22 April 2015 (Wednesday)

Today 7 students (2 new) came to talk about their first song/cd they bought.

While I set up the equipment we watched a bit of a song by by Wagakki Band (info) which was a band YouTube suggested to me when I wrote last week's blog. I posted a question to the LOM Facebook group asking if any of the Japanese students know about this band, but it turns out that in my class only Chinese students know about this Japanese band, hahahaha! However, since the name of the song we watched was in Japanese, I can't find it again as I write this blog, sorry!

The first song chosen on the day's topic was "Koi No Maiahi" (video, lyrics, song info) by O-Zone (info). What's funny about this song is that to my ears it sounds like it's sung in Japanese, but it's actually sung in Romanian!

One of the Chinese students recognized this song so we watched the Chinese version of it (video), which is in Chinese, not Romanian! Since this is the karaoke version, sing along!

At this point I asked everyone in class about whether music was often played in their family home. Most students apparently didn't have a lot of music playing at home!

Next I asked one of the new students what kind of music she likes. She said her favorite band is Mayday (info). As an example of Mayday we watched "Your Legend" (video, lyrics + song info), which is not necessarily the student's favorite song, just a recent song by the band. We talked about how bands start independent then seem to lose connection to passionate songwriting as they become more successful.

The first song that got the student into Mayday was "Embrace" (video, lyrics), so we had to hear that one! :-)

The next "first song bought" was "No Dejes Que" (video, lyrics, song info) by Caifanes (info), a band our student from Mexico City has played for us before. He bought this song on cassette originally. Caifanes was his favorite band as a pre-teen and this song was the first one he ever learned to play on guitar.

Next up was "光と影の間" (video) by Atlantis Airport (website) which is pretty much the opposite of the first song the student bought -- it's a new band she likes. It sounds related to her recent interest in modern jazz music. Cool song!

The next song was "Nuncucks" (video with lyrics, song info) by Jay Chou (info). I was surprised that the student chose this song as the student usually likes more mellow songs. He said it is true that he normally likes mellower songs. So we listened to another, mellower song of Jay, "Common Orange Jasmin (video with lyrics and translation below video, song info). While this song was playing all the Chinese students in the class talked about how this song brings back childhood memories.

To end the day I asked the other new student what kind of music she likes. She had had time by this point to think about what the first song she ever bought was so we listened to it: "Sk8er Boi" (video, lyrics, song info) by Avril Lavigne (info). She said she used to listen to it on repeat in the car. I asked how long her parents put up with that, and she laughed.


With that our time for the week was over. In honor of 1 May, which always brings riots in downtown Seattle and on Capitol Hill, this week's theme is protest songs. Or songs about May Day from your country. Or any song you have been listening to lately.