Pussy Riot are Finally Free!

Earlier this weekend I finally heard some good news about the Russian band “pussy Riot”. After a year in jail, the girls are finally free.

Pussy Riot were originally formed in August 2011. The band included 11 girls that protested for LGTB rights and opposed to the Russian president Putin.

The method was quite simple, yet very provocative. The girls set up “guerrilla performances” in public places around Moscow. They performed and sang their provocative songs like “Kill the Sexist” and “Death to Prison, Freedom to Protests”. Later on, they would edit their performance and created video clips for fans to watch.

In March of 2012, three of the Pussy Riot band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich were arrested and later convicted for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred”. They were sentenced for two years in prison.

The arrest and conviction of the three girls for Pussy Riot attracted criticism and protest mainly from the west, but particularly form female artist like Madonna, Tory Amos etc. that called for the release of the girls, for human rights and for the freedom of speech in Russia.

This weekend, after a year in prison, all three girls were released from jail and are now free.
This is a story about music bravery, about feminism and about strength. It’s a story about believes and about protest.

In history, that is exactly how big revolutions starts - with just a few people believing for something and going through with it.

To me, the price the Pussy Riot girls paid is extremely heavy. The history tells us a lot about the Russian regime and it’s way of dealing with protesters, but during the Pussy Riot sentence I kept believing there would be a different end to all this.

Pussy Riot are true contemporary heroes. They helped spread a word. They helped raising a difficult subject to the Russian agenda and they paid with a year of their lives.

This is yet another case that shows the power of music, and it’s a story worth telling.

2013 OST

2013 is just about to be over, and thinking about my year I can’t just ignore the artists and bands who made it for me.

This is no musical chart or yearly countdown, it’s just my yearly musical map, might even say – my 2013 soundtrack.

Miley Cyrus

It’s been a very busy year for Miley Cyrus, no doubt. She’s been through a lot, and done a lot, and wasn’t wearing a lot at all. I’m not sure whether I like her way or not, to be honest, but I sure respect her success. This year “Wrecking Ball” went completely ballistic. It may be due to her not wearing anything, or because she’s licking a hammer there, but after I listened to this song, reluctantly, for about fifty times I learned to really like it. It’s a great pop song, after all! And you just have to like her. Even if she doesn’t like her clothes…

Lorde

She’s young, beautiful, talented and she amazes me. Might be the best break- through of 2013, and I’m so grateful for the people who discovered her for me. We need more like her! She sounds right, her songs are fresh and interesting, and she brings something so new and so special. It was defiantly a love form a first listen.

Justin Timberlake

2013 started out not so well for Justin. At least this is how I see it. When “suit & tie” – the first single from “the 20/20 experience” came out I was really disappointed. Not just me, by the way, a lot of critics and reviews were a bit on the fence when it came to the choice of this single as a first one. Anyway, everything turned around when “Mirrors” came out and brought the old Justin that we love so much back to us. Or back to me J

Lana Del Rey

Oh. Lana. I’m having a long term relationship with that beauty. I fell in love with Lana back in 2012 with “Summertime Sadness” and those butterflies keeps on dancing in my stomach for over a year now! Lately, Del Rey released her new single “Young and Beautiful “which knocked me down completely and utterly! This has been a great year, for Lana, and for me, with Lana.

Daft Punk

Back in 1997 I discovered Daft punk with “Around the World”. The beat was great and the video clip was even greater. At the beginning of 2013 I heard about the upcoming album of Daft Punk and I started to get excited. And it was so worth it! “Get Lucky” literally blew me away, and it still does every time I listen to it.

Passenger

I never heard of passenger until this year. I really don’t know why. I first got to know “Let Her Go” by Facebook/Twitter shares my friends used, and since then it’s one of my most played songs on my playlist, especially in these winter days. I missed having those soft rock ballads around and now I have my own winter ballad to cuddle with.

Ed Sheeran

The “A Team” was one of those songs, that when you listen to for the first time you think you've heard it before… sounds so pleasantly familiar.. I loved it from the beginning. Then came along “Lego House” and many more, and it seems I can’t get enough from the lovely Ed Sheeran.

The Lumineers

Hey Ho! Happy, light, fun and heart-warming. Just the right formula for a winning and long lasting hit. One of the best songs of 2013 by far (even if it originally came out in 2012, but still) kept listening to it all throughout this year and love every single time!

So, that’s it. It’s time to say goodbye to the great 2013. It was a fabulous year for me. It really was. It was one of the most challenging, most inspiring and rewarding year of my life so far, and this music made it even better. All I have to wish for is for 2014 to be exactly like this, only better.

Marry Christmas and a very happy new year for us all!

2013- My Year in Music

2013 is almost over now and I sat down and went through what’s been going on in the music industry.

So these are the songs that made my year:

10. Katy Perry – Roar
“Roar” came out on August as Katy Perry new debut single from her album “Prism”. In this case, I heard a lot about the song before I even got the chance to listen to it due to massive buzz over it. I love the song, it was catchy and bouncy and it was a perfect fit for Katy Perry.

9. Will I Am – Scream and Shout 
Will I Am could not loose with this song. He knew exactly what to do and how to it, to create the perfect hit for 2013. The song came out, and was played twice an hour on every radio station in the world. The simplicity was the brilliancy of it all and almost a year after I can’t stop humming this song every once in a while.

8. Justin Timberlake – Mirrors
 I was really disappointed with the first single from Justin’s album “The 20\20 Experience”, “Suit & Tie”. When “Mirrors” came out, I forgot all about it, and fall back in love with the good old Justin which sings in a very distinctive style, exactly the way I like it.

7. Miley Cyrus –Wrecking Ball
You can say what you want about Miley’s clothes, hair and choices, but you can’t take away the fact that Wrecking Ball is an amazing song. I admit I was a bit stunned with shock when I first watched the video clip, but after I got adjusted I noticed that behind all those walls Miley’s trying to wreck, hides a really good song after all.

6. Robin Thicke – Blurred Lines
Talking about being stunned over a video clip…. The funny story is I loved this song and only later I watched to clip and saw what it was all about. So first of all, the clip is great, and sassy, and whatever, but this is a very cool song, with a cool beat and some cool girls too…

5. Taylor Swift – I Knew You Were Trouble
There’s something really great about Taylor Swift, she’s beautiful, she sings and writes, and she dates. A lot. But this year she also had a great hit to be proud of, and nothing could fit her more than this song.

4. Avicii – Wake Me Up
“Wake me up” made Avicii what he is today, and he’s huge!! The 19 year old boy went enormous with that great classic, and made our summer crazy and fun.

3. Passenger – Let Her Go
One of the best song of this year is “let her go”. A modern classic that touched hundreds of hearts across the world and is definitely here to stay.

2. Deft Punk – Get Lucky
It took a while for them to come back again but they've made it and in the best way there is. Daft Punk were the thing to talk about this year, with Numerous awards and shows this was definitely their year.

1. Lorde – Rolyals
The best song of the year, to me, comes from the best artist of the year, to me. Lorde is so young and so talented it’s a bit scary to think where she would be in two years’ time if this is the way she sounds today. And damn, she sounds good. “Royals” made my year by far!

So, that’s that for 2013. We had some pretty good stuff coming our way this year. I wish that next year would be as good as this one and may we listen to some great music forever.

Happy holidays and a happy new year to you all!!

Indie or Pop?

A few months ago I read an article saying that one of the reason we heard more indie music this year is due to the fact that pop music went bad.

I have to admit it made some sense to me.

Bands and artists like Lana Del Rey, The XX, Arctic monkey etc. where never a real a part of the mainstream musical scenery. Today you see those artist reaching top 10 at Billboard every week.
It’s easy to think of them as mainstream themselves, but the truth is their music is very different from what we used to hear before.

There are two ways to look at this situation. The first is to admit that lately we get exposed to a better, more sophisticated kind of music. The current offerings are more diverse, deep and meaningful. Young teenagers get to listen to different kind of music than what we might have been exposed to ourselves at that age.

But there’s another way to think about this. Have we ever thought what exactly made us look for that kind of music in the first place? The most popular artists we used to know, artists like Madonna, Britney Spears and many more used to rule the hit charts almost solely. Could it be that their delivery was not good enough we had to get up and look for something else?

Maybe this new indie tolerant situation is an end result of us trying to find something else to listen to? Maybe those well-known artists all sounds the same? Or maybe just not good enough?

It’s hard to put the finger on this course of change. I remember being a young teenager and see the same five artists rule the chats with two or more of their singles every single week. Now, those artists are still present in the charts but they have new competitors. Competitors that brings a whole new wave and fresh way to listen to music.

2013 might not have been the greatest year for mainstream music artists and we see it clearly now when all music award events looking exactly the same. But, if this situation will expose us to newer more innovative music, I think we’ll be able to gain a lot from that.

Maybe these days aren’t the last days of pop music. Maybe, we are looking at the end of the distinctive term “Indie”. Maybe Indie music would turn into our new mainstream music.

Thinking about it this way, it’s the best news I’ve heard all year!

Bound To Love?

It starts with wild horses running. Great feeling of freedom and beauty. The music is soothing...

Then it changes.

Two minutes later we get an extremely close visual of Kanye west and Kim Kardashian’s sexual relations. Too close a look.

It’s problematic in so many ways I can’t even think about!!!!

First, why? Why would anyone, no matter how extravagant, want to share something like this with the rest of the world? Putting your own wife naked for the world to see?! While moving in a very very, too explicit way with her… Why!?

I don’t have kids. But someday I will. And it would be extremely disturbing for me to think about them watching this. This, coming from a married couple, parents to a very little baby. A little baby that will grow to a world where mom and dad are showing way too much of their “love”!

The lyrics are also extremely disturbing. It’s very degrading to women wherever they are to listen to these kind of words. Kim Kardashian’s husband by law and the father of her baby sharing his love to her by saying: “I wanna f*** you hard on the sink, after that, give you something to drink”.

Is this the right way to speak to a woman!? Any woman, let alone your own wife!?! It’s so hard for me to think that this is what Kanye West considers as a love song!

Where are the days when man took the time and effort to write true and passionate love songs that were bound to melt hearts!?

I’m horrified and disgusted!

I guess it’s no wonder Kim Kardashian doesn’t know any better than this, and it’s also no wonder she didn't have that “talk” with her mom about how man should treat you.

Once upon a time there were real men. Those real men went through so much trouble winning their loved one’s hearts by giving them flowers and then rings, and later protecting their wives from the world, keeping them safe from disgrace and shame.

The Kanye West\Kim Kardashian’s fairy tale ends a bit differently. The loving husband puts his topless wife on a motorcycle singing he wants to f*** her. Heroic!

It’s more than a race for money or fame. I know millions have watched this clip by now and millions will keep watching and talking about this. I know Kanye West got what he wanted, but what does it worth when you can’t even call yourself a real man?

I’m happy for Kanye and Kim being passionately in love the way the supposedly are, but sorry, I’m disgusted. And so should you.

Like a Rolling Stone - The video Clip

Yesterday a friend told me that Bob Dylan now has a new video clip for his song “Like a Rolling Stone”.

Apparently this song never had a video clip of its own, and now it has. She also told me that the video clip is unique because you can watch the clip in multiple channels.

I have to admit I had no idea what she was talking about, let alone why it was so great. Deep down inside I knew I once heard about this Israeli project that created a platform where you can watch video clips with various options like different endings or characters.

Later on that day I watched the news and they also started talking about this project. They aired a few glimpses of the clip and it looked amazing.

I watched the video myself, zipped through the channels and was amazed
.
Now. Stop reading and watch this!!!
Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone

So the story is quite simple. Two Israeli guys thought it’s a shame a classic and huge song like “Like a Rolling Stone” doesn't have a video clip. One of them was Yoni Bloch, an Israeli Musician\song writer that now lives in New York and Vania Heymann, an Israeli Director.

They decided to work on that song solely because it never had a proper video clip. Yoni Bloch has been working on his project “Interlude” in the past few years, which is made to create those kind of videos. Multiple options videos.

I have to admit that when a first heard about this project I was pretty skeptic. The idea was nice but how many videos like this can you watch?

Well, after watching Bob Dylan’s clip I say you can watch tons of videos like that because it’s so fun!

The greatness of this particular video is the accurate way it was made. Vania Heymann filmed 19 (!!!) different scenes, a news broadcast, a cooking show, an hip hop video clip, parts from known TV shows and many more including peices of Dylan's preformanc with "Like a Rolling Stone", all perfectly synced with the song’s lyrics. When you zip through the channels the zipping is very smooth, works perfectly well and there’s even a TV banner included just to make it feel more like your own TV.

This video clip in extremely innovative and it’s such a pleasure to see it come to life with a great song like “like a Rolling Stone”.

Long Lasting Hit

Know that feeling when you listen to a new song and it sounds familiar?

Well, that happened to me about a year ago. I was sitting at home with the radio on when something that I recognized but wasn’t sure about was starting to play. I found out it was Snow Patrol with Chasing Cars.
I didn’t know the name of the song, but I was convinced I heard about Snow patrol in the past, still – I wasn’t convinced. The video clip looked updated and new, and the radio kept playing that song again and again like it was a brand new single.

Then, something weird happened.

I was watching some old episodes of Grey’s Anatomy season 2 (yeah, I know! It just took me a while to like it and now I can’t stop!), when suddenly Chasing Cars was playing in the back ground. Come to think about it – that episode was initially broadcasted in 2006! I was right! The song is not a new one after all.

The thing is, that song story in truly amazing. Chasing Cars was originally recorded in 2005, and was released in the UK in 2006. The timing was perfect. The song arrived to the music market right when legal downloading of music became popular. Chasing Cars became the bestselling single in the UK to this date!

At first the song had a first video clip version, but right after its appearance in Grey’s Anatomy the clip was edited and clips from the series was added to it. The new and secondary version of the clip failed to catch on so a new, third version was made. The third version of the clip is the one we know today.

The song hit the number 1 place on UK charts every year ever since solely based on its legal download sales! Every year from 2007 until 2013!

In 2013, the radio stations and MTV started playing the song massively. A song that appeared to be a brand new hit but actually is 6 years old.

Chasing Cars is a classic example of the modern classics. The crowed and the listeners voted that song to be that successful. Until this very day it’s the bestselling single of all times when talking about legal downloading.

That’s why that song is kept alive. That’s why I thought I knew it, because I did!

I think it’s a rare story of musical success and it’s something most artists today should aspire to. Being popular solely for the music. Grow from within the crowd’s love. Being a bestseller in terms of legal downloading and not just because some radio editor is in good terms with the record label, but because you’re worth loving, and paying for.

Chasing cars is a great song, an old and long lasting classic that is kept alive by its fans.