TimeMachinerThe roots of rap and hip hop are intertwined with past music. From the earliest releases to the latest hits, so many songs use samples of prior music. Puff Daddy made mega-hits of songs in the 90s based off 80s samples. So have Dr. Dre, The Fugees, and Eminem. The list goes on and on.…Continue readingRapper’s Delight
Video game music is an art form. Composers finally have their own category at the Grammy awards. But watching the music get composed for pinball in the 80s is where some real magic happens. Composer Suzanne Ciani is the main composer in this documentary video showing how she creates music and digitizes speech for Xenon.…Continue readingPinball Wizard Music
The saying goes “what’s old is new again” and that really applies to vinyl records. The music format went from the only game in town to a decline with cassettes and CDs to death’s door in less than two decades. The late 90s to early aughts were a time when getting an album on vinyl…Continue readingPressing Vinyl
One oddity of 90s video gaming is Sega’s clandestine work with Michael Jackson. It was rumored for many years that Jackson composed the music for Sonic The Hedgehog 3 along with Sonic & Knuckles. Even more incredible is recently-found footage of Jackson’s work with an unknown Sega simulator game where all the footage has been…Continue readingSEGA Shamone
In what is surely one of the most out-of-left-field announcements from Apple in a long time, they have done something I have never seen them do: They resurrected a product. Specifically, the HomePod smart speaker is back and in its Version 2 form, it is very much similar to the HomePod that was discontinued in…Continue readingThe HomePod Comes Home
Apple Music has been in fierce competition with Spotify since the launch of Cupertino’s service. Aside from Spotify Wrapped (which Apple greatly improved their version in ’22), there are few differences in services. It really comes down to personal taste and preference rather than which is ‘better’. Because both are damn good. Apple is looking…Continue readingiPhone Karaoke
One of the greatest achievements in the past decade has been the ability of local public libraries ability to shift to offering more and more digital items. In a world where many of our books, movies, music, and other things are digital they have kept up. Now in a very cool twist, some libraries have…Continue readingLibrary: The Streaming Service
You know we’re firmly in December when you begin seeing the plethora of people sharing their year-end Spotify Wrapped. This compilation of listening stats has been awesome to see but has always made me, an Apple Music subscriber, a bit sad that I haven’t had anything similar. Apple has finally fixed this egregious error by…Continue readingFinally, Apple Competes With Spotify Wrapped
Autographs and original works of art are always collectible. For fans of Bob Dylan, his new book The Philosophy of Modern Song had a special edition: For $600 you could buy an autographed copy complete with a certificate of authenticity from the publisher Simon & Schuster. So imagine people’s ire when they found the autographs were…Continue readingI’m Sorry I Got Caught
Leave it to a mega star like Janet Jackson to create a cyber security situation back in the mid-2000s. The pop singer of yesteryear released a song called Rhythm Nation which happened to emit some frequencies that would legit crash a nearby computer. Rob Thubron at Techspot has more of this odd tale. Jackson’s track…Continue readingThat’s Miss Jackson, if You’re Crashy
Leave it to kids and a weird set of circumstances to become an income stream for musicians out there. A fascinating story from Katie Notopoulos at Buzz Feed wherein people who make silly songs are earning streaming income by kids yelling “Poop” at Alexa. With the proliferation of Echo devices putting Alexa in many homes,…Continue readingYell Poop, Make Money
Weird Al is one of those national treasures of incredible talent. The man has been making parody music for over four decades and he hasn’t stopped. Most musical eras contain clever parodies of his and original music that easily gets stuck in your head. Recently, there’s a video has hit YouTube with an entire alternate…Continue readingAlternate Eating
There are musicians and then there are musicians. Leave it to the Barcelona Guitar Trio to do something truly spectacular. This group of four men uses a single guitar to play Michael Jackson’s famous song, Billie Jean. It’s truly a sight to watch and listen to them play. The song sounds great and I could…Continue readingFour Guys and Billie Jean
Stranger Things is all the hype once more. Season 4 has dropped, bringing the next chapter to completion. Two episodes clocking in at 4-hours is certainly a lot of Hawkins kids to watch. However, one thing that makes a great season even better is the incorporation of music this time around. The Duffer Brothers have…Continue readingWhat’s Your Vecna Song?
Pianist Glaucio Cristelo, who goes by the name “Piano Rock” worked some magic on a piano at a Brazilian shopping mall. With over half a million views, his rendition of the Foo Fighters song Everlong is amazing to hear and watch. His channel is chock full of great songs. I highly recommend checking them out!Continue readingMan Absolutely Kills It Playing Everlong On Piano
It’s hard to imagine Apple without the iPod. In the Steve Jobs era, the iPod was the device that took them from “doing okay” to becoming a monumental success of a company. Even if you weren’t (or aren’t) an Apple fan, you had or were surrounded by iPods in the early aughts. And now that…Continue readingA Farewell to iPod
When it comes to music in the “before times” prior to the iPod, there was a huge boon when Sony introduced its Walkman portable cassette player. It was the first time someone could go anywhere and hear their music without carrying a giant boombox. It was the first time you could use headphones on the…Continue readingThe Discman was amazing. The Discman was awful.
Get ready Xennials and older folks because I’m about to say something that will make you shudder: Gen Z has deemed Grunge music as Oldies. 😱 I know, right? But there is a big plus to this admission of age: rediscovery. When it comes to Nirvana, songs the band put out are reaching 20 years…Continue readingGrunge Is Old
Musical mastermind Danny Elfman performed at Coachella this year. And boy did he go all in with some amazing pieces. Bill Pearis at Brooklyn Vegan has more about his legendary set. On the Oingo Boingo front, Danny’s set included “Insects” (which he reimagined for his 2021 solo album Big Mess), “Nothing to Fear,” “Just Another…Continue readingDanny Elfman Live
Prince is one of the greatest modern musicians. His influence was huge and certainly, he left this planet way too early. But something that can bring a smile to music-lovers faces is this happy accident courtesy of WCCO’s archives. While viewing archive material to find teacher strike footage, a reporter’s eye was caught at the…Continue readingLittle Prince
In the heydey of the aughts, it was extremely common to find music downloading software running on every college kid’s computer. Music piracy was rampant. After the downfall of Napster, one service became king: LimeWire. It was sued into oblivion by the RIAA in 2010. Now, it returns but in the most 2022 way possible:…Continue readingThe Lime Is Back
Generally, music follows a structure. A song will have some verses, a chorus, a bridge, then more chorus. That key and repeating part of the song is usually what sticks the most. Now, enter this video from David Bennett that goes over famous songs without a chorus. The chorus is also a big way in…Continue readingNo Chorus, No Problem
In “I definitely didn’t have this on my 2022 BINGO card” news, is this weird acquisition. Fortnite’s maker Epic Games has gone ahead and purchased the music website/service platform Bandcamp. Todd Spangler at Variety has more. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. “Fair and open platforms are critical to the future of the creator economy,”…Continue readingCampnite
In a world where people are pretty gifted, leave it to the YouTube channel There I Ruined It to take a hard-hitting Disturbed song and completely change it. The channel posted this gem last week showcasing Disturbed’s hit song Down With The Sickness and morphed it into a doo-wop 50’s style song. It’s really good…Continue readingDoo-Wop With The Sickness
If you’re an Apple Music subscriber, like I am, it’s painfully apparent that Apple lacks some core social features. Their “Replay” feature pales in comparison to Spotify’s “Wrapped” year-end review. In addition, there is no way to collaborate on a playlist with friends. A new app, Caset, looks to change that. Billed as a “mixtapes…Continue readingListening Together
The past few weeks have been a culling of well-loved celebs. At the too-young age of 74, Meat Loaf passed away. He was in a ton of movies and wrote epic-level, theatric songs & albums. Born Marvin Lee Aday, the rock musician’s career spanned six decades across the music and film industries. He was beloved by…Continue readingHis Name Was Robert Paulson
Leave it to the constant march of time to give CDs a nostalgic resurgence. News out of Pitchfork, like it’s 1999, shows that 2021 was the first time CD’s have increased in sales in 17 years. Madison Bloom has the scoop: The top-10 CD sales list also includes Taylor Swift’s Evermore (213,000 units sold), BTS’ Map of the…Continue readingCDs Bounce Back
SONOS makes really good speakers. They hook into a number of music services, come in a few different configurations, and (to me) sound great. They’ve had their ups and downs, especially after a short-lived policy of bricking perfectly-good speakers when customers were upgrading. They’ve now announced that speakers coming in 2023 will be more repairable…Continue readingSONOS to Ditch Glue
Benn Jordan, known for writing music under the name The Flashbulb, has uploaded a 20-minute video to YouTube in which he goes over how he’s been scammed. And not by some ordinary person, but by a reputable NYT reporter. At first, this video seems quite long for viewing. But Jordan goes into many details on…Continue readingBenn Jordan Reveals the Streaming Music Grift
Spotify once again makes me wish Apple would get more into the core features of what makes listening to music so great: shared experiences. Today they announced Spotify Blend, a “blended playlist” feature where two people can combine their tastes into one auto-generated playlist. This is very cool stuff. Apple Music does nothing like this.…Continue readingSpotify releases blended playlists; makes this Apple Music subscriber sad