12 November 2014 (Wednesday)

Today 5 students came to give me advice on songs to put onto a "Songs for a friend's birthday playlist".

The first song suggested was a very good, classic choice: "You've Got A Friend" (video with lyrics, song info) by James Taylor (info). 

But that was immediately followed by "Unhappy Birthday" (video with lyrics below, song info) by The Smiths (info) -- as funny as the lyrics are, that song will definitely *not* be on the playlist I am making.

We had a new student in class today. As a hobby he is learning to play piano. I asked him to choose a song and he chose a song he is learning: "Blumenlied Op 39" (video) by Gustav Lange (info). 

Then I asked what his *favorite* piano song is and he said "Salut d'amour for piano" (video, song info) by Edward Elgar (info).

One other student said his favorite song with piano is "Nightswimming" (video, lyrics, song info) by R.E.M. (info).

At some point I mentioned to the class that in the UW Suzzalo library there is an amazing collection of Seattle music history in the library: an archive of concerts recorded in the legendary Crocodile Cafe music club. Here's a list of recordings. I need to go there one day and listen to the Sia (info) and You Am I (info) recordings, both of which were concerts I was at and they were GREAT!

Back to birthday songs: the next suggestion was "Born In The USA" (video, lyrics, song info) by Bruce Springsteen (info). I have to admit that I can't stand this song :-(

First of all I don't really like Bruce Springsteen's voice, though he is one of America's greatest songwriters, on the level of Bob Dylan (info) (who's voice I also can't stand). There are songs here and there of Springsteen's that I like -- more songs than Dylan -- but while American's worship him as an American icon I'm unmoved.

But my main complaint about "Born In The USA" is that it makes Americans feel all patriotic, but the song is a CRITIQUE about how an American guy with no future was sent to SE Asia to fight in Vietnam and how that didn't lead to anything good. Just look at the lyrics! That general misunderstanding really bugs me.

Now that we were on American singers the song "Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime" (video with lyrics below, song info) by Beck (info) was chosen. 

That's a great song, but a few of us agreed our favorite Beck song is "Loser" (video, lyrics, song info). Such a funny, weird song! And so addictive.

Back to birthday songs: "Birthday" (video with lyric, song info) by Katy Perry (info). But the student who chose this song pointed out that it also falls into that category of "misunderstood" songs, like "Born In The USA". This is not a song about a birthday, look at the lyrics, she says "I'll make it *like* your birthday every day" And a "birthday suit" is not a suit ;-) .

One student said that "Hot N Cold" (video, lyrics, song info) is the only Katy Perry song he likes. We all have our "guilty pleasure" songs that we like by artists who we generally don't really like ;-)  

The next song was "Birthday" (video) by Galileo Galilei (info: hint, it's a band from Japan, not a medieval European scientist).

At this point our Thai student started telling us the names of some popular Thai bands. They have some really funny names, like Potato (info) and Big Ass (info). 

I can't remember how we got onto this next song, "Back to Tang Dynasty in Dream" (video) by Tang Dynasty (info), a mainland China band who won the equivalent of the Chinese MTV award for best band. It was surprising to see this band's video use *all* the same cliches as American rock bands, hahahaha.

Someone suggested "Gimme Chocolate" (video, lyrics, song info) by Babymetal (info) but I don't think that was on the birthday mix theme ;-) . 

And that somehow led to a song by Kyary Pamyu Pamyu (info); it might have been "Ponponpon" (video, song info), but if it wasn't exactly this song, it probably sounds exactly like it anyway, hahahaha.

Actually, I would like to spend a whole class asking why things like Baby Metal and Kyary Pamyu exist in Japan! It's all about marketing and very little about music, isn't it? I'd like to understand why so many Japanese consumers enjoy these manufactured bands and marketing. This documentary about Kyary Pamyu doesn't help me understand.

With that the time for our class this week was over.