Mixtapemotions

  • “Butter” by BTS, Friday, August 11, 2023 (repost)

    Not since Michael Jackson has an artist had five number one singles top the Billboard Top 100 chart in as quick succession as “Dynamite,” “Savage Love,” “Life Goes On,” “Butter,” and “Permission to Dance” from late August 2020 to July 2021. Of course, the hit parade continued in late 2021, as a featured spot on Coldplay‘s “My Universe.” The South Korean phenomenon Bangtan Boys, better known by their acronym BTS, don’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

    GOT ARMY BEHIND US WHEN WE SAY SO. It’s no secret that BTS’s fan ARMY is strong. According to Quora, there are estimated to be anywhere between 40-60 million fans worldwide. It’s because of this ARMY buying multiple copies of the groups singles that propelled the boy band to number one. Some have called this chart manipulation, mainly because of the strategic planning to buy the song, overtaking any other single that would be pushed up the charts based on the now meager sales, streams, and radio play by the sheer amount that BTS sold. However, in a time when streaming has overtaken most music sales, it’s a little heartwarming that music fans care so much about their favorite band to actually buy the music. And yes my hipster indie heart is crying just a bit. “Butter” is the group’s second English single, following “Dynamite,” which helped bring the band to US radio. The band’s popularity has raised international interest in other K-pop groups and many have gone back to BTS’s back catalogue of Korean-language hits.

    A’INT NO OTHER THAT CAN SWEEP YOU UP LIKE A ROBBER. It’s important to tread lightly as I am only one person and there is literally an ARMY of fans across the Internet. I have a lot of admiration for BTS as I’ve written about in previous posts. The light, sugary “Butter” isn’t on my personal shortlist of best BTS songs, but there’s something catchy about it that will get stuck in your head all day. But try to put the lyrics together, nothing seems to be sticking to the stand mixer. What does stick out are lyrical fragments. Jenna Andrews, one of the songwriters for the single, told American Songwriter that the song was based on the line “Smooth like butter/ like a criminal undercover,” a reference to Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal.” The songwriters included more references to MJ’s songs as well the line “Don’t need no Usher / to remind me you got it bad.” There’s also a line taken from “Rapper’s Delight” and Justin Timberlake.  In small doses, “Butter” can be a delicious addition to your playlist, but let’s make sure we don’t add too much sugar or other saturated fats.

  • “Be Kind” by Marshmello & Halsey, Thursday, August 10, 2023

    This is the fourth entry that Marshmello gets in my blog and the second entry by Halsey. Every time I write about Marshmello, I have a sinking feeling in my gut. It’s hard to explain, but writing about music as purely a hobby, I feel like I have acquired a knowledge of music production, commercial performance, and touring–many aspects I’ve come across in my research for both writing and enjoying music. Looking at the charts and artists listed used to be unsurprising: “Song” Artist/Band Album Record Label. Of course, albums are not always relevant, and record labels are sometimes obsolete for hugely successful independent artists. 


    TELL ME WHY YOU GOTTA BE SO OUTTA YOUR MIND. Admittedly, some artists and genres are more fun to learn about. I’ve thought about sticking to one genre and even avoiding popular music altogether. Popular songs have enough dialogue around them that what I have to say, often late to the game, doesn’t add much to the conversation. But then I realized that I didn’t have to add anything to the conversation. Sometimes I’m learning, and that’s the approach I need to take with what seems like recent song-crediting conventions: listing artists as equal contributors rather than listing a primary artist and a featured artist. Until now, I generally format the chief artist as the singer/band whose album houses the single. For example, While Bon Iver‘s Justin Vernon starts “exile” in Taylor Swift’s folklore, Bon Iver is credited as the featured artist. That seems to be the way that I understood reading song titles since I took up an interest in the music business in the ’00s. A side point, though, is that I take issue with featuring a lead singer and crediting the band as a feature unless the band has become a solo project for a new single artist. But duets are tricky, especially if they don’t have a parent album.

    I KNOW IT’S HARD FOR YOU, BUT IT’S NOT FAIR. But what if the artist doesn’t contribute vocals? In 1999, Santana released his massively successful record Supernatural. The hits from the record, though, weren’t sung by Santana. Instead, the record was a kind of who’s-who of rock, pop, and R&B of the day. The biggest songs, “Maria, Maria” and “Smooth” followed in the tradition of disco DJs billed as the primary artist. But still The Product G&B and Matchbox Twenty‘s Rob Thomas are listed as featured artists. Fast-forward to 2020. Halsey includes the single “Be Kind” on an EP titled Collabs and as a bonus track on her third record, Manic. By old music industry standards, it seems that Halsey should be credited as the chief artist, featuring Marshmello, right? But then should we credit every producer as an artist? Anberlin and Timothy McTague and Chad Carouthers? Carouthers does scream on the record, so I have no problem writing uncredited features in the artist line. What if the producer is much bigger. Does it become Rick Rubin & Imagine Dragons? I’m ranting now. I could change position on this, but I think that the role of a DJ/producer is tricky. Marshmello doesn’t sing. He produces. Without famous singers, he would be unknown. Also, without song credits, casual music listeners wouldn’t know who he is and may not show up at his DJ shows. Again, I have to spend some more time listening to experts on this, but I thought articulating my thoughts so far would be fair use of my blogging time today, rather than digging into the song itself, which is catchy and fine. But just as Marshmello steals Halsey’s role as primary artist, that “theft” became the subject of my post today. 
     

  • “Mood Ring” by Lorde, Wednesday, August 9, 2023

    There is little new under the sun when it comes to fashion. In the ’00s, ’90s fashion of flannels and winter bubble vests gave way to a ’70s revival: Bell bottoms or flares, replaced the straight-leg Levis; bold colors replaced the subdued primary colors of the ’90s; and gimmicky accessories like bandanas and hoop earrings made a bold statement. Some novelty fashion trends also came back, enter the mood ring. On Lorde‘s 2021 record Solar Power, the singer wistfully remembers relics of her childhood in the early ’00s in the song “Mood Ring.” Lyrically satirizing the disconnection of the modern world, the acoustic guitar producer Jack Antonoff plays throughout the song harken back to the early ’00s pop music. 
     

    YOU CAN BURN THE SAGE, AND I’LL CLENSE THE CRYSTALS.  Discussing the first single Lorde dropped from her third album “Solar Power,”Switched on Pop guest Hanif Abdurraqid argues that Lorde isn’t a “singer-singer but rather a deliverer of language.” Lorde’s voice is low and “gravely.” With average lyrics or melodies or mediocre vocal delivery, Lorde’s voice would have never become the trend-setter that she has become. However, all of those factors are there with Jack Antonoff’s co- production and instrumentation. Similarly, the songs on the record are only credited to Lorde and Antonoff and Grammy-winning producer/songwriter/engineer Malay on two tracks. Unlike many pop writers today, Lorde’s imagery evokes specific, sometimes awkward images. The penultimate track, for example, “Mood Ring,” interweaves lines about transcendental mediation and the early ’00s. It reminds me of the New Age trends that were strong on daytime television and on the front covers of tabloids in the check out lines. The lyrics are heightened by Jack Antonoff’s acoustic guitar that drives the song almost like Nelly‘s “Ride Wit Me,” but the cheap-sounding electric guitar effect sounds like some of the lo-fi indie music produced in the early ’00s and even found on some big budget pop records of the time. What’s interesting about “Mood Rings” is that Antonoff holds back on the production. He and Lorde produce the track to be rhythmic, but Antonoff refrains from bringing out bigger beats to make the song radio-ready. Instead, we have a psychedelic pop track that is more vibe than bop or banger. 

    DON’T YOU THINK THE EARLY 2000S SEEM SO FAR AWAY? But speaking of the early ’00s, I may be in a minority of Lorde listeners who simply see the title of the song and think about another song from 20 years ago. Lorde may have not been aware of Relient K‘s problematic 2003 track “Mood Rings,” a satirical song in which the speaker plots “to get emotional girls to all wear mood rings [so that men] can be tipped off to when they’re ticked off.” The song was a fan favorite, and by their third record Two Lefts Don’t Make a Right. . . But Three Do, the band’s popularity was branching out of youth group. Lorde’s “Mood Ring” deals with how a media-saturated society makes us apathetic to what should be a good life, more in touch with nature. Relient K’s “Mood Rings,” however, bypasses the issues of complex emotions, making a joke at the expense of the band’s female fans. Last year, after being called out on TikTok, the band apologized for the song, saying “We had a lot of growing and learning to do, still do!” Of course, Relient K was not the only band to employ casual misogyny–pop-punk and other genres of the early ’00s were rife with it. Lorde’s track, though, captures a feeling of the early ’00s–definitely not the Christian youth group feeling–but leaves the sexism out!

    Read the lyrics on Genius.

  • "Circles" by Boyce Avenue (Post Malone cover) Under the Covers: Apple Music Edition (Updated), Tuesday, August 8, 2023

     

    Today I’m going to update my Under the Covers playlist on Apple Music. Every now and then I like to update my playlists with some of my new discoveries. Some of the covers on this playlist may make us long for the original, but ultimately, I think that the song I’m basing the playlist on, today’s song, “Circles” covered by Boyce Avenue, actually sounds better than the genre-bending artist Post Malone‘s original, though I still like it. 

    Post Malone version:

  • “Disappearing World” by Fair (Updated Repost), Monday, August 7, 2023

    In the story of Tooth & Nail Records, which became the definitive Christian Rock label in the early ‘00s, Aaron Sprinkle became the main producer for record after record for the label. Sprinkle is not only responsible for producing records, but he also stylized bands and artists who would have otherwise been nothing alike. So, when he wasn’t busy launching successful bands into the scene, what was he doing in his free time? Sprinkle recorded a number of solo records and two with his band, Fair. Sprinkle’s solo efforts were never as successful as the bands he recorded, and life in the studio took a toll on the musical genius. 

    WHERE IS IT THAT YOUR PEACE COMES FROM? “Disappearing World” was the only hit from this 2010 album named after the title track. Whenever Fair–three of Sprinkle’s friends from his previous band, Poor Old Lu–put out a project, it was a limited release. One single to Christian radio, a video, and a couple of local shows. And then it’s back to the studio for Sprinkle. On Season 1 of Labeled (now behind a paywall), Sprinkle talked about how destructive the studio life was for him. He worked around the clock on Tooth & Nail albums. This was the time when Tooth & Nail was signing everyone and sending slightly more than half of the bands to record an album with Aaron. This led to alcohol addiction and burnout. What’s more, is that the crash of the music industry forced Sprinkle to work on smaller budgets and reduce the size of his team. He had to make the same great record on a fraction of the budget. Sprinkle broke with Tooth & Nail and retreated to Nashville to pursue other areas in the music industry, producing only records he chose to produce–Anberlin, Acceptance, New Found Glory, and Story of the Year, are just a few of his passion projects. As for his own music, he turned to composition. His instrumental series inspired by the Northeast Coast is quite nice. 

    I FOUND IT IN A DISAPPEARING WORLD. Every year the earth seems to spin a little faster. I think about Brandon Ebel and Aaron Sprinkle and all who saw the rise and fall of the music industry. They recorded on cassettes and then CDs. There they promoted bands at big festivals and tours and sold tons of merch. Then everything went online to streaming and customers stopped buying music. The 2010s were tough on the music industry as streaming took over, and eventually most releases became available on Spotify and Apple Music. In the meantime, the bands had broken up long ago and members got other jobs. But during the pandemic, many long-forgotten bands got a resurgence, thanks to The Labeled Podcast, online communities, and Chad Johnson, former Tooth & Nail former A&R guy and organizer of a legendary festival in Birmingham, Alabama called Furnace Fest, decided to revive the festival in 2021. Late Gen X and Early Millennials now had money to spend on band revivals, and the old bands started to get back together. But while there was money for bands coming back, sales of their back catalogs no longer benefited producers like Sprinkle and Ebel, who had to sell the masters during the music financial crisis in the late ’00s. As the world of the music business gets more and more complicated, Sprinkle has stayed busy treating music as a job. But in recent years, rather than just sitting behind the boards producing and engineering for other artists, he’s been promoting his own solo music. While he is still best known for his production, in the ever-changing, at one point seemingly disappearing music scene, Aaron Sprinkle continues to create his signature sound both for other artists and by himself. Just not as often as before. 

  • “Counting Stars" by OneRepublic, Sunday, August 6, 2023 + Songs About Space Playlist

    There’s not a lot better than looking up to the sky on a clear summer night. So I’ve created a playlist for such an occasion. Like all of my playlists, I’m going for the feeling of space rather than accuracy. In other words, these songs make me think about the unknown surrounding our planet, but they may not mean the same to you. Songs are meditations on aspects of life, not scientific treaties. So if you get a moment, get outside on a clear night. 

  • “Alive” by Hawk Nelson, Saturday, August 5, 2023

    I saw Hawk Nelson in concert twice, but never as the headliner. The first time was at Cornerstone on main stage. I had never been a huge fan of the Simple Plan meets Relient K knock off band, but I thought their songs were catchy if not lyrically and conceptually immature.  At Cornerstone, it seemed like the highlight of their set was playing Cyndi Lauper‘s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” rather than their hits from their first two records. Then in college, I saw them perform on Skillet‘s Alive and Awake tour. By that time, the band had released their fourth record, Live Life Loud. 

     
    THE ONLY THING WE’RE MISSING IS A WHOLE NEW STATE OF MIND. Hawk Nelson represents a profitable time in Christian Rock when a band could become a brand. At least that’s what I’ve gathered from recent episodes of  the Labeled Podcast. Bands aspired either to be Hawk Nelson or Anberlin (or Underoath, Emery, etc.). Bands particularly on Tooth & Nail Records either fell into touring clubs, bars, and Warped Tour circuits or touring churches and youth group events. And according to the (often jaded) bands from the podcast, money played a big factor those career choices. Churches often paid better than secular venues. Hawk Nelson is an interesting example of a band that straddled the line between the religious and secular markets. Hawk Nelson’s crossover potential came from portraying the band The Who in the musical drama American Dreams and for writing and performing the song “Bring ‘Em Out” in the Nick Drake film Yours, Mine, and Ours. Lead singer Jason Dunn hoped to pursue this direction of the band, but ultimately the other bandmates opted for what seemed like the safer route of writing ballads like “Everything You Ever Wanted,” which helped land the band on large Christian festival tours.

    TO SEE THE DREAMS THAT WE’VE CHASED ARE JUST A DEAD END ROAD. After three records with Tooth & Nail and two records with its subsidiary CCM label BEC Recordings, Jason Dunn felt like he couldn’t fight the corporate machine that his band had become. He told Matt Carter on the Labeled Podcast that being in Hawk Nelson had made him lose his faith for years during his last years in the band and several years afterwards. He talks about drinking as he lost his voice in the decisions that the band made. After leaving Hawk Nelson, the band completely rebranded into the CCM market, signing with the Christian label Fair Trade Services, on which the band scored their biggest singles with Christian radio and moving away from the Christian Rock format. The band released music until 2018. However, in 2020, Hawk Nelson’s lead singer and former lead guitarist when Dunn was the lead singer, Jon Steingard, made news when he declared on Instagram that he no longer believed in God, talking to the major exvangelical podcasts.  Both Steingard and Dunn talk about the corporate greed involved in the Christian music industry, but it seems from the interviews that the two former lead singers of Hawk Nelson have not reconciled, and it seems that Dunn blames Steingard for his involvement in the big machine of CCM. They took a band branded on the goofy, the uncool, the middle-school vibes of a youth group and essentially became a worship band like every other band that started writing music to make money. And while I was never fully into Hawk Nelson, I think they were best on the sincere tracks like today’s song, “Alive,” and the goofy ones like the title track “Live Life Loud.” They were essentially the Emo version of boy band, and it worked until it didn’t. 


  • “Asking” by Anberlin, Friday, August 4, 2023 + Anberlin Summer Songs

    I’ve certainly been giving Silverline a second chance this year. I’m still yet to delve into Convinced. At least at this point in my life, I don’t get the heavy direction that Anberlin is heading in their latest efforts. However, Silverline is a primer to the even heavier Convinced. But rather than go into speculative commentary on today’s post, I decided to return to the theme of seasonal playlists. So let’s look at some of Anberlin’s best summer songs!



     

  • “Easy” (Remix) by Troye Sivan ft. Kacey Musgraves & Mark Ronson, Thursday, August 3, 2023

     

    In October, Troye Sivan will release his first full-length record since 2018’s Bloom.  While other pop stars have entered prolific eras with frequent releases, fans have had to wait a long time for new music from Sivan. His last major release was an EP in 2020 titled In a Dream, but the singer has been releasing singles since then; however, whether or not they will be part of the upcoming work is yet to be disclosed. Sivan’s sophomore LP, Bloom, was a celebration of love and gay sex; however, In a Dream is an introspective collection of songs–with the exception of “Stud”–dealing with heartache and a failing relationship. 


    TELL ME WE’LL MAKE IT THROUGH. The single “Easy” is the second track on In a Dream. The song was remixed by producer Mark Ronson and features a verse by Kacey Musgraves. Sivan had appeared on Musgrave’s second Christmas album in 2019, and the reunion between the two singers on the 2020 single not only coincided with Sivan’s breakup with model Jacob Bixenman but also Musgraves’ divorce which would later be artistically analyzed on her 2021 record star-crossed. “Easy” is a song about trying to hold onto a relationship. The remix is a little faster than the original, and other than featuring the production of Ronson and the additional vocals of Musgraves, the second verse of the songs are different. Sivan sings more about the ending of his relationship on verse two in the original version, while Musgraves sings different lyrics on the remix. While Sivan uses the pronoun he in the first verse in both versions, Musgraves addition makes the song sound like a break up duet about a straight or straight-passing relationship. 

    PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME. Complicating the meaning even more is the Musgraves-Sivan music video, which opens with “Part II,” presumably the second part to original song and original video which features Sivan in an empty house watching a bizarre ’80s music video with him in dyed red hair. The original video, released during the Covid quarantine, felt isolating, and breaking up with someone during that time was very hard. You couldn’t just go to the bar or meet someone on an app; instead you were left indoors wallowing in your heartbreak. The sequel, though, sees Sivan in a Nashville dive bar, sporting a mullet. While cowboys and cowgirls are line dancing, a drag queen Jorgeous sings “Easy” karaoke-style, though looking dejected. Meanwhile, we see Sivan and Musgraves traveling from cheap motel to cheap motel with eerie CSI-styled flashes, making the audience feel that something sinister is going on. Sivan and Musgraves appear platonic in the video. They go from dive bar to dive bar. Sivan mostly just watches from the sidelines, though sometimes dances. Musgraves flirts with men provocatively. However, both end up together, sleeping in the same motel queen-sized bed. Sivan explained to Vogue that the characters that he and Musgraves portray have “separately had our own experiences, regrets, scorned our lovers and will find solace in each other.” 


  • “Lost Stars” by Adam Levine, Wednesday, August 2, 2023

    The 2013 film Begin Again features a soundtrack mostly of two singers: Actress Keira Knightly and Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine. Begin Again is the second film in Irish Writer/director John Carney‘s music films. Starting with 2007’s Once and following up Begin Again with Sing Street, music plays an integral part in Carney’s films. And of the three films, only Begin Again is set in America. However, the “English-styled” or perhaps “Irish-styled” plot, makes the movie feel unlike a film that Americans are not as accustomed to enjoying. In America, the film made $65.7 million, the most successful of Carney’s films.

    YESTERDAY I SAW A LION KISS A DEER. The film, however, may or may not be remembered by American audiences. But South Korea is said to be the best market for music dramas. While PG-13 comedies like Barbie don’t do well in the Korean box office, Action and Superhero, Horror, Science Fiction, and Animations from America are quite successful. But songs about music seem to be the most successful. In September 2014, Begin Again was even named the most-watched indie film in Korea according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film grossed nearly $25 million USD, which considering the country’s population of nearly 50 million people, the film proportionally did much, much better than in the U.S. In 2017, the South Korean network JTBC even aired a busking series in which famous Korean singers played acoustic renditions of famous songs in cities abroad. The name of the show, Begin Again, is most likely after the blockbuster film in Korea. And of course, when a music movie is as big as Begin Again, the soundtrack was huge in Korea. You couldn’t avoid hearing “Lost Stars” by either Keira Knightly or Adam Levine when shopping. Other tracks from the movie were also played in coffee shops. 

    LET’S GET DRUNK ON OUR TEARS. Being in Korea as Begin Again became a cultural phenomenon, I thought that the movie and the soundtrack were big back home. But in America, “Lost Stars,” –not even the version featured in the film but a duet with The Voice contestant Matt McAndrew–hit number 83 on Billboard’s Hot 100. This version was also a minor hit in Canada. The song fared worse in the UK and France. The only place where “Lost Stars” was a hit was South Korea, where the Adam Levine version reached #2 on the Gaon chart and Keira Knightly’s version reached #21, and even the awful Into the Night Remix played in the film as the “main version” that becomes a hit for Adam Levine’s character Dave Kohl reached #55. Lyrically, the song stands on its own without the film; however, the song plays a key role in the plot. In the film, the song comes to represent betrayal–penned by Gretta (Knightly) as a gift for her boyfriend at the time Dave (Levine). But ultimately it’s a journey for meaning. Gretta wonders what her role is as the ex-partner in America waiting around for lackadaisical Dave who betrays her. Ultimately, she finds meaning as the lyrics of the song search for. Of course, we don’t know what will become of Gretta’s own musical career. The film hints at the changes in the music industry that have plagued artists since then. But in this one song, the search for meaning is the meaning.

    Read the lyrics on Genius.


    Adam Levine’s performance in Begin Again:

    Keirra Knightly performing “Lost Stars”:

    Adam Levine’s Music video for “Lost Stars”:

    Jung Kook of BTS performing “Lost Stars”: