humanity
Humanity topics include pieces on the real lives of music professionals, amateurs, inspiring students, celebrities, lifestyle influencers, and general feel good human stories in the music sphere.
Todd's Playlist The Teen Years..
Fair warning some will be spice girls even though I'm a boy which means Spice Girls SpiceWorld Album This was the first album I actually asked my parents to buy for me. My middle school friends we all obsessed over the movie too My favorite was Stop I played that song obsessively. Thinking back on it now I think I took the line "I need somebody with the human touch" But in my true teen years before Napster came along spice girls were my go to albums to de stress.
By Todd Simmons5 years ago in Beat
A White Sport Coat
A White Sport Coat….. The year was 1957. I was all of 14, just starting to discover girls, and wondering how to actually get a girlfriend. I knew it was going to be hard! Too young to own and drive a car, too young to go to the pub, or a club, too far to the beach, too hard to earn much money…the odds were against me.
By Michael Friganiotis5 years ago in Beat
Ghostbusterbuster's Playlist
My name is Adrian. This isn't my legal name. I have an appointment to change it at the courthouse in two weeks. I was a prolific songwriter in my childhood. I continued writing songs in my adulthood but nowhere near as much. I was a teenager between the years 1989 and 1995. When I was thirteen I was still listening to oldies on the radio but gradually started picking up on pop as a result of flipping through the stations on my own when the airspace wasn't occupied by my parents or siblings. I lived in Chicago and the station I eventually stumbled into and hung out with mostly at that time was Q101, the alternative rock station. I still flipped over for a fix of oldies and also fell into spells with the hiphop stations B96 and Z95, which was also simultaneously mainly a rock station where I'd hear stuff like Guns N Roses and David Lee Roth. I was also a fan of programs on NPR. My tastes were fairly eclectic. One day I stumbled into a dirty damaged NWA cassette on the sidewalk in my neighborhood and got into rap too. My folks hated it. An interesting thing that happened while listening to the alt. stations was hearing my own songs, which progressively occurred with greater frequency in passing time. I would point out that a song playing on the radio was mine but my folks dismissed or ignored the sentiment and these experiences just became distant echoes. Sometimes though, I liked the songs and they'd become my favorite songs, and many of my favorite songs were my own songs. It was strange I guess but this is how it was. When I got to high school, I became aware that an underground cult following of some description was following me around so I delivered more songs through them until I dropped out of high school and ran away from home, continuing to write songs from Ann Arbor Michigan. When I wrote songs, I signed them with the names of the artists I wanted them to go to instead of my own and to this day have been formally credited with nothing since my identity has remained largely undisclosed. Things happened this way because I was raised by criminals, but I myself am not a criminal. I'm just a songwriter who wrote a lot of songs you might have heard. I recently began logging original author memoirs connected to these songs which are collecting in a working autobiography draft and also on a YouTube channel. If I posted them here, the word count would grossly exceed the entry quota. I'll share one lyric backstory here with you, though. Just one. This is the backstory to Stay Gold, released by and currently formally credited to First Aid Kit.
By Adrian Maples5 years ago in Beat
Depression Beats
After 2011,(I was eleven years old) I had gone into sporadic bursts of depression and being completely anti-social. My family was a bit split up, yet we all still lived together. I felt a bit cast out, yet I was still there, eating at the dinner table with everyone.
By Melissa Ingoldsby5 years ago in Beat
"How Reggae Helped In Molding And Stabilizing Me During My Teenage Years"
T “How Reggae Helped In Molding And Stabilizing Me During My Teenage Years” Just like in all other things, Children learn most by observation and mimicking. That was the case for me and have stayed so to date. I grew up listening to the songs that my cousin that was living with us then plays most, REGGAE. In middle 80s, when I was in my teens, a cousin and two elder siblings, for sure, it was their choice that was offloaded into me, it naturally became my choice too.
By Philip Ebuluofor5 years ago in Beat
YOU MUSIC LOVER
You Music Lover Dear you beautiful music lover, As a young Haitian boy, being adopted by an all white family was a gift and a curse. So much hate and so much love. Within the dark lonely pit, I felt at peace hearing the tunes of music. I’d listen to anime music, chill hop, chill step, edm, and of course rap and rock and roll. There was the occasional country song that made me feel good inside.
By Jean Engstrom5 years ago in Beat
The best of times, the 1990’s.
I was Born in the mid 1970's which has given me an interesting insight into the world of ear art, better known as music. I do not recall much of the 70's music, it was only 4 years of my life. Interestingly the billboards number one chart topping song of July 1976 was Afternoon Delight by the Starland Vocal Band. I have always had an affinity to that song and always wondered why. I know now it is because it was on the radio all the bloody time the first 6 months after being born. The 1980's was interesting and all I can truly remember is some Cyndi Lauper, Bon Jovi, Michael Jackson, Belinda Carlisle, Twisted Sister, and VanHalen. I do appreciate the fact that I was exposed to the music of the 80's because it has shaped my taste to this day.
By Rhian Royal5 years ago in Beat
Headphones & Heartbreak
The year was 2003, and I was 13 years old, and on the precipice of my burgeoning teenagehood! My body was changing, my hormones were raging, and I was about as awkward as they come. Clutching the straps of my new ice blue Jansport and beaming through a mouthful of aqua and purple braces, I walked into my first day at Blanchard Middle School.
By Celine Loiselle5 years ago in Beat
Songs Every Teenager Had On Their iPod
Songs Every Teenager Had On Their iPod No matter what kind of teenager you were, you had these on your playlist. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjA2a-S-rLwAhUtIjQIHTseAHkQFjAHegQIBBAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fplaylist%3Flist%3DPLswygcS079Go66mHrA9Nf-xeHU8IFsxgl&usg=AOvVaw1AtCT0z_T22QtUh6RLOGhP (This isn’t my playlist, but I love listening to it).
By Burnt Baguettes5 years ago in Beat
