AGAINST ROCK MUSIC

I used to have a negative view on rock music. I considered rock music as noise and a devil's sound. This may be because of all the negative articles that I read and heard about rock music. I read that rock songs contain hidden evil messages when such songs are reversed or played backwards, a technique which is popularly known as backmasking. But as my ears grew musically matured, I realized that why should I reverse a song just to get its messages. For me, just by listening to a song in a normal way, you can easily tell whether a song contains evil messages or not. There's no need to play it backwards.  

My negative view on rock music changed when I started to take into consideration the lyrics of all songs that I heard regardless of the songs' genre, and I found out that not all rock songs have offensive messages. Why should we pick only the rock songs when there are also songs from other genres that contain offensive lyrics.

Aside from the negative articles that I read about rock music, the other reason for my negative view of this type of music is that it is not my type of music, it does not appeal to my musical taste. But now I realized that just because I don't like rock music does not mean that this type of music is not good. When it comes to music, it's a matter of choice or preference and also let me add, a matter of lyrics. Lyrics of songs play a great role in music's influence.  For me, there is no bad music genre, be it rock, pop, country, jazz or r & b.  What makes music negative is when it influences people in a negative way; when it offends people.  My favorite types of rock music are pop rock and a little bit of alternative rock.  There are certain rock songs that I like. I like Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" and Linkin Park's "What I've Done".  They have good messages.

Next time, I should listen carefully to a rock song first and not immediately judge it as evil or offensive.

THE BESTS AT THE 2012 AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS

Two Canadians won this year's major awards at the 40th American Music Awards held last November 18 at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles.  Carly Rae Jepsen won the award for New Artist of the Year.  But this year's biggest winner is Jepsen's fellow Canadian Justin Bieber who won all three nominations including Artist of the Year, edging out Drake, Katy Perry, Maroon 5 and Rihanna who were also nominated for this same category.

British boy band One Direction was nominated for New Artist of the Year and Favorite Pop/Rock/Band/Duo/Group, but they lost to Carly Rae Jepsen and Maroon 5, respectively.  Their album Up All Night was also nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Album, but Bieber's album Believe was the chosen one.

Katy Perry is America's choice for Favorite Pop Female Artist over Kelly Clarkson, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna.  But Taylor Swift is one of those artists who never fail to receive awards from every music award giving bodies.  She's this year's Favorite Country Female Artist.

Grammy Awards winner, Adele didn't go home empty handed, for she is the 2012 AMA's Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist, while Linkin Park is the Favorite Alternative Artist.  Other winners were Usher and Beyonce who respectively won Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist.

On the other hand, I have seen so many performances at the American Music Awards before, and PSY and MC Hammer's performance of Gangnam Style and 2 Legit 2 Quit at this year's AMA was one of the best performances.  It was so nice to see two artists from different countries performed together in one stage, and even though I'm not a Korean, I'm so proud of my fellow Asian PSY for making it big not just here in Asia but also in America.

THE MOFFATTS - IF LIFE IS SO SHORT

Title:  If Life Is So Short

Artist:  The Moffatts

Country:  Canada

This song was written by The Moffatts, a Canadian group composed of four brothers Scott Moffatt, Clint Moffatt, Bob Moffatt and Dave Moffatt. They were so popular here in Asia where they had numerous sold-out concerts in 1998, 1999 and 2000.  Their album Chapter I: A New Beginning which contains this song "If Life Is So Short" was certified five times platinum in the Philippines, and this music video was MTV Asia's 1998 number one music video.

They were often mistaken as a boy band maybe because this was also the time where Backstreet Boys and N'Sync were dominating the pop charts in America and in Europe.  I was one of those who were able to watch their concerts, and I can say that this group was NOT a boy band. They may be young - they were just teenagers then - but their performances were as good as those of adult rock bands.  They can really rock.  But unfortunately, before they can totally make their mark in Europe and in the U.S., they disbanded in 2001.

ARTISTS AT A GLANCE: ELVIS PRESLEY

Birth Name:  Elvis Aaron Presley

Birthday:  January 8, 1935

Birthplace:  Tupelo, Mississippi, U.S.

Died:  August 16, 1977

Elvis was born in Mississippi but moved to Memphis, Tennesse with his family when he was thirteen years old.  He was an only child of Vernon Elvis and Gladys Love Presley.

He had his first recording in August 1953 under Sun Records.  He recorded the songs My Happiness and That's When Your Heartache Begins.  The songs were intended as a gift for his mother.  At that time, Sun Records' boss Sam Philips was looking for a white man who could bring the music of African-American musicians to a wider audience, and he found what he had been looking for when Elvis performed That's All Right on the night of July 5 of that same year.

RCA Records acquired Elvis' contract from Sun.  His first single Heartbreak Hotel was released on January 27, 1956 while his self-titled debut album was later released on March 23.  In November, he debuted in the film Love Me Tender.

In 1958, he was drafted into military service.  Two years later, he continued his singing career.  Elvis devoted much of his time making Hollywood films in the 1960's.  On May 1, 1967, Elvis married Priscilla Beaulieu after seven and a half years of courtship, their only child Lisa Marie was born on February 1, 1968.  But in August 18, 1972, Presley and his wife filed for divorce.

In 1973, he staged a concert entitled "Aloha From Hawaii" which was broadcasted globally via satellite.  Elvis suffered from multiple ailments such as enlarged colon, glaucoma, high blood pressure and liver damage.  On August 16, 1977, Elvis died of a sudden violent heart attack.  U.S. President Jimmy Carter credited Elvis Presley as having "permanently changed the face of American popular culture".

Achievements:

10 - number 1 albums in the Billboard 200

10 - number 1 albums in UK Albums Chart

18 - number 1 singles in the Billboard Hot 100

21 - number 1 singles in UK Singles Chart

3 - Grammy Awards and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

Photo Attribution:

cc photo by fab4chiky on flickr

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Reference:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_presley

QUOTES FROM THE UNFORGETTABLES

     "I'm not claiming divinity, I've never claimed purity of soul.  I've never claimed to have the answers to life.  I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can ... But I still believe in peace, love and understanding."

- John Lennon

October 1940-December 1980

     "God gave me a voice to sing with, and when you have that, what other gimmick is there for?"

- Whitney Houston

August 1963-February 2012

Words that come out from our mouths will always be remembered. Good or bad words are alike, they cannot be erased, especially those words that come from the mouths of famous personalities. People will die but words never die, they live forever.

GONE BUT STILL ALIVE

What do Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston have in common?  All of them were gigantic stars during their time.  They have strings of number one songs and sold-out albums and concerts.  But where are they now?  They may be gone but their songs are still alive and will live forever.

There are artists who are really born to become huge and influential stars even after their deaths. They even have left significant marks in the music industry.  What's more, their influences are still alive until today.

They may be gone but their names and their music are forever etched in the annals of world history.