don't already have a guitar, a strap and 2 picks.

We used my brother's Fender Squier Stratocaster, and didn't experience any issues.

During initial setup which includes an on-screen guitar tuner, we noticed that the tuner gives a lot of lee-way for telling you whether or not your guitar is "in tune". We noticed that with the G, B and e strings, the tuner indicated that the guitar was in tune when even to my untrained ears the notes were clearly flat.

When we got into the actual game, we both agreed that the gameplay interface was a bit confusing and that we were thrown into the game without much of a clear explanation on how to play. After a couple of minutes, we did get used to it, but the game still felt confusing. The more songs we played through, the more we noticed different types of notes coming up on screen that were stylised differently, with no real explanation beforehand on what to do when we encounter these notes. The explanation/tutorial only came after we had played the song, which seems a bit strangely placed. We also noticed that depending on how well you're doing during the phrases, it "levels up", introducing more notes and hence increasing the difficulty. The fact that the game makes adjustments in every song to match your skill level is quite a nice feature, although it wasn't perfect and added to our confusion most of the time. We concluded that all of these features added together just encouraged repetition and practice to fully master a song, which seems like a good idea, especially for those who are just starting out with learning guitar.

The soundtrack for the game is predominantly rock, which my brother and I certainly didn't mind as we're both fans of the genre. Whether or not this soundtrack is to everyone's tastes is an entirely personal opinion, but the music choice in my opinion seems to suit the vibe of the game.

So did I think it was worth the money? Probably. As this is only a first impression, time will tell as I keep playing, but at that price point and what the game delivers certainly seems reasonable as far as I can tell right now. While the game has its handful of shortcomings, considering it's the first game of its kind to introduce using a real guitar as a controller, it's a very good step in the right direction and acts as a very good base to further develop and refine.

Michael Jackson -- The legacy of Music.

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) has made an impact on music. With his over the top music video (i.e Thriller) and his dances moves that few could replicate, he became forever a legend in the annals of music. He was a great singer and his songs drew different emotions in me.

Billie Jean was one of my favorites, growing up and I was actually afraid while watching thriller. I felt he bought a sense of innovation through every medium he had at his disposal. Even as a child, he was thrilling audiences with heart warming music, along with the other Jackson children.

One memory that comes to mind, was watching Usher and Michael Jackson have a moon walking duet across the stage. For me, that signified the influence Michael Jackson had on shaping the careers of many successful artists. His legacy will live on, in some form of the other and he truly is one of the all time greats of music.

My Top 1 Awesome Music Moment

 




As celebratory as it is comical,  24 Hour Party People  bows at the altar of Manchester’s legendary, pioneering indie scene – while never being afraid to add a mischievous dash of the surreal to liven up proceedings.

It’s this irrepressible comedy charm that carries the movie as it tracks the rise and fall of Factory Records, taking in the birth of punk and the explosion of club culture. It’s genuinely funny: Steve Coogan’s hilarious turn as Tony Wilson sees him crash a hang-glider and talk to God; Happy Mondays giddily poison 3,000 pigeons; Joy Division’s drummer is dispatched to play on the studio roof by their irascible producer.


Add to those cartoon-esque capers some of the most spine-tinglingly great music ever made, complimented by cameos from the artists involved, and Director Michael Winterbottom’s masterpiece is a thoroughly British piece of perfection.

Best music moment: "The Gig That Changed The World": Sex...

m-flo - ASTROMANTIC

Released by a Japanese hip hop duo called m-flo in 2004, ASTROMANTIC was and still is one of my favourite albums to date.

Each track really flows onto the next and the whole album is upbeat and funky. It consists of 17 tracks in total; a few of these intros and interludes before a proper track starts up, sort of similarly to what Kanye West does in his albums. The unique style and personality of Verbal and Takahashi really show through, using "loves" instead of "feat." when they're teaming up with other artists.

I've never heard quite the same music style released by any Western artists and they manage to mash together inspiration from lots of different places really effectively. If you're looking for something fun to listen to and you're a bit bored with all the repackaged pop that's monopolising the radio, this album would definitely be something a different to try out and see if you like - if the chart toppers in Aus aren't quite doing it for you why not have a look at some hits in other countries now that PSY has brought a little bit of KPop to our shores?

I can safely say that after discovering the single Miss You (with melody. and Ryohei) in 2003, I've certainly not regretted picking this album up and would highly recommend you give it a try.