Rhythm Nation 1814 :: Janet Jackson

As many of you already know, I LOVE Janet Jackson. Meggo Trivia: Who owns every single album she has put out since her music career began in the early 80s? Answer: Me. I owe my appreciation of Ms. Jackson (if you're nasty) to my mom and her feminist taste in pop music during my upbringing (Madonnna, Janet, Cyndi Lauper, Pat Benetar, Stevie Nicks...you get the drift). This particular album was one of the first cassette tapes (along with Madonna's True Blue album) that I took from my mom's personal collection to play in my room so I could pretend I was an entertainer in front of my mirror with a hair brush. There's just something about Janet's music that makes me want to get up and DANCE. But this particular album is a favorite of mine for many reasons that move beyond my love of dancing around in front of mirrors and lip-syncing.

Not only does this album include R&B, Rock, Dance-Pop, and Funk styles, it was conceptualized to be a social justice album, which Janet intended to deliver a socially conscious message to people - strong enough for people to notice and take that first step of activism, listening. I would like to think optimistically and think that the fact that this album made history by becoming the ONLY album to have 7 top 5 hit singles ("Miss You Much", "Rhythm Nation", "Escapade", "Alright", "Come Back to Me", "Black Cat", and "Love Will Never Do (Without You)") AND the ONLY album ever to achieve number one hit singles in three separate calendar years (89-91) as evidence enough that Janet's message got through to SOME people...

Here's to Janet and one of my all time favorite albums!
The end.
Love,
Meggo.

Here's my favorite music video for this album:

Janet Jackson - New Music - More Music Videos

Creed:
Music / Poetry / Dance / Unity

Pledge:
We are a Nation with no Geographic Boundaires
Bound together through our beliefs
We are like-minded individuals
Sharing a Common Vision
Pushing toward a world rid of color lines.

With music by our side
To break the color lines
Lets work together
To improve our way of life
Join voices in protest
To social injustice
A generation full of courage
Come forth with me

People of the world today
Are we looking for a better way of life
We are a part of the Rhythm Nation
People of the world unite
Strength in numbers we can get it right
One time
We are apart of the Rhythm Nation

This is the test
No struggle no progress
Lend a hand to help
Your brother do his best
Things are getting worse
We have to make them better
Its time to give a damn
Lets work together, come on now

People of the world today ( Rhythm )
Are we looking for a better way of life ( Rhythm )
We are a part of the Rhythm Nation ( Everybody sing it )
People of the world unite ( Rhythm )
Strength in numbers we can get it right ( Rhythm )
One time
We are apart of the Rhythm Nation ( Whoo )

Say it People, Say it Children ( Rhythm Nation )
Say it if you want a better way of life
Say it People, Say it Children ( Rhythm Nation )
Say it if you want a better way of life

(Rhythm)
People of the world today
Are we looking for a better way of life ( Say it )
We are a part of the Rhythm Nation ( Whoo )
People of the world unite
Strength in numbers we can get it right
One time ( Sing it up now )
We are apart of the Rhythm Nation (Rhythm Nation sing the story)

Say it for the People( Rhythm Nation )
Say it for the Children
Say it for the Babies
Say it for the People( Rhythm Nation )
Say it for the Children
Say it for the Babies
Say it for the, Say it for the, Say it for the.....
( Rhythm Nation )

We are apart of the Rhythm Nation

Random Trivia thanks to Wikipedia!: The album's title was a composite of Jackson's pledge, "We are a nation with no geographic boundaries, bound together through our beliefs. We are like-minded individuals, sharing a common vision, pushing toward a world rid of color-lines" and its supporting creed, "Music, Poetry, Dance, Unity". 1814 referred to the year "The Star Spangled Banner" was written; in addition, 'R' is the 18th letter of the alphabet and 'N' the 14th, hence Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814.

I'm Good, I'm Gone :: Lykke Li

happy tuesday everyone! we're 7 days away from making history, so get your vote on then, or if you can do it now, DO IT!

today's song of the day is by an artist many of us have come to love since we were first introduced to this Swedish indie artist, Lykke Li, this past spring by Kim. well, ever since then, i've been slightly obsessed.

just this morning, as i was searching around for an artist to blog about, i came across this live session of Lykke Li's single "i'm good, i'm gone". i'm a huge fan of live, acoustic performances (duh), and this is what you get from this particular track - a live, acoustic performance. there's something that gives me tingles when you get to hear all the intricate details of an artist's voice and instrumentaling.


when i listened to this song, i thought about all the work that has been done to get out the vote and to help distribute the information about these upcoming elections. politics has been on my brain constantly for the last 6 months...and, in case you didn't know, we are all apart of this election. we all have a vital role - whether it is making sure we get ourselves out to the voting booths, helping to address ingorant, hateful rhetoric, volutneering our time to a local, state, or national campaign, encouraging a first time voter to do their homework, or hosting debate parties - we are all in this game and it's up to us to make sure this election is not a repeat of the last 8 years and 2 elections.

so, hopefully you'll enjoy this wonderful live rendition of another jammin Lykke Li song while you're working on getting out the vote!






GO OBAMA.







The end.
Love,
Meggo.







I'm Good, I'm Gone :: Lykke Li

Steppin', stormin'
I'm all gone
Give me a tone and I'm all gone
Yeah, I'm walkin' by the line
I hear that in my mind

I'm workin' a sweat
But it's all good
I'm breakin' my back
But it's all good
'cause I know I'll get it back
Yeah, I know your hands will clap

Yeah, I'm workin'
Yeah, I'm workin'
To make butter for my piece of bun

And if you say I'm not OK
Then that's the goal
If you say there ain't no way that I could know
If you say I aim too high from down below
Well, say it know 'cause when I'm gone...
You'll be callin' but I won't be at the phone

And you're hanging around 'til it's all done
You can't keep me back once I've had some
Wasting time to get it right
And you will see what I'm about

Yeah, I'm workin' a sweat
But it's all good
I'm breakin' my back
But it's all good
'cause I know I'll get it back
Yeah, I know your hands will clap

And if you say I'm not OK
Then that's the goal
If you say there ain't no way that I could know
If you say I aim too high from down below
Well, say it know 'cause when I'm gone...
You'll be callin' but I won't be at the phone

Bonus Song!
Hanging High

Coleen :: The Heavy

Guest Blogger::Krista

The Heavy are a band from the UK which have just released their first full-length album, called Great Vengeance and Furious Fire, in the US in early April. Today I'm writing about "Coleen," my favorite so far and what I'm already calling my song of the summer.

Whenever I hear the intro, I have this Pavlovian response to just crank the volume. The horns over a simple rock groove on the drums makes for a perfect tease before lead singer Swaby comes in with his ultra-smooth singing about getting involved with fancy material girls; they might be dead-sexy, and the whole affair has this kind of mythic, unbelievable quality to it because you can't really believe your good luck that you actually got to have sex with such a fox. But then you realize you're spending tons of money to try and keep them mildly interested in you, and in the end all you're left with is a bruised heart and a huge credit card bill.

I can't find the lyrics online, so I kind of made my best guess on a few of them here just so you get the gist of it:

And she won't give it up
Until you give her just about enough
Those girls are so dangerous
It's enough to make a lover broke

Chorus:
Now do you want that love?
Do you need that love?
It's gonna make you cry
It's gonna make you burn

It's not that I particularly identify with the lyrics. I can't say I've had this experience of being sucked dry and dumped by an ultra hot lady, but the words just kind of add to what I'm really digging here. The chorus is where the drums really kick in and turn the sly tease I mentioned before into a completely dirty tramp of a song.

This is the part that I love: the sleazy crunch of the rock/funk jam makes me feel delightfully dangerous, like a total predator who could get a tattoo, smoke cigarettes, prey on confused straight girls, steal a car--maybe even go commando for a day. For three minutes while listening to this song, I am a bad motherfucker.

The band hasn't released a video, but there's a handful of unofficial ones on YouTube put together by fans. I chose this one for the blog because the dancing kind of correlates to the down-and-dirty vibe the song has:

Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/theheavy73