Elley Colledge Music Blog

 This week, I chose to listen to "Hotel California" by the Eagles. I picked this song for this week because its on my dads playlist that he listens to every time he does yard work. It brings back lots of memories of having to pick up sticks and pull weeds in our yard Saturday mornings. I wanted to know more about the Eagles because I thought that how they were connected to The Beach Boys was really interesting. Looking at this song compared to "Good Vibrations" the sounds and the lyrics are super opposite of each other. I interpreted that they used California not only as a place, but a mythology that comes with it. The idea of what California is was built by the film and music industry. By using California, it has such powerful imagery that the story is not ambiguous. I looked up some of the themes that were used in creating this song and the album and some that I thought exemplified this idea are idealism realized and illusion versus reality. With The Beach Boys, t...

 This week, I chose to listen to "A Change Is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke. I chose to listen to this song because when you look it up, there are so many covers of this song throughout the years. I think that a song with such a heavy message should continue to be told over time. It also reminds us of the social progress that has been made, but also the social progress that can still be made. A few weeks ago, I saw a kid perform this song at his schools talent show ( A Change Is Gonna Come Cover ). After reading the comments on the video, you can see how emotional this song is and how much it impacts others. We have talked in class about musicians writings songs that are kinda vague so many can relate to them. This song reaches so many people, but it is not vague. You are not left in interpret the meaning, you know the song is about the struggles that many face everyday. 

 This week I listened to Sh-Boom by The Cords. I chose to listen to this song because I was interested in the history with the cover done by the Crew Cuts. From listening to both songs, I like The Cords version a lot more. I think there is more personality in the song. Another reason I chose to listing to this song is because I equate this song to childhood because Cars was the movie my siblings and I would watch on road trips. It also reminds me of the first time my nephew went to Cars Land in Disneyland and his smile when seeing his favorite movie in real life. This song was playing on the speakers overhead while we waited in line to meet Mater. I really love how songs can play such an important role in memories and how they can take you back in time. I have not seen Cars in a long time, but as soon as we listened to it in class, all I could think about was being stuck in the middle seat of my dad's truck watching it. 

 This week I chose to listen to "Mambo No 5" by  Pérez  Prado. I  chose  this song  because  I think that the history behind the mambo is really interesting. In this song, my favorite part is when all of the instruments lead up to a point, then all stop, then they do it again a few more times after that. During class we talked about how mambo was meant to ramp up the  energy and you can really see it during that part of the song.   I like how this type of  music  caused a new dance craze. First, it was the fox trot and the waltz then it moved to the mambo.  Another reason why I chose this song was  because  in one of my  favorite  movies,  Dirty Dancing, the mambo is a big portion of the movie. It is one of the dances that the main characters perform. It is crazy to me how similar this song and the song from the movie sound. During class when we  listened to this song, I immediately pictured a...