Category Archives: Musical Matters

Talks about various subjects related to music.

Good Life, eh?

August 4, 2011 by Frederick | Comments Off

I was at a Passport Canada office today, waiting for essentially two hours for my two minutes of attention. (Seriously, it took that long to get from C360 to C364… and all I really did was fill out my address and sign a slip…)

Anyways. That’s not the point of this post.

When I used to work for my local municipality, one of the regulations was that the radio equipment could only be set on certain approved stations. This made sense, because hundreds of patrons (many of them families and young kids) certainly would have objected to hip hop music riddled with vulgar and offensive lyrics.

I thought Passport Canada, a federal government agency, would have similar rules. And I think they do follow them. It’s just that radios are sometimes lax with how family-friendly their songs are.

Good Life by OneRepublic is one of my favourite songs. Compared with some things I experimented with a few years ago, it’s actually not so far a departure from my old classical preferences. Except, of course, the part about the B.S. that don’t work now.

I enjoy this song. A lot. Really. And this is hardly profanity.

But does it really belong in a public waiting room where hundreds of English-speaking patrons come and go?

Mongolian orphan delivers heartfelt performance

May 30, 2011 by Frederick | 1 Comment

This is a clip from a China’s Got Talent, also known as “中国达人秀”. For those of you who don’t speak/read Chinese, that’s okay—I’ll summarize the boy’s backstory (and the song is in some Mongolian dialect anyways, so few in the audience actually know the lyrics).

Major take-aways (Mandarin speakers skip my notes):

  • This boy comes from the Mongolian plains.
  • The boy’s dream is, translated literally, to invent a (figurative?) ink of which drops can turn the ground into vast plains of greenery.
  • When asked what he’s singing, he responded that the title of the song is (and I paraphrase), Mother in My Dreams. (the song has a distinct ethnic feel)
  • “Then, where is your mom?”
    “Mom is in heaven.” (audience gasps)
    “And your dad?”
    “Dad also died, in a car accident.” (more gasps)

  • In the middle of the performance, one of the people on stage reflects, “this song… we don’t need to know the words, because you should feel what he’s singing.”
  • He’s a little off-tune when asked to sing a cappella but soon finds his key. In an emotional moment, this is understandable.

The deeper meaning behind Friday

April 7, 2011 by Frederick | Comments Off

Who honestly thinks these lyrics are meant to be about foreign policy or financial stability?

Kickin’ in the front seat
Sittin’ in the back seat
Gotta make my mind up
Which seat can I take?

Originally I said: Sorry, Rebecca. You’re too young to be making up this kind of BS. Hire a better publicity agency next time — and don’t try justifying the stupidity of the lyrics.

EDIT: Apparently this is satire. The fact that so many of us were so ready to believe in Rebecca Black’s stupidity says something.

Symphony of Science

May 23, 2010 by Frederick | Comments Off

I just discovered this amazing series of music videos, created by running catchy quotations from notable scientists through Auto-Tune. They seem like a new generation of religious art.

The Symphony of Science is a musical project headed by John Boswell designed to deliver scientific knowledge and philosophy in musical form.

With Carl Sagan, David Attenborough, Jane Goodall, Richard Dawkins among many, these inspiring videos communicate the value of science.

Beautiful.

Taylor Swift?

March 18, 2010 by Frederick | Comments Off

I never thought the day would come when I would acknowledge that I like modern music.

A year and a bit ago, in December of 2008, I decided that I would solicit music suggestions. A week afterwards, I acknowledged that I appreciated Viva la Vida and soundtrack music.

In the time since then, I have become an aficionado of Taylor Swift’s country pop music, among other artists. (I’ve also developed a liking for Owl City’s Fireflies and Vanilla Twilight.)

Swift’s award-winning You Belong with Me deserved its prize.

It is worth acknowledging that her songs, with few exceptions, are almost exclusively about rosy romance (think Love Story, You Belong with Me) or broken hearts (e.g. Picture to Burn, White Horse). Which means that they’re about the same thing.

Love Story is quite overplayed, so I’ll leave you with Fifteen.

Watch more Taylor Swift music videos at VEVO or track my taste in music.