My Blog as a Mixtape

Joie Fatale of Confessions of a Book Pimp wrote a post recently called  “My Blog as a Mixtape”, and thinking that it’s a really cool idea, I got inspired to do it for Pop Cultured Randoms. The challenge is pretty self-explanatory: make a mixtape – five songs on side A, five songs on side B – that encapsulate what the blog is all about.

Now Pop Cultured Randoms is and always has been an extension of who I am: a fan of all things pop culture – music, movies, television. Trying to define the blog in a mixtape however, has turned out to simultaneously be a fun and difficult task. I don’t want this to simply be a compilation of my favourite songs because that’s a hard task and honestly, it’d end up being like 100 songs with half of it being comprised entirely of Justin Timberlake, Kelly Clarkson and Maroon 5 songs. That being said, seeing as how I often blog about my favourite artists and whatnot, it’s inevitable that my favourites will indeed be included in this playlist.

Here we go…

SIDE A – Pop Favourites

1. Justin Timberlake, Let the Groove Get In – I can’t not have JT in a mixtape and though this track isn’t my absolute favourite of his, it is just so much fun to dance to.
2. Kelly Clarkson, How I Feel – This jem from Kelly’s underrated third album “My December” is pretty much me in a nutshell. The title itself is also very indicative of the blog; I write about how I feel on various pop culture things, so just let me be.
3. Maroon 5, Sweetest Goodbye – Picking a M5 was so hard but ultimately, I just ended up with, no question, my favourite song of theirs, which happened to stem from “Songs About Jane.” The song is everything I love about M5 – the fusion of pop, rock, R&B; a kind of slow-burning love song that builds to a climax featuring Adam’s longing vocals and the band just jamming, made all the more euphoric when you hear them perform this song live. DAMN I LOVE THIS SONG!
4. Kyle Riabko, The Rules of the Game – We have a lot of talent coming out of Canada and one of my favourites is Kyle Riabko. He’s an incredibly talented singer-songwriter and actor, who has done quite well for himself on Broadway (he took over for Jonathan Groff in Spring Awakening back in 2008, went on to Hair, and most recently starred in What’s It All About, a reimagination of Burt Bacharach classics for which he arranged the music). I am Canadian and though I don’t regularly acknowledge Canadian talent, do go and check out Kyle’s discography, which is filled with an incredible amount of soul and a hint of indie folk rock.
5. Delta Goodrem, Waiting for Forever – I’m a little fuzzy on how exactly I came across Delta in the first place, but I’ve been a fan of this Australian singer/songwriter for 10 years. Even as she dives deeper into the pop sound, she holds onto her core of piano-driven songs and thoughtful lyrics.

SIDE B – Random

1. Tony Lucca, Baby One More Time – This song is a reminder of what I loved when I was growing up (Britney Spears, pop music) and how much (or little, it’s debatable) my tastes have changed. What I have always loved is a good cover, and this one done by Tony (who was on the Mickey Mouse Club back in the day with Britney, JT, X-Tina, Ryan Gosling) on the second season of The Voice was just all kinds of genius.
2. Gavin DeGraw, I Don’t Want to Be – “I don’t wanna be anything other than me”; how is that not everyone’s motto? As much as we try to run a successful blog/life/whatever, at the end of the day we just have to do what works for us. The song was also the theme for one of my favourite TV shows One Tree Hill, so this song will always have a special place in my heart. Plus, now every time I see Gavin in concert performing this song, I picture the OTH finale with the whole gang singing along.
3. Jay-Z & Linkin Park, Points of Authority/99 Problems/One Step Closer – Here’s where we get truly random. If you actually met me in person, I don’t think you’d expect me to be a fan of either of these acts, let alone the fact that Collision Course is quite possibly one of my favourite albums. I love me a good mash-up, which by extension brings forth the fact that I love a lot of different music, and this entire album was filled with them. The rap and alternative rap-rock melds so well and truly personifies the random part of the blog.
4. Legally Blonde the Musical, There Right There – My adoration for musicals is a lot more believable than the Jay-Z/Linkin Park pairing. Say what you will, but Legally Blonde is one of my favourite movies (I will always stop to watch it if it comes on TV) and not surprisingly, I fell in love with the musical. With this song, it’s equal parts silly and awesome.
5. Thanh Bui, Mirror Mirror – Holding onto my Vietnamese heritage is something that’s important to me and one of the best ways for me to do that is through music. Every once in a while I’ll blog about a Vietnamese entertainment show called Paris By Night. PBN is amazing to me because though its focus is on Vietnamese culture and music, it is by no means just some concert. The production is actually done by Hollywood standards.; they hire the best in the business from their directors, lighting, camera crew, dancers, etc. This song in particular appeared in PBN 96 as a featured performance by Thanh Bui, a singer/songwriter out of Australia (he was a contestant on Australian Idol), and what makes it so special is that it’s actually written/performed in equal parts English and Vietnamese. It’s a pop song in the veins of OneRepublic (circa the “Apologize” days) and so well-crafted, it pleases me to no end to have a song that melds all these parts of me (Vietnamese, Canadian, music fan) into one.

Geez, that was difficult. You have no idea how many changes I made and what songs almost made the cut, but in the end, I’d say this is a pretty decent mixtape that properly represents Pop Cultured Randoms.

Thanks again Joie for the idea!