Top Seven Battle Out

                                                                                        Hey Bloggers!

The top seven of 2012.
Photo by FOX

I know this is kind of lame to some people but I have always watched American Idol since I was six. Anyways last night I was watching American Idol and the top seven contestants were battling it out. The top seven are Colton Dixon, Elise Testone, Jessica Sanchez, Skylar Lane, Joshua Ladet, Phillip Phillips, and Hollie Cavanagh. There was two themes last night. Each contestant had to sing a hit from the past and a hit from today. It was pretty interesting to see how some contestants put there own twists to some of my favorite songs. For example, one of my favorites, Skylar Lane performed her country version of Marvin Gaye's 'Heard It Through the Grapevine'. I personally loved it and the judges did as well. A lot of things were said last night about how there is so much vocal capability in the contestants this season that in order to win you have to bring more than your voice to the stage. I agree, the contestants are so good this year that I can't predict who's going to win it all. Last year, I knew Scotty would win, but this year I can't say. It will be interesting results tonight because last week the top dog Jessica Sanchez was eliminated, but the judges used their one save of the season. It proves that you can't predict. Tune in on Fox tonight at 7 pm! I will!

Grégoire



Grégoire Boissenot

 Gregoire is a french composer/ singer-songwriter born in Senlis, France on 3 April 1979. He sings pop music and is signed in My major company and warner music group. I found out about him when my french teacher made the whole class find a french song online and bring her the lyrics. My favorite song is "Toi plus moi," which means you and me, the video is full of people that show their love for each other no mattetr if they're related or in love. Toi plus moi was a hit in Belgium, Switzerland and on the French digital chart. He has four brother two of those passed away and he dedicated a song to each of them called "Ta main" which means your hand.In 2008, Grégoire was nominated at the NRJ Music Awards in the category 'French revelation of the year'. In 2010, Grégoire became member of Les Enfoirés (which stands for "the tossers" and "the bastards")which was the name given to the singers and performers in the yearly charity concert for the Restaurants du Cœur (Les Restos du Cœur) which means The Eating of the Heart.Grégoire has said that his second album will be released November 15, 2012.

Straight No Chaser--Incredible Talent

Photo By pato_garza

I recently saw Straight No Chaser, a ten man a capella group, at the Long Center. I could not have been more blown away. For amount of raw talent and beautiful singing voices, they were simply incredible. They are a cover band, changing songs from popular artists into a capella arrangements based on stacked harmonies and high voices. I listened to them a lot on Spotify prior to the concert I attended, and I must say, they were just as good live as they are in the studio. This is something I really respect in a musical artist, because in studios today the sound being produced can be edited so much that a live performance can sound totally different. They did hits like Like A Prayer, I Heard It Through the Grapevine, a Beatles/Stones mash up, even The Lion Sleeps Tonight. They did a rendition of Fix You that gave me goosebumps listening to it. All of the voices involved were incredible, with the focus mainly on the tenor section. They were both powerful but sweet, and had incredibly high singing ranges--not to say some of them couldn't sing the dulcet tones of the bass range also. I had the unique opportunity to get a t-shirt signed by them after the concert, which nearly made me have a heart attack. Suffice to say, the concert was a huge hit with me and I will be looking for their next show in Austin.

Boyfriend!

The famous teen singer.
Picture by: Wallpaper stock

"I'd like to be everything you want!" Is what I heard this weekend as I turned on the radio. I seriously thought it was Justin Timberlake until I looked up the lyrics and freaked out when it said Justin Beiber. He sounds much more different than in his past songs such as, Baby, Baby, or One Time. The song was written by Justin, Mike Poser, and Mat Musto, it starts with a sort of whisper which makes him sound much more mature pretty hot! He than goes into a sort of Michael Jackson and Timberlake voice with a few high notes. He also raps most of the verses which sound really good although others think differently. I like the way he's trying out new things like the rapping it's not like Drake or Lil Wayne rapping it's his own rapping more calm and I can actually understand him. I bet your wondering what this song is about, well the title says it all "Boyfriend" it speaks of the kind of boyfriend any girl would want, "I could be your Buzz Lightyear, fly across the world." What girl doesn't want that? Enough explaining go and judge it on your own, but I give this song 5 stars!

More of the review click here.

Check out the song here!

Life Saver

A picture of an iPOD with a 'Life Saver' skin.
photo by Noemi Rocha 

Music is a life saver in almost every situation. For example, during spring break I was on my way to a random trip to San Antonio. My mother made me sit in the very back of the car between my screechy voice aunt and annoying cousin. If I didn't have my music, I literally would have died. Also, have you ever had to clean your room, wash the dishes, or even clean the BATHROOM? Yeah, I have to clean my bathroom every Saturday. The only way I can survive cleaning any of that is when I pop in my ear buds and flip on some Adele. There is a huge difference in my efficiency and attitude when I'm doing anything with music. Another example, when I'm working out, it isn't an exaggeration to say I need my 'Pump Up Music' playlist in order to have a successful workout. I honestly believe that there needs to be different genres of music for different occasion, but every occasion needs music. I think music shapes the world into what it is today. There has  always been music and there will always be music. Lately, my mother has been getting on to me about the type of music I listen to. I don't see why? I mean yes there can be profanity at time, but I don't think music influences what I do in the day. Music is what helps me get through the day. When I wake up until I go to bed. The only time I'm not allowed to listen to music is during school. Which is lame. To conclude, I love music, I need music, and even the little ants need music.

One Direction into my heart!



The members of One Direction
Picture by: Design Magazine



"Baby you light up my world like nobody else. The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed." Blasted through my headphones the whole ride to Houston this weekend! I heard my friend sing "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction a few weeks back, but never paid attention until this weekend and fell in love with them! One Direction is an all boy British-Irish band made up off the 5 members with the names of, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson. This band was discovered during the 7th season of the X-Factor in which they placed third, after this they signed a deal with Simon Cowell's record label "Syco Music", later on they signed with Columbia Records in north America. Their single "What Makes You Beautiful" was released back in September of 2011, and since than has reached number one in the UK charts and in several other nations. Their album "Up All Night" reached Billboards top 200 in the number one stop after selling 176,000 copies in just the first week. This amazing band will now be touring the US accompanied by Big Time Rush, they will visit Houston, TX June 24, I will forever envy all the attendants to this concert because I'd kill to see those hotties!


To get more details on concert dates on other details click below
Tour dates

One direction
Written by: Aide De Leon

Madonna's new CD.

Madonna's new CD cover

Madonna just released her new CD "MDNA" and it has gotten really good reviews from Billboard, Slant magazine, Entertainment weekly, Rolling stone, Poughkeepsie Journal, and the BBC. In this new CD Madonna is very revealing about her emotions even though she has already been personal (this is taken to the new level.) She's also into trying new things with her music her song, gangbang, is a good example of this. She has no fear of being criticized, or of looking uncool. Her song "I'm addicted" is very dancelike at least that's what Entertainment weekly says. Metacritic gives a rating of up to 100 and Madonna got the rating of 64, But over all her new CD has had really good ratings of even the most picky critics. The musicOMH critic Laurence Green said her music was very good but that her lyrics were a bit clichéd.I have never heard any Madonna music but people tell me to, because "shes good...she gets into your head and makes you love her." After all these good reviews from friends and real life critics I think I might listen to her music because of course she's the queen of pop and I mean come on  who can resist that.

"Hey, Why Are The Beatles Good?"

Photo by por Marcelita 

I was asked that atrocious question the other day riding the bus home. I will admit, it made me a little sick to my stomach, as avid a Beatles fan as I am. This question, of course, started me on a super long rant as to the quality of the Beatle's music. The person who asked me this (and I will not name names) also said that they did not hear any emotional content in the Beatle's music. This made me downright angry, in some ways. It seemed ridiculous to me that the person could not see the emotional in songs like Golden Slumbers, or the sadness of The End in realizing that that was the end of the Beatle's careers as a band together. I told the person all about how Beatles music is designed to perhaps sound simplistic when you don't really listen to the song in question, but when you do--really, really listen--you discover a world of layers and different melodic lines and a depth that I rarely find anywhere outside of Beatles music. So to those who read this who are of the opinion that The Beatles are overrated--really listen to the music, and if you still find that you don't like it, well, I suppose you're just missing out.

Some good rock bands

The Black Keys

Mumford and Sona

So many people have not heard of the black keys or Mumford and sons, and i just want to say that they are great. Mumford and sons is a British folk rock band. The band was formed in December 2007, in England I'm not sure what part of England they are from. The band members are Marcus Mumford, country Winston Marshall, Ben Lovett, and Ted Dwayne. . The black keys are from Akron, Ohio and was formed in 2001. The band members are Dan Auerbach, and Patrick Carney, two college drop-outs. They are a American rock band. They revived the garage band thing of the 90's. In 2006 the band signed with Nonesuch Records. Their new album brothers is amazing and Mumford and sons album sigh no more is good too. They have become widely known and are awesome (did i already say that.) I personally like the way they sing, they have a nice rough voice so it sounds pretty great. This may be redundant but they are great singers and I do like the way they sing. They have signed on to Alive, Fat Possum, Nonshuch, and V2. So now I will be redundant and say it again I love these bands so much!

Stevie Wonder, the Eternal Classic

Photo By Story Accents

Stevie Wonder is one of those people who will always be a classic to me. His voice and the soul he puts into his music are amazing, from his early hits in the recording studio to the recent performance I had the honor of witnessing recently at Austin City Limits. After this performance, I became an avid Stevie Wonder fan. I had already heard a number of his hits before seeing the concert, such as Ebony and Ivory and Isn't She Lovely, but it was only post-concert that I discovered the incredible musicality and diversity of music that is Stevie Wonder. Besides his apparent variance from song to song, Stevie Wonder has an incredible musical talent--as a blind man, he is an incredible pianist and amazing singer. In the song Superstition, one of his all time classics, he hits a high C# as the highest note for his song. While this is absolutely an astounding feat for a singer, what was even more incredible to me was that at ACL he hit the same note nearly 40 years later. So many bands sound so much different in studio then in a concert even while they're young, so for Stevie to give such an amazing performance today is almost unheard of. My hat is off, and will eternally be so, for the god of soul with the voice of an angel, Stevie himself.

We Will Always Love Whitney

A picture of Whitney from an E! Online Article
By: Richard Young

I guess we all know that an amazing singer passed away on the day before the Grammys. On February 12, 2012 Whitney Houston died. She had one of those voices you couldn't help but fall in love with. Yes, she was that good. So I'm going to use this blog post to talk about her because I love her. Even Ms. Richey knows how to sing along to one of her greatest hits, 'I Will Always Love You', during class. There was many rumors going around saying that Whitney was addicted to drugs, or she was suicidal, but all in all her death is being ruled as an accident. Which is totally cool. I mean a juicy story would be nice, but this is cool too. Also, she has more than one song people! For example, 'How Will I Know', 'Greatest Love of All', and 'One Moment in Time' are all amazing songs by this wonderful artist. I sang 'One Moment in Time' in seventh grade choir. We sang good, but we could never compare to Houston's version. I have so much respect for her and her accomplishments in life. She will be greatly missed and is a tragic loss to the music industry. I guess she is free now and she can feel eternity. Well, I guess I should go now! Peace.

Karmin

Amy and her fiancee Nick

This weekend was my best friends birthday so I decided I needed to stay up until midnight and wish her a happy birthday, to do this I started looking up videos on "Youtube." I'm pretty sure by now most of y'all have heard "Look At Me Now" By Chris Brown Ft. Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes, and then wondered "what the heck are they saying!?" I know I have so I decided to look up videos of people trying to rap this song and I found a video of this girl named "Amy Heidman" who is a part of the duo "Karmin" and let me tell you I was quiet impressed! This girl did a cover on this song with her fiancee, but changed a lot of the foul language and made it sound amazing and you could understand exactly what she was saying. Impressive much? I think so! I went on to their youtube channel (karmincovers) and they have many more covers like Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO, Super Bass by Nikki Minaj, Just a Kiss by Lady Antebellum and more! She is such a great singer and seems very creative at adding her own twist to all these songs! They were on SNL February 11, 2012 and both her fiancee and her performed two original songs one named  Brokenhearted and the other song being "I Told You So", let me tell you these performances were amazing! I honestly believe they are both very talented! Keep it up Karmin!


To read more on this dynamic duo Click Here!

Scotty McCreery

                                                                                    Hey Readers!

A poster to show my admiration.

I'm here to talk about my new favorite country singer, Scotty McCreery, Scotty McCreery is the season ten American Idol winner (last year). In my opinion, only a few American Idol contestants actually go on to have accomplishments in the music industry. Scotty has in such a short period time. He has received many awards. Such as, the American Country Awards "New Artist of the Year." I have fallen in love with Scotty since he first sang Josh Turners "Your Man." My 'love' was made stronger when he sang "Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not", by Thompson Square. His words after his great performance were,"I think I just asked all the girls in America if they would kiss me." That was too cute. "When he auditioned for American Idol he was only 16. I'm so happy that he is continuing his music career because he has so much talent to offer. Scotty is also a genuine guy. Check out Scotty McCreery's twitter!! I'm a follower. Have I mentioned his album that came out on October 4, 2011? Yes, I had it on October 4th. I can't choose my favorite song. It's too hard because they're all so good. Yes, some are cute love songs, but I personally think they relate to many teenage girls. Scotty is so easy to fall in love with and I think everyone should check him out. He is a Christian and decided that every album he comes out with will have at least one Christian song. On the 'Clear as Day' album it was "That Old King James." Well, I have to go now. Now everyone knows who my obsession is over. Peace.

Pierce the veil

from left to right:Jaime, Mike, Vic, Tony

My favorite band would have to be Pierce the veil (and I say this while listening to Besitos, one of my favorite songs). They were formed in San Diego, California under the name Early times in 1998. Later in 2006 they changed their name to Pierce the veil, and that name has stuck around until today. The band was founded by brothers Mike (Michael) and Vic (Victor) Fuentes. When the Early times disbanded guitarist Joe Tancil and bassist Mitchell Ballatore left the band, Tony Perry (guitar) and Jaime Preciado (bass) replaced them, and the bands name was changed to Pierce the veil. Mike and Vic were also part of the supergroup Isles and glaciers with vocals of Craig Owens from the band D.R.U.G.S, Jonny Craig from the band dance Gavin dance, but on March 9, 2010 the super group broke up stating it was a one time thing. Pierce the veil released their second album on June 21, 2010 titled Selfish machines. Vic stated that they used this title because its a lot like human nature and humans have animal-like qualities that we should learn how to accept, we are selfish machines and have natural tendencies to want, to love, and finally take.

Relaxing to Music

photo by Madeline Tosh

         Ever been captivated by a passionate emotion, whether it be rage, depression, or hilarity? I've found that music can either eliminate these emotions if you want them eliminated, or can enhance them when the emotions are good. Music has a way of relaxing one's emotions like no other. For instance, the ability to fall asleep--I've been listening to music while I fall asleep for the majority of my life, and I rarely have trouble sleeping. Whenever I'm in a sour mood, music is what I turn to for comfort. For example, the other day I was in a less than peachy mood, so proceeded to put in my headphones and become enveloped in some loud bass from a Kanye song. Dubstep also works--when you really let everything else go and flow into the music, it's great. It's almost like a drug, but without the side effects (unless you listen to music too loud, which is a bad idea--although occasionally it is really nice). Music can inspire emotion as well, whether it be a drive to do something from listening to Eye of the Tiger or even crying (yes, I will admit music has made me cry before) from a ballad or beautifully crafted song. Music has the potential to make your day so much better. I wish that everyone knew that and took advantage of the knowledge.

My dream headphones By: Aide D.

Dr. Dre Beats headphones in pink

Hey everyone! I think we have all heard about these Dr. Dre Beats headphones that are worth almost $200! I bet if you have asked for them your parents said, "Your crazy! That much money for some headphones?! Yeah, NO!" I know this is what my parents said when I asked for them two weeks before my birthday. Best way to explain why these headphones are worth so much is because they're amazing and different unlike other headphones that you can buy for $15 at Target or Wal-Mart. These headphones are very stylish and come in all different colors, like the pink ones in the link. When I walk around and see someone with these headphones on I literally turn my head, because of the amazing gloss and design it has very stylish! Another great thing about these is the great quality in balancing out the sound they have. The cord cable it has is compatible to that of many music carrying phones, like Androids, iPhone's, and so on. These headphones also carry 4 different types of cords, a thick audio cable, a standard cable for mp3's, and another cable for a built-in mic. Don't these headphones just sound amazing? I know, I know sadly I probably won't be getting them for a while now for the mean time I will keep using my brother's. Anyways! Next time you want to prove why you want these headphones to your parents explain all this to them and they might soften up and take you out to get these amazing things!

To learn more about these headphones click here
Photo at the top found here