By Niy Birden

RCA Sony Music Entertainment

“Emotion, empathy, feeling…
these human qualities, gentlemen, are for the weak
for those that we leave behind,
for those that we remove from the crop.
You are the leaders of tomorrow,
bred, to be the future’s history.
You should hold yourselves as such.
Do not let the world see you tremble.”

This introduces us to the world of Paloma Faith’s new dystopian musical entity. A world where emotion and resistance are often side-by-side. But this really is no wonder for the loyal listeners of Paloma. From the start of her career, she has shown to her royal subjects that she loves contradiction and embraces the artistic characteristics that come with it.

Paloma Faith started out with an extremely humble beginning, which makes it very easy to understand why playing other roles is such a second skin for her. In one of her many prior jobs and education, as a magician’s assistant she became a virtuoso in creating the fairytales needed to wow the minds of audiences. Unfortunately though, this role was relatively unheard. It was mostly silent and non-confrontational. Be pretty and follow directions, but don’t hit them where it hurts.

Don’t suggest you know too much more than them. Don’t suggest to the magician that you can do his job. Her early video, Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful?, taken from the album of the same name, is a direct testament to the life that is lived through a magician’s assistant. Wow and amaze, but don’t take them out of that dream land.

And now, Paloma has created her own. From her studio debuts all the way to now, Paloma has quite honestly almost perfected the visual and audio partnering for her specific niche of music.
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By Niy Birden

Dutchess – BMG

But Fergie has always been one to surprise her audiences. While her absence has been one of constant discussion, she has been kind enough to surprise us with generous music tidbits, such as her infamous star-studded “M.I.L.F. $” released earlier in the year, and a few others. But now, Fergie has made it a point to let us know: we’d better not forget who she is. While her visuals do mostly differentiate with tone and genre, the effect makes us remember why we loved dancing to and watching her bangers like “London Bridge” and even “Fergalicious”. With a complimentary visual album slowly making its way into the YouTube-o-sphere, here’s a glance at her new album, Double Dutchess:

The album starts off with “Hungry”, a dark pad complimented with an even-darker foreign sung sample, and immediately we hear Rick Ross’ authoritative voice, having Fergie back him up. It’s a bit weird to hear Fergie, of all people, adapting to trap music, but it is fair to say that she was a part of one of the most commercially -successful and impactful rap groups ever, that being Black Eyed Peas. It was no secret that they were not afraid of adapting to new sounds.

In fact, their sound is what helped the hip hop/rap genre incorporate a new pop integration. Some heavily criticized it, but eventually a very large amount of people globally all decided that the music was of noteworthy cause. For that reason being, if there are any female rappers that have the full right to play along with new sounds unashamedly, it is definitely Fergie Ferg. She actually sounds more authentic, compared to even most newer male rappers. The traditional snare hits, paired with the chorus, cello-like pad and glitch effect, opens up the album in a very, as she so fairly puts it, ambitious way.

Both she and Ross do a very nice way of giving off the “Hungy” vibe. The paired music video also of course seals in the deal. It’s suffice to say that Fergie’s really taking a leap visually. An early shot of the video shows Fergie looking into a device normally worn during eye exams, immediately finding a similarity to the album art cover of Justin Timberlake’s 2012 album The 20/20 Experience. And the rest of the video makes the perfect thematic change from her previous videos with its dark-toned colors in high contrast and trippy double-shots. Very fitting for a modern rap video. The car, the smoke, but still Fergie’s glamour.
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By Niy Birden

Columbia . Sony

That’s completely insane. What could possibly be so important for a 3-year break in recording and releasing new music? It seems like the best musical growths we’ve seen in the music industry happen around a 3-5 year hiatus. And these are of course by the top-ranking artists we’ve had in the last ten years. That’s Bruno Mars, Adele, Beyonce, and even Taylor Swift, who recently abandoned her 2-year break method to approach us with her new upcoming album. Apparently for rock band The Script, it can mean a lot. And 4 albums previously in your discography is a good excuse for a well-deserved break.

For those of you not who don’t listen to musicians hailing from Ireland, The Script is a lovely band from Dublin, who rose to fame in the late 2000’s with their self-titled album. They have also shown a legitimate knack for songwriting with their early hits “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved”, “Live Like We’re Dying” (which was later covered by American Idol winner Kris Allen), “Hall of Fame”, and everyone’s personal favorite (including yo momma’s) “Breakeven”, which has been the subject of many popular YouTube and singing competition covers around the world. Although the band hasn’t made a huge international impact in the same way other similar bands have, the work that they have done for heartwarming rock ballads have given them a solid fan base that’s allowed them to tour and release more chart-topping albums in those few years.

Which is why their new album, Freedom Child, comes at such a big surprise in the midst of all the pop, hip hop and r&b overload that’s come out recently. It’s almost a bit surprising that they did come back in the way they did, and during the time that they did. It’s even more surprising that they didn’t include a hip hop guest contribution, considering how many of our most traditional musicians are adapting to the hip hop aesthetic.
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By Cameron Pridmore

The time is almost among us again, the Monterey Jazz Festival is set to take place September 15th – 17th in Monterey, California. The Jazz Festival in Monterey is a little different this year as it is celebrating its sixtieth birthday. It is amazing that in today’s era of music, there is such anticipation for a Jazz Festival. Jazz music is still a very big part of Monterey culture, which is an area that is right near one of California’s most beautiful beaches. The festival which has been held at the Monterey County Fairgrounds has been held at the same location for sixty years.

The Jazz festival is more than just a musical gathering though; there are also different food vendors who specifically come to the festival once a year. You can taste a variety of different local seafood from the San Francisco Bay Area, urban cuisine, Italian cuisine, and even street food like some of the best local hot dogs that you will ever taste. For the 2017 even there are a couple of new artists who are set to perform, GoGo Penguin is a group who is based out of Britain who specializes in a unique acoustic sound. This is a wonderfully unique smooth jazz sound, and a group who definitely deserves more recognition in the states.
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By Niy Birden

Youtube

After a series of public feuds and social media scams, earlier this summer Taylor seemed to have deleted all of her online accounts, including her Instagram, and Twitter, much to the dismay of her adoring audience and music industry colleagues, which racks in a couple hundred million in total. Despite the massive success she had with her last album 1989, released only 3 years ago, the singer’s reputation seemed to be chasing closely behind her, almost running in front of her to reach us before her music. But things have definitely changed…or have they?

On August 21st, Taylor returned to the internet-osphere with a cryptic series of videos over 2 days of simply a very quick video of a snake, with no audio accompanying it whatsoever. This was clearly in retaliation to the hundreds of tweets, memes, and posts in which people were comparing her industry practices and ethics to being similar to those of a snake’s. Then, she released a few graphics, amongst them being a picture of her with a collaged amount of texts in various fonts, simply saying the words that many people seem to say next to each other about her: taylor swift, and reputation. Reputation, as it turned out, is the name of her newest album, and of course the graphic was the official album art.
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Eric Gasa

Taylor Swift’s newest single “Look What You Made Me Do” is dizzying pop art at its pettiest and finest. It’s not necessarily the beat or hooks that make “Look What You Made Me Do” such a notable piece of pop savvy, but the vengeful lyrics and symbolic music video visuals. It’s one thing for pop stars to call out the haters; it’s another for them to wear the insults like a diamond necklace instead of a crown of thorns. Swift does all of this and more on “Look What You Made Me Do” even if it’s just a lazy pop beat with a settle to score.

Like any sucker punch, there is a lot to unpack here. “I don’t like your little games/Don’t like your tilted stage/The role you made me play,” sings Swift. The stage is a reference to Kanye West’s elaborate Saint Pablo tour, as well as the infamous beef they’ve had since West stole the mic from Taylor during the 2009 VMAs. Swift also takes shots at her past friendships with Katy Perry and the HAIM sisters.

Instrumentally, the song is a dark trance number that contrasts to the upbeat, wholesome melodies of 2015’s 1989. Where 1989 was a free-spirited power pop romp, “Look What You Made Me Do” is toxic, extra, and snide in nature.

Things go from melodramatic to cheesy when Swift answers a telephone and replies, “I’m sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now…Why? Oh, ‘cause she’s dead!”

Swift sees herself as the hero going against the odds in a treacherous story. She sits on a throne covered in snakes, while the pillars leading up to her perch read, “Et Tu, Brute”; a quote from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, symbolizing Caesar’s surprise when he is stabbed to death by his friends. Go figure.

Swift also wears a ridiculous Zoolander-inspired fur outfit and stands over a panicking dogpile of her clones, kicking and screaming for the seat at the top. It’s a goofy sight of multiple personalities; there’s Black Swan Taylor, hissing snake Taylor, fake country Taylor, and of course, zombie Taylor. Can’t forget about her. Each one representing moments and emotions of Swift’s psyche. The pop star pokes fun at herself but the imagery couldn’t be more obvious and on the nose.

On her latest album Reputation, due to release November 10, Swift plans on changing exactly that about herself. Even if it means scrawling the word in pink spray paint on the side of a private she just chain-sawed in half. In 2017, Taylor Swift couldn’t be more hate-able and she couldn’t be prouder of it.

By Niy Birden

This summer was an ultimate blast from our reigning pop and hip hop musicians. The music we were hit with resonated with the summer expectations, political climates imitated our harrowing weather, and some of our old faves came back with music that made us remember just how much we loved them way back.

P!nk was recently awarded with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the 2017 MTV VMA’s, Miley Cyrus has mysteriously decided to return back to her country and rock roots, and even Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato have amped up their sexuality in their tunes. Which is why the recent album rumors coming from teen sensation Avril Lavigne and Black Eyed Peas member Fergie are worthy of being called Music’s Christmas Present for 2017.

Who wouldn’t remember Avril Lavigne, our friendly Canadian who came bursting through the teenage airwaves in the 90’s with hits like “Complicated” and “Sk8ter Boi”? While Avril has had a few hits and misses with album sales, her core fan following have been the torch-bearers for her music, helping her gain numerous chart-topping hits and a cemented place in Pop-Rock music history. People loooooove Avril Lavigne. And this is not an understatement. You can find a true fan through almost any type in the last two generations, thanks to her musical outreach and quality. Nerds, ego kids, punk kids, bubblegum pop kids, and even our friends over in Japan adore her and her ever-evolving lyrics.

People are so well-aware of Avril Lavigne that there is a highly-discussed theory located almost everywhere on the internet that she was at some point replaced with a clone, by proof of her supposed physical transformations. And frankly, we all know that you are an influential musician if you start to get government conspiracy theories made up about you.
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