For this last post, I’d like to talk about two specific songs by a band that has a pretty significant impact on my life. The band is called Shinedown. They were formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 2001 and are considered part of the hard rock/alternative metal/post-grunge genre. However, the two songs I will be discussing in this post seem like the furthest things from these genre labels.

The first song is called “Second Chance”. The song lyrics deal with the idea of being trapped in a place and coming out of that form of ‘prison’. It is about identifying as oneself and developing a personality, though sometimes an especially moving experience is needed to prove this to oneself and to others. I will use myself as an example to describe the plot of the song. As a child and teenager, I felt like I was trapped in my home. I was an only child, and my parents were especially protective, strict, and had high expectations of me. I had high expectations of myself, but I knew that I couldn’t stay in that house or town for my whole life. I knew that I was different and needed to experience something different from what I was living with for the past 15 or so years of my life. In high school, I discovered that I was very good with languages, and so I took the small leap of living in Ecuador for 5 weeks during the summer of 2012. I instantly realized that I had a passion for traveling, though my parents were heartbroken due to my leaving. The town that I come from is very provincial, in nearly every aspect of the word, so for me to break out and do this was very significant not only to me and my parents, but to many people in my community. After staying with a host family in Quito, Ecuador, I realized that I needed to do more. I needed to see more. I needed to experience more. So upon returning to Pennsylvania, I immediately began the application process for studying abroad for a year. I was accepted to study in Phetchaburi, Thailand for a school year, and this was one of the most difficult things that I or my parents had ever done up to that point. However, as the lyrics of the  song state, “Sometimes goodbye is a second chance.” I went out, traveled to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and lived as a student in Thailand with customs that my wildest dreams never could have designed. I lived, I traveled, I did what I needed to do. But I realized the moment that I got home and saw my parents again, I was changed, and I experienced everything I needed to in order to find myself as a person and to prove to my parents that I’m destined to do more. The first step is to take that initial leap of faith.

The next song I’d like to discuss is called “I’ll Follow You”. I consider myself to  be a very loyal person when it comes to friends and relationships. This song stresses the importance of being faithful and persevering for those you care about. My boyfriend and I began listening to this song together at the very beginning of our relationship, and this song helps us to keep our eyes on what is important in a relationship if it is to last. And just to be sentimental, he plays this song at the beginning of his radio show every Friday night on WIUP FM.

This band has many other songs that are very inspiring, motivating, and moving, and so I highly recommend them. Thank you for your time, and I hope you enjoyed these blogs.

As a 90’s child, I was constantly surrounded by boy bands. 98 Degrees, N’Sync, but best of all, the Backstreet Boys. The group started out in 1993 in Orlando, Florida with five members. In 1996, the band released its first album which was an instant success. They  released 2 more albums before taking a 2-year break and then released a comeback album, Never Gone. After the Never Gone tour, one of the group’s members, Kevin Richardson left the band. Two more albums were released by the quartet, and then Richardson came back permanently, just in time for the group to put together an album for its 20th anniversary. I personally stopped listening to the Backstreet Boys after they released their 3rd album, perhaps because their other albums just weren’t quite the same. But just to show how popular and famous they were, here’s a few stats. The Backstreet Boys have sold over 130 million albums worldwide. That makes them the best selling boy band of all time. They are the first group since Sade to have its first 9 albums hit the top 10 on the Billboard 200.

Attempting to gain stardom, the group nearly signed on with Mercury Records. However, the deal fell through at the last minute because John Mellencamp threatened to leave the label if they signed on the Backstreet Boys. The group was later discovered performing at a high school and was signed onto its first label. They went to Sweden to work on their first album, which was released internationally in May 1996, excluding the U.S. and Canada. In Germany, they were especially popular, reaching Gold status for selling 250,000 albums. The group also earned their first platinum album in Germany in 1996 for selling 500,000 albums. They went on to tour in Canada and Asia. Their self titled album sold over five million copies in Europe alone. They released their albums in Europe to see how the sales would do that first day. The day after the album was released, it was released in the U.S. Sales skyrocketed, selling more than 28 million copies internationally.

It is thought that N’Sync was a close rival of the Backstreet Boys, but after further research, I found that, while the Backstreet Boys are the best-selling boys band of all time, N’Sync was number eight on that list. This just proves that there was no competition! You go, Backstreet Boys, you go.

Growing up, I remember my father always raving about how great of a singer and performer Marvin Gaye was. It wasn’t until my late teen years that I began to listen to his music, and all I can say is that I don’t understand why I waited so long.

Gaye was born on April 2, 1939 in Washington D.C. He was raised by his parents and had five other siblings. Childhood for him was very difficult due to his father beating him from the age of seven all the way up into his teenage years. This condition only worsened as time progressed, but Gaye’s mother was there to console and encourage him to continue singing, since he started at age four. For a while, Gaye was paid to play drums for groups like the The Miracles and the Marvelettes. He was asked to go to a social grace school due to his eyes being closed during performances, but Gaye declined; this was something that he later strongly regretted. Regardless, he started his own work, which was initially unprofitable. After being the co-writer for one of the Marvelettes’ big hits, he gained international fame with “Can I Get a Witness”

“I Heard It Through the Grapevine” was Gaye’s first song to hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. He later had another song, “Let’s Get It On” that made number one once more on the Billboard Hot 100, and this album/song stayed on this list for 2 years. This album was especially significant because of its sensuality and “carnal energy”. However, one of Gaye’s most ground-breaking songs was “What’s Going On”. He once experienced police brutality at an anti-war rally and wrote this song soon after. Gaye’s producer refused to release the song due to it being too politically controversial, so Gaye went on strike from recording music until the song was released.

Unfortunately, Gaye’s life was ended early. April 1, 1984, after intervening in an argument between his parents, Marvin Gaye Sr. shot Gaye Jr. once through the heart and once in the left shoulder. There was a rumor or two that consisted of Gaye wanting to commit suicide but was too weak to, and asked his father, while others say that Gaye Sr. was jealous of his son’s success. In either case, it is a shame that such a good, influential artist had to pass away at such a young age. I listen to Marvin Gaye’s music every day and look to him as one of my biggest sources of inspiration and encouragement.

Formed in 1981 in Los Angeles, Metallica is a band well known for its thrash metal. They are included in the “big four”, along with Anthrax, Megadeth, and Slayer. Ironically, the group’s former member, Dave Mustaine- kicked out for being too drunk and high during practices- went off to form Megadeth, which would later become Metallica’s greatest rival. Metallica has produced 9 studio albums and 37 singles. The group has won eight grammies, and five of their albums were at the number one slot on the Billboard 200. “Master of Puppets”, their third studio album, is considered one of the most influential thrash metal albums of all time. They have money, fame, talent, and a sense of American pride. So much so that they even play the United States national anthem for their favorite baseball team- the San Francisco Giants.

Three times, members from the band have shown up at AT&T Park to perform our nation’s anthem, simply to support their favorite team. It has been revealed this year that the Giants will even have a Metallica themed jersey for each day that Metallica performs at that park. These days are literally called “Metallica Day”. On these days, the band has vendors to sell their merchandise. However, the money for this merchandise goes to various charity organizations.

Many people think of Metallica as a scary, foreboding type of band, but even they have their soft, caring side, and that’s why I chose to write this blog. Metallica is just seen as thrash metal. That’s it. One usually doesn’t hear about the charitable or good things that the band does. So I hope this blog gave at least a little bit of insight to the more human side of the band.