Music Meme, Day 22 (I think I missed something? )
Directions: EVERY DAY ANSWER ONE QUESTION AND POST A VIDEO OF THE SONG ON YOUR WALL. Label it as... Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc., then that day's question and the Artist and the Song title. HAVE FUN!! :D
Well, I'm rarely one to actually follow a meme's directions.
Looking over the original categories, I can't answer (or don't care) about half of them. So I think I'll go with a bit more free-form style of just picking 30-some-odd songs and writing up a bit about them.
I should say at the default that I have no particular musical tastes or knowledge. I listen to trashy pop most of the time. Still, I will make an attempt to pick reasonably good music.
Meme Masterpost
Yesterday's post: Maximum the Hormone, “Zetsubou Billy”
day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad -
I should be alarmed at how easy this post is.
There are two songs that are completely and utterly equal in my heart, and I cannot choose between them.
Chihiro Onitsuka, “Infection”
I hold this to be one of the best instances of singing I have ever heard. When she gets to the final chorus--“fragments...fragments...all around me,” her voice just breaks in such a lovely way.
A bit of background information is pertinent. Chihro Onitsuka has apparently struggled with mental illness and overwork, and at one point attempted suicide. I believe she wrote the song herself, though it was also used as the theme for a tv series, so I don't know how personal of a song it was. But I can say that this song really expresses the slow creep of dealing with depression. This internalized feeling of sickness, and feeling too weak for being unable to overcome it. She's a singer who really makes you feel the pain in her lyrics.
For trivia: apparently this song was initially released just after the 9/11 attacks, and sensitivity over the lyrics-I assume all the lines about explosions and fragments-led the managing company to choose to advertise a different song as a single. Such a pity, because it's really gorgeous.
See also: “Gekkou” and “Ryuuseigun”,
Johnny Cash, “Hurt”
I hate to say it, but the original Nine Inch Nails version does absolutely nothing for me. This is the version in my heart. The original version isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination. I even have a soft spot for the version with David Bowie
But even Trent Reznor, who wrote the song, agrees that Johnny Cash's version is the better one.
It's not that Reznor's angst was any less potent, but Cash has this gravitas, this experience that comes from living a life that was public ally known to be painful. I read this line once-“You know someone only listens to The Man in Black when they have pain inside them.” Cash blamed himself for the death of his brother when he was younger, he was tortured over falling in love with a married woman (he was also married at the time), and his drug addictions nearly killed him. He was a biblical scholar who called himself a sinner. He performed in prisons and worked with impoverished people. Brilliant man, really.
At the end of his life, he released several covers, including this one. The music video, in fact, was made just months before he died, and he wasn't scared to show death. He wasn't afraid to show life, either. Exquisite, utterly exquisite.
~Bonus~
Strangely enough, I do not have a playlist for sad songs. I'll just throw up a few that come to mind.
Rihanna, “Russian Roulette”
I think this song is terribly under-appreciated. It was a single on the album released right after the huge drama of Rihanna being involved in an abusive relationship, and the album is largely considered her response to those events. Many of them are about being tough and moving on, and then you have this one-where she relates a relationship to a game of Russian roulette, torturous and terrifying, but something she can't escape. Really powerful.
Vienna Teng, “Between”
I admit that I first heard this song in an “Ouran High School Host Club” AMV. Haruhi and the twins, naturally.
The song is about a relationship being torn apart by the intercession of a third person. The singer is being torn apart by the realization that she is losing her lover to another. Brilliant, painful stuff.
Snow Patrol, “Chasing Cars”
This song is overplayed to the point of parody.
It makes me think of the apocalypse. An apocalypse. I don't know why. I doubt that's what was intended. But it makes me think of two people staying together while the world burns around them, begging for a tiny, last moment together.
I wrote an entire story around this scenario because of this damn song.
Gackt, Saikai ~Story~
I am not fond of this music video.
Gackt is really hit-or-miss for me. He has a great voice, and a very theatrical style. A lot of the time it's just too over-the-top for me. But he can rock the power ballads like no one else's business.
Someone once said that the music in the beginning sounds like firecrackers.
The version of this song I like is from one of his singles collections. Can't find it on youtube. Heck, it might not even be that different from the PV version. I really have no musical sense.
Jean Jacques Burnel , “We Were Lovers”, from “Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo” (and the full version).
This could actually be a happy song, if not for the dramatic irony. If you know The Count of Monte Cristo, you cannot take this song at face value. And there's the sadness of it.
Gyahh, this is far, far far too long. I'm just grabbing at songs now.
Well, I'm rarely one to actually follow a meme's directions.
Looking over the original categories, I can't answer (or don't care) about half of them. So I think I'll go with a bit more free-form style of just picking 30-some-odd songs and writing up a bit about them.
I should say at the default that I have no particular musical tastes or knowledge. I listen to trashy pop most of the time. Still, I will make an attempt to pick reasonably good music.
Meme Masterpost
Yesterday's post: Maximum the Hormone, “Zetsubou Billy”
day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad -
I should be alarmed at how easy this post is.
There are two songs that are completely and utterly equal in my heart, and I cannot choose between them.
Click to viewChihiro Onitsuka, “Infection”
I hold this to be one of the best instances of singing I have ever heard. When she gets to the final chorus--“fragments...fragments...all around me,” her voice just breaks in such a lovely way.
A bit of background information is pertinent. Chihro Onitsuka has apparently struggled with mental illness and overwork, and at one point attempted suicide. I believe she wrote the song herself, though it was also used as the theme for a tv series, so I don't know how personal of a song it was. But I can say that this song really expresses the slow creep of dealing with depression. This internalized feeling of sickness, and feeling too weak for being unable to overcome it. She's a singer who really makes you feel the pain in her lyrics.
For trivia: apparently this song was initially released just after the 9/11 attacks, and sensitivity over the lyrics-I assume all the lines about explosions and fragments-led the managing company to choose to advertise a different song as a single. Such a pity, because it's really gorgeous.
See also: “Gekkou” and “Ryuuseigun”,
Johnny Cash, “Hurt”
I hate to say it, but the original Nine Inch Nails version does absolutely nothing for me. This is the version in my heart. The original version isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination. I even have a soft spot for the version with David Bowie
But even Trent Reznor, who wrote the song, agrees that Johnny Cash's version is the better one.
It's not that Reznor's angst was any less potent, but Cash has this gravitas, this experience that comes from living a life that was public ally known to be painful. I read this line once-“You know someone only listens to The Man in Black when they have pain inside them.” Cash blamed himself for the death of his brother when he was younger, he was tortured over falling in love with a married woman (he was also married at the time), and his drug addictions nearly killed him. He was a biblical scholar who called himself a sinner. He performed in prisons and worked with impoverished people. Brilliant man, really.
At the end of his life, he released several covers, including this one. The music video, in fact, was made just months before he died, and he wasn't scared to show death. He wasn't afraid to show life, either. Exquisite, utterly exquisite.
~Bonus~
Strangely enough, I do not have a playlist for sad songs. I'll just throw up a few that come to mind.
Rihanna, “Russian Roulette”
I think this song is terribly under-appreciated. It was a single on the album released right after the huge drama of Rihanna being involved in an abusive relationship, and the album is largely considered her response to those events. Many of them are about being tough and moving on, and then you have this one-where she relates a relationship to a game of Russian roulette, torturous and terrifying, but something she can't escape. Really powerful.
Vienna Teng, “Between”
I admit that I first heard this song in an “Ouran High School Host Club” AMV. Haruhi and the twins, naturally.
The song is about a relationship being torn apart by the intercession of a third person. The singer is being torn apart by the realization that she is losing her lover to another. Brilliant, painful stuff.
Snow Patrol, “Chasing Cars”
This song is overplayed to the point of parody.
It makes me think of the apocalypse. An apocalypse. I don't know why. I doubt that's what was intended. But it makes me think of two people staying together while the world burns around them, begging for a tiny, last moment together.
I wrote an entire story around this scenario because of this damn song.
Gackt, Saikai ~Story~
I am not fond of this music video.
Gackt is really hit-or-miss for me. He has a great voice, and a very theatrical style. A lot of the time it's just too over-the-top for me. But he can rock the power ballads like no one else's business.
Someone once said that the music in the beginning sounds like firecrackers.
The version of this song I like is from one of his singles collections. Can't find it on youtube. Heck, it might not even be that different from the PV version. I really have no musical sense.
Jean Jacques Burnel , “We Were Lovers”, from “Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo” (and the full version).
This could actually be a happy song, if not for the dramatic irony. If you know The Count of Monte Cristo, you cannot take this song at face value. And there's the sadness of it.
Gyahh, this is far, far far too long. I'm just grabbing at songs now.