Parsons Playlists: Best K-Pop 2023

Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today’s playlist is curated by Music Library student manager Xipeng (class of 2024) and it features some of the best K-pop from 2023.

Best K-pop 2023

K-pop image by Kurihara Akane / flowerakane@MT

Jung Kook feat. Jack Harlow – “3D”

NCT 127 – “Fact Check”

NewJeans – “Super Shy”

XG – “New Dance”

V – “Slow Dancing”

BoyNextDoor – “But Sometimes”

BoyNextDoor – “One and Only”

Riize – “Get a Guitar”

NCT U – “Baggy Jeans”

Le Sserafim – “Eve, Psyche & The Bluebeard’s Wife”

Seventeen – “Super”

BSS feat. Li Young Ji – “Fighting”

Here is a link to the whole playlist on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU94rco57Zeww2QgmYwNBOEdF9tAArVOc&si=8Jz7zyFVlcNhwaqj

Check out an extended playlist on Spotify!:

Arachnophonia: Elton John – “Rocket Man”/”Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”

Editor’s note: Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item(s) in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student manager Kiran (class of 2024) and features a biography of and albums by Elton John. Thanks, Kiran!

Elton John
Rocket Man: The Life of Elton John by Mark Bego
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John

Rocket Man: The Life of Elton John by Mark Bego

Farwell Yellow Brick Road – The Closing Chapter on Elton John’s Magical Journey

For people in my generation, Elton John was the singer we grew up listening to when our parents were tired of listening to 2010s pop and Disney Channel stars. He (and songwriting partner Bernie Taupin) were the masterminds behind the
music & lyrics we somehow all knew even if we didn’t recognize the name. Needless to say, Elton John has been an influential artist on multiple generations and continues to be one of the biggest names in the music industry.

Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

This year, he took to the stage one last time and began his very last world tour. John, now 75, has played over 3,500 concerts since his career took off in 1969. The “Farwell Yellow Brick Road” tour began in 2018 and was halted due to COVID-19. In early November of 2022, John completed the North America leg at Dodgers Stadium, as a nod to one of his earliest shows in which he performed in a bedazzled Dodgers uniform. He will continue touring in Europe this summer with about 60 shows left before he takes his final bow.

John has taken on numerous projects during his career, from creating the hit “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” to an entire soundtrack for Gnomeo and Juliet. You can read more about him at Parsons Music Library or listen to one of his many famous albums in our CD section!

Promotional poster for Elton John's Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour

Promotional poster for Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour

Parsons Playlists: “La Rochelle, je t’aime”

Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today’s playlist is curated by Music Library student manager Kiran (class of 2024) and features musical discoveries from her study abroad experience in La Rochelle, France.

La Rochelle, je t’aime

This summer I had the opportunity to study abroad on the coast of France with other UR students. I spent a month travelling, learning, and eating a ton of croissants. Every year, Dr. Olivier Delers takes students to La Rochelle, a beautiful city just north of Bordeaux. Our trip also happened to coincide with two major festivals that happen in the downtown area: Francofolies and FERMA La Rochelle. Francofolies is a four-day music festival showcasing some of the most popular French artists, while FERMA is international film festival that takes place the week before.

Prior to my trip, I had listened to mostly Indian and American music. I enjoy listening to music in different languages, so I had high hopes for Francofolies. This playlist is inspired by my favorite French and Belgian artists, some of who I had the chance to see live in La Rochelle. This trip gave me some of the best memories, and I am so grateful to have experienced everything that this city had to offer.

Photo by Kiran Saini

1. “Elle m’a dit” by MIKA

2. “Bruxelles je t’aime” by Angèle

3. “Fever” by Dua Lipa (feat. Angèle)

4. “Papaoutai” by Stormae

5. “Dernière danse” by Indila

6. “Amour censure” by Hoshi

7. “Tu me Play” by Juliette Armanet

8. “Grace Kelly” by MIKA

9. “Et même après je t’aimerai” by Hoshi

10. “A la Folie” by Juliette Armanet

11. “Démons” by Angèle (feat. Damso)

12. “Le Dernier Jour du Disco” by Juliette Armanet

Here is the whole playlist on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU94rco57ZewLM26S9ojkqrc28RWQwdMO

Arachnophonia: Elton John “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”

Editor’s note: Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student manager Christian (class of 2023) and features Elton John’s classic 1973 album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Thanks, Christian!

Elton John

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Elton John is one of the most successful and influential musicians of all time, known for his expressive outfits and electrifying performances. In 1973, John released Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, a 17-song album that would go on to sell over 30 million copies worldwide. The album, with lyrics written by Bernie Taupin and produced by Gus Dudgeon, is known as one of John’s best works. Some of the best songs on the album include “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Candle in the Wind,” and “Bennie and the Jets”.

Ever since I had to analyze Goodbye Yellow Brick Road for a school project, the title track is one of my favorite songs. On the surface, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” contains rich vocal harmonies, dreamy piano chords, and a crisp drum beat to create a contemplative atmosphere for John to reflect on his life of fame. As a child, I remember my parents singing along to “Bennie and the Jets” on the radio, another personal favorite song of mine from the album. The song has an instantly recognizable introduction and a spectacular piano solo that displays John’s genius piano and composition skills.

Though John struggled with addiction at the height of his fame, he managed to quit his substance abuse and create his own charity, the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Despite his personal struggles, Elton John is one of the most successful musicians of all time, selling over 300 million records and producing many timeless hits that will live on long after his career is over.

Arachnophonia: The Beach Boys “Smile”

Editor’s note: Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student assistant Amy (class of 2025) and features The Beach Boys’ unfinished album Smile. Thanks, Amy!

The Beach Boys

Smile

The Beach Boys - Smile

Referred to as the most renowned unreleased album in pop music history, Smile was supposed to be the 12th studio album by the American band the Beach Boys, projected to be released after their album Pet Sounds. However, they did not officially release the album, potentially because of legality issues with Capitol Records and the producer and composer of the album – Brian Wilson’s – rocky emotional state.

The album had fully completed musical tracks, but only a few of the songs have vocal recordings. Potentially because of his fear of ridicule, Brian Wilson refused to finish the album, but when bootleg versions of the album became popular among the Beach Boys’ audience in the 80s, Capitol Records released a portion of the album to the public in the 90s.

Wilson drew inspiration from astrology, numerology, and the occult when composing Smile. He also became fascinated with religion, even adopting meditation and vegetarianism. Wilson wanted this album to be a “teenage symphony to God.” The group named the album Smile because it focused on good thought and happiness.

You can find the Beach Boys Smile album at the Parsons Music Library. The box set includes 40 tracks, many of which are unfinished but include parts of the structure of the original Smile album. The box also includes a small book of notes from Wilson and photos from the recording sessions.

Parsons Playlists: 25 Under 25

Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today we’re featuring a selection of 25 songs by artists under the age of 25 as curated by Music Library student assistant Eliana (class of 2024).

25 under 25

A playlist featuring the next generation of artists: 25 songs from 25 artists all 25-years-old or younger.

1. Olivia Rodrigo – “favorite crime”

2. Billie Eilish – “Happier Than Ever”

3. Lil Nas X – “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)”

4. Noah Cyrus – “July”

5. Aurora – “Runaway”

6. Jaden – “Icon”

7. Willow – “Meet Me At Our Spot”

8. Shawn Mendes – “Wonder”

9. Khalid – “8TEEN”

10. Lorde – “Liability”

11. Madison Beer – “Selfish”

12. H.E.R – “Best Part”

13. Tate McRae – “friends don’t look at friends that way”

14. Clairo – “Bags”

15. Jeremy Zucker – “all the kids are depressed”

16. Bazzi – “Young & Alive”

17. Brockhampton – “No Halo”

18. Doja Cat – “Get Into It (Yuh)”

19. Clinton Kane – “CHICKEN TENDIES”

20. Dominic Fike – “Açaí Bowl”

21. Conan Grey – “People Watching”

22. Wallows – “Are You Bored Yet?”

23. Lil Pump – “Gucci Gang”

24. Lev – “When I Hurt You”

25. Ruel – “Painkiller”

YouTube playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkMUbgZb8jJeg-0CMSakdmDpDyDncVqGs

Spotify playlist:

Parsons Playlists: Wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom!: Fun with Non-Lexical Vocables

Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today we’re featuring a collection called “Wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom!: Non-Lexical Vocables” curated by Music Library associate Melanie Armstrong.

This playlist began as a discussion with a friend online a couple months ago. I had shared a song that I’d had stuck in my head and my friend said that it was their least favorite song by the group because (and I quote) “SHA LA LA is a terrible lyric 🙂”. The discussion that followed was all in good fun, but led me to want to research songs that have nonsense syllables in them just to prove that “sha la la” is NOT (necessarily) a terrible lyric.

scat singing notation

Vocals like “sha la la” in songs are called non-lexical vocables. Basically, they are nonsense syllables which may or may not be mixed together with meaningful text and they appear in all manner of different musics. This, of course, led to me being extra geeky and having a lot of fun creating a playlist highlighting a variety of different songs that use nonsense syllables in this way. In point of fact, it goes all the way back to at least the middle ages with songs using things like “fa la la” in them – but I decided to stick to more modern examples for playlist purposes. Which means this playlist starts with some scat singing (from circa the 1920s-1940s) and goes on from there.

Your mileage may vary in terms of your tolerance of the non-lexical vocable, but I maintain that sometimes one doesn’t need an actual word to create musical meaning and that non-lexical vocables can be super fun!

Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five – “Heebie Jeebies”

Cab Calloway – “The Scat Song”

Ella Fitzgerald – “Blue Skies”

The Crew Cuts – “Sh-Boom”

Little Richard – “Tutti Frutti”

The Muppets – “Mah Na Mah Na”

The Jackson 5 – “ABC”

Suzanne Vega with DNA – “Tom’s Diner”

Primitive Radio Gods – “Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand”

Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps – “Be Bop A Lula”

Louis Prima & Phil Harris – “I Wanna Be Like You”

The Del-Vikings – “Come Go With Me”

Ben Folds Five – “Magic” (this is the song that triggered the whole list!)

Earth, Wind & Fire – “September”

Spice Girls – “Wannabe”

Tenacious D – “Classico”

Lady Gaga – “Bad Romance”

Bobby McFerrin & Chick Corea – “Song for Amadeus (Improvisation on Mozart’s Sonata No. 2 in F Major)”

The Beatles – “Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da”

Mungo Jerry – “In The Summertime”

The Tokens – “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”

Wilson Pickett – “Land of 1000 Dances”

The Chips – “Rubber Biscuit”

Ben Folds – “Army” (Live at Roseland Ballroom New York, NY – June 2002)

The Beatles – “Hey Jude”

Here is a link to a YouTube playlist version: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU94rco57ZeyCsgxI0Edsp3YEZWPigCRX

And here is the playlist on Spotify:

Parsons Playlists : “A Tribute to Adam Schlesinger (1967-2020)”

Welcome to our second installment of Parsons Playlists. Our second playlist is from Music Library Associate, Melanie Armstrong and is a tribute to songwriter Adam Schlesinger, whose career was cut short on April 1st, 2020 due to complications from Covid-19.

Adam Schlesinger

Melanie says: “I first became aware of Adam Schlesinger’s work when I discovered the band Fountains of Wayne in the early 2000s. But come to find out, I had already heard his amazing pop sensibility thanks to the title song of the 1996 movie That Thing You Do!. He wrote music for many other TV, Broadway and film projects and also for the musical TV series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which happens to be one of my very favorite recent TV shows. I also threw in a couple of TV Christmas songs since I blog about holiday programs with my husband. So please enjoy this sampling of his amazing and alas too short career! This music will definitely make you smile though, and that’s quite a legacy to leave behind.”

Fountains of Wayne – “Stacy’s Mom” (2003) (probably the biggest hit of the group’s career)

Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers album cover (2003)

Fountains of Wayne – Welcome Interstate Managers album cover (2003)

The Wonders – “That Thing You Do” (1996)

Pretend 1960s single cover for "That Thing You Do"

Josie and the Pussycats – “Pretend To Be Nice” (2001)

Josie and the Pussycats (2001)

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Cast featuring Santino Fontana – “Settle for Me” (2015) (A delightful Emmy-nominated little Fred & Ginger musical pastiche)

Settle for Me

Hugh Grant & Drew Barrymore in Music & Lyrics – “The Way Back Into Love” (2007)

Fountains of Wayne – “Radiation Vibe” (1996)

Fountains of Wayne - Self Titled Debut album

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (featuring Rachel Bloom) – “You Stupid Bitch” (2016)

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Stephen Colbert – “Another Christmas Song” (2008)

A Colbert Christmas (2008)

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Cast – “California Christmastime” (2015)

Cry-Baby Musical Cast – “Nobody Gets Me” (2007)

Cry-Baby the Musical

Fountains of Wayne – “Hey Julie” (2003)

The Monkees – “Our Own World” (2016)

The Monkees - Good Times!

12th studio album by the Monkees, produced by Adam Schlesinger and released in 2016

Ivy – “Edge of the Ocean” (2001)

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Cast (featuring Michael Hyatt) – “Antidepressants Are So Not A Big Deal” (2019) (Won Emmys for Outstanding Music & Lyrics and Outstanding Choreography)

GettyImages-1174801858

Adam Schlesinger, Rachel Bloom and Jack Dolgen celebrating their Emmy win for “Antidepressants Are So Not A Big Deal”

Fountains of Wayne – “Sink to the Bottom” (1996)

Adam Schlesinger – Youtube Playlist

Spotify Playlist (with bonus songs!)

New CDs added – November/December 2019

New CDs for November & December 2019

Concertos and Chamber Music

Ludwig van Beethoven – Complete Piano Concertos – Jan Lisiecki/Academy of St. Martin in the Fields

Beethoven Concertos - Lisiecki

Jazz

Joyce DiDonato – Songplay

Joyce DiDonato - Songplay

Opera, Opera Excerpts and Art Songs

Mason Bates – The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs
Tobias Picker – Fantastic Mr. Fox
Gregory Spears – Fellow Travelers

Fantastic Mr Fox

Gospel Music

Various – Sorrow Come Pass Me Around: A Survey of Rural Black Religious Music

Sorrow Come Pass Me Around

Popular Music

Various – Beat girls espanol! : 1960s she-pop from Spain
Various – C’est Chic!: French Girl Singers of the 1960s
Various – Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll

Don't Think I've Forgotten

Various – Nippon Girls: Japanese Pop, Beat & Bossa Nova 1966-70
Various – Qat, Coffee & Qambus: Raw 45s from Yemen

Beat Girls Espanol

Folk Music

Various – The Art of Field Recording Vol. 2: Fifty Years of Traditional American Music
Various – The Year of Jubilo: 78 RPM Recordings of Songs from the Civil War

The Year of Jubilo

Arachnophonia: Ariana Grande “Sweetener”

Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student worker Gabi (class of 2020) and features Ariana Grande’s fourth studio album Sweetener. Thanks, Gabi!

Ariana Grande

Sweetener

Ariana Grande - Sweetener

Right now, Ariana Grande is at the top of her game. She has been relevant in the pop genre for quite some time, from her early days as a Broadway and Nickelodeon actress, to now, but is currently transforming her career in what I would consider a glorious comeback.

In May 2017, the Manchester Arena suicide bombing took place at one of Ariana Grande’s concerts, and 22 people were killed. This led Ariana to suffer from severe anxiety, and even post traumatic stress disorder, putting a jolting halt to her career. She did not release new music until her mighty comeback single, “No Tears Left to Cry”, which was to be included on Sweetener, almost a year after the attack. It was an anthem of positivity in light of tragedy, which set the tone for the rest of her music that was to come shortly after.

In Sweetener, Ariana finally finds her own, unique sound. While her voice has always been recognizable as powerful, the songs on Sweetener go past her usual made-for-radio pop, providing a personal look into her growth, both as a person and as an artist. As trends in music have shifted, so has her style, going from experimenting with EDM on her previous album, Dangerous Woman, to using trap and hip-hop influences on Sweetener. Pharrell Williams‘s sophisticated and smooth production, combined with features from Missy Elliot and Nicki Minaj, show how hip-hop and trap have only enhanced Ariana’s music.

Ariana Grande - no tears left to cry

Ariana’s overall sound to me has matured, and may have even shifted her audience from younger girls to all people around her age, who are able to relate to what she’s saying. On Sweetener, she covers the ups and downs of romantic relationships, singing about love in her dreams on “R.E.M.” and a crush who she just can’t seem to ignore on “Goodnight and go.” On the other side of this, Ariana reminds us of mental health and self-care on the tracks “Breathin” and “Get Well Soon.” “Breathin” is about Ariana’s own experience with anxiety, and reminds listeners who are going through similar situations to keep breathing. Sometimes I listen to “Breathin” when I’m nervous, and it helps me keep calm. “Get Well Soon”, the closing track, is my personal favorite. Described by Ariana as a “musical hug” to her fans, it reminds listeners to take care of their bodies and encourages a discussion about mental health. She tells listeners that she will be there, even in their worst moments, and inspires them to “work their way to the top”.

There is a clear reason for Ariana’s seemingly overwhelming popularity today: her music has never been better.

When Sweetener came out, I woke up, made myself a coffee, and sat in my sunny backyard on a hot August morning to listen to it for the first time. The album made me feel warm and happy, and I don’t think it was just because of the weather. To me, this is a special album that I still listen to, especially when I’m feeling down, and will always remember. It holds a firm spot in my top albums of 2018.