Sounds of America is a new monthly streaming audio program, a collaboration between the National Museum of American History and Smithsonian Global Sound. Up now are 3 episodes: African-American music in New Orleans, Women in American Music, and Freedom Songs of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.
posted on Apr 2, 2008 - View this thread

Who knew when Arnel Pineda, lead singer of a Journey cover band called "The Zoo," posted videos of his band on YouTube that he'd grab the attention of Journey itself and be invited to be its new lead singer? (via)
posted on Feb 22, 2008 - View this thread

Songerize [via]
posted on Feb 8, 2008 - View this thread

The 25 Greatest Duets Of All Time (with embedded YouTube videos of each) from retroCRUSH. Duets, by nature, are a corny type of song. Sure, there's a handful that we recognize here that are also some of best tunes ever recorded, but there's something inherently cheesy and fun about duets that make them a fun guilty pleasure for millions to enjoy.
posted on Jan 26, 2008 - View this thread

A good chuckle about surviving the hellidays: Dysfunctional Family Holidays, the music l an interactive karaoke with several songs l What exactly is a dysfunctional family? l What are the roles for the kids?
posted on Dec 25, 2007 - View this thread

Claude François was one of France's most successful popstars, a complete song-and-dance act who remained at the top of the charts for almost ten years before his career was tragically cut short when he tried to change a lightbulb while in the bath (youtube ahead).
posted on Nov 11, 2007 - View this thread

First she was a dancer but after an injury she had to sing to make a living. She still dances a little during her songs (a rare feat among flamenco cantaoras). I first heard about her when she made a whole record (cd) of Edith Piaf's songs in spanish. You can get a taste here. She talks about it here (spanish + french, excerpts). She sang les feuilles mortes too. But nothing equals seeing her, I think : so here she is with two covers from a recent documentary : a song by Edith Piaf, a song by Lola Flores. Btw, If you get into french songs in the flamenco idiom, try this.
posted on Oct 11, 2007 - View this thread

"I just turned on my little iMovie, and here I am!" This week, Hollywood Records announced a record deal with female vocalist and underground sensation Marié Digby. Over the past few months, she has over 2.3 million cumulative Youtube hits, and has become a veritable rags to riches story - a testament, if you will, to how the Internet is changing the world of entertainment. What the label failed to mention was that Digby had already been signed to Hollywood Records for almost two years, well before she became a hit. A case of manufactured networking, or simply a "major" misunderstanding?
posted on Sep 6, 2007 - View this thread

Speaking of 'highly virulent earworms,' today's NY Times suggests that searching for this year's 'song of the summer' may lead to "one sad conclusion." Have today's hitmakers failed to live up to the jams of yesteryear? Others have offered their opinions...
posted on Jul 19, 2007 - View this thread

Brian Dewan, "The Vice Principal of Rock," sings a selection of campaign songs... because zither is the last word in rock this campaign season. Hearken! (previously)
posted on Jun 27, 2007 - View this thread

The 25 most exquisitely sad songs in the whole world. (via I Will Dare)
posted on May 9, 2007 - View this thread

It seems apropos today to post about Bollywood and its style of romance and love. Songs are often the equivalent of a bedroom scene, a fact I didn't believe until it was pointed out to me that there were numerous instances of extremely suggestive songs followed by pregnancy. Bollywood also uses songs to arouse patriotic fervour, a trait that master music director A.R. Rahman takes to new heights with his release of the classics Vande Mataram [Motherland, I salute thee] and Jana Gana Mana [India's national anthem]. But even before him, there were classics of public service advertising such as "Mile sur tera hamara..." a fuzzy video but inspiring nonetheless of the myriads of voices and languages spoken in India. Other loves that hindi cinema celebrates through its songs is that of a mother for a child, god, love across cultural boundaries and what is politely termed as "conjugal love".
posted on Feb 14, 2007 - View this thread

Lines from Alanis Morissette's song "Ironic", modified to actually be ironic.
posted on Jan 13, 2007 - View this thread

32 worst lyrics of all time
posted on Jul 21, 2006 - View this thread

Blender, meet science: The Pain, the Pain: Modelling Music Information Behavior and the Songs We Hate [link to 454Kb PDF]. The paper, presented at ISMIR 2005, offers "a grounded theory analysis of 395 user responses to the survey question 'What is the worst song ever?'"
posted on May 22, 2006 - View this thread

TV Theme Songs: The Dukes of Hazzard, The Love Boat, Taxi, Knight Rider, Air Wolf, The Prisoner, and many more. From TV Cream previously mentioned 1, 2, 3.
posted on May 15, 2006 - View this thread

The verses no one dares to sing these days ... Till selfish gain No longer stain The banner of the free!
posted on Apr 28, 2006 - View this thread

Song Tapper lets you to use your space bar as an instrument. Tap in a song rhythm and Song Tapper will identify it for you with its internety black magic.
posted on Jan 11, 2006 - View this thread

Dictionaraoke. Your favorite songs, as performed by the audio pronunciation samples from online dictionaries.
posted on Sep 8, 2005 - View this thread

St. James Infirmary, in a funereal, no lyrics, brass-band version underlies a persistent scrum of half-remembered songs about New Orleans rising in concert with the waters, lapping at the sandbags of my mind. Up front, Tom Waits (I Wish I Was in New Orleans) and Randy Newman (Lousiana 1927) are duking it out for time at the piano, elaborately filigreed chords overlapping and changing the dominant lyric at the moment of harmonic convergence, while in the background Arlo Guthrie (The City of New Orleans) warbles about a train ride. Professor Longhair and/or The Dixie Cups (Big Chief, Iko Iko) sort of amusedly fight to keep sliptime with the martial drums from Jimmy Driftwood's The Battle of New Orleans (caution: embedded quicktime) behind the whole toxic soup of sonic residue. I'm sure the stew will grow more dense over the next couple weeks. Got a New Orleans song to toss into the waters?
posted on Aug 30, 2005 - View this thread

BBC Radio 2 -- Sold On Song The website for this show on BBC Radio 2 is pretty awesome; it's got a list of pages on various classic songs in their library (also sortable by artist), which includes song clips and (where available) clips from covers of the songs, taken from the same place -- check out the various It Must Be Loves (originally by Madness Labi Siffre) -- my favorite will always be the Madness one, but the Lyn Paul version is actually pretty cool. There's also some weird and awful covers available for the picking. I've just been spending about an hour or two picking through random songs and noting on which ones are as good as the original or ones that just fall so very short. (They've also got lots of other content, like the songwriting guide, but the real fun is in the song pages, reading about these great songs and listening to other people do their own cuts on them. [All links go to text; all sound files are in RealAudio.]
posted on Jul 28, 2005 - View this thread

The Anti-Hit List , by John Sakamoto, continues to unearth music from the depths of the net and through rare releases. It can be found in the pages of the Toronto Star and is now available in convenient podcast form. Note: previous death and rebirth of the site.
posted on Jul 3, 2005 - View this thread

Immortalia: a website ‘dedicated to traditional bawdy songs, erotic toasts and other recitations.’ See, for example, the list of bawdy songbooks, variously in text and PDF formats, beginning with songs from a 1661 book of ‘Merry Drollery.’ Many songs are displayed alongside the appropriate sheet music, for example I Used To Work In Chicago and The Sexual Life of the Camel. There are numerous mp3s too, both samples and entire songs, many of which are field recordings by the site’s proprietor, John Mehlberg. Please note that the songs range from plain stupid to extremely offensive, that many pages have embedded audio, and that the site is confusingly-organised and may crash your browser. The site as a whole is NSFW.
posted on Jun 23, 2005 - View this thread

Buying Rare Race Records in the South. Music That Americans Loved 100 Years Ago. The Cheney Talking Machine. Just three among dozens of amazing articles about early recording machines and American popular music at the astonishingly detailed site of Tim Gracyk, author of Popular American Recording Pioneers: 1895-1925. Scroll down for bios of forgotten stars, including Nora Bayes - who performed in the Follies of 1907, before Flo Ziegfeld's name became part of the title, George W. Johnson - "the most important African-American recording artist of the 1890s," and piano player Zez Confrey, whose sheet music for the 1921 hit "Kitten on the Keys" sold over a million copies and became "the third most-frequently recorded rag in history."
posted on May 17, 2005 - View this thread

The songs at the top of the world Unbelievable music from the land of the gods, Tibet - Haunting eerie and warming. I have no more words for this music.
posted on May 7, 2005 - View this thread

Got a title but no song? Like an Exploding Dog for music, Request-a-Song.com takes submitted titles and composes songs around them, with some surprisingly good results.
posted on May 3, 2005 - View this thread

Lets wade in the water, Coded slave songs.
posted on Apr 27, 2005 - View this thread

M M M My Sharona... M M M My real estate agent? Sharona Alperin was only 17 when she inspired the Knack's 1979 hit single "My Sharona." Now she sells real estate in Los Angeles...On the flip side of lyrical fame, 16-year-old Brenda Spencer inspired another set of lyrics in 1979 -- the Boomtown Rats' haunting song "I Don't Like Mondays" -- which chronicled Spencer's slaying of eight school children and a principal at an elementary school near her San Diego, CA-area home. It's not an urban legend: Spencer told a reporter who called her during the 6 1/2 -hour siege that she opened fire because, "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day." Spencer reminds us today that schoolyard shootings are not a new phenomenon. Now 42, Brenda is serving a 25-year sentence and is up for parole soon...
posted on Mar 22, 2005 - View this thread

Fake Jim Steinman song titles.
posted on Feb 20, 2005 - View this thread

While culling my clippings file for the big move, I came across Ragtime: No Longer a Novelty in Sepia, which led me to the The Rag-Time Ephemeralist, a labor of love by one Chris Ware , whose 'The Acme Novelty Library' and Jimmy Corrigan, Smartest Boy In The World I had long admired. The Ragtime Ephemeralist's mention of Out of Sight - The Rise of African American Popular Music, 1889-1895---here's a review from Musical Traditions--and, its very own links page, as a consequence, led to this post about Ragtime, Cakewalks, Coon Songs and Vaudeville, with a slight nod to Barbershop Quartets. There's more, of course...
posted on Jan 21, 2005 - View this thread

Song meanings is a site where you can read the lyrics to a song and then post your thoughts on what the song means.
posted on Nov 18, 2004 - View this thread

"It was surprising how thick the smoke had become. It seems like the world has always needed a scapegoat --someone to lead the charge against the Roman Empire. But America wasn't the Roman Empire and someone else would have to step up and volunteer. I really was never any more than what I was -- a folk musician who gazed into the gray mist with tear-blinded eyes and made up songs that floated in a luminous haze. Now it had blown up in my face and was hanging over me." -- from Bob Dylan's new autobiography, Chronicles, with a brief interview, via Newsweek
posted on Sep 26, 2004 - View this thread

The American Film Institute (a.k.a. "The Listmakers Who Just Won't Quit") have announced their long-awaited ground-breaking top 100 movie songs of all time.
posted on Jun 24, 2004 - View this thread

The story of "St. James Infirmary." You thought it was a piece of old New Orleans? Turns out St. James Hospital was in London (and treated lepers), and the song goes back at least to the 18th century (though it used to be sung to the tune of "Streets of Laredo"). Rob Walker's Letter From New Orleans #13 describes the results of his obsessive researches. If you have more info, he wants to hear from you! (Via Wordorigins, a site any word lover should know.)
posted on Jun 11, 2004 - View this thread

Yes, Here Are The Songs To Wear Pants To: He turns emails into music. You can send titles, lyrics, directions, and anything else that can be described in words and they may end up on this site as little songs
posted on Jun 10, 2004 - View this thread

The 50 Coolest Song Parts [RetroCrush] As always, bringing up our favorites... um... song parts... will be more constructive and fun than destroying the list.
posted on Jun 8, 2004 - View this thread

Songs To Wear Pants To. [via SharpeWorld]
posted on Apr 23, 2004 - View this thread

Labels seek end to 99c music per song download
"...the major five labels think that 99 cents per song is too cheap, and are discussing a price hike that would increase the tariff to $1.25 up to $2.99 per song." How about free legal downloads for $6 a month. DRM free. The artists get paid.? Will the RIAA ever see the light?
posted on Apr 11, 2004 - View this thread

Listen To The Future. We hope you like his new music. It's hard to believe, but every note, every instrument, EVEN EVERY SINGING VOICE on Brandon's new CD was played on a keyboard by just one person...Brandon Trinity.
posted on Mar 22, 2004 - View this thread

In the spirit of Sunday morning (and the Martin Luther King holiday weekend), I bring to you the news of a musical release of historical proportions. Dust to Digital has compiled Goodbye, Babylon an exhaustively annotated, beautifully packaged collection of American gospel music from the turn of the century up until 1960. Some performers are recognizable names in sacred and secular music. Others practice lesser known styles like Sacred Harp singing. Non-religionists, don't feel left out, this music is enjoyable strictly on it's musical and historical import, since along with blues, traditional country and Tin Pan Alley, gospel music both white and black is one of the main foundations of modern American music. Judging by the raves it's been recieving, this (admittedly expensive, but worth every penny) box set is destined for a place next to the Anthology Of American Folk Music in the collection of any serious student of American music.
posted on Jan 18, 2004 - View this thread

Christmas Wrapping is one of the most enduring (and arguably one of the hippest) Christmas songs of the past twenty years. Though a quintessential keyboard-and-sax driven New Wave tune, the endearing singleton's account of the year in dating on Christmas Eve tops the Christmas charts every year, and has survived reinterpretations by the Spice Girls and Save Ferris. This year, the eclectically-talented Chris Butler reflects on its inception.
posted on Dec 23, 2003 - View this thread

12 oddest Christmas hits... ever! Almost December, the stores are playing the usual Xmas compilations (already) so I propose a change to the usual "Rockin around the Christmas Tree". Which ear worm do you want?
posted on Nov 28, 2003 - View this thread

It's the Cthulhu songbook. Time to go a-carrolling in the neighbourhood with these catchy tunes. Who could resist a rousing chorus of The Great old ones are coming to town? Or maybe you fancy the more traditional Carol of the old ones? So lets get those songbooks out and make it a very merry Cthulhu solstice.
posted on Oct 30, 2003 - View this thread

Psst! Wanna download some mp3s? Now you can do so without looking over your shoulder to see who is watching. Creative Commons has compiled a selection of tracks utilising their licensing system for free download. The ability to create derivative works and share them around has resulting in some interesting remixes of one of the original tracks, also. via A Whole Lotta Nothing
posted on Oct 22, 2003 - View this thread

The Song Is You: If ever there was a perfect singer - and I do mean perfect - it was Ella Fitzgerald. Her Songbooks (please scroll down for the listings and samples) are still - and will always be - the best collection there is of the great American standards. That is, if you don't mind crying and having the little hairs on the nape of your neck stand up and revolt. And swing. They'd be the last records objects I'd be willing to part with: they're the mother's milk of American Western popular culture. So imagine my surprise when I found their perfect counterpart on the Web: the best-ever collection of lyrics to the songs of the greatest American composers: Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Richard Rodgers. Admirably, the compiler has gone way beyond his duty and included wonderful standards (quite a few unknown to me) that even Ella never got around to singing. Thank you, Todd. And God bless you, Sir!
posted on Sep 22, 2003 - View this thread

The Japanese Tatu clones are here: Juemilia and Suitei Shoujo (Presumed Girls). Do Rino and Lissa have a message for their fans? (via Geisha asobi blog)
posted on May 30, 2003 - View this thread

The idea: A place for posting songs where they might actually get heard -- preferably someone who can help get it published. We've teamed with SuperfastNetworks to create the first song blog**.

Will the the Metafilter Music Channel be next?
**Actually it works with any digital content.
posted on Apr 11, 2003 - View this thread

Hey Jude, what does that song mean? The Beatles Discography lets you look up almost any Beatles song, and find out about its history and meaning. According to this, one of my favorite Beatles songs, "Paperback Writer," was written after Paul's aunt challenged him to write a song that wasn't about love. And "She's Leaving Home," another favorite, was based on a newspaper article about a runaway 17-year-old girl. and supposedly was attacked in the U.S. as being somehow pro-abortion. I always wondered if there was a real "Polyethene Pam," but I had no idea her name was really Pat, and that she ate plastic. Fascinating stuff.
posted on Mar 30, 2003 - View this thread

Pazz & Jop 2002 - The Village Voice has tabulated the top albums and singles from 695 critics (and 10,2002 LPs). Some of the ballot-fillers even got a little personal. The usual essays are included. If your fav CD didn't make the cut, perhaps it made it onto the dean's list.
posted on Feb 11, 2003 - View this thread

As its old home lies dormant, John Sakamoto'sAnti-Hit List continues on in the pages of Toronto's Eye Weekly. Where else could you hear about The Flaming Lips covering Kylie, Ween singing for about Pizza Hut or quite possibly the best song title in ages.
posted on Feb 10, 2003 - View this thread

Lelo ledung, pu'va pu'va, eh-e... In honor of the shortest day of the year: Lullabies from around the world. Midis and mp3s, from Bangladesh to Turkey, to send you off to dreamland, wherever it may be.
posted on Dec 21, 2002 - View this thread

Let Me See Your Beauty Broken Down: Here's an illuminating song-by-song commentary of the work of Leonard Cohen, along with a slide-show of his "Closing Time" notebook; some dodgy drawings; a lot of grainy photos of the great man, and Pico Iyer's liner notes for the recently released Essential Songs. Yeah, right. As if anything he ever wrote or sang or said wasn't. [Cohen fans will forgive the shabby web design. Thank you woods lot for the heads-up.]
posted on Dec 20, 2002 - View this thread

The BBC World Service are searching for the World's favourite song. If hundreds of Irish students have their way it'll be the kitschy rebel song A Nation Once Again but by the look of the contenders they'll have a fight on their hands.

What would your choice be?
posted on Dec 12, 2002 - View this thread

Luxury carmaker achieves relevance with "the kids" by use of Led Zep in ad. Although the article touches on Chevy's decade-long affiliation with Bob Seger, it curiously neglects to mention that Chevy ad with the Mary Chain song, or even the Volkswagen soundtrack album. Did you ever hear a favorite song in an ad or as the theme to a TV show and think "how'd THAT happen?"
posted on Aug 26, 2002 - View this thread

The End of the Anti-Hit List? "And with that, the Anti-Hit List is retiring, at least for the foreseeable future."

John Sakamoto's Alternate Top 10 (AKA The Anti-Hit List) was one of the best top ten music lists on the net. It was short and sweet and a great way to discover b-sides, covers and alternate versions of songs from a wide variety of artists. And to think, it all started back on March 12, 1996.
posted on Jul 31, 2002 - View this thread

A soundtrack to MTV's The Osbournes is in the making starting with this...Ozzy Osbourne's youngest daughter, Kelly Osbourne, will sing Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach," with Incubus guitarist Mike Einzinger and drummer Jose Pasillas as her backing band.What other songs would you put on there?
posted on Apr 4, 2002 - View this thread

John Ashcroft inflicts his "gift" upon DoJ staff Determined not to stop at subjecting the public to his musical endeavors, our beloved Attorney General now sees fit to hand out the lyrics to his songs at staff meetings for sing-alongs. This, from the man whose job is to "represent the Government before the U.S. Supreme Court in cases of exceptional gravity or importance". Given the choice of attending one of his daily prayer meetings, having to sing along to his music, or having bamboo shoved under your fingernails, what would you choose?
posted on Mar 4, 2002 - View this thread

Feliiiiiiz Navidad... en SANTO DOMINGO!
Just a reminder, Jared the Butcher of Songs is still ready to torture and aggravate your friends and family this holiday season. Jared is available for both Windows and Macintosh, as well as for weddings, birthdays and Bar Mitzvahs. Make sure to read Jared’s liner notes as well.
[Warning: heavy link-rot.]
posted on Dec 24, 2001 - View this thread

"Jingle Bells" is the first Christmas song we learn. It's the Christmas song no one ever forgets. But when "Jingle Bells" was written in the 1850s by Boston native James Lord Pierpont, it was not a Christmas song. It had nothing to do with the holidays. "Jingle Bells" was what you might call pre-Civil War rock 'n' roll. In its seldom-heard original form, it's about having a flashy vehicle, driving it too fast and using it to pick up girls. (by Larry Katz, Boston Herald--via Fark.com)
posted on Dec 24, 2001 - View this thread

You wanna fight? One title, many songs. Pick one. An open invitation songfight. (more...)
posted on Sep 23, 2001 - View this thread

Oops, I guess we missed Elvis' return (and so did everyone else). This guy claims to have met the ghost of Elvis, and that 'The King' wrote songs for him from the grave. Need a bigger laugh? Then check out the audio clips on the home page.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Elvis has most definitely left this universe!"
posted on Aug 23, 2001 - View this thread

Songbird is billed as a Napster anti-piracy tool. It's job is supposedly for an artist to see the many title variations of their material as documentation for copyright violations. I don't know if this is truly a thinly-veiled claim of legitimacy or whether the author is just being earnest - but because it shows what users have what variations, I'm finding it a great tool to track down songs that I couldn't find before because of Napster's filtering and not necessarily being able to think of every possible variation...Neato.
posted on May 10, 2001 - View this thread

I hope ASCAP is proud. I don't know about you, but I'll be sure to notify all Girl Scouts I know, that singing copyrighted material (you know like "Happy Birthday and "God Bless America") at camp might just land there camp directors behind bars.
posted on May 2, 2001 - View this thread

Tired of Christmas music? I reckon so. I sure understand. Still, trust me on this. You're in for a treat. We're Just Three Kings gives me goose pimples on the back of my neck every time I hear it. Most know about mp3c, but few wanna dig around in there. It's like falling into a record bin big as Cleveland. Here let me help you. I'm recommending only sure-things here - Tamashiro's What Child Is This is straight-forward, no-nonsense, feelgood Christmas fare. Liona Boyd's instrumental guitar is heavenly background music that would warm the heart of the coldest Grinch. If you find yourself surprised with a need to have free Xmas music real fast, it's just a pooter away, Santa Baby.
posted on Dec 24, 2000 - View this thread

garageband.com is fun! I've uploaded three songs so far!
posted on May 20, 2000 - View this thread

Need an earworm? Don't even consider clicking this link if you don't.
posted on Mar 27, 2000 - View this thread