NPR's Top 100

“Sing, Sing, Sing”

Benny Goodman and his band's performance of this song is the epitome of swing music. I've danced to this song and have appreciated its exhilarating beat before but after listening to Benny Goodman's comments on how that song came about, I've looked at his accomplishment in a whole new perspective. Their performance at Carnegie Hall was swing's debut to mainstream, american culture. The fact that it was at Carnegie Hall must have been intimidating enough to Goodman and his band. Another thing that I noticed from the recording and commentaries was that the soloists didn't have a sheet of music to play off of. They played what came to them and had to think up of their own chord progressions.

This spontaneity relates to how people dance to the music. “Swing dancing” is considered a social dance, meaning that there is no routine to a certain song. It's expected that two strangers can begin dancing without planning anything out. The man improvises while the lady follows. In Benny Goodman's song, “Sing, Sing, Sing”, the same improvisation occurs. The soloist will choose the way he wants to play his segment while the rest of the band follows his lead. It's fantastic to see how this genre of music is so spontaneous and improvisational.

“Good Vibrations”

When I chose this song, I thought that the credit and praise was going to go to the Beach Boys themselves. I didn't know that so much of the song's success and popularity had to do with the songwriter, Brian Wilson. It is one of the most influential American songs of the twentieth century because of how innovation and experimentation played a part in putting the song together.

One thing that I found interesting about the song was how much work Wilson did in putting the different parts of the song together. It was very packaged and dressed up by all the studio work that he put into it. I always thought that the Beach Boys were like the Beatles and played most of their own music. I was a little surprised to hear that the only part that they had in the recording was the vocals. The peculiar thing is that after listening to how the song came about, my appreciation for it diminished. I'm the type of listener that appreciates a band for their talents in both playing and singing their own music. If someone else wrote the lyrics and the sheet music, that's ok. However, when I hear a band play live, I want to hear the same musicians that were playing when the music was recorded in the studio. Otherwise a band loses its identity. The songs they make are shared among too many producers and writers and become too much of a group effort. I respect the band that produces their own music.

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

I've heard this song several times growing up as a kid, however, I've never known the origins of it nor did I realize how it kickstarted a genre of music. Nirvana is a band that fits the style of a post-modernist band. They weren't anything created by corporate producers and their success came from a small group of guys who just wanted to play their own music. One of the reasons that I like the song is how it was able to give birth to a new type of popular genre that was so different than anything before it's time. The way that Nirvana became successful inspired many youth with aspirations to create their own music. Nirvana became great because they were a few young guys that wanted to have fun playing in a band they formed. The message that the self-made artists gave to the public was that anyone can make great music.

One thing that I've realized about this genre of music is that it gives the listener an outlet to release a certain set of emotions. While reggae encourages a relaxing mood and swing music invites a more spontaneous attitude, grunge rock provides a way for the listener to release adrenalized and aggressive energy that's stored within. Because youth have more of those feelings stored within them, the genre is more appealing to a younger audience. Adults, however, have spent more of those same emotions on life and have forgotten about those feelings. That's why this genre of music is so foreign to them.