7 January 2021 (Thursday)

Today 4 people joined me online to discuss the songs we listened to most over the holidays.

One person was new to our group -- from Turkey, one of my favorite countries in the world! :-)

Before we talked about music, we caught up on what everyone did over the holidays. Actually, in Japan, December was basically a regular working month, so nothing exciting to report from our Japanese representation.

The first song we listened to was "隱形的翅膀 (Invisible Wings)" (video, song info) by Angela Chang (info). The student who chose it came across this song when it was put into his YouTube suggestions. The song was popular when he was in junior high school; students used to play this song on the piano during lunch time. 

It has been 10 years since the student was in junior high school and he has lost connection, and hasn't met, his former fellow students. Thinking about that time long ago and the lost connections was on his mind during the holiday period, so he chose this song.

When I was in junior high school the students were allowed to play records during lunch, and for some reason "Le Freak" (video, lyrics, song info) by Chic (info) remains in my memory to this day from one of those lunchtimes a long, long time ago. 

Note: while writing this blog, I see that "Le Freak" is considered "culturally, historically, or artistically significant" by the American Library of Congress. Wow!

But there is a connection of my old song with current music! The guitar player for Chic, Nile Rodgers (info) has a unique guitar style/sound, and he is highly in demand to this day. You can hear his style from Le Freak in "Get Lucky" (video, lyrics, song info) by Daft Punk (info).

 

 

 

The next song we listened to was "Good Days" (video, lyrics, song info) by SZA (info). The student likes SZA a lot, and since this song was released during December she listened to it a lot over the break.

She said she likes how SZA is evolving with her music. She is growing as a person and maturing. The student said that to her SZA sings "in cursive/italic" because the lyrics get blurred: it's more about the sound and feeling she puts across than the exact words.

 

The next song was "コバルトブルー (Cobalt Blue)" (video, lyrics, song info) by the band The Back Horn (info). This song is about kamikaze pilots in World War II. The student explained that the kamikaze pilots -- sent on suicide missions to die crashing their airplanes into American warships -- were often quite young: as young as 16 years old. The lyrics are imagining their feelings flying to death. 

But the student who chose it listened more to the instruments than the lyrics. He has loved this song since he was in high school: it gives him energy and courage when he needs to get pumped up.

The next song came from our new student, who told us that his prefered music is instrumental soundtracks. But he is educating himself on classic rock, like AC/DC and Pink Floyd.

The song he chose is from the movie "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower" (video trailer). It was "Heroes" (video, lyrics, song info) by David Bowie (info). He chose this song because the timing of its use in the movie was perfect and it brings back the good feelings he had while watching the film.

We didn't talk about it during the class, but the song I listened to the most over the holiday break was "The Good Ones" (video, lyrics, Pitchfork album review) by Widowspeak (info). 

Spotify put this into one of the playlists they automatically create for me to discover new songs, and I liked it! 

I especially like the lyric "You're one of the good ones" and I like the drums + the bass melody. 

Because I like this song so much I listened to other songs by the band, but this is the only one I like by them, hahaha.

With that our time was over for the day.  

Next week's theme is inspired by the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday in the United States: Protest songs.