Why I’ll never [openly] admit to being a fan of the Jonas Brothers

The Jonas Brothers

If you were to ask me what I thought of the Jonas Brothers about 6 months ago, I would have said, “who? Are they those tight-pants wearing disney stars?” but oh what a few months will do to a person’s already broken spirit.

I made the mistake of getting hooked on their single, “Burnin’ up” (no thanks to a dear friend of mine who suggested it) and ever since, I can’t help but to find myself youtubing the night away to listen to more songs of theirs, and I really hate to admit it, but their talented andgenerally likable too! Go figure.

Too bad I grew up in the backstreet boy/98 degrees/nsync generation, otherwise I might just be a bit more obsessed with those dark haired boys. It’s just not socially acceptable for a 22-year old to openly admit to being a fan of the jonas brothers….so until it is, I’ll just youtube away at night, and jam away in my car with the windows closed by day.

Ten Artists You Probably Don’t Have on Repeat.

Behold the quote that inspired this entire blog entry:

“What are you listening to? Something lame I know, you have no taste in music…” -identity withheld.

That may be true, but I have found some decent music lately, despite my continued strike against the radio stations here. I’m sorry, but I refuse to listen to Lil Wayne’s 5 hit singles on heavy rotation all day. I’d much rather shit a brick than hear anything else about “rainin’ on them hoes,” “da cater”, and my personal favoriate, “cuz bitch, I’m the bomb like TICK, TICK.” (So ok I secretly love that line).

So here are my 10 artists that you probably don’t have on repeat. They aren’t in any particular order, no more so than the order of the tracks on my MP3 CD in my jetta. To be honest, I really had like six…but no one makes a “SIX artists you probably don’t have on repeat” list, that’s just odd. So without further aude’…here is my list.

Jesse McCartney

 Jesse McCartney. I must give mucho props to this former Disney Channel Star, I didn’t think he had it in him to actually put out a half way decent album. I mean he looks decent, but his music was starting to not really fit him as a person. Who told him he could go and get all grown and sexy…talking about Sexin some girl and “walkin it out”. (sorry this isn’t a really recent photo of the former pop star). I’m probably a little late getting on the Departure train, but he’s got some good material up there. It’s certainly worth a listen. He kind of sounds like a combination of Chris Brown and Robin Thicke. Some namely songs to listen for are: “It’s over”, “leavin”, “Relapse”, “How do you sleep?” Ohhh and he has a badass rendition of T-Pain’s “Buy u a drank” on youtube, it’s certainly worth your three minutes.

Eric Benet

 Eric Benet…whenever I listen to him it reminds me of my parents, because all they do is listen to mellow R&B, but Benet’s music is timeless. He’s a talent that many often overlook. He has a new song out called, “You’re the only one”. It’s very smooth. A great song to drive to. Also to go to bed to, much less other things I won’t mention on such a publically available blog space.

 

Shwayze

 Shwayze. I’ll be honest. I didn’t take them too seriously, particularly after seeing their mtv reality show….forgive me for not taking the time to look up the name, but I didn’t find it important enough to watch more than 10 minutes. Aside from their antics, they’ve got a good groove going with their hits, “Corona & Lime” and “Buzzin.” They sound very summer/beach like. I listen to their music and imagine a chill day at the pool or beach, with no worries in the world (almost too chill to the point of being stoned). Its kind of slow rap over bluesy guitar cords. Quite unique. They almost remind me a mellowed out version of Gym Class Heroes.

 

New Kids on The Block

 New Kids on the block…they were singing before I was conceived. So I missed their prehistoric boyband craze…until recently. Now I will admit I like their hit, “The Right Stuff”,  it just bleeds cheap 80s pop culture. Anyway, through total accident, I stumbled across NKOTB’s newest single, “single” from their New Album. It has an R&B feel to it, thanks in part to Ne-Yo, who is featured on the song. Matter of fact, it might as well be a Ne-Yo song featuring NKOTB. Mucho props goes out to the kids for putting out an R&B based track that I’m not afraid to blast through my sound system.

The Jonas Brothers

 The Jonas Brothers….Ah, I jumped on the J-Brother train real late. Matter of fact, I didn’t even know who they were until just shy of a month ago. I didn’t even know their names…but alas, thanks to wikipedia, I am now able to know that they go by (from left to right) Nick, Joe and Kevin…Booyah and they range in age from 15 to 20? Eh, enough ramble blurbs about them, I’m so ashamed to admit that I’m 22 and I like listening to their catchy pop tunes. They kind of remind me of a polished “manlier” version of the Hanson trio. It just puts me in a good mood. My personal favorites from their latest CD are, “Hold On”, “When you look me in the eyes” (a pop ballad), and “Burnin’ up”. I’m sorry but their music is catchy as hell and you’ll find yourself humming it all day. My favorite Jonas brother you ask? Why Joe’s my favorite! I dunno…Nick’s a little overrated to me and well, Kevin seems a little absent out of the media. Yeah, if I were a 14 year girl, I’d have Joe Jonas slapped all over my walls

 

Leona Lewis

 Leona Lewis. I had mixed feelings about her at first. I was a little slow to catch onto “Bleeding Love” and once I half way liked the song, I had the pleasure of listening to my suitemates (all of which were music majors) sing the song 30 times a night. Needless to say I haven’t listened to “Bleeding Love” since march. Anyway Leona reminds me of a remodeled Mariah, like back when Mariah was truly pop quality and not so focused on being mainstream R&B. My favorite songs of hers are, “Better in Time” and “I’m you”. I haven’t really gotten into any of her upbeat songs, although I suppose those would be interesting as well. She has wide range in her voice, I’m sure she’ll go far in life.

Ne-Yo

 Ne-Yo…that suave guy. I’ve been a Ne-Yo fan since “So Sick”. The producer/song-writer/singer has got some major talent. A lot of his lyrics are fairly deep as well. Now I already mentioned his duo with NKOTB a few paragraphs above, but aside from that song, I’d have to say that, “Miss Independent” and “Trouble” are great ones. His new album Year of the Gentlemanis highly polished. I can tell he spent tons of time with every track to make it nothing more than the best. I suppose I like both of these tracks because their innovative. Every time music gets boring, Ne-Yo goes and wakes us up with his soulful sounds. I’m sure he’s new CD will have no trouble hitting platinum status.

 

Danity Kane

 Danity Kane. Now, I hated Making the bands 1-4…and 5 if there is a 5, I don’t know, I rarely watch mtv these days. All I know is that Diddy annoys me, so in terms so should Danity Kane, but despite my love hate relationship with mtv and the show, Danity Kane shockingly puts out good, “getting ready to go to the club” songs. Every time I hear any of their songs, it makes me want to dance, meet up with my girls and hit the hot spot in town…which in my town wouldn’t be many places. “Damaged” and “Bad Girl” both have great beats to them…probably because they are diddy inspired. Maybe they’ll keep pushing out good hits so Diddy won’t have a reason to have a making the band 6. Unless he wants to dominate the free world with his dictatorship presence.

Robin Thicke

Robin Thicke. He makes me realize that there is no such thing as “blue-eyed soul”. Soul is soul regardless of who is singing it. Matter of fact I believe Mr. Thicke is highly under-rated.  He’s right up there with Ne-Yo and Eric Benet in my books. His music is very soothing and modern, like a breath of fresh air. Check out his latest single, “Magic”. Very catchy, a very nice feel-good type of song.  

Jennifer Lewis

 Last but not least, let’s not forget about Mrs. Hudson (yes I know it says “lewis” up there but I’m not editing that–it’d take too long). Jennifer Hudson. Aside from her extraordinary acting career (loved her in Sex in the City), she’s a brilliant singer. Recently, while screwing around with my FM radio settings, I stumbled across her hit, “Spotlight” to which I asked my mother, “wow, who in the world sings that?” And to my surprise it was Jennifer Hudson. I suppose I keep associating her with songs that have already been done like all of those songs in “Dream Girls” and all of those Whitney Houston classics…not that they weren’t good, they just were original. This song is so hers though. I can see this one going done in history.

Well, that’s been what’s been on repeat in my car. Like I said, I don’t listen to the radio much these days. I just blindly rely off of friends, youtube, and billboard.com. If I had to pick one group or artist on this list that I’ve had on repeat the most, I’d have to go with J Mac for sure. Home slice did his thing on his new CD. Hell, I’d probably buy it if I hadn’t stopped doing that sort of mindless thing ages ago. It’s all about itunes…so get to ituning….Behold, J Mac.

 

What happens in Text Msg stays in text msg…

In between my fumbles of getting ready for bed last night, I caught the tail end of a joke from a comedian on the popular t.v. show Comic View (on B.E.T). And the butt of the comic’s punch line was this:

 

You can say whatever you want in a text message, as long as you put “lol” or a smiley face at the end of it….Your baby’s ugly…lol….I can’t stand you, your breath stinks, smiley face with the wink….

 

This grabbed my attention because it’s so true! In any form of technical communication, it can be hard to really tell if a person is joking around or not. Particularly if you cannot read through their dry sarcastic nature (ahem)—or maybe their just generally a mean spirited person, and only choose to show you that side through a text message, allowing you to assume that they are joking, when in terms they really don’t like you (yeesh, let’s hope not!). I’ll tell you this, if I don’t like you, I doubt I’ll waste the time or energy to respond to your dangling text message. In fact I assume if I didn’t like you, you would text message me in the first place. I won’t even go into the specs of how generally awful my grammar is when sending text messages. Here I am, an English major working on a M.A. and I hardly even use punctuation, full words or appropriate abbreviations.

 

Nah, it can’t be that deep. I’ll tell you this, text messaging to me is my lazy way of getting answers and killing idle time. Gone are the days of drawn out phone conversations, face to face interaction, lengthy emails, even Aim conversations to me are becoming a bit obsolete as of late. I just don’t have time to waste my life sitting in front of a computer or having a phone attached to my head, particularly when I just need an answer. Although, I will occasionally shoot out emails to get a point across (like at work, when cell phone usage is a little unprofessional).

 

Example: Me: What time are you done with class?

                    Friend: Noon. You wanna grab lunch?

                    Me: Sure, meet you at the dinning hall.

 

Simple A & B exchange which generally takes all of a few short minutes as opposed to forcing out an awkward (indecisive and distractive) phone conversation in which one of you are generally being interrupted from something more important…namely sleep…or I my case work.

 

This sounds selfish, but I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. And I’m not anti-phone conversation or email, there’s just a time and place. And well, certain people hold the special powers of allowing me to actually care how their day went, while 50% the people in my life do not, at least not on a daily basis.

 

Like for instance my parents…they call me daily and ask me the same questions, but I know it is because they love me. How was your day? What did you do?They’ve been asking me these same two questions everyday since I started pre-school. I’ve learned to accept that they are probably going to continue this ritual until both of them become senile or just stop generally caring about my lackluster life. Either or, we’ve got a good 20 more years to go…

 

Now I know I’m skipping around here, but I’d like to point out that I’m quicker to respond to an email or text message than I am a voicemail or a hand written letter. Something about both forms of communication just seem a little obsolete to me. And well, I’m lazy. I generally hate talking on the phone with anyone. There’s always this gaping hole of awkwardness….and one person always seems to feel that they are interrupting the other one’s life. Although on the flip side, if a good friend or family member calls, I’ll generally talk to them, even if I’m not in the mood or I’m slightly tied up. I’m horrible about returning calls though, I might as well not even have voicemail, because I often forget to check it. Even with the little envelop icon flashing at me (it’s been up there for a good week). Let’s not even get into dropping calls on the network—that’s an entirely different song and dance. Perhaps I should seek out therapy for this, I’m sure it’s not normal. It’s best to just call back if it’s that important. I apologize for my forgetfulness…I’m a little absent-minded at times.

 

So in short, I prefer text messaging for the quick simple answers in life. Like, where are we going to eat? Where do I meet you? What time do you get off of work? If I have something more substantial or serious to say, I’d generally leave that for face to face interaction, because it’s hard to generally tell someone’s true mood/feelings through a computer screen.

 

So do I really mean everything I say through a text message? Do I just say mean and surly things neatly wrapped up with smiley faces or an “lol’s” for shits and giggles? Well, you’d have to be the judge of that, for I refuse to share those details on a blog post .

 

Happy texting…;)