Musical Trends & One Good Find

04/29/2007

My students usually make me a list now and again to help me pick new music to play in my classroom. Usually I find a few bands I like in the pile, and dump the others off as Brittney Spears wannabes or rappers with no respect for women. I found a few trends in the music they liked.
(1) Rap music that is either about cheating on your woman (as if it’s a cool thing) and dumping that b**** in the trunk of the car, etc. I don’t get why kids like this kind of music and I often listen to the lyrics of the songs they claim are cool and go over them with the kids. “Are you aware that this song is about beating his girlfriend until the baby inside of her dies because she refuses to get an abortion?” They usually look at me with blank faces like they just didn’t know what the lyrics said. I had one student respond once with, “Yeah, but the chorus is so catchy.” *sigh*
(2) Girly pop music that is either about being sexy enough to get a man, trying to be someone’s girlfriend, or laughing off the fact that her boyfriend is a cheater. Again, the kids usually don’t get the implications of the lyrics and continue listening to the music despite the mistreatment of human life it implies. Some girls have even mentioned that they just assume that boys are going to cheat, so they should just get as much “stuff” out of the relationship as they can. These opinions from kids who are 12-14 years old. *sigh*
(3) Bubblegum pop. It’s still popular. The middle school kids still like the sweet, innocent, fun music that’s about falling in love or holding hands or whatever. I like that they like this.
(4) Bitter girl music. To contrast the bubblegum pop, there is always the music that is sick of women being treated as objects, being hurt, being cast aside.
61NwnC2uG9L._AA240_.jpgAside from these trends, I discovered a really cool musician that I wanted to tell you about. While I was checking on iTunes to see if Puffy AmiYumi had any new music out, I discovered a new artist named Mika. Wow.
When you read about him, you learn that he was born in Beirut, moved to Paris, then to London. While there, he studied music at the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, Westminster School and the Royal College of Music. He was trained to sing by a Russian opera professional (how many modern artists even have significant training in music, let alone in opera???). Boasting a vocal range of 5 octives, Josh and I have listened to his album absolutely amazed at not only his vocal versatility, but also his broad range of musical ability. Every song on his album has a new sound to it and it is clear this guy knows his music history, composition, connecting emotion to this work, excellent lyric writing, and catchy melodies.
Josh and I best describe his music as a sort of Queen/Freddie Mercury rock opera style, with significant touches of the Scissor Sisters, Gwen Stefani, the Beatles, The Darkness, and others. Anyway, check him out & enjoy!