Historians tell us that the world’s first jingle was written by the minstrel Bartholomew the Profitable in 986 CE. Hired by Percival of Shropshire to help sell chicken-bone dice, Bart traversed the countryside playing to captive audiences, replacing his traditional opener “The Tale of Sir Ywain the Bastard” with a ballad of 652 stanzas in…
Twenty-five percent of the songs on Three Days Grace’s debut album ended up Top-5 singles. Twenty-five percent of the songs on Three Days Grace’s sophomore album ended up Top-5 singles. Do we understand each other? There is no room to question the credentials of Three Days Grace. As Canada’s premier alternative-metal missionaries, they bring the…
How many diehard synthpop fans do you think live in Canada? Maybe enough to crowd one Toronto club, plus a few enlightened Inuits and a caribou. Yet this half-frozen nation has given birth to perhaps the genre’s greatest Myspace-to-riches story in Valerie Poxleitner, known to her friends and fans as Lights. At least, riches seem…
I have no right to review Slippery When Wet. I can’t break down Born to Run. To me, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Pet Sounds are beyond approach. I lack the bona fides to critique such eternal landmarks, not least of all because I wasn’t there to experience them. Awareness of the musical…
So – alright, stop me if you’ve heard this one – a German, an Israeli, a Chilean, an American, and a Japanese guy walk into the Royal Conservatory of the Hague in Holland. They all pull out experimental, one-of-a-kind electronic instruments and start jamming. Then after four years of touring and recording they come to…
Some days I get the felicitous pleasure of correcting an idiot who thinks they like all music. Have you met this guy? When I ask what you listen to, I don’t mind noncommital answers like “a lot of stuff.” Feel free to tell me that classical, country, rock, and rap are all fine by you. …
Pop rock is a huge umbrella. Elton John, Something Corporate, Kelly Clarkson, Fall Out Boy, and Jason Mraz all play pop rock. It’s pop music (melody-driven music with catchy hooks that prominently features vocals and follows expectable structures) with rock instrumentation (a lead guitarist/keyboardist and his sidekick rhythm guitarist/keyboardist riding over a bass guitar under…