Sneezy's Music - The Musical Edition

I love musicals. I've known for years that I love them. Still, even now, I'll start listening to a Broadway-style song, and it will irritate me to no end for the first 45 seconds. The performers act with their singing, and at first, it sounds like obnoxious overacting. However, as the singers continue, they never waver in adding as much oomph as possible, and I realize it's not obnoxious overacting. It's unashamed theatricality, and I love it! So much emotion. That's the other part I love. Musicals contain so much emotion because the characters are allowed to sing out their feelings in expository fashion, and it's believable because, well, they burst into song in the first place. If you can take that, you can take their expository singing. It's so much drama, in such a fantastic way. Like soap operas, only good, with singing and costumes and occurrences that never take place in real life. Musicals are forever young.

Wicked
Wicked is a fractured version of The Wizard of Oz. In Wicked, the Wicked Witch of the West (or Elphaba) is the hero, shunned by the multitudes because she was born with green skin. The wizard is the villain, who, I think, steals the voices of the anthropomorphic animals of Oz. He also tries to kill Elphaba. Forever determined to be good, Elphaba makes it her mission to stop the evil wizard. Because of this, the people of Oz label her "wicked." Idina Menzel plays Elphaba, and Kristin Chenowerth plays Galinda. I hope they make a movie of this musical because, even after listening to and reading about it, I'm not sure what all happens. All its songs are so clever. I shall take you step by step through the three that here appear.

The Wizard and I
She sings so wonderfully, so fiercely, it's hard not to sing along. As you can see, it's a happy song, but it holds some pretty ironic foreshadowing. Elphie envisions a "celebration throughout Oz that's all to do with me." She'd be so happy she could "melt." Now, I may not have to tell you this, but all of Oz will celebrate only because she literally melts. Of course, she doesn't know that. So I'll let you decide whether it's really a happy song.



What is this Feeling?
This is so smart and funny. I may be stating the obvious again, but replace the word "loathing" with "love" or "loving" throughout the song, and you'll see it could just as well be a love song...but it's not! It's a hate based on superficial qualities, brought on in an instant, expected to last forever, but doomed to end, all just like infatuation. "It's so pure, so strong!" Heh! Ri-ight.



Dancing through Life
This song presents meaning in layers. First comes the obvious truth that life IS "more painless for the brainless." If one doesn't think, one never hurts. If one doesn't care, one is never saddened. Next comes the spoiler that Fiyero later becomes the Scarecrow. Supremely sneaky, I'd say.



I love all the songs not only because they're easy on the ears but also because they're smart. They're all worth listening to. *Hint*

Jekyll and Hyde
I find this song so pretty, and the picture pretty cool. I like other songs from this musical, but this one sticks most in my mind.

No One Knows Who I Am



Spiderman Turn off the Dark
Yes, they have created a Broadway musical of Spiderman. At first, this seemed like a completely ridiculous idea. How can the Spiderman we know from the movies be contained in a tiny stage when he should be swinging around from New York skyscrapers? From the preview below, though, they will have some pretty amazing effects. And you know, the movies didn't capture it well, but Spiderman is a pretty emotional chronicle, as I know it from the 1992 TV series. It's like a soap opera, but glorious, with goblins and black holes and science and genetic mutation and cloning, instead of lame stuff like ex-husbands. In other words, Spiderman's sort of perfect for a musical.


Preview
I hope it does well, so that it runs a long time, so that I can still go see it when I'm rich.



Rise Above
I like this song well enough. It's a bit repetitive, but, eh. I'm not sure if they've released more songs. To be honest, I only started looking today because I didn't feel that two musicals was enough for this post.

Videos and Music and Stuff, You Know...Sneezy's Music

Cat gets caught barking by a human and resumes meowing
Haha! So cute!
[When Mom saw this post, she said, "What, no comment on this one?" Well, I did comment, just briefly. However, if I were to give a more in depth analysis, this is what I'd say: Perhaps this cat was raised by dogs. Or perhaps it's trying to cough up a hairball. Perhaps the human startled it out of the concentration it took to "bark." Or perhaps the human brought the cat's attention to what it was doing absentmindedly, and it stopped. Or perhaps it was planning to stop any second and the human had very little to do with it. The possibilities are fathomless. Cats are fathomless. You are fathomless. A mortal like me should not be so arrogant as to pretend I know what goes on in the minds of cats and you. Uh-UH. Anyway, this video does not indicate cats are trying to dominate the world, as so many think anything cat-related indicates. HORSES, now, horses are much more likely to try for world domination. I got bitten by a horse today (not BADLY, but still...bruises), so I was reading about training horses that bite. From what I read, horses bite to show their OWNERS who's boss, and they can kill people. Cats only bite people in play or fear or self-defense, and they leave a bit of blood at MOST. Yet horses get a reputation as gorgeous, gracious gods among animals, and cats get a rap as evil little Napoleons. Where is the justice in that?! Kentucky? No, what am I saying? It's not in Kentucky, because there is no justice in that. Maybe horses are spreading rumors about cats to cover their own tracks...Nah, horses aren't that smart. (I mean, they bite the hand that feeds them, for crying out loud! Yes, I'm still mad about it.) Maybe that cat was barking at a horse...Nah, fathomless. (Cats don't bite me when I feed them. They're smart.)

Well, how's that for in depth?]



Jedward (Irish twins John and Edward) are more famous in Europe than in the US, so I don't know much about them. From what I have seen, though, they get terribly disproportionate amounts of hate, considering they're not criminals; they also get rather too much love; they are not "hot" or "inspiring" as their fans claim they are; and they are definitely ridiculous as their detractors claim they are. But ridiculous in a way that amuses me. Most celebrities ARE ridiculous, but few make fun of themselves in their own music videos, which Jedward do in All the Small Things. And Lipstick  makes you want to dance AND showcases the twins' iffy coordinated dance skills. It's like they're trying to make us laugh. Haha! Jedward.

Jedward - Lipstick



Jedward - All the Small Things



Ryan Sheridan - Jigsaw
A catchy song by an Irish artist, this reminds me a bit of Mumford and Sons, only faster and therefore less dull.



Royseven - Dance
Another Irish artist, another catchy song, another day the synonym-finder in my brain has been AWOL.



Simon and Garfunkel - I Am a Rock
How did I not know this song? It's glorious!

Sneezy's Music!

Welcome to Sneezy's Music, the part of the blog where Sneezy comes out and posts songs that she likes but didn't create.

Club Called Heaven by Black Cards
I like this song because it sounds like an old record AND a pop song with a good beat. It's different from most songs one hears today.





Try by Natasha Bedingfield
Natasha Bedingfield released a new album recently, and I love Natasha, so it pains me to say this, but the album wasn't very good compared to her last ones. All the new songs sound the same, somewhat boring. I admit Strip Me has grown on me since I first heard it, but that was months ago, so the others might grow on me too, but it will take a while. However, in spite of the slow music, I kind of like the following song. It's just kind of nice. I dunno.





Islands by The XX
I first liked the song just because of the video. It's interesting and different. Someone said it shows how "No man is an island." I think I agree with that pretty much. The song is called Islands, and the dancers do seem lost without their partners. The song grew on me too. Nice lyrics.






Rosie by Daisy Dares You
I first liked the song becauses...it's a fun song. The video's not great, but it's okay.







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Thor
I had to add this movie trailer too. It's for Thor (says the Queen of the Obvious). It looks good. At the start of the trailer, it looks like another boring superhero movie about some invincible guy with mysterious origins, but as it progresses, it shows Thor being reprimanded for being a "vain, greedy, cruel boy." This means Thor is far from perfect, which is unusual for superheroes. It seems to be setting up character development, which is rare in entertainment. It's also rare to deride vain, greedy, cruel people. Often, they applaude characters for being vain and cruel (Shawn Spencer of Psych comes to mind, sorry little brother) and greedy (Entrapment comes to mind, although I don't remember much of it). Thor might be applauded for those traits too, in spite of the trailer suggesting that he won't. In which case, it will stink. I will not lose hope, however, that the marketing reflects the movie and character development will occur.

Also, I like Thor's line about how our ancestors called science magic. That's just what I've always thought!







Well, TTFN!

Marina and the Diamonds

It was near the start of this year I first heard of the singer known simply as Marina and the Diamonds (her real last name is Greek for diamonds, but she changed it to this). I learned of her through the Skulduggery Pleasant fandom. Skulduggery Pleasant is an Irish series of books, so most of its fans are UK-based, as are Marina and her fans. It seems shes's becoming more popular in the States, however, and this is...bad. I felt special when I was the only American who knew about her...Now I am nothing! So I had to make this post to say, "Ha! I knew about her before anyone! ANYONE! Well, before the people who only listen to big hit music, 9/10 of which is to real music what water is to...something not watery! Now witness my takeover of the universe and my ban on all Taylor Swift music until she can write something original and thought-provoking and stop faking an accent!"

Anyway, I heard Marina's song I Am Not a Robot first. The more I listened to the lyrics, the more I liked the song. I didn't like Marina's voice initially, but now I find it refreshingly different. I like the video, too, because of the glitter, paint, and pretty makeup.





After listening to that a few times, I branched out into the related videos, and the following are my favorites.

Mowgli's Road -- Many people call the video creepy, but I only call it creative. I'm not sure what the song means. It's poetry, I guess, and poetry swaddles meaning in in the deceptive cotton of ambiguity, which annoys me to no end. I do understand a few lines, though, and them I like.




Hollywood -- This was my favorite of the initial Marina songs I encountered. I liked the fast, upbeat music. She calls America a mess but also says she's obsessed. And apparently, in other statements, she said she admired the hard-working, dream-winning spirit of America, so I don't take this song as an insult. I love the line, "Actually, my name's Marina."




Shampain -- I admit this song isn't as delightful as the others, but I like the video. It's a bit like Thriller, but the zombies are glamorous. Glamorous zombies -- What could be better?




Oh No -- This video came out a few months after I discovered Marina. It renewed my interest in her. This is probably my favorite Marina song and my favorite song all around for a couple weeks after it came out. The lyrics are strong, the music fun, the colors light and bubblegummy, and the choreography matches the song very well.




TTFN!