The song presentation I chose to write about in this blog post was Nick’s presentation  for “Party Hard ” by Andrew W.K.

The first thing that went through my mind when looking at this on the presentation list was, “What is party metal?” so I had to look it up. I had never heard this song before today, but I suppose I can say that it’s not  terrible, I am ever so slightly impressed. The fast paced nature of the music is energetic enough to catch one’s attention, and the guitar work in the background sounds something common of a 2000’s alternative rock song, the mix of this together makes for something that pumps adrenaline through your veins, it’d be interesting to see a mosh pit for this kind of music going!

Now that I’ve been introduced to this genre I may start listening to it more, cool song and unique thing to choose to present.

The presentation I’m choosing to write about is T.J’s presentation on “Octavarium” by Dream Theater.

This song is my favorite out of the songs chosen from our class to present. This song is an absolute work of creativity. The sounds made in the music of this work feel almost other-worldly, not to mention the guitar work is absolutely gorgeous, it almost relaxes you. Normally a 24 minute song would be too much for me to take, but this song is intriguing enough to keep my mind busy for minutes at a time with no problem.

Let me just rant about my appreciation for Mike Portnoy. This man would be among the top five greatest drummers in my mind, not only is his work with Dream Theater legendary, but everything he’s ever collaborated with has been given a special touch that you can easily recognize as Mike Portnoy’s work. For example, take a look at some work from the Winery Dogs, a band him and great vocalist Richie Kotzen collaborated on:

Since I got that out of my system, back to the subject of the presentation. Dream Theater is a band I’ve always appreciated, they’ve been more than able to create sounds that catch your mind, sounds that haven’t been used with synthesizers since the work of the one and only great rock N Roll hall of fame inductees Rush. This sort of prog rock sound mixed with a progressive metal makes for one of the most unique kinds of bands. To conclude this blog post, I’m going to share a link to one of my favorite songs off of Dream Theater’s 1992 album, “Images and Words”, the song that will always initially be associated in my mind with Dream Theater:

This song is the reason I had ever listened to dream theater; but side note, I think this might be a shortened version of the original album song. But regardless, thanks for reading through this and if you’re listening to the links I put in this blog I hope you enjoy.

The  genre I am addressing in my presentation is early 2000’s (female) pop. The specific artist I chose was Avril Lavigne, but many other popular women also created music in this genre at the time, i.e. P!nk, Michelle Branch, Alicia Keys, and Nelly Furtado. Many songs from this genre have become huge recognizable hits that are still often heard on the radio, examples can be seen  below:

“I’m Like a Bird” by Nelly Furtado

“Sk8er Boi” by Avril Lavigne

“A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton

These examples, along with many others, defined a decade of pop music and can still be heard on many stations today.