Ari Kellen | Musical Minded

Ari Kellen's musical tastes

Is Pepsi Getting Political?

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is pepsi getting political by ari kellenThe current political situation in the United States has left many people upset and disillusioned, with just about everybody and every brand getting political.  The Women’s March back in January was a gigantic protest event that truly rocked the country, with one out of every 100 Americans taking part.  During the Super Bowl, one notable Budweiser commercial told the story of founder Adolphus Busch, which explored his early years as an immigrant with a subtext critical of Trump’s harsh anti-immigrant stance.  Even Pepsi has taken a stand in their most recent commercial featuring Kendall Jenner, yet this was pulled almost as quickly as it was released.

If you haven’t seen it yet, the commercial features Kendall Jenner, half-sister of Kim Kardashian, leaving behind a modeling shoot to join a vague protest march.  By handing one white police officer a Pepsi can, she’s able to bring everybody together.  In the background, Skip Marley’s song “Lions” plays.  The song references the Lion of Judah, a symbol in Rastafarian ideology meant to save Africans and the diaspora from the colonial powers (i.e. rich white people like Kendall Jenner’s family).  

One thing that’s always fascinated me about commercials is their ability to create unique worlds and events, if only for about 30 seconds to a couple minutes at most, that in the real world would never happen.  This new Pepsi commercial is definitely one of those, yet it’s also kind of tone-deaf.  The protests to which this commercial pays homage started out against Wall Street and the inequities of capitalism, exemplified by gigantic corporate giants (like Pepsi).  

It might seem like a complete lack of self-awareness that Pepsi would try to make itself a champion of the protestors, yet at the same time this follows one of the basic tenets of advertising: go where the money goes.  It follows a trend that various other big brands are going: Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Burger King and even the Fearless Girl statue set up by the State Street fund.  For those who are concerned about the direction of big business and our country as a whole, such moves can seem refreshing; a way to say “we’re on your side”.  But at the same time, it’s difficult to decipher whether or not they’re sincere, and whether or not these big corporations are doing the same thing they’ve always done: try and make more money, just this time with a different tone.  

Goodbye Jersey Boys

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Goodbye Jersey Boys by Ari KellenJersey Boys, the smash hit Broadway musical that tells the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, has been entertaining audiences since it first opened on November 5, 2006 to critical acclaim.  It’s won the Tony Award, adapted into an underwhelming film and weathered more than 40 seasons on Broadway.  Like Wicked, Lion King or Phantom of the Opera, it didn’t seem to be going anywhere.  But it has since announced its closing date: January 15, 2017.  There’s still some time until then for those who haven’t yet seen the show, but that ending date reminds us that even the most popular shows don’t last on Broadway forever.  

By the time it ends, Jersey Boys will have played 4,462 performances, making it the 12th longest-running Broadway show of all time.  Although four longer-running Broadway shows are still playing – The Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, The Lion King and Wicked – that’s still pretty impressive, especially when you consider that Jersey Boys has seen more than 400 Broadway shows open and close during its tenure.  Arguably the best of the so-called “Jukebox musicals”, which use modern pop hits instead of original scores, Jersey Boys is able to to use a biographical structure to avoid the problems faced jukebox musicals before it.  Presented as though the Four Seasons were singing in concert, the songs don’t express inner thoughts of the characters singing them, like songs are “supposed” to in traditional musical theater.  Yet despite breaking such rules, the show worked, setting the standard for other jukebox musicals since.  

Before the Beatles hit the shores of America, the Four Seasons were the most popular rock band in the US.  Featuring Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi, they took the country by storm when founded in 1960, and are one of the best-selling musical groups of all time.  Jersey Boys tells their story, from obscurity to superstardom.  It’s a great story and a great show, filled with great songs and wonderful pageantry.  

10 Most Annoying One-Hit Wonders

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Figuring out what makes a “hit” has been puzzling artists and record company executives since the start of the industry.  Plenty of hits are catchy, well thought-out pieces, written by respectable artists or a breakout musician on their path to greatness.  Yet not always; many unfortunate musicians fall under the category of “one hit wonder”, as they fail to follow up their one radio smash hit and spend the rest of their professional careers playing the same tired song set in front of a gradually diminishing crowd.  While plenty of one-hit wonders are great songs, others aren’t so much, and we can be all too happy that their makers became footnotes in the book of music history.  Here is a list of what are, in my opinion, some of the most annoying one-hit wonders:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68ugkg9RePc]
Blue (Da Ba Dee) – Eiffel 65: The sci-fi-video-game-themed video, featuring blue aliens in crude and choppy CGI, is so dated that watching it feels like a time portal to the start of the millennium.  Yet if you do choose to watch this video, be sure to mute it, otherwise the music will kill any nostalgia you thought you had for the 90s.  The lyrics seem to just list off objects that are blue, and the chorus is literally “I’m blue da ba dee da ba di”, as if the writer couldn’t think of anything to say apart from the fact that he was blue, and even then his insight was astoundingly limited.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkuu0Lwb5EM]
Who Let the Dogs Out – Baha Men: The only good thing you can say about this song is the clear energy behind it.  Having been active since the late 1970s, the Baha Men sing this song with the gusto of a group realizing that their fifteen minutes of fame could end at any moment.  Yet that end couldn’t come soon enough.  Anybody who remembers late 2000/early 2001 could tell you how their blood boiled hearing this song come on the radio for the 10th time in the day.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfVsfOSbJY0]
Friday – Rebecca Black: The story behind this song is a tragic one.  In all fairness, this wasn’t supposed to be a hit; it was released by the Ark Music Factory, a company where rich parents can spend a few thousand dollars to put their child in a heavily-autotuned song/music video.  Plenty of these tracks, such as “My Jeans” or “Chinese Food”, have gained Internet infamy for how bad they are, yet none have reached the level of “Friday”, a song where the bridge literally involves naming off days of the week.  Yet when it did go viral, “Friday” quickly earned the wrath of the Internet, forcing a thirteen year-old Rebecca Black into a negative spotlight which will most likely haunt her forever.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyhrYis509A]
Barbie Girl – Aqua: While the Norwegian group Aqua were definitely in on the joke of making an annoying song about one of America’s most iconic toys to parody the greed and shallow materialism of American pop culture, they got pretty carried away.  Stylized as a sort of dialogue between Barbie and her boyfriend Ken, the creepy growl of Ken’s singing makes you want to shoot your radio, while Barbie’s screeching vocals make you carry out the act.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otCpCn0l4Wo]
U Can’t Touch This – MC Hammer: Sampling a much better song (“Super Freak” by Rick James”), packed to the gills with unwarranted braggadocio and backed by an uninspired music video of MC Hammer dancing in front of a bunch of women, this song represents almost every reason people were hostile to rap when it first hit the mainstream.  Yet what makes this stand out from so many other brag rap tracks was MC Hammer’s storied ill-advised financial decisions after his success, making him some sort of Greek tragic hero in a tale about responsible spending.  Such outlandish spending decisions as putting 200 people on his payroll, building a $30 million house for himself and buying 19 thoroughbred racehorses, despite the fact that he failed to follow up his one hit, meant that Hammer’s fortunes quickly went up in flame.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rog8ou-ZepE]
Ice Ice Baby – Vanilla Ice: Much as I hate myself for saying this, as one of the first white rappers with a mainstream audience, Vanilla Ice is actually somewhat historically significant.  And if at the height of his career (i.e. this one song) Vanilla Ice were to die in a sudden motorcycle accident, he would possibly be remembered as such and earn a sort of cult following.  Yet luckily, history was kind to us.  Vanilla Ice didn’t die, went on to star in the mercifully forgettable film “Cool as Ice” and fade into obscurity before fate could turn him into a James Dean-esque hero for young rappers.  People have since been able to look back at “Ice Ice Baby” and realize that solidly mediocre rapping about a shooting you witnessed as a teenager and how good you are at rapping, is nothing worth remembering.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaUqpnHvua8]
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm – Crash Test Dummies: Despite Brad Roberts’ delusions, he’s not a particularly good singer.  Don’t believe me?  Listen to this song.  When Roberts isn’t trying to croak his way through possibly (but probably not) meaningful lyrics, he’s starts humming “mmmmm”, as if he ran out of things to say.  It almost sounds like some sort of highly conceptual Campbell’s soup commercial, where Roberts is trying to hum “mmm mmm good”, but arrived at the recording studio too hungover to actually record a decent version of it.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byQIPdHMpjc]
Achy Breaky Heart – Billy Ray Cyrus: Before jump starting Miley Cyrus’ career as part of a desperate stunt to regain relevance, Billy Ray Cyrus created this uninspired schlock that takes the country music trope of being sad and distorts it into a Frankenstein monster of sorts that represents everything wrong with both country music and the 90s.  Country music is a lot like horror movies: there’s some fantastic stuff out there, but you have to wade through a lot of garbage before you find it.  Billy Ray Cyrus is definitely the latter.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ClCpfeIELw]
Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Deep Blue Something: Catchy as this acoustic tune is, the lyrics are astoundingly stupid: a woman, fearful that she and her boyfriend have nothing in common, is contemplating breaking up.  Yet he recognizes that they both like the movie “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, which he claims is enough to save their relationship.  The sentiment is nice, but it seems doubtful that one two-hour movie from the early 1960s is enough to save a relationship.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXnF7fCCVzY]
Butterfly – Crazy Town: With their frosted tips, lack of shirts, ill-advised tattoos and even iller-advised piercings, the band Crazy Town are pretty easy to hate.  And if their appearance wasn’t enough to turn you off, the cheesy lyrics to their one hit, rich with enough obnoxious terms of endearment like “butterfly”, “sugar” and “baby” to make even Johnny Bravo blush, certainly is.

Apple’s Latest Music Service

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Apple is set to launch the latest version of the popular subscription based music platform, made popular by the likes of Pandora and Spotify. Now music labels are lining up to court the large corporation into negotiating a piece of the per-month subscription revenue. Sources are saying music industry negotiators are looking for anywhere from 60-70%of the $10 subscription fee. This is significantly more than the average split established services offer music providers, 46% according to Ernst & Young.Unknown

Of late, music labels are looking to regain revenue they may have been losing to such streaming services. Renegotiations may be coming for established services as labels are looking for high percentage of revenues.

Apple has made a habit of perfecting products and services before entering each new market. With this being their latest venture, many are being led to believe that this new market will see the success Apple has had in previous ones. This is putting the pressure on music labels to ensure a profitable deal be made with Apple in order to sustain their revenue streams.

By the end of next year, streaming music revenue is expected to top out at $1.6 billion for the total industry and labels are set on making their living on a piece of that total. This is marking a possible shake up in the streaming world. Apple has yet to sign a deal but all eyes are already fixed upon them. Keep your eyes and ears open for the latest streaming tunes come June. The move comes as Apple has seen their download revenue slip over the fast 3 years from $2.5 billion to $1.5 billion.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple is confident in their development of a top notch service and will continue negotiations with labels until an agreement has been reached.

To read the original article, please click here.

 

Rock and Roll, Not Just For Kids

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Rock and Roll has been widely considered to be a music of a young generation. In the late 1960s it was pegged as a teenage musical movement. Every generation has one of course. As a source of rebellion towards authority. But what was widely considered to be common knowledge for decades may turn out to be a fallacy.Beatles

Teenagers did love rock and roll, it defined their youth and still is blasted by all the members of the Boomer generation I can think of. But what was once thought as music that their parents turned their noses up to, is now being brought into question. It turns out the older folks of the time, who are often portrayed as buzz-kills telling children to “turn that racket off”, were listening and enjoying as well.

TIME was the original magazine to publish the demographic target of teenagers back in 1965 for rock. Now they are speaking to the elders who, in vast majority, said, “Yeah we liked it, it was awesome”(not a real quote).

Record labels were said to know of this adult “underground” of rock and roll fans from looking at their sales and numbers over the years. Folks who grew up listening to the likes of Elvis Presley never outgrew him, but enjoyed rock and roll as well. This does not surprise this writer as I have seen first hand how one can enjoy music of the past and present, even a mixture of the two.

Some interesting facts from research is that in today’s day and age, primarily teen targeted music is consumed by people over 20, 40% of the total consumption market. This goes to show that the “music of the youth” might be purely a facade as everyone enjoys good music no matter age, or time of release.

To read the original TIME article, click here.

 

Beale Street Music Festival A Success

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This weekend many music fans were “Walking with their feet 10 feet off of Beale” as the 2015 Beale Street Music Festival went off without a hitch in Tom Lee Park in Memphis, Tennessee. Headlining performers drew huge crowds to see the likes of Ed Sheeran and Hozier on the last day of the festival. Historically in any festival, Sundays are the slowest and least crowded due to it being the day before the work week begins. Such was not the case this year in Memphis as beautiful weather and great musical talent kept the crowd and the energy plentiful.john-fogerty-Ari Kellen

The organization who put the festival on is called Memphis in May recalls years past where attendance and atmosphere was not up to par due to the weather. Having great weather makes all the difference with sunny skies making the Mississippi River look as majestic as it can.

This year, acts ranged in genre and target audience as the festival drew crowds from all age groups. John Fogerty on Saturday brought in many 20-50 year olds, while Paramore and Sheeran drew in younger teenagers to the festivities. Festival organizers thought the acts out well as they appealed to not only age groupers but also home town supporters of the music show. A local group, Star & Micey played hometown favorites with their harmony and energy.

There were not only local and domestic band playing as the UK was well represented at the festival. Debuting at the stage at the UK centered venue was Britains Kaiser Chiefs, followed by Ireland’s Hozier and Ed Sheeran on the Bud Light Stage.

In all the festival was an utter success leaving an experience in the attendees mind of complete satisfaction and good vibes.

To read the original article, please click here.

 

Ultra Music

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Since 1999, Ultra Music Festival has lit up downtown Miami with lights, pyrotechnics, fireworks and lasers. As now one of the largest music festivals in the country, UMF ushers electronic dance music fans from all over the world to the city of Miami where attendees enjoy some of the hottest acts in the scene in one of the hottest city in the country.Unknown

While popularity and attendance for Ultra has grown since 1999, when it was just a 1 day festival, so to have concerns for the safety of both attendees and South Florida residents. For many years, there had been numerous reports of drug overdoses and acts of violence that occurred through the festivals run. In 2014, for example, an attendee died from a drug overdose and a festival security guard was trampled to death by gate-crashers.

Thankfully, this year saw a much calmer and safer Ultra Music Festival and the efforts of Ultra’s security department, headed by a former Miami police chief, and the Miami Police Department, are to credit for that. Many Ultra attendees are also content with the enforcement of an age restriction policy that makes the festival adult only. Many feel that having underage attendees only increases the risk of dangerous incidents and increases the rampant drug use – the claim is that those under 18 are more willing to use and abuse drugs while at the festival.

What is certain is that the Miami Police Department and other emergency services were alert, ready and ultimately satisfied with the lower number of arrests and serious emergency cases compared to previous years. Ultra Music Festival organizers and Miami emergency services representatives are looking to meet soon to go over the points that made this year’s music festival a safer one. The goal is to implement whatever works for next year’s festival while fixing any current flaws.

Want to know another thing that was certain about this year’s Ultra Music Festival? Skrillex’s set on Sunday night was amazing!

To read the original article, click here.

 

Music at SXSW

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Many have heard of the tech and music festival called SXSW. For those who have not it is a place where technology junkies, movie buff, and music enthusiasts merge together for a month long party, this year in Austin, Texas. Thousands will pour into the city to hear the music world’s top artist perform their newest and most favorite songs. They are not the only ones who will be performing though, hundreds of bands will be showcasing their skills as they preview what some will find to be a sneak peak into the future of musical greatness.sxsw-music

Look to hear the likes of B.o.B, BØRNS, Awolnation, among so many more. The headliners are the bait that brings the musical masses to the festival but it is the new artists that keep them coming back for more. Hearing new bands and artists is a way to hunt and find hidden gems in plain sight. It is exciting, sometimes disappointing but always fulfilling. When you have such an event in a city like Austin, which is so culturally diverse and rich with culinary genius, few will leave the festival not wanting more.

The music week of SXSW will take place from March 17-22. During that time film buffs will be also occupying the city soaking in their hunt for cinematic greatness. Should you want to attend all the conferences that SXSW has to offer you will need to pull into town on March 13 for the Interactive conference which covers new tech gadgets as well as a wide array of other things.

To read the original article and see the full list, click here.

 

SNL Musicians Shine

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Last night marked the 40th anniversary of one of the most iconic TV shows for generations of comedy lovers, music fans, and pop culture buffs. Saturday Night Live recollected the good times across the past 40 seasons including all the incredible musicians that have hosted, and performed in studio 8h.

Since the beginning of the show 40 years ago, comedy and music have been intertwined with an intermission given to a musical guest during every edition. Last night the three-hour spectacle did not deviate from that form with multiple performances from today’s most notable artists, along with DG SNL 40yesterdays legends.

To begin the show, Steven Martin touched on all the types of talent who have walked across 8h’s stage. When referencing musical artists he was joined by Miley Cyrus, and soon there after, Sir Paul McCartney and Paul Simon. The two Pauls then broke into song, simultaneously strumming their guitars to the tune of “I’ve Just Seen A Face”.

Keeping to their organic musical roots, SNL’s own Andy Samberg and Adam Sandler performed their own original digital short that highlighted how actors will break characters and begin to laugh during skits. Samberg is the leader of the digital short group “Lonely Island” who have left us in stitches for years after their departure from the show.

Kanye West made an appearance, performing “Jesus Walks” laying on his back on the SNL stage. Always the artist, West showed his creativity in the performance that was capped by his newest track “Wolves” with SIa and Vic Mensa. Kanye played the role of a good sport as the musical critics in the skit, Waynes World, targeted him in some well natured jokes.

Artist Taylor Swift also made an appearance in one of the skits showing her versatility as a singer and actress. It seems that musicians have been following in each others footsteps across generations to play in the fun of SNL.

To cap the night, Paul Simon closed the ceremony with “Still Crazy After All These Years” with the help of the SNL house band behind him.

To read the full article, click here.

 

Empire Music

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Music plays an enormous part in any TV show or movie, it drives the audience to feel what the character feels. In horror films high frequency strings make you feel on edge, while slow piano makes you relaxed and lets you know nothing bad is going to happen in the immediate future. In the newest hit show, Empire this is no different. It is a show about the music industry therefore one would assume that the music in the show Empirewould be second to none.

Who would have the set the hands that Fox TV would place this enormous responsibility in? None other than Timbaland, the famous producer known for his works with Missy Elliott, and Justin Timberlake to name a few. He has created iconic music for our generation that forces you to dance, even if against your will. Creating the original songs for this series is nothing but another day at the office for the iconic producer. This time around he has help from one of his protege’s Jim Beanz. Beanz wrote almost all of the original music for the inaugural season, raising his stock among the TV ranks. Beanz also plays an upcoming rapper in the series as he is blurring the lines from behind the scenes production to on the set acting.

With original music the TV executives are looking to match the shows popularity with the musical popularity. Creating a top selling soundtrack for TV or a movie almost always drives viewership of that media as well as creating another revenue stream for the production house. Shows like Glee, and movies like Django both saw success in creating original scores and Fox will look to mirror these instances.

Songs from the show have already started to peak the public’s interest as “Good Enough” showed a short tenure on iTunes top sellers list. If this is foreshadowing for anything that is yet to come with this young series, we may be seeing music from Empire on the top selling lists for many seasons to come.

To read the original article, here.