Artist: (n) one skilled or versed in learned arts; one who professes and practices an imaginative art, a person skilled in one of the fine arts.
To Entertain: (v) to keep, hold, or maintain in the mind. Entertainment: (n) amusement or diversion provided especially by performers; something diverting or engaging.
When you look at Christina Aguilera, do you think of an artist? Now look at Bob Dylan, is he an entertainer? It is the old art versus entertainment debate that has been discussed for decades. Also, it is one of the debates that irks me because it is a useless debate. Music in general requires a balance of both artistry and entertainment. In reality, any type of art is a form of entertainment in its basic nature, whether it be for oneself or for other people. The term "entertainment" is often used in the negative sense to describe music that some feel are not "artsy," usually more pop-oriented artists, and some artists use it to justify why their music is better. Just because an artist is more commercial and popular does not mean that they are just entertainers and not artists.
What sparked my thoughts about this? Last week, I was watching Parallel Paths on BETJ and Rahsaan Paterson said that Christina Aguilera was not an "artist" and that singers need to get to a point when they are not just singers. But I find that to be close-minded (sorry Rahsaan, I still love you). There are different types of art and artistry. Singers are able to take a piece of material and creatively present it in a way that has never been done before or done differently than others. You might be able to write a great song or music piece, but that does not mean that you can perform it well and it works the other way, too. That is why the term "performing arts" exist. For example, an actor does not necessarily create the script in a movie or show, but they are taking what is given to them and performing it in a unique way. Someone said on another blog site that a DJ or a clown is not an artist, but they are because they are taking something and doing it in a creative or original way.
Labeling certain musicians as just entertainers puts a cap on their visibility as an artists. Michael Jackson wrote and produced many of his own songs, but is often seen as a pop entertainer, as well as Mariah Carey, too. Christina Aguilera is mostly known as an entertainer, but she co-wrote "Miss Independent" for Kelly Clarkson and co-wrote some of her songs on her recent albums. Many musicians do not just take what is given to them, they do have some creative input in the music they are recording.
Now as for having that balance of art and entertainment, it is more important than one might think. Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Fela Kuti, James Brown, U2 and other influential artists did not only create songs with serious or significant subject matter, but also create songs that were catchy (e.g. "Get Up, Stand Up" by Bob Marley). Would you listen to those types of songs if they were boring to listen to? Compare it to food, if healthy food taste very bland, I bet none of you would eat it, but if it has flavor, you would (same reason I do not like ricecakes). The songs have to be interesting enough to catch your attention and keep in your mind (definition of "to entertain"). At the same time, just because some artists do not create songs with serious topics does not make them any less of an artist. Louis Jordan in the 40s wrote very comical songs that were silly and goof but he did them in a way that shows his originality.
However, that does not mean all art is great art. Some artists create music that is comparable to the work of a 3rd grader. It doesn't mean that they cannot improve as they get older and wiser, but as for right now, they suck! The again, my views and views of art in itself is completely subjective and what I think is worse and less meaningful music might mean something to somebody else. Moreover, it does not give someone the right to say that something that someone created is not "art" and just "entertainment." In the end, "art" and entertainment are vague words that cannot be specifically defined. So, would everyone stop arguing about it!
Happy New Year's Eve!!! Here are all the songs that I think were great in 2008 and some comments and videos to go along with them. The songs are "best in" category form not an actual number listing because all the videos are great and I can't choose which ones are better than others. Also some artists had more than one song that was great this years, so they have multiple songs.
So here it is:
Best Acoustic songs: 1) Jason Mraz- I’m Yours (Love this song- Simple yet deep) 2) Beyonce- If I were a boy (This song was strangely similar to Ciara's Like A Boy Song. Oh well, it shows Beyonce's singing talent)
Best R n B Songs (Female) 1) Jazmine Sullivan- Bust your windows/Need You Bad (Liked the string section and the dark Cabaret kind of sound on Bust Your Windows)
2) Brandy- Right Here (Departed) (The Brandy I was missing is kind of back) 3) Estelle - f Kanye West "American Boy/ Pretty Please (Love Me) (Estelle is from England and I love John Legend for choosing her, she makes me smile!!)
4) Erykah Badu -Honey (One of my favorites and she is hilarious in the video, incl. making fun of her ex Andre 3000)
5) Ashanti -The Way That I Love You (Ashanti showing that she is a stong singer. If only she could keep it up) 6) Keyshia Cole –I Remember/ Heaven Sent (Keyshia Cole's sweet Balads. I love her!) 7) Solange Knowles- Sandcastle Disco/ I Decided (Solange's throwback to 60's style definitely made her standout from her sister and I love her songs, esp. Sandcastle Disco)
8) Mariah Carey -Touch My Body (Lyrics and video are funny!!) 9) Janet Jackson- Feedback (Once again Janet Jackson howing how hot she is.) 10) Alicia Keys- Teenage Love Affair (Alicia's 60s-70s throwback. It is such an adorable song! And my cousin's cousin, Tristan from the new 90210 is in it!) 11) Beyonce'- Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) (Ms. Sasha Fierce proving how she can be fierce with a simple black and white dancing video) 12) Jordin Sparks f Chris Brown - No Air (Love this song, it's cute) 13) Rihanna- Disturbia/ Umbrella/ Take A Bow/ Special note: should have released single Breakin Dishes (There's just something about Rihanna that all her songs are so catchy even though she can't sing that well. The song Disturbia is the best and the video is wonderfully disturbing even with the fake, choreographed twitching from dancers) 14) Mary J. Blige - Just Fine (Mary J. Blige is happy!? That's weird, but she makes the song work with throwbacks to MJ himself!) 15) Chrisette Michelle- Be OK/Love is You (This girl in the hip-hop version of Billie Holiday. I love her! Should have released "Good Girl" Listen:
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16) Amy Winehouse- Tears Dry on Their Own (She may be a cokehead, but she can sing!!!) 17) Janelle Monae- Many Moons (No explanation, just watch:
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Best R n B songs (Male) 1) Ryan Leslie- Diamond Girl/ Addicted ft. Cassie (He is so cute and I love his songs!!)
2) Ne-Yo- Closer/Miss Independent (Ne-yo can never go wrong in my ears!) 3) Raheem Devaughn- Customer (Corny lyrics, but he's such a great singer that I don't care) 4) Robin Thicke - Magic (White guy with soul! LOL) 5) John Legend - Green Light (John Legend does right everytime. Love him!! And I knew he was going to be famous before he became famous. First song I heard was "She Don't Have to Know" on a hip-hop CD) 6) J. Holiday- Bed/ Suffocate (Perfect baby making music!) 7) Gnarls Barkley- Who’s Gonna Save My Soul Now/Going On (From Crazy to Run to Smile, Gnarls Barkley videos and songs outdo the rest and I love Cee-lo!)
Best Hip Hop 1) Lil Mama f Chris Brown- Shawty Get Loose (Catchy as hell!!) 2) Ludacris f Chris Brown & Sean Garrett- I Know What The Girls Like/ f T-Pain One More Drink (He always has the funniest videos!!) 3) T.I. -Whatever You Like/f Rihanna - Live Your Life (T.I. is one of the best!!) 4) Nelly f Fergie - Party People (Party anthem!!!) 5) Flo Rida f Timbaland- Elevator (With Timbaland on your track, it's a hit!!) 6) Busta Rhymes- Don't Touch Me Now (Another party anthem) 7) Kardinall Official f Akon- Dangerous (Catchy chorus from Akon) 8) Kanye West - Love Lockdown/Heartless/ Homecoming/ Flashing Lights (Kanye has changed his style from rapping to singing, but for some strange reason it still works, esp. with cool videos) 10) Snoop Dogg- Sensual Seduction (Another rapper trying to sing, and yet still working) 11) Common- The People/ Universal Mind Control (one of my favs of all time)
12) N.E.R.D.- Spaz (Great hip-hop artists and producers!!)
13) Shwayze- Corona and Lime/Buzzing (Cool and laidback group) 14) Jay-Z- Roc Boys (Hip-hop legend himself) 15) Q-tip- Getting up (From Tribe Called Quest to now, Q-tip has been one of my favs. His nasally voice is so lovable)
16) Lupe Fiasco- Superstar (One of my new favs. Seeing a pattern yet) 17) The Roots f. Chrisette Michelle and Wale- Rising Up (This is what true hip-hop is!)
Best Gospel 1) Mary Mary- Get Up (Keeps me going) 2) Deitrich Haddon f. Reuben Studdard and Mary Mary-Love Him Like I Do (Catchy and true for me!) 3) Marvin Sapp- Never Would Have Made It (Inspirational and again so true for me)
Best Rock Songs 1) All American Rejects- Gives You Hell (Perfect revenge song!!) 2) 3 Doors Down- It's Not My Time (Cool song and video!!) 2) Buckcherry- Sorry (Sweet, weird esp. from Buckcherry!!) 3) AC/DC- Rock and Roll Train (Return of the legendary rockers!!)
4) Coldplay- Viva La Vida/Lovers in Japan (Love Coldplay!!) 5) Daughtry- Feels Like Tonight (Definitely freed himself from the American Idol stigma.) 6) Lifehouse- Broken (Lifehouse is amazing!!) 7) O.A.R.- Shattered (Love and Memories and this one are my favorites from O.A.R or as I call them the "rowing boat" band) 8) Weezer- Pork and Beans (Weezer are my awesome nerdy rock band) 9) Paramore- Crushcrushcrush/ Decode (Not my favs, but they have some good songs) 10) Bruce Springsteen- Girls in their Summer Clothes (Rock legend!!!) 11) Ludo- Love Me Dead (Funny and the lyrics are creative.)
12) Fall Out Boy- I Don’t Care (Fall Out Boy is great!!!) 13) Seether- Rise Above This (Songs are deep!!)
14) Snow Patrol-Take Back the City (They need to release more songs, they rock!!)
Best Pop Songs 1) Adele- Chasing Pavements (Love this song, but I'm mad that this is her only single so far!!) 2) Jonas Brothers- Lovebug/ When You Look Me In the Eyes/Burning Up (Can't help it, their songs are catchy and Joe Jonas is so cute!!!)
3) Miley Cyrus- Start All Over/ 7 Things (Don't really like Miley, but these two songs were her best.) 4) Demi Lovato- Get Back/La La land (She proves to be more than just a typical Disney star and she can sing)
5) Christina Aguilera- Keeps Getting Better (Well, she's right, she does!!) 6) David Archuleta- Crush (He's adorable, Enough said!!) 7) Duffy- Warwick Avenue/Mercy (She's cute and her songs are catchy.) 8) Gavin Degraw- In Love With A Girl (Mr. Degraw rocks!!) 9) Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown- No Air (Love this song so much, I put it in two categories! Ha Ha) 10) Leona Lewis - Better In Time/Bleeding Love (Loved Bleeding love, got tired of it and now I love Better in time. She can sing!!!) 11) Mariah Carey- Touch My Body (Put this one twice, too. LOL) 12) Maroon 5- f. Rihanna If I Never See Your Face Again/Won't Go Home Without You (Maroon 5 is still working it, esp. with Rihanna!)
13) Matt Nathanson- Come On Get Higher (Sweet love song and catchy!) 14) Natasha Bedingfield- Pocketful Of Sunshine (Love her!!!) 15) OneRepublic - Stop And Stare/ Say - (Great songs!!) 16) Pink- So What/ Sober (It's Pink, what more can I say, she's awesome!!)
17) Sara Bareilles- Love Song (Catchy and appeals to a songwriter like me) 18) Secondhand Serenade- Fall For You (An ending relatioship hurts a lot and this song makes it likable!!) 19) Pussycat Dolls- When I Grow Up (Can't help it, club banger, and it is "groupies" not "boobies") 20) The Ting Tings -Shutup and Let me go (Catchy!!!) 21) Metro Station- Shake It (Dance song for all teengagers and surprisingly I found out Miley' brother is in this group. Weird!!!) 22) Vampire Weekend-Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (Love their songs and they're different from a lot of other groups!!) 23) We the Kings- Check Yes Juliet (Catchy!!!) 24) Honeyhoney- Toy Gun (New group that I fell for!)
25) B-52s- Funplex (It's fun to listen to them!!) 26) Morningwood- Sugarbaby (Them, too.)
27) Katy Perry- Hot N Gold (Didn't like "I Kissed a Girl" all that much, though it was too much of a novelty song, but this song proved me wrong about Katy.) 28) Yael Naim- New Soul (Precious!!!) 29) The Killers- Human (The Killers can never go wrong!!) 30) Counting Crows- You Can’t Count on Me (Counting Crows are one of my favs, too.) 31) Lenka- The show (The song is so cute and uplifting! I can't get it out of my ear)
Best Neo-soul Songs 1) Lyfe Jennings- Will I Ever Fall in Love (Soulful brother!)
2) Anthony David ft. India Arie- Words (Beautiful song about real love.) 3) Ledisi- In the Morning (Heartfelt ballad, I loved the song, esp. the way she sings it) 4) Anthony Hamilton- Cool (Love him, he has soul and the video is cute, even with David Banner talking about scratching the dandruff out a girl's hair or picking her nose! Yuck!) 5)Little Jackie- The World Revolves Around Me (Everyone has had this thought and she expresses it, great song!!)
6) Algebra Blesset- Run and Hide (Little known huge ball of talent. Check her out)
7) Kutiman and Karolina- Music is Ruling My World (Even Isrealis have soul, too!)
8)Raphael Saadiq- Love That Girl (From Toni, Tony, Tone to Lucy Pealr, Raphael is one of my favorite singers and this song takes me back to the early classic R n B songs!) 9) Musiq f Mary J. Blige- If U Leave/ Radio (He definitely represents his name!) 10) Rashaan Patterson- Feels Good (This song makes me think of a nice summer day or being in love, and it does make me feel good!)
So that's all the videos that I remembered and loved this years! Enjoy this list and New Years! Can't wait for the new music in 2009!
