Dazed and Reviewed

As most of us know, last night was the 45th annual Superbowl! (for those of you who didn’t watch, the PACKERS WON!!!!) It was an exciting night, despite the fact that the music was an absolute disaster. Glee’s very own Lea Michele opened the night, singing America the Beautiful.  As talented as this young singer may be on stage, and particularly as her character Rachel in Glee, I’m not sure the middle of a football stadium was the right place for her. This is not to say she sounded bad, her voice was just too “cute” in my opinion for such a task; she seemed out of place.

Following Lea Michele, Christina Aguilera sang the National Anthem. The only surprise, was that apparently she also decided to re-write it… whoops! After the first few lines Aguilera completely dropped the ball. Unfortunately her unbelievable voice, and true talent as a singer was not able to get her out of this predicament, any true american who watched the Superbowl was most likely sitting in front of the TV with a look of bewilderment, just as I was about 50 seconds into her performance.

Fortunately we had a break from the musical element of the night to watch the first half of the game (in which the Packers lost 3 of their starters, yikes!), and some unimpressive adds. You would think that the companies could have done a better job for the one night a year they spend 3 million on there advertisements. However, Chrysler’s add featuring Eminem was absolutely unbelievable! After all, the Chrysler 200 is Imported from Detroit! :)

Next up was the half time show… The Black Eyed Peas were even worse than I had expected them to be live, they touch up so much of their music electronically before they release it, that you could barely see any talent whatsoever in their live performance. Voices cracking, Fergie trying to change the lyrics to their songs on the spot, it was no longer music, simply noise. Thank god they featured Usher half way through their performance, because he saved the night singing OMG. It would have been better if Will.i.am and Fergie had stayed out of that number completely! Nonetheless, the light up costumes they wore were priceless, at least that took away some of the attention from the sound they were making. I can’t say I’m surprised the night went so badly though. In this day and age it does not require talent to be considered a musician. With all the technology we have today, one click and a person with no voice at all can sound like Freddy Mercury! It is so different from a few years back, when the only way to hear music was to hear it live, in which case the artists HAD to sound good, or they would not succeed in the industry. I personally find this completely disappointing, because there is no longer a line between fake fame, and fame for true talent!

Heyy y’all, sorry I havn’t updated Dazed and Reviewed in a while, I went back to school last week and have had a lot of work to do. However, I thought I would just give you something to think about! Today’s song of the day is The Royal We by Silversun Pickups.

Although P!nk is not one of my favorite artists, this spunky, Pennsylvania native, pop sensation definitely has some serious talent. She released her first album, Can’t Take Me Home, in 2000, and watched it as it soared to the top of the charts. Try This, her third album was considered less successful then the rest of her work; the funny part is, it still sold over THREE MILLION copies world wide, and earned her a grammy! yea, thats definitely unsuccessful right there…. totally kidding! Needless to say, every award this woman has been given was completely earned! Two grammies, 10 “Billboard Hot 100″ singles, number one Pop Artist of the Decade from 2000 – 2008, number 13 overall Artist of the Decade, five MTV Video Music Awards, and many, MANY more. (As I am sure there are more to come.)

Bottom line is, her new album Greatest Hits… So Far!!! really does a great job showing her insane talent and success over the years. It is a compilation of both old songs, and new ones such as the number one hit Raise Your Glass, and my personal favorite, F**Kin’ Perfect!

As anyone who has visited this site before, you will remember that the very first article I wrote was about one Jordan Roseman, more commonly known as DJ Earworm!!! I can never thank this man enough for letting me interview him before I even launched this blog, and I’m not sure if i would have had as much success as I have without his help (:

Every year around New Years, DJ Earworm comes out with another musical masterpiece consisting of the year’s top 40 or so hits. This years compilation just came out and it is better than ever!

Check out his site http://djearworm.com/ to hear United State of Pop 2010 (Don’t Stop the Pop), amongst many other phenomenal mashups. And if you have not already checked out the interview I got to have with him a year ago, be sure to check that out in the “interviews” section of this site!

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone! I hope you all have great plans tonight whether it be with family, friends, loved ones, just get out there and have fun! I know I will be (:

My song of the day is Closer to the Edge by 30 Seconds to Mars. This band from Los Angeles released the first album, 30 Seconds to Mars, in 2002. Closer to the Edge, was released in 2009 on there latest album This is War, which also featured songs like Kings and Queens, and Hurricane (amongst many other great tracks).

Take Me Out by Atomic Tom

I have been listening to this song on repeat for a few hours now and I LOVEE ITTT!! Tomorrow is my 16th birthday so im not sure if I will have time to put up a new post, nevertheless keep your eyes and ears open (: oh, and go buy this song!!!

Yea, thats right. Vinyl is slowly making a HUGE comeback thanks to Duran Duran’s latest album All You Need Is Now. Most people won’t remember first hand having a record player in their living rooms, and having that as their only source of musical entertainment (besides live concerts, of course). As a matter of fact, that was even way before my time… This phenomenal blast from the past has made the music industry re-think how music is being distributed, and how it has taken away much of the finite details, which in the last century gave music its own character.

In this day and age, everything is done digitally. The internet has taken over, magazines are dying, newspapers, books, and even CD’s! All dying, and letting the digital world take over. What people don’t realize is how this is also changing the quality of music we listen to. In order to download a song from iTunes, or whatever music sharing program you may be using, the song must first be compressed into a file small enough to be transferred to computers all over the world. If you were to go back and compare the sound of an original vinyl record to the exact same song downloaded from iTunes, I assure you there will be a difference. In order to compress this music, all of the finite details that were played so greatly by some of our world’s music heros all those years ago have been taken out completely! The quality of the music we listen to has progressively gotten worse and worse, for the sake of adapting to the modern, digital age of convenience.

However, thanks to Duran Duran, one of rock history’s finest legends, Vinyl records have made a tremendous comeback. When listeners compared their copies of All You Need Is Now, and compared it to the original recordings from their earliest albums (Notorious, Rio, Duran Duran, etc.), they finally realized what is going on, and started listening to records again. Who knows, maybe with this flash back in time we can even bring some of the greatest leaders of Rock and Roll history back to the stage while were at it (: i guess Vinyl’s are a start!

So word on the street has it that Radiohead has some new songs for everyone, and is releasing there first album since 2007 when In Rainbows was released. The british band formed in 1985, but they didn’t release their first single Creep until 1992 which at first was notoriously unsuccessful until months after the release date. Today Radiohead is without a doubt my favorite band and I, for one, am completely looking forward to seeing what they have to show us!! I don’t have anymore details for now, the band doesn’t seem to be leaking very much about this album, but you know i’ll stay on this!! Well, at least I will after I finish taking exams…

Rihanna has yet again topped the charts with her album Loud, featuring hit tracks such as S&M, What’s My Name, Love the Way You Lie, pt. 2 (which tells the girl’s side of the same story Eminem told on his most recent, hit album the Recovery), and number one on the charts right now, Only Girl. Rihanna has released a total of 5 albums since 2005. The first three of these were  filled with poppy, fun, and carefree tracks which every single teenager like myself heard at dances and parties for months. However, her sound changed drastically after her experience with domestic violence and Chris Brown last year. Rated R came out with a bang, all the tracks were deep, and meaningful, and powerful; overall a very different Rihanna we were all so used to, but somehow she was able to make this sound work so well, it topped the charts. Russian Roulette was in the top 1o for weeks, and that album artwork was definitely something people were talking about.

Rated R (2009)

That black and white Rihanna with the dark eye make up, and the hand over one eye; a perfect cross between beautiful and chilling. This new Album Loud, is the perfect cross between the types of music. They have that poppy, club sound we all love, but she has incorporated her new found passion and power that she had in Rated R. Until next time (:

Loud (2010)

Here’s whats on my top playlist right now

1. Runaway – Kanye West (feat. Pusha T)

2. These Worries – Kid Cudi (feat. Mary J. Blige)

3. Caribou Lou – Tech N9ne

4. Ghost in the Machine – B.0.B

5. Blow – Kesha

6. Fireworks – Katy Perry (Does anyone know what this song was dedicated to? I do, thats right, the recent teen suicides… This world is nauseating…)

7. Down On Me – Jeremih (feat. 50 Cent)

8. Kimber – Sam Adams

9. Lessons Learned – Matt & Kim

10. The Royal We – Silversun Pickups

11. S&M – Rihanna

12. Testify (Radiohead vs. Kanye West) – Xaphoon Jones

13. There Goes My Baby – Usher

14. Violet Hill – Coldplay

15. Like a G6 – Far EAst Movement

16. Hold On – Limp Bizkit

17. Closer – Nine Inch Nails

18. Whats My Name – Rihanna (feat. Drake)

19. Street Spirit – Radiohead

20. True Love Way – Kings of Leon

21. Zephyr Song – Red Hot Chili Peppers

22. Understanding – Fairline

23. All In – Lifehouse

24. Hate Me – Blue October

25. Touchin On My – 3oh!3

26. Teardrops – The XX

27. Carpathia – Taking Back Sunday

28. Just Say Yes – Snow Patrol

29. Figured You Out – Nickelback

30. Angels and Saints – Neverending White Lights

31. Breaking The Habit – Linkin Park

32. Marijuana – Kid Cudi

33. Get U Home – Shwayze

34. Don’t Cry – Guns N’ Roses

35. Hurricane Haley – Forever the Sickest Kids

36. Vanished – Crystal Castles

37. Dear Maria Count Me In – All Time Low

38. Crawl – Chris Brown

39. Closer – Kings of Leon

40. – The Resistance – Muse