Recently there was yet another singing show that came out on TV. At first glance I thought it would be just like every other singing show. People dress up, sing, and eventually someone wins some money for their time and effort. I waited about two weeks to watch it because I wanted to see what other people were saying about it. The more ads I saw for it the more I wanted to watch it!
After the first episode I saw that this was much more than just some singing show, these were stars singing! It could be a famous movie star, or someone that sang back in the 60’s! The show definitely gives suspense the whole time, because you do not know who is under the mask. The singers not only wear a mask, but they have an entire outfit! They are all different animals, and the costumes are funny yet very strategically made. The best part is the fact that they cover up their voices when they just simply talk. There are judges, but they are basically like detectives because they are also trying to figure out who is behind the mask.
Overall this show is a very good watch because they keep everything a secret. The singers have to give hints every week on who they may be. Most of the time the hints don’t give much away, because the singer doesn’t want to give too much about themselves away. Every week there is one singer that has to be “unmasked” and you get to see who they are. Often times it is very surprising! You get to listen to who could be your favorite movie star, or athlete, sing your favorite songs!
I’ve had Hulu for a long time, but I just recently noticed America’s Got Talent on there! It was last years competition and I haven’t seen who the winner was yet, but it always seems to narrow down to a singer, or a group of singers. Don’t get me wrong, they have a lot of talent! I could listen to choirs all day if I had to, but I feel as if singing isn’t nearly as hard as dancing, or doing acrobatics.
The reason I bring this up is because we all have spent many years doing something. Whether it is playing an instrument, playing video games, or gymnastics. In my opinion, I feel if you’re putting your entire mind and body into something such as dancing, that requires a lot more talent than singing. There are acts on here that have light shows that go with dancing. These people are dancing in completely dark rooms with lights one their clothes, and let me tell you, it looks like the characters from Just Dance came out of the console and onto the AGT stage!
Singing does require years of work and preparation, but there are many other shows and opportunities you can get into. You don’t have to be wildly famous to make a lot of money off of singing, you could be acting in musicals, or even get into broadway! AGT has a wide range that they take in, some are very odd, and others are actually very good! Singers are amazing, but I feel they flood AGT just a little too much. They seem to put down a lot of other talents as if people are thinking “If you can sing, you can do anything!” Which I feel is what happens. Don’t give up singing! I would never say singers aren’t amazing, because they really are, but AGT seems it is for talents that are more technical and harder to master.
First of all, spoilers! If you haven’t gotten the chance to watch The Greatest Showman, please do so! It is absolutely amazing, and I have nothing against it. Throughout the movie you continue to feel bad for the character P.T. Barnum in the movie. He meets this girl he loves, but he doesn’t think he will be able to get her because her father hates him. He is a boy from a very poor family, and his love is from a family that is very wealthy. Her father tells Barnum he is nothing, and will never be anything.
Eventually he and the girl run away, and they’re poor again. She doesn’t mind because she is with him. They have children and he’s trying to make the best money he can. He decides to open a museum basically for the strange. It’s people that you just wouldn’t see everyday. Fast forward through the movie and the place ends up burning down.
After talking to a few people, and a lot of research, I found out that a lot of what he was doing was actually a sham. The dwarf that you see in the movie was actually a 4 year old in real life! One of his most famous hoaxes was The Fiji Mermaid. People came from all over the world to see this mermaid, because who wouldn’t want to? It turned out the “mermaid” was actually made of fish and monkey body parts. Weird, right?
Not only did he fake a lot of his performances, but those performers were often forced into this. He had an elderly, blind, and paralyzed woman he claimed to be over 100 years old, and George Washingtons former nurse. Although she was under 80, that still did not give him the right to parade her around the world. After she passed away, Barnum did not seem upset, in fact he actually sold tickets to her autopsy!
We spent two hours rooting for a man we thought was a great family man. We thought he cared about people around him, and who he was working with. We are all very wrong! As I said in the beginning, the movie was very good! The music was fantastic to listen to, but the story seemed all wrong.
Have you ever gone through your day with just one song stuck in your head? You can’t get it out no matter how hard you try. It wasn’t even a song you heard today! You could’ve just been thinking back to a certain memory you had, but it’s just one certain part of that song.
It turns out this happens to everyone, and if you’re like me it could happen almost every day. As it turns out, the more musical you are the higher the chance is for you getting songs stuck in your head. I recently read an article about this exact topic because I was interested to see what answers I could find. The person that wrote this article calls these little phenomenon “ear worms”, which sounds gross, but it sounds exactly how it feels. The part of your brain that percepts music, the auditory cortex, was shown to be active when this phenomenon is happening.
In their study they found that songs with longer notes and smaller intervals will stick easier to your brain. There was also another study that shown the easier the song is to sing will also make it easier for it to stick to your brain. It makes sense because we normally don’t remember something that is hard. They say it is easier to get a song stuck in your head during your daily activities, mainly just things you do consistently.
The only way you can get rid of an “ear worm” is to simply not think about it. It has been said to stay even longer if you try to think about it going away more. It’s hard being in an environment where you consistently listen to music everyday, but you can never get away from it. I guess a lot of people are right, musicians brains really don’t stop thinking about music!
Being that most of NFL’s fans are now people who grew up watching Spongebob, we all expected something big from them. Even the parents of those who grew up watching it love Spongebob too! Earlier in the year there was a petition for the NFL to put in “Sweet Victory” in the halftime show. As you could imagine, many people signed it, and I’m sure the NFL did recognize it at the time. There were over 1 million people who wanted to see magic happen on that field. We waited through the first half, as did everyone else in America.
On November 27th, 2018 America was stunned by the death of Stephen Hillenburg. Nickelodeon tweeted that afternoon about the loss of their beloved friend, and fantastic writer. The reason this was such a shock to everyone because Stephen was only 57 years old. There was a possibility that not everyone knew Stephen had ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). This is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain. Eventually those who have it will no longer be able to move or take care of themselves.
We all wanted “Sweet Victory” to play during the halftime show in remembrance of Stephen. As said before, we were all shocked by his death, and felt as if he needed one last hoorah. We will always remember the man who created a great cartoon, but he deserved more than what the NFL actually played.
The Show
Every year we are promised the best halftime show the NFL could give us. We got to watch Maroon 5 (one of my favorite bands), Travis Scott, and Big Boi. Maroon 5 was the best part of the show, and they played their most famous songs. The NFL also thought it was good to add two other Rappers. I’m not sure if anyone else felt the way I did about them, but I didn’t know the Rappers at all. I’ve heard of Travis Scott once, but I have never heard of Big Boi in my life. The songs they sang didn’t seem relatable or that great to listen to during a concert. I have read some of the comments on the video I put in below, and one person brought up the fact that this concert was performed more like a regular concert rather than something special. I agree with them, because this is one of the biggest music events of the year, and people have payed thousands of dollars to be there.
If you watch the video, you will see there is a solid 10 seconds, if even, of “Sweet Victory” being played. This angered many people because we got to see how much they didn’t care about what the audience wanted. We wanted “Sweet Victory” to be played to take a moment and remember a great person who created and wrote a cartoon while being ill. While we appreciate the fact that they did use a small clip from the episode, we feel they used it in the wrong way. They used it to bring in a completely different artist rather than using it to start at least a small part of the song.
