This week I learned a lot more about Amy Winehouse and discovered how talented she truly was. I had no idea she only released two albums during her lifetime I always assumed she had a made a few before her death. I also didn’t realize she started he career so early, before “Rehab” I can’t recall seeing or hearing much about her. I remember when that song first came out and I couldn’t think of any other singer who sounded or looked like her at the time in pop/R&B music. I was not interested in pop music so I didn’t pay much attention to her and figured she would be one of those artists who gains a lot of attention for a year or two then settles down and remains a popular act but fades into the background more or less (such as Carly Rae Jepsen or Sara Bareilles for example). As we talked about I remember her receiving a lot of media attention because of her “scandals” such as her drug use problems. When she died I was surprised but it did not have much of a significance to me since I did not listen to her music. After hearing how talented of a singer she truly was I now regret not paying more attention to her career when she was alive. Her diverse style and the evolution from her first album to her second is quite impressive. I thought her rendition of “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” was just as good as, if not in some ways better than, the original. She was able to really make the song personal and more emotional compared to the original which is more of a standard bubblegum pop song aimed for teens to make album sales. You can hear in her music that she had a deep love for jazz, blues, soul, and 60’s R&B music where she drew inspiration from. I think she was pretty authentic in portrayal of herself and what she sang about. She chose to write and sing about topics that were more commonly used in rock music but she took them into a jazz/soul world where most of the time the lyrical content revolves around the typical relationship and romance between a man and a women. She wasn’t afraid to sing about the more taboo topics that weren’t as high class and sophisticated as other singers of her style of music often sang about, and for that I think she was groundbreaking in a similar sense to what Madonna did for female pop singers in the 1980s. After learning so much about her I am tempted to start listening to her albums and discover her music aside from the few singles I know. One thing for sure is when she died the music industry definitely lost a great singer-songwriter who had a lot more to offer than she was able to release during her lifetime.

Personally I am not a fan of EDM but I can sometimes appreciate certain artists. During the presentation when we learned about Parov Stelar and listened to his song I was able to appreciate that style of EDM. I think by using old swing music and remixing it into new EDM songs it gives the older songs a new life that a traditional cover or remix does not. While I’m not sure if I could call it a “new” song it is certainly different from the original in a unique way. I think when artists like Daft Punk go and record their own music then sample and arrange it into EDM is the only time you can really call it an original song. I feel that other artists who rely solely on samples and just make a beat behind it are basically just making remixes rather than original songs. In rap and hip-hop DJs go about making a beat in a similar way except the way they arrange the samples, and the fact that rappers make new original lyrics, is what I feel separates it from EDM. In EDM there is no singing except for the samples and the way they’re arranged is stylistically different from hip-hop that makes it feel less original and more copied in my opinion. Before the presentation I was unaware of how many different styles of EDM existed, I only knew of EDM as an umbrella term for techno and dubstep. I knew electro-swing was a sub-genre because I had seen some songs online but I didn’t think it was as popular as it really is. It’s interesting to see how popular EDM is in a global sense much like pop and rock music. I have a couple of friends who like EDM and two that are very heavily into it, they sometimes try to show me artists they’re into but it’s just not really my thing. I try to be open minded and listen when they show me and point out any aspects that stand out to me. One of them actually makes their own EDM music and has gotten somewhat successful from it around town, he has even played some clubs in New York a few times. Before he was making EDM music he was a heavy metal drummer and I think that background it was separates his original music from other EDM artists. He actually creates his own music using MIDI rather than relying on samples and the way he creates his melodies and hooks has a different feel to it than other aspiring EDM artists. Had he not had a rock and metal background I think his music would sound more like traditional EDM but because he has a different background it helps him to create EDM songs in ways other EDM artists don’t think of and he uses it to his advantage. Sometimes he will even record himself playing drums and then sample it in his EDM songs, or he will make a song using MIDI then record himself playing drums to it and use that as part of the beat. Often times he will record our friends who play guitar and sample a few chords and licks and incorporate them into his songs. One time he even sampled me playing guitar when we were hanging out and jamming and later used it in one of his songs. While it’s not something that is my cup of tea, I can find aspects of it interesting and I’m proud my friend has been successful in his endeavor thus far. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he “makes it” in the genre in a few years.