Xposition - February, 2017

Attention!!!

It was all about the Grammys in February as the most esteemed awards ceremony in music took place at the Staples Center, Los Angeles, California. The 59th Annual Grammy Awards kicked off with Beyonce leading the fray with 9 nominations. However, Adele was the biggest winner of the night grabbing 5 awards including the coveted triple crowns for Song of the Year and Record of the Year for Hello and the Album of the Year for 25. Adele also became the first artist in history to win all three general field awards in the same ceremony twice, previously winning all three categories in 2012. She was followed by David Bowie and Greg Kurstin with four trophies.

The ceremony kicked off with a stellar performance of Hello by Adele followed by other great performances by Ed Sheeran with his global hit Shape of You and Bruno Mars’s That’s What I Like. The ceremony had three tributes wherein Adele sang George Michael’s Fastlove, Demi Lovato, Tori Kelly, Little Big Town and Andra Day collaborating for a Bee Gees tribute medley, and Bruno Mars and The Time collaborating for a Prince medley. The other significant wins of the night include:
·         Best New Artist: Chance the Rapper
·         Best Music Video: Beyonce – Formation
·         Best Dance Recording: The Chainsmokers ft. Daya – Don’t let me down
·         Best Dance/Electronic Album: Flume – Skin
·         Best Rock Song: David Bowie – Blackstar
·         Best Urban Contemporary Album: Beyonce – Lemonade
·         Best Rap Song: Drake – Hotline bling
·         Best Country Song: Tim McGraw – Humble and kind
·         Best Country Album: Sturgill Simpson – A Sailor’s Guide to Earth
·         Best Song Written for Visual Media: Justin Timberlake – Can’t stop the feeling!

Next up we have the 37th BRIT Awards. Little Mix opened the show with their hit Shout Out To My Ex which went on to win the British Single of Year. Other great performances included Emeli Sande’s Hurt, an extremely politically controversial yet good performance of Katy Perry featuring Skip Marley’s Chained to the Rhythm and also Ed Sheeran with a medley of Castle on the Hill and Shape of You featuring a guest appearance by Stormzy. The Chainsmokers and Coldplay collaborated on stage to deliver their surprise new single Something Just Like This. David Bowie was posthumously awarded both the British Male Solo Artist as well as the British Album of the Year for Blackstar. The Icon Award was bestowed on Robbie Williams while the Global Success went to Adele. The other award winners were:
·         British Female Artist: Emeli Sande
·         British Group: The 1975
·         International Group: A Tribe Called Quest
·         British Breakthrough Act: Rag ‘n’ Bone Man
·         International Male Solo Artist: Drake
·         International Female Solo Artist: Beyonce
·         British Video: One Direction – History

La La Land was the winner of all the music related awards at the 89th Annual Academy Awards where Justin Hurwitz won for Best Original Score for the film and Best Original Song for City of Stars which was performed by Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in the film.

Apart from the awards, we have the jaw-dropping halftime performance by Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl LI. She started off with a mash up of God Bless America and Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land before teasing the audience with the first line of the chorus of her hit Edge of Glory. This leads to a medley of her greatest hits starting off with her biggest hit Poker Face and going on to sing Born This Way, Telephone and Just Dance. She then mellows it down with her latest single Million Reasons for which there was pin drop silence in the stadium. Then she finishes it off with her second biggest hit Bad Romance. With an intense and astutely choreographed production, her performance is now ranked among the best Super Bowl halftime shows of all time. 

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has released the biggest music acts in the world for 2016 and Drake tops the list. Drake achieves this position for the huge success of his fourth album, Views and the multiplatinum hit One Dance featuring WizKid and Kyla. At second place is David Bowie who posthumously witnessed monumental success for his final album Blackstar. The full top 10 are:
1.       Drake
2.       David Bowie
3.       Coldplay
4.       Adele
5.       Justin Bieber
6.       Twenty One Pilots
7.       Beyonce
8.       Rihanna
9.       Prince
10.   The Weeknd

In festival news, Lady Gaga has officially replaced Beyonce as a headliner of Coachella 2017 where the latter was advised by doctors to stay away from the stage due to her pregnancy. It was a no brainer for the organizers of this massive concert to invite Gaga after her acclaimed performance at the Super Bowl. Eminem has been announced as the third headliner for the Reading and Leeds Festival 2017 alongside Muse and Kasabian.

Jay-Z has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and became the first rapper in history to be bestowed with such an honour. Alongside Jay-Z will see Max Martin and the duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis also inducted. Madonna and George Michael were both nominated but did not make the cut.

Moving onto chart news, in the US Migos featuring Lil Uzi Vert’s Bad and Boujee was replaced in the second week by Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You returning to the top backed by his Grammy performance. Meanwhile, The Chainsmokers’ Paris debuted within the Top 10 and Lady Gaga’s Million Reasons soared to No.4 propelled by her performance at the Super Bowl and Alessia Cara’s Scars To Your Beautiful also entered the top 10.

In the UK, Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You remained at the top aided by performances at both the Grammy Awards and BRIT Awards accumulating six consecutive weeks at the top. Also during the month Sean Paul featuring Dua Lipa’s No Lie, Dua Lipa’s Be The One, Katy Perry featuring Skip Marley’s Chained to the Rhythm and Taylor Swift & Zayn’s I Don’t Wanna Live Forever entered the top 10.   

Other songs which became popular during the month were:

1.       Big Sean – Bounce back
2.       Julia Michaels – Issues
3.       Train – Play that song
4.       Major Lazer ft. Nicki Minaj & PARTYNEXTDOOR – Run up
5.       Martin Garrix & Dua Lipa – Scared to be lonely
6.       Stormzy – Big for your boots 

Till the next beat...

At Ease!!!

Most Underrated Songs of 2016

Attention!!!

Underrated means undervaluing something or not giving something the recognition it deserves. In the music industry it is particularly difficult for new artists to make headway in the mainstream as they have to compete with the already established and popular artists. So when highly overrated artists spew album after album and single after single backed by their record labels the smaller and lesser known artists or the new ones find it almost impossible to gain ground in the music scene. Pop culture is such however, that sometimes even the best of songs do not necessarily get chart success. Some of these songs which do get radio airplay, counts for almost nothing compared to physical and digital sales as well as streaming.

The following songs are the inverse of overrated as I believe they should have performed much better than they did on the global charts. Dua Lipa’s Hotter Than Hell tops the list as although it was a minor hit, the song deserves much more when taking the production as a whole.  She has two songs on the list as her follow-up single also failed to make any mark on the charts although now she is a worldwide phenomenon and is one of the most sought after artists to be featured. So here are the 20 most underrated songs of 2016:
  1. Dua Lipa – Hotter than hell
  2. Pitbull ft. Enrique Iglesias – Messin’ around
  3. Flo Rida – Zillionaire
  4. Tim McGraw – Humble and kind
  5. Thomas Rhett – Die a happy man
  6. Dua Lipa – Blow your mind (mwah)
  7. RedOne ft. Enrique Iglesias, R.City, Shaggy & Serayah – Don’t you need somebody
  8. Zedd ft. Kesha – True colors
  9. Hailee Steinfeld ft. DNCE – Rock bottom
  10. Bebe Rexha ft. Nicki Minaj – No broken hearts
  11. Years & Years – Worship
  12. Anne Marie – Alarm
  13. Troye Sivan – Youth
  14. OneRepublic – Kids 
  15. Fifth Harmony – That’s my girl
  16. Selena Gomez – Kill em with kindness
  17. Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello – I know what you did last summer
  18. Alan Walker – Sing me to sleep
  19. Zara Larsson – Ain't my fault 
  20. Alessia Cara – Wild things
Till the next beat...

At Ease!!!

Most Overrated Hits of 2016

Attention!!!

Overrated means giving something more value than it deserves. In the music industry this is usually the case, if the songs are by popular artists. Sometimes artists such as Adele, Beyonce and Bruno Mars can never get it wrong. While it may just be myself, but the past year there were certain songs that reached hit status when they should not have. EDM took a drastic wrong turn somewhere as now with the Chainsmokers mainstream influence on the genre, it has merged with Pop. The same goes for Dancehall, Reggae and Rock. Purity is lost on the Millennials as one can wonder whether the kids these days actually have any taste in music or whether the music should only cater to “tripping”.

The Most Overrated Hits will become a staple addition to the year-end compilations henceforth as well as the Most Underrated Songs that will follow this post. Lukas Graham’s 7 Years tops this list as I have absolutely no idea whatsoever why this song became a hit. This is followed by The Chainsmokers and Halsey collaboration Closer and Beyonce’s Formation. Rihanna and Drake have two entries each on this list. So here are the 20 most overrated hits of the past year:
  1. Lukas Graham – 7 years
  2. The Chainsmokers ft. Halsey – Closer
  3. Beyonce – Formation
  4. Fifth Harmony ft. Fetty Wap – All in my head (flex)
  5. Rihanna – Needed me
  6. Kent Jones – Don’t mind
  7. Flume ft. Kai – Never be like you
  8. Drake ft. Wizkid & Kyla – One dance
  9. Coldplay – Adventure of a lifetime
  10. Shawn Mendes – Treat you better
  11. Adele – Send my love (to your new lover)
  12. Desiigner – Panda
  13. Meghan Trainor – No
  14. Future ft. The Weeknd – Low life
  15. Nick Jonas ft. Tove Lo – Close
  16. Little Mix – Shout out to my ex
  17. Bruno Mars – 24K magic
  18. Rae Sremmurd ft. Gucci Mane – Black Beatles
  19. Drake – Controlla
  20. Rihanna ft. Drake – Work 
Till the next chord...

At Ease!!!

Ultimate Quarantine Playlist

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