Vinyl

Recently I heard on 92.3 WTTS that vinyl sales are up. This makes me very happy. Too many people illegally download all the music they listen to. For the past several years, virtually all musicians were only making money from touring rather than record sales. I think listening to rock n roll the way they did in the 60's and 70's makes people believe that there is something to be excited about in music again. More and more vintage sounding rock n roll bands are bursting onto the scene, and now with the change of the decade, I believe rock n roll may be able to take back the music industry from rap. Optimistic, yes. Impossible, no.

OK Go Concert

Last week I attended OK Go's concert at The Earth House in downtown Indianapolis. The Earth House is a relatively small indoor venue on the corner of New York and East Street that holds about 150 to 200 people. It used to be a Methodist church and now is a coffee house in the downstairs and a concert venue in the upstairs. OK Go had a projector running behind them on stage that showed clips from their music videos as they played. Also, it displayed live footage from the cameras on the front of the microphones, and in front of the drums as they played. During a number of songs a confetti machine shot out different colored confetti into the crowd. On one song a table of hand bells was carried out and the whole band played them. For the on-core, the band came out with laser pointers on the end of their guitars. I was impressed by the band's ability to produce a technology-filled show that remained personal and fun a small audience. Yay OK Go. Check out their awesome new video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

Girl Power

It seems that over the past year or so, solo female artists have been dominating the charts and the Grammy's. Smash hit Lady Gaga burst onto the scene last year and began selling records like crazy. Her hits "Poker Face" and "Just Dance" took slots 3 and 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 year-end chart for '09. Additionally, her latest monster "Bad Romance" continues to grow in popularity. Beyonce Knowles, perhaps the most successful artist of the last decade, experienced great success this past year with her album I Am Sasha Fierce. The album's most successful tune "Single Ladies" won the 2009 Best Music Video Grammy. Taylor Swift won Best Album at the Grammy's last year for Fearless. Her pop-country hybrid style seems to be working out splendidly. Don't forget there are other ladies that will be coming back on the scene soon. While "Rude Boy" is a catchy tune, I'm sure my favorite female artist, Rihanna, has more in store for us soon.

Top 20 Songs of the Decade

These are what I believe to be the top 20 songs of the decade according to popularity, radio time, and chart success. I tried to have absolutely no bias in ranking these songs (I don’t even like some of them). Let me know what you think, give suggestions, make criticisms, tell me what I missed. But mostly, enjoy some of the best music of an era when punk children’s Bibles were American Idiot and artists like Jay Z and 50 Cent gave “swag” to even the whittest of Catholic boys.

1. Yeah! – Usher Featuring Lil John & Ludacris
2. Hey Ya! – Outkast
3. Bad Day – Daniel Powter
4. Crazy in Love – Beyonce Featuring Jay Z
5. Boulevard of Broken Dreams – Green Day
6. Bye Bye Bye - *NSYNC
7. I’m Yours – Jason Mraz
8. Lose Yourself - Eminem
9. Hey There Delilah – Plain White T’s
10.Toxic – Britney Spears
11. Smooth – Santana Featuring Rob Thomas
12. We Belong Together – Mariah Carey
13. Low – Flo Rida Featuring T Pain
14. In Da Club – 50 Cent
15. I Gotta Feeling – Black Eyed Peas
16. Umbrella - Rihanna
17. Hollaback Girl – Gwen Stefani
18. Poker Face – Lady Gaga
19. Beautiful – Christina Aguilera
20. Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfiled

Honorable Mention goes to:
Irreplaceable - Beyonce
Single Ladies - Beyonce
Viva La Vida – Coldplay
Hot in Herre – Nelly
Say My Name – Destiny’s Child
This Love – Maroon 5
Since You’ve Been Gone – Kelly Clarkson
Unwritten – Natasha Bedingfield
Sexyback – Justin Timberlake
Temperature – Sean Paul

I will try to extend this list to a top 50, but this is what I have for now.

Paul and John

There is no doubt that the Lennon/McCartney songwriting duo was the greatest in history. However, what can be called into question is which of the member was more talented. I would say Paul, by a long shot. Here's why: When you think of the Beatles, what are the first songs that come to mind? My guess is that among them would be Yesterday, Let it Be, and Hey Jude. All of these songs were written by Paul. While John did write fantastic songs including All You Need is Love, Across the Universe, and Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds; I personally would always prefer Penny Lane over Strawberry Fields Forever and Maybe I'm Amazed over Imagine. I have other reasons for having prejudice against John including: Yoko, sacrificing music for politics, rude comments about George Harrison. If ignored all of these I would still vote Paul more talented. Your thoughts?