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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? :)

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.

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.

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?

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.

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)

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.

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.

Who are these funny glam rockers?

maryh — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:15:48 -0800

I give up! I know I saw a link to this silly glam rock band here or on the blue, but I can't find now and it's driving me NUTS! The band was/is British, dates from the mid to late '90's, and starred in a series of over-the-top sequential videos for their thumping, anthemic T-Rexish/Queenish songs. They were very popular in the UK, at least for a few years.

And if anyone can recommend musical goofiness along those lines from other sources, it will be greatly appreciated. (This guy, for example.)

Need some popular dance music recommendations.

Bahro — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:40:22 -0800

I have been enlisted to DJ a high school dance. I need some cool, danceable music that I won't feel ashamed for playing. Now, I myself am a high school student, but my musical tastes deviate a little from what most of my compatriots would consider danceable. Whereas they listen to Basshunter, I listen to Selected Ambient Works 85-92, for example. However, I cannot play music that people will not like. Some suggestions? These are some songs from what I have right now (I have about 70 acceptable songs, but want some more):

M.I.A. — Paper Planes. This is pretty much perfect. Both mainstream and indie appeal (though we are starting to get annoyed at its popularity), and fun to dance to.

MGMT — Electric Feel (Justice Remix). Same thing. Perfect.

Crystal Castles — Black Panther

Chromeo — Fancy Footwork

Soulwax — NY Excuse (Justice Remix). This is the kind of thing that my friends and I really dig, but I'm not sure how danceable it is, or how much the general population would like it.

Rihanna — Don't Stop the Music. See, I'm not above playing what's popular! But, this and Lady GaGa pretty much sum up my entire knowledge of popular dance music.

MSTRKRFT — Easy Love

Ian van Dahl — Castles in the Sky. If this song wasn't so damn catchy I wouldn't play it. This is the kind of thing I want to avoid, cheesy McTrance, as Ishkur might say.

Hercules and Love Affair — Blind. I like this. Not so sure how it will go over.

Cut Copy — Out There On the Ice. This is good, but a little too synthpoppy for me.

The Evolution Control Committee — Rocked by Rape. Alright, maybe I won't play this one.

You were...hot as hell?

Ash3000 — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:56:07 -0800

There's a beautiful, beautiful summer pop song I heard maybe five years ago, that supposedly either won a songwriting competition or came close, and now I can't find out for the life what it was - please help. A few years ago, I heard a song on a podcast or internet radio show of some kind - here's what I remember about it.

1. It was a very hooky, very catchy, very cheesy pop song about summer, and reminiscing all these teen summer activities.
2. The hook in the chorus was something like "you were...hot as hell! beautiful [winter?]!"
3. It contained a breakdown where a vocalist just talked about the days of summer, what it felt like, etc.
4. The name was something like "The forgotten lost days of summer," but I could be totally wrong about this.
5. I think (could be wrong about this, as well) the DJ said it had either won some song competition, or had been a runner-up.

I've done a far amount of searching through SongFight.org, CDBaby, The Podsafe Music Network, Hype Machine, not to mention searching for lyrics online...and nothing. Any help would be much appreciated.

What's this song?

Lou Stuells — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 08:09:31 -0800

What's this song? It was on US Top 40 radio in the late 80s. It's a mashup sorta thingie of musical styles, starting out with a big band playing "In the Mood" and moving forward through different popular music styles to the modern day. IIRC at the very end there is a brief return to a little bit of In the Mood.

any suggestions for what this record/band might be

iamnotateenagegirl — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 13:52:48 -0800

sorry if this is just so insanely obscure it is impossible. I heard this record that was apparantly a new york band. It was pretty obscure (probably the kind of thing reviewed in the Wire or a similar magazine) and may be classed under such genres as 'new weird america' or freak folk. Musically it was sort of a mishmash of electronica and some feedback and acousticy stuff with a male vocalist, and (this is the key thing) was a double album and probably quite recent (2007 or 08). May have been considered suitable for a late night mood. Any suggestions?

Peppy pop

sondrialiac — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 09:12:06 -0800

Peppy indie/foreign pop? I like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDLKmoOjrA8

& would like more. I need help finding this stuff because I'm not cool and no one I know is cool.

Extra points for anything pop that is non-American, super points for anything non-Western European.

Sounds like...

rileyray3000 — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 18:03:39 -0800

There's this whole group of British pop songs that sound like the chorus to the song "Elenore" by The Turtles. Only I'm not British and don't know them. Do you? So when I was in england a while back I was at this club in soho that was playing all this music that I've never heard before but which was of minor pop note in the US and fairly major pop note in the UK in the late sixties and mid seventies. Unfortunately, at the time I was having a blast and drinking like I'd had a recent liver transplant.

At the time I remember asking about it and some girl said it kind of sounded like the "hip" pop performers who played the seaside places in england and the crappy variety shows of the bbc when the real action was happening in the punk underground. I didn't get more than that because I think I tried to kiss her and it didn't go well.

So the upshot is that I didn't get any names of artists or songs. I just figured I'd search "british pop" or something and it'd all come up whenever I got around to it.

It didn't.

Then, the other day I heard the song Elenore by The Turtles (a non-english group) and when I heard the chorus...well all I could think was that half the songs sort of sounded like that. Admittedly, not the most exact metric I could come up with but it's all I got.

So if you know what I'm talking about please be my Itunes genius (I tried it already, no go) and help me figure out this sound.

Thanks.

rock en español

needled — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:53:01 -0800

I'd like some rock en español recommendations, current stuff in particular. I used to listen to a lot of Spanish language pop and rock in the past, but I don't know what's out there these days. Stuff I've liked in the past: Soda Stereo, Fito Paez, Los Aterciopelados, early Shakira, La Ley, Heroes del Silencio. I absolutely detested Mecano, in particular Ana Torroja's singing.

(I'll admit to owning Miguel Bose and Alejandro Sanz cds, too)

One for the DiscoEarwormFilter

droplet — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:42:33 -0800

Can you identify this 1970s pop/disco/r&b song? I've had a weird earworm all day: one verse and a chorus from a 70s pop/r&b/disco sort of a song that I haven't heard in 30-some years, and I don't remember the title or anything; I was only a little girl when I heard it last. I can't find any info on it.

What I do remember is a lyric that's a goof on the nursery rhyme Old Mother Hubbard:

"Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard to get her old dog a bone.
When she got there, the cupboard was bare, but the dog didn't care; wanna know why?
'Cause he boogied, boogied on down..."

Or something like that. Did this song exist? Who did this song?

Thanks.

70's and 80's songs to play in a business.

ptsampras14 — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:15:49 -0800

What are some good 70's and 80's songs suitable for playing in a pharmacy? My father owns a family pharmacy and we have an iPod with nice 70's and 80's songs set to play for the customers. Can you tell me some that I can add to the playlist? Remember nice calm easy listening ones are best, and no dirty or bad songs about dying etc.. To get an idea of some of the songs I have here's a link to the playlist so far. Specific songs are great, but I will also take artists. Try not to give duplicates. If 10 people give 10 songs that's 100 new songs! Thanks!

A Little Moog Music

oflinkey — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:15:26 -0800

With the recent discovery of a trove of Delia Derbyshire tracks, my interest in early synth and electronica has been reawakened. Help me find some good stuff. I have had a passing interest in early electronica for some time now (I even live near the Moog plant!).
I am pretty good on my cheesy 80's-90's synth pop (although if you have any suggestions, I am ALWAYS open to that). What I am looking for is early early Moog and electronic. Think old school Dr. Who and some slightly later, like Popcorn (Kingsley) and Popcorn (Free).
I am looking around for a copy of Music to Moog By, but if anyone else has a line on something else good, I would much appreciate it.

I need a perfect way to make the girls go crazy.

matkline — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:52:28 -0800

I'm looking for music that has "pop" mass appeal and lyrics that are ironic/post-modern. In other words, intelligent, but not intelligent at first glance. Some acts that I've found which fit this criteria are: Steely Dan, Scritti Politti, and Beck. Any other recommendations?

Favorite obscure pop/rock tracks from the 1990s

iamisaid — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:31:57 -0800

Let's say you're putting together a mix of your favorite obscure 1990s pop/rock music. What are the top couple of tracks you'd be sure to include? I realize that "obscure" is a very subjective term, so as a point of reference, I would not consider Bjork or the Flaming Lips to be obscure. I would also disqualify any artist who received significant play on mainstream commercial radio, and any artist who might have been obscure during the 90s but has since gained wider appeal (see above, Sigur Ros, Of Montreal, Cat Power, etc) such that their back catalogs have probably already been explored by new fans.

I also realize that pop/rock is a very vague descriptor and intentionally so, but the point is that I'm not asking about rap, hip hop, country, r&b or techno. The overall point of my question is that I'm fairly sure I missed out on a lot of good 90s music in favor of more mainstream fare, and I hope to remedy that now. What are your favorite hidden gems?

That catholic schoolboy sound

ChabonJabon — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:25:27 -0800

I'm looking for songs with the Catholic sound - like Enigma: Sadness. I'm looking for pop songs that sample that Latin singing that usually goes on in the Catholic Church. Sometimes it's sung by the choir boys, other times by the priest during communion. It sounds a bit like opera, but not as loud.

Do you know any popular and modern songs with that sound in any genre? YouTube links would be great!

african song -t'walabimsu???

8699oriel — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:35:16 -0800

Hi. The geniuses on here have helped before with a seemingly impossible question. About 10 years ago, I downloaded an African song (I cannot remember what country the artist was from or even what particular "style" it was in) that was called something like "T'wala bimsu". Somehow I lost the song and I would be very gratified to find out the artist's name and the song's true name so that I could buy the CD if it exists somewhere. The song is upbeat with a lyrical hook floating over a percussive "bassline" for lack of a better word. I vaguely remember another song by the artist concerning a yellow bus. Does this ring a bell with anyone? Thanks!!