Several days ago my friend Courtney IMd me at work, with the message of "You only have 4 minutes," or something to that effect. It was a nod--or maybe a tease--to my affinity of Madonna music, and her current single "4 Minutes." She then asked me if I only had four minutes what would I do? My response:
Live.
Laugh.
Love.
Well, that's pretty much what I do anyway. So I guess I'd continue doing that. I wonder...what would you do if you only had four minutes?
French.
Electronica.
Strange.
Madonna producer.
Victoria's Secret.
All of these words or terms can be associated with today's featured artist & video. It is noneother than Mirwais. His music is definitely unique; so much so that Madonna recruited him to head the production on her albums "Music" and "American Life."
Mirwais's sound is most certainly electronica-driven, and very much European. I purchased his CD "Production", immediately after first hearing "Music," and one of my favorite tracks on the album is "Naive Song," the video for which is displayed below. While one of the most "mainstream" on the album, "Naive Song" is catch and easy to bop your head to.
Enjoy!
Exciting news this-way-comes, with the release of the street date of Madonna's yet-to-be-named (or revealed) album. The big date: 29 April 2008. This just days after Madonna, Justin Timberlake, and Timbaland wrapped filming for the album's first single, "4 Minutes to Save the World." Never one to to box-in her creative horizon, the storyline for the video is Madonna as a dominatrix, with Justin and Timbalake being her "bitches." Certainly peaks my interest....
I like Madonna. While everyone in the world has an opinion about her as both an artist and an individual, I think she embodies creativity, innovation, and style. So needless to say I'm anxiously awaiting her new album, due for release sometime early this year. Promotion has begun, buzz is good....
Until the unnamed album is officially pushed out to the marketplace, there's an online poll for users to vote for the ''Most Elegant Woman of 2007," for which Madonna is currently in the lead. Here's where the "style" comes into play.
Who do you think should win? To cast your vote for Madonna click here.
Stuart Price is the next big thing, I think. He's young, he's talented, and he's got the support of many, many hot musicians. The man who unarguably had a hand in the success of Madonna's 2005 ''comeback'' record, ''Confessions on a Dance Floor'' is most recently at the helm of Seal's new release, ''System.'' While I don't have many male artists in my library of music, you will find all of Seal's albums -- I think his voice coupled with his style of music makes for a great listening experience.
''System'' is a fantastic record, and has the Stuart Price trademark all over it. In fact, it could be a younger brother of ''Confessions.'' Believe me, this is a good thing. Seal's latest effort is, for the most park, a non-stop dance-o-rama, and well worth the purchase. Price's ability to take the "norm" and make something interesting is really keen, and certainly one of the things that keeps ''System'' interesting.
It'll be interesting to see what projects Stuart Price takes on next. Whatever artists he works with, their music is sure to be a great addition to their current catalog.
Click here to purchase Seal's ''System'' from Amazon.com.
Politics is not something I've historically been involved--or even interested--in. Perhaps because I've never found a politician who really exemplifies my own political beliefs. Maybe it's because I'm one of those individuals who tends to believe that even if a politician begins a career in politics their good intentions are overpowered by greed. I don't know. But what I do know is I'm making a concerted effort to involve myself in the 2008 Presidential election -- I'm 32-years-old and it's time I made some sort of [political] contribution to our country. (I refuse to debate whether or not it's a privilege or a civic duty.)
Now while the influence of my contributions aren't necessarily the topic of this particular post--which is the first in a series--I do wonder about the contributions of other citizens. Specifically, celebrities who endorse political parties and/or given candidates. Of course this is brought to the forefront right now because Oprah Winfrey has publicly endorsed Barak Obama for the Democratic Presidential candidate. I've got no problem with that; however, I have my own ideas & opinions about how this impacts the political scene.
Today's music video comes from a fantastic group called Frou Frou. I discovered them a few years back, and purchased their debut album based solely on a magazine article I'd read about them. One half of the group--the non-singing half--is Guy Sigsworth, who's done quite a bit of production on both Madonna and Bjork albums; that was the determining factor for me. The second half of the group is Imogen Heap, who about two years ago released one of the best pop albums in recent history.
Given that, here is one of the standout tracks from Frou Frou's debut. The song is called "Must Be Dreaming."
As I mentioned in a previous post not too terribly long ago, it's been quite some time since I've blogged. I think much of this has to do with my job, and the nature of our industry. To be honest, it's bothered me for a while because I started this blog, think I have something to say, and I don't like the fact that I've allowed for it to be dormant as long as it has.
The thing is, I don't want to "write just for the sake of writing." I'd like to produce content my [very few] readers enjoy and find relevance in. Of course, this is ultimately the goal of every blogger, I think. Or at least I hope. Anyway, I started thinking about the things that are important to me, and decided if I stick with that I'll always have some interesting content. At least for me....
So I've decided to interject some theming with my blog. Music is extremely important to me; I think I was a musician in a past life. Even more, I love the artistry of music videos. Quality music videos -- not the crap they show on MTV these days. Now I'm sure many people would argue about what I find "artistic" and whay they find "artistic," but that's the fantastic thing about this being my blog -- I can say what I want! So every Monday I'm going to start posting a video I think is interesting, and has a certain artistic integrity to it. Hopefully you'll enjoy the videos I post...or at least be exposed to something new.
That being said, it's only appropo that I launch Music Video Monday with Madonna. If you have any awareness of music or pop culture then I need not say more.
VIDEO : HOLLYWOOD
Today's featured video comes from Madonna. As written in a post earlier in the week I think she--and the creative team she surrounds herself with--is one of the most visionary artists that has ever existed. Feel free to argue with me; I know the haters are out there. Regardless, the song "Frozen", which is off of 1998's brilliant "comeback" record "Ray of Light" (although I debate whether or not she ever really "left") is not only haunting and beautiful but the accompanying video is as well.
Directed by English music video director Chris Cunningham, I give you "Frozen":
Last week I wrote a post about my infatuation with music videos. Now, mind you...I don't really watch American music video channels like MTV or VH1 because they play nothing but crap, that is essentially bought by powerhouse music companies to get promotion for their artists. (Bitter, party of one, please!) That's OK...I can live with that. (Thank you, YouTube.com.) Anyway....
I always find it interesting to see the visual interpretation of a song, so in paying homage to the artistry of music videos I'd like to kick off "Music Video Week" here on Nifty Nation. That being said, it's only right to begin with one of the most visionary music video artists of our time: Madonna. Now, "How in the world can he choose a video from such a robost catalogue of work?" Well, it's certainly not easy, and there's a possibility another one of her videos may appear in the coming week. But for the sake of recognizing a video for the "creativity" aspect, I'm going with "Nothing Really Matters" from the groundbreaking 1998 release "Ray of Light". An exceptional song lyrically, to the naked eye the video makes no sense, and is really a mish-mosh of weirdness; however, there is a story behind the video, and it was inspired by the story Memoirs of a Geisha. If you'd like to learn more about the backstory click here.
Here is the video for "Nothing Really Matters":
Did radio kill the video star? Ummm, I don't think so. If anything it made them bigger stars! Madonna, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, and Prince? These are a few of the pop icons that come to mind when I think about videos. As I talked about in a previous post, I love watching people creative. And there is unarguably lots of creativity saturated in music videos. Of course, the level of that creativity is certainly debatable.
There's a fun discussion going on over at BlogCatalog.com where users are posting links to some old-school music videos! What a great idea! Here's the link to the discussion:
http://www.blogcatalog.com/discuss/entry/old-school-video-party-come-on-in
This discussion inspired me to leave one of my favorite "old-school" videos, and one of my earliest memories of MTV (back when they actually played music). It is from the aforementioned "Queen of Pop", Madonna:
