30 Day Music Challenge: Days 11-15

Before I begin this challenge, I wanted to give a shout-out to a local radio station of mine- Y107.  When I posted my last music challenge post, one of the songs I picked was Poison by Bell Biv Devoe.  Yesterday, I was listening to Y107 and during their lunch hour called Flashback Lunch, they played it.  Out of pure joy and a bit of promotion I tweeted I just mentioned it on my blog and mentioned the station for playing it.  I didn't expect anything, but they retweeted and favorited the post.  The best you can expect right?  Well, not exactly, after that they sent a reply and we had a little back and forth and on one of their replies they said my blog was very nice.  I thought that was incredible.  Maybe they checked it out or didn't but either way they did in some sort of way give my blog a little pat on the back.  No links to my blog were given by me or them, but it was still cool.  I might make a quick post about it later, not about that specifically but about blogging in general, and also include something else that was much cooler that happened to me via twitter as well.  If you follow you probably already know.

However, let's get into the next phase of the music challenge, and when we conclude, we will be halfway done.  An interesting mix of songs chosen today, and two of them and possibly a third I remember getting airplay on Y107 at one point.  In fact the first one I probably only heard because of their station, so let's dig in.

Day 11: A song that you never get tired of

Paramore- crushcrushcrush

Paramore came about the time that while I still loved modern music, it was losing its appeal and I was slowly turning into an old-timer longing for "good music from my days".  I think its something that everyone goes through, but even in 2017 I can still find modern music that I enjoy.  However in 2007 when this was released, Paramore kept me clinging to a hope that current music was still good.  While not their best video or even their best song, this was the song I first thought of.  Its a nice blend or rock but also not heavy enough for pop fans to hate it.  I wouldn't call it pop-rock (if that's even a category) because they were even played on AC stations and it was rare for a song with a hint of rock in it to make it on there.  I loved Hayley Williams, and still do, and while my crush for Paramore has waned, I still enjoy listening to almost all their songs.  A co-worker knew I liked them and even tried to sell me on The Hunger Games because they had a song in it.  It didn't work but I felt while they received much more commercial success from it, it also hurt them.  They were never the same again.  I will say though that I watch concerts on youtube sometimes, and Paramore have great shows.  They don't butcher their own songs live much at all and that's what I like.


Day 12: A song from your preteen years

Styx- Show Me The Way (Desert Storm Mix)

This selection was a little tough.  To me, I can never tell what the preteen years are, so I figured it would be ages 11-12.  So I had to think back to then and what I was listening to in 1993-1994 or maybe a year or two earlier.  It brought me back to living in the country and while I listened to radio, nothing really stood out.  The I thought of this song which I hadn't thought of in at least 15 years.  I remember hearing this song on the radio and it was very emotional.  At one point I even remember taping it onto a cassette, but somewhere along the line I lost it.  It got heavy airplay because of the War, but then it was phased out and eventually you would hear the song but without the edit.  Back then I knew who Styx was, but never heard this song before so I thought it was from like the 70's and they just added the war stuff into it and re-released it, so I might not have heard it without the edit before this one hit the airwaves.  Its very possible because at the time I listened to a lot of country music.  Its even possible I first heard this song on the sister station of Y107, Clear 99- the country station I listened to mostly back then.


Day 13: One of your favorite 70's songs

Grand Funk Railroad- We're An American Band

In recent years I've been more prone to listen to more classic rock.  Partly because I'm not a fan of a lot of modern music and because its a genre that has the most songs.  Unfortunately my local stations have a small library and not a lot of diversity.  However there are still a lot of songs I like and this is one of them.  I've heard it every since I was a kid, but the way Homer Simpson explained the history of Grand Funk on The Simpsons really propelled me to give it more of a listen.  Also a Christian Parody band named Apologetix did a version of this song which also made me appreciate this song a lot more.  While it may not be my absolute favorite song from the 70's, if I made a list it would be near the top. I just stumbled upon this video while searching for a good version of this song, and I thought it was pretty good even if it isn't an official video.  It shows a lot of classic Television shows and them playing or dancing along to the music.  Well worth a view.


Day 14: A song the you would love played at your wedding

John Legend- All Of Me

Sure you can say I picked this song and video because I'm envious of John Legend being married to Chrissy Teigen, but its more than that.  Yes, I have a mad crush on her but this song has so much more than just John pouring out his love for her.  Okay, maybe it doesn't, but it doesn't need to.  My favorite line "love your curves and edges, all your perfect imperfections".  Forget about the first part, focus on the last part, the "perfect imperfections".  It's such a beautiful lyric, saying that even where she comes up short, it is still nothing he would change if he could.  I hope I can find someone that makes me feels this way.


Day 15: A song that is a cover by another artist

Sanctus Real- Beautiful Day

I have been a fan of U2 for a long time, so when I heard some Christian artists planned on releasing a tribute CD for charity with their tracks, I jumped on it.  It is from top to bottom one of the best CD's that I paid full price for.  One of the standout tracks was this one by a band called Sanctus Real.  There were a lot of good artists on the album and some much more famous, but while still good, they were all missing something.  This to me was the perfect one.


So a few hours after starting this post, I finally finished it.  I got lost on youtube, but now that I'm finished I can start thinking of the next set of songs.  I hope you enjoyed this batch, and thanks for reading.  Have a great (or Beautiful) day!