American Music Awards: Let's Play Follow The Leader

I watched most of the "American Music Awards" last Sunday night and thought to myself, "this show could have been a documentary on why the music industry in American is declining". I think I know what's hot in today's music scene and try not to judge today's music product based on my tastes.  But was it my imagination that a lot of today's young singers all sound alike?  And look alike? And dress alike? And I am not totally sure but after a while it sounded like a lot of these singers were singing the same song. The producers of this show and others like it, have good reason to use elaborate dance routines while these young "Stars" are singing.  Could it be that they are trying to hide the fact that many of these young "Stars" have voices that are unremarkable?  Don't get me wrong, there were a few exceptional performers on the stage last night, but too few to support a pop music industry that needs help badly. By the way, does anyone know if wearing dark glasses improves one's voice? I spend a lot of time looking into the past to find the musical gems that I missed, which is a much easier task then looking for the musical gems of today. Just one man's opinion.

Music Man Blog Celebrates it's First Birthday

I wanted to use the first anniversary of the Music Man Blog to review its progress over the past 12 months.  The first posting was  on 9/27/09 and there have been a total of 46 postings to date. It wasn't until May 2, 2010 that I was able to start capturing accurate stats about the number of visits to this blog. So the numbers below are just for the five month period beginning May 2010 and ending September 2010.

Pageviews By Countries
1. United States                  759
2. Russia                               77
3. Canada                              40
4. Brazil                                 32
5. Germany                           27
6. Japan                                23
7. United Kingdom               22
8. Singapore                         22
9. Argentina                          18
10. Ukraine                            17
11. Hong Kong                     15
12. Latvia                                9
13. Malaysia                            5
14. Netherlands                      3
15. United Arab Emirates       2
 
I will admit that there were many times over the last year that I felt that I was writing this blog just for myself. That was not a problem because writing about artists and good music is a lot of fun to me.  But these stats show me that there is an audience out there that love great music and performers as much as I do.  I always knew that the Russian people had a great love for American music especially American Jazz and how great that I attracted a few to my blog!


Highest Month for Pageviews  
I am very excited that last month, September 2010 had the highest month for pageviews at 575.  This means the number of people finding and reading past blogs is growing.  As I said before, these stats have only started to be captured as of May 2010.  The total pageviews from May to September 2010 was 1191 so having 575 pageviews in one month is pretty cool!


National Ranking From Technorati
Technorati is the leading organization that tracks the level of activity for Blogs across the world.  Music Man Blog is ranked number 104,824 out of 1,241,893 blogs they track.  Puts us in the top 10% of all active blogs after one year, not bad!


Original Oil Painting Posted With Blogs
It has given me real pleasure sharing my oil painting with my readers.  To date, I have posted 28 of my painting on this site.  I believe that painting and music fit perfectly together and enhance our enjoyment of both of these arts.

Many thanks to all who have entered the Music Man Blog. I look forward to sharing more music and art with all my readers during the second year of this blog. If you have not yet joined my blog as a "follower", please do, I would love to have you on board.

Brian Wilson Does Gershwin

I just finished listening to the new Brian Wilson CD, "Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin".  Let me cut to the quick, if you like the Brian Wilson sound, you will like this CD.  If you like Gershwin you will like this CD. If you like the Brian Wilson sound and Gershwin songs, you will love this CD.  It turns out that the only Gershwin song that Brian knew before he made this CD was "Rhapsody in Blue" because he said his family played the record all the time at home and the melody really got into his head and has never left.  I find it hard to believe that in all the years Brian has been a major player in the music industry, he never got to know any other Gershwin songs. But that's exactly what he said when he was interviewed on XM radio's Nancy Sinatra show last week. This fact makes Brian's approach to many of these Gershwin gems very interesting.  He sang each song with an open mind and without any restraints caused by hearing the many classic recordings.  One other comment from Brian was that he was musically influenced at an early age by the music of the Four Freshmen. I had never heard this before and in thinking back about the "Beach Boys" sound, you can pick up some of the voice harmonies that the Four Freshman made famous.  Personally I really liked the CD.  I enjoyed the "Pop" approach to these "Super Star Songs" from the "Great American Songbook".   In particular, I really liked Brian's arrangement of the Gershwin song "The Like in I Love You".  I was not familiar with this Gershwin song but loved the melody and lyric. There are also four songs that sounded very much like the "Beach Boys": "They Can't Take That Away From Me", "I Got Rhythm", I've Got A Crush On You and "Nothing But Love". I loved them all.  And last but not least, there were five songs that Brian did as a solo that showed me a new side of his great talent.  His approach and sound was just great on: "I Loves you Porgy", "Love Is Here To Stay", "It Ain't Necessarily So", "S'Wonderful" and "Summertime".  At times Brian sounded the way I think "Sting" would sound singing these songs.  I hope this CD is very successful for Brian and encourages him to do another CD from songs listed on my "Top 20 Greatest Songs Ever Written in the Great American Songbook". I would be honored to work on the development of the playlist with Brian. Brian, have your people call my people!
Get the CD, you won't be disappointed!