Stumped, right?
Well, folks, that's what this week's blog is about. If you noticed that the new music out there hasn't exactly set the world on fire, you are not alone. One look at the Billboard Hot 100, and you pretty much get the idea. Now, I am sure that if you're young, you'll point to Drake's "One Dance" as THE song; it was number one for eleven weeks the first half of this summer season, and it's in the lead for Billboard's "song of the summer". And to be honest, I haven't heard it yet. I may consider adding it in the future, but there has been no pressure to do so. After all, none of my friends have posted this song, or even talked about it. Certainly not on the level of "Happy", "Call Me Maybe" or "Uptown Funk", or even last year's SNS summer winner "Thinking Out Loud". In fact, the only near-current song that people seem to like is "Cake By the Ocean", which reached #2 on my blog chart in the spring, but that song had peaked nationally a while back as well.
Yes, Red Hot Chili Peppers holds at #1 for a fifth week on SNS, and it has reached the top spot on the various rock charts, but again, nobody aside from me has even mentioned the song, and it could do no better than #67 on the rock-depleted Billboard Hot 100. Justin Timberlake also had a top song, "Can't Stop the Feeling", which I haven't listened to (yet), but even the most ardent hip-hop friends on Facebook haven't posted this one either. Sia current sits on top of the national chart with "Cheap Thrills", and I plan to add that next week, but still...
Major Lazer? The Chainsmokers.? Who are these people? Granted, three songs in Billboard's Top 10 are on my list---Twenty-One Pilots, Calvin Harris featuring Rihanna, and Adele, but to be honest, I don't really "feel" any of these records...yes, even Adele, who loses her bullet at my #11 this week with "Send My Love (To My New Lover)".
And as you probably know, I've drifted behind on my blog, pumping out two this week in which I didn't even post on my Facebook timeline. And, like I did frequently in the mid-2000's, I've switched to listening to oldies and classic hits from the 1960's through 1980's in particular. And rock music...make that NEW rock music... has been pretty much non-existent nowadays, more than ever. When Coldplay gets upstaged by Beyoncé and Bruno Mars at the most recent Super Bowl halftime show, that is a statement right there.
Okay, I am not knocking hip-hop or today's pop music. But I was born and raised on rock and roll, and have seen it go through all it's permutations. And it's so hard to believe it has been shunned the way it has been. Thus, my question is, do I continue downloading and listening to new music, not really getting into it, and watching sources (and my wallet) wither away? After all, good rock is still there, but unfortunately it has become a hardship trying to find it.
So, here are my reasons to discontinue tracking music here in 2016:
1. Soul-less pop music. As I mentioned before, there is rock out there. There is also good pop music, but it seems even that has dwindled. Artists like Katy Perry at least could come up with stuff like "Last Friday Night" and "Firework", and Pink, Lady Gaga and others had some good product. But Gaga's latest barely scrapped the Hot 100, Perry debuted at #11 and dropped out of the top 40 the next week with her bland "Rise" (which drops back into the Tremors list this week on SNS). While digging deep can mine some gems, the ones at the surface leave so much to be desired. I download seven to eight songs each week, but it's hard to spend a buck and a quarter for music that has pretty much gone disposable. Even artists who I embraced in the past, such as Adele, have gone more to the mainstream, and Fitz and the Tantrums have leaned that way too, in an effort to break pop, which so far has backfired.
2. Where is the Rock? I've been an alternative rock fan since the late 1980's, and there has been an ample supply of it. And I am glad to say that music coming from that genre and format is still in good supply, but even some of that just doesn't move me anymore. I used to relay on websites such as recd.lbl.com for obscure bands, and I discovered some gems like Golden Void and Ty Segall, but that was shut down a few years ago. Fordham University radio station WFUV discontinued its The Alternate Side and its top 20 survey. The show is reduced to Friday nights, but the top 20 is history. There still are other sources to mine some good rock, but it's dwindling. And while country is a very viable alternative (no pun intended), I don't follow the country charts that much, and rely on television performances or suggestions from friends who are into that genre.
3. Waning interest from friends. I have balked at posting new music on my Scenes n' Soundwaves Music Page on Facebook, since people prefer older music. I did get some likes on the two I have posted on my timeline: "Dark Necessities" and "HandClap", but I haven't gone crazy in posting. Even Brian Sniatkowski, who posts his "Song of the Week", a great source for my new music to check out---the new Eagulls song was from his recent post---is more of a "song of the month" these days.
4. Unable to Get to a Song First. In my early days of my blog, I jumped on Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" four months before the pop stations did. The same for Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks" which hit the top of my list five months before it peaked on the pop chart. Ellie Goulding's "Lights" hit my #1 spot at the end of 2011 before anyone knew who she was, but didn't peak on the Hot 100 (at #2) until the next summer. Those days are gone, and for the most part, it's "follow the leader" for me. With rock music all but dead, my songs come and go. Just once, I would love to see a song I embraced, take hold on the pop chart months later. Twenty-One Pilots are the only alternative band that have been getting hits, and to me, they aren't earth-shattering.
5. The Time Factor. While I have been doing a better job of keeping up this blog than I did in 2014 when I had unexpectedly took two extended hiatuses, it's been a hardship doing this, and listening to new music when some great memories get evoked listening to songs from decades past. And yes, some of my early blog-era songs have been nostalgic, too as it is hard to believe it's been six years this month that I started this. But, with a night job sucking the life out of me during the day and other priorities, it's not easy to keep this going on.
So, you ask, what is the reason to keep this going?
Well, take a look at the following entries in the list below: Two entries from Paul Czekaj, and one each from Us Commoners, The Billy Spanton Band, Rachel Allyn, and Phoebe Ryan. Up and coming stars, or just friends who love to play music. And there is more on the horizon: Other local faves like Omnia Hegazy and her sister Leila, who have joined forces with their new band Hegazy, hoping to write and record soon. Matt Weiss, from Long Island, who had a top 5 last year with "Black Magic" is also talking about forming a band and releasing new material. Tom Corea is back in the studio with The Hounds of Winter and a new Sarah Jean album(or at least a single or two) is promised as well. Christina Taylor is turning heads in her native Charlotte, after changing her name from Taylor Centers. I a also looking forward to the debut from the Above Ground Blues Band, who killed it at last month's WNTI festival. Having friends who perform (or know people who do) is what it's all about, at least for me. Some classic rock, some contemporary pop, but the hunger and rawness that abound when an artist gets the inspiration to write and record, is priceless.
And for that reason, I'll keep this thing going.
AUGUST AND EVERYTHING AFTER: In future weeks, I'll be talking about my "song of the summer", and some stories about seasons past and the classic Sirius XM channels I've been listening to, plus anything that pops up in my head that is relevant to music past and present. So, stick around!
BRIEFLY: It is a fifth week for Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Dark Necessities" holding off Paul Czekaj's "That Old New Jersey". Fitz and the Tantrums and M83 take spots 3 and 4, dropping Us Commoners to #5. The new one by St. Paul and the Broken Bones, "All I Ever Wonder" has the high debut at #80 in a still-competitive SNS 100. It's the lead single from their upcoming second album, Sea of Noise, due next month. Their debut Half the City, produced three SNS top five songs, including the #1 "Call Me". Just behind is an unexpected new find in Michael Kiwanuka, "One More Night", coming in at #82. He is a soul artist, in the Leon Bridges vein, but has been compared to classic soul artists such as Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield and Bill Withers. One to watch.
Scenes ‘n’ Soundwaves 100
August 7,
2016
| This Week | Last Week | ARTIST-Title | Weeks on List |
| 1 | 1 | NUMBER ONE:
"Dark Necessities"
Album: The Getaway
(4 weeks at #1)
|
11 |
| 2 | 2 | Paul Czekaj - That Old New Jersey | 9 |
| 3 | 5 | Fitz and the Tantrums - Complicated | 5 |
| 4 | 6 | M83 - Go | 6 |
| 5 | 3 | Us Commoners - The Hot Spot | 9 |
| 6 | 4 | Kaleo - Way Down We Go● | 20 |
| 7 | 9 | The Revivalists - Wish I Knew You | 11 |
| 8 | 8 | Cage the Elephant - Trouble | 10 |
| 9 | 11 | Mayer Hawthorne - Cosmic Love | 13 |
| 10 | 14 | Finish Ticket - Color | 7 |
| 11 | 12 | Adele - Send My Love (To Your New Lover) | 9 |
| 12 | 17 | Billy Spanton Band - Shake Your Soul | 5 |
| 13 | 7 | Trent Harmon - Falling | 13 |
| 14 | 23 | TOP 20 IMPACT OF THE WEEK:
"Believe You're
Mine"
Album: You Know Who You Are
|
15 |
| 15 | 22 | City and Colour - Wasted Love | 9 |
| 16 | 19 | Beck - Wow | 8 |
| 17 | 10 | Fitz and the Tantrums - HandClap● | 16 |
| 18 | 18 | Bishop Briggs- River | 11 |
| 19 | 13 | Pink - Just Like Fire | 8 |
| 20 | 21 | Flume f Andrew Wyatt- Some Minds | 8 |
Tremors:
| 101 | 97 | Katy Perry - Rise |
| 102 | 99 | Bell X1 - Out of Love |
| 103 | 102 | Bastille - Good Grief |
| 104 | 103 | Mass Gothic - Every Night You've Got to Save Me |
| 105 | Wilco - If I Ever Was A Child |
| 106 | Leagues - Dance With Me | |
| 107 | 104 | Pierce the Veil - Circles |
| 108 | 105 | The Unlikely Candidates - Your Love Could Start a War |
| 109 | Nothing But Thieves - Wake Up Call |
|
|
Songs
with the greatest increase in favorite points over the prior week.
● Songs
with 25 or more plays on my iPod.
▲ Songs with 50 or more plays on my iPod.