How girls are still degraded for their taste in music

Hey everyone, I know it's been forever and I'm really sorry for that. I hope I'll get back on track very soon and post regularly again. Anyway, I had to write an article for my journalism class and I decided on this topic. Feel free to leave comments so we can discuss!


This isn’t an issue people usually think about, but that doesn’t make it less of a problem to deal with. In the process of writing this article, I received experiences and opinions from girls all over the world who were or still are degraded and judged for their taste in music.

“Last summer, I went to an Awolnation concert with two female friends and there were four guys who just walked around specifically asking girls if they even knew the band members’ names,” Laura told me.
Of course one could argue that she should just shrug it off because they were strangers, but then Caelan told me about how her own brother regularly tells her that her taste in music is “revolting and disgusting”, hence it makes her feel like she’s revolting and disgusting as well. It seems like there are no boundaries for people, mostly men in this case, to put down girls for something they don’t really have much control over. Music is such a wide form of art, and we connect to certain genres because we can either identify with the artists themselves or with the music they create. None of the girls I talked to actually made the conscious choice to like the artists they do and yet they have to defend themselves on a daily basis. Nicola has to justify her taste even more than usual because she enjoys kpop which is an Asian type of boybands and girlbands. She has to handle questions like “why do you like it it’s not English”, or “so you only fancy Asian boys then?”
People even go that far to tell her that she can’t like this type of music because she doesn’t know what they’re saying. This shouldn’t even be considered to be a criteria to like music in the first place and yet it appears to be one.
One might still think that it’s not that bad because they’re usually just teenage boys who still need to make up their minds about how equality works, but that’s were Syd and her story come in.
“I do the music in the gym for when we run, and I’ve had several times when my gym teacher who’s a guy has said some really sexist stuff. This one time my CD was in the middle of playing when suddenly he took it out and said that he’s tired of this girl music and that we need stuff for real men who’ll actually put in some work.”
Teachers are authorities, they’re supposed to be role models to a certain extent, so if this is what boys get taught we shouldn’t be surprised that the way to equality is still so long.

To get a different perspective on this issue, I asked a teenage boy for his opinion. Kelvin is a 16-year old British boy and claiming that his response surprised me would be an understatement.
“It’s so weird to me, it’s so alien to me that people can be against a whole genre of music in general, and then to have to second guess a person just because they like it. Not necessarily girls and not necessarily by boys, just anyone to anyone,“ Kelvin explains, “but girls are constantly degraded for pretty much everything they do, as we all know whether we admit it or not. Clothes, hair, make-up, general appearance, mannerisms, how they act and pretty much everything else in their general being and existence so it’s unsurprising that they are judged, degraded and insulted for the music they like. If they like pop music, rock music, punk music, it’s all the same.” He goes on by giving examples for the genres mentioned above: “It’s like ‘pop music? It’s probably because of the looks, and the boys and all the girls are fake and none of them can sing and its all autotune. Rock music? Yeah, you’re just pretending so you can be adventurous and fit in with us and pretend you’re deep and meaningful go back to your precious boybands and boys.”
While reading this, you might think that he’s exaggerating, but unfortunately he’s not. This is exactly the reaction we get whenever we talk about the music we like; I’ve experienced this myself more than enough. Laura seconds this by mentioning how usually boys think she’s a cool girl, but as soon as she mentions that she likes One Direction, they start reconfiguring the world in their head because there’s no way a cool girl could ever like a boyband.
Kelvin goes on by trying to explain why boys actually do measure a girl’s validity by her taste in music, but both him and me come to the conclusion that it can only be their idea of the popular genre ruining music itself and giving it a bad name. They probably think pop music causes a loss of integrity in the name of the Arts.

After all, music is an art that still struggles a lot with any kind of social issues and sexism is just one of them. There are still way too many people who are either unconscious of this issue or don’t bother changing it because they’re not directly involved. We’re so used to it by now that it barely catches our attention and it really shouldn’t be this way.

Cyber Bullying in certain music scenes

Good morning guys!

It's been a while but due to recent events, I felt the need to write a little something. In case you haven't already heard (it certainly feels like the whole world knows), I won a trip to LA to meet 5 Seconds of Summer and attend their convention and one of their concerts. The competition was the following: You had to submit a video of yourself explaining why you want to win. I decided to keep things simple, so I sat in front of my camera and talked for five minutes. These five minutes brought the worst consequences with them which I could have imagined: People started to send me hate messages for the following reasons: I mentioned that I want to become a music journalist, so now people claim that I use this trip to boost my career. False. I want to go because 5sos are so important for the pop punk scene and they've been working so damn hard during the last few years and I just want to tell them how proud I am and how inspiring I think they are in terms of working hard in order to make your dreams come true. In these five short minutes, I dared to make a joke as well, oh no! I said that I'd love to know who does their laundry when they're on tour because I have a teenage brother and I've never seen him do any laundry. This little sentence upset the whole German fandom in gigantic dimensions. I can't quote or show you any screen shots because I blocked everybody who mentioned me on twitter or messaged me on facebook, so there's nothing to see anymore.
All hell broke loose when the radio station called me to tell me that I won and we talked a little before tha. I dared to say that the front vocalist of 5sos is quite tall. First of all he isn't the front vocalist (even though he has the most singing parts) and second I said that he's something around 6'3. Can you imagine how many people are calling me a fake fan now because I was nervous? I got messages from people telling me that Luke is 6 feet tall and not 6'3, so I asked some fans who already met Luke. All of them told me that he is 6'4 tall, so there you go.
Can you imagine how many people are telling me that I stole this from a REAL fan who probably knows at which time the boys were born? I got tons of messages from people telling me that I'm not a real fan because I don't follow every band member on twitter. For the record: I use twitter once a month because I use other networks to talk to people and people on tumblr screen shot every single tweet of the band members anyway, so I always know what's going on. I don't know what gives anybody the right to judge who's a real fan and who isn't. If there's a manual for how to be a proper fan, I haven't read it. I'm a fan of 5sos because of their music. I love how some of their songs are so thoughtful and on point (e.g. Tomorrow Never Dies) while others are just pure fun (e.g. She Looks So Perfect). I love watching videos of their concerts because it's so obvious that this is where they belong. This is what makes them incredibly happy, and it makes me incredibly happy as well to watch them grow and live their dream.
I'm not so sure about how happy it would make them to find out about how their fans treat each other. This is just a suggestion: before you tweet anything, ask yourself if Luke would approve. If the answer is yes, yaay! but if the answer is no, you might want to think about sending it again. I've been a part of this for enough time to see how everybody preaches that this is a "family" and that we should all treat each other that way, but if this is how you treat your family, I'm really sorry for them.
All this grudge and negativity against one person are straight up bullying, nothing else. Please don't try to use the "you don't know what bullying is" card because believe me, I do. I've been dealing with this for my entire time at secondary school, which measured nine years, and I honestly thought I've experienced everything I could during that time. Well, turns out I was slightly wrong. I don't read the comments in facebook groups or on the facebook wall of the radio station because I know that sooner or later my anxiety would go through the roof and I'd cancel this whole trip. This is not how it's going to work though, sorry to disappoint. If these people think that I'll spend my days scrolling through tons and tons of hate, they're wrong. If they think that any of their "you're not a true fan because..." arguments is going to convince me, they're wrong as well. Just because I won't start to scream and cry when I meet the boys I'm not less of a fan. Just because 5sos didn't "save my life" because I did that on my own I'm not less of a fan. Just because I didn't mention everything I wanted to say in a five minutes video I'm not less of a fan. Just because I don't follow every single band member on twitter I'm not less of a fan. Because nothing of the above is what makes you a fan. It's about whether you have a connection to their music. It's about supporting them, but not defending them when they do something stupid (that happens to every band sooner or later). It's about appreciating what they do for us, and giving them something back from time to time. And with "giving them something back" I don't mean mobbing their hotels and hating on people who won something you didn't. There are so many bad vibes and so much negativity connected to this band and it makes me really sad because I enjoy their music so much, but it's almost impossible to get any closer to them because everything is so intense. I understand that people are sad and disappointed because they didn't win, but spreading so much hate about one single person is really uncool. I can only repeat myself: think about how the 5sos guys would react if they saw this shitstorm and then try to convince me they wouldn't care. 

Long story short: I won't back off from this trip, no matter how many people will invade my privacy and spam my accounts on any social networks (it only makes me use them less which is probably a good thing since uni will start again soon). So yeah, can we all please be a bit nicer to each other and actually be happy for each other for once, I promise it'll make you feel better about yourself as well. I know that there are a lot of people out there who only wish me really bad things now, but at the end of the day nobody gains anything from this. I'm going to let this whole issue go now, and I really hope that things will calm down again soon. 

Album Of The Week: 5 Seconds Of Summer & their self-titled

To be honest this isn't just my album of this week, it's been my album of every week since it's been released, which was on June 27th (sidenote: I had to look the date up and it slightly shocked me because it feels like the album just dropped two days ago).
It also slightly annoys me how people mock this band just because they're four teenage boys who are currently opening for One Direction. First: Who cares and second: why does that bother you so much? I could rant about this for the next ten years, so let's move on to the actual album.

The band's most popular song, She Looks So Perfect, opens the record with a nice riff and  the story of a girl wearing American Apparel underwear - the lyrics might not be the deepest you'll ever come across, but it's most likely not the goal of this song to make you question all of your life choices.

Don't Stop, song number two, picks up the atmosphere of SLSP and convinces with catchy tunes and a good mood. 

Apologies to whoever cares, but I usually skip song munber three: Good Girls. I'm just not really feeling the sound of it and the story behind it doesn't really impress me either (I mean, good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught might be an existing thing, but in my opinion it's not something that delivers a good base for a song.)

What I'm extremely happy about is the fact that Alex Gaskarth from All Time Low helped the boys with a few songs (if you want to play a game called "guess the Alex songs", I highly encourage you to do so, you'll definitely hear it): Kiss Me Kiss Me is one of them. I don't know what it is, but Alex has this musical fingerprint so to speak which he leaves in every song he writes, and he didn't miss this one either. It kind of reminds me of All Time Low's Nothing Personal era.

When I first got into 5sos, I already knew they were probably young (aka younger than me), but I hadn't expected their vocalist to be 17 (he's 18 in the meantime, but still), and their oldest member is their drummer who's 20 now. Obviously this age thing brings a few difficulties sometimes, so the boys wrote a song about it: 18. I don't think I have to say much about this one, just pay some attention to the lyrics and you'll see the difficulties I'm talking about.
After a handful of rather fast and loud songs, the guys show that they can be quiet as well: Everything I Didn't Say and Beside You deal with the flip side of being a touring musician. I can only imagine what it feels like to drop off your special one at the airport and let him travel the world while you sit at home and wait for him (mad respect for all the couples who actually manage this).
End Up Here puts an end to the sad mood: it's fast, it's catchy and it contains fantastic vocals. The story behind it makes me chuckle every single time because it's basically about the loser boy who gets to be with the fantastic girl who is so out of his league that his friends suggest he should lock her down before she can run. I'm pretty sure that it's the other way around in the meanwhile.
Another Alex-song is coming up and I definitely see and hear All Time Low perform this one as well: Long Way Home comes with a mental music video right away (at least I immediately see a couple driving around aimlessly for hours just so they can be together. So, if anybody connected to 5sos is reading this right now, I'll gladly play a role in this video if you ever decide to make one). 

Heartbreak Girl was the very first song of 5sos I ever heard and it's one of my favourites ever since. I'm not gonna start a feminist rant about the ridiculous concept of being "friendzoned" now, so let's just say that the song is good regardless of the topic.

English Love Affair might be the song that made the fandom speculate the most. Who is this English love affair? And who is the lucky boy who got involved? I heard a few rumours concerning these questions, but I won't discuss them here. If you'd like to share your opinions, hit me up!

Their current single Amnesia was written by the Madden brothers and I just love it. Y'all know that I'm a sucker for acoustic songs, so this song is super important. Both Luke and Calum are really talented vocalists, and I think their voices can shine even more than usual in this song (another sidenote: Michael and Ashton have amazing voices as well and sometimes it makes me sad that they don't get to sing more often).

Michael does some vocals in Social Casualty but this one and the next song (Never Be) are unfortunately filed under: songs I skip. I don't know what's my problem with Social Casualty, but Never Be is too slow for my taste, it lacks a little energy. The chorus is amazing actually, but I'm not feeling the rest.

However, Voodoo Doll is one of my favourites as well. When I got into this band it was like this: my best friend introduced me to them, I had no idea who was who and kept mixing up Luke and Ashton, I listened to Out Of My Limit and I was sold. Since then I feel like there's some higher force keeping me here even though I sometimes wish I didn't know them (my bank account would definitely be happier).

Kudos to you if you read all of this, but I just really like this album, so I thought every song deserved a little something. In all honesty, it makes me angry when people are all mean and mock this band because this is their first full-length album and it's already pretty amazing, so I'm quite excited to see where this whole thing is going. Also it's lame to say that only teenage girls enjoy this album because boys can like this just as much and it's not very punk rock to keep yourself from listening to a certain band because some people associate them with One Direction.

Concert Review: Miss May I and Of Mice & Men in Munich, Germany

Hi hello how are you guys doing? Sorry as usual for not updating regularly, but the past week has been pure chaos and pure awesomeness. I didn't even get around to check out the pictures I took until this afternoon, so you're the first to see them. Anyway!! I went to see Of Mice & Men last week in Munich and let me tell you that was the craziest show I've ever attended. We arrived at the venue super early, so we had a lot of time to kill but it was worth it because I met Phil, Aaron and Tino before the show!

(Alan was running around as well but he was busy and Austin was nowhere to be seen.)

I was really excited to hear my favourite songs live, and to my absolute luck they played them all (O.G. Loko, Let Live, Would You Still Be There and Second & Sebring)! Seeing these guys live was absolutely incredible, what can I say. I've been waiting for this to happen forever, so I was just so happy when it finally happened! Even though the venue was small so there weren't that many people, the atmosphere was unbelievable. People just went completely nuts - I've never sweated this much during a show, I've never felt more alive. 

Miss May I supported the show, and if you haven't heard of them, I highly recommend you go and check them out, they were fantastic! The energy they brought with them was perfect to prepare the audience for what was about to come!

I was so nervous when it was finally time for Of Mice & Men to play, you can probably imagine. And suddenly they were just there and played the songs I've been living with for so long and up to this point none of their existence had felt real, you know what I mean? It took me a moment to process that it was really them so close to me, it was unbelievable.

Austin's presence was just crazy. One moment he looked so angry and aggressive, the next moment he looked at the audience and the biggest smile spread on his face. I honestly live for the moments when band members just show how happy they are to be able to do what they love so much. 

As usual, the show was over way too soon. I could have stayed in that tiny club for the rest of the night and have them play every single song they ever wrote, oh well. However, Tino, Phil and Aaron came outside after the show again to take pictures and just talk, it was fantastic. We spent almost an hour just chatting to Phil and Tino, and they were so excited when I showed them my tattoo! Tino even thanked me for getting it done I was like wait what I'm the one who has to thank you but he just laughed and went "this looks amazing". Aaron asked me if it hurt to get it done and when I said that it was alright actually, he told me that his tattoo hurt terribly, and his explanation was that "maybe I'm just a big baby". 

So yeah, this was definitely one of the best concerts I've attended so far; I took home a few bruises, a few new friends and the memory of super nice band members. If you ever get the chance to meet them, give them some love because they're the most positive, genuine people I've came across in a while! 

New Song: Double Lined Minority - White Flag

Hey everyone! You might wonder why I'm blogging the third time this week (quite unusual I know), but one of the bands I've been working with before released their new song today! If you don't remember Double Lined Minority (shame on you!) you can catch up here. 

Their new song, White Flag, unites everything a good pop punk song needs: a catchy tune, a handful of fantastic guitar solos and lyrics which will go straight to your brain. The first time I listened to it, I accidentally started dancing around my room. During the second time, I could hum along, and after the third time I already knew parts of the lyrics by heart (at least the chorus).
After getting to hear this song, I'm pretty excited for the rest of the album! 


Listen to White Flag here, and if (when) you like what you hear, go ahead and give these guys a thumbs up! 

Songs that are very important: A Playlist

I feel like I've neglected this blog quite a lot lately, so I thought it's time for another playlist! This one is full of songs which are super duper important to me, I hope you enjoy it!

• All Time Low - Jasey Rae
• All Time Low - Time Bomb
• All Time Low - Backseat Serenade
• Bring Me The Horizon - Sleepwalking
• letlive. - Empty Elvis
• letlive. - Younger
• Of Mice & Men - Second & Sebring
• Of Mice & Men - The Great Hendowski
• Of Mice & Men - You're Not Alone
• Pierce The Veil - Hold On Till May
• Tonight Alive - Come Home
• We Are The In Crowd - Attention
• 30 Seconds To Mars - Alibi

This isn't the fanciest playlist you'll ever come across, but it'll do to share some special songs. Which songs are important for you? Share them with me in the comments!

Album Of The Week: This Wild Life - Clouded

Don't judge a book by its cover. I never used this proverb in a serious context, but when you talk about This Wild Life, it's pretty accurate. Kevin and Anthony look like the perfect example for hardcore guys with hardcore tunes, but as soon as you press play and actually expect some heavy sounds, you'll be quite surprised.
This Wild Life only need guitars and Kevin's voice to convince you, and they only needed one song from Clouded to convince me: Concrete went straight to my mind and has been staying there ever since. No More Bad Days slowly has been developing into my life motto lately because Kevin is right when he sings "no more bad days for you my dear". Maybe it'll work, maybe not (I shall give this experiment a try and will report the results!). Apart from uplifting lyrics, Kevin's vocals feel like you're being wrapped in a warm blanket after a stupid day, especially in History, Roots And Branches or Better With You. 
This Wild Life give you the perfect soundtrack for rainy days, for stressful days, for days when you have to take a step back from all the metalcore you've been listening to for weeks (I certainly enjoy some calmer tunes from time to time).
Looking Back is one of my favourite songs on the record, simply because of its lyrics. It reminds me a lot of my own story when it's about taking two steps forward and three steps back, or when it's about this thing called life getting harder every year. It's not a negative song at all though because "it's gotta get easier from here, I had to learn to life without looking back" and I personally think that's one of the most important aspects of life. No matter what happened, don't look back. I also share the last part of the song where it says: "One thing I've learned is that good things will not fall in my lap. I had to work harder and longer, be smarter and stronger than the person right beside me. Have the confidence and common sense to know there's still something inside me. I gave my very best, with the purest intent and I'll be proud when I look back."

This Wild Life are such an important band, and I really hope they'll be more and more successful during the next few years. I appreciate these songs so much because they're so passionate and pure and honest.

Album Of The Week: One Direction - Midnight Memories

Once upon a time, there appeared a text post on my dash on tumblr (yes, I spend a lot of time there), which went along these lines: "I'm so punk rock I listen to whatever I like." I'm probably not the best example for some "punk rock" girl, but I do listen to whatever I like, which includes One Direction. It's not that I have their whole discography on my iPod, but I regularly have this phase where I open spotify, make my way to their current album Midnight Memories and listen to it. Most of the time this happens at 2am or later. I just realised that I've never listened to the whole album before, so it's about time to do that!

Best Song Ever

This is my main 2am jam, so yes I can sing along, and at that point of time I'd probably even say that this song is pretty good (still not the best song ever, come on). It's so catchy, how can you possibly resist it??

Story of My Life

I can literally feel how I turn 13 all over again, and I'm pretty sure that I'd be all over these guys if I actually was 13 right now (you know, the yes-it's-a-good-idea-to-plaster-your-room-with-their-faces phase). And now that we're doing this whole confession thing, I think they're cute (Louis wins though) and I really like this song no matter what time it is. You can despise them as much as you want, but you can't deny that they're talented singers. If my dad likes this song, your argument is invalid anyway. 

Diana

Oh, it's time to dance again!! Jesus, whoever is responsible for these songs really knows how to create some catchy tunes. Let's move on, shall we.

Midnight Memories

This one reminds me of another song, but I can't think of which one. I linked you to a live version on purpose because for me this looks and sounds a bit like they're trying to take some steps away from the boyband-image and put quite some effort in making their voices sound all raspy and rockstarish! I certainly like it!

You & I

Ah, things are becoming calmer again, that's good. I'm actually waiting for the day that I can recognise them by their voices because then I'll be in too deep and then it won't be long until I consider to actually go and see them in concert. The only thing that's keeping me from doing that is the fanbase. No offense, I'm sure that some of them are all adorable and nice, but I've seen enough trouble they caused to have my opinion and I don't feel like starting a fight with a bunch of hysterical kids. 

Don't Forget Where You Belong

If that's not an important message then I don't know what else you need. Are they singing about themselves? Ah yes, that's a nice song. 

Strong

This sounds faster again, good. There are eleven songs left on this album, holy smokes. Somebody understands the concept of making fans happy, eh? This song is all right, but that's all I have to say so let's move on.

Happily

Is it rude that the lyrics make me chuckle? I hope it's not, I don't mean to be mean (bless the English language). But yes, this sounds really happy, I shall bookmark it for future (sad) reference.

Right Now

I think I figured out which voice belongs to Harry Styles, that's at least a start! And you know what? I prefer the catchy, happy songs a lot over these dramatic ones. 

Little Black Dress

The beginning sounds like it belongs to some rock song, how brilliant is that. I bet that nobody who isn't a fan of One Direction could guess that this isn't part of their discography. This is good, I like it!

Through The Dark

Lovely start actually. I can't stress enough how they deserve a lot more credit than they get from some people. Here's your daily reminder that it's not cool to degrade certain artists because you think they're ridiculous and shouldn't be seen as artists (Justin Bieber is a different kind of story because he obviously pisses off people without even singing)! So stop making feel people like shit because they like a certain type of music!

Something Great

Let's see if this one is something great. The beginning is a bit boring, I'm waiting for the great chorus! Wait, that was it? Nah, sorry but this could be a lot better. 

Little White Lies

Does this belong to the little black dress? At least I'm not tempted to fall asleep while listening to this one, and I think I might know which voice belongs to Niall. I'm making more progress than expected. 

Better Than Words

Yeah, "dancing on the ceiling" is better than words, I agree. Cheesy love song here we go, my inner teenager likes it, the 21-year-old who's typing this right now can't hit skip fast enough.

Why Don't We Go There

Oh yes, I like this one. If I'll actually get this album, I already see it coming that I'll dance down the street while listening to this, oh dear. 

Does He Know

The end is near! No, it wasn't that bad, no sarcasm involved. 18 songs are just a long way to go. This one is all right, nothing striking about it to be honest.

Alive

The lyrics in the chorus are quite nice, the rest isn't too impressive, but then again I'm not sure if this song is intended for impressing anybody!?

Half A Heart

We made it! And now that you went on this crazy journey with me, you might as well admit that One Direction aren't half as bad as you thought they were. I couldn't listen to their stuff 24/7, but at certain times and during certain emotions, some of these songs are really good! 

Album Of The Week: Hands Like Houses - Unimagine

Hello and happy Sunday my fellow music lovers! I recently started reading the Divergent series (I'll probably review it in a video soon), which makes me forget everything. When I mean everything, food is included, so I almost forgot to upload a review today. Last night I got the new Punk Goes 90's, on which I found a band called Hands Like Houses. They covered Torn, originally by Natalia Imbruglia, and it was the only song on this album I actually liked, so I proceeded to have a closer listen to them. Due to this, I discovered Unimagine, the band's current album, which I'll talk about in this post.

I haven't listened to Hands Like Houses before, so I only had a slight idea of what to expect. I was honestly prepared for some breakdowns and screaming, but nothing like that happened. In fact, I got some new, refreshing rock songs.

I really like the dramatic touch with which Developments kicks off the record. It actually inspires me a lot for the stories I write, and I'm very thankful for that.
The first line of the second song Introduced Species is something I thought to myself a million times during the last few years. I never had a place where I had the feeling that I belonged, that I could be the way I was, until I stumbled into this part of the music scene. I haven't met a single person who shares my taste in music and judges me for my looks or my "depression" or whatever people judge me for, I stopped caring a while ago, thanks to this music. 

What I really like about Hands Like Houses is the energy they convey, and how this energy makes me feel like there's nothing I couldn't do, for example in Shapeshifters, when he sings "We will be unbreakable!"
With Oceandust, the band shows that they can be quiet and sensitive as well. The drums and any electric instruments leave and are replaced by a piano and acoustic guitars during the biggest part of the song, but Oceandust still possesses a tiny rock part when an e-guitar appears for a couple of seconds. 

The last four songs on Unimagine form a great ending of a brilliant record. The very last song, A Fire On A Hill, closes the record and if you weren't fully convinced of this band and their work until this point, you will like them after the last tune faded. 

Album Of The Week: The Pretty Reckless - Going To Hell

Hello my fellow music lovers! In case you were wondering, I decided to make Sunday the day for weekly album reviews, yaay! *clapping in the background*

I was looking through my music folder to find something I haven't already discussed, and I found this:

If you still have this image of Taylor Momsen as Gossip Girl's Jenny Humphrey in your mind, welcome to the club. However, you and I urgently have to update this image because Taylor drifted away from the role of cute Jenny, and now spices up the music world with her band The Pretty Reckless. Going To Hell is the band's second album and was released on March 12th. 

Follow Me Down, the first song on the album, already gives a taste for the band's talent as a whole. Of course there's Taylor with her powerful voice, but she's supported by fantastic musicians who know exactly what to do to make her voice stand out.
Up next is the song that names the record: Going To Hell, which sounds like a prayer at first but ends up being about certain sins and being married to the devil. 

As loud and fierce Taylor can sound, as quiet and soft she can be. House On A Hill works without screeching guitars, it's emotional and still as powerful as the louder songs. This record is like a rollercoaster; after going down with some calm tunes, Sweet Things picks up the pace again, goes all the way up and picks up where  Heaven Knows left off: the topic of the devil appears again, but just when you think you're settling into Taylor screaming, there's a short interlude called Dear Sister and the rollercoaster goes down again. It almost sounds like a lullaby, and it's already over just when you start enjoying the calmness of it. 

With Absolution comes back the fierceness, it's going up again for around 4 minutes before Blame Me is taking you downwards again. This time the stay down there is a little bit longer because after Blame Me, there's the next interlude: Burn. 

The next two songs take you all the way up again, and to finish your ride to hell, Waiting for a Friend takes you down again, so you can get out and either leave, or get in again for another round. 

Since we need more women in this scene anyway, I'm really glad that Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless are part of it and show that women can be loud and wild just as much as men can be. If you won't check this album out, you'll definitely miss out.

Album Of The Week: The 1975

Hello my fellow music lovers, I should really get my stuff together and blog regularly, shouldn't I. I'll try to fix one day of the week where I'll post whatever comes to my mind, we'll see how that goes. Anyway, this post isn't to ramble about my blogging skills, but to ramble about some new tunes I recently treated my ears with. 

The 1975 are a four-piece band from Manchester, UK, and their self-titled album is also their debut album.
They've been appearing on my dashboard on tumblr for quite a while now, it just took me a while to become aware of them and to give them a listen. When I finally went to my best friend Spotify to check them out, Chocolate was the first song I listened to and that was the moment I fell in love. I immediately fell for Matty's voice (his accent took care of the rest), I fell for the easy sound which feels like a light summer breeze on your skin, and I caught myself acting out my personal music video to Sex more than once. Listening to this album makes you forget everything around you, and no matter how bad your day was, the tracks on this record make you feel better as soon as you press play. If you're upset, Robbers, 12, She Way Out or The City will calm you down; if you feel like celebrating, Chocolate, Sex and  Heart Out will be your tunes. In case you just want to relax a little, the rest of the album will be perfect. Long story short: The 1975 deliver songs for every situation you could possibly encounter, and that's just a beautiful thing.
If you live for acoustic versions of your favourite songs just like I do, I highly recommend you to check out some acoustic songs Matt Healy did, for example this one, or this one. 

I dare to predict that this band will create more  fantastic things in the future, at least as fantastic as their debut album. 

"You're allowed to enjoy shitty pop songs from time to time!" - A Playlist

One of my best friends called me a "music snob" this one time when I tried to make her stop spamming me with songs by One Direction, and what can I say? I might be a music snob sometimes and I might not be the biggest fan of these pop songs. However, the music you enjoy doesn't make you a better or worse person, and I think that's something many music fans should keep in mind. I often read that people who like punk or metalcore make fun of the "mainstream" artists and their fans (I'm especially looking at Taylor Swift and One Direction), and that's just wrong. Just because you enjoy listening to tattooed men screaming into a microphone, doesn't mean you're the coolest person. And just because you don't enjoy listening to these men, they're not some satanic weirdos who promote suicide. So, can we just agree on not judging anybody for their taste in music? Thanks.

Since I belong to the people who mostly enjoy screaming and yelling, I thought it might be cool to show you a couple of songs I always sing along to, no matter when or where. 

1. Daniel Powter - Bad Day
2. Kelly Clarkson - Behind These Hazel Eyes
3. Counting Crows - Big Yellow Taxi
4. Katy Perry feat. Juicy J - Dark Horse
5. Demi Lovato - Give Your Heart A Break
6. Pharrell Williams - Happy
7. Michael Bublé - Haven't Met You Yet
8. Taylor Swift - I Knew You Were Trouble
9. Backstreet Boys - Just Want You To Know (sorry for the bad quality, but the proper videos for the song aren't available in Germany)
10. Bruno Mars - Locked Out Of Heaven
11. Britney Spears - Oops!...I did it again
12. Take That - Patience
13. Maroon 5 - She Will Be Loved
14. One Direction - Story Of My Life
15. Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball

What are your favourite pop songs? Let me know in the comments!

Concert Review: Ryan Keen, My First Band & Sunrise Avenue in Stuttgart, Germany

Hey everyone, I hope all is well! My semester break started a couple of days ago and I haven't really done anything productive so far, apart from attending my first concert in 2014!!
 Most of my readers aren't from Europe, so I'm even more excited to introduce a fantastic band from Finland: Sunrise Avenue. I bought their first record in 2006 and I haven't lost it, so that was already a promising sign. I have to admit that I didn't listen to their music properly for ages (unless one of their songs was on the radio), but their vocalist was on the last season of The Voice Of Germany and that drew my attention back to the band itself (yeah he's quite cute, that was a reason, too, but shhh). Luckily I have a friend who's also crushing on Samu big times, so we immediately agreed on going when we found out that they played in my city. 

Shortly after we arrived at the venue, a security guard came out and started to hand out bracelets. This was probably the best-organised concert I've been to so far: The venue consisted of three parts: The first part directly in front of the stage, a middle part and the rest. The security guard explained that those with a pink bracelet were entitled to stand in the first part, so you can guess what we did:

Thanks to these bracelets we actually ended up in the third row and I celebrated a little when there was nobody taller than me standing in front of me (just for the record: that rarely happens). However, since my friend is quite tall, there were two girls standing behind her who tried to argue with her ("You're too tall, how dare you standing in the front???") and this is one of the reasons why I prefer concerts where most of the crowd consists of guys. They don't turn into hysterical balls of too much excitement and they certainly don't try to argue with you because you're "too tall." 

I have to admit that I usually don't have the highest expectations when it comes to supporting acts, but this time I was proven so wrong it was fantastic. Ryan Keen, a singer/songwriter from Britain, was up first and it took him only one song to capture the whole crowd. I've never experienced it before that a crowd was so into the first act, but Ryan had this warm aura which totally fascinated me. He could have played for the rest of the evening and I would have enjoyed it a whole lot. 

He reminded me of John Mayer and Ed Sheeran, so if you like any of them, you should give Ryan a listen (you should give him a listen anyway, he's one of the most talented artists I've seen live)!

Up next were My First Band. Again I had no expectations, and again I had a whole lot of fun! My First Band slighty have the sound of The Killers, they just added some more fun to their performance. I'm not a big dancer, but I danced through their whole performance because it was impossible to stand still.  These guys perfectly managed to transfer their joy of playing to the whole crowd.

As much fun as I had with the supporting acts, I was really excited when it was finally time for Sunrise Avenue. I only knew a handful of songs, but in the end it didn't even matter. They played a big part of their current album Unholy Ground what was great because getting new songs to listen to is always a fantastic thing. However, my favourite moments were those when they played the old songs everybody knew, for example I Don't Dance (hell yes we all danced), Hollywood Hills or Fairytale Gone Bad. Fairytale Gone Bad was my favourite moment of the whole show because the crowd basically sang the biggest part of the song alone and I just love seeing the pure joy and happiness in the band members' faces when that happens. 

The whole thing happened on Valentine's Day and I'm not going to lie - I felt absolutely fantastic when I could tell everybody that I finally had plans on that day which didn't include eating ice cream and being mad at couples. And it was just really cute when Samu asked what Happy Valentine's Day means in German and you know the whatsapp emoticon with the hearts as eyes? Yeah, that was me from the moment the show started until a day or so after.
Sunrise Avenue will be back in my area in August and I honestly can't wait to see them again.

Happy Fobruary!!

Yes, it's been exactly one year since Fall Out Boy went off their hiatus and I think we should celebrate! I'm not going to ramble about how fast this year went by or how so many things changed; instead, I'll show you my Top 11 FOB songs (in no particular order because I'm not able to pick my very favourite)! Put on your war paint and let's go!

1. I Don't Care
   This is the soundtrack of my life. Do I need to elaborate on that (just quoting my literary studies teacher here)? Yes? Well, there is probably a handful of things I genuinely care about - things like music, books, tv-shows, my family (you didn't see that one coming, did ya) aaaand cheese. The list of things I genuinely don't care about could probably fill a book, so thank you Fall Out Boy for writing this song.
2. (Coffee's For Closers)
   This one is just really catchy and the phrase "Change will come" forms a very important part of my development as a person. If my 15-year-old self would know me today, it would run away screaming and this tells me that I made some pretty good decisions during the last couple of months.
3. What A Catch, Donnie
   "I got troubled thoughts and a self-esteem to match, what a catch." - What a catch indeed.
4. Dance, DanceJust watch and enjoy this music video because it's simply brilliant. And while you do so, do what they say and dance a little!
5. Sugar, We're Goin' DownDear Fall Out Boy,
   you definitely are more than I bargained for, yes. I'd also love to understand the lyrics of this song, but there are only little fragments I can figure out, the rest is made of jhkrgfrghlreg. That's all actually.
   Love, Carina
6. Thriller"We dedicate this song to anybody who people said could never make it, to the fans that held us down till everybody came around." - thanks for that.
7. The Take Over, The Break's Over"Baby, seasons change but people don't!" - this is one of the phrases that keeps me up at night because I can't stop reflecting it. I mean, people do change, either for better or for worse. Or are these changes we see only a surface and deep down we're actually not able to change? What do you guys think?
8. Thnks fr th mmrsHow genius is it to cut out the vowels of a song title because your management told you to shorten the song titles? That's what Patrick Stump did and this is the ultimate proof for this band being 100% badass. This is also the song that made me fall for them in the first place. 
9. Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy TonightI honestly don't know anybody who listens to FOB and doesn't like this song, so I don't have much to say about it.
10. The PhoenixWhenever I listen to this song I become super excited and feel like I can manage everything I want and yeeah!! and then I walk into the kitchen to make some cereal and realise that I forgot to buy milk and then I'm like oh but hey, at least one of my favourite bands is back, what do I need milk for!?
11. Miss Missing YouThis is by far my favourite song on the new record. I suppose we all know the feeling of missing somebody, but sooner or later it's time to get over the "missing" process and you move on with your life. And then you lie awake at 3am and wonder how it actually felt to miss this person because they became less and less important and thinking about them became less and less of a priority.
    This song also contains one of my favourite lyrics ever: "Sometimes before it gets better, the darkness gets bigger, the person that you'd take a bullet for is behind the trigger." It's actually sad how accurate this is, isn't it?

What are your favourite FOB songs? Leave them in the comments! 

Album Of The Week: Bastille - Bad Blood

Happy New Year guys! I hope you had a great start into 2014, I certainly did (not so much but let's not talk about it)! I got myself two little Christmas presents which I haven't showed you yet, so here you go:

Today I'd like to spend a few minutes on the british boys with the strongest accents I've ever heard. Just pay a little attention and you'll notice it.

Bad Blood kicks off with Bastille's most famous song: Pompeii. I've heard this song more than a gazillion times now, but I'm still singing along without being sick of it and that's a sign for a really really good song in my eyes.
Song number two is also another very popular song: Things We Lost In The Fire. I don't know about you guys, but I always try to imitate his accent while singing along, I mean where's the fun if you don't do that!?
Bastille have this very unique sound which I haven't heard in any other band so far and that's mostly why I like them so much. Bad Blood just puts you in a good mood with songs like Weight Of Living, Flaws or Laura Palmer. And then there are these quiet, thoughtful songs mixed between the happy songs, for example Overjoyed, Oblivion or Daniel In The Den.
Bad Blood tells twelve unique stories, it takes you on an adventure through good and bad times, it makes you think about your own past and all the good and bad things you experienced. With this album, Bastille showed what a talented band they are and I'm quite excited to hear more from them.