Rave Up Music: 2013

Greetings everyone, and welcome to Rave Up Music! This is a music review blog where I take a look at all thing music, be it an album review, a specific music group, or even a countdown list. Before I go into what exactly we are going to cover in this blog, let me explain why this blog exists, and exactly who I am.

The Man behind the Reviews:

First off, who am I? For this website, call me Barius, and I am a self-profess music nerd. From a young age, music has been a part of my life. I cannot recall a time where music was not in my life. Whether it was the silly kid songs we all sang in elementary school, various movie soundtracks, a rock ‘n roll band, or even those 8-bit songs from the Nintendo Entertainment System, I have always gravitated to the art of music. This led to me begin studying music at the age of ten, when I joined my elementary school band, playing the alto saxophone (I still have the first saxophone I owned in my music workroom). I have continued to partake in school band, where I was introduced to many masterworks of classical music, as well as concert band music. I eventually join my high school band program, where I took part in its jazz ensemble, and became a fan of jazz music.

At the same time, I was first introduced by my brother to rock ‘n roll and heavy metal music. My brother was in high school at the time, while I was a lowly fourth grader, so needless to say, we did not get along at the time. That is, until my brother came home from school one day with an audio cassette tape that he borrowed from his best friend at the time. The cassette tape was labeled, “Metallica – LOAD.” One listen to that cassette, and I was hooked. From this cassette, I started exploring all things rock and heavy metal music: Classic rock, thrash metal, pop rock, power metal, and even folk rock/metal. I could not get enough of it. Plus, it helped strengthen the bond between my brother and me, and we are actually good friends to this day.

With all this exposure to music, I started sharing my love of music with my peers, and eventually, it led to me teaching music as a student leader in my high school band. In my senior year of high school, I decided that teaching music was really great, especially when I saw the smiles on the faces of my students/peers when they were successful in learning a new musical concept. Thus, once I attended university, I decided to pursue a music education degree, and work towards teaching music full time. At the time of this entry, I have my bachelor's degree in music education, and my teaching credential license me to teach music. As for being in a music teaching position…well, I am working on that…

The Purpose of Rave Up Music:

Though I want to teach music for a living, I have always felt like I wanted to share my love of music outside of the classroom, as well as my opinion on the wide array of music out there. Being a person that seems to find something I like in all genres of music, I am sort of an oddball among a lot of my peers. Most people that I associate with ( fellow music educators, musicians, composers, or even the casual music listeners) all seem to stick to one or two genres of music to listen to, and it is hard to get them to open their minds to other songs not find in their rock or pop or classical music categories. However, when I am listening to a song that they themselves do not like, they will ask questions abut why I like it. More often than not, I do give them good reasons to see my view on a song, as well as give them a chuckle at the same time, since I like looking at music from a humorous perspective, especially when I say Milli Vanilli was a legitimate music group. Of course, my view on music can be pretty odd that I should probably should be in some asylum in New Jersey… (NOTE: If you did not get a slight laugh at that, trust me; the jokes will get better in time…I hope…).

So, my goal with Rave Up Music is to give my own opinion and impressions on a wide spectrum of music, as well as sprinkle in a little bit of humor here and there. Granted, this review blog will be mostly rock oriented, being that it is the genre I have listened to the longest, I will dive into the other genres that I hope will give people a different perspective of how to look at and listen to music. Who knows, maybe I will convince some of you that the genre of German polka is very under appreciated….or not…huh, maybe I should look into that asylum in Jersey…

What to Expect from this Blog:

When it comes to looking at music, this blog will break down reviews in specific segments that I feel will allow me to properly expression my opinion, my impressions, and also my love and passion for all things music. Here are a few examples of the segments that this blog will feature:

1) Album Reviews:

Like every other music review site, I will cover album reviews of specific artists. However, while a lot of other websites focus on the hot, current music albums of the time, I like looking back at the albums that people consider to be, “bad,” “terrible,” “misguided,” or as a fellow, way more popular reviewer puts it, “a steaming pile of dog feces that has been left out in the yard for a few days that you do not want to clean up.” That…is very specific.

Anyway, the way the album reviews work is I will look the album as a whole, and determine if the album should be consider “bad” or if the label of a “bad album” is based on the opinions of disappointing fans of the artist, or if it is really not a great album. This segment will examine the history of the group leading up to the album, music tidbits about the production of the album, any musical flaws, and any overall issues with the album. This segment ends with the album wrap-up where I weigh in on the pros and cons of the album, and determine if it really is a “bad” album musically.

2) Cover Wars:

One thing about music that I absolutely love is the concept of an artist performing a cover of a song. I especially enjoy it when a band from one genre is covered by a group in a different genre. So, on Rave Up Music, we have the "Cover Wars" segment, in which I compare an original song to one or more cover versions of the song in order to determine which version of the song is the best. I will analyze the musical and lyrical aspects of the original artist of the song, and then compare it with a cover, and determine if the original version is the superior version, if the cover version is better, if both versions are good, or if both songs are just not that great, thus making the review completely pointless. Yay…?

3) A Little Slice of Metal:

As I have stated earlier, this blog will feature a lot of rock music, and this is an example of it. I will admit that in the last few years that I have developed a love/have relationship with the genre of metal music. For every one group that makes the music genre great, there are a dozen others who make metal music seems like a lazy, uncreative, uninspiring, and overall bad genre of music. My goal with the “A Little Slice of Metal” segment is to present an artist or band from one of the various sub-genres in the world of heavy metal music that I find to be some of the best that heavy metal has to offer. This segment will talk about specific songs from the group, as well as look at their contribution to not only the metal community, but the music community as a whole. This includes categories of heavy metal music being played on non-traditional instruments (you will see in time). Some genres of metal may be talked about more than once to feature a different artist in that category.

4) Melodious Memories:

In this segment, I will take a look back at the films, television shows, and video games of my childhood (and some from my adulthood), and how music played a pivotal role in these other artistic mediums. This includes looking at a movie musical, or even just the score of a television show or video game. In this segment, I will determine if my memories of the music or medium being reviewed still hold up after so many years, and if I would recommend it for you to watch or play it for yourself.

5) Countdown Lists:

As with a lot of other reviewers, there will be Top *Insert Number Here* List. I will try to give a nice wide variety of lists that are unique and different from the ones you see on the Billboard charts or other music websites. Sometimes it might be “Top 10 Musical Numbers from Animaniacs,” or “Top 20 Stage Musicals,” and so forth. With these countdown lists, it can be applied to any of the other segments on the show, as well as a stand alone countdown.

Again, this is only a small example of the different segments you will see here in the blog. As time goes on, I will add more segments, and possibly have guest reviewers if I feel the topic warrants it.

Fan Feedback:

Like of other blogs, I encourage people to express their opinion about my work. I am not a person who will be offended if you do not a like a particularly review, and I strive to improve all the time. Even if I feel a review is my best one yet, others might disagree. If you have something you feel I may have written an error, or if you want to express your opinion on a specific album or countdown list, feel free to leave a comment. However, if you are going to leave a comment, I do have a few guidelines that I ask you to follow:

1) Please keep your comments to a PG/ PG-13 rating. My goal in this blog is to keep a relatively family-friendly tone, with the occasion breaking of that rule here and there when I feel it is appropriate. If you feel like you need to use harsher obscenities, please refrain from doing so, particularly at other people commenting on this blog.

2) Keep comments positive and constructive. If you tell me I simply suck, and or other people suck, or your comments are more deconstructive, i.e. you are being a troll, it will not be posted. I approve all comments before posting, and if I feel your comment does not contribute to the review, or it is insulting others, it will not be posted.

3) I want this blog to be a fun thing for me to do, as well as a means of entertaining all of you as I share my love of music for all of you to read. My goal is to try to have a new review out by the Wednesday of each week. However, life does take priority, so reviews might not always get posted on time. Please do not pester me and ask when the next review will come out, for the answer will always be “When it is done.” Do not make this blog a chore for me, or I will be disinclined to continue it. Again, I want you to have fun reading the reviews, and I want to have fun writing them.

So again, welcome to Rave Up Music, and here is to the start to what I hope to be a very fun journey through the art of music. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below, and I will see next time! Take care, and keep on rockin’.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Monday, October 21, 2013

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Friday, September 20, 2013

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Friday, August 16, 2013

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Sunday, April 21, 2013