Category Archives: Music

Keone and Mari Madrid – The Next Hip-Hop Dynamic Duo

Posted in Dance, Music by

Keone and Mari Madrid are called the next NabbyTabs.  It’s wonderful to get compared as an artist to people you admire, but this dynamic duo has a style all their own.  With the caring and kind nature of Keone and the graceful and free spirit of Mari these two are out to change the world of dance through education, choreography and philanthropic efforts.

Keone Madrid’s first love was basketball.  He grew up playing sports and didn’t take his first hip hop class till he was fifteen, where he started with one class a week taught by KJ Gonzales.  Starting dance at such a late age and becoming a successful professional is rare, but he was determined.  After his first class he joined the apprentice crew of Culture Shock San Diego called Future Shock San Diego, which eventually become the director.  After high school his students and mentors encouraged him to pursue his choreographic aspirations and really get out in the world.  He was nervous to post his work online so students started to on his behalf which led to his first international gig in Norway.

Mari Madrid also didn’t start dancing until a late age.  At thirteen years old, she took her first dance class in Boulder, Colorado.  At seventeen she moved to San Francisco and danced with a group called Funkanometry.  Finally, at twenty-three she moved to San Diego to dance with Choreo Cookies.

These two love birds originally met at Urban Legends in Temecula, California where they were both teaching.  They eventually joined the same crew shortly following Choreo Cookies, which they became co-directors in a short time.  These two have choreographed for music artists all over the United States and Asia as well as had a successful commercial career choreographing the 2012 Hyundui commercial and most recently was on So You Think You Can Dance as a choreography duo.  The couple has signed with Go 2 Talent Agency as a choreographic team.  They have also founded Kingdom Made which is an arts charity that sells clothing and accessories to fund its international mission to build homes and offer dance and art workshops for the underprivileged.

When I look at people to admire, I look at no only talent, but are these people truly good people.  The Madrids are beyond good people.  They don’t allow society to run the way they think or their actions.  They play by their own rules as professional dancers and choreographers as well as personally in their beliefs on relationships and importance of getting to know someone deeply before fully committed to a marriage and that marriage actually mean something more than another step in a relationship.  I spent hours watching their work on YouTube and noticed that as individuals they were technically beautiful, but as partners they had an undeniable spirit in the way they moved.

I watched YouTube videos for hours before I came across two that spoke to me personally.  The Madrids created a music video in 2011 called Don’t Stop the Music which was stylized in the 1920s and went from black and white to color.  An energy and connection that was undeniable as they used off rhythms to make the movement flow.  Their style was full of illusion with smooth yet sharp isolations.  They incorporated small changes in their movement like doing arm motions sitting to standing to different camera angles of the same movement that seem different but they are not.  The remix done by Jamie Cullum is revolutionary and drives the piece as Mari is a beast in her heels while maintaining the sweet and lovable side in her dancing.  The other piece I watched was one done at the Urban Dance Camp with music by Sam Smith, Stay With Me.  In this piece they were so in sync with each other that it was undeniable that they were meant to dance together.  A beautiful couple, a perfect choreographic partnership, and two people that are unstoppable.

**All life information about the couple was found at Dance Spirit Magazine article by Ashley Rivers and Go 2 Talent Agency**

Watch their Don’t Stop the Music Video Below!  Their articulate hand and arm choreography is so intertwined that I think I backed up the player more than 10 times.

Does Your Playlist Matter in Your Workout?

Posted in Music, Songs by

Have you ever seen the movie Hardball?  In the film the star pitcher Miles needs to listen to the song Big Poppa to pitch well, but when an opposing team’s coach decided to ban his headphones while he was pitching the whole team sang him the song during the game so he could get his mojo back to win the game.  Before Miles even threw a pitch he would get inside his own head by listening deeply to the beat and closely to the lyrics:

“I love it when you call me Big Pop-pa
Throw your hands in the air, if yous a true player”

Music can have a high impact on your ability to perform, workout, or focus.  Over the years Dr. Costas Karageorghis has studied the enhancement abilities music can have on a workout.  Karageorghis created the Brunel Music Rating Inventory which is a questionnaire used to rate the motivational qualities of music.  Administered to different panels of various demographics who listen to 90 seconds of a song and rate its motivational qualities for physical activities.  What has been discovered is that tempo is one of the keys to a good workout playlist.  Using the beat (tempo) to the rate of your movement gives the person a pace to keep so it becomes easier to speed up or slow down.  The other reason why tempo is important is it can keep time with your heart with the right flow of music.  The average person’s heart rate corresponds to the tempo of 120 to 140 beats per minute (bpm).

Music becomes like a metronome for your body to keep time, pace, and energy.  Besides tempo or rhythm, lyrics and how a song makes you feel emotionally can also have a significant impact.  Considering your emotion can determine your motivation in your workout.  Are you going are hard at the gym trying to push yourself to the limit?  Are you trying to find an inner strength and relaxation place through yoga?  Or are you trying to keep pace to do weight lifting while trying to distract yourself from exhaustion.  It has been proven in studies done by Dr. Karageorghis that music can distract you from pain and fatigue, elevates your mood, increases endurance, reduces perceived effort, and promotes metabolic efficiency.  In the article, “Let’s get Physical: The Psychology of Effective Workout Music” by Ferris Jabr it discusses how many organizations who put on races have banned music during the race if they are vying for awards or money.  This ban was going to go broader to all marathon runners from music players to prevent runners from having a competitive edge.  There was a lot of push back from the marathon runners so it never become an official rule.

For me, listening to music allows me to get lost in my head.  My brain is constantly running and very rarely shuts off.  It is always thinking – what is my next step in life?  Was the decision I made at work the right one yesterday?  I have to make my to do list?  The list goes on forever.  According to “They’re Playing My Song. Time to Workout” by Steven Kurutz, people exercise longer and more vigorously with music.  I think it is because it gives a person a focus point.  If I can get through this song running my next few laps I am one step closer to the finish line.

I have a tendency to create a playlist for the different stages of my workout.  First you have your warm up where you need to amplify your momentum.  Then you need a driving force to continue to push you in the moment and keep you focus.  Finally, you need some recovery music to bring you back down to a relaxation state and decrease your heart rate.  Knowing friends of mine the three most popular genres that I’ve found on playlists are hip hop, rock, and pop.  All these types of music you can use for various stages of your workout.  A little hip hop to get the blood flowing, rock to keep the push, and pop to bring you back down to a dance your apartment level or stretching.  As Dr. Karageorghis says, “one could think of music as a type of legal performance enhancing drug.”  So, as Nike says “Just do it.”

Click Here for my current workout playlist!  And “I love it when you call me big poppa…” and I might have a slight 80s problem.

The Last Five Years – Relationships are Hard

Posted in Film, Music, Songs by

Jamie sings, “Share your life with me for the next ten minutes.”  That is all relationships are, a series of ten minutes that can be full of joy, sadness, fear, and anger.  The film The Last Five Years takes you on a journey through a relationship that sees ups, downs, and sideway turns.  It brings you into the heads of the characters Cathy (Anna Kendricks) and Jamie (Jeremy Jordan) as they explore, savior, and experience love.  Cathy and Jamie’s relationship always seemed unbalance from the beginning.  Cathy, a struggling actress trying to hold on to the man that she fell in love with, and Jamie, a successful author at twenty-three always wanting more than what he had.  He watches his career soar as Cathy just follows behind.  Cathy sings, “…and then he smiles and nothing else makes sense…”  The song ends as you see her walking behind him, following his lead.  It was never a partnership.  In it together, side by side.  She always followed in his success instead of focusing on her career, her dream.

I question, can you have it all?  They were twenty-three.  Babies starting out on their career paths.  Trying to have it all – the successful relationship, the marriage, and the career.  The ability that a person has to turn your whole world upside down with one word, one letter, one song is a heartbreak everyone has been through.  You can start to question yourself worth when you are with someone who is more successful than you.  You can have feeling of neglect no matter how many times the successful person is supportive of your dreams and your aspirations.  You can live in your failures instead of taking your time to find the right path needed to get you to your goals.  Jamie gives Cathy a watch and at the end of the song he says “take your time.”  Can you take your time when everything else around you is moving fast?  When your husband is on a different page, a different chapter, or a different book?  Can you be supportive of his dreams when he stopped being supportive of yours?

The hour and thirty minute film bounced back and fourth between different parts of the last five years of their relationship.  Between the excitement and lust you have when you first connect with someone.  To the anger and bitterness you can have towards someone when they say something like “I will not lose because you can’t win.”  Those words are hurtful and were said out of anger, but then did Jamie ever really believe in Cathy?  Had he become so frustrated that he needed to cheat on her?  He said:

“Little more glue every time that it breaks
Perfectly balanced, and then I start making
Conscious, deliberate mistakes”

Mistakes.  Are they mistakes if you are doing them consciously or deliberately?  If they are mistakes wouldn’t you confess and try to work it out.  The blame for a relationship not working is not one person’s fault or the other.  It takes two people to have a relationship and you either want it or you don’t.  The Last Five Years shows how if it is always one sided it is never going to work.  It will fall apart like a flower losing its pedals.  In the words of Jason Robert Brown, if a successful relationship is to happen the thought process has to be:

“I will never be complete
I will never be alive
I will never change the world
Until I do”

TLC – ‘Waterfalls’ Domination of the Summer of ’95

Posted in Bands & Music Artists, Music, Songs by

TLC – four platinum albums, five Grammys, sold more than sixty-five million records, and ranked the best selling American female group of all time.  Members Tionne ‘T-Boz’ Watkins, Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopez, and Rozonda ‘Chilli’ Thomas lit the world on fire with their R&B, Funk, Hip-Hop, Urban, and Soul sound.  TLC signed with Antonio L. A. Reid at LaFace Records in ’91, and their debut album (Ooooooohhh…On the TLC Tip) was released in February ’92. The album was a critical and commercial success becoming a four time platinum album in that year.  Written primarily by Lopez and producer Dallas Austin.  This album led to three Top 10 singles (Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg, What About Your Friends, and Baby-Baby-Baby), as well as a national tour as the opening act for MC Hammer.

Their second album (CrazySexyCool) made them even bigger.  With four singles that reached the top five Hot 100 (Creep, Waterfalls, Red Light Special, and Diggin’ On You), worldwide sales hitting fifteen million, Diamond Certification from RIAA, and won two Grammys in ’96.  They seemed unstoppable, except life has a way of hitting you in the face.  Watkins was dealing with medical bills and an illness, and Lopez had a drinking problem, domestic disputes with her then boyfriend, as well as an arrest record for arson.  The Group declared chapter 11 bankruptcy in ’95.  Some articles say it was the bills and problems that the girls got into while others directed it towards the expenses, fees, and royalties that the label and management team were receiving.  It seemed the more money the group made the less money the group got.  They were selling millions of records and performing, but after all the costs, fees, and other expenses the girls were left with $50,000 a piece after years of blood, sweat, and tears.  I think the lesson here is to really understand what you are signing with management and a label, and if you don’t understand the agreement or need to negotiate bring in an entertainment lawyer.

CrazySexyCool had the hit of the summer 1995 with Waterfalls.  A song that was smooth and soulful with the rap edge of Lopez.  Written by Lopez, Marqueze Etheridge, and Organized Noise where it touched on subjects of illegal drugs, promiscuity, HIV/ AIDS, and death.  The video was innovative, full of digital enhancements that were still new to the time, and hit real subject matter that made you think about your actions.  It was not the normal summer hit that was all fun and games, but brought you to an understanding that your actions have consequences.  These lyrics in the song sum up the concept:

“I say the system got you victim to your own mind
Dreams are hopeless aspirations
In hopes of comin’ true
Believe in yourself
The rest is up to me and you”

Waterfalls spent seven weeks at number one, won four MTV Video Music Awards, and introduced the world to Cee Lo Green who assisted with the backing vocals on the track along with Debra Killings.  I can honestly say that when I was nine years old, I was not paying attention to the deeper metaphor.  Watching MTV with my cooler older brother all I really cared about was that I got to do what the big kids do.  Now I realized how important this song was to our generation.  The epidemic of HIV/AIDS hit in the 80s and carried into the 90s.  The drug situation with the youth is terrifying and brings to light the importance of mentors in the inner cities to get kids out of the illegal drug ring.  To understand that there are better options and more opportunities than what is in front of you.

TLC dominated the charts during the 90s.  They continued to make epic music like No Scrubs which was our jam in middle school!  After their third album Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopez died in a car crash in Honduras in 2002.  The group released a fourth album with some of Lopez’s raps on two of the songs, but the group made the decision to retire and never replace their sister.  Now, they are on the move to make a fifth album for the fans in collaboration with their old producer Dallas Austin.  Waterfalls will always one my favorite songs of the 90s.  There is no doubt that the new generation of girl groups had some great role models for music.  TLC was the the representation of females and excelled in a dominated boy band time and brought to light issues more than just a song about a broken heart.

Click Here and come back to the 90s with this TLC playlist. Below is the video for ‘Waterfall’.

Band Spotlight: Against the Current

Posted in Bands & Music Artists, Music, Songs by

Girl fronted bands have been blowing up in the music scene over the last few years.  There is Paramore, The Pretty Reckless, Prvis, Echosmith, and now Against the Current.  Recently signed to the record label Fueled By Ramen (March 2015), Against the Current (ATC) is a three piece pop-rock band that consists of Chrissy Costanza (lead vocals), Daniel Gow (guitar and vocals), and Will Ferri (drums) from Poughkeepsie, New York.  Formed in the Summer of 2011 meeting through mutual friends and were originally a five piece band which also included Jeremy Rampala (guitar) and Joe Simmons (bass).  Ultimately, they have grown into the badass band they are today with a more enhanced musical sound, stronger stylized lyricists, and a fan base that I have watched grow on YouTube from a little over 100,000 to over a million followers.

In an interview with Maria Sherman the band stated that they utilized YouTube as a way to build their fan base outside of playing local gigs at pizza hangouts.  They were a band for about a year before ATC created their YouTube channel where they not only did covers of popular songs, but released original music.  The first cover they released was Good Time (Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen) as well as their first original Thinking.  Releasing both at the same time I thought was music business genius.  Fans of Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen searching online could come across ATC’s cover as well as their original music to help gain a new audience.

For the past four years ATC has done all the business related together as a team from packing up and sending merchandise, to spending a week to record and write in the studio to release new music for their fans.  The one support they have had before the label is a manager to helped book them all over the world.  For a band that just got a record deal in 2015 they have played sold out gigs in not only the United States, but in England, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Canada.  Now having a record label behind them they can focus more on their music as well as get a promotional push from the label to reach a radio level of success.

Their most recent EP Gravity has the potential to have radio hits, especially the song Talk.  Right now, the radio sound has been blowing up with 80s synth music (Taylor Swift, The Bleachers) and the comeback of electric guitars with groups like 5 Seconds of Summer and their 2014 break out hit She Looks So Perfect.  Chrissy Costanza has a powerful voice that has a range to be able to go from a hard rocker chick to a soft ballad.  Personally, I like her voice when it is on a bit of an edge.  The song Talk has an aggressive sound with the start of simple chords of a guitar and soft drum beat that explodes within the first twenty seconds.  Costanza’s ‘don’t mess with me’ attitude I think is the power every girl wishes they had when dealing with a boy that messing with their head; the younger generation has a great role model coming up with Costanza.

Against the Current’s push to go against the grain by releasing original music through YouTube along with covers gave them an edge in getting recognized by a label.  Their push to play outside their hometown, wanting the music to reach more than their inner circle coupled with the drive to do their music their way has a stead fast determination sure to take them far.  As their name is derived from the last line in The Great Gastby, “So we beat on, boats against the current, born back ceaselessly into the past.”

Music Video for Against the Current’s Talk.  Click here for ATC website.