I am going to talk about some music I have varying degrees of knowledge of. Most of the music I actually knew close to nothing about. I am including music from 4 different countries, two of which I had some degree of knowledge beforehand. I hope you enjoy learning about some music you may not know.
The first musical selection is from a modern Japanese Visual Kei band called Malice Mizer. I have listened to their music beforehand, but because it isn't on Spotify I haven't listened to them as much as I would want. This band definitely does not represent Japanese music as a whole, but they do have a very big following from both Japanese and non-Japanese people. The term Visual Kei represents the dramatic costumes, emotions, and lyrics that the band has. As you can see in the video, the costumes the band wears are very elaborate as well as gothic. This song, "Au Revoir" is a very melancholic love song and I think you can tell just by the emotion portrayed by the lead singer. I found out about this band when I was scrolling TikTok and saw someone talking about them. I ended up falling asleep to a playlist of all of their songs and woke up listening to them. I really liked the band and I want to listen to them more often.
The second selection I have is traditional Klezmer music from Israel. The main reason I know about this music is because of Dr. LeBauer. After seeing her perform Klezmer-style music in Germany, I decided I eventually wanted to learn how to play that style on violin. I also saw them play Klezmer at the Jewish Temple when I saw Apollo's Fire. The stories that the group had were really interesting and the music was really fun to listen to. This video shows Itzhak Pearlman playing Klezmer for a large group. This video shows that Klezmer is about community and celebration. It was interesting for me to listen to this because I know of him as primarily a classical violinist and have not seen him play anything else before.
This next selection is definitely not what you would expect from Russia. I had heard the name Slaughter to Prevail, but I did not know that they were Russian. They are a deathcore trio that started around 2015. The lyrics are a mix of Russian and English and the content is definitely very dark. I really like this kind of music when I am in the mood for it and I am glad to have found something new. The guitar in the song "Kid of Darkness" really adds a lot to the song and the screaming is very intense and would definitely make a crazy mosh pit. The members often wear masks, which may give them some distinction in their image.
My final selection features the traditional Chinese instrument, the Erhu. While the piece I chose was composed in the early 1900s, it shows the beauty of the Erhu. I really do not know a lot about Chinese music, but I have always had an interest in the Erhu because it is so similar to the violin. The Butterfly Lovers Concerto was actually originally composed for violin and I have heard it be played before. I think it is really cool that there is an Erhu version, especially with how melodic the instrument is and how the runs can be so clean. There is also an almost race-like quality to this piece that I think really fits the Erhu.
For this blog, I asked my dad some questions about his experiences with music.
My dad is 50 years old and works as a Manager of Analytics at Spectrum. He is a huge nerd and most of what I am interested in stems from what he showed me in some way. For example, I think that my dad showing me Daft Punk made me like electronic music a lot more. Here is a picture of him.
Also, Sam was listening to me make the phone call and he said my dad sounded like a 20-year-old guy, which I never thought about.
My first question to him was what musical experience was most memorable to him. He told me that going to the Dream Theater concert was particularly memorable. He told me that the album Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory was really cool to him because it was a concept album about the singer discovering his past life, which was very dark.
This song, "Strange Deja Vu," tells the story of Nicholas seeing his past life in his dreams and it leads him to want to discover the truth. My dad talked about how he really liked the instrumentalists and I agree that they sound very skilled. The song has a dark feeling, which I think fits the story of the lyrics very well.
My dad also talked about enjoying seeing Fits and the Tantrums with my mom. He said he liked this because most of the music he listened to my mom didn't like, so he was happy that she enjoyed going to the concert with him.
Personally, I never really listened to this band, but I did recognize the song when I searched for it. I think this song is pretty catchy and sounds good, but it is not my type of music. I definitely have heard this song in my living room, but I did not know either of my parents particularly liked this band.
My dad said his earliest music memory was with the song "Hot Blooded" by Foreigner. He said that he thought the lyric "check it and see" was "chicken seed" and that he would always sing it that way when he was a kid. He said that it was really funny to my grandparents and they would poke fun at him for it.
I mentioned that I used to really like the song "Wild Thing" by The Troggs and my dad recalled that I used to always ask him to play it. I remember it being much heavier as a kid, but it actually doesn't get that intense.
When asked if anything was surprising about his music taste, he said that he doesn't think people would expect him to listen to Metallica or Megadeth. I actually did expect that, but it is probably just because I have known him for 21 years. I told him that I was really surprised when he was listening to Men I Trust because that band seems very "Gen Z" to me and it is also very soft, unlike what I am used to him listening to.
Men I Trust is a band that I listen to often, so I was surprised that my dad liked them too. He said that he likes a lot of alternative music and sometimes likes quieter music, which I did not know. The song "Show Me How" is really good for studying or doing something relaxing. The bass in the song is so groovy and puts me in a good mood.
I asked my dad his least favorite artists or genres, but he said he never listens to any music that he doesn't like so he could not think of anything. Regarding my music, he said he likes the calmer music I listen to but he does not really care for anything that has screaming in it. He verbally said "Rahhhh" to describe it, which was pretty funny to me. Regarding music that was popular when he was younger, he said that he did not really care for any of the pop music, but he did really like how Pearl Jam and Nirvana were starting to get more popular.
This song kind of became a meme recently, but I think it is genuinely a good song. If I was alive when Pearl Jam were starting up, I would probably listen to them more. I think the band has a unique sound, and I feel the same way about Nirvana.
Learning about what my dad thought about music was really interesting and I learned a lot of new stuff about him. Hopefully reading about his thoughts was interesting to all of you.
The majority of what I have played music for has been for church services. However, before I began playing music for the church where I work, I had a significant memory of playing the violin at my grandmother's funeral. My Grandma Dozer was my favorite grandparent I have ever had and I spent many summers living with her for about a month at a time. She was always very funny and very opinionated but she never said anything with negative intent for any group of people. In fact, she was a lot more progressive than the rest of my family while she was alive. My family requested that I play violin for her funeral and to play the hymn "On Eagle's Wings."
This was her favorite hymn, which made it important for me to play, but it was also the first time I ever played my violin for a funeral. I expected to be nervous, but I think I was calm because I knew it was important for me to do and that nobody would care if I made a mistake. While playing, some people began crying while I was playing which almost threw me off but I think in the end it helped me feel more connected to the music. After playing, I felt like I did a good job and felt like my violin playing made a difference to my family.
When looking for another piece I performed, my first thought was the Christmas Eve service. After thinking about it though, I realized I preferred the music for Easter. My favorite piece from Easter was Ave Verum by Mozart.
I really like the dark tone of this piece, both with the lyrics and the overall sound. The lyrics are about the death of Jesus Christ and state how he truly suffered and how blood flowed from his body. The beautiful part about this piece is how there is such a contrast with the dark feeling throughout the piece but it feels uplifting at the end of the piece. I remember thinking "This piece is so cool" when we sang it at my choir. This piece is a big contributor to why I liked singing at the Easter service so much. Many of the pieces were darker in tone which is more up my alley compared to the very happy feel of most Christmas hymns. I really like the part of this piece where there is oblique motion between the bass and the soprano line around the 48-second mark. It gives a very unsure and dark feeling to the piece. I am excited to sing again for the Easter service this year. I am now remembering that this piece was played in the anime Evangelion which is pretty cool. It was played at a very emotional scene which added a lot to the show.
Hello to anyone reading, my name is Wesley Bush and I am a junior music therapy student at Converse University. I have played violin for 10 years and while in college, singing quickly became my second strongest instrument. Singing in a church choir in Spartanburg was an important factor in my growth, in addition to taking voice lessons at Converse. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio for the first 10 years of my life and music was always one of my favorite things. It wasn't until I moved to South Carolina, though, that music became a main focus in my life. I began learning the violin in 5th grade and eventually went to the Governor's School for the Arts, focusing on the violin. My music taste includes classical music, but what I listen to the most is hyperpop, experimental rap, metal, and indie music.
Here is some music that I have some thoughts about.
This song is one of my go-to songs. This version in particular feels so groovy and makes me want to dance whenever I hear it. The lyrics are also very profound and Clairo uses the song to express how she felt isolated by focusing so hard on her work. I can relate to the feeling of isolation, but most of the time I listen to this song just to feel the energy and funky aspects of this version. There are many instrumental solos in this version, which are not included in the original, and the electric keyboard solo in particular gets me feeling so pumped. When I found this version, I would play it every time I drove my car anywhere.
This song is important to me because it is the song that got me into a lot of the music I listen to now. I remember listening to it for the first time, and I thought to myself, "What is this song? It sounds terrible." I listened to more of Bladee's music and for some reason, I started to really like the style, almost as if I got Stockholmed into liking it (Funny enough, Bladee is from Stockholm, Sweden). Another reason this song is important to me is Ecco2k's verse is so smooth and it is so catchy, I remember liking it even from the first time. In high school, I used to play this song for my friends and the majority of them did not like it at all. Eventually, though, some of them began to like Bladee's music and we would listen to it on car rides. While Bladee does not make hyperpop music, many people who listen to him start listening to hyperpop. That genre is now one of my go-to genres because of the way it seems to scratch an itch in my brain and keeps me engaged whenever I listen to it.
Thirsty by AJR is a song that I really cannot connect with. The only reason I have ever played it is to laugh at how bad it is. The yodeling is very obnoxious and the lyrics seem meaningless to me. Spotify used to try to recommend this band to me, and I have tried listening to their other music but the sound never connected with the kind of music that my brain wants to hear.
