Category: Music

Music history is one of the least loved subjects among most people who choose to study music. In general, history is considered very boring, as most people feel extremely drained listening to the long lectures about what people did in the past. They often think “when I am going to become a composer or a musician myself, why should I care about what some other people did long ago?” Thus, it is very difficult to make students feel interested, or take music history more seriously. Indeed, if it was an optional subject, not many students would have chosen to learn it.

Thus, you need to be very creative here, so that you can make students see the benefit of you Teaching Music History. As you are Teaching Music History, you must see to it that the classes are interactive, and are fun. People get very tired when they have to listen to long lectures without anything to do except scribble notes. If you keep asking them questions, or ask them their opinions, they will pay more attention.

You can also include some fun activities. Try to bring older forms of musical instruments, or old pieces of music. Ask your students to prepare an assignment where they will have to play any piece of their choice, but in the way the people of a certain period played it. This will get their creative minds working, and they can understand better how music has evolved. It will help them in the long run, as they mull over various innovative ways to make their music more interesting.

You can also get them to relate the older forms of music to their daily life. As you are Teaching Music History, you can pause at a certain period, and then ask your students if they knew what their grandparents used to love listening to when they were children. This will help them get closer to their family members as well.

Now that 2010 has come and gone, we can look back on the year and see what were the best selling karaoke songs, both Pop and Country. Although there are reviews that are very similar in nature, this Pop and Country Karaoke Review is different in that it shows what people that sing wanted to perform, not just what people that love Today’s Music wanted to listen to.

Here are our top ten picks-based on sales, requests, and popularity-first the Pop List and then the Country List. Many discs that we sold during the year had several of these songs on the same disc so there is no concrete method in determining the principal song the buyer was interested in when purchasing the disc. In other words, our choices cannot be considered 100 percent accurate of which songs topped the list for 2010, but we think it comes close.

2010 Top Karaoke Pop Songs

#1 – Need You Now – Lady Antebellum ( Yes, a country group tops the 2010 Pop Music Chart; this song’s pop mix version has electric guitar replacing the country guitar twang in the chorus and the bridge.When I first heard this song I thought I had heard it before; many believe it to be similar to ‘Eye In The Sky’ by Alan Parsons. I think it’s chorus is similar to ‘More Than Words Can Say’ by Alias)

#2 – California Gurls by Katy Perry – (Katy Perry has proven to be not just a flash in the pan but a bonafied Pop Star. I, for one, thought her career was going to be short-lived when her first single came out entitled ‘I Kissed A Girl’ – the American Top 40 fanbase is fickle and forgetful. But here she is two years later with her 2nd album that has spawned 3 #1 Hits, including California Gurls. The song is catchy with the line ‘Daisy Dukes, Bikinis on top’. She does need someone to help her in the spelling department)

#3 – Hey, Soul Sister by Train – (We may have thought that Train was ancient history because it had been five years since they had any Pop Chart Success. However three of those years they were on hiatus and lookie now; ‘Hey, Soul Sister’ has brought this group back from the dead. Who would have thought that a song with a ukulele as the lead instrument could top the charts? Maybe Tiny Tim would have, but who remembers him?)

#4 – TiK ToK by Ke$ha- (A catchy tune justifiably compared to ‘Just Dance’ by Lady Gaga, this song could be a cookie cutter pattern of the many dance numbers on American Top 40 today)

#5 – Nothin’ On You by B.o.B – (This debut single from artist B.o.B features Bruno Mars on guest vocals, but the karaoke version can obviously be sung as a single artist.)

#6 – Glitter In The Air by Pink – (This song puts Pink on a whole new level. It is a bluesy, emotional, heartfelt ballad and therefore it was heavily requested. She performed this song at the 52nd Grammy Awards in a Cirque du Soleil style performance)

#7 – Bad Romance by Lady Gaga – (Another hit from the never predictable Lady Gaga. Features of this song have been compared to her earlier hit ‘Poker Face’.)

#8 – Today Was A Fairytale by Taylor Swift – (A nice little ballad featured on the soundtrack of ‘Valentine’s Day’. Although at times I find myself wincing at some of Taylor Swift’s off-key live performances, I appreciate most of all her ballads, as do many karaoke singers. Add your own vocals to the instrumental arrangements and it doesn’t matter what her ‘live’ performance sounded like.)

#9 – Only Girl (In the World) by Rihanna – (Rihanna continues her string of success, with this uptempo dance tune. This song became her 9th number one single, more than any other artist since 2000)

#10 – Just The Way You Are by Bruno Mars – (This song is not a remake of the song with the same title by Billy Joel. It is an original composition that is just so sappy that it can make you cry. Most every girlfriend, fiancée, or wife would blush to have this song sung to them, much like the official video of this song depicts. This great video and convincing vocals from Bruno Mars has made this one of the most requested Karaoke Songs for 2010)

Top 2010 Karaoke Country Songs

#1 – Need You Now by Lady Antebellum (This song obviously has broad appeal, topping both the Country and Pop 2010 Karaoke Charts. The fact that it is a duet helps since many Karaoke fans are looking for a song that they can sing along to with someone else, but since it is a karaoke track a singer can easily sing the whole song solo.)

#2 – The House That Built Me by Miranda Lambert – (This song is about returning to your childhood home that is now occupied by other people.The hope is to reconnect with a former self there, in order to heal from unspecified troubles and stresses caused by current life. The request is made to come in just one last time and “I won’t take nothing but a memory.”)

#3 – Temporary Home by Carrie Underwood (Though not as commercially successful as some of Carrie Underwood’s other singles, this song has enough feeling and emotion to make it one of 2010 most requested Karaoke Songs)

#4 – Why Don’t We Just Dance by Josh Turner (This song is infectiously fun and appealing to most all country music fans)

#5 – Water by Brad Paisley (Although not as witty with it’s lyrics as other country tunes, the song is catchy and will probably remain a song used around summer for it’s various applications of ‘Water’.)

#6 – Hillbilly Bone by Blake Shelton (This uptempo country ditty is a statement of rural pride. Note the line: “We all got a hillbilly bone down deep inside”.)

#7 – Stuck Like Glue by Sugarland (A catchy tune that, if it weren’t for Jennifer Nettle’s obvious country lead vocals, could pass for a Pop Song)

#8 – Cowboy Casanova by Carrie Underwood – (a late 2009 release that actually peaked in January 2010. This song is upbeat and similar to Carrie Underwood’s earlier hit “Before He Cheats” in that it’s message stands as a warning to girls about unfaithful men)

#9 – Rain Is A Good Thing by Luke Bryan – (It seems like a country song is either going to tell you a story or have a developing hook. For this song by Luke Bryan the development of the theme is this: “Rain is a good thing,” because “rain makes corn, and corn makes whiskey, and whiskey makes my baby feel a little frisky”. Obviously ‘corny’ but it worked)

#10 – Only Prettier by Miranda Lambert – (The message in this song is that city girls and country girls are basically the same except that country girls are ‘only prettier’.)

So, if you are a singer, 2010 gave you plenty of new music to choose from. Sometimes it may seemed that there is no good new music out there. However it may seem that way because you’ve gotten into the habit of listening to your ‘iPod’ with your pre-selected choices in music. Start making it a habit of listening to radio or turning on a music channel more often, then you’re going to find plenty of new selections to choose from.

Competitive rodeo takes a certain type of person. You must be fearless, have a death wish, and have an affinity for danger, oh and be an adrenaline junkie. Yes, there are other personal traits that you probably need, and it helps to have a conflicted personality when it comes to animals. In fact, it helps to be an animal yourself, or so the joke goes. With that famous bumper sticker; “save a horse, ride a cowgirl.” Now then, I’d like to talk to a little bit about the grueling hours of practice that must be put in to be a competitive rodeo rider, because their skills don’t come overnight, and they don’t come without heartaches and headaches.

Further, you better have a good health care program or be on the A-List for ObamaCare. Very rarely do the winnings of competitive rodeo riders compensate for the medical bills. You have to do it for the love of it, because you’re a little bit crazy and because you want to prove something. Too many in the crowd you will prove that you’re out of your mind, and to others you will prove you have superhuman strength and agility, magical. To yourself you will prove that you are tough enough at least to live another day.

Now then, about that training – you are going to need some decent music to listen to, but it’s almost impossible to keep an earbud on when riding an animal. Secondly, you need to listen and get a feel for the animal, and it’s hard to do that with the music blaring. Nevertheless, music does help in the heat of battle, and the more intense the music the better. Some rodeo riders actually listen to heavy metal, hard rock, and techno-rock. Many believe that they listen to things like Garth Brooks, and other country music. Now, they do probably listen to that, but only when they’re trying to mellow out coming off an adrenaline high.

Chances are if you are reading this article you aren’t cut out for the rodeo, certainly not competitive rodeo. Many of the competitive rodeo riders will not bother going on the Internet and reading endless dribble about their sport they are too busy doing it, they are real bad asses, real men, not pansy ass article readers. Does that mean I want you to stop reading this article? No, you’ve come to the end, why don’t you go out and ride something, and ride it like a man. Talk is cheap. That’s all for now.

It reminds you of the waltz of the bumblebees, but this isn’t a waltz and this isn’t a bumblebee.

One of the signs of summer is the arrival of one of nature’s great imposters. Their appearance signals the beginning of a new season, the time of the Bot Fly. Resembling large brown bumblebees, Bot flies herald the beginning of your horse’s summer torture.

These large flies hover and buzz around livestock hosts preparing to lay their eggs and begin a new cycle for the fly. Horses in particular are a favorite and the flies aggressively lay several hundred eggs along leg and chest hairs of the horse’s coat. The buzzing sound announces the approach of the fly and the fly’s subsequent touching of the horse’s skin, often drives horses wild. Jumping, shaking and running to evade these buzzing invaders is often fruitless as the flies will persist until they are able to lay their eggs.

To propagate the flies need to have their eggs ingested by the animal, and sometimes human, host where they grow and develop. Safely contained in the hosts stomach the eggs attach to the stomach wall and remain for 10 months. Here they are fed by the host and nurtured until hatching into larvae which pass through the intestinal track via manure.

The resulting infested manure provides the next stage in the life cycle of the Bot Fly and the larvae now become pupae. This stage takes about two months to complete and like a butterfly, the Bot Fly emerges to complete the next step in the long life cycle.

The adult fly, which resembles a hairy brown bumblebee, flies out to seek a suitable host for the next generation… once mating is complete and the eggs laid, the fly then dies and the cycle is complete.

It is amazing how life evolves to perpetuate itself but in so doing it can damage the host. The damage is usually minimal and more studies are needed to effectively evaluate the long-term effects but slight damage is done to the stomach wall. Necropsies reveal a pitted area on the stomach wall where the Bot eggs were attached. Usually the stomach heals itself but in severe infestations it can cause colic, stomach ulcers and even death should the stomach rupture. Infested horses often look poorly as the feeding insects drain nutrients and blood from the horses system. The horse’s immune system is weaker when infested and has greater difficulty with illness and with winter hardiness.

So how do you stop the Bot fly from infesting your horse? It can only be done by breaking the cycle.

In the past horsemen and women used toxic worming agents to kill the stomach eggs and special combs or knives to scrape the eggs from the horses body.

Now a greener and more earth (and animal) friendly product is used. Diatomaceous Earth is an easier all-natural way to break the Bot Fly cycle. Diatomaceous Earth, often called DE, is bad for Bots but good for horses. Feeding your horse DE on a daily basis will kill the eggs, kill the larvae and kill the pupae in the resulting manure and improve your horse’s health as well.

Diatomaceous Earth is the skeletal remains of a microscopic creature. These creatures, called Diatoms, were tiny algae from millions of years ago and left great skeletal deposits on ancient sea floors. Today it is mined and used in many ways for a greener world.

DE works on Bot Flies in several ways. First it kills the eggs and any larvae in the stomach by dehydration and then flushes them from the system. Once passed DE will kill any pupae that do hatch in the manure and the eggs and larvae of any other fly as well. Using DE will reduce the Bot Fly population in addition to the common house fly and deer fly populations as well.

Next the DE supplies additional minerals to the horses system. DE is itself a mineral (Silicon Dioxide for bone and hair growth) but includes 13 other trace minerals as well, all of which are essential to overall good health. The trace minerals are calcium, magnesium, titanium dioxide, gallium, vanadium, strontium, sodium, boron, iron, potassium, manganese, copper and zirconium. This mineral supply boosts the horse’s immune system and supports good overall health.

DE also cleans the system. Dead eggs and larvae are flushed out of the horse’s digestive system with DE and in addition it purges sand or other non passed debris also. DE will also kill other internal parasites and worms and flush them as well. A horse with clean intestines is a healthy, happy horse.

Horses should be fed about ½ cup to 1 cup of DE daily. This will depend upon the size of the horse but adjust it accordingly. A good rule is to feed 2% DE per body weight of the animal. Always start with a little and work to the full amount. This prevents a large die off of parasites which could cause distress to the animal. Start gently and in 7-10 days increase gradually to the full amount.

A WORD OF CAUTION, not all DE is equal. Food Grade DE is the ONLY one safe to use with animals. Commercial grade or “swimming pool” DE is in fact dangerous for use with people or livestock. ONLY USE FOOD GRADE DIATOMACEOUS EARTH.

DE can be fed during the fly and parasite season or it can be fed year round. It is gentle on the horse’s system and the mineral benefits make it a barn basic. Once you start using DE you will never miss this particular bumblebee imposter or his waltz again… in fact, the silence Diatomaceous Earth creates may be the only music you wish to hear.

Music is a part of everyday life. We listen to it on the way to work, when we work out, while running errands; all too often in the background. Yet, music is a unique form of expression that charts history, tradition, and culture. Music is the very fabric of Hawaiian culture, its story interweaving through the centuries and evolving to the sound you hear today. European settlers may not have discovered the islands until the 1700s, but Hawaiians discovered the gift of song well before foreigners set foot on Hawaii’s shores.

One of the more curious things about the Hawaiian language is that there is no word for “music,” but its structure has been a mainstay of Hawaiian tradition. Mele, or chanting, was a ritual in ancient Hawaii, a means of preserving ancestral history. These chants chronicled stories of family lineage and legends of Hawaiian gods, tales visually told through the dance of hula. Rituals were guided by a drum beat and a small orchestra of stones, sticks, and rattles, laying the foundation for early Hawaiian music.

Contact with European settlers in the 1700s introduced Hawaiians to the cultures of the world. Missionaries brought Christian hymns and various European instrumentation such as the flute, violin, and the piano. But the Hawaiians were more fascinated with the guitar brought by Spanish cowboys, or paniolos. Hawaiians referred to Spanish music as Cachi-cachi because their fast and improvised style of playing quickly caught on. When the Spanish returned to their home countries, they left their guitars as gifts.

Keen on creating their own playing style, locals began slackening the strings, creating a distinct finger-picking style that suited their rhythmic sensibilities. “Slack-key” guitar became a local craze and encouraged the innovation of another playing style – “steel-guitar.” This involved sliding a piece of steel along the strings, which gave off a soothing, dream-like quality that would soon become the sound representing Hawaiian music.

These innovations inspired locals to embrace other forms of instrumentation. The melody remained firmly in the vocals, an emphasis on language and culture, while the sound, just as ancient rituals had dictated, provided harmony and support. Many were discovering they had innate musical talent and Hawaii quickly garnered such talent for an orchestra. In 1915, the Royal Hawaiian Band was invited to compete at the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. This was the first-time people had heard of Hawaii, a culture and a language being expressed through song. It painted a lush portrait of the islands, an impression that everything is as melodic and polished as the music they performed.

The Royal Hawaiian Band put the culture of Hawaii on the map and it was Tau Moe, a family of four also known as, “The Aloha Four,” who popularized the steel-guitar. They were Hawaii’s very own supergroup, touring across the mainland, then the world. Hawaii’s island-born innovations and rhythmic harmonies had found a global audience.

The onset of recording made it possible for people to bring Hawaii home with them. In the 1920s, the radio programming of “Hawaii Calls” and live broadcasts of Hawaiian music made people feel as if they were truly there. Almost every hotel – the only venues big enough to house bands and orchestras – had radio equipment set up. A band that was entertaining guests was suddenly playing to the world. By the 1950s, Hawaii Calls was being broadcast to 750 stations.

Hawaiian music waned in the 60s. Local musicians like Don Ho and Joe Keawe still thrived, but mainland artists had flooded the scene, having tried their hand at the genre solely because of its popularity. Hawaiian music was in danger of becoming a fad had it not been for the next generation of musicians.

Gabby Pahinui put the emphasis back on culture. A slack-key and falsetto wunderkind, he had found inspiration through tradition. As Hawaiian music became more popular, it became increasingly about style. With mainland artists having moved on, the genre refocused on long-held cultural themes of sovereignty and national pride, thus spearheading a cultural awakening.

Hula was in the middle of a resurgence. The Merrie Monarch Festival, once a tourist-pageant, became a celebration of culture as hula groups, or halaus, were now required to create original chants for their routine. It was a license to create rather than repeat, introducing a new tradition to the festival by honoring those of the past. The Merrie Monarch gave rise to artists such as Keali’i Reichel and The Brothers Cazimero.

This renaissance ushered in an era of Hawaiian superstars. Sonny Chillingworth and Willie K were revered for their slack-key prowess, while Linda Dela Cruz and Amy Hanaiali’i Gillom’s falsetto wonder made them overnight sensations. Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, simply known as Braddah Iz, remains as the most renowned Hawaiian musician of all time. His medleys of “Starting All Over Again” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” are in syndication to this day, while “Hawaiian Supa’ Man” is a suitably mythic representation of his talent and style.

Reggae didn’t arrive in Hawaii until the 80s. Initially shunned by traditionalists, reggae’s rhythmic wonder meshed well with Hawaii’s similar music sensibilities. Hawaii has since adopted reggae and the larger Jamaican culture with open arms. The Rastafarian flag is a symbol of national pride alongside Hawaii’s own state emblem. Reggae and Hawaii are inseparable on the radio today, breeding “Jawaiian” as a popular and meaningful subgenre in the canon.

What made Hawaiian music so pivotal was the culture. It made people stop and listen. Hawaiian themes, traditions, and the stories they tell are what define Hawaiian music as a genre. So long as artists take inspiration in the language and the culture, the music will remain essential to the world.

The “Now That’s What I Call Music!” compilation series has made over thirty CDs, including country and Christmas editions and a Power Ballad album. Each season the team put together a hits compilation that features the best songs for that period. The following review of the So Fresh Hits of Spring 2010 CD will help you get a feel for the series – and the album! – before you buy it.

Hits of Spring features 20 tracks and a DVD. You can also get the lyrics online – might be a good thing for those road trips with your mates!

The album starts with a strong showing – it begins with Enrique Iglesias and his collaboration with Pitbull.

The song “I Like It” is Iglesias’ first number one hit since 2001’s “Hero.” A real favourite with many, in my view the song is competent if not outstanding. I was pleased to see Iglesias broadening his musical appeal and like the combination with Pitbull. It’s a crowd-pleasing, big sounding dance-y track and is going gangbusters on the charts.

Also featured on the album are newcomers Taio Cruz and Mike Posner, who both spent weeks on the top of the charts with their debut songs.

Both songs are young but fun songs that spent so much time on radio playlists that they got stuck in your head whether you liked them or not. You’ll certainly recognise these. Fortunately, “Dynamite” and “Cooler Than Me” are both sleeper hits, songs that grow on you after you hear them more than a few times, which is what you want from a long-playing CD compilation like this one.

Usher’s second hit single of the year, “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love,” is more of a dance song while “OMG” was a club song, but “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love” is a good example of a mature artist sounding mature while still singing songs that perfectly match what all the twenty-somethings are singing.

Ke$ha’s contribution to this disc is her fourth single from her debut album. “Take It Off” perfectly coincides with Ke$sha’s party girl image, yet straddles the line of being sexy and seductive without being trashy. Unfortunately, and perhaps a bit harshly, she is Often called a second rate Katy Perry – if that helps you get a feel for her music a little better.

Train and Rihanna both have songs on this CD, but though great songs, neither of their contributions were their best singles of the year even thus far – Train’s “If It’s Love” was definitely eclipsed by the success of “Hey Soul Sister” and Rihanna’s single “Rockstar 101” was nowhere near as much of a hit as “Rude Boy.” Still, good to have a couple of solid songs on the album by established artists.

Of course, there wouldn’t be a “hit singles list” CD without one, if not more, contribution by Justin Bieber. From his highly successful My World 2.0 album, “Somebody To Love” is the latest release by Bieber, a collaboration with Usher that, like every other single of his, went to the top of the charts.

The good times just keep rolling for this boy wonder! I’ve kind of outgrown it – so for me it’s jarring to see a sixteen year old artist that looks and sounds as though he’s fourteen singing about needing to find somebody to love – but nonetheless this song is in the top three of Justin Bieber singles, so a worthy inclusion on the album and you’ll enjoy it.

All in all, the So Fresh Hits Of Spring Album 2010 is a diverse and upbeat compilation CD with plenty of songs that are sure to please.