Hits and Misses on the Radio - July 2014

For today's post, we're gonna talk about some of our favorite songs currently on the radio and a few tunes that in our opinion miss the mark. First up on the recommended is list is "Am I Wrong" by the Norwegian duo Nico & Vinz - great melody with an intriguing underbeat that keeps pulling you in. It also has one of my favorite new lyric lines

"I ain't tryna do what everybody else doing
Just cause everybody doing what they all doing"

Making your own path and not apologizing for it - that's something we all should a little more of in our lives. Nico & Vinz took this cool song with an original feel all the way to #4 on the Billboard charts.

Next up is "Me and My Broken Heart" by the 4 piece band from the UK known as Rixton . This song has a monster hook

"All I need's a little love in my life
All I need's a little love in the dark
A little but I'm hoping it might kick start
Me and my broken heart"

"Broken Heart" starts off with this crazy catchy hook and never lets go after that. You will be singing along after just hearing this one time I promise. Rixton made it all the way to #6 on the Billboard 100 chart with this hook-laden gem, yet another great tune by a another new act imported from across the pond.

Last up in our trilogy of featured radio hits is another seemingly new artist at least when talking about this level of chart success. Ingrid Michaelson has been releasing singles to radio for several years, but her last big radio hit was with her debut CD and the song "The Way I Am". Fast forward 7 years and when I first heard "Girls Chase Boys" by Ingrid I thought it was kind of a silly song. The video homage to Robert Palmers "Simply Irresistible" was absolutely cut and fun to watch but I'm a song guy. However, after hearing "Girls Chase Boys" several times I began to hear it in a new light - the beautiful pop melodies and whimsical feel of the music really began to draw me in and I've been hooked ever since. Give it just a couple listens and I think you'll see what I mean if you don't already.

In addition to the three songs above there are some other holdouts still on the chart after weeks because well they are just great great songs. These include "All of Me" by John Legend, "Dark Horse" by Katy Perry and "Rude" by newcomer MAGIC!. We've talked about all three of these great tunes in earlier posts over the last month.

Misses on the radio today

This next group of tunes were recently released by established artists and unlike many of their earlier hits, they don't quite catch our attention. Songs like these usually make it on the chart because of the artists popularity and some good will from their earlier hits. In the artists defense, its quite possible they never intended for these songs to be released as a single. However they lose that control to record companies who will often try to put out as many "singles" as possible over the life of a full CD in order to keep the attention on their artist. Personally I think the labels do the artist a dis-service by doing that. If its not a song with hit potential - don't push it down radios throat and then make us listen to it and wonder if the artist's creativity has dried up.

Current examples of this are "Love Runs Out" by One Republic, "Birthday" by Katy Perry, "Map" by Maroon 5 and "Angel in Blue Jeans" by Train. All great song titles but the greatness stops there and we'd all be better off if radio was instead playing a much better song by a completely unknown artist. Once again my apologies to the artist as these decisions are usually completely out of their control.

That's all for this weekend - we'll be back tomorrow with some more good news about music changing someone's life. Until then please have a great nite!

Music, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

p.s. KEEP MUSIC ALIVE Day #13 - Please visit our first post from Tuesday July 1st for more information about our mission

Our MISSION- Lets "Keep MUSIC Alive!"

Well music's not exactly dead or on its last legs, but I am very concerned about the current state of music in our society. Year after year we see more and more school systems cutting Music and Arts programs for our kids. Adding to that, the general public (that's you and me) are no longer buying CDs or even MP3 downloads. CD sales have been declining for years and last year for the first time the number of paid MP3 downloads declined from the previous year (yes ITunes was getting nervous which explains the Beats acquisition).

I know there are certainly reasons behind these trends. The recent recession hit states and school systems very hard and tough choices have to be made. However, I don't think the decision makers realize just how important the music and arts programs are AND how much they contribute to the success of their students in their traditional subjects including Math, Science, English and History. As for CD and MP3 download sales, that fate was sealed when kids discovered they could play any song they wanted over and over (and over and over) again on YouTube. I mean I love Katy Perry's hit songs but I don't really need to hear the same Katy Perry song 30x in a row (I'm thinking of my daughters as I type this :)). Add to this the multitude of music streaming services now available Pandora, Spotify and Beats to name a few), and it pretty much assures the sales of prerecorded music has been forever changed. Although artists and writers are compensated for these streaming plays, the rate at which they are paid is not anywhere near what they used to be able to earn with actual sales.

The reason for my concern is that I believe these trends will ultimately lead to less and less kids taking up music and reaping the multitude of benefits that playing an instrument brings, especially when doing it as part of a group, band or ensemble. Less kids playing music will lead to less adults playing music and eventually lead to the decline of quality new music being available for everyone's benefit.

Beginning today, we at LoveSongs.com are making it our mission to get at least 10 Million More Kids AND Adults playing Music. Why adults too you may ask? Because adults also receive many benefits when playing music and every adult that plays music will help inspire children around them to play music as well. Music is the gift that absolutely keeps on giving. How are we going to COUNT how many new adults and kids start playing music because of us - Don't worry I've got our expert statistician working on an equation to help us figure it out :) Seriously though, according to the US Census about 8% of US adults play a musical instrument . This adds up to about 18 Million adults out of 230 Million adults in the US. Our goal is to make certain we don't lose any ground on this as less kids potentially start playing music.

To start us off, I'd like to share with you the "Legends of Liverpool"and their own "Help Keep Music Alive" cause they are helping with. Hand picked by the late George Harrison's sister Louise, these 4 lads are one of the finest tributes to a band that will forever live in our musical memories. Please listen and enjoy and I'll be back again tomorrow with a new post!

Music, Love & Laughter,

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

p.s. I invite you to stop back daily as I began to share stories of music empowerment and inspiration from all over the world.

Top 5 Wedding First Dance Songs + Katy Perry does it again!

June is almost upon us and its traditionally one of the most popular months of the year for Weddings. I recently did an interview with AXS.com where I gave my personal Top 5 Wedding First Dance Songs and why. We also talked about what makes a love song timeless - what makes it last year after year and decade after decade. Why do some songs from the 60s-70s still get played on the radio today while others are forgotten to history. It was a fun interview and you can reac the whole thing right here at Vincent James - Top 5 Wedding First Dance Songs

I'll relist the songs here but you'll need to check the AXS article for why I picked this particular five. My top five in no particular order were:

• Can't Help Falling in Love (Elvis Presley)
• I Swear (All 4 One, John Michael Montgomery
• Nothings Gonna Change My Love For You (Glenn Medeiros)
• Valentine (Jim Brickman featuring Martina McBride)
• All of Me (John Legend)

Feel free to post a comment here telling us what your favorite Wedding First Dance song is. To check out the full interview about Top 5 Wedding First Dance Songs please click here

Katy Perry gives us another #1 Pop Song

One of my new favorite songs from the radio isn't exactly a Wedding First Dance song, but it is a great pop tune. Since coming on the scene in 2008, Katy Perry has given us no less than 13 Top Ten Billboard hits including 9 #1 hits - that is pretty amazing for any artist but especially one still so young. Katy Perry started out as Katy Hudson (her real name) back in 2001 with a self-titled CD release and two tours when only 16 years old. Back then her music primarily focused on Christian Rock but unfortunately was not successful. After transforming her music and style into a pop princess she has given us hit song after hit song. Katy's latest song "Dark Horse" has also gone to #1 and for good reason. It's an incredibly well-written and produced pop song and features these tantalizing lines:

"Make me your Aphrodite...
Make me your one and only" which is followed up by

"So you wanna play with magic,
boy you should know what you're falling for
Baby do you dare to do this"
Cause I'm coming at ya like a dark horse

It's not Shakespeare, but as pop lyrics go they're pretty awesome and when you add in some great melodies that Katy is famous for you can definitely see why "Dark Horse" went all the way to #1. My only partial critique of the song is I'm not a big fan of the rap inserted in the middle like is done on many pop songs these days. There are many rap songs I have liked over the years and I have liked when rap is inserted into a pop song in some cases. But too many times I feel its added just to try to expand the audience when the pop song really stands on its own with the added rap just detracted from the music. I'll write a future blog post featuring pop songs where I felt the rap section added actually added something to the song to make it better.

Here is the Egyptian themed video for "Dark Horse" which has been viewed almost 400 million times (that's just crazzzzy)

That's everything for today folks - I hope you have a great weekend and we'll be back to you with another post in June - which is like reaaaaal soon :)

Peace, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

"Me and My Broken Heart" by Rixton - Now THAT's a catchy hook

New English band Rixton have cracked the Billboard Top 40 with their first single "Me and My Broken Heart". The second you hear the opening chorus being you know this is gonna be good. Very catchy hook, great sounding vocal and a lyric that many can relate to when we're down and out on love:

All I need is a little love in my life
All I need is a little love in the dark
Just a little but I'm hoping it might
Kick start Me and my Broken Heart

Our hearts sometimes neeeeed a little kick start and this is the perfect pop tune to do it!

Alex B from Philly is our Indie Love Song Artist of the Month for May

Back on the US side of the pond we have an extremely talented young artist from Philadelphia making some great pop music. We're talking about none other than Alex B. I've seen Alex perform several times and he is the real deal - He has the voice, the look, AND the songs...but most of all he has IT. He has that magical star quality that the rest of us run around trying to figure out how to invent, when the truth is some artists are just born with it. Check out Alex's great poptune "Rollercoaster" playing on the front page of LoveSongs.com

Here also is a fun video of Alex's song "Will You Be My Girl" - Check out both songs and see if you don't agree that there's something pretty cool going on with 14 year old Alex B and his music.

New LoveSongs.com mobile site launching sooooon!

That's right we'll be launching our new mobile site very soon - We're putting on the finishing touches and hope to have it up by this Monday May 5th (Cinco de Mayo yaaay!). No more squinting our eyes when we browse on our phones :) We've also updated our current Favorite Love Songs chart at Vote for your Favorite New Love Song. Lots of new songs added including tunes by Katy Perry, Christina Perri and Justin Timberlake

That's all for todays news - stay tuned for another update verrrry soon!

Music, Love & Laughter,

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Friday's Feature - "Replay" by Iyaz

Well I have to admit I thought he was saying "Charlene's like a melody...." but actually its "Shawty's like a melody..."...glad I looked that one up :) This is definitely a catchy song that you just want to play again and again. Born Keidran Jones, the artist known as Iyaz. Sean Kingston found Iyaz's music online and tried unsuccessfully to contact him a few times, then finally Iyaz responding just incase it really was Kingston's email :) Well the rest as they say is history...Iyaz signed with a Warner Brothers affiliate..his debut CD "My Life" came out in 2009 and "Replay" went all the way to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (not a bad debut :)). More music is on the way from "My Life" listen for it on radio..for now check out this infectious tune and video:

"Replay" - YouTube

Record Label Giant EMI lost 1.7 Billion Pounds (as in $$$)

In the past year, UK record label giant EMI REcords lost a staggering 1.7 Billion pounds. Not sure what that exactly translates to in dollars (about $ 2.5 Billion Dollars I believe) but its huge. Home to Katy Perry, Coldplay, David Bowie and many other successful artists. Currently they have 4 albums in the Top 10 charts in the US and have about 18% of the market. But illegal MP3 downloads are continuing to take a big bite out of EMI and other companies as they try to stay relevant in the digital age (would have helped if they had jumped on the Itunes/paid Napster situation much sooner). Check out the full article here: EMI Records loses 1.7 Billion Pounds

That's all for Friday nite folks - BIIGGG snowstorm coming in tonight to Philadelphia area - 12-18 inches should be a long white weekend. Be back tomorrow with an Indie song favorite and some more music news!

~Vincent