So 2016 Didn't Suck So Much After All......

        Ahh, 2016. This year has been a memorable one, but not for good reasons. Were set to have a president with no political experience whatsoever, our political system is in the ER, Harambe died, and David Bowie died. That was a pretty solid uppercut to music's face. But maybe 2016 didn't suck so much for music after all. Here's why.
        Reason number one, record labels. Recently YouTube payed around $1B to artists, publishers and record labels. This is good news, because it means that YouTube finally is taking responsibility for its numerous copyright violations. These violations exist because any user can post anything they want. But the problem with this is even though YouTube will take down any sort of inappropriate content, they hardly ever ding any user on copyright violations. This year, that is changing, and for the better.
        Reason number two, concert sales. This year people are actually caring about concerts. Tickets sales have jumped 3.1 percent. Live nation reported that record setting ticket sales were off the charts for artist like Adele and Paul McCartney. Now this, means that the music industry is going to gain a lot more revenue. Thank you 2016.
        Reason number three, the final reason. Album releases are events again. With Beyoncé's release of Lemonade, and Drake's release of Views, Apple music and Spotify have blown up. Big time. With these new music streaming platforms, artists will be able to make extra monthly revenue off their albums, and in turn, their audience will be able to access all of their favorite artist songs.
       So, it turns out that although 2016 may have sucked big time, the music industry is now doing better than never. With record labels and concert sales generating extra revenue, and platforms like apple music and Spotify taking off, Music is better than ever before.

For most of my life, I have viewed classical music as pretty but dull. That it, however tedious at times, is a necessary byproduct of learning music. But if you ever get to hear a piece that is truly done well, is understood by the performers on an intellectual and emotional level, and is executed with passion, it will move you in ways you would never imagine. In his ted talk the transformative power of classical music, Benjamin Zander demonstrates this. Zander believes that everyone loves classical music; they just haven't realized it yet. Zander is an incredible speaker, and uses every method of persuasion to get his audience to appreciate classical music the way he does. Of these methods, it is his performance itself that is the most convincing. If you are not a fan of classical music, watch the video, maybe you will find that you love it, and as he says, you just hadn't realized it.

http://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion?language=en

Heathers: The Musical

Recently, a friend told me about Heathers: the musical and said I should watch it. After I did, I completely fell in love with it. Heathers: the musical is a very dark comedy about a geeky senior girl named Veronica who just wants to be left alone by bullies. In her high school everyone is divided and suffering from insecurities and lashing out against each other except the three most popular girls in the whole school: Heather Duke, Heather McNarma, and the “almighty” Heather Chandler. After getting the Heathers out of detention due to her craftiness, Veronica begs them to let her eat lunch with them, hoping there approval will get the rest of the school to stop picking on her. Heather Chandler decides to take Veronica under her wing and give her the gift of popularity. Later on in the show Veronica meets this mysterious new kid named JD who has his own idea about serving justice. After “accidentally’ poisoning Heather Chandler, the body count keeps rising as JD cannot control his need for revenge. I won’t tell you how it ends because I think everyone should go watch it. My favorite thing about this musical is the music. My favorite songs are the opener “beautiful,” “candy store,” and “dead girl walking.” I highly, highly recommend these songs because they are all fast paced and awesome. Also, best part about the songs is that all the main female characters are all mezzo-sopranos or altos. This is awesome because in many musicals the lead girl is a soprano, so it is nice to have a lead with a fairly low voice. If you enjoy musicals you should totally go watch this because it is basically Mean Girls, but in musical form.

Can Music Help You Study?

    Have you ever been listening to music while studying and wondered if it actually helps you study, or if it just helps you enjoy homework more? That's why I found a video answering this question made by Thomas Frank. Thomas says that there is multiple answers to this favoring each side.
    He even found a list of high energy songs for things like statistics, counting, pretty much manipulating numbers. The songs he chose were: Pomegranate Tiger   Boundless, Polymorphic Code, Metal Gear Rising Soundtrack, and Tides of Man   Young and Courageous. If you're doing something more cerebral, conceptual, or if you're trying to wrap your head around something more unfamiliar, he advised working in silence, or he suggested these calm, quiet songs: Journey   Austin Wintory, Piano Collections   Kingdom Hearts, Olaful Arnalds and Alice Sara Ott   The Chopin Project, and Theophony   Times End.
    Regarding studying in silence, Thomas said this worked at times, but others, his brain just focused on all the sounds going on around you. An interesting point he made as an example of working in silence is, its "kinda like what happens if I tell you, whatever you do, do not think about fluffy red pandas," of course then they're going to think about just that. Thomas suggested other than silence or calm music, white noise. He even came up with some sources: simply noise, Rainy Mood, and Coffitivity.
    The question is, is lyrical music okay for studying. Yes, and no. For things like Math or programming it is, but not for things with a lot of words and reading. this study, Thomas says is in line with a Stanford University prof. Clifford Ness.
     Like he stated earlier, there's diverse answers to studying with music. One study rounded up students taking an exam with silence, classical piano, and heavy metal rock. The students ended up scoring better with silence and coming in second, classical, but these genres are to the extreme. Another experiment got students to watch a lecture with no music, and one with classical. The classical music worked better for this one.
    The main  results are, that heavy and/or lyrical music is not good for words or reading, and okay for things like math. It's also could be that it does distract your brain, but raise your positivity, lower your anxiety, etc.
    I, personaly think that it mostly depends on who you are and how your brain  works. I hope this interested/helped you as much as it did me and the link is down below↓ :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5_APAxM5Lg 

2016 best hip hop albums

Best albums of 2016

2016 was full of great albums of all genres moods and tones. These ranged from Frank Ocean's beautiful R&B album Blonde to Kendrick Lamar’s funky jazz beats mixed with quick bars. Ill list the quick top 10 albums of the year  with analysis and critique, it's based purely on opinion, plus there were so many great works this year. These are not my favorite albums in order but the albums of the highest quality

10. At number 10 comes vince staples Prima Dona. Only 7 songs but not disappointing. It was full of funky an psychedelic beats, uptempo music. However some of the songs are also slowed and chopped to the point on near slo motion. Its extremely diverse producing and Vince’s vocal variation was unique.

9. At 9th comes Bas’s To High to Riot.  This album focuses in the struggle of the music industry as well as the social injustice in society and how police brutality has led to an increased riots and rebellion against authority especially in urban America. Hence the name of the album: To High To Riot. Overall it's a great work of art full of urban beats and mixed toned throughout.

8..  The group Tribe Called Quest, legendary for funky music mixed with wild rhythmic beats, credited for being one of the greatest hip hop groups of all time released their new and final album: “Thank you for you service we got it from here”.  This album purely send a message of peace, in a world of such conflict. Addressing problems in modern society like gang violence,  our president elect-e Donald Trump, and the system of urban poverty in America.

7.  A member of Kendrick lamar's record label “Top Dawg Entertainment”, Isaiah Rashad released his second studio album: The Sun’s Triade. The album is full of vocal variation, old school beats and features from great independent artists like kendrick lamar. Its old school roots mixed with modern beats gives it a ranking of number six. But that's not the only reason it's ranked here. Isaiah Rashad's relevance in the world of hip hop has skyrocketed in the last couple of years.

6. This year travis scott surprised us with his second studio album Birds in the trap sing mcknight. The album features some of the most diverse producing, and some of the best features of the year. Staring artists like kid cudi and kendrick lamar.  Songs like goosebumps show off kendricks vocal variation mixed with travis’s excellent tone mix for quite the song.

5. A grammy nominated album. A wildly successful artist. And a new style of music.  Schoolboy Q’s Blank Face LP is one of the greatest albums of the year, and one of his best solo albums of his career. Its lyrics speak of a life full of violence, police brutality, and the hard work it takes to succeed in the music world. His producing ranges from hardcore urban beats, full of consistent and intense rapping, to almost a slow R&B tone. His ability to change his voice and project it in such a firm way to go along with his music, gives him the high ranking spot.

4. Kendrick lamar is currently the most talented rapper in all of hip hop. His ability to mix the polish funky and rhythmic beats, as well as newer more bass produced music with relevant lyrics that speak of true things and the struggle of life to his audience. He unexpectedly came out with a new album Untitled and unmastered. The album has the most diverse producing and set of beats I have witnessed in a rap album. He bends the genre, including tons of  jazz, funky beats and inconsistencies that create a masterpiece of music.

3. 3001 a laced odessy.An album bya new yoork rap group known as Flatbush zombie is a 14 song album full of phycadeic, soft and quick, slowed and choped and hardcore beats mixed with increadiblt talented rhyme. These are all things pertaining to the album. It also has catchy hooks and danceable beats. It's in my opinion the best produced album of the year.

2. Coming in at number 2 is an album that tells a story. A story of a suburban street liver who struggles to support his family, and battles a life of crime while trying to raise his daughter. 4 your eyes only is the debatably the year's most anticipated album. J. cole did not disappoint . The album is filled with sadness and remorse, but also optimism. The album directly speaks to j. Coles daughter. And tell the story of his friend who had passed.

1. The years greatest hiphop/R&B album was non other than R&B artist Frank ocean's masterpiece, Blonde. Without a doubt a beautiful work of art whose lyrics tackle about every social injustice in our society as well as a look on our world from a more distant perspective. Franks chorallistic and high tone mixed with psychedelic and harmonious beats mixes for the year's most anticipated album, and the year's best.

How music invokes emotion

I watch a lot of TV. I can honestly say that I watch 1-2 hours every day. And one day, I saw a commercial that I absolutely fell in love with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CwvU6ylGgk

There is nothing very special about this commercial, it's for Amazon Prime. So why do I like it so much? I puzzled over this in my head, never really understanding why I kept singing it in the shower and humming the words. It took a while for me to figure out that the reason I was so obsessed with this commercial was because of the song they used in the background. The song just makes me connect with the commercial, and I just want to watch it over and over again.

That's what music does. Music, songs, and melodies, just make you tap into the emotions displayed at the moment. It's why, even if you are driving to school to take the most possibly hardest and most stressful test ever in your life, you can still have a dance party in the car with your rock music. Music, somehow, makes you forget about everything and live in the moment in a way that few other things can do. There is something amazing about humming along with the melody that impacts you and makes you really feel the mood of the music. How? No one really knows.

Blond

Frank Ocean dropped his long awaited album to the millions of R&B, hip-hop, and pop fans that are drawn to his music. His unique sound allows people interested in different genres to expand their perspective and music taste. With only 17 songs, Frank Ocean has redesigned his approach to making music, giving us an album full of diverse and distinctive sound. I am a huge fan of Frank Ocean, and many other R&B, hip-hop, and pop artists, and I can confidently say this is my favorite album to come out all year. My favorite song on this album, Pink + White combines unique music and beats, as well as the calming vocals push this song to the top of my list. The lyrics in this and many other of his songs, are open to interpretation based on personal experiences. His lyrics challenge both society and us as people. His music is both calming and interesting to listen to. I highly suggest checking it out. :)