I don't claim to be an expert in music. I am a college student majoring in English and my entries on this blog may be seen simply as a glimpse into the mind of one individual with regards to his personal choice of exactly ten (10) cool music websites. Nothing more. Nothing less.
As human beings, we cannot escape the fact that we are emotional creatures. As such, we have moods. Our moods change a lot. Not too many people would argue with me if I were to say that we should listen to music according to our moods. Here’s a site that does exactly that: It gives you a choice of moods to choose from and plays music according to your choice. Moods include, but are not limited to “melancholy,” “romantic,” “studying,” “gangsta,” “Sunday morning,” “lost in Jamaica,” and “make love.” And it’s really as simple as that: you click on a mood and a huge playlist is automatically created based on that mood. Also, the playlist is available for your viewing and manipulation.
Here’s the thing about www.amiright.com – it is a site dedicated to music humor. What does that mean exactly? Well, the main purpose of the site is to provide “misheard song lyrics for pop songs of the past 50 years.” What do they mean by this? Ok. So here’s the deal: You know how sometimes you can’t figure out the lyrics of a particular part of a song? You know how sometimes you think the singer is saying one thing when in fact it is saying something entirely different?
Well, this is a site that allows users to post the lyrics they misheard as well as the lyrics they actually heard. For example, someone heard Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” lyrics as “Beaded, Beaded. No one wants to eat a peanut” instead of “Beat it, Beat it. No one wants to be defeated” while someone else misheard the BeeGees lyrics “Staying alive” for “Stay in the light.”
Apart from misheard lyrics, the site offers hilarious lyrics for parodies of popular songs provided by its users, jokes, band name manipulations, and music trivia. I will leave you with the lyrics of the first verse from one user who wrote a parody for the famous Christmas song “Feliz Navidad.” He calls it “There’s fleas on my dog” and the first verse goes like this:
Even though www.youtube.com is known as a video-sharing website, it must be pointed out that it is a great site on many different levels when it comes to the category of music. You can watch professional music videos as well as listen to music.
However, the one thing I like most about youtube is this: You get to view cover songs done by amateurs. This is an invaluable experience for music lovers. Sometimes, you want to hear other people’s rendition of your favorite song. www.youtube.com is the platform that offers this experience. I have discovered some amateur artists on this site that blew my mind away when it comes to playing their musical instrument of choice and singing.
Let me give you some examples: There is a musician from Brazil that plays classical guitar by the name of Naudo – if you like the sound of guitar or if you play guitar yourself and have an appreciation for raw musical talent, you will absolutely be amazed by the complexity of the skill that oozes out of this guy. Neither will you believe the distinct and defining tone that he gets out of his guitar. Here's him performing a rendition of The BeeGees "How Deep is Your Love":
Then there is Jake Shimabukuro who left an indelible impression on my mind with his rendition of the Beatles classic “while my guitar gently weeps,” which he plays with his ukulele. I was mesmerized by his jaw-dropping performance which was recorded in Central Park. Here's the performance:
I remember watching a home video of Justin Bieber at a time when he was undiscovered, playing guitar while performing a rendition of Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River.” Or how about this guy's rendition of "Apologize" by One Republic:
And how can anyone possibly ignore this child's unique performance of "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz?
And there are tons of other cover songs by regular people who might just surprise you. In this way, the musical experience that www.youtube.com offers truly exists on a pedestal of its own.
www.music.aol.com is simply awesome. It offers free mp3 downloads as well as free streaming. It also offers free viewing of music videos, free pictures or artists as well as lyrics. This site offers a new service known as “real time music news,” which offers music news pretty much on an hourly basis. Having its own radio enables this site to offer its viewers a one-of-a-kind musical experience.
The key feature on this site, in my opinion, is the “sessions” category. In this special music video category, viewers get access to special performances done for www.music.aol.com in which popular artists perform mostly acoustic or what the site calls “stripped-down” version of popular songs. It allows viewers to enjoy their favorite music in an entirely different and refreshing way. Visit the site for yourself and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
