What is Good music?

I am going to compare 3 music acts here (all of which were in town recently) and try to understand what exactly is 'good music'.

The 1st one is the band Yeah Yeah Yeahs.  From what little I knew of them from over a year plus ago, was that they kind of had an interesting Alternative sound to them, which I liked. Being the music fan that I am, it is only inevitable that every now and then, I would happen to stumble across cool, relatively unknown bands mostly with the general Alternative Music genre tagged on them (and this includes the fact that they are not played on our local pop-friendly radios at all). So I got the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. What few songs I heard and had liked from them is irrelevant here. The point is, when I heard they were going to be one of the first few bands scheduled to play here in Singapore this year, I was quite psyched to attend their gig. However, being a fresh graduate and prudent about my expenses, I reluctantly thought to pass up on this one just from looking at the front-row ticket price- going at $168 each if I remember correctly . In addition, I had went on Youtube to check out how this music act were live and to see if they were really worth me forking out the bucks. I came across a couple of vids which were their most popular: Gold Lion and Rich. And my verdict?

What the hell is that woman weirdly singing and screaming? hell, you don't actually call that music do you? I just don't get it. If she were anywhere close to Taylor Momsen and actually held a decent tune, I would have put my dollar bills down in a heartbeat.

Needless to say, my verdict plunged straight to a negative figure. I wouldn't pay to attend a screamfest. A screamfest by a female at that.

So the concert came and went. Apparently, the YeahYeahsYeahs got to play to a sold-out venue and people were all gushes about it the next day, especially for the aforementioned female lead singer. It seemed the gig was immensely entertaining what with her crazy antics, costume changes and props for the audience to play with (confetti and giant bouncing eyeballs among those).

Now let's move onto the 2nd one. Who else? but Green Day. Let me just get out what the general verdict was:  

'very hard to top' and 'best concert in Singapore in years'.

Among the pyrotechnics (which the concertgoers totally didn't expect btw), supersoakers, numerous crowd-surfings, t-shirts and toilet rolls being blasted into the audience, the band kept pulling fans onto the stage, one after the other. Not only to singalong but to finish off with stage-diving back down. Tell me you don't get shivers when you hear the massive crowd sing in unison with him in Are We The Waiting (which incidentally, sees a fan crowdsurfing and another being pulled onstage =D) . The highlight of the concert, from this video (of which I stumbled across before reading it in reviews) which I saw, is when another fan was pulled onstage to lead the band and sing one whole song (it almost never happens while the concert is ongoing) by himself! The stage was literally his and he OWNED it. It looked like everyone had so much fun. Since then, I have gone to watch similar vids where Green Day did this in other countries and can I just say that Singapore's the best one?? This is no easy feat, considering how uptight we generally are, and how hoarse and overwhelmed the fan must have been, how he must hold a decent tune nonwithstanding and not scream and mess up the song like what other rowdy drunk fans from all the other videos do. The Singaporean fan must have seemed dorky at first with his pseudo rock-star posturings but he finished off rocking the mic man. Mucho Respect.

In short, the charismatic veteran performer Billy Joe had the Singapore crowd eating right out of the palm of his hand, regardless of all that jazz.

Finally, onto the 3rd music act. Crowd Lu. I went down for his free showcase last Friday, not quite knowing what to expect. I mean, I've only listened to a grand total of ONE of his songs, Oh Yeah. But something about it caught my attention, could be the intricate and unconventional melody, could be his infectious upbeat manner of singing it, or ok i'll admit it, could be I just wanted to see him rock out on his guitar maybe. And that could-be something prompted me to catch him live.

My review? Well, first, Crowd is very unassuming and way ordinary-looking. His appeal definitely lies in him being humble and letting his talents (of singing and playing the guitar) speak for themselves. And his songs are just so darn carefree of which he performed three that night- 1) Oh yeah 2) I no 3) Bye bye go go. They simply have this effect of bringing a silly smile to people's faces and make them want to break out in jiggles. Not adding the fact that he always has to say 'Yeah' before executing and after finishing every song.

I'm looking forward to purchasing and playing his whole album of songs. I'm sure it will light up any of my days considerably. And the backstory of how he started playing music makes it all the more poignant. He was in a freak car accident while still studying in university and both his legs were badly injured. As a result, he picked up the guitar to while away his time and started to take it seriously. Little wonder then why his songs have such a consistent running theme of Positivity even for mundane topics like eating your breakfast in his song Rock n Roll Style. Regardless whether his record label capitalizes on his story as a marketing gimmick, Crowd's music is real and tangible. He's not just a one-hit wonder, having just won the taiwan Golden Melody awards (Chinese version of the Grammys) for best new artiste and best composer. And I do know that the Taiwanese take their awards seriously, awarding people whom they genuinely think are worthy of recognition. So big props to Crowd being the real deal, a talented musician.:D

Speaking of Crowd, so what is good music?...


...It's when you know you've got the crowds movin'.

No matter how screechy, short and ordinary-sounding, or nerdy the musician is, when you have the power and appeal to gather the masses in the form of kindred spirits who appreciate some quality about you, and when you give them a hellavu good time which hopefully they can take away for a long time to come, then they'll appreciate the goods you give. In this case, we'll call it Good Music.

Hence, the makers of Good Music darn well deserve the receivers' love and adoration. No matter how 'bad' the music is, who is to say it's not Good when you're having a good time? Then again, if you're so good technical and performance-wise but the audience is not lapping it up, who is to say it's Good?

If you could get the crowds pumping in such a place as the Esplanade like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs did, or unite the young and old folks for one night while giving fans multiple chances to come up onstage and experience a rocking time with their favourite band as Green Day did; or if you could spread the message of good cheer and attempt to change the world at large through your music as Crowd Lu does, then I very well consider their works Good Music baby!

Don't ya agree?


PS: I leave you with this visual video as an example of the raw effects Good music produces.

Bring on the next American Idol y'all!

ok, I wanted to give a follow-up to the Singapore Idol results, so Imma do it in the next post. Anways, yesterday our local TV aired (less than 24 hours after the US broadcast) the first episode for American Idol 2010. My whole family settled comfortably in their usual positions as we waited for the show to start. I actually felt a tingling sensation in anticipation. It's pretty much tradition for us to follow every season at some point. And the fact that last year's finale contestants attracted so much attention and that 'Glambert' (aka runner-up Adam Lambert) is doing so good in album sales with all that publicity, you can say that we're still in the heat and rush of AI fever you know? In addition, I had this friend whom I got acquainted with last year who blasts only American Idol music. She did this for a roadtrip we went on together and I must say, when you keep playing Idol songs one after the other for hours, it rubs off you slowly, surely and positively. Not only do you get all feel-goody, but you also can't help being impressed with the polished-ness and talent of the Idols alumni. I recommend doing the same sometime if you haven't, having just AI songs (doesn't matter if it's a mish-mash from various seasons) in your playlist and playing them all in one shot, and you'll know what I mean. The American Idol series is such a strong franchise, and is still going strong. AI means serious business. Because eventually, the winner can and will be, not only America's next sweetheart, but a world superstar.

When you look at the production value from yesterday's debut episode, there were so many human stories in the foreground of the contestants. It seemed a bit like a human-interest documentary, cuz if you notice, there were many scenes when Ryan Seacrest was hosting where he was all alone, standing at a quiet scenic place and commentating on the contestants. I highly commend the producers for really getting the essence of these ordinary people dreaming to achieve something extraordinary from their audition experiences. Not only Music, but Storytelling with heart, inspires and empowers people, and changes life. I'm ripping off the slogan of Brand's+ Wang Lee Hom's current talent search and campaign. Music is life, life is music. In this way, it's my belief that both are intrinsic. Another thing I really enjoyed about last night's debut episode, was the palpable and comfortable chemistry among the judges. They really know what they're talking about, bouncing off each other, and they are oozing with good intentions for all the wannabe contestants. After all this time, I have really come to see that Simon is a good guy after all. Maybe he has mellowed, I don't know. But he seems almost grand-fatherly in his demeanor and assessments. As one contestant commented last night, 'he's just keepin' it real. I like it.'

For diving more into the hooplah and hoo-hah of what American Idol means, 1)  imma (and you should too) check out this book which goes for lent at our local libraries:

2) and imma keep looking forward to the next episode. And to the next one and the next. Speaking of which, I'm running late into keeping this entry to the 10.30pm timeframe as the second episode is airing now as I type.

Gotta scoot. Miz Cowell, out~ ;)

And now we have the Top 3!

Anyone excited for how this year's Singapore Idol is turning out?
I know I freaking am.

Having kind of consistently followed the show since the top 13, I am quite happy with how Singapore has voted to lead the remaining 3 contestants to where they are now (note: anyone agree how weird it was that Charles chose to do a beatbox song if you call it that, as his exit song yesterday??). I am so crossing my fingers that the final 2 will be the girls. Personally, I feel that you can very much see that Tabitha and Sylvia is star material already. And they both cater to different audience and hence different markets, so it does not really matter who deserves to win. I just hope the judges will continue blatantly showing their biasness for the girls and that Sezairi can gracefully step aside in the next episode.

I am rooting for Tabitha because she is young, cute, very poppish and very Idol-like, you know? As for Sylvia, I predict she would very well be signed on by a reputable record company once the show ends even if she becomes the runner-up. Her style is for the more mature audience. I'd love to see what songs she can come up with if she's given the chance to be involved in the production of her own album. Who knows, she could even be marketed as Singapore's own Norah Jones or Bob Sinclair or something. That'd be awesome.

As for Tabitha, just give her the winner's title already! She is SO ready to be Singapore's first female Idol winner. She strongly reminds me of Kelly Clarkson cum Jordin Sparks. And look how successful they both are in the music scene now. So it's easy to imagine likewise for Tabitha.

Whatever it is, we gotta give the top 3 credit for certainly having worked very hard to get where they are now. They've got serious vocal chops and determination to win to survive round after round of elimination. I think this season makes a good example of showing that Singapore *gasps* HAS talent, and they're getting younger and more ambitious. I mean, from what I've observed, the average age of the oldest contestants is 22 and the average age seems to be 17. And if you had watched the auditions (which I recently did on Youtube), a lot of those young Idol-wannabes COULD confidently belt out a good tune.

So...it seems that there is hope yet for Singapore to put itself on the international pop music market. Me thinks Tabitha winning is the start of the shifting times and I AM pretty pumped just thinking about it. If, and when she does conquer the hearts of Singapore's music-listeners and lovers and our local airwaves next year, that could only mean future Singapore Idol seasons would live on and encourage more Singaporeans to pursue their passion in the arts.

Yeah, the show is pretty low-budget and hence lame, the talents raw, the host irritating, the sponsors shameless blahblahblah but at the end of the day, one gotta admit it kind of works. It's popular, somewhat entertaining and overall, does some good for our local music scenes.

Aren't you looking forward to the Singapore Idol finale already?? (and which I heard is taking place on 27th Dec!)

    Tabitha!!                                                                                                                                                                        Sylvia!!

Post-wedding blues

                                                        

Yesterday, I attended my first ever formal wedding dinner, since I cannot recall the last one I went to, which must have been AGES ago. Anyway, it was for the son of an old friend of my dad's.

Not used to attending formal functions of any sort, let's just say the ladies in my house went into a bit of a frenzy over getting dressed to the nines for the event. My mum especially, she had this big notion that we simply HAD to look absolutely spiffy at all costs, since we haven't really met up with the groom's family for close to ten years. For myself, I had long decided to wear either one of the two LBDs I own, one of which was gifted by an aunt and which I haven't even worn yet. I wanted to lay low in that colour you know, seeing as I barely knew that family. But then on the day itself, my dad had to casually inform, more like demanded us all not to wear black because apparently from what he suddenly recalled, that family never did think it was an auspicious colour. So in the end, I had to wear this sparkly gold and white cheongsam top chosen by my mum from my wadrobe but I had to insist on wearing good old jeans as the bottom. As for the heels, it drove me crazy. Not only am I not used to wearing them, but I think I have broad feet because whenever I slip on any kind of ladies' shoes on with or without protective gear i.e. padding, plasters,etc some part of my feet will experience blisters, pain or discomfort. So you can imagine the immense internal shudder I felt at being weighed down by the burden of donning those immensely menacing pair of shiny black heels which I had bought on a whim in Korea as everyone there were wearing them then. I really hoped I could avoid wearing them yesterday by first trying on a few of my flat sandals to go with my outfit but tragically, they didn't complete the look. So I accepted my fate, sucked it up and resignedly stepped into those heels when the time came and tottered out the door thereafter. As for my mum, she had her own problems to deal with, from sourcing out countless clothing and shoe shops to borrowing my make-up to an incident involving my old nail polish and her old stockings. Needless to say, we were slightly ill at ease from all that mini-emergencies and excitements by the time we left home.

The wedding itself was held at a club at the only ballroom there I believe. No one was being seated in the room yet  when we arrived so everyone stayed outside and milled around tables with party snacks and kept being plied with soft drinks served in tall glasses by the eager servers. One of my brothers seemed awed by the glamour of the well-dressed guests and kept bragging that his own wedding would be 'star-studded' when his time came when he was 30. He even said he was going to be 'investing in children', all 4 of them. I was quite irritated and amused by all his talk, thinking he could plan for things like that. Also at the reception was a photobook chock-full of photoshoots of the couple at all sorts of places doing some crazy poses. By that I mean like, split jumps and acrobatics in cheerleading uniforms. But there were other more conventional ones with them in gowns and tuxes swinging in a park and all. I thought to myself I would immensely enjoy doing that meself, playing dress-up and posing properly for pics. It does seem like tons of fun. And meeting the groom and his family, man, the children especially all looked very different, and were very different from how I remembered them in my childhood days. As an example, the groom's brother, the youngest who I heard was always very pampered and whom I remembered as a very nice sweet guy, was actually dressed and looked like, of all people, get this, ADAM LAMBERT, this year's American Idol runner-up- with a big padded jacket in a loud flashy red colour, black eye-liner, earrings, tons of black rings, black nail polish and his large stature. People can indeed change vastly years later huh.

Anyway, highlights from the wedding, the entrance by the best-men and then the groom, were marked by even crazier stunts by them. They literally donned sunglasses and back-flipped and swaggered in one after the other onto the aisle and then galloped and somersaulted onstage to mark each of their presence, in time with some dance music. I wish I was more in front to catch all the action, as this kind of thing you only catch on TV or Youtube (like this!) you know? And then there was even a cartoon video shown onscreen of the couple's love story, reminiscent of what was done at Fann Wong and Chris Lee's wedding. You could tell the wedding was really thought out and modernized by the young couple. Other highlights included the two wedding singers, one male and one female who entertained us all night with love songs but with a jazzy feel-good twist with their own interpretations (even despite them only having minus-one recorded music and not a live band!). There was one point where the female sang Jason Mraz's I'm Yours in a whole new freaking awesome way I've never heard of before and which I immensely enjoyed. And finally, the couple each gave a thank-you speech and which the groom mentioned, get this, his primary school peeps, secondary school peeps, JC peeps and Uni peeps all in attendance. Man, now that is called Appreciation when you have your gratitude list in order and down-pat like that. All in all, it was a cozy simple jolly affair and which the couple and their families spent all night going round the tables to enthusiastically mingle with the guests and their photographer in tow to take pictures with every single table! They were truly the celebrities of the night lor.

Of course, attending this wedding made me think a little about ahem, my own wedding. It made me think what elements I wouldn't want to include and how different or similar it might turn out. What I eventually came up with was something which would ultimately reflect who I am, my likes, my tastes and not about what the guests expect from me. But one thing is for sure, music is definitely an important element for my 'wedding'. For now, imma gonna spare you the agony and keep the rest of my fantasy dream wedding a secret.

Because at the end of the day, who knows how reality will turn out say, at least five years from now? I say five because I did a bit of calculating and came up with this figure as I feel this number of years is what it takes to truly find a best friend and then fall in love with Him. But also, I'm not forgetting the fact that for now, I hypothetically have a grace period of ten years because, you know, my bro plans to get hitched by then.

Ah well, these kinds of things, Only time will tell, man.

Thankful for: New Moon

So if you didn't know, yesterday was Thanksgiving day in the US. Apparently, the Americans like to take this time to really reflect on what they're grateful for, apart from having the traditional stuffed-Turkey meal with the family.

I noticed the considerable significance of this major festive day by the twitter trending topics such as #imthankfulfor and #iamthankfulfor. I thought it was a monthly topic kind of thing which would have made people by the likes of Paulo Coelho and Jason Mraz very happy before I realized all the Americans were twitting about how they were each going to spend their Thanksgiving. lol!

Anywaaay, for myself, while we're on the thread of gratitude, I'm thankful yesterday for being able to catch a new movie at the theatre after a drought of like, three months? To be more specific, the drought started after having come back from the US, I believe. Wow, that long. I actually did manage to catch a couple of movies while in the US- they were, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and The Time Traveler's Wife, which I shall comment on soon in a while.

When I made my way to the local box office yesterday, I could not believe the freakin long queue literally snaking on and on in front of it. I don't know if this only happens on public holidays or when hot movies are being previewed every Thursdays, hot movies like Ninja Assassin (for the parents) and...New Moon (for the kids)! Yes, New Moon was actually screening though I heard it's supposed to only open nationwide next week?? I had initially planned to catch 2012 with my brother but the only timing left was sold out (apparently this movie is doing immensely well worldwide, despite being shown here for quite some time already?).

Anyway, luckily daddy was around to let me peruse his platinum credit card so I was able to get onto the priority queue where only 2 people were in front of me. muahaha. We got our tix for:

and

[Here's food for thought: why are Hollywood films with an Oriental slant ALWAYS about the Japanese? Seriously, the Americans are freakin narrow-minded people. They think everyone either comes only from China or Japan. Maybe they even think China IS Japan. or vice versa.

Does anyone remember that announcer at the Oscar's who introduced the then nominated film The Departed as 'America's remake of the Japanese film Infernal Affairs' -_-ii Of course, when you're in America, 9.8 out of 10 people think you're a zhong guo ren simply because you're from Singapore. I've asked some American people a couple of times before where did they ever get that idea that Singapore=China from and they're stumped. My answer? HOLLYWOOD FILMS.]

Then we made our way to Fish & Co for dinner. Let me tell you, that outlet was horrible, I was so not grateful for dining there. The waiter in charge of our table, was doubling up as a seating host as well. And he looked to be the youngest there. He took way too long to serve us water, we had to request for it. Furthermore, the place didn't allow refills, saying they charged $2 for it. Their beer was out already, at like, 7pm in the evening so we couldn't order any. We had only ordered two items. The seafood platter for 2 people and the NY fish and chips which I ordered like, 10 minutes after ordering the first item. The fish & chips took 15 mins or more to arrive while the platter took ages. For that item, the prawns tasted horrible. I suspect it wasn't fresh or prepared properly, while the cuttlefish choked me every single time I ate a piece. I don't know why i was more sensitive to it among my family, but I just couldn't seem to swallow that tough piece of lining in the pieces every time and it ended up just choking me till I had to force-swallow it down. Fish & Co's food turns out nasty when they have simply too many customers. I can draw this conclusion from the last two times I ate with that brand. Fish these folks man!

Anyway, on to much more happier things, to my thoughts on New Moon! Woohoo! You ready? I was uber excited when the movie started. We waited too long for this, you know? I fully-expected the crowd to be twittering restlessly and whoop when it started or at parts of the film (like when Robert makes his appearance, hello? he was swaggering in slow-mo with his outer shirt blowing out and all for goodness sake) But nooo, typical Singaporeans are subdued and hushed down when the lights dimmed. Maybe it was reverent silence? The audience was so different from the US ones man. Don't people go to theatres to enjoy movies collectively and react, laugh, cry, sigh at appropriate moments? That's what happened when I caught Transformers in a full-housed theatre in the US, at Salt Lake City, no less. The people were whooping, whistling and cheering all in jolly good fun- at the start of the movie, when Megan Fox first appears, etc.

Back to New Moon, the presentation of the title in the beginning is quite creative and builds the suspense for fan-viewers. hehehe. However, other than that, the relevance of the title New Moon to the movie is quite null. If it were up to me, I would simply change the name of the film to "New ensemble line-up, new Jacob Black."

I want to give Taylor Lautner (the guy who plays Jacob) two thumbs up man!! He portrays the character perfectly. He made Jacob that reliable friend to Bella without being annoying and overbearing, and man, he worked real hard on his teenaged body! When I was reading the twilight book, I was Team Edward all the way because I felt Jacob came off as pushy, angsty and irritating. I couldn't ever understand those people who were on Team Jacob. Let's just say now I do. :)

I feel this movie is more for the fans. You have to understand the full story to really appreciate the characters and the movie overall. The movie tried to fit as much of the plot in and didn't have too much reinterpretation by the director, which was good enough for me. Furthermore, the dialogue lines were less emo and cheesy this time round. I want to give Kristen Stewart two thumbs up too. She plays up the tortured and emotionally-inflicted Bella very well. People may say she was too broody in the first film but here, it legitimately suits her fittingly. Me thinks she has the potential to be a great actress. Lastly, the people who played the Volturi(the ruling vampires) were almost exactly how I pictured them to be. Brilliant casting I say. Meanwhile, I felt the director should have played up the story of the werewolves more, because that is where the title came from. The pack came off looking like twins and had brief and forgettable appearances. Anyway, enjoy the pics:

^Oww! Mamma mia...

^*shivers* Chillingly good-looking vampires with their iron-straight hair of course.

Go catch New Moon if you like the Twilight books, or simply, for the hot shirtless guys ;)

PS: I've always had a thing for male bad-ass characters with long straight flowing locks. Like that vampire guy in Hellboy 2 and Malfoy's dad in Harry Potter. Who wouldn't?