30 at 30

13. Jay-Z

2 Comments

In honor of me turning 30, I’m making mix CDs of my favorite songs from each of my 30 favorite musical artists/groups. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for this list. They’re simply my personal favorites. Coming in at number 13 is Jay-Z.

JayZ30at30

When Jay-Z was announced as the executive producer of the soundtrack for the 2013 film version of The Great Gatsby, it made a lot of sense to me. Jay-Z is a modern day embodiment of the American Dream. His father abandoned his family at a very young age. He grew up in a single-parent home, failed to graduate high school, and sold crack cocaine to get by. And yet, he made it.

Today, Jay-Z proudly proclaims, “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man!” If I could be any celebrity alive today, Jay-Z would undoubtedly be a top candidate. Dream job? Professional entertainer is what many aspire to but few achieve. From critical acclaim to commercial success, Jay-Z’s rap career has been a major success. Dream life? When all is said and done, he may be known as an entrepreneur more than as a rapper. He was a part-owner of the Brooklyn Nets. Now he owns his own sports agency, Roc Nation Sports, his own clothing line, Rocawear, and much more. Dream wife? He is married to Beyoncé—what more can I say?

Continue reading 13. Jay-Z →

30 at 30

14. Alicia Keys

Leave a comment

In honor of me turning 30, I’m making mix CDs of my favorite songs from each of my 30 favorite musical artists/groups. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for this list. They’re simply my personal favorites. Coming in at number 14 is Alicia Keys.

AliciaKeys30at30

To label Alicia Keys as successful would be a considerable understatement. She has sold more than 35 million albums worldwide. She has won multiple Grammy awards. And Billboard magazine named her the R&B artist of the decade for the 2000s. Oh yeah, and she’s only 33 years old. She’s also married to producer Swizz Beatz, and they recently announced that she is pregnant with their second child. Alicia Keys often sings messages of female empowerment, but even if she didn’t actively promote it, her life is a walking advertisement for the power of womanhood.

Keys burst onto the music scene with her 2001 release of Songs in A Minor. She won the Grammy in 2002 for Best New Artist and her hit track “Fallin'” won for Song of the Year. In addition to being Keys’ signature song, “Fallin'” was a definitive song of the decade. The song, which is about the ins and outs or ups and downs of relationships was the first track I ever heard by Keys, and I was immediately hooked.

Continue reading 14. Alicia Keys →

30 at 30

15. Iron & Wine

1 Comment

In honor of me turning 30, I’m making mix CDs of my favorite songs from each of my 30 favorite musical artists/groups. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for this list. They’re simply my personal favorites. Coming in at number 15 is Iron & Wine.

IronWine30at30

“Making music, the process of writing and recording, that’s all like daydreaming to me.” Those are the words of Samuel Beam—better known by his stage name, Iron & Wine—from  a 2007 interview with Helen Brown for The Telegraph. 

The quote sits well with me because listening to Iron & Wine’s music has always felt meditative and dreamlike to me. There was a time in the mid-2000s when I would drift off night after night listening to the final few tracks from Our Endless Numbered Days, “Fever Dream”, “Sodom, South Georgia”,  and “Passing Afternoon”, all of which made it onto this compilation. Iron & Wine’s lush, soothing vocals effectively put my mind at ease and allow me to get lost in the moment in a way that few other artists can.

A blogger named DandyLyonWhine adeptly described Iron & Wine thusly: “If you’ve not heard Iron & Wine before you will discover an amazing and magical intimacy. No matter the volume, every Iron & Wine song sounds like it is whispered into your ear. It’s like you can feel his breath on the side of your face. There are no casual Iron & Wine fans, and the people who are not fans yet simply haven’t heard the song that Beam wrote for them.”

Continue reading 15. Iron & Wine →

30 at 30

30 at 30 List #4: Drinks

Leave a comment

In honor of me turning 30, I’m compiling 30 different top-30 lists on a wide variety of topics ranging from trivial interests of mine to meaningful life moments. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for these lists. They were composed by a panel of one—me.

What do you want to drink? It’s such a crucial question. As someone who does not drink coffee or beer, two of America’s favorite beverages, my top answers to that question are unique. Featuring a few childhood classics and a few drinks for those 21 and older, my order of drinks gives you a big gulp’s worth of refreshments to read about. Enjoy this list responsibly!

Continue reading 30 at 30 List #4: Drinks →

30 at 30

16. The Beatles

3 Comments

In honor of me turning 30, I’m making mix CDs of my favorite songs from each of my 30 favorite musical artists/groups. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for this list. They’re simply my personal favorites. Coming in at number 16 is The Beatles.

TheBeatles30at30

What can I possibly write about The Beatles that hasn’t been written already? It’s unusual to see The Beatles at #16 on any musical list. Typically, they’re found much closer to the top, and if this list was about historical significance, there is no doubt that this list would be a lot different. However, it’s a testament to the Fab Four that they are on this list at all. They are definitely outliers on the list, the only group/artist that predates my life to make it on my all-time favorites list.

While the rest of the list is populated by my contemporaries who have/are producing music in the 90s/2000s/2010s, The Beatles’ last official album was recorded more than a decade before I was born. I enjoy plenty of other bands and artists that might show up on a classic rock or oldies radio station, but none of them compares to The Beatles in terms of a collection of music that I enjoy.

One of the most interesting aspects of The Beatles to me is their varied styles. It’s so difficult to pigeonhole them because their music shifted significantly over the years from album to album and even song to song. As far as I’m concerned their versatility  is unparalleled in music history, particularly with the level of success they achieved.

Continue reading 16. The Beatles →

30 at 30

17. Jack Johnson

Leave a comment

In honor of me turning 30, I’m making mix CDs of my favorite songs from each of my 30 favorite musical artists/groups. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for this list. They’re simply my personal favorites. Coming in at number 17 is Jack Johnson.

JackJohnson30at30

Jack Johnson was raised in Hawaii, the son of a well-known surfer. Knowing that bit of biographical background explains the style of Johnson’s music.

He plays mellowed out, chill, mostly acoustic folk/soft rock songs that all have a laid back vibe. Johnson sings catchy songs with memorable, singable melodies. The average song on this 24-track compilation is just 3:18, with nine songs clocking in under the three-minute mark. There is a familiarity in Johnson’s style. While the songs don’t necessarily stand out much from one another musically, they blend together in a feel-good way that makes you as a listener long for that beach in Hawaii where Johnson seems to be singing.

Continue reading 17. Jack Johnson →

30 at 30

18. Ryan Adams

Leave a comment

In honor of me turning 30, I’m making mix CDs of my favorite songs from each of my 30 favorite musical artists/groups. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for this list. They’re simply my personal favorites. Coming in at number 18 is Ryan Adams.

RyanAdams30at30

Ryan Adams and Adam Duritz are friends. They’ve even collaborated on a few tracks over the years. Although both of them are talented lyricists and singers, their songwriting production couldn’t be much more different. Duritz and his band, Counting Crows, tend to release a new album once every three or four years. Meanwhile, Ryan Adams’ discography, which only dates back to 2000, already includes 14 albums and nearly 200 songs.

It goes without saying that trying to narrow Adams’ musical catalog down to a single CD for my 30 at 30 compilation was quite the challenge. When all the dust settled, tracks from eight different Ryan Adams albums made the final cut.

Continue reading 18. Ryan Adams →

30 at 30, Uncategorized

19. Coldplay

Leave a comment

In honor of me turning 30, I’m making mix CDs of my favorite songs from each of my 30 favorite musical artists/groups. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for this list. They’re simply my personal favorites. Coming in at number 19 is Coldplay.

Coldplay30at30

They’re not quite at the Nickelback level. But somewhere betweem 2000’s Parachutes and 2014’s Ghost Stories, Coldplay became one of the definitive bands to agree to hate among people who “know” things about music. In 2011, after Coldplay released Mylo Xyloto, Grantland ran a piece that began with this sentence: “Coldplay is the band that everyone allegedly hates, but nevertheless is still one of the most popular in the world.” This year, Grantland published a more in depth article titled “Overrated, Underrated, or Properly Rated: Coldplay” with the subtitle “The most insufferable band of the millennium or a misunderstood group of talented young men?”

Whatever it is that causes people to love to hate Coldplay, I never caught the bug. Although none of the tracks from Ghost Stories resonated strongly enough to get fast-tracked onto my compilation, I’ve enjoyed the full spectrum of Coldplay’s catalog and unabashedly proclaim them as my 19th favorite musical act of all-time.

Continue reading 19. Coldplay →

30 at 30

30 at 30 List #3: TV Shows

2 Comments

 In honor of me turning 30, I’m compiling 30 different top-30 lists on a wide variety of topics ranging from trivial interests of mine to meaningful life moments. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for these lists. They were composed by a panel of one—me.

I probably watch too much television. It’s relaxing, entertaining, and nowadays it’s easier than ever to tune in. When I was growing up, I had to watch what was on one of the 60 or so channels we had from our cable provider. And unless I wanted to set up a VCR timed recording, I had to watch it when it was broadcast or else miss it entirely.

watching TV

Today, the number of channels has ballooned into the thousands. Recording multiple shows can be done with the push of a button using the DVR. On-demand services like HBO Go, Netflix, the Watch ESPN app, the WWE Network, etc., put TV viewing on my schedule. Plus, mobile devices like my iPad or iPhone give me the ability to watch TV on the go. On the track “BBC” from his Magna Carta Holy Grail album, Jay-Z raps “my whole life is leisure.” With the TV technology available to me today, sometimes I feel that way, especially during the summer, prime time for a teacher to catch up on some of the TV missed during the hustle and bustle of the school year.

My list of all-time favorite TV shows includes some current chart-toppers as well as some childhood classics. My list clearly shows my preference for comedies, and it also has some noticeable absentees. Sorry, fans of Game of Thrones, The Wire, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and INSERT YOUR BEST TELEVISION SERIES EVER THAT I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU HAVEN’T SEEN HERE. I haven’t watched any of them, at least not yet. For what it’s worth, I came up with more than 20 honorable mentions in compiling this list, so kudos to the programs that did make the final cut.

Continue reading 30 at 30 List #3: TV Shows →

30 at 30

20. Eminem

Leave a comment

In honor of me turning 30, I’m making mix CDs of my favorite songs from each of my 30 favorite musical artists/groups. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for this list. They’re simply my personal favorites. Coming in at number 20 is Eminem.

Eminem30at30

Marshall Mathers. Slim Shady. Eminem. Whatever you want to call him, he is certainly the most controversial inclusion on my countdown so far and arguably will be the most polarizing selection on the entire list.

When I first heard Eminem I was 14 years old and in 8th grade. It was around that time that I convinced my parents to allow me to purchase CDs with the parental advisory: explicit lyrics sticker on them. Eminem’s lyrics earned that label and then some. However, I never adopted the foul-mouthed act that Eminem and most of my peers did. To this day, my curse words are few and far between.

Continue reading 20. Eminem →

The first key to writing is to write.