My favorite rap song of the moment is Young Thug’s “High,” which prominently samples Elton John’s “Rocket Man.” https://soundcloud.com/inabundnce/young-thug-rocket-man-remix
Category Archives: Key Musicians
Happy Earth, Wind and Fire Day
Today is September 21st, the subject of one of the most joyful recordings ever made, which comes with an all-time-great music video. The song in turn inspired my favorite work of fan art. pic.twitter.com/HR06yeUPFv — demi adejuyigbe (@electrolemon) September 22, 2016
Simple songs
I’m interested in a particular kind of pop song: mainstream-ish tracks that are so minimal in their melodic or lyrical content that they barely qualify as “songs,” yet manage to still be musically compelling. My paradigmatic examples: “That’s The Way (I Like It)” by KC and the Sunshine Band “Around The World” by Daft Punk …
RIP Aretha Franklin
I don’t have much to add to what everyone else is saying, except that I really love her music, more than just about anything.
This Is America
If you’re the kind of person who reads my blog, then by now you’ve probably seen the video for Childish Gambino’s “This Is America.” If you haven’t seen it, watch now. Be warned that it’s upsetting. Donald Glover, a.k.a. Childish Gambino, is best known as a comedian, a writer, and an actor. He’s an intelligent …
RIP Cecil Taylor
When I was nineteen, I was flipping channels on TV late at night, and I stumbled on this: I had no idea what I was seeing, but I was spellbound. I still can’t exactly verbalize what this music means to me, but I know it means something.
Dancing to Michael Jackson with my kids
I have a longstanding musical relationship with Michael Jackson. There’s nothing remarkable about that; many people do. Like the rest of my age cohort, Michael entered my consciousness with Thriller in the early 1980s. Aside from a period in my teens and young adulthood, he has rarely been out of my ears since. The relationship …
Hip-hop teaches confidence lessons
I’m working on a paper about music education and hip-hop, and I’m going to use this post to work out some thoughts. My wife and I spent our rare date night going to see Black Panther at BAM. It was uplifting. Many (most?) black audience members came dressed in full Afrofuturistic splendor. A group of …
The happiest chord progression ever
See also: the saddest chord progression ever. And also check out this deep dive into the groove of “I Want You Back.” We customarily think of descending melodies and chord progressions as being sad–they call it the “lament bass” for a reason. You may be surprised to learn, then, that the happiest song of all …
Duke Ellington, Percy Grainger, and the status of jazz in the music academy
On October 25, 1932, Percy Grainger invited Duke Ellington and his orchestra to perform “Creole Love Call” as part of a music lecture at New York University. It was the first time any university had invited a jazz musician to perform in an academic context. I will argue that the meeting of Grainger and Ellington …
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