29/7/15 - Rachel Platten, Anna Kendrick, Hailee Steinfeld and Youtube Singers

Cover art of Fight Song

So, a song that everyone has been going crazy over recently is Fight Song by Rachel Platten. As someone who has been in love with Rachel's music for a long time, I've seen her career grow: having more than one song on ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars; a song in Finding Carter; a song in the film The Good Guy; having Fight Song used in promos and TV shows across the globe; going on tour with Colbie Caillat and Christina Perri and being signed to Columbia Records. She has recently been nominated for two Teen Choice awards. Fight Song has reached number 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100, number 2 on the Billboard Adult Top 40 chart, number 10 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, number 1 on the Billboard digital singles chart, number 8 on the Billboard Radio Songs chart, number 11 on their Pop Songs chart, and number 14 on Billboard's Songs of The Summer chart. It also reached number 2 on the Australian Singles Chart, number 8 in New Zealand, number 9 on the Billboard Canadian chart, and number 5 on the Billboard Canadian digital sales chart. It has also reached platinum sales in the US, selling over a million copies.


Okay so I bet you're like, 'why is Anna Kendrick in the title when she doesn't have a song coming out and she only has that cup song thing?' Well my answer is, BECAUSE SHE'S AMAZING. Yes, it's true she only has one song but that one song has over 220 million Youtube views and went 3x platinum in the US. However, she also has starred in over 30 films in 12 years, 4 of these being movie-musicals... So that means: MORE ANNA SONGS!!! :) Obviously she kills it in Pitch Perfect 1 & 2, but she is also incredible in he Last Five Years and Into The Woods. My 3 favourite Anna performances from TLFY and Into The Woods are:

1. Still Hurting - TLFY
2. On The Steps Of The Palace - Into The Woods
3. A Summer In Ohio - TLFY

As well as these, she's performed at Trevor Live 2013, the Kennedy Centre Honours, Christmas in Washington, Saturday Night Live and was part of the opening of the Oscars 2015.




Cover art of Love Myself

Clearly all of the Pitch Perfect 1 & 2 cast are insanely talented, but I think that Hailee Steinfeld is one of the best. Aside from being extremely stunning, her voice is extraordinarily soulful and beautiful. She recently covered Jessie J's Flashlight and performed an acoustic version of Stitches with Shawn Mended and is soon releasing her own song Love Myself on August 7th.

At only the age of 18, she has starred in 10 feature-length films, 5 short films, 4 TV shows and two music videos - most recently starring as The Trinity in Taylor Swift's Bad Blood- and has been nominated for over 20 awards.


Okay so finally, one of my favourite things to do is watch cover artists on Youtube. I love discovering new talent and watching them gain fans and improve, like I did with Rachel Platten. It's great when you hear an amazing singer and can promote them and want them to do amazing. And no its not just 11 year old girls doing Cups. My two absolute favourite 'Youtube singers' are Sam Tsui and Craig Yopp.

I've watched Sam for about 2 years now. I found him because in 2013 him and his producer/frequent collaborator toured the US and Canada with Alex Goot, Against the Current, Landon Austin, Luke Conard, and King the Kid. Being a huge fan of Alex, KTK and Against The Current, I checked him out. I was amazed. His cover of Stay by Rihanna was magical and later in 2014, Stay With Me was perfection.


With Craig, I've watched him for about a year. Again, the first video I watched of his was a cover of Rihanna's Stay. I then watched his cover of one of my favourite songs at the time, Bang Bang by Jessie J, Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande and it was astounding. But my all time favourite video of his, has to be Ed Sheeran, Photograph. If I'm being honest, I think its better than the original...


So that's all for today. I'll post more next week :)

1/7/15 - Lady Antebellum, Carrie Underwood and Chilling In The Sun

So where to start.

Hi,

Two of my favourite country artists at the moment are the two mentioned in the title - Lady Antebellum and Carrie Underwood. So shall we start with how I got into them both?

Well Lady Antebellum: I was watching Pretty Little Liars, as I usually do, except this was when I noticed that the music was incredible so I was listening, like really listening, and I heard this song. It went, 'For me you'll always be 18, and beautiful and dancing away with my heart'. I went on TuneFind and looked at the episode I was watching, 4x13 Bring Down The Hoe, and looked for the description, Paige & Emily dance, and then I searched it on YouTube and fell in love with the music that they sing.

As for Carrie Underwood, anything my sister buys on iTunes goes onto my phone and she just happens to love country music, Carrie Underwood in particular and I thought, nah it's not for me, but then I watched Pitch Perfect 2 (You should watch it if you haven't already) and so I obviously listened to the soundtrack and I saw the Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood was sang by Anna Kendrick in the film, so I was like 'If Anna Kendrick has sung it, I have to love it' so I just listened to it and then Jesus, Take The Wheel and I was just shocked that I loved it as much as I did.

In about 2010, I heard Need You Know by Lady Antebellum except it was sang by Lea Michele and Mark Salling in Glee and then when I heard it in February I was astounded by the fact that I hadn't thought about listening to the original earlier because Lady Antebellum's music really is marvellous.

Another thing is that, THERE IS SUNSHINE IN THE UK! So, because of that I thought I would tell you some of my favourite chilled songs. My top 5 are:

1. In My Veins - Andrew Belle
2. High Hopes - Kodaline
3. Such Great Heights - Iron and Wine
4. Make You Feel - Alina Baraz & Galimantias
5. From The Sky - Peter Bradley Adams

A friend of mine has a chilled playlist on Soundcloud. Her account is w_hitty. The link to her playlist is https://soundcloud.com/w_hitty/sets/chilled-shit

-J

25/6/15 - One Of The Greats: Michael Jackson

So a few days ago I was listening to some one of the greats, Michael Jackson. I was listening to some of his best hits including Smooth Criminal, Bad and Human Nature. It made me think, what would've happened if he hadn't have died? Imagine the incredible music that would've been made... Love Never Felt So Good was only a small image of what music would've been like.



MJ was one of the greatest musicians of all time. My favourite songs of his are Black or White, Billie Jean, Scream, P.Y.T and Wanna Be Startin' Something.

Today is, sadly, the 6 year anniversary of when he died which is why I'm posting about him and his incredible music.

Michael Joseph Jackson was born August 29 1958 in Gary, Indiana. Michael grew up with three sisters (Rebbie, La Toya, and Janet) and five brothers (Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Randy). A sixth brother, Marlon's elder twin Brandon, died shortly after birth. In 1965, Michael and Marlon joined the Jackson Brothers—a band formed by their father and which included brothers Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine—as backup musicians playing congas and tambourine. In 1966, Jackson began sharing lead vocals with his older brother Jermaine, and the group's name was changed to the Jackson 5. He later ended up having a solo career and being named The King Of Pop.

So today we commemorate The King Of Pop, Mr Michael Joe Jackson.

-J

20/6/15 - My Chemical Romance, Digital Daggers and Daughter

Three of my favourite artists at the moment are My Chemical Romance, an American rock band formed in 2001 in New Jersey made up of  Gerard Way, Matt Pelissier, Ray Toro, Mikey Way, Frank Iero, Bob Bryar and James Dewees; Digital Daggers, an American-Canadian contemporary duo made up of former Memento guitarist Jason Smith and Andrea Wasse and Daughter, an English indie-rock group made up of Elena Tonra, Igor Haefeli and Remi Aguilella.

A little bit of info about each group.

My Chemical Romance

The American rock band were formed in New Jersey, USA in 2001. They first signed with Eyeball records and released their debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love in 2002. Later in 2004, after signing to Reprise Records the previous year, they released their second album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. In 2006 the band eclipsed their previous success with their 2006 concept album, Black Parade. Their fourth studio album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, was released on November 22, 2010, to positive reviews. The band's final release was a series of singles, released over the course of five months, collected on the compilation Conventional Weapons. The band announced its break-up on March 22, 2013, one month after the final release in the Conventional Weapons series. A greatest hits collection entitled May Death Never Stop You was released on March 25, 2014.


Digital Daggers

After the split of the band Memento in 2007, guitarist Jason 'Space' Smith and Canadian singer Andrea Wasse joined together in 2009 and formed the contemporary duo, Digital Daggers. Their songs have been featured in The Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, Teen Wolf and CSI: NY. In late 2010 Digital Daggers had the single of the week, No Easy Way, which gained over 150,000 downloads to promote the release of the debut digital EP Human Emotion. 11 June 2013 saw the release of their debut full length album Close Your Eyes released by Los Angeles based indie label El Camino Media.

Daughter

Daughter is a European indie folk band from England. Fronted by North London native Elena Tonra they were formed in 2010 after the addition of Swiss-born guitarist Igor Haefeli and drummer Remi Aguilella from France. They have released two EPs and one album. The band released their debut album, If You Leave, in March 2013. It was received favourably in the press; "An album as beautifully conceived as If You Leave is one you follow from start to finish, riveted by the story it weaves and the emotion it bleeds. And in these digital days that feels like a remarkable achievement" Drowned in Sound said in their review of the album. Daughter also won Independent Album of the Year for If You Leave at the 2013 AIM Independent Music Awards in London. Their songs have been used in Teen Wolf, Arrow and Forever.

My Top 3 songs from these 3 bands are:

• The Devil Within - Digital Daggers
• Welcome To The Black Parade- MCR
• Love - Daughter

-J

6/6/15 - Artists That Don't Get As Much Recognition As They Should

So in this post, I'm gonna talk about artists that don't get as much recognition as they should, hence the title. So I guess I think these artists don't get much recognition because I do find some very obscure musicians.

Mario Jefferson 'Cadillac'

Some of them include King The Kid, a rock/pop band that sadly, recently split up; Mario Jefferson who I have mentioned in previous posts, he recently brought out a new single, Cadillac, which is incredible; Anthony Starble who wrote one of my favourite songs, We Need To Be Loved. I bet you don't know any of the three artists right? Well all of these musicians are extraordinarily talented and have some marvellous music but don't get recognised for it. Another example of that is Lea Michele... She is only known for acting and hardly known for her amazing music. Battlefield, You're Mine, Thousand Needles, all amazing song and hardly anyone knows them. Then there are the Youtubers turned singers: Trevor Moran, Ricky Dillon, Troye Sivan and as of a few weeks ago, Joey Graceffa. They all have amazing music that not many people know. Just because a musician/singer/band doesn't have loads of subscribers and aren't at the top of the charts, doesn't mean their music isn't good. In my opinion, it is usually better than the music in the charts.

King The Kid (Early 2014)

You should really check out some of the music I talked about. It is all amazing.

-J

4/6/15 - Top 5 New Songs Of The Week, MTV Crashes and Musicals

So let's start with MTV Crashes Plymouth. So far only 2 acts have been announced, Tinie Tempah and Jess Glynne. Personally, I don't think it's going to be very good with Jess Glynne. She's not terrible but I just can't like her music.

Anyway, in the introduction it stated that this blog would have music for everyone so lets go with some musicals? Well, there are so many to choose from to talk about so let's start with some classics that everyone will know. Grease? Wicked? Mamma Mia? Some of my favourite songs from Grease are Beauty School Drop Out and There Are Worse Things I Could Do. From Wicked, For Good and Popular. Then there are the ones that people have heard of but don't really know.. West Side Story, Rent, Funny Girl. All incredible. America from West Side Story, Seasons Of Love from Rent, Don't Rain On My Parade and My Man from Funny Girl are all some amazing songs.
Then there are some new ones that most people will not have heard of: Hedwig and The Angry Inch, GiGi and Finding Neverland. Some previous Hedwig and The Angry Inch actors are Neil Patrick Harris and John Cameron Mitchell with the current Hedwig being played by Darren Criss. GiGi first opened in 1973 on Broadway and sadly 103 shows later closed but it did win a Tony Award. It later re-opened for a West End run in 1985 and did a lot better. It has now had a second revival, on Broadway with Vanessa Hudgens playing GiGi. Finding Neverland was first shown in Leicster in 2013 with music by Gary Barlow, next was Cambridge in 2014 and now its open on Boradway being led by Matthew Morrison and Laura Michelle Kelly.
You really should check out the soundtracks for all of them productions because they are all incredible.

Okay so my top 5 new songs of the week are:

• Where Are Ü Now by Jack Ü ft Justin Bieber
• Want To Want Me - Jason Derulo
• Flashlight by Jessie J
• Hey Mama by David Guetta ft Nicki Minaj and Afrojack
• All Cried Out by Blonde ft Alex Newell

3/6/15 - Demi Lovato, Anthony Starble, Pitch Perfect 2 and Rihanna Vs. Beyonce

So one of my current favourite female artists is Demi Lovato. I bet when I say that name you think Disney right? Well, no. Demi is really not Disney. After struggling with bipolar and eating disorders, Demi's music is pure emotion. Some songs like Skyscraper and Warrior actually made me cry. I seriously recommend you listen to Heart By Heart.

The acoustic version of Anthony Starble's We Need To Be Loved is another song that made me cry. It's so true. The lyrics are

And why isn't the love that we have for ourselves, enough?
And why is it that we need to be held when our lives, get rough?

And it really made me think. Why isn't the love that we have for ourselves enough? Why do we need someone else's love? Why can't we just love ourselves and that be enough?

Away from the previous depressing-ness of We Need To Be Loved, who was seen Pitch Perfect 2? I swear Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow and Rebel Wilson get better with everything they are in. The music was so good. Flashlight by Jessie J, the campfire version of Cups, the Timber/Wrecking Ball mash-up. It was all so amazing. And Hailee Steinfeld was in it! The only thing missing was a Rihanna song.

Speaking of Rihanna, I currently have an addiction to her music. Umbrella, Stay, Unfaithful, Diamonds, Only Girl... All of them are so amazing. So is her new stuff, FourFiveSeconds and Bitch Better Have My Money.

Also in Pitch Perfect 2, was some of  Beyoncé's Run The World (Girls). There seems to be this Rihanna Vs. Beyoncé thing and I don't get how people can choose between. I mean come on, its Queen B or RiRi. Like, Beyoncé has Halo and If I Were A Boy and Single Ladies and Rihanna has the songs I mentioned previously. You really cannot choose between two amazing singers. It'd be like Britney Spears or Madonna. Drake or Jay-Z. Slipknot or Metallica. You just can't choose. It's not an option. Both of them are so incredibly talented and beautiful and phenomenal.

Anyway, congrats to Kimye on their second baby and can I just give a shoutout to Caitlyn Jenner? I am so impressed and proud to have followed her from being long haired Bruce, to telling Kendall, Kylie, Khloe, Kris, Kourtney, Scott and Kim, to where she is now so yeah! Go Caitlyn Jenner. Also, who watched the Pretty Little Liars season 6 premier? I'm so ready for the #summerofanswers

-J

29/5/15 - Different Genres of Music

A lot of people like pop music right? That's probably why it's called pop, shortened from popular... Some people like rock or indie or country okay? So what about the people who don't like any of them? I personally listen to Latin music and Electronic Dance Music. Some of my absolute favourite Latin songs are by Spanish Singer/Songwriter Mario Jefferson. No Lo Ves is a great Spanish one while Not Over You and L-U-C-K-Y are really good English ones.

 There is also the genres of music that not many people like. Classical, Opera, Jazz, Blues etc but some of them have some amazing artists like Robert Lockwood Jr and BB King. Both amazing blues artists.

Another type of music, although it's not really counted as a type of music, is slow, depressing, deep music. All my playlists are songs about death, they are from Pretty Little Liars though... I suppose any slow song could be counted as depressing right? Well my top 5 slow/depressing songs are:

1. Gemma Hayes - Wicked Game
2. The Devil Within - Digital Daggers
3. Happiness -The Fray
4. We Need To Be Loved - Anthony Starble
5. Without You - Tobias Jesso Jr

So here's all the links to things I mentioned that you should check out:

https://www.youtube.com/user/MarioJeffersonMusic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuBp0H7DAIo&list=PL8z7KIvaZnr84E-gx_JMQwlvKNPs_yap8&index=3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G049LeVG6BI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cym52I0pD9M&index=10&list=PL8z7KIvaZnr84E-gx_JMQwlvKNPs_yap8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0ywx8Aaw80&list=PL8z7KIvaZnr84E-gx_JMQwlvKNPs_yap8&index=34

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7n3HG5vD-o&list=PL8z7KIvaZnr84E-gx_JMQwlvKNPs_yap8&index=28


-J

28/05/2015 - Down By The River, TV Shows and Glee Season 6

Hey Guys! So a couple of days ago I went for a walk down near this beautiful river. The sun bounced off the top of it and the wind made the trees sway. It was incredible. I was listening to this song and it was just like paradise so I thought I'd share it with you. I was listening to Orion by Jordan MKL and in the 3 minutes and 47 seconds it was on, I felt so at peace with myself and nature really.  I found this song from Kevin McHale's Soundcloud account and every time I hear it, I get so chilled and it's an amazing song so you should listen to it Jordan MKL - Orion on Souncloud

Onto another thing, a lot of people ask me where I find my music and mostly its from TV shows and films.. Not the obvious Glee, Pitch Perfect and X Factor but Pretty Little Liars and The Vampire Diaries. Three of my favourite songs are from them two shows: Details by Sleeperstar from TVD, The Devil Within by The Digital Daggers from PLL and Begin Again by Rachel Platten from the 100th episode of Pretty Little Liars, Miss Me x100 (one of my personal favourites from the show). A really good place to find the names of songs you hear on TV shows is TuneFind. It has practically every TV show with a soundtrack. All you do is type in the TV show, find you series and episode and look for your song. TuneFind - Find Music From TV and Movies

Also, Glee is back on tonight in the UK. The sixth and final season airs at 9pm and if you already watch it, awesome. If you don't, but love music, I really recommend you do watch it. It's not what everyone makes it out to be. It teaches you a lot about people and life as well as it just being a group of people singing songs and dancing around.

Finally, my top 5 songs for this week are -

1. Flashlight - Jessie J
2. Want To Want Me - Jason Derulo
3. All Cried Out - Blonde ft Alex Newell
4. Avalanche - Nick Jonas ft Demi Lovato
5. Ghost Town - Adam Lambert

-J

Introduction To J.GMusic

Hi Guys, so basically, we are two music lovers who wanted to share our current favourite artists, songs and well everything music with you. We'll post our ideas and thoughts on award shows e.g. Teen Choice Awards, Billboard Music Awards etc. We'll post about our favourite places to go and listen to certain songs, new music, songs and artists that most people won't know. They'll be songs for people at any age that like any genre. So not only will this have new music by One Direction or Ariana Grande or Eminem, but will also have music by Metallica, Slipknot, Billy Joel or Lady Antebellum. No matter what music you like, this will have something for you. And maybe you'll find something that don't usually listen to and love it.