Campus Music Invasion

The Campus Music Invasion this year featured a plethora of talented upcoming artists.  Though I truly enjoy all of the music on the album, my favorite artist is Our Satori.  I really love their use of the electronic instruments (keyboard and guitar) to manipulate sounds.  The vocals remind me a lot of the Red Hot Chili Peppers who I absolutely love.  I also love the laid back feeling of the track “Quit Your Day Job,” it makes me want to sit on my couch and veg out all day long (not necessarily a good thing in the middle of finals!!)

My favorite artist from the Ann Arbor area is Alex Brumel, who now performs with Janel Elizabeth.  The combination of the sound of their voices is unmatched; with beautiful lyrics and amazing chemistry, this duet is unforgettable.  I’ve seen Alex perform a few times (both solo and with Janel) and every time I just fall in love with his music even more.

Music in Movies

As a kid, I was in love with all of Maurice Sendak's picture-books, and obviously my favorite was "Where the Wild Things Are." Based on the success of past children's classic stories being turned into movies, such as the Harry Potter series and Curious George, I am actually really excited to see how the book translates onto the big screen.  Although the trailer itself seems a little bit interesting (I'm not sure how I feel about live action monsters as opposed to animated ones), I really liked the Arcade Fire song chosen to go along with it.  The song effectively conveys the different emotions being portrayed by the commercial, from sadness to adventure to curiosity.

I love the usage of popular and indie music in films.  I am currently taking a film course at Michigan, so I've learned a lot about how sound influences the mood being portrayed by the visual images on screen and I no longer feel that one of these elements can survive without the other.  No matter what genre of music it is (anything from an orchestral score to a period of silence), as long as the sound impacts the audience in the manner desired by the director I'm all for its creative incorporation.

So I've been trying to think about my favorite musical moments in film and it has definitely not been an easy task.  As far as my favorite intimate love scene song, hands down (and I think many other people will agree with me) it is the Counting Crows' "Colorblind" love scene in "Cruel Intentions." The music makes the actions and magnetism between Phillippe and Witherspoon feel so incredibly real.  My favorite song used for opening credits in a film is Barry Louis Polisar's "All I Want is You" in the beginning of "Juno."  The song is simple, just like Juno's character and the movie's plot, and it fits really well with the cartoon action shown during the credits.  As for closing credits, the "Jai Ho" Bollywood dance sequence at the end of "Slumdog Millionaire" definitely tops the charts.  The song itself is great, but the combination with the entertaining dance number as the credits roll makes it even better.  I'm not as familiar with movies that have fight sequences or car chases, but if I had to choose my favorite for each I would say that "Eye of the Tiger" in "Rocky III" made for an impressive fight scene soundtrack and "Race Against Time" in "The Fast and the Furious" was an amazing song for a car chase scene