Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with POP

songs for an eclectic nine year old

mandymanwasregistered — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:17:51 -0800

Help me load my 9 year old nephew's ipod with parent-friendly songs for Christmas! From what I can tell, he likes the following things: 1. Johnny Cash 2. Who Let the Dogs Out 3. Current pop music such as Taylor Swift and the Black Eyed Peas.

He's only 9 and I'm not trying to impart music snobbery onto him, so what sort of songs (with an emphasis on current pop) would be good? These songs need to not have any swear words (either bleeped out or nonexistent) and hopefully the sexy talk wouldn't be obvious if it's in the song.

Help us find some musical compromise

dickasso — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:03:57 -0800

She thinks I'm a music snob, I think she listens to overcommercialised crap, what can we enjoy together? I find myself, for the first time ever, going out with a girl with whom I have very little in common musically.. She basically likes pop R&B, and I like a whole load of stuff but not that.

I'm absolutely certain that there is some interesting, well crafted, critically acclaimed work happening in the R&B genre like there is in every other one - I just have no idea where to start looking. So, as a starting point, what can I listen to that will get me to like (some) R&B? I'm in the UK and on Spotify so I should be able to find and listen to most of what's suggested pretty easily.

Plan B, maybe there's some stuff out of (or on the edge) of that genre that you think she and I might both like?

Her taste list provided for the purposes of this question: Akon, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Mariah Carey, Sean Paul, Keri Hilson. So basically, pop R&B.

My taste kind of circles around it: indie rock, folk, blues, old soul (and some new), funk, afrobeat, electrotango, a range of electronica (boards of canada to orbital, shpongle, etc) and old-school hip-hop.

We both like Public Enemy era gangsta rap - but I can't listen to that all the time - and she kind of likes (and I really like) Maya Azucena.

Help? :)

Soda Popinski

meadowlark lime — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:31:10 -0800

When you pour soda into a glass, is the head / froth / bubbly stuff at the top actual soda that is being turned into froth and then wasted? I have a debate with my girlfriend. I say that when she pours soda into a glass without tipping it, the head / froth / bubbly stuff that fills half the glass and then disappears downward is actual soda that is somehow combining with air and being wasted when it disappears.

She says that it's not soda, it's just something that comes out of the soda when you pour it that way.

Who's right?

Pop concert ticket help needed!

timpanogos — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:34:23 -0800

Pop rock meets little sisters filter: I would like to buy my two teenage sisters tickets to a pop concert for Christmas. Ticketmaster is not being helpful and I can't seem to find anything useful in too-much-info alt-weekly. I'm looking for Salt Lake City area pop music tickets (think Taylor Swift, David Archuleta, Jonas Brother types). I'm would like to spend in the 30-50 dollar range for each of their tickets in the January-March 2010 time frame. They are both under 21 so bars are out of the picture.

I'm looking to create a Christmas mini-miracle here! Thanks for any help.

Speechless Romance Game Face-arazzi

speicus — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:05:18 -0800

I've noticed that Lady Gaga likes to link up future singles with current singles in live performance. What other pop artists have employed this tactic? A couple examples: she snuck a preview of Bad Romance into her SNL performance of Love Game, and her recent AMA performance of Bad Romance seems to indicate that Speechless will be her next single. It seems like an insidiously clever, almost evil way of getting the public primed for her next release, like all her songs are mere fragments of some giant ur-pop song. Anyway, I figure she can't be the first person to use this tactic, just the latest to employ it with devastating efficacy -- so who else has done this? Who was the first?

In short, I'm looking for other pop artists who have combined two or more songs this way in high-profile performances. To clarify, I'm not looking for just any mashups or medleys, which are commonplace, but specifically instances where a non-single song is seamlessly linked to a current single in order to get listeners to pay attention. Links to video or audio are especially helpful. Thanks in advance, hivemind!

Why hasn't a new version of POP3 been developed?

HappyEngineer — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:13:51 -0800

Why is the POP3 mail protocol so slow and why hasn't a new version of POP been developed that fixes the speed problem? I'm pretty sure that it would be far faster to just download a compressed file containing all the messages and then unzip it and parse it locally. POP3 is fine when you keep up with your mail, but leave for a week and come back and I end up waiting quite a while to get all the mail downloaded.

There's this song in my head. What is it?

MattMangels — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:35:47 -0800

Songfilter: help me find out what this early 90s era pop song that is stuck in my head is This song running through my head I have heard many times on bland corporate radio, and I'm fairly certain it's from the late 80s/early 90s. Its main hook is 3 repeated (and sycopated) notes sung by a girl, either "stuck in love" or "so in love". I'm sure this will only help the real music nerds out there, but these three repeated notes start on the 'and' of beat 2 (the song is in 4/4). From what else I can remember, there's a lyric that goes like "it's why I think of you, (synth-generated orchestra hit here), baby)".

If any of you have a clue about what I'm talking about, your help is greatly appreciated.

Electro remixes of indie/pop music?

mikeweeney — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:54:54 -0800

Can you recommend good electro remixes of indie / pop music? One of my favorite examples is the Twelve's remix of the Black Kid's I'm Not Gonna Teach your Boyfriend.

Also, I really like this version of Katy Perry's I Kissed a Girl.

Any other good remixes you've heard, or artists that regularly do this kind of thing?

Song ID: "but in a hundred years, I'll be right here..."

mr. remy — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 10:23:45 -0800

[SongID filter] So I heard a song while shopping in the Banana Republic outlet store this morning, and I really liked it. [Don't judge me, Judgy Judgerton...] It sounded a lot like the Magnetic Fields (I'm still half-convinced the voice was Stephen Merritt), a little like M Ward, a little like Jens Lekman. It had a bunch of jangling bells, some shushy instrumental bedding, and the only lyric I can remember being repeated: "but in a hundred years, I'll be right back here." It's not a lot to go on, but by your powers combined ...

Why rock vocals are in such a high register?

BrooksCooper — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:18:21 -0800

Just a curiosity - why do you think that the overwhelming trend in rock 'n' roll / pop style music with male lead vocals is for the male vocalist to sing in a tenor / high tenor / contratenor or higher range - viz. Steve Perry, Triumph, etc.? I just wonder because that isn't the trend so much in other popular music - blues, R'n'B, country, traditional folk, etc. It's simply puzzled me for years and I wonder if MeFi has any theories?

Hey how's it going OH SHI.. I CAN'T HEAR ANYTHING!

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:21:13 -0800

Wacky ear question: Sometimes when I speak out loud one or both of my ears will pOp and I can't hear anything but my own voice. What the heck is going on and how can I get it to stop? To better describe the sound (or lack thereof): it's like when you wear earplugs; outside sound is greatly reduced and muffled, and all you can really hear is the vibrations of your own voice and breathing.

It happens often enough that I get jarred when it happens because suddenly all the sounds are off balance and my voice sounds so close and LOUD. Sometimes it "sticks" and I have trouble responding to people because I just can't hear a darn thing they're saying.

Strangely, this happens to my nose sometimes too. I'll be speaking then suddenly one nostril will seemingly close up and my voice becomes very nasal and odd sounding.

What the heck is happening here? Is this some earwax/booger issue? How can I fix it? It's driving me crazy!

Songs that are a throwback to the 1930s-1960s?

flibbertigibbet — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 16:29:49 -0800

I like Amy Winehouse, psychobilly, the Pipettes, the Acid House Kings, the O Brother... soundtrack, and even that throw-back-to-the-Andrews-Sisters Christina Aguilera song. I have a craving for music produced in the now but inspired by the 1930s to early 1960s, with my favourite era being the 1940s. Can you recommend anymore good contemporary rock/pop bands along these lines, including psychobilly bands I may not have heard about yet? I have seen this question, but I tend less towards Motown and more towards rock, pop and punk.

I know most O Brother songs are traditional, but except for the vintage recordings, they've all got that contemporary kick that draws me in.

I've only just gotten into psychobilly, so I've yet to plumb its depths.

Step by step set up for receiving POP email through Yahoo?

healthyliving — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:31:33 -0800

How do I set up Yahoo Mail Plus to receive my email from other accounts? (more inside) I have Yahoo Mail Plus which allowed me to receive my email (I use Fusemail for my business) from other accounts. I was in Yahoo Mail Classic at the time and it was fairly easy to set up the POP to receive my email. I now need to add more emails to receive through Yahoo, but for some wacky reason that I haven't figured out yet, I don't know where to set this up. I followed the steps I did before, but it never took me to the right window to set it up.

I've been back and forth between the old and new interface of Yahoo Mail searching for where to set up the POP. When I click on view & edit POP settings, it takes me to this page. All that seems to do is show me how to receive my Yahoo email at my other email address (unless I'm reading the page wrong). That's not what I want to do.

I did read this thread on Yahoo Mail Plus, which confirms I can receive my other email through Yahoo, but I need to know how to set that up, step by step in either the new or old interface. I also asked on Yahoo forums and someone pointed me to that same not helpful page. Help! Thanks.

French indie pop/electro?

decoherence — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:08:21 -0800

What's some good, danceable French indie pop/electro? I was recently at a party in NYC that was mostly 20-something French hipster kids. The DJ, also French, was playing a lot of great music I'd never heard before. I'm not positive it was all French, but much of it was, and some people mentioned it was the sort of stuff they regularly danced to in Paris. It was less techno/house-ish (no Daft Punk), and more along the lines of, say, Phoenix, Cut Copy, or the Knife's "Heartbeats" -- melodic, a bit spacey, medium tempo, maybe some disco influences. Some of the songs were even a bit lounge-y.

Does anyone have any suggestions for bands to check out that might fit the above description? Or does anyone in Paris know what the "cool kids" are listening to, French or not, that might not have made its way over to the States yet?

Identify this early 60s English pop song

martinrebas — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:35:06 -0800

"If I say that I love you, and you know it's true" - identify this early 60s English pop song I watched the 1963 documentary 7 up, about 7-year-olds in England. At the end, there's a party, with a song playing in the background, that I'd like to identify. Someone else has asked the same question at AllExperts, but didn't get an answer.

From that page:
"What I can make out of the lyrics is 'If I say that I love you, and you know it's true, if you say that you'd leave me, what would I do? (chorus) I'll get you back, if you let me, I'd change your mind, wait and see, I'll always follow you, tell me that you are true. Believe me, that's what I'd do, what I'd do, what I'd do.' The song must have come out in 62 or 63, it has a Mersey-beat sound to it".

Any ideas?

Italian Restaurant Greatest Hits Mixtape

Xurando — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 05:10:06 -0800

Help me identify a song that was on a tape in an Italian restaurant. We were eating a leisurely meal in an Italian Restaurant in NYC (Nino's 208). A mixtape was playing throughout, kind of an Italian restaurant greatest hits tape. One song caught my ear. it was a male tenorish pop singer. Strings in the background. It started with the words "Hey now, hey now and then a chorusy thing. I don't remember any of the other words. The song is not Hey now, hey now by Augustana. Please help.

It's Business Time

kathrineg — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:20:31 -0800

Most interesting hip-hop, country, and pop of the 2000s? Songs that made you say whaaa? In a good way or a bad way.

Innovative or just weird.

EXTRA BONUS if they have associated dances! Because I like to dance.

(I am asking this question because I have been really out of touch with the zeitgeist since I graduated from high school in 2001 and there has been another thread recently that covered the other genres I like)

help me become a better shoegaze guitar player.

austere — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:07:13 -0800

i'd like to learn more about chords/tunings/techniques conducive to a really ethereal shoegaze/dreampop guitar sound. i tend to use the reason software and a couple of synths that i have as my primary songwriting tools, but as i've been half-assing my guitar playing for a number of years, i've recently decided that it is the most enjoyable means of writing songs for me. the problem is, i'm terrible at the actual songwriting part of playing guitar. ideally i'd like to be able to come up with chord progressions with my guitar, and accentuate those progressions with synths and drum machines and whatnot.

i know all about the benefit of pedals for this sort of sound and that reverb and delay are staples, but i'd like to know more about particular chords/theory/techniques that will make me a better guitar player with this sort of music. the main thing is that i love melody and i very seldom use dissonance in my music. i don't know many chords as it is, and while i'm usually able to come up with some okay chords on my own and even decent progressions on occasion, i still feel very limited. for some reason i find that i almost never play chords past the 7th fret or so for example, and it seems like the chord shapes i do play or come up with are always rooted on the E, A, and D strings. i feel like i just recycle the same 10 chords again and again in different orders and as such everything i try to write on guitar sounds somewhat similar.

so i guess i'm just looking for advice from musicians of this style and bits of information of any variety that will help me expand my playing abilities specifically within the niche of really beautiful shoegaze sounds. do you have any favorite chords in particular? are there certain chord shapes that tend to result in a more melodic sounding chord? particular tunings?

thanks!

Similar songs of Jennifer Lopez's "Let's Get Loud"

yoitsfrancis — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:33:54 -0800

Hi, I would like to know song's that are similar to Let's Get Loud. By similar I don't mean songs by Jennifer Lopez. By similar I mean songs that have the same musical structure, beat, flow, rhythm and genome attributes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Music_Genome_Project_attributes). I have no access in Pandora's music service so I need specific answers. Song titles and artist's name will do. Thanks in advance for any help on this matter.

Beer c(o/oo)(s/z)(y/ie)

rossination — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:31:30 -0800

Beer cozy? Beer coozy? Which one is it, and why? I feel like I've seen this discussion before, or maybe heard it on a podcast (I think I may have heard it on Stop Podcasting Yourself, but their blog turns up nothing). Forgive me if this is a double.

You know those foam beer/pop can insulators? What are they called? "Beer cozy" makes sense, since it acts the way a tea cozy would, keeping the beverage at the intended temperature. But I've also seen them called "beer coozies". What is the etymology of "beer coozie"? Which one is correct? What do you call it? Help me settle an argument.

Useful information:
"beer cozy" has 450,000 Google hits ("beer cosy" has 1,190,000).
"beer coozy" has 71,000.

Factual information (with references) preferred; anecdotes and guesses are welcome but possibly not as useful.

ear-pop edification

lockestockbarrel — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:35:50 -0800

Airplane ear-popping. Why? The cabin is pressurized, right? So why do your ears pop when you're taking off and landing?

Needs more accordion.

adverb — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 05:31:38 -0800

What are some good pop/rock songs that feature an accordion? I'm not looking for any polka/cajun/zydeco-influenced sounds, but more traditional rock tunes - think "The Last Beat of My Heart" by Siouxsie and the Banshees or even "What it Takes" by Aerosmith - where it's just another backing instrument.

Upbeat Synthpop

mccarty.tim — Sun, 31 May 2009 18:47:49 -0800

I'm interested in finding more upbeat-sounding synthpop or alt/pop singles with electronic elements for my music library. Good examples of what I've been liking include "Rocket" by Polysics, "Step Step Step" and "Exploding Impacting" by Belaire, "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" by The Flaming Lips, and "Microwave" by The Soft Lightes. I also like a few B52 songs, and generally the entire discographies of Beck and REM, in case you wanted an idea of what kind of music I like as a whole. This specific slice of music is a kind I've just realized I really enjoy, but I have not too much of it in my library.

This is all about the melody of the song. Darker lyrics are perfectly fine, and I actually kind of like the dichotomy, so that's a bonus. 80's songs are perfectly fine, as I am a college student and they will (shamefully) probably be new to me.

Thanks for your help, and feel free to ask me to clarify my points. I've never studied music, so I have trouble describing it as nicely as I would like.

Where to find albums by Donna Savage, if any?

elmono — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:05:04 -0800

Anyone know what happened to NZ singer Donna Savage? She sang with the Dead Famous People and on Saint Etienne's second single . She also did the magnificent background vocals for "Heavenly Pop Hit" by The Chills. I read somewhere that she released a solo album, but it was a long time ago and my memory is not what it used to be. Can anybody help. Thanks!

I tried to be good and it went bad: help me recover my Gmail from the clutches of my computer.

foxy_hedgehog — Mon, 18 May 2009 00:50:57 -0800

After reading this AskMe, I decided to use Mac's Mail program to keep copies of my messages on my gmail account on my computer. However, I wanted to use the "IMAP" option to keep copies of all my mail both on the web, in gmail, and on my computer, in Mac Mail. Instead, something else happened and now I'm in trouble. If I understand the distinction between "POP" and "IMAP" correctly, it seems that Mail configured my Gmail account in "POP" format automatically when I set things up, so that it downloaded my messages from my Gmail account and then deleted them from web-based Gmail. Now, when I log into gmail on the web, I can't see or access any of my messages.

I've tried to reconfigure my preferences on Mail for IMAP, but Mail doesn't give you the option of changing an account from POP to IMAP (under "Account Information," it says, "Account Type: Gmail POP" and there's no option to change it). You can change the incoming and outgoing mail servers, but I tried this and it doesn't seem to change anything.

I thought about deleting my current mail account from Mail and then setting it up again, but when I tried to do so Mail gave me a warning message saying all my messages would be deleted.

How can I undo my mistake and get my mail back on the web? Is there a way I can re-upload my messages back into my Gmail web account? And how can I redo my settings properly to keep copies of my mail both on the web and on my computer?

Thanks so much in advance for any help or advice.

Mia