- “The Modern Age”, 2001; The Strokes
The Strokes are a successful garage rock/post-punk band from New York City. This is the second track off their critically-acclaimed and commercial hit debut album, Is This It. The song was originally released earlier that year on The Modern Age EP, the release of which started the largest bidding war among record labels for a rock band in years. The Strokes are frequently cited for ushering in the garage rock revival movement of the early 21st century. Other pivotal bands in this movement include The Libertines, Interpol, The White Stripes & the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Rolling Stone magazine placed Is This It at number 199 on their “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list, and NME ranked it at number 4 on their “Top 500 Albums of All Time” countdown
2. “Oh What A World,” 2003; Rufus Wainwright, from the album Want One.
Men reading fashion magazines
Oh what a world it seems we live in
Straight men, oh what a world we live in
Why am I always on a plane or a fast train
Oh what a world my parents gave me
Always traveling but not in love
Still I think I’m doing fine
Wouldn’t it be a lovely headline:
“Life is Beautiful” on the New York Times
Here’s a sign that the singer/songwriter/pianist is alive and well. Like so many new millennium artists, Wainwright writes music at an intersection: this time it’s the intersection of classical and Broadway-style pop with a distinct modern personality (“metrosexual”? ).
3. “Imagine Me,” 2005;Kirk Franklin.
I like the message of this song about how strong people are when they don’t even realize it. I think that this song is about having hope because you won’t be in the same situation forever. I think a lot of people can relate to this song because just about everybody has been through something. I think this song is also about forgiveness because when you hold something against somebody then you become bitter and sometimes just as bad as them. This will always relate to people no matter what century we are in but you can always argue and it seems like the world has gotten worse but this song as well as a few others has always given me hope.
4. “Waiting on The World to Change,” 2006; John Mayer.
This song was released in 2006 and featured on Mayer’s third studio album, Continuum. John Mayer won the Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance due to the popularity of this song. This song contains chord progressions usually heard in popular blues and soul tracks. The entire album continues with a theme of a heavily blues influenced sound. In this song, Mayer speaks out against the government. He sings “Now we see everything that’s going wrong with the world and those who lead it. We just feel like we don’t have the means to rise above and beat it.” This song centers on exposing his generation’s lack of advocacy against the current political status that may be caused by the feeling of having no power. He even discusses government’s influence on the media with the lyrics “Because when they own the information, oh they can bend it all they want”. All of what Mayer sings about is still prevalent today as we tend to see discrepancies in media especially regarding our current political climate. He offers a reason for this continued pattern of corruption and that’s because we sit back and wait on the world to change. Many older generations leave it up to the next generation to bring about change, but older generations also think that millennials are too naive. He acknowledges the stigma behind millennials trying to change the world. He sings “they say we stand for nothing and there’s no way we ever could.” These lyrics relate to millennials as they are made to feel powerless because they are too young haven’t had ample experience to know how bring about change. However, this song spreads a message of self awareness for millennials. Even though, we know that older generations may think we are naive that doesn’t mean that we should still not try and change the world. Otherwise, the change we want will never come and this continued pattern of corruption in the world will live on.
5. “Fatima,” K’Naan; 2009.
Forced to flee a devastating war in his home country of Somalia, K’Naan immigrated as a boy to the U.S., arriving in New York with nothing. He learned English mainly through listening to hip-hop and, eventually, discovered his own talent for pairing compelling beats, memorable hooks, and smart, poignant rhymes. His music recounts his own immigrant experience (which ended with his living in Canada due to difficulties in the U.S.), challenges other hip-hop artists to write music that speaks to something real, and invites listeners to deliberate the extent of human suffering and stupidity the world over. And, yet, he communicates a sense of humor, love, and hope, even as he recounts the terrors and tragedies of his own life, including the merciless, pointless slaughter of a girl he loved as a child back in Somalia.
6. Get Lucky,” Daft Punk; 2013.
Although musicians have been using electronic instruments and “synthetic” elements in their songs since the technology has been around, the genre of electronic music is relatively new, coming into prominence in the 2000s. The French duo Daft Punk is one of the most popular electronic bands; their genre is actually called French house, since it is popularly played in French dance houses, but in broader terms it is thought of as electronic or techno music. Daft Punk is made up of two members who are only shown in their famous robot-esque masks and do not do interviews or make public appearances. The song “One More Time” was their first hit on major charts in 2001, and “Get Lucky”, released in 2013, was their next hit. The song features vocals by Pharrell Williams and distinct elements of electronic music: synthesizers, autotune, an instument called a vocoder, drum machines, and so on. It explores the topic of sexually “getting lucky” but also of happening upon a deep connection with someone.
7. “Formation,” 2016; Beyoncé.
”Formation” is the first single from Beyonce’s latest album ”Lemonade” (2016), which was a pop culture phenomenon, the world’s best selling album in 2016 and an intimate look into who Beyonce is. Besides being personal in terms of love and relationships (with her husband’s infidelity and her rocky relationship with her father) she’s also singing about identity and politics from a very personal place – and that’s what ”Formation” is about. Lyrics like ”My daddy Alabama, momma Louisiana” and ”I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils” highlight her background and her identity as a person of color. With Lemonade being a visual album, the music video is an important part of the song and makes references to black culture and history, including recent issues like police brutality and natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Beyonce’s lyrics are often a celebration of female empowerment too; “Okay ladies, now let’s get in formation”, she commands with a (very current) trap beat in the background. The song is not just about being black or a woman; her identity is an intersection of both. Black women are still an overlooked group while white women and black men are still the faces of feminism and racism, but Beyonce brings everyone’s attention and conversation to these issues. “Formation,” incidentally, was the most Google-searched song of 2016.
8. “Change,” 2017; Wale and Kim Namjoon.
This song is a very special collaboration by two rappers, Wale and Kim Namjoon, who is actually a part of a K-pop group BTS. The story is that Wale saw Kim Namjoon’s music and really was interested in doing a collaboration. He contacted him and ended up flying all the way to South Korea to work with him. They started working on a song that reflects on deep questions of the present time like “Can the dark never be the light and can wrong never be right?” They also included topics like interracial relationships, commonly stereotyped female jobs like being a maid, etc. As a whole, they talked about how they wish to view the world as changing in a positive way trying to influence everyone to go about life in a positive way.
9. “Pool,” 2017; Paramore.
Paramore’s latest album After Laughter, was released May 12, 2017. Hayley Williams, the frontwoman of the band remarks the the album’s title is named after “that look on a person’s face when they laugh really hard and then there’s this moment where they come back to reality — I like watching for it. Maybe I’m a little bit of a creep” (Bacle). It’s the moment where a smile is lost and fades into a solemn expression — into nothingness. After Laughter as a whole grasps a collection of emotion; there are moments of joy, sadness, reality checks, hopelessness, and hurt, all of which speak to the ugly truths and patterns seen in unhealthy relationships. The song “Pool” conveys a piece of that. It begins with fading effect into a cacophony of what-sound-like bells. The sound is quite similar to wind-chimes — a collection of repeated tones, yet they are scattered and seem free forming. This idea is then picked up with an overlay of a synthesized, almost steel-drum-sounding melody. The introduction is unlike the beginning of any Paramore song. It is only when the instrumentation takes full-swing when the drums pick up and the guitar riff is introduced, which sets up a perfect accompaniment for Hayley Williams’s harsh first few lines: As if the first cut wasn’t deep enough/ I dove in again ’cause I’m not into giving up./Could’ve gotten the same rush from any lover’s touch./Why get used to something new?/‘Cause no one breaks my heart like you. The song may be interpreted as an exposure of a toxic and painful relationship. Although Paramore has yet to verbalize the true meaning behind the song, it’s clear that there are some painful inter-personal struggles being shared with listeners. It suggests that this relationship is undoubtedly full of pain, yet is inescapable because the person who is getting hurt is willing to sacrifice and overcome the many obstacles set before them: You are the wave I could never tame/If I survive I’ll dive back in. This line is repeated in the chorus, indicating how the relationship draws them in, despite full awareness of its damaging and mentally crippling effects. In short, this particular song captures the allure and the insanity of remaining part of a toxic relationship quite well.
10. “1-800-273-8255,” 2017; Logic.
Released on April 28, 2017,“1-800-273-8255″ is the third single off of Logic’s album Everybody. The name of this song is a phone number, which leads to the suicide prevention hotline. While this song is all about the hardships that certain people will encounter throughout their life, it is a constant reminder that they are not alone in their battle and they will overcome the situation. The song is nominated for “song of the year” in the Grammy’s this year, which helps get Logic’s point across of how dedicated he was to the song. He is very involved in the movement of suicide prevention and helping others feel comfortable in their own skin. This song is very relevant to 2017, because of the diversity that is now considered normal because acceptance is what the world is about now. Everyone has always strived to be accepted and have cared about what others think, but now new generations make it clear that it is okay to be you, and love who you love. Equality within everyone is very important to me, and a main reason i decided to choose this song, because that is exactly what this song in its entirety is about. Logic is a very influential performer and song writer, due to practically all of his songs being positive or about real world problems, and i look up to him very much because of the way he is using his fame for the betterment of the world.
11. “Hard Feelings/Loveless,” 2017; Lorde.
Lorde’s sophomore album, Melodrama, is rich in unique subject matter that is addressed in a nuanced and artful way, much like her hit debut album, Pure Heroine. While there are a variety of factors that distinguish Melodrama from its predecessor, the most obvious of these is the central focus on the singer’s personal life and relationships. The album is commonly cited as being a loose concept album, anchored by a specific house party and the events leading up to and following it. “Hard Feelings/Loveless” plays a critical role in the narrative of the album, as it encapsulates not only the end of Lorde’s relationship (arguably the major turning point of the story), but also the plight of belonging to the “loveless” generation. The “Hard Feelings” portion of the track is representative of the heartbreak and bitterness that comes from the end of many romantic relationships. “Loveless,” however, paints a very different picture, as it is representative of the kind of performative coldness and emotionlessness that Lorde’s generation, the millennial generation, is often prone to adopting as a method of self-defense. In other words, “Hard Feelings” says “I’m sad and distraught about my break up”, meanwhile “Loveless” says “Get yourself together, you don’t care and you never did, because caring is a sign of weakness.” The social media driven, passive aggressive and cold hearted culture of our generation is sometimes hard to capture in a meaningful way, but Lorde accomplishes this in “Hard Feelings/Loveless.” This is just one of many delightfully specific ideas on the album that makes it so addictive, a trait executed masterfully by Lorde in all of her work.