Music, Music, Music
As I've been catching up on all things blog, I learned that I was "tagged" by my blogbud, MoDigli, in one of her posts to answer some music questions. I was able to comment with some general info on her blog, but as I was trying to come up with more complete answers, it was much harder than I thought it would be; it took a couple of days to work it all out. There's just too much music to narrow down! Anyway, here's my attempt to play along.
Total volume of music files on my computer?
As I check my iTunes library, my most recent count is 1817 songs, 6 days, 8.68GB. Those numbers will be increasing soon as I'm somewhat of a LimeWire junkie.
A little background:
I originally started downloading songs for a birthday party video I was editing, then I got the idea to create CD compilations to give as gifts—I even sold a few. Even though my CD collection is substantive, you can never have enough music; I also needed more diversity.
I grew up primarily on black music, especially R&B and gospel. That's still what I listen to most, and is the bulk of my collection, along with jazz, which I acquired a taste for in college. Because hip hop came into being while I was still in high school, its also an influence. I'm not always crazy about it lyrically, but I can definitely appreciate it musically. Bottom line, I just love good music, especially anything with a smooth groove and a generous dose of funk.
The last CD I bought was:
Fantasia's Free Yourself. I loved her so much on American Idol that I knew I'd be buying her album. I especially love the title cut, and her version of Summertime from the musical, Porgy & Bess. You can hear them on her official website, or on Launch.com.
That's the first CD I've bought in a while, but I recently joined the music club again, so I'll be stocking up again soon. I've got a lot of catching up to do.
Song playing right now:
Nothing was playing when I started writing this, so I scrolled through my iTunes to see if anything grabbed me. I came across a gospel song I hadn't heard for a while called Set The Atmosphere by Kurt Carr & The Kurt Carr Singers. It actually moved me to tears. I forgot how music can affect you sometimes when you least expect it. It's from the Awesome Wonder CD. For those into gospel music, I recommend it highly.
Five (5) songs I listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me (in no particular order): (Album titles are in parentheses.)
1) Little Things from India.Arie (Voyage To India).
I love this song so much because it reminds us to appreciate what we have in life and not take anything for granted. No matter how much we aspire to and acquire in life we should never lose sight of what's truly important. After all, big gifts do come in small packages.
2) Video from India.Arie (Acoustic Soul).
This song should be the anthem for every little girl born in the universe. Societies of every culture really do a number on women with all the "values" and "ideals" they impose on us. In the new millennium it's got to be about self-love and acceptance no matter what size and shape we come in. (Can I get an amen!)
3) Far Away from Kindred The Family Soul (Surrender To Love).
As someone born and raised in a big city, I can definitely relate to the need to escape it every so often, especially with someone special. I love the whole neo-soul thing going on now, and this husband & wife team is right at the top of it. There's definitely a Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway vibe going on here.
4) Can We Change The World from Maysa (Maysa).
Maysa Leak is the lead singer for the awesome British jazz/funk band, Incognito. This was my favorite song from her first solo album back in 1995. She's got one of the smoothest voices out there (like a female Luther Vandross); I can listen to her all day. The message that "only we can change the world" is dead on. The fact is, we've got to change ourselves first, working from the inside out.
5) Bag Lady from Erykah Badu (Mama's Gun).
Not only is the beat on this funky as hell, the message is on point too. It's basically telling us women to take better care of ourselves and let go of all the excess stuff (and people) dragging us down. We've just got to keep it moving and trust that "love will make it better."
Wrap Up:
As I don't have many blog friends yet, I'll only tag three people right now—Erin at Poetic Acceptance, Lorianne at Hoarded Ordinaries, and Zenday at Inside Zenday's Head. Anyone else who reads this is more than welcome to play along. Please let me know what you come up with.
posted by Melanie @ 9:51 PM
6 Comments:
Melanie, Hi! I hadn't checked my email in a few days. It was good to hear from you! Glad to see you're back. About the comment thing in your previous post...I try to comment on people's posts on their site every time they put up a post, because I know how important feedback is to me. And, that's really the only way you can be sure people are actually reading you. Usually when they ask me a question in a comment to my post, I respond to it in my next post, but still comment on their own post. To me, it's just common courtesy. The bad thing about my site, is you can only leave a comment if you have an account with xanga, which sucks. Lately, I've been seeing statements like, "click here to leave comment if you don't have a xanga account" on some of the blogs. I keep meaning to ask them how they are doing that. In the meantime, if you'd like to comment on mine, you can get a free xanga account, just to have so you can comment. You don't have to publish anything on it. There's a lot of people that do it. If you don't want to do that, I certainly understand. I'll try to do your tag sometime next week..it looks like it requires some brain power, which I'm using up pretty fast right now with my 'series' I'm doing, plus some other things going on. Don't you love your new adopted pet? And, I certainly give you an amen on how society puts women in a box and tells them to stay there. I am a hot head when it comes to someone telling me I have to think or be a certain way "because I'm a woman". I have another website if you'd like to read it...only one post on it right now, and it's a trial, so I may be moving it to xanga before long. It's not a family site like zenday..it's about women and the church. Check it out. You can let me know what you think in your post, or comment on the site..there's not any yet. http://www.womenunite.squarespace.com
Talk later!
Glad to hear back from you Zenday. Thanks for the commenting feedback. Whether or not I decide to sign up with Xanga, I'll still stay in touch.
Thanks for being willing to play the music game. I look forward to seeing your post on that. I'll definitely check out your other blog. Sounds interesting.
BTW, I do love Midas 3rd, but I only wish he could move in the blog. I wasn't able to resize the moving version so I had to use the other one. :-(
Hey Mel...
Nice list! I tried to go listen to Fantasia's version of Summertime (I looooooove that song!) but wasn't successful. It wasn't coming up on the playlist. Oh well, maybe I can catch a snippet on iTunes.
I love "video" by India.Arie, too.
:) toni
ps. I noticed Lauren Hill didn't make it on your list.
Hey Mo,
I decided that since I mentioned Lauren on your blog, I'd make room for others on mine, esp. some lesser known artists. I honestly could have mentioned many more, but I'd probably have to start a whole new blog. LOL
Maybe I'll have to do a Part 2 on this another time.
LOL! Good point to get some new names in there. Maybe the next post should include some Luther.
BTW, I forgot to mention: You've got a LOT of music!! Over 8 gigs????!!!!
W O W ! ! !
Get out of my brain, Mo. There's not enough room for both of us. :-) I actually intended to dedicate my next post to Luther. It's just hard narrowing down all that great music.
I guess 8GB is a lot. But then I did mention my LimeWire habit, didn't I?
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