#30DaySongChallenge

30 Day Song Challenge, Day 25: A Song With Utterly Mysterious Lyrics

There was a brief moment of time, after the demise of albums with liner-notes and before the Internet, when it really was possible to be genuinely stymied by a song’s lyrics. Now, of course, it’s easy to find the words to any song, no matter how muddled or garbled they may have been delivered in…

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30 Day Song Challenge, Day 26: A Song That Is An Earworm

Earworms are funny creatures, really. When you find yourself infected with one, it can be either a blessing or a curse. Earworms feed on our obsessive-compulsive tendencies, they activate whatever tacit proclivity for addiction lies deep within us, and the only cure for bad ones is to replace them with good ones. It’s kind of…

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30 Day Song Challenge, Day 15: The Theme Song To Your Life

It seems like bad juju to pick the theme song to your life before you’ve finished living it, but oh well. [*throws salt over shoulder*] I miss the days when television gave us real theme songs, by which I mean songs with words, not the sonic mood-setters typical of so many popular programs now. (Listen:…

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30 Day Song Challenge, Day 14: A Song No One Would Expect You To Love

I suspect today’s will be the most difficult prompt of the month, because it requires me to step outside of myself and try to think about what others think about what I think about music. Others know that I think a lot about music, so what I really have to consider is what others think about me, my tastes, my…

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30 Day Song Challenge, Day 12: A Song From An Artist You Hate

I’ve made no secret over the years about my dislike for NashVegas wunderkind and fake-country recording artist Taylor Swift.  She even made it into my “Uncanny Valley” series on this blog (see here) as an example of what I called the very Form of the Fake.  Now, I’ll admit I’ve been pretty harsh in my evaluations of Swift–…

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30 Day Song Challenge, Day 11: A Song From Your Favorite Band

First, let’s just get something straight right away: The Rolling Stones is the greatest band of all time.  Full stop. Several years ago, my favorite music magazine No Depression ran a contest they called “Exile on Main Street vs. The White Album Smackdown” and invited readers to write in and explain why one album was better than the…

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30 Day Song Challenge, Day 10: A Song That Helps You Fall Asleep

If you’ve ever lived close to a train track, which I have for many of the years of my adult life, you know exactly what it means to love and to believe in the sound of a train in the distance.  There’s something seductive and promissory about that sound, something that assures you that there…

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30 Day Song Challenge, Day 9: A Song That Makes You Want To Dance

There are any number of songs by the late, great Michael Jackson that make me want to dance. Most of them, in fact.  In addition to being a phenomenal and innovative dancer himself, MJ also had a preternatural talent for producing songs with just the right mix of rhythm and groove to force listeners’ bodies to…

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30 Day Song Challenge, Day 8: A Song You Know All The Words To

Full disclosure: I am a huge fan of musical theater.  This may be due in part to the fact that I seem to lack whatever aesthetic gene or neuron inclines us against corniness, but I like to think that it’s rather because I have a deep appreciation for storytelling in song.   My favorite musical…

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30 Day Song Challenge, Day 7: A Song You Never Tire of Hearing

I had some major blog snafus this past week, so I’m waaay behind on the 30 Day Song Challenge!  What that means for you, readers, is that the entries are going to be considerably briefer for the next several days while I catch up. Today’s prompt was easy for me.  I’m choosing Sam Cooke‘s “A…

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