Ayrton Senna

He would be 50 today.



Happy birthday Ayrton! You are the one who combines all that a hero needs. Spirit, skills, humanity, anger, willingness to victory, and what is most important, faith.

I want my, I want my MTV...!

Yesterday...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFhKmMWG3WE

Found it accidentally and had to write this short commentaire. Just spot the right-up corner. D'you know what I mean, yeah yeah? That was MTV back then...

But to be honest, although in general I'm against all this "sex, dance and beat 'n' house" pop shit of today, I like Lady G., she's original and intelligent at least. And she knows she's kitsch*. Rihanna doesn't.

Then pop music was art, now pop music is a**. Bitter I am. God forgive me these words.

T.

PS. Lord, they even used to play Vangelis on the radio back then.
PPS. By the way, Mull of Kintyre is still Britain's second biggest selling single of all time, apart charity singles. It only falls short of Elton John's remake of "Candle in the Wind" for the Lady D.

Chopin's year

Fryderyk Chopin, famous Polish composer and pianist, one of the most prolific musicians of all time was born 200 years ago- hence 2010 is the Chopin year.

And here's a brilliant tribute to him. But what would be a post of mine without some "influences in music" sauce over it?

So, here we go: Chopin vs Radiohead and outstanding Jack Conte as a performer. Just wow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X-PRpqj7N4&feature=grec

Please don't wake me or the importance of being idle

For the lazy people.

The classic (funny video - you can watch the Beatles cartoon or just the song itself from 2:00):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlKCxJ2o_fk

The remake of the classic and a classic itself (childhood memories for me, Beatles at the disco =):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0nXhQj-mis&feature=related

And the Beatles influenced but really a classic on it's own (love the video as well):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jySfU10IQu4

Try it out. I'm proud to be lazy!

Rock was pop, now is alternative

I mean, you never know how contemporary music will be seen in future. Let's take a short look at the history of popular music of the last 50 days.
Since the 50s rock music ruled the world - Elvis, then The Beatles defined not only the era. Especially influences of the latter are being seen to this day - and I'm certain they will be. 70s was the time of classic rock - rock was pop of that time.
All this changed in the 80s. Rock was a bit of passé. No more Led Zeppelins, no more McCartneys and Yeses on charts. Synthesisers took over. Rock music was set to the role of an "alternative" - with some exceptions the name seems appropriate to this day. These exceptions were/are (for me at least):

U2 (ruled 1987-88) - an archetype of an alternative band - no more big solos, no more long instrumentals, but pure energy, stripped-down sound and heartfelt emotions. If I was to call one moment when U2 crashed the pop dominance of Michaels Jacksons and disco it would be 1987 and the album "The Joshua Tree" - they are still doing it occasionally.

Nirvana (ruled 1992-1994) - 11th January 1992 - "Nevermind" peaks the Billboard chart. Quite a feat for any rock band today (Except maybe U2). They ruled the world back then. Again for a while rock - called grunge then said to the other genres "sit and listen"

Oasis (ruled 1994-1997) - "Live Forever" was written as opposed to Nirvana's attitude "I will kill myself" but it was the time when Oasis took the reign after Seattle-based band and ruled for a while. Pop was rock back then. How I miss these days and I'm certain I'm not the only one.

Then after 1997 rock music was withdrawn and we set our radios to hip-hop, dance and so on, so sad. I don't dismiss this stuff, don't get me wrong but I can't really sense any truth in that. Yeah, Bono may be a bit pretentious, Cobain killed himself and Gallaghers are idiots. But they're true or at least were back then.

There are some rock bands now which show some potential to take the reign over pop scene once more. You don't have to particularly like them but Coldplay and Chris Martin's melodic skills (Bono said Martin is the best melodist since Noel Gallagher and on par with Paul McCartney) may win the prize. They didn't quite reach their "Joshua Tree" but anyway.

Oh yeah, some might say: Radiohead! They're certainly the most creative band of the last 20-30 years but they've got no chance of conquering the mass audience of radio listeners - they've got no hits, simple as that.

Rock music since the day of Elvis seems to me as a way of life rather than bland entertainment of today's Rihannas, Black Eyed Peases and so on. Way of life and way of saying something. But I might be wrong. I mean, you never know how contemporary music will be seen in future then?

(Oh, and the last thing, just found it now, maybe the most emotional song from this band, it hit me yesterday. For Kari! Hope you like it =)
Magnificent tune, isn't it? Tune man, not 50 Cent ;)

EDIT: Just found this, the colours and the atmoshere - everything seemed to me like destined for one person, you know who =) I post it here so you can watch or not ;)
All Around The World