Archives For taylor swift

Faye Wong’s baby girl is no longer a baby. Leah Dou (Dou Jingtong, 竇靖童) is freaking 16 years old, and I just discovered that she’s posted a song online. Daughter of Chinese musician Dou Wei (窦唯) and Asian diva Faye Wong, you’d think their daughter would be predestined for musical haven — Of course, in this day and age, you would be more inclined to think that she’d be a spoiled brat. But her introduction makes it seem like she’s a composed young adult.

Seems like Dou and Wong have been decent parents.

Move over Taylor Swift, as much as your first two albums seemed to pave an okay-ish path of songwriting skills with some… vocals, Leah Dou has arrived and hasn’t even started yet. Is not only that she’s Faye Wong’s child (and she’s enormous) , that just got me mildly interested. I clicked on the link thinking “oh, great! Another kid on the internet with a guitar.” But passed the first few chords, the quality of her voice is just… mind-blowing. And I don’t think she’s even trying to impress. She’s just chilling.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/80849421″ params=”color=ff0090&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Of course this comes after her mom’s latest release that has already shot up to my favorite tracks this year, and I doubt any other track will snatch the #1 spot for my yearly music countdown.

You can follow Leah’s activities on Facebook, YouTube, Soundcloud and Twitter… and Weibo.

LivingSocial Albums~

November 21, 2010 — 1 Comment

Previously known as TuneSocial? xD

Recently listened to~~~

Divided on whether or not buy the Monkey Majik Best collection because the album doesn’t have the oh-so-sweet Forever version with the kiddos and the old people. As if I could hate rainbows and puppies!

Then there’s Mavis Fan 1999 album, I Want Us to Be Together – so SO freaking-tastic. Frak! This type of albums is what makes me wish I could understand Mandarin, and makes Chinese music all sorts of awesome.

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VMA 2010

September 12, 2010 — 1 Comment

Dunno if I’ll be watching the show. I don’t even know who will be performing xD But if there’s any highlight, if there’s any complaint… it sure will be posted here. LOL

I like Chelsea Handler. Her intro where everyone’s spanking her was pretty funny, but because she couldn’t really take a very direct jab at reality stars, her game wasn’t that good. Besides, almost nto one huge was there… was Beyonce even there? Eminem left… Justin Timberlake was there as an “actor” and… well, Lady Gaga was pretty much the biggest star there without considering Usher (did he win anything?), Taylor Swift, Kanye… and well, okay – Justin Bieber.

Also… Cher. So so wrong xD and the meat purse. LOL but really, what a waste of meat. Instead, Gaga should’ve gone as Joe Calderone (was that the name?) – Really. WASTE OF MEAT. Unless, of course… she eats it, but I doubt that.

The biggest winner of the night? HELLO, VMA 2010 SET DESIGN.

The set design was so awesome, I was distracted from most of the performances. I really REALLY need to find out who was in charge of that set and do a post on it. At first I thought it was Usher’s genius use of light, but no… it was the SET. Even Kanye’s performance was perfectly placed in that PUUURRRRfect set.

And oh… Winners

Lady Gaga won for Bad Romance
Best Dance Music Video
Best Female Video
Best Pop Video
Best Choreography
Best Direction
Best Editing
Video of the Year

and only one – Best Collaboration with Beyonce – for Telephone.

Eminem for  Not Afraid won 2
Best Hip Hop Video
Best Male Video

while 30 Seconds to Mars (Rock), Muse (Special Effects), Justin Bieber (New Artist), Florence and the Machine (Art Direction), Jay Z and Alicia Keys (Cinematography), and The Black Keys (Breakthrough) won one each.

Performance-wise.

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What happened to MTV Breakthrough Videos?

The VMA nominations have been announced with Lady Gaga taking the lead with a record 13 nods (10 for Bad Romance, 3 for Telephone featuring Beyonce. Plus, 5 for Video Phone by Beyonce featuring Lady Gaga). Following that, Eminem with 8 nominations for I’m Not Afraid.

Gaga also makes a record by getting Video of the Year for Bad Romance, and Telephone. Plus, they were also nominated for Best Choreography alongside Video Phone – To make that clear, that’s 3 Lady Gaga related videos in the Choreography category. Like I said, Lady Gaga is pretty much the only thing worth keeping an eye out now.

Pink, or should I say Dave Meyers [I should really get to work on my Meyers Music Video Director post] who directed the video for Funhouse, was nominated for 2 VMAs including Best Directing and Best Editing. But you should really check out how fun Please Don’t Leave Me is. Wickedly twisted.

But here we are because of the Breakthrough category, because we all know that the Breakthrough category is the only category that is or could be potentially interesting. And here was the surprise… the most likely to win this year would be the one that won Video of the Year 2009 at the UK Music Video Awards. How outdated is that for the VMA?
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Guilty Pleasure Songs

July 7, 2010 — 1 Comment

Extra! Extra! According to this Yahoo Music News~

Lady Gaga sings You Belong With Me at the top of her lungs. Which I think it’s super funny… and admittedly, kinda cute… in a “Wow, I didn’t expect this” kind of way.

So the women at AfterEllen decided to tell the whole wide world what were their guilty pleasure songs… or sometimes, not really such guilty, but the songs they always sang at the top of their lungs. First, let me say WHAT?

I understand Hanson’s Mmmbop 1997 being your guilty pleasure, considering I can’t really listen to Middle of Nowhere the same way after so many years. It’s the high-pitched voices, but the songs were actually kind of good. I mean, have you seen the Hanson guys lately? They’re actually pretty good.

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What’s Up Vevo?

February 8, 2010 — Leave a comment

First, WTF is Vevo, right?

Unless you’ve been looking for a music video by an artist sign by one of the few record companies that have signed deals with Vevo, chances are you haven’t even seen the Vevo logo.

Vevo started out with a celebrity packed opening, yet bumpy. Some of the musicians that day were Lady Gaga, Rhianna, Mariah, Taylor Swift, and even Justin Timberlake… but nobody cares if your platform is buggy. Users complained of slow “buffering” times, wondering why it was buffering instead of streaming. International users were shown a big splash saying they couldn’t use Vevo because it was only for US residents, however, some US users were also given the big splash for no apparent reason.

In short, very few people like Vevo for one reason or the other.

Some can’t use it, some others hate the waiting, others hate the buggy player, others hate the loading time, others (those who get to use it) hate the music collection… you know, since there are no indie labels.

Then, YouTube began using specific Vevo links, which seems to work for non-US users. However, loading times are still an issue. Add to that that it seems to be very random when it decides to not let non-US users watch videos. For example, I can watch some videos on my WinXP computer, but I can’t wtch them on the Vista I’ve got at home. Both are same location, and same internet connection. What gives?

Vevo: What’s the Deal
5 Tips to Make Vevo Better

Add to that International viewing.

Grammy 2010 Afterthoughts

January 31, 2010 — 2 Comments

Well, color me surprised twice this weekend.

Taylor Swift just won Record of the Year, which doesn’t really upset me… but really? I enjoyed it, but that’s it. But to be fair with the Grammy, the album was the biggest selling hit last year… and to an industry that’s struggling with physical album sales, that’s possibly a LOT.

I wasn’t really supporting any particular artist this year, as I kept my year listening to Asian music. However, I really respect Lady Gaga’s live performance, despite my not really enjoying her albums.

As for Swift’s performance, she picked a bad day to sound bad. However, she wasn’t the only one with a weak performance. Right after a very strong beginning by theatrical queen Lady Gaga with some piano by queen Elton John, and pretty good performance by Beyonce — I mean, that Alanis cover did give her some extra points — the show pretty much went on the average road.

I was really disappointed with Pink’s performance, not because it was bad. It was technically fine, and not many would sing in-tune while spinning a la Cirque du Soleil. The performance, however, lacked any energy to pump the audience there or at home…

Moreover, the Grammy Awards have proved that there’s no Michael Jackson tribute without Janet. I must admit that Celine, Jennifer Hudson, Carrie Underwood and Usher sounded vocally great, but the performance was nothing but lacking as a performance. Add to that pimping the performance as a 3D act, which wasn’t really 3D for viewers, but for people there — which prompted a 3d-glasses-wearing Beyonce, and others included Rhianna — but I doubt all the people there had 3D glasses at hand.

I wasn’t a big fan of Green Day’s 21st Century album, but the performance was okay-ish, since I do like musicals. However, I doubt old school GD fans appreciated it.

And there was too much Bon Jovi.

MTV owned Grammy’s MJ tribute, but MJ’s kids were kinda cute.

Music in the west was weak overall.

Check back next time…

Well, I certainly don’t keep track with Grammy Awards anymore, so should I be adding the event to my Award Season calendar? Or should I just wait to run into it when it’s airing?

Grammy nominations were announced last night, and I’m glad I’m not the only one wondering why are the Grammy nominations so similar to MTV, the AMA and every other music-related award show? Just take a look at the General Field nominees to see what I’m talking about.

Record of the Year
Beyonce – Halo
The Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling
Kings of Leon – Use Somebody
Lady Gaga – Poker Face
Taylor Swift – You Belong with Me

Album of the Year
Beyonce – I Am… Sasha Fierce
The Black Eyed Peas – The E.N.D
Lady Gaga – The Fame
Dave Matthews Band – Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King
Taylor Swift – Fearless

Song of the Year
Lady Gaga – Poker Face
Maxwell – Pretty Wings
Beyonce – Single Ladies
Kings of Leon – Use Somebody
Taylor Swift – You Belong With Me

Best New Artist
Zac Brown Band
Keri Hilson
MGMT
Silversun Pickups
The Ting Tings

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AMA’09 – Again, Did You?

November 22, 2009 — 2 Comments

The American Music Awards — it’s still on, though I’m guessing there’s about 20min left. Taylor Swift is such a sweety. As for performances, were you impressed? Because I wasn’t that entertained.

I did like Lady Gaga’s performance though, I don’t really go crazy about her music — album-wise — but her performances have been pretty cool. And her performance, alongside Whitney Houston and… yeah, even a little bit J.Lo were the best of the night, in my opinion.

Gaga’s stage performance, alongside the energy of the song, the lights, the theatrics, the glass-breaking, the piano-playing and the bottle-breaking, I thought it was interesting.

J.Lo’s performance — was that a comeback? — of her song Louboutins, it was kinda interesting (songs average, though). I liked the entrance to the boxing ring, and the choreography was pretty good. Note how her feet moved, instead of just jiggling her stuff. Jiggling your ham is not dancing, people. Feet gotta be moved.

And Whitney. Oh, my. I do love a good comeback. What a voice. The song on the album was okay, but the performance brought it to that level. Loads of feeling, I miss that feeling. And those shots with the backlights, they made Whitney look pretty rocking.

And LOL, Adam Lambert. Never seen him perform, but Maca always fuzzed about him. His performance was pretty good. He looked a little bit weird, but there were other parts that were pretty good. There was a lot of touching, including some pretending c*cksucking from a guy and a woman. And a bit of guy-on-guy action — right? coz the keyboards was a dude, right? We don’t see enough of that. They seriously cut from a close-up to a general shot when that happened.

Other performances of the night? Janet Jackson — who was pretty okay, I guess — Black Eyed Peas, Carrie Underwood, Shakira, Rihanna, Keith Urban, Mary j. Blige, Alicia Keys solo and with Jay-Z, Eminem with 50 Cent… and Timbaland’s performance which was okay, but truly can’t stand the way he sounds any longer. He’s overdone it.

Winners don’t really matter. No, really. I mean it.

But congrats to Taylor Swift who won big, including Artist of the Year.

— EDIT —

LOL, honestly. There’s a lot of talk about Adam Lambert. I knew it. The average American Idol viewer couldn’t take that performance. A lot of self-proclaimed Lambert fans who will not be buying the album tomorrow because of the crotch on the face, the S&M stuff, and the guy-on-guy kiss. Get over yourself, people. Female performers do it all the time, and no one says anything about it. If it had been a girl doing all the crotch grabbing, and there had been a girl on girl kiss no one would have made a peep.

Bunch of Mo’phobes.

VMA’s 09 Afterthoughts

September 13, 2009 — 5 Comments

Actually, VMA’s are still going… 45min left, but I’m kinda bored.

First, it’s though to follow up anger Janet Jackson. Ever since MJ’s passed, I’ve been listening to the HiStory album like crazy – Most Played album on my iPod xD and I’ve been hallucinating about Janet performing Scream, because Scream is an “I am pissed” song and I love it for it. I love it when they go “stop fucking with me/makes me want to scream” – I love it. MJ says it with such conviction. Everyone loves Thriller, Billie Jean and Bad, but it’s all about Scream and They Don’t Care About Us for me.

If my mom hadn’t been watching with me *legasp!* I would’ve cried after she finished her performance.

So I loved the MJ tribute from Janet. I imagined her breaking the glass. I had dreams (hahaha) about that song of her (plus someone else to do the duet) trapped in a glass and breaking free. So I kinda got my wish xD

And then, that was a hard act to follow. I cheered for Taylor Swift xD with her skinny legs and all~~~ and Kanye is a dick (and so is Beyonce, kinda xD). Green Day requesting for more music videos played on MTV, followed by a commercial of FAN VAN with Green Day… the reality of fans competing for something. Right…

I wanted to like Taylor Swift’s performance, but I thought it was too sweet for a Subway performance xD – but she looked like a dork, and I support dork. I like her a lot. And Kanye still a dick.

Performances are kinda weak. Good attempt with Lady Gaga, but more than a great performance it was trying to be different. I looked when she began bleeding, very theatrical but it did nothing for me. Beyonce does nothing for me… and I’m still waiting for Pink.

Muse performance > Green Day.

why is this still on? Lainey said it’s over. MTV Latin America is delayed for at least 30min! WTF~~~
En Vivo my ass that rocks.

Geez, is Pink a circus performer now? That is crazy, how can she sing upside down?? And I absolutely worship Pink’s hair. I wish I had straight hair, the crazy things I would do with my hair xD

Anyway, I think it’s up from last year’s mess.
More music videos, less reality.
More musical numbers, less commercials.
Better music videos, less has-beens as hosts.