Music

359 posts

Music

Adam Yauch, Co-Founder of Beastie Boys, Dies at 47

Another great artist and innovator of music died today. Adam Yauch, also known by his handle, MCA, passed away. He had been battling cancer since 2009 and was most recently unable to attend the group’s well-deserved induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Yauch, together with Mike “Mike D” Diamond formed a punk rock band back in 1979. Later, Adam “Ad-Rock” Horowitz joined Yauch and Diamond to become who we have known since then as the Beastie Boys. They were three rowdy and wild white guys from New York who started out as a punk rock band but quickly transitioned to hip hop. Their in-your-face style invaded the hip hop music scene and brought it to the forefront of MTV and radio. There is hardly any person in the generations since then who doesn’t know the party anthem, (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party). Continue reading →

I Think I’ve Discovered the Umami of Music

If you’re a pretentious foodie geek culinary savoir-faire you’re probably familiar with the concept of umami. It’s a Japanese word for the “fifth basic taste” (after sweet, sour, bitter and salty) that was only isolated and identified in 1985.

The idea of some hidden dimension of flavor is a pretty coddamn interesting one and while listening to music recently it occurred to me that my ears were detecting something similar in many new songs.  Continue reading →

An Introduction to K-pop

K-pop, or Gayo in Korean, refers to popular music from South Korea. Although K-pop covers several music genres, it is best known for the fizzy dance music performed by highly produced girl and boy bands. Although its influence is spreading outside Asia, it is especially popular in China, Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan and of course, South Korea. Continue reading →

Beyoncéspiration: The Life and Times of Beyoncé In Gifs

By Dancing Queen and LaZiguezon

Lawd have mercy on the soul named Beyoncé. Her meteoric and ever so calculated rise to success has chewed up and spit out many a lace-fronts and created haterz world wide! Whether or not you drink the Haterade, there is no arguing that betch is beautiful and unbelievably talented. Let’s take a look inside the life of the woman who runs the world (sawwy, Madonna). Continue reading →

Crate Digging #6 – Girlie Sounds: Sex, Race and Phil Spector (Pt. 2)

Shortly after groups such as the Supremes and the Ronettes released their best work, British bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Kinks and the Who released albums in the U.S. Compared to the material that had previously dominated the American pop charts, the rhythm and blues-influenced music of the British Invasion groups sounded fresh, aggressive, radical and masculine. The musical climate of the country changed quickly and it further cemented a generational divide between the kids who embraced this new rock music and their older siblings and parents who found it repellant. The British Invasion hinted at pop culture’s future; girl groups, teen idols and doo wop invoked its past. Girl groups began performing poorly on the pop charts and quickly fell out of favor. Continue reading →

Crate Digging #6 – Girlie Sounds: Sex, Race and Phil Spector (Pt. 1)

The Ronettes, early 1960s

When I initially contemplated this series, I began with the intention of exploring areas of the music world I felt merited reexamination. Occasionally, this means that I choose to focus on genres and artists that have been overlooked in their significance (Twee Pop, Black Flag, New Jersey’s musical legacy) and other times, this means that I try and advocate on behalf of artists I feel have been unjustly maligned or inaccurately judged, as I did with the Grateful Dead. Rarely, and most difficultly, those two strains intersect to create a genre/artist that feels both critically under-appreciated and unfairly appraised as insignificant fluff. Such is the case with the Girl Groups of the 1950s and 1960s. Continue reading →