EK 16: Year End Chart

Ok, I have not blogged in a long time, but I think I should post my year-end chart (because all of the charts are doing so as well) This chart is specific to me only, I believe, and does not emulate any other chart other than my personal opinion.

Frame By Frame - Cassadee Pope

1. [Wasting All These Tears] - Cassadee Pope
Love Cassadee Pope! I am so proud that she was able to break "The Voice" bubble by having both a gold single, and a silver album! (685k single sales to date [Dec. 11, 2013], and 110k album sales to date [Dec. 11, 2013]) Her album, Frame by Frame, is out now, and it is very good! It's a unique mix of pop rock and country which produces new and modern songs.

Rating: A- (would have received A+ had she wrote it)

Pure Heroine - Lorde

2. [Team] - Lorde
Lorde is taking the world by the storm! Super impressive first single, Royals, but for me, Team is 10x better.

Rating: A

Night Visions - Imagine Dragons

3. [Bleeding Out] - Imagine Dragons
To clarify, I have known them since way before their Night Visions album came out. They are one of my favorite rock bands and are sincerely amazing.

Rating: A+

Avril Lavigne - Avril Lavigne

4.[Here's to Never Growing Up] - Avril Lavigne
Thus begins the list of guilty pleasures... This song was one of my faves for the summer, and it's just a feel good song.

Rating: B

Falling in Love - 2NE1

5. [Falling in Love] - 2NE1
First of the Kpops! While this is not my favorite song from them this year, (Missing You is), it has been the longest on my personal charts as well as retaining it likability.

Rating: A-

PRISM - Katy Perry

6. [Dark Horse (feat. Juicy J)] - Katy Perry
Another guilty pleasure, gosh, this song is just awesome with its bass and synths, and I had no idea Katy could do something like this. (First day it came out)

Rating: A

Pink Tape - f(x)

7. [Rum Pum Pum] - f(x)
While I love this awesome Kpop band, I still feel like its a marketing strategy rather than a genuine group. Nonetheless, they make great electronic Kpop music and I lurv it.
Rating: B-

We Remain - Christina Aguilera

8. [We Remain] - Christina Aguilera
I am a huge fan of Christina, especially with The Voice, but also with her music. This was a pleasant surprise because I was expecting a much more poppy song. The movie, Catching Fire, is fantasticccc, and this song truly conveys the message of the movie.

Rating: A

Reflektor - Arcade Fire

9. [Reflektor] - Arcade Fire
I have known Arcade Fire for a while (ever since the 2010 Grammys), but have never actually listened to them. Starting with this free song from Starbucks, I have grown to love the band. Quality song. Quality band.

Rating: A-

Burn - Ellie Goulding

10. [Burn] - Ellie Goulding
I was super pumped for this summer song as well, but I was a tad bit disappointed for two reasons. 1) It is not composed by her. 2) It was taken from Leona Lewis because she no longer wanted the song
Still a great song with great beats.

Rating: B-

Hard 2 Love - Lee Brice

11. [I Drive Your Truck] - Lee Brice
I usually have more country on the charts, but no other song has stuck around longer than I Drive Your Truck. It is probably the best country song of the year, yes beating Cassadee. Love this song, great meaning and message.

Rating: A+

Make it Up - Sam Tsui

12. [Bring Me the Night (feat. Kina Grannis)] - Sam Tsui
While I usually have more independent/Youtube songs, not many have stuck around for a long time, this one included. I thought that this song was really good, but it wasn't radio ready. I am ok with that because I don't really listen to the radio. The harmonies and emotions truly convey a genuine message.

Rating: B+

Night Visions - Imagine Dragons

13. [Demons] - Imagine Dragons
This is either my second favorite or third favorite off the album. It's solid and rising up on the charts!

Rating: A-

Same Trailer Different Park - Kacey Musgraves

14. [Merry Go' Round] - Kacey Musgraves
She is so awesome. She brings new dark elements to country that have not yet been explored. She represents true country innovation.

Rating: A

ARTPOP - Lady GaGa

15. [Gypsy] - Lady GaGa
Last of the guilty pleasures. I honestly though that ARTPOP was not that great, other than a few songs. This was by far the best. Good clean message, unlike her other songs, and its fun. (Yes, alternative album cover present [I like it more, and it's more appropriate])

Rating: A+

Is Anybody Out There? - A Great Big World 

16. [Say Something ] - A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera
This song barely made the charts, and I have literally no idea why. This song probably should have charted much higher, but it was such a late song, so no dice. My friend recommended me this song the day before it aired on The Voice. I love it so much!

Rating: A-


Hope you enjoyed this playlist/year-end chart! Have a great new year and Merry Christmas! 

Ethan's Playlist 10/14/12 [Pop]

Yeah, this is a really pop-y playlist. Here is my way with pop, if the lyrics and meaning are clean, I am ok with it. If it sounds good, awesome. This is a really really pop-y playlist. Just a lot of interesting pop music right now, <cough> t swizzle... Yes, I like t swizzle. Problem? I think not. I used to bash on guys who listened to t swizzle, but her dubstep-y songs are so entrancing. Yeah, extreme ends of pop.

1. [Sweet Nothing (feat. Florence Welch)] - Calvin Harris

One of my favorite alternative singers and one of my favorite dance artists in one song. Heck yes. They did another song, Spectrum (Say My Name), which I liked, but this song is more special because it is not a remix. 

2. [I Knew You Were Trouble] - Taylor Swift

Yeah, here is the t swizzle. Here dubstep-y song is so catchy. I like it her better then her lovey-dovey songs. 

3. [Dashes] - Tyler Ward

I really wish I could say that I knew Tyler before he became big on youtube. It just didn't happen. I actually bought his whole EP. I have to say, I am very impressed. I thought that it would just be some original songs already on youtube, but no, all new amazing stuff. 

3. [Try] - P!nk

Crap, Ethan has gone from Taylor Swift to now P!nk! Oh goodness. Don't worry, I'm not obsessed with P!nk, just this one song. I heard a great cover of this song and I just liked the original more. Never give up is the way I interpret the song.

4. [My Blood] - Ellie Goulding

And Ellie Goulding!... Lot of the electronic clean pop has really gotten to me. I really like this song, Ellie Goulding has really transitioned from her other albums into a more dubstep-y album.

5. [The Way We Are] - Tyler Ward

Another one of my favorites from the EP! This was my original favorites, but I over listened to it and now I really like Dashes.

6. [Red] - Taylor Swift

again, t swizzle's electronica/dubstep-y songs are really getting me hooked yo.

7. [Lucky Strike] - Maroon 5

An extremely catchy song by Maroon 5. Adam Levine's voice is so nasty sick.

8. [I Love You] - 2NE1

I always thought you pronounced 2NE1 as, "2-N-E-1", but in reality it is pronounced as 21. Does K-Pop fit the pop category? Well, whatever, in my book it does. I really like this Korean girl band. Dara and CL. They are all so talented. Hope they can breakthrough in the US. 

Ethan's Playlist 6/11/12 [All Around]

Well, as usual my playlist is pretty diverse, one of my "claim to fames" is listening to all kinds of music, most people claim the same thing, but they usually have 1 "exception" that exception being... dun dun dun.. COUNTRY! Well, I used to be a hater of country until my friends officially introduced it to me, at first I still was hatin' on it, but I gradually started to like it. Another problem I had was with metal, but then apparently not all metal is screamo, and the music I thought was rock was metal, and I had been listening to it all along.

The one genre I sometimes have problems with is Hip Hop/ Rap. Yea, I listen to rap, yeah, I even have "rap" on this playlist. I mean I used to listen to rap, like a decent amount, that along with pop. Thankfully, I got caught, by myself, that these songs had quite a bit of swear words and usually had a very negative meaning. So my most listened to, turned to my least listened to. I mean, clean rap is totally fine with me, and meaning clean doesn't mean "bleeped" out words, it means clean words from the get go and decent meanings. Does this mean that I don't listen to bad rap? Most of the time I don't but some songs manage to sneak in, and if that is the case, I get the clean version.

Pop is around the same, I mean, most of the time there are no cuss words, but the meanings are sometimes awful. Have you ever sat listening to lyrics? And then realized that they suck? Yeah, it's the same thing. "Oh, I listen to the song, it is so catchy! But I would never actually do that kinda stuff!" Well, sometimes, it is just as bad to be complacent to listening to that type of music. I do admit that I am not guilt-free, but hey it's sometimes the effort that counts, as long it is substantial effort.

Well, off-topic, now back to blogging. This week's playlist is pretty diverse, it includes: alternative, christian, dubstep remix, rap, pop, and country.

1. [Breath of Life] - Florence + The Machine

I feel like this band gets disregarded a lot, but this band is pretty legit. I mean this song is a great example as well as "Dog Days Are Over" and "No Light, No Light" which was featured as TIME Magazine's top song of 2011, which is kinda odd, because it really wasn't... Adele was definitely top, but the song is good nonetheless. This is on the soundtrack of "Snow White and the Huntsman" and it totally fits, even though I didn't watch the movie yet...

2. [I Will Go] - Starfield

Well, we recently had a pretty good conference @ White Oak and this was one of my favorite songs from the conference, My definite fave was "You Are Good", but the studio version is like a choir and that is good live only for me. I was really surprised by the original, it was a lot cooler than I thought it would be, I thought it would be relatively the same, but it had all the cool guitar moves and sounds added to it. The lyrics are amazing, my definite favorite is "Take everything I am, I'm clay within your hands." This should definitely be our prayer to God.

3. [Lights (Bassnectar Remix)] - Ellie Goulding

The first time I heard the song was like last year. I was kinda shocked at how it sounded, I didn't really listen to dubstep back then and couldn't really understand it and then later when I realized how awesome dubstep was, I was quite happy with the genre, totally forgetting the song. So this was one of my first dubstep songs, and I actually really like it now. It is my favorite! I am a fan of unique voices and dubstep, so this was a good  match. Either this was the first dubstep song, or a Skrillex mashup  was. My friends were listening to "Scary Like A G6" a mashup of "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" and "Like A G6".

4. [Coming Up Strong] - Karmin

Did you know that no one in the duo of Karmin is named Karmin? Actually the duo was named Karmin after the play Carmen and they believe in karma so they made it Karmin. I love pretty much all their songs, but the reason this one stood out was because it was different. They usually rap a lot but this wasn't as much. It was a soft song with an amazing intro by NICK! I really never heard him sing other than in harmony and he is really good, and of course the switch back into rap is always amazing as well, so good job Amy. This is one of my favorites from them, joining the favorites are Hello & Walking On the Moon.

5. [Honey Bee] - Blake Shelton

I really wanted to blog about a song that I didn't blog about last week, since it was all country last week. This right now isn't on my playlist but the other country songs that were featured last week are on it. Well, back to Shelton, I heard this song for the first time, on The Voice! It was last season and he sang it with Dia Frampton & Xenia! My favorites from last season! I kinda didn't know how to react to the song, because I wasn't a country fan then. So, I kinda was like, my 3 favorites are on stage awesome, and I didn't pay attention to the song, but later I really was amazed by the song and it was my favorite for a while, and I still listen to it occasionally, like today.

Well, I think that was the longest I ever blogged on a playlist, so you guys better come read it! Follow Me Please! I want some followers! I have 3, and one is me... Hahaha! If you get this far into the blog, I'll tell you the best bet to make with a friend. Have the bet money on the table from your friend and 2 glasses of liquid, put the glasses on your friend's fingers and say the first part is about balance, and then take the money and run! :)