Popular Music Blog

GIVE UP  THE FUNK   The first time I heard this song I was watching Glee. The song was featured on a terrible episode. During the episode, Jesse broke up with Rachel, Puck and Finn almost got expelled, and the glee club's rivalry, vocal adrenaline, toilet paper papered their choir room. I know, very dramatic. The point of all these bad things happening in the episode was to put all the characters in a funk, hehe get it? And lead them to singing “Give up the Funk” at the end of the episode.  Despite Glee being ridiculously cheesy I won’t hear a word against it. Watching Glee is definitely a guilty pleasure of mine. If nothing else, this show introduced me to one of the greatest funk songs of all time.  I chose this song because I remembered listening to it on Glee but I also chose this song because I like Funk music. I would never choose to listen to it. And my favorite popular genre from the 70’s is actually disco but I like the uniqueness of funk music.  “Give...

(I CAN'T GET NO) SATISFACTION If there was a team of the world's best scientists and mathematicians that was dedicated to determining the most instantly recognizable guitar riff of all time and they came up with anything other than the Rolling Stones' “Satisfaction” intro, I’d tell them to reevaluate. The guitar riff that opens “Satisfaction” is composed of only three notes and is known as one of the  easier  lines to learn on the guitar. But the simplicity of the riff doesn't make it any less iconic. If you are wondering if you will recognize the guitar riff and are considering listening to  “Satisfaction” right now to see if you will , I'll save you some time, you'll recognize it. However, if the team of  scientists and mathematicians were trying to determine the Greatest guitar riff of all time, Queen or AC/DC might give The Rolling Stones a run for their money. In addition to t his song opening with a catchy guitar riff it also features Mick Jagger's gr...

BE MY BABY Be My Baby is a song that was preformed by the American girl group The   Ronettes.  This was the first Ronettes song that was produced by Phil Spector and released on his label, Philles Records. This song showcases Spector's "Wall of Sound" production technique and most importantly, this song opens the iconic 80's rom com Dirty Dancing .   I JAM to the Dirty Dancing Movie Soundtrack. I have nothing against Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald. They were both revolutionary artists and I enjoyed writing blog posts about songs that they sang. However, when we listened to this song in class I couldn't help but think Finally we are listening to music that I actually like. If you ever want to feel like you're living in an 80's rom com listen to  Be My Baby and the rest of the  Dirty Dancing Soundtrack.  The lyrics to Be My Baby are fairly basic and in my opinion they don't really stand out among the hundreds of other 80's rom ...

  NANCY (WITH THE LAUGHING  FACE) Who runs the world? Fangirls do, obviously.   Fangirls have been one of the primary drivers in popular music for decades now. While music and musicians have had fans since before songs were even recorded, it’s argued that "fan girling" started in the 1940’s. Long before Beiber Fever and One direction Infection swept the nation, the very first fangirls had their hearts beating for Ol' Blue Eyes, The Sultan of Swoon, T he Very First Modern Pop Superstar: Frank Sinatra Frank Sinatra was an acclaimed American singer and actor who is generally viewed as one of the greatest musical artists of the 20th century. Frank had a sensational array of hit songs including "Nancy (with the laughing face)” "Nancy (with the laughing face)” was composed by Jimmy Van Heusen, with lyrics by Phil Silvers and was of course performed by Frank Sinatra which made it an instantaneous hit. I personally believe that this song (and Sinatra in general) deser...