A Penny Hardwick Tribute

As we continue with the theme (borrowed from High Fidelity) of Top 5 Lists, we come to the list of Top 5 Recording Artists.  This was brought up in High Fidelity when Rob talks about his second worst breakup of all time, in chronological order, with Penny Hardwick (Her favorite recording artists: Carly Simon, Carole King, James Taylor, Cat Stevens and Elton John).

I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll reiterate it again because of its relevancy in this next list. I listen to a lot of music. After beginning to research for this article I realized that putting 5 people/bands at the top of a list that is full of artists, who in my mind are legends, is impossible with no parameters. So to start this off lets set some guidelines. The Artist(s) have to

1) have at least 3 or more albums (not counting re-released albums, compilations or “best of’s”)

2) have at least 2 albums that I can listen to from beginning to end

3) be involved in 1 of the first 2-3 conversations I have with someone I just met. If you’re not gonna bring them up when trying to find out similarities between you and a new acquaintance, they don’t belong on this list

This list will go from 5-1, but depending on the day the order changes. So as of right now, without further ado, here are my Top 5 Recording Artists of All Time

5) Daft Punk  –  Started out as a 3 man punk band called “Darlin”. It went nowhere (it’s hard to listen to more than 30 seconds of any of their songs), but after a bad review described them as “a bunch of daft punk”, the French duo dropped the guitarist (who went on to play in Phoenix) and began making house music.  Unfortunately I got into them 3 months after they did their legendary Alive 2007 tour (they played in Coney Island…not at all bitter about that). Albums I can listen to straight through: Alive 2007, Discovery, Homework.  “High life. Possibly my favorite Daft Punk song. Who DOESN’T wanna go do cocaine at a roller disco with this song playing?”

4) Jay-Z  –  I first heard about Jay-Z when I was a freshman in high school, still trying to shorten my musical learning curve after spending 3 years in Germany where I knew nothing about what was going on in the world around me. I heard The Black Album and liked the singles, but hadn’t ever looked into him more. Then I met Tim from french class. He always had his CD player with him and the only CD’s he had in his case were from yours truly. He was a true fanatic, border-lining obsessed. I got the full Black Album from David my junior year and from then on it was gravy. I fell in love with the album (one of my top 5 all-time) and after I downloaded all of his discography, mostly online in less than legal ways, he had my heart.  Albums I can listen to straight through: The Black Album, Reasonable Doubt, The Blueprint

3) Guns N’ Roses  –  Another band that David put me on to (thanks again).  This is one band that I actually don’t bring up in those first couple conversations. My reason being; after doing it so many times and getting “oh yea I love playing Sweet Child of Mine on guitar hero” in response, I got sick of it and subconsciously decided to let them all suffer in their own ignorance. Albums I can listen to straight through: Appetite For Destruction, G N’ R Lies, Use Your Illusions 1,2 (everything up until The “Spaghetti Incident?”, which only called my iTunes home for about a week and before I deleted it).

2) Pink Floyd  –  It’s late at night and you’re going for a walk (or in my case, sitting back on my balcony in Provo, UT). 27’s in one pocket, an iPod in the other and the only thing on your mind is what should I listen to to help me get away from my day for 5 minutes. Most of the time for me, that choice is “The Wall”, and those 5 minutes turn into 45 after I get sucked into the story during the first song. Since then I’ve been able to stop smoking (win) and I’ve moved away from Provo (major win) but just as they were there for me before I moved to Utah, Pink Floyd has stayed with me as I’ve moved on to bigger and better things.  A big reason for that is the fact that they write their albums based on concepts and I’m able to get lost in them. Albums I can listen to straight through: Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Wish You Were Here

1) Eminem  –  I posted an interview with Donald Glover (Childish Gambino) a week and a half ago where he’s talking about the first time he listened to Eminem and Biggie. He liked, and this is exactly how I felt when I first heard Mr. Mathers, how this music scared him. It didn’t really hit me when “The Real Slim Shady” came out cause I was in the 4th grade and even though I knew all the words I had no idea what it was talking about. When I picked it up again in high school (and this is again borrowing words from that interview) it was so new to me. I didn’t realize that this kind of material could be put on a beat and be delivered with such ease.  Albums I can listen to straight through:  Infinite, The Slim Shady LP, Marshall Mathers LP (Only if I’m in the mood for “Kim”), The Eminem Show

…Now, years later, I still get scared when I listen to Eminem.

And I love it

Music just makes everything seem more awesome!!!

In relation to the previous article, Music has a way to make you feel a certain way.  Reasons were already given as to the different possibilities of why a piece of music might affect you.  Whats also interesting is the mixture of Images and Music to create an even stronger feeling.  Whether it’s a photo slide show of an individuals graduation with the cliché Green Day song (Time of you Life), or a brilliant Movie Trailer that sells you, not through the images, but the music mixed into it, its mostly through the music that your emotions come out in a climatic form

This trailer, in my opinion one of the best trailers ever made, successfully sells itself through both the beautiful images and the music.  Classical Music is hit or miss with me, but this movie made me love classical music.  The movie last about 3 hours, with roughly only 30 minutes of dialogue, and an incoherent story.  And this may or may not be apparent, however, this film is not for everyone.  I loved this movie for the photography, its obscure storytelling, but most of all its music.  And this trailer proves it.  Watching this trailer you can’t really tell what the movie will be about, but you are blown away with the images and the music.  And the movie is also successful in showing the viewer the psychological struggles of life, without dialogue, through only the storytelling of images and music….its beautiful

This an example of how music can sell something really average.  Watching this trailer, you FEEL for the characters, you UNDERSTAND what they are going through, even if you never went through the premise of the movie in your life, the music puts you in a familiar state of your life where you may have felt loved and sadness, a feeling bittersweet.  The film however is bland, and average.  Neither bad nor good, and it’s the perfect example of how a trailer can be extremely good at selling the movie but when you watch the movie, 1.  the song isn’t even in it 2. the movie is not as good as the trailer and 3. you don’t really feel anything for the characters.

The you have the ROBBERS!!! The STEALERS!!! The trailers that use the original score of a movie and try to sell it with their movie.  But why would a movie like the Lord Of The Rings need to steal the song of REQUIEM FOR A DREAM.  REQUIEM is a great film with a strong story.  You get lost in the script and dialogue that everytime the song pops up, it climaxes your emotions, making you feel sad, hyped, scared, all at the same time.  The song gets played during the strongest parts of the movie, not to mention the ending which is one of the most jaw-dropping endings in modern day films.  As a result, the song begins to carry those emotions with it, you play it on your ipod, you will get those same feelings you got when you watched the scene that came along with it.  Almost the same way an album will make you reminisce moments during the time it first came out.  So imagine putting that song in an action/thriller/fantasy trailer, all those emotions will come up again subconsciously and the film/trailer you will be watching will win your interest.  A film student can make a 2 minute short, add that song, and it will automatically have a sense of suspense and epic-ness to it.

I sometimes grab all the scores of films, soundtracks, and trailer music, grab it ALL and make a playlist, and play a game with family or friends where they have to guess where the song is from, and if they need a hint, you have to act it out or say the dialogue that matches the scene with the music.  This is obviously just a brief summary as to different ways where music can sell something and be part of your memory in accordance to certain images, and there are thousands of other great films and scores that weren’t mentioned.  Every now and then ill post some great trailers that sell, as for now, I hope this gives an appreciation of music used in other ways to enter the subconscious minds to SELL

And only because this whole blog was created based on a daft punk theory I will of course add this

What better way to make a trailer, let alone film, but with daft punk composing the music…..GENIUS