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Dolly Parton is the COVID Savior We Didn’t Know We Needed
Dolly. Parton. It’s about time we talked about this icon. In 2020, she did so many things to help pandemic relief; among them being helping to develop the Moderna vaccine. She donated one million dollars to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which would soon produce one of the two main vaccines to help prevent coronavirus. “I’m just happy that anything I do can help somebody else.” Dolly told the LA Times, upon first finding out that her donation is what helped develop the Moderna vaccine and push it forward. In addition to this, Dolly Parton started her very own weekly story time series called “Goodnight with Dolly.” It was through her own Imagination Library…
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The Oscars 2021: Are Live Musical Performances Worth It?
Continuing with the 2021 award season, the 93rd Oscars aired tonight on ABC. An award show centered on movies begs the question: is it really worth it to add musical performances (as the oscars have always done) during a global pandemic? With award categories such as “Best Original Song” and “Best Score”, I think the answer lies in the amount of risks that the academy is willing to take. In this year’s case, though, the Oscars got creative. All nominees for “Best Original Song” taped their performances in advance, and were aired on the pre-show, title “Oscars: Into the Spotlight”. Performances from Celeste, H.E.R., Leslie Odom Jr., Laura Pausini, Daniel Pemberton, Molly Sandén and Diane…
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PODCAST: Name That Tune; Pandemic Talk with Ash Deharder and Corinne Grainger
In a general year-review, I talk with Ash Deharder and Corinne Grainger about how the pandemic has affected the music world, as well as playing a friendly game of “Name That Tune”! Listen here:
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April 11th: On this Day in Music History…
Let’s take a look at some of the big things that have happened musically, on this day in years past. 1994 A Seattle, WA, coroner ruled that Kurt Cobain’s death was a suicide, and that same year Nirvana’s album “In Utero” was certified double-platinum. 1970 Paul McCartney announced in an interview that he would be taking a temporary break from the Beatles due to personal differences. This temporary break ended up being the official day that the Beatles broke up. This same year, Peter Green, founder of the hit band Fleetwood Mac, announced that he would be leaving the band. 1966 Frank Sinatra recorded “Strangers in the Night,” which would…
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Working at a Music Store During a Global Pandemic
Since the pandemic began, small businesses have been affected in many ways – most notably by having to close for such an extensive period of time. A lot of locally owned music-stores have felt the effects of this as well – and by having the opportunity to work at Chautauqua Music (a locally owned music store/guitar shop in Jamestown, NY), I’ve been able to get a firsthand look at it all. When covid hit in March of 2020, my boss (the owner of the store) had to completely close down the store due to the New York State order put in place at the time. We lost about three months…
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Fortnite Is Highlighting Viral Songs and Dances and the Music Industry is Living For It
Throughout the pandemic, gaming and TikTok are two things that Gen Z has become hooked on. Fortunately, there’s one video game that has found out how to integrate these two elements into one. TikTok’s immensely popular viral dances have provided a great opportunity for the popular game Fortnite, as it is known for it’s emotes that players can perform throughout the game – with the famous “default dance” being the first emote on the platform. Since its humble beginnings, Fortnite has only grown in popularity and in quality. At the beginning of March 2021, the game helped to celebrate the GRAMMY awards by highlighting some of the nominated songs of…
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Can Artists Earn A Living By Putting Their Music on Spotify?
Spotify is one of the biggest music streaming platforms in the world right now. With 155 million people utilizing its premium subscription alone, it’s safe to say that the company is in no shortage of money. Knowing this, you’d think that they would have figured out an efficient way to compensate the creators on the platform – but looking at their statistics might just prove that assumption wrong. Toward the tail-end of 2020, Spotify had announced that one of their main goals was to provide artists a way to earn a living from posting on their platform. In their own personal statement, Spotify went as far to say that their…
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TikTok is Changing the Way We Use Music
If you’ve been on the internet in the past year (or even if you haven’t), you’ve most likely heard about the hit app “TikTok”. Formerly known as “musical.ly”, TikTok has grown significantly in popularity over the course of the past year – especially with the events of the global pandemic. The platform relies heavily on music as a supplement for jokes, dance crazes, and even informational videos. Most of the popular, charting songs of the past year have grown in popularity because of TikTok. In 2021, if your song isn’t being used on TikTok (even if it’s just for a small trend), it’ll most likely fade to the background of all…
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I Followed a College Music Student Around for a Week During a Global Pandemic
Given that I was a music major for a short period in my life, I have a little insight into how the class structure works. The intense course load, studio performances / lessons, and ensembles are not unfamiliar to me – except for the fact that my time as a music major was not spent in the midst of a global pandemic. Being that my time as a music major is well behind me, I’ve been curious as to how everything in that realm is currently functioning. In order to find out, I followed Justin Ciccone, a Music Education Major at SUNY Fredonia, for a full week of his classes, in order…
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Award Shows vs. the Coronavirus: The GRAMMYs 2021
With award season in full swing, it’s interesting to see how each award show will go about integrating pandemic guidelines. Being one of the first music-based award shows of 2021, the 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards were held last night (March 14th), at the STAPLES center in California. “Music’s biggest night” was supposed to air on January 31, but was rescheduled due to coronavirus risks. There was no audience inside of the venue, only crew members – which you could hear in the applause after each performance. While no one was allowed inside, a smaller area on the outside of the venue was dedicated for acceptance speeches and artists. This way,…
