Genre: Profile

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Jonathan David Bellion was born in Lake Grove, New York to parents William and Judy Bellion. He developed a passion for creating music through his creating of beats on his brothers Triton keyboard. A talented basketball player, he decided to pursue his Junior year of High School. He eventually was offered a publishing deal after working on his craft and managing jobs to help continue to fund his passion. This lead to him leading production on many popular hits such as Eminem and Rihanna’s The Monster and Jason Derulo’s Trumpets. With funds coming in from these major successes, Jon was able to pursue his own work and released his own work The Separation, soon after.

I discovered Jon Bellion for the first time a long time ago, around 6th or 7th grade by listening to Pandora on my parents TV. With the music platforms nature of only shuffling “radios” of certain artists, there were many artists and songs which I discovered throughout these little music journey’s. I initially remember Jon Bellion’s cover art for The Human Condition due to it’s unique art style, and with songs which stuck with me for a while: 80s Films, He is the Same, and most of all Guillotine.Years later, in 2022, I heard Guillotine again and was instantly brought back to listening in my basement. Exploring his whole discography, I was able to truly experience all the elements which make Jon Bellion so impressive. Talent in his lyrics, talent in his production and talent in his intonation and performance stood out as I heard each song. Jon Bellion also creates documentaries for how he produces a lot of his songs and watching the whole process when I discovered this element of his craft really helped to drive home my love for his music, especially watching how some of my favorite songs of all time were crafted with so much love and passion. (If you are interested, here is one of my favorites, with his crafting of Stupid Deep).

Even now, I am still discovering new songs by Jon Bellion, such as unreleased tracks like 1990 and Two Car Garage, or even versions of songs he wrote and gave to another artist, such as Justin Beiber’s Holy. While a part of me is pained that so many people are unaware of his talents and resume, it makes it even more special when I find someone else who knows of him or even better is aware of his craft. While Jon has been limited to producing for others in recent years, (such as Jimin, Jung Kook and Tori Kelly), I am pleased to know he is now able to release his own music with his old contract ending, and an album is hopefully soon on the horizon!

Just for fun, here are some other popular songs he wrote/produced:

Memories-Maroon Five

Who-Jimin

Seven-Jung Kook and Latto

Waffle House and Walls-The Jonas Brothers

Midnight Sky-Miley Cyrus

My Mind and Me-Selena Gomez

Girls-The Kid LAROI

and plenty more…

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Genre: List Entry

For this week, I will be diving into Teddy Swim’s 2023 album titled I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 1). I will be going track by track and ranking them in order of personal preference with reasons why. (After completing this ranking, I can say confidently this was incredibly difficult, as each song in my opinion is extremely impressive musically and sonically). This collection of 10 tracks offers numerous examples of Teddy Swims unique talent. Without further ado lets get into it!

1. Lose Control. The most popular song on the album and there is a reason for that. If you asked me whether or not Teddy Swims could sing, I would simply reply can a bird fly? His effortless flows throughout the song and riffs as he rides his emotions down arpeggios really helps to drive his emotional messaging through strongly.

2. Flame. A song I discovered reviewed this album, Teddy remains in check (in comparison to his normal vocal expressions), and the smooth comforting messaging and tone he holds throughout helps to show the love and patience he holds for his partner. Combined with some great trumpet that fits right into the vibe of the song, this is quite a tune.

3. The Door. The only other song I knew before reviewing this album, and within it Teddy returns more to the vibes of Lose Control, as he croons about how he needs to leave his partner in his past.

4. What More Can I Say. With a funky feel and great backing vocals, Teddy crafts a clever hook with a catchy chorus, and when I was listening to this track specifically, all I asked myself was what can he not do?

5. Goodbye’s Been Good to You. With a similar vibe to some other tracks on the project, the only knock on this track is how it has a few similar elements to other higher ranked songs, but is lacking some of the similar juice. Still incredible, because there is a reason his niche was so successful, he is really damn good at it.

6. Suitcase. Slower, with a controlled vocal pattern, Teddy creates a pleasing, but in comparison underwhelming track.

7. Evergreen. We are now in the collection of 5 tracks that are slower and focus on a piano backing track and vocals. They are all impressive and overall quality listens, just in comparison, to some of the other tracks on the project, they just don’t hit the same.

8. You Still Get to Me. Another slower song that would fit a slowly swaying couple rotating around a dance floor. If you are in a more sentimental (or crying) mood, this song would be perfect.

9. Some Things I’ll Never Know. A beautiful ballad, and similar to other songs lower on this ranking, it serves a strong time and place, and fits within it’s role, however in terms of general listening, there are other songs I prefer.

10. Last Communion. Throughout this song, Teddy follows the similar pattern of a slower song with a nice piano backing track, but in this one he distorted his vocals, making it seem as if he is trying to sing this through one of those telephones you find at children playgrounds, throwing off the vibe a bit.

Genre: Roundup Post

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This week we are covering Kanye West’s 2007 album titled Graduation. Obviously with the surrounding controversy of Kanye’s actions in recent years, it would be insensible to ignore his presence and future actions when reviewing this album. Thus, I will be breaking the post into three sections, Album review, Kanye’s Actions and Separating Art from Artist. Let’s get into it!

 Album Review

Graduation is a 14 song, 54 minute collection of tracks which tap into elements of Hip Hop, R&B and other genres. Kanye released this album after dropping out of college, and throughout the project taps into themes of growing up, defying expectations and overall paints a vibrant picture of a young and carefree life. With features from Lil Wayne, T-Pain and Chris Martin (from Coldplay), each song taps into strong emotional expressions, with a joyful and positive tone expressed passionately in songs such as Good Life or Homecoming. In Good Morning and Champion, Kanye touches on his decision to drop out of college, remarking on how his graduation was “when you make it up out of the streets” and how “look at the valedictorian, scared of the future while I hop in the Delorean”, stating how following the path that supposedly brings you success may be more deceiving that people realize. With iconic beats and instrumentals on songs like I Wonder and Flashing Lights, Kanye West’s Graduation became a timeless album which is considered by many as one of the greatest Hip Hop albums of all time.

Kanye’s Actions

Most recently in the past two years, Kanye West has faced a large degree of fallout specifically regarding his actions in spreading hate speech towards the Jewish community and Black community respectively. From wearing a shirt with the phrase “white lives matter” (a problematic response aimed at discrediting the Black Lives Matter movement) to claiming he should go “death con 3” on Jewish and praising Hitler (NYT), the genocidal maniac who was the driving force behind the Holocaust. These actions have deservedly resulted in strong backlash, including the loss of many sponsorships totaling over 600 million dollars, along with verbal responses from other key members of the music community. (NYT)

Separating Art from Artist

When it comes to the issue of Kanye West, I feel as a listener it is important to recognize the polarizing figure that Kanye West is, but also follow the important practice of separating art from artist. Kanye West has over a period of almost two decades released a dynamic body of work which to many has an argument to be the greatest of all time. To disregard those achievements would be a mistake, and to claim that people cannot listen to his work at all would be in my opinion an overstatement. If Kanye West released a song where he used demeaning or damaging remarks towards a community, obviously playing that song in public should be considered problematic. But to limit people from enjoying his impressive work simply because of his problematic actions in my opinion greatly limits peoples chances to expand their musical palette. (Another example of this is XXXTentacion, who made a lot of personal decisions that were problematic, but in my opinion, released some very impactful and impressive work that should still be appreciated regardless.)

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/article/kanye-west-timeline.html

Genre: Controversial debate post

In 2017, Kendrick Lamar released his 7th album, titled DAMN. The album was met with a large amount of both public and critical acclaim, and to many, the album even went as far as to be considered as a brilliant “work of art” to some. This includes the Pulitzer Prize committee, who in 2018 awarded the album a Pulitzer Prize. For some, this marked an important accomplishment for the African American community and showed a changing of opinions and commonplaces. For others, this singular decision impacted the very nature of the Pulitzer Prize and represented nothing more than a “token” decision to push a narrative. So what do you think? Let’s hear what both sides have to say

The Pulitzer Prize should have been awarded for DAMN.

DAMN. is an incredible album which has so much effort and cultural significance needs to be recognized

The album and story Kendrick tells is nothing short of brilliant, and to consider it “art” is a fair designation

The Pulitzer Prize is attempting to change their ways and show their growth as a group, and that should at the very least, be accepted as valid.

The Pulitzer Prize should not have been awarded for DAMN.

The Pulitzer Prize section for music is often historically reserved for classical music, an underrepresented and under appreciated section in this modern era, so changing this tradition targets a specific group.

The Pulitzer Prize had been out of the limelight for a long time, so it is possible the committee attempted to put themselves back into the limelight by following popular trends

The award in some ways feels more like a recognition that the Pulitzer Prize committee is trying to commit some fan service, but in a way a middle age dad would. (hey guys, I’m cool, I heard that new Kendrick “joint” (ew dad don’t say joint, please)).

All in all, there are plenty of reasons on both sides why people argue so strongly for or against DAMN.‘s recognition, but while the past can change you, you cannot change the past. Regardless of whether or not you believe Kendrick Lamar deserved the Pulitzer Prize, I hope you have either already checked out the lyrical masterpiece of DAMN., or plan to in the future, because it truly is a masterpiece.

Sources:

https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/kendrick-lamar

https://www.reddit.com/r/classicalmusic/comments/8cql8k/kendrick_lamar_wins_pulitzer_prize_for_damn/ (to gather a varied number of opinions (I know reddit is not a strong source))