3 April 2013 (Wednesday)

The first class of Spring Quarter! 15 students came -- it seems like an interesting group!

First I introduced how the conversation group works, then asked each student to introduce themselves by name + home county + which kind of music they like.

To show how we use songs for starting conversations I showed the video for "The Story" (video, lyrics, song info) by Seattle musician Brandi Carlile (info).

Next, one of the students played "365 Days" (video, song info) by her favorite Japanese group, Mr. Children (info). She said this is a good song to listen to when she's sad, particularly at night. She has seen this band in concert four times.

One of the other students mentioned that she was going to see the Rihanna (info) concert in Seattle tonight. We played a bit of her favorite Rhianna song: "Only Girl (In The World)" (video, lyrics, song info). It is a very interesting experience to go to concert in foreign countries and I look forward to hearing the student's review of her concert experience in Seattle next week.

Speaking of concerts, that same night I was going to a concert of a completely different type: Fatoumata Diawara (info), a singer from Mali. She was great! Here's an example of a song by Fatou: "Bissa" (video, song info).

Fatou was previously backing singer to my all-time favorite woman singer, Oumou Sangare (info). Here's an example of Oumou singing with Alicia Keys: "Fallin' (live on French TV)".

One of the returning students from last quarter suggested the song "Thrift Shop" (video, lyrics, song info) by Macklemore (info). I was glad he suggested that song because Macklemore is from Seattle and this song was #1 on the US charts a couple of months ago -- it was a good choice to show a successful Seattle musician.

The lyrics to "Thrift Shop" are really funny, but very colloquial: It would take a long time for people learning English as a second language to understand all the words and references. I also explained what a "thrift shop" is: it's a place where you can buy used clothes cheap. A lot of people like shopping at these kinds of stores (ex. Goodwill) to find interesting clothes. Here's a Wikipedia article about thrift shops.

If you like hip-hop, a couple of other currently successful Seattle hip-hop bands are Blue Scholars (info) and Shabazz Palaces (info).

Actually, Seattle has a lot of great musicians and bands. In the 1990's it was famous for hard-rock bands like Nirvana (info), Pearl Jam (info), Soundgarden (info) and Alice In Chains (info).

More recently it has become known for more pop bands, like Death Cab For Cutie (info), The Head and the Heart (info), Fleet Foxes (info) and Brandi Carlile (info). 

One of my favorite older Seattle bands -- which is still active today -- is Heart (info); the singer for heart, Ann Wilson, is one of the most powerful singers in the world. And her sister, Nancy, is an excellent guitarist. Here's an example: "Crazy On You" (video, lyrics, song info).

I had to end class just a little earlier than usual today because I was going to the Fatoumata Diawara concert. I look forward to learning more about which music and songs the students like next week!