Me and My Wonderful Genre Naming Skills

Wow, I've been extremely tired for the last few days and I don't know why!

Anyways, I liked all of your suggestions for blog post topics! I liked one the most though, and that was Gemma's!

I actually do not have a list of music genres that I like and which order that I like them in, I mostly just said that to make myself sound more interesting.  However, I am going to attempt to make a list. Right here. Right now. The trouble is that I can never remember any bands or artist that I like until I here there name mentioned or a song by them, and my iPod only has about 1/8 of the artists I like on it. So if there are a lack of band and artist names, that is why. Well, here goes nothing.

For all you people out there who are way better at categorizing music than I am, please don't critique, honestly this is how I separate music in my head so, there is no point in saying "well that's the wrong definition" or "that band isn't that genre but it's THIS one." Yeah, just don't.

1. Acoustic or Folky or Soft?  - I'm not really sure what to call it. Alternative maybe? Whenever I here that word though I think of alternative rock, which isn't what I'm talking about. I'd say some examples of this genre would be: Ingrid Michaelson (of course), Jon Foreman, My band: Kelly & Caitlin, Missy Higgins, Sufjan Stevens, This Providence, etc... It's just stuff that can be upbeat but isn't all over the place or loud, just soft chill music I guess is how I would describe it.

2. Alternative Rock - When I think of alternative rock, I think of bands like Switchfoot and Maroon5. There are a ton of other bands that I like that fall into this category, but I like I said earlier, I can't remember any right now. It's rock that isn't hard, or punk, or metal, it's just kind of smooth and awesome.

3. Normal Rock? - Wow I'm terrible at naming things hehe. I guess I would say normal rock is not punk or hard rock, or metal, or alternative, it's just I don't know, normal? I'd say bands like Nickelback and Hinder  and Panic! at the Disco (not normal, but ya know, normal),   etc... I know I'm terrible at this naming genre and bands thing. Sorry about that.

4. Ska - An old friend of mine turned me onto this wonderful genre of music. It's basically rock music with a brass line to it. Rock isn't the word I'm looking for though, agh! I can't remember the word! REGGAE! That's it! A lot of ska music has a reggae beat only it's super awesome and fun! Basically ska is just awesome, It may even rank as number 3 instead of 4. My favorite ska bands are: Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, Streetlight Manifesto, Goldfinger, etc...

5.  Punk -ish - Kind of punk but not classic, old school punk, but today's sort of punk.  For example: Fall Out Boy, All American Rejects, Blink 182, Avril Lavigne, etc...

6. Hard Rock - This mostly consists of bands that have singing and SOMETIMES some screaming thrown in. Not to be  confused with post-hardcore (we'll get there). The instrumentals are just awesome and make you want to head bang and rock out. I would say some good hard rock bands are: Flyleaf, Coheed & Cambria, Slipknot (Sometimes), Skillet, Future leaders of the world, All that Remains,  etc... I'm losing my mind! There are so many band and I can't think of them! There are plenty more that I like, I swear! Those aren't even my favorites!

7. Pop - Pop is like the biggest genre of music out there really. Lady Gaga, Hannah Montanna/Miley Cyrus, Rhianna (Sometimes), Britney Spears, Michael Jackson (not a fan of him, so you know), Aaron Carter, and the list goes on and on and on and on...... Those are just the names I could think of.

8. R&B - We all know what R & B is. Although, I never know who is an R & B artist and who is a hip hop artist. Either way, I basically put anyone who sings instead of raps into the R & B section haha :-) I would say: Usher, Beyonce, Mario, Ashanti, etc... I'm not really that into it, but I really like Usher and Beyonce.

9. Hip-hop - Alright, I like REAL hip-hop ya know, where people aren't obsessed with calling everyone bitches and hoes. Where "let's get high" isn't a key phrase, and sex, boobs, and asses aren't the theme of the song. Yeah I like artists who can rap without needing to be.. alright I'll just say it, stupid and perverted. I honestly don't know a lot of rappers who don't do that. Eminem has SOME good songs, but he falls into all that crap too. Will Smith's stuff is alright I guess. I'm honestly not that into it, but I like dancing to it, and every now and then I find a song that I really like in the Hip-hop field.

10. Country - I honestly do not like country very much at all. I think that the lyrics are lame and dumb, and just absolutely ridiculous sometimes. I can't even EXPLAIN to  you how much I don't like country. However, there are some artists that don't completely suck like: Faith Hill, Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban, Trisha Yearwood. That's basically it. I'm sure I missed someone else I like too though, but oh well.

11. Post - Hardcore - I will admit there are some songs that I like that fall into this genre, but I mostly just find it whiny and irritating. It's basically guys who sound like girls and they scream sometimes. Like girls. Almost every song sounds the same. Literally. I'm not even kidding. I once looked up a bunch of post-hardcore stuff, four words. Different bands, one tune. I'm telling you. It's pretty bad.

12. Heavy Metal, screamo, hardcore crap - I honestly just don't like listening to a song that does nothing but scream. I don't have any band names, because I don't know any, because I don't like any. Sorry.


That's basically it. There are so many genres of music out there, but that's the list of stuff I know for the most part. The last three are the stuff I generally don't like, but every now and then I come across a good song from one of them. Not the last one though. I don't know one song that I like that is all screaming.

Something I didn't mention though was how much I love musicals and there soundtracks. I love them. Especially Hairspray and Legally Blonde: The Musical.

SO I think YOU all should leave a comment with your list. It doesn't have to be quite as detailed and long as mine, but even just the names in order that you like them.


Also, what do you think of my list?

La Da Da Da La Da Da Da

What to write about, what to write about.... Hmmmm... 

So you should leave me topic ideas in the comments. In fact, I'm not writing a new post until I get at least two suggestions. What do you want to read about?? 

I just got inspired! I put my iPod on shuffle and let it play and wrote down my thoughts during the first 6 songs it played. I'm going to leave this COMPLETELY UNEDITED so it may make no sense! I think that in order to really get the feel of what I wrote that you should listen to the songs as  you read what I wrote about them. So you can get yourself prepared, Here are the 6 songs I listened to: Dream On by Aerosmith, Sweet Caroline by Mark Salling of the Glee Cast, Caught Up by Usher, Fall to Pieces by Avril Lavigne, My Wish by Rascal Flatts, and Maybe by Ingrid Michaelson.

PLEASE COMMENT AND RATE! 

                                                                                       

The song I'm listening to right now is "Dream On" by Aerosmith which incidently was played by a 14 year old at Come 2 Go this month.  He did pretty well I think. Come 2 Go is an open mic thing I go to once a month with my band mate Kelly. Song is over now. New Topic. 

Now "Sweet Caroline" performed by Mark Salling from Glee. I was told that this song was written by like a 40 year old to a 13 year old girl. Creeeeeeeeeeepppyyyyyyy. I like the song either way, and the guy who is singing this version is a total hottie :-) 

OooooooooOooooO "Caught Up" by Usher. I LOVE THIS SONG! It's my favorite song by him! I don't really know why but it always puts me in a really good mood! Makes me wanna dance! However, I'm not dancing right now. I'm sitting around writing this. I'm writing until each song is over, but I don't really have much to say about it.  Once my friend Laura was humming it for this game we were playing  and it sounded more like she was about throw up than it did the song haha!  Wow this song is kinda long, he keeps saying he's caught up over and over and over again... I still love it though!

"Fall to Pieces" by Avril Lavigne. I love this CD. It's off of her second one Under my Skin. I really surprises me how big of a change it was form her second to her third CD was. This one is totally dark and then her newest CD is like Poppy and super happy and preppy. Weird. I still can't even believe it's the same person singing on those two CD's, such polar opposites. This song is one of the happier ones on this CD though. 

"My Wish" by Rascal Flatts. Before you go thinking I'm some kind of country music fan, you need to realize that country is like my third least favorite genre of music out there.  It was like my fifth least favorite, but then I started working at Taco Bell and that was all they ever played and I realized how terrible most of it is and it jumped down two places. I do like some songs though, including this one :-) It's kinda cheesy but I like it either way. I remember seeing the lead singer in the Hannah Montana Movie and being like "is that the dude from Rascal Flatts?" and my friend was like "Uh, no." and then he started sing "Bless the Broken Road" and I was like "HA!" 

Ok last song! "Maybe" by Ingrid Michaelson.  For those of you who don't know, this is my FAVORITE singer! I love all of her music, I don't know one song of her's that I don't  like. Not one. This particular song is really good! It's a little different from her old stuff but it has a really good story! The thing I love about her music is I can relate to every one her songs, they always seem to represent some aspect of my life. If you're looking for some good music, I would recommend anything by her! 

For some reason my wrist is starting to hurt...

Hello everyone!

So guess what? I did not end up going to Missouri for the weekend :(  but I still had a pretty good weekend watching show choirs galore! It was really fun!

I haven't done any book reviews for awhile so I will start with one.  Also I have NOT read anything for the past two weeks! I need to get a move on! You guys gotta pressure me to keep reading! Seriously, every time you see me tell me that I need to keep reading or you'll kill me! (Gemma and Laura I am scared that you will actually do it so your threats would likely be the most effective)  I swear I will never meet my goal if I keep up at this pace!

Anyways, on to the book review: Looking For Alaska by John Green

I read this book from April 20th to April 30th of 2008.  I know I just skipped my book reviews form January to April but the books I read in between that time were not really much to talk about EXCEPT Garden of Shadows by V.C. Andrews but in order to review that book I would have to review the whole series and I am just not in the mood to do that today. Don't get me wrong, the series is AMAZING but I am just not in the right mood to give it the review it deserves.

Back to John Green's book:


Before I read this book I heard rave reviews about it. People were saying it was amazing, life-changing, eye opening. Unfortunately this is not the experience I had while reading this book. I liked it, it was pretty good I suppose, but as for amazing, life-changing, and eye opening,not so much.  After finishing this book I felt nothing but disappointment.  I think that if I had not heard anyone else's opinion on it I would've liked the book a lot more then I did. So, the main reason I didn't like the book that much is because it didn't reach my expectations of it. Now, I love John Green. His blog and his YouTube channel just crack me up, but I read this book before I really knew who he was.  That doesn't mean if I knew who he was when I read it I would have liked it more, but it helps, a bit.  I read this book almost two years ago and I would honestly like to give it another try.  I think that if I read it again I will like it a lot more the second time around 1. Because I'm older and have a better understanding of things and since all these rave reviewers I heard were around my age now when they reviewed it, maybe I will see what they were saying. 2. I have read his other two books and loved them. and 3. Because I love John Green and want to give him another try.  SO, I will let you know when I have re-read Looking For Alaska and I will then post a second review of it. 

For those of you who have read this book or any other book by John Green, did you like it? What is your opinion of it?  and last but not least what is your favorite book by John Green?

For some reason my wrist is starting to hurt so I'm going to leave you with that.  Please comment and rate! Thanks!

~Caitlin~