David Cook's loud morning

It has been three years since David Cook won the title of American Idol Season 7. The only achievement David reached was the 1 platinum sales of his 2008 self-title album. Although David keeps having performance around the nation, the new post-idol studio album that fans longing for is still a nowhere. Eventually, on the result show of American Idol season 10 in April, 2011. David performed his new single “The Last Goodbye”, this performance also gave his fans an anticipation of his new album.

Indeed, David Cook disappears too long. Former idols such as Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Jordin Sparks would never release new album more than two years. There is only idol like Taylor Hicks who sold ugly and was drop by record label could release another low-sale studio album after three years. Therefore, we have to assume the reason of what delays David. We should know that the artists who are known by such reality show must release albums frequently on the first several years, because every year there will be an American Idol, the attention rate of the former one could be possibly replaced if no new album to draw attention. Honestly, I gradually forget there is a David Cook between Jordin Sparks and Kris Allen. However, as the first rock idol in the history of American Idol, David Cook seems to have sufficient courage to draw the fans’ attention back to him by the second album.

The second studio album This Loud Morning was released on June, 2011. The inspiration of the album came from a certain morning when David wanted to keep sleeping after waking up in order to avoid the loud morning. The first song “Circadian” starts the album with this theme. The song starts with silvery keyboard effect, which gives listeners a feeling of delightfully fresh but a little bit mysterious. After then, David starts the lyrics with a couple of “who’s to say…”, such construct of words provides the meaning of “not willing to obey others”. With the keyboard effect at the beginning, these lyrics also provide a metaphor of “the dream does want to yield the reality”. In face, David himself has said, this song was about to use sleep to run away from reality, to temporally run away from any conflict and unwillingness.

David has said, he did not want to describe this album as “conceptualized”, but in fact, This Loud Morning contains a very deep theme, which is to use dream for redemption. In David’s word, the last song of his album “Rapid Eye Movement” is about to wake up from the dream to the reality. Therefore, we can, from here, assume that from the first song to the last but one song, all of them are about David’s dream. The second song “Right Here, With You” has the lyrics: “If the shy keeps falling/the night keeps calling/I’ll be right here with you”. Maybe such dreamlike scene could only appear in dreamland, and the emotion of David has been expressed in such scene, and delivers to the other. The fourth song “Fade Into Me” expresses the helplessness of reality more explicit, hoping he can disappear from the world with his lover and “watch the world chasing to find us”.

Besides, looking up all the lyrics from This Loud Morning, we may find that the words such as “light”, “night”, “star” and other words related to night were frequently mentioned, and this provides the thick shades to the whole album. Try to imagine that two people are helplessly walking on the grassland which is surrounded by deep shades, looking at the horizon slowly whitens with hazy morning mist rising. Perhaps, all the stories in this album happen here. This is the feeling of disappointing to the reality and chasing truth in dream.

Of course, the last song “Rapid Eye Movement” brings out the theme once again. David wants to depart from the dream, but he finds out he has already be chained by the dream which the story in the dream has already become the reality for David. In this case, he can no longer distinguish the dream from the reality. The last instrument of the song is also a silvery keyboard effect, but with the chord singing “save me, somebody save me, mayday, somebody save me”. From here, maybe you can already, like David, no longer to tell whether yourself is still in a dream. Perhaps you are also shouting “save me”.

From the musical style, David still follows the path of Alternative Rock. Listening from the first place, there is not a big difference between his two albums, instead, the power such as “Declaration” from his first album is missed from this one. This may relate to the dream theme of the album, after all, we can not discuss dream in a hush guitar solo. Thus, for people who love rock music, this album may be lacking in passion for them.

No matter what, David Cook does not disappoint his fans based on this album. For the angle of commercial, this may not be a successful album, but it is indeed so far the most artistic album from David. Focusing on the theme of dream, David Cook talks about extraordinary stories. Just as David said, he wanted to use this album to memorize to past, and hoped everything can stop for a while so that he can have time to think about the past. And all of them, may only happen in dream…

The Music We Love Is Changing

In 1960s, the appearance of the Beatles and Elvis Presley made people addicted to rock music. Youths at that time were against war, against mainstream and against everything left by the older generations. Rock music became the tool for them to escape the world or vent their anger.

In 1970s, youths started to search for more fun with the end of wars. Therefore, a fast-beat style of music occurred. Nobody knows it was a pub film Saturday Night Fever ignited the heat of disco music or it was disco music got this film famous, but one thing surely that the people at that period were connected with flared trousers and disco pub.

In 1980s, with the emergence of MTV network, more and more people started to put their attention on visual sensation. At a result, artists such as Cyndi Lauper and Prince, who combined excellent vocals and fantastic outfits, achieved great success. Of course, we ought not to forget Michael Jackson’s unparallel Thriller in 1983 and Modonna’s flirting Like a Vrigin in 1984. In this decade, visual sensation went ahead which also served as the beginning of the later so-call Pop music.

In 1990s, no one would forget Backstreet Boys from the US and Spice Girls from the UK. This was also the golden age of “Pop” music. Young fans franticly chased those handsome boys and girls who singing love song excessively. In this age, Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync made people fascinating boybands that can dance, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera then made people know the shortcut of female artists getting famous was following the part of “Mickey Mouse Club—being sweet like sugar—the few clothes the better”.

Came to the millennium, people started to realize dancing “pretty-face” could not satisfy their hormone. After then, a phrase began to disseminate from corner to corner, it was “pop-punk”. Take a look at the highest reportage from magazine and the highest cover from radio, they all belonged to those kids holding instruments making cool looks. “BoyBands” like Good Charlotte and Simple Plan completely replaced those aged “boyGroups” like Backstreet Boys. People found out that singing with guitars was cooler than singing with dancing. Of course, we never should forget who “popul-ize” pop-punk: Avril Lavigne. 2001, her debut album Let Go surprised people that female singers undressed themselves worth nothing, singing with screaming was the real hot. Thus, more and more similar female singers, such as Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan, Kelly Clarkson and Ashlee Simpson, showed up and gained sufficient fame and fortune.

Actually, we can sum up from now that since the emergence of MTV, music was no longer a mirror that reflected a period. People listening to music were not about to express their emotion or escape the world, all their purpose was “being entertained”. These can explain why one of the Michael Jackson’s hottest songs Thriller was nothing but fantastic music video, why “material girl” was another name for Madonna, why dancing handsome boys such as Backstreet Boys could be so famous that even housewives could recognize…

From the music genres, we can classify that rock ‘n’ roll in the 60s, disco in the 70s, pop in the 80s and teen-pop in the 90s could represent a period of year. With the coming of 2010, we can begin to label 2000-2010 which is pop-punk/pop-rock, represented by Avril Lavigne, Simple Plan, Busted, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance and Jonas Brothers.

Then, what is the next genre that blows the world? How about saying Lady Gaga?

All I could say is dance music pop again! Heavy beat and songs made by synthesis effect processor re-permeated everyone’s life. Ke$ha and Pixie Lott all once were blamed to follow Lady Gaga. Although there were Justin Timberlake and Usher, who combined hip-hop, dance and R&B, that used to dominate the music industry, no one was like our Lady Gaga that can receive numerous compliments as a rookie. Dance music is so prevalent that some pop-rock bands like McFly add dance-music feature to the new single, then what should we say new artist like Adam Lambert showed up with dance music. Of course, there has Katy Perry that perfectly masters retro and dance.

Besides, we have to mention Miley Cyrus. She majored pop-punk in her first album but suddenly changed to dance in the second one. She is counted as a trend-follower.

Occasionally, comparing to the substitution, what came after 60s’ rock was dance/disco as well. Following this tendency, pop music would dominate the mainstream market after Lady Gaga. No wonder Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber become so attractive…

Deleting Exclamatory Mark Supplements Exclamation

The debut album A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out released 3 years ago introduced a band from Las Vegas Panic! At The Disco (PATD) to the public. With the hit single I Write Sins Not Tradgedies surprised people on MTV Awards, more and more underground bands found a new way to reach success. If you knew PATD, you must have heard the way of this band getting famous: after posting message on Pete Wentz’s livejournal, PATD got the chance to send demo to this bass guitar player from Fall Out Boy. After listened to a few songs of PATD, Wentz signed these four guys, who did not have any performing experience, under his company Decaydance Record without hesitation. Taking this turning point, Panic! At The Disco started their journey of glory. They were on the cover of Rolling Stone earlier than Fall Out Boy!

After years of silence, group members determined to delete the exclamatory mark from the band name into Panic At The Disco and released their second album Pretty Odd this year (2008). Compared to their first album A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, this album was more about classic Brit-rock, which the former dance-punk style has nowhere to be found.

Since their debut album has received so many accomplishments, their second album has to face the comparison. As an Indie-rock band from Las Vegas, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out is defined as an emo record; meanwhile, electric element has been added to the album. This marriage made the album stand out to other similar bands; also, this was very smart. At that time, emo-rock represented by Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance was prevalent in the record industry. It was too popular even parents have to oppose their children to listen to this genre of music (It was reported that a teenage girl committed suicide because she listened to emo music frequently before she died). As the rookie at that time, it was normal to build a relationship to emo (lyrics and arrangement). However, they knew they would never be outstanding if they only follow the trend; therefore, they put electric-dance style into the songs. Based on their success, audiences and fans already define PATD as a dance-emo band. Thus, when Pretty Odd came out, the people who waited from the dance-emo felt disappointed about PATD, thinking that they were making a poor album.

But if we listened to Pretty Odd carefully, we could find that they have actually improved. Even though it was odd, it was pretty. If we said the debut album was dramatic in order to draw attention from the public, then their second one represented their seriousness in treating music. This could understand why they took out the exclamatory mark from the band name.

Although the major part of Pretty Odd was recorded in Las Vegas, the orchestra part was recorded in London, UK. The cover of the album was eerie as usual, but compared to the first one, this one was more retrospective. Opening song was no longer using the Intro format like A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out did; We’re So Starving was a song describing the status quo: “We’re so sorry we’ve been gone/we were busy writing song for you/…/you don’t have to worry/cause we’re still the same”. One thing ambivalently that it was explicit PATD changed their style, then why they still promised to the fans they didn’t change. Perhaps what they meant was their passion of making music. In total, this 1-minute-and-half length song was still same as an Intro. It not only introduced the whole album, but also put sound of approval into the song, sounded assertive, but it was also the spirit of youths, wasn’t it?

Nine In the Afternoon was the first single from Pretty Odd. Most people understood briefly in what direction was PATD about to change after heard this song, so this song is very "pretty-odd", which was very classic-pop. Reducing distorted sound from the guitar and increasing the use of orchestra, this song sounded fresh and innocent. If not knowing PATD, people would believe they were listening to a ballad band. Furthermore, the lyrics were no longer full of satiric and ironical attitude, on the contrary, they were more positive and sunny. Distorted guitar was utilized at the beginning of the song She’s a Handsome Woman, which made people believe PATD put their last album’s song in it, but after then, it was a retro-pop song from arrangement to chord.

Personally, their second single That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed) was my favorite one. The setting of the MV was based on Russian Matryoshka with beautiful pastoral scene, which was completely different from the former MVs. Therefore, this song contained to feeling of Brit-pop no matter watching MV or listening to it. Brendon’s voice sound comfortable. “Things have changed for me/and that’s okay…”. These kinds of lyrics even made people fall into a cozy classic-pop environment. Besides, most of the songs utilized retro Element, such as a effect of phonograph in I Have Friends In Holy Spaces seemed to take us back to those period, having orchestra at the beginning of Do You Know What I’m Seeing? matched perfectly to the feeling of the album cover, also, harmonica played a crucial role in this song. Other than that, songs like Behind the Sea and Pas De Cheval fully expressed the idea of getting retro. Northern Downpour and Folkin’ Around have a taste of country-folk which provide a fresh experience.

The whole album was better than the former one in both sound arrangement and the depth of lyrics. There still have something that worthy for applause. Although it was a shock to those who love dance-emo, Pretty Odd debuted No. 2 on both UK Chart and the U.S. Billboard. That was the reason why Pete Wentz has said Pretty Odd was the most exciting album in the year.