20 November 2013 (Wednesday)

The theme for today's class was "songs used in commercials or on tv". 11 students came.

The first song was "Mermaid Song" (video) by Sarah Khider, which the student had first seen in this Chivas Regal commercial.

The next was an Asahi beer commercial, with the song "Aerial Life" by Tomoya Nagase (info). Unfortunately I can't find a clip of the original song. So just enjoy the 15 seconds of it with the guy expressing his enjoyment of the beer by yelling. By the way, none of us could understand why the guy in this commercial is eating an tomato before taking a drink of beer. But since it obviously makes the beer taste so much better (judging by the guy's reaction), I am going to start eating tomatoes with my beer.

Trying to find the song of Tomoya Nagase I ended up watching him on this tv show. I don't really get the humor and it kind of looked like torture for the poor guy.

The next song was "Change The World" (video, lyrics, song info) by Eric Clapton (info). We weren't sure exactly which commercial this song had been used for, but it's been used for more than one.

Speaking of Eric Clapton, one student said he first heard one of Clapton's most famous songs, Layla (video, lyrics, song info) in a commercial for Mitsubishi cars.

The next song was by "I'd Rather Be High" (video, lyrics, song info) David Bowie (info), which was used in a Louis Vuitton commercial, starring Mr. Bowie himself. I mentioned to the class that my goal is to look as good at 60 year old as Bowie did.

Speaking of Bowie, not aging and commercials, he did a commercial using his song "Never Get Old" for Vittel bottled water which clearly played off his youthful looks (he was 56 at the time).

The next song was "Yesterday Once More" (video with lyrics, song info) by The Carpenters (info). Unfortunately I can't remember the connection of the choice of this song to a commercial. I did mention at the end of this song that most Americans consider the Carpenters as a very cheesy group.

My "cheesy" comment inspired a student to ask if I think the song "Take My Breath Away" (video with lyrics, song info) by Berlin (info) is cheesy. Well, in my opinion it is *not* cheesy. Others may dispute that position, however ;-)

As an example of a cheesy song I chose "My Heart Will Go On" (video, lyrics, song info) by Celine Dion (info), which drew gasps of indignation from the class: apparently they love this song!

But hey, I'm not the one who decides which songs are cheesy and not cheesy in the world! :-)

Next I did an experiment: I played a song I thought one student would like -- "Wuthering Heights" (video, lyrics, song info) by Kate Bush (info). No one liked it at all! I guess I can understand that. I told the class that when I first heart Kate Bush I *hated* her voice, but at some point I understood it's quality and now I love Kate!  

I didn't play this song in class but I think this is one of the sweetest love songs: Kate wrote it for her son, Bertie (video with lyrics in the notes, song info). You can feel from the lyrics, especially the last stanza, how much she loves that boy!

I had the same initial reaction to Tom Waits (info) as to Kate Bush -- I couldn't stand to hear his voice at the beginning, but now I love it. As an example of a Tom Waits song I played "16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought Six" (video, lyrics, song info).

The next song was "Money" (video with lyrics in the notes, song info) by Pink Floyd (info). Apparently those distinctive first notes of this song are used in many Japanese tv shows.

Somehow we got onto the topic of what is "soul music". It's very hard to define "soul music"! Here's how Wikipedia defines soul music.

One student suggested the song "10,000 Reasons" (video, lyrics, song info) by Matt Redman (info) as a soul song. That's true -- he is singing from his heart and soul!


And with that class was over for the day.