My Music Collection

[Bloop]

I live for music so I wanted to create a thread with some of my favourite songs

I'll start with my favourite song - Mad World by Gary Jules featuring Michael Andrews. This song is a cover of the Tears for Fears version.
It featured in the film Donnie Darko (2001) and hit no. 1 on the UK charts in late 2003, becoming the Christmas number one single.

Thanks to my friend from here who played this on the piano for me and whom I will always think about when I hear this song.

 

[Bloop]

Bob Dylan (Robert Allen Zimmerman)

Bob Dylan is one of my favourite artists. His music is incredible, his lyrics are incredible, his voice - eh, I'm inclined to agree with people that say he sings through his nose. His recording career has spanned over 50 years and he has influenced tons of great artists. If you've heard All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix, Knockin' on Heaven's Door by Guns N' Roses, Make You Feel My Love by Adele or Mr. Tamourine Man by The Byrds, you have heard a song written by Bob Dylan.

He also released his debut eponymous album in 1962, a year I consider to be one of the most important in history. It was the year The Rolling Stones formed, The year the first Beatles song was released and the year Bob Dylan started. The Beatles were influenced (positively?) by Bob Dylan and vice versa. Their '66 album, Sgt. Pepper's; heavily influenced by Bob Dylan.

Stuck in the Middle with You by Stealers Wheel (you know the scene in Pulp Fiction with Mr. Blonde and that cop), a parody of Bob Dylan. It's true what Quentin Tarantino said: "and when you do it right and you hit it right then the effect is you can never really hear this song again without thinking about that image from the movie."

Subterranean Homesick Alien by Radiohead (OK Computer) was a take on Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan.

The song Hurricane featured in the 1999 film "The Hurricane" starring Denzel Washington as Rubin Carter.

The Times They Are A-Changin' featured in Watchmen (2009) near the start with the comedian scene.

Red Hot Chili Peppers covered Subterranean Homesick Blues.

Hendrix, Beatles, Johnny Cash, Velvet Underground, Neil Young - all influenced in some way by Dylan.

Too bad his record label take down all videos of him, mardy gits. This is the best version of Blowin' in the Wind I could find.

 

[Bloop]

Ambient

So I came across a nice song in my library just now. As requested (by the emote king) it is an ambient song.

Hoppípolla, Icelandic for hopping into puddles?!? Maybe someone can confirm that lol. It's by the Icelandic band Sigur Rós and was released as a single from their album Takk... in 2005. It was the trailer music for the BBC Planet Earth series and the end credit for the MOTD broadcast of the 2006 FA Cup final and 2006 World Cup. It's used a lot for film trailers (Slumdog Millionaire, Children of Men), sports promotion (F1, Football, Rugby, Tennis) and shows like the X-Factor and Britain's Got Talent - I'm sure you get the picture, I'm just babbling.

Anyway, Chicane produced a really good electronic/trance remix of the song in 09, worth checking out.

The one I'm posting is an instrumental version by Sigur Rós. The original vocal version is nice too but this one I find is just so very beautiful.

 

[Citizen Insane]

Hey Cicada.

Technically ambient music has no "beat" to it or a clear rhythm. I have that album as well, Takk by Sigur Rós, it's not my current taste in music anymore though. I went underground. :afro:

Though the genre ambient has many sub-genres. Like dark ambient (foreboding, ominous, or discordant overtones) for example.

Celer - The Carved God Is Gone; Waking Above The Pileus Clouds

This song to me is like... a pillow to dry my tears on. The song is there for me when my mood is very low.
Like affirmation, it speaks: "Yes, your life is indeed a gigantic mess... but let me show you a new path."

Language in music is universal I assume, for humans at least. There are no lyrics, no chorus or something like that. It's just there for those are willing to experience different emotions than just the straight forward positive ones.

 

[Bloop]

Emote King :hug:

Thank you for the explanation of the genre! I have not listened much so sorry for the mix-up. I would assume it is more art rock or something along those lines?

Language in music is universal I assume, for humans at least. There are no lyrics, no chorus or something like that. It's just there for those are willing to experience different emotions than just the straight forward positive ones.

I think you said it perfect, music does not have to be in your native tongue or even have lyrics to be appreciated. Nor does it need a chorus, beat or a guitar shred and I think the song you posted is a good example of that. Very simple, but at the same time it is a beautiful song with a strong message. Thanks for the reply :yay:

 

[Bloop]

Gangsta’s Paradise - Coolio featuring L.V. (1995)

Let’s venture into hip-hop and rap. This is one of my favourite and most played songs. It is lauded not only as one of the greatest hip-hop songs in history, but also as one of the greatest songs of all time. I don’t really know what it was that made this song so big, but all I hear about is how it exploded worldwide. It’s pretty rare that a rap song does that and to hit no.1 in 17 countries is pretty special in my book. It was on the soundtrack to the film Dangerous Minds, which was released in 1995, so maybe that is it?

The track samples a huge chunk from Stevie Wonder’s “Pastime Paradise” (check it out if you haven’t heard it), which was released during his 1972-1976 classic period. The five albums Stevie released during that time are arguably the greatest consecutive string of albums in history. When you consider that he was in his early 20’s when he released them, it just makes you scream genius. He actually loved the song and performed it live with Coolio and L.V. in 1995.

Weird Al Yankovic made a parody of Coolio’s version, titled “Amish Paradise”, absolutely hilarious, please listen if you haven’t before.

They say I gotta learn
But nobody's here to teach me
If they can't understand it, how can they reach me?
I guess they can't
I guess they won't
I guess they front
That's why I know my life is out of luck, fool

I don't really know what is with his constant need to say "fool" at the end of sentences, but it does crack me up.

 

[Bloop]

Sting (Gordon Sumner)

As a solo artist and with the Police, he has sold over 100 million records. He has written some amazing songs over the years with the Police, but my favourite from his solo career has to be "Englishman in New York". My dad is a big fan of Sting too, I'm sure he saw him live. Anyway, we both love this song, it's just so cheery and uplifting.

Nicknamed "Sting" for the black and yellow striped sweater he would wear while performing with his former band. Do you remember Eddie's father (bar owner) from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels? That was Sting lol

Fun fact: He played Garry Kasparov in an exhibition game in 2000, along with fellow bandmates: Dominic Miller, Jason Rebello, Chris Botti, and Russ Irwin. Kasparov beat all five simultaneously within 50 minutes.

If I ever get to visit New York I'll be singing the chorus non-stop:

Woah, I'm an alien, I'm a legal alien
I'm an Englishman in New York
Woah, I'm an alien, I'm a legal alien
I'm an Englishman in New York

 

[Bloop]

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Bob Dylan, Nas and RHCP make up my top three artists, therefore RHCP are my favourite band? I grew up listening to By the Way (2002) and the title song is among a list of 21 songs (out of 6250 in my digital library) that are extra special/significant to me. John Frusciante is a killer guitarist. Flea is a complete nutter. Anthony Kiedis is "only the most sexiest and talented rock artist alive" (Urban Dictionary). I could write more but I'm a bit hungover and can't be bothered.

 

[Bloop]

The Tracks of My Tears - Smokey Robinson and the Miracles

This song was released in 1965 and The Miracles were known as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles through 1965-1972. They were the first act signed on the Motown label and really the first artists to have major success on the label when they reached recording sales of one million. The song has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and is listed by Rolling Stone magazine as #50 in its listing of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (I'll cover my thoughts on the whole list at another point). I don't know much about the group or the song so I won't go into too much detail on that. It has an emotional connection with me due to the nature of the lyrics, especially in the first half of the song. It puts my depression and mood swings into a perspective better than I ever could.

People say I'm the life of the party
Because I tell a joke or two
Although I might be laughing loud and hearty
Deep inside I'm blue

So take a good look at my face
You'll see my smile looks out of place
If you look closer, it's easy to trace
The tracks of my tears

The rest of the lyrics descend into a story about a past relationship which is probably the meaning behind the whole song. This doesn't really apply to my life or have significant meaning to me, but... I like to interpret and relate to music in my own way and the first part that I included above reminds me of what I have been through with friends, family, college and university.

 

[Bloop]

Reggae

I'll have to do another post about Bob Marley at some point but this one is for Johnny Nash. I have tried to find out the meaning behind the song "I Can See Clearly Now" but honestly, to me, it is a song of pure hope and motivation for people who have been through shit in their lives.

I think I can make it now, the pain is gone
All of the bad feelings have disappeared
Here is that rainbow I've been prayin' for
It's gonna be a bright, bright, sun-shiny day

So if you have seen Cool Runnings you would have heard a cover version of this song by Jimmy Cliff. If you haven't heard the original, take a listen and I hope it can brighten up your day as it has done mine. Choo-choo :yay:

 

[Bloop]

Daft Punk

I'm going to go so far as to say much of the popular dance music we hear today is a result of Daft Punk's work. In 2007, Kanye West releases the album Graduation, which includes the mega-hit single “Stronger”, taking heavy samples from Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". It’s success encouraged hip-hop artists to use electronic elements and revived disco house. In 2009, David Guetta produces two hits: “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas and “When Love Takes Over” by Kelly Rowland. The overwhelming success leaves pop, R&B, and hip-hop artists desperate for a new sound. It was around this time we saw the emergence of artists like Lady Gaga, LMFAO and Calvin Harris. Plus hundreds of mainstream progressive/electronic house producers.

In 2006, during Daft Punk’s “Alive Tour” at Coachella Valley Music Festival, they introduced a pyramid-style stage with unique lighting and visual effects. I have seen the full concert but it's over an hour long, so I've included a small snippet of the light show below.

 

[Bloop]

Daft Punk: Part II

Just a small entry about their name and my favourite song from them. In 1987, musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (that's a shortened version of his name) and Thomas Bangalter meet at school in Paris. In their first live band performance, a critic called them “daft punky trash.” Amused, they call themselves Daft Punk.

My favourite track by Daft Punk would have to be Veridis Quo, from their 2001 album Discovery. It also happens to be the most played Daft Punk song in my library, according to my Last.fm account. No vocals, just a very simple, relaxing build up of instruments and sounds to make a truly wonderful song.

Some of the explanations of the song title:

Veridis Quo - clever wordplay on the Latin phrase "Quo vadis?" meaning "Where are you going?"
Veri dis-quo - can be read as "very disco", Daft Punk considered the album to have a disco feel
Very Disco - If you rearrange the two words and put them together you get "Discovery", which happens to be the name of the album that this song features on

I don't really care about any of that right now if I'm honest :lol: It's almost midnight and my head hurts just trying to think about it. I'll include the song and you can search about it if you find it interesting.

 

[MisterBGone]

I'd say your music collection and taste in music is quite impressive! I very much like how you tell a story about each as well. I feel it enhances everything when we hear what you have to say. Keep it up!

 

[Bloop]

I'd say your music collection and taste in music is quite impressive! I very much like how you tell a story about each as well. I feel it enhances everything when we hear what you have to say. Keep it up!

Thank you MisterBGone :hug: Music has a special place in my life and each song can tell a completely different story. I don't read too much into lyrics, but I like to find facts about the artists and their albums/songs. Just something that helps pass the time for me. Thanks for the reply :yay:

 

[Bloop]

Genres

I listen to different genres of music depending on what is going on in my life. There is different music for good days, bad days, happy days, sad days.

For when I'm revising - Classical, Operatic, Jazz, New Age
For when I'm dancing and/or drunk - House, Trance, Pop, R&B, Rock & Roll
For when I'm happy or relaxed - Country & Folk Rock, Reggae, Soul, House, Dubstep, Pop, Heavy Rock, Psychedelic/Progressive Rock
For when I'm working out - EDM, Hip-Hop/Rap
For when I'm angry or royally fucked off with the world - Heavy Metal, Hip-Hop/Rap
For when I'm depressed - Symphonic Metal, Heavy Metal, New Age, Alternative Rock, Hip-Hop/Rap
For when I have a headache - Country & Folk Rock

Obviously that list is compressed somewhat. I wouldn't be able to fully expand on sub genres without taking up too much space. Often times I don't really listen to one particular genre of music continuously. I seem to just go with whatever song that comes into my head or whatever I like the look of while scrolling through my library.

 

[Bloop]

Evanescence

I'm sure many of you have heard of this band. I guess they are relatable? It's like they are saying to me through their lyrics, "don't worry, I know what you've been through, I've been going through it too, together we will make it."

Bring Me to Life is the first of their songs that I heard. It hit number one in the UK in 2003, staying there for four weeks. Beyond that song, I didn't really know who they were until I was 16 maybe. I've listened to music my whole life, but I only fell in love with it when I was 13 or so. That's when I really started to learn about and enjoy different kinds of music. I'm only 20 now so I don’t know a whole lot about music, but that's the great thing about it – it's something you can constantly discover and appreciate as you get older. I'm kind of split between "Lithium" and "My Immortal" for the song that helps me the most when I am down in the dumps. Lithium is very very dark and depressing, but My Immortal resonates with me a whole lot more and it's my most listened to Evanescence song by a long shot.

 

[Bloop]

Dubstep

I have spent a long time organising my music library. Yesterday I finally got round to updating the rest of my dubstep songs. No easy task when a lot of dubstep artists are on small labels or are self-releasing a lot of tracks. I had already done this a few years back but somehow my whole music collection disappeared from Itunes and I had not backed up a lot of the recent songs I downloaded, which just had to be dubstep ones. I managed to get them all back in my library through my downloads folder but a lot of them didn't have entries for "Artist", "Album", "Album Artist", "Genre", or "Year", and even the song names were messed up *face palm*. I spent a while yesterday tediously entering all this information for the final 50 or so dubstep songs that were missing stuff. Thank God it wasn't all of them.

I like to listen to each song while I am modifying it too. So I'll be listening to "Rolling with the Punches" by Peverelist (as I am now) and looking for the album name, year it was released, any featuring artists and reading a little about the artist, all in the length of the song and then I move on to the next one. That's why it becomes a bit tedious, 50 songs at around 4/5 minutes each on average, sometimes going to 6 mins, becomes a long day of organising music. It has its ups though, I learn about the producers and discover new artists and songs as I am going.

A lot of dubstep artists are influenced by hip-hop (which is not surprising considering the origins of the genre) and I even came across a dubstep artist whose influences come heavily from jazz. One of his tracks has been noted as sounding similar to "A Night in Tunisia", by jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie. So I got to hear that song for the first time yesterday as well.

I don't listen to dubstep very often, but thoroughly enjoy it when I do. I will have to do more entries on the genre as I have several favourite songs. But, at the top of that list is "Psychedelic Runway" by Joker. It has minimalistic vocals and is very repetitive, but in a good way. Just sounds so raw to me and that's what I like about it.

 

[Petal]

Evanescence

I'm sure many of you have heard of this band. I guess they are relatable? It's like they are saying to me through their lyrics, "don't worry, I know what you've been through, I've been going through it too, together we will make it."

Bring Me to Life is the first of their songs that I heard. It hit number one in the UK in 2003, staying there for four weeks. Beyond that song, I didn't really know who they were until I was 16 maybe. I've listened to music my whole life, but I only fell in love with it when I was 13 or so. That's when I really started to learn about and enjoy different kinds of music. I'm only 20 now so I don’t know a whole lot about music, but that's the great thing about it – it's something you can constantly discover and appreciate as you get older. I'm kind of split between "Lithium" and "My Immortal" for the song that helps me the most when I am down in the dumps. Lithium is very very dark and depressing, but My Immortal resonates with me a whole lot more and it's my most listened to Evanescence song by a long shot.

[video=youtube;5anLPw0Efmo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5anLPw0Efmo[/video]

I love this song, it's really sad though so sad that sometimes I feel guilty for listening to it because I can relate to it so much. Great song my friend :hugs:

 

[Bloop]

I love this song, it's really sad though so sad that sometimes I feel guilty for listening to it because I can relate to it so much. Great song my friend :hugs:

Thank you Lynn :hug: I feel the same, the lyrics hit me hard, especially the following:

These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase

 

[Bloop]

Most Listened to Artists (2011-2015)

I've been scrobbling music to last.fm for a while now and it puts all my music into a nice little library. I can see all the artists I've listened to, all the songs I've listened to, the amount of times I've played each song, and even what I've been listening to during a specific period (last 7 days, last month, last 3 months, last 6 months, last 12 months).

I thought I would add the list here and see how it changes in the future. This is since I joined up to the in 2011. Anyway, here is the first page of my most listened to artists, 18 in total, and my most played song by each:

1. Nas (788 plays) – Most played track is The Message (70 plays)
2. Eminem (480 plays) – Most played track is Mockingbird (64 plays)
3. Wu-Tang Clan (465 plays) – Most played track is Shame on a ***** (53 plays)
4. Dr. Dre (424 plays) – Most played track is Nuthin' But a "G" Thang (49 plays)
5. Red Hot Chili Peppers (413 plays) – Most played track is This is the Place (20 plays)
6. Daft Punk (333 plays) – Most played track is Veredis Quo (22 plays)
7. Bob Dylan (298 plays) – Most played track is Blowin' in the Wind (38 plays)
8. Tupac Shakur (284 plays) – Most played song is Ghetto Gospel (53 plays)
9. Eagles (282 plays) – Most played song is Peaceful Easy Feeling (19 plays)
10. Adele (276 plays) – Most played song is Rolling in the Deep (39 plays)
11. Jay-Z (242 plays) – Most played song is Heart of the City (Ain't No Love) (39 plays)
12. Evanescence (197 plays) – Most played song is My Immortal (57 plays)
13. Pink Floyd (193 plays) – Most played song is Comfortably Numb (22 plays)
14. The Prodigy (190 plays) – Most played song is Warrior's Dance (28 plays)
15. AC/DC (174 plays) – Most played song is Back in Black (40 plays)
16. Coldplay (172 plays) – Most played song is Fix You (19 plays)
17. Outkast (168 plays) – Most played song is B.O.B (17 plays)
18. Eric B. & Rakim (161 plays) – Most played song is Paid In Full (Seven Minutes Of Madness - The Coldcut Remix) (10 plays)

Now that surprised me a lot. 8 are hip-hop artists. Many of the most played songs are not my favourite of the respective artist. That was cool to look at I Will do the next 18 in a moment.